@GoblinQuester@dice.camp cover
@GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

GoblinQuester

@GoblinQuester@dice.camp

Been a titterpig since anno dazumal … that is, since the 80’s, and titterpig was a word I learned the other month. Mainly been playing RQ and WFRP in the modern time.
Oh, and Trans Rights are Human Rights!

This profile is from a federated server and may be incomplete. For a complete list of posts, browse on the original instance.

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Not a coincidence public archives are disappearing at the same time unpolluted training data for LLMs & other content generation systems have become valuable. (even as we are told they have no value, so no one should get paid)

This is very ugly and we need to have a real conversation about preserving human history, expanding and archiving the body of human knowledge, attribution, and royalties.

Our leadership is too craven and not educated enough in these matters to do it.

GoblinQuester ,
@GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

@futurebird … and, may I add, to well bribed (the leadership that is)

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Camponotus mirabilis are in the same genus as ordinary carpenter ants found in most temperate countries. As bamboo specialists, their queens faced curious evolutionary pressures. The widths of the stems are fixed. Their heads cannot be wider than 2.6mm. But, the queens must be large enough to lay many eggs.

The result is the miraculous elongated head. The smaller workers look like ordinary carpenter ants, the majors have square head, the queens... are remarkable.

https://www.alexanderwild.com/Ants/Taxonomic-List-of-Ant-Genera/Camponotus/i-x5wCfTf/A

GoblinQuester ,
@GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

@alexwild @futurebird @llewelly oh, interesting, I didn’t know it wasn’t decided from the egg but until the puppae-stage.
How intriguing that there are gradients, that is probably a good thing from a evolutionary pressure view, with a sudden shift in circumstances , there is always a chance that there is a gradient form that may fill a new slot in the evolutionary chaos lottery

GoblinQuester ,
@GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

@alexwild @llewelly @futurebird
ninjad! 🤡

futurebird , to random
@futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

Huge presenANTation today! The ants speak for themselves!

GoblinQuester ,
@GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

@futurebird cooolt!

LeviKornelsen , to random
@LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen They did what? … Why I’m I feeling we are heading back to ”bad Chaosium” again.
    They seems to wring every drop they can from CoC and I’m not sure about the RQ any longer.

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I’ve been putting off making this post because it’s not what I wanted to report and I’m disappointed. A few weeks back my Dorymyrmex bureni colony showed tantalizing signs of a miraculous recovery from the loss of their queen. I love this colony, I wanted it to be true— (Antdrew on formiculture.com tried to warn me not to be too optimistic: Just because female workers continued to emerge weeks after the queen died did not guarantee the new queen were fertile.) He was right.

    1/

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @futurebird 😭

    breadandcircuses , to random
    @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social avatar

    Theoretically, it is still possible that all the leaders of major governments could jointly choose to enact radical degrowth policies — but a realistic look at the world today makes it clear how unlikely that would be.

    No matter how much we want it, how loudly we yell, or how hard we protest, I can’t see that happening.

    So what’s the alternative?

    Since I began posting regularly here at Mastodon a year and a half ago, many people have asked in comments: What can we do? What actions can we take?

    My answer has always been that the most important steps you can take are personal and local. No, I don’t mean just lowering your carbon footprint, although of course that’s a good idea. I mean beginning to make the big changes now on a local level that are coming to us, sooner or later, whether we like it or not.

    We must simplify. We will simplify, at some point, so why not start now? Be an example. Find others who want to change, and join with them. Build a community. Create co-ops, clothing and furniture exchanges, neighborhood gardens, seed libraries, tool libraries, and establish teaching and training sessions.

    Develop systems of sharing resources — such as low-carbon transportation, small-scale solar or wind power, engineering know-how, financial assistance, medical expertise, and more. The possibilities are endless.

    You can do this. We can do it. Together, we will change our world.

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @breadandcircuses … and not to forget, prepare for the bad weather that is coming and limit the impact of failing governmental and societal services.
    Get people to take medical courses, entice a surgeon to move to the area. Plan for local water supply and where to make farming plots and get some un powered equipment for basic gardening.
    Because nothing can convince me that the government will start taking action until the common people suffer enough it is that or Md G!

    deinol , to random
    @deinol@dice.camp avatar

    I have finished reading Chapterhouse Dune. My fools errand is finished. It’s not good, and of course ends with loose ends.

    I think my personal recommendation is reading the first two books. Although just one or even zero are solid choices. Three is alright, except it’s a trap if it makes you curious and want to read more.

    I’m tempted to revisit Heinlein who I haven’t read in at least twenty years, but I’m also afraid he’ll be disappointing.

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @deinol I learned the hard way, do not read book you liked as a little whelp. I realised that I my brain had added stuff which was better than the original, and as a more mature reader I found topic and themes that … had not aged gracefully.
    I instead find myself in an ever increasing flood of new authors, indie and self pub that fills my reading time.
    (Although right now I’m in a slump and hiding from my TBR which is terrible)

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I could deal with, but didn't agree with, the idea that a president can't be hauled into court during his term, ok, ok I can see the potential for abuse there.

    But, no man is president for life, so that protection will expire and the force of the law still exists. (and the burden of proof)

    I simply don't get immunity beyond that. I don't get it at all.

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @futurebird heh, I think of both the Roman Republic and the Athenian ”democracy” that had a problem with their politicians getting hauled to court right after their office ended by their political opponents. Sometimes for good reasons and sometimes not.
    I wonder if that was one of the reasons the Romans started to send the “going out of office” politicians to work in the provinces for a handful of years. To cool everything down a bit.
    (they where all corrupt by todays definitions)

    ElleGray , to random
    @ElleGray@mstdn.social avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @ElleGray
    Seinfeld was one of the first things that made me realize how different my head was wired (or becoming, or being liberated into) because I found it neither funny, interesting or philosophical or all the other birdshit everyone was spouting around me.

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @ElleGray
    And now it pop up again, like a dream of coming to the wrong exam at Uni, which still haunts me to this day now and then.

    TheVulgarTongue Bot , to histodons group
    @TheVulgarTongue@zirk.us avatar

    SPUNGE. A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money:

    A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)

    --
    #books #literature #dictionaries #history #society #crime #language #slang @histodons

    Image imitating a page from an old document, text (as in main toot): SPUNGE. A thirsty fellow, a great drinker. To spunge; to eat and drink at another's cost. Spunging-house: a bailiff's lock-up-house, or repository, to which persons arrested are taken, till they find bail, or have spent all their money: A selection from Francis Grose’s “Dictionary Of The Vulgar Tongue” (1785)
    GIF
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    • GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @TheVulgarTongue @histodons Spunge, pretty sure Jack Vance used that … or it just sounds like something he would’ve liked. It is a good sounding one.
    Spunge .. spunge!

    Glastomichelle , to random
    @Glastomichelle@c.im avatar

    Sunburst through the archway

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @Glastomichelle Perfect shot!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    So night terrors, sleep paralysis etc. seem to be a real thing. I've had "bad dreams" but never anything that sounds like these experiences. It sounds like it's scary. Scary like when you are home alone and hear a sound and don't know what it is.

    I'm curious if people who can have this are can be aware that it's not real when it's happening.

    When I get anxious I can also know "this is just that thing" and I'm sort of detached about it?

    Can that happen with fear?

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @futurebird Just my anecdotal experience; In my teens I was reading about lucid dreaming and tried some of the exercises that supposedly was going to activate that. Well, not much changed except for one thing. Suddenly I could break out of nightmares, when I start having one, I kind of switch a button and bail-out of sleeping. Extremely convenient. So I'm not sure if I'm aware-aware about it, but something in my subconscious seems to be at least.

    LeviKornelsen , to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen Brilliant!

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    Thinking about world building & the consequences of “too much” history. In many sci-fi tales parts of history are forgotten— some cataclysm results in a society with about as much history as we have: some 20k years with the last 2000 being most referenced and the last 100 (living memory) of real consequence.

    But what if you had a million years of detailed written history? What about a billion? I think there is a reason so many sci-fi stories have the trope “we forgot the location of earth”

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @futurebird @mattmcirvin <Staring at the codebase I have inherited> Now I have a name for what I'm doing

    MikeDunnAuthor , to random
    @MikeDunnAuthor@kolektiva.social avatar

    The solar eclipse supposedly cost America about $700 million in lost productivity. It was a 2 minute eclipse. Let's give some leeway and assume 15 minutes for employees to go out, go oo aahh, chat for a bit, have a smoke. anyways point being what do you think it would cost them if we all refused to work for a day? Two days? Maybe the ruling class should be interested in making sure our needs are met before we make them find out.
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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @MikeDunnAuthor I have been screaming about this for years now, unionize, general strike and get a frakking constitution in US.
    I may even be possible to bring the capitalist-christ-fascist state on the knees by just have a no-buy week. Live on simple fares and don't buy anything for a week. The state will crumble!

    LeviKornelsen , to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen this is so exiting!

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen Oh, now I got a inspiration thought. I have been tinkering on a journaling game where you create a world by playing out the mythical journey of a godling. One aspect of that game is that the consequences of “hit points taken” in conflicts are not wounds per se, but effects on the world, like diseases and curses and such, explaining why bad things exists. But “flesh wounds” could be things like this instead, cultural divergences … hmmm interesting … hmmm

    futurebird , to random
    @futurebird@sauropods.win avatar

    I was listening to a "Snowball Earth" TV documentary. Not paying much attention. I wish TV documentaries would let scientists who they interview explain more. Like how did you know how old the zircons were? How many places did you find the glacial erratics? Exactly how cold did it get? etc.

    Once of the scientists they interview said "It would be harder to live on snowball Earth than the surface of Mars." which seems... not true? Or is it just out of context?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhVFZFm44SQ

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @futurebird Once of the scientists they interview said "It would be harder to live on snowball Earth than the surface of Mars." Sounds like someone who has funding from Pedo Snusk and wants to sell tickets to his Indentured Worker Paradise on Mars.

    LeviKornelsen , to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen Interesting breakdown of concepts!

    LeviKornelsen , to random
    @LeviKornelsen@dice.camp avatar

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    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @LeviKornelsen Call has them, Runquest too. I just presume there was a Traveller one also. I think all of the ”classics” that existed in a certain time range (early 80ish?) atleast made an trial one.

    deinol , to random
    @deinol@dice.camp avatar

    My crew has two weeks of down time hanging out at port with a Vargr crew. What interesting things can they get up to?

    What game do the Vargr like to play to pass the time?

    GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @deinol I imagine Vargr like physical games, full contact, like Australian Rules Football, with little downtime, hard knocks and general high adrenaline focus. Difficult to manage in a small crew tho.

    pluralistic , to random
    @pluralistic@mamot.fr avatar

    Today's threads (a thread)

    Inside: Boeing, Spirit and Jetblue, a monopoly horror-story; and more!

    Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/22/anything-that-cant-go-on-forever/

    1/

    Image: Vitaly Druchenok (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ECAir_Boeing_737-306_at_Brazzaville_Airport_by_Vitaly_Druchenok.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en -- Joe Ravi (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Panorama_of_United_States_Supreme_Court_Building_at_Dusk.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en
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    • GoblinQuester ,
    @GoblinQuester@dice.camp avatar

    @pluralistic oooh, cool, I just happening to be in Miami and having a hotel next to Coral Gables … but I’m down with con-crud, and that is a gift anyone don’t want. (And I can hardly stand up).

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