No no, we still need peer review. I’ll bring it up to my girlfriend and see if we can replicate the results. I don’t have all the fancy equipment though, so to map our clitorises we’ll have to get creative…

at least one

Imagine being the one and only person in space. I consider myself a pretty extreme loner, but even I think that would be terrifying.

Oh wow, another former optical lab tech in the wild.

I switched fields years ago and I’m glad I did. Visiting glasses shops today, there’s almost no on-site lab to speak of anymore. Maybe some finishing machines, but I haven’t seen a full surface lab in years.

I don’t have anything to add to the contact lens story except - wow, that’s nasty.

Lol, I used to do this as a kid. Didn’t steal anything, but I deliberately acted shady just to see what would happen. Nothing ever did.

Logic puzzles should be applied in more classrooms. Start with simple problems in elementary school, and progress to more challenging ones as students grow. Critical thinking needs to start early.

I interpreted it as a criticism of those who think there’s no point to learning something if there isn’t an immediately-obvious application for that knowledge. Like those who say, “What’s the point of learning history? I’m not going to become a historian,” as if learning needs to have a clear end-goal or else it’s useless. Or those who think it’s pointless to learn to play an instrument because you’re not going to become a famous musician. It’s a mentality that ties in with capitalism, where if you’re not being productive, you have no use.

A well-rounded education should equip students with skills they can apply independently no matter what they do. Learning history provides context for the world we live in, why it is the way it is, and can inform us on how to move forward. Learning to play an instrument builds new connections in the brain, strengthens fine motor skills, and (in the case of reading music) how to move information between abstract concepts and a tangible form.

These skills provide benefits to people that can be built upon in the future. They may not have immediate usage to a student, but they create a foundation upon which a student can reach higher as they progress in life. Not every lesson is practical in the moment, but that doesn’t mean it can’t have value to a growing mind.

I don’t think I’ve blocked anyone. There are plenty of users I disagree with on one point or another, but I like being exposed to different perspectives. I have to admit, I even like reading a spicy comment section sometimes (and by the up/downvote ratios on some threads, it’s clear that other people like reading them, too, even if they wouldn’t say so.) I know I’m not the only one breaking out the popcorn when I see a bigot getting torn apart in a comment chain.

If somebody seems to be trolling, I report them. But there seems to be a pattern of some trolls making accounts to spam, getting blocked by mods, and then popping up with a new username, so I don’t see much point in blocking individual accounts.

I’m far more likely to block communities. Not because they’re upsetting or offensive or anything, but because I either don’t care about whatever its topic is, or I don’t speak the language it’s written in.

Okay, but the image idea for those NFTs is fantastic. Smithers would be so into that.

Oh, I get its point, I just think it’s a nonsensical phrase.

NOTES: Each point represents a country.

That graph doesn’t rank rich people vs poor people; it ranks rich countries vs poor countries. Lots of other factors determine global fertility rate.

As a relevant example, there’s a strong correlation between the educational level attained by women and their fertility rate.

Here’s the same chart from that page, in case the linked site has issues:

But that’s besides the point illustrated by this post, as the post article only pertains to one country - the United States. People in the US are experiencing changes that downgrade their quality of life over time. The economy was different when we were kids, and as a millennial, my generation has pretty much only seen things get worse.

Poor people in under-developed nations have it bad, but when that’s all people have known, normal life goes on. Some may even have hope that perhaps some day they can see their country grow and prosper, that they can see their children in a better world.

By contrast, the US is experiencing an economic downslide. We don’t see hope on the horizon. We were raised on promises (shout out to Tom Petty), but then matured into a country that did nothing but break them. Things seem to be getting worse all the time, right in the prime of our child-bearing/child-rearing years. We have no idea what anything is supposed to cost anymore, attaining affordable housing requires winning a literal lottery, and have you gone to the grocery store lately? Buying enough for one person is already absurd, I can’t imagine having more mouths to feed.

Consider this the coincidence of women having high education + low income. More of us are aware of and have access to birth control (except for many in republican states, those poor women.) It seems that right now, the influence of education is stronger than the (supposed) pro-fertility influence of poverty you claim.

Though those certainly aren’t the only two measures we could use to link wealth and fertility. Religion, secular cultural influences and practices, accessibility of contraception… it’s a big picture, with lots of detail to look at.

As a woman without money, I choose other women.

My girlfriend might be as poor as I am, but at least nothing we do will result in a pregnancy.

What do you mean “going to be”? We’re already there.

The original phrase is pretty lame anyway. If you can’t do a thing, how can you be expected to teach it? I’d rather have a teacher that actually knows how to do the thing they’re trying to teach me.

“When the text looks professional and written as a doctor writes, there’s an increase in the hallucination rates,” says Omar.

Huh, now there’s something we have in common. Trying to make sense of something a doctor wrote makes me feel like I’m hallucinating, too. Is there a class in medical school on “Illegible Handwriting,” or is it just a coincidence?

In all seriousness though, I wish I could be surprised by AI failing at this. We have entered the Misinformation Age. There’s no closing Pandora’s Box, though this time I can’t find the “hope” that’s supposed to be in the bottom of it. Society would have to turn real skeptical real fast, but I’ve met enough people to know that such a tranformation is going to take time - and by “time” I mean “decades or longer.” With AI already here, we’d have to wise up immediately… but I fear that humanity isn’t mature enough for that yet.

Ugh, this was the case when I worked at a nursing home. There were bird feeders placed in spots near windows, so the residents could watch the birds. The residents noticed no birds ever showed up, and when I learned that, I went out to the feeders to inspect them. Mold, mold everywhere.

I took them in, cleaned them out, sanitized them, and refilled them… but I think the birds in the area were too smart to bother with those feeders anymore. It was obvious they were neglected all the time, and I imagine the birds were well aware that the feeders weren’t worth the trouble.

Sorry birds, sorry residents. I tried.

“Nothing” is a bit of a stretch, but it’s true that milestones pretty much stop happening for much of adulthood. I’ve traveled, I’ve dated, I’ve moved and changed jobs. But I don’t want to fall into a rut, so I’ve been working to give myself a new “milestone” every year. Last year I achieved a key certification for work. The year before, I learned to identify every country on a map. The year before that, I learned how to solve a Rubik’s cube. Other things have been learning to knit, identifying every nation’s flag, and learning to fly an airplane.

I’m not sure what to aim for this year, but I’m open to suggestions.

I keep forgetting that I’m 37. I could swear I was 27, like, yesterday.

I’ve got a coworker in his young-20s who admitted to being “ageist.” When he heard my age he reacted weird, saying something along the lines of not caring about people 30+.

I wasn’t offended. I simply told him, “You’ll be there before you know it.” My other coworkers (also 30+ years old) backed me up. Dude can enjoy his time now, though from his response I suspect he might have a fear of aging that he’s not fully come to terms with yet.

I’m usually asked this at work, so my go-to response is, “Well, I’m here.” Which most seem to understand.

I expect better if this community, it you may be interested night.

I can see the “if = of” typo, but I can’t parse what the second half of this sentence is supposed to mean?

Same! Seeing replies on Reddit was always a coin flip. Are people happy or angry? Do I even want to click and find out?

Lemmy doesn’t dogpile the way Reddit did. I’m not anxious about people disagreeing with me on here, because even if they do, they’re more civil about it. They’ll bring up points to disagree on, which is fair and adds to discussion. Meanwhile on Reddit, you’ll more likely get ad hominem attacks that contribute nothing meaningful and seemingly only serve to make people feel bad for posting/commenting in the first place.