ViridianNott

joined 1 year ago
[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Not true. The money they receive from loan repayments is factored into the national budget, so forgiving loans means that the government has less money for other programs.

It’s true that they’re not literally spending money here, but it’s the same end result.

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Stable diffusion + Automatic1111 + custom models and LoRAs. Completely free, only takes an hour or so to set up, and is top of the line.

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The headline is correct though, because the US government gave Ford $9.2 Billion as part of a plan to combat china’s growth in EVs. How on earth could that be disingenuous?

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

I am just very weary of the idea that the government should use federal funds to bail out people who simply made poor decisions. Plenty of people get through college with a reasonable amount of debt, instead of some insane 6-figure total. Let me elaborate:

My girlfriend is a graduate student with a family poor enough to qualify her for the Pell grant, and yet she will have less than 50k in debt when she graduates! Better yet, she only took out so much in loans because she knows that she can expect to earn a 6-figure salary with her pharmacy degree. Her pharmacy school costs $40,000 a year, and yet she is able to pay most of that money up front by working 30-hour weeks during the school year, and 50-hour weeks during the summer). It's tough on her, but she has an incredibly bright future ahead because of the hard work.

If you look at the demographics, the poorest people in our society - those who are food insecure and/or homeless, have a median of 0 DOLLARS of student loan debt. That's because many of them were too poor to even consider college in the first place! Those with 6-figure debt are often members of the middle class who didn't come up with a reasonable plan for paying what they owe based on their credentials, and didn't take measures to reduce their loans during college. Instead of using federal funds on those people, I want it to go to someone who is truly in need.

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 4 points 1 year ago (4 children)

$10,000 would actually eliminate debt for a lot of borrowers! IMO if $10,000 is a “drop in the bucket” you have a personal problem, not a political one.

My girlfriend is a Pell grant recipient so she would get $20,000, and that wipes out more than half her pharmacy school debt

 

"A study reports data from the first phase of the Chinese Pangenome Consortium including 116 de novo assemblies from 58 core samples representing 36 minority Chinese ethnic groups."

In a time where the CPP is constantly pushing the narrative of China as a united ethnostate, it is important to acknowledge the minority groups that are actively discriminated against under their regime.

 

I think we all can agree that the main thing holding back the growth of kbin and lemmy throughout all of the reddit drama is a lack of accessibility. Kbin and lemmy both capture the spirit of reddit in their style and userbase, but really lack the ease of use that led to millions of people adopting reddit. Looking at the trends, it is pretty clear that the growth of Kbin and lemmy (in terms of active users) has slowed considerably since the start of the reddit blackouts.

I think this particular wave of hype might be over. But, I am still extremely optimistic that the threadiverse will have more moments in the spotlight going forward.

The sad thing is a disconnect between people's desire to leave Reddit and the accessibility of the threadiverse. I think that, since most of Reddit is mobile nowadays, that this was the major missing ingredient of the last wave of adoption, and might have prevented most users from coming over. The great thing is that it appears that mobile apps will be public in time to ride the next wave!

So what upcoming events will give redditors another push in our direction?

  • The official end of 3rd party apps on 6/30. Not only does this disrupt the user experience for many people, but it'll really make the magnitude of the change tangible for people, especially those who only use reddit for porn, who might be using 3rd party apps but know nothing about the API issue.

  • Reigning in of explicit content. As Reddit moves towards it's IPO, admin moderation on the site is bound to step up in a big way. I can't imagine that the subs featuring extreme and graphic content will be allowed to exist by the end of the year (r/medizzy is an example, but I think that kink-specific subs will be a bigger driver). This is, importantly, going to significantly impact the user experience regardless of the actual platform you use, and may result in another round of protests.

  • Out of touch shareholders and execs. It's safe to say that the average person investing large sums into reddit's IPO won't be internet-dwelling redditors themselves. It's difficult to predict what they might fight for, but it's safe to bet that investors will want to increase the extent to which Reddit is an advertiser friendly, "clean" site. It's hard to say whether or not this will happen, but it is completely possible that investors will push to ban porn site-wide. I can't even imagine how that exodus would compare to the recent one. Reigning in piracy subs is another such possibility.

The point is that the threadiverse's growth is going to look a lot like a set of stairs. Big events on Reddit and twitter will push people towards us in big waves of mass adoption that eventually fizzle out. The most important thing we can do as early-adopters is to spread the word, especially when users are discontent. The other important thing (already happening), is that people use innovative app design to ensure that people have a "soft landing" coming here from Reddit.

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

Cool idea! I do feel that a drug like this could exacerbate the risk of autoimmune diseases, though

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 5 points 1 year ago

I used Apollo since it’s inception, and Alien Blue before that. Now I’ve deleted all Reddit apps and exclusively use kbin, for the last week or so.

 

I mention the extension in particular because it is easy to set up use for those of us who don't want to dig through browser settings to set up a redirect rule

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago

"delayed reporting"

growth is still great though, proud of this community

 

Layman's explanation: This sounds like it could a huge step forward in fighting cancer! While this result is bound to only be applicable and practical for a subset of tumors, it gives rise to the possibility of a new or existing drug that can weaken tumors and make them easier to fight.

The α2-adrenergic receptors mentioned in the study play a crucial role in the regulation of a ubiquitous signaling molecule called cAMP. Using an agonist (a small molecule that activates a receptor) for α2-adrenergic receptors would decrease cAMP signaling in immune cells, which can provide them the cues necessary to activate against a tumor. In short, tumors normally do a good job of hiding from your immune cells, and activating their α2-adrenergic receptors seems to partially circumvent this problem.

I'm a biologist who is accustomed to interpreting the fine details of these sorts of studies, so do feel free to reach out with any specific questions.

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sounds like a MAJOR walk-back of the policy that was just communicated over on /r/modsupport. They're still gonna do it if the blackout goes long enough, though.

 

Find it on kbin at kbin.social/m/bdsmcommunity, or on your local instance using bdsmcommunity@kbin.social or /c/bdsmcommunity@kbin.social

[–] ViridianNott@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

please... god... do not keep calling us keebinetters

 

"We show that the perception of moral decline is pervasive, perdurable, unfounded and easily produced, and suggest that this illusion has implications for research on the misallocation of scarce resources, the underuse of social support and social influence."

I think EVERYONE should read this... it is so easy for media to manipulate people into thinking that the world is somehow darker, weirder, or more dangerous than it was before... I think this article will help people think critically about what inflammatory news tells them