A terrible practical effects dinosaur

One day I will not be making these post, and then I will be lost to the mists. One day the stars will shine less brightly. But for now, I remain.

[collapsedsquid]

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

[oorpe]

"doing stupid shit is a lot faster than enumerating what makes it stupid"

[manorpunk]

oh absolutely, as far as I’m concerned this post is part of manorpunk’s DNA lol

[oorpe]

bonus points if both factions turn out to actually hold like 28 square kilometers of ground total around an abandoned business park and outside of that no one has any idea they're even there

[afloweroutofstone]

Everything I learn about the economy of the Golden Triangle of Southeast Asia is fascinating. Even in places without effective legal, judicial, and law enforcement systems (ex. Haiti, Somalia, etc.), organized crime and international black markets still really only make up a minority of the economy. Most of it is in the type of informal agriculture / natural resource extraction / light industry stuff that you'd expect in any other comparable country. Even without a real legal system, even when organized crime runs major parts of your national territory, common sense says that most of the economy is still going to be in the basics.

But there is this one unique area of Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand that is Oops It's All Crime. My understanding is that the Golden Triangle plays a significant role in the global markets for heroin, meth, human trafficking, animal trafficking, arms trafficking, underground gambling, phone and cyber scams, and money laundering. Laos literally has a Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone at the point where the three countries meet that serves as a cartel-run free trade zone. Cambodia is in the same boat too, something like one-third of their economy is from organized scams. There's this one single area of the planet, comparable in size to the East Coast of the US, that has specialized in the efficiency and productivity of their crime

[afloweroutofstone]

I feel like I hate AI slightly less than the average Tumblr user, but it still scares the shit out of me to see how many people now engage in internet arguments by submitting their opponent’s argument to an AI bot and saying “explain why this is wrong and I am right.” It is concerning first because most AI models are sycophants that will tell you exactly what you want to hear, which makes then extremely potent delusion-confirmers. But it’s even more concerning because learning how to argue for yourself— how to evaluate claims, to assess an argument, to find and check sources, to spot flaws in someone’s case— is one of the most important skills you can have in life. If you don’t have that, you are unable to evaluate what is true for yourself. You will walk right into the arms of the first crackpot or cult that talks to you when you don’t have Claude available. Extremely grim portent that many people seem to find this acceptable

[oorpe]

you can't automate yourself out of the pissing contest

[greater-than-the-sword]

We need to abolish the term organic and have the organic stuff be unlabeled and the chemical-sprayed stuff instead be labeled as "polluted"

[oorpe]

Eh, I'd prefer a similar table to the nutritional values but it shows which specific pesticides and fertilizers were used for produce etc

[alagaisia]

Hey. Why isn’t the moon landing a national holiday in the US. Isn’t that fucked up? Does anyone else think that’s absurd?

[alagaisia]

It was a huge milestone of scientific and technological advancement. (Plus, at the time, politically significant). Humanity went to space! We set foot on a celestial body that was not earth for the first time in human history! That’s a big deal! I’ve never thought about it before but now that I have, it’s ridiculous to me that that’s not part of our everyday lives and the public consciousness anymore. Why don’t we have a public holiday and a family barbecue about it. Why have I never seen the original broadcast of the moon landing? It should be all over the news every year!

[alagaisia]

It’s July 20th. That’s the day of the moon landing. Next year is going to be the 54th anniversary. I’m ordering astronaut shaped cookie cutters on Etsy and I’m going to have a goddamn potluck. You’re all invited.

[watermelon-converse]

Hey. Hey. Tumblr. Ides of March ppl. We can do this

[emi--rose]

Hell yeah moon holiday

[hello-delicious-tea]

Ooh coming up we should celebrate

[ariaste]

PITCH: We call it Moon Day, and then every 7 years when it falls on a Monday, that's an even BIGGER deal and we call that Moon Day Monday and go absolutely apeshit about it (the next Moon Day Monday is in 2026 so we have a couple trial runs first)

[sarostheghostcat]

MOON DAY MOON DAY MOON DAY

[wafflebloggies]

moon day is 20th July!!!

[silly-jellyghoty]

Scheduling this a day earlier to remind you all and myself about the Moon Day tomorow!

[oars-deactivated20250629]

girl are you sure???????????????

[oorpe]

oh man, I'd have get some practice in first, walk in fresh gravel and the graduate to lego before going for the nails

[viktor-sbor]

Off the coast of Australia Macroctopus caught the shark, wrapped all its tentacles around it and soon released it. Most likely, he scraped all the parasites off her.

[alkthash]

The octopus

[meshugenist]

me when i fucking get u

[oorpe]

octopuses are great they just like being dicks to fish sometimes

[hunter-rodrigez]

So I do 3D modeling and printing as a hobby, and a few weeks ago I designed wheel guards meant to prevent office chairs from running over cables and clothes... or your pet's tail.

I got the idea from cowcatchers old locomotives used to have.

Anyways, yesterday I uploaded the model to Thingiverse, and just hours after uploading it, the Community Relationship Manager of the whole website left a comment suggesting I enter the model into a competition that's currently being held on the site.

So I did... and now it's in third place not even a day later. First place is $500, but the competition still has a month to go.

Then the Community Manager contacted me again, telling me they want to feature my model in an upcoming design promotion.

Just, what is happening? I mostly made this thing for myself in, like, an hour, and now it's suddenly super popular? This is all a little bit overwhelming 😵‍💫

Other models I worked on for weeks didn't get nearly as popular. I swear, it's impossible to predict what people will like.

Anyways, if you want to print the wheel guards yourself, you can get the model here or here.

I also made a quiet version you can stick furniture felt pads on.

[these-violet-delights-fic]

People love simple, extremely practical things. I hope you win!

[alteredpanel]

[argumate]

how did they make canoes and other boats for that matter before epoxy, or was there basically no such time given the existence of varnishes and pitch etc. dating back thousands of years

[trainbrain27]

If you hollow out a log, God already made it water resistant. That's how they made the first known boat.

Alternately you make the whole thing buoyant enough that it'll float, it doesn't have to be waterproof, like the MV Joyita.

But the general strategy has been sealants. Pitch and tree resin have been known for a very long time.

[argumate]

I like the bit in Robinson Crusoe where he laboriously carves a dugout canoe only to finally realise it's way too heavy to drag down to the beach single-handedly, I can absolutely imagine doing that myself.

tree resin! that seems easier to find than pitch, honestly.

[oorpe]

You dug a big funnel in the dirt, piled conifer logs in the funnel, covered those with braches and dirt, and set the whole thing on fire, adding or removing dirt to carefully control the air ingress and temperature over a week, and gathered the resulting tar through a trough or tube.

I've been to see a few historic recreations, tar making was a big export industry here in eastern Finland during the age of sail. Everyone needed tar for their ships and general waterproofing but brits especially had long harvested almost all of their suitable forests. In my home municipality the most populous surname still translates to "tar boiler."

[retiredmahoushoujo]

[headspace-hotel]

if you can play an instrument even slightly you can start a band and make music. do it now

[headspace-hotel]

I've been fucking around looking for songs on bandcamp for a while this summer and you don't even gotta be good at it, people will like your songs if you make something itneresting

[oorpe]

plus you'll never believe what happens if you keep doing something you're initially not good at

[succubusboyfriend]

practicing self care less out of self love and more for the sheer logical reasoning of it’d be kinda stupid of me to expect myself to be able to function without proper maintenance

[succubusboyfriend]

“oh i don’t deserve rest and relaxation, i haven’t done enough, i haven’t earned it” and my car’s breaks don’t deserve break fluid because they aren’t breaking well enough to earn it. that’s what you sound like!!!!!

[bardjulus]

alright sharks, i’m looking for a small investment of a dollar in my business: You Give Me a Dollar. now i know what you’re thinking: this is a scam! why should i give this bozo a dollar?

however you seem to misunderstand my offer for this business cause with my genius idea for making money all you have to do is give me a dollar a day for the low low price of one dollar every day

[bardjulus]

now sharks i know you’re all still on the fence after my explanation but i have one more card in my hand that should help change your minds

[bardjulus]

cmaaaahhhhnnn 🤌🤌🤌

[lokaror]

im in but only if i can give 2 dollars some days and 0 some others

[bardjulus]

[oorpe]

get this person in a room with Masayoshi Son right now

[argumate]

you cannot convince me that is a best seller, come on

[oorpe]

practice rig for wearing one of those novelty giant cowboy hats

[argumate]

Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after sudden illness

huh sacrificing his lifeforce to sustain Mitch McConnell no doubt

[no-sharks-on-the-sun]

71.... he was just a kid

[argumate]

twenty five sitting US senators are over 71 years of age, he wasn't even in the top quartile 😔

[oorpe]

a few more and mcconnell's phylactery will once again sustain a physical form