October 2024
I'm usually reluctant to make predictions about technology, but I feel fairly confident about this one: in a couple decades there won't be many people who can write.
One of the strangest things you learn if you're a writer is how many people have trouble writing. Doctors know how many people have a mole they're worried about; people who are good at setting up computers know how many people aren't; writers know how many people need help writing.
The reason so many people have trouble writing is that it's fundamentally difficult. To write well you have to think clearly, and thinking clearly is hard.
And yet writing pervades many jobs, and the more prestigious the job, the more writing it tends to require.
These two powerful opposing forces, the pervasive expectation of writing and the irreducible difficulty of doing it, create enormous pressure. This is why eminent professors often turn out to have resorted to plagiarism. The most striking thing to me about these cases is the pettiness of the thefts. The stuff they steal is usually the most mundane boilerplate — the sort of thing that anyone who was even halfway decent at writing could turn out with no effort at all. Which means they're not even halfway decent at writing.
Till recently there was no convenient escape valve for the pressure created by these opposing forces. You could pay someone to write for you, like JFK, or plagiarize, like MLK, but if you couldn't buy or steal words, you had to write them yourself. And as a result nearly everyone who was expected to write had to learn how.
Not anymore. AI has blown this world open. Almost all pressure to write has dissipated. You can have AI do it for you, both in school and at work.
The result will be a world divided into writes and write-nots. There will still be some people who can write. Some of us like it. But the middle ground between those who are good at writing and those who can't write at all will disappear. Instead of good writers, ok writers, and people who can't write, there will just be good writers and people who can't write.
Is that so bad? Isn't it common for skills to disappear when technology makes them obsolete? There aren't many blacksmiths left, and it doesn't seem to be a problem.
Yes, it's bad. The reason is something I mentioned earlier: writing is thinking. In fact there's a kind of thinking that can only be done by writing. You can't make this point better than Leslie Lamport did: If you're thinking without writing, you only think you're thinking. So a world divided into writes and write-nots is more dangerous than it sounds. It will be a world of thinks and think-nots. I know which half I want to be in, and I bet you do too.
This situation is not unprecedented. In preindustrial times most people's jobs made them strong. Now if you want to be strong, you work out. So there are still strong people, but only those who choose to be.
It will be the same with writing. There will still be smart people, but only those who choose to be. Thanks to Jessica Livingston, Ben Miller, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this.
Japan and the European Union have announced a security and defence partnership, as they seek to step up military ties amid growing tensions with China, North Korea and Russia.
“We live in a very dangerous world,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Tokyo on Friday, alongside Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya.
“We live in a world of growing rivalries, climate accidents and threats of war. And there is only one antidote to this challenging world, which is partnerships among friends,” Borrell added, announcing the security partnership.
The agreement is the first that the EU has concluded with an Asia Pacific country, the two officials said.
“It is an historical and very timely step given the situation in both of our regions,” Borrell said.
The EU official is in Tokyo as part of an East Asia tour that includes South Korea, where he will also hold a strategic dialogue, underscoring the EU’s increasing engagement with the Asia Pacific region, as China and Russia step up joint military activities and North Korea sends troops to Russia.
Their talks came a day after North Korea test-fired what is believed to be a new type of ICBM-class ballistic missile.
Borrell and Iwaya also shared “grave concern” about Russia’s deepening military cooperation with North Korea, including the North’s troop deployment to Russia and arms transfers between the two countries, according to an EU statement. The two officials reiterated their commitment to supporting Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression.
Japan, under a new security strategy adopted in 2022, has been rapidly accelerating its military buildup through its alliance with the United States, its only treaty ally, and other partners, including Australia, the United Kingdom and a number of European and Asia Pacific countries, to deter an increasingly assertive China.
Tokyo has also significantly eased its voluntary arms export ban, seeking to expand its defence industry and play a greater role globally. Japan is jointly developing a next-generation fighter jet with the UK and Italy.
The text of the EU-Japan Security and Defence Partnership said they would promote “concrete naval cooperation” including through activities such as joint exercises and port calls, which could also include “mutually designated third countries”.
It also said the EU and Japan would discuss “the development of respective defence initiatives including exchange of information on defence industry-related matters”.
Earlier on Friday, Borrell met Japanese Defence Minister Gen Nakatani and shared the view that security in Europe and the Asia Pacific is interconnected as they agreed to deepen defence cooperation, Japan’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
The two officials expressed grave concern about North Korea’s missile development programme and its growing military cooperation with Russia, saying they are significant challenges for the international community.
“We reaffirmed the need for strengthened EU-Japan cooperation in security and defence, including on maritime security, cyber and hybrid threats amid growing regional and global security challenges,” Borrell said on the social media platform X.
Tuesday Lancent released the 2024 Lancet Countdown report updating on environmental issues status, and their impact on health, this year. On Wednesday Lancent had an online launch event for the report.
122 people including advisors from World Health Organization, agencies of United Nations, and academic institutions contributed to the report. The report was on a global scale rather than a specific region such as Europe.
Among other conclusions, the authors noted heat caused deaths increasing rapidly and requiring urgent attention. The report noted an average person was exposed to 50 more days of dangerous temperatures this year compared with 2023. Other factors affecting health included extreme weather events, such as heat waves and floods, dust storms.
For instance, heat related sleep loss increased worldwide except three regions -- north-west of Australia, a region in Brazil, and a region near the Great Lakes in the United States.
The report included notes that less than 35% of countries were capable of assessing early symptoms of heat caused health issues, and less than 10% for mental issues pertaining to increased temperatures. The authors wrote this limited the resources available for prevention and for planning emergency response if needed.
Additionally, in the report, the authors noted the fossil fuel industry was continuing to setup new mining sites, a concerning trend in light of ready availability and necessity to adopt renewable energy sources.
The report included a summary of 15 parameters. The analysts wrote that in 2023, the planet was already 1.45 C warmer than pre-industrial levels, and was on track to reach 2.7 C heating by 2100.
The authors called for urgent action to reverse the effects of climate change and pollution to reduce their impact in the future, and for improvements to risk assessment and management of associated health and wellbeing issues.
Posted by: monsieur - 10-30-2024, 06:45 AM - Forum: BSDforAll
- No Replies
Yeah, is that somekind of a joke? : - P
Why is Trump's face so orange? xD
Ex-president’s comments come after comedian at one of Trump’s recent rallies called Puerto Rico ‘island of garbage’
Donald Trump praised Puerto Ricans on Tuesday during a Pennsylvania rally, days after a comedian made a racist joke and referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage” at one of his rallies.
“Nobody loves our Latino community and our Puerto Rican community more than I do,” the former president said a little over an hour into a rally in Allentown, in the Lehigh Valley, which has a sizable Latino population.
More than 68,000 people – over half of the total population – in Allentown are Hispanic or Latino, according to US census data. A few blocks from the rally, a home had a Puerto Rican flag posted on the door.
He also claimed that he had done a lot for Puerto Rico as president. Trump drew ridicule for tossing paper towels into a crowd on the island after it was ravaged by a hurricane; blocked hurricane aid; and mused about selling the island.
He also again praised the rally at Madison Square Garden, saying “the love was unbelievable” and told a rambling story about watching a SpaceX rocket that lasted longer than his discussion of Puerto Ricans.
Many of the speakers on Tuesday, including the Puerto Rican official Zoraida Buxó, emphasized their Puerto Rican heritage, signaling the campaign’s effort to win Puerto Rican voters in Pennsylvania, the key battleground state in this election, where polls show a tight race.
“We won’t get rattled, we won’t yield to ignorance, foolishness, or irrational thoughtlessness,” she said.
Senator Marco Rubio, another speaker at the rally, also joined Trump onstage during the former presidents remarks to share with the crowd comments from Joe Biden Tuesday in which the president condemned the remarks about Puerto Ricans and said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporter’s – his – his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American”, according to a White House transcript. After
Republicans circulated a clip of the statement, calling it an attack on Trump supporters, Biden put out a statement saying he meant to refer to the comedian who made the joke.
A small protest arrived outside the arena just before the rally began on Tuesday. Some of the protesters were carrying signs that said Latinos for Harris-Walz, while others wore the Puerto Rican flag.
One of the people marching was Luis Gonzalez, a retired 65-year-old truck driver from Allentown. He wore a sweater with the Puerto Rican flag stitched on it.
“
The guy has no idea what he’s talking about,” he said. “I was born in Puerto Rico. That island as well as all the other islands around it are beautiful.
“For anybody to say that it’s a garbage island – they’ve never been to the Caribbean.”
But inside the rally, few people thought the fallout from the comment would have much effect on Trump. Some had not heard it.
“It was made in poor taste, I have to admit. But Donald Trump is Donald Trump, ” said Mark Melendez, 55, who is Puerto Rican and traveled to the rally from New Jersey. “I don’t think it will affect him; it might.”
At least one audience member was holding a sign that said “Boricuas for Trump”, using a term that describes people of Puerto Rican descent.
Jackie Beller, 60, who lives near Allentown, thought the joke was funny.
“If you take a comedian out of context and you look at it as a serious thing, yes, you would be offended,” Beller said.
“It’s all a joke – I’ve spoken to some Puerto Rican people and they weren’t offended, so I don’t know,” said Mary Mendez, 65, a retired paramedic from New York.
Trump’s speech kicking off the final week of the presidential race mixed personal attacks, grievance, anti-immigrant rhetoric and a smattering of policies. He accused Democrats of having already cheated, misrepresenting an ongoing investigation in Lancaster county in an example of how he is priming his supporters to challenge the election results if he loses.
His remarks were less an appeal to undecided voters than a full-throated appeal to his base, pledging that he would be able to fix all of the US’s ills.
“This is gonna be a very special time. It’s going to be America’s new golden age. Every problem facing us can be solved,” he said.
As Kamala Harris made her closing argument in Washington and called Trump “unstable” and “obsessed with revenge”, Trump called Harris a “low-IQ individual” and mused about getting retribution against Michelle Obama for criticizing him on the campaign trial.
“Michelle Obama was very nasty,” he said. “I’ve gone out of my way to be nice to Michelle. Haven’t said a damn thing about her. She hit me.”
Posted by: monsieur - 10-30-2024, 06:25 AM - Forum: BSDforAll
- No Replies
The US president has argued that the rhetoric of the fans of the Republican candidate was “un-American”
The supporters of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump are “garbage,” outgoing US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday. He later claimed that he misspoke and meant to condemn a specific speaker at Trump’s recent Madison Square Garden rally.
Biden made his comments during a Zoom call organized by the Hispanic advocacy group Voto Latino. He began by bringing up comedian Tony Hinchcliffe who made a joke on Sunday comparing Puerto Rico to “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean.”
“Just the other day, a speaker at [the Trump] rally called Puerto Rico a floating island of garbage,” Biden said, adding that Puerto Ricans are “good, decent honorable people.” “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American,” Biden stressed. “It’s totally contrary to everything we’ve done, everything we’ve been.”
The president went on to accuse Trump of trying to “divide the country based on race,” and insisted that the Democratic candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, “will be a president for all of America.”
Biden later took to X to clarify that he had “referred to the hateful rhetoric about Puerto Rico spewed by Trump’s supporter at his Madison Square Garden rally as garbage.” “That’s all I meant to say. The comments at that rally don’t reflect who we are as a nation,” Biden wrote.
The president’s remarks were quickly condemned by Trump’s allies. “He’s talking about everyday Americans who love their country,” Republican Senator Marco Rubio said, urging the Biden campaign to apologize. “We are not garbage, we are patriots who love America,” Rubio said during a Trump rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
Hinchcliffe himself had accused Democrats of overreacting to his set at the Madison Square Garden event.
“These people have no sense of humor,” he wrote on X on Sunday, claiming that the Harris team had taken the joke out of context “to make it seem racist.”
Both Democrats and Republicans have frequently accused each other of hateful rhetoric and demonization. Some conservatives have drawn a parallel between Biden’s ‘garbage’ comment and that of Hillary Clinton, who described Trump supporters in 2016 as a “basket of deplorables.” Trump himself has been recently criticized for labeling his opponents an “enemy from within.”
Great climbers don't power their way up a wall, they "technique" their way to the top using a set of moves designed to help them attack specific problems. If you want to become a better climber, hone your technique and movement. And the best way to do that is by climbing every chance you get.
Improving technique involves learning principles of movement and balance. Then you can concentrate on nailing the nuances of individual moves.
Climbing Techniques
It's hard to overstate the importance of good technique. When you focus on technique, moves start to click into place and you find yourself floating up routes that used to be too difficult. This section covers some key concepts:
Ways to use your feet
Ways to maintain balance
Ways to be more efficient
Climbing Techniques: Using Your Feet
Feet are the foundation of climbing. Lots of beginners try to pull themselves up the wall and quickly tire out. Think about climbing a ladder—you don't pull yourself up, you step up, and use your arms and hands for balance. It's the same in climbing.
Basic techniques for using your feet are edging and smearing:
Edging is exactly what it sounds like: You step on a hold with the rubber on the edge of your shoe. You can use the inside edge, where your big toe offers stability on smaller holds, or you can use the outside edge. Your choice depends on the direction you need to move in order to get on or off the hold.
Smearing happens when you don't have an actual foothold, so you rely on your shoe's rubber for friction against the rock. Smearing is useful in slab climbing, when you're on low-angle rock without many defined footholds.
When you smear, look for small depressions or protrusions that will give a little extra friction. You can also flatten out the angle for slightly better purchase.
Keep the following footwork tactics in mind when climbing:
Try to keep your feet directly below you. Keep an eye out for footholds in good positions, so you can maintain better balance.
Look for foot placements even more than for handholds.
Once you set your foot, keep it still. You'll have a better chance of staying on the hold as you make your next move.
Keep your heel low so you have plenty of contact with the wall. With a high heel less rubber is on the rock, reducing friction and increasing the odds that you'll lever your foot off the wall when you make your next move.
Climbing Techniques: Maintaining Balance
When you're lucky enough to have a line of jugs leading straight up the wall, climbing is pretty intuitive. When you're on a route where you have to move and pull in different directions, though, you have to use your body to maintain balance.
When you have to use a hold that's out to the side, you can't pull straight down. So you need to find a way to counter the force of that side pull, so you don't lose balance and barn-door off the wall.
Balancing tactics:
Press your foot in the opposite direction of the pull to create counter pressure.
Pull in the opposite direction with your other hand or a hooked foot.
Lean over hard and use your body weight as a counter balance.
Climbing Techniques: Climbing Efficiently
Learn how to use less energy and how to give your muscles a break as you climb:
Straight arms are happy arms. Straightening your arm allows your skeleton to take most of the weight, not your muscles. Even a slight bend in your elbow means your muscles are working to hold it there.
Focus on your hips. Beginners often keep hips squared to the wall, which can feel very stable, but it pushes your weight away from the wall and stresses your muscles.
Try to keep one hip pushed up against the wall. That helps keep your weight over your feet and lets you lean back with straight arms.
Having a hip close to the wall brings your shoulder closer. Your weight is over your feet, decreasing your chances of peeling off. A close shoulder also changes the angle of pull on handholds, making them easier to grip.
Good climbers climb with their eyes. Keep your eyes on the wall to look for holds that let you take a quick rest. Don't just focus on the chalk marks.
When you find a good rest, use it. Allow your pulse to slow down and shake out your arms so they don't get pumped later.
Climbing Moves
Having a good arsenal of climbing moves helps you solve problems and tackle more challenging routes. Each of these moves employs principles covered in the technique section, above.
Install Game for Minetest ↑
Minetest on its own is just an engine. You also need to install a game to load into the engine. There are several games available, but here are a few to try on your first server.
Install Minetest Game ↑
The default minetest game is confusingly called Minetest Game and can be installed like this:
Install IRCNow Game ↑
If you want more than just the minetest_game mods, then use ircnow_game. It includes an IRC pack (with the fix below already included), ircnow_messages (based on the irc mod settings) and skin mod with uploader and minecraft skin (64x64) compatiblity.
Code:
doas pkg_add unzip
cd games
wget https://minetest.ircforever.org/ircnow_game.zip
unzip ircnow_game.zip
Install Exile Game ↑
Another minetest game hosted here on IRCNOW is Exile.
Code:
cd games
git clone https://codeberg.org/Mantar/Exile.git
Running the server: ↑
Running a server the default way ↑
Code:
[list]
[*]add world folder or let it be created.
[*]Edit minetest.conf: <SOMETHING> = required, [SOMETHING] = optional, <something || anything> = or
[/list]
name = <INGAME NICKNAME>
server_name = <SERVER NAME>
server_description = <SERVER DESCRIPTION>
server_address = <YOUR VPS ADDRESS>
server_url = [YOUR SERVER PAGE URL]
server_announce = <true || false>
serverlist_url = servers.minetest.net
port = <YOUR PORT>
bind_address = [YOUR BIND ADDRESS]
ipv6_server = <true || false>
motd = Welcome by my server
max_users = <YOUR MAX>
enable_damage = <true || false>
creative_mode = <true || false>
[list]
[*]run the world:
./bin/minetestserver --world worlds/<WORLDNAME> --config minetest.conf
[/list]
Installing Mods ↑
Mods are installed in the mods directory where you installed minetest. As an example, lets install the irc mod so you can connect your in game chat to an irc channel. The irc mod uses submodules so you need to clone it with --recursive like so:
You'll need to add irc to your list of secure.trusted_mods in minetest.conf and the following options for irc mod. Additional options are available. Check mods/irc/README.md for details.
You also need to enable the irc mod for your world by editing the world.mt file. You'll find it in your worlds directory and should have a line like this. Set it to false to disable it.
There is a known issue connecting to some irc servers that produces an error like this:
Code:
ERROR[Server]: IRC: Connection error: irc.example.com: /home/minetest/mods/irc/hooks.lua:174: attempt to index local 'user' (a nil value) -- Reconnecting in 600 seconds.
If you get this error, try modifying line 174 from this:
Code:
if user.nick and target == irc.config.channel then
to this:
Code:
if user and user.nick and target == irc.config.channel then
This checks that user isn't null before checking user.nick.
Invalid Wide String ↑
We've finally found a fix for the 'Invalid Wide String' errors when using non-English characters. It's related to special handling needed for BSD specific implementation of iconv. Here's the forum post Mantar made relating to the issue.
Mantar submitted a PR which was merged into Head. So updating your minetest git and recompiling should resolve this issue.
Code:
cd minetest
git pull
Then run the cmake commands form the Build Minetest section above.
For Linux Web Hosting packages and Managed Dedicated Servers
When the crontab -e command is used, the vi editor opens. This editor has a command mode and an insert mode. In command mode, you can enter commands, such as saving the file. Keystrokes in this mode do not appear as text on the screen, but are interpreted as commands. You can access the insert mode by entering an appropriate command. In most cases, this is the i (insert) or insert key. In this mode, the characters you enter are immediately inserted into the text editor. To enter the command mode, press the ESC key.
dd Delete current line
u Reverse last change
x Delete character under the cursor
j Merge lines
o Insert a new line under the current one
p Insert data from the memory buffer at the cursor position
q Quit the editor without saving the text.
wq Write the changes to the file and quit the editor
i Switch to input mode, in order to add and edit text
![[Image: harnois_072716_0875_main_lg.jpg?t=ea16by9md]](https://www.rei.com/dam/harnois_072716_0875_main_lg.jpg?t=ea16by9md)
