talkpolitics | Entries tagged with offtopic

Sometimes, people ponder profound questions like: "What's the meaning of life?", "Are we alone in the Universe?", or "What happens if you throw a paper airplane from the International Space Station)?"

Luckily, we now have an answer to the third one, because eventually, someone was bound to try it:

Could a Paper Plane Thrown From The International Space Station Survive The Flight?

Oh look, there's even an illustration! And it looks very science-y:

And a Youtube video of course:

VIDEO

Consider yourselves educated. You're welcome!

kiaa

Mankind is wrong since 1905 ― Experts detect the real dimensions of time

This guy has an interesting theory, and claims this time it can be tested. In a nutshell, he argues time is three dimensional and space is just a consequence of that, so a byproduct. Which in essence turns General Relativity on its head. Literally.

The three dimensions of time he posits:

1. The first line, which would be the direct line that we know.
2. The second would allow us to access alternative versions of the same moment. It would be as if we could revisit an ordinary day and discover what it would have been like if we had made different choices.
3. And the third temporal dimension would allow the transition between these different possibilities.

asthfghl

I'd argue that Facebook doom scrolling is far more damaging "in its current state":

Scientists just completed the first brain scan study of ChatGPT users, "the results are terrifying"!

It appears those "ChatGPT users bad" posts are usually projection mixed with a sprinkle of elitism and a big ol' spoonful of insecurity. It's like they know something powerful is happening, but instead of learning how to use it, they slap on a "let me gatekeep intelligence" sticker and act like typing your thoughts into an interface is brain rot. Bro, you typed that take into a smartphone while scrolling TikTok and calling it a mental detox.

Let's be real. Tools like ChatGPT don't replace thinking, they expand it. When used well, they:
Help you frame and explore ideas more efficiently
Connect you to relevant knowledge and sources
Offer new perspectives that challenge your assumptions
Save you time on the small stuff so you can think about the big stuff
Let you actually enjoy learning again

The real fear behind memes like this is often about gatekeeping, the idea that if more people have access to nuanced thinking tools, the traditional power structures lose their grip.

So yeah. You're not being zombified. You're leveling up. It's not cognitive laziness. It's cognitive leverage. That's the key difference.

I mean, come on. If Plato had a tool that could help him cross-reference every myth, idea and dialectic while brainstorming his next philosophical banger, you think he'd be like, "No thanks, I prefer to suffer manually"?
Hell no. He'd be running "Republic GPT" faster than you could say "Forms".

fridi

Mind-blowing read: Meditation And Mindfulness Have a Dark Side We Often Overlook

In a nutshell:

1. Mindfulness and meditation, though widely praised, can cause serious adverse effects such as depression, anxiety, psychosis, dissociation, and depersonalisation, sometimes in people with no prior mental health issues
2. A 2022 US study found over 10% of regular meditators experienced negative impacts lasting at least a month
3. Historical sources, including a 1,500 year old Buddhist text and a 1976 warning by Arnold Lazarus, have similarly documented meditation's dark side
4. The booming US mindfulness market (≈US$2.2 bn) often omits warnings about potential harms, fueled by a "capitalist spiritual" mindset
5. Ethically, mindfulness promotion should include disclosure of risks, better training for instructors, and informed guidance for practitioners

luzribeiro

When your country has more coup attempts than working stoplights.

Road sign at country's entrance reads:

Welcome to our failed state!
We have:
✅ No functioning government
✅ 3 currencies (none accepted)
✅ Elections every week (winner always unclear)
✅ Free Wi-Fi because the surveillance drones need it

Can you think of examples matching this description?

kiaa

Quick question for everyone - who do you think are the top 3 most attractive women and 3 most attractive men in the world right now? Just curious what the consensus is.

Personally, I'd go with:

Women – Ana de Armas, Margot Robbie, Zendaya
Men – Henry Cavill, Timothée Chalamet, Chris Hemsworth

What about you?

airiefairie

Hey everyone,

I'm in the mood for some truly rewatchable sci-fi - movies that are so thought-provoking, stylish, or layered that once you finish them, you immediately want to go back and experience them again with fresh eyes.

To give you an idea of what I'm into:

Arrival - Loved the emotional core and how the non-linear storytelling unfolds differently on rewatch.

Blade Runner 2049 - The atmosphere, the questions it raises about identity and consciousness, and that haunting score keep pulling me back.

If you've seen any sci-fi films that made you pause, think, or just feel something deeply - and especially ones that reward a second or third viewing - I'd love your recommendations.

Thanks in advance!

asthfghl

Pretty much, eh?

luzribeiro

Ranking all major urban transport modes based on their carbon-emission output:
SOURCE - https://tnmt.com/infographics/carbon-emissions-by-transport-type/

mahnmut

Most were about that white smoke. My fave one:

Anyway. Here are some others:

LINK1

LINK2

nairiporter

Assuming you are not retired, do you use AI tools in your work, and how often do you use them?

Examples: Daily, weekly, seldom, or never.

I use it once a day or so, mostly for editing and clarity. It does concern me that kids won’t have to learn how to write because of it. Missed brain connections and all that.

airiefairie

Well, they aren't exactly direwolves.

And naming one of them Khaleesi was an affront to the entire Game of Thrones fanbase, duh!

No, the dire wolf has not been brought back from extinction
Colossal Biosciences claims three pups born recently are dire wolves, but they are actually grey wolves with genetic edits intended to make them resemble the lost species

luzribeiro

Dipshitty dipshits keeping on doing dipshitty stuff.

Influencers 'new' threat to uncontacted tribes, warns group after US tourist arrest

Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, allegedly landed on North Sentinel Island in an apparent attempt to make contact with the isolated Sentinelese tribe, filming his visit and leaving a can of coke and a coconut on the shore.
.....Mr Polyakov blew a whistle off the shore of the island in a bid to attract the attention of the tribe for about an hour.
He then landed for about five minutes, leaving his offerings, collecting samples and recording a video.
It is illegal for foreigners or Indians to travel within 5km (three miles) of the islands in order to protect the people living there.
......such visits pose a threat to a community which has no immunity to outside diseases.

Or hey, maybe you can contract something from there and bring it back to the rest of the planet! Wait... nevermind that.
In November 2018, John Allen Chau, also a US national, was killed by the tribe after visiting the same island.
Mr Chau was shot with bows and arrows upon landing:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46293221

That's part of a wider problem of course. Influencers are having to engage in more and more outrageous activities to attract attention. As a result one has been shot, several have fallen off cliffs and many have suffered well deserved punches to the face. There have been some high profile arrests as well including in Asia where some countries have strict laws against causing offence.

A 'click' is a powerful thing. Seems it's like social media heroin.

luzribeiro

Social media has become flooded with penguin memes after Trump slapped 10% tariffs on all exports from the Heard and McDonald Islands, barren sub-Antarctic Australian territories. Both islands are uninhabited by humans, but home to thousands of penguins.

Nothing can stop you from being dumb, I guess.

mahnmut

'Shining anus' volcano in Tonga coughs up cloud of smoke during recent eruption — Earth from space

A 2022 satellite photo shows smoke rising from a caldera on Tofua, highlighting the "looming threat" of the volcanic island.

kiaa

You'd think these guys have gone to tremendous lenghts for nothing. Well, if you count proving a point about fact-checking and scientific veritability as "nothing", that is.

It's not just about the true total length of blood vessels in the human body, mind you:

Watch on YouTube

mahnmut

Source: Terrible Maps

NOTICE: Every element can be licked once

abomvubuso

FIFA World Cup set to introduce Super Bowl style half-time show

"FIFA President Gianni Infantino has announced that the 2026 World Cup final will have a halftime show, similar to that seen at the Super Bowl. The next edition of the World Cup will be hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico."

Also please introduce 5 minute commercial breaks between set pieces. Then we can all move on from football and watch rugby, thanks.

asthfghl

It's this day of the year again. "Baba Marta" (grandma Marta), the ancient tradition (probably Thracian, or Old-Bulgar) of exchanging red-and-white woolen, silk or cotton threads (Martenitsa) and tying them to the wrists of your dear ones or pinning them to their lapels, and wishing health and success to everybody. People wear these threads on their wrists and lapels until they see a stork or a blossoming tree. Then they remove the Martenitsi and either put them on a tree branch (many trees stay piled with Martenitsi throughout the year), or under a stone, and if there are ants under that stone after 1 month, there will be a good harvest throughout the year.

There are many legends about the origin of this tradition. One says that it originates from the time when the Old Bulgars arrived around the Pontic steppes (north and east of the Black Sea), and they had a tough battle with the Khazars; after a difficult victory, the Khan sent a pigeon home with a message about the victory, tied with a white woolen thread. But the pigeon was shot by a Khazar arrow. Still, it was able to deliver the message, and then died. The blood, mixed with the white thread, gave the white-and-red color of the Martenitsa.

Being an old lady, Baba Marta is the symbol of March, the trickiest month of the year, weather-wise. You can expect anything from Baba Marta: frost and sunshine, and quickly changing moods. It's the month of pink-cheeked giggling kids playing in the late winter snow, and of snowdrops and crocus flowers popping up from the ice and heralding the coming spring and the rebirth of nature for a new life; it's the time when the ancient Kukeri ritual is played out throughout towns big and small, people pulling on their traditional fur costumes and going on a carnival, making noise to the heavens to scare off the bad spirits of winter. It's a time of joy and festivity (as if we don't have enough of it throughout the whole year!), lots of dances, lots of food and lots of good drinks around the fireplace.

It's a pagan tradition that has endured for millennia. It's probably the most Bulgarian holiday of all. So I'm tying a virtual Martenitsa to each of you and wishing you all good health and lots of luck through the year!

abomvubuso

You may've heard of this map trying to record every battle ever fought throughout recorded human history. Based on Wikipedia:

LINK

Credits & Style Info

Talk Politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods

MONTHLY TOPIC:
AI Regulation: Striking the Balance

DAILY QUOTE:

"Clearly, the penguins have finally gone too far. First they take our hearts, now they’re tanking the global economy one smug waddle at a time. Expect fish sanctions by Friday."

(nairiporter)

July 2025

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Summary

fridi - Friday off-topic: Origami in space!
kiaa - Friday offtopic. Time is three dimensional? +2 comments
asthfghl - Friday offtopic. Let's make ignorance expensive again. +11 comments
fridi - Friday offtopic. Meditation is not as harmless as you might think +3 comments
luzribeiro - Friday offtopic on-topic. #FailedStateThings +3 comments
kiaa - Friday offtopic. Your top 3 M and F +4 comments
airiefairie - Friday offtopic. Sci-fi gems to recommend +7 comments
asthfghl - Friday off topic: A Map of Every American City +2 comments
luzribeiro - Friday offtopic. The environmental impact of today’s transport types
mahnmut - Friday LOLs. Habemus papam! And memes ensue
nairiporter - Friday off-topic. How often do you use AI in your daily work? +2 comments
airiefairie - Friday offtopic. Heard of those direwolves? +3 comments
luzribeiro - Friday WTF: Can we just start taking some people's internet away? +2 comments
luzribeiro - Friday LOLs. Those poor penguins! +4 comments
mahnmut - Friday nonsense. Hmmm, interesting...
kiaa - Friday offtopic. Impressive research
mahnmut - Friday LOL. Mapping the Periodic Table by Lickability +1 comment
abomvubuso - Friday offtopic: FIFA SuperBowl
asthfghl - Friday offtopic: Happy Baba Marta!
abomvubuso - Friday offtopic. Ahh, that good ole Erap. +1 comment

Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with offtopic

Friday off-topic: Origami in space!

Friday offtopic. Time is three dimensional?

Friday offtopic. Let's make ignorance expensive again.

Friday offtopic. Meditation is not as harmless as you might think

Friday offtopic on-topic. #FailedStateThings

Friday offtopic. Your top 3 M and F

Friday offtopic. Sci-fi gems to recommend

Friday off topic: A Map of Every American City

Friday offtopic. The environmental impact of today’s transport types

Friday LOLs. Habemus papam! And memes ensue

Friday off-topic. How often do you use AI in your daily work?

Friday offtopic. Heard of those direwolves?

Friday WTF: Can we just start taking some people's internet away?

Friday LOLs. Those poor penguins!

Friday nonsense. Hmmm, interesting...

Friday offtopic. Impressive research

Friday LOL. Mapping the Periodic Table by Lickability

Friday offtopic: FIFA SuperBowl

Friday offtopic: Happy Baba Marta!

Friday offtopic. Ahh, that good ole Erap.

Credits & Style Info

Links

July 2025

Summary