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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 1st, 2023

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  • I mean if you tend to plug things in at the same computer a lot it’s pretty easy to always plug things in right the first time, even when not looking because you just kinda know what way it’s meant to be. And laptops usually have all theirs pointing the same way so you know one you know them all. If something has text on it, it’s usually oriented in such a way that when plugged in you can read it. Or they have a little face and you know which way the face is meant to be facing

    I have a similar “power” and while I’m not flawless, it’s only really new or unfamiliar devices/computers that trip me up. Or plugs that don’t actually have any identifying features and/or unusual ones


  • So’s Norway - quite a few places on the west coast (the most inhabited non-Oslo part of the country) rely on the fact that the gulf stream keeps them unusually warm for their latitude

    I’m already seeing things that would normally grow fine out in the garden suffer from abnormally late and early frosts and mild summers. Rip my tomatos and onions. Everyone’s complaining about 20+ degree springs in the mainland while I’m screaming that it’s still snowing in late May.


  • I think a more interesting (and less dubious) example of this would be Vocaloid and to a greater extent, cevio AI

    Vocaloid is a synth bank where instead of the notes being musical instruments, they’re phonemes which have been recorded and then packaged into a product which you pay for, which means royalties are involved (I think there might also be a thing with royalties for big performances and whatnot?) Cevio AI takes this a step further by using AI to better smooth together the phonemes and make pitching sound more natural (or not - it’s an instrument, you can break it in interesting ways if you try hard enough). And obviously, they consented to that specific thing and get paid for it. They gave Yamaha/Sony/the general public a specific character voice and permission to use that specific voice.

    (There’s a FOSS voicebanks but that adds a different layer of complication to things like I think a lot of them were recorded before the idea of an “AI bank” was even a possibility. And like, while a paid voice bank is a proprietary thing, the open source alternatives are literally just a big file of .WAVs so it’s much easier to go outside their intended purposes)


  • I’d also add to the discussion that the reason why Norway (and I think Iceland too) eat it as “tradition” isn’t because it’s some sacred animal or traditional or something, it’s because up until very recently both countries were dirt poor and neither country is particularly great when it comes to arable land that you can grow veggies or animals on. Whale is a physically big source of red meat that lives not that far off the coast, and has tons of other uses besides food too. They’re also small countries so using them as a food source isn’t that damaging (hell I’m pretty sure out of the entire Norwegian fishing industry the whaling part is probably the least environmentally destructive part of it)

    Also grilled whale is like, really nice. It’s like if tuna was a red meat.



  • I get it’s probably because people just aren’t used to the idea of eating whale, but it’s odd you’re being downvoted when like that’s kinda the stance I think a lot of environmentalists have here in Norway, though I think the comparison is more to like venison than cows, because venison’s hunted but cows are raised. In the grand scheme of things, the beef industry does way more damage and has more ethical concerns than the strictly regulated whaling industry and we should be focusing our attention on that. I could be completely off though - I ain’t from Oslo and whale is regularly available on the supermarket shelves in the season so I’m obviously somewhat biased here. I know a lot of people have ethical concerns but like, I don’t get it. Pigs are smarter than a whale, but people aren’t upset at pork chops.

    Also idk how reliable it is because obviously it’s a biased source, but according to the fishing industry pound for pound whale’s actually way better for the environment than any farmed red meat because you’re, y’know, not raising it.


  • I feel like if we’re talking realistically here, people are forgetting you have to also source the Pokemon in question. Most people aren’t globe trotting ace trainers, they’re limited to what’s around them and what they can realistically raise. As much as I’d love a goodra or a sigilyph or a volcorona, I don’t live anywhere where they’d realistically show up and they take a lot of attention to level up. Also like, most people tend to have only two or three Pokemon, because looking an entire team of 6 is a full time job.

    I think I’d have a galvantula (or maybe more realistically a joltik) and a garganacl line Pokemon. Ones a common household pest that hangs around electronics and the other’s a giant guy made of salt who helps people and heals them. An electric type would probably actually help with my job and I’ve lived near salt mines before and an obedient Pokemon that can heal you and is big enough to assist with tasks sounds like a good choice for an assistance Pokemon. If I got to choose a third, it would probably be some sort of region bird because I like birds man. Maybe like a regional form of pidove. Spiders can catch their own food (and if not, bugs aren’t that hard to get ahold of), I already have plenty of bird feed, and like, does garganacl even eat? I guess it’d probably need salt? I mean I’ve got lots of that.

    I’d love some sort of sea dwelling Pokemon, but unfortunately I don’t think they’re very easy to look after if you spend a lot of time on land. Omanyte would be great, but I don’t think fossil Pokemon are very easily accessible to the public


  • Because the point of unicode is to accurately depict every sort of writing regardless of format, not to make a neat table of every unique glyph. Fonts may want to render the two differently or treat them differently. Same reason why there’s a difference between an em dash and a quotation line mark

    Same reason why unicode is full of random characters that only ever appear like thrice in some Russian coptic manuscript from the 3rd century - it’s about being able to depict something, not perceived usefulness

    Also excuse my ignorance, but who’s Uriel? Because right now I just have the mental image of a very upset archangel which I’m guessing is not what you’re referring to. I mean it could be - I’m pretty sure unicode would fall under his domain of literature



  • When it’s grilled, whale tastes like if tuna was a mammal. It’s firm and quite lean and vaguely fishy, but in a way you can’t really put your finger on and isn’t really a bother. When stewed, it’s basically like beef but shittier. It’s got this lovely deep dark red colour and is kinda weird because you can’t follow or find any sinew or sort of “shape” to the meat because it’s taken off such a large animal. It’s just this chunk of meat you can’t really identify where on the animal it’s from.

    Also I kinda assumed you’d have some whale knowledge because I assumed that you were an American and as an American you were forced to read Moby Dick in class because that’s like the great American novel or at very least pretended to read the cliffnotes on it and gotten the idea that it’s a great and violent chase across the Atlantic for money and revenge, and not like a small crew in a fishing boat in a fjord with a grenade harpoon


  • I’m not really an expert on this, I just know that the ingredients list on a pack of whale lists Balaenoptera acutorostrata as it’s species and I’ve never seen any other species for sale. We’ve been hunting these guys for a millenia and ever since I think the mid 20th century it’s the only species hunted, mainly because that’s simply what’s native to Norway.

    As for why? Norway’s been a pretty poor country for most of its existence and any reliable source of food is a welcome one, and it’s not like whale’s the worst thing to eat. This was never a profit thing like the more sterotypical American whaling industry, it’s first and foremost a food one.




  • although I couldn’t get it to accept whale.

    Seriously? I get this is a New Zealand site but like, whale is a normal meat in some places, way more normal than like fugu or something. I could go right now to the local grocery store and pick up a whale steak if I wanted to. It’d be cheaper than a normal beef steak too. Why would they blacklist a meat that’s actually eaten in some places?

    Anyways the best way to eat whale is to treat it like a tuna steak - little bit of oil and pepper and barely cook it on each side. Traditionally though you like turn it into stroganoff.

    Quick update - it won’t accept whale but it will accept hval (whale in Norwegian) so enjoy this…“Recipe”


  • Yeah - one of the great things about place was the sheer scale of the community. If you have a broad range of even pretty obscure interests, there was a chance you could find most of them on there burried away. In the previous few iterations, I must’ve helped like twelve different little things ranging from super well known video game murals to tiny little pixel art for obscure Japanese artists.

    In the '22 place, I helped lead a team to make a tiny 15×15 thing for our favourite kinda forgotten character from a game and it was an uphill battle but it was memorable. Here? That tiny 225 pixel face is the only rep for genshin impact and I miss the fun of planning something because it’s just me. Sure I could make something big (and I have expanded it to include other characters) by myself…but like, I want to make stuff for other groups and fandoms too, and I’m the only person who’ll do it.

    Don’t get me wrong, the canvas is fun and it’s not really the hoster’s fault, but it’s missing the collaboration part