gru:Bz
Average millennial living life on the edge (of the Midwest). Probably too immature for Micro.blog but I like it here.
Link
Your Standing Desk Might Actually Be as Bad as Sitting All Day
…a new study from researchers in Australia and the Netherlands has found standing for long periods of time might not be much better than sitting after all – and actually comes with its own life-threatening risks.
Ahmadi says the real take-home from this research is that standing, by itself, should not be considered a cure-all for the ailments of sedentary, seat-bound lifestyles.
Who keeps increasing the difficulty 🥴
How to work at McDonald’s and still become a millionaire
“Every dollar I get, I’m taking some of that money and I’m going to put it over here so that I can own my time and eventually have that money fund my entire life.”
This is so dumb lol idk why I’m even sharing it. Winning the lottery is literally the only way you’re getting rich at McDonalds.
I’ve done research on this. In one study, we looked at a group of people who [each] had about $11 million in net worth, and we compared them to a group of people who [each] had about $500,000 in net worth. These people had almost 18 times more money. And what we found is they only spent twice as much, on their house, their vacation, their watch and their car.
Some millionaires are making 18x more than a couple lower class peasants who only make half a million a year and they’re only spending twice as much? They’ll be poor forever at this rate 🤪
This scientist treated her own cancer with viruses she grew in the lab
She chose to target her tumour with two different viruses consecutively — a measles virus followed by a vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). Both pathogens are known to infect the type of cell from which her tumour originated, and have already been used in OVT clinical trials.
Halassy felt a responsibility to publish her findings. But she received more than a dozen rejections from journals…because the paper…involved self-experimentation.
Self experimentation has led to a lot of medical breakthroughs. It almost seems more humane to me in a way but I can totally see how you wouldn’t wanna advertise someone self-curing cancer with a virus. Next thing you know there’s a new trend on TikTok of shooting yourself up with staph to cure high cortisol levels.
Taylor Swift Fans Are Leaving X for Bluesky After Trump’s Election
“I think that’s the kind of rhetoric we want to get away from,” Kim says. She also notes that X’s recent update to the “block” feature, which allows people to see the profile and posts of users that have blocked them, has contributed to a more negative experience on the platform. “Twitter has definitely become such a hellscape,” Kim says.
I like Swifties. I’d much rather hang out with them than the alt right cryptobros on xitter. Love seeing the community grow
Trump plans to dismantle Biden AI safeguards after victory
Biden’s order established wide-ranging oversight of AI development. Among its core provisions, the order established the US AI Safety Institute (AISI) and lays out requirements for companies to submit reports about AI training methodologies and security measures, including vulnerability testing data.
Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) warned that reporting requirements could discourage innovation and prevent developments like ChatGPT. And Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) characterized NIST’s AI safety standards as an attempt to control speech through “woke” safety requirements.
Honestly at this point I’m okay with being reduced to paste by a T-9000 unit
‘The Most Mysterious Song on the Internet’ Has Finally Been Identified
It’s been an incredible year for solving long-running internet mysteries. In May, investigators tracked down “The Backrooms” and in September investigators identified “Celebrity Number Six.” Now it seems that The Mysterious Song has been discovered. It’s called “Subways Of the Mind” by the band FEX.
OMG this is like discovering life on Mars lol I’ve been following this for years.
Perplexity CEO offers AI company’s services to replace striking NYT staff
“Hundreds of millions of people are depending on The Times’s journalism on Election Day and afterward, and it is troubling that the Tech Guild would try to block this public service at such a consequential moment for our country.” - AG Sulzberger, NYT’s publisher
“Hey AG Sulzberger @nytimes sorry to see this. Perplexity is on standby to help ensure your essential coverage is available to all through the election. DM me anytime here.” - Aravind Srinivas, CEO, Perplexity
Gross. This just goes to show the very real goal of some AI companies to replace humans with chatbots.
Thousands of People Are Cloning Their Dead Pets. This Is the Woman They Call First
It had taken seven months and cost $50,000, but that cat was one of the first pets to be commercially cloned in the United States. Since then, a couple thousand dog, cat, and horse clones have followed, and every year the waiting list grows longer. Of course it does. Haven’t you ever wished your pet could live, if not forever, then at least as long as you? Now it can, sort of.
We’ve come a long way from Dolly the sheep 😳
Inspiration from Dr. Hoby Wedler - your non-visual sensory guide to the best things in life
I’ve been watching this TikTok page for a couple months and it’s been such an inspiration. Super sweet down to earth guy who laughed in the face of adversity and got his PhD in chemistry, in spite of people telling him it would never work. This video is my favorite. He talks about using your disadvantages as a super power. If you’re not crazy about TikTok, his home page is hobywedler.com
video: tiktok.com/@hobywedler/vi…
Nintendo made a music streaming app for Switch Online subscribers
It’s like Apple Music Classical but for Nintendo games
Some (Slightly Biased) Thoughts On The State Of Decentralized Social Media | Techdirt
I’m enthusiastic about Bluesky’s approach. I think the ATProtocol gives us the best chance of reaching that breakthrough. But I’m happy to see others trying different ideas as well, because all of these experiments will help bring us to a world where more people embrace decentralized systems and move away from old walled gardens
This is interesting. Bluesky is my first choice too. I really dig the fact that Micro.blog lets you comment via Bluesky or Mastodon ❤️ decentralization
These hornets break down alcohol so fast that they can’t get drunk
“To the best of our knowledge, Oriental hornets are the only animal in nature adapted to consuming alcohol as a metabolic fuel," said co-author Eran Levin of Tel Aviv University. “They show no signs of intoxication or illness, even after chronically consuming huge amounts of alcohol, and they eliminate it from their bodies very quickly.”
I wonder what they do to wind down at the end of the day
Power-sucking GenAI set to create mountain of e-waste
The study…indicates potential for rapid growth of e-waste from 2.6 kilotons each year in 2023 to between 400 kilotons and 2.5 million tons each year in 2030, when no waste reduction measures are considered.
AI can do some really amazing things but do its benefits outweigh 2.5 million tons of waste per year?
I Don’t Know Why Women Keep Laughing at Me When I’m Out Driving my Tesla Cybertruck
I was taking a right turn out of a convenience store driveway the other day, waiting for the traffic to go by, and noticed the driver, a female, was apparently laughing hysterically at my truck…Then today, I was at a four-way stop, and a guy in a Nissan Titan/Toyota Tundra or something smiled and then chuckled like: “What a tool.”
Hmmm I can’t think of any reasons someone would mock you for driving a sheet metal polygon that costs as much as a house and can’t survive an automatic car wash 😆
We can Terraform the American West – Casey Handmer’s blog
I like this. Terraform Earth before we terraform Mars.
The fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops
Loops…was developed by Daniel Supernault, who also created the federated Instagram rival Pixelfed. In fact, Loops will run under the Pixelfed project, according to an FAQ on its website.
This looks pretty cool! I registered an account and now I’m just waiting for the welcome email to come through. I wonder how it will hold up to TikTok. I think it’ll be difficult to pull in creators without any way to monetize, but then again look at everyone here who blogs every day just for fun. It might just be crazy enough to work
Disposable vapes to be banned in England and Wales from June
Single-use vapes are difficult to recycle and typically end up in landfill, where their batteries can leak harmful waste like battery acid, lithium, and mercury into the environment, the government said.
This is my biggest concern with disposable vapes. I use one daily, so I’m definitely a hypocrite here. One vape store out of dozens near me has a drop box for used ones and I always dump my old ones off there, but I still have to wonder whether or not they’re actually recycling them.
A Quarter of Smartphone Owners Are Unimpressed by AI
The biggest motivation for US adult smartphone owners to upgrade their devices is longer battery life (61%), followed by more storage (46%) and better camera features (38%). Just 18% say their main motivator is AI integrations.
AI can do some really cool stuff but I’d much rather have a battery I don’t have to charge three times a day. One that doesn’t go to 85% capacity after a few months, maybe. It totally works in device manufacturer’s favor though. Something with onboard AI is probably going to suck down a lot more power, run hotter and wear out quicker, so you’ll still purchase an upgrade in a year or two. Don’t upgrade because you want to, upgrade because you have to.
iOS 18.2 will let everyone set new default phone and messaging apps
…a note on Apple’s developer website states that all users worldwide can set new default apps for calling and messaging in iOS 18.2
But the big stuff, like support for alternative app stores and browser engines, has mostly been confined to the EU.
I wish they’d support other browser engines in the US already. The only thing I miss about Android was that you could actually use Firefox. Like actual Firefox, with extensions. Imagine if Google limited everyone to re-skinned versions of Chrome on every Android device.