tourmalinetaco (u/tourmalinetaco)

tourmalinetaco commented on Coursera to combine with Udemy investor.coursera.com/new... · Posted by u/throwaway019254

edent · 6 hours ago

Yeah! Screw that person for needing a perfectly reasonable accessibility accommodation! Why can't deaf & hard of hearing people accept that they shouldn't be allowed access to knowledge?

Give your head a wobble, mate.

tourmalinetaco · 5 hours ago

So if 4% of the population cannot partake, then the other 96% should be barred from participating?

tourmalinetaco commented on I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me marcusolang.substack.com/... · Posted by u/florian_s

komali2 · 21 hours ago

Who are the Turtle Island terrorists? I only know of four people accused of attempting to build a bomb, but not actually having done so.

Surely you aren't taking a government at its word on a politically charged case? Need we trudge out the Chicago 7 again?

tourmalinetaco · 6 hours ago

By their own words they were going to commit terrorism. That, logically, makes them terrorists. They were found, on film, to be making and experimenting with illegal explosives, and they were found to own even more materials. If you have trustworthy evidence that this is all fabrication—evidence that doesn’t exist in your mind—then I’d be more than happy to see it.

And if you’re saying all of this because you agree with them and their actions, at least have the courage to state you support terrorism directly.

tourmalinetaco commented on I'm Kenyan. I don't write like ChatGPT, ChatGPT writes like me marcusolang.substack.com/... · Posted by u/florian_s

pksebben · a day ago

It's a matter of degree. You're right, of course, but there was a time not so long ago when such things were ubiquitous - even on the internet. Once upon a time, even the darkest corners like 4chan were actually kind of tongue-in-cheek. Then it slowly dawned on everyone that there were a bunch of people there who weren't kidding, and things kind of went to pot.

In a reversal of the aphorism; those were more complex times. I miss them.

tourmalinetaco · a day ago

It’s not even really a problem of the Internet necessarily; it’s rather a symptom of the growing political divide in Western society. Things are “simple” now because we’ve reached the point where nuanced discussion is pointless. In Europe you can be jailed for going against the Accepted Opinions™, and we’re seeing a rise in politically motivated attacks. There is no logical solution to emotionally backed rhetoric like we’ve seen with the Turtle Island terrorists; you can’t debate ethics with someone who wants you dead.

tourmalinetaco commented on Running a business means contact with reality fredkozlowski.com/2025/11... · Posted by u/fkozlowski

kragen · 18 days ago

I remember one time at summer camp in the teen dorm I claimed that pain was an illusion, because it was subjective. A girl named Lisa picked up a wooden block and threw it at me. It hit my lip, which started bleeding, and she was immediately horrified at what she had done; but I had to acknowledge that subjective "reality" has an importance to me that objective reality does not.

tourmalinetaco · 18 days ago

Interestingly I had just re-watched the House episode with the CIPA patient in S3, and it touched on this if you squint. The girl, having CIPA, effectively can’t feel pain. She can’t even feel getting 2nd degree burns and it’s questionable if she even felt them poking around in her head or if she used that to escape (and fall down a 2nd story balcony). The only time she felt actual pain was seeing her mother relapse and be wheeled off for more surgery.

She cannot feel what should objectively cause her pain, but because pain is a subjective experience she can’t. However, truly subjective pain, that is pain derived from emotional connection, is literally the worst pain she can feel.

tourmalinetaco commented on The fall of Labubus and the mush of modern internet trends michigandaily.com/arts/di... · Posted by u/gnabgib

firecall · 22 days ago

I recently learned that many collectables are sold this way!

Labubus just happened to get a wide appeal and had a moment in the US for some reason..

tourmalinetaco · 22 days ago

They are and I hate it. It‘s bad enough with trading cards, but now every single collectible is employing gacha mechanics and it’s frustrating.

tourmalinetaco commented on Google steers Americans looking for health care into "junk insurance" pluralistic.net/2025/11/2... · Posted by u/hn_acker

BLKNSLVR · 22 days ago

So Luigi Mangione had no effect, or it's too early to tell?

tourmalinetaco · 22 days ago

If Ted K. had no effect what hope did Mangione have?

tourmalinetaco commented on Google steers Americans looking for health care into "junk insurance" pluralistic.net/2025/11/2... · Posted by u/hn_acker

morkalork · 22 days ago

I hate to be that guy but is it Google's responsibility to police legally operating insurance companies? It's not their problem that USA has a trash insurance market and a backwards healthcare system.

tourmalinetaco · 22 days ago

Legally? No. However, due to their alteration of search results anything that becomes the top is effectively an endorsement regardless of whether it was chosen by the black box or their employees. They already remove legally operating websites they disagree with. Since they’re selective editors with multiple lost antitrust suits, the only thing we as consumers can do is criticize. Especially as most of these companies top the charts due to SEO spam and not genuine traffic.

tourmalinetaco commented on Google steers Americans looking for health care into "junk insurance" pluralistic.net/2025/11/2... · Posted by u/hn_acker

nickff · 22 days ago

I agree that Google is benefiting from being the dominant player in a two-sided marketplace (which makes it harder to compete), but we can always choose not to use it, both as advertisers and as searchers. Google’s exploitation of its counter-parties has definitely caused me to use alternatives more and more often.

tourmalinetaco · 22 days ago

Google is my third choice for searches. I try Ecosia first, but their indexing is garbage so I typically then go to Brave. If Brave doesn’t have it then I submit to the evil overlords at Google. Thankfully Brave indexing is pretty good so it‘s had a measurable impact on the amount of search I actually put through Google.

tourmalinetaco commented on James Cameron Says Netflix Movies Shouldn't Be Eligible for Oscars worldofreel.com/blog/2025... · Posted by u/randycupertino

Veedrac · 22 days ago

It's hard for me to respect the intrinsic superiority of a format whose main value-add is exclusivity, rather than fair market competition based on merits.

If theatres pivoted to competing first on format rather than exclusive access to recent releases, and managed to do well in that regime, I'm sure Netflix and other new media would be more than happy to indulge. Seems unlikely, though, doesn't it? The demand exists but I would be surprised if it was a quarter the size.

tourmalinetaco · 22 days ago

It‘s also hard to respect a format whose main value-add is quantity over quality, but that‘s Netflix‘s strategy. And will continue to be Netflix‘s strategy if they get WB.

tourmalinetaco commented on Title of work deciphered in sealed Herculaneum scroll via digital unwrapping finebooksmagazine.com/fin... · Posted by u/namanyayg

JoBrad · 7 months ago

So is the “pagan” moniker a way of dating the work to before the rise of Christianity with the Roman Empire?

tourmalinetaco · 7 months ago

Very commonly yes.