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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 16th, 2023

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  • I think this is probably more a copy of various East Asian social media services than anything Reddit-like. Pretty sure TikTok and a bunch of Chinese video streaming services already do this. I think the whole Money -> Gifts -> Rubies -> Money chain is intended to dance around money laundering legislation. The same way that Pachinko machines aren’t technically considered gambling in Japan.



  • If you’re doing activities outdoors: Always bring an extra bottle of water. That is to say, bring a bottle to drink, and then another for when you get thirstier than expected. This season is relatively cool, but you really don’t want to be caught unprepared. Also: Arizona has a law requiring businesses to serve water for free if you ask. Don’t let anyone bullshit you and ask for money.

    Keep an eye on the weather reports, and do not hike down washes, ravines, or narrow canyons if there’s a rain storm anywhere nearby. Heavy rainfall several miles away can turn a sunny, dry ravine into a raging torrent that can kill. If you see a road that’s currently flowing with water, don’t try to cross it, even in a big car. You don’t know how deep it really is, and even just a few cms of fast water is enough to sweep a person off their feet and drown them. It doesn’t take much more to get a car stuck.

    If you’re going to Northern Arizona, bring warm clothes. People can be caught unprepared when they leave Phoenix for a day trip and it’s 60⁰F, but when they get to Flagstaff 2h later it’s snowing.

    If you see a Jumping Cholla:

    Don’t get too close. Their spines are longer than they look because they get so thin as to be nearly invisible.



  • A story I heard was that it was the poor indigenous farmers who were forced to cultivate coffee for the Dutch. They weren’t allowed any of the beans they grew, but were able to collect it from the dung of civets that prowled around near the plantation. Of course, once the colonizers learned that it tasted “good”, it was commoditized too.

    Might be apocryphal.









  • I think that’s not the problem that this technology is intended to solve.

    It’s not a “Is this picture copied from someone else?” technology. It’s a “Did a human take this picture, and did anyone modify it?” technology.

    Eg: Photographer Bob takes a picture of Famous Fiona driving her camaro and posts it online with this metadata. Attacker Andy uses photo editing tools to make it look like Fiona just ran over a child. Maybe his skills are so good that the edits are undetectable.

    Andy has two choices: Strip the metadata, or keep it.

    If Andy keeps the metadata, anyone looking at his image can see that it was originally taken by Bob, and that Fiona never ran over a child.

    If Andy strips the metadata (and if this technology is widely accessible and accepted by social media, news sites, and everyday people) then anyone looking at the image can say “You can’t prove this image was actually taken. Without further evidence I must assume that it’s faked”.

    I think spinning this as a tool to fight AI is just clickbait because AI is hot in the news. It’s about provenance and limiting misinformation.