Joel

@polyparadigm

Materials scientist:some range and depth, interested in making arcane topics a little more accessible. Prior place photo was from the aughts; figured I should update.

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Joel@polyparadigm· 28d

Ralph uh… Drillblender?

Temu mixer blade attachment doohickey intended for use with allthread and an electric drill

Joel@polyparadigm· 28d

Shades in the D&D sense maybe?

From the 5e System Resource Document:

Shade
Medium undead, chaotic evil
Armor Class 12
Hit Points 16 (3d8 + 3)
Speed 40 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
6 (-2) 14 (+2) 13 (+1) 6 (-2) 10 (+0) 8 (-1)
Damage Vulnerabilities: radiant
Damage Resistances: acid, cold, fire, lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
Damage Immunities: necrotic, poison
Condition Immunities exhaustion, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, poisoned, prone, restrained
Senses darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 10
Challenge ½ (100 XP)

SRD entry continues (actions omitted):
ABOUT
Some dark magics, such as powerful necromantic rituals, expel the animating spirit from a creature's body. When the body of such a creature dies without its spirit, the spirit is unable to rest and becomes a shade. Shades are made of an ephemeral blackness and resemble a strange shadow of the body they were torn from, with exaggerated and disproportionate features.
Unable to comprehend their loss, shades will wander the planes looking for a new body to be laid to rest with.
Hungry Guests. Shades are unaware of their state of being, but have an instinctive drive to seek out a physical body to anchor to. Unable to possess or inhabit new bodies, shades will attempt to meld with willing hosts, turning their host's body into the same shadow material that constitutes the shade's form.
Shades that have existed for extended periods of time may be seen shifting between the forms of different creatures they have melded with, each new bond further distorting the shade's image.

Joel@polyparadigm· Jul 9

So many potentially accurate readings of this

Except from the Merriam-Webster entry for “game”:
“3 b : an illegal or shady scheme or maneuver: RACKET
4 a (1) : animals under pursuit or taken in
hunting
especially: wild animals hunted for sport or tood
(2) : the flesh of game animals
b : a target or object especially of ridicule or attack → often used in the phrase fair game”

Joel@polyparadigm· Jul 5

No-Cal Wikipedia article section entitled “Decline”:

As major soda producers such as The Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo launched their own diet brands in the 1960s, No-Cal found it hard to compete. This, coupled with the Food and Drug Administration's ban of cyclamate sweeteners from all U.S. food and drug products in October 1970, caused No-Cal to lose market share and slowly disappear.

Joel@polyparadigm· Jul 4

Indiana Jones’s feeling:

Screenshot from Last Crusade:
Exit wound and bullet hole in the back of a German uniform with a swastika arm bands attached
Desert ground and a stony cliff wall in the background; a similarly-uniformed soldier stands in line with this one

The bullet the hero fired has passed through both of these soldiers and into their comrade off screen to the right, illustrating mid-century German engineering practice’s excessive focus on improving numbers at the expense of functionality

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 30

Kinda funny how the quiz frame conflates ML and LLMs Fucking suspicious how it leaves no room for “people are being deceptive about this, and the deception will have horrific negative effects” bambamramfan.github.io

2-axis test result showing my estimated opinion on AI; somewhat more than neutral regarding the technology’s importance, mid-low valence regarding whether it is for the better or harmful:

“YOU ARE...
The Skeptic
patron saint: Ed Zitron
It's oversold, it's losing staggering amounts of money, and the harms are arriving faster than the value. You've done the math on the unit economics and it doesn't close. You are loud about this, prolific about this, and you suspect history will vindicate you.”

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 28

Viva la Piece of Resistance

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 24

You didn’t hear this from me, ok?

Ice T in some Dick Wolf copaganda:

“Kids are calling it ‘proplifting’”

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 20

Geordi says no to “touch the stove”

Next panel, he points approvingly at “huff the pyroclastic flow”

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 12

[Hanna-Barbera marketing team, with the head of character design struggling to listen to them politely] Shut up and Dripple, you say?

Dripple Dog, son of Droopy

White dog with black nose and ears and a tan muzzle, and big jowls

He has a yellow and green T-shirt and a ginger bushy surfer hairdo, and his dad’s slack look of faux sorrow has been slightly tweaked to look impish

a character designed to update and extend the Droopy property as part of the Tom & Jerry Kids revamp effort during the same general trend that spawned Muppet Babies and suchlike

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 12

Looks like they’ve turned over the helm of the ship of state to Punxutawney Phil

Still from Groundhog Day

Main character is attempting to escape a time loop via vehicular self-harm

He has placed a groundhog at the wheel, letting the creature “drive” during a crash he intends to be lethal to them both

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 7

You are unlike a little baby

iOS bar showing that I have 752 texts, 124 telephone calls, 708 Outlook items, and 38 Teams notifications

Joel@polyparadigm· Jun 6

This, except one might replace “fungal” with “rhizomatic”, “name of God” with “schwerpunkt”, “mushroom” with “organizer”, and “decay” with “liberation”