We have 3 cats, and unintentionally, they are all long haired cats. They were the ones that picked us, and we weren’t about to tell them they were wrong and adopt a different cat because of their hair length.

(To be fair, I did manage to run Half Life: Alyx and Beat Saber on a 1060)

Normally, I would agree with you, but this summary that does not include the explicit description of the torture is a lot easier to read.

Some of the image generators have attempted to put up guard rails to prevent generating pictures of nude children, but the creators/managers haven’t been able to eradicate it. There was also an investigation by Stanford University that showed that most of the really popular image generators had a not insignificant amount of CSAM in their training data and could be fairly easily manipulated into making more.

The creators and managers of these generative “AIs” have done slim to none in the way of curation and have routinely been trying to fob off responsibility to their users the same way Tesla has been doing for their “full self driving”.

Generative AI is basically just really overpowered text/image prediction. It fills in the words or pixels that make the most sense based on the data it has been fed, so to get AI generated CSAM…it had to have been fed some amount of CSAM at some point or it had to be heavily manipulated to generate the images in question.

That’s why it’s a disagreement. I’m not necessarily saying their opinions are factually incorrect, just that they are devoid of empathy, morally reprehensible, and antithetical to the teachings of the religious figure that they are statistically likely to claim to be faithful to. A lack of empathy should not be rewarded.

Typically, the things I disagree with are the things like bad faith arguments, lies, rudeness, or bigoted ideals that purport that not all humans deserve equal rights, etc.

Usually, when I disagree with something, it is because it is incorrect, lying, or particularly mean-spirited. I disagree with people that do not think that every human deserves the same rights. I disagree with people that push for ideologies that would strip other humans of their rights, or that would inflict needless suffering. I don’t downvote people when I disagree with what media they think is good or something. I downvote those that express ideas that are antithetical to what I see as basic human decency or that are factually incorrect.

The added benefit is that when there are few enough cats that there are loving homes for most of them, then the percentage of kitties with humans to take care of them increases drastically.

Personally, I use downvotes to say “I disagree with this and/or it is a stupid/bad/bigoted/etc take, but I do not wish to spend the time and effort to respond and get dragged into a text-based mudfight with someone who is unlikely to speak to me politely, no matter how polite I try to be in my rebuttal.”

I like having a way to say “no, bad, stop that” without having to spend time trying to explain things or engage with someone who I think is beyond convincing anyways.

Then support your local trap/spay/neuter charities. This is a miserable and painful way for them to die and likely wouldn’t kill enough of them to get the effect you’re hoping for. All you’re wishing for here is needless suffering.

As a woman and a DO medical student, I have been pushing back on this stuff when I see it and have been challenging my classmates and professors if they are being assholes about anything.

We weren’t graded on the quality of our dissections, but the exams were based on how good the dissection was. We would have a set of assigned anatomical structures to expose and/or dissect in a given unit, and then the practical exam used our dissections. They would stick a pin in something and you had to write in the name of the structure, what nerve/nerve root innervated that structure, what was it’s blood supply, or what structures should be above or below it, etc. The year before mine got absolutely screwed on one exam because almost no one finished all the assigned dissections, so the professor just stuck a pin on the outside of the cadaver with one of the questions above.

Personally, I was obsessively meticulous about my dissections and when my tankmates (other students assigned to the same cadaver) messed something up, I would get very frustrated with them. I would come in on weekends to carefully expose and clean individual arteries and nerves for hours at a time. The main anatomy professor kept asking me what kind of surgeon I wanted to be, but I’m a horrid little gremlin that likes night shift and hanging out in hospital basements, so I want to go into emergency medicine.

It’s not dirt as much as it’s surprise pocket sand/glitter that sticks to absolutely everything and is impossible to get rid of.

Well, we are the North Star State.

And they are not mutually exclusive.

This is why I’m sad to be losing him in Minnesota, but he’s going to be good for the country as a whole.

As a Minnesotan, I’m disappointed to be losing our governor. He’s done great things for our state, but I’m hopeful that the Lt. Governor who will be taking his place will be a good replacement.

Walz’s ascension to the ticket leaves questions for Minnesota. Under the state Constitution, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan would become governor if Walz resigns, but he’s not on the ballot in Minnesota this fall, meaning he could wait until after the November election to step down. Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation, would become Minnesota’s first woman and first Native American governor.

“Tachycardia” is a sign. “Palpitations” or “heart racing” are symptoms. Signs are the objective things that can be measured and recorded as hard data. Symptoms are what the patient reports feeling that are not measurable. In taking a history and physical, the symptoms tell the physician what signs to look for.

The PE bullshit is why I want to be a physician in the public, county ER that actually employs its physicians directly. Also, the PE companies don’t qualify for PSLF, and they don’t pay enough to make up that difference against non-profit hospitals.