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Cake day: June 22nd, 2023

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  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzWe lost Keanu
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    13 days ago

    You are describing Indiana Jones. Graham is talking about getting funding for what is effectively Crystal Skull research. These are not opposing sides of the same coin. Ancient Apocalypse is not an outreach program for more general archeology funding.

    This is not about calling the people watching the show idiots. It’s about Graham and his ilk being more beholden to their pet stories than actual research and trying to convince people that they are the One True Archeologist.

    A conspiracy theorist complaining about how “the establishment” won’t take him seriously is not a gateway to people seeking out education. It’s an avenue for those people to mistrust actual research in a field because it doesn’t mesh with their preconceived notions. Much like Flat Earthers the problem is not a simple misunderstanding that will self correct. It’s a belief that the “Truth” is being hidden for nefarious purposes because a story is more intriguing than knowledge.

    This is not how people get more interested in Archeology, or whatever discipline, or what drives funding for that discipline. This is what cuts budgets and drives people away because “the establishment is a hidebound in-crowd.”


  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzWe lost Keanu
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    13 days ago

    Star Trek is attention grabbing. It doesn’t mean we should depend on time travel to save the whales. Not being able to separate fantasy from reality is not a scientific viewpoint. Actual education about any of this would be steering away from it, not into it.

    The answer to all questions about advanced ancient civilizations existing is “probably not”. There are interesting examples that push back the earliest evidence of some things, like the Antikythera mechanism, but the only thing that is evidence of is that gears are older than previously thought. “Could there have been an ancient globe spanning civilization that only used wood or was on Antarctica or for some other reason has surviving no evidence?” is the same level of question as “Could there be a Discworld?”. The infeasibility of proving a negative is not the same as “yes this existed”.

    Ancient Aliens level speculation on ancient civilizations is religion without a sacred text, inventing fantasies of a utopian past out of whole cloth because of an imagined fragment of a thread.


  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtoScience Memes@mander.xyzWe lost Keanu
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    13 days ago

    “What if every star was a human soul?” is not an interesting astronomy question to get people into astronomy. “Big Astronomy” not awarding grants to study that, is not a conspiracy. It’s due diligence.

    Using a platform to say “What if [random speculation that has no basis and can’t be tested]” is not useful science outreach. It’s someone pretending to be science-y.

    A person’s sole redeeming aspect being “being an engaging speaker” doesn’t make them a useful object lesson, it makes them yet another snake oil salesman. That’s not new or unique. That’s being a charlatan. Which is what people don’t like about Graham.












  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtoLemmy Shitpost@lemmy.worldOh jeez
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    2 months ago

    I have literally never seen a depiction of Vietnam that was positive or shy of direct condemnation of how terrible it all was.

    Seriously, even Forrest Gump’s innocent portrayal of it still managed to underline in bold that it was all pointless, needless, and cruel beyond reason.

    Not sure what about any of that doesn’t line up with “sad”. None of those adjectives border on happy or nonchalant.




  • As someone who loves it, It’s less a game and more a story generator. Until the company was hired to do the nicer graphics and interface for the Steam version it was a math PhD and his brother programming it as a work-in-progress complete fantasy world simulator. It still is but now it’s prettier. It feels very comfortable to call it the most complex game on Steam. Rimworld and Minecraft among others took direct inspiration from it, he’s been working on it awhile.

    Famous patch notes include fixing cats dying from alcohol poisoning because they walked through a puddle of beer before cleaning themselves, egg yolk and egg white having different fluid densities, and nerfing mer-people farming because that’s just disturbing.


  • turmacar@lemmy.worldtohmmm@lemmy.worldhmmm
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    4 months ago

    I have an Akita that can do the same and is (mostly) very good about asking for permission / knowing he needs to be handed food.

    I do feel like smaller dogs generally get minimal or zero training because people know they can just pick them up or otherwise stop them and it makes pet ownership worse for everyone involved.