The completely gratuitous complaint thread
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Smartphones and iPads?
I think there is a lot more knowledge/facts/information available to the average person today, but more often than not people, even fairly well educated people will not double check a source before repeating a "fact", taking the first source as "good enough"... I'm surprised how many times I've been told things by people and went to fact check the statement because it didn't sync with my memory of the thing and found article after article that repeated more or less exactly the same thing... almost as if in reference to the "fact" someone had cut and pasted the same sentence or paragraph over and over... in a couple of instances, I was able to actually find what may have been the original source, which wasn't what I'd call authoritatively written or researched (think something I wrote while drunk, but not trying to be funny, facetious, or satirical), and apparently for whatever reason loads of people just copied this nonsense for years... in those same situations, I was eventually able to track down trustworthy articles written by individuals who are authorities on the subject... but not without wading through lots of pages of crap results.... And that's just science and history...
I'm not including anything political or pop culture gossip crap.
I look at a lot of people who use Siri and Alexa to look up stuff... my wife's cousin on at least two occasions asked Alexa a question and it gave a completely wrong answer... and why? Because it was the most popular answer.
As people begin to rely more and more on technology to make choices for us, and provide us with easy answers, either by design or by consequence of algorithms, the line between facts and stupidity will become blurred.
Look at some of the controversies about disinformation in social media and eventually that will find its way into regular information searches... it wouldn't take a lot pages of fake articles to push legitimate historical or science information far enough back that most people would not think to look any further.
Corporations are very happy to dumb down everything for us, to remove opinions and features, to strip information from websites because "only a handful of people might want to know about it"... People become used to that eventually.
Look at many products sold on Amazon... they lack a lot of basic information that would have been included in any website page selling a similar item... often the only way to find that information is by asking other customers on the site... you see people ask does this include x, or is it compatible with y, is this a full set or just a single unit, it says universal but it only mentioned model #xxx123... doe it fit anything else?
Go to a different website and you'll find more information, maybe even specs... but on sites like amazon, not so much...
As people get used to that kind of thing and that kind of site starts to dominate a particular industry, that starts to become the norm and people eventually don't care... important information becomes less important in relation to convenience or haste... you get next day shipping, but it might not be what you needed, and if it isn't, maybe you'll return, or maybe you'll use it for a short while and throw it out and get something else... many retail stores are going away, so our ability to physically inspect an item goes away too, the norm becomes what is offered to the consumer and the consumer doesn't seem to care so why expend effort providing info or choices when most don't really seem to care.
Consumers in general seem content to waste money on disposable, poorly made items, or on things with limited fashionable appeal...
Wasting money is stupid and while stupid is more of a choice than an affliction, it's still dumb and I'm pretty sure the average consumer cares less today about the longevity or durability of a product than they did ten years ago... so if people are more willing to waste their money either out of convenience or because of fashion, it's still kinda dumb and I see a lot more of that particular kind of dumb every day.
So in effect, to some degree there is a dumbening going on.
But that's probably not entirely what LG was implying or referencing... just my take on one aspect of people getting dumber.
It's only because of cognitive biases that you think any of that is new.
Why would anyone want to bother buying anything that will last when we are expected to be nomadic and move wherever there is work these days :P I know people that have moved provinces/states like 5 times in 10 years.
Oh forgot my complaint, I am noticing an odd trend with skin sets, a lot look to me more like orange peel texture than skin lol.
Insulting the intelligence of any group, including those with a high degree of life experience, has no place here.
Thank you.
Most generations are pretty much like you said. But there is a reason some time periods get called the "Golden Age of..." while others get called the "<Blank> Dark Age." Natural disasters can cause populations and literacy rates to plummet. Iconoclasm and heresy can tear societies apart and misdirect schooling to a counter-productive focus. Marching and occupying armies can destroy roads, canals, levees, irrigation systems, and fresh water supplies. Religious strife can turn brother against brother. $hit happens sometimes.
Intelligence and education are not the same thing, though. Intelligence makes it easier to understand and utilize education, and education gives one more tools for harnessing their intelligence, but neither necessarily follows the other, nor does possession of both make one automatically correct. There are plenty of people who are both intelligent and educated who believe wildly incorrect things: Isaac Newton's important contributions to science were effectively developed on a lunch break from mastering alchemy, which was his true passion. It's also worth questioning the validity of labels like "golden/dark age". The same society that produced Socrates also executed him for heresy, for example, and historians are increasingly moving away from the term "dark ages" for a variety of reasons. War, religious strife, natural disasters...those things can affect the level of education, but they don't make people dumber. However, you mentioned water sources, and that brings up an important point: humans today are objectively smarter than at any point in history, just by virtue of the fact that we're not ingesting remotely as much mercury and lead (outside of Michigan), which used to be in every-Goddamn-thing, and cause irreparable brain damage. The human population as a whole is also better fed, fewer people are starving to death, dying in wars, dying of treatable diseases...those things don't only impact the stupid.
Straw man is a well known false method of reasoning. It is when the alternative argument is mischaracterized as an easily defeated proposition that the other speaker did not intend. Someone deleted the following from my response so I am going to paste it back.
Generations have not had the same training in problem solving. Yes, people have cognitive biases and a whole host of responses. Even without bias in the statistical sense, accurate cogntive perceptions may be disfavored because social cooperation might work better if the perceptions were suppressed. Not just humans, many species train their young to behave in specific ways for group benefit - especially species engaged in cooperative hunting.
** Just because a being has cognitive biases does not mean it is impervious to education, training, and socialization.
Generational cohorts train their young. The challenges that societies face change over time. The practices, norms, and institutions of training the young change over time. It is improbable to the extreme to believe that thousands of generations facing so many different natural and human disasters utilizing a wide variety of socialization methods would all have the same results.
I agree that across the globe, during the last several generations, billions of humans have gotten access to fresh drinking water, more food, more shelter, more formal education, and more care for expectant mothers. Yay! The material success of our parents and ourselves doesn't mean we can't screw up the education of our young, or they theirs.
EDIT: I decline to comment on dumb/stupid. Instead, I refer folks to my tagline. Nothing is foolproof because fools are so ingenious. Nothing I write should ever be interpreted to mean differences in inherent dumbness or stupidity. We are all fools, including me.
...yeah, I'd say that ranks pretty high on the annoy-o-meter. .
Reminds me of the super bright bike light I purchased years ago. I bought it after spending days going over reviews and articles in one mountain and trail bike publications as for trail riding at night, you definitely need a super bright light. .As I used to commute to and from work, (often in the dark and rain during the winter), that is what I wanted so motorists would actually notice me At the time there were only those wimpy little strobes that most motorists hated and ended up ignoring. I needed the throw the "fear of god" at them so I wouldn't have them pulling out right in front of me. I also lived in an area of town with very poor street lighting (and Portland streets are notorious for potholes). The set I finally settled on was a dual beam halogen system (2 separate lights) with a rechargeable NiCad battery that fit in a water bottle cage on the frame. A full charge would easily last me a couple days, and yes, it was bright, like car headlight bright, so much so that at times when I had both beams on, I'd have oncoming motorists flash their high beams at me to turn mine down.
Well so happens a few years ago the proprietary charging unit blew out so I got online to the company about purchasing a replacement unit. The catch was they had discontinued that particular model and pretty much had gone to making those smaller self contained LED lights (that literally couldn't hold a candle to the one I had), which also had that annoying strobe setting. They still did offer a single beam unit but it was designed to attach to a helmet not the handlebars, had one of the "new" Li-Ion batteries (instead of the NiCad type I had) and was charged via USB cable. I tend prefer a headlight that shines forward, not wherever I turn my head because again a part of the plan is to not only see, but "be seen". So it was off to eBay to see if I could find a replacement charging unit, To this day no luck. So I am left with a 360$ set of paperweights (the light assembly) and door stop (the battery) that both work fine but are useless because I cannot charge the battery without that particular unit.
So now my cycling is relegated to daylight only because to get anything close to what I had using LED technology is ridiculously expensive far more than what I paid for the set I had (kind of like replacing my perfectly fine old 35 mm film camera kit with a comparable digital set up).
Gotta love planned obsolescence.
__________
Ugh, the forum software kept insisting it wanted to append my response to the body of the quoted text instead of underneath. I think my annoy-o-meter just frotzed.
...yeah I am saddened by the demise of "brick and mortar stores". I'm one of those who likes to to "kick the doors and slam the tyres" so to say . I hate purchasing items (other than content here, and computer components [see below]) online, particularly expensive ones. I like to look at an item, handle it, check out the different features it has in the "here and now" instead of trust a couple images on a product page before I plunk my zlotys down. This is why I don't bother with grocery delivery as I like looking over and checking food items before they go in the shopping trolley. I prefer to purchase the exact quantity/weight I need make sure it isn't going to rot or go bad in a couple days. So twice a week I drag my creaky joints and bones to the market. as at least I exactly know what is going in the pantry and fridge.
The one exception to this is computer components. Normally I would consider Fry's, however, after a few visits there I often found their prices ridiculous and the selection (particularly GPUs) lacking (and it's a very long involved trip to get there on transit). Newegg has never failed me in all these years so I have come to trust them. they tend to have very thorough descriptions of products complete with full specs so I rarely have to go to the manufacturer's site (though I still check write up from several sources). I always make sure what I purchase comes directly from them and not one of their 3rd party sellers (some of which are overseas). Sometimes it means paying a bit more, but it usually arrives in a couple days, is well packaged, and I never had anything delivered that was "DOA".
Yeah the pandemic has really changed much of how we do things Where I am we are still only at "stage 1" that means limited hours, some services and conveniences not available, and in some cases reduced capacity limits (the other week I went by the REI store and the line was going around the block). Yeah, it's all for the better, as our state has managed to keep the number of cases down and the curve relatively flat compared to many others but it also means accepting alterations to one's lifestyle, in some cases, on a permanent basis. Not sure we'll ever get back to what we once took for granted as "normal". Have seen a number of businesses in the city and local neighbourhood that shuttered for good, some that of which were local icons. Guess we're just going to have to accept the changes and move forward from there.
Ancient Chinese proverb : 90 % of statistics used in arguments are made up on the spot.
And it is a bit scary that once enough people atart saying and repeating a 'fact' it is now taken for granted by so many people as being a fact. Why oh why is everything that George Orwell predicted in Animal Farm coming true?
Just my two cents on Brick and mortar stores going away...most of the intelligent and trained help at Lowes and Depot are long gone- we used to hire retired plumbers, electricians, tile installers and the like so there would be an expert to get answers from. As a garden specialist, I was even sent for free to earn my master gardeners certificate for this region. No more, because people used the sales person's expertise to get all the answers, and then went to the cheapest spot they could find to buy product.
I now work in vitamins and supplements and people come in every day asking about nutrition, herbs for various conditions, vitamins and how to/which ones to use. After taking 20 minutes or so to discuss and listening to all of their issues, they then pull up the items on Amazon on their phone and go- oh, it's cheaper there- and buy it from Amazon right in front of me.
Won't they be sooooo surprised when the store is closed next year due to low sales?
I would like to complain about not reaching my complaint quota for this month...
JD
Because people read "Animal Farm".
Great idea. Back in my funner days I had a Renaissance Festival costume that was very leatherish and adorned with accoutrements of the skunkish variety. Shoulder throw and canteen pouch. Although, I discovered that when I got hot and sweaty, the shoulder throw would become noticeably aromatic.
...+1
Great look you had there. But are you sure the aroma was coming from the shoulder throw?
Dana
Yes, but I was practicing social distancing before it was popular.
Didn't get any replies (tbf, I'm talking about a model while everyone else is talking about important stuff) but I did a few searches... I see a dragony thing included in Poser 9, maybe it's the same one? Not sure though, only pics I have are that face screenshot and a textureless model that could very well be something else
On the "world is dumbdumb" topic, sometimes it's just a matter of how well parents teach their kids I think? :o
My frequent traveler rewards points for Amtrak train travel will expire if I don't use them this month.
So I start a new box of tissues, and as per normal I can't just pull out the first tissue but 15 of the buggers all come out at once.... grrrrrr.... always happens.
Sorry, I've no idea where the dragon that you pointed out, came from.
Non-complaint: Wheee... all the rest of my computer parts arrived today along with my ordered groceries and new slippers. It was Christmas in September. Yay! I did go ahead and buy a small SSD for poor naked, homeless "George" so that my ancient friend can add a little zip to his stride. I've also installed a small single-band USB WiFi dongle, and I've cloned the Win10 OS from the old hard drive to the new SSD and reformatted the old HD and set it up as the "Backup" drive. I almost gave up on my new computer case arriving today as promised by UPS, but it finally arrived just a half-hour before the deadline. I've inspected it, I appear to have all it's parts, it's undamaged, and I'm raring to go. But it's 9:00 PM, I'm old and ready for my evening cup of hot cocoa, and tomorrow is another day. Geekish fun tomorrow. Wheee!
I've been giving thoughts to a nice train trip. I'd like to take a trip to Florida on the train but I want to have a private room, not just a seat. I'm only going to do it once so it qualifies as a "bucket-list" thing. Unfortunately $$$$
I used to give thoughts to a nice ocean cruise trip (hey, I'm old, it's expected), but for some mysterious reason, those thoughts have evaporated. First it was Legionaire's Disease, then it was storms, and mechanical failures with consequent drifting at sea for days without supplies or water, or toilets, then came Covid and weeks of isolation with all the sick people. Bah, humbug, no thank you. The shine is gone. But I am glad I didn't invest in cruise line stocks.
Besides, I've been on an ocean cruise. Summer of '95, Cairns, Australia 3 days on a large wooden sailing ship to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef. I think I enjoy the memory of it now, more than the reality of it then. (long story involving near zero visibility, exhaustion, having to be rescued, sleepless nights, coral infections, burst eardrum), but I still have the professionally produced video tape (yes tape) of the trip that I purchased.
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Checked my Poser 2014 content, I think it's the "Dregon". They use to include content from older versions when they release a new version, so it may be very old.
I second the fact that I think it's the Dregon
Same marking option for the Dregon as well !
Ah that's cool :D
In regards to all the dragon posts: That's a BIG boy! :O
Mm Poser 2014? <edit looks like it's in 11 too? https://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/unleash-the-dregon-/2842811/ >
Maybe someday I'll learn how to make my own dragons and stuff haha, I'm trying to get back into the groove of working with zBrush but I'm a long long ways off from doing anything 'nice' - let alone rigging 'em or getting them to work in Poser/DAZ. I'd *LOVE* to share the critters I (may never) make with everyone here <3
Minor complaint (yay I have one!) - My old little HP laptop, a really really small off-the-shelf one I got some years and years back, is definitely showing its age now. I don't know exactly how old it is, but it's getting to the point where its struggling to do simple things. It takes a minute or two for everything to finally 'load up' after being turned on, and quite frequently it just fails to load things after a while.
I hardly really use the laptop for much anymore other than serving as a second screen while I work/play on my current laptop (Having Discord open, a YouTube channel open, etc) so it's a "minor" complaint and not a big one. Sooner or later it's probably just going to go under and become nigh entirely useless, poor thing.
*Additional 'plaint: Woke up with a headache :x