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ThurberMingus's profile

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recent comments, posts, and shares:
ThurberMingus  ·  5 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Actually, it’s more like fear…

It doesn't seem feasible to be programming these to dance by programming all individual actuator movements - there's got to be a separation of goal and execution, and somewhere in the execution the foot placement and force is tweaked to keep balance. Inverted pendulum bots do the same thing on easy mode with wheels.

A simple inverted pendulum bot is something easy to do with a PID controller and much harder to control with scarequotes AI and machine learning. I'm sure some high schoolers have done it by now.

I found this interview with Boston Dynamics CEO from 2019, which is mostly just fluff but it seems like they're going with "AI" for the low level reflex-type movements.

    “I break AI down into two parts. I call it athletic AI and scholarly AI. We’re kind of experts at athletic AI

Personally I have to say the dog-type robots are farther along the uncanny valley - the humanoids have a "chair-shaped-ass" leg and hip posture that isn't threatening and it's hard to dance with such an underdeveloped booty.


ThurberMingus  ·  26 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Derek Chauvin Receives 22 and a Half Years for Murder of George Floyd

It's a culture problem. If we don't fix the policing culture of "I am the warrior hero", "I am the law", no amount of extra training and extra money is going to be enough.

ThurberMingus  ·  82 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The New Solar NIMBYs

I heard similar things from someone planning wind farms in Texas - anyone making a living from their land got on board after basic questions about access roads and livestock fencing. People vacationing there wanted to stop anything within sight of their property.

ThurberMingus  ·  93 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: DC could become a State... soooo....

Why can't it stay a district? We have a handful of commonwealths, why not a district?

I don't care as long as nobody pulls a Los Angeles Angles of Anaheim stunt.

The article starts with:

    A moderate amount of pronation is required for the foot to function properly, however damage and injury can occur during excessive or over pronation.

and then gets real sloppy through the rest of the article about whether the problem is 'over' pronation/supination or just pronation and supination.

Worst part: listing the top 10 injuries and pains of running that could potentially be caused by

over pronating, without any discussion of the difference between normal and excessive amounts.

ThurberMingus  ·  141 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 3, 2021

Yep, DFW area.

Politics and power aside, it was actually really nice to get weather so unusually cold for a change.

ThurberMingus  ·  142 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: March 3, 2021

Been a long time since I commented here, though I've been lurking in chat.




Also yes, right before Christmas. 4 people in our "pod" caught it, not throwing anyone under the bus for mistakes today though. I had a very mild sore throat for 2 days then fever chills for 3 days while never having a temperature higher than 99.5. coinciding with the chills my pulse rate would spike whenever I moved. Sitting up in bed raised it to 100, standing up sent it to 120. Of the other 3 people, two had very mild sure throats for 2 or 3 days, and one had a high fever for 11 consecutive days.


I got four and a half pounds of cheese from my in-laws as a Christmas present. It's clear that they love me.


Lost power in an unpredictable 60 to 90 minutes on / 8 to 12 hours off for almost two and a half days. Got a bit cold in the house but it was the most peaceful two days in the last year. Not sure what to think about that, that sitting on the couch with no heat or electricity was better than the way I handled the pandemic the rest of the time.


Gonna plant cherry tomatoes, poblano peppers, green beans, white scallop squash.

ThurberMingus  ·  260 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Cargill plans to revisit the Age of Sail for fuel efficiency

hahahahaha was wondering why there was no pictures of BAR's design anywhere.


I am a sucker for anything about sailing though. BAR and B9 are both talking about essentially a normal tanker/bulk ship and just raising sail & cutting the engines back when running down wind. A hull that can sail cross or up wind is completely different than a hull that can carry heavy cargo.

The Preussen is the largest sailing cargo ship ever built (in 1902, after steam ships had already shown sail was done for) and it had a capacity of 8000 tons.

8000 tons is a small coastal tanker by today's comparison. The biggest are half a million tons now.

ThurberMingus  ·  265 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pan de Muerto

Using sesame instead of sugar originated in one neighbourhood of Mexico City I think, and they took it with them all over. I like it, topping with sugar is sweet than I like.

ThurberMingus  ·  267 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Karen O & Willie Nelson: Under Pressure


I like this version so much

ThurberMingus  ·  269 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: ‘Culture wars’ are fought by tiny minority – UK study

Is the opposite of a progressive activist a regressivist or a deactivist?

Many conservatives I know are probably 80% no-more-change and 20% back-to-the-way-it-was, and neither of those ideas encourage someone to push on social media the way that fix-all-the-broken-things does.

ThurberMingus  ·  273 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How to Battle Kitchen Burnout

Best lines of the article:

    “I remember, when I was 8 years old or so, asking my great grandmother what it was like to live through the Depression,” she says. Her grandmother had responded that they ate a lot of oatmeal, a lot of pickles, and sometimes, an orange with a peppermint stick as a big treat. “There were bleak moments in late March, early April,” Randall says, that “I did not want oatmeal again, and I would think about my great grandmother, and think: We know how to do this in our family.

Beans are my reset food, when I need something good enough and easy enough and healthy enough and I just want a break from planning meals. Brothy or spicy or refried. With cornbread, or rice. or chips or tortillas or potatoes. Beans, beans, they're good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you like em. When I lived alone I'd cook enough to last a few days, when they were done I'd be ready to cook other food again.

ThurberMingus  ·  277 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Funski: A goofy bit of fun with movie descriptions



A son discovers the lies were just hyperbole.

ThurberMingus  ·  283 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: October 14, 2020

My grandad cut the base of his thumb deep on a table saw, I think he was about 80 at the time. He was a surgeon and captain of a MASH unit in the Korean war, so his first thought was "there would be a lot more blood if I had hit the artery", so he went inside and tried to get good pictures of his exposed artery before bandaging it and driving himself to the hospital. I think he didn't tell his kids until he was back home from the emergency room.