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fireweed

@ fireweed @lemmy.world

Posts

63
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627
Joined

3 yr. ago

Moderating

Bon Voyage lemmy.world

22h ago

The largest study of AI use by undergrads is in, revealing disparities in access — and in cheating
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fireweed @lemmy.world 22h ago
Not to be a cynic, but I'm not sure how relevant data from two years ago (survey conducted spring 2024) actually is, given the fast-placed nature of AI development/adoption.

1d ago

Unusual disbelief

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fireweed @lemmy.world 1d ago

Why is the meme colorblind?

2d ago

The $950 Steam Deck Apparently Isn't Too Expensive, As it Sold Out in Under 24 Hours

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

Sold out to whom, though... customers or scalpers?

2d ago

Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel is concerned about the future of the US and is making plans to flee to Argentina.

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

I mean, hyper-inflation kinda still matters if all the people around you are subject to it...

2d ago

Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel is concerned about the future of the US and is making plans to flee to Argentina.

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

Argentina may be an unlikely place for a billionaire looking for stability. The country has careened through nearly a century of instability, marred by military coups and spectacular financial collapses epitomized by triple-digit inflation.

My thoughts exactly, NYT.

2d ago

There's layers like an Oger

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

Spent way too long trying to remember what an "oger" was in the Eva universe

2d ago

Citing ‘severe’ math deficits, UC faculty demand a return to SAT tests for STEM applicants

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

The timing of this probably didn't do them any favors, doing away with standardized tests right before the effects of COVID-era "learning" (and then LLMs) began to take hold.

2d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

I haven't seen campaign one (since I started with two), but I've heard it has a rough start. I'd be curious what episode people think campaign one started turning around on, since obviously Vox Machina became quite popular in its own right, even if Might Nein is the campaign that cinched CR's mainstream fame.

2d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 2d ago

Archer takes a huge nose-dive in quality, though. I found season 9 (Danger Island) practically unwatchable, as if they'd fired all their writers and hired a new team from temu, and haven't been able to continue to the end. (I felt bad for the voice actors, because they still bring it like always)

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

Personally I consider The Good Place one of the rare shows that is solid all the way through without a single bad or weak episode, however the end of season one is certainly where it goes from great to fantastic.

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

IMO DS9's s1 is way worse than TNG's, but that might be because TNG has a nostalgia factor for me from watching random episodes as a kid, and so by the time I did a full start-to-finish watch-thru I already knew the characters well and understood that the series would get better, whereas I was an adult when I first watched DS9 and went into it completely blind (after watching the first two-parter episode I nearly cried, because I was on a mission to watch all of the 20th century Star Treks, and there were seven seasons of this to slog through!? And now it's my favorite Star Trek series of all time.)

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

Technically a streaming series rather than a TV series, but the second campaign of Critical Role (Mighty Nein). I started watching the series after seeing how popular Critical Role was online and that Mighty Nein was recommended for CR beginners, but I really didn't get it at first; it seemed so boring and slow. Still I stuck with it (listening to it in the background while I did other stuff), and I remember there were two specific moments where I finally understood its popularity:

spoiler

episode 7 "Hush" when Nott kills the manticore baby (which was my first "holy shit they did what" moment), and episode 12 "Midnight Espionage" during the hospital heist (I could not stop laughing at the debacle and completely lost it at Nott's negative charisma roll). In other words, thanks Sam Riegel for making me a fan!

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

I think the comedy and overall quality of the early episodes is pretty solid, making those not bad episodes per se but rather deceptive ones. I personally enjoyed how the series takes its time in settling into its drama, and suspect it was an intentional metaphor for how the surface glitz and glamour of Hollywood obscures its dark underbelly.

Hmmm, that would make another good asklemmy thread: series with deceptive beginnings that obscure their true genre...

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

Apparently it depends on whether you consider the series premiere as one episode or two; Wikipedia (which I used for reference) lists it as two separate episodes, providing a total s1 episode count of 20, vs imdb which lists it as one single episode, providing a total s1 episode count of 19. Memory Alpha lists the episode as s1e19, and I'm inclined to trust those nerds. At any rate I edited my comment to include the episode title for clarity.

Regardless, yeah, I think it's probably a turning point episode for a lot of folks, and it's the first of many war introspection episodes that help make the series timeless.

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

I feel like season one was trying too hard to be The Office, and then in season two it sheds that to become its own entity. I've heard that the writers sincerely considered s1's less-than-stellar critical response and made changes to s2 accordingly (e.g. making Leslie Knope more likable and less dumb). It's definitely a "don't judge it until you've gotten at least part way through season two" series.

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

I remember watching American Dad's premiere and being excited for the concept but disappointed by the execution. You can tell there's aspiration to be a good parody of the contemporary political climate in the first episode, but iirc it's undermined by its crassness.

The Orville also struggled to get its footing in the early episodes; maybe Seth MacFarlane just does better once his series gets established?

3d ago

On what specific episode does your favorite "I swear it eventually gets really good" television show actually start turning around?

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fireweed @lemmy.world 3d ago

My go-to example for this is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Season one is overall quite rough, however s01e19 "Duet" (second-to-last episode of the season) is IMO the first episode that shows true glimmers of promise. In season two the series starts to find its footing, by season three it's proven itself to be Star Trek gold, and then the series manages to maintain its quality through to its seventh and final season.