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[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 days ago

The MBTA also needs at least an estimated $24.5 billion to bring its infrastructure to a state of good repair.

I knew that the MBTA had built up a huge pile of deferred maintenance on its infrastructure due to past funding shortfalls, but this is enormous. I commute to work every day via the T (commuter rail to red line), and it hasn't been too bad lately. However, I no longer live downtown, so I don't really use the system much beyond my commute these days.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (3 children)

There are quite a few in the anime space. I have been meaning to put a list together for some time. There is an old post here put together by a user, but I don't think it is really that up to date. So, here are the communities that I directly know of and have interacted with:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

The anime discussion index link has been updated. It should now point to https://lemmyverse.link/ani.social/post/11480352

I tend to refresh that post every couple of months just so that stale comments aren't sitting around forever and confusing people.

Some other updates that I see:

  • Dan Da Dan has finished airing, but a new season is coming in July, so your call whether you want to keep it up or not.
  • Dragon Ball Daima has finished airing, but the [email protected] is currently hosting a rewatch of the original series. Here is the link to the start of the rewatch. The most recent thread is pinned to the community.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX - We are hosting threads over on [email protected] (in addition to the main anime community)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Like winamp skins for lemmy?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (4 children)

I am a big fan of content-specific instances. Some instances off the top of my head that fit this description:

...and I am sure there are many others. I just think that having a focus like that provides a more interesting local instance environment than a large, generalist instance, though both have a place.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's all based on the median household income. I feel like that isn't the best representation if the median household is losing purchasing power over time due to wage stagnation, but it's the definition they went with. From the article:

The report, which crunched the numbers for all 50 states, is based on Pew Research’s definition of middle class: two-thirds to double the median household income.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Just for some background information on how most countries tend to rely on larger, more rigorous regulatory bodies...

I am in the pharma industry (not in vaccines though). Typically the two main regulators that most other countries look to as a reference are either the FDA or the EMA (the EU organization). This usually means that if you can satisfy the requirements of one of these bodies, then it is satisfactory for the other country as well. However, it isn't universal as each other country will usually have some modifications here and there for whatever reason. The most annoyingly particular ones I have dealt with in the past are China and Japan.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

subtitle playback

This is still a little weird. I found that the web client (in a browser) handles this really well with default settings. However, if I try to use the desktop app or a mobile client, I have to force it to burn in the subtitles for them to show up reliably. Fortunately, there are per-client settings for this now:

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's been a while since I last used LaTeX since I am in industry now, but there is definitely a learning curve. If you are talking about undergrads, then it might be too steep a challenge for most to want to take on unless they plan on pursuing academia long-term. Like others have mentioned, LaTeX is a kind of standard that you see used a lot in academic circles. Some journals also like or support things that are created through tex and will have their own templates to use.

Basically, LaTeX consists of writing in a markup language, like your screenshot, and then running that through a processor that interprets your .tex file and creates the formatted output (usually a pdf). Back in my day, TexnicCenter was the program of choice to write the actual .tex file, but some quick searching and it looks like VSCode with an appropriate extension is probably one of the best/easiest ways to do it now.

The most annoying part of tex is references. I remember being utterly confused by BibTeX when I was trying to get it to work. I am way out of date on what best practices for today might be, but I hope they have improved that process somewhat.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (10 children)

Seconding LaTeX as the gold standard for formatting math/science in written form. Some of my peers in grad school (physics) wrote up their assignments in it (I opted instead for massive reams of handwritten work). However, I did write up my thesis in LaTeX. My university had a LaTeX template for a thesis that took care of the boilerplate formatting, I just had to focus on the content.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I own a Prius (not a PHEV though, just a hybrid) and can corroborate that my mileage goes down significantly in the winter months. It is a combination of a couple factors in my experience.

  • Needing to run the engine more to heat things up for defrosting and heating the cabin.
  • Related to the above, I tend to idle a lot more in the winter while cleaning ice/snow off the car, letting it warm up, or clearing the driveway.
  • Switching to winter tires (Blizzaks) negatively impacts rolling resistance compared to the LRR tires (Ecopias) I use the rest of the year.

I tend to average ~45 mpg in the summer and ~37 mpg in the winter over the past two years.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

It also depends on the community a lot. The anime community on lemmy ([email protected], shameless plug) has been super chill overall. I think it's in large part due to the lemmy userbase skewing older than your average social media user.

 

cross-posted from: https://ani.social/post/7586224

Some excerpts:

About Record of Lodoss War's origins:

Record of Lodoss War originally started as a TTRPG Replay, a written transcript of a tabletop RPG (TTRPG), with the first Lodoss War stories being a Replay for a Dungeons & Dragons campaign.

Reading the original Replays is oddly endearing. I expected the chit-chat, playful snipes at the DM, or even the reading of dice rolls to be cut out in order to make the players’ adventure read like an actual narrative and not a transcription. All of that stays in the Lodoss Replays, however. Everything from excitedly reading out dice results to the players’ reactions to twists in the narrative, to character creation itself, is kept in the text.

About its influence on Japanese TTRPGs:

Besides the good that Record of Lodoss War did for Group SNE as a company and the aesthetics of anime itself, it was also good for fostering a small but dedicated community of TTRPG aficionados in Japan. TTRPG Replays are still very much alive and well, although many of them are being replaced by Twitch VODs and YouTube videos.

Tabletop RPGs are still enjoyed as a pastime in Japan. Since Sword World [game created by Lodoss War author] dropped, Japanese game designers have produced a plethora of TTRPGs, including fantasy games like Alshard and Arianhrod, which both use their own versions of 2d6 dice systems, similar to Sword World. Both games are distinct from SW, with Alshard taking its imagery from Norse mythology and Arianhrod feeling more like Ragnarok Online than D&D, but they are still high fantasy games at their core.

About its influence on fantasy anime:

In much the same way that Fist of the North Star or Saint Seiya changed the shonen battle subgenre, or how Rose of Versailles changed romance manga, Record of Lodoss War brought a lot of key narrative and design elements to the foreground. The Lodoss aesthetic of flowing capes, long hair whipping around in the wind, and chitinous armour has been recreated and lampooned over the years.

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