@forestG - eviltoast
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: July 6th, 2023

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  • Wikipedia defines snack as a small portion of food that is eaten between meals. The way I think about it, that is the only distinction between a meal and a snack. That “in between meals”.

    This, as far as weight goes, carries with it an inherent quality that makes regulating weight harder. If not impossible, depending on your sleep patterns (the etymology of the term breakfast indicates exactly how this is relevant to what I am saying here). It’s nearly impossible to find snacks that have zero insulin response in your body. Insulin not only promotes energy storage, but it also prevents the body from using energy already stored. Making a habit of doing that, even when you don’t face weight problems (which are related to health issues), is essentially making a habit of preventing your metabolism of using energy already stored from previous meals.

    This is also probably the most important reason why people speak highly of intermittent fasting or low carb diets. Most of them, through these two approaches, regardless of the other positive/negative aspects, completely eliminate the habit of constantly spiking their insulin levels, effectively allowing the body to regulate energy levels through both the energy still available from a meal and the energy stored from previous meals.



  • I don’t think there is a way to have both the option to host images and have zero risk of getting such image uploads. You either completely disable image hosting, or you mitigate the risk by the way image uploads are handled. Even if you completely disable the image uploads, someone might still link to such content. The way I see this there are two different aspects. One is the legal danger you place yourself when you open your instance to host images uploaded by users. The other is the obvious (and not so obvious) and undeniable harmful effects contact with such material has for most of us. The second, is pretty impossible to guarantee 100% on the internet. The first you can achieve by simply not allowing image uploads (and I guess de-federating with other instances to avoid content replication).

    The thing is, when you host an instance of a technology that allows for better moderation (i.e. allowing certain kinds of content, such as images, only after a user reaches a certain threshold of activity), actually helps in a less obvious manner. CSAM is not only illegal to exist on the server-side. It’s also illegal and has serious consequences for the people who actually upload it. The more activity history you have on a potential uploader, the easier it becomes to actually track him. Requiring more time for an account before allowing it to post images, makes concealing the identity harder and raises the potential risk for the uploader to the extend that it will be very difficult to go through the process only to cause problems to the community.

    Let me also state this clearly: I don’t have an issue with disabling image uploads here, or changing the default setting of instance federation to a more limiting one. Or both. I don’t mind linked images to external sites.

    I am sorry you had to see such content. No, it doesn’t seem to go away. At least it hasn’t for me, after almost 2 decades :-/


  • Even though the data loss is a little sad (much time went into thoughtful comments now lost), it’s on version 0.18.4… Bugs are to be expected.

    I don’t know whether this was caused by the timestamp issue mentioned by Penguin in the other thread about delays, but yeah, it’s obvious that the technology is not yet mature enough. Let alone it being suitable (alyaza mentioned the growth of storage space, which doesn’t even make sense when there is no data mining in place, since actual people pretty much never return to older posts)…

    On topic, from the outside, the data loss, looks like a database rollback to a previous snapshot.

    Anyway, I hope this doesn’t make you feel bad, you 've got a good thing going here, regardless of the technical issues, lemmy, or the fediverse as a whole.


  • As someone who grew up with a (quite) younger sibling in the most disabling end of the spectrum, witnessing all the development from infancy to adulthood, I am very reluctant to recommend for/against any specific approach, because I think that what matters most is the people who actually practice it. So, I absolutely agree with the last sentence of your comment.

    The negative aspects of ABA are not entirely in the past. I am not in a position to verify the information I will quote, but this is mentioned in the third of the linked articles:

    Mandell says ABA needs to renounce that history — especially the early reliance on punishments like yelling, hitting, and most controversially electroshocks, which are still used in a notorious residential school in Massachusetts called the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center.

    To be clear: I am not arguing with your experience here. Rather, I am pointing out how important is the kind of practice of whatever theory and what the focus of the practice actually is. It’s really very difficult to find professionals who are actually both able and willing to care properly for autistic people. At least in the place I live.

    Beyond that, I have to say that there are many things that now have positive effects on people’s lives that weren’t exactly positive in their original forms.



  • Well, that’s just my experience with building software. Not sure if it has any educational value as such…

    It’s pretty common for people who are not part of the design/implementation to underestimate the difficulty and the complexity, to mistake reluctance or delays as incompetence or indifference. It’s also quite common even for people who are part of the design/implementation to underestimate the complexity or already implemented assumptions that have to be adjusted, which almost always leads to defective software. Add to that the fact that it is an open source project currently at 0.18.4 version and you can explain all of the issues without attributing ill intend to anyone.

    Getting nasty comments when you repeatedly point out that you are not familiar with the process would just be unfair. Besides, it’s the user experience (moderators/admins/hosts are users too) you are commenting on, making a completely valid point about the importance of moderation in building a community.

    I really wish it wasn’t built on rust so I could actually be helpful :-/


  • A database that’s crummy (but functional) is an important issue, but one that seems like it can wait.

    That’s often the problem with how software is perceived by a user. Simple functionality might introduce complexity in already existing functionality effectively breaking it at the scale it is supposed to support. The technical aspect of a piece of software will always seem secondary for the end user, regardless of the functionality it appears to be second to. That’s only logical. You don’t care about a certain metal’s properties when you buy a knife, you care about the kind of cuts it can perform.

    My issue with the project is that it’s mostly written in a language that I am not familiar with, and much of the scale it’s built to support is over a protocol that is also new to me. I can’t really judge whether the issues (especially content removal and how actions are synchronized between separate federated instances) are a database issue, a protocol issue, a sub optimal approach to the complexity or even just doable in the current context.

    Designing and implementing properly and fully working transparent software is always hard. And in new protocols and contexts is even more so.

    You are correct though, these things are not important for the people who use it. What is important for the users is how the piece of software can, and if it can, allow for the use they want to make of it.



  • The Reddit-style presentation of topics and ranking comments isn’t really conducive to lengthy, quality discussions that persist over a period of time.

    I don’t know whether @Penguincoder@beehaw.org had all these in mind, but as far as lengthy & quality discussions go, everything you wrote to support this sentece, in my experience, seems 100% correct. There was a time, when forums when used more, during which a discussion on a subject would carry on for weeks, even months, between different individuals. Taking the time, thinking over the subject and coming back with a response after days was not at all uncommon.


  • It’s nearly impossible to pick one, I find beauty in each kind.

    I would go with Platanus. They exist near rivers and get really big. I like everything about them.

    Then all the wild versions of cherry trees, if not every single stone fruit tree. Most wild versions of them, exist across multiple human lifespans (platanus too), so beside their amazing flowering season, I like the idea that some of them have been standing there for centuries, marking memories of many human generations with their beautiful presence.


  • There was a time before google’s search engine, when all the previous attempts had not managed to become the dominant entry point for the web. During that time, we would find interesting web pages through people and/or specific interests. Then, google came, and for a time it was good (read like The Second Renaissance Part I story from animatrix). Ads and SEO were not everywhere yet, content mattered more than those two. So, while I came here to suggest what @bbbhltz@beehaw.org commented, when I read your post text I thought that maybe, at least for what we tend to constantly look for news, articles and discussions, we shouldn’t constantly rely on search engines. For example, most technologies have news letters, weekly/monthly magazines, mailing lists, community boards or other forms of group communication through which you can gradually discover better content sources (individuals or groups) on what interests you. Without the search engine service and its cost (direct or indirect) between you and the content.


  • Believe it or not, what you swallow has almost nothing to do with your weight. The only place the body absorbs energy from food is in the intestines, and the brain controls that process.

    I would believe it if I started gaining weight by just breathing. Also, no. Not the only place. Part of the alcohol consumed is absorbed through the stomach.

    The digestive tract is a tube, open at both ends, through which food passes. The process of extracting energy from that food is complex and highly tunable: the brain controls the production and secretion of hundreds of enzymes and other chemicals, as well as the physical action of the muscles lining the tube.

    The brain controls pretty much everything, and this everything is highly tunable. I mean, how else would well adjusted people adapt to the highly complex lives they live as adults? With commercial pills?


  • It makes sense doesn’t it? Biodiversity will always facilitate better, richer, healthier equilibriums between species than the ones imposed by man-made, narrow-minded motives. The more intricate details I notice in environments unaffected (at least not directly) by humans, the more urban environments seem like wastelands…

    Nice article, thanks!


  • I never tried to limit the fat too much, for various reasons. Always considered it important for hormones. Also, it is nearly impossible to cook real food without using some kind of fat. Then, I always enjoyed nuts. Whenever I wanted to lower my bodyfat, I always tried to limit carbohydrates, which, again, I don’t really want to lower too much because getting them from unprocessed plant foods is actually a side effect in the attempt to get sufficient quantities of micronutrients.

    Never thought about gallstones before this article. It also contains a very nice explanation of how fats are usually categorized. Also, the point about fat soluble vitamins (some of which we store in our own bodyfat) is very interesting to remember when considering deficiencies. Really worth the read, even though it doesn’t provide definitive answers on anything (which would actually be suspicious if it did), it contains some very important points one has to consider when thinking about food and quantities.

    Btw, since I enjoy a lot of cycling the past few years, I think it doesn’t really make sense to consider competitive (especially elite) athletes as an example of healthy individuals. I mean, some of the top cyclists drop to insanely low single digit bodyfat percentages for the competitions they participate in. Which is neither sustainable nor healthy.

    Anyway, that was a very interesting article, thanks!



  • Well, I try not to use supplements when I can go for real food, so I wouldn’t know which protein powder is more effective… I enjoy peas even though I don’t eat them often. The foods I mentioned were examples of cheap protein sources. Vital wheat gluten (which is actually an ingredient for meals) is more than 4 times cheaper than pea protein powder in my area and roughly the same amount of amino-acids. All the rest of the nutrients (and the amino-acids it has on lower concentrations) gluten doesn’t have and may exist in a pea protein powder supplement, exist in the rest of the options I mentioned :-)


  • This was a very nice article, both an enjoyable read and informative. Kept the study about endurance athletes on a deficit for later, since I recently went about losing a few kg in exactly the manner they tested.

    50g/day is perhaps on the low side, but not unreasonable for a 2000kcal/day person who’s not trying to gain muscle.

    Thanks for pointing that out. Yes, I don’t think its unreasonable either, but haven’t even actually tested it on myself.


  • I like my bread, my sides, my potatoes, my noodles, my rice, and etc. These are all things with protein. Just not enough to get to 100+ figure.

    These are all great carb sources, most meals contain them for that reason, not for their protein. Their protein is really negligible. Let’s take a look,

    • baked potatoes ~ 1.7g protein in 100g (1.7%)
    • Rice ~ 7.5g protein in 100g. (7.5%)
    • Bread, I assume common bread based on wheat flour, so roughly 12g of protein per 100g. (12%) This one is not exactly negligible, but it has almost as high carb content (~75g) as rice (~80g).
    • Noodles, depends on what they are made of. Wheat flour or rice, you can see the previous bullets.

    So what you say makes sense. If you try to get all your protein mostly from such sources, you will load a great deal of carbohydrates, almost certainly more than you need, even as a very active athlete. Regardless of what path you choose though, even without chicken breasts, there are foods with great concentrations of protein.

    And I think you are overestimating the amount of protein you need. 100+ figure is fine, but really not necessary, anything close to 80 for the weight you mentioned, especially in a fairly inactive person, should be pretty much fine. Especially if you have days every once in a while that you go well above 100g.

    Carbs tho, regardless of size or calories, once you load all your glycogen (which is what carbs are converted to if you are not already full) stores in the muscle tissue and liver, if you are inactive, will become triglycerides (fat). And an average person doesn’t store too much glycogen either, you can estimate it around 500g to get a sense of how excessive carbs can make us both fat and, eventually, sick. One important reason why complete inactivity (especially in the big muscles groups, take a walk, run, lift, jump, dance -use your legs!), makes us fat fast.


  • I believe you are correct, the most recent study I am aware of is this which points to an upper limit of 1.6g per kg. So even with the upper limit as target, its less than 150g (~129g) for a person of 180lbs. Again, this is the upper limit. As far as I am aware the lower limit is close to 0.8g per kg. Anywhere between these limits seems to be okay for me (an athlete).

    edit: “0.8g per kg, not 0.8g total”