Happy Chanukah 
from Tel Aviv!
11 Likes
Iâm sorry to hear about Pablo 
Iâm sure you gave him a good home
8 Likes
My daughter (2 years and 4 months) has taught me something new about Santa Claus. While changing her diaper, she told me that, Santa lives in the vagina and there are crackers.
She switches between Greenland (like in Danish folklore) and the vagina as where he resides. Iâm constantly surprised and stunned by what she just casually spits out.
13 Likes
For 15 years my shoulders were his home. I often played videogames with him, writed articols with him had breakfast with him. In the last 4 years, when I went to live alone I left him with my parents because I was often at work. But once a day he met me snd in weekends I brought him to my home. I missed him do much. Iâm crying do much remembering so many years together. He loved me so much
10 Likes
Itâs hard, I know 
especially when itâs so sudden. They say time heals all wounds, but this oneâs going to be fresh for a while. Itâs the end of an era, but he witnessed so much of your life
6 Likes
@MrOchoa put his Christmas tree up:
18 Likes
Halloween is Christmasâs biggest rival for the holidays, so letâs get some Ghidorah jackâ-o-lanterns next year to compete.
7 Likes
Hi mates, long post coming up - a little different topic.
I would like to share a bitter truth â we are doomed.
Brain Activity and Memory
54 participants were divided into 3 groups to write essays for months. First group using chatgpt, second group using Google search and third group using no tools. An EEG machine was used to record their brain activity. Chatgpt users used most less brain activity (literally switched off brain). And the participants who used no tools had the most brain activity. After months, the group with no tools remembered the essay contents whereas the chatgpt users didnât remember the topic title itself. The Google search participants data was between these two groups.
Research Source Link
Problem Solving Skills and Critical Thinking
A study of 319 knowledge workers was done where it was found that the people who trusted more on AI had very few critical thinking abilities. When people rely more on AI, the independent problem-solving skills weaken.
Research Source Link
Navigation skills
In year 2000, the brains of London Taxi Drivers were analyzed, that time there was no google maps and they had to remember 25000 streets. The hippocampus part of the brain was much larger than general people. But nowadays with online maps, there is no need to remember and so there is less use and training of hippocampus in our brain.
Research Source Link
Cognitive Offloading
It is the use of physical action or external tools to reduce the mental effort required for a task.
A study on 666 people showed a critical negative correlation on frequent AI tools usage and critical thinking abilities - means the more AI tools usage the less critical thinking abilities. Additionally, there are episodic memories, future imagination and connecting concepts which are related to the above skills which are reducing drastically as well.
Research Source Link
Paying the Bills
I am from the information technology industry and I hear many of the people are laid off from multiple organizations/regions/countries just because they did not switch to Generative AI or Agentic AI from the news and word of mouth, the people from non-technical fields are worst affected across all organizations small or big, or from around the globe. I along with many of my colleagues are safe as we took up Gen-AI and Agentic-AI from last year â it was both boon and curse. It was helpful as before we searched for a coding solution/fix on stackoverflow and now we get the corrected solution directly from LLM. Itâs a curse as we use very little brain on developing it based on logical reasoning and only just reviewing the black box. That âfailureâ part where we learned from the error message was the most important part we miss now â and yes âFailure is the key to Successâ. The organizations/companies/business are not the culprit, because if they donât evolve, someone else will take up their place and so the less revenue, less salary or more layoffs. Search for âlayoffs due to AI newsâ and you will get fresh news daily.
THE CURE / MEDICINE
You will be surprised !!
Diamond cuts Diamond, Poison cuts Poison and so AI cuts AI. Challenge yourself against AI (video game) not with AI (ChatGPT).
Researchers found that playing Video Games boosts our brain activity, memory, problem-solving skills, critical thinking, navigation skills and additional skills by countering Cognitive offloading. This was just to share the awareness and answers to those who are against video games. Of course, too much of video game addiction is not a good thing and we need to balance physical activity outside hour home but itâs a medicine or counterbalance to the work hazards caused by AI. Its not just Hitman games, any video games which makes you fail is the medicine.
Video Games Boost Cognition, Exercise Improves Mental Health - Neuroscience News
I learned the above from a youtube video (The DARK Side of ChatGPT by Dhruv Rathee) yesterday and would like to share this here.
You may agree to disagree with my post, I am not saying these - Science has proved it.
1 Like
Been suffering from fatigue the last 8 days, so went to the doctor today. They took a few readings, as well as some blood. God, youâd think youâd get used to having your blood taken, especially when I had to have a canula in hospital, but I absolutely hate it every single time. Doesnât help they canât find a vein in either of my arms, so they always have to take the blood out of the back of my hand. Should get results on Thursday, see if there is an issue.
Iâm worried it might be my diabetes playing up. I actually go back to the doctorâs on the 29th for my first annual diabetes review, where theyâll decide if I stay on the mediciation theyâve prescribed me.
10 Likes
Donât worry, itâs never nice hopefully they used a butterfly, put the tourniquet over your sleeve to spare your skin, and didnât have to adjust too much once theyâd picked a spot 
9 Likes
Finished with Christmas shopping and wrapping (albeit mediocre wrapping).
Doesnât look like much, but everyone got something theyâve been wanting between my niece, sister, mom, dad, brother/his wife, brother in law, and my partnerâs parents alongside my partner themselves.
We were a little bad and i gave my partner two of their gifts earlier. That being a blind box and glitter pens.
Regardless itâs been a good turnout this year.
11 Likes
Stupid fucking government alert system, I missed a physical appointment with my employment provider. Thank God I have someone so understanding as my provider.
My father has to go to New South Wales for three days at the start of the new year because Uncle Larry died and named dad the executor to his will for some reason.
6 Likes
13 Likes
Well holy CRAP I discovered something cool!
Home Alone 2 has a novelization, and the audiobook is narrated by Tim Curry!!
Curry narrated most of the Series of Unfortunate Events books and I love him so much for that. This is also great to see
woohooooo
10 Likes
Love Tim Curry! He was extra hysterical in the Command and Conquer game.
7 Likes
Ah fuck I have this great joke I just made on the funny thread that would have gone down so much better here.
2 Likes
I love how he is able to recover so well from corpsing here.
6 Likes
No idea. Theyâve never been able to get blood from my arm, my veins are too deep. So I have to get blood taken from the back of my hand. Which isnât pleasant. Hated having a cannula at the back of the my hand when I was in hospital. Accidently ripped one out in my sleep one night.
Anyway, I got the results back, and they found nothing. Which is good, I am actually feeling a bit better. Maybe just burn out or stress? I have my diabetic review in a week.
Doing a lot of hours at work right now. Just 3 more weeks til my time off.
5 Likes
A straight needle should be able to get even deep ones, though itâs possible they weighed up the risk-benefit and deemed your hand to be the safer option. Some people use ultrasounds to guide them!
You havenât been a patient until youâve pulled a canula in your sleep, had to change behind a curtain that doesnât quite hide you so thereâs always a gap, and been woken up at 4am to have your blood pressure taken 
You are in the middle of a work marathon and youâre pushing through it, and stress can effect all kinds of things. Youâre a hard worker but youâve got to look after yourself too, youâre more important than what theyâve got you doing.
A few things you can be doing at home:
-Plan what youâll do with your time off in 3 weeks, so youâre not spending your time working toward it and when you get to it, donât know what to do with it so you spend the whole time worrying about returning to work.
-Give yourself a transition period between work and home. If you come in from work stressed and youâre ruminating over it the rest of the day, then mentally youâre still there and your blood pressure will reflect that. Maybe on the commute home, use that time to think about what happened to get it out of your system for the rest of the day (not necessarily resolved, just paused for now), so you can relax when you get home.
-And related to blood pressure, stress increases it and the heart rate, meaning youâve got high volumes of high pressure blood pumping around, which isnât healthy. Beyond the usual relaxation techniques (different ones work for different people), you could try to reduce the salt levels in your diet. Sodium contributes to high blood pressure and the body has a surprisingly low tolerance to it, with recommended maximums being between 2.5-6 grams per day, depending on where you live. Most of the Western world consume beyond this and even a small reduction is one of the most impactful ways you can improve your cardiac health*
But Iâm glad youâre starting to feel better, and that nothing was flagged on your bloodwork only 3 weeks to go! 
*Disclaimer: this should go without saying, but if you have a medical condition or pharma contraindication that prevents you from safely altering your sodium intake, then donât do it. Iâm assuming youâre otherwise healthy.
4 Likes
@schatenjager I hope youâll forgive me as the resident forum expert, but with this yearâs Tournament of Champions Iâve only just seen my first ever viewing of seeing the Outside Xbox folks playing Gang Beasts for the first time - how had I not seen this before?!
Iâve now gone back and watched a bunch of previous ones and Iâd put this up there with the very best of their content. Granny Murder for the win!
1 Like