westcort

See also: Nick Carr's book, "The Shallows."

I thought it was going to be a cruise without baby boomers. No such luck.

Can anyone just make a simple program that will use one of these better TTS engines. I just want a a dialog box, a big button that says "Generate text" and you paste in the content you want converted to receive an MP3 file. Fully compiled binaries for Linux, Windows, and Mac, please?

Read carefully, "...have prompted many researchers..." To change the text, one would need to change the minds of all of the many researchers, and have them administer retractions. Argue over what happened in that year, I guess, but the fact remains that the genetic clock of viral mutation does not stop unless a virus is kept in storage. Also, was the year of mutational change accrued from 1976 to 1977 or from 1918 to 1919? Either way, no question, the virus that caused the 1977 Russian flu spent time in a lab.

I have previously shared this little known, but factual, event on Hacker News. It is simply a Wikipedia article--the 1977 Russian Flu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1977_Russian_flu). This is not my statement, note this well dang, and read or argue with the editors of Wikipedia if you want (not me), but the following statement stands firm:

"Genetic analysis and several unusual characteristics of the 1977 Russian flu have prompted many researchers to say that the virus was released to the public through a laboratory accident, or resulted from a live-vaccine trial escape"

The Surgeon General's report on social media and youth mental health [0] cited 3 studies showing 1) that limiting social media to 30 minutes per day among college students for 3 weeks significantly reduced loneliness and depression [1], 2) deactivating Facebook before the 2018 midterm elections increased subjective wellbeing and reduced political polarization,[2] and 3) that 10,904 14-year-olds in the UK Millennium Cohort Study experienced an increase in depressive symptoms in association with greater daily social media use, with a stronger association for girls than boys (depressive symptoms in adolescents using social media for 3 to <5 h versus 1-3 hours daily were elevated 21% in boys and 26% in girls; with 5 or more hours of use versus 1-3 hours of use daily, depressive symptom scores were elevated 35% in boys and 50% in girls) [3].

Fully 57% of high school aged girls--(more than half!)--experienced feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 [4]. Over the same timeframe, average time spent using social media each day among teens doubled from about 1.5 hours to more than 3 hours [5]. Admittedly, this is not a straightforward association as mental health screening practices changed in the United States during this period.

The actions of some with a vested financial interest in continued growth of social media have purposely chosen not to protect youth mental health. According to CBS, Mark Zuckerberg, "personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram...[overruling] Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who had asked Zuckerberg to do more to protect the more than 30 million teens who use Instagram in the United States" [6]. And now developed countries with robust regulation systems are starting to do something. If all of this is happening and there is "not enough evidence" all one has to do is look back at similar statements by the tobacco and asbestos industries to muddle, obfuscate, and confuse to continue extraction of profits as long as possible. If you are working for social media companies in these efforts, at least try a new tactic to continue extraction of wealth at the expense of public health! It has become too obvious at this point.

0. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-heal...

1. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

2. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190658

3. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...

4. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Sum...

5. https://images.nature.com/lw1200/magazine-assets/d41586-023-...

6. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/zuckerberg-rejected-...

Only typo I found was the word "ggshells" which I assume should be "eggshells"; great work!

Thank you! This is interesting!

Grandpa was an early adopter of computers due to his work in cryptography, which started even before WWII. He wrote his files mostly in WordStar, and a few other formats that are still readable. Most of these are on a drive and on 5.25 and 3.5 inch floppy disks. Dad uses KEDIT, and now Notepad++, probably because KEDIT was popular in Princeton at the time. I think John McPhee still uses KEDIT. I use plain text files and HTML.

Seconding a text file. I keep addresses this way, too. So does my father. So did my grandfather. I have their files, as well.

The Surgeon General's report [0] cited 3 studies showing 1) that limiting social media to 30 minutes per day among college students for 3 weeks significantly reduced loneliness and depression [1], 2) deactivating Facebook before the 2018 midterm elections increased subjective wellbeing and polarization,[2] and 3) that 10,904 14 year olds in the UK Millennium Cohort Study experienced an increase in depressive symptoms in association with greater daily social media use, with a stronger association for girls than boys (depressive symptoms in adolescents using social media for 3 to <5 h versus 1-3 hours daily were elevated 21% in boys and 26% in girls; with 5 or more hours of use versus 1-3 hours of use daily, depressive symptom scores were elevated 35% in boys and 50% in girls) [3].

Fully 57% of high school aged girls--(more than half!)--experienced feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness in 2021, up from 36% in 2011 [4]. Over the same timeframe, average time spent using social media each day among teens doubled from about 1.5 hours to more than 3 hours [5].

I am not waiting for a randomized controlled study. There are serious harmful effects of the environment our kids are growing up in today, and part of that is a growth in social media. Let us not forget that Mark Zuckerberg, "personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram...[overruling] Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri and President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who had asked Zuckerberg to do more to protect the more than 30 million teens who use Instagram in the United States." [6] Not enough evidence? In the words of Bob Dylan, "you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows."

Sources

0.https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/sg-youth-mental-heal...

1.https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/10.1521/jscp.2018.37.10.751

2.https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20190658

3. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5...

4. https://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/data/yrbs/pdf/YRBS_Data-Sum...

5. https://images.nature.com/lw1200/magazine-assets/d41586-023-...

6. https://www.cbsnews.com/sacramento/news/zuckerberg-rejected-...

502 error; archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240529085544/https://www.thete...

I do not support in any way the crimes perpetrated by this terrorist.

Let it sink!

This would be a great time for a philanthropist to come forward and support the Internet Archive for what it is--a public institution.

It is not about a particular politician--or are you reading this a particular way because of a truth about your favorite candidate you know, but do not want to be said?

See also partisan views from this thread (as opposed to this non-partisan comment):

https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=41670882

https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=41671053

https://www.archives.gov/electoral-college/2020

Publishers sometimes have advertorial divisions. This is not a new phenomenon. No, this does not prove true your favorite candidate’s lies or alternative realities.

Simpler than this is just switching to DVDs. Not only do I not have extra bandwidth strain on my home internet, but there are no recurring fees, no worries about legality, and lots of extra features and games that kids enjoy. DVDs are Blu Ray are the best format for movies that currently exist, and arguably the best way to actually own a movie legally. A good TV antenna serves for watching news in my area.

As a consumer, I try follow the reverse of William Painter's advice to King Camp Gillette before he invented the famous razor, "invent something people use and throw away" and arrive at "buy things you can actually own and use repeatedly."

Great article. I wonder if anyone has experimented with ultrasonic vibrations to extract more or different flavors from beans, as this technique has been used to extract the flavors of barrel-aged whiskeys in a short period of time, rather than through an aging process [0].

0. Science 2.0. The Acceleration of Spirits Aging Using Ultrasound. https://www.science20.com/scott_beers/the_acceleration_of_sp.... Published May 31, 2018. Accessed September 6, 2024.

Prominent astrophysicists I trust say there is no evidence for Elizondo’s claims.

Have we examined all motives here? Possible motives include:

A government program for uniting religious belief to some end.

A government program to gauge how people would react to disclosure if non-human intelligence was ever discovered (arguably we are already there with LLMs).

A cover for advanced military craft.

And finally, by far the most likely in my opinion, the profit motive. To the Stars Academy, LLC, now known as To the Stars (TTS), is essentially an entertainment company. The supposed other operating arms of aerospace and science divisions have not and probably will never generate any revenue.[0,1]

[0] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1710274/000114420417...

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_The_Stars_Inc.

Missed that, but still think commentary on the origin of the 5% rule for p values is of interest.

Not mentioned here is the lady’s name, Muriel Bristol.

I have also heard that this is a different way with 6 cups. This matters because 6C3 = 6! / (3!(6-3)!) = 20. That 1/20 chance of getting all 3 cups right is said to be the basis for the 5% significance cutoff for p values.

Another basis for the 5% cutoff is the (even earlier) Poisson distribution, with zero expected events, 3 observed. In this case, the probability of occurrence by chance is 1/e^3, which is just under 5%. In other words, the 5% p value is analogous to “3 strikes you’re out” because the probability of 3 uncommon events or exceptions is <5%.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Bristol

Tattoo ink should be regulated as a medical product given the potential for contamination and infection.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/07/18/health/tattoo-ink-permane...

Thank you so much!!!

Just close the original article's window and it will stop narrating.

I made this bookmarklet, which will speak highlighted text in the browser regardless of platform. It also makes the initial letters of each word bold. This is the code:

javascript:void function(){ javascript:(function(){ var selection = window.getSelection().toString(); if (!selection) { alert("Please select some text on the page."); return; } var encodedSelection = document.createElement("div"); encodedSelection.textContent = selection; var processedContent = encodedSelection.innerHTML.replace(/\n/g, " <br></br> "); var words = processedContent.split(" "); var formattedText = ""; var speechContent = ""; for (var i = 0; i < words.length; i++) { var word = words[i]; var chunkSize = Math.floor(word.length / 3) + 1; var boldPart = "<span style='font-weight:bolder'>" + word.substring(0, chunkSize) + "</span>"; var lightPart = "<span style='font-weight:lighter'>" + word.substring(chunkSize, word.length) + "</span>"; var formattedWord = boldPart + lightPart; if (word.endsWith(".")) { formattedWord += "<span style='color:red'> *</span>"; } formattedText += formattedWord + " "; speechContent += word + " "; } var newWindow = window.open("", "_blank"); newWindow.document.write("<html><head><title>Spoken Content</title></head><body><input type='range' min='0.1' max='10' value='1' step='0.1' id='rate-slider'><p id='content' style='background-color:#EDD1B0;font-size:40;line-height:200%25;font-family:Arial'>"%20+%20formattedText%20+%20"</p></body></html>");%20var%20rateSlider%20=%20newWindow.document.getElementById("rate-slider");%20var%20utterance%20=%20new%20SpeechSynthesisUtterance(speechContent);%20rateSlider.addEventListener("input",%20function()%20{%20utterance.rate%20=%20rateSlider.value;%20window.speechSynthesis.cancel();%20window.speechSynthesis.speak(utterance);%20});%20window.speechSynthesis.speak(utterance);%20})();}();

Also: https://pastebin.com/zuRVpiVh

I could not find anything at the on the releases page (https://github.com/C-Loftus/QuickPiperAudiobook/releases/)

This is what I see: https://imgur.com/screenshot-PqmyqhT

Do I need a GitHub account to see the draft releases?

I am excited to try it! Could you add a prebuilt release? Would it be possible to post a sample output so people can judge for themselves whether they would like the quality available?

The bookmarklet just uses the web speech API. Voicegen does not need to be installed and can generate (on my system) wav files of about 1 hour in length with good speech quality using PicoTTS.

I have found VoiceGen for Linux Mint to be very good (https://linux.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/VoiceGen-104295.sh...). It is available for download through the software manager.

Also, this bookmarklet will speak highlighted text in the browser regardless of platform:

javascript:void function(){ javascript:(function(){ var selection = window.getSelection().toString(); if (!selection) { alert("Please select some text on the page."); return; } var encodedSelection = document.createElement("div"); encodedSelection.textContent = selection; var processedContent = encodedSelection.innerHTML.replace(/\n/g, " <br></br> "); var words = processedContent.split(" "); var formattedText = ""; var speechContent = ""; for (var i = 0; i < words.length; i++) { var word = words[i]; var chunkSize = Math.floor(word.length / 3) + 1; var boldPart = "<span style='font-weight:bolder'>" + word.substring(0, chunkSize) + "</span>"; var lightPart = "<span style='font-weight:lighter'>" + word.substring(chunkSize, word.length) + "</span>"; var formattedWord = boldPart + lightPart; if (word.endsWith(".")) { formattedWord += "<span style='color:red'> *</span>"; } formattedText += formattedWord + " "; speechContent += word + " "; } var newWindow = window.open("", "_blank"); newWindow.document.write("<html><head><title>Spoken Content</title></head><body><input type='range' min='0.1' max='10' value='1' step='0.1' id='rate-slider'><p id='content' style='background-color:#EDD1B0;font-size:40;line-height:200%25;font-family:Arial'>"%20+%20formattedText%20+%20"</p></body></html>");%20var%20rateSlider%20=%20newWindow.document.getElementById("rate-slider");%20var%20utterance%20=%20new%20SpeechSynthesisUtterance(speechContent);%20rateSlider.addEventListener("input",%20function()%20{%20utterance.rate%20=%20rateSlider.value;%20window.speechSynthesis.cancel();%20window.speechSynthesis.speak(utterance);%20});%20window.speechSynthesis.speak(utterance);%20})();}();