Glassnoser
4d ago
If something is self-evidently newsworthy, I don't see why any commentary needs to be included.
Glassnoser
4d ago
How legal was this? Did he have the power to do this and if so, what checks are there on this power? Now the the parliament voted to end martial law, is it over? Is that the proper mechanism for ending it? Do they have that power?
Glassnoser
4d ago
I read read somewhere that it works out to about $17,000 an hour.
Glassnoser
5d ago
Presumably many lawyers could have done that. Wouldn't it make more sense to pay them for the time and effort expended?
Glassnoser
5d ago
Following the logic as you've stated it, the pardon is valid if Hunter Biden didn't commit any federal crimes between the time the pardon was given and midnight last night.
Glassnoser
5d ago
Why did the plaintiffs' lawyers get so much money?
Glassnoser
22d ago
I've heard Punjabis are wealthy because they own a lot of farmland.
Glassnoser
22d ago
One or the other of us might move, and also, it's just interesting to know what the dating scene is like in different countries.
Glassnoser
23d ago
As a white man who's used OkCupid's passport feature to match with people around the world, I've noticed it's really easy to get matches in certain parts of the world. Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, is incredibly easy. The vast majority of my likes are from there. It feels like I could date the entire country if I wanted to. The next is South America, particularly Brazil. It's easy to match with very beautiful women there. The last is East Africa.
Locally, I've noticed I tend to do well Indian women and Latinas, and to a lesser extent, Middle Eastern women.
Glassnoser
23d ago
What's frustrating about Indians is their ubiquity combined with poor English skills. Tech forums are full of Indians answering questions with broken English that is painful to read and decipher. Call centres are staffed with Indians, many of whom mumble with thick accents and bad grammar.
Glassnoser
23d ago
There is a reason why people kept this place heterogeneous for thousands of years.
What reason is that?
Glassnoser
24d ago
Honda Odysseys? The mini-van? Here, they're known for driving Honda Civics.
I haven't really noticed it online, but I have noticed it in person. I live in a city that has received an enormous number of immigrants in a very short period of time, and they seem to be overwhelmingly from India, although some are from Africa and the Ukraine. This is a Canadian city that has not had much immigration since confederation. It used to be very white, with a small black population, a small indigenous population, and a very small population from elsewhere. The few Indian people we had tended to be very highly educated.
Very little changed here for a long time but it's now undergoing a rapid transformation. The population is booming, high rises are going up everywhere, rents are rapidly outgrowing incomes, and traffic congestion is getting really bad. People are blaming the immigrants, and Indians, with their dark complexions and jet black hair, really stand out. It seems like half the population dowtown is Indian now.
The other really visible change is that seemingly most low-skilled customer-facing jobs are now done by Indians. Almost every grocery store employee, Uber Eats driver, security guard, fast food restaurant worker, and call centre worker is Indian.
They're not really causing any serious problems, but there's beginning to be a bit of a backlash. People blame them for the high rents, and there is a belief that they're taking jobs better suited for teenagers when what we really need are doctors and tradesmen. This a very left-wing city with a strong norm against racism and I personally never witnessed much racism until recently, but a minority of people are starting to feel comfortable saying negative things about them and saying they should go back to India.
Much of this racism comes from Indians themselves though. They often don't like Indians from certain parts of India or from certain castes. Many think we're letting in too many or the wrong kinds. There seems to be a lot of conflict between different groups.
Glassnoser
24d ago
With the economy running at full employment, I think the effect on the economy would actually be positive.
Glassnoser
24d ago
As someone who has had two bosses before, I know it can be a complete disaster, especially when they have very different personalities and priorities.
Glassnoser
24d ago
How does this work when the budget is set by Congress and many of these jobs are required by regulations that Congress would have to repeal? Is there just going to be a massive surplus and a government that doesn't enforce the law? What happens when things like permits that are required by law to do certain things aren't issued because the remaining staff can't keep up with the demand?
It seems to me that the first step should be changing the law so that the government isn't needed to do most of the things it currently does.
Glassnoser
24d ago
Absolutely. He has very wrinkly and loose skin that makes it impossible for him to be confused for someone in his 30s. I actually didn't know his age and guessed he was 45.
Glassnoser
25d ago
Couldn't the vast majority of the work be done on rats? It shouldn't take that long to figure out what works if progress is in fact being made.
Glassnoser
25d ago
He looks exactly his age to me. His skin just looks a little funny, like he exfoliated or something.
Glassnoser
25d ago
They have health problems resulting from inbreeding. I don't think they have a problem with hostile values being smuggled in. They practise rumspringa.
Glassnoser
26d ago
Really? I assumed that they would.
Glassnoser
26d ago
Moving isn't easy though and it's actually hard for people to figure out that things are better in a different place. Comparisons are hard and people have ties to their current communities. So it probably does help people in that community. It would take a long time for things to reach equilibrium again.
Glassnoser
26d ago
I think immortality is achievable and worth working on, but Kurzweil seems to have some unrealistic beliefs about our current progress. In one of his books, he made the tenuous argument that technology is always accelerating just because technology is used to develop technology, so as technology improves technological progress accelerates. That's the entire basis for his extrapolating all kinds of progress curves out in ways that aren't supported by anything else (other than a few empirical examples like Moore's law, which has slowed down and physically must end soon). He seems to be forcing his beliefs about the current progress on longevity onto these progress curves, despite evidence that the rate of progress is less than it is.
What he is not doing is hoping for a discrete jump in the rate of technological progress due to an artificiaal intelligence break through. He is saying that when we reach longevity escape velocity, it will be because the trend that we are currently seeing will have continued to that point. I think an honest assessment would say that the current trend is not good and something needs to change for us to reach our goal.
Glassnoser
26d ago
That just means most of the benefit goes to the local property owners. It's still a net benefit to the community, which could be redistributed if necessary.
There is no guarantee of this happening. Progress in AI could stagnate. I don't agree that very many jobs can be automated with today's technology. We may be close, but progress is already slowing down. There are a number of problems limiting progress that might not be overcome. Returns to scaling are starting to plateau, we're running out of data, and Moore's Law is coming to an end. It is definitely possible that we will find solutions to these problems and I know some think they've already found them, but nothing is guaranteed.
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