ToaKraka
Dislikes you
User ID: 108
Rebuttal from Astral Codex Ten
A small minority of patients do worse on SSRIs. These patients bring down everyone’s average, and then studies find that “on average” “participants” only get an effect size of 0.5. Fine, but in real life the people who felt worse on SSRIs would have stopped them immediately.
My reading of Kirsch is something like: Antidepressants will work for about 50% of people. For those people, they will have a large real effect size of 1.0, plus a large placebo effect size of 0.9, for a very large total effect size of 1.9.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3hr ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6hr ago
Apparently there's a loneliness epidemic.
You forgot to copy-and-paste a link here.
Now, am I depressed? I think I might be (can't get a diagnosis)
Astral Codex Ten suggests taking the PHQ-9 questionnaire for self-diagnosis of depression.
So I never grew to regard friendship as transactional because I could never get those transactions going.
Mostly I don't like people.
Based (1 2). This is the part where we suddenly fall in love.
You have hobbies? No.
Or not.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
8hr ago
Nobody is forcing you to read the entire thing. As I recently mentioned:
What matters is the journey, not the destination. Among non-professionally-published literary works, I think it's very possible that I've enjoyed more incomplete ones than complete ones.
Even among professionally-published works, there's nothing wrong with giving five stars to The Three Musketeers, four stars to Twenty Years After, and three stars plus "did not finish" to The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
If you like the early parts, but find that the story becomes less enjoyable as you progress, then just drop the story.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
10hr ago
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
10hr ago
The deliverable would ideally be something that can run in a browser, but if it has to be a self-contained executable, so be it.
I think this would be a heck of a lot easier to accomplish as a GIS file openable in QGIS rather than as an HTML+CSS+Javascript file openable in a browser or as a standalone executable file.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
23hr ago
Under the 25th Amendment he would be only the acting president, not the actual president.
It's the full novel, not a graphic novel rendering with speech bubbles etc. Maybe that's what a visual novel actually is and I am just learning the term.
Yes, that's what a visual novel is.
A typical visual novel consists of text over an anime-style background image and is accompanied by background music. Throughout the game, the player usually has to answer a few questions which will have an effect on the story. Thus, playing a visual novel a second time while giving other answers may result in an entirely different plot.
Note that these particular visual novels are in the non-interactive "kinetic novel" subcategory.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
1d ago
converting public-domain novels into visual novels
It's my understanding that a purely linear visual novel is more often called a "kinetic novel".
A kinetic novel is a VN that does not present the "player" with any choices at all; he simply reads through a single unbranching story.
The term originates from Visual Art's brand KineticNovel (and all games produced under that brand are examples of this), but it is now also used to describe games by other companies with a similar structure.
Using the term "visual novel", with its connotation of interactivity, may mislead readers into thinking that you have added new branching paths to the plots of these books.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
3d ago
There are a bunch of others. Wikipedia: Apostolic founders
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
4d ago
Note that my quote from the same article clarifies that the original draft of the bill was much more radical, practically legalizing polygamy. But that portion was omitted from the final law.
This website has some really annoying JavaScript.
Definitive editions with copious endnotes! Aren't they cool?
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Sherlock Holmes: Oxford University Press (out of print)
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d'Artagnan: Pleiades Library
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Little House: Library of America
Example endnote:
Les noms de villages et de lieux-dits correspondent à des réalités géographiques. L'édition originale imprimait Herlies pour Herlier, se qui a été corrigé par la suite. Goskal n'existe, remarque Charles Samaran, que sur la carte de Cassini. Dumas ou Maquet l'ont-ils consultée? CS ne le croit pas, mais suppose que Dumas a noté le nom en se promenant dans la région de Béthune. Enfin l'édition originale porte non pas Erquinghem mais Enguinghem.
Via Google Translate, with obvious liberties curtailed:
The names of villages and hamlets [in The Three Musketeers chapter 65 (Judgment)] correspond to geographical realities. The original edition printed "Herlies" instead of "Herlier", which was subsequently corrected. Goskal does not exist, Charles Samaran notes, except on the Cassini map. Did Dumas or Maquet consult it? CS does not believe so, but surmises that Dumas noted the name while walking through the Béthune region. Finally, the original edition features not "Erquinghem" but "Enguinghem".
The evolution of my custom house's construction schedule:
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2025-07-23: The contractor offers me a contract with tentative schedule extending from 2025-10-13 to 2026-01-13 (13 weeks). I clarify that such an early completion date is not convenient for me. (At the time, I plan to retire in 2027-02.)
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2025-07-24: I sign a contract with tentative schedule extending from 2026-08-03 to 2026-10-03 (9 weeks).
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2025-09: I am overwhelmed by depression, retire ASAP, and inform the contractor that I am ready to proceed with construction earlier than I said previously.
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2025-12-16: I sign a contract with tentative schedule extending from 2026-03-30 to 2026-07-06 (14 weeks).
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2026-02-17: Via email (not in a contract), the contractor gives me a tentative schedule extending from 2026-03-02 to 2026-05-06 (9 weeks).
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2026-03-02: Construction starts.
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2026-05-04: I make my weekly visit to the site, note that completion within the next two days seems impossible, and via email ask the contractor for a new tentative completion date.
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2026-05-07: The "construction coordinator" informs me that both the "sales director" who gave me the date of 2026-05-06 and the project manager who has been overseeing the project no longer work at the contractor, and she will obtain a new tentative completion date soon.
This was this project's second project manager, too (replacing the one that I complained about previously). I don't know whether (1) the rats are fleeing the sinking ship, or (2) this churn is just a natural part of the renaming/restructuring/reshuffling that the contractor is going through (which started in 2025-11).
Photograph: Unpainted drywall; R-49 ceiling insulation
Interesting excerpt from the latest annual SEC filing of Opendoor, perennially-unprofitable startup number umpteen:
Market Overview
The current landscape is highly fragmented. Today, nearly 90% of residential real estate transactions in the United States involve an agent. There are over two million licensed real estate agents in the United States, who each complete approximately four transactions on average per year, and many of whom do not solely work in real estate. Without appropriate support, this can lead to an inconsistent experience for consumers looking for guidance in what is typically the largest financial decision of their lives. Consumer satisfaction reflects this broken experience, with traditional real estate transactions generating Net Promoter Scores around 30, significantly below other major consumer categories and well below Opendoor's average NPS of nearly 80.
Net promoter score is calculated as follows:
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To your customers, give a survey: "On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?"
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People who answer 10 or 9 are categorized as "promoters"; people who answer 8 or 7, "passives"; and people who answer 6 or lower, "detractors". (Insert complaint about rating inflation.)
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Net promoter score is defined as promoters minus detractors (in percentage terms), and ranges from −100 to +100. According to popular survey administrator Qualtrics, 1 to 20 is "good", 21 to 50 is "favorable", 51 to 80 is "excellent", and 81 to 100 is "world-class". According to popular survey administrator SurveyMonkey, scores of 30 to 45 are average, and scores of 55 to 75 are in the top 25 percent of companies in a selection of popular industries.
Of course, this number is from Opendoor's SEC filing, so it probably is biased toward Opendoor. But 80 versus 30 is a pretty wide margin.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
Authors who could be uncharitably described as "churning out slop" for money still exist. This webpage shows that there are 300 writers on Patreon who have at least 300 subscribers, which seems like enough to live on, if just barely. And that doesn't even include the people who write pornography too spicy for Patreon's guidelines.
Associated Press:
Alberta separatist group says it has enough signatures to trigger referendum on leaving Canada
Alberta separatists said Monday they have formally submitted almost 302,000 signatures to try to trigger a referendum on the province leaving Canada.
The group needed 178,000 signatures to force the province to consider such a vote.
The question of separation could go on a provincewide ballot as early as October, as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward if enough names are gathered and verified. Smith has said she personally does not support the oil-rich province leaving Canada.
A “yes” vote would not trigger independence automatically. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place and Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said some Indigenous groups who are already using the courts to prevent an independence referendum would use venues including the courts to stop independence from happening.
Mitch Sylvestre, the head of Stay Free Alberta, arrived at the Elections Alberta office in Edmonton on Monday leading a convoy of seven trucks to deliver the names.
Béland said a referendum is likely to lose.
“Right now, support for independence in Alberta is rather low. Less than 30% and much lower if we only focus on hard core supporters. And the odds of a victory of the pro-independence camp appear to be low at this stage,” he said.
Don't forget the two New J*rseyans who can't get guns because they saw psychiatrists one or two decades ago and don't have the records.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
Better quote:
The session of the Tzik which discussed the abolition of marriage as an institution last autumn took place in the famous throneroom of the Tsars…
The bill was introduced by the Commissar for Justice, Mr. Kursky, a large man with tremendous blonde moustaches. He pointed out that whereas, according to the old law, the wife had no rights in the case of an unregistered marriage, the proposed law would give her the rights of a legal wife in holding property and other matters. Another new point was that wife and husband would have an equal right to claim support from the other, if unemployed or incapacitated for work. The woman would have the right to demand support for her child even if she lived with several men during the period of conception; but, in contrast to previous practice, she or the court would choose one man who would be held responsible for the support. Commissar Kursky seemed especially proud of this point because it differed so much from the "bourgeois customs" of Europe and America. In those countries, he said, the husband can bring a friend who declares that he also lived with the woman, and the latter is then left defenseless. In the villages, where sons continue to live with their parents long after they are married, the whole family is held responsible if a woman claims alimony, according to the original draft of the proposed law.
The opposition to the proposed law seemed to center around four points: (1) that it would abolish marriage; (2) that it would destroy the family; (3) that it would legalize polygamy and polyandry; (4) that it would ruin the peasants.
Leon Trotski also pronounced himself in favor of the proposed new law at a conference of medical workers engaged in medical maternity work. Trotski stressed the point that such a law, by giving more protection to women, would make for the benefit of the country's children.
Although discussion is still going on all over Russia, there seems to be little doubt that the bill, with certain modifications, will be passed at the next session of the Tzik, which will be held in the summer. The more important changes to the draft law, to which the Commissariat for Justice has agreed in deference to the widespread popular protests and opposition, are as follows:
Unregistered marriage will entail legal rights only in cases where the parties concerned mutually acknowledge each other as husband and wife, where it is established before a court that they lived together and had joint property, either by the testimony of a third party or by the evidence of their personal correspondence or other documents, where there was mutual material support or joint bringing up of children.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
This is incorrect.
I assume that you're referring only to "US federal states". Among "Western European countries", France is fairly infamous for having banned informational paternity tests, and it appears that Germany also has banned them. Wikipedia page
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
6d ago
I can't recall actually seeing any women with painted nails recently, but I definitely wouldn't call painted nails "gross and icky". I would impose a much milder version of such condemnation on dyed hair, though.
Perhaps this website's recent discussion of plastic surgery is relevant here.
I feel it is a matter of pride. People are supposed to be proud of how they look. Even if they acknowledge that they don't look the best, they should still feel some attachment to their face.
Going through a plastic surgery is "humiliating", it shows an willingness to sacrifice parts of yourself for validation from others.
The same argument applies to hair color (and to skin color, in a hypothetical scenario where somebody decides to dye his entire finger). But nobody cares about fingernail color (it's the same for everybody), so that is an acceptable target of modification.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
7d ago
an obscure meme
At this point, I feel doubtful that 4chan's /v/ board counts as obscure. It's my understanding that the meme also is fairly popular on Twitter.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
7d ago
Here's the full quote of his opinion.
By the way, someone posted this [image of Sarah Miller from The Last of Us] at me on Xitter and I think they thought it was an epic slam dunk.
But, uh, it kind of immediately proves me point. It's an even better point of reference than Ellie [also from The Last of Us]. If you compare that girl to Diana it is even more starkly obvious than Ellie why Diana is so fucking creepy.
Sarah Miller:
Flat, short hair (juvenile haircut).
Knobbly nose.
Close together facial features (neotenic feature)
Far-apart eyes.
Natural complex and lips.
Thin, fuzzy eyebrows.
This looks like a real child.
Diana:
Waist-length hair that is featured like a pageant girl.
Extreme blush.
Lipgloss.
Plucked eyebrows.
Dark, painted eyelashes despite being blonde.
Facial features are further apart like an adult woman's.
Facial features are both hyper-realistic and also completely blown out like she has foundation on.
Facial features are completely symmetrical like a Sims character.
Like come the fuck on JUST LOOK AT HOW SHE IS MADE UP.
How can you sit there and lie to my face? How can you say that these are the same designs that serve the same innocent purpose?
If you think this is the same thing you have autism. You should not have paternal instincts activated because you have autism and your paternal instincts are broken.
The website's users seem to be more or less evenly split on whether they agree with him.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
7d ago
Capcom did authorize the sale of a statue of her bending over with a short dress and a coquettish wink.
ToaKraka
Dislikes you
7d ago
IIRC, the Death Stranding baby has its gender unspecified for most of the game
As the saying goes, the plural of "anecdote" is not "data". Astral Codex Ten:
The probability that your four people were all in the unlucky 50 percent who get no benefit from SSRIs is 6 percent—low, but well within the realm of possibility. If you broaden your net of anecdotes to encompass the denizens of this website, you probably get something closer to the expected 50 percent.
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