I don’t know about being thrown out of the military but being on many common phsyc meds (I.e. anti depressants) can make it difficult or impossible to enlist in the first place https://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/military-recruiting-process-faqs.html/amp
(See section 9 on anti depressants)
dukeleto
1yr ago
I am not out to attack or debunk any one’s beliefs, but I just don’t see how one could go about justifying psychokinesis of a random number generator. If this where possible wouldn’t it be ludicrously easy for someone to demonstrate? Or do you think that such people have gotten filthy rich gambling and just want to appear as extremely unlikely but otherwise normal outliers? (The only thing I have ever heard of that seems to plausibly suggest such an ability is that mathematician who won the lottery four times but given her background there could have easily been some other type of advantaged play https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_R._Ginther )
There is probably more controversial things someone could dig up but this is fairly typical fair: https://twitter.com/richardhanania/status/1527689272119070720
Or this
https://twitter.com/RichardHanania/status/1567896817169494017
(I think he got away with it because he is actually pretty funny sometimes)
dukeleto
1yr ago
I basically agree with this sentiment and would try and reframe the discussion in terms of luxury beliefs: namely people living thousands of miles from land borders can easily harbor fantasies about human nature while ignoring (and experiencing) few of the very real negative externalities associated uncontrolled illegal immigration. If a relatively small number of buses (or even flights) are required to make the most politically powerful parts of this country more fully aware of the kinds of the problems they are rather thoughtlessly creating for others.
dukeleto
1yr ago
Isn’t this basically cal tech? Or is your Ivy League competitor also teaching social sciences?
dukeleto
1yr ago
I’m sorry to here that, practically speaking if your employer can keep you out isn’t it a lot more dangerous and uncertain to just flee?
dukeleto
1yr ago
I’m shocked his/her could even get a clearance, typically marriage to a foreign National is disqualifying
dukeleto
1yr ago
I mean there might be exceptions but I’m shocked that marriage to a Russian didn’t raise a million flags. https://news.clearancejobs.com/2015/06/24/will-partners-nationality-threaten-security-clearance-doha-hearings/
They started trending smaller as soon as ICBM delivery became practical. Prior to this they where designed to be large enough so that thermal pulses from the devices could simply ignite enormous firestorms at great distance, facilitating their delivery. I think it would still be a grave mistake to ignore the dangers of a smaller device and believe that even a 20 or 30 kiloton device delivered near or in a city will be the worst thing that has ever happened.
dukeleto
1yr ago
There is absolutely no way that they don’t work. All of the super powers invest in stock pile stewardship which is easier than you would think since The comprehensive test ban treaty only prohibits devices which achieves criticality, meaning that you can even test the devices with subcritical amounts of materials. If your interested you can read about the us efforts here https://www.llnl.gov/news/subcritical-experiment-captures-scientific-measurements-advance-stockpile-safety
There is no way that Russia, China Israel Pakistan etc don’t do the same
dukeleto
1yr ago
Which podcasts? The only ones I listen to are the wsj editorial podcast, manifold podcast and macro voices podcast none of which seems to have that many adds.
I broadly agree except for the part about women (I actually have known a lot of women who were great software developers, although I agree that women seem proportionaly less likely to get good at it) and had a similar background: I started in CS where I remained for two years (taking all of the CS classes before stopping after data structures in C) before changing my focus to a physical science. I now work in a job where I am essentially a data scientist for a group of (much smarter) physicists all of whom can program with the kind of intuitive knowledge that you described. All of these people (whom have been perfectly willing to self teach themselves other things in math and physics) are hugely constrained by the fact that they don’t know really know how data structures work. If they ever bother to learn Ill be out of a job.
I have asked some of my colleagues how they learned to program. The older ones are all completely self taught (and are usually a little better since this means that they had to learn C or Fortran) while the people my age usually got some sort of CS for physical scientists (which is usually a 1 semester long class in python where they learned to use numpy and matplotlib). I really don’t understand why more of them haven’t self taught and have concluded that it must be a matter of motivation or maybe even professional chauvinism.
Lots of scientists fundamentally don’t believe that things which happen on a computers are or could be that interesting. This is just insane to me given that computers are finally getting powerful enough that they can run some of their experiments with simulations (or at least use simulations to better plan them). Given the importance of these skills I really believe that universities should require physical scientists to spend a year taking real computer science, or whatever else it takes to make more of the profession aware that these skills are becoming as important as competence in mathematics for doing original research these days.
dukeleto
1yr ago
I’m down 10% for the year although I don’t really have the time to actively manage it. I hold a little energy (VDE) which is the only reason my NASDAQ heavy portfolio isn’t substantial worse. Will need to look into tobacco… that sounds like a good idea potentially.
dukeleto
1yr ago
I don’t know his real name but his username was euphoricbaseball I’m completely convinced that he actually was a teenager who hated how adults colluded to keep him down
dukeleto
1yr ago
I agree and I should have clarified that I specifically meant High Performance Computing which is where knowledge of things like parallel programming is essential.
dukeleto
1yr ago
I only read the first one which was interesting, but it’s worth pointing out that they were using a 100x greater concentration than you would typically find in tap water (https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/faqs/public-service-recommendations.html)
dukeleto
1yr ago
You can get good whole house humidifiers which are basically portable swamp coolers: https://www.amazon.com/AIRCARE-Space-Saver-Evaporative-Whole-Humidifier/dp/B087KN4D8S?source=ps-sl-shoppingads-lpcontext&ref_=fplfs&psc=1&smid=A20OQU25IKY457
Has been a life saver since I moved to Las Vegas
dukeleto
1yr ago
You actually could but it would be very difficult/dangerous (you would need several grocery stores worth of acetone and peroxide)
dukeleto
1yr ago
I have been reading Poirot investigates: there all short stories by Agatha Christie, just short enough that I can make it through one during my
Lunch break at work.
dukeleto
1yr ago
Does anyone have any non incel/pua advice/resources at getting better at flirting (or otherwise improving one’s “game”). I recently moved to a new city where I have been trying to meet someone on Hinge, and while I feel like I get a reasonable number of matches I just think I must be really bad at the whole “texting long enough to get her to actually go on a date” phase of these conversations.
I’m also not sure what to reasonably expect in terms of reply rates. In the last month I get about 3 matches a week with people I would like to go on dates with. Of these two people agreed to meet up (although one ultimately stood me up, I’ve never actually had that happen before although I’m guessing that just happens a lot with online dating).
dukeleto
1yr ago
That’s a good point, I have managed to avoid instagram thus far but I may just need to bite the bullet and do it!
Brave new world is my favorite sci-fi book (a classic which has actually aged well)
revelation Space is superb hard sf which centers around the Fermi paradox (while revelation space is great the rest of the series is disappointing). The characters are definitely morally grey although it’s usually more a case of being unable to identify what is actually good. Alistir Reynolds is my favorite contemporary author, he has written many short stories if you wanted to get a sense of his style (Troika is my favorite)
Passage at arms is another one by glen cook. It’s a sci-fi novel which is easily described as Das Boat in space
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