ulyssessword
No bio...
User ID: 308
ulyssessword
11mo ago
I'm more sympathetic to that argument when we have months of factfinding followed by days of debate on the minutiae of the event, like in a criminal trial. We don't usually have that much detail available, so we have to use something to fill in the blanks the rest of the time.
The flow of information from the "unknown" background to the actor isn't magic, it's just not explained in the text. For a more concrete example of how background characteristics can change the events in a way that aren't reflected in a description, consider:
Alice shot Bob after he approached her in the alleyway behind 1st street. She stated that she feared for her life, as he was carrying knives "in an obvious manner". Bob was a 23 year old male who...
The end. Everything else is background that she couldn't have researched (and even the age would've been a guess). Otherwise it might change your opinion that he:
A) ...had a history of mugging, a rap sheet as long as your arm, etc.
B) ...was a culinary student heading home from class.
I think that variant A was likely justified, and variant B likely wasn't. Do you think that both are, or neither?
ulyssessword
11mo ago
"Nowadays, I do most of my programming using an extremely-high-level language known as 'Undergrad'"
- Some computer science professor, when asked about how he creates programs.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
I'm a Canadian, and I think that all asylum claims originating south of our border are bogus. Once you've escaped whichever hellhole you're running from...you've escaped it. It's done. The refugee system is meant to handle emergencies, and "being processed as a refugee in a safe country" is not an emergency that justifies asylum.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Pleas don't generally exist in civil law so plea bargaining is therefore rare/non-existent.
Isn't that just an out-of-court settlement?
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Presumably, the mods will make that point when he doesn't make an argument. Reading his comment, I see:
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A felony conviction is very bad,
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there were mitigating circumstances in this case, and
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the top level comment used a nonstandard definition of "bad".
You can believe whatever you want about the quality of the comment, but the arguments about the situation are there.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Thanks for the clarification.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Data says
Source? That seems quite extreme.
He's getting $100k/yr for ~2000 hours at his desk. You are getting the same. The fact that it takes him 3000 hours of work (and you only 2100) to reach those 2000 desk-hours is immaterial. If he doesn't like getting paid $33.33/hr (vs your $47.62), he should find a different job.
EDIT: for the other half of your solution: Should he be banned from a mutually-acceptable job at $33.33/hr with 12-hour days, just because the wage must be $47.62 for that position?
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Alright? Equalizing it to 2000 hours dedicated to the job instead of 2000 hours at your desk doesn't change much.
You are each dedicating 2000 hours per year towards work. He is doing 1000 hours of commuting and 1000 hours at his desk, while you are doing 100 hours of commuting and 1900 hours at your desk. Under our current system, you might be offered a salary of $95k (equivalent to $50 per hour at your desk), for an hourly equivalent of $47.50 including commute time. Your coworker might be offered $50k (again, $50/desk-hr), for an hourly equivalent of $25.00 including commute time.
Do you think the offers should both be equal? What about if it was 1900 hours of commuting and 100 hours at a desk?
ulyssessword
11mo ago
I can't see a coherent system coming from those premises.
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If the new hire has the longest commute, does everyone now spend less time in the office to maintain equal work hours with an eight total-hour maximum?
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If I move closer to work, will I get a smaller paycheque? If I start taking public transit or walking, will it get bigger?
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What happens if I don't spend the night at home?
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Does the compensation have to be equal, or can the employer just cancel out your entire idea with a trivial bit of algebra during hiring (excluding minimum wage limits)?
Shortening the standard workday from 8:00 to 7:18 (to compensate for my estimate of the mean American commute) is fine; there are a lot of arguments for a shorter workday/workweek. Tying it to each worker's personal commute seems like a recipe for disaster.
It just does not seem right that a job is able to effectively rob me of 14 hours per week where I can't do what I need to or want to.
You literally signed up for that. It's even less "theft" than taxation is. If you don't think your daily pay is worth X+2 hours of your time, then quit or move.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
Ping @netstack
Let me see if I can compile my uBlock Origin blocklist for fandom.com:
fandom.com##.global-navigation
fandom.com###mixed-content-footer
fandom.com##.page__right-rail
fandom.com##.is-loading.top-leaderboard.ad-slot-placeholder
fandom.com###WikiaBar
fandom.com##.notifications-placeholder
fandom.com##.pathfinder-wrapper
fandom.com##.wds-global-footer
fandom.com##.global-footer
fandom.com##.page-side-tools__wrapper
fandom.com##.global-navigation__top
fandom.com##.page-footer
fandom.com#$#.resizable-container{width:100% !important;}
fandom.com#$#.resizable-container{max-width:9999px !important;}
fandom.com#$#.main-container{margin-left:0px !important;}
fandom.com#$#.main-container{width:100% !important;}
Enabled with those filters, vs. standard (and it's even worse than it seems. You can't see the mid-page ads yet, the top one seems to have randomly failed, and the video to the side didn't start either.)
ulyssessword
11mo ago
I'm not that knowledgeable about physiology, but what would cause someone to die after being choked?
Dying after being stabbed is obviously blood loss, dying while being choked is bloodflow restriction/breath loss, but I can't see what would cause death after the choking stops.
ulyssessword
11mo ago
My priors for "I cured myself with this one weird trick" are pretty high, in that I think most of those reports are honest, and many are even directly causal. My priors for "I cured myself with this one weird trick and you can also cure yourself with that same trick" are low.
Could a simple dietary supplement cure malaise, gum disease, rough skin, bruising, shortness of breath, and emotional changes? Yes! All that's required is that you're suffering from scurvy and the chosen supplement is Vitamin C. Can a physical therapist instantly and permanently cure your chronic issues? Yes! At least if they are the first one to target the simple problem you have.
You can easily get a massive improvement in wellbeing only if you have a major but simple problem and select the correct treatment. Unfortunately, the underlying conditions are either a different simple problem or else more complex in many cases.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
If your primary exposure to the word "cis" is that somebody is trying to insult you, then I suspect you've primarily been exposed to the worst actors of the progressive movement (and/or people who are just trying to trigger you specifically).
What's the "else" to that "if"? I have been primarily exposed to the worst actors of the progressive movement, but not exclusively exposed to them. Who is using "cis" in a positive or even neutral way?
ulyssessword
10mo ago
Click on it? Maybe you have a misconfigured adblocker or something.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
Do you know what a "meter" or a "second" is, though?
Heading off on a tangent, one thing that annoys me about (most) uplift isekais is that the authors know less about physics (etc) than their characters do, and their worlds act on highschool (or simpler) physics as well.
As an example, Delve has a scene where the main character calculates the elastic energy stored in a bow at different draw lengths (fortunately, the draw force is linear). He has a magic measuring stick, so getting meters and seconds (and therefore probably kilograms as well) is possible, but the results are insane to anyone who has done a physics experiment: It is exactly two points of damage per joule of calculated energy input. A second trial had a 2.5% error. Either the System doesn't care about the arrow as a physical projectile, or else the energy lost to the limb mass, air resistance, dampening in the material, etc. "coincidentally" line up and cancel each other out.
As a counterexample, Ar'Kendrithyst has a scene where the main character doesn't know about the (low) hardenability of austenitic stainless steel, but his teacher does.
Also, I'll recommend https://www.patriciabriggs.com/articles/silver/silverbullets.shtml for an author's quest to cast silver bullets.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
1/40,000,000 of the Great Circle (10,000 km from pole to equator through Paris set the standard, IIRC)
Aside from the obvious fraction of a day, there aren't really any easy ways of precisely rederiving the second without modern technology. If you know what a meter is and are in a 1 g gravity field, then you can build a 1 meter long pendulum which has a period of about 2.006 seconds. If you have perfect pitch, then the second is 440x the period of middle A. Other than that, you're out of luck as far as I can tell. It's not like you're going to be looking at any cesium atoms in your spare time.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
(iii) Doing whatever they need data collection for greatly, building trust from the get-go, and never deliberately violating it.
That would be enough for me. Too bad I don't see it happening.
Until there are trustworthy intermediaries that look after my wellbeing while connecting me to various services/products, I'll stick with anonymity. Present-day advertisers don't meet that standard, which is unsurprising given their incentives.
If someone created a "shopping agent" industry, I'd strongly consider it. They would (by definition) have my best interests at heart, so the more info I shared with them the more efficiently they could help me.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
I remember there was an idea that the crew's linguist was able to prove the non-consciousness of the aliens from their text communications.
IIRC (and it's been over a decade, so take it with a grain of salt), they were able to prove that the aliens' communications and actions were separate. They used the Chinese Room analogy after discovering that "threats" weren't matched with aiming weapons, "negotiations" weren't matched with fulfilling the terms, etc. I don't think that would prove non-consciousness (and I can't remember if they claimed that), but it's certainly a step in that direction.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
I just saw the report, which as far as I can tell, is the first time it was reported in the six days since it was posted.
IIRC, almost the same thing happened on the old site: Someone made a bad comment, there was a public complaint about it, and a mod replied that there were zero reports filed about the bad comment (including by the complainant, obviously).
I'm not sure if it's universal or just Motte-like, but I definitely sympathize with the urge to talk about an issue rather than acting on it (and clicking on the Report button is "acting on it"). I'm also not sure if it's a good predilection or not, but I try to fight against my instincts while I'm here.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
I would hope that a statement like "Facebook Post #12345657 is related to an Issue of Interest wink, wink." would be against the (new?) law if it was sent from the FBI to Facebook. As far as I can tell, that's all that happened to trigger this case.
ulyssessword
10mo ago
The entire split between "words" and "actions" is false, but that doesn't mean people (including me) feel that way. Composing a comment evokes different emotions than clicking a button, even if the results are identical.
ulyssessword
9mo ago
I don't know if "most" is a good enough standard. Try that with any other profession:
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"Most surgeons cut into people in an attempt to heal them (but some do it for the opposite reason)"
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"Most engineers build bridges in an attempt to safely convey traffic (but some do it for the opposite reason)"
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"Most accountants manage accounts in an attempt to help their clients' finances (but some do it for the opposite reason)"
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"Most journalists write articles in an attempt to inform the public (but some do it for the opposite reason)"
A few bad apples literally do spoil the bunch, because professional fields live and die on their reputations. Laypeople simply don't have the expertise to judge the choices that a professional makes (at the object level, before the fact), so all that's left is the industry's reputation.
ulyssessword
9mo ago
Upthread, people are saying that Rasmussen is as partisan as the average polling company, but it's the only one that's partisan for Republicans.
If you accept that claim, then you'd expect to see a story like:
The controversy here is not that Elliot Morris is threatening to exclude Nessumsar because progressivism is bad, rather the exclusion is being considered on the grounds that Nessumsar is a partisan agency that produces Democrat-friendly polling deliberately. This is still a silly thing to do for the reasons Nate points out, but the reason their close affiliation with progressive organisations is somewhat incriminating, or at least suspicious, in the eyes of Morris, is that it calls into question the motivation behind their polling.
several times over, for the companies with the same amount (but opposite valence) of partisanship.
I'm not very sympathetic to "The actor couldn't have researched that specific information, therefore their decision couldn't have been affected by those facts."
As a simple example, imagine that the unknowable facts were completely different. In this hypothetical Neely has won the Carnegie Medal for civilian heroism, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, is a shoo-in for canonization as a Saint, and did every other good thing you can name. The marine still hasn't done any biographical research. Do you think that that background would be just as irrelevant as the real one?
I don't blame people for being correct even if their reasoning can't withstand strict scrutiny.
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