Hacker News: arbitrarywords

New comment by arbitrarywords in "A battery has replaced Hawaii's last coal plant"

arbitrarywords — Thu, 11 Jan 2024 03:46:52 +0000

I hadn't heard of the word either but I sure do have the condition! I was a triathlete at one point, but I would take a very large swing around the marker buoys just in case one might touch me... and the grandparents comment of "big spooky tubes" sent a surge of adrenaline through my body. I feel so seen:)

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay"

arbitrarywords — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 07:36:45 +0000

As long as you are all happy with this. I'm still a little bit worried that the issue is Right There On the Table:)

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Dr. Seuss books deemed offensive will be delisted from eBay"

arbitrarywords — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 05:36:59 +0000

From an English background, I imagine we are sitting at a meeting. Something that is tabled is between us and under discussion. Something shelved has been removed from the table. What things are Americans visualising here when they say table?

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Tracking Phones, Google Is a Dragnet for the Police"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 22:57:41 +0000

What about if the police had a dedicated fund for arrests. For the employer - they aren't allowed to sack the employee, but administrative costs of finding temp staff can be claimed from the fund. For the arrested, all cost of living expenses are covered until trial, but should they be found guilty, this becomes a CPI indexed, interest free debt. Any pre-conviction incarceration costs where accused is found innocent are also paid by the fund. This seems to grab most of the data in one account. But does also seem to add a big incentive to find people guilty...

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Meditation study shows changes associated with awareness, stress (2011)"

arbitrarywords — Fri, 28 Nov 2014 06:06:29 +0000

I found Waking Up by Sam Harris pretty interesting. It's a bit more abstract than a how-to manual, more why and what. http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religio...

New comment by arbitrarywords in "What You Can't Say (2004)"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 09:07:44 +0000

Well the impression I get is the idea of a "cultural" muslim is contested from both within and without the muslim community so I don't think it's quite that clear cut. Who gets to own the labels seems to always be a political battle. You could argue that it is only "reasonable" to use the label for those who hold the beliefs.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "What You Can't Say (2004)"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 22 Mar 2014 06:03:36 +0000

If Islam <-> Muslim is completely false, curious as to how you would define the term?

Minsky: SourceForge Project (economic model)

arbitrarywords — Wed, 22 Jan 2014 09:26:56 +0000

Article URL: http://www.debtdeflation.com/blogs/minsky/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7101670

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Wikileaks publishes 500k new Stratfor emails"

arbitrarywords — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 00:42:12 +0000

Thanks. None of those quite seem to fit the email though. I'm guessing that the allusion in the email must have just been to general Klingon war-like attitudes.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Wikileaks publishes 500k new Stratfor emails"

arbitrarywords — Sun, 17 Nov 2013 00:14:45 +0000

I was wondering if the explicit naming of the weapons was supposed to refer to that exact scene in the Kubrick movie. Which, given it was one of the triggers of the slave rebellion make the original email seem possibly quite weird.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Wikileaks publishes 500k new Stratfor emails"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 16 Nov 2013 05:57:27 +0000

I'm assuming that there is some sort of Star Trek universe remake of the scene from Spartacus, but I can't seem to find it. If so, does it have the same set-up (slave gladiators battling for the amusement of the elites)? I'm not entirely sure this makes sense...

New comment by arbitrarywords in "MacKenzie Bezos Writes Amazon Review for Jeff Bezos Biography"

arbitrarywords — Wed, 06 Nov 2013 00:48:06 +0000

Without addressing the politics of it, it seems a good guess that anyone named MacKenzie is a 13 year old girl. http://www.behindthename.com/top/search.php?terms=mackenzie&...

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Being alone"

arbitrarywords — Tue, 29 Oct 2013 22:37:54 +0000

Maybe imagine you're a happily married account manager for a baby formula company and then when you go to professional conferences (of mostly women), every time you try to engage someone or get involved in a group conversation the talk subtly turns to nipple tenderness and mid-term horniness. It makes doing your job and life in general harder than if you were just another woman.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Smart Things Jeff Bezos Has Said"

arbitrarywords — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 23:41:07 +0000

with the proviso that the "additional input" is something more substantial that an opinion poll...

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil (2012)"

arbitrarywords — Tue, 06 Aug 2013 01:05:01 +0000

Can recommend their "Robust Flavour" line. Really quite nice, fresh and olicey.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "What happened to innovation?"

arbitrarywords — Sun, 23 Jun 2013 03:05:35 +0000

We might be slightly talking at cross purposes. I agree that something hot contains a lot of available energy. I'm making the point that it may not produce any available energy (i.e. inert in the sense of nuclear fusion).

New comment by arbitrarywords in "What happened to innovation?"

arbitrarywords — Fri, 21 Jun 2013 05:07:07 +0000

For your point to be persuasive you need to add why temperature and density would increase power. e.g. one could have a core of extremely hot, dense inert material.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Bioethicist says parents who don't vaccinate should face liability"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 10:22:18 +0000

While I agree that secret mass sterilization would indeed be bad, I found that article to be extremely non-persuasive in making me think that this is the case.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Bioethicist says parents who don't vaccinate should face liability"

arbitrarywords — Sat, 01 Jun 2013 03:59:09 +0000

The complication is vaccines have two benefits. 1. I am less likely to be infected 2. I am less likely to infect someone who can't be vaccinated. If you want people to leave you alone then you have to convince them that point 2 is less important than something else.

New comment by arbitrarywords in "Australian Government will offer 1Gbps this year to all NBN-connected homes"

arbitrarywords — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:28:37 +0000

Nah, it's South Brisbane. They knocked down the old exchange for the hospital extension, Telstra installed fibre, supposedly eventually it will be rolled into the official NBN network, but until then, we get rates way worse than ADSL and I'm forced to pay $30/mth for a "landline" which I never use... still, it's worth it for the latency.