Hacker News: splithalf

New comment by splithalf in "Rival weightlifter speaks out on transgender Hubbard's Olympic place"

splithalf — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 14:04:32 +0000

I like this idea. It could also make the nba and nfl more racially diverse.

New comment by splithalf in "Political trolling twice as popular as positivity, study suggests"

splithalf — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:40:04 +0000

The problem is the assumption of linearity. Things are good now but it seems to me things are getting better at a decelerating rate, and some trends have even started to reverse in the most westernized countries. Most of what’s getting better in the world is in places like Africa or Brazil, emerging economies. Things aren’t getting better for a lot of people in a lot of cities in America. People are fleeing la, sf, etc... Empires rise and fall, predictably.

New comment by splithalf in "Best performing assets against inflation"

splithalf — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 15:22:53 +0000

“ or wild economic gyrations stemming from desperate attempts to stave off said deflation.”

Seems certain as it’s already begun and once it has begun there’s nothing stopping it.

New comment by splithalf in "The mind of a murderer: the power and limits of forensic psychiatry"

splithalf — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 16:26:21 +0000

I have a similar reaction to a lot of YouTube psychology. So much confirmation bias and other nonsense passing for facts. It takes a lot of caution and care to discuss behavior without inadvertently misinforming people. Pinker is really excellent in this regard. Scott Alexander would be another person who is able to reason about behavior without misinforming. I think both should be more active in advocating for criminal justice reform, knowing what they know. Forensic psychology has a lot of skeletons in its closet.

New comment by splithalf in "Brain imaging before and after Covid-19 in UK Biobank"

splithalf — Sun, 20 Jun 2021 22:15:51 +0000

But the virus is “all natural”!

You can trust Mother Nature more than a bunch of creepy pharma-scientists. Didn’t you see Godzilla?

New comment by splithalf in "Life as a public school teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2021"

splithalf — Sat, 19 Jun 2021 15:43:14 +0000

The soft bigotry of different standards is talked about but rarely is the premise carefully examined. Can there be a single standard? Maybe the problem is expecting a good essay, composed in earnest, by a kid that can “barely string a sentence together.” We ought not be surprised when humans act human.

Maybe we should redefine public education to be a bit more exclusive, and not shame those that aren’t on a college track into pursuing mentally challenging work for which we are unfit. Give kids the money that would be spent on their education (loosely defined) and let them invest it, or spend on vocational training or seed money to start their own small business. Too much focus on producing som eidetic notion of the educated individual. People don’t wind up homeless because they weren’t exposed to Shakespeare. Some people will be lucky to attain enough basic skill to stay afloat. If such a person is able to fool plagiarism software, maybe that’s something to celebrate.

New comment by splithalf in "80% of orgs that paid the ransom were hit again"

splithalf — Fri, 18 Jun 2021 20:16:25 +0000

Security is impossible. As long as there are incentives, nothing will be secure. It’s just a matter of incentive/difficulty. With enough incentive stuxnet or solar winds or omb are possible. Bitcoin values are causing this equilibrium to be disrupted, making this appear as though it were a new problem.

New comment by splithalf in "After 50 years of the war on drugs, 'what good is it doing for us?'"

splithalf — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 18:51:03 +0000

It’s odd to hear so much focus on America and American politics. We have more liberal drug laws than other non-western countries but the discussion always has a lot of American exceptionalism in reverse.

New comment by splithalf in "Ohio Republicans close to imposing near-total ban on municipal broadband"

splithalf — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 16:33:21 +0000

We should ask Duck Cheney’s daughter about the diversity of her party, she seems like a poster child for that.

New comment by splithalf in "Ohio Republicans close to imposing near-total ban on municipal broadband"

splithalf — Thu, 17 Jun 2021 14:16:35 +0000

Half America hands it’s brain to one party, the other half to the other party. Many problems stem from this.

New comment by splithalf in "If you think psychological science is bad, imagine how bad it was in 1999"

splithalf — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 17:44:52 +0000

“Don’t hate the player, hate the game.”

Indeed. It is a scale problem. We have too many producers of research, too few destroyers of research, like Gelman. Show me the incentive and I can tell you the outcome. Encourage the whole world to become “experts” and then be amazed as the reverence and trust in expertise is devalued. That’s us.

New comment by splithalf in "NIH study offers new evidence of early SARS-CoV-2 infections in U.S."

splithalf — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 20:25:59 +0000

I thought I had covid before news of covid even came out. Was googling “novel pneumonia type illnesses” and reading about sequelae. I had had close contact with wuhan travelers in late dec. 2020. Mostly fatigue and headache for a week, then the lung issues started and lasted a month or more. A few weeks later the first couple of California cases from China presented at a local er. Few cared at that point as the politics were inverted early on due to the travel ban, and also the super bowl and impeachment vying for the public’s attention.

New comment by splithalf in "Ask HN: What do you wish was taught in college?"

splithalf — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 18:03:58 +0000

Psychology. You can’t know anything and not know something about knowing.

New comment by splithalf in "Most hospitals aren't complying with price transparency rule"

splithalf — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 17:42:44 +0000

Unless they are Comcast. Then it’s ok to work on a sliding scale.

New comment by splithalf in "Why People Fall for Conspiracy Theories"

splithalf — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 14:42:26 +0000

Because we think we’re better. Thinking to oneself, “I don’t believe in any conspiracy theories, but those other people sure do!” is to be unaware of the human condition. Ideology exists and it’s good to get frequent reminders about that, lest we judge.

New comment by splithalf in "Avoid News, Part 2: What the Stock Market Taught Me about News"

splithalf — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 14:18:43 +0000

How could one listen to enough Alex Jones to know this? I like the idea of Alex Jones, paranoid style American politics is a tradition and has its uses, but it’s to me a bit like pro wrestling. It’s not content that’s pitched toward the upper 2/3rds of the bell curve. He is a canary.

New comment by splithalf in "Reality Winner, NSA contractor in leak case, out of prison"

splithalf — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 20:47:27 +0000

Is Hillary Clinton and CNN a credible source?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/assange-embassy-excl...

New comment by splithalf in "Why Scientists Tweak Lab Viruses to Make Them More Contagious"

splithalf — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 16:23:31 +0000

“Is this work so valuable for public health that it outshines the risk to public health in doing it?”

The people doing this know nothing about security and that’s the real problem. They can’t hope to assess risks they do not understand, questions about security, not science. Moreover, most of the science experts have conflicted interests that will cause them to downplay valid security concerns.

All it takes is one disgruntled employee with the right access ...

New comment by splithalf in "Renting Is Cheaper Than Buying in All 50 Major Metro Areas in the United States"

splithalf — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 16:06:01 +0000

Rent control is the norm in our most expensive rental markets.

New comment by splithalf in "“Great resignation” wave coming for companies"

splithalf — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:44:57 +0000

This differs by gender. A married woman taking time off for domestic/child rearing/continuing education is very common. An adult male, it’s very uncommon unless you’re rich, which most posters here obviously are.