Hacker News: tboyd47

New comment by tboyd47 in "The Hallucination Defense"

tboyd47 — Thu, 29 Jan 2026 20:57:50 +0000

Anytime someone gives you unverified information, they're asking you to become their guinea pig.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Hypnosis with Aphantasia"

tboyd47 — Wed, 21 Jan 2026 14:16:12 +0000

There are subtle verbal cues that give away the dominant modality the person thinks with: visual, auditory, or kinesthetic, then you can tailor the session for that modality, using inductions for feeling- or hearing-oriented subjects. My dominant modality is kinesthetic, so I tend to use those first anyway.

Even though we live in a visually stimulating environment, and society tends to express things to us in visual ways, the goal of hypnosis is to relax the person and guide them to a comfortable place, so we can relate to people how they are internally and we don't have to worry about making everything highly visual.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Oral microbiome sequencing after taking probiotics"

tboyd47 — Wed, 07 Jan 2026 12:43:10 +0000

Fresh air

New comment by tboyd47 in "National Security Strategy of the United States of America [pdf]"

tboyd47 — Sun, 07 Dec 2025 16:27:18 +0000

Quoting 1984 is corny in every context

New comment by tboyd47 in "National Security Strategy of the United States of America [pdf]"

tboyd47 — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 22:38:28 +0000

I’m gonna do something really corny now but you led me right into it.

We were “always” at war with Eastasia

New comment by tboyd47 in "National Security Strategy of the United States of America [pdf]"

tboyd47 — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 19:19:42 +0000

If the country’s “core interests” can be defined and redefined based on the whimsy and preference of the current administration, then for the Trump administration to suggest that a certain thing will “always” be in the core interests of the country is ridiculous. The next administration will have their own core interests. Also, what a waste of resources that is.

New comment by tboyd47 in "National Security Strategy of the United States of America [pdf]"

tboyd47 — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 18:16:19 +0000

> America will always have core interests in ensuring that... and that Israel remain secure.

I don't remember that being part of the Constitution.

New comment by tboyd47 in "“Captain Gains” on Capitol Hill"

tboyd47 — Wed, 03 Dec 2025 14:47:26 +0000

Who's more of an insider than the person who writes the rules of business?

New comment by tboyd47 in "The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence"

tboyd47 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 14:32:04 +0000

That's indeed the play for non-corporate-insured consumers. Short-term insurance was $1,000 a year for a healthy person last time I checked. Just keep renewing until you need ACA-compliant insurance for some reason.

But back to my point: that does nothing to solve the root cause, which is the price inflation. And Washington is so deeply compromised that they will never fix it. The only solution lies with us just walking away. We hate to bargain a price on getting exposed to the ugly side of life, like disease, discomfort, and death, but indeed, everything has a price. And we will continue to be tested on our willingness to pay it with until we start playing hardball.

New comment by tboyd47 in "The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence"

tboyd47 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:57:32 +0000

> they will get healthcare and they will die

FTFY

New comment by tboyd47 in "The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence"

tboyd47 — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 11:51:02 +0000

How can you be so naive? Like I said. It’s not what we want to hear or think about. But it is the only route left. Either we stop buying the product or they keep raising prices on us.

New comment by tboyd47 in "The healthcare market is taxing reproduction out of existence"

tboyd47 — Mon, 01 Dec 2025 22:15:03 +0000

The corruption is so entrenched and so out of control, the only way out of this mess is for regular people to just stop using the health care system. Yes, there's no alternative, and yes, it means living a riskier life. It sucks, and it's not what we want to hear, but they can only charge us if we show up and purchase the product, and that's the last lever of power we can wield.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Calibration of PCR by antibody tests: course of SARS-CoV-2 infections estimated"

tboyd47 — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 13:59:38 +0000

> The value of 0.14 found for the fitted scaling parameter means that only 14% of those who were tested PCR-positively actually became infected with SARS-CoV-2.

File under commonly witnessed yet highly stigmatized facts.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Ask HN: Do single people feel young for life?"

tboyd47 — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:45:05 +0000

Why assume single people have had a lack of life events? I'm about to hit 40, and I've had enough life events for 3 lifetimes already, and I'm also single. I look and feel like I'm 29, though. I chalk it up to a healthy lifestyle and plenty of sleep.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

tboyd47 — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 18:02:11 +0000

It's a constitutional republic. Democracy is optional. We'll either discover it now or discover it later.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

tboyd47 — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 12:57:07 +0000

The representatives are chosen by the Electoral College, not the popular vote. The U.S. is not a democracy.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Using AI to negotiate a $195k hospital bill down to $33k"

tboyd47 — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:58:06 +0000

It's not a democracy. You were told wrong, it's a republic.

New comment by tboyd47 in "The risks from single-use plastic water bottles are understudied"

tboyd47 — Tue, 07 Oct 2025 01:03:25 +0000

Good thing we already went all in on single-use plastic bottles.

New comment by tboyd47 in "Why do LLMs freak out over the seahorse emoji?"

tboyd47 — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 14:39:16 +0000

"Settled digital fact" is a fascinating phrase. Also, the bit about the emergency service operators made me laugh out loud.

New comment by tboyd47 in "How Israeli actions caused famine in Gaza, visualized"

tboyd47 — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 18:32:36 +0000

Every con has an expiration date.