docbrown

Being neutral on any spectrum, Richard Pryor and George Carlin are socially accepted as two of the greatest comdeians of this time and they spoke on politics often. If doing so does anything, it accomplishes bringing awareness to bigger issues to an audience who it may not normally be exposed to.

>Ibuprofen is anti-inflammatory medication.

And an acetaminophen tablet is a painkiller. While your statement is in fact true, ibuprofen is still a better choice for a fever. The latter is also generally considered a safer alternative, especially in long-term use — even though alternating the two would be ideal.

>This individual recommends that society do nothing even though there are other military powers.

Based on the below passage, I do not believe they are advocating for military abolition at all. Your comment implies they want to rid the US of any and all military force but his argument is against the violence that stems from militarization.

He wants more peaceful solutions while maintaining military security.

>A true defense of our country would require both resources and research into non-violent conflict resolution methods. Both of these exist, but are starved compared with the technologies of warfare.

Neat idea. Hidden within the ReadMe file, someone re-wrote this tree in Wolfram but made it ornamented looking. [0]

Going further, the same author of the latter tree had a post picked by staff titled “Random Snowflake Generator Based on Cellular Automaton.”[1] Another very cool idea for this time of the year.

[0]https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/175891

[1]https://community.wolfram.com/groups/-/m/t/235291

>I was always informed either directly or indirectly through mutual friends, usually by phone or SMS/iMessage.

Precisely this. A type of thinking which includes Facebook being a persons only means of communication is very simplistic. While there are some unusual user cases -- such as my coworker who had to use wi-fi for Messenger -- and they pop up in certain circumstances, I do not think this is as widespread as some make it out to be. To explain my standing, it comes from my observation of hearing people say using Messenger is "easier" and they're able to stay in contact with people they may not want to on a more personal level (i.e. SMS, voice calls) or they are international.

The $4.6b in subsidies also helped make NY more appealing to Amazon.

>“The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per-job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press release calculation. [1]

[1] https://www.goodjobsfirst.org/news/releases/amazon-hq2-hq3-s...

>The researchers lost touch with 13 people, while 57 people died and 332 declined to take part."

This is one of the major downsides to longitudinal studies— people are unpredictable.

>I don't understand what the U.S. or the West is supposed to do about it.

They’re doing what they can and should do via policy decisions. I don’t remember reading a piece thus far where going to war with Suadia Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman was even a scenario.

By trying to minimize this act as something that “happens all the time” is partially due to society viewing these acts as normal for them.

>I don’t think a lot of poorly managed companies even get to a $1b valuation.

I think any product can become valuable depending on how you market it to your targeted users. FB is said to be somewhere you can go to be with friends and family; share memories, no matter where you are. If we’re going to ignore all of the ads and data mining going on behind the scenes, it’s easy to say that FB is doing a good for society. But it has its flaws.

Just earlier on HN there was a link about FB possibly selling user data. We have the Cambridge Analytica mess from the election.

Zuckerburg is smart when it comes to programming and tech, but running a company ethically is a different ballgame and that is the problem a lot of people have with his company. Nobody is saying he’s doing a bad job at building the product. He’s doing a bad job of managing the trust his users put into him when they use his service every single day.

This may be an unpopular opinion but here it is: Zuckerburg started this as a hobby with it being something he may never have thought of becoming full-scale. Fast forward to today and Zuckerburg is in over his head.

He has control over this !massive! amount of data that companies are chomping at the bit for. He’s trying to make sure his company survives and his product does no harm. But, he’s losing control. They’re trying to wiggle out of these wormholes they’ve sunk in and all of their fabrications are coming to light.

I wonder how the decision from Jennings v. Rodriguez played into this courts ruling. While Jennings v. Rodriguez gave immigrants the right to periodic bond hearings [1], it gives them civil rights from the start.

1: https://www.npr.org/2018/02/27/589096901/supreme-court-rulin...

>Before long genetic engineering will be commonplace but almost exclusively among the rich.

I think we’ve already fell into this type of scenario and I think this is partially why some are so against it. They’re looking at this as an luxury to families but if done right, gene engineering could and should be used solely to protect against inheritable and community spread diseases. This type of engineering can be a massive breakthrough for developing countries and similar areas.

But looking at this from a realistic standpoint: genetic engineering will be a taboo extreme that only a few will ever be successful with—until it is internationally recognized as beneficial and properly regulated.

>why did you choose psychiatry over for example a PsyD degree? And: what are the key data points that make you believe that the pharma-centric approach is the one worth devoting your career to?

The patronizing stench of this comment aside, you’re attempting to wedge these two careers into the same hole when they are apples to oranges. At their foundation, the curriculums between the two are nowhere comparable.

My psychologist has been taught to conduct _psychotherapy_ at an expert level. My psychiatrist is trained to be a _medical doctor_ on all bases with additional expert knowledge in their sub field.

While you may have a certain disdain for the field of psychiatry, attempting to devalue the importance of the balance they maintain for a patient stems from ignorance of what they do.

>However, as long as the people have the right skills or mindset I don’t see the issue.

That is exactly what they’re looking for, regardless of degree type. Without digging up all the numbers, soft skills in the hiring process are important to a great deal——as long as that person is able to understand the on-the-job training you’re going to give them.

You can have person A and B interviewing for a PM position.

Person A graduated from CS dept, 3.9cGPA, introvert, no experience.

Person B graduated from Literature dept, 3.8cGPA, study abroad, sociable, 5 years work experience with deadlines.

In my opinion, I would take person B over A. I’ll tell you why, though.

Person A has (1) shown they are able to understand different cultures and environments—as the company may be Fortune 500 or non-profit, the workforce can be diverse. (2) they have shown they can take responsibility and (3) be willing to engage with others, coworkers in particular and (4) is willing to get out of their comfort zone by wandering into CS.

Person B will bring me (1) experience but they may not be able to communicate effectively with coworkers, managers, customers, etc. due to their personality. They may know how to fix a problem but (2) they’re personality makes them get confrontational when you say there’s a better way than their way. In the end, the amount of worry I’d have with how they’d work with my other employees is much greater than the time it’ll take me to take an apprentice and teach them how and what I want and need them to learn.

>The first time I tried high quality olive oil >I thought it was unreal

For those people who may be having trouble understanding the comparison, this reaction would be the same reaction as if we were tasting supermarket hummus and legitimately homemade hummus.

One is McDonalds dry; the other is Michelin star silk.

Here is Nissan’s full press release regarding Ghosn in which they implicate Greg Kelly, Representative Director, as also being involved in this scheme.

One thing is for certain: they’re hanging Ghosn out to dry.

>Nissan has been providing information to the Japanese Public Prosecutors Office and has been fully cooperating with their investigation. We will continue to do so.

[0] https://newsroom.nissan-global.com/releases/release-860852d7...

In addition to Italy, Europe as a whole is pretty picky when it comes to olive oil. As an anglo who was introduced to authentic olive oil imported from Greece.. there is a very serious distinct taste difference between cheap and legitimate olive oil.

>This has been the standard for a while now. Why does higher edu charge more? Because they can!!!

Partially true but there are many other reasons why. Personally, I always thought it was administrative bloat which in turn put higher costs on the students. A 2015 study[0] shows that the real culprit could be as simple as less state support per research institution.[1]

>more than half of core educational expenses at “public” 4-year universities are now funded through tuition, a private source of capital, they have effectively become subsidized private institutions.

[0] https://www.demos.org/publication/pulling-higher-ed-ladder-m...

[1] https://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/imce/Pulling%20Up%...

The lens itself is never going to be able to change, correct.

When we get into implifying the problem by “bringing up the ISO” though, this is where you’ll run into problems. Anybody can raise ISO from 800 to 3200 but then you run the risk of inadvertently producing massive amounts of noise on your photo. This is why Google introduced HDR+ to reduce noise. [0]

So, what Google did, or at least it seems like, is they were able to take an algorithm that will automatically adjust ISO, reduce noise, and allow for low-light conditions that f1,8 glass would never be able to produce cleanly.

[0] http://ai.googleblog.com/2014/10/hdr-low-light-and-high-dyna...

Without pushing the cost astronomically high with f/1,4 lenses, it seems as if Night Sight somehow algorithmically allows the standard f/1,8 camera to shoot two-thirds up and allow for these low-light, long-exposure shots.

It’s honestly an amazing challenge they accepted and quite possible they accomplished their goal.

Your comment made me go back to articles on data sharing 23andme does with companies. At first I read your statement about cilantro but it seems these are just the type of questions companies are paying big money for.

>For now, though, 23andMe’s biobank is the world’s largest repository of DNA samples that also contains extensive health information, willingly provided by customers who answer survey questions like “Do you like cilantro?” and “Have you ever had cancer?” 23andMe says its customers supply it with as many as two million new facts each week.

There’s only one problem—depending on your own ethics—and that is your data is helping pharmaceutical companies develop new drugs.

The continuation from the above quote:

>These surveys are proving valuable to drug investigators. This year the company found genetic variations strongly linked to whether customers consider themselves early risers, offering a clue about how to develop drugs that modulate alertness. [1]

[1] https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601506/23andme-sells-data...

IMO, even the translation of “a person fell to the ground” is representing someone who is overworked and tired. Of what, we may not know, but the feeling he is trying to portray to us is that of emptiness and loneliness.

Like the screw, nobody heard it and nobody noticed when he, or whoever it was in the poem, fell to the ground.

Reading through the poems, one in particular stood out to me, ‘A screw Fell to the Ground.’ While it was done eight months before his suicide, the context seems to be relatable to how he may have been feeling—mostly the sound of “someone” plunging and nobody hearing.

—

《一颗螺丝掉在地上》 "A Screw Fell to the Ground"

一颗螺丝掉在地上 A screw fell to the ground

在这个加班的夜晚 In this dark night of overtime

垂直降落，轻轻一响 Plunging vertically, lightly clinking

不会引起任何人的注意 It won’t attract anyone’s attention

就像在此之前 Just like last time

某个相同的夜晚 On a night like this

有个人掉在地上 When someone plunged to the ground

-- 9 January 2014

For those of us without a NYT account, one part I found interesting from the WSJ report on the topic was their carefulness regarding pulling the trigger prematurely. While the FDA is trying to decrease the attractiveness of menthol, they’re strategically playing a sympathetic long term game with smokers.

As they and everyone knows, quiting smoking is a difficult task and suddenly prohibiting many peoples go-to fix would be cruel and possibly cause more harm than good.

>FDA officials—who want to curb use among youth while still encouraging adult cigarette smokers to switch to less harmful products like e-cigarettes—decided not to restrict sales of mint and menthol e-cigarettes because they didn’t want to create a situation in which cigarettes were more attractive to smokers who prefer menthol, senior agency officials said. [1]

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-to-propose-ban-of-menthol-c...

I’m sure Healthcare.gov contractors had a lot more bureaucracy and protocols they had to follow—especially security—regarding a project of this magnitude than a cubicle engineer at FB. Granted, the original launch was botched, trying to compare the two is apples and oranges.

I think this sums it up with some loose ends.

Freep at the Detroit Auto Show: [1]

>Bill Ford said the company sees an opportunity to build on its legacy and provide leadership in the rapidly changing mobility industry. Electrification is where the company is headed, he said.

>Unlike other companies, Ford wants to build on customer loyalty for established best sellers rather than try to market new brands that happen to be electric because it will speed up customer acceptance, Ford said.

But. Spin must still have //some// sort of technical knowledge Ford wants because they’re investing $11b into electrification vehicles with a product launch in 2020 and a lineup of 40 electrified and hybrid vehicles by 2022. [2]

——

[1]: https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/detroit-auto-show/201...

[2]: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autoshow-detroit-ford-mot...

One thing I always thought fascinating about Gates was his candid relationship with feces.

mindfuplay’s comment reminded me of the famous glass of shit water Gates drank from his Omniprocessor project [0].

But within that 2015 article, Gates mentions a long term plan for seweage and shit[1]:

>If we can develop safe, affordable ways to get rid of human waste, we can prevent many of those deaths and help more children grow up healthy.

>Western toilets aren’t the answer, because they require a massive infrastructure of sewer lines and treatment plants that just isn’t feasible in many poor countries.

He also mentions he wrote about toilets before in a 2012 article titled “Reflections on the Reinventing the Toilet Challenge.”[2]

Digging deeper into that article brought me to a PDF from the Gates Foundation outlining grants from their 2011 program: “Reinvent the Toilet Challenge” [3]

————

[0]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVzppWSIFU0

[1]:https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Omniprocessor-From-Po...

[2]:https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/Reflections-on-the-Re...

[3]:https://docs.gatesfoundation.org/Documents/wsh-reinvent-the-...

>”These deep structures in the thalamus and brainstem help our visual cortex to filter important information from the flood of visual input even before we consciously perceive it.” Interestingly, it seems that the more the signal timings between the two brain regions are aligned, the better the reading capabilities. “We, therefore, believe that these brain systems increasingly fine-tune their communication as learners become more and more proficient in reading,” the neuroscientist explains further. “This could explain why experienced readers navigate more efficiently through a text.”

I read the headline and instantly wondered if the same result occurs as we age and continue to fine tune our reading skills. The above passage seems to confirm the age old saying of reading keeping the mind active. One thing I am wondering though is if there is a certain types of literature that the brains reacts in a more positive or less than observation way. For example, does our brain engage more when we’re reading a technical literature review moreso than if it was a novel? Or vice versa. Is this why professionals—lawyers are the main ones i can think of—who comb through hundreds of dense reading weekly get viewed as achieving such a masters ability in reading?

>The law you quoted appears to say it's illegal to discriminate against Unemployed Ursula for being currently unemployed, so she should have the same shot as Younger Yenina and Late Larry. It doesn't say her year of unemployment must be considered equal to Experience Eric's extra year of work.

The argument made prior to this is not that an unemployed person is equal to a continuously employed worker but merely that unemployment should not and cannot affect your qualifications for position X. The law is pretty general as it states an employed person is anyone who does not have a job, is able to work, and is seeking work.

If Eric, Yenina, Ursula, and Larry are all able bodies, placing Ursula in her own category based solely on a gap year is in itself discriminatory.

The parent comments are taking the gap year into account—something that can be elaborated on, but should never be a deciding factor. The general consensus ITT is that Eric automatically is a better fit for position X than Ursula based solely on their employment history.

That argument in itself shows biases toward length of employment and current status, with the latter being something that should be irrelevant in a hiring process.

Edit: to show an example, most job postings on P&G have this disclosure:

>Qualified individuals will not be disadvantaged based on being unemployed.

That one line is what everybody is arguing againat, that unemployment automatically declines your qualifications.

>I'm just saying from the perspective of an employer evaluating two candidates, if all other things are equal, and one took a year off and one didn't, and the employer chooses the candidate who was at work continuously, they weren't specifically discriminating against "parental leave".

Gender aside, this is still discrimination based on a persons “experience”, as you call it, or very simply: their employment status.

This is against the law. Plain and simple. Look at some of the laws enacted over the years, starting in 2011 [1].

[1]: http://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/discrimina...