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zaknil

72 karma · joined April 1, 2021

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zaknil··on Scientists are working on "everything vaccines"
> put the lungs into a constant state of readiness, allowing fast responses to almost any invading germ

Succeeding at this would prove that our bodies have the capacity to do that but evolution "tuned" the system differently. A corollary would be that this vaccination is probably a net negative for public health, even if nobody'd really know why.

zaknil··on Shor's algorithm: the one quantum algo that ends RSA/ECC tomorrow
Replication of Quantum Factorisation Records with an 8-bit Home Computer, an Abacus, and a Dog

https://eprint.iacr.org/2025/1237.pdf

zaknil··on Is forced treatment for the mentally ill ever humane?
> When off her medications

Sure. The problem is that most (probably all) of these drugs give severe withdrawal symptoms when abruptly discontinued by a patient. You'd have to spend a lot of time to slowly wean her off all(!) drugs to know if they're helping or harming. Nobody does that.

zaknil··on The sum of all knowledge and the sorry state of the web
If that feels too intrusive, just ask people if they use snopes.com to check if the shocking thing they just read is real.
zaknil··on 5th Circuit Rules Internet Companies Have No Right to Moderate
This is only true if advertisers can threaten to shift their ads to someone who does suppress content.

A court ruling binding all (or at least all sufficiently large) players in the space acts like a (legal) cartel: Customers (advertisers) don't have a choice, the conditions are the same everywhere.

zaknil··on How the Netherlands facilitate the most hated websites in the world
Journalists Carola Houtekamer and Rik Wassens introduce Nick Lim:

> Nick Lim, a young American Internet fundamentalist with absolutist views on freedom of speech

Later, journalists Carola Houtekamer and Rik Wassens use a quote to illustrate how they want their readers to think about Nick Lim:

> "Right now, Nick Lim is like a wounded elk ... It is time to move in quickly for the kill, before he gets away again."

Lovely. "Move in quickly for the kill". Such upright anti-haters!

> At least three suicides have been linked to the brigading on [Kiwi Farms]

If a young American Internet fundamentalist ever has a bad meeting with some upright anti-hater stirred up by lovely words about "moving in for the kill," will journalists Carola Houtekamer and Rik Wassens admit to being "linked to" homicide? If Nick Lim should die by his own hand, will everybody in "anti-hate" understand that journalists Carola Houtekamer and Rik Wassens are linked to at least one suicide?

zaknil··on Octopuses, crabs and lobsters to be recognised as sentient beings under UK law
The "everybody must care because I do" mindset is vastly more annoying and infinitely more destructive.
zaknil··on Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) as a Way to Increase Food Volume and Satiety
You could have said the same thing about asbestos.
zaknil··on Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon) as a Way to Increase Food Volume and Satiety
We should of course recycle it.
zaknil··on Having children is not life-affirming: it’s immoral (2017)
The guy is doing his best trying to eradicate from the gene pool the kind of people receptive to arguments like his. In other words, he's doing God's work.
zaknil··on You Can’t Trust Amazon When It Feels Threatened
> They didn’t ask me that question when AWS turned Parler off

Because "words speak louder than actions" or something.