[Previous] The Four Best Books | Home | [Next] Ayn Rand on Thomas Szasz

Elliot Temple on September 21, 2017

Messages (474)

yay!


FF at 5:19 AM on September 21, 2017 | #9059 | reply | quote

Is this meant to be an experiment? To see what we discuss?


MK at 8:11 AM on September 21, 2017 | #9061 | reply | quote

> Is this meant to be an experiment? To see what we discuss?

The old Discussion Thread is overflowing!

He creates new threads one in while.


FF at 8:25 AM on September 21, 2017 | #9062 | reply | quote

C

one = once (Correction)


ff at 8:26 AM on September 21, 2017 | #9063 | reply | quote

Fresh Start

I updated the "Open Discussion" link in the sidebar to point here. The old thread had ~350 comments.


curi at 9:54 AM on September 21, 2017 | #9064 | reply | quote

Should we trust our emotions when it comes to preserving our Integrity?

Eg: Stealing violates my integrity so I start feeling bad when I am planning to steal something.


FF at 7:18 AM on September 22, 2017 | #9067 | reply | quote

Emotions are really helpful. They can give us clues that we are about to violate a value of ours.

I wouldn't call it "trust", though. Instead, you can be thankful for the clue and then use *reason* to figure out what you should do in the situation and why.


kate at 8:32 AM on September 22, 2017 | #9068 | reply | quote

> I wouldn't call it "trust", though. Instead, you can be thankful for the clue and then use *reason* to figure out what you should do in the situation and why.

yeah, I shouldn't have used the word "Trust". Trusting emotions would be a bad thing.


FF at 9:45 AM on September 22, 2017 | #9069 | reply | quote

Is matter a constructor?

David Deutsch talks about matter, energy, and evidence, and energy is a constructor for tasks that require a change in energy, and evidence is a constructor for the extinction of bad explanations, so...

Do matter and energy create explanations? Is matter a constructor for anything? Does it use electromagnetism to repel other matter and "construct" changes in the momentum of other matter with some charge?

Is this what allows it to instantiate explanations that are "kept"?

Why does it always have mass, and is that important for its role in knowledge creation?


Evan Oleary at 4:32 AM on September 25, 2017 | #9075 | reply | quote

@#9075

There's too much to discuss at once here. I'm going to reply to the first thing, and if we finish discussing it then I can go back and reply to the second thing.

> energy is a constructor for tasks that require a change in energy

it's unclear if you're claiming this or you're stating that DD claims it. can you give a source if you're attributing it to DD?

I question this idea because constructors aren't allowed to undergo a net change during constructions, but using energy changes it by e.g. turning some into waste heat.

Also isn't it *universal* constructors which are of primary interest?


Anonymous at 10:36 AM on September 25, 2017 | #9076 | reply | quote

Is matter a constructor?

Ah, whoops, yeah, I'm wrong about that. I thought DD claimed energy was a constructor.


Evan Oleary at 7:54 AM on September 27, 2017 | #9078 | reply | quote

Is matter a constructor?

But the point is that DD claims that evidence, matter, and energy are ingredients for knowledge to arise.

Is it sufficient for knowledge to arise? And if it is, then knowledge creation involves:

constructors which perform the possible transformations of energies of inputs (compositions of energy-commensurable tasks)

constructors which perform extinction of errors (evidence)

And my question is, is matter involved in a way where it's a constructor? For transformations of voltage or gravitational potential or something?


Evan Oleary at 8:01 AM on September 27, 2017 | #9079 | reply | quote

It'd be better to bring up fewer issues at once. E.g. try to understand FoR/BoI stuff or CT stuff in isolation before mixing them.

> constructors which perform extinction of errors (evidence)

This doesn't make sense. You should try to think of examples of things you talk about, and give the examples, and also give quotes from DD that you're trying to discuss. Also it's universal constructors which are of primary interest, and their primary interest is for understanding the laws of physics (not for understanding e.g. epistemology).

> Is it sufficient for knowledge to arise?

This question is unclear. It could be asking whether there's some 4th thing and knowledge is IMPOSSIBLE without it (not that I know of). That is, is there at least one configuration of any amount of evidence, matter and energy which allows for knowledge creation. Yes there is, e.g. the state of the Earth when biological evolution got going. But I don't even know what we're excluding, isn't everything (including evidence) made of matter and energy? You might say vacuum isn't, that empty space is excluded, but I doubt the question was intended to be about whether some empty space is needed.

> And my question is, is matter involved in a way where it's a constructor?

Yes, matter is involved in knowledge creation. Knowledge is created by evolution which involves replicators (such as dog genes) which are made out of matter.


Anonymous at 9:26 AM on September 27, 2017 | #9080 | reply | quote

huh!


Larry at 10:43 AM on September 27, 2017 | #9081 | reply | quote

About 20-30 years ago Liberty Fund made several deals with OUP to publish their Collected Works of various classical writers in paperback. (This was great for those who wanted to read these books, because the paper and printing of Liberty Fund was far better than that of OUP at the time.) Liberty Fund, as a matter of course, publishes e-versions of all of its titles for free, either on the net or, collectively, on disk. That was a long established practice.They did that in these cases as well.

Suddenly, one day, for no reason anyone can figure out, OUP informed Liberty Fund that they were still sticking by their deal with respect Liberty Fund's pb copies of the Collected Works of Adam Smith, but would sue for copyright infringement if Liberty Fund didn't immediately remove all electronic copies of these identical volumes. Liberty Fund complied, but everyone is still scratching their heads.


Craig J. Bolton on Facebook at 4:10 PM on September 30, 2017 | #9083 | reply | quote

OUP = Oxford University Press

Liberty Fund has free books here:

http://oll.libertyfund.org


Anonymous at 4:10 PM on September 30, 2017 | #9084 | reply | quote

Is matter a constructor?

Example would just be any result of a test that problematizes one or more bad explanations that you have (which obstruct you from using and building upon the good ones)

I agree universal constructors are of primary interest, and I'm trying to better understand universal explainers because they're the most important known part of a universal constructor


Evan at 1:45 AM on October 1, 2017 | #9085 | reply | quote

#9084 It also has the Quran not just "A collection of scholarly works about individual liberty and free markets."


FF at 8:21 AM on October 1, 2017 | #9086 | reply | quote

A piece of paper with the result of a scientific test is not a constructor. It's only capable of constructing any particular thing in very few initial conditions. Just like something is only a replicator if it can replicate in a variety of situations.

Why do you think universal explainers are part of a universal constructor?


Anonymous at 8:58 AM on October 1, 2017 | #9087 | reply | quote

Is beauty important? What problems does beauty solve?


Anonymous at 9:08 AM on October 1, 2017 | #9088 | reply | quote

the problem of not getting laid


Anonymous at 11:10 AM on October 1, 2017 | #9089 | reply | quote

But the result itself is repeatably observable, and it can condition people to construct the extinction of theories which expect something other than it

I think universal explainers are part of universal constructors because that's my best explanation for the regular co-occurrence and co-absence of ability-to-explain-a-lot and ability-to-construct-a-lot. (DD's connection between explanation and transformation)

Also, is there an exact difference between conjecture and criticism?


Anonymous at 8:07 AM on October 3, 2017 | #9090 | reply | quote

Is a rock (plain old boring rock i pick up from a beach or field) a constructor for unicorns? if you drop it into the right input scanner for a computer hooked up to an appropriate 3d printer, it will print a unicorn with no change to the rock.

> I think universal explainers are part of universal constructors because

how about a reason involving a quote from DD which directly says it? if not that, a quote from DD followed by a clear, short argument about how it's required by the quoted text?

you're incorrect. a universal constructor doesn't require a universal explainer as part of the constructor. i think you may be unaware of the concept of writing a program for what the constructor does as part of setting up the construction task.

> Also, is there an exact difference between conjecture and criticism?

a conjecture is an idea. a criticism is a type of idea. the words also have different connotations.


curi at 8:55 AM on October 3, 2017 | #9091 | reply | quote

twitter comment

140 chars is too short so i'm writing here and linking it. I'm replying to:

https://twitter.com/curi42/status/915685533203931136

Hit "show more replies". I didn't see any way to link directly to the 3 Andrew Adams reply tweets together.

---

Szasz wrote many books and papers. To address Szasz, you need to, in order:

1) understand his idea

2) evaluate his idea

3) write out the reasoning for your evaluation, especially if it's negative

You've pre-judged his idea as false before understanding it and without writing out a considered opinion. I would expect a reasonable negative judgement of Szasz's views to be at least a few hundred words and include at least one quote.

Alternatively, if someone else has already done this, you could endorse and take responsibility for their published evaluation of Szasz's ideas. If you want some pre-existing written criticism to speak for you, that's fine as long as you actually understand it and will treat criticism of it the same as criticism of your own writing.

What you've done instead is ambiguous assert that it's "well known" that Szasz is mistaken, and take for granted the reality of some of the very things at issue. That's not a rebuttal.


curi at 2:31 PM on October 4, 2017 | #9092 | reply | quote

> the problem of not getting laid

why does it solve that problem?


Anonymous at 5:00 AM on October 6, 2017 | #9097 | reply | quote

> why does it solve that problem?

people who want to bang prefer pretty faces


Anonymous at 11:00 AM on October 7, 2017 | #9098 | reply | quote

what if I don't want to get laid?


Anonymous at 7:52 PM on October 7, 2017 | #9099 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 5:55 AM on October 18, 2017 | #9186 | reply | quote

fixed, thx


Anonymous at 9:56 AM on October 18, 2017 | #9187 | reply | quote

Jordan Peterson, Dave Rubin, Onkar Ghate on Free Speech

Streamed live on Oct 19, 2017

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP2WlfTiohw


FF at 3:41 AM on October 24, 2017 | #9190 | reply | quote

i know that trying to look pretty so that other people like me is bad.

is there anything wrong with trying to look pretty for myself?


AnonGirl at 3:04 PM on October 24, 2017 | #9203 | reply | quote

trying to look pretty "for yourself" = trying to look pretty for other people, but internalizing it and being dishonest. that's *even worse*.

read https://thelastpsychiatrist.com/2013/01/no_self-respecting_woman_would.html


Anonymous at 3:28 PM on October 24, 2017 | #9205 | reply | quote

Is there a way to start a new thread or can only Elliot do that?

I have questions about TCS, coercion in general, induction, and free markets.


Cam at 12:40 AM on November 1, 2017 | #9230 | reply | quote

You can request threads. BUt there are already existing threads about TCS, induction, econ, etc, which you can use.


curi at 12:49 AM on November 1, 2017 | #9232 | reply | quote

there is a message for you from outside the circles of time

i am an imperfect messenger but this is what it said:

the capsids of your spicules burst with neutrinos

while the echo of your demise travels sideways in possibility

you will remember that one person who dies right in front of you for the longest


schizophrenia is contagious at 5:57 PM on November 8, 2017 | #9235 | reply | quote

12 Rationalist Virtues


curi at 1:10 PM on November 10, 2017 | #9238 | reply | quote

https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/4888618/sex-worker-slept-10000-men-answers-questions-women/

> In fact, in the decade she was in the industry, the most important thing to her clients was “feeling of being needed and wanted. Wanted badly by a horny woman. It is their ultimate fantasy after all.”

so men want approval more than they want sex, even when hiring sex workers.

> She said that it is vital, therefore that whatever sex acts you are doing, “you make look like you want him bad and are enjoying him so much (even if you aren’t).”

heh. this is why women fake orgasms.


What do men want from women/sex? at 10:12 AM on November 13, 2017 | #9249 | reply | quote

When will Rami be back? Does anyone know?


FF at 5:57 AM on November 29, 2017 | #9391 | reply | quote

MailMate Configs

What's up with the MailMate config files in the FF guidelines? Can't access.


Anonymous at 7:17 PM on December 5, 2017 | #9410 | reply | quote

dropbox breaks links sometimes. use http://curi.us/files/MailMate-Config.zip


Anonymous at 7:27 PM on December 5, 2017 | #9411 | reply | quote

Has Rami left FI?


FF at 9:51 AM on January 16, 2018 | #9454 | reply | quote

He didn't make an announcement about leaving. He just hasn't been posting. Who knows.


Anonymous at 6:00 PM on January 17, 2018 | #9455 | reply | quote

#9455 sorry for asking.


ff at 9:38 AM on January 20, 2018 | #9459 | reply | quote

Bitcoin is falling. Anyone who took Elliot's advise saved their money.


FF at 8:47 AM on January 22, 2018 | #9460 | reply | quote

FI essays

Curi,

I have been reading your essays at http://fallibleideas.com -- good stuff!

I noticed the essays under life articles do not have a heading/title, like the ones under the fallible articles section. I think it would be good to add them -- a few times I returned to re-read an article in an open browser tab and I was initial confused where I was.

Ur thoughts?


Anon69 at 12:40 PM on January 23, 2018 | #9466 | reply | quote

added. (it will take some time to show up due to cloudflare caching)


curi at 12:56 PM on January 23, 2018 | #9469 | reply | quote

Over-reaching

The Peter Principle: In a hierarchy individuals tend to rise to their level of incompetence.


Anonymous at 9:45 PM on January 28, 2018 | #9482 | reply | quote

A Self

What do advice do you have for someone who doesn't have much of a self but wants to have one? That is, someone who doesn't have strong interests or values or ideas.


Anonymous at 12:44 PM on February 12, 2018 | #9517 | reply | quote

learn stuff. read and discuss, esp Rand, esp *The Fountainhead*. choose and follow some interests – with objectively measurable performance and good improvement paths available (e.g. speedrunning) – to be **really good**. consider what good values you already have – including major cultural traditions like some respect for reason, individual responsibility and freedom – and build on them by looking at their implications, taking them further. try to understand your situation and problems really well *before* trying to change much (esp risky changes) b/c ppl often make the wrong changes and it doesn't work, and also they think "i already know X is wrong" without knowing enough about it to thoroughly change, so they end up changing 20% of X and refusing to "beat a dead horse" by learning more about it.


curi at 1:51 PM on February 12, 2018 | #9518 | reply | quote

I read your most recently newsletter and followed the link to Ann Coulter's post: CARTER PAGE: AGENT 000.

Comments:

> The Department of Justice used the unverified dossier to obtain a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Carter Page, an alleged "foreign policy adviser" to Donald Trump.

It's been reported that Carter Page has been monitored by the FBI since 2013, long before the dossier. For the FISA applications in question, was the dossier the sole evidence used? Which part(s) of the dossier were used? Were they corroborated with other evidence?

I am interested to see the democrat counter memo to see if it sheds light on these questions. I doubt that Nunes, the author of the memo, knows the answers to these questions, because he admits not having read the underlying material.

> the FISA court was not told who had paid Steele to create the "salacious and unverified" dossier.

Nunes subsequently admitted there was actually a footnote that mentioned the information in the dossier may come from a politically motivated source.

> Since it has appeared for quite some time now that there is no collusion, the only thing left for Mueller to investigate is Trump's "obstruction of justice," i.e. Trump being pissed off that his time is being wasted.

How does Ann know what facts and evidence Mueller has in front of him. Why is she pre-judging the investigation?

Looking at past special investigations, these things take time. See: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/mueller-is-moving-quickly-compared-to-past-special-counsel-investigations/

I also think the potential obstruction charges are legitimate. Perhaps Ann is joking, but explaining them away as trump just being pissed off about his time being wasted doesn't make sense.

> The reason Rosenstein appointed Mueller was that he believed the "salacious and unverified" dossier. We know that because Rosenstein personally signed one of the FISA warrant applications based on the dossier

non sequitur. I thought the special council was precipitated by the unusual facts surrounding the comey firing and to ensure a non-partisan / independent investigation.

Ann also claims Steele is a trump hater. Maybe, although I haven't seen much supporting that. I've seen the quote from Ohr saying Steele "was desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being president." But that can be read two ways: a man biased against trump, or someone who thought he was witnessing crime(s) in progress and was very troubled w/ Trump being president from a national security perspective. Even considering Steele's intelligence may all be wrong, I lean towards the latter after reading about Steele and also having read the Fusion GPS congressional testimonies.

Steele's dossier represents raw intelligence gathered by a single person. It should be treated as such: requiring verification/corroboration. I haven't seen anything with the Russia investigation that suggests it has been treated otherwise.


Anon69 at 4:02 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9521 | reply | quote

denies bias of Steele, then links Nate Silver's site as if it wasn't fully partisan.


Anonymous at 4:07 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9522 | reply | quote

> I haven't seen anything with the Russia investigation that suggests it has been treated otherwise.

and where did you look? 538?


Anonymous at 4:07 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9523 | reply | quote

> denies bias of Steele, then links Nate Silver's site as if it wasn't fully partisan

>

> > I haven't seen anything with the Russia investigation that suggests it has been treated otherwise.

> and where did you look? 538?

I haven't read much of 538 website, but I can see they are left-leaning.

As far as the link provided...I stumbled into that page and thought it did a decent job, e.g. summarizing the history of special investigations, plus a nifty diagram.

Any criticisms of the content?

As far as my conclusions in general and "where did I look?". Read dossier, read Nunes memo, watched or read interviews with various players. As many primary sources as possible. Watch or read congressional testimonies. NYT, WSJ, Politico, WashPost, Breitbart. I've read most of Ann's posts for the last 6 months. Probably 50+ hours of effort in the past 6months.

Do you care to offer any criticism of my comments?


Anon69 at 4:36 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9524 | reply | quote

if you're following politics so closely, why did you have no idea who/what 538 is?

did you notice your list of news outlets is 80% MSM? that's super biased.

you are downplaying what 538 is by saying "left-leaning". that is a large understatement. you are showing clear biases.


Anonymous at 4:40 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9525 | reply | quote

you have presented no case that there's anything worth investigating.


Anonymous at 4:42 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9526 | reply | quote

> if you're following politics so closely, why did you have no idea who/what 538 is?

Here's what I know about 538: Guy named Nate Silver runs the site, I think he's a pollster or something, seems to pop up during elections. I've watched his site a little during elections for real-time results. Haven't spent much time on his site otherwise. The site is occasionally linked to from other sources.

> did you notice your list of news outlets is 80% MSM?

Yes, but I don't see a problem. I have what I'd consider an unusually diverse exposure.

There's kinda bad analysis everywhere. MSM, sites on the right, sites on the left. I am generally suspicious of everyone.

MSM, on the whole, seems to do a better job of presenting the basic facts about the news (aside from "opinion" pieces). When I look a given news event, as reported by more lefty (e.g. HuffPost / Vox) or right leaning (e.g. Breitbart / DailyCaller) they often report on an odd and narrow sliver of the full story...the sliver the supports their biases.

> you are downplaying what 538 is by saying "left-leaning". that is a large understatement. you are showing clear biases.

I wouldn't know (that it's an understatement). I really don't know 538 very well per above.


Anon69 at 6:33 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9527 | reply | quote

> you have presented no case that there's anything worth investigating.

Is there a specific statement I'd made, that you'd like to know more about?


Anon69 at 6:35 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9528 | reply | quote

> Is there a specific statement I'd made, that you'd like to know more about?

could you present the case for the investigation?

> Yes, but I don't see a problem. I have what I'd consider an unusually diverse exposure.

80% biased is OK b/c other ppl read 90% biased sources? seriously?

you're reading primarily lefty MSM stuff, and now you've attacked Breitbart as if it were similarly bad to huffpo/vox, which is a nasty slander you have backed up with no facts. you're massively biased here.

what are you trying to accomplish? you just don't seem to know or care about what the FI community thinks about this stuff. you aren't asking or curious, you're hostile and way way way to the left of the blog you're commenting at. why don't you go through and write comments on curi's right wing posts telling him where he's wrong? that seems more productive than trying to debate other people instead of debating curi directly.


Anonymous at 6:45 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9529 | reply | quote

> what are you trying to accomplish? you just don't seem to know or care about what the FI community thinks about this stuff.

I posted here about something curi linked which I disagreed about...as a starting place to learn more and seek criticism.

I'm in the process of learning about FI. I suspect I don't have a great understanding of all things FI. I do "care", which is the very reason I decided to post.

I wonder if disagreement is being delegitimized here, by calling me biased, hostile, etc

> you aren't asking or curious

Asking or curious about what?

> you're hostile

I'm not hostile, why do you think that?


Anon69 at 8:27 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9530 | reply | quote

hi anon69. i think you're jumping into the forest to debate trees before getting the lay of the land. you seem to think Breitbart is comparable to Vox(!!!!!!), while reading a bunch of MSM material. Do you want to talk about that?

In order to detect things like NYT bias, it's important to have a good grasp of what the truth is so you can compare. Or if you don't already know much, you could take some article and start investigating it – perhaps one which some critics have already identified as both important and bad.

Do you have political principles? A framework you use to interpret the things you read? Tools to catch bad actors and spot their major mistakes?

Do you have a way of evaluating what's correct that you then subject things like the NYT's positions to (and somehow conclude they are superior to breitbart?), or are you reading less critically than that and getting your opinions from what you read in an ad hoc way, or what?

And you say you read primary sources about the Russia investigation, but you didn't present any case for the investigation using them. Want to try that? One of Ann's main points about the investigation is there's no real reason for it to be taking place in the first place. You seem to disagree ... and say you read tons about it (I haven't), so want to explain your view? Meanwhile, you showed a willingness to use hard-left sites you don't know much about as sources without doing any checking first, and then you downplayed the problem instead of wanting to retract it. (I have done multiple fact checks of Coulter, which I posted publicly, which is why I'm wiling to link her even though I haven't followed this particular topic much.)


curi at 8:43 PM on February 14, 2018 | #9531 | reply | quote

Curi,

I'm interested in replying to all of your questions as I have more time, but a quick one in the meantime.

> Meanwhile, you showed a willingness to use hard-left sites you don't know much about as sources without doing any checking first, and then you downplayed the problem instead of wanting to retract it.

I stand by the link I sent -- I can't spot any major mistakes with it. I believe it offers an accurate summary about past special investigations, and it offers something to consider in response to, e.g. "It's been X months and there's no proof of Y" regarding the Mueller investigation. It shows how slow the wheels of justice turn.

I think there's an issue of me not understanding / seeing the problem here, rather than knowing it and downplaying it. Can you explain more about what the problem is?


Anon69 at 7:59 AM on February 15, 2018 | #9532 | reply | quote

Is there any source you wouldn't trust a claim from without some meaningful fact checking? SPLC? Salon? Michael Moore? Stormfront? MSA? SJP? Anything funded by George Soros?

Nate Silver is really bad – a shameless, dishonest partisan hack. It's your job to check stuff from him and his associates yourself, if you want to use it, not push that checking burden onto others.


curi at 1:15 PM on February 15, 2018 | #9533 | reply | quote

The more I learn the more I see that just because a news source is well-respected does not mean that it is unbiased or accurate. This is bad :( It means that a lot of the news we watch or read is giving us wrong information. We need to figure out which sources do a good job before we rely on their information. It takes some work to do this.


anonymous at 1:25 PM on February 15, 2018 | #9534 | reply | quote

yeah.

and that issue doesn't just apply to news sources. for example, respect/credentials/prestige/reputation is also very unreliable for science (including medicine and diet/nutrition/health advice) and academic papers.


Dagny at 1:40 PM on February 15, 2018 | #9535 | reply | quote

> Is there any source you wouldn't trust a claim from without some meaningful fact checking? SPLC? Salon? Michael Moore? Stormfront? MSA? SJP? Anything funded by George Soros?

When it comes to political news/analysis, there's no source I'd trust without some fact checking. Pretty much anything I read/watch I file under "maybe", until I see primary sources, hear responses from various parties involved, etc.

>Nate Silver is really bad – a shameless, dishonest partisan hack. It's your job to check stuff from him and his associates yourself, if you want to use it, not push that checking burden onto others.

Do you have any examples of partisan hackery by Nate Silver? Just curious to check it out (I haven't read much of his stuff).

Regarding the link I provided on the Mueller investigation, I had prior knowledge about events surrounding Mueller so far and those all checked out. Also about some of the facts w/ prior investigations. Based on your prompt, I went back and fact checked a some of the timelines on the prior special councils...they check out as well.


Anon69 at 7:25 AM on February 16, 2018 | #9538 | reply | quote

the article appears to be trying to say or imply:

- the russia investigation is typical or average, and should be judged by a comparison to a typical or average past investigation. (this implies e.g. that it isn't partisan bullshit)

- the investigation has gotten quick, good results (Flynn should burn)

- the specific prior investigations compared to are the correct, representative set

the first two are key points that are not argued, more implied, and the third one is a potential source of bias.

Nate Silver published dozens of attacks on Trump during the election, mostly in the form of predictions that turned out wrong, and which he kept making with no shame about his track record of failure.


Anonymous at 1:56 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9540 | reply | quote

> One of Ann's main points about the investigation is there's no real reason for it to be taking place in the first place. You seem to disagree ... and say you read tons about it (I haven't), so want to explain your view?

Sure. There are perhaps two related questions: why the investigation(s) exist in general vs why they’ve been rolled up into the Special Counsel (Mueller) vs just handled by relevant teams in the DOJ or FBI.

As far as the Special Counsel…there's some history as to why that concept exists which I'll leave aside for now. But Deputy AG Rosenstein appointed a Special Counsel back in May 2017 (would have been AG Sessions doing the appointing, but he recused himself from Russia matters). It came to be after the unusual circumstances around the firing of FBI director Comey, where troubling/contradictory statements were made by the WH and Trump about why Comey was fired. Most famously, Trump during a TV interview (w/ Lester Holt) said he would have fired Comey regardless of recommendations from the DoJ (contradicting WH statements about the reason) and tied it to the “Russia thing". And then also, Comey released memos documenting troubling encounters w/ Trump, RE: loyalty and Flynn. All of this raised questions about whether there was just cause for the firing and attempts at obstructing justice. To ensure the existing investigations could proceed in an independent and non-partisan manner and protected from obstruction, Rosenstein appointed a special council to take over the investigations.

The areas of investigation that the Special Counsel is looking at:

- Russia interference in the 2016 presidential election

- Potential collusion/conspiracy between Russia and the Trump campaign

- Obstruction Of Justice

- Other crimes discovered during the investigation

In addition to the indictments already served, I've looked at it closely and I believe there is substantial evidence for why these investigations should be happening. Along the way, I've been mindful to look for evidence of being politically motived, improper, etc, and haven't found anything significant. I can get into the details of each area if desired.

The investigation is done in secret so to understand the progress we're limited to existing indictments, leaks, etc. Activity known to the public so far:

-Flynn indictment

-Papadopoulos indictment

-Manafort Indictment (conspiracy and money laundering)

-Gates indictment (conspiracy and money laundering)

-Announced today: Indictment 13 russian nationals and 3 Russian entities (conspiracy to defraud the US, wire fraud, bank fraud, and identity theft)

-Reports of various interviews taking place

Here are some signs that the investigation has substantial work ongoing:

-Witnesses continue to be interviewed (E.g. Steve Bannon this week)

-Trump hasn’t been interviewed yet

-Flynn, Papadopoulos (and likely Gates per recent reporting) flipping/cooperating, meaning they have something to offer on other targets to avoid other charges

-Most recent indictments came out today (central to the russia interference part)

Ann made several criticisms of the investigation in her Carter Page blog post which I touched on above. Your thoughts on those or are there others you'd like me to comment on?

In her latest blog post "Anatomy Of A Coup", she summarizes:

> This is an investigation with no evidence of a crime, apart from politically motivated, anti-Trump investigators relying on a Hillary-funded dossier.

The investigation has already served many indictments showing crimes (none involving dossier that I know of). The investigation in general only touches the dossier in a few areas, and no evidence that anything *relies* on it. The people alleged as anti-trump (which I disagree about in the case of Steele) have minor roles.

The Special Counsel's work seems legit and important to continue. I don't understand why Ann attacks it in a way contrary to the facts.


Anon69 at 2:08 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9541 | reply | quote

> The areas of investigation that the Special Counsel is looking at:

None of those are the thing you claimed was the reason for the investigation: lack of at-will employment in the government.

Regardless, do those things merit an investigation? You presented no case that they do. You didn't even try. Even though the topic was:

> > One of Ann's main points about the investigation is there's no real reason for it to be taking place in the first place.

so you haven't even begun to address the topic. you just said you could do that in the future if asked. but you were asked already.

---

Overall I don't think you understand that there are a million crimes everywhere, and that this is massive politically-motivated selective attention. If you investigated Obama stuff you'd find a larger number of more serious crimes. What did Trump do, beyond beyond business as usual, to merit so much attention to this investigation *over* other potential investigations?


curi at 2:16 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9542 | reply | quote

And if the goal is broader societal and government reform (you might reasonably respond to me by thinking that's a good goal), is this investigation way to do it? No. It's not designed for that purpose.


curi at 2:18 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9543 | reply | quote

> > The areas of investigation that the Special Counsel is looking at:

> None of those are the thing you claimed was the reason for the investigation: lack of at-will employment in the government.

I'm having a hard time parsing what you mean here. I'm not sure if this helps but the reason various threads of investigations were rolled up into the special counsel is different than the reasons those investigations are taking place.

> Regardless, do those things merit an investigation? You presented no case that they do. You didn't even try.

Right. I thought we could take things step by step to see if agreement/questions, interesting in continuing, before zooming in.

> What did Trump do, beyond beyond business as usual, to merit so much attention to this investigation *over* other potential investigations?

The investigation is only in part about Trump himself, maybe just the potential obstruction of justice piece, although time will tell as further details emerge.

Mostly it's about other people, such as Trump campaign officials, or Russian nationals such as those indicted today.

As far as attention of this investigation over others...I'm guessing you are not talking about media attention, because that's not really relevant to the merits of the investigation itself. As far as measuring attention within the govt (effort, money spent, number of investigators, etc)...I'm not sure how to measure that.

I saw an article late last year saying about $7 mil spent to date on the Mueller investigation. The FBI's budget for 2016 was $8.7 billion. I recall there being ~20 prosecutors as part of the special counsel. FBI has 35k employees (not sure how many of them are prosecutors though).

How do you assess it as getting undue amount of attention over other investigations?


Anon69 at 2:41 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9544 | reply | quote

> I'm having a hard time parsing what you mean here.

You wrote, about non-at-will employment:

> It came to be after the unusual circumstances around the firing of FBI director Comey ... All of this raised questions about whether there was just cause for the firing

You presented the firing as a primary issue, then proceeded to list different things as the topics of the investigation, without explanation, as if it wasn't a total non sequitur.

> I thought we could take things step by step to see if agreement/questions, interesting in continuing, before zooming in.

You didn't do a small steps. You wrote a ton of stuff, it just didn't address the issue.

> How do you assess it as getting undue amount of attention over other investigations?

I agree the monetary price isn't so bad – though there's still a ton of other higher priority things to investigate. But it's costing a ton in terms of attention, it's a huge distraction. So, why was it started? Who decided to pour tons and tons of attention on this, for what purpose? What was the thought process there? Did they evaluate many potential investigations, and with what criteria? Is it just partisan political fighting? Or what?


curi at 2:56 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9545 | reply | quote

> > I'm having a hard time parsing what you mean here.

> You wrote, about non-at-will employment:

> > It came to be after the unusual circumstances around the firing of FBI director Comey ... All of this raised questions about whether there was just cause for the firing

> You presented the firing as a primary issue, then proceeded to list different things as the topics of the investigation, without explanation, as if it wasn't a total non sequitur.

Ah, I see the confusion. The comey stuff was part of why the investigations (including *existing* investigations) were roll-up in the Special Counsel. The comey firing may or may not be relevant for one particular thread (the obstruction of justice) but otherwise, unrelated to the other topics.

I brought up all of that to separate the issues of 1) should the investigation(s) exist? vs 2) should the special counsel exist? Which I've have found are sometimes conflated / not well understood.

Will respond later, RE: other questions and more about reasons for investigations.


Anon69 at 3:08 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9546 | reply | quote

i am not very interested in the form of the investigation, and also i thought Comey should have been fired on day 1 along with a lot more ppl, so firing him does not impress me as a reason to investigate.


curi at 3:18 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9547 | reply | quote

> i thought Comey should have been fired on day 1 along with a lot more ppl, so firing him does not impress me as a reason to investigate.

Maybe Comey should have been fired day 1. But hypothetically...if Trump disagreed with you, but then later fired Comey to stop / slow down investigations into his friends / colleagues, or even himself...that would be bad, no?

I'm not saying such obstruction has been established, but I believe lots of circumstantial evidence suggests it should be looked at...


Anon69 at 3:33 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9548 | reply | quote

if the investigations were bad, then firing their leader would be good.

and i think the reason Trump kept Comey was not that he thought Comey was good, it was an overly compromising approach to politics, which then came back to bite him.

Trump thought he could leave some people in place and they would act reasonably, but he quickly found himself betrayed.

and you can't have important obstruction until after there's stuff worth investigating, so that's not a primary point, so let's focus on stuff to investigate in the first place.


curi at 3:52 PM on February 16, 2018 | #9549 | reply | quote

Thanks for the link!


Kate at 7:39 AM on February 25, 2018 | #9603 | reply | quote

Camille Paglia

Anyone know much about Camille Paglia? Picked up on her after watching a conversation between herself and JP. She's a first-wave feminist who is highly critical of third-wave feminism, like here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxWOsUOsDyU

I find myself agreeing with much of what she is saying.


Anonymous at 10:37 PM on February 25, 2018 | #9605 | reply | quote

Says a bunch of things I agree with then says she was a Bernie Sanders supporter :(

On Rand:

> Many people have noticed the very real parallels between Ayn Rand and me. (I was born in the United States, however; my mother and all four of my grandparents were born in Italy.) A New Yorker profile of Rand several years ago in fact called her “the Camille Paglia of the 1960s.”

>

> Ayn Rand was the kind of bold female thinker who should immediately have been a centerpiece of women’s studies programs, if the latter were genuinely about women rather than about a clichéd, bleeding-heart, victim-obsessed, liberal ideology that dislikes all concrete female achievement. Like me, Rand believed in personal responsibility and self-transformation as the keys to modern woman’s advance.

>

> Rand’s influence fell on the generation just before mine: In the conformist 1950s, her command to think for yourself was brilliantly energizing. When I was a college student (1964-68), I barely heard of her and didn’t read her, and neither did my friends. Our influences were Marshall McLuhan, Norman O. Brown, Leslie Fiedler, Allen Ginsberg and Andy Warhol.

>

> When my first book finally got published in 1990, a major Rand revival was under way. I was asked about her so often at my book signings and lectures that I researched her for the first time. To my astonishment, I found passages in her books that amazingly resemble my own writing: This is certainly due to the fact that we were inspired by the same writers, notably Nietzsche and the High Romantics.

>

> The main differences between us: First, Rand is more of a rationalist, while I have a mystical 1960s bent (I’m interested in astrology, palmistry, ESP, I Ching, etc.). Second, Rand disdains religious belief as childish, while I respect all religions on metaphysical grounds, even though I am an atheist. Third, Rand, like Simone de Beauvoir, is an intellectual of daunting high seriousness, while I think comedy is the sign of a balanced perspective on life. As a culture warrior, I have used humor and satire as the most devastating weapons in my arsenal!

Paglia is all over the place and even admits she is not an intellectual of "daunting high seriousness". I don't think I'll give her much more attention.


Anonymous at 11:41 PM on February 25, 2018 | #9606 | reply | quote

how much gun control should there be?

should any guns be illegal?

at what age should people be allowed to own guns?

what severity of crime should make it so you are not allowed to have a gun anymore?

should people who are much more likely to commit a crime, but have not committed a crime in the past, be allowed to own a gun?

should any ammo types be illegal?

i am pro gun, but im not sure what the limits should be (if any).


Anonymous at 7:41 AM on February 27, 2018 | #9609 | reply | quote

more gun questions:

should gun owners have to learn gun safety like drivers do?

are there guns for which the only purpose is killing a lot of people at once? if so, should those guns be outlawed?

should people who threaten to kill other people be allowed to have guns?


TD at 8:21 AM on February 27, 2018 | #9610 | reply | quote

As background, understand that in any society with significant freedoms any evil person who really wants a gun is going to get one regardless of what the law says about it. The law affects primarily good people who follow the law, and only secondarily makes things harder for evil people who don't follow it.

Over time it will get easier for evil people to get guns rather than harder because of technology. 3D printers facilitate easier and more distributed manufacturing of everything, including guns, gun parts/modifications, and ammunition. The internet facilitates anonymous commerce transactions, even black market trade in guns, gun parts, and ammunition.

With that background in mind perhaps some things become clearer:

Making certain types of guns or ammunition illegal will not be effective over the long run. And attempts to enforce such laws will require increasingly draconian rules on both the internet and 3D printing technology, both which have severe and far-reaching impacts beyond guns.

If a person is old enough to control a 4000 pound car capable of running down people in crowds, they are old enough to have a gun. We let people drive at age 16. I don't have a criticism of that tradition generally, and think it should be a starting point for discussing gun ownership.

If a person is too dangerous to have a gun, they are too dangerous to be let out of jail. Think that through. Let it sink in. Maybe the right answer is that some criminals need to be in jail longer. But the point is "keep convicted felons from getting guns" is a dangerous lie perpetrated on the public.

Turning a convict loose on society with the rule "you are free again except you can't have a gun" is a lose-lose proposition: If the convict has actually reformed, you leave him undefended against people who are still criminals. And if he hasn't actually reformed, he'll disregard the laws and get a black market gun for his evil deeds anyway.


PAS at 8:36 AM on February 27, 2018 | #9611 | reply | quote

Threats

Seriously threatening to kill someone is a crime in itself. A person can (and should) go to jail for it.

There is room for judgement as to whether a particular threat is serious. Someone who says "if you scratch my car I'll kill you" while smiling and handing over the keys to an old friend borrowing the car is not making a serious threat and the person should not go to jail.

However, when the seriousness of a particular threat is in question one component of the judgement is whether the person has the means to carry out the threat, and whether they reference such means.

All else equal, a threat made by someone who has a gun is more serious than a threat made by someone who does not have a gun. A threat which references a gun as the means (like, "I'm going to shoot you") is more serious than a threat that doesn't reference the means.

Someone who threatens to shoot an ex-lover's new boyfriend and posts pictures of himself with his guns while doing it should be taken very seriously. That's a crime, and the person committing that crime should go to jail. They should not be let out of jail until they no longer pose that threat. Determining that length is a separate and very hard problem, but I'm referencing the principle here.

Merely taking away the threatening person's gun is totally the wrong approach. The threat-maker can always get another gun (see my previous message), or use some other weapon to carry out his threat instead.


PAS at 9:30 AM on February 27, 2018 | #9612 | reply | quote

Gun Safety

A reasonable person will learn how to use a gun safely before owning one just like a reasonable person will learn how to drive safely before driving. So the issue is, what about people who aren't reasonable?

There are several issues with government requirements around training, registration, or certification. Most of these apply to both cars and guns.

On the one hand, short of really draconian monitoring and intrusion such requirements don't effectively prevent untrained people from using a gun or driving. An untrained person can get the keys to a car, turn it on, and drive. It happens all the time. The main forces that limit it are cultural and financial incentives, not legal.

Similarly, an untrained person can pick up a gun and fire it. Requiring some kind of government "gun license" won't change that. And there's already plenty of cultural knowledge about limiting untrained people's access to guns.

On the other hand, short of instituting extremely high and expensive standards that few people could pass, such requirements don't effectively insure the supposedly-trained person knows how to safely drive or handle guns. "Training" and "testing" are, in general, awful with regard to both driving and guns. Certifying someone has been trained and passed a test does very little to insure they actually know and will apply safe practices.

Plenty of people who have driver licenses are in fact quite terrible and unsafe drivers, and I'd expect the same with any sort of gun license. Such regulations give people a false sense of security...I'm licensed, so that must mean I know what I'm doing. WRONG.

So no, I don't think licensing drivers actually makes roads safer and I don't think licensing gun owners would actually reduce unsafe gun practices.

Additionally, one difference between guns and cars is there's not much historical precedent for using drivers licenses or car registration as a step toward banning driving or car ownership. Nor is there a significant and powerful movement to ban driving or car ownership. The extreme greenies who want that are, at least for now, pretty marginalized.

But there is such a precedent and large/powerful movement with regard to banning guns. That makes gun licensing and registration a more risky thing to allow the government to do than driver licensing and car registration.


PAS at 10:02 AM on February 27, 2018 | #9613 | reply | quote

What (non-gun-control) things could we do to reduce mass shootings and other murders in the US?

PAS, your answers above make a lot of sense.


anon at 12:25 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9614 | reply | quote

> What (non-gun-control) things could we do to reduce mass shootings and other murders in the US?

stop forcing kids to go to school who don't want to. this is important both for the bullies and their victims. both sides of that is a bad experience. happy people who want to be at school would not be bullies, and also we make their victims keep going to the same place to get bullied more. plus many kids believe – often correctly – that their teachers are cruel idiots, the textbooks are horrible quality, school is a waste of time educationally, etc. making someone go to that for years and years can really sour them on how good a world they live in, make them resentful, etc.

if young people had more control over their lives, they would value their lives more. it makes sense that people don't value what someone else (their parents and teachers, cultural authorities, static memes, etc) are controlling.

and if ppl actually learned good ideas, that would help too! wise ppl don't want to be murderers.


curi at 12:33 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9615 | reply | quote

> What (non-gun-control) things could we do to reduce mass shootings and other murders in the US?

build a wall, deport illegal aliens, end anchor babies, stop letting in third world and muslim immigrants who won't be a benefit to the country and commit way more crimes, have more cultural confidence and start assimilating people who do come here (and if they don't want to be assimilated to our values, don't let them come).


curi at 12:39 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9616 | reply | quote

> As background, understand that in any society with significant freedoms any evil person who really wants a gun is going to get one regardless of what the law says about it

True. However, friction matters. Wouldn't making it harder to buy a gun reduce gun murders and mass shootings?

> Making certain types of guns or ammunition illegal will not be effective over the long run.

True. But in the short-term, until society becomes more rational, it may have some effect of reducing gun murders.

> If a person is old enough to control a 4000 pound car capable of running down people in crowds, they are old enough to have a gun

The benefits of driving a car outweigh its dangers.

The benefits of owning a gun apply only to limited circumstances. But the dangers to the gun owner and those around them are significant.

> If a person is too dangerous to have a gun, they are too dangerous to be let out of jail. Think that through. Let it sink in. Maybe the right answer is that some criminals need to be in jail longer.

I'd guess something like 25%+ of today's gun owners are too dangerous to own a gun because they are not skilled enough to use them safely. And/or too irrational. But I don't think it makes sense to jail all these people.


anonymous at 2:22 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9617 | reply | quote

friction helps stops petty crime that isn't very motivated, and emotional crimes without forethought. it doesn't matter much for big, planned crimes with motivations that last over time.

friction also disarms lots of victims cuz they don't expect to be victims, so they don't want to put a big effort into defense.

why do you hate guns so much? do you hate other types of tools equally? do you have an attitude of relying on the authorities to take care of you?


curi at 2:50 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9618 | reply | quote

> why do you hate guns so much?

I don't hate guns. I own a gun and glad that I do.

> do you hate other types of tools equally?

no.

> do you have an attitude of relying on the authorities to take care of you?

no.


anonymous at 3:06 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9619 | reply | quote

> it may have some effect of reducing gun murders.

this is one example of many biased comments in a short post. if a gun murder is replaced with a knife murder, how does that help? trying to reduce "gun murders", rather than "murders", is a biased goal.


Anonymous at 3:13 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9620 | reply | quote

#9619 I see you're not interested in discussing the friction issue, and you're not curious why you came off as anti-gun.


curi at 3:28 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9621 | reply | quote

> What (non-gun-control) things could we do to reduce mass shootings and other murders in the US?

In addition to what's already been said for mass shootings:

Stop encouraging (culturally and institutionally) people gathering in mass for dumb reasons - stuff that can be done better, cheaper, safer from home like education, entertainment, shopping, finding dating or hookup partners, etc.

Where there is a good reason for people to gather in mass, either:

(1) Expressly allow attendees to bring defense weapons including guns.

OR

(2) Have a security screening system that's actually effective at enforcing a weapons prohibition, doesn't cause its own mass gathering at the gate or other entrance, is perimeter protected by armed guards, and (after Las Vegas) is not susceptible to incoming fire from outside the venue.

Since (2) is super hard and expensive to accomplish effectively, I recommend (1) in almost all cases.

In addition to what's already been said for murders in general:

Legalize recreational drug use, gambling, and prostitution. That would eliminate 3 major sources of black market trade with its associated gangs, turf wars, and violence as the primary recourse for resolving disputes.


PAS at 4:31 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9622 | reply | quote

Friction

> > As background, understand that in any society with significant freedoms any evil person who really wants a gun is going to get one regardless of what the law says about it

>

> True. However, friction matters. Wouldn't making it harder to buy a gun reduce gun murders and mass shootings?

Friction matters as I will discuss, but I don't think it helps.

Perhaps you're imagining a law that can introduce enough friction to reduce the number of armed would-be murderers while adding little or no friction to decrease would-be defenders. I don't think it works that way in reality.

One huge problem with such an idea is people don't come pre-labeled with "would-be murderer" and "would-be defender" stickers on their foreheads. We can't sort people out in advance. So you have to craft measures that create friction for everyone. You hope the measures create more actual friction for would-be murderers than for would-be defenders, but often it's the reverse!

Also would-be murderers can be, and often are, much more highly motivated than would-be defenders. Mass shooters are usually especially motivated. So while friction matters to them, it isn't decisive until it reaches extreme levels like: the would-be murderers doesn't know of any place where guns are, or might be, that isn't actively guarded 24X7 by other people with guns. In other words, total gun bans for ordinary citizens in ordinary homes.

Would-be defenders, on the other hand, generally just want to live their lives in relative safety. And when defense situations are relatively rare, it's easy to think having effective defense isn't worth a lot of hassle. So while the level of friction it takes to discourage a would-be murderer can be quite high, the level of friction it takes to discourage most would-be defenders is pretty low.

Also, would-be murderers typically don't mind lying or using black market channels to get around the friction. Whereas would-be defenders typically are not willing to take such alternative paths and therefore experience the entire effect of whatever friction there is.

So even if you can introduce what seems like a lot of friction for the murderers compared to the amount of friction you introduce for defenders, in practice the friction is going to tilt the balance away from defenders compared to a free market.


PAS at 5:19 PM on February 27, 2018 | #9623 | reply | quote

Too dangerous to have a gun

> > If a person is too dangerous to have a gun, they are too dangerous to be let out of jail. Think that through. Let it sink in. Maybe the right answer is that some criminals need to be in jail longer.

>

> I'd guess something like 25%+ of today's gun owners are too dangerous to own a gun because they are not skilled enough to use them safely. And/or too irrational. But I don't think it makes sense to jail all these people.

You turned my "to be let out of jail" into "to jail". Your version is vague, but implies putting people in jail (for what crime? incompetence?) who aren't already there. I wasn't suggesting that.

It may not have been clear that I was specifically addressing the question, "what severity of crime should make it so you are not allowed to have a gun anymore?" My answer is "none", apart from the exception that prisoners are not allowed to have guns while in jail.

The explanation for my answer is: If the nature of someone's crimes give us reason to believe that person will be dangerous to society if they get a gun, then the only effective way to deal with that problem in a free society is to keep them in jail for those crimes.

Does that make sense?

With regard to lack of skill and irrationality with guns, most acts along those lines are already serious crimes where most people live. ANY discharge of a firearm made outside of a gun range that's not in defense of innocent life is a crime within the limits of most cities I know of. Even in rural areas, non-defensive discharge in the direction of people or occupied structures is a criminal offense. If someone does ex: negligent or celebratory discharge, and through the legal process we determine they are likely to repeat such behavior in the future then *yes* that *criminal* should remain in jail for his *crime* until we determine that a repeat is no longer likely.


PAS at 5:35 AM on February 28, 2018 | #9624 | reply | quote

Cost/Benefit

> > If a person is old enough to control a 4000 pound car capable of running down people in crowds, they are old enough to have a gun

>

> The benefits of driving a car outweigh its dangers.

According to what values, in what circumstances, as judged by who? Certainly not according to all values, in all circumstances, as judged by everyone, right?

> The benefits of owning a gun apply only to limited circumstances. But the dangers to the gun owner and those around them are significant.

As with the car: what values, in what circumstances, as judged by who? I think the dangers of being disarmed are significant to both the disarmed person and those around them.

Philosophy note: I remember that BoI criticizes the idea of weighing in decision making. I'm not sure if/how that criticism applies to your argument.

I do, however, assert that:

- The argument I made was not about weighing anything. I think the same age-dependent explanation that applies to car access applies to guns also. My argument is that both guns and cars share a common determining characteristic: They are tools which can be useful to individuals but also have the capacity to cause significant harm to others.

- If your argument involves weighing, then you need to address BoI's criticism of weighing. You also need to specify what you are weighing, how it is to be weighed, who is to judge the result, and how the result is to be applied.


PAS at 8:25 AM on February 28, 2018 | #9625 | reply | quote

Inexplicit knowledge

What are some good strategies for learning inexplicit knowledge?


Anonymous at 2:37 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9626 | reply | quote

Static memes

Is the primary target of all static memes children?


Anonymous at 2:58 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9627 | reply | quote

Dynamic memes

Do dynamic memes evolve faster than static memes?


Anonymous at 2:59 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9628 | reply | quote

> Is the primary target of all static memes children?

no, e.g. static memes target parents. and all kinds of stuff.

children are a particular target b/c how children are treated is super important to the survival of memes in the long term.


Anonymous at 3:01 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9629 | reply | quote

Dynamic memes

Do dynamic memes always tend in the direction of increased explicit knowledge content?


Anonymous at 3:03 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9630 | reply | quote

> Do dynamic memes always tend in the direction of increased explicit knowledge content?

no. i think it'd help if you said more of the motivation for your questions, what you're thinking, why you think these questions are important, what you think the answer might be and why.


Anonymous at 3:08 AM on March 1, 2018 | #9631 | reply | quote

trying to think up questions about memes that I haven't seen people ask. is there a good FAQ somewhere with these kind of questions? sometimes I don't know the importance of a question until it is answered.


Anonymous at 2:05 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9632 | reply | quote

what do u want to understand about memes? what problem(s) do you want to solve? your questions seem like the standard way ppl are aimlessly trying to be clever but not following real interests/problems.


Anonymous at 2:16 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9633 | reply | quote

Creativity program

Is it possible for the creativity program to be entirely memetic? If not, and if it is not entirely genetic, what are the minimal requirements on the genes for the creativity program to bootstrap itself memetically?


Anonymous at 2:20 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9634 | reply | quote

what do u mean "entirely memetic"?

genes are necessary to build the hardware and do some initial programming. memes can't do that, they don't even exist until after that's done.


Anonymous at 2:21 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9635 | reply | quote

> genes are necessary to build the hardware and do some initial programming. memes can't do that, they don't even exist until after that's done.

this is kinda obvious. i think you would know this yourself if you thought about it. there's something wrong with your approach to discussion. you should do what was suggested above: say something about ur own thoughts on the subject. u want ppl to answer ur questions but u don't say what u already do and don't know, and there are always a million possible answers, and u give no guidance about which one u want.


Dagny at 2:22 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9636 | reply | quote

Have read Deutsch, Dawkins, Dennett, and Blackmore. Deutsch has the best understanding and explanations. Am re-reading hence my questions. Have you read Dennett's Freedom Evolves and his Darwin's Dangerous Idea?


Anonymous at 2:55 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9637 | reply | quote

do you have any questions about specific things any of them said? all your questions are vague and you're still not giving any useful context about what your problem situation is.


Anonymous at 2:58 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9638 | reply | quote

what do you want to *do* with answers you receive?


Anonymous at 2:58 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9639 | reply | quote

do you think you have a single clear picture of how memes work, with no contradictions? if not, you should try to sort our the contradictions in your thinking – perhaps with targeted questions relating to actual issues, combined with some actual explanations of what you think. if the point isn't to sort out your own thoughts – which requires actually talking about them – what could it be?


Anonymous at 2:59 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9640 | reply | quote

Dagny - I wrote #9634 but not #9635. My question comes from Deutsch's speculation at the end of one of the BoI chapters on memes where he suggests the creativity program is installed partly from genes and partly from memes.


Anonymous at 3:05 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9641 | reply | quote

> Dagny - I wrote #9634 but not #9635.

i know. why would i point out you should have thought of something yourself if i thought you also wrote the reply comment stating it?

anyway your questions are unproductive and aimless, and you seem uninterested in fixing it or talking about any of your own ideas.


Dagny at 3:12 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9642 | reply | quote

I know genes must construct the hardware but my question was about the software and in particular the minimum software. I'm wondering how Deutsch's suggestion can work because how can you split a universal program so that only part of it comes from genes? If whatever comes from genes is not universal until memes install the rest how does that work?


Anonymous at 3:26 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9643 | reply | quote

you are not communicating coherently, and behind that you don't have a coherent concept of the issues you're trying to talk about. it's confused in your own mind, and much worse after it goes through a communication process to others. i'm guessing you're unwilling to put a lot of work into fixing this, and therefore the only way forward is for you to spend your life ignorant.

let's test this. would you donate $500 to FI right now as a minimal indication of seriousness, or will you admit you care less than $500? the requirement to actually make much progress and be good at this stuff is more like $100,000 worth of seriousness (mostly not in the form of money, but still genuinely valuable). your questions seem to ask to know far more than e.g. a college education would provide at a higher price in money alone, plus 4 years of time! but there's no indications of competence, seriousness, etc, to make that level of knowledge realistic.


Anonymous at 3:31 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9644 | reply | quote

Overreaching

hi guys. anon #9643 you're overreaching a lot. you aren't good enough at discussion (and knowledgeable enough) to deal with this topic. you're trying to talk about complex stuff before simple stuff. you need to build from simple stuff to get to complex stuff. i know this isn't the answer you wanted but i cannot help you directly (i might be able to fool you so you think you were helped and praise me, but it's beyond my power to actually do something effective here. the best way to reply to your questions more directly, instead of talking about the methodological issue, would be with a whole book that starts at the start and goes through all the building up from simple to complex that you aren't doing in the discussion!).

http://fallibleideas.com/overreach

if you want to talk with me about overreach, pick a handle so you can be differentiated from other anons and tell me if you're new or not.

i could go through and point out issues with what you write and debate you, but it will not be productive for either of us. when i say this people always accuse me of arrogance and want demonstrations. when i give demonstrations, they want more demonstrations. even regulars ppl who have had dozens of demonstrations still often demand them. the issue is, clearly, they aren't taking the point from the demonstration. so i'll briefly give you one demonstration:

> I'm wondering how Deutsch's suggestion

this is a major writing error b/c you refer to "Deutsch's suggestion" without specifying what that is.

do not respond to this by clarifying it. this is representative of your inadequate skills. fixing this problem will not change the broader situation: this is one example of many (even in that single comment there are a dozen errors). there are methodological problems behind this writing error which cannot be addressed just by fixing this particular error.


curi at 3:43 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9645 | reply | quote

> this is a major writing error b/c you refer to "Deutsch's suggestion" without specifying what that is.

I was referring to what I said in #9641:

> My question comes from Deutsch's speculation at the end of one of the BoI chapters on memes where he suggests the creativity program is installed partly from genes and partly from memes.

Here's the quote in BoI:

> Therefore, my speculation is that the creativity program is not entirely inborn. It is a combination of genes and memes.

So I think I not only had specified Deutsch's suggestion but fairly accurately too. Do you have another demonstration?


Anonymous at 4:16 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9646 | reply | quote

an inadequate attempt to debate the point (you say it was an unclear reference to something that is itself inadequate) followed by a request for another demonstration! kinda exactly what i predicted and preempted. no thanks.


curi at 4:19 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9647 | reply | quote

No, it was not an unclear reference and I did not say it was unclear. You were blatantly wrong that I had not specified what Deutsch's suggestion was. And when I clearly point out how I referred to it you say I made an inadequate attempt to debate the point. No. You were wrong.


Anonymous at 4:28 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9648 | reply | quote

Atlas Shrugged:

> Taggart could not understand the transition from the laughter to the sudden tone of Dagny’s voice; the voice was cold and harsh: “Drop it, Jim. I know everything you’re going to say. Nobody’s ever used it before. Nobody approves of Rearden Metal. Nobody’s interested in it. Nobody wants it. Still, our rails are going to be made of Rearden Metal.”

> “But . . .” said Taggart, “but . . . but nobody’s ever used it before!”


Dagny at 4:45 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9649 | reply | quote

> No. You were wrong.

Want to bet $1000 on the matter, or are you not really so confident after all? You're demanding a lot of my time while, from my perspective, being an aggressive, arrogant fool. You aren't offering value to me and you don't seem to value my time or appreciate what I wrote to you.


curi at 4:50 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9650 | reply | quote

btw,it was not like you had to scroll up far or even at all to see what I was referring to. What I was referring was in my immediately preceding comment and the only intervening comment was Dagny's, who I was talking to. You are trying to peg me with having typical static memes - and I am open to that idea - but please if you are going to do so do it accurately.


Anonymous at 4:57 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9651 | reply | quote

Before I agree to the bet I would need a precise description of what the issue is and for us to agree on that and also for the terms of adjudication and that we agree on those.


Anonymous at 5:38 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9652 | reply | quote

You're boring.


curi at 6:06 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9653 | reply | quote

>> Is it possible for the creativity program to be entirely memetic? If not, and if it is not entirely genetic, what are the minimal requirements on the genes for the creativity program to bootstrap itself memetically?

> what do u mean "entirely memetic"?

> genes are necessary to build the hardware and do some initial programming. memes can't do that, they don't even exist until after that's done.

Yes -- in this sense a computer must exist before software can be installed and run. But I think the question is asking how the software gets installed. The "creativity program" could be installed entirely from our genes. In other words, it is entirely inborn. It could be installed partially from our genes and partially from our memes. In other words, it is partially inborn. Or it could somehow be installed almost entirely from our memes. If it is only partially inborn, presumably that component is not a universal explainer for if it were there would be no need of the memetic component. So I think the second part of the question is asking how does the memetic component get installed if the genetic component is not already a universal explainer?


Anon2 at 9:09 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9654 | reply | quote

> when i say this people always accuse me of arrogance and want demonstrations.

> You're demanding a lot of my time while, from my perspective, being an aggressive, arrogant fool.

Kinda ironic complaining you get called arrogant then saying just that to someone.


Anonymous at 10:20 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9655 | reply | quote

therefore

>> Therefore, my speculation is that the creativity program is not entirely inborn. It is a combination of genes and memes.

>

> So I think I not only had specified Deutsch's suggestion but fairly accurately too. Do you have another demonstration?

The sentence you quoted starts with "therefore", so there was an argument before the sentence. Why are you asking what other people think instead of posting your own analysis of that argument?


oh my god it's turpentine at 10:56 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9656 | reply | quote

> Kinda ironic complaining you get called arrogant then saying just that to someone.

you came to curi's blog, ignored 80% of what he said, and don't seem to value him, and then you get upset he has better things to do than answer your bad questions (when you don't want to even consider changing your methods or dealing with overreach issues).

and your posts have not even tried to say anything important. you're a beggar, asking for free help, and biting the hand that feeds you, who doesn't seem to appreciate the situation he's in.


Anonymous at 11:05 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9657 | reply | quote

#9655 wasn't me (the one asking the questions)


Anonymous at 11:26 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9658 | reply | quote

> #9655 wasn't me (the one asking the questions)

anonymous posting is confusing sometimes :/

and it's not your fault. it's the other guy's fault. he wrote a post using the same name as you and didn't write "not the OP but..." in front (as people sometimes do, quite reasonably, on reddit. even though on reddit they have unique usernames. but ppl don't always read the usernames carefully, so it can be a good thing to say.)

anonymous posting has advantages too. i don't know an ideal solution.


author of #9657 at 11:43 PM on March 1, 2018 | #9659 | reply | quote

GP OMGIT

Here's my thoughts on what was before Deutsch's "Therefore".

Deutsch says that animals like apes can pass on pre-creative memes because of hard-coded programs installed into their brains from their genes. He says that in the precursors to modern humans the hardware for supporting pre-creative meme replication was being heavily selected for and meme bandwidth was simultaneously increasing. The hardware, primarily by virtue of acquiring more and better memory, gained the capacity to support creativity although it did not yet do so. Deutsch suggests the hardware benefited also by acquiring mirror neurons for elementary language sounds but mirror neurons flag junk science to me so I'm not buying that part. Pre-creative language memes that are gradually getting more sophisticated sounds plausible though.

As I read Deutsch, he is saying these pre-creative memes are relying on hard-coded programs from genes to replicate but because the hardware now also supports creativity some mutation in the genes for these programs caused an evolutionary jump to universality. After that memes can spread by creativity alone. These new type of memes displace the other type and their programs are no longer needed. All that is now required is genes that can install a creativity program.

But then I'm puzzled when he speculates that the creativity program is not completely in-born and is partly installed by memes.

I can sort of see how. It could be that some pre-creative meme program that has been installed in a brain can be dynamically changed. And changed by memes in such a way as to cause a jump to universality. Initially, pre-creative memes caused the jump but now creative memes do and much more efficiently and reliably. In this view the jump to universality happens afresh in each growing child. There is no universal creativity program in the genes just some non-universal precursor.

I don't know if Deutsch would agree with this or if it is what he meant.


Anonymous at 2:39 AM on March 2, 2018 | #9660 | reply | quote

Mirror neurons are junk science as I explained to DD multiple times before BoI's publication. What sort of junk science? *Autism junk science!!!!!!* So it's particularly nasty. DD used to care about such things: http://web.archive.org/web/20030620082122/http://www.tcs.ac/Articles/DDAspidistraSyndrome.html

After publication of BoI, in public discussion, DD had no answer to challenges like:

> if you could provide any paper on the matter [mirror neurons] that isn't riddled with errors, that might be good. or do you accept all the people in the field are incompetent, but think the idea is good anyways?

his reply to that message simply omitted that part. also omitted and unanswered was:

> In BoI you write:

> "But there may also have been hardware abilities such as mirror neurons for imitating a wider range of elementary actions than apes could ape – for instance, the elementary sounds of a language."

> so did you change your mind about it being a hardware thing?

this was because DD had said

>> I have no idea whether mirror neurons are physiologically different from other neurons. I see no reason why they should be

which appears to contradict the "hardware abilities" claim in BoI by doubting that mirror neurons are differentiated from other neurons at the hardware level. but DD did not wish to address the problem.

> I don't know if Deutsch would agree with this or if it is what he meant.

I do know.


curi at 3:00 AM on March 2, 2018 | #9661 | reply | quote

Thanks for the link. Interesting. Seems like Deutsch has read Thomas Szasz and R D Laing. I agree that the idea of mental health is a crock and there is no such thing as mental illness. Has Deutsch written about Szasz? Sad he fell for the mirror neuron thing. It's a shame and harmful when well-known scientists put there weight and prestige behind this kind of thing. Kudos at least to Steven Pinker for recognising mirror neurons as a myth.


Anonymous at 8:45 PM on March 2, 2018 | #9662 | reply | quote

Szasz and Laing are not similar. Szasz wrote at length explaining the differences to address that misconception. Please don't spread that myth.

DD read Szasz but only understood half of it; DD's mixed about that stuff.


curi at 9:17 PM on March 2, 2018 | #9663 | reply | quote

> You're boring.

It'd be better to say, "You're being boring." I don't know much about the person in general, I know about their messages in this particular conversation. Being more precise makes it easier for people to treat a negative message as information instead of deciding to spend their attention and energy being offended.


curi at 12:02 AM on March 3, 2018 | #9664 | reply | quote

Didn't mean to imply they are similar. My understanding is that Szasz was a libertarian whereas Laing was a socialist. They had very different philosophical outlooks. I mentioned Laing because Laing was big in Britain during Deutsch's youth. My mother had "The Divided Self" on her bookshelf and I read it as a teenager. I hadn't seen psychiatry questioned before and hadn't questioned it myself. So it changed my outlook on that. I imagine I would find a lot to disagree with now if I were to re-read it.


Anonymous at 12:24 AM on March 3, 2018 | #9665 | reply | quote

Tulpas

https://www.reddit.com/r/Tulpas/wiki/faq

Some people deliberately try to create another self in their mind. I guess this is possible. But it sounds like it could be dangerous if you and your tulpa don't know how to resolve conflicts. I don't know if it's even desirable at all.


Anonymous at 1:05 PM on March 3, 2018 | #9666 | reply | quote

Nearly everyone already has the problem of internal conflicts. The self -- the thing we call the "I" -- is a kind of lie. It's a construct made up by your mind so you can answer questions like "Why are you doing that?" Your mind pushes out a kind of spokesperson that tries to explain what is going on but half the time it doesn't have a damn clue. Think of your mind as a huge collection of semi-autonomous agents. They create knowledge and can do things but have specialised purposes. Agents communicate with each other and with your conscious mind but most do not use a spoken language. Only the very high level agents do. Memes know how to target particular agents. Only people who have properly integrated their mind can have a spokesperson that isn't making things up on the fly to explain what is going on.


Anonymous at 7:52 PM on March 3, 2018 | #9667 | reply | quote

> Memes know how to target particular agents.

This is misleading. First, because it says "memes" when it presumably means "static memes". Second, because the primary things memes do is they *are* agents, rather than targeting agents.

To a first approximation the agents in your mind are:

60% static memes

30% dynamic memes

10% non-memes


curi at 11:26 PM on March 3, 2018 | #9668 | reply | quote

Yes, I meant static memes and, yes, memes are agents. By "target particular agents" I meant static memes have knowledge about other specific agents in your mind such that when you acquire those static memes they damage or displace or contribute to those other agents. Your proportions of memes sounds right.


Anonymous at 2:54 AM on March 4, 2018 | #9669 | reply | quote

> Think of your mind as a huge collection of semi-autonomous agents.

Why are the agents semi-autonomous rather than fully autonomous? What's restricting their autonomy?

Also, how does the concept of choice or free will fit into this explanation?


Kate at 8:16 AM on March 4, 2018 | #9670 | reply | quote

Consider choosing to take initiative vs choosing passivity (which puts you more at the mercy of the static memes in your mind).

Where does that *choice* fit in? Is it itself an agent? Is it part of the 10% non-memes?


Kate at 8:44 AM on March 4, 2018 | #9671 | reply | quote

>Where does that *choice* fit in? Is it itself an agent?

Maybe it'd be better to ask, "Is it itself the result of an agent?"


Kate at 8:47 AM on March 4, 2018 | #9672 | reply | quote

@kate: overreaching


curi at 12:28 PM on March 4, 2018 | #9674 | reply | quote

> To a first approximation the agents in your mind are:

> 60% static memes

> 30% dynamic memes

> 10% non-memes

What's an example of a non-meme agent in the mind? I don't understand.


Anne B at 12:40 PM on March 4, 2018 | #9676 | reply | quote

to be a meme something needs knowledge to cause its own replication. most ideas you create are terrible at replicating. most of those don't last long in your mind though.


curi at 12:47 PM on March 4, 2018 | #9677 | reply | quote

>@kate: overreaching

I wondered if you'd say that. I'm working on an FI post on overreaching. I'll ask my questions there.


Kate at 1:27 PM on March 4, 2018 | #9678 | reply | quote

> What are some good strategies for learning inexplicit knowledge?

This is relevant question for me in the following way. Recently I developed an inner ear problem that is affecting my sense of balance. Basically, my inner ear is sending incorrect messages to my brain about my position in space. When my mind interprets this data the interpretation conflicts with interpretation of data from my eyes and from my sense of kinesthesia. This can lead to feelings of severe dizziness and nausea and is debilitating. As part of the healing process I can train myself to compensate for the error coming from my inner ear. This requires creating new inexplicit knowledge. So I need to think about strategies for doing that.


Anonymous at 8:11 PM on March 6, 2018 | #9679 | reply | quote

#9679

i bet there's a video game where your sense perception is warped in some way, and part of the point of the game is you learn to get used to it. i know some games have short sections where e.g. the controls are reversed (left = right and vice versa) and ppl learn to play with it (while still being able to play normally, they can switch back and forth between play styles).


Anonymous at 8:16 PM on March 6, 2018 | #9680 | reply | quote

Overreaching

I'm reading some of the recent discussion about overreaching and thought I'd try to summarize my thinking / understanding of it.

Overreaching:

I try to accomplish a goal. But I fail because I made mistake(s) either in choosing the goal or in overestimating the knowledge / abilities / resources needed to accomplish it.

Bad responses to this situation:

- Ignore the failure and pretending I was successful

- Continue trying and incurring the costs of failure. Which might mean wasting time / resources, incurring damages, etc. Not making any progress.

Good responses:

- Analyze the goal: does the goal itself contain a mistake? is it vague? Doesn’t have clear definition of success/failure?

- Consider an easier / less ambitious version of the goal, that better fits for your knowledge / abilities / resources

- Revisit my priorities — consider tabling this goal for now and focus on something else you can make progress with

- Are there prerequisite knowledge/skills I could level-up first before returning to this goal? If so, work on those before trying again.


Anon69 at 6:05 PM on March 8, 2018 | #9683 | reply | quote

Capitalism Essay

Reading: http://fallibleideas.com/capitalism

Background: I am pro-capitalism and like/agree with this essay.

Wondering about the argument near the end:

> Consider when force will be used. It will never be used when the people in power have a persuasive argument. They won't use force when they could get their way with words alone. At the least, words are much cheaper than force, and will maintain a better reputation for them. Instead, force will be used in exactly the cases where their argument is weak. Force will be used when they cannot persuade people. They pretend to back up their decisions with force because they are wise, but in fact they do it because their reasoning is weak. So a system that uses force, at all, will be less rational and make less good decisions. (This argument is due to William Godwin.)

I don’t think this accounts for the scenario where someone makes a good/correct argument but ppl are irrational, refuse to listen, etc. Granted, making a good/correct arguments is hard/rare and if you can’t persuade ppl, reconsidering the validity of your argument should be top of list.

I think this relates to a common leftie perspective that people tend to be bad/evil and will never be persuaded, therefore govt must use force :(


Anon69 at 12:30 PM on March 10, 2018 | #9688 | reply | quote

people are persuadable somehow. if you don't know how, that is in fact a weakness in your knowledge. you don't know how to address all their objections, issues, etc.

most of the time, despite people being dumb or irrational in various ways, persuasion works OK and no force is used. but in some cases people fail at persuasion – there is a failure to explain things well enough – and so force gets used.

> I don’t think this accounts for the scenario where

how is it not accounted for? it tells you what is going on in that scenario (inadequate persuasive arguments). it doesn't tell you everything there is to know, but it does cover the scenario with correct knowledge as far as it goes.

if you're going to try to say stuff is wrong, you should try a bit more. you read general arguments and then claimed some case was omitted without really trying to elaborate.


Anonymous at 1:21 PM on March 10, 2018 | #9689 | reply | quote

Good points, thanks.

> most of the time, despite people being dumb or irrational in various ways, persuasion works OK and no force is used

Is it true persuasion works most of the time irl? I’m having a hard time quantifying that but in my personal experience, it’s pretty mixed, maybe 50/50, maybe worse. People really suck at this stuff and give up quickly.

The quote from the essay talks about using force when you're wrong / unable to persuade.

I'm thinking about the issue where your right (on a given issue) but unable to persuade because of other issues, resources available, etc. An unknown amount of time needed to persuade (or be persuaded) and settle the disagreement.

Something like this: two people disagree about issue X, and let’s say hypothetically person A is correct and person B is mistaken.

You may think you’re Person A when you’re actually person B and that’s an important issue itself. But let's assume Person A is right on issue X.

Let’s say that person A learns more about person B’s issues etc, which include progress-blocking irrationalities. Like evasion / refusal to think because [fill-in-the-blank]. Person A, given enough knowledge and resources should be able to solve this and all other related issues and ultimately persuade person B about issue X. Progress is always possible and that is the right aim to have.

But there are situations where it makes sense to focus on something else, go your separate ways, stop cooperating on given thing (for now). E.g. in Atlas Shrugged, the producers made some attempts at persuasion but decided to withdraw from society and stop participating in the economy.

I think even in this case where you’ve made a lot of effort and still think you’re right, force is bad. Is that true? What are the arguments/issues related to this?


Anon69 at 2:15 PM on March 11, 2018 | #9694 | reply | quote

> Is it true persuasion works most of the time irl? I’m having a hard time quantifying that but in my personal experience, it’s pretty mixed, maybe 50/50, maybe worse. People really suck at this stuff and give up quickly.

you think people fight over irreconcilable differences, or part ways, ~50% of the time? and even parting ways is something people often correctly agree on and reasonably think is best in this case, at this time, for just this issue.

> I'm thinking about the issue where your right (on a given issue) but unable to persuade because of other issues, resources available, etc. An unknown amount of time needed to persuade (or be persuaded) and settle the disagreement.

if a particular form of persuasion is expensive and should not be done, you can recognize that, say so, and try to persuade people of the actual best way to proceed.


Anonymous at 2:21 PM on March 11, 2018 | #9695 | reply | quote

I just edited a video from 94min (1 continuous section) to 517 parts and 55min. Final Cut Pro had a bug and lost all my ~40 speed increases (which save ~7min) and I had to redo them all. It was beachballing so I quit it and it took a minute to end background tasks then quit. Reopened and the speedups were gone but all my other edits (including the one i did last) were present. Submitted the bug to Apple.


curi at 4:07 AM on March 13, 2018 | #9696 | reply | quote

What does FI think of Stoicism?


FF at 8:58 AM on March 15, 2018 | #9702 | reply | quote

What do you think of Stoicism FF


Anonymous at 9:00 AM on March 15, 2018 | #9703 | reply | quote

> What do you think of Stoicism FF

Some of it looks good.


FF at 9:56 AM on March 15, 2018 | #9704 | reply | quote

FF can you share some quotes or ideas from stoicism that you like


Anonymous at 10:06 AM on March 15, 2018 | #9706 | reply | quote

> FF can you share some quotes or ideas from stoicism that you like

Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.

We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.

Epictetus refers to the possibility of suicide by the metaphor of an “open door,” the idea being that if life truly becomes pointless then one has the option to live. More importantly, it is precisely this ever present option that makes it possible for us to live a virtuous life, free of fear.

Say to yourself in the early morning: I shall meet today ungrateful, violent, treacherous, envious, uncharitable men. All of the ignorance of real good and ill... I can neither be harmed by any of them, for no man will involve me in wrong, nor can I be angry with my kinsman or hate him; for we have come into the world to work together...

The philosophy of Stoicism - Massimo Pigliucci - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9OCA6UFE-0

PHILOSOPHY - The Stoics -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yu7n0XzqtfA


ff at 2:11 AM on March 16, 2018 | #9707 | reply | quote

I also liked the part where they advise to live like a homeless person to train ourselves for the worse.


FF at 2:15 AM on March 16, 2018 | #9708 | reply | quote

Stoics taught to transform emotions in order to achieve inner calm. Emotions – of fear, or anger, or love, say – are instinctive human reactions to certain situations, and cannot be avoided. But the reflective mind can distance itself from the raw emotion and contemplate whether the emotion in question should (or should not) be given “assent,” i.e., should be appropriated and cultivated.

To be a little more specific, the Stoics distinguished between propathos (instinctive reaction) and eupathos (feelings resulting from correct judgment), and their goal was to achieve apatheia, or peace of mind, resulting from clear judgment and maintenance of equanimity in life.


FF at 2:16 AM on March 16, 2018 | #9709 | reply | quote

the Stoic tries to deal with the world as it is while pursuing self-improvement through four cardinal virtues:

practical wisdom,

the ability to navigate complex situations in a logical, informed, and calm manner;

temperance,

the exercise of self-restraint and moderation in all aspects of life;


FF at 2:19 AM on March 16, 2018 | #9710 | reply | quote

Peikoff covers the stoics in his history of philosophy audio lectures.

i think they have some major flaws and don't offer any value i can't get better somewhere else.


Anonymous at 3:03 AM on March 16, 2018 | #9712 | reply | quote

You have communicated that LT was the world's second best philosopher. You no longer think that. Why have you not posted to say why?


Anonymous at 4:11 AM on March 18, 2018 | #9715 | reply | quote

I never said that.


Anonymous at 10:02 AM on March 18, 2018 | #9716 | reply | quote

#9715 i'm curious as to what evidence you have regarding your claim "You have communicated that LT was the world's second best philosopher"


Anonymous at 11:22 AM on March 18, 2018 | #9717 | reply | quote

Don't attribute claims to me without sources. If you had checked the source you're talking about, you would have seen that I said something different. You might have also noticed the context and followup explanations.

Anyway, I wrote extensive analysis of an LT facebook comment on FI. Look for subject lines including:

- Elliot's LT Analysis

- Exercise: Analyzing Lies

There's a big thread. Timeframe is around Oct 2017.

If you or others would engage with that thread, that'd be wonderful. It got inadequate engagement IMO, so I'm glad to hear someone may be interested in the topic. I did a really serious, detailed analysis and would appreciate discussion of it.


curi at 11:43 AM on March 18, 2018 | #9718 | reply | quote

Yeah you said something different - I was going by memory. The context was people who will make the most progress in the next hundred years. Will take a look at the thread you mentioned. Was prompted to make my comment after reading some LT/DT tweets.

Just saw this one:

> Criticism is only ever good relative to a context. If it doesn’t address a problem you have + are interested in + are currently working on, it’s not helpful.

https://mobile.twitter.com/reasonisfun/status/975752347707199488

Most people have major problems but are not interested in hearing about them let alone solving them. How is one supposed to begin to criticise them then? Is LT saying to be silent? If criticism must engage a person's interest in a problem how does one criticise these people's interests and tell them they are interested in the wrong thing? LT is saying it is hopeless isn't she? It sounds like she is making excuses for not listening to criticism herself.

And DD: thinks global warming is a threat to the planet despite years of evidence now that the science is bad.


Anonymous at 3:48 AM on March 20, 2018 | #9719 | reply | quote

To be clear: LT seems to have failed. RIP.

Her tweets are often bad and she doesn't want criticism of them. she seems to have quit FI.

@DD he's careful with precisely what he says so that he's not wrong about global warming. you seem to have potentially gotten the wrong idea, which is his fault cuz he communicates in a not-wrong-but-misleading way about it. (it's also possible he got more sloppy and said something that's actually wrong and i didn't see it.)


curi at 11:58 AM on March 20, 2018 | #9720 | reply | quote

Are people allowed to talk to Banned members now?


FF at 2:44 AM on March 21, 2018 | #9721 | reply | quote

since lg has stopped trolling et. are people allowed to talk to her?


ff at 3:48 AM on March 21, 2018 | #9722 | reply | quote

you can talk to her


Anonymous at 3:56 AM on March 21, 2018 | #9723 | reply | quote

LG might start trolling again. Don't remind her that I exist.


curi at 10:42 AM on March 21, 2018 | #9724 | reply | quote

what's a good way to find out about general current news without spending a lot of time on it? i want a source that is truthful and not biased, to the extent that's possible.


a person at 7:38 AM on April 5, 2018 | #9729 | reply | quote

#9279 what purpose do you have in mind for the news you're looking for?

Some examples:

- For material to start or understand small talk with co-workers

- To sound smart and in-the-know at parties

- To know who/what to vote for in the next election

- To prepare for changes in society that are likely to affect you personally

- For a required "current events" report at school

- To feel connected to your society

Different ways of getting news are better for different purposes.


PAS at 1:49 PM on April 5, 2018 | #9730 | reply | quote

to know what people are talking about in conversation. to feel connected to society. to know more about who or what to vote for. to prepare for changes in society that might affect me.


a person at 5:42 PM on April 5, 2018 | #9731 | reply | quote

Try Breitbart. If you find it unsatisfactory in some way, say what way to help figure out what else to try.


Anonymous at 5:51 PM on April 5, 2018 | #9732 | reply | quote

I use google news


FF at 7:35 AM on April 6, 2018 | #9733 | reply | quote

David Deutsch on anti-semitism:

https://mobile.twitter.com/DavidDeutschOxf/status/984769600406605829

> Yes, it's a derangement—the most harmful and dangerous in Western society. Very widespread. But *it's not hatred*, though it sometimes causes that. Nor racism (occasionally causes that too). It's a compulsion to legitimise hurting Jews. 'Antisemitism' is a misleading term for it.

Deutsch is diminishing anti-semitism by attributing it to ficticious mental illness. 😢


Anonymous at 4:17 AM on April 14, 2018 | #9740 | reply | quote

I just saw that DD blocked me on twitter. I guess it was a response to this?

http://curi.us/2102-accepting-vs-preferring-theories-reply-to-david-deutsch

God DD's gone downhill. See also this followup about anti-semitism:

https://twitter.com/j_mallone/status/985154706510053376


curi at 10:39 AM on April 14, 2018 | #9741 | reply | quote

The O'Neil article referred to in the twitter thread does not even mention derangement or compulsion. Deutsch seems not to have noticed this. Deutsch is correct to say:

> But one can't understand *why* something is happening if one has drastic misconceptions about *what* is happening.

Unfortunately Deutsch himself is under drastic misconceptions about what is happening. Moral failures are not mental illnesses. I guess Deutsch is not really interested in the truth. He doesn't want to be seen to lose status. That's why he banned ET for stating the truth about critical preferences.


Anonymous at 4:32 AM on April 15, 2018 | #9744 | reply | quote

I am not receiving many FI posts!! I am reading the reply posts for the original posts.


FF at 8:33 PM on April 23, 2018 | #9749 | reply | quote

Join the google group. Yahoo is broken


Anonymous at 8:52 PM on April 23, 2018 | #9750 | reply | quote

The flames are spreading and getting worse and your efforts to stop it are puny and miniscule.


Anonymous at 2:41 AM on May 2, 2018 | #9751 | reply | quote

Jordan Peterson says Life is suffering. Is it true?

Howard Roark suffered a lot. I don't want to suffer like him.


FF at 10:44 AM on May 4, 2018 | #9752 | reply | quote

Roark suffered less than anyone else in the book!


Anonymous at 11:10 AM on May 4, 2018 | #9753 | reply | quote

> Roark suffered less than anyone else in the book!

Yes, Keating & Wynand suffered the most. Dominique suffered some.

What if don't want to suffer even a little?


FF at 11:13 AM on May 4, 2018 | #9754 | reply | quote

Then you need to be like Roark and more.


Anonymous at 11:29 AM on May 4, 2018 | #9755 | reply | quote

anything by k.r.P.

like mr DD I too emphasise that Climate change has to be one

of our very high priorities now. Especially that there appears

to be a consensus forming that there is likely only 30 years

or so before scientists can ascertain if the climate HAS GONE

OUT OF CONTROL.

Shocking to me, but i'd suggest that we better had know tomorrow

or as quickly-as-possible if we want the time to be able to

save the planet's atmosphere & ourselves (human futures so to

speak).

I have not said half as much about the threat of nuclear war as I have done on the danger of the fossil fuels on our environment.

(on yahoo philosophy category..)

But I hope-to-change that, thanks to some weeks or months lately

that ive taken some opportunity to reflect..err, critically on

it so to speak.

I have said though there (tentatively) that we must NEVER put

"knowledge" AHEAD of "peace" concerning the threat as above.

I or we must be ADAMANT on this.

The greater risks are sometimes not-worth-it and such an

ultimate war I now believe is one such risk.

And though the threat has affected me personally over recent

times..nonetheless any one's inability or inaction as a tiny

help may be put in writing (as long as that risk was weighted

too..).

And saying that "diplomacy" in the one field may reflect a more

diplomatic-but-rational critical movement in the other, envir-

onmental field, might well be as much benefit as we could expect

given the present evidence.

peter m (hello to you all !)


Popper at 6:05 PM on May 24, 2018 | #9772 | reply | quote

> like mr DD I too emphasise that Climate change has to be one of our very high priorities now.

that is not DD's position. DD is basically a climate skeptic like me.

a good place to start learning about fossil fuels, environmentalism, etc. is:

http://www.moralcaseforfossilfuels.com

Alex Epstein also has a bunch of speeches on youtube. Other great material is in:

https://www.amazon.com/Return-Primitive-Anti-Industrial-Revolution/dp/0452011841?tag=curi04-20

https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Treatise-Economics-George-Reisman-ebook/dp/B0084RU67S?tag=curi04-20


curi at 7:30 PM on May 24, 2018 | #9774 | reply | quote

> DD is basically a climate skeptic like me.

What is something he has written about this?


Anonymous at 1:30 AM on May 26, 2018 | #9775 | reply | quote

My source is thousands of conversations with DD. He doesn't normally write much publicly about this, but he does challenge environmentalism in major ways in his books, and a quick search turned up e.g. this public comment by DD in 2001:

> There is currently a tremendous campaign under way -- in the media, schools, books, entertainment -- to instil precisely these (global eco-catastrophe) fears, precisely in children. Some of the issues are loosely based on worthwhile concerns (none remotely deserving of fear), while others are pure junk. To combat the resulting fear one needs reason and facts.


curi at 1:43 AM on May 26, 2018 | #9776 | reply | quote

Daniel Dennett's latest book, "From Bacteria to Bach and Back: The Evolution of Minds", has a lot to say about memes and why they are important in understanding the mind. He even has a whole chapter answering objections to meme theory and seems to have spent time with the recent literature. Yet one thing is glaring by its omission: there is no discussion of Deutsch's work on memes (not even a reference to BoI). Why did Dennett, a supposedly serious scholar, fail to bring this up? Dennett's book intersects with Deutsch's BoI in many ways: both have a lot to say about the evolution of culture and of language, how memes can give us competencies without necessarily comprehension, how memes get installed in minds and so on. It seems incredible he has ignored Deutsch.


Anonymous at 10:33 PM on June 9, 2018 | #9796 | reply | quote

The world is full of things that seem incredible because parents and schools destroy everyone's minds.


Anonymous at 1:47 AM on June 10, 2018 | #9797 | reply | quote

President Trump is a great president.


Anonymous at 12:56 AM on June 12, 2018 | #9798 | reply | quote

> President Trump is a great president.

Maybe if he builds a wall. (1.5 years gone with no wall, 2.5 years left.)

I could forgive a lot of things from Trump, like about tariffs, but he needs to follow through on his #1 key promise: end chain migration, deport people, restrict immigration, and BUILD THE WALL.


curi at 1:32 AM on June 12, 2018 | #9799 | reply | quote

Yeah, he needs to follow through on the wall. But he has done the following:

ISIS wiped off the face of the earth.

Pulling out of the Iran nuke deal.

Alignment of Middle East against Iran.

Saudi Arabia now a clear ally and an ally of Israel.

US embassy in Jerusalem.

Unemployment lowest since year 2000.

Massive cut back of regulations.

Black unemployment at all-time low.

Economic growth up.

Tax cuts.

Armed forces rebuild.

Denuclearization of North Korea.

Withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord.

Telling the G7 and others that America is not the world's piggy bank.

Getting in the face of leftists big-time, exposing them as fools, and hitting back twice as hard.

This is all really good stuff (and there is more I didn't mention). No other president in recent history has accomplished so much just 18 months in.


Anonymous at 2:46 AM on June 12, 2018 | #9800 | reply | quote

Some other big outstanding problems besides immigration stuff include e.g.:

- Majority of GOP are corrupt swamp people. (Dems are much worse.)

- So many activist, leftist judges at all levels.

- Obamacare.

- Dominance of SJW and other very unreasonable thinking in major parts of the culture (including: universities, public schools, media, young people).

Trump is helping but there are huge, imminent dangers beyond what he's addressing. And Europe is falling apart much more than the US with its immigrant crime the authorities don't want to stop, no go zones, jailing people who speak out against Muslims raping white teens, etc.


Anonymous at 3:44 AM on June 12, 2018 | #9801 | reply | quote

Stanford Prison Experiment article


anonymous at 5:02 AM on June 14, 2018 | #9803 | reply | quote

how to ask a question

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/fallible-ideas/et0FOAbloTY/eTzqrjGtAwAJ

a good way to present questions is as a point you got stuck in your own thinking process. you tried to solve W problem, you thought X and Y, you ran into difficulty Z, and the question is how to make progress on W problem. tell that story. you should be looking for help making progress yourself, not for other people to think for you. and you should be putting questions in a context like that so that people have more information about what would be helpful to say.

also, don't ask yes/no questions when you want a useful explanation.


curi at 11:34 AM on July 3, 2018 | #10008 | reply | quote

**EVERYONE** should play Transistor and Bastion once with a god-tier sound system.

There. whew.


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:23 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10071 | reply | quote

Quick, name the best classical music you've ever heard otherwise I'll be really cross $^{


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:26 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10072 | reply | quote

Have any of you ever heard about Edenism? KoanicSoul? Anyone here familiar with vault-co? The Neanderthal/Melonhead/Sapes distinctions?


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:28 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10073 | reply | quote

> Quick, name the best classical music you've ever heard otherwise I'll be really cross $^{

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV4LUrbyGu8


hi at 1:31 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10074 | reply | quote

> Have any of you ever heard about Edenism? KoanicSoul? Anyone here familiar with vault-co? The Neanderthal/Melonhead/Sapes distinctions?

wat?

> play Transistor and Bastion

u didn't even link what u mean


hi at 1:32 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10075 | reply | quote

Elliott, instead of having an email group, why don't you run a single-board, single-thread instance of a chan client like the one 8chan or 4chan uses? There are a lot of them on github. Tripcodes allow for user identities, post numbers and quoting improve discussion and nobody has to deal with email clients. RSS can serve notifications. You could also enable images in it (or embed them from services like imgur). You can divide it into pages for easier sorting and you can view he entire post if you hover on the automatic link with the post number in a post. It even works without js! Email is a pain because I can't find a decent free client with POP/IMAP support except gmail, which harvests private data.


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:40 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10078 | reply | quote

#10074 thanks!

#10075

>wat

maybe I'll post an intro tomorrow.

>u didn't even link what u mean

They're both video games.


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:44 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10080 | reply | quote

> Elliott, instead of having an email group, why don't you run a single-board, single-thread instance of a chan client like the one 8chan or 4chan uses?

one t in my first name.

if you link me to a sample forum i'll look at it and see if it meets my discussion forum criteria.

why would anyone use it who doesn't use my blog comments currently? what's better? i'm guessing the markdown support would be standard (worse).

i think single thread would be bad. but i'm guessing having multiple threads (topics) would work too?

> RSS can serve notifications.

i have RSS for blog comment notifications and i'm not aware that anyone uses it.

some random 4chan post says:

>> thinking 4chan uses markdown syntax

> Just because it uses ">" to signal a quote doesn't mean it uses markdown.

so wait, doesn't even have markdown or nested quoting? sounds far worse than blog comments...?

> Email is a pain because I can't find a decent free client with POP/IMAP support except gmail, which harvests private data.

1) Mail on mac is free

or

2) buy MailMate? (unless u meant u wanted *both* POP *and* IMAP? no idea why. i think MailMate is IMAP only)

i'm not gonna switch forums b/c u don't want to spend like $50. i'd rather give u $50 then do far more money worth of work to switch (just technically, not even counting getting ppl to switch and the cost for everyone on FI already to learn the new system)


curi at 1:54 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10083 | reply | quote

https://github.com/kennell/imageboards

>if you link me to a sample forum i'll look at it and see if it meets my discussion forum criteria.

8ch.net ? 4chan.org ?

>why would anyone use it who doesn't use my blog comments currently? what's better?

There's not a lot of difference but it is a much better standalone solution.

> i'm guessing the markdown support would be standard (worse).

Almost every implementation on the net uses different configurations. 8ch has better markup support.

https://8ch.net/faq.html#how-do-i-format-my-text

>i think single thread would be bad. but i'm guessing having multiple threads (topics) would work too?

Yeah, and you could even make boards for different topics.

>i have RSS for blog comment notifications and i'm not aware that anyone uses it.

>some random 4chan post says:

>>> thinking 4chan uses markdown syntax

>> Just because it uses ">" to signal a quote doesn't mean it uses markdown.

>so wait, doesn't even have markdown or nested quoting? sounds far worse than blog comments...?

It can always be changed to have custom markdown support. And it does have nested quoting, both in text and in links.

>mailmate

>mail on mac

I don't have either.

And you don't have to switch, you could just make it as a test.


ur mom's dad's a where a = ur mom's dad's a at 2:43 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10092 | reply | quote

> Almost every implementation on the net uses different configurations.

and yet you haven't given me any sample forum link (you know, somewhere i could reasonably post test posts) and connected that sample to any codebase i could use. you're telling me that just going to 4chan *would be a different experience than what i would have*. and it seems to be missing core features i want like markdown, so why would you send me there as a sample? and clicking around it's super user hostile. by trial and error i seem to have determined that you click on a post number to reply. that's ridiculous. did you really expect me to have a good or even OK experience trying it briefly?

> And it does have nested quoting, both in text and in links.

> I don't have either.

get a different one then? i listed things that meet the criteria you stated. your response is to add new criteria. i don't want to play this game. did you even check all the ones on the FI guidelines page? why don't you explain what's wrong with them. (and you not having something isn't a flaw in it – why don't you get it?)

> And you don't have to switch, you could just make it as a test.

why don't *you* make a test?

> It can always be changed to have custom markdown support.

why don't you set something up which has markdown support like this blog (copy/pasteable markup).

> And it does have nested quoting, both in text and in links.

what is nested quoting in links?

> There's not a lot of difference but it is a much better standalone solution.

why is it "much better" than these blog comments? you haven't said any advantages besides inline images (which i could easily add here if i thought it was important) and tripcodes (which i'm not convinced that i want, and i could easily add user accounts here if i wanted to – in fact there already is a user account system, i'm just the only person with an account)


curi at 3:17 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10097 | reply | quote

> except gmail, which harvests private data.

you can make a gmail account just for FI and it doesn't matter what data harvesting they do because all the posts are public anyway.


Anonymous at 7:41 PM on July 12, 2018 | #10113 | reply | quote

#10097

>and yet you haven't given me any sample forum link (you know, somewhere i could reasonably post test posts)

I literally did. (8ch.net)

here's a few more

http://lynxhub.com/

http://containerchan.org/tb/demo/ (vichan)

> connected that sample to any codebase i could use.

See the github link at the top

>you're telling me that just going to 4chan *would be a different experience than what i would have*. and it seems to be missing core features i want like markdown, so why would you send me there as a sample?

4chan isn't open source, so you can't host it here. I linked it because it is the most generic imageboard out there. No frills, just plain text and images. Every other imageboard is inspired by and adds to it.

>and clicking around it's super user hostile. by trial and error i seem to have determined that you click on a post number to reply. that's ridiculous.

How is that ridiculous? It makes perfect sense. It's not about replying to someone, it's about referencing their post in yours so that it can be added to the chain of relevant comments.

If you highlight some text and then click on the post number, that text is quoted in your reply. shift-click to get reddit-style indentation for as many replies as you like.

>did you really expect me to have a good or even OK experience trying it briefly?

You've been blogging for a decade and half, so I presumed you'd be comfortable using an imageboard and decided to forgo including usage instructions.

>get a different one then? i listed things that meet the criteria you stated. your response is to add new criteria. i don't want to play this game. did you even check all the ones on the FI guidelines page? why don't you explain what's wrong with them. (and you not having something isn't a flaw in it – why don't you get it?)

I just don't own an apple computer.

>why don't *you* make a test?

I don't have to, there are a lot of them hosted on the internet. FYI, you can make a new board on 8ch for testing purposes.

>why don't you set something up which has markdown support like this blog.(copy/pasteable markup).

See 8ch

>what is nested quoting in links?

Replying to someone's post using their post number adds your post to the comment chain. You can reference multiple posts in one reply and so can others. Every post, when quoted/referenced, has a list of post numbers that reference it under it. Successively clicking on links in the list goes up/down the chain. This allows easy parsing of replies/questions and also allows resuming older discussions without any confusion and also does not disrupt recent active conversations.

>why is it "much better" than these blog comments

- Don't have to refresh page to view new posts

- Allows multiple "chains" in a single thread without disruption

- allows parsing a comment chain from a single comment

- No signup/email required

- no-hassle optional user system with tripcodes

- not dependent on continued google/yahoo services

- no messy "my email didn't show up in the discussion" or "spam folder" problems

- WYSIWYG

- easy to set up, highly customizable and scalable

#10113

Google gets much more an what I type when I make an account. IP address, browser fingerprints, cookies, registered accounts/phones and even adjacent IPs are very easy markers for metadata. That's how they get all that ad revenue. Google's one of the biggest advertisement companies first, tech second (or third). And this isn't restricted to gmail.


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 1:28 AM on July 13, 2018 | #10114 | reply | quote

why is img board better than phpbb or other forums?

can you link any good, FI-like discussion that has taken place on any image board, ever, so ppl can see how the format supports it well?

i tried your links. how do you quote people? it didn't seem to have support for quoting text from the person you're replying to.

can you actually find and link anything that actually supports quoting markdown posts?

i tried one of the demos and nested quotes didn't have different colors. the stuff you're linking is clearly not designed for the desired style of discussion. you say it's easy to set up and customize, yet it's apparently too hard for *you* to create a demo that is anywhere near what FI could use? but you think other people, less familiar than you with it, should spend hours trying it out to see if it might work?

also you were asked earlier:

> did you even check all the ones on the FI guidelines page? why don't you explain what's wrong with them.


recursive author name at 9:58 AM on July 13, 2018 | #10116 | reply | quote

Image Support

I added image support to blog comments. I put instructions right above the comment field.

For screenshots, I recommend using puush. It provides a screenshot hotkey (including one for just a screen region) and then it'll upload it and put the url on your clipboard so you can paste it in. On Mac, instead of select a screen region you can mouse over a window and hit space. Space toggles it to screenshot a particular window instead of dragging a box. Space again to un-toggle. No idea if windows has that toggle too. I do know that puush works fine on windows (I've used it).

Example image (text replacements are nice, especially if you forget the markdown image syntax):

alt text is hover text

The text you put for the image is used for the alt text (if someone isn't displaying images, like I guess if someone uses a screen reader cuz they're blind) and the title text (shows with mouse hover). Text is optional and not really needed. I just included it because I copied the markdown link format.

regular markdown links work too, btw. that's worked for a long time, i just don't think it's worth documenting above the comment box since you can just put raw urls anyway. markdown links are the same format as markdown images except without the ! in front, and having some text is required instead of optional.


curi at 11:37 AM on July 13, 2018 | #10117 | reply | quote

Image max dimensions to display are set to:

width: 100%

height: 1440 pixels

So big images will scale down to fit the comment width. You shouldn't need to worry about image dimensions. Also someone can't put a 5 million pixel tall image (well they can but it won't make us scroll forever).

I will adjust this if there's a problem.


curi at 11:40 AM on July 13, 2018 | #10118 | reply | quote

Applescript for making a markdown image link with the url currently on the clipboard:

on run

delay 0.25 -- you need time to let go of your hotkeys

tell application "System Events"

keystroke "![]("

keystroke "v" using {command down}

delay 0.1 -- pasting isn't instant

keystroke ")"

end tell

end run

How to set it up on Mac with a global hotkey:


curi at 12:37 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10119 | reply | quote

You put the Automator workflow in ~/Library/Services


curi at 12:38 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10120 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 12:43 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10121 | reply | quote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx1mJNQHSD8&lc=UgzF-wp4jzrOiMCpEm94AaABAg

None of Peterson's many legions of fans will debate me. That guy, who challenge the video in comments, sure didn't want to. Meanwhile, by contrast, I could find several stand-ins to win the debate from my one half-legion of fans.

3 weeks ago Evan said he'd discuss one thing at a time with Alan. He hasn't said anything for 6 days. This isn't his first lengthy break in the discussion, but it may be his last (no more replies ever?). He hasn't gotten to a second topic yet.

In the past he has said he was temporarily busy and would continue a discussion later, but never did. When reminded, he got evasive.


curi at 12:49 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10122 | reply | quote

I read this paper yesterday. It's pretty good but the graph you can see is bad. They should have colored the area *above* the curve for the "score worsens" part, not the area below the curve. Color the gap from the x-axis to the curve, not the gap from the curve to an arbitrary negative y-value. The way they draw it, it looks like the score worsens the most (highest amount of colored area) with lower selection rate (further left), which is false and opposite.


Anonymous at 12:52 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10123 | reply | quote

https://twitter.com/j_mallone/status/1017689459213651969

Asshole Lulie being a jerk to Oism:

Actually Twitter is hiding part of her tweet. If you click through:

There's an extra poop. It was bad enough without the poop :(


Anonymous at 12:56 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10124 | reply | quote

Image size is too big in some cases – the text in the image is way bigger than the written text after.

Testing with a small image:


Anonymous at 1:07 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10125 | reply | quote

The issue is basically retina screenshots being double size.

https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-get-my-retina-Mac-to-not-take-screenshots-that-are-too-big

https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/105185/how-can-i-stop-my-retina-display-from-taking-2x-sized-screenshots

This would be reasonably easy to fix with a custom workflow, but not with puu.sh

Desired flow:

Take native screenshot. (Could be to clipboard or could just find the most recent screenshot on the desktop.)

Save screenshot to tmp dir (or move it there from desktop)

Scale screenshot down 50% in each direction (have some kinda config so you can use or not use this part)

Upload screenshot to web server (ftp, sftp or ssh)

Wait until upload is done

Put URL on clipboard

Beep (so you know it's ready to paste)

---

Anyone want to make this for me? Please?

Saving an image from clipboard to disk with applescript looks easy:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/19115078/applescript-clipboard-image-to-browse-directory


curi at 1:20 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10126 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 1:27 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10127 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 1:30 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10128 | reply | quote

ppl suck. i tried to blank RT it but he blocked me.

issue was i corrected some ppl on Poisson distribution stuff. he repeated the same stuff i had pointed out – it seemed like he was trying to argue with me, but what he said was agreeing with me – so i asked what his point was. so he went the fuck off.


curi at 1:40 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10129 | reply | quote

i'm open to suggestions for better img css


curi at 1:44 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10130 | reply | quote

http://www.businessinsider.com/build-a-bear-pay-your-age-day-chaos-success-2018-7

Build-A-Bear had a "Pay Your Age Day" promo and so many people came they had to shut it down due to safety concerns.

> Saunders continued: "A lot of parents are now upset that they cannot fulfill promises to their children, and many who made special trips to malls are frustrated that their efforts have come to nothing. In our view, Build-A-Bear is going to have to take some action to remedy this, maybe by offering deals and special offers to those affected."

Well, I'm sure most of those parents could buy one at full price. Now that they promised one to their kid, they should just, you know, buy it. Saying they " cannot fulfill promises to their children" is bullshit.


Anonymous at 1:58 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10131 | reply | quote

Apple updated MacBook pros yesterday. 32gb ram, more cpu cores, 3rd gen butterfly keyboard, etc.

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/13/true-tone-2018-macbook-pro-external-displays/

> When using certain external monitors with the new 2018 MacBook Pro models, the built-in True Tone feature that matches the color of the MacBook Pro's screen to the ambient lighting in a room will also extend to the connected display.

neat

other current MacRumors headlines:

> Adobe to Launch Full Version of Photoshop for iPad, Expected in 2019

for most ppl, i would recommend other stuff like Affinity Designer and Pixelmator over adobe

> Apple Announces New $300 Million Clean Energy Fund in China

gross

> U.S. Department of Justice Files Appeal to Block AT&T and Time Warner Merger

the government thinks it should be able to control big "private" companies in significant ways. and they have guns.


Anonymous at 2:02 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10132 | reply | quote

more mobile traffic to curi.us than i expected.

(if anything sux on mobile, tell me and i could improve it)


curi at 2:06 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10133 | reply | quote

If only the Israelis were making any progress themselves, their relationship with the Palestinians would surely improve and change!?

Things shouldn't be stuck just because one side is bad or stuck. Being stuck is mutual. That means whenever bad guys block progress, LT blames the good guys. Or whenever people have no Paths Forward, LT blames the rational philosophers for not somehow unilaterally(?) making things unstuck. (It has to be unilateral since the other guy isn't helping. But LT says there is always interaction, so it can't be unilateral. No matter how much someone simply refuses to speak to you, it's interactive and mutual! Or something. Nonsense.)

LT didn't think about what her words meant. Her workflow was:

1) Have an idea.

2) Make up some words that could mean the idea.

Done. No step where she checks for other meanings of the words, or for whether the words communicate the whole idea in her head.

This is how most people talk all the time.


Anonymous at 2:29 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10134 | reply | quote

All of DD's examples ("survival of the fittest, group selection, epigenetic evolution, and spandrels") are *false*. Group selection is a big giveaway here.

The guy totally missed DD's point and DD purposefully didn't fill him in. (Yes DD mentioned teaching falsehoods but the guy didn't know what DD was talking about and DD didn't clarify.)

---

Survival of the fittest is a standard myth – the fittest animal is not the same thing as the fittest replicator, and also sometimes evolution leads to extinction (like a gene can be more "fit" for the current situation at the cost of some flexibility to deal with changing climate, and this makes it less fit overall so it goes extinct later).

Spandrels appear to be an attack on evolution by Gould (who made up punctuated equilibrium too).

Epigenetics appears to be overemphasized (it's not impossible but people are acting like it's a big part of the explanations when actually it's not and selfish gene replicators is what's going on.) Looks like a bunch of crap has been published about it. (I don't think the underlying concept is strictly wrong. Even the definition of spandrel I found wasn't strictly wrong, but when people then attribute lots of evolution stuff to it then they're wrong.)


Anonymous at 2:41 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10135 | reply | quote

Actually DD anti-clarified by saying the government should stay out of the business of certifying the truth. That retreated to the generic issue and furthered Marcus' impression that DD and Marcus are in agreement on evolution. But actually DD caught Marcus being *wrong* about evolution and wanting his *falsehoods* taught in schools by government compulsion. DD baited the guy on purpose, it worked, and then DD never pointed out what happened. It's odd.


Anonymous at 2:44 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10136 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 2:45 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10137 | reply | quote

well, DD sorta pointed out what happened – i got it, a hypothetical reader who is rational *and* knowledgeable would have a good chance to get it – but the guy DD was talking to didn't understand and DD chose not to communicate to be understood.


Anonymous at 3:22 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10138 | reply | quote

No one else in the discussion seemed to notice what DD did or what happened. I think that's revealing about people's knowledge (rather than, in the alternative, mostly just revealing their passivity).


Anonymous at 3:45 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10139 | reply | quote

demeaning kids


Anonymous at 5:23 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10140 | reply | quote

I saw this on a Gumroad product sidebar:

You'd never guess what it means.

"Watch immediately" is all the warning you get that you can't actually download the videos you buy.

This is borderline false advertising by Gumroad.


Anonymous at 8:21 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10141 | reply | quote

It's gross how early children are taught to want to grow up, to disrespect people younger than themselves.

I think Lillian is 3.


Anonymous at 8:31 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10142 | reply | quote

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/13/ifixit-butterfly-keyboard-silicone-barrier/

> iFixit Teardown Suggests 2018 MacBook Pro Keys Feature a Silicone Barrier to Prevent Malfunctions Due to Dust

that's good that they improved the keyboard issues.


Anonymous at 10:12 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10143 | reply | quote

#10116

>why is img board better than phpbb or other forums?

in general,

- Don't have to refresh page to view new posts

- Allows multiple "chains" in a single thread without disruption

- allows parsing a comment chain from a single comment

- No signup/email required

- no-hassle optional user system with tripcodes

- not dependent on continued google/yahoo services

- no messy "my post didn't show up in the discussion" or "spam" problems

- no power-creep mods who can delete every post you ever made and hamper previous discussions

- no power-creep mods who can make a sooper seekrit club and kill the website

- no retarded user pages/DM facilities

- WYSIWYG

- easy to set up, highly customizable and scalable

>can you link any good, FI-like discussion that has taken place on any image board, ever, so ppl can see how the format supports it well?

There has been a lot of it on 8ch but you'd have to go search one of the smaller boards. And the major imageboards are, by their nature, ephemeral, so you might find something now and not in the future unless someone saves it. 4chan is a cesspool but there are decade-old complete archives of it on the internet.

https://8ch.net/philosophy/res/1011.html

>i tried your links. how do you quote people? it didn't seem to have support for quoting text from the person you're replying to.

It does. Copy-paste the text or highlight it and click on the post number.

>can you actually find and link anything that actually supports quoting markdown posts?

I don't understand what that means, it's rather vague. Do you mean the quoted markdown should still preserve the formatting?

>i tried one of the demos and nested quotes didn't have different colors.

It doesn't have different colors because nested quotes are replaced by backlinks in the referenced post numbers. It's cleaner.

Also imageboards use the quotes (greentext) almost like an expletive.

>the stuff you're linking is clearly not designed for the desired style of discussion.

It is.

>you say it's easy to set up and customize, yet it's apparently too hard for *you* to create a demo that is anywhere near what FI could use? but you think other people, less familiar than you with it, should spend hours trying it out to see if it might work?

I linked you to 8ch.net. My demo would be the same, without any content. Deplying a single board would mean restricting the "home" and "create board" page in vichan from public view.

RIGHT NOW I'm not asking you to deploy an entire imageboard, I'm just telling you how you can improve your post system that's already halfway there. I was initially in favor of deplying a single thread/board but now that images have been added it would be overkill to replace a discussion system this close to the ideal.

>> did you even check all the ones on the FI guidelines page? why don't you explain what's wrong with them.

I don't think there's anything wrong with most of them, it's just that your current implementation isn't the best one possible.

Everything except Guideline 5.2 (and obviously the email-specific instructions) SCREAM imageboard.

>Use quotations. When you refer to some text, quote it.

okay.

>All posts should make sense if read individually — they should be standalone and self-contained.

This is where you go wrong - this might seem like the best thing to do for email, but this just makes it more cumbersome and locks you into email which is just not the best format for these conversations. Nested Quoting with links makes it much easier and doesn't make you hunt the post for the current reply.

>But don't quote text you don't need; delete it.

Doesn't go with the quoted point above.

>Reading the discussions for a month before posting is recommended in order to learn what to expect.

literally "lurk moar"

Now that images have been added, you're one step away from an imageboard - show posts when you highlight the referenced post number and add a link to the referenced post in the referenced post number in a reply.


ur mom's dad's a where a = mom's dad's a at 10:31 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10144 | reply | quote

> It doesn't have different colors because nested quotes are replaced by backlinks in the referenced post numbers. It's cleaner.

what you're saying is the design is hostile to what FI wants. what you call "cleaner", all regular FI posters would call unacceptable.

you're trying to offer a replacement for FI but you don't seem to know how FI works. nested quotes (not references, actual posts) are *crucially important to discussion quality*. (not at all times, for everything, but fairly often.)

reference links work for footnotes/side-notes, but not for main content. having main content at 2+ quote levels is super common on FI.

> I don't understand what that means, it's rather vague. Do you mean the quoted markdown should still preserve the formatting?

someone posts italics. i quote him and there are italics in the quote of him that's in my post. can it do that? (without me manually editing in the italics)

>> did you even check all the ones on the FI guidelines page? why don't you explain what's wrong with them.

> I don't think there's anything wrong with most of them, it's just that your current implementation isn't the best one possible.

you forgot the context, which was email clients. why won't you use any of the email clients listed there? what's wrong with those email clients?

> - Don't have to refresh page to view new posts

why do you think this is a big deal? if i've entered the inputs to return to a browser tab/window, tacking on a cmd-r is minor since i'm already giving a string of inputs to my computer.

do you leave image boards open *in open, visible monitor space*? i guess most people usually don't do that. and if i cared a lot about the workflow i'd set up notifications, not rely on an auto-refresh feature + manually checking the page. the auto-refresh feature appears to me to make a tiny improvement to a workflow that isn't optimized anyway. (it's an ok workflow. i use it sometimes. but if i wanted to optimize i'd switch to notifications, not just try to cut out the cmd-r press)

also your benefits list, which you somewhat repeated, is pretty careless. i asked about phpbb comparison and you told me it doesn't rely on google. phpbb doesn't either.


hi at 10:46 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10145 | reply | quote

>someone posts italics. i quote him and there are italics in the quote of him that's in my post. can it do that? (without me manually editing in the italics)

It can't do that.

>what's wrong with those email clients?

I just don't like email, it's too messy for discussion compared to a single webpage online.

>i asked about phpbb comparison and you told me it doesn't rely on google. phpbb doesn't either.

my fault.


Anonymous at 10:59 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10146 | reply | quote

>> Reading the discussions for a month before posting is recommended in order to learn what to expect.

> literally "lurk moar"

people arrive with no clue how to quote and who haven't even seen quoting, and also they have no clue what to expect in terms of criticism.

i personally lurked for around a month before posting to TCS list. i wasn't familiar with similar things, so it was good to get some idea of what it was like.

but there's a problem of people forgetting about whatever it was that got them interested initially.

i'll change it to a week. also i make no such recommendation about the blog comments, which can be a major culture shock to dive into, but at least don't require much clue about formatting.

> show posts when you highlight the referenced post number

i just tried this feature and it's such a tease. when i try to move my mouse over the popup post it disappears and i can't copy any quotes from it.

also, wait, wtf:

this is post 1036. the 3 references at the top are all to posts that came *later in time*. they are *forward* references, not back references. that's the wrong direction for finding context. that doesn't replace quoting, it's for finding further, later discussion?

as to the back reference in the body, if you hover it and see a post with a back reference you wouldn't be able to immediately read it? plus it isn't quoting to communicate *which parts* of the previous posts it cares about. looks like this would fall apart with longer posts.

it's ok but i think it's trying to make up for people not being adequately clear about what text they are replying to and what text they consider important to their post (that crucial text should be quoted, not found via skimming *all* prior stuff).

> add a link to the referenced post in the referenced post number in a reply.

i think you mean automate it? the wording is confusing. you can type or copy/paste post numbers here and they are clickable links.


curi at 11:11 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10147 | reply | quote

i think i get the forward links. it's so you can go back and forth. you can click a link to a parent post and then use the forward reference to go the other way (browser back works too though).

and if you want to read the grandparent you have to click+hover or click+click. the hovering feature only shows you one level back, it doesn't do anything to replace deeper nested quoting. (and whole post references lack the selectivity of quotes)


curi at 11:41 PM on July 13, 2018 | #10148 | reply | quote

comments now use paragraph tags instead of break tags.

the goal is that you can copy/paste multiple paragraphs and get double line breaks instead of single line breaks. seems to work now (only tested in mac safari and mac chrome, as usual).


curi at 12:11 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10149 | reply | quote

I think it'd be easy to add auto-refresh javascript but then i had a better idea:


curi at 12:20 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10150 | reply | quote

i improved comment permalinks to avoid some unnecessary page reloads.


curi at 12:34 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10151 | reply | quote

![https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/e2/Ayn_Rand_by_Talbot_1943.jpg/220px-Ayn_Rand_by_Talbot_1943.jpg]


ff at 12:47 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10153 | reply | quote

testing


ff at 12:50 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10154 | reply | quote

YESSSSSSSS

FINALLY!!


ff at 12:51 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10155 | reply | quote


ff at 12:52 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10156 | reply | quote


ff at 12:53 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10157 | reply | quote

AUTOMATIC QUOTING FEATURE

I added reply and quote links to all comments.

Reply just writes the comment number (with a hash) for you.

Quote adds a quote level to every line.

If you find any comment that the quote feature is broken with, please tell me. In testing sometimes the comment box wouldn't show up due to escaping issues, but I fixed the ones I saw.

Images are not quoted. It seemed like a bad idea to have the same image repeated. It just writes [image] instead.


curi at 1:12 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10158 | reply | quote

auto quoting is working with in development but not on live. investigating.


curi at 1:21 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10159 | reply | quote

ok i'm pretty sure it's a caching problem.


curi at 1:26 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10160 | reply | quote

> FINALLY!!

You know you can ask for features if you want them?


Anonymous at 1:27 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10161 | reply | quote

I did some fixes.

Sometimes it scrolls to the wrong place on the page in Safari, but not Chrome, and I don't know why.


curi at 3:01 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10162 | reply | quote

test


Anonymous at 10:39 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10163 | reply | quote

test2


Anonymous at 10:40 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10164 | reply | quote

warning: don't click quote or reply mid-writing

Be aware: clicking "reply" or "quote" reloads the page and deletes anything you typed in the comment box. They are regular links, not javascript.

If you want to quote from multiple posts using the quote feature: do one, copy/paste to a text file, then do the other.

If you are in the middle of a post and want to click a quote link so you can add something (without doing it manually by copy/pasting it and typing quote marks), then copy/paste what you're writing to a text file first.


curi at 10:58 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10165 | reply | quote

#10165 alternatively, you can open a quote link in a new tab in order to get quotes of something without affecting what you're writing now. (you may want to copy what you're writing to the clipboard first in case you screw up and don't do it in a new tab.)

If you do screw up and delete what you wrote by clicking on quote in the middle of writing, try hitting Back in your browser. you may get your writing back (it works in some browsers but not others).


Anonymous at 11:03 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10166 | reply | quote

deployed new fixes:

- caching is just off on post pages. we'll see if there's actually a problem. (my caching is pretty limited anyway – i just delete all the cache when there's an update rather than bothering to delete the right things)

- i added anchors to all the reply and quote links, so it should consistently scroll to the right place in safari now

one minor issue:

your cursor is at the start of the comment box instead of after the reply or quote text. it could be moved with javascript. but for quoting long comments, not moving it is actually better. like in Mail when you reply to an email you want to start at the top and work your way down, not start at the bottom.

for the reply link, moving the cursor would always be good, rather than sometimes be good. so maybe i'll figure it out and do it conditionally. it's minor tho. it's just one extra key press to move the cursor yourself (down arrow will work for replies since they aren't multi-line, command-down or the windows equivalent for multi-line quotes).


curi at 11:19 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10167 | reply | quote

should i add attribution lines?

When you quote someone I could put a line at the top saying #comment-number wrote:

I don't know if that'd be good or bad. (the downside is extra clutter. and it's generally easy to select some text from a quote and use Find to search for that text if you want to find the parent)


curi at 11:21 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10168 | reply | quote

https://twitter.com/MachinePix/status/1018200914832879616

MachinePix posts neat videos. it's nice to see machines doing stuff and saving human labor.


Anonymous at 11:31 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10169 | reply | quote

#10167 i added the javascript to move the cursor to the end of the comment box. for especially long quotes it's bad (scrolls you down), but it's better most of the time. and if you get scrolled down you can fix it real ez by pressing cmd + up arrow (use Home on a PC? or something)


curi at 11:46 AM on July 14, 2018 | #10170 | reply | quote

Gumroad 30 Day Refund Policy

I posted an official 30 day no questions asked refund policy for my gumroad stuff so people don't have to worry they might be unsatisfied. (i've never actually had a refund request)

buy now and learn stuff, risk free:

https://elliottemple.com/store


curi at 1:40 PM on July 14, 2018 | #10171 | reply | quote

New Newsletter

sent out a newsletter!

https://mailchi.mp/6cc86e368552/fallible-ideas-newsletter-525119

it's #64. i've been 100% consistent about sending them out regularly so far.


curi at 3:44 PM on July 14, 2018 | #10172 | reply | quote

im sleepy from fi. i have nothing else to say lmao


derandomamber at 3:50 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10173 | reply | quote

https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/12/starbucks-straw-ban-will-see-the-company

Starbucks replacing straws with more plastic for no benefit. Environmentalists happy cuz fuck facts, only narrative matters.


Anonymous at 7:52 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10174 | reply | quote

On iOS when you share a link and choose the Copy option it leaves out the anchor. So if you try to share a specific comment, you just get the top of the page. Awful!

Workaround: instead of using the share feature, touch the URL to edit it, select all, copy.


Anonymous at 8:23 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10175 | reply | quote

Gobble are liars. If you email a meal suggestion, they won't make it happen. They'll do something more like: add it to the big database of customer preferences info that the chefs never learned how to use very well.

Also they are spammers. You can't disable advertisements like this without disabling *all* emails including crucial stuff like notifications your order shipped.

On Mac, you can swap the two characters around the cursor with ctrl-t. You can press repeatedly to move a character multiple spaces to the right. (To move a character left, press left arrow twice after each ctrl-t.)

This is one of many emacs based hotkeys built in to Macs. Another is ctrl-k which kills to the end of the line (and actually puts it on a secondary clipboard that you can paste from with ctrl-y).

ctrl-t is great for fixing typos. I'm trying to use it more. This involves recognizing situations where it'll help. It's a skill to notice when to use it.

Previously I only used it for fixing a typo affect one word. But I just noticed it could fix a typo affecting two words! The picture shows an opportunity to fix two words at once with one ctrl-t!


Anonymous at 8:30 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10176 | reply | quote

btw ctrl-t is pretty easy to type one-handed because i changed caps lock to be ctrl. ctrl is also ctrl.

Click modifier keys.


Anonymous at 8:35 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10177 | reply | quote

Cool, but how the hell is that "breaking news"? Seems like old news which has been continuously true since Trump was elected (in terms of US policy) and for his entire career in politics (in terms of Ted Cruz's position).


Anonymous at 9:20 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10178 | reply | quote

i wonder how long this page takes to load now, with all the images, if you don't have any of them cached by your browser yet.


Anonymous at 9:23 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10179 | reply | quote

Text expansions work on iOS. Settings, general, keyboard, text replacement.

iCloud doesn’t want to give links. I saved it to Dropbox which is happy to offer a share link.

Hit reply on something and delete the number as a quick way to scroll down. Or touch the permalink for the bottom comment to clear the text box instead of deleting.


Anonymous at 11:27 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10181 | reply | quote

well that dropbox link didn't work. rude!

let's test removing the ?dl=0 or modifying it to 1:

removed:

with dl=1:


Anonymous at 11:30 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10182 | reply | quote

saved img to Files (icloud drive). couldn't find a link.

got imgur app. uploaded. got a link but i don't think it'll work. looks like a gallery link. can get the raw image on a computer np but i didn't see how to on iPhone.

let's test imgur's link:


Anonymous at 11:42 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10183 | reply | quote

ok, so, does anyone know how to upload an image and get a direct link to it on iOS?


Anonymous at 11:49 AM on July 15, 2018 | #10184 | reply | quote

Puush has an iOS app. But it doesn't exist in the US app store anymore. I guess it's not maintained. But I figured they might know a solution:


Anonymous at 12:05 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10185 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 12:08 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10186 | reply | quote

I changed the website from html 4 to html 5. And there are no significant WC3 validator errors on this page now.

I made large discussion pages a little more efficient: removed a link and a div for every comment.

Please let me know if anything breaks.

My friend is finding this page laggy on iPhone X but it's fine on my iPhone X. Removing attribution lines (as a test, since they include 4 links) improved it some but didn't fix it. He had the same issue another page with 300 comments but no images, so it doesn't seem to be due to the images (which was my first guess). He's fine on pages with a small number of comments, so it doesn't seem to be some general issue with some other part of post pages. Let me know if you have performance problems.


curi at 1:42 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10187 | reply | quote

The iCab browser fixed the performance problem (Chrome and Firefox were different than Safari but not great either).

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/icab-mobile-web-browser/id308111628

If you have any issues, would advise you leave open your discussion here in iCab. Switching apps might actually be more convenient than switching Safari tabs on mobile.


Anonymous at 2:09 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10188 | reply | quote

interesting. doesn't seem very useful.


Anonymous at 2:12 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10189 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 2:13 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10190 | reply | quote

Environmentalism is stupid.

https://reason.com/blog/2018/07/12/starbucks-straw-ban-will-see-the-company

> Starbucks Bans Plastic Straws, Winds Up Using More Plastic

Stupid goals, even stupider implementations. Article author bothered to *weigh the plastic* in the new lids and compare to the old lids + straws. And has good points that straws are a great technology which can help disabled people, young kids, people wearing lipstick, and more.


Anonymous at 2:45 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10191 | reply | quote

@iOS image upload to get a direct link:

Could use an FTP app. Would work. Doesn't sound convenient.

PhotoSync is photo-oriented, has auto-uploading of new pics, and I think can do FTP. Maybe it'd work well.

https://www.photosync-app.com/iOS.html

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photosync-transfer-photos/id415850124?mt=8

If anyone figures out a good solution, please say so.


Anonymous at 3:06 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10192 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 3:26 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10193 | reply | quote

Image Changes

The new max height for images is 500px.

Images now link to themselves. Click an image to expand to full resolution.

It turns out you can get an image URL from imgur on iPhone. Just not from the app. The app will only give you the gallery URL.

Do this:

Upload in the imgur app, then touch the Share icon or long press or force touch. Choose "Open in Safari" (Copy Link will just give you the same URL that won't work).

In Safari you have two options.

1) If your device supports force touch (aka 3d touch): force touch the image you want and it'll take you to the image link. Copy the link from the address bar.

or

2) Long touch the image you want and choose copy. This copies the image to your clipboard. It will paste as an image in some apps, like Messages, but if you paste in Safari (in the address bar or a text area like the comment box here) it will do put the URL.

The URL imgur gives you is low quality but it works. You can fix it if you want.

Example imgur URL that will work as an image here:

https://i.imgur.com/IoiIAoN_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

The part from "?" onward is called the query string. I'm not sure if does anything or not. You might want to delete it.

The part after the "/" until the "?" is the filename. The "_d" right before the jpg is imgur's naming convention for thumbnails. To get higher quality, delete the "_d" and you'll get the regular image.

It should be possible to do the editing with a javascript bookmarklet or something, rather than doing it by hand. But this works reasonably well. Text expansion for the ![]() for a markdown image. Paste the URL between the parentheses (long touch to get a magnifying glass and place the cursor – make sure not to force touch – and then let go with the cursor in the right place and the paste option will appear). Then delete the "_d" if you want higher quality.


curi at 3:50 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10194 | reply | quote

Not a fan of sarcasm, but she's right.


Anonymous at 5:35 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10196 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 6:18 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10197 | reply | quote

yeah that guy is clueless @ 1st tweet

lame @ "crazy" (2nd tweet)

lame @ clueless guy has a high social position (2nd tweet)

lame @ sarcasm (3rd tweet)

lol @ joke (4th tweet)

& **most of all**, the idea that "you shouldn't punch down" is interesting. it's telling people to ignore most of their critics. and the people saying it conceptualize corrections of mistakes as punches. (admittedly this guy did it in a rude way in this case, but people say the same thing when it's a non-rude criticism).


curi at 6:55 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10198 | reply | quote

MALTED MOO SHAKE ice cream (tillamook) is DELICIOUS

recommend trying cuz it’s a different flavor than the standard ones.

with ben and jerries they throw in goodies and make it high quality, but i can mostly predict what it'll taste like in advance. but i didn't know what MALTED MOO SHAKE would be. and it's good


Anonymous at 6:58 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10199 | reply | quote

> & **most of all**, the idea that "you shouldn't punch down" is interesting. it's telling people to ignore most of their critics. and the people saying it conceptualize corrections of mistakes as punches. (admittedly this guy did it in a rude way in this case, but people say the same thing when it's a non-rude criticism).

and it's condescending to think some people are "down" for you. it's saying they're your inferior. "punching" them is treating them more like a peer, a person worth talking to. and he's saying to be more dismissive of people you decide you're better than.

it's irrational social status posturing instead of truth seeking.


Anonymous at 7:03 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10200 | reply | quote

I found 2 ppl tried to join FI a couple days ago by email but didn't do the confirmation so they aren't on. And I found 2 more from the last 2 months. I emailed them each individually to let them know the confirm is needing and to suggest trying again. :(


curi at 7:12 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10201 | reply | quote

I added text about confirmation emails in several places.

I also made a new link for the sidebar:

http://curi.us/open-discussion

That link will always redirect to the current open discussion page. In the future, when there's too many comments here, I'll update it behind the scenes to a new blog post.


curi at 7:27 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10202 | reply | quote

hallo

im sleepy from fi and i have nun else to say lmao


derandomamber at 8:21 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10203 | reply | quote

#10203 idk i bet u have **three** other things to say.


Anonymous at 8:37 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10204 | reply | quote

The sausage kept rolling over. I could turn it 180 degrees but not 90 degrees. I wanted to cook it more evenly. Propping it up on the side with the paper towel worked perfectly!


Anonymous at 9:03 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10205 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 9:23 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10206 | reply | quote

https://pastebin.com/Kag986XT

> You see all the criticism- "Effect is toxic", "Effect isn't a good team mate". He says they're right. He knows that himself the best. So he can't say anything back. It would be better if he didn't realise this, but he knows. And he can't fix it. He doesn't know why. Even when he takes medication it doesn't fix the problem.

Effect be like "psych pills didn't fix me, wtf? ::confused::"


Anonymous at 9:26 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10207 | reply | quote

https://pastebin.com/Kag986XT

> He then talks a LOT about the whole situation with Senika (his girlfriend). Not going to translate all of this as it isn't as related to Effect's pro career and gets a bit too intense and personal. But the gist is that he broke up with her because she mainly just wants to have fun and isn't thinking about the future, while he can't see himself supporting them when his short career as a pro ends. She breaks down a bit and doesn't take it well. In frustration he threatens to air out the dirty laundry if she keeps this up. She gets so scared that she attempts suicide and ends up in hospital. Effect apologised profusely to her because he knew he shouldn't have threatened her. This whole experience really messes with Effect. They got back again but fought every day. They broke up again, this time for good.

#love


Anonymous at 9:28 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10208 | reply | quote

> #love

too sarcastic?

could have written like:

> luv sux

or

> "love" sux

but i wanted to be more like "this is what love looks like". ok well i guess that's a clearer way to say it. longer tho


Anonymous at 9:34 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10209 | reply | quote

> too sarcastic?

it wasn't really sarcasm, is was tagging/labelling/categorizing. like i literally thing that's in the "love" category. i think it's representative of "love" (specifically the romantic dating sort. and no not every relationship has the same details but there are huge problems like this and people hide them so much, and downplay them, and even if they don't have *these* particular problems, most of them do have big problems...).


Anonymous at 9:36 PM on July 15, 2018 | #10210 | reply | quote

> MALTED MOO SHAKE ice cream (tillamook) is DELICIOUS

>

> recommend trying cuz it’s a different flavor than the standard ones.

>

> with ben and jerries they throw in goodies and make it high quality, but i can mostly predict what it'll taste like in advance. but i didn't know what MALTED MOO SHAKE would be. and it's good

The Tillamook website claims this isn't sold at stores near me 😢


Anonymous at 2:01 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10211 | reply | quote

#10204 ur right i do i like poop

thaz le 3 things i haz to say. :P


derandomamber at 5:11 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10212 | reply | quote

Solid deal if u need one of these https://slickdeals.net/f/11811055-amazon-cloud-cam-indoor-security-camera-60-w-prime-free-shipping

Note it's possible to upgrade this to Amazon Key system (amazon can deliver packages inside your house) with right lock and power cable


Anonymous at 5:24 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10213 | reply | quote

#10212 why 💩?

#10211 i just saw it for the first time. maybe they are testing it out.


Anonymous at 8:31 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10214 | reply | quote

Free Books and Papers

Sci-Hub has a website again! (Some months back they were stuck on Tor and it was broken.)

Open access to scientific papers!

https://sci-hub.tw

Meanwhile, Library Genesis gives open access to books!

http://gen.lib.rus.ec

Another good book site:

http://b-ok.org


Anonymous at 8:57 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10215 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 8:59 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10216 | reply | quote

> #10211 i just saw it for the first time. maybe they are testing it out.

Oh good point


Anonymous at 8:59 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10217 | reply | quote

PRIME DAY

Amazon super deals in 2.6 hrs


Anonymous at 9:22 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10218 | reply | quote

https://twitter.com/jasonelevation/status/1018292243617239046

forget the comment on voting. people go to school and are confused by a world map. partly it's because it's not the standard one (normally USA is on the left, not the right), but partly because they don't know much about the world or about how to think.

it's notable. try to think about a person with that level of knowledge trying to have an FI philosophy debate. it's not going to work.


Anonymous at 9:32 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10219 | reply | quote

#10219 try to imagine those people being parents answering their kid's questions about the world (all sorts of aspects of it). try to imagine those people reading FI essays and learning it.


Anonymous at 9:33 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10220 | reply | quote

OOT 100% will have WR under 4hrs soon.

https://pastebin.com/Ng1kQkzU


Anonymous at 9:39 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10221 | reply | quote

> Amazon super deals in 2.6 hrs


Anonymous at 9:45 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10222 | reply | quote

lol u deleted the file extension :D

PS OOT new route practice run just started https://www.twitch.tv/dannyb21892


Anonymous at 9:46 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10223 | reply | quote

> Amazon super deals in 2.6 hrs


Anonymous at 9:56 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10224 | reply | quote

Rideshare conquered business travel market in less than 5 years https://twitter.com/hunterwalk/status/1018708784812720130?s=21


Anonymous at 10:06 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10225 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 10:35 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10226 | reply | quote

#10224 I didn't know gifs were allowed too.


ff at 10:39 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10227 | reply | quote

> #10224 I didn't know gifs were allowed too.

I didn't even think about that. But it makes an html image tag and they work. hf


curi at 10:40 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10228 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 10:45 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10229 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 11:14 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10230 | reply | quote

OK I made it easy to post imgur pix from iPhone. Add a bookmark with the following as the URL:

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value = document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(imgur\.com.*?)\?\S+/, '$1').replace(/(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+)_d(\.\S+)/, '![]($1$2)');

when you use that bookmark, it'll replace imgur links in the comment box with cleaned up links with the markdown image markup around them. so all you gotta do is paste the imgur link then use the bookmark and it'll fix everything.

example imgur link:

https://i.imgur.com/IoiIAoN_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium

that will turn into:

![] (https://i.imgur.com/IoiIAoN.jpg)

(without the extra space, i just put that so it won't be detected as an image in this comment)

to get the imgur url:

upload pic in imgur app. view in safari. now you're at a gallery. long touch (lightly) on the image and chose copy. you can paste that in the curi blog comment box then use the bookmarklet.

while you're doing bookmarklets, here's another great one:

javascript:document.getElementsByTagName(%22video%22)%5B0%5D.playbackRate%20=%202.5;

that sets YouTube to play back at 2.5x speed. works in iPhone safari. the 2.5 at the very end is the speed. i made these every .25 for 1.5 through 3.25x. note: if you go over 2x, the video is choppy but the audio is still fine.

you can set up bookmarklets on mac safari and they'll sync over to mobile, you don't have to set this up on iphone (though you can).

put most of your bookmarks in folders but not these so that they're easy to get to.


curi at 11:42 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10231 | reply | quote

I removed the spaces and it still works:

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value=document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(imgur\.com.*?)\?\S+/,'$1').replace(/(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+)_d(\.\S+)/,'![]($1$2)');

Should work with the youtube ones too. (spaces are showing up as %20 in the bookmarks picture, %20 is the URL encoding for a space)


Anonymous at 11:45 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10232 | reply | quote

Updated Script

I updated the imgur bookmarklet to handle multiple image links instead of just the first one. btw it should work fine if there's other text in your comment and leave that alone.

New version:

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value=document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(imgur\.com.*?)\?\S+/g,'$1').replace(/(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+)_d(\.\S+)/g,'![]($1$2)');


curi at 11:54 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10233 | reply | quote

Updated Again

I changed it from two regexes to one. Still works the same.

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value=document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+)_d(\.\S+?)\?\S+/g,'![]($1$2)');


curi at 11:58 AM on July 16, 2018 | #10234 | reply | quote

script not working on mobile. for testing purposes:

https://i.imgur.com/IoiIAoN_d.jpg?maxwidth=640&shape=thumb&fidelity=medium


Anonymous at 12:25 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10235 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 12:42 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10236 | reply | quote

regex explanation

False alarm about the script not working on mobile. It is working on mobile safari. Not sure what went wrong before. Possibly it's related to bookmark syncing? It didn't work for me on my first try but now it works.

I will explain the regex so you can learn things and also you can modify it yourself if there's a minor problem.

> /(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+)_d(\.\S+?)\?\S+/g,'![]($1$2)'

Explaining the regex:

A regular expression (regex) is a **pattern** that can match text. This is useful for finding text and also replacing it with something else. Documentation:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Guide/Regular_Expressions

Now for the imgur fix details:

> /(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/

this part is easy. / starts a regex. you need a \ in front of a / or . to escape it (make it act as itself instead of as a special character). the paren is starting a group.

> \w+)

\w matches a word character (letter, number, underscore). + means match one or more of the the thing before the +. the ) closes the first group.

it should probably be \w+?) instead (would prevent it screwing up in some edge cases). the ? after a + makes it match the fewest number of things it can (non-greedy) instead of the most (greedy, which is the default).

the goal of the \w+ is to match the good part of the filename.

> _d

this matches _d. if it's not a special character, it just matches itself. the _d is the imgur naming convention for thumbnails. we want to get rid of that. so we leave it out of the first group. at the end, our replacement text will include the stuff in the groups but not the other stuff.

> (\.\S+?)

this is for matching the file extension. it looks complicated but it's not.

( starts a group. \. matches a literal period. \S+? matches non-whitespace characters, one or more, non-greedy. ) ends the group.

> \?\S+

this part is for getting rid of the query string. \? matches a literal ?. \S+ matches one or more non-whitespace characters.

> /g

the / ends the regex and g means to keep going and do more search/replaces in the rest of the text (in case there are multiple imgur urls) instead of stopping after one find/replace is done.

> ,'![]($1$2)'

the comma is javascript for separating arguments to a function. it's like: replace(arg1,arg2)

arg1 is the regex. arg2 is the replacement string which says what to put instead. the apostrophes start and end a string in javascript. the middle is the regular expression replacement. let's look at that:

> ![]($1$2)

it looks like a mess but it's easy. $1 means the first group that we saved by putting paren around it. $2 is the second group. ![]( and ) are just literally themselves. those are the markdown markup for an image.

---

script updated with non-greedy filename matcher:

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value=document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(https:\/\/i\.imgur\.com\/\w+?)_d(\.\S+?)\?\S+/g,'![]($1$2)');

PS here's one for scrolling to the bottom of the page:

javascript:window.scrollTo%280%2C100000%29

you can also get scripts for stuff like Pocket, Spreeder, Outread.


curi at 1:00 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10237 | reply | quote

wow amazon's website is slow. they can't handle their prime day traffic!


Anonymous at 1:09 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10238 | reply | quote

i can't even do a search on amazon. i got some errors and some blank search results. wtf


Anonymous at 1:10 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10239 | reply | quote

browsing categories is working. y'all could make videos!

from https://www.amazon.com/b/?node=17852202011

product link:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076ZXYG17/?tag=curi04-20

tbh that isn't even that big a sale tho.


Anonymous at 1:17 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10240 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 1:39 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10241 | reply | quote

Shure SE112-K-BT1 Wireless Sound Isolating Earphones with Bluetooth Enabled Communication Cable

https://www.amazon.com/Shure-SE112-K-BT1-Isolating-Earphones-Communication/dp/B074QQP2T2?ref_=Oct_DLandingS_PC_NA_NA

30% off


Anonymous at 1:55 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10242 | reply | quote

gross. and only $50 off. i'm upgrading to apple watch series 4 this fall.


Anonymous at 2:17 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10246 | reply | quote

> and only $50 off.

$40


Anonymous at 2:17 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10247 | reply | quote

got 23andMe genetic testing for prime day!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01G7PYQTM/?tag=curi04-20


Anonymous at 4:17 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10249 | reply | quote

CHEAP IZZE :D


Anonymous at 4:24 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10250 | reply | quote

microfiber towels r cool. it's an ez-carry towel. smaller, lighter.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01K1TX2D6/?tag=curi04-20


Anonymous at 4:30 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10251 | reply | quote

Overwatch playoffs performed well on Disney XD tv channel:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/8zg3km/overwatch_league_playoffs_on_disney_xd_ratings/

> The OWL Playoff ratings on Disney XD came in at # 145 with a 0.03 rating in the 18 - 49 demographic and 127,000 viewers.

> For a point of reference: it was the only show on Disney XD that made the top 150 cable ratings for the night. Disney XD does not typically score in the top 150 on Fridays, so this is a number that both Disney and Blizzard have to be very happy with.

> There are no numbers for the ESPN 3 airing available at this time.

someone says 90k low point on twitch for the same games.


Anonymous at 4:54 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10252 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 6:00 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10253 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 6:18 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10255 | reply | quote

UnREAL season 4 just came out. i like the show. it's a fiction show about making a reality tv show similar to the bachelor, so you see behind the scenes about how it's made. not super realistic but i think it's somewhat right in its rather negative attitude toward reality tv.


Anonymous at 7:00 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10256 | reply | quote

Great article about Starcraft 2’s ups and downs as an esport

https://variety.com/2018/gaming/features/starcraft-ii-esports-history-1202873246/


Anonymous at 8:23 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10257 | reply | quote

https://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/S89217906/#/S89217906

> I love this sleeper sofa. We needed something for our reading nook in our bedroom, and this couldn’t be more perfect. Quick change to a sleeper sofa (when we have more people staying and the kiddos are staying in our bedroom).

When they have guests, they kick their children out of their own rooms! :(((((((


Anonymous at 8:56 PM on July 16, 2018 | #10258 | reply | quote

#10214 Cos it was le first ting I thought of :P


DeRandomAmber at 7:09 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10259 | reply | quote

#10259 wait do you not actually like poop? were you lying!?!?


Anonymous at 9:28 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10260 | reply | quote

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/07/16/marshall-worst-case

> I don’t think it’s the infamous pee tape because even if real, the pee tape might not sink Trump. I think it’s money — that Trump’s entire company, and therefore his personal wealth, is held afloat entirely by Russian money and Putin could pull the plug on it with a snap of his fingers. But whatever it is, it seems clear there’s something they’ve got on him.

John Gruber is an idiot


Anonymous at 9:42 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10261 | reply | quote

i think i asked him this in the past and got no reply. he should do it. it'd be profitable and a good way to treat people. like fine you wanna post about politics, and we disagree. sure. just make it easy for me not to read that if i don't want to. keep it showing as the default, that's fine with me, no objection, just have a non-default view where i can avoid it.


Anonymous at 9:46 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10262 | reply | quote

I stopped reading DF regularly cuz of the politics stuff


Anonymous at 9:48 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10263 | reply | quote

i label politics stuff in my newsletter, make it easy to skip.

if i made a lot of money from my blog like DF does, i'd hire someone to put categories on all the posts and set things up so people could skip politics.


Anonymous at 9:51 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10264 | reply | quote

> I stopped reading DF regularly cuz of the politics stuff

there's like 4 anti-Trump posts in a row right now. take a peek if you want a horror show. one says Hillary was 100% right that Trump is Putin's puppet, it's like bragging about her correct foresight like it's a good apple product prediction and there is claim chowder shame for the doubters.


Anonymous at 9:53 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10265 | reply | quote

>> I stopped reading DF regularly cuz of the politics stuff

>

> there's like 4 anti-Trump posts in a row right now. take a peek if you want a horror show. one says Hillary was 100% right that Trump is Putin's puppet, it's like bragging about her correct foresight like it's a good apple product prediction and there is claim chowder shame for the doubters.

Oh god lol

DF says https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/07/16/trump-kowtows-to-putin

>Trump’s own DNI is telling us Trump is a traitor.

But that doesn't follow at all from what DF quotes. DF is just angry and making things up


Anonymous at 9:59 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10266 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 11:39 AM on July 17, 2018 | #10267 | reply | quote

(Horowitz is the name of that IM group chat.)


Anonymous at 12:42 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10268 | reply | quote

McDonald's seems TOO cheap to me

They have coupons now where u can get most of their sandwiches for a dollar once a day, and 49 cent cones and stuff

Lots of people hate McDonald's and believe lies about fake beef and pink slime and stuff. So I think McDonald's has to compete on price more than they would in a more just world


Anonymous at 1:20 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10269 | reply | quote

> McDonald's seems TOO cheap to me

>

> They have coupons now where u can get most of their sandwiches for a dollar once a day, and 49 cent cones and stuff

>

> Lots of people hate McDonald's and believe lies about fake beef and pink slime and stuff. So I think McDonald's has to compete on price more than they would in a more just world

I don't think the low prices convince many strong followers of the lies and slanders. But the lies reduce the pool of potential customers in a fiercely competitive marketplace. And also lots of the lie believers tend to be more middle and upper class and not super poor. So then McDonald's has to compete fiercely for poorer customers


Anonymous at 1:24 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10270 | reply | quote

ICabMobile has tons of features under puzzle piece in bottom of interface, including adjust video playback speed up to 2x, scroll to bottom, read page aloud, convert page to pdf or ePub etc etc. It's not well organized but functionality is impressive


Anonymous at 1:39 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10271 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 1:58 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10272 | reply | quote

lol sigh


Anonymous at 2:07 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10273 | reply | quote

> McDonald's seems TOO cheap to me

>

> They have coupons now where u can get most of their sandwiches for a dollar once a day, and 49 cent cones and stuff

>

> Lots of people hate McDonald's and believe lies about fake beef and pink slime and stuff. So I think McDonald's has to compete on price more than they would in a more just world

So, in this situation should one do things like offer to pay more or at least purposely *not* use coupons in order to better give McDonalds what they deserve?


Anonymous at 2:11 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10274 | reply | quote

> So, in this situation should one do things like offer to pay more or at least purposely *not* use coupons in order to better give McDonalds what they deserve?

no. it's not *your* problem. your sacrifice won't make much difference. smells like altruism + not even caring about effectiveness.


Anonymous at 2:15 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10275 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 2:29 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10276 | reply | quote

>> So, in this situation should one do things like offer to pay more or at least purposely *not* use coupons in order to better give McDonalds what they deserve?

>

> no. it's not *your* problem. your sacrifice won't make much difference. smells like altruism + not even caring about effectiveness.

Why is it considered a sacrifice? I'm not suggesting giving them an amount of money that would be sacrificial for you.

Why isn't it instead considered a situation where you're trying to better trade value for value? Trying to even it out a bit if indeed it appears too lopsided from your pov?

However, I do see how in a way it’s not *your* problem. As long as you are getting value out of the transaction, should you not worry about how much value the other side gets out of it? They are responsible for their side of it and you are responsible for your side of it. Is that the right attitude?

otoh, what about the problem of wanting to uphold justice and reward the moral, the good, the producers in a way that's easy for you to do (e.g. give them an extra couple dollars)? Would that be a bad problem for a person to have?


Anonymous at 2:45 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10277 | reply | quote

https://www.camera.org doesn't seem to have an email newsletter. please let me know if you if you can find one. i want to sign up. i signed up for emails from memri, palwatch, campus watch, canary mission


Anonymous at 2:50 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10278 | reply | quote

#10277 paying extra sacrifices money you could use for something else, including something more important to your values (like supporting FI? if you have nothing even better than that to spend it on)

every dollar matters. if you disagree, please give me all your extra dollars.

> Why isn't it instead considered a situation where you're trying to better trade value for value?

b/c no one even notices what you're doing. it's not like sending some tip money to a blogger's paypal where he actually notices and it means something to him. if fewer ppl use coupons, mcdonalds will probably not notice or maybe think they need to get the word out more.

McDonalds is a terrible target to help b/c it takes so much to move the needle and also what would actually help them far more than a few dollars is a better more capitalist culture – so *for McDonald's sake* you'd be better off spending the dollars to promote Oism or FI or to fund your own studies you can make a different intellectually.

> otoh, what about the problem of wanting to uphold justice and reward the moral, the good, the producers in a way that's easy for you to do (e.g. give them an extra couple dollars)? Would that be a bad problem for a person to have?

where exactly do you think that money goes? you aren't contributing to any particular producer. it's not like their most productive employees will get the money. mcdonalds is huge and inefficient.


Anonymous at 2:54 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10279 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 6:00 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10280 | reply | quote

Trump-Tucker interview part 1:

http://video.foxnews.com/v/5810471499001/?playlist_id=5198073478001#sp=show-clips

their video player supports up to 2X btw


Anonymous at 6:05 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10281 | reply | quote

> Trump-Tucker interview part 1:

>

> http://video.foxnews.com/v/5810471499001/?playlist_id=5198073478001#sp=show-clips

>

> their video player supports up to 2X btw

TRUMP: ...it's incredible, the Democrats want open borders, which is basically saying "we want open borders, we want crime."

TUCKER: Why do you think they want that?

TRUMP: Maybe it's a political philosophy that they grew up with, maybe they learned it at school, maybe they're fools. I dunno.


Anonymous at 6:13 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10282 | reply | quote

#10281 +1


Anonymous at 6:38 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10283 | reply | quote


curi at 9:12 PM on July 17, 2018 | #10284 | reply | quote

#10279

>paying extra sacrifices money you could use for something else, including something more important to your values (like supporting FI? if you have nothing even better than that to spend it on)

That’s true. So one general idea here is to give your extra money to the ppl or groups who are most important to the advancement of your values (FI, Oism; not McD’s).

This idea would be in contrast to the idea of giving extra money to try to better trade value for value *during individual transactions* (e.g. at McD’s).

In terms of individual transactions, is the general idea here to not worry about how much value the other side is getting out of it? Basically, each side should take care of itself.

Actually, that’s how McD’s itself operates, right? Let’s say I value my quarter pounder at $4, but maybe it only costs them 50 cents to make it. So when they give me a coupon to get it for $2, it’s actually a great deal (a situation where the value-for-value trade is lopsided??) from *both* of our perspectives, especially when you consider that they get the benefit of having my repeat business. Is that right?

If so, then they are already getting plenty of value out of the transaction and you shouldn’t feel bad about the fact that you’re getting a ton of extra value, too.

>> Why isn't it instead considered a situation where you're trying to better trade value for value?

>b/c no one even notices what you're doing.

I agree with your conclusion on the topic (i.e. not to give McD’s extra money), but I don’t understand why this is a good reason to not try to trade value for value.

First, if enough ppl gave them extra money, they’d notice it. Also, it seems unprincipled or something to only care about trading value for value during the times when it’s noticeable. Or no?

Suppose someone reads one of ET’s posts and finds a lot of value in it. They want to give some value back to him, but they only have $5 to offer. Let’s say $5 isn’t that noticeable when it comes to ET’s monthly income; however, they still should donate that to him. Right?

I think it makes more sense to consider the idea (if it’s true?) that McD’s is already getting plenty of value out of the transaction with you. During all of the times when you didn’t have a coupon, maybe the value-for-value trade seemed even more lopsided from their pov. So, basically you shouldn’t worry about them getting their share of value.


Anonymous at 7:48 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10287 | reply | quote

The issue is *not*: is the amount of money too small for McD's to care about?

The issue is: literally there is no person at McDs who will notice that you refrained from using a coupon you could have used.

The ET donation is totally unlike that: he'd notice it happened and know why. It'd communicate to him.

If enough people did it, McDs would just think their coupons were unpopular. They still wouldn't know your intentions. It wouldn't communicate.

The McDs "avoid coupon use that you would have used otherwise" idea is sorta like giving a tip to your waiter ... except you magically teleport it into his bank account and he doesn't know it's from you and can't connect it to this transaction with you. Except it's *even more subtle than that*.

The coupon avoidance also fails to even try to identify the *optimal* amount of extra money to send in the direction of McDs.

And, yes, in general you should hold up your end of a commercial transaction and they should hold up theirs. Giving extra is only in your interest when it will make some difference that could affect your own life. It's hard for it to meet that condition unless one or more specific individuals are aware of the gift and who gave it and why, *or* it's a really important cause using money really efficiently (especially a low-funded, under-funded cause). McDs doesn't fit any of this.

I am sympathetic to the idea that McDs is a good company that would do better in a better world. But that's no reason to give them money and it applies to many companies. If you want to help, work towards the creation of a better world.


Anonymous at 8:11 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10288 | reply | quote

>The issue is: literally there is no person at McDs who will notice that you refrained from using a coupon you could have used.

Oh, I was thinking that the main point wrt the "noticing" issue is that since McD's is a billion dollar business, the company as a whole isn’t actually going to notice the few extra dollars you give them. It's just a drop in the bucket to them. It won't actually change much.

And this is potentially similar to the ET situation. In terms of his monthly income, $5 may not actually change much for him.

But if the issue is that there literally won’t be a person who notices what you are doing, then can’t you (and others) just tell them what you’re doing and why? Tell them how awesome their quarter pounders are.

Also, one of the other suggestions besides not using coupons was to give McD's extra money. The cashier *would* notice that and you (and others) could explain to them why you want to give them extra. You could suggest they tell their manager, too.

I'm not arguing to give McD's more money, but I don't see how what you've identified is *the* issue. It seems so easy to get around for the sake of your (supposed) principle.

Like, hypothetically, imagine you had this important principle to live by: **one should trade value for value.**

And then you run into situations where the other side that you’re trading with may not be aware of why you want to give them more money. That’s such as easy problem to solve, isn’t it? You just tell them what you’re doing and why. Easy. Now, you’re able to uphold your important life principle.

So, it seems like there needs to be a better reason for you (and others) to not give McD’s more money when trying to apply the idea that one should trade value for value. (e.g. maybe McD's is already getting plenty of value from you during your transactions with them? or something else?)


Anonymous at 9:14 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10290 | reply | quote

> Also, one of the other suggestions besides not using coupons was to give McD's extra money. The cashier *would* notice that and you (and others) could explain to them why you want to give them extra. You could suggest they tell their manager, too.

I like that idea more than not using a coupon (that you would have used otherwise). But I think the realistic result would be to confuse people. They have no job training to deal with it, nor does common sense and standard cultural knowledge prepare them for it.

> I'm not arguing to give McD's more money, but I don't see how what you've identified is *the* issue.

It's not *the* issue in some broad, general way. It was the issue I was talking about there, which you seemed to have misunderstood.


Anonymous at 9:23 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10291 | reply | quote

adding -708x327 (or other numbers. first one is width, 2nd height) to the end of an image filename (b4 the extension) will now get the height and width set.

the point is to use the dimensions to 50% for retina images, so they don't show up double size.

images can get stretched if a browser doesn't support the object-fit css property it runs into the max width (whatever width comments are) or height (500px)

here is a test:


Anonymous at 10:29 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10292 | reply | quote

test worked perfect! notice how that tweet pic is less wide than the text above it. it's near but not all the way to max width. perfect! that's cuz it's showing up proper size instead of being doubled.

and i checked the max width of images that fit in comments. it's 833.2px. like the 500px height, it's fine to go over that, it'll just scale down.


Anonymous at 10:33 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10293 | reply | quote

lol


Anonymous at 10:43 AM on July 18, 2018 | #10294 | reply | quote

british patriot Boris Johnson gives solid pro-Brexit speech https://youtu.be/q97jk7FaGNg


Anonymous at 3:07 PM on July 18, 2018 | #10296 | reply | quote

people can be very defeatist about standing up for law and order until someone does it and succeeds. e.g.:

http://nymag.com/anniversary/40th/50652/index2.html

>Next up, the squeegee men. Considering that most city residents didn’t drive, sure, maybe they became a somewhat outsize symbol. Giuliani mentioned them constantly during his campaign appearances in 1993 as an emblem of the narcolepsy of acceptance that Moynihan had spoken about. It was difficult to defend a group of men who, no matter how down on their luck, forced their services (which as often as not made car windshields dirtier rather than cleaner) on captive motorists.

>But it wasn’t so much that people defended them—although a handful of civil libertarians did, of course. It was more that most people didn’t think the city could really get rid of them. We knew how this worked. They’d just hide for a few days, go somewhere else; if the heat was on at the Triboro ramp, they’d relocate to the 59th Street Bridge. When it hit 59th Street, there was always the Williamsburg. And so on, and so on. It was one of those games of urban whack-a-mole to which there was no end. Just another part of the cover charge of living in New York.

>But it turned out there was an end, and, incredibly, a pretty quick one. Once the police finally dug into the matter, they figured out that there were only about 75 or so squeegee men. As Peter Powers, Giuliani’s old friend and first deputy mayor during those early years, joked to me recently, “We found out they were a pretty small union.” They were gone in about a month’s time. Something had gone strangely right. People, however tentatively, started whispering that maybe New York was governable, at least around the edges. “It was very visible,” says Powers, “and it didn’t cost us a lot.”


Anonymous at 3:34 PM on July 18, 2018 | #10298 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 6:16 PM on July 18, 2018 | #10299 | reply | quote

new FI screencasts:

https://gumroad.com/l/RMoYh


Anonymous at 8:45 PM on July 18, 2018 | #10300 | reply | quote

>“One such adviser was William Bullitt, FDR’s first ambassador to the USSR, who once had been gushingly pro-Bolshevik — until he spent a few years in the Soviet Union, where he was awakened by the death stench that was Stalinism. As he did with so many advisers, FDR rejected Bullitt’s warnings: “Bill, I just have a hunch that Stalin is not that kind of man…. I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”

>Look at those words from FDR, directed toward an abject tyrant who killed far more people than Vladimir Putin ever has: “If I give him everything I possibly can?” “Noblesse oblige?” “Will work with me for a world of democracy and peace?”

>Could anyone be so deluded? So naïve? So duped?

>A stunned Bullitt argued with the president, informing the Hyde Park patrician that he was dealing not with a British Duke but with a “bandit, whose only thought when he got something for nothing was that the other fellow was an ass.”

>Bullitt pleaded with his president not to be Uncle Joe’s jackass.

>Bullitt tried to tell FDR that there was no “factual evidence” that Stalin was a good man. FDR, however, saw Stalin as a “kind” man, a gentleman, one he could work with to advance democracy and peace. The president shook off Bullitt: “It’s my responsibility, not yours.”

>Sure was. And the course FDR took was a disastrous one that helped pave the way for the Cold War.

>Stalin had so hoodwinked the iconic New Dealer that the president mused that the mass-murdering atheist had taught him, Churchill, and other leaders of the free world something about the “way in which a Christian gentleman should behave.” Yes, Stalin, a “Christian gentleman.” FDR actually said that.”

Moscow’s Presidential Jackasses and BootlickersThe American Spectator

https://spectator.org/moscows-presidential-jackasses-and-bootlickers/

via Instapaper


Anonymous at 6:12 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10301 | reply | quote

>“On the first point, I consider it unfair that Trump’s performance in Helsinki has garnered harsher criticism than other incidents in recent memory. In 2012, for example, a hot microphone at a global nuclear security summit picked up then-President Barack Obama assuring Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” to negotiate with Putin after the presidential election.

>During a debate with GOP opponent Mitt Romney the same year, Obama casually dismissed the Russian threat, quipping: “The 1980s called; they want their foreign policy back.” Although Trump could certainly have been more forceful by condemning Putin’s crimes, his statements at the Helsinki press conference were nowhere near as concerning as his predecessor’s remarks about Russia.

>This brings me to my second point: Trump’s actions toward Russia speak louder than words—and so did his predecessor’s. Indeed, the Obama administration’s foreign policy undermined America’s credibility in my region, which Putin considers Russia’s “backyard.” There are many opinions about Trump’s rhetoric on Crimea, but it is a fact that the Russian land grab in Ukraine happened on Obama’s watch.

>How, exactly, did this happen? During and after Ukraine’s revolution of 2014, which ousted a Kremlin-backed dictator, on a daily basis the United States cautioned Ukraine not to escalate in response to Russian aggression. Thus, Putin saw an opportunity to annex Crimea without risking a direct confrontation with the West—and he seized it. Putin is a bully, but not a fool.”

Just Like Obama, Trump’s Russia Policy Speaks Louder Than His Words

https://thefederalist.com/2018/07/18/just-like-obama-trumps-russia-policy-speaks-louder-words/

via Instapaper


Anonymous at 6:43 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10302 | reply | quote

Rand Paul claims he lost a committee vote 20-1 to defeat language which would allow any country to apply to join NATO https://youtu.be/eUF-WooYYSw


Anonymous at 7:08 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10303 | reply | quote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sp_LA2qE4aM

great vid. watch watch watch! muslim immigrants are bad news.


curi at 8:25 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10304 | reply | quote

#10302 yo quoting all the paragraphs from instagram looks hard so i made you a script. it puts a quote and space at the start and after every newline.

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value='>'+document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/\n/g,'\n> ');


Anonymous at 8:30 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10305 | reply | quote

> instagram

instapaper, lol


Anonymous at 8:31 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10306 | reply | quote

test

> a

>

> b

> c


Anonymous at 8:41 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10307 | reply | quote

#10304 people are noticing. it takes a lot of destruction to get their attention, but the majority aren't just going to roll over and die.


Anonymous at 8:46 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10308 | reply | quote

look what patio11 knows about! LGF and Dan Rather memogate, from back when LGF was a pro-Isarel, right wing warblog. he also has a theory of what LGF's name means (i don't know what it means and wikipedia says the author hasn't said what it means):


Anonymous at 8:55 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10309 | reply | quote

Ryan Waggoner in an email newsletter:

> **I want to be able to retire by age 40 and never have to work again.**

A reasonably typical goal. But by age 40 *it's too late*. People don't have a soul anymore by then.


Anonymous at 9:08 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10310 | reply | quote

i’m doing a **BLOG COMMENTS HIGHLIGHTS** newsletter section. *TAKING RECOMMENDATIONS*. any recent comments stand out 2 u?


curi at 9:10 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10311 | reply | quote

>“Wikipedia’s detailed account of the murders, which took 20 minutes, is filled with blood-curdling detail. Afterward, as the bodies were being taken to burial, a couple of the Bolsheviks sexually molested the Tsaritsa’s body.

>

> This was the kind of man, and the kind of spirit, that ruled Russia for most of the hellish 20th century.”

>

The Murder Of The Romanovs

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/murder-of-the-romanovs/

Via Instapaper


Anonymous at 9:35 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10312 | reply | quote

> #10302 yo quoting all the paragraphs from instagram looks hard so i made you a script. it puts a quote and space at the start and after every newline.

>

> javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value='>'+document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/

/g,'

> ');

THANK YOU SIR!!!!!!


Anonymous at 9:36 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10313 | reply | quote

Increase Quote Level Bookmarklet

Improved script (doesn't quote blank lines):

javascript:document.getElementById('comment_argle').value=document.getElementById('comment_argle').value.replace(/(^|\n)(.*\S)/g,'$1> $2');


curi at 9:41 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10314 | reply | quote

> “HE'S BELIEVING PUTIN OVER OUR OWN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES? Moral equivalence! Treason! High crimes and misdemeanors! Kristallnacht! Trump might as well have trampled on a portrait of George Washington. (Or, since we're talking about liberals, Stalin.)

> But the way I remember it, elected Democrats -- even Democratic candidates for president -- have criticized our intelligence agencies pretty ferociously, particularly regarding the Iraq War.”

July 18, 2018 - PUTIN IS KILLING MILLIONS OF AMERICANS!

http://www.anncoulter.com/columns/2018-07-18.html

via Instapaper


Anonymous at 9:49 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10315 | reply | quote

Leftie actor deletes tweet suggesting lefties interested in keeping open mind should follow mainstream conservative Ben Shapiro, then apologizes for tweet

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jul/19/mark-duplass-mindy-project-star-apologizes-tweet-e/


Anonymous at 10:32 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10316 | reply | quote

> Leftie actor deletes tweet suggesting lefties interested in keeping open mind should follow mainstream conservative Ben Shapiro, then apologizes for tweet

Knowing lefties, I initially read this as the following scenario:

lefty is flaming other lefties who want to keep an open mind, says if they are going to do that they might as well follow the devil (aka Ben Shapiro). Then the guy ended up apologizing for going overboard flaming Ben Shapiro and/or flaming open-minded lefties.

but he was actually pro-open-mind and liked Shapiro ... and pressured to apologize for it...


Anonymous at 10:38 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10317 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 10:48 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10318 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 10:49 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10319 | reply | quote

Improved the quote links not to quote blank lines.


curi at 11:41 AM on July 19, 2018 | #10320 | reply | quote

ESPN uses Slasher's info and the story Slasher broke (overwatch news), and then doesn't give Slasher any credit in their article.

Monte (an overwatch league caster) says he gave credit to Slasher, so ESPN actually cut that part.

People say that ESPN does this a lot with other sports too.

https://youtu.be/4tR5CKdbdho?t=10m25s


Anonymous at 12:31 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10321 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 12:32 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10322 | reply | quote

#10322 "you are a racist" = "i don't like you". they have no regard for what words mean.


Anonymous at 12:34 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10323 | reply | quote

https://www.memri.org/tv/chicago-friday-sermon-ashraf-nusairat-berates-listeners-for-loving-this-world-more-than-they-love-making-sacrifices

> Chicago Friday Sermon By Dr. Ashraf Nusairat: Muslims Are Humiliated “Because We Love Our Children More Than We Love Making Sacrifices For The Sake Of Allah”

(we=muslims)

note this is in Chicago, not Iran


Anonymous at 12:44 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10324 | reply | quote

I watched the video. He says Muslims love this world too much, and hate death too much, and need to change by embracing Islam more.

liar

At first I thought the comment about children was advocating child suicide bombers. But after watching the video, I think it meant the adults are too attached to:

- life

- this world

- their spouses

- their children

and not attached enough to Islam

And why is there a choice between the two? Because he wants them to commit violent crimes, be terrorists, *fight* the *jihad* to impose *sharia* on America.


Anonymous at 12:51 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10325 | reply | quote

lol


Anonymous at 12:53 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10326 | reply | quote

first guy on Penn and Teller Fool Us, s05e04, says that his original tricks (the ones he invented) got the best audience responses, so he had the "courage" to keep performing original tricks.

doing more of your best-performing, best-selling stuff is not "courage"


Anonymous at 1:46 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10329 | reply | quote

fyi, I think your recent screencasts are labeled incorrectly in Gumroad. e.g. Video 2 is labeled "Parenting; Free Speech", but it's actually the one on pressuring kids, etc.


Anonymous at 1:52 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10330 | reply | quote

Thanks. I swapped their names on gumroad for future downloaders.


curi at 1:59 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10331 | reply | quote

https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/pew-research-center-study-shows-that-democrats-have-shifted-to-the-extreme-left/

in the last 23 years, dems have shift left far more than republicans have shifted right. read some of the poll questions for details.


Anonymous at 2:58 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10334 | reply | quote

What do you think of visiting escorts?


buddy at 11:15 PM on July 19, 2018 | #10335 | reply | quote

about Trump and Putin


Anonymous at 2:01 AM on July 20, 2018 | #10336 | reply | quote

bad tweet by Ann. Trump is right. Google is an American company and the EU are a pack of thieves who steal money from US companies with "fines" (by force). Total bullshit that does take advantage of the US and should be stopped (though, of course, it's a much lower priority issue than #BuildTheWall). Shouldn't accuse Trump of sucky up to lefties when he's *correct*.


Anonymous at 11:42 AM on July 20, 2018 | #10337 | reply | quote

> What do you think of visiting escorts?

The reason people want sex so bad is the social-cultural meaning. There is massive social-cultural pressure for prostitutes not to count, for it to be deemed non-meaningful (like casual party hookups, but even worse).

So, for many people, prostitutes don't scratch their itch very well. They don't find it fulfilling enough. Things screw it up for them: the shame, the fact they still don't have a girlfriend who personally provides them with social acceptance, still not having a family, still being scared of girls, etc.

But for some people it helps. They resist some of the stigma or they're desperate enough. Maybe they have an excuse for no girlfriend that satisfies them, like they are really busy with work. Or they have so little sexual experience they really want to try a few things.

There are other reasons people use prostitutes. They are married but their relationship with their wife has gone sour (and neither divorce nor problem solving look like good options to them). Or they have lots of access to sex but they are especially interested in sex and want some specific things. Or they like a particular girl – maybe a stripper or porn star, probably not met at church – and then she asks for money and they pay because they're already into her.

That's enough comments to get started. Ask more questions if you want to.


curi at 11:53 AM on July 20, 2018 | #10338 | reply | quote

emacs text editing shortcuts and their global macOS equivalents.

https://jblevins.org/log/kbd


Anonymous at 11:59 AM on July 20, 2018 | #10339 | reply | quote

OS X custom text editing hotkeys

// /Users/curi/Library/KeyBindings/DefaultKeyBinding.dict

{

"^w" = "selectWord:";

"^\U001b" = "complete:"; /* control-escape */

// "\033" = "complete:"; /* Escape */

/* ctrl-opt-p = select and copy para */

"^~p" = ("moveToBeginningOfParagraphAndModifySelection:", "moveToEndOfParagraphAndModifySelection:", "copy:");

/* cmd-return = newline after paragraph */

"@\015" = (moveToEndOfParagraph:, insertLineBreak:);

/* ctrl-; = space at end of paragraph */

"^;" = (moveToEndOfParagraph:, insertText:, " ");

}

// ^ is control, ~ is option, $ is shift, and @ is command.

// key codes, escape is 27, enter is 13, space is 32, tab is 9

// https://www.cambiaresearch.com/articles/15/javascript-char-codes-key-codes

// documentation

// http://osxnotes.net/keybindings.html

// https://developer.apple.com/library/content/documentation/Cocoa/Conceptual/EventOverview/TextDefaultsBindings/TextDefaultsBindings.html


Anonymous at 12:03 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10340 | reply | quote

#10260 nu i like poop but it was also le first ting i thought of cos of how much i like POOOOOOOOOOOOOP. also i dont LIKE poop i like EATING poop.

poop tastes gud.


derandomamber at 12:08 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10341 | reply | quote

Sometimes article titles are all caps. Fix with: Edit -> Transformations -> Capitalize

But there's no hotkeys for the case transforms by default.

Also I went ahead and made an easier to press hotkey for my main screenshot command (copy selected area to clipboard):


Anonymous at 12:10 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10342 | reply | quote

> #10260 nu i like poop but it was also le first ting i thought of cos of how much i like POOOOOOOOOOOOOP. also i dont LIKE poop i like EATING poop.

> poop tastes gud.

Mr. Hankey fan?


Anonymous at 12:11 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10343 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 12:30 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10344 | reply | quote

https://www.memri.org/reports/former-isis-member-nour-al-din-al-hatimi-explains-how-he-grew-disillusioned-organization

guy goes to Syria to fight for Islam with ISIS. finds out: the muslims there don't want foreigners in their country, and ISIS is almost bankrupt.


Anonymous at 12:33 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10345 | reply | quote

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/07/20/phillies-apple-business-chat

nice workflow!

> To order, a fan would first open the iPhone camera app and scan the QR code on the seat back. That will launch prompts on the iMessage text screen to place the order, which is then completed with Apple Pay. The drink will be delivered supposedly shortly after.


Anonymous at 2:57 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10346 | reply | quote

https://www.macrumors.com/2018/07/19/ifixit-2018-macbook-pro-keyboard-dust-exposure/

neat testing of new apple keyboards with glowing paint dust


Anonymous at 3:01 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10347 | reply | quote

Useful search to find Daniel Eran Dilger articles:

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aappleinsider.com+%22By+Daniel+Eran%22


Anonymous at 3:02 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10348 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 3:03 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10349 | reply | quote

curi's dragon animoji reads xkcd comics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkK-UJur5mI


Anonymous at 6:34 PM on July 20, 2018 | #10350 | reply | quote

> “Putin is the illegitimate leader of a corrupt and dysfunctional country, an economic nonentity among nations, geographically overstretched, with a rusting military and a population increasingly composed of aging drunks. Trump is the constitutionally elected leader of a country so prosperous, buoyant, and secure, our main national problem is holding back the tide of people trying to break in across our borders to share in our blessed bounty.

> Yet presentation-wise, Putin looked like the alpha male at Helsinki, with Trump nodding along deferentially. It wasn't quite as bad as those televised White House meetings on immigration and gun control that I was grumbling about earlier this year. They were presentational disasters; Helsinki was just a presentational failure.

> Which pains me. I like this President. I voted for him, and look forward to voting for him again. His instincts on the big issues of our time are, I believe, correct. I hate all the people who hate him. I think a high proportion of those people have taken leave of their senses.

> That makes a presentational failure like the one at Helsinki really painful to me. If you can't do this kind of thing well, Mr President, just don't do it. There's no constitutional requirement here.”

John Derbyshire: Trump Trips, But He's Right On Russia. Our Ruling

https://vdare.com/articles/john-derbyshire-the-united-states-of-russophobic-hysteria

via Instapaper


Anonymous at 6:32 AM on July 21, 2018 | #10351 | reply | quote

dota2 gives broad permission for *live* streams of tournaments with your own commentary, (with your normal ads/sponsorship stuff disabled):

http://blog.dota2.com/2017/10/broadcasting-dota-2/

> in addition to the official, fully-produced streams from the tournament organizer itself, we believe that anyone should be able to broadcast a match from DotaTV for their audience. However, we don’t think they should do so in a commercial manner or in a way that directly competes with the tournament organizer’s stream. This means no advertising/branding overlays, and no sponsorships. It also means not using any of the official broadcast’s content such as caster audio, camerawork, overlays, interstitial content, and so on. Finally, this is not permission for studios to broadcast each other’s events. In general, everyone should play nice together, and we think the boundaries should be pretty clear.

that's nice. overwatch is more hostile.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Competitiveoverwatch/comments/90mee8/ybt_the_top_korean_casting_talents_twitch_channel/

> He was doing the vod review for the playoff match and at near the end of the vod, he got contacted by Blizzard saying he can't do the vod reviews anymore.

> His channel got suspended within seconds after he said that.

A Korean caster got told to stop reviewing matches *after they already happened*.

Previously, Jayne did commentary on a live match like this:

> Jayne did the NYXL v Fusion game and wasn't able to stream the video, was telling people to open the game in another window/tab and sync up with his casting/review.


Anonymous at 9:10 AM on July 21, 2018 | #10352 | reply | quote

over 2 weeks, no Evan continuation. he's bad to talk to. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iajOfqDF5bk&lc=UgzdOsr8dFLk843Z_S54AaABAg


Anonymous at 9:59 AM on July 21, 2018 | #10353 | reply | quote

downloading snapchat to see how it's true depth camera (iphoneX) face filters are. more realistic animoji that hide your face, or will just partial masks/overlays that don't give enough privacy? let's see...


Anonymous at 11:15 AM on July 21, 2018 | #10354 | reply | quote

There are no Paths Forward here. There's no way for the truth to change Black's mind.


Anonymous at 1:05 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10356 | reply | quote

Trying to have Paths Forward with Vox and NYT about gun violence stats/facts, but there are none:

https://crimeresearch.org/2018/05/responding-voxs-popular-americas-unique-gun-violence-problem-explained-17-maps-charts/


Anonymous at 1:08 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10357 | reply | quote

A movie suggestion

I watched a movie called "The Details". I think it's a great black comedy. It stars Peter Keating, played convincingly by Tobey Maguire.

I give it a 8/10.


Anonymouse at 2:20 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10358 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 4:16 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10359 | reply | quote

fucking paypal. fuck deplatforming. patreon is the same. gumroad are probably SJWs. i don't know if stripe is the same or not.


Anonymous at 6:18 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10360 | reply | quote

#10341 it tastes GOOD.


Anonymous at 7:46 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10361 | reply | quote

#10361 have you tasted poop?


Anonymous at 7:54 PM on July 21, 2018 | #10362 | reply | quote

Suggestion

Elliot, please add a "go to bottom" button at the top of the page.


stuck at the top at 3:57 AM on July 22, 2018 | #10363 | reply | quote

> You are underestimating his fame. He has strong cachet among Millennials and he's very widely read among shitlibs. HIs writing is all over college syllabi. Go to an affluent or at least college educated shitlib couple's house and 50/50 you see his book on the shelf. He's a notable person and he's increasingly visible as you move up the rungs of important people. You have to at least feign familiarity and some reverence of his importance to be congruent, up to date, properly informed in even modestly intellectual shitlib circles. Obviously almost nobody actually reads this shit.

http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4031933&forum_id=2#36473941)


Anonymous at 10:04 AM on July 22, 2018 | #10364 | reply | quote

#10363 I want that button too.


ff at 11:54 AM on July 22, 2018 | #10365 | reply | quote

#10363 every "reply" button takes you to the bottom.

End or Command-Down work on desktop.

You're presumably on mobile. icab has the feature built in.

Scroll to bottom bookmarklet:

javascript:window.scrollTo%280%2C100000%29

All the mobile solutions can be found by searching "bottom" or "scroll" on this page.


Anonymous at 1:14 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10366 | reply | quote

streamer permabanned from Twitch for parody interview she did as a "woman's rights advocate" encouraging more women to engage in mass shootings, on basis that she engaged in serious violent threats

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA2HiqEJ1XA


Anonymous at 4:18 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10367 | reply | quote

#10367 On a random YouTube video I see "Subscribe 1.6m" to tell me how many followers the person has. But on Brittany it just says "Subscribe" with no number. Is that YouTube fucking with her account?

I wasn't able to find her follower count but I found she has 9 million total channel views.

This video is good too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpNB9_GDpuo


Anonymous at 4:50 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10368 | reply | quote

Brittany Venti says: if you say something that sounds scripted, and it wasn't even scripted, that's bad.

good point about internalizing being a fake panderer.


Anonymous at 5:56 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10369 | reply | quote

"Punch a Nazi" (ft. Rucka Rucka Ali) - Social Justice: The Musical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AhGYo9TExU


Anonymous at 7:02 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10370 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 7:14 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10371 | reply | quote

jfc. even if Trump was gonna do a military coup or something, wouldn't he wait until 2024 when he runs out of legitimate years in office?


Anonymous at 8:04 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10372 | reply | quote


Anonymous at 8:40 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10373 | reply | quote

#10368 she has disabled that using an option. You can hide subscriber numbers on YouTube,


Ff at 8:57 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10374 | reply | quote

> #10368 she has disabled [youtube subscriber numbers] using an option. You can hide subscriber numbers on YouTube,

oh. i wonder why someone popular would do that.


Anonymous at 8:59 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10375 | reply | quote

Anonymous at 10:50 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10376 | reply | quote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gim3d1qlZog

his sexual orientation is male cars..?

...

bro, have you considered a RealDoll?


Anonymous at 11:07 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10377 | reply | quote

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyIftAPf7kM

bully hunters is going to harass bullies in order to make **everyone** welcome (except ppl who are labelled bullies without a trial). hmmm ::thinking::


Anonymous at 11:11 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10378 | reply | quote

i replied to Alan's new blog post about overreaching. it uses Brett Hall as an example.

https://conjecturesandrefutations.com/2018/07/23/overreaching-example-psychopaths/#comment-4908


curi at 11:31 PM on July 22, 2018 | #10379 | reply | quote

#10372 half the people Trump hires are disloyal. he has trouble even controlling the FBI. as ridiculous as a coup is, Trump isn't even close to the *table stakes* just to get started on failing at a coup. he's so far from having tight control over a loyal government.


Anonymous at 9:31 AM on July 23, 2018 | #10380 | reply | quote

Want to discuss this? Join my forum.

(Due to multi-year, sustained harassment from David Deutsch and his fans, commenting here requires an account. Accounts are not publicly available. Discussion info.)

Page loading slowly? View only the latest 30 messages.