CptFribble

31 ms·

241.
by CptFribble 8y ago
Money is a tool, nothing more (ideologically). Calling on ideology to restrict potentially helpful uses of a tool is a dangerous path to tread. No matter what crime someone's committed, they're still a person, and if our goal is m
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by CptFribble 8y ago
If we began taxing externalities to reflect actual total cost to society, consumer behavior would change real quick. My only concern is that we are too far down to rabbit hole with cheap, ubiquitous, damaging materials that if the true co
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by CptFribble 8y ago
Based on the link you provided, I can confidently say you have a lot of skill at writing engaging prose and turning ordinary into story. You should write a book or short stories or something!
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by CptFribble 8y ago
That's very true. I guess I'm referring to "disease" in a too-narrow pathological sense. We're all complex open systems so of course disease and environment are intertwined, I just find that when lay-people like me
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by CptFribble 8y ago
I guess I mean, changing environments after rehab. The problem many recovering addicts face, is that even if they get to go to rehab, they return to the same stressful home life/enabling friends/underemployment that pushed them
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by CptFribble 8y ago
I don't think addiction is a disease or a moral failing, it's more a product of the environment of the addict. Case in point: up to 20% of soldiers in Vietnam were addicted to heroin during the war, and up to 40% had tried it, b
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by CptFribble 8y ago
> The Chisel team showed that two to three student designers can do full system-on-chip designs by abstraction and automation. > One of the things we’re trading off is the ultimate efficiency of the design. If 1 percent of area matter
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by CptFribble 8y ago
It was satire of the original parent that claimed "socialism" necessarily leads to economic ruin, even though socialism is a broad category containing many different ideas. I was attempting to show the absurdity of blaming specifi
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by CptFribble 8y ago
I'm surprised you don't meet many people who have heard of fiskars - I grew up in the Northeast USA, and there's near-universal agreement in my social circle that Fiskars makes the best quality scissors on the market, to the
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by CptFribble 8y ago
Another casualty of the Citizen's United decision. I fear we can't go back. Now that wealthy persons and companies can spend unlimited anonymous money, and we have the tools and techniques to use that money to defeat even popular,
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by CptFribble 8y ago
Do you also use caffeine? I have a low-moderate salt diet but had high-ish BP a couple years ago, turns out I was drinking too much coffee.
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by CptFribble 8y ago
I would agree with one caveat: focusing anger at causes of human suffering is A-OK. Although, maybe it's too hard to efectively generalize social media usage like that. Is it possible to design a system that can ONLY be used responsibl
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by CptFribble 8y ago
It's so refreshing to hear today's youth recognize that the profit is the highest ethic we can aspire to. After years of difficult math and physics, it can be easy to forget that the most important equation: More Money = Good!
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by CptFribble 8y ago
Wouldn't the self-assessed tax lead to unfair competitive practices? Imagine a small bookstore opening in the same town as a Barnes and Noble. What if there's no tax level that the small store can afford that prevents a mega-corp
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by CptFribble 9y ago
You have made strong, authoritative statements on the nature of the mind, with no supporting evidence. Are you an authority on the mind? I mean no offense, but unless you are an expert in the field, how can you state so strongly that "
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Here's something that Theranos was deliberately misleading about: how many tests can be done on one prick's worth of blood? Before the downfall, the website claimed that hundreds of tests could be performed with a single drop of b
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by CptFribble 9y ago
There are a few reasons you collect a full vial instead of a tiny one: 1. Multiple tests. Most people aren't going to the doctor for a single test. A majority of the testing is Comprehensive Metabolic Panels, which covers 20-30 differe
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by CptFribble 9y ago
I also have a background in biomedical engineering, and worked on actual diagnostic equipment for several years, and I would like to second this opinion. I only wish I had written down my rants about Theranos for future reference! Theranos&
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by CptFribble 9y ago
I'm curious what it is about Guitar Center that you're saying is outdated: I would think buying an instrument demands at least some hands-on experience to confirm your choice, but not many parents are concerned with giving their k
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Of course this has me thinking of possible interventions - maybe a substance that interacts with neuron cell walls to stop Na/Ca/K leakage? Of course, it would have to be fast-acting, non-toxic on the way in, reversible, and non-t
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Thank you for your very detailed thoughts. In your experience, are the barriers to small, good quality, affordable homes mainly market dynamics, or do housing codes and local regulations play an outsized role as has been mentioned in other
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by CptFribble 9y ago
No, the War on drugs was specifically racially and politically motivated to help Nixon and his party. I don't have it at the moment, but there are tapes of Nixon and one if his advisors talking about this openly. The guy who ran the be
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Until/Unless digital opinion mechanics (likes, etc) are given the weight of real world consequences, they will continue to be empty gestures. The only way to move past this era of "like this post to help stop a dictator" is t
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by CptFribble 9y ago
I am astounded that anyone would touch Theranos with a 100-mile pole. Their claims about their super-special tech were deliberately misleading, taking advantage of the general public's lack of medlab knowledge. They never released deta
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by CptFribble 9y ago
If puppy bites were traumatizing and frequently fatal, and we had 40k+ deaths per year from puppy bites, then yeah, I'd want to consider some puppy regulations. I understand your point though. I just think that gun regulation is a spec
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Actually, it's not "just" a talking point. Your counter examples are trite and pointless because silver cars, food, and water are all completely essential to daily life. Also, there isn't a National Silver Car Associatio
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by CptFribble 9y ago
A lot of the bad parts of our current version of civilization are just un-optimized implementation details. Isn't it our species' imperative to create as many happy and healthy humans as we can manage? Part of the problem is that
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by CptFribble 9y ago
Wait, you mean building bigger barriers to international trade can cause your economy to slow down? Who could have predicted this??