bbctol

11 ms·

91.
by bbctol 9y ago
Unless voters make it a priority, Congress won't do a damn thing. EDIT: Which is how democracy should work!
92.
by bbctol 9y ago
Jesus, just get an AK and fly through Turkey to fight ISIS or stop complaining.
93.
by bbctol 9y ago
Yes, this is clearly a reaction to political correctness, which is why they got rid of housing for the ~ privileged ~ straight white men and--oh, what? This was traditional housing for exactly the sort of queer people, minorities, and lower
94.
by bbctol 9y ago
No, and that's why they're taking this deal.
95.
by bbctol 9y ago
It's a good thing we get so many tries!
96.
by bbctol 9y ago
Automation, making it take less work to achieve things, is as close to an inherent good as I can imagine. A political and economic system that turns automation into something that harms people is bad.
97.
by bbctol 9y ago
I was a little surprised that simple exercise isn't on this list; besides the health benefits, I think it has really good psychological benefits to people who work in conceptual fields. If your workday is spent figuring out how to solv
98.
by bbctol 9y ago
At least one reason to study humanities is to study philosophy of science, and understand how new and insufficient an idea like "science must have predictive power" is.
99.
by bbctol 9y ago
Right... I'm in my 20s and really don't know a lot of people like that.
100.
by bbctol 9y ago
If you know a lot of people like this, that says more about you than this "generation."
101.
by bbctol 9y ago
Well, at least half of that sentence is true.
102.
by bbctol 9y ago
Nothing is the end of the world, unless it is.
103.
by bbctol 9y ago
On the docks in 1776: You don't get to decide how much "societal value" King George adds. Society decides, by paying for it. If he wasn't adding so much value, why would we be sending him so much money? I swear, I didn&#
104.
by bbctol 9y ago
That's not self-regulating; environmental harms of increased electricity usage and elements usage in hardware is an externality that isn't always captured by the market.
105.
by bbctol 9y ago
IIRC Oblivion had you choose a class, but then you still leveled up skills by using them (it definitely had pre-made classes, though.) I never actually played Morrowind, though.
106.
by bbctol 9y ago
Yeah, Skyrim was a major break from the earlier Elder Scrolls games by abandoning pre-made classes. It's probably a good idea in many ways, but you run into a similar problem if you want to level up in skills that aren't actually
107.
by bbctol 9y ago
Isn't this sort of the other way around? It's called Machine Learning because it's at least somewhat analogous to, y'know, learning. It just seems weird to me to apply psychological concepts onto systems that were delibe
108.
by bbctol 9y ago
I'd guess the lobbyists were doing the actual advising before this anyway.
109.
by bbctol 9y ago
Yup. And letting-them-eat-cake tendencies are pretty prominent on HN across the board; see every vague discussion of UBI as a condescending solution to some future problem of automation, with scarce attention paid to the real decimation of
110.
by bbctol 9y ago
I just have to assume there are sinister magicks that make mountain ranges at, uh, right angles. http://www.tor.com/2017/08/01/tolkiens-map-and-the-messed-up...
111.
by bbctol 9y ago
Wait, are you implying that the logic in that last sentence is false? That makes perfect sense given what X and Y actually signify. That's like saying "The faster the boat fills with water, the faster you try to bail out! And you
112.
by bbctol 9y ago
I'm reminded of Clay Shirky's talk/essay (wish I could find a link, but it doesn't seem to be on his website any more) about the tremendous consumption of gin (and other drugs) during the Industrial Revolution as a way t
113.
by bbctol 9y ago
The fact that a small percentage of Americans pay a large percentage of total taxes is a sign of income inequality, not an argument against it. The lower 80% don't pay nearly as much in taxes because for the past 30 years, they've
114.
by bbctol 9y ago
Reminds of this story from a while ago: the head writer for Call of Duty switched to working at a think tank, given his experience imagining the future of warfare. http://foreignpolicy.com/2014/09/22/call-of-d
115.
by bbctol 9y ago
Because you were on Twitter? The most annoying thing about this back-and-forth ping-ponging of increasing outrage is that everyone, on both sides, only reacts to the silliest arguments. Sturgeon's Law holds up pretty well for hot takes
116.
by bbctol 9y ago
Right... but it's similar.
117.
by bbctol 9y ago
Similar to the plot of "Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Menard,_Author_of_the_Q...
118.
by bbctol 9y ago
As weird as all the pepe stuff can get, there are massive differences of scale and seriousness when it comes to alt-right memes vs. Nazi mysticism. I don't retreat too far into "it's just trolling," and there really are
119.
by bbctol 9y ago
"Marginalized"? Nonsense, they have absolute control even over an institution as important and famous as Evergreen College... everyone knows that's the stepping stone to world domination
120.
by bbctol 9y ago
My favorite post-race report is from the infamous Andrew Thompson run of 2005, in which a promising young runner headed into the fifth loop with a good time and then completely lost his mind from sleep deprivation, spending the next hour vi

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