bnralt

57 ms·

571.
by bnralt 5y ago
The two earliest Earthsea short stories, The Word of Unbinding and The Rule of Names, are worth reading if you liked the more high-fantasy focus of the first book.
572.
by bnralt 5y ago
> For some, there's the cost of paying for a product or service that an ad misled them about. They may pay more than they should have or get something which is portrayed a certain way in an ad which doesn't hold up in reality.
573.
by bnralt 5y ago
The best content I get these days are from people who create content for free (hobbyists with personal sites, discussions on web forums, ad free podcasts, etc.). Getting rid of ads would make this content a lot easier to find, as it would g
574.
by bnralt 5y ago
> The costs are more abstract than when paying in actual dollars Keep in mind people are still paying in actual dollars. Companies spend money on advertisement because they want something in return, and that comes from the people being t
575.
by bnralt 6y ago
Looking at the stats now, it seems like it's doing better than a number of European countries, many of which had lockdowns (France, Belgium, Italy, etc.). Then you have countries like Japan, which people have been complaining about bei
576.
by bnralt 6y ago
It's worth looking at the discussion of the ship just three days ago on Hacker News[1]. A lot of what people thought was true (that it would be stuck there for weeks, being dismissive of using tugboats to pull it out) didn't pan o
577.
by bnralt 6y ago
> Dwarf planets seem to be lucrative business for those who sell wall posters of the solar system. I would hate having to learn all of their relative locations and interactions in school! That seems to have been the main reason the major
578.
by bnralt 6y ago
I think there's a sort of definitional sleight of hand going on here, a type that I see often these days: 1. [Word A] means [Concept X] to most people. 2. [Concept X] doesn't apply to [Item K], but [Concept Y] does. 3. By creating
579.
by bnralt 6y ago
Well, that's the point. If they're getting their goods from a robot, their needs are being met. If they're not, they could trade with person B.
580.
by bnralt 6y ago
Well, there's slight of hand here on CGP Grays part (and sleight of hand in other parts of the video as well), since horses are not doing work out of their own volition and to meet their own needs. Correct for that, and the same will b
581.
by bnralt 6y ago
I think there's two distinct ideas being discussed. Can people be unemployed because of structural, societal, or political reasons? Sure, and I think most people would agree. We have plenty of example of that happening - depressions, r
582.
by bnralt 6y ago
Space is important, and NASA is important. Human space exploration (which the Lunar Gateway is part of), however, doesn't seem to have much use and eats up a large part of NASA's budget. It's likely that we'd get much mo
583.
by bnralt 6y ago
It seems like this is exactly the kind of thing that a government is useful for. Why not have more publicly funded research institutions that employ them, and put them to work on useful research without having them worry about grant conside
584.
by bnralt 6y ago
I'm starting to wonder if mass media in general is bad for our mental health, and if we'd be better off unplugging as much as we can from everything - social media, TV, radio, Hacker News, etc. and spending more time with our comm
585.
by bnralt 6y ago
Science bros often misuse "anti-science" to try to shutdown opinions they disagree with. Hence people worried about the unlikely event of being killed by a nuclear power plant are anti-science, but people worried about the even mo
586.
by bnralt 6y ago
> The marketplace of ideas can't function if major factions reject truth-seeking in favor of blatant lies that are appealing for various other reasons (e.g. emotional satisfaction, ability to manipulate others, etc.). The problem al
587.
by bnralt 6y ago
> The first big space push was mostly a political pissing match (i.e. not really driven by doing it for its own sake). My understanding is that the Defense Department was interested in human manned spy satellites liked the planned Manne
588.
by bnralt 6y ago
> Are there places that with no construction in popular urban areas where prices truly don’t rise? As the other comment suggested, there are pretty run down areas that tend to not increase as much or even decrease (in extreme cases). Rev
589.
by bnralt 6y ago
I think that's part of the problem. The stated goal is to understand our biases and flaws, and to become "less wrong." But it's easy to fall into a trap where one claims to get better at such biases, therefore making the
590.
by bnralt 6y ago
> The article covers this. Empirical studies suggest this effect does not occur. That study doesn't deal with long-term neighborhood revitalizations. It's dealing with new developments in New York generally, though if you read
591.
by bnralt 6y ago
I wonder how much of a role transportation, safety, and schooling play into it. I've heard that Japan does all three quite well. I know some high rent areas in the U.S. that have relatively cheap rental prices not too far away, but man
592.
by bnralt 6y ago
> But there are people who truly believe that building housing raises rents! It’s crazy and widespread. The article is describing that. It depends on the development. A lot of the times you're not simply talking about the same neigh
593.
by bnralt 6y ago
That's an interesting point. The article says that the rigs were bought for $3.5 million each. At that price, it seems pretty obtainable for people interested in creating a floating city at sea to buy a few as a starting point.
594.
by bnralt 6y ago
One thing to keep in mind is that people who are judicious in their use of upvotes/downvotes are going to have much less impact than those who haphazardly upvote/downvote. Such is the nature of giving people limitless votes (and c
595.
by bnralt 6y ago
Indeed, the hyperbole and conspiracy theories on all sides have lead me to detach myself from politics. There were a few hundred/thousand people who rioted at the Capitol, law enforcement in riot gear fought them with clubs and pepper
596.
by bnralt 6y ago
> I certainly didn't say "unending population increases" or "above all else." If you don't think that, then there's a certain density level where it's considered fine to oppose it, and there are c
597.
by bnralt 6y ago
That's an odd point of view - you're xenophobic if you don't prioritize unending population increases above all else?
598.
by bnralt 6y ago
The population in San Francisco is at an all time high. I wonder why the popular solution is to transform the city against the wishes of its long time residents into something that newcomers want, and not develop new urban centers elsewhere
599.
by bnralt 6y ago
I think 2 hours would probably be plenty. I've seen schools during the pandemic have about 1 hour of teacher/student of subject instruction, and that's with larger cohort sizes (9-10 students) and doing everything virtual. Yo
600.
by bnralt 6y ago
> I feel we will learn more from an average teacher who we socially interact with than the best teacher from who we are not socially connected. Further - I wonder if students would do much better with 1/3 the amount of school time a

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