edbob

14 ms·

91.
by edbob 6y ago
You're mistaken. I've edited comments a significant time after they were replied to. See the edit note on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26187343
92.
by edbob 6y ago
Scott Alexander just posted a very interesting article[0] with a section "2. War On Experts" that covers some of the issues that I was so poorly trying to communicate. His take is probably more harsh than I would want to adopt, bu
93.
by edbob 6y ago
I think it's a different situation because no one is citing open-source maintainers in their studies, and they have very little influence in policy. I do see your point about everyone having bias, and it's not fair to stereotype o
94.
by edbob 6y ago
> I do think we need a better way to callout subtle and insidious racism in people's beliefs and actions but make it an educational opportunity for growth for the person and for society, not the instigation of a pile on. Terms like
95.
by edbob 6y ago
As an aside, I surely don't always agree with your comments, but they are always well-reasoned and thought-provoking. Even when I disagree, it is a very respectful disagreement.
96.
by edbob 6y ago
I'm trying to find a way to give a meaningful reply, but I honestly get stuck on this part about academia's supposed neutrality. I don't believe for a second that sociologists are somehow blissfully unaware of the way their w
97.
by edbob 6y ago
I basically agree with what you've said, except I do think that some terms are intentionally overloaded for political purposes. As long as the language is within the field, between academics, then overloading can be fine. It's und
98.
by edbob 6y ago
"Privilege" is an everyday word with established meanings. If academics want to redefine it to serve their political goals, the burden is on them to make their case to the people. We don't have to accept that a word means som
99.
Amazon Kneels Before the Mob(nationalreview.com)
9 points by edbob 6y ago|0 comments
100.
by edbob 6y ago
Thank you for the respectful discussion. I feel like I understand your position a lot more clearly now.
101.
by edbob 6y ago
I responded about the future because the quote you disagreed said "there will be", and I think the general tone of discussion here is around the potential future for abuse. We've seen notable comments by Democratic voters w
102.
by edbob 6y ago
Honestly, this isn't any more helpful than responding "citation needed" to someone asserting that man-made causes will accelerate climate change. The inevitability of the abuse of political power is not something that has to
103.
by edbob 6y ago
Not much point talking if you're going to say "Citation needed" to trivial truths, while making trivially disprovable claims like rural whites not going to prison for drugs. (You may have heard of methamphetamines). I was act
104.
by edbob 6y ago
For the record, I fully support decriminalizing drugs, even if I disagree with the currently fashionable rhetoric about their supposed harmlessness. The statistical debate you want to have is fine. It could potentially be helpful, but not i
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by edbob 6y ago
The lack of A/C really sucks, and it's worse in the dorms which are steel buildings rather than concrete. I actually stayed in the top level of the dorms on the corner of the building that got hit hardest by the sun. It was hard.
106.
by edbob 6y ago
The exemption allows an individual to be sentenced to slavery , but that can only happen if the federal or state laws also allow that sentence. Is there any jurisdiction whose laws allow a sentence of slavery? Has anyone actually been sente
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by edbob 6y ago
> This is irrelevant and a dangerous ends-justification. No person's imprisonment should be justified by crimes they were not convicted of. We should not seek a justice system that punishes unprovable crimes. I did not say anything
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by edbob 6y ago
> The inmates are not viewed as humans by the people responsible, enabling horrible conditions. This was not my experience as an inmate in Texas. Actually, we are referred to as "offenders" [0] because the terms "inmate&q
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by edbob 6y ago
This is just how bureaucracy typically operates. Everyone knows that the system is messed up, but no one can override the system without potentially huge personal consequences. As a former prison inmate, I honestly think that most of the pe
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by edbob 6y ago
You say that 40% of the gas plants failed. I'm sure you're also aware that wind was only able to produce 15-25% of its capacity, and it was at the lower end of that range during the cold nights when temperatures were below 0°F. Yo
111.
by edbob 6y ago
Nuclear was outputting about 75% of its capacity, which was pretty good performance compared to the other sources. At that rate, if we'd had 25 GW of additional nuclear capacity instead of 25 GW of wind capacity, we would have had ano
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by edbob 6y ago
The "wind outperformed expectations" quote that everyone is repeating out-of-context conveniently omits the fact that those expectations were for wind to produce a small fraction of its capacity. It "exceeded expectations&quo
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by edbob 6y ago
Large multinational organizations can have significant value, as NATO and the UN have shown in the past. But once the "regulatory capture" effect happens and the UN becomes a platform for genocidal dictatorships to spew anti-Semit
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by edbob 6y ago
WHO deliberately chooses to kowtow to China and exclude Taiwan, the country with one of the best records on Covid-19 and with the experience and knowledge to fight it successfully. At some point sacrificing public health to accommodate a ge
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by edbob 6y ago
I'd like to try to gently point out that this isn't a very helpful way to comment. Perry did make very strong statements that show hostility to federal regulation. I myself would not characterize it as "attacking regulation&q
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by edbob 6y ago
You are correct that he held that position under Trump and bears responsibility for problems with federal regulations. However, his strict anti-federal stance goes back many years. He did not adopt it or even emphasize it to make excuses fo
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by edbob 6y ago
He's not speaking against all regulation, only a specific subset of regulation, namely federal. (I apologize for being unclear: I did not mean to imply that all regulation is accepted equally, merely that nearly everyone accepts that s
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by edbob 6y ago
Starting at the very next sentence in the article: > From what I can see, ERCOT has more restrictive rules in their Generator Winter Weatherization Workshop than NERC[21]. All generation stations must have plans for emergencies, address
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by edbob 6y ago
Thank you for that data. Your other comment is very helpful too[0], although I look forward to seeing some good hard data. I've been a bit spoiled by how much detailed data ERCOT provides. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com&#x
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by edbob 6y ago
This claim is contradicted in detail by the article, with numerous sources given. Do you have any sources for your claim?

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