ethbr0

9 ms·

61.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> Well done science reporting without the hyperbole. He's been doing it for 20 years. https://www.statnews.com/2016/03/05/derek-lowe-chemist-blogg... He also had an excellent series on SARS-CoV-2 va
62.
by ethbr0 3y ago
By lessening its prevalence. Participation-based awards. Eliminating contest sports in school gym. Non-100 point grading. Fewer tests. Games that are impossible/difficult to lose. I'm not saying historical methods didn't need
63.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Medicare is an entirely different ball of yarn that should be separated as much as possible. It's complicated enough that including it in any other reform overcomplicates the effort and kills it. That said, I do think the "death p
64.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I'd classify it slightly differently -- in pursuit of equality, we've narrowed or eliminated opportunities for true small successes in childhood. Where true small successes require the potential of real failure. In the 90s, I re
65.
by ethbr0 3y ago
The alternatives are fairly simple: you can either increase revenue or decrease benefits. Increasing revenue (number games aside) would come from productivity gains or additional working population. Decreasing benefits would come from cutti
66.
by ethbr0 3y ago
By that broad metric, running low but positive inflation at central banks is a Ponzi scheme. A fuller definition would be that Social Security is predicated on a growing working age population. Which historically, has been a valid assumptio
67.
by ethbr0 3y ago
German politics/demographics seem balanced carefully between {need for immigrants to maintain population growth} and {cultural reaction to immigrants}. Although, credit to Germans, at least they're talking about the problem like a
68.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> the destruction of factory/manual work Decently paying factory/manual work. The hollowing out of manual work in many developed countries, replaced with bimodal service jobs (either high-income or low-income), is definitel
69.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I'd frame that as insufficient resiliency, which is a trainable skill. In order to be successful in life, you have to be able to tolerate failure, because statistically speaking everyone fails... a lot. Modern culture for young people
70.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Thing I've always been curious about -- what's the process when an ICD-10 code for a specific scenario doesn't exist? Is there a catch-all bucket that "other things" go into?
71.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> And those wanting to consume data, really just want the bare essentials: The data. I don't think they do. The average HN reader, probably; but not the average person. What they want is a well styled and usable webpage. Unfor
72.
by ethbr0 3y ago
And critically, housing prices. New employees, at the bottom of the pay scale, are competing with employees making far more (with vesting) for homes. Democratizing this across a larger number of cities (and towns!) seems healthy. Disclaimer
73.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Comment would have stood on its own, without that first sentence.
74.
by ethbr0 3y ago
It'll be fascinating if an industrial production process involved grinding it up, using magnets as a screen to discard non-levitating particles, then reforming the compliant ones.
75.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> why would Nature publish this before it has been independently replicated? Because it's Nature ? We're not talking about Organic Syntheses [0], which has replicated every paper before publishing since 1921. [0] https:
76.
by ethbr0 3y ago
A lot of Terry Pratchett is higher-order humor (references between alternate meanings of words), which seems hard for a general purpose LLM to grok. Hence you get noun soup.
77.
by ethbr0 3y ago
They dented and rendered the road inoperable months earlier. But the thing about dams is that they're over-engineered and massive. Even with high explosives it's difficult to demolish one. Hence why dam busting bombs were large (&
78.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I've yet to get a bad piece of toast out of mine, in comparison to other toasters I've owned. The lack of bagel-width is annoying, but widening the slot on a redesign shouldn't impact any other components.
79.
by ethbr0 3y ago
No. It killed <75 people. They blew up the dam because it was also a bridge and removing it allowed them to redeploy troops to the east.
80.
by ethbr0 3y ago
If you make a toast-related error, by inserting bread into the toaster and then deciding you don't actually want it toasted, you unplug the toaster. As the elements cool, your bread returns to you, unharmed.
81.
by ethbr0 3y ago
A "Do you understand what superconductivity is?" or "Do you have a physics or engineering degree?" barrier? And the relevant question isn't whether 'smart' money does dumb things: it's whether 's
82.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I believe they're weighted so that a single piece of toast has enough mass to trip the mechanism. Since they only use a thermostat on one side, you do need to use a particular side for single toast.
83.
by ethbr0 3y ago
If you've never had an ice maker break on a fridge, then you're a lucky person.
84.
by ethbr0 3y ago
IMHO, the progression that explains the current state of things is: {vendor power decrease} led to {fierce competition on unit price} led to {consolidation of vendors and manufacturing cost minimization / volume maximization} led to {o
85.
by ethbr0 3y ago
There was a motor teardown linked on HN at some point. Essentially: electric motors from the 50s were vastly over designed, which meant they were extremely robust to physical failures The larger point about stuff now vs then is likely the u
86.
by ethbr0 3y ago
I have a Sunbeam Radiant Control toaster that still works flawlessly. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1OfxlSG6q5Y They used a shielded bimetalic thermostat to measure the radiant heat coming from the toast surface , instead
87.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Fixed! Thanks. Sans coffee typing
88.
by ethbr0 3y ago
1950-1970 seems like a local optimum in UX that we've yet to surpass. My personal, completely-unsupported theory is it was a combination of 3 qualities. (1) New types of things, while unlike anything that came before, were still simple
89.
by ethbr0 3y ago
> most/none of the estimators have any idea of the actual value being estimated. A subtle distinction is who is allowed to participate in a prediction market. "Everyone with $1" is a terrible answer, and produces the b
90.
by ethbr0 3y ago
Random allocation.

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