gbrown

44 ms·

421.
by gbrown 7y ago
If you're displacing groundwater based desert agriculture, that's one thing, but it's worth keeping in mind that in general, desert != wasteland. Deserts are fragile ecosystems with many rare and specialized plants and animal
422.
by gbrown 7y ago
My 2c: learn the methods deeply, pick up the frameworks as needed. Knowing PyTorch or TF well won't make you a good data scientist or statistician. YMMV
423.
by gbrown 7y ago
No wonder I got such a pushy hard sell to upgrade. I was flat out promised that the upgrade couldn't possibly cost me more, even if I didn't shop very often and never took any special action. This was a lie, I lost around $100, an
424.
by gbrown 7y ago
Parallel issue: people who fit complex models when simple descriptive statistics would be more useful/a better fit.
425.
by gbrown 7y ago
It's got tryCatch, and the browser function works wonders.
426.
by gbrown 7y ago
Conspiratorial thinking is widely regarded to be an example of the phenomenon I mentioned: people find it comforting to think that the world is explainable in simple terms rather than chaotic, even if the explanation requires us to blame si
427.
by gbrown 7y ago
Fair enough, but it's been mine. There are loud voices telling people they don't have to worry about the impact of their choices. That's seductive, and the truth is painful - many people instinctively prefer comforting lies.
428.
by gbrown 7y ago
I'm all for it, but I think you're overoptimistic. Climate deniers aren't generally making a selfish but rational calculation that they're unlikely to be affected - many have children they care deeply about, after all. I
429.
by gbrown 7y ago
Don't forget all the binary blobs you need to get full functionality, the monstrous size of the codebase (and corresponding attack surface), the baseband processor, etc. Also, don't get me started on the terrible security hygeine
430.
by gbrown 7y ago
I think that's generous. Yesterday several people were fervently arguing that discriminating in job advertisements against protected classes should be fine because it may be "more efficient". Talk about unintended consequence
431.
by gbrown 7y ago
I don't buy your defeatism at all. The US certainly has the economic clout to make progress, and there's certainly a middle ground between doing nothing and expecting that every attempt to regulate externalities must be 100% effec
432.
by gbrown 7y ago
So give it a several year phase-in period, and provide mechanisms to remove/permanently disable the systems.
433.
by gbrown 7y ago
Ocean acidification wants to have a word with you.
434.
by gbrown 7y ago
Not a chance - the Delta-v required to get to orbital velocity absolutely dwarfs that needed for suborbital hops, and your scheme also adds delays and tons of complexity. If rocket travel ever becomes a thing, it will involve suborbital hop
435.
by gbrown 7y ago
Good counterpoint, definitely an issue. When the police find macroscopic quantities of bodily fluids, however, it would seem to be madness not to use the evidence.
436.
by gbrown 7y ago
If done right, spear fishing. I'm a privacy guy, but the science really is there to use DNA to narrow a list of suspects. You can't say the same for much of forensic science, or for that matter mass surveillance technologies.
437.
by gbrown 7y ago
Fun fact: Family tree DNA search skews towards white people, balancing out some of the disproportionately black federal criminal DNA databases.
438.
by gbrown 7y ago
Comparing the BBC to RT demonstrates the complete emptiness of your claims. Certainly, publicly funded media sources can be expected to have inbuilt biases, but to pretend that institutions with editorial independence should be compared to
439.
by gbrown 7y ago
NPR is not perfect - in particular, I have some issues with the artifical equivalency between our two major parties implied by NPR interview programs. With that being said, your claim is 100% complete and utter bullshit, unsupported by even
440.
by gbrown 7y ago
They've experimented with "silent" fund drives lately in Iowa, where if they raise a target amount then the full fund drive is skipped. I like that a lot, as well as the fact that their programs are all podcasted.
441.
by gbrown 7y ago
There's no scientifically justified causal basis for homeopathy, and well powered trials investigating it have repeatedly returned null results - that's pretty conclusive evidence against it in my book. In contrast, we have exam
442.
by gbrown 7y ago
That's an intersting hypothesis, but that's all it is. Is there actually science about whether the effect of increased consciousness is cancelled out by corresponding complacency? Let me offer an alternative, also unsubstantiated
443.
by gbrown 7y ago
Ok, sure - pardon my use of expressive and imprecise language. I meant that we should pursue everything feasible from among the set potentially helpful or promising actions in as sensible a way as we can (infer a few more sensible qualifier
444.
by gbrown 7y ago
Perhaps, though most people don't buy stock. If you can get institutional investors to divest, that limits most people's direct exposure. Do I expect it to necessarily make a big difference (especially in the short term, without b
445.
by gbrown 7y ago
Exactly, carbon regulation will be a lot easier to pass if the direct impact to peoples' finances is lessened.
446.
by gbrown 7y ago
It's people moving up or down on the screen relative to one another in a way which their relative distances wouldn't dictate. Agreed that it gives me an uncanny-valley feeling (still super cool though).
447.
by gbrown 7y ago
Sure, everyone should do their part. BUT: 1. Pretending that's a practical way to get the kind and scale of change we need is extremely wishful thinking, to the point that I wouldn't be shocked to see polluting industries promotin
448.
by gbrown 7y ago
One thing you can consider (in the US): quit and file for unemployment benefits - it's a hostile work environment, so youre entitled to this. That would give you some cushion while searching for a new job.
449.
by gbrown 7y ago
Makes sense, the usage is colloquially different in the Midwest.
450.
by gbrown 7y ago
The other driver was clearly 100% totally at fault, but I'm just curious: why were you going 30-40 on a four lane highway? Where I live that's at least 25 below the speed limit. Here it's mostly tractors and other farm equipm

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