jfengel

33 ms·

601.
by jfengel 7mo ago
The psychotic President was the immediate cause. But the psychotic President was elected by popular vote, pushing the psychosis back to that level. Perhaps one could say that this psychosis was introduced by people who were not themselves p
602.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Gas prices include all the tax. Unlike many other goods, there isn't an additional sales tax on top of the reported price.
603.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Aren't heat pumps also refrigerant-based? As I understand it, a heat pump is an AC unit that can be driven backward. In heat mode, they are air conditioning the already-cold outside, which works as long as the compressor can chill the
604.
by jfengel 7mo ago
It's not even about terraforming. Fixing earth is cheaper and easier than establishing a self-sustaining colony on Mars.
605.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Those are some of the worst dangling modifiers I've ever seen. Where was the wine found? When was it made? It helps if you leave out the irrelevant "toilet" part, which is clearly just clickbait: Grapes used 600 years ago wer
606.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Would Iran be willing to stop anti-US and anti-Israel propaganda? Iran would surely point out that Israel isn't allowing Palestinians to govern themselves, and the US would point to the violent suppression of Iranian protests. (And the
607.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Human reasoning is rarely logically very interesting. Humans can do only the most basic logic in their head. Reasoning is nearly always about the quality of premises. And since humans never reason in a step-by-step fashion, the premises are
608.
by jfengel 7mo ago
If the optical corrections do not work, then it's not clear that there are any optical corrections at all. Maybe they're there and they failed, but it seems at least as likely that they didn't even try. It has always struck m
609.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Colbert is planning to adapt chapters three to eight of The Fellowship of the Ring, in which Frodo and his fellow hobbits begin their epic quest. It's Tom Freaking Bombadil.
610.
by jfengel 7mo ago
We appear to be planning to send a ground force. I suspect that the US has overwhelming force, as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan. But it would also be a bloodbath; Iran is better prepared than either of the two previous opponents are.
611.
by jfengel 7mo ago
I cannot imagine what kind of concrete mechanisms will ensure this doesn't happen again. Perhaps guarantees by the rest of NATO to attack the US or Israel if they do?
612.
by jfengel 7mo ago
We know the rate of Lyme infections, don't we? Why wouldn't they enroll enough people to be more confident?
613.
by jfengel 7mo ago
From what I have seen, polls suggest a narrow Democratic win in November, but not a wave. Even the war doesn't seem to have moved the needle all that much. Voters who like Trump may be unhappy but they're not going to allow a Demo
614.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Jamais!
615.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Huh. I didn't know there were were more verses. "Les maîtres de nos petits déjeuners" indeed.
616.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Goodheart's law in action: when a metric becomes a target, it ceases to be a good metric. Betting markets might have been useful when the money encouraged honesty. But people are in the market for reasons other money. Conceivably, the
617.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Wet nurses were also an option. Presumably not from the monastery, but from a nearby village.
618.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Only if you were reasonably wealthy. Monasteries were not orphanages. You could sometimes dump a baby off there (they had deposit bins specifically for that), but they wouldn't raise it. They would usually find somebody else to take ca
619.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Practically everything of political attention gets flagged, even if it is tech related. There may well be a pro-Israel brigade going out of their way to move that along, but there is an equally rapid anti-Israel brigade. Nothing remains on
620.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Non-driving functions like climate control, lighting, and seating adjustment would fall under Android’s control. And the system would move beyond basic infotainment to create a unified ecosystem for features like remote cabin conditioning,
621.
by jfengel 7mo ago
I don't think the war is a good idea, and I'm reluctant to recommend outcomes to a culture different from mine. That said... if it turns out the Pahlavi can bring about an Iran that makes most of its people reasonably happy and fr
622.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Would the Iranians accept Pahlavi? They don't love the current regime, but overthrowing the Shah was widely popular. I hear that Pahlavi is less bad than his father, but surely somebody in Iran has a claim to leadership without being
623.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Factual news reporting is boring. Nobody wants it. They certainly don't want to pay for it. There's really no trouble getting factual information in the US. The main source of actual information is the wire services, such as Reute
624.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Any time I see code in quotes I get the heebie jeebies. Code in quotes can't even be syntax checked until run time.
625.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Congress has passed laws to delegate details to the executive departments. Congress lacks the expertise to do any kind of precision in regulation.
626.
by jfengel 7mo ago
The "pearl clutching" isn't because it's ICE, but precisely because ICE is under the direct control of the President. We have a law called the Posse Comitatus Act that specifically forbids the use of federal troops for l
627.
by jfengel 7mo ago
It's a good question. His supporters like the buffoonery. It allows them to see what they want to in his actions. It's remarkable that he has the full-throated support of the theocrats while being blatantly an atheist. And convers
628.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Turns out consistency is overrated. We talk as if it's a bare minimum, but there isn't actually any penalty for violating it. We've still got some kind of karmic notion that inconsistency is bad for you in the long run. Maybe
629.
by jfengel 7mo ago
He's referring to the word "price".
630.
by jfengel 7mo ago
Once I learned Haskell, everything else looks pretty much identical. Java, C, C++, Smalltalk... At least Lisp looks a little bit different.

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