moldbug

15 ms·

151.
by moldbug 15y ago
I'm always kind of astounded that HNers reflexively believe Michael Mann over Steve McIntyre. Of course it's simply because they don't know. And where would they find the time? What we call "science" is what Washington calls "science." I
152.
by moldbug 15y ago
Here's an example of what maxklein might mean. Ask yourself: is the relationship between Moulkheir Mint Yarba and her master typical of Mauritanian slavery? Or is it very atypical and unusual? Or in between? I'll bet you have no idea. Bu
153.
by moldbug 15y ago
Fire everyone in DC and move the capital to Palo Alto. Is it that we don't need to do this, or that we can't? If we can't, the hypothesis is confirmed and we really need to. If we don't need to... come on, man. I've never worked in DC a
154.
by moldbug 15y ago
No offense to Prof. Lessig - but he's sort of like someone trying to restore the Roman Republic in the age of Nero. The reality of Washington is that politics (ie, democracy) matters a little, but not very much: http://foseti.wordpress.com
155.
by moldbug 15y ago
> You know WIPO isn't a U.S. organization, right? It's part of the U.N. It's in Geneva. Yeah, and who created the UN? Denmark? Indonesia? The UN is about as Swiss as the Warsaw Pact is Polish. > U.S. patents have no force outside
156.
by moldbug 15y ago
> And yes, on more than one occasion, I've told an inventor that I didn't believe he could get a patent on his idea. I wanted to highlight this truly remarkable response, which displays the complete prostitution of the patent industry.
157.
by moldbug 15y ago
I'll bet you're not just a patent lawyer, but a good one.
158.
by moldbug 15y ago
> And there's no issue with mens rea here, since patent trolls aren't doing anything illegal. No. They aren't doing anything illegal. They're doing something evil . Mens rea is the mental state of doing evil . Not everything evi
159.
by moldbug 15y ago
Honey, before you were born I had some great flamewars with Mike Godwin on rec.arts.sf-lovers. HN is really turning into Reddit, isn't it?
160.
by moldbug 15y ago
> An analogy absolutely draws a comparison. An analogy illustrates common logical features of two commensurate problems. Man:woman, bull:cow. If I state this analogy to my wife, am I "comparing" her to a cow? > So you think it's p
161.
by moldbug 15y ago
An analogy is not a comparison. You know that. But lawyers love to play stupid, don't they? It sells in East Texas. Don't worry, I'm quite aware of the mechanics of our patent system. I also know a lot about Hitler. But I believe it's
162.
by moldbug 15y ago
Can we bring Hitler into the conversation? No one needs to be "educated" in the intricate and fascinating political and economic power dynamics of the Third Reich to have a valid opinion about Hitler. All they need to know is that Hitler k
163.
by moldbug 15y ago
A very easy way to expand your perspective beyond the ken of the average NPR intellectual is to read old (pre-1923) books. You know that feeling the medieval scholastics got when they realized they could actually read Virgil, Cicero, Homer
164.
by moldbug 15y ago
Yeah, Hampsterdam, that was a big success. Did we watch the same show? Here's another movie you might enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRsj-RPoFaI . Try to make it through all 5 minutes without thinking the phrase "worthless thug."
165.
by moldbug 15y ago
There's nothing wrong with dueling - it's voluntary by definition. Mixing it up with crimes of passion, drive-bys, and all other forms of homicide just shows how easy it is to lie with statistics. It's also undeniable that until the Victor
166.
by moldbug 15y ago
Not in San Francisco, but there are plenty of white "worthless thugs." See under: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav . The American equivalent starts around 80 miles east of here and doesn't let up until Westchester County - I exaggerate,
167.
by moldbug 15y ago
No offense, phillmv, but you strike me as a serious person with an open mind. If this is true, for only 62 cents you can get a copy of this book ( http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Slum-Salford-Quarter-Century/d... ), which describes a (low-cri
168.
by moldbug 15y ago
Perhaps someone else can parse this better than me. I can make sense of one of these lines: "Criminals break laws; laws are often injust. The War on Drugs, and mandatory sentencing." I think behind this line is lurking the belief that Amer
169.
by moldbug 15y ago
That would certainly seem the null hypothesis. But how do you separate culture and government? Our culture would never tolerate the Japanese criminal justice system ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_Japan ) ( http://en.wikipedia.org
170.
by moldbug 15y ago
From Fosdick's book (p. 14): "The chief constable for Edinburgh in his annual report for 1915 wrote as follows: 'I regret to state that while crimes against the person have considerably decreased, a number of serious crimes under the headin
171.
by moldbug 15y ago
Has the industrialized world existed for "literally thousands of years"? I'm not sure any statistical trends are consistent in this timeframe. How do you separate crime and war, for instance? Actually, law enforcement in the Edwardian per
172.
by moldbug 15y ago
Sometimes I think the way HN should work is not that you can't both downvote and comment, but that you can't downvote and not comment.
173.
by moldbug 15y ago
But what if our system is actually erring in the other direction? There are undoubtedly quite a few Americans who are in correctional supervision but shouldn't be. There are also quite a few Americans who should be in correctional superv
174.
Mulatto History Month(thosewhocansee.blogspot.com)
3 points by moldbug 15y ago|0 comments
175.
by moldbug 15y ago
Great comment from the Slashdot thread (direct link: http://developers.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=557384&ci... ): My experience has been that while in the hands of people who know what they're doing, they're a nice tool to have, well
176.
by moldbug 15y ago
"Almost all of the wars and trouble in the region are a result of the current national borders having been imposed on the continent by colonialists who divided up the spoils, rather than being based on local tribal affiliations." Yeah, that
177.
Vladimir Putin and George Soros discuss power and the media(bloodyshovel.wordpress.com)
6 points by moldbug 15y ago|0 comments
178.
Duke physicist: why climate modeling is hard(wattsupwiththat.com)
7 points by moldbug 15y ago|0 comments
179.
by moldbug 15y ago
Is there something I'm missing here? Granted, there are more and more trolls these days. RSI is a real concern. You'll want a light weapon without a lot of recoil. And it should probably take an extended clip, to minimize reloading. Not
180.
by moldbug 15y ago
Good thing you're not a racist, JohnnyBrown. I take it the name "James Watson" doesn't ring any instant bells for you. It's very easy to confuse an absence of persecution, with an absence of people who agree with you being persecuted. Tha

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