rectang

36 ms·

511.
by rectang 1y ago
> Something not roasted to a charred crisp (looking at you, Starbucks). Not everyone is going to like less-roasted beans. Less roasted beans have strong, distinct flavors which might be characterized as "green" or "flor
512.
by rectang 1y ago
The US Civil War was fought over protecting minorities from private slaveowners, so the federal government’s role didn’t fundamentally change in the 1960s.
513.
by rectang 1y ago
Thanks for the thoughtful post with the rich historical references. For what it’s worth, I experienced a drift which is the mirror image of yours, starting left, developing my appreciation for the necessity of economic competition, and the
514.
by rectang 1y ago
The wider Trump administration, and Musk in particular for his DOGE work which has included firing regulatory enforcers.
515.
by rectang 1y ago
I have zero faith in "free market" ideologues, because what we actually get when they gain power is just favoritism for "free market" ideologues.
516.
by rectang 1y ago
According to a "sources say" quote from a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article published two days ago: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/23/ice-... > Sources say
517.
by rectang 2y ago
When Garfield Minus Garfield was being published regularly, I was a regular. I couldn't get enough of its dark, sardonic undermining of the comic aesthetic.
518.
by rectang 2y ago
Or if you're a politician, "Listen...", or "Look...".
519.
by rectang 2y ago
If it was that easy to "catch a falling knife", everyone would do it.
520.
by rectang 2y ago
The effect is the same — the comment becomes unreadable.
521.
by rectang 2y ago
To the extent that it's the President's job to represent the country's interests as opposed to delivering tears for his supporters to savor... not all of us believe that the "best deal" must end with Canadians hatin
522.
by rectang 2y ago
A substantial fraction of Americans support the President's threats, similar to hangers-on enjoying a high-school bully musing over whether to punch a student. There might not be support for military invasion, but it's there for
523.
by rectang 2y ago
You're some rando on the internet, while the current American government is making a big show about ignoring the rule of law when it comes to deporting people. Nothing you say is going to reassure anybody. Hell, nothing anybody says
524.
by rectang 2y ago
Hostility towards the ethnic/cultural "other" exists in all societies. The emphasis on a "fairness" which preserves structural advantage over the "other" is also universal. There's nothing unique abo
525.
by rectang 2y ago
Well, I agree that we can't have a productive discussion if that's how you see my commentary, but I happen to think that designing social programs which take into account baser human resentments is a worthwhile endeavor, e.g. &quo
526.
by rectang 2y ago
I don't see zero-sum thinkers as "idiots". Rather, the prevalence of such attitudes is a fundamental aspect of human nature that we have to reckon with.
527.
by rectang 2y ago
A scheme that benefits all, such as guaranteed minimum income, will always face great resistance in the US, because enough US citizens are zero-sum thinkers. If it helps people we hate, it must be bad. > Why aren’t we giving everyone a
528.
by rectang 2y ago
More germane is that there will be a smoking gun for every infringement case: whether or not the model was trained on the original. There will be no pretending that the model never heard the piece it copied.
529.
by rectang 2y ago
If you as an individual recognizably regurgitate the essay you read, then you have infringed. If an AI model recongnizably regurgitates the essay it trained on then it has infringed. The AI argument that passing original content through a
530.
by rectang 2y ago
AI is worthless without training data. If all content becomes AI generated because AI outcompetes original content then there will be no data left to train on. When Google first came out in 1998, it was amazing, spooky how good it was. The
531.
by rectang 2y ago
> Look at the primary economic claim offered by AI companies: to end the need for a substantial portion of all jobs on the planet. And this is why AI training is not "fair use". The AI companies seek to train models in order
532.
by rectang 2y ago
Fine. If that's your goal, then you work for free. Otherwise, "Fuck you, pay me."
533.
by rectang 2y ago
The suitable rejoinder to every tired old "somebody else's content needs to be given away" argument is the Content Creator's Creed from Goodfellas (NSFW): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c3bhh8fqYs As i
534.
by rectang 2y ago
Drawing is better on my tablet, an iPad Pro with an Apple Pencil. I also like StaffPad’s Apple Pencil interface for entering music notation better than anything using a trackpad or mouse. And I like taking handwritten notes using Quicknote
535.
by rectang 2y ago
Democratic backsliding isn't a concept owned by Asians: see Hungary, Brazil, Poland, the US under the Confederacy, etc. All of these countries have been "doing democracy wrong" at various times. And no matter how gleefully y
536.
by rectang 2y ago
Well, the obvious answer is that rights, along with legislative procedures, etc, get codified in a constitution which takes a supermajority to amend. In a perfect world that constitution is approved at a constitutional convention by a supe
537.
by rectang 2y ago
That's amusing, but silly. A criminal screeching "tyranny of the majority!" as they get hauled away is not a revealing example and does not reflect the phrase's usual meaning.
538.
by rectang 2y ago
If majoritarianism is exactly equal to democracy, then a third of the citizenry can be in prison serving as slave labor and so long as they get to cast ballots for candidates promising freedom only to be voted down by the keep-slave-labor c
539.
by rectang 2y ago
The definition of democracy as "free and fair elections" alone is subject to tyranny of the majority.
540.
by rectang 2y ago
The article's flagged now, but the standard approach of using the subtitle instead of the title would have yielded an improvement: "A radical conceptualist take on the foundations of mathematics".

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