smeej

20 ms·

331.
by smeej 2y ago
My experience in American universities was that native English speakers in the U.S. don't actually speak English well enough to follow high-level technical discussions of just about any topic. It was depressing. In graduate school--w
332.
by smeej 2y ago
The article even makes it sound like the law is still on the books, just not being enforced. Pretty sure enforcing the laws is the responsibility of the executive branch, isn't it? So it's not like any big combined majority action
333.
by smeej 2y ago
He's my brother. And the last of my three siblings still alive. Had I known this was his perspective ahead of time, I would never have brought it up, and I never will again, but he's not just some random person being wrong on th
334.
by smeej 2y ago
In this case, it was a CNN newscaster, which is about as "mainstream media" as it gets, but I would extend the same criticism to anybody else who doesn't even pretend they have any background knowledge or research supporting
335.
by smeej 2y ago
I didn't say that, because I didn't mean that. In this case, it was a newscaster on CNN. Couldn't tell you who. The question, specifically, had been whether a politician had or had not authorized a change to a law. My primary
336.
by smeej 2y ago
> And there’s a good chance that he rejects evidence to the contrary, or if finally faced with evidence beyond refute, it changes nothing, right? It actually wasn't even rejection. It was this pivot to, "You live in a differe
337.
by smeej 2y ago
And I didn't do a good enough pointing out that my complaint was focused on mainstream news media as the secondary source, not expert commentary. I don't think primary sources are some be-all, end-all, standalone authority. I&#x27
338.
by smeej 2y ago
Sure. I just mean it won't ever be possible, because we humans are full of contradictions.
339.
by smeej 2y ago
Part of what scared me was that his "authorities" on the matter were mainstream news commentators. It would have been one thing if he had been pointing to experts who actually knew the topic.
340.
by smeej 2y ago
I think the trouble was that it didn't take any time to pull up the facts. A quick search for the text of the law before and after the change, for example, on the phone already in my hand, to show the difference, easily happens in real
341.
by smeej 2y ago
Commentary has its place, but it's in the context of primary sources. It can't stand on its own. And there's a vast quality chasm between expert commentary and mainstream news commentator commentary. I can't speak to eve
342.
by smeej 2y ago
This took a turn that feels inevitable now that I see it, but I did not see coming, and made me laugh out loud. Thanks for this!
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by smeej 2y ago
After a recent argument with my brother in which he kept insisting we lived in different moral and factual realities, I've become much more interested in who and what we allow to form our worldview than what it ends up being. I r
344.
by smeej 2y ago
Not the person you're replying to, but I rolled my eyes and had trouble taking the rest of the article seriously when such an implausible thought experiment came so early in the article without being criticized for the deep flaws in th
345.
by smeej 2y ago
In what ways would sign language and Braille be helpful? Just to have them at the ready in case I were to lose my ability to hear/see?
346.
by smeej 2y ago
Well yes, but my current "write down the details of my calls and refer back to them every time" wouldn't require me to remember I had amnesia, right? For now, I do remember those past conversations, but if I stopped remembe
347.
by smeej 2y ago
I have this weird issue where about a third of people I meet for the first time swear they know me from somewhere, and it's somewhere specific that I know I've never been. My dad and brother have the same issue, and we strongly re
348.
by smeej 2y ago
My choir director does this with new rehearsal pieces on purpose. We go through them once at the beginning and then let them "percolate" while we practice some other songs. Then we go back to them in "stabilization" befo
349.
by smeej 2y ago
My dad's left-handed and I'm right-handed, so I got to learn to tie in mirror image. That was helpful.
350.
by smeej 2y ago
Understanding that the condition is rare enough that most of us really don't have a need to prepare for it, I wonder if there are any habits one could cultivate that would make it easier to live with amnesia. Learning new things is my
351.
by smeej 2y ago
When RTO becomes mandatory, working from home also necessarily becomes more difficult in its own right. The lower the percentage of employee hours worked at home, the worse the company is at working with employees who work from home, rega
352.
by smeej 2y ago
As the kid who stood 4-6 inches taller than the next tallest kid in my class until I stopped getting taller when I was 5'8" and 11 years old, I'm acutely aware that kids physically grow at entirely different rates even during
353.
by smeej 2y ago
I think this part is being underappreciated too: > It would require her to delegate a "safety person" to be a "knowing participant and guardian" and watch over the children whenever she leaves home. I was 11 when I st
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by smeej 2y ago
Wasn't that many years that not even every household had any phones.
355.
by smeej 2y ago
Instead, the sheriff is going to come handcuff mom and ~kidnap~ arrest her, in front of the kids. That shouldn't harm them at all, right? There's something missing about this story somewhere.
356.
by smeej 2y ago
In a town of 370 people, I'm surprised the driver didn't know the kid, his family for three or four generations, where he lived, and maybe even what he had for breakfast.
357.
by smeej 2y ago
It's wild to me that the fact that he has his own phone isn't considered security enough. Surely by 10 or 11 years old, the kid knows how to call for help if he needs it.
358.
by smeej 2y ago
They're not just banded into a range based on their grade. They're banded into a grade based on their age, even though "being within a year of the same age as somebody" becomes essentially meaningless as soon as you&#x27
359.
by smeej 2y ago
Do you just not install other apps? Or do you have some kind of preference for unpatched, insecure old software?
360.
by smeej 2y ago
If I had a dollar for every time I'm surprised to find out one of my AOSP devices has rebooted, I'd buy an old-fashioned alarm clock. Maybe iPhones just reboot sometimes too.

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