unkz's recent activity

  1. Comment on Am I German or autistic? in ~health.mental

    unkz
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    It’s interesting that there is no option for “I don’t have an inner monologue”. I have one, a loud one, which is saying the things I’m typing right now, but I know this is not universal and some...

    It’s interesting that there is no option for “I don’t have an inner monologue”. I have one, a loud one, which is saying the things I’m typing right now, but I know this is not universal and some people are completely without.

    4 votes

  2. Comment on US states are learning the wrong lesson from the ‘Mississippi [reading level] miracle’ (gifted link) in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Aside from phonics, I think these were probably the really impactful changes but unfortunately they seem hard to quantify as well. I would like to drill down into the districts where they replaced...

    That's why I think it's important to also hold the "drug dealers" accountable. A kid's failure should be a systematic failure, not an individual one.

    Aside from phonics, I think these were probably the really impactful changes but unfortunately they seem hard to quantify as well. I would like to drill down into the districts where they replaced the leadership and put in supervisors who reported directly to the state but I couldn’t find good data.

    1 vote

  3. Comment on US states are learning the wrong lesson from the ‘Mississippi [reading level] miracle’ (gifted link) in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Sure, but this isn’t binary. Only about 25% of other states have a similar statewide third-grade retention policy: ECS says 13 states plus D.C. currently require retention for third graders who...

    All this is true, but... Not being able to read is way worse than any of these.

    Sure, but this isn’t binary. Only about 25% of other states have a similar statewide third-grade retention policy: ECS says 13 states plus D.C. currently require retention for third graders who are not reading proficiently, which means 12 of the other 49 states besides Mississippi, or 24.5%.

    According to the official 2024 NAEP Mississippi Grade 4 reading snapshot:

    In 2024, the average score in Mississippi (219) was

    • lower than those in 2 states/jurisdictions
    • higher than those in 20 states/jurisdictions
    • not significantly different from those in 29 states/jurisdictions

    https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/subject/publications/stt2024/pdf/2024220MS4.pdf

    I broke these groups down by state:

    • Of the jurisdictions that were better than Mississippi, one was DoDEA, which is hard to compare, and the only actual state was Massachusetts, which does not have a Mississippi-style retention policy.
    • In the not significantly different group, the states with Mississippi-style mandatory retention are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and Tennessee. That is 7 of 29 states = 24.1%.
    • In the significantly worse group, the states with Mississippi-style mandatory retention are Arizona, Delaware, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oklahoma. That is 5 of 19 states = 26.3%.

    So the only state to outperform has no retention policy and there’s no significant difference between the states with or without such policies. It seems clear that the retention policy’s effect can’t be that substantial. Especially given the mathematical consequences of the policy which should ensure an increase in scores simply by placing more older kids into the pool of “fourth graders”.

    I think it’s important to note that Mississippi did a lot of changes to their education system and it’s hard to pin down exactly what the winners were.

    4 votes

  4. Comment on US states are learning the wrong lesson from the ‘Mississippi [reading level] miracle’ (gifted link) in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Is this an appropriate intervention though, when they are not necessarily behind in other subjects or where they may even be ahead? This is in some ways equivalent to stealing a year of their...

    Is this an appropriate intervention though, when they are not necessarily behind in other subjects or where they may even be ahead? This is in some ways equivalent to stealing a year of their productive life. Graduating at 19 instead of 18, is actually kind of a big deal. Behind behind your peer group is kind of a big deal. The stigma of being held back is kind of a big deal.

    I think remedial reading courses and other parallel interventions (to provide these kids the extra time that they need on top of their regular school year, rather than increasing the total end to end duration of their school life) have a lot going for them in comparison. I get the appeal of "accountability" but I feel like this is in many ways a parallel of the mindset of punishing drug addicts with prison and other "tough love" concepts.

    2 votes

  5. Comment on The Amazing Digital Circus: The Last Act in ~movies

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Mmm I don't know if I'd call it horror exactly. Existential dread, certainly, and it broadly centers around personal trauma and psychological themes. My kids (13yo, 18yo) love it, and I have...

    Mmm I don't know if I'd call it horror exactly. Existential dread, certainly, and it broadly centers around personal trauma and psychological themes. My kids (13yo, 18yo) love it, and I have watched it all with them -- it has sparked a lot of good conversations.

    Also, it inspired this music video which is now stuck in my head again.

    7 votes

  6. Comment on US states are learning the wrong lesson from the ‘Mississippi [reading level] miracle’ (gifted link) in ~society

    unkz
    Link
    As I mentioned in the previous post, holding back students creates serious measurement problems. Last I heard they were failing about 6.5% of students. Obviously that means that the literacy of...

    As I mentioned in the previous post, holding back students creates serious measurement problems. Last I heard they were failing about 6.5% of students. Obviously that means that the literacy of people finishing 4th grade will be higher, but what does it say about teaching effectiveness?

    This isn’t to detract from phonics which I whole heartedly support.

    3 votes

  7. Comment on Feds try secret grand jury to unmask Reddit user who criticized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Basically it is a secret court proceeding where the prosecutor submits evidence and witnesses to a jury to decide whether charges should be filed. They don’t have to show all their evidence, and...

    Basically it is a secret court proceeding where the prosecutor submits evidence and witnesses to a jury to decide whether charges should be filed. They don’t have to show all their evidence, and there is no lawyer for the other side.

    8 votes

  8. Comment on Feds try secret grand jury to unmask Reddit user who criticized US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in ~society

    unkz
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    For a detailed look at this particular abuse of process which is commonly known as a “1509 summons” https://www.wired.com/story/ice-1509-custom-summons/...

    For a detailed look at this particular abuse of process which is commonly known as a “1509 summons”

    https://www.wired.com/story/ice-1509-custom-summons/

    https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/19/1509

    In essence, the act specifies under 1509.a.2.D that they can summon “any other person [the Secretary] may deem proper.” which they have been using to do all sorts of other stuff like targeting abortion clinics. This is a very widespread practice. It’s also pretty old, and well known to be used illegally for exactly this purpose.

    DHS agencies have come under increasing scrutiny for abusing 1509 customs summonses. In 2017, for instance, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was caught issuing an illegal customs summons to Twitter in an attempt to unmask the identity of @ALT_USCIS, an anonymous account that claims to be run by a US Citizenship and Immigration Services employee. The revelation sparked an investigation by the Office of the Inspector General into CBP’s use of 1509s, which concluded that 20 percent of the summonses it reviewed were either illegal or otherwise in violation of DHS policy.

    I’m sure that the office of the inspector general is now staffed by a Trump loyalist though, so there’s probably no recourse.

    17 votes

  9. Comment on Half-baked idea for metered inline image allowances in ~tildes

    unkz
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    Seems like kinda both. https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes last commit: Andrew Shu authored Feb 3, 2025 and Deimos committed Mar 10, 2025 14 commits since 2024. 16 commits since 2023. Altho tbh, what...

    Seems like kinda both.

    https://gitlab.com/tildes/tildes

    last commit: Andrew Shu authored Feb 3, 2025 and Deimos committed Mar 10, 2025

    14 commits since 2024. 16 commits since 2023.

    Altho tbh, what more does tildes need? It is a message board. It does that job.

    9 votes

  10. Comment on US to Canada package forwarding service? in ~talk

    unkz
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    I use https://www.shipito.com/ with no issues. Mostly for clothing that isn’t sold in Canada.

    I use https://www.shipito.com/ with no issues. Mostly for clothing that isn’t sold in Canada.

    2 votes

  11. Comment on US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire with Tehran saying it will reopen Strait of Hormuz in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I think the most likely thing is Trump had some side deals going on that required the "ceasefire" to occur at a specific time, so he just agreed to all the terms with no intention of keeping them.

    I think the most likely thing is Trump had some side deals going on that required the "ceasefire" to occur at a specific time, so he just agreed to all the terms with no intention of keeping them.

    2 votes

  12. Comment on US and Iran agree to provisional ceasefire with Tehran saying it will reopen Strait of Hormuz in ~society

  13. Comment on Intelligent people are better judges of the intelligence of others in ~science

    unkz
    Link Parent
    It’s like a textbook machine learning problem. Form them into an ensemble of weak classifiers. A optimization in this case might be using something like Cohen’s Kappa statistic to progressively...

    It’s like a textbook machine learning problem. Form them into an ensemble of weak classifiers. A optimization in this case might be using something like Cohen’s Kappa statistic to progressively evict people with weak inter-judge agreement from the ensemble.

    Setting aside the question of whether intelligence can be unambiguously ordered of course.

    5 votes

  14. Comment on Project Glasswing: securing critical software for the AI era in ~tech

    unkz
    Link Parent
    Major software companies are all involved in multiple trade associations, particularly in the security space. This doesn’t seem unusual to me?

    Major software companies are all involved in multiple trade associations, particularly in the security space. This doesn’t seem unusual to me?

    3 votes

  15. Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society

    unkz
    (edited )
    Link Parent
    I’m absolutely certain a fortune was just made by Trump’s inner circle. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/7/iran-war-live-trump-warns-of-devastating-attacks-as-deal-deadline-nears I...

    just insider trading to the most extreme degree

    I’m absolutely certain a fortune was just made by Trump’s inner circle.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2026/4/7/iran-war-live-trump-warns-of-devastating-attacks-as-deal-deadline-nears

    An social media account that monitors suspicious bets on Polymarket – an online prediction platform that lets users bet on the outcome of world events – has flagged two suspicious bets on the US ceasefire with Iran.

    A single user made $400,000 with two perfect bets predicting the exact start of the US “operation on Iran” and the date of the ceasefire, which was reached with Iran on Wednesday, according to the X account Polymarket History.

    I wonder who that was. I assume the big money was in shorting oil futures in the past couple days though.

    6 votes

  16. Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    He is definitely talking about infrastructure though. This is what he means by bombing them into the Stone Age. I think it’s evident that “end of civilization” is shorthand for no electricity, no...

    He is definitely talking about infrastructure though. This is what he means by bombing them into the Stone Age. I think it’s evident that “end of civilization” is shorthand for
    no electricity, no running water, no transportation.

    I don’t think this takes away from the genocidal aspect. Destroying that infrastructure will lead directly to the deaths of tens or even hundreds of thousands of people.

    6 votes

  17. Comment on Offbeat Fridays – The thread where offbeat headlines become front page news in ~news

  18. Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I do think he is probably making a killing on the markets by manipulating oil futures, and there’s huge potential to cash in again by TACOing with how much this tweet has spiked prices, but I also...

    I do think he is probably making a killing on the markets by manipulating oil futures, and there’s huge potential to cash in again by TACOing with how much this tweet has spiked prices, but I also think that at some point he does intend to kill a whole bunch of Iranians. Just once he has made enough profit. Maybe that will be today? Hard to say.

    12 votes

  19. Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I think it’s kind of important that the world sees exactly what he said in this case. There’s no room for ambiguity, or claiming the media is exaggerating. Maybe both? US President Donald Trump...

    I think it’s kind of important that the world sees exactly what he said in this case. There’s no room for ambiguity, or claiming the media is exaggerating. Maybe both?

    US President Donald Trump plans genocide: says a 'whole civilization will die tonight’.

    31 votes

  20. Comment on Donald Trump posted on Truth Social this morning that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again" as his threatened attacks on Iranian infrastructure loom ahead of deadline in ~society

    unkz
    Link Parent
    I feel like the president of America proclaiming his plan for genocide in unambiguous terms is newsworthy no matter what channel he announces it on.

    I feel like the president of America proclaiming his plan for genocide in unambiguous terms is newsworthy no matter what channel he announces it on.

    74 votes