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30 votes
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In first such admission, previously secret document says Danish aircraft participated in NATO attacks linked to civilian deaths in Libya in 2011
12 votes -
The story of the New Hampshire primary in one voter
19 votes -
God and the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics
26 votes -
US Ninth Circuit Court panel unanimously orders FBI to destroy records it created during searches of US Private Vaults boxes
23 votes -
Ever tried running backwards? Meet Aaron Yoder, one of the world's fastest backward runners who can complete a reverse mile in five and a half minutes.
6 votes -
Recommendations on portable power stations
After one too many blackouts for the past few years, we're in the market for a backup power solution. Guidelines include: Would rather have multiple smaller units than one large one. Should be...
After one too many blackouts for the past few years, we're in the market for a backup power solution.
Guidelines include:
- Would rather have multiple smaller units than one large one.
- Should be enough to charge phones, watch a television, run the Keurig. If it can spike up enough to run a heater or keep the fridge from spoiling, that's a bonus.
- Would like to keep it at ~$300 a unit.
We're looking into a whole home generac as well, but this is more of a bandaid trial solution for now.
23 votes -
Lessons from Finland's attempt to transition to a circular economy
15 votes -
Love Me asks too many questions
5 votes -
Browser game recommendations
Warning: this post may contain spoilers
I'm traveling for the holidays and only have my laptop, which I don't really have many full fledged games I can run on it (it's a macbook, so a combination of poor macOS support in general + the 32bit cliff means many games just don't run on here). I'm also more interested in casual games while traveling anyways.
Let me know if you have any recommendations for browser-based games, ideally something a little off the beaten path. Multiplayer suggestions welcome too for completeness.
35 votes -
Making emotional films: The enticing contradictions of Norman Jewison’s movies
5 votes -
Three recipes that will have you bringing back the casserole
12 votes -
All the major changes coming to Halo Infinite this year
7 votes -
What’s something you wish more people understood?
Please avoid hot takes or flippant answers. I want to know, genuinely, what you want others to know or realize.
57 votes -
‘No cash accepted’ signs are bad news for millions of unbanked Americans
55 votes -
HomeVestors (the “We Buy Ugly Houses” company) overhauls policies in the wake of ProPublica investigation
19 votes -
Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu believes that the team's new car will better suit Kevin Magnussen and his driving style
9 votes -
Anatomy of a fail: Inside France’s dysfunctional Oscar committee
7 votes -
The ambitious plan to open up a treasure trove of Black history
8 votes -
New US bank-overdraft fee limits to go into effect
41 votes -
What happened to David Graeber?
6 votes -
So, is Dash a good level? (Geometry Dash, 2.2)
3 votes -
What programming/technical projects have you been working on?
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's...
This is a recurring post to discuss programming or other technical projects that we've been working on. Tell us about one of your recent projects, either at work or personal projects. What's interesting about it? Are you having trouble with anything?
14 votes -
What is your favourite episode of a podcast?
Please share why it's your favourite took, avoiding as many spoilers as you can. Mine is Episode 45 of Darknet Diaries, Xbox Underground (and also Part 02). It is about a group of hackers called...
Please share why it's your favourite took, avoiding as many spoilers as you can.
Mine is Episode 45 of Darknet Diaries, Xbox Underground (and also Part 02).
It is about a group of hackers called the XBox Underground who infiltrated the networks of major video game companies. Their motives started out harmless, with members of the group enjoying playing early versions of games. However, things take a serious turn and there are many twists and turns as the story unfolds.
It's so good that I have listened to it every year since it first came out.
36 votes -
China’s age of malaise
14 votes -
Seaweed could save a billion people from famine after a nuclear war
27 votes -
The NFL has never seen anything quite like the Philadelphia Eagles’ warp-speed collapse
13 votes -
Vibrating capsule developed as an obesity treatment
19 votes -
Things software developers should learn about learning
20 votes -
Squarepusher - Wendorlan (2024)
10 votes -
Movie of the Week #13 - Marcel The Shell With Shoes On
Warning: this post may contain spoilers
Fourth movie with a running time of 100 minutes or less is Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (90 minutes) from 2021
Feel free to add any thoughts, opinions, reflections, analysis or whatever comments related to this film.
The final movie for January is next Monday on the 29th with The Iron Giant
14 votes -
‘Impossible’ to create AI tools like ChatGPT without copyrighted material, OpenAI says
44 votes -
How to learn chess as an adult (or, how I went from 300 to 1500 ELO in nine months)
17 votes -
Arno Penzias, co-discoverer of the cosmic microwave background, has died age 90
24 votes -
New York City plans to wipe out $2 billion in medical debt for 500,000 residents
27 votes -
Canada announces cap on international students for next two years
29 votes -
In praise of mass immigration
31 votes -
I have a massive gripe with reductive "politicization" of mental health
Before we start, no, I don't mean "bring politics into" mental health. Politics obviously covers mental health issues, practices, and institutions. However, I've come to realize a certain approach...
Before we start, no, I don't mean "bring politics into" mental health. Politics obviously covers mental health issues, practices, and institutions. However, I've come to realize a certain approach to mental health has taken root in discussions around mental health. This approach is based on the criticism of mental health from an ideological point. It centers on the idea that mental health is treated only as a chemical imbalance in the brain, and that sociopolitical conditions aren't considered. One of the most prominently figures cited for this is Mark Fisher.
“The current ruling ontology denies any possibility of a social causation of mental illness. The chemico-biologization of mental illness is of course strictly commensurate with its depoliticization. Considering mental illness an individual chemico-biological problem has enormous benefits for capitalism. First, it reinforces Capital’s drive towards atomistic individualization (you are sick because of your brain chemistry). Second, it provides an enormously lucrative market in which multinational pharmaceutical companies can peddle their pharmaceuticals (we can cure you with our SSRIs). It goes without saying that all mental illnesses are neurologically instantiated, but this says nothing about their causation. If it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation; and the task of repoliticizing mental illness is an urgent one if the left wants to challenge capitalist realism.”
― Mark Fisher, Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?, 2009
This, I think, is true to a degree. Denying the mental or physical results of certain policies benefits the rich. However, this criticism, whether intended by Fisher or not, is often used to reduce psychiatry and psychotherapy to mere, atomized, asocial, apolitical practices.
First of all, this hasn't been true in my case. Sure, I have my criticisms of the procedure and the practitioners, but I've talked about a variety of sociopolitical issues in therapy. I mean, how can you not talk about these issues? There are obviously social patterns in a population, and if they're not bad practitioners, the psychiatrists pick up on them. This doesn't mean that I talked about political theory in my therapy, but among numerous topics, I talked about things like the male gender role, the attached aggression and violence, the effects of emotional repression as a result of traditional roles. I know people who extensively talked in therapy about gender roles, queerphobia, and the associated problems.
Therapy helped me on political issues too. I used to be much more repressed, unable to express my disapproval, unable to handle any conflict. But with the help of psychiatry, I started expressing my opinions, including my disapproval, more and more. This included standing up for myself, and while there are many power structures I can't overcome as an individual, this change helped me better stand up for myself against people who have power over me. It also helps me feel not as much like a piece of shit when I can't, because learning to face my emotions helps me realize I have limits.
But, according to the Fisherian argument I've seen repeated countless times, this isn't what psychiatry does. It just treats you like an asocial animal, which is not true at all. If anything, psychiatry emphasizes, again and again, that humans are social animals, therefore, have social needs, and that not meeting those needs will lead to mental problems. Seriously. Search "humans are social creatures psychiatry" on whatever search engine you use and also on Google Scholar. You'll find, page after page, pop article and scientific article, talking about the importance of this.
The second thing I want to mention is that links between inequality and mental health are an important area of research. You can search for keywords like "socioeconomic status mental health" and "inequality mental health" on Google Scholar to see many articles written about this. You can alternatively replace "socioeconomic status" with "SES" and "mental health" with "mental illness" or a mental disorder of your choosing.
To add further support to my argument, let's look at the textbook "Psychology, Global Edition, 5th Edition" of Pearson, which is a very widely known publisher. It has an entire chapter dedicated to social psychology (Chapter 12). The chapter about psychological disorders, Chapter 14, has the following listed as one of its learning objectives (emphasis mine): "Compare and contrast behavioral, social cognitive, and biological explanations for depression and other disorders of mood."
Let's also look at WHO's mental disorders page (emphasis mine).
"At any one time, a diverse set of individual, family, community, and structural factors may combine to protect or undermine mental health. Although most people are resilient, people who are exposed to adverse circumstances – including poverty, violence, disability, and inequality – are at higher risk. Protective and risk factors include individual psychological and biological factors, such as emotional skills as well as genetics. Many of the risk and protective factors are influenced through changes in brain structure and/or function."
I think one of the other negative things about this argument is that, it denies the possibility that some people face mental illness not mainly as a result of social issues, but as a result of some biological unluck. I haven't checked it out specifically, but I think mental illnesses aren't necessarily mainly a result of social conditions or trauma. I can't claim this with certainty, but neither can the opposing side. However, my approach leaves a possibility open for people who may be experiencing exactly this. Therefore, without knowing, it doesn't claim that certain experiences can't exist.
Before I finish, I want to say that I don't deny the existence of bad practice. I've heard many stories of bad psychiatrists, and even if I hadn't, it would be unrealistic to think they wouldn't have such a problem, considering the problems in education and funding. However, my point is, it's not realistic to say psychiatry overlooks the social reasons for mental illnesses. There may be problems, but in no way they are a shared, distinctive feature of the field.
And last of all, this may be harsh but I think it needs saying, Mark Fisher fell victim to suicide. He's not exactly an epitome of healthy coping mechanisms, and his criticisms about mental health should be evaluated with that in mind. I often think intellectualization tends to come in the way of mental health for, well, intellectual people.
Edit: The last paragraph was poorly explained. I further elaborated here.
19 votes -
How Nellie Bly and other trailblazing women wrote creative nonfiction in English before it was a thing
12 votes -
Madrid to host an F1 race from 2026 with a ten-year deal
11 votes -
Turkey's parliament votes to let Sweden join NATO
36 votes -
"Mirror" tag
A pretty simple feature. Just seems like it would be handy to apply a tag to posts that provide non-paywalled or archive links for posts that are walled or 404'd. The idea just being that it seems...
A pretty simple feature. Just seems like it would be handy to apply a tag to posts that provide non-paywalled or archive links for posts that are walled or 404'd. The idea just being that it seems too much to put an "Exemplary" tag on it, but it seems too significant to just get a vote.
Ideally this would add the free link under the "Link Description" scrape, but that's probably hard to do. I guess you could also promote the tagged comment to the top of the stack, but then it seems like you can game out the sort to promote your commentary rather than just the link.
16 votes -
Any good Youtube channels on learning Data Structures and Algorithms, especially the math part?
Hello Tildes, I am currently taking DSA in college and struggling a lot with the math and algorithms. Recently had to solve Karatsuba questions and I don't even know what I wrote down on the...
Hello Tildes,
I am currently taking DSA in college and struggling a lot with the math and algorithms. Recently had to solve Karatsuba questions and I don't even know what I wrote down on the paper. I have been trying to look for videos on this and only really came away with a vague understanding.
What I've noticed is that I struggle with solving the math part of the questions.
For example: "Describe a divide and conquer algorithm to compute the square
of an n-digit integer in O(n log3 5) time, by reducing to the squaring of five [n/3]-digit
integers"I have zero clue how I am supposed to understand the latter half of the question. It makes no sense to me beyond I am supposed to be multiplying squared numbers. How do I even begin to turn this into an algorithm? What is the solution even supposed to look like?
Needless to say, I've struggled with math my entire life and I've been trying for years to be decent with it, and I have nothing to show for it.
So, do you have any recommendations that could simplify the math needed for DSA? Videos are preferred but I will textbook recommendations as well.
Thank you, and have a good day!
18 votes -
'Americans are fake and the Dutch are rude!': A personal account on their difference in social behavior
54 votes -
Before It Ends / Når Befrielsen Kommer | Trailer
6 votes -
How nuclear weapons and nuclear materials are transported
7 votes -
What have you been listening to this week?
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as...
What have you been listening to this week? You don't need to do a 6000 word review if you don't want to, but please write something! If you've just picked up some music, please update on that as well, we'd love to see your hauls :)
Feel free to give recs or discuss anything about each others' listening habits.
You can make a chart if you use last.fm:
http://www.tapmusic.net/lastfm/
Remember that linking directly to your image will update with your future listening, make sure to reupload to somewhere like imgur if you'd like it to remain what you have at the time of posting.
13 votes -
The farmers had what the billionaires wanted
23 votes -
Cameroon starts world-first malaria mass vaccine rollout
18 votes -
Is there a markdown editor which let me open .md files from Windows?
I have looked at various editors, but those I came across all had their own build-in file navigator which they insisted you'd use. I always hate that; it's the one thing I dislike about Godot. So...
I have looked at various editors, but those I came across all had their own build-in file navigator which they insisted you'd use. I always hate that; it's the one thing I dislike about Godot. So is there one where you can simply open your .md files directly from Windows?
Edit: What I'm after is WYSIWYG, not just synstax highlighting.
20 votes