Moonchild's recent activity
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Comment on Why Dua Lipa is so good at asking questions in ~books
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Comment on Waiting for a book in paperback? Good luck. Publishers increasingly give nonfiction authors one shot at print stardom, ditching paperbacks as priorities shift. in ~books
Moonchild (edited )Link Parentequally important for durability is the quality of the materials and construction. i'd much rather a properly sewn softcover on thick, acid-free paper than a shoddy, perfect-bound hardcover. many...durable
equally important for durability is the quality of the materials and construction. i'd much rather a properly sewn softcover on thick, acid-free paper than a shoddy, perfect-bound hardcover. many hardcovers today are quite low quality. hardcover will not be worse than a co-published softcover edition, but it still rankles quite a bit—books are mostly not made to be treasured artifacts anymore. i recently got a conference proceedings from the 60s and a poetry collection from a not-so-famous poet from the 50s. both are not so 'fancy' as these things go, but they far and away blow away the vast majority of books printed in the last few decades
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Comment on Piglets will be left to starve in a controversial art exhibit in Denmark – Marco Evaristti aims to raise awareness of the suffering caused by modern pig production in ~arts
Moonchild (edited )Linki see this as somewhat similar to the killing of the united healthcare ceo. the death of one particular individual (whom you have never met) is of no consequence one way or the other. it is...i see this as somewhat similar to the killing of the united healthcare ceo. the death of one particular individual (whom you have never met) is of no consequence one way or the other. it is entirely symbolic, and should be taken as such
we can however think about the symbology of killing some pigs to try to help some others. is it (forced) martyrdom—what is the implication of that, and of forcing somebody to be a martyr? how does the experience of these pigs compare to that of commercially farmed pigs—is perhaps this life even better, or at least not much worse?
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Comment on US Department of Homeland Security quietly eliminates ban on surveillance based on sexual orientation and gender identity in ~society
Moonchild Link Parentmy dad started trying to get us out of the us probably 15+ years ago. made it to canada around 2016, which is funny (coincidental) timing, but now increasingly seems more prescient than evermy dad started trying to get us out of the us probably 15+ years ago. made it to canada around 2016, which is funny (coincidental) timing, but now increasingly seems more prescient than ever
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Comment on Against addressing root causes in ~society
Moonchild (edited )Link Parentthe alleged root cause is that, due to the nature of biology, there will always be viruses; if you just eradicate one virus without changing the nature of biology, you're not getting at the root...the alleged root cause is that, due to the nature of biology, there will always be viruses; if you just eradicate one virus without changing the nature of biology, you're not getting at the root of the problem, because there will be more viruses
i think the author's main point with this is that you can always push the concept of a root cause one level deeper, so it's not really useful to make a binary split of root cause/symptom; instead we should just consider the magnitude of the impact of whatever we do
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Comment on What is a book that every 13-year-old boy should read? in ~books
Moonchild Link Parentwhen i was a little younger—maybe 9 or 10—i read basically just the dialogues. they don't hit quite so hard without the fuller, more direct expositions that follow, but are still nice to read (and...when i was a little younger—maybe 9 or 10—i read basically just the dialogues. they don't hit quite so hard without the fuller, more direct expositions that follow, but are still nice to read (and might invite curiosity into the latter, piecemeal)
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Comment on The American physicians are healing themselves with Ozempic in ~health
Moonchild Link Parenti have a friend who recently decided she wanted to lose a lot of weight, and has been basically starving herself since, to great effect. (she wasn't fat and was happy with her weight before. not...Empirically, most treatments (except for GLP-1 agonists) have very poor success rates. It might feel different because "free will", but that's not a scientific way to look at things. The only thing that matters is outcome.
i have a friend who recently decided she wanted to lose a lot of weight, and has been basically starving herself since, to great effect. (she wasn't fat and was happy with her weight before. not saying whether i think this is a good idea :p.) i think it's more that some people are capable of exercising willpower around food consumption etc, and some people aren't, and obviously people looking for help with weight loss will belong to the latter group because the former doesn't need any help
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Comment on I just turned 29 last month, what are some things I should be thinking about before my 30s? in ~talk
Moonchild Link Parentvisible light also causes photoaging, which sunscreen can protect against somewhatbecause UV still gets through the clouds
visible light also causes photoaging, which sunscreen can protect against somewhat
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Comment on Did Donald Trump's executive order just make everyone in the US female? in ~society
Moonchild Linkno, it did not, and it is no more than pedantic sophistry to pretend it didno, it did not, and it is no more than pedantic sophistry to pretend it did
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Comment on US President Donald Trump to issue executive orders to end birthright citizenship, limit gender identity — incoming official in ~lgbt
Moonchild Link Parentthat's neither here nor there. trump's administration is not expressing a positive position, but a political position, and one which is intended to oppressthat's neither here nor there. trump's administration is not expressing a positive position, but a political position, and one which is intended to oppress
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Comment on US Food and Drug Administration to revoke authorization for the use of red no. 3 in food and ingested drugs in ~health
Moonchild Link Parenti'm confused—i think turmeric is usually added for flavour? at least that's the only reason i use it. (contrariwise, ground turmeric has itself sometimes been dyed yellow with lead-based dye, but...tumeric used as a yellow dye in many curries
i'm confused—i think turmeric is usually added for flavour? at least that's the only reason i use it. (contrariwise, ground turmeric has itself sometimes been dyed yellow with lead-based dye, but that is a separate problem)
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Comment on US Food and Drug Administration to revoke authorization for the use of red no. 3 in food and ingested drugs in ~health
Moonchild Link Parentdye used in drug compounding is not always strictly cosmetic; it can also be used to quickly visually estimate if a mixture is uniformdye used in drug compounding is not always strictly cosmetic; it can also be used to quickly visually estimate if a mixture is uniform
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Comment on More than a dozen US states have passed new laws that led to restrictions on pornography. Now, the Supreme Court will weigh in. in ~society
Moonchild (edited )Link Parenti would expect there are too many confounders to get a clear story edit: on a related note—this may be hearsay, but i heard of somebody a few years ago who wanted to do a study on porn but gave up...Seems like we have a good thirty years of data we could comb to establish whether this is true or not
i would expect there are too many confounders to get a clear story
edit: on a related note—this may be hearsay, but i heard of somebody a few years ago who wanted to do a study on porn but gave up when they simply could not find any boys who didn't watch it
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Comment on AI and ethics - CP in ~talk
Moonchild Link Parentextrapolation and generalisation were always the point of aiextrapolation and generalisation were always the point of ai
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~society
Moonchild (edited )Link Parenti think the problem is that you are trying to take an average of a continuous quantity, but you can't really reason about that without calculus (and then measure theory i don't understand yet...Maybe it has to do with mph being a rate and adding and averaging rates is less intuitive?
i think the problem is that you are trying to take an average of a continuous quantity, but you can't really reason about that without calculus (and then measure theory i don't understand yet ;-;), so if you don't know calculus, you're sol. you can sort of handwave that away for problems that look specifically like this (where speed is a piecewise constant function), but the whole question falls apart if you allow speed to vary continuously at all. you have a symbol-pushing intuition that 'average' means a+b+c/3—of course that leads you astray, because that formula only means anything for a discrete problem
that makes me question whether it's even a good question. if we don't actually understand what a continuous average is, what are we to do? sibling says 'average speed is total distance over total time', but why is that and what does it mean? follows is my attempt at a better intuition (i don't know how good it is):
what do we want an average (mean) to be? in general: an expected value. suppose a bag has a bunch of lottery tickets in it, each worth a different amount of money; if you take out a lottery ticket, you get the corresponding amount of money, and replace the ticket. the average (lottery tickets are discrete, so we know how to do this) of the ticket values is also the amount we expect to make when we draw out one ticket. it won't be perfect, but it will be a good estimate. now suppose we draw a lot of lottery tickets; the more we take, the better an estimate it will give of how much money we've made
we'd like an average speed (whatever that means) to have a similar property. take any leg of the trip; it will cover some distance over some time, but suppose we only know one of those two. if we know only the distance of that leg, then the average speed should give us an estimate of the time it took us; and if we know only how long it took, then the average speed should give us an estimate of the distance. like with the lottery example, as we consider larger and larger legs (more time or distance), we should expect the estimate from the average speed to get better and better
but with the lottery example, we can just keep on taking more and more lottery tickets forever, and expect the estimate to keep getting better and better (it's perfect 'at infinity'). in this case, the trip has a natural starting and stopping point; there's no leg of the trip that takes longer than 'the whole trip' or goes farther than 'the entire distance of the trip'. so we should expect the average speed to become perfect not at infinity, but at the whole trip—given the average speed, the overall time should give us a perfect estimate of the overall distance, and vice versa. but that also means the average speed is determined exactly by the overall time and the overall distance
after that it's straightforward algebra (back to symbolpushing😔) to show that you'd have to make the trip back from B to A in no time at all to get your desired average, so it's impossible
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Comment on <deleted topic> in ~society
Moonchild Link Parentwe are obviously teaching everything wrong i don't know what is in that video, but classic wrt maths is mathematician's lament https://worrydream.com/refs/Lockhart_2002_-_A_Mathematician's_Lament.pdfwe are obviously teaching everything wrong
i don't know what is in that video, but classic wrt maths is mathematician's lament https://worrydream.com/refs/Lockhart_2002_-_A_Mathematician's_Lament.pdf
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Comment on $1.22 billion Mega Millions jackpot won in California in ~finance
Moonchild Link Parentthe annuity is better for people who are not financially educated or responsible; such people are likely to be very well represented among lottery winners i think it makes intuitive sense that you...the annuity is better for people who are not financially educated or responsible; such people are likely to be very well represented among lottery winners
i think it makes intuitive sense that you could make more money from the lump sum; the annuity essentially relies on the government to manage your money for you, and even something like the s&p500 seems to be too risky for the government (but it's almost certainly not too risky for you)
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Comment on Canada Post strike update: Postal employees back to work in ~life
Moonchild Linkthe postal union says:the postal union says:
CUPW will still challenge the constitutionality and the current application of section 107 by the Minister of Labour. Our challenges will be heard by the CIRB on January 13 and 14, 2025.
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Comment on Tildes Demographics Survey, year… uh, it’s 2024? in ~tildes
Moonchild Link Parentto clarify—by continuous/discontinuous i mean the distributions, not the actual ranges. so it's not relevant that a length measurement could be any real number (if we assume that's actually true)to clarify—by continuous/discontinuous i mean the distributions, not the actual ranges. so it's not relevant that a length measurement could be any real number (if we assume that's actually true)
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Comment on Tildes Demographics Survey, year… uh, it’s 2024? in ~tildes
Moonchild Link Parentthere is uncertainty to spatial measurements though. and supposing there weren't, there would be particular lengths with a nonzero probability of being measured, indicating discontinuity. (time...there is uncertainty to spatial measurements though. and supposing there weren't, there would be particular lengths with a nonzero probability of being measured, indicating discontinuity. (time measurements/distributions tend to be discretised but with uncertainty too; that also suffices)
i would go further and say i find it entirely expected and obvious that someone whose literal job is to socialise and perform would be good at in-depth interviewing. he talks up oprah's castmate's capability at this, but then for some reason assumes dua lipa would not be equally capable? the interesting thing is obviously not that she is capable of doing this, but that she has chosen to in fact do it—something less glamorous, for a smaller audience. it seems to me to speak not to sophistication on her part, but rather to a degree of earnestness. maybe also comfort with publicly sharing something more intimate. maybe also attempt to spread literacy among those of her fans who might not otherwise have read those books (cf. dolly parton?)
with that said, ignoring the more obnoxious aspects of the frame, i thought the video was a not-that-bad (if somewhat shallow) deconstruction of various interview formats