R3qn65's recent activity
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Comment on Firewood Banks aren’t inspiring. They’re a sign of collapse. in ~finance
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Comment on These travel influencers don’t want freebies. They’re AI. in ~travel
R3qn65 Link ParentI think ultimately it almost doesn't matter, because it's simply so cheap to produce this sort of (fake) content. If you lose someone's trust - if you lose almost everyone's trust - who cares?...I think ultimately it almost doesn't matter, because it's simply so cheap to produce this sort of (fake) content. If you lose someone's trust - if you lose almost everyone's trust - who cares? Just spin up another account.
Similarly, it's hard to gain followers, but launch 10,000 bots and one of them is almost guaranteed to take off.
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Comment on Firewood Banks aren’t inspiring. They’re a sign of collapse. in ~finance
R3qn65 Link ParentIn that article's defense, the study didn't actually explore rural vs urban at all, it was purely about socioeconomic strata. (Which makes it even worse as a supporting citation, of course.) But...In that article's defense, the study didn't actually explore rural vs urban at all, it was purely about socioeconomic strata. (Which makes it even worse as a supporting citation, of course.)
But yeah, you're right. I skimmed the original study (which was cited in The Conversation, which was then cited by Government.com, which was then cited by the New Republic piece in the OP, because the entire Internet is now just reactions to reactions and journalism is almost dead), and the study authors explicitly called out that to create new policies solving the disparity in response time would almost certainly result in a longer net time-to-return-of-service overall. Instead, they supported the battery backup type thing you mentioned!
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Comment on Firewood Banks aren’t inspiring. They’re a sign of collapse. in ~finance
R3qn65 (edited )LinkI was pretty annoyed by several aspects of this article. I think my biggest issue is that the evidence it's citing is quite overwrought. Here's an example: But if you click on the "power goes out"...I was pretty annoyed by several aspects of this article. I think my biggest issue is that the evidence it's citing is quite overwrought. Here's an example:
Rural families don’t get to pretend. They know exactly what it means when the power goes out for the third time in a month and the utility company shrugs because the profit isn’t there to fix it.
But if you click on the "power goes out" link, here's the title and first sentence:
Data from over 15 million consumers in 588 counties across the nation reveal that poorer communities waited an average of 170 minutes more for power to be restored, though sometimes it took much longer. Electricity is essential to just about everyone – rich and poor, old and young. Yet, when severe storms strike, socioeconomically disadvantaged communities often wait longest to recover.
It's not about rural communities losing power, it's about how it takes poorer communities an average of 170 minutes longer to get power back after storms (hurricanes specifically). And the source goes on to provide an explanation:
One likely reason for this disparity is written into utilities’ standard storm recovery policies. Often, these polices prioritize critical infrastructure first when restoring power after an outage, then large commercial and industrial customers. They next seek to recover as many households as they can as quickly as possible.
While this approach may seem procedurally fair, these recovery routines appear to have an unintended effect of often making vulnerable communities wait longer for electricity to be restored. One reason may be that these communities are farther from critical infrastructure, or they may be predominantly in older neighborhoods where power infrastructure requires more significant repairs.
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Then if you click the link "the profit," here's the main point:
This week, PG&E gave as short as a few hours’ notice in some areas as they readied for a “Public Safety Power Shutoff” that could last up to 5 days. On Wednesday morning, darkness began to descend on 513,000 PG&E customers in Northern California. The power outage, according to PG&E, is a preventative measure in order to address safety issues during fire season, in which electricity is often a culprit. In the San Francisco Bay area and in and around the Sacramento Valley and foothills, the National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning — the most severe of its kind — for weather conditions that can fuel an intense wildfire.
A second batch of 234,000 residents, including in the San Francisco East Bay, is expected to lose power during a second phase of shutoffs this evening around 8 pm. PG&E wildfire safety expert Sumeet Singh said the decision to cut electricity to customers in 34 California counties is “a last resort.” Some customers could be without power for five days, as every inch of the power lines have to be deemed as safe before electricity is restored.
(The argument is basically that they should've invested more beforehand so they wouldn't need to do this.)
The whole article is like this, and it's journalistic malpractice. If firewood banks were a sign of collapse, you shouldn't need to rely on bait-and-switches like this to make your point.
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Comment on Rapid Support Forces massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show in ~society
R3qn65 Link ParentWhat happens to aid in conflict zones like this is its own horror story that I won't sadden you with :/What happens to aid in conflict zones like this is its own horror story that I won't sadden you with :/
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Comment on Rapid Support Forces massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show in ~society
R3qn65 Link ParentIt's fascinating to see someone else with UN experience on this site. I agree with most of what you're saying, though I disagree here - which might be the most fundamental question, I suppose. The...It's fascinating to see someone else with UN experience on this site.
People are doing something, they just aren't getting the help, equipment, and personnel they need,
I agree with most of what you're saying, though I disagree here - which might be the most fundamental question, I suppose. The bravery of the troops from many TCCs notwithstanding, I don't think that any amount of equipment and personnel would help the various peacekeeping missions resolve these conflicts. The UN doesn't have an offensive mandate (which is intentional, obviously) and without that the best they can do is what they do do - namely try to keep small parts of these countries from getting worse.
But they're beholden to the nominal government of the host country and that's kind of that. I mean, look how many missions have been ejected from the countries they were stabilizing in the last decade alone.
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Comment on Rapid Support Forces massacres left Sudanese city ‘a slaughterhouse’, satellite images show in ~society
R3qn65 (edited )Link ParentThere are no stupid questions! The Sudan conflict isn't being fought with cruise missiles and stealth fighters, it's being fought with rifles and pickup trucks. So unfortunately there are no...Nothing fancy that they could then become retaliating force but just .... Slightly better gear?
There are no stupid questions!
The Sudan conflict isn't being fought with cruise missiles and stealth fighters, it's being fought with rifles and pickup trucks. So unfortunately there are no weapons that could be used for self defense but not retaliation. The Rwandan genocide was carried out, in large part, with machetes and farm tools. :(
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Comment on RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung in ~tech
R3qn65 Link ParentI don't really know what to say in response to this other than to ask for clarification as to what you mean. Because taken literally, this is a patently false statement. E.g....Practically no school of capitalist economic theory holds that copyright should exist
I don't really know what to say in response to this other than to ask for clarification as to what you mean. Because taken literally, this is a patently false statement.
E.g. https://www2.itif.org/2012-copyright-economic-doctrines.pdf
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Comment on You’re probably using the wrong dictionary in ~books
R3qn65 Link ParentConcur, but I do think it's a little unfair for some to hammer the author for having pompous word choice in an article literally about making your word choice fancy with a better dictionary :)Concur, but I do think it's a little unfair for some to hammer the author for having pompous word choice in an article literally about making your word choice fancy with a better dictionary :)
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Comment on RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung in ~tech
R3qn65 Link ParentFor what it's worth, conventional economic doctrine holds that the ability to protect a trade secret/copyright spurs innovation, not stifles it. The idea is that there's an incentive to create new...unfair innovation stifling doctrine of trade secrets
For what it's worth, conventional economic doctrine holds that the ability to protect a trade secret/copyright spurs innovation, not stifles it. The idea is that there's an incentive to create new technology if you know you can profit from it.
There’s essentially only one company who can make the lithography machinery that the entire industry depends on, for example
I would take this example in the complete opposite direction. I think there's a very strong argument that the only reason extreme UV lithography exists at all is because ASML was willing to take the risk of spending billions on R&D because they could protect the resulting technology via copyright.
Now, copyright isn't the only protection that ASML has. Just like when TSMC tried to move factories to America and found that a lot of their secret sauce was linked to intangibles like cultural capital, I think it's unlikely that even someone who stole ASML's tech could produce an exact copy of their results. (We know this because Chinese SOEs almost certainly did steal it and aren't able to precisely copy it.)
But without copyright, I don't think we get lots of little EUV manufacturers. I think what happens is we don't discover EUV at all.
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Comment on RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung in ~tech
R3qn65 Link ParentI'd argue, though, that you need to zoom out a little bit and think in terms of systems. Let's take the softsoap case. How will other manufacturers react? By spooling up new production lines,...I'd argue, though, that you need to zoom out a little bit and think in terms of systems. Let's take the softsoap case.
In 1980, entrepreneur Robert R. Taylor began selling pump soap under "Softsoap" through his company, The Minnetonka Corporation, located in Chaska, Minnesota. To give the product exclusivity in the marketplace, he purchased 100 million hand-pumped plastic bottles – a year's production capacity from the only two domestic manufacturers – so no one else could release a similar product during that time. Within six months, he had sold $25 million worth of Softsoap. He sold the brand to Colgate-Palmolive in 1987.
How will other manufacturers react? By spooling up new production lines, creating a greater supply of soap bottles, and ultimately the consumer comes out ahead. We can see that this is effectively what happened by the fact that Colgate/Palmolive does not continue to buy the country's entire supply of soap bottles each year and that there are many liquid soap varieties available to the public (because now many manufacturers make many bottles for many soap producers). It's a win/win. The entrepreneur has created value that didn't exist before (a new product that people want and which demonstrably makes things better), the bottle manufacturers sell out their entire supply (which helps their own businesses), people get soap.
What about the converse? People are arguing here that the government should prevent this. Fine, it's a nice platitude, but how does that actually work in practice when we zoom out and think in systems? We appoint a plastic bottle czar to make sure nobody is buying too much of the supply? How many millions of these functionaries will we need for all sectors of the economy? And now we've removed all incentive for the original entrepreneurship (the competitive advantage was what allowed the soap company to get off the ground in the first place), handicapped the bottle manufacturer (by introducing regulatory load that they have to negotiate), and ultimately made it less likely that value will be created.
Capitalism has problems. A lot of bad things happen pretty frequently. But we need to be sure not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and not to say "the government should step in" whenever something happens that at first glance seems a little mean.
The government needs to protect common resources, the environment, the welfare of the consumer, prevent monopolies, all kinds of stuff. But "one company bought all the soap bottles" or "one company bought 40% of the RAM" is not any of those things. Trying to prevent that would certainly make things much worse.
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Comment on Any tips for learning a new language at my age? (50s) via Babbel? in ~humanities.languages
R3qn65 Link ParentGemini live allows you to have the same conversations in voice. It's pretty wild.For text, genuinely it can be quite good to do pretend conversations with LLMs.
Gemini live allows you to have the same conversations in voice. It's pretty wild.
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Comment on RAM is so expensive, Samsung won’t even sell it to Samsung in ~tech
R3qn65 Link ParentHonestly I don't really get the reason for the snark.Honestly I don't really get the reason for the snark.
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Comment on Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled? in ~life
R3qn65 Link ParentWoah.The federal government spends more money each year on cash payments for disabled former workers than it spends on food stamps and welfare combined.
Woah.
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Comment on Why are 38 percent of Stanford students saying they're disabled? in ~life
R3qn65 Link ParentThe original article in the Atlantic (to which this is a reaction) was better and more detailed. As an example, that article explained that students taking the LSAT with accommodations scored on...The original article in the Atlantic (to which this is a reaction) was better and more detailed. As an example, that article explained that students taking the LSAT with accommodations scored on average (if I recall correctly) seven points higher then students without accommodations, which is both massively significant and suggests that something is not working right. To your point, the thing that isn't working right might not necessarily be that students are getting accommodations they don't need, but something isn't working.
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Comment on How do you design your campaigns? in ~games.tabletop
R3qn65 Link ParentI tried a completely sandbox game and my players hated it. Hated it. Being able to go anywhere and do anything really freaked them out, it turns out. I hear you on versimilitude. I've found that...I tried a completely sandbox game and my players hated it. Hated it. Being able to go anywhere and do anything really freaked them out, it turns out.
I hear you on versimilitude. I've found that versimilitude is more linked to internal consistency than to realism, though, meaning that even if I don't know what quite the right details are, I'll pick something that sounds good and then stick to it. I can always use magic to explain it later, if necessary.
I'll freely concede that that requires a fair bit of comfort with imagining stuff, though.
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Comment on How do you design your campaigns? in ~games.tabletop
R3qn65 LinkI put in a fair amount of prep work, but the actual sessions are wholly improvised. The two feed into each other - a really common mistake is to prep what's going to happen, when it's much better...I put in a fair amount of prep work, but the actual sessions are wholly improvised. The two feed into each other - a really common mistake is to prep what's going to happen, when it's much better to prep the stage.
I prep all the details of stuff that helps me improvise intelligently. If I know so-and-so NPC's motivations, I don't need to prep exactly what he's going to say - and I can easily flex based on what players do.
This doesn't take all that long. When you get a feel for what details you need to know in advance, it might be 3 sentences for even a quite important NPC.
It's typically the people who prep what's going to happen that drown in prep work, because they need to either script out everything (very bad) or have branching possibilities to allow for player choice (not as bad, but extremely difficult).
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Comment on Treadmill advice in ~health
R3qn65 LinkUnfortunately there's no real way to fix this problem; the conventional (and correct, imo) advice is to "be bold, start cold," knowing that you'll warm up eventually. One thing that can help is to...Its just annoyingly cold before I warm up, or if I put on too many layers instead I am too sweaty after I warm up. Maybe I need better clothes?
Unfortunately there's no real way to fix this problem; the conventional (and correct, imo) advice is to "be bold, start cold," knowing that you'll warm up eventually.
One thing that can help is to do as much warmup inside as possible. It gets the blood flowing, etc and it's not quite as bad when you do get out and start running.
Honestly I think a treadmill in an apartment is just.. bad. They're really big and really loud. Especially if you're an every-other-day runner and not someone trying to qualify for Boston or whatever.
Planet fitness has super cheap memberships?
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Comment on Which grand strategy are you? in ~misc
R3qn65 Link ParentLike you I am very skeptical of UN peacekeeping, but for different reasons. Arms sales in the sorts of countries that receive UN peacekeeping missions are really insignificant on a global scale -...Like you I am very skeptical of UN peacekeeping, but for different reasons.
Arms sales in the sorts of countries that receive UN peacekeeping missions are really insignificant on a global scale - I don't think it incentivises UNSC members to not try. There's a really good book called Merchant of Death about Russian arms trafficker Victor Bout that describes how Bout was able to arm both sides of multiple African conflicts, basically by himself. We're talking about tens to hundreds of millions in arms for a conflict, which sounds like a lot until you consider that one S400 battery costs half a billion dollars.
I think it has more to do with the near-impossibility of stopping these conflicts. What is the UN really supposed to do, you know? They have no offensive mandate (or ability) and can't make belligerent parties do anything.
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Comment on US President Donald Trump was going to roll out a health care plan. Then Republicans weighed in. in ~society
R3qn65 (edited )Link Parent>2028 >Mamdani is the power behind the throne >America now has universal healthcare, universal basic income >Republican base all cool with this because it was Trump's idea >Trump goes down in...Opposite World Grima Wormtongue
>2028
>Mamdani is the power behind the throne
>America now has universal healthcare, universal basic income
>Republican base all cool with this because it was Trump's idea
>Trump goes down in history as most progressive president since FDRW...worth it?
I had no idea that was a thing! Are you sure the New Republic is doing that, though? It's a reasonably reputable publication and it seems too legitimate for that sort of random link spamming.
Edit: for what it's worth, your article is about internal linking, and the links I pointed out are external.