skybrian's recent activity
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Comment on The gravest threat to the [American] press in ~society
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Comment on Adults are earning college degrees online in weeks, alarming US educators in ~society
skybrian Link ParentSet a reasonable, fair standard and then pick randomly is the best thing I can come up with for that scenario. It would save a lot of time studying for the Big Exam if it's not unreasonably hard...Set a reasonable, fair standard and then pick randomly is the best thing I can come up with for that scenario.
It would save a lot of time studying for the Big Exam if it's not unreasonably hard to ace it. Also, the people chosen know they got lucky (so don't let it go to your head) and the people who passed the exam and didn't get picked have some consolation in knowing that it's not their fault.
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Comment on Adults are earning college degrees online in weeks, alarming US educators in ~society
skybrian Link ParentWho would go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt to get a "well-rounded education" if it were just for personal growth and not to get a job so you can pay it back? People who don't end up...Who would go hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt to get a "well-rounded education" if it were just for personal growth and not to get a job so you can pay it back? People who don't end up with good jobs after graduating have good reason to dissatisfied. They got a bad deal, no matter how "well-rounded" they are in other respects.
Personal growth is great, but it doesn't pay the bills and the amount you pay for it should be limited.
Colleges get away with charging high prices with a sort of motte-and-bailey argument where sometimes it's about careers and sometimes it's about personal growth. It's a cross-subsidy. If you could get a good job by passing an exam and skipping the classes then this scheme would fall apart, much like happened to newspapers after Craigslist and eBay took away the classified ad business.
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Comment on How AI prevents meritocracy in ~tech
skybrian LinkThe interview is mostly not about meritocracy; it’s a general discussion of privacy issues with AI. In particular, there’s a discussion of health insurance, and it’s not clear what a “meritocracy”...The interview is mostly not about meritocracy; it’s a general discussion of privacy issues with AI. In particular, there’s a discussion of health insurance, and it’s not clear what a “meritocracy” for health insurance would mean when the whole point is to pool risks.
Discounts for non-smokers or for exercising, maybe? Much of the risk has nothing to do with that.
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Comment on What programming/technical projects have you been working on? in ~comp
skybrian LinkStill working on my personal link-sharing website off and on. I’ve imported all the links I ever posted to Tildes, but they’re not published yet. That’s currently a manual review since I tag...Still working on my personal link-sharing website off and on. I’ve imported all the links I ever posted to Tildes, but they’re not published yet. That’s currently a manual review since I tag things differently from Tildes.
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Comment on The zero-days are numbered — Firefox team uses AI to find and fix vulnerabilities in ~tech
skybrian (edited )Link ParentI think it only becomes unlikely for widely used libraries. Sure, most people using a dependency might be careless, but there will be a few companies that are more cautious and decide to spend the...I think it only becomes unlikely for widely used libraries. Sure, most people using a dependency might be careless, but there will be a few companies that are more cautious and decide to spend the money on automated security reviews. For a company, this is considerably cheaper than paying staff to do it.
Nowadays people are talking about using dependency cooldowns rather than upgrading dependencies right away. That’s waiting for someone else to hopefully discover any bugs.
Rather than leaving that to chance, it might be nice if there were a way to publish information about what security reviews have been done on a library version. Then you could wait until there have been multiple outside reviews vouching for a new version.
It would be a more useful signal than the number of downloads or the number of stars on GitHub.
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Comment on Adults are earning college degrees online in weeks, alarming US educators in ~society
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...]From the article:
Many U.S. schools have been experimenting with ways to speed up traditional college programs to reduce the burgeoning cost and help students move into the workforce faster. Some offer three-year bachelor’s programs, reducing the number of credits needed for a diploma by one quarter. Many more allow students to enroll in college classes while still in high school.
But the breakneck pace of the fastest online programs concerns some academics, who say there is a big difference in what students can learn in weeks or months compared with three or more years.
The phenomenon — sometimes referred to as degree hacking, college speed runs or hyper-accelerated degrees — has spawned a cottage industry of influencers making videos about how quickly they earned their degrees and encouraging others to follow suit.
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The University of Maine’s Presque Isle campus has more than 3,000 students in its online YourPace program, according to the school. The school’s president said the program is designed to help older, nontraditional students rapidly obtain an affordable degree they may need for a raise, promotion or new job — students who don’t need the traditional longer college experience on campus that many young adults crave.
“They literally just need a certificate” to help their careers, said Raymond Rice, president of the Presque Isle campus. He said the program is open only to students age 20 and older, in part to avoid competing with its traditional four-year program on campus.
Of the nearly 300 students who earned a bachelor’s in the YourPace program in fall 2024, the vast majority finished in less than a year. More than 1 in 4 finished their entire degree course load in a single eight-week session, half the length of a traditional academic semester.
Under a system known as competency-based education, students typically must finish several assignments or pass a test to prove they learned the material, regardless of how long it takes. In a philosophy class Rice oversees, students have to show they learned the online material by completing five five-page essays and one longer paper that’s up to 10 pages.
There are no class meetings. No group discussions. No weekly assignments. Nothing to slow students down.
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At some schools, students can sign up for as many classes as they want for a flat price per term.
For instance, the YourPace program in Maine charges $1,800 per eight-week session for undergraduate programs and $2,450 for graduate degrees. That gives students a powerful financial incentive to push through the programs as quickly as possible to limit the cost and avoid taking out significant student loans. And low-income undergraduate students may be eligible for Federal Pell Grants that help cover the cost.
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The head of the New England Commission of Higher Education, which oversees the accreditation of the University of Maine system, told The Washington Post that he had never heard of students completing a bachelor’s degree in only a few months — either at the Presque Isle campus or any other accredited university. He said that is something his organization may decide to investigate.
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Adults are earning college degrees online in weeks, alarming US educators
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Comment on Guinea worm disease reaches all-time low: only ten human cases reported in 2025 in ~health
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...]From the article:
Only 10 human cases of Guinea worm were reported worldwide in 2025, the lowest number ever recorded, bringing the ancient disease closer than ever to eradication. The Carter Center announced the historic provisional figure following the one-year anniversary of the passing of the Center’s founder, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.
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Poised to be only the second human disease eradicated after smallpox, the 10 Guinea worm cases mark a 33% decline from the 15 cases reported in 2024.
When The Carter Center assumed leadership of the global Guinea worm eradication campaign in 1986, an estimated 3.5 million human cases occurred annually in 21 countries in Africa and Asia.
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In 2025, two of the 10 provisional human Guinea worm cases were detected in South Sudan and four each in Chad and Ethiopia. Angola, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, and Mali reported zero human cases for the second consecutive year.
The worms that infect animals are the same species (Dracunculus medinensis) as those that infect humans; therefore, eradication requires stopping infections in both. Once the global epicenter for Guinea worm animal infections, Chad reduced Guinea worm infections in domestic animals by 47%, its sixth consecutive year of progress. In 2025, Chad reported infections in 147 animals, Mali reported 17, Cameroon 445, Angola 70, Ethiopia one, and South Sudan three. Despite reductions in four countries, the global provisional total for animal infections rose slightly, driven by increases in Cameroon and Angola.
As in past years, people in endemic countries received cash rewards for reporting cases of Guinea worm in 2025. Health workers then delivered targeted health education and investigated every report, a system that is essential for detecting remaining cases. In 2025, national programs collectively investigated more than 1 million such rumors, nearly all within 24 hours of notification.
All human and animal Guinea worm figures remain provisional until officially confirmed by each country at the eradication campaign’s global annual meeting, typically held in April.
For a disease to be declared eradicated, every country in the world must be certified free of human and animal infections, even in those where transmission has never been known to occur. To date, the World Health Organization has certified 200 countries free of Guinea worm; only six have not been certified.
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Recent innovations include the development of a diagnostic test that can be used for disease surveillance amongst dogs. This tool, combined with enhanced community-based surveillance, can provide national programs additional information to guide evidence-based decision making and further target program interventions.
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Guinea worm disease reaches all-time low: only ten human cases reported in 2025
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Comment on San Diego rents declined following surge in supply in ~finance
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
The median rent for a 1- and 2-bedroom apartment in San Diego declined by 5.6% and 7.5%, respectively.
The report found that there was about a 15% increase in active listings in San Diego over that timeframe, according to Crystal Chen from Zumper.
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Of the top 20 most expensive rental markets, only New Haven, Conn., saw a sharper decline in 1-bedroom rents. Miami and New Haven both saw larger decreases in median rents for a 2-bedroom apartment.
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“I think if you track the city of San Diego over the last couple of years, we've shown a pretty significant increase in the number of new housing permits each year, we’re closing in on the 10,000 mark for the last two years,” Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee said. “And I think that's really a collective effort between the mayor's office, a supportive council, and our planning and development services department that are trying to find, really all the tools in which they can help to ensure that new housing is happening in San Diego.”
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KPBS reported last year that rents in San Diego increase slower where lots of homes are permitted; the Zumper report continues to indicate that adding to the supply of available homes on the market helps keep rents from increasing, and can even contribute to decreases.
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San Diego sits at the 11th most expensive rental market in the nation, according to the report, with the median rent for a 1-bedroom at $2,200. Median rent for 2-bedroom apartments is $2,950.
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San Diego rents declined following surge in supply
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Comment on The zero-days are numbered — Firefox team uses AI to find and fix vulnerabilities in ~tech
skybrian (edited )Link ParentIt seems pretty unlikely that a simple bug like log4shell would happen again in a world with widespread AI-driven security reviews? People often skip reviewing their open source dependencies...It seems pretty unlikely that a simple bug like log4shell would happen again in a world with widespread AI-driven security reviews? People often skip reviewing their open source dependencies themselves (it's too much work) but I'd guess that a lot of companies will start to do their own automated checking of them? These common dependencies are likely to get a lot more review.
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Comment on What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s private retreat in ~society
skybrian (edited )Link ParentPaying more in taxes to the US government than legally required instead of donating to charity is a terrible idea. How much you pay in taxes has zero effect on what Congress decides to spend, or...Paying more in taxes to the US government than legally required instead of donating to charity is a terrible idea. How much you pay in taxes has zero effect on what Congress decides to spend, or on what the Trump administration decides to do. USAID would be just as cancelled if billionaires paid more in taxes. ICE would still be deporting people and we'd still be at war with Iran.
You might as well set the money on fire for all the good it will do. Paying more in federal taxes than is legally required has zero effect and you get zero credit. That's true for us and it's true for billionaires too. (For a local government like a public school district it's different.)
In times like this, we're fortunate that there are well-funded private charities. They can't make up for USAID, but at least they can do something. It's good that we live in a pluralistic society with many kinds of organizations that try to do different things. By donating to a good charity you get to redirect money towards better uses.
Furthermore, charitable donations are often tax deductable for a reason. It's cooperating with what the government wants you to do.
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Comment on What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s private retreat in ~society
skybrian Link ParentThe Trump administration is to blame for cancelling USAID. Some billionaires supported him (for example, Musk), but so did the millions of people who voted for him, and other billionaires publicly...The Trump administration is to blame for cancelling USAID. Some billionaires supported him (for example, Musk), but so did the millions of people who voted for him, and other billionaires publicly opposed it (Gates).
So I don't think talking about billionaires as a group helps as far as public policy is concerned. They're not a monolith. They have different politics.
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Comment on What is watts, volts and amps? in ~science
skybrian LinkWatts tell you energy consumption. For example, a light bulb consumes a steady amount of electricity when it’s turned on. A 100 watt light bulb consumes twice as much as a 50 watt bulb, or the...Watts tell you energy consumption. For example, a light bulb consumes a steady amount of electricity when it’s turned on. A 100 watt light bulb consumes twice as much as a 50 watt bulb, or the same as two 50 watt bulbs.
(When connected in parallel, and ignoring things like dimmer switches.)
As others have said, it’s implicitly per second. You need to multiply by the time that the light bulb is left on to get energy used.
If you want a water analogy, a bigger pipe will let more water flow through it than a smaller pipe. But you could have two smaller pipes that are equivalent to a bigger one.
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Comment on The Colorado River disappeared from the geological record for five million years: scientists now know where it went in ~science
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...] [...] [...] [...]From the article:
The Colorado River existed in western Colorado 11 million years ago and first exited the Grand Canyon around 5.6 million years ago. But how it navigated the terrain between the two points for around 5 million years had been a mystery.
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One obstacle in the ancient river's path is the Kaibab Arch, a topographic high point located in northern Arizona and southern Utah. Geologists have proposed different scenarios for how the river crossed it, but one theory that the new evidence makes more plausible is lake spillover. In this scenario, the Colorado River would have filled a lake and eventually exited it along a course to the Grand Canyon.
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The collaborative work began when He, Douglass and Emma Heitmann at the University of Washington met in the field while studying the remnant deposits of Bidahochi Lake, an ancient lake on Navajo Nation land. Most of the deposits of this enigmatic lake have eroded away, so no one knows how large the lake was. Geologists also didn't know what rivers fed the lake, or why Bidahochi Lake eventually disappeared.
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Geologists have developed a technique called detrital zircon geochronology that uses lasers or ion beams to measure the ratios of uranium and lead isotopes in hundreds of zircons in a sample. The unique age and history of each zircon can thus be traced to learn the sources of a sediment and estimate when it was deposited. The age spectrum derived from hundreds of zircons in a sample is called its detrital signature.
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The results showed that signatures of the sediments deposited about 6.6 million years ago in Lake Bidahochi closely matched those of other Colorado River deposits downstream and upstream, including the Browns Park Formation in northern Utah and Colorado.
Study of rock layers in the field from this time period showed signs of rippling that indicated a strong river flowed into standing water, and fossils of large fish species characteristic of fast-flowing waters.
These lines of evidence strongly indicated that the Colorado River was supplying water and sediment to the Bidahochi basin before it spilled over and the river began to flow through the Grand Canyon. This set the stage for the mighty Colorado River that carved much of the Grand Canyon and upon which much of the West depends for water.
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The Colorado River disappeared from the geological record for five million years: scientists now know where it went
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Comment on What I learned about billionaires at Jeff Bezos’s private retreat in ~society
skybrian Link ParentPower isn’t just about money. Bezos isn’t going to arrest you, deny your visa, or raise your taxes.Power isn’t just about money. Bezos isn’t going to arrest you, deny your visa, or raise your taxes.
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Comment on Early data from Rubin Observatory reveals over 11,000 new asteroids in ~space
skybrian LinkFrom the article: [...]From the article:
The submission to MPC comprises approximately one million observations, taken over the span of a month and a half, of over 11,000 new asteroids and more than 80,000 already-known asteroids, including some that had previously been observed but were later "lost" because their orbits were too uncertain to predict their future locations. You can interact with all of Rubin's asteroid discoveries in the Rubin Orbitviewer, which uses real data to provide an intuitive way to explore the structure of our cosmic backyard in three dimensions and in real time.
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Among the newly identified objects are 33 previously unknown near-Earth objects (NEOs), which are small asteroids and comets whose closest approach to the sun is less than 1.3 times the distance between Earth and the sun. None of the newly discovered NEOs pose a threat to Earth, and the largest is about 500 meters wide. Objects larger than 140 meters are closely tracked as they could cause significant regional damage if they impact, yet scientists estimate that only about 40% of these mid-sized NEOs have been identified so far.
Once operating fully in survey mode, Rubin is expected to reveal an additional nearly 90,000 new NEOs, some of which may be potentially hazardous, and to nearly double the number of known NEOs larger than 140 meters to around 70%. By enabling early detection and continuous monitoring of these objects, Rubin will be a powerful tool for planetary defense.
The dataset also contains roughly 380 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs)—icy bodies orbiting beyond Neptune. Two of the newly discovered TNOs—provisionally named 2025 LS2 and 2025 MX348—have been found to be in extremely large and elongated (stretched out) orbits. At their most distant points, these two objects reach roughly 1,000 times farther away from the sun than the Earth is, placing them among the 30 most distant minor planets known.
Maybe so, but it would be more convincing if the author had actually made an argument about why that's true, rather than just using the word "arguably."