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Comment by sn0w_crash | Hacker News Reader

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Tegmark initially denied offering any funds, then referred all questions to a law firm – which says that no money will be paid out, while refusing to explain the grant offer.

[W]e put a number of questions to him by email about why FLI had decided to finance the extremist Nya Dagbladet. Tegmark flatly denied they had done so: “Where did you get this incorrect information about Future of Life Institute? We have not approved grants to any person or organization in Scandinavia.”

He also wanted to know where the Nya Dagbladet Foundation claims such an agreement with FLI. After Expo showed him the letter of intent bearing his signature – which had entered into public record when Nya Dagbladet submitted it to the County Administration of Dalarna – Tegmark stopped answering our emails.

While a signed letter of intent discovered among public filings is not a check or a contract, it is preliminary document that plays a key role in capital or organizational formation. A promise of $100,000 seems like quite an expensive 'nothing burger.'

The first time I heard the phrase 'nothing burger' was from the mouth of Eric Trump. It's possibly time to upgrade your vocabularly. I mean, Eric is a verified idiot and I can't help but think of you as being one by association. Apologies if that is in inaccurate.

You started a hellish flamewar here and perpetuated it so badly that I've banned the account.

Please see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34386829.

Your point being? The use of 'Nothing burger' has been around since the mid 1950s and it is not something that because a Trump family member starts using it, they're immediately associated with creating the word and who ever uses it agrees with them. [0]

This is the problem with erroneous guilt by associations just because someone you may not like used the phrase.

[0] https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/14/politics/nothing-burger-word-...

I don't doubt that you are right. I assume it is an Americanism. However, I repeat the n=1. The first time I heard it was from Eric. My point stands.

Your point doesn't hold any weight though? I've heard the phrase lots of times from various people.

What if I said "I've only heard the word Americanism from Stalin". You wouldn't care and I'd be silly to expect you to take any feedback from me saying so.

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“Apologies if that is inaccurate”

Your apologies are clearly worthless.

Personal attacks aren't ok, regardless of how bad someone else's comments are or you feel they are. If you'd please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and stick to the rules when posting here, we'd appreciate it.

As intended. Glad you picked up on that. Well done. You're sharp.

We've banned this account for posting flamewar comments and breaking the site guidelines extremely badly. This thread was truly awful, and you did the worst part of it. Also, this has happened before:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27463084

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28160079

If you don't want to be banned, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future. They're here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

I've noticed it's a pretty reliable tell of your politics though. I think Fox News used it a ton and you tend to to use the terms you hear more often.

I'm sure the venn diagram of what he says and what I say overlap a lot as far as vocabulary so I think I'll keep using nothing-burger where appropriate. I'm not going to let Trumpian influence ruin my zest for life. Words are just tools.

On the contrary, I would argue the urge to move beyond conventional language norms is what gave us Shakespeare and his numerous additions to the language.

I can taste the zest for life by moving beyond the boundaries of Trumpian idiots.

It's like seeing a nothingburger and fries on your plate telling the Maitre d to take it away and serve us a wonderful new dish.

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I just hadn't seen this wretched thread yet. I've banned the account that started it.

You, however, have also broken the site guidelines badly, and since we've warned you before and you've continued to do just what we asked you to stop, I've banned your account as well.

You need to be accurate.

There's a lefty-rightist, Stanlist conspiracy going on here on HN, and you're at the very centre of it.

The first time I heard it was when Emmy-winning CNN host Van Jones, no Trump ally, referred to Russia-gate as a "nothingburger".

Think things through before you call people idiots by association.

Please don't respond to a bad comment by breaking the site guidelines yourself. That only makes everything worse.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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