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ajucon Commit description as a thinking tool

The comments and commit messages AI writes is often worse than useless, it's misleading, because it spreads the (very likely to get outdated) implementation details from one place to another.

I'll ask AI to write integration between 3 services, and it'll write the class names from the service A in comments in service B and C if I'm not careful.

ajucon Promising discoveries about the potential for life on one of Saturn’s icy moons

Finding life in our solar system that we couldn't detect from Earth won't say anything new about life we don't see in other solar systems, never mind other galaxies.

ajucon Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

You can have stalking behaviour based on simple ingrained unconscious if-then rules (don't be seen basically).

Showing yourself on purpose to change what you think the other animal thinks your capabilities are is more complicated and harder to evolve as a hardcoded reflex IMO.

Dogs weren't evolving in backyards with periodically opening see-through enclosures.

But yes, I'd assume most stealth predators with sophisticated brains (for example mammals) have some kind of theory of mind. It's just too useful not to have it. Same goes for animals living in complex social groups.

ajucon Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

A dog knows that the cat won't enter the backyard if he thinks the dog is free to roam, but will enter the backyard if it thinks the dog is restricted to the enclosure.

I call that theory of mind, because the dog needs to distinguish what it knows and what the cat knows.

ajucon Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

PTSD and other results of trauma do not require a memory of the thing happening to you. In fact often people don't remember the thing that caused the trauma.

It's enough that your nervous system adapts to the unsafe environment. It doesn't have to know why.

ajucon Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

I've heard several people say fish don't feel pain. Makes hobby fishing seem less cruel I guess.

ajucon Weeping whales: Stillborn humpback whale grieving documented

I've heard scientists say dogs don't have theory of mind and making a big deal out of some animals that do have some traces of it, when any dog owner can confirm they do. I've seen my dog bury a bone in one place while the other dog watches, then rebury it in a different place when the other dog went home.

I've also seen my parents' previous dog pretend he's closed in the enclosure with the doghouse when neighbors cat approached even when he wasn't. Then when the cat came to their backyard the dog would run after the cat.

It's so obvious, it's baffling to me how science could ever miss it.

ajucon Douglas Adams and the exterminated Doctor Who adventure

The line is usually "do I agree with it".

That's why old political writing is good - because the politics has been settled by now, most people won't argue 1984 was unfairly criticizing totalitarianism or Starship Troopers are too hard on fascism.

But new political writing is outrageous for half the people, because they disagree with it.

ajucon Douglas Adams and the exterminated Doctor Who adventure

Sci-fi was political from the start, usually far more political than people realize.

It's just that the way it was political back then agrees with your biases so you don't see it as being political :)

ajucon EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

WW2 ended with Yalta conference where Roosevelt agreed to Stalin's proposition of giving Poland to USSR's sphere of influence, making Poland (and rest of EE) their puppet state.

Churchil wanted to pressure Stalin to leave Poland (and at least parts of EE) independent and even considered "Operation Unthinkable".

At least that's what I think the guy above referenced.

ajucon EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

Polish export to US is about 3% of its total export and import - about 5% of Poland's total import. Not much to lose, honestly. We trade more with Czech Republic.

Polish export to EU is 74% of its total export and import is about 60% of its total import.

Economically - whatever's good for EU is good for Poland and US barely matters.

ajucon EU chief opens door for Canada to become 'associate member'

> as long as we don't need to be involved in their regulatory or legal regimes

The only reason the trade is easy in EU (and with it non-EU partners) is these regulations. Countries that choose to stay outside but wanted access to our market (like Norway, Switzerland, etc.) - had to accept the regulations. So I highly doubt you'll get your wish.

ajucon Naomi Klein: Extreme wealth has a deranging effect. Turns you into a supremacist

Cleaning my house is hopeless because it will get dirty again.

Maintenance of democracy takes effort, yes. We knew that from the start.

ajucon Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

> See most retail workers, and anyone behind a cash register.

Why would people behind cash register have to stand?

ajucon Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

1. they shouldn't even have to work, they should be on a paid leave

2. if they want to work - they should have preferential treatment

3. even if they are not pregnant - their bathroom breaks or the ability to sit down shouldn't be limited by their employer

Reading about American work culture is uncanny. It's like people arguing about css-styling the NPE error stacktrace, and everybody just assumes the null dateOfBirth in the database and 5 levels of backend code without null checks is just how it has to be.

ajucon Amazon refused to give pregnant workers bathroom breaks

In any poor Eastern European country they would go for months-long paid leave long before the birth and then for months-long paid maternity leave.

If they decided to work during pregnancy they would get preferential treatment.

How are Americans not revolting against this bullshit is beyond me. The problem isn't even Amazon - it's the system that makes Amazon doing this shit even a possibility.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

https://www.amjmed.com/article/S0002-9343(09)00525-7/fulltex...

> The article by Himmelstein et al1 in this issue of the The American Journal of Medicine documents that health care expenses were the most common cause of bankruptcy in the United States in 2007, accounting for 62% of US bankruptcies compared with 8% in 1981.2

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6366487/

> Table 1 displays debtors’ responses regarding the (often multiple) contributors to their bankruptcy. The majority (58.5%) “very much” or “somewhat” agreed that medical expenses contributed, and 44.3% cited illness-related work loss; 66.5% cited at least one of these two medical contributors—equivalent to about 530 000 medical bankruptcies annually.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

If it happens much more in US than in other countries - it contributes.

There's about 500 000 medical bankrupcies in US per year. That's huge.

Also - medical debt (not even bankrupcy necessarily) contributes significantly to homelessness:

https://publichealthpost.org/health-equity/medical-debt-home...

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32513034/

> two-thirds [of homeless interviewed] reporting current medical debt. Almost half reported trouble paying medical bills for themselves or family members. Almost one-third believed medical debt was in part responsible for their current housing situation. More than half with medical debt incurred this debt while they were covered under insurance. People who had trouble paying medical bills experienced a more recent episode of homelessness 2 years longer than those who did not have such trouble, even after controlling for race, education, age, gender, and health status

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

Medical bankrupcy would make you homeless and cause you to abuse drugs and commit crimes at higher rate for one example.

Badly controlled medical system with bad incentives caused opioid crisis.

Bad incentives (government and healthcare system earning money on people getting sick instead of losing money on them) also makes it less likely for the system to focus on healthy work-life balance (paid maternity leave, paid vacations, good preventive care, education for healthy lifestyle) and instead focuses on expansive aftercare.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

If you pay much more and get worse results that's objectively not OK. It means the system is inefficient and could be easily improved saving lives and money.

> Bad life expectancy is concentrated in the poorest Americans. Which is not a good thing to say about this country, but it does mean that most Americans live longer.

I've seen this defence many times, in different contexts, and it always strikes me as very strange. Why do you assume most Americans are rich? And why do you assume they are the ones that matter? Very weird. But let's take it at face value.

Looking at the graph of life expectancy vs percentile of income - US seems to be below 80 years for 50th percentile:

https://preview.redd.it/at-every-income-level-us-americans-l...

Which would make your point false regardless of the weirdness of it.

Another interesting graph: https://ourworldindata.org/cdn-cgi/imagedelivery/qLq-8BTgXU8...

I would not call it "OK".

> What do we call a place like Hungary which is quite a bit below the US here?

I could do the trick you did, sayign that Hungary has the same life expectancy as Illinois, and richer parts of EU has better life expectancy, therefore Hungary doesn't matter. That would be disingenious tho. It does matter, and healthcare in Hungary obviously isn't doing OK. It is more cost-effective than US tho.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/home-owne...

Also my bad, it's 65.7% for US and 87.3% for Poland

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

US life expectancy is 79.76 years. That's 62nd in the world, lover than EU average, lower than many less wealthy countries.

It's objectively not "working OK" for most Americans, especially when you consider how much you spend for subpar results.

Source: https://www.worldometers.info/demographics/life-expectancy/

Now you can blame it on bad lifestyle, addictions, car culture, crime rate, etc. All true, and idiotic healthcare system is indirectly influencing all of that.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

87% of Poles own a house in comparison to 67% in US.

ajucon Poland now 6th-largest EU economy, ahead of Switzerland and Belgium

Doesn't matter which kind of GDP you use - it won't tell you how wealthy a country or its people are.

That's because GDP measures how much you did in one year, and wealth is accumulated over centuries.

Using GDP to measure wealth is like using speedometer to measure distance. You can be the fastest on the road at the moment, but if you just started driving and people drove faster than you for 100 years it doesn't mean much.

You need to integrate it over time.

ajucon JetZero

Make the floor transparent.

ajucon SpaceX Starship Flight 13 livestream [video]

False accusations and lies are evil. It's not a debatable statement. Trying to spin it into a positive is not going to work.

ajucon Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

They will do that anyway. No amount of pandering will change their minds.

ajucon Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

The time for this debate was 100 years ago. Now only people who can't be convinced aren't convinced, so there's no point convincing.

So why not make fun of them? There's no downside.

ajucon Newly discovered spider builds spring loaded snare to catch ants

Strength of fibers scales with crossection area, mass scales with volume.

ajucon Claude Code is steganographically marking requests

I really liked Stanisław Lem's take on this in the short story "The Tale of the Computer That Fought a Dragon".

https://www.oocities.org/stanislaw_lem/opowiadania/opowiadan...

A solution for a military AI gone awry that built a terrifying electro-dragon was obviously to build a super-electro-dragon.