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bensmoif

21 karma · joined February 2, 2022

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bensmoif··on Spark: Sparklines in your shell
Big up Edward Tufte
bensmoif··on Scanwheel is a drum style mechanical television you can build yourself
It's stunning. The video speaks for itself. Please scale this up, like way up back of a truckbed size. This would be delightful to see spinning and running IRL.

Then get a grant and make one as wide as a city street

bensmoif··on Private healthcare makes industries less innovative. It's time for change
1000%
bensmoif··on Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]
Brother, no he did not liberate a single one of his own slaves. Some escaped and he did not pursue, but his final slave died under Benjamin Franklin's enslavement 9 years before Franklin himself died.

Them facts you were looking for: https://share.google/J4zlTt102nc81Fhay

I think it's a sound analysis, he was a thoughtful and philosophical man who considered the nature of slavery heavily, and he benefitted from it greatly, and dearly understood its terrible nature, and continued it's cruelty, and freed no one.

bensmoif··on Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]
I'll accept your conceit but answer this: why didn't he liberate his slaves? If it's a wash, why keep humans in slavery at all?

I think it's because, in his own calculus, he believed he needed to desecrate human beings, destroy their families, and humiliate their dignity to maintain his greatness.

bensmoif··on Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]
My brother: trolls troll out of cynical cruelty, there are many children's books that can illustrate this clearly.

Franklin's ability to speak plainly about the evils of slavery, in between his own acts of unspeakable cruelty, and robbing families of their dignity and humanity, requires a level of disconnect and pride that is worth significant mention whenever we do justice to his great legacy.

This talk of human utility sounds like a lot of chump shit.

bensmoif··on Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]
In this century we have a word for that kind of talk by slaveholders who professed some longing for abolition (Franklin. Jefferson, Washington, John Jay) but did not really wanna be inconvenienced: trolling.
bensmoif··on Mechanical light bulb from 1675 [video]
I don't think it's irrelevant that a brilliant man like Benjamin Franklin may not have been able to achieve as much as he unmistakably did WITHOUT the heavy assistance of forced slave labor in his life, from cradle to grave.

Pretending like these things can be separated is ignorance. Ignoring its brutality does a disservice to our history and that man's legacy

bensmoif··on Lift4D: Harmonizing Single-View 3D Estimation for 4D Reconstruction In-the-Wild
Really interesting, and a link to your GitHub with a "code coming soon". Please get us the tool already!
bensmoif··on Building a CLI for All of Cloudflare
Oh yes to this! I spent yesterday morning working this out when it smacked me in the face
bensmoif··on If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?
The tax is his shares, those shares become public assets, the government and (ostensibly) the citizens finally get a say in what the hell is happening with that guy.
bensmoif··on If AI replaces workers, should it also pay taxes?
The solution is obvious and simple: Tax wealth not work.
bensmoif··on Ask HN: Hearing aid wearers, what's hot?
Following... My audiologist had the big talk with me last week and I guess I'm due to take care of my hearing...
bensmoif··on Show HN: Rebels in the sky – Terminal game about space pirates
Please tell a story about the music ya'll chose for this, it's incredible.
bensmoif··on Why use metaphors in conflicts? Because understanding is remembering in disguise (2009)
Am I going to be the first to bring up "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra"?
bensmoif··on Strandbeest
Bought one of these miniature kits years ago and kept it on my desk at work and goddamn is it cool and fun and works great! Really encourage any model machine nerds to get one.
bensmoif··on Ties between Google's Project Nimbus and Israel's military
Many people believe what you're describing is the problem.
bensmoif··on Ties between Google's Project Nimbus and Israel's military
Everyone who cares about the use of technology to conduct warfare, especially the corporate power leveraged to enhance the killing power of the state.
bensmoif··on Show HN: Drop-in SQS replacement based on SQLite
This is an absolutely unhinged project idea. Great work