Hacker News Reader

halsperoon Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

Well, certainty isn't available whatever the facts! So it's not relevant here.

There's no contradiction between fallibilism and asserting that some scientific explanation is true. This study doesn't assert anything apart from an 'association'. Yet progress is made by addressing theoretical problems, not by looking for assocations, which are everywhere.

As for 'propaganda' I think you've got it the wrong way around. It's the people who applaud this kind of non-result who are seeking a kind of uncritical 'Yay Science' experience.

halsperoon Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

No no. That's only a 'possible' explanation. In articles such as these you'll find plenty of 'may'-s, 'might'-s, 'can'-s and 'further research'-s.

The vagueness and intellectual cowardice are exasperating. Don't be afraid to call it out when correlations are two-a-penny and funding is at stake. There are problems crying out for research.

halsperoon Study finds association between eating hot peppers and decreased mortality

Will I live longer, or not? Are hot peppers good for my health, or not? Is the mechanism known, or not? Are they recommended by experts, or not?

halsperoon Regaining control of your attention

Hear. Hear. Such habits are only bad if they are used as a means to avoid important problems. Attend to those problems! Then the habit will continue or die away according to its merits.

halsperoon A large asteroid recently flew close to Earth

Here is James Burke on this topic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeROEoimj7I

And here's Primitive Technology man:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAL3JXZSzSm8AlZyD3nQdBA

(Should we leave his videos lying around on clockwork tablets?)

halsperoon Poet: I can’t answer questions on Texas standardized tests about my own poems

"I know it with I see it". Yes indeed. One has to interact with a person to know that he knows stuff.

halsperoon A large asteroid recently flew close to Earth

There are whoppers out there capable of resetting civilisation. Do we have to have a small city destroyed before we design and build the technology to avert all future impacts?

halsperoon Poet: I can’t answer questions on Texas standardized tests about my own poems

Well physical quantities like length, time can be measured. Also fungible goods like wheat, oil. But knowledge is differentiated, non-homogenous and subject-specific. So it isn't measurable. Memorised facts like spellings, historical dates and common types of exam questions can be counted but these aren't useful in themselves. Knowledge is information that can do things.

halsperoon Poet: I can’t answer questions on Texas standardized tests about my own poems

Problem is that knowledge can't be measured because it's not a list of contents that can be checked off. Deep knowledge in one area is by its nature integrated with other areas. Thus exams and testing make as much sense as ranking authors by spelling bee.

halsperoon Isaac Asimov Asks, “How Do People Get New Ideas?” (1959)

Agreed. The process is spontaneous and natural. But it can be and usually is damaged, that is confined to smaller and smaller areas of one's life or worldview.

halsperoon Richard Feynman Put Himself on the FBI’s Do Not Call List

Check out the FBI file:

https://www.muckrock.com/foi/united-states-of-america-10/fbi...

The sheer amount of black ink, rubric, marginalia, stampage, redaction, etc, is a reminder of how deeply dysfunctional (and even hellish) bureaucracies can be. It may not have been possible for the FBI to stop investigating Feynman without orders from the top.

halsperoon Long-term stress erodes memory

Presumably this happens because the stressful situation or memory repeatedly activates the attention system thereby priming it towards the stressor and making it hard to address any other memory.