nsoonhui

This is an astonishing revisionist take on the reality on the ground.

Israel unilaterally disengaged from GAZA in 2005 and pulling out generations of Jewish settlement in the process. By 2006 GAZA has zero Jews, and 2007 Gazans elected HAMAS who fired rockets at Israel because they want to free Palestine from the river to the sea, AKA eliminate Israel. October 7 attack is a culmination of that, and between then and now, HAMAS didn't forget to build their military base in the mix of civilians and using civilian targets as shield. So that they can blame Israel for every single Palestinians death, including the death cause by their own firing.

The situation in west Bank is qualitatively the same.

No, protecting your people from terrorist is not apartheid, and Israel has no interest to build iron beam and/or build wall--which the west misinterprete as apartheid-- if the neighbors had no intention to eliminate them.

Thanks for the comment that exposes the nuances. As a non physicist who is interested in physics, I would say that the predicament is that we simply don't have enough data to tell how to improve our physics theory, but we have too many physicist working in the field, so ideas just get staled.

Is that a correct assessment?

But software engineering problems are more fuzzy and less amendable to mathematical analysis, so exactly how can those AI policies developed for math be applied to software engineering problems?

A Civil 3D plugin (Genabler) that will include all the network catalogs and collate the Civil 3D styles for civil engineers to use. There are some out-of-the-box catalogs and styles shipped with the default installation, but they are quite limited and fairly well hidden—which is not surprising, given that Civil 3D is a huge beast. As a result, they are not commonly used. When people think about Civil 3D, they often assume it requires BIM modelers (in a sense, just glorified drafters) to create all the necessary catalogs and styles, and to assist with their use.

My Civil 3D plugin will:

1. Make standard, market-compliant catalogs and polished styles available to engineers at large. Think of it as the WordPress theme provider equivalent.

2. Make the entire process easy and painless through the plugin, with prominent buttons for quick access.

If the plugin is done well, there will be less need for BIM modelers, since for a fee, engineers could simply purchase catalogs and styles that are so easy to use they require no technical training.

As a side benefit, I also get to explore how LLMs can help me write code. It has been a while since I last updated my AI usage policy [0], and I look forward to revisiting it.

[0]: https://civilwhiz.com/my-ai-usage-policy/

I think the fact that DeepSeek trains on competitor queries (i.e., distillation) — along with using banned Nvidia chips — helps explain how it can achieve such low training costs (USD 6 million vs. billions) while delivering only slightly worse performance than its American counterparts. It also undermines the narrative that DeepSeek or China is posing a serious challenge to the U.S. lead in AI. The gap may be closing, but the initial reactions now seem knee-jerk.

That the discussion has being hijacked and shifted to moral superiority is really unfortunate, because that was never the point in the first place.

A lot of people attack US for banning the chip sale to China, but the reality is that the ban is two way. Not only US bans advanced chips, China also severely limits US chips in the hopes that it can spur the homegrown ones. In fact, the first sentence says it much

  Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek has relied on Nvidia Corp. chips that are banned in the country

See also below:

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/nvidia-shares-gain-trump...

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-bans-foreign-ai-ch...

Speaking about blogging, for those who run on WordPress at least, do you get lots of bot traffic from China and Singapore recently? They usually appear in pair. (https://support.google.com/analytics/thread/378622882/google...)

I have two niche blogs( civilwhiz.com and mes100.com). Those bot traffics increase my visitor count in Google analytics by more than 100%. It's super annoying when the analytics are distorted by bots traffic.

One thing I’m curious about is this: Ilya Sutskever wants to build Safe Superintelligence, but he keeps his company and research very secretive.

Given that building Safe Superintelligence is extraordinarily difficult — and no single person’s ideas or talents could ever be enough — how does secrecy serve that goal?

Doesn't make sense to me, if the manager is promoted, wouldn't he want to bring good talents along, so that they can help him to promote further?

I want to be proven wrong, but I feel that demographic collapse is the single biggest crisis facing the developed world today. In this regard, the US is actually doing better than East Asian countries and Europe, but the trend is unmistakable — modern, affluent states are committing voluntary suicide because their citizens are simply not willing to have children.

Generally, populations with higher birth rates come from poorer countries or communities with lower living standards. Israel is the only major exception, but once you analyze the social strata it becomes clear why: higher-income groups still have lower fertility than the religious ones (especially the ultra-Orthodox and Arab Muslims) by a wide margin, even though the higher-income groups still have higher birth rates than other OECD countries. This creates long-term strains on society.

Another interesting fact is that groups with higher socioeconomic status (SES) tend to have lower birth rates. If SES correlates with IQ, then there’s an uncomfortable but politically incorrect implication: the smarter groups are having fewer children, while the less advantaged groups are having more. A few generations later, it’s not hard to see where this leads — human intelligence may trend downward. That is simply evolution at work.

Climate change, wars, pandemics, and natural disasters won’t wipe out humanity; we’ve survived all of those and recovered. But demographic collapse driven by high living standards is new territory, and I am genuinely, deeply worried.

China is now encouraging higher birth rates after many years of the one-child policy. But the general consensus is that it hasn’t been very successful, even with the CCP’s authoritarian power. The causes are multi-dimensional and difficult to solve: high living costs, changing social values, and younger generations who no longer want to marry young—or marry at all.

Even North Korea has to encourage women to give birth[0]; the Kim dynasty can’t simply issue an order and shoot anyone who disobeys. It simply doesn’t work that way.

[0]: https://www.voanews.com/a/north-korea-s-kim-calls-for-women-...

A Civil 3D plugin (Genabler) that will include all the network catalogs and collate the Civil 3D styles for civil engineers to use. There are some out-of-the-box catalogs and styles shipped with the default installation, but they are quite limited and fairly well hidden—which is not surprising, given that Civil 3D is a huge beast. As a result, they are not commonly used.

When people think about Civil 3D, they often assume it requires BIM modelers (in a sense, just glorified drafters) to create all the necessary catalogs and styles, and to assist with their use.

My Civil 3D plugin will:

1. Make standard, market-compliant catalogs and polished styles available to engineers at large. Think of it as the WordPress theme provider equivalent.

2. Make the entire process easy and painless through the plugin, with prominent buttons for quick access.

If the plugin is done well, there will be less need for BIM modelers, since for a fee, engineers could simply purchase catalogs and styles that are so easy to use they require no technical training.

As a side benefit, I also get to explore how LLMs can help me write code. It has been a while since I last updated my AI usage policy [0], and I look forward to revisiting it.

[0]: https://civilwhiz.com/my-ai-usage-policy/

It's a shame that the top comments are focusing more on Elon Musk, his personality and politics rather than the quality of the model per se.

Speaking about Elon, regardless of what you think of him, he really does get things done, despite naysayers -- SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and even get Trump elected ( despite subsequent fallout) etc. Even Twitter is finding a second life by becoming a haven for the free speech advocates and alternative views, much to the chagrin of MSMs because they now no longer have the monopoly on the "truth", and censoring "fake news" becomes hard.

People like Elon are almost by definition contrarian ( you don't change the world by being a conformist), that should align well with the predilection of the intended audience here. So it's a surprise to me that HNs are almost uniformly, vehemently anti-Musk. It's almost as if the ultimate embodiment of the hacker spirit -- Musk -- is being rejected by his own kind, the very kind that he is supposed to inspire.

I am not sure will all culture remain immune to the "curse" of modern comfortable lives that lead to low birthrates. This remains unproven.

And based on current trend it seems that it's the most religious group ( Islamists, Orthodox Jews) who props up the birthrates. But they are also economically most unproductive and most anti-science ones, so I really unsure where this will lead us.

I feel that demographic collapse is the single biggest crisis facing the developed world now. In this regard US is actually doing better than East Asia countries and Europe, but still, the trend is unmistakable -- modern, affluent states are commiting voluntarily suicide because their citizens are not too willing in giving birth.

All the climate change problems, wars, pandemics and natural disasters won't devastate human simply because we been through all those and we recovered. But demographic collapse because of high living standard? It's uncharted territory here and I am really, really worry.

>> If the LLM fucks up, that branch is cut.

Can you explain more on this? How on earth are we supposed to know LLM is hallucinating?

New York is always deep blue, so what is the significance of a Democrat winning this time?

What is perhaps more telling is that the Democrats are putting up such a far-left candidate to the extent that even Obama can't endorse Zohran Mamdani's self-described 'democratic socialist' platform.

Much has been said about China’s influence on Western universities, yet Qatar’s footprint in the American higher-education system[0] should not be ignored. It is one of the five largest donors to American colleges and universities, surpassing deep-pocketed contributors such as China and Saudi Arabia[1]. Even the president of the Brookings Institution resigned amid an FBI probe into Qatar-linked lobbying[2].

Consequently, when someone attempts to publish material about Qatar, particularly regarding its role in financing Hamas, they often hit a wall. As one case illustrates, “the editorial team has an issue with the fact that they have an upcoming partnership in December with Qatar. One of the directors flagged it as problematic and felt it might put them in a delicate position, so they prefer to run another piece with a lighter touch on the subject. Sorry.”[3]

Coming from a developing country where Islamists and anti-Western propaganda are pervasive, it is surreal to witness Western institutions falling, one by one, under the influence of autocratic and religiously extremist governments. This is where Western civilization appears to be declining: not because of “America First” politics, but because of low birth rates and an education system increasingly shaped by cash-rich foreign actors whose values diverge sharply from Western liberal principles.

[0]: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/04/02/qatars-footprint-in-...

[1]: https://quincyinst.org/research/soft-power-hard-influence-ho...

[2]: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/brookings-president-res...

[3]: https://quillette.com/2025/10/31/the-qatar-problem-hamas-isr...

Not sure why you are being downvoted, but you are exactly right.

The October 7 massacre passed with barely any notice in much of the Western world. Yet the moment Israel responded to recover the hostages—if not earlier—there were already demonstrations everywhere against so-called Israeli “atrocities.” It appears the world only pays attention when Jews are involved.

An estimated 500,000 children have died from malnutrition alone since the Sudan conflict began in 2023[0]. Do you see people in Paris, Washington, or New York demanding an end to that conflict? We have not even accounted for deaths caused directly by the fighting.

Even with regard to the war in Gaza, Hamas’ use of human shields[1] has resulted in significant civilian casualties, yet all condemnation is directed at the IDF, which attempts to avoid civilian deaths, including by dropping leaflets before airstrikes[2]. No one seems to care that Hamas—the elected government of Gaza—is deliberately placing civilians in harm’s way in a war it initiated. Instead, the criticism overwhelmingly targets Israel for civilian deaths caused by Hamas’ human-shield strategy.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famine_in_Sudan_(2024%E2%80%93...

[1]: https://stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfiles/hamas_human_shields....

[2]: https://edition.cnn.com/2023/11/16/middleeast/israel-leaflet...

I would argue that the 2005 Israeli unilateral withdrawal from Gaza created the vacuum that allowed Hamas to grow. Palestinians and Hamas interpreted that withdrawal as a validation of their resistance strategy [0]—including suicide bombings—and it boosted their confidence in the goal of liberating all of Palestine “from the river to the sea,” which effectively means the elimination of Israel.

So no, what really happened was precisely the opposite of “eliminating all other avenues of Palestinian political expression.”

0: https://besacenter.org/gaza-disengagement-lessons/

The first question that should be asked is this: if there is indeed so much suffering in Gaza, why is no one pressuring Hamas to end the war by accepting Donald Trump’s peace plan? The war could have been over by now if Hamas had surrendered, yet this point is rarely mentioned. Why is that?

Instead, many—including major Western media outlets—repeat Hamas’ narrative: that Israel is responsible for the killing (while Hamas has been accused of using human shields [0]) and that Israel prevents the UN from distributing aid (even though the UN is said to be heavily infiltrated by Hamas [1], and the GHF was established to restrict Hamas’ access to food supplies and prevent profiteering through resale [2]).

Furthermore, if starvation in Gaza is a pressing reality, why does the UN refuse to distribute food directly [4]? In fact, the claim that there is a famine going on just doesn't match the numbers [5], and UN-linked IPC finds no mortality data to prove famine is present, despite their very intention of proving so [6], and media was found to misrepresent the situation on the ground [7]

Finally, little attention is given to Egypt’s role in maintaining the blockade of Gaza, which also contributes to "famine". Egypt does not allow Gazans—who are described by some as facing genocide—to cross its border to escape [3]. It often seems as though those who argue that starvation is being deliberately inflicted prefer to keep the situation unchanged, only to place the blame on Israel.

0: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/11/01/hamas-officials-admi...

1: https://govextra.gov.il/unrwa/unrwa/

2: https://www.aipac.org/resources/gaza-aid

3: https://theconversation.com/why-egypt-refuses-to-open-its-bo...

4: https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2025/07/24/un-refuses-to-cooper...

5: https://x.com/Aizenberg55/status/1966495888051761582

6: https://www.timesofisrael.com/key-food-security-org-finds-no...

7: https://honestreporting.com/famine-standard-was-lowered-for-...

A Civil 3D plugin (Genabler) that will include all the network catalogs and collate the Civil 3D styles for civil engineers to use.

There are some out-of-the-box catalogs and styles shipped with the default installation, but they are quite limited and fairly well hidden—which is not surprising, given that Civil 3D is a huge beast. As a result, they are not commonly used.

When people think about Civil 3D, they often assume it requires BIM modelers (in a sense, just glorified drafters) to create all the necessary catalogs and styles, and to assist with their use.

My Civil 3D plugin will:

1. Make standard, market-compliant catalogs and polished styles available to engineers at large. Think of it as the WordPress theme provider equivalent.

2. Make the entire process easy and painless through the plugin, with prominent buttons for quick access.

If the plugin is done well, there will be less need for BIM modelers, since for a fee, engineers could simply purchase catalogs and styles that are so easy to use they require no technical training.

As a side benefit, I also get to explore how LLMs can help me write code. It has been a while since I last updated my AI usage policy [0], and I look forward to revisiting it.

[0]: https://civilwhiz.com/my-ai-usage-policy/

>> The only reason for Google to be backpedaling on its pledge is political. It's in a backsliding petrostate and it has to play the political game.

What evidence you have to justify your accusation?

From another poster here

  Now, in their 2025 Environmental Report at https://sustainability.google/reports/google-2025-environmen...:

  "We aim to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where we operate by 2030." and "We aim to reduce absolute, combined scope 1, 2 (market-based), and 3 emissions by 50% from a 2019 base year by 2030." (They also restate the thing about "to neutralize our remaining emissions" a bit later in the document.)

So I would say you need to backup your claim _really_ well instead of just interpreting things in the worst way possible according to your imagination.

Another component of this theory concerning g is that it's largely genetic, and immune to "intervention" AKA stability as you mentioned. See the classic "The Bell Curve" for a full exposition.

Which makes me wonder what's the point of all the intervention in the form of teaching/parenting styles and whatnot, if g factor is nature and immutable by large? What's the logic of the educators here?

civilwhiz.com – A website dedicated to sharing knowledge about Autodesk Civil 3D. It’s all about old-fashioned knowledge sharing through blog posts, with absolutely no coding (on my part). I host it via WordPress and use some plugins to make it work.

Unlike most Civil 3D portals out there, this site provides deeper explanations of Civil 3D’s inner workings and very few (currently zero) video tutorials. That’s because I believe video tutorials are already widely available elsewhere.

I originally set up this website to teach myself Civil 3D. Along the way, I decided to "open-source" my learning process so others could benefit as well.

But why is this surprising at all? Self-taught engineers most likely than not have the intrinsic motivation that CS graduates lack, who got into the field because of peer pressure or money.

And the raw talent too, that someone can master multiple disciplines is a sign of intellectual dexterity. Not too say CS graduates are not talented but self taught ones master more cognitive fields, which aid in their programming tasks because programming is a cognitively demanding job.

He joined last year May and left recently. About one year of stay.

I wonder one year is enough time for programmers to understand codebase, let alone meaningfully contributing patches? But then we see that job hopping is increasing common, which results in the drop in product qualities. I wonder what values are the job hoppers adding to the company.

A lot of scientists dabbled into pseudoscience but that doesn't invalidate their scientific accomplishment, and their scientific achievement doesn't validate their pseudoscientific pursuit

The science as we know it is pretty well defined. Involving generating precise hypothesis, doing double blind experiments, evaluating results and making predictions, submitting to peer review for result reproduction.

But TCM would have none of these, so no, it's not "due to bias".