pmdulaney

Hardest for me is to not be able to scroll with j and k à la vim.

Is there a plan to have a Mac version?

This is a case of corporate-enforced, zero tolerance cancellation. The law should be changed so that companies need to show that real, actual harm was wrought by the relationship. It is akin to a CEO being caught on camera uttering the N-word.

I can't make sense of this other than to say that in some ineffable way it brings Gödel, Escher, Bach to mind.

Have you ever in your life met a man who was Joe Lastname VII, let alone Joe Lastname VIII?

Interactome: a riff on "microbiome"?

An argument from the lesser to the greater seems to apply here.

It seems every week there is a new study telling us how important the microbiome of the gut is for mental and physical health. What if the main benefit of eating minimally processed foods was that it did a better job of feeding the microbiome?

Well, that explains how mosquitoes are able to bite me before I even know they're there.

It's curious. Disdain of genius is a problem on the left, but disdain for expertise more generally is more of a problem on the right (e.g., the anti-vaxxer mentality).

When, a few days ago, there was an article in the NYT claiming that there has not been a significant increase in the incidence of autism, but rather just improved diagnosis in the medical community, I was quite skeptical. It just seemed not to jive with my lived experience.

On the other hand, I can easily believe that the perceived increase in natural disasters IS a consequence of improved reporting.

Wow. If you thought AI was a disaster waiting to happen, read this.

The author is basically saying that autism is mo more prevalent than it was, say, 50 years ago -- it's just that we've gotten better at recognizing it.

The conspiracy theory mentality would lead one to simply assert that he is wrong. I am not a conspiracy theorist. On the other hand I AM skeptical wrt the author's assertion. It is rare for the intuition of an intelligent layman to be so significantly wrong.

Unfortunately it's unlikely to work that way. For example, AI isn't going to give truckers a shorter workweek, it's going to eliminate their jobs altogether.

Even the longest journey begins with a single step.

Congratulations to our friends in Japan!

Perhaps. But America's obsession with promoting girls and the interests of girls is harmful to our boys. Let's not be picking winners amongst our own young people. Not based on race, not based on sex.

Most likely because of its connection with Columbia University, which Trump and the populist wing of the Republican party hate.

I voted for Trump and I can't say I regret it, but he sure has been a disappointment this time around. I fear that the populists are greatly influenced by envy, which is an unfortunate and unfruitful sensibility. Every young American should be raised to believe that there are many, many people in this country who are smarter and harder-working than he or she is. But you can aspire to be like them! And ascend to great heights, Lord willing. Envy is pathetic, envy is a symptom of giving up, envy is sin.

I'm not a big Sci-Fi fan, but I remember reading a Robert Heinlein novel back in the '70s in which he used the term "re-sleeving" for this.

See the second sentence of my post.

As someone fairly sensitive to diesel fumes, I have to switch off the AC in my car if I get stuck behind a diesel vehicle.

Corporate America is very similar in that regard. If the bosses like you, they will turn a blind eye to all sorts of things. But if they have it in for you, they WILL find a way of getting rid of you for cause.

This is a nice little article. The doula doesn't have any hidden agenda, and the regrets she identifies are entirely credible.

I would just posit this: If you have reached mature adulthood (not necessarily "old") and are someone who regularly sets aside time for a healthy kind of introspection, then the regrets you will have at the end of your life will be quite similar to the regrets you have now about how you are living your life.

Many years ago, during my lunch at work, I peeled an orange and was eating it. My office mate, who was from Puerto Rico, said I was eating my orange the way his grandmother did. People his age would cut off the end of an orange and just squeeze the juice into their mouth.

Yes, you're correct. The man is travelling 150 mph and the top of the tire 300 mph, so the delta is only 150 mph.

Not to be a kinematics nerd, but the top of that tire was going 300 mph

This would suggest that one get serious about dating sooner rather than later.

Yes, and the oasis was Noah's ark.

Two pertinent quotations:

"Criticism is asserted superiority." -- HENRY CARDINAL MANNING

"A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves." -- SIMONE WEIL

Thanks for the correction.

I just think our society is descending into ubiquitous poor taste fast enough without such words rattling around in our brains. But I'm old-fashioned; I had similar reactions to "The Dead Kennedys", "The Butthole Surfers", and "The Vagina Monologues".