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sevenfive

143 karma · joined December 24, 2012

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sevenfive··on ‘Testilying’ by Police: A Stubborn Problem
> I recorded an agent of the court committing perjury.

When is perjury not transcribed anyway?

sevenfive··on Low-level lead exposure and mortality in US adults
This "extremely small" argument falls flat, as is well known, pre-industrial levels were < 0.05 ug/dl. That said, I agree the result is suspiciously strong.
sevenfive··on Mike Pompeo: “Edward Snowden should be given a death sentence” (2016)
Source?
sevenfive··on Stephen Hawking has died
It's called being colloquial, jeez
sevenfive··on Stephen Hawking has died
At 76, I think it's fair to say he just died.

I actually had no idea he was that old. Maybe he looked younger than he was because he had no wrinkles.

sevenfive··on Bitcoin 'Misery Index'
What is technical analysis doing on HN?
sevenfive··on Sleeping in rooms with even a little light can increase risk of depression
Uhhh, are you sure about that? My ten dollar sleep mask from walgreen doesn't touch my eyes, I don't think it even touches my lashes. Meanwhile every mask I've tried buying online has fit terribly.
sevenfive··on The antidepressant effect of sleep deprivation
In retrospect, I've been leveraging this effect constantly since early high school. I suspect this explains many people's poor sleep habits. Anyone else?
sevenfive··on Show HN: Social Hyper Growth – Grow Your Twitter Audience Without Effort
No thanks.
sevenfive··on Brain tissue samples suggest we stop growing new neurons in our early teens
Not my observations, observational studies.

Regardless of the exact reasons why plasticity declines with age, it's obvious that any fix is a long way off. I wouldn't take this news as positive, rather negative, actually, since it just means we have yet more work to do

Like, instead of saying "I always lamented the idea that as we grew older we generated less and less neurons" the GP can now say "I always lamented the idea that [other unknown mechanism behind declining plasticity]". Hardly good news.

sevenfive··on Brain tissue samples suggest we stop growing new neurons in our early teens
I mean, we already know the differences between 20- and 30- year olds from simple observation. So it's not really positive or negative.
sevenfive··on Days Since a Cryptocurrency Exchange Has Lost More Than $100M
The difference is when you call something a "red herring" you also point out why. Or if you invoke "occam's razor" you simultaneously propose a simpler explanation. Whereas Hanlon's razor comments like the one above literally do nothing except say "Hanlon."

Anyway, I don't think me and GP are alone in being irrationally annoyed by this cliche.

sevenfive··on Days Since a Cryptocurrency Exchange Has Lost More Than $100M
I don't understand why people make these Hanlon's razor comments. This doesn't put forth any argument or new information, it just mentions the name Hanlon. As if the fact a pithy saying exists gives it authority in itself. Maybe we should start reminding people to consider Nolnah's razor as well.
sevenfive··on Japanese 'Prince' Switched at Birth Was Raised a Pauper
But where do intrinsic merits come from? Prenatal nutrition, genetics, role models who taught you "critical thinking" and good character? It's not controversial so much as incoherent.
sevenfive··on After Florida School Shooting, Russian ‘Bot’ Army Pounced
I still fear the potential censorship response to these russian bots a lot more than the bots themselves. After a few more years of these articles, who knows what people will sign off on?
sevenfive··on Visa confirms Coinbase wasn’t at fault for overcharging users
This is why I hate Hanlon's razor. It's a totally generic catchphrase that people on HN just keep repeating. It's not an argument.
sevenfive··on Visa confirms Coinbase wasn’t at fault for overcharging users
It's just a 100% empty comment. Literally every time something like this comes up, someone has to pipe up, "Hanlon's razor!" without any reference to actual details of the situation. Like, you are not smarter for knowing the phrase "Hanlon's razor," Hanlon's razor is not some deep piece of wisdom about the world, its literally just a catchphrase that takes 0 brainpower to repeat.

Sorry, kind of a pet peeve of mine.

sevenfive··on Why Were Early Psychedelicists so Weird?
OP forgets that Kary Mullis did most of his acid binging in the 70's and invented PCR in the 80's. So even if it did turn him into a crackpot, it didn't prevent him from doing useful work.
sevenfive··on Democracy Index 2016
It's like Moody's. More political than educational. Downgrading the US may be fair, but the main purpose it serves is driving clicks. More to the point, the fact they downgraded the US shouldn't tell the average HN reader anything they don't already know. Contrast to say, S&P.

Edit: By the way, look at the way the top of the "Flawed Democracies" cluster under 8.00! I can totally believe some tweaking went on here.

sevenfive··on Democracy Index 2016
Typical Economist analysis. Quite accurate and perceptive -- at predicting and evaluating things which have already happened.

Also, seems to be paywalled.

sevenfive··on The diabolical genius of the baby advice industry
> special vitamins during pregnancy to hypoallergenic formula

This is dangerous misinformation. Nutrition during pregnancy is quite important and worth getting right.

sevenfive··on Lessons from Optics, the Other Deep Learning
Curious, can you link the paper?
sevenfive··on 'Sinking' Pacific nation is getting bigger: study
> Any contiguous fluid surrounding a solid body will form a sphere around the system's center of gravity.

Did you just disprove tides?

sevenfive··on Spider-Like Creature with a Scorpion’s Tail Found Trapped in Amber
Maybe.. radial lines with sharp angles? Whatever it is, it has to be a fairly simple combination of geometric primitives.
sevenfive··on Spider-Like Creature with a Scorpion’s Tail Found Trapped in Amber
It's not hard to just guess. What is a spider? Radial lines that move.
sevenfive··on India's farmed chickens dosed with world's strongest antibiotics, study finds
Thanks for linking me to an article about Supply and Demand. I hadn't thought about that. You are still wrong.

The problem is that factory farmed animals usually eat grain which could be used to feed humans. Even if only 10% of their feed is suitable for human consumption, it's still a net loss of food, because meat is an extremely inefficient source of calories.

sevenfive··on India's farmed chickens dosed with world's strongest antibiotics, study finds
So what is the trolley problem? People who are starving don't buy meat.
sevenfive··on How does ‘class-passing’ actually work?
I must live around weirdos. One person pays, and someone else always objects.
sevenfive··on Why Did a Billionaire Give $75M to a Philosophy Department?
This is such a lame argument. Nobody is going to cure cancer or build a better tokamak because they attended a fancy wood-paneled lecture on God at Johns Hopkins.
sevenfive··on Why Did a Billionaire Give $75M to a Philosophy Department?
Interesting to read all the responses in this thread observing incidental correlations between intellectual or practical accomplishments and philosophy. Famous scientists are sometimes interested in philosophy, philosophy majors score high on the GRE, etc.

It does not follow at all that studying philosophy helped cause those accomplishments.

The situation is similar to brain training games like Lumosity. They do not make you smarter in general, just better at that particular game. People who are already smart will do better.

Personally, my argument for philosophy is that I enjoy it.

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