sporkologist

280 karma · joined December 4, 2011

sporkologist··on It’s impossible to see the world as it is, argues a neuroscientist [video]

We see things in the optimal way for us to navigate the world we evolved in. "As it is" has no meaning outside our perceptual affordances.

sporkologist··on Congressional Ignorance Leaves the U.S. Vulnerable to Cyberthreats

The Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes.

sporkologist··on US city rejects $5.3M ransom demand and restores encrypted files from backup

> simply lose that data

Maybe the worst use of "simply" ever.

sporkologist··on I find journaling indispensable

If you need hard core science proof that journaling is worth it, maybe go on to a different activity like mime or surfing that you'd like better. For me, it lets me be more objective about what I'm doing and helps organize things and sketch out new ideas. I've been journaling since the 70's so I'm a bit of an outlier.

sporkologist··on How to Teach an Iris Scanner That the Eye It’s Looking at Is Dead

IEEE lives up to its name

sporkologist··on Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers

Well duh, if they did then Bezos wouldn't have $zillions in the bank.

sporkologist··on Advances in NLP to better connect people

It started as a "Hot or Not" type co-ed rating app....

sporkologist··on What Happens to Spelling Bee Champions When They Grow Old?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilico...

It is a type of silicosis, and has been around since 1935.

sporkologist··on What Happens to Spelling Bee Champions When They Grow Old?

> nonsensical

What would you consider nonsensical jargon? Jargon is jargon because it makes sense to those in that particular profession (medicine in this instance) but not to those outside it. Jargon that doesn't make sense to those who are using it is just fiddle-faddle.

sporkologist··on What Happens to Spelling Bee Champions When They Grow Old?

I don't think they would start allowing the use of professional jargon as spelling words, such as pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. But I may be mistaken.

sporkologist··on 'Football pitch' of Amazon forest lost every minute

Ah yes, much better! Thanks, now I'm seeing the cheery upside of deforestation!

sporkologist··on Deadlines Are Killing Us, and Almost Everything Else I Know About Leadership

> we haven't mastered the art of teaching, except to those for whom it is superfluous

To put it another way...

We haven't mastered the art of teaching, except to those who have mastered the art of learning

sporkologist··on Most Published Research Findings Are False (2005)

You're conflating science publishing philosophy with standard software development?

sporkologist··on Analyzing the chords of 1300 popular songs for patterns

Hotel California seems like the coolest modern version of that chord sequence, in a minor key no less.

sporkologist··on Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal DNA

"An Amoeba Just Found an Entirely New Way to Solve a Classic Computing Problem"

https://www.sciencealert.com/an-amoeba-has-solved-an-exponen...

It's not quantum physics, so I'll settle for $100k

sporkologist··on On the rheology of cats (2014) [pdf]

I had long wondered about the feline anisotropy tensor, this makes it more formal.

sporkologist··on Across the West powerful firms are becoming even more powerful

> - Shutting down only Visa and Mastercard would disable the vast majority of credit cards.

Can you say "instant riot"

sporkologist··on Making rain simulation as real as possible

Is the thunder being generated? That's the most interesting part IMHO.

sporkologist··on Twitter’s deletion of its FB app caused old cross-posts to temporarily disappear

FTA:

"In theory, the API changes should only have prevented Twitter users from continuing to cross-post their tweets to Facebook automatically. It shouldn’t have also deleted the existing posts from Facebook users’ profiles and business users’ Facebook Pages."

oops

sporkologist··on Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior

The only context I've heard is "talking about someone / doing something behind their back." Yeah I suppose you can construct more meanings for it, as OP authors apparently wanted to do. And down the BS rabbit hole we go.

sporkologist··on Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior

"The hidden meaning transforms the abstract beauty."

Not BS! Take for instance, E=mc^2. Thought of as a beautiful equation by many in the sciences. But, one of the hidden meanings is you can make an atomic weapon using it, which transforms it to horror.

sporkologist··on Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior

I can set up positive or negative cases for each of these. I call bullshit. There are plenty of bullshit "profound" statements that abound in everyday culture ("Look before you leap" vs. "He who hesitates is lost".... which one is right? It depends!).

sporkologist··on Bullshit-sensitivity predicts prosocial behavior

Should have been "behind our eyes" i.e. ourselves. Behind our back is empty space with other people in it. Too ambiguous/poorly thought out.

sporkologist··on Ask HN: How to overcome fear of flying?

Also, landing on an aircraft carrier, flying the space shuttle, and piloting the SR71 are pretty dangerous. All of which have nothing to do with OP's flight anxiety.

sporkologist··on Show HN: Checklist of over 100 directories to submit your startup

One is spammy, the other isn't

sporkologist··on Thousands Say Kratom Cured Their Addiction, Government Says It’s Another Opioid

> They slap the same side effects on drugs of the same class

They spend billions on developing and promoting these, and they can't figure out the side effects for a specific drug? Maybe they should spend just a little bit more.

sporkologist··on First Report of Habitual Stone Tool Use by Cebus Monkeys

The plastic waste researchers may not be inclined to solving problems of space propulsion. Likewise, rocket scientists won't be pushing the field of plastic microbe decomposition or whatever. Luckily there are some of each here on the earth at the moment.

sporkologist··on Want to Understand What Ails the Modern Internet? Look at eBay

Some day in the far future, eBay will invent a technology that lets people embed Youtube videos in their listings. I'm not holding my breath though.

sporkologist··on Plastic Injection Molding (2015) [video]

Make sure you take care of patent issues first—if you're making something that someone else has patented, they can make you stop producing them and/or sue for legal fees. Consult with a patent atty. first if you haven't done so yet. Having said that, epoxy tooling is another lower-cost option besides aluminum.

sporkologist··on A Universal Law of Procrastination (2016)

I think mine's more like 1/r^2.

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