589 karma · joined January 27, 2022
The crux of the article, emphasis mine. "If you spent your Wednesday absorbing thousands of posts on Bluesky—as I did, for whatever reason—it would be difficult to make an honest case that the platform’s users were celebrating en masse. There were indeed a lot of people doing that. Just not close to a majority, let alone 'every post.'"
In your comparison, neither the algae nor the polyps have the capacity to reason about or alter their arrangement.
In a fair deal, both parties must be able to reason about and/or withdraw from the arrangement.
If only one party is able to reason about and withdraw from an arrangement, the other party is being used.
In this case, bees are tools being used. I'm not willing to say that it's a great moral evil for that reason, but bees not only don't have the capacity to understand the arrangement, they will die trying to kill to defend their honey.
So my only appeal in this case is not to pretend that they choose.
Bees don't make more honey than they can use. They make what they can and have reserves for Winter and growing in the Spring. Do you pay your landlord everything you'd otherwise save?
I've never seen a bee colony "worry" about finding food. They'll travel within a one mile radius for foraging, and four to five miles for water. Colonies will also leave a hive, or swarm (split into 2 colonies) if there is not enough resources for them.
It's not a deal. They don't understand what's happening. If you're going to take their honey, at least don't make up some weird fantasy where they're happy about it.
Personally, I've largely replaced my car usage with walking and biking, installed insulation in uninsulated parts of my home, got more comfortable with less heating/cooling (sweaters and fans), and am planning to upgrade to a heat pump when the time comes.
It's good to live your values without falling into scrupulosity, both for yourself and others.
The literal next sentence after your quote:
"With Monday’s announcement universal child care will be extended to every family in the state, regardless of income. This amounts to an average annual family savings of $12,000 per child." (Emphasis mine.)
I hope the irony of lamenting that others didn't read the article isn't lost on you.
"North Korean hackers are sent vocationally to Shenyang, China for special training. They are trained to deploy malware of all types onto computers, computer networks, and servers."[3][4]
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koreans_in_China#North_Koreans...
2: https://web.archive.org/web/20090114201016/http://news.xinhu...
3: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Group#Education
4: https://web.archive.org/web/20180621134306/https://www.scmp....
I can't tell if Hacker News is less affected by this, or if it lends itself to parasocial relationships, but I've started to recognize a few other users who seem to frequently read and comment on the same topics that I do.
I don't think these will blossom into friendships, but many friendships of mine have started with frequenting the same location or event until you see who else is usually there, and then introducing yourself.
If this kind of comment-acquaintance is common on HN though, it probably comes back (as always) to the self-selecting user base, the text-only interface, and of course, the moderation. Because I certainly haven't experienced it on Reddit, Twitter, or Meta platforms.
The closest I could find by searching "federal reserve asks congress" was Fed Chair Jerome Powell asking Congress to clarify the legality of marijuana[1].
I think the Fed's independence cuts both ways. They don't negotiate on fiscal policy, and the government doesn't negotiate on monetary policy (except they absolutely try to, obviously).
1: https://apnews.com/article/business-jerome-powell-congress-d...
"[the homeowners] do fault their real-estate agent and [the seller], who signed a purchase-and-sale agreement, a copy of which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, stating that [the seller] did not know of any future public use of the land."
Should be pretty cut-and-dry, especially given the seller's statements earlier in the article.
"Louis Gallo, who sold the Hendels the vacant, 0.64-acre parcel of land for $165,000 in December 2023, said there is no way the couple didn’t know the bridge relocation was a possibility. 'They’ve been talking about this bridge for 40 years, at least,' said Louis, who lives across the street in a house that will also be taken by eminent domain."
So, Gallo's claiming everyone knew the bridge was coming. The buyers have a signed document stating that Gallo didn't know that. Gallo's claiming he never signed such a document.
They'll get something from the state for the house, and probably either a settlement or damages from Gallo, assuming the document isn't an elaborate hoax.
But frequently, those governments do not charge people who live in sparsely-populated areas enough to cover those increased costs.
For example, a mile of urban street/utilities might serve 40,000 people, while a mile of suburban street/utilities may serve 400.
There's a decent amount of writing and videos on the subject, both for[1] and against[2]. The "for" arguments have convinced me because they use data and are presented by experts in urban planning and government, while the "against" arguments rely on appealing to principles/emotion and are frequently presented by politicians who treat the suggestion as a cultural threat.
1: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2017/1/9/the-real-reason...
2: https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/do-cities-really-subsidiz...
As to the efficacy of the recommendation:
From The Verge's coverage[1]:
"The Environment Agency didn’t immediately respond to an inquiry from The Verge about how much water it thought deleting files might save, nor how much water data centers that store files or train AI use in the UK’s drought-affected areas."
And Tom's Hardware's[2]:
"Perhaps more pertinently, the advice rings hollow because it's likely not very sensible. While it's true that data centers do consume large amounts of water through evaporative cooling (where it's used), the vast majority of this power draw comes from CPU and GPU computation, not the storage of pictures and emails. Once the data is stored, the storage devices generate very little heat and are often spun down (placed into low- or no-power states) and called upon only when needed."
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thick_of_It
1: https://www.theverge.com/science/758275/drought-delete-files...
2: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/uk-government-ine...
There's no amount of money you can pay to make this behavior not shitty. Shitty behavior is never a good look, but sometimes it's understandable. If you refrain from being shitty, you won't have to worry about whether or not it's understandable.
Also, the only reason that someone can be shitty and get results is because other people aren't. (In this case, "submitting" a bug report via Twitter and still getting a resolution is possible because other people reported it through the proper channels.)
As for using social media to take issue reports: What will you do when you need PII or have to reassign the issue or reassign part of the issue and those people need to be able to contact the user?
"Why place the initial burden on a paying customer?" Because it creates a better service for everyone to have a known way of doing things.
(Breakdown by beneficiary country & program is at the bottom of the page.)
Some libraries offer non-resident library cards for a fee (e.g. $50 annually for the New Orleans Public Library).
Your library will also have a wide variety of other media in its catalog, like books, DVDs, Blu-Rays, CDs, video games, maybe even art. If they don't have a piece of physical media that you want, you can request it via interlibrary loan.
It's astounding how radical the public library system is, and it exists to solve the problem you've identified.
"There are multiple approaches to in-ovo sexing. One of the most prominent approaches uses advanced imaging to detect subtle optical differences between male and female embryos."
"Another widely adopted technique involves taking a small fluid sample from inside the egg to test for sex-specific hormones or genetic markers. Kipster’s eggs, launching later this year, will use a technology of this class employing PCR analysis to detect the sex chromosome, developed by the company Respeggt."
Not much of a moral victory for anyone, especially considering that the hens that get to live don't have good lives.
To paraphrase some ideas poorly:
> "LLMs can make difficult books accessible to more readers (like Cliff's Notes or Blinkist), BUT some books shouldn't be summarized because the difficulty is part of the importance."
> "An A.I. companion throughout life could be a powerful tool for reflection and memory, BUT my human wife and I (who are capable of love) fill this role for each other."
The author's a reader and writer, and I was initially grateful to see there wasn't pearl-clutching around the impending impact of Large Language Models on literacy. But then I felt like it should have been more of a call to action, either to reject or embrace AI. I wonder if this it the "acceptance" stage of grief for AI skeptics like myself.
Still, one doesn't have to look far to find talking heads who will happily tell you that some group of people has slighted you and that you need to respond (by voting for [X]). So even if vengefulness is helpful, and even if forgiveness is the answer for unhelpful vengefulness, is there any way to keep it from being hijacked at scale?
Is it religion?
Ideally, the lower house are representatives elected from the common people, and the upper house are the career politicians that understand how the government works.
In the U.S., the 17th amendment[2] changed that, for better or worse (probably both).
1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicameralism 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_U...
"Life insurers can predict when you'll die with about 98% accuracy."
"98%" appears in the citation[1], but as the ratio of actual deaths to expected deaths. (i.e. 98% of the deaths they expected actually occurred.) Some months that figure was ~104%, so it's not a measure of accuracy.
1: https://www.soa.org/4aa060/globalassets/assets/files/resourc...
Proponents of the Land Value Tax, but not as a single tax would probably be more mixed.
Restructuring of the economy isn't a hidden part of the Land Value Tax, it's the point.
The median new home size skyrocketed in the '80s.[1]
Many of the post-war suburbs were planned communities built with schools, churches, grocery stores, and other necessities within walking distance.[2] Compare that to developments today (and since the '90s), that are all housing, lack sidewalks, and require a car to get to necessities.
Serendipity doesn't happen when everyone's in cars. You don't pull over to invite an acquaintance over for a beer or offer to watch their kids.
1: https://www.bankrate.com/real-estate/average-home-size/#smal...
2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levitt_%26_Sons#Construction_o...