Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 231 posts

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#121

Post by ant_li0n »

honkdaddy wrote: post #116
pasabagi wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there are two points: first, 'all lives matter' is a typical dog whistle for a lot of people who are racist , even if you are not. If you're going to argue that line, you have to try and put some clear water between you and them. The second point is that, in an unjust society, not accounting for the effects of that injustice on people (say candidates for a job position) compounds that injustice. So like, if y…

I feel like this is a classic case of American exceptionalisms. Americans have an absolutely bonkers relationship with race and often assume that other Westerners around the world feel the same way. The _only_ reason the phrase "All Lives Matter" has any remotely political juice to it is because of the riots that occurred in America two years ago; the phrase itself is entirely innocuous and is really something most r…

I'm pretty ignorant of this, but was the phrase "All Lives Matter" really out and about in normal use for a long time? Or did it rise in popular use after "Black Lives Matter"?

If it's the first one, yeah I agree w/you. If it's the second, well...

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#122

Post by giantg2 »

pasabagi wrote: post #68
neonsunset wrote: post #51

Reality check I got after being accused of having anti-minority opinion while arguing for protection of all categories of people, just without double standards and without giving priority to some over others. This got me instantly banned from a community I had professional interest and participation in, which made me realize the damaging effects of culture wars that are about to get worse for major corporations. With…

I think there are two points: first, 'all lives matter' is a typical dog whistle for a lot of people who are racist , even if you are not. If you're going to argue that line, you have to try and put some clear water between you and them. The second point is that, in an unjust society, not accounting for the effects of that injustice on people (say candidates for a job position) compounds that injustice. So like, if y…

I think it's important to separate the ideas/words/meaning of "X lives matter" from the political movements that underlying them.

"So like, if you were an employer in post-abolition America, and you refused to employ ex-slaves because they had no history of employment, on the one hand, it's formally fair, because that's a criterion you can apply to all applicants. It is still, however, materially discriminatory. That's the observation at the root of a lot of affirmative action stuff."

I think we're so far removed from that, that it isn't straightforward anymore. We're seeing discrimination against certain minority groups simply because they're overrepresented in some areas (look at the recent issue/cases regarding Asians and education). It's one thing if we're making exceptions for disadvantaged people (ethnicity alone is not an indicator for this) that corrects and injustice, but it's something completely different when we are using blanket policies that aren't actually fixing anything and might actually cause more issues in the future.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#123

Post by mark_l_watson »

ctack wrote: post #94
fractallyte wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is really interesting... Are you able to describe more without undue distress?

Can do - part of the treatment is more or less about relating to the traumatic event(s) in a healthier way. It stemmed from seeing comments here about a book called 'The Body Keeps the Score' reading the book and subsequently self identifying as suffering from trauma. So I sought out an EMDR qualified psychologist in the city and started seeing them. It's been just over a year now. Benefits so far have included an in…

Wonderful, thanks for sharing that. I had a traumatic experience about 50 years ago that didn’t affect my life much except for an occasional nightmare. I mentioned this to someone who is a psychologist and she mentioned EMDR. We had two sessions, and no more nightmares, and also I can think of that episode now with no anxiety. Wonderful tech.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#124

Post by yesenadam »

devkarga wrote: post #80

Trying to explore topics in arbitrary depth made me realize that I actually do not know anything. I know that I know nothing. - Socrates At some point, you need to be practical. Being overly philosophical robs your time. In an absolute sense, one can be argued not to "know" anything, except for the existence of one's own thoughts, as 17th-century philosopher John Locke pointed out. Even earlier, Descartes addressed w…

I said to the lecturer in epistemology class once "I don't know anything." He said "Don't you know your name?"

Every time I cross a busy road, I bet my life on my certainty that I know where the cars are, when I must walk to avoid them etc. There are many other things like that in life.

Also see Moore's "Here is one hand" argument.

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

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#126

Post by IYasha »

H8crilA wrote: post #87
dmos62 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The system could track an object the size of a soccer ball from a distance of 300 miles (480 km), and its mission was to monitor Soviet ballistic missile testing in the reentry phase Sounds pretty cool.

If you were to somehow point this radar back at the aircraft itself it would probably melt the airframe :)

And I wouldn't want to be that soccer ball either :) Radar-related stories from army service time are of the most frightening ones.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#127

Post by H8crilA »

IYasha wrote: post #126
H8crilA wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you were to somehow point this radar back at the aircraft itself it would probably melt the airframe :)

And I wouldn't want to be that soccer ball either :) Radar-related stories from army service time are of the most frightening ones.

Nah, at a distance things are quite alright. EM power decreases with the second power of distance. At shorter distances you really have to be careful! Fighter jets have 3 no-go zones: engine inlet, engine outlet, the radome.

It was a ridiculous system, though.

Re: Ask HN: What has melted your brain recently?

#129

Post by theandrewbailey »

binbag wrote: post #15
binbag wrote: post #5

The UK government

I find it a bit tragic that my comment is being downvoted. Maybe the downvoters think I should be relaxed about my government breaking national and international laws?

Perhaps you could elaborate on the specific laws being broken? HN is international, so not everyone knows about or is as focused on the issues you care about.
Post reply on HN