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A List of Open Questions

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Re: A List of Open Questions

#41

Post by stephen_g »

rprenger wrote: post #36
vidanay wrote: post #2

"Why do so few people in the United States exercise their right and privilege to vote?"

The more interesting question from an economics point of view is why does anyone bother voting. Since races almost never come down to one vote, your vote almost certainly doesn't matter. Nevermind the fact that more people voted for democrats for the senate and the presidency and still lost both. The latest theory I've heard for why people vote is that being seen as a team player has social value. https://eml.berkele…

This kind of thing pops up in all sorts of different areas in any large society. There are plenty of things that don't make much difference if a few people do them, but make all the difference if a lot of people do or don't.

But in my area at least, votes do occasionally come down to a couple of dozen votes. I'm not in the US though and we don't really have gerrymandering, nor do we have anyone trying to disenfranchise on racial or class grounds - (in fact, here voting is compulsory!).

Re: A List of Open Questions

#42

Post by thaumasiotes »

ALittleLight wrote: post #38
thaumasiotes wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By definition, an unrestricted one-on-one fight is more likely than a specific subset of one-on-one fights, since the first possibility includes the second. But neither is likely at all. Also unlikely: picking a fight with someone who weighs about the same amount you do.

I don't think your logic follows. Unrestricted fights and restricted fights are both subsets of the set of fights, but restricted fights aren't a subset of unrestricted fights. By definition, unrestricted fights are distinct from restricted fights. Either way, I regret pursuing this topic and won't comment on it further since I feel this is a discussion not worth having, reading, or writing. I don't write that to be…

I expressed myself poorly. The unrestricted class "one-on-one fights" includes the restricted class "one-on-one fights where both parties agree not to wrestle".

Re: A List of Open Questions

#43

Post by sverige »

craftyguy wrote: post #4
vidanay wrote: post #2

"Why do so few people in the United States exercise their right and privilege to vote?"

"Why does nearly every political race for office in the United States come down to only two choices: turd sandwich or giant douche?"

This one is actually easy: Those are the personality types who are drawn to running for office.

Re: A List of Open Questions

#44

Post by hazz99 »

craftyguy wrote: post #7

> Why do humans, pets, and even lab animals of many species kept in controlled lab conditions on standardized diets appear to be increasingly obese over the 20th century? What could possibly explain all of them simultaneously becoming obese? Because diet is only part of the equation. The other major factor being exercise/physical activity (and probably some genetics). If you eat 'well' but sit at a desk all day, calo…

> If you eat 'well' but sit at a desk all day, calories in != calories out and you'll probably gain weight.

How can this be true? Energy cannot be created - it has to come from somewhere.

Re: A List of Open Questions

#45

Post by nafey »

cetico wrote: post #40
alasdair_ wrote: post #33

>Why did it take until the late 20th century for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to develop and the Gracie family crush almost all other unarmed martial arts at the start of MMA, when humans have engaged in unarmed combat for millions of years and every major country has long lineages of specialized competitive martial arts and tremendous incentive to find martial arts which worked and quick feedback loops? I suspect the most ob…

MMA is new, historically speaking. BJJ is the best fighting style that fits the rules of MMA. Change the rules a bit and a different style will work better.

Whats the minimal change in the rules that will bring a striking based martial art to the top?

Re: A List of Open Questions

#46

Post by thecatspaw »

hazz99 wrote: post #44
craftyguy wrote: post #7

> Why do humans, pets, and even lab animals of many species kept in controlled lab conditions on standardized diets appear to be increasingly obese over the 20th century? What could possibly explain all of them simultaneously becoming obese? Because diet is only part of the equation. The other major factor being exercise/physical activity (and probably some genetics). If you eat 'well' but sit at a desk all day, calo…

> If you eat 'well' but sit at a desk all day, calories in != calories out and you'll probably gain weight. How can this be true? Energy cannot be created - it has to come from somewhere.

they are saying that gaining weight is by taking in more calories than spending them, and that sitting all day lowers the calories out

Re: A List of Open Questions

#47

Post by aasasd »

> Why does writing in the morning (anecdotally so far) seem to be so effective for writers, even ones who are not morning persons? While programmers, which seems like a similar occupation, are invariably owls?

I frankly didn't read the whole linked article, but do the writers, by any chance, do the writing in the morning, but not editing? Because personally, I regularly have a sorta-confused rush of ideas and notions early after sleep, that subsides after a couple hours―after which I may find the morning ideas stupid, or sometimes discover a gem among them, but almost always I find that calm logic of the day doesn't produce such wild reaches. It's pretty much how creativity on drugs is usually imagined. I would also guess that if I have a solid sleep and then a sharp cutoff instead of lingering in bed, the effect is more pronounced―and this behavior is more of a larkish thing, I think.

Meanwhile, I can't code in that state until I wear it off with articles from HN and such stuff. But I can code when I should've been in bed many hours ago and may keel over at any minute.

(BTW, dunno if it's just me, but: I don't ever remember dreams from the deep phase, however I have vivid and lucid dreams if I briefly wake up and then drift off again, i.e. after an optimistic alarm. Notably, if I'm imagining music in this state, it's best stuff I've heard, way off usual patterns and genre clichés, and it comes effortlessly, while in the day I have trouble coming up with anything like that.)

Re: A List of Open Questions

#48

Post by lostdog »

nafey wrote: post #45
cetico wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MMA is new, historically speaking. BJJ is the best fighting style that fits the rules of MMA. Change the rules a bit and a different style will work better.

Whats the minimal change in the rules that will bring a striking based martial art to the top?

Allow kicking or kneeing someone in the face when they're down?

Re: A List of Open Questions

#49

Post by aasasd »

aasasd wrote: post #27

> Does listening to music while working serve as a distraction, or motivation? There was a study which determined that people do mundane, routine work equally well with music or without it, but if the work required creative thinking, music lost to no music. A possible conclusion is that music engages the regions of the brain which are required for creative thinking. That's just one study, however, and I doubt that I…

(Actually, I'm in the market for any breakbeat metal at all that is more than some vague fuzz attempts over the beat―for some reason, the genre is pretty much nonexistent, with Amon Tobin's "Player - Angel of Theft" being the only solid example, outside of Phantomsmasher/Atomsmasher who is great but too far on the grindcore side. You'd think that with decades and dozens of well-known bands of jazzy breakbeat, someone would think of doing that with distorted guitars.)

Re: A List of Open Questions

#50

Post by AnimalMuppet »

egypturnash wrote: post #19
vidanay wrote: post #2

"Why do so few people in the United States exercise their right and privilege to vote?"

Turn it around: "Why are so many people in the United States denied their right to vote?" * prisoners and former criminals can't vote in many places - https://www.sentencingproject.org/issues/felony-disenfranchi... * (this just got a little better - Florida just passed an amendment that will give the vote back to 1.4mil former felons, which is a full 1/10 of the state's population and 1/5 of its African-American popu…

As with everything, there's a false positive rate and a false negative rate. The less voter fraud you allow, the more voter suppression, and vice versa.

And you don't even have to think illegals vote, ever, to still be concerned about voter fraud. Dead people definitely vote, even if illegals never do.

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