Is everything falling apart? • Hacker News Board

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#921

Post by rtkwe » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:20 PM UTC

imtringued wrote: post #722

rtkwe wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the 'train' is also on fire just more insulated from the burning and it'll be a bit more comfortable until your car is engulfed and disconnected. IMO the beginning of Walkaway or maybe After the Revolution is a reasonable picture of what the future will look like economically with the gap between the rich and the rest of the world continuing to widen and life outside of that becoming increasingly tenuous. I'm…

There is a movie about this called snowpiercer.

Yeah I liked it. They also made a TV show but I never watched that. Thought about how to include references to it but it didn't quite fit so I dropped it.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#922

Post by travisjungroth » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:23 PM UTC

zo1 wrote: post #905

travisjungroth wrote: post #803

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> there is certainly something wrong if people can’t openly discuss taboo truths without being slighted as a racist themselves, utterly dismissed, or censored. There are things that are true and impactful and worth talking about, and some of those conversations get shut down because they make people feel uncomfortable. Your statement is not in that group. There are statements that, while technically true, are mislead…

I flat out dislike most of current "black" culture, especially the american one, and think it's detrimental to black people and anyone that follows it. Racist or not?

> Racist or not?

Your example hinges on the definition of the word “racist”. There are credible definitions where the answer would be yes or no.

If I had to guess how I’d answer after reading three pages of explanation on this opinion of yours, it would probably be “yes”.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#923

Post by travisjungroth » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

imapeopleperson wrote: post #883

travisjungroth wrote: post #870

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you’re wrong to dismiss it. Why? > unwillingness to even consider other opinions What opinions? You labelled something a fact. Do you have an opinion to share? How much of my finite time on Earth do I have to spend on this opinion before I can dismiss it? > and the abject expansion of what qualifies as racist (and it’s use as slur) is exactly what’s perpetuating our issues. No. Definitely not. This is just detached…

It’s not detached from reality in the slightest. This is the crux of the debate on censorship. Biden just created a Ministry of Truth surrounding this issue. You’re just stubbornly attached to your own beliefs. Most people are like this—they don’t like admitting when they were wrong. In general, the reason ‘why’ (above) is because it could benefit you to find a better conclusion if one exists. Do what you want, but v…

Is the debate on censorship what you meant by “our issues”? I just think there’s much more important stuff going on. Maybe we disagree on this and that’s why your claim seemed ridiculous to me.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#924

Post by justin66 » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:28 PM UTC

TimPC wrote: post #749

justin66 wrote: post #591

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This literally meets the definition of a ponzi scheme It absolutely does not. Investors in a Ponzi scheme do not have the information needed to allow them to be aware of the fraud involved. In contrast, at any given point in time you can extrapolate when the Social Security system (for example - the same principle applies to any pension that isn't literally cooking the books) will need to start drawing on the gener…

This is splitting hairs. You are forcibly invested in social security so you have to pay it even if the numbers indicate you won't be able to get anything back out from it. If the distinction between this and a Ponzi scheme is having the information it's a mighty fine distinction when you have zero ability to act on the information you have.

It’s the difference between defrauding people or not, among other things. Wow.

> when you have zero ability to act

You have hit another item (do I have the option to opt in?) on the “differences between social security and ponzi schemes” bullet list, but you are pretty aggressively missing the point, I think.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#925

Post by swat535 » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:39 PM UTC

BEEdwards wrote: post #792

mensetmanusman wrote: post #697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“ Every religion states that the other religions are lies “ Almost no religions state this, it might be an interesting thought experiment to steel-man your arguments :)

Yeah, that's why they are constantly trying to kill each other...

That's a false dilemma, you are corroborating the actions of extremists with the entire concept of religion. This sounds more like Hitchen's kind of an argument, which is fine for entertainment purposes but it is reductive and prevents us from having interesting philosophical discussions regarding God and religion.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#926

Post by jaegerpicker » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:43 PM UTC

pasabagi wrote: post #904

jaegerpicker wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a huge part of the problem, farming shouldn't be heavily mechanized in the way we do it. Monocrops, pesticides, fungicides, and huge feed lots all have terrible environmental costs. Even aside of Climate Change, soil erosion is a massive problem.

I used to be sympathetic to this line of argument, but I'm no longer so sure. Organic farming has lower yields, so to feed the same number of people, you'd have to bring more land under cultivation. That would presumably outweigh any environmental advantages you get from using less chemical pest control. Second, the extra people you employ, aside from the obvious mind-numbing drudgery and hard labour you're ruining t…

Actually if you look at no-till and permaculture it 100% can have the same or higher yields per acre. The process of farming also doesn't have to be mind-numbing in this case. The combination of AgTech/Robotics and no-till/permaculture could produce vastly larger yields vs Organic traditional farming.

That's for soil based farming, personally I think Hydroponics (raising plants in water with no soil), Aeroponics (Hydroponics but grown in vertical towers), and Aquaponics (closed ecosystem using fish to fertilize the water the plants are grown in) are the only real way to feed a growing population and not destroy the environment. The Netherlands is already the leading European exporter of food, here is a great youtube video that touches on some of the ideas. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5clOYWsNhhk

Bottom line is that traditional Organic farming isn't the answer anymore than modern factory farming. AgTech is something I'm passionate about and I honestly believe that if we don't adopt more modern science will we face a large crisis in our food systems sooner rather than later. Some crops will need to be soil based (grains and related crops mostly) but nearly everything else grows faster, more reliably, and with out the need for chemical treatments. There are a large number of Hydroponic and Aquaponic farms already in operation but the percentage is still very small.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#927

Post by jaegerpicker » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:46 PM UTC

throwawaygh wrote: post #862

jaegerpicker wrote: post #810

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a huge part of the problem, farming shouldn't be heavily mechanized in the way we do it. Monocrops, pesticides, fungicides, and huge feed lots all have terrible environmental costs. Even aside of Climate Change, soil erosion is a massive problem.

Getting rid of those things would at most double the farm payrolls, which is still a tiny minority of Americans. For the most part, monocrops, pesticides, and fungicides have HUGE economic efficiency incentives ($ ROI / acre) even if you subtract the contribution to labor efficiency (humans / acre).

That's only true if you don't place a $ value on the environmental impacts.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#928

Post by bsenftner » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 2:49 PM UTC

I-M-S wrote: post #657

bsenftner wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in film, and every once in a while I get a script to read, passed around because it is "too good to be made". One such script I read about 2 years ago had the premise of an archeological discovery, rapidly verified and with duplicates found all over the world proving "the rapture" happened back in the year 1000 AD. The modern world realizes we're in the 2nd century of the 10,000 year reign of Satan. Al…

You probably meant 2nd millennium (VS century). Is this script available on the Black List?

I don't believe it is available anywhere, because it is entangled legally, as apparently the author of another literary work with the premise of finding lost bible books documenting a continued life of Jesus with a family and kids sued the author of this script. I've not followed the situation, simply because I don't care about such things.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#929

Post by lrem » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 3:00 PM UTC

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #524

basisword wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> 40% point drop in 16 year olds getting a license since the 80s as urbanization puts people closer to stuff and ride share appeared. Is it urbanisation? I've noticed this trend in the suburbs in my country too and there seem to be a couple of reasons: 1. Driving tests have gotten progressively more difficult and more complex over the last 10-20 years. 2. The cost of learning to drive is insane and getting more expe…

> Driving tests have gotten progressively more difficult and more complex over the last 10-20 years. If true, this is a massively good thing.

A Swiss colleague was doing his pilot license at the same time as his son was doing a driver license. Both were about the same price, but apparently flying a Cessna is somewhat easier than driving a car.

Re: Is everything falling apart?

#930

Post by somenameforme » Sat, Apr 30, 2022, 3:06 PM UTC

lg wrote: post #710

somenameforme wrote: post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let us imagine that starting tomorrow every single American is granted infinite endless and free access to anything available at any restaurant or grocery store or other food service. Do you think that in 10 years the obesity epidemic would be: better, same, worse? I have trouble imagining that it would be better. Look at people who come into access with large sums of money for reasons outside primarily mental achiev…

This is misleading for athletes and the article is clear that the BMI increase could be due to sports nutrition and new training methods.

Good science always leaves the door open to alternative explanations, even when it may be unlikely. In this case the researchers were relying on BMI to measure obesity. BMI doesn't account for musculature. To not even consider this possibility would be the domain of agenda-driven research, which this paper clearly was not.

Here is a link to the actual paper [1]. Their concluding statement was:

"Professional athletes are not immune from the growing obesity crisis and may not provide optimal role models of health. Concussions have drawn attention to overlooked long-term health consequences of sport participation. Increasing body mass in professional baseball players warrants similar attention for its potential impact on long-term morbidity and mortality because these players hold a special place as role models of health and human performance in our society."

[1] - https://sci-hub.se/10.1016/j.orcp.2016.09.003