WarDekar's comments

Brave New World Revisted [0] has several references and comparisons to 1984. BNWR was written by Huxley in 1958, 26 years after BNW was published (1932) and 9 years after 1984 (1949).

It has been a few years for me, but there were several prescient chapters when I last ready it during the rise of populism around the globe (2015), namely sections IV, V, VI, and VII:

  Foreword
  I Over-Population
  II Quantity, Quality, Morality
  III Over-Organization
  IV Propaganda in a Democratic Society
  V Propaganda Under a Dictatorship
  VI The Arts of Selling
  VII Brainwashing
  VIII Chemical Persuasion
  IX Subconscious Persuasion
  X Hypnopaedia
  XI Education for Freedom
  XII What Can Be Done?

Would recommend the read to anyone that found 1984, BNW, F451, etc. interesting.

[0] https://www.huxley.net/bnw-revisited/ (full text)

Edit: formatting

I'm a native Ohioan and have (had?) lived in California for the past 4 years. Currently I'm abroad in South America, and I have to say I miss tipping. Why? Because when there isn't an incentive for the staff to give good service, I often get terrible service. It can take ages to get served, I'll often request something when food is first brought and don't receive it until I'm already done with my meal, etc. Part of this is certainly related to the laid back attitude of Latin America cultures, but if the service employees were incentivized to give better service they probably wouldn't stand around talking to each other for 15 minutes while my friends and I are waiting on another beer.

Now I do hate that in the States there are now tip jars at all sorts of establishments, but to me restaurants and bars I much prefer tipping culture.

I have no doubt it was the heavy favorite in betting markets, but to be clear you can not bet the Oscars legally in Vegas or anywhere in Nevada.

Anything that directly involves human decisions can not be wagered on in Nevada Sportsbooks.

I would imagine most/all young (under 35 - I'm 30, personally, and had same experience as GP), self-employed people making a decent amount of money (such that they don't get subsidies) have had this experience. The plans never match up fully, but I had a high deductible "catastrophic" plan pre-ACA and for the equivalent coverage I a.) had to apply for an exemption to even get the "catastrophic" plan through ACA and b.) it still cost significantly more for a higher deductible.

Now as you note I do get certain benefits with this plan I didn't get with my other one- namely a couple doctors visits a year when my other one was only one every 2- but I had a catastrophic plan for a reason and my premium more than doubled under the ACA. Beneficial to me (and likely the GP) is being able to pay only for coverage we actually want- not additional "benefits" that we don't plan on using and would rather pay out of pocket for.

From your own article:

"The drug's letdown can include feelings of confusion, irritability, anxiety, paranoia and depression, and people may experience memory loss or sleep problems, jaundice or liver damage."

And:

"Dr. John Halpern, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor who led the research, said pure MDMA can change core body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure in the short-term, and decrease immune resistance for a few days."

Sounds like a hangover to me:

"2a : disagreeable physical effects following heavy consumption of alcohol or the use of drugs" http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hangover

I'm not saying MDMA is terrible for you, but it certainly does cause hangover effects (and of course, this will vary by person).

No hangover? Except for, let's see, a short list:

Severely depleted serotonin levels, causing irritability and possibly depression

Loss of focus, concentration, and attention (good luck programming competently the day after)

Bruxism (jaw clenching/grinding)

That is the cumulative amounts that he sold I believe, which means that through 1,400 reviews the actual amount per sale is quite small (as they note, individual amounts per sale not bulk sales).

If you're talking about the course of a year or two of sales, sales in the 10s and even 100s of thousands isn't all that much if you consider the profit margin. What kind of volume do you think an eBay or Amazon seller does in a year to make $100k?

You're thinking of Assassination markets [0]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_market

If you want to do blind tests on beer snobbery, why would you choose a bunch of shitty American Lagers? If you had put in higher quality beer along side those lagers, I'm sure any seasoned craft beer drinker would know the difference. If you put a line up of different beers of a similar style, most "beer snobs" would be able to distinguish them, which ones they prefer, and most likely would be able to pick out their favorite if it was among the lineup.

I'm not sure how blind testing a bunch of cheap beer helps with your hypothesis that "Drink snobbery, whether relating to coffee, beer... has always seemed like confirmation bias in action."

The funny part of this is that if you look at his list of reviewed places he has a bunch from Chicago, IL, then the 2 for the 2 locations of Sauce in SF, then another place in Chicago on the SAME DAY.

Now I know that you could wait to review places, but that certainly seems like a suspicious line. Also 2 of the 3 total reviews he's ever given a 1 star rating to are Sauce (out of 71 total reviews).

There are 3 main active ingredients in marijuana: THC, CBD, and CBN. The places I go get their strains and edibles/topicals/whatever lab tested so you know the %s of each. In general, higher CBD+CBN levels are better for pain relief and insomnia and will cause more grogginess/drowsiness than strains higher in THC which are more for appetite stimulation, euphoria, anxiety relief, etc.

At least in SF the legitimate dispensaries do a good job of informing you about these things and finding the strains that will accomplish what you want.

There are definitely bugs- I played the 2nd link and on several moves the AI moved in the wrong region. I played in the SW block in the E square and then the AI played in the same SW block as me, then did the same thing on the next turn playing in the wrong region.

Mt. Gox is not at $120- trading has been suspended per TFA. That price was what it was at when trading was suspended, and because of the suspension it has caused the price to crash at other exchanges.

I used to opt out, but I also get fed up with being groped by old men. I'm not sure what the solution is because unless a significant portion of people opt out this doesn't accomplish anything and my groin has been fondled a few too many times at this point for me to want to continue opting out.

The entire procedure is completely bogus of course- everyt time I fly in the US now it's a question of: "How do I want to be violated today?"

It's really not difficult at all to get money into Intrade as an American. I had wires show up day-of if I did it early enough or next-day in every other case.

Also of note is that other betting markets were consistently higher than Intrade was for all of the last 6 months basically- there are a lot of theories as to why this may be, but it's regularly been 5%+ lower on Obama.

I have a username and my e-mail was changed to [7 digit integer]@facebook.com

So, no, not exactly.

Yes, I will agree that "barefoot" running is better on your knees than with standard running shoes- also running with proper form would be, but alas- almost no recreational runner will do either of these things, and it is especially hard to do so on typical running paths (such as, you know, roads).

Given the constraints of what we're given, biking is far better for your overall health than running.

Errr, you condemn the use of simple sugars before a workout, but then advocate using Gatorade during a workout? IANAD but I'm pretty sure drinking protein during a workout will be far more beneficial to your overall health (unless you are doing something like a marathon, in which case you will need carbs at some point, but marathons in general are terrible for your body).

I'm pretty sure his point was that running in and of itself (outside of external factors such as other people on the road, etc.) is very detrimental to your health- specifically your knees.

Obviously doing any physical exercise you should be safe about it (wear a helmet while biking, have a light and reflectors if you ride at night, etc., and of course be conscious of your surroundings), but running solely by itself can be detrimental to your health because of the force you put on your knees on impact running on paved surfaces.

I'm not sure I have any sympathy even if NASDAQ had trading issues- do they actually guarantee trades go through and you're informed within a certain period of time? From what I've seen and read, it boils down to a bunch of people claiming they lost out because the price didn't balloon on the first day of trading. Yet, you know, it's still down >15% in the week after that. How can anyone that bought last Friday possibly claim they got screwed in this matter? Unless NASDAQ has terms that say that future trades can be guaranteed, I don't see any legitimate beef here.