alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Anxiety and Depression Are Symptoms, Not Diseases
At the risk of sounding snarky or disrespectful, I can't fail to notice how often people suffering from depression become all passionate and fiery when discussing the cause of (their) depression.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Ask HN: Are there any on HN skeptical of the predictions regarding automation?
The job most likely to suffer massive layoffs in the future because of progress in AI is the job of the software developer.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: The Great British Curry Crisis
In Belgium people will look at you funny if you ask for salt on your popcorn
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: The Closed Mind of Richard Dawkins (2014)
I wouldn't call Richard Dawkings close minded. Here's a man who abandoned a successful career in biology because he found contemplating God more rewarding.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Resolutions for programmers (2012)
Well, you begin by following some basic training course. I suppose a school building is just as accessible as a gym building.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Resolutions for programmers (2012)
Don't want to be the negative guy, but sometimes I wonder why people would spend their physical energy on gym equipment while you may just as well learn a construction skill that leaves a tangible result and has some use in the real world - like bricklaying, plastering walls or wiring electricity.
Just my 2 cents, if you enjoy your gym all the better for you. But I also think that many people give up because they find it boring.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Ask HN: What are your New Year's resolutions?
Ignore any blog post that begins with "Why", "Please" or "Dear"
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: How the Speed of Light Was First Measured
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: How the Speed of Light Was First Measured
Cassini and Richter had measured the parallax of Mars (and therefore the distance to Mars) a couple of years earlier. Using Kepler's law they could then deduce the distances to the other planets.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: John Searle: Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence [video]
The Chinese room argument is actually needlessly convoluted. Just imagine a piece of paper on which three words are printed: "I AM SAD". Now is there anyone who believes that this piece of paper is actually feeling sad just because "it says so"? Of course not. Now, suppose we replace this piece of paper with a small tablet computer that changes its displayed "mood" over time according to some algorithm. Now in my opinion it is rather hard to imagine that all of a sudden consciousness will "arise" in the machine like some ethereal ghost and the tablet will actually start experiencing the displayed emotion. Because it's basically still the same piece of paper.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Uninstall Notepad++ if you have voted for FN
For Christ sake, this is a guy who writes a very useful text editor and hands it out for free. He's not the UN ambassador of global political reconciliation, as you seem to believe.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Why ISIS Attacked Paris
Your considerations may be true but there is simply no denying that there is some serious hypocrisy going on at the core of our value system. We fume when muslim terrorists bomb Paris, but we claim the right to bomb pretty much any muslim country whose government is not laying in bed with the West. The fact that we make some half-assed efforts to avoid "innocent" victims is no proof of moral superiority. The next time NATO blows up some wedding party in Afghanistan, I'd like to see the flag of Afghanistan projected on the opera house of Sidney.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
Actually, both Israel and Palestines are a bit befuddled that their eternal little conflict has lost a good deal of importance to the rest of the world in view of the bigger events in the Mideast. Which probably is a good thing, since both parties were acting like the spoilt children of global attention.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Paris Shootings and Explosions Kill Over 100, Police Say
> It's not intentional but I doubt ISIS sympathisers see the distinction.
I don't see the distinction either. If you drop a bomb and kill some people that you didn't intend to kill, you're still 100% responsible for those kills.
It is the saddest thing that we have found no better response to terrorism than limiting civil liberties and sending 18 year old boys with guns to foreign countries.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: How to minimize procrastination
If you procrastinate a lot, it usually means that you really want to do something different with your life. Go find out what it is, rather than submitting yourself to all sorts of masochist self-discipline schemes.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Why nuclear energy is our best option at the moment
If there's positive buzz about molten salt reactors, the most likely source of that buzz is people who want to get rich selling molten salt reactors.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: What Happens When You Enter the Witness Protection Program?
If mobsters were that competent, they wouldn't be mobsters in the first place.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Ask HN: What's the one thing you've always wanted to learn?
Plaster walls like a pro. I tried to learn it but I haven't got the knack.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: Wildlife thriving in abandoned Chernobyl zone
This canard keeps popping up with such regularity that one start to wonder what kind of interest group is spinning this. The space around Chernobyl is still a dead zone. The only reason why animal life doesn't die out there is the permanent inflow of healthy animals from outside contaminated area.
alfapla
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10 years ago
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on: The Importance of Donald Trump
> I think the fact that Obama won in 2012 supports my argument that most people see him as basically competent. Not bad. A reasonable moderate who did a moderately reasonable job.
My basic understanding of Obama's reelection in 2012 is that the liberal vote wasn't ready to admit how simply they had been conned by some clever marketing in 2008.
