peterpeppers | 5 months ago | on: Bob Ross paintings to be auctioned to fund US public broadcasting
peterpeppers's comments
peterpeppers | 5 months ago | on: Asked to do something illegal at work? Here's what these software engineers did
No.
Patient took medication and were responsible for their health.
Doctors wrote the scripts and have the ultimate responsibility to the patients.
Pharmacies dispensed the medications as instructed by the scripts.
Big Pharma (Sackler) makes and markets the drugs.
Distribution is only responsible for making sure drugs arrive efficiently to their location. I would work for a drug distributor again if the pay were better.
Americans are always looking for someone else to blame for their choices.
peterpeppers | 5 months ago | on: Anduril and Palantir battlefield communication system has flaws, Army memo says
I love the moral outrage about “getting clicks”
Journos wouldn’t have to get clicks, if you people (yes, you people) would pay for journalism but no lets continue to post archive links on HN.
I’m throughly disappointed by the pampered, know-it-all tech class who continually complain about the world but refuses to make investments or engage in collective bargaining to force the tech billionaire class.
Apparently all it takes to sell one’s soul is the feeling of superiority, $150k+ wages and stock options.
peterpeppers | 5 months ago | on: Asked to do something illegal at work? Here's what these software engineers did
In the 2010s, we had a similar situation but it wasn’t illegal.
I used to work for a large drug distributor both pre and during the opioid epidemic.
At the time (pre-SUPPORT Act), distributors weren’t required to notify the DEA about anomalous ordering so we didn’t provide data to law enforcement unless they sent a subpoena.
To increase profits, we identified our best customers of opioids and updated our inventory tracking system to send rebates and early warning notifications to providers so they’d buy more earlier.
Each provider has a sales rep (territory) mapped so we could figure out bonuses easily.
We the software engineering team were paid well for it, but not as much as the sales reps who got a percentage of the buy.
peterpeppers | 4 years ago | on: Renting Is Terrible. Owning Is Worse
Is there any organization currently working on this idea in the US?
I'm not fully understanding the concept and would like to know more about public ownership for renters in practice.
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: The man who destroyed skepticism
This is a great piece that provides a much needed look at the "other side" of James Randi.
Many will claim that it is not right for the author to speak ill of the dead but in this current climate it is best for us to see Mr. Randi and by extension ourselves for who we really are...
We and our heroes are fallible human beings driven by our own desires. We are both capable of great harm and good. Let's not hide our darkness but bring it to light.
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: How tech workers at Kickstarter formed one of the only unions in the industry
The REASON that AMERICANS HATE unions is...
1. Anti-union propaganda and the union-busting efforts of American corporations and their consultants starting in the 1970's leading up through the policies of Reagan.
2. Globalization and the loss of manufacturing jobs.
SADLY, in the interim American wages have been flat since the 70's and class inequality has exploded.
"Had the fruits of the nation’s economic output been shared over the past 45 years as broadly as they were from the end of World War II until the early 1970s, a full-time worker whose taxable income is at the median would instead be making $92,000 to $102,000" instead of $50k. (RAND Corporation) Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/90550015/we-were-shocked-rand-st...
READ:
- https://www.vice.com/en/article/akwwvb/us-employers-spend-do...
- https://www.jwj.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/JohnLogan12_2...
- https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/2018/jun/2...
- https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/starbucks-history-...
- https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/history_of_labor_unio...
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_union_busting_in_th...
- https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/06/how-wal...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class
Not understanding the point, unless your aim is to be conspiratorial in nature.
The Stanford/Hoover Institute studies are obviously the contrarian view so yes "society" allows an opposing viewpoint...backed by data.
Last I checked, you're free to conclude whatever you wish even when lacking verifiable data unless your actual goal is to be liked by some particular segment of "society."
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class
This is going to seem rude but try reading more.
The Hoover Institution at Stanford has long supported the data-backed studies of conservative economists on disparities in schooling from Thomas Sowell, Mike Petrelli, Walter White and Chester E. Finn Jr among others.
The general conservative reaction to the mountain of data is that the studies are correct. The concern is in "what to do next?" or "Yes, the data is bad but it doesn't mean that racism lurks behind every tree."
A change in policy may result in even worse outcomes.
STUDIES & OPINION:
- https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/how-think-a...
- https://www.educationnext.org/disparate-impact-theory-bad-fi...
- https://fordhaminstitute.org/national/commentary/disparities...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class
Interestingly enough....
Black conservatives like Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell have often decried that "affirmative action" is used by whites namely liberals to avoid fixing the issues with public education school systems that are in charge of so many black and brown kids.
THE ISSUES:
- Underfunding
- Disproportionate discipline
WHO IS TO BLAME?
- Conservative legislatures who push funding to rural areas over heavily populated liberal cities
- Democratic big city administrators beholden to teachers unions
- Liberal colleges who "focus on diversity at expense of all else"
WRITINGS:
- https://www.pilotonline.com/opinion/columns/vp-ed-column-wil...
- https://www.creators.com/read/walter-williams/07/18/college-...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 12-year-old suspended over toy gun seen in virtual class
Good point.
Interestingly, Black students in the United States are subject to disciplinary action at rates much higher than their white counterparts. These disciplinary actions put students at higher risk for negative life outcomes, including involvement in the criminal justice system.
QUOTE: "Black children do not misbehave more than their White peers, rather they are punished more. In fact, Black students are more likely than their White peers to receive a disciplinary action for a discretionary offense like talking back, violating a dress code, or being defiant. Black children are also more likely to be suspended out of school for their first offense."
SOURCES:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2678799/
- https://www.pnas.org/content/116/17/8255
- https://www.marshall.usc.edu/sites/default/files/slittle/int...
- https://edtrust.org/the-equity-line/for-black-children-atten...
- http://kirwaninstitute.osu.edu/racial-disproportionality-in-...
- https://csgjusticecenter.org/youth/breaking-schools-rules-re...
- https://edtrust.org/the-equity-line/for-black-children-atten...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: 9th Circuit Rules Apple Owes Retail Workers for Time Spent Security Screening
Exactly!
There is a reason why factories put their punch clock AT THE DOOR.
Workers leave their assigned areas, pass through security, proceed to the punch clock and exit the facility.
Apple is one of the wealthiest companies in the world. The cost of adding an additional security guard and letting their employees exit from the rear of each store is negligible.
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper (1807)
Friends, there is a solution!
- If you're a CONSERVATIVE, read liberal.
- If you're a LIBERAL, read conservative.
- If you're a proclaimed CENTRIST, read everything.
Schools don't teach us how to read and process information objectively but hopefully your first history professor explained that historical bias and bias in writing well...is human and old as history itself. Embrace it!
1. Check the veracity of claims and statements made in popular news stories, social media posts and political statements.
2. Additionally, there is a separate body, International Fact-Checking Network, that checks the common fact-checking organizations above for bias and truth as well in their fact checking.
- https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/
- https://www.poynter.org/major-funders/
3. There's also the independently run MediaBiasFactCheck site which has found that the fact-checking sites above are pretty close to the center in their fact-checking and myth-busting.
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Police-issued "courtesy cards" help friends and family out of minor infractions
The threat of being bankrupt for life would be a deterrent.
Prosecutors and mayors wouldn't be so tight with cops if not for 1) the role of police unions and 2) optimizing for conviction rates.
Change the incentives, change the outcomes.
SOURCE:
- https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/08/03/how-police-uni...
- https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21290981/police-unio...
- https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/poli...
- https://thelensnola.org/2019/04/11/misconduct-by-prosecutors...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Police-issued "courtesy cards" help friends and family out of minor infractions
Great point.
Many citizens don't know that "qualified immunity" is a thing that protects police officers from being held accountable.
QUOTE: "Tragically, thousands have died at the hands of law enforcement over the years, and the death toll continues to rise," said Judge Carlton Reeves, of the US District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. "Qualified immunity has served as a shield for these officers, protecting them from accountability."
SOURCES: - https://www.scotusblog.com/2020/05/ask-the-author-reuters-on...
- https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/qualified_immunity
- https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/04/politics/qualified-immunity-f...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Interchange in Houston is the same size as an entire city center in Italy
The INTERESTING QUESTION is did the Federal Housing Administration prioritize white wealth and lives by moving them into an area less likely to get nuked by the USSR?
Also kudos for not being a racist...
But you might want to take a look at history. The US government actively encouraged urban sprawl with low-cost loans and redlining starting with Roosevelt and the New Deal.
"Beginning in 1934, the Federal Housing Administration (HOLC) included in the FHA Underwriting Handbook “residential security maps” used to help the government decide which neighborhoods would make secure investments and which should be off-limits for issuing mortgages[...] Green areas were were explicitly homogenous, lacking “a single foreigner or Negro.”
SOURCES:
- https://www.thoughtco.com/redlining-definition-4157858
- https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-federal-governmen...
- https://www.businessinsider.com/how-redlining-kept-black-ame...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Want people to do the right thing? Save them the guilt trip
Interesting point.
Martin Luther King Jr spoke quite a bit about addressing GUILT before he was killed.
Unfortunately for all of us, he was incredibly unpopular before his death due to his position on the Vietnam War so his message on guilt is lost to transcripts.
QUOTE: "The Negro needs the white man to save him from his fears, the white man needs the Negro to save him from his GUILT. We are tied together in so many ways, our language, our music, our cultural patterns, our material prosperity, and even our food are an amalgam of black and white."
SOLUTIONS FOR GUILT AND FEAR: Dr King mentioned in his speech that one can tackle guilt and fear through ACTION and COLLECTIVE EFFORT:
1. True integration - "Shared power, where black men and white men share power together, to build a new and a great nation"
2. White student generations of goodwill "who will stick with the cause of justice and the cause of civil rights and the cause of peace throughout the days ahead" The action of whites here tackles their guilt while providing hope and reducing fear for blacks.
3. "Coalitions of conscience"
4. Taking a long-view anchored in hope.
SOURCE: https://gphistorical.org/mlk/mlkspeech/mlk-gp-speech.pdf
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Uber and Lyft ordered by California judge to classify drivers as employees
HN FACT CHECK:
IRS Common Law Rules for Determining Status:
Behavioral: Does the company control or have the right to control what the worker does and how the worker does his or her job?
Financial: Are the business aspects of the worker’s job controlled by the payer? (these include things like how worker is paid, whether expenses are reimbursed, who provides tools/supplies, etc.)
Type of Relationship: Are there written contracts or employee type benefits? Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business?
Source: https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employe...
CA ABC Test:
Autonomy. The worker must be free from the control and direction of the hiring entity with regard to how the work is performed.
Business Dissimilarity. The worker’s labor or services must fall outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business.
Custom of the Worker. The worker must be customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as that involved in the work performed.
Source: https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
peterpeppers | 5 years ago | on: Kicking Off the Repl.it Programming Language Jam
Nah.
I think you may not understand their intent which is to bring innovation to programming language design.
Language design is one of those "hard" problems that most feel is meant for "rockstar developers" like Rich Hickey or José Valim.
To me, it appears that Repl.it is doing two things with this hackathon:
1. supporting existing language designers creativity
2. encouraging "regular" devs to try their hand at proglang design
page 1
Is this statement opinion or backed by data?
Either way, I’m not sure you understand the purpose of a free press. A free press gives all audiences an opportunity to find contrarian viewpoints in the media. That’s it. There’s nothing else because that’s all that’s possible.
There’s not some perfect state that exists where all media outlets (Fox News, CBS, Mother Jones) are perfectly neutral.
This is why freedom of the press and freedom of speech are so important.