Readit News logoReadit News
dboat commented on Two pharmacists figured out that oral phenylephrine doesn't work   scientificamerican.com/ar... · Posted by u/sohkamyung
jalapenos · 2 years ago
But this is starting from a conclusion that government bureaus are more effective at alleviating human suffering than market competition. That they're faster, and more effective, and so on.

That's simply not true, and we have the entire experience of the eastern bloc that's conclusively proven it's not true.

You're simply pretending organisations like the FDA are something they're not, and that they're nothing but good, and all ills must be blamed on private actors. That's picking your conclusion first based on an emotional need to have a warm cozy paternalistic fantasy of a protector government.

Whereas in reality it's the opposite. The rapid innovation of the private sector, driven by consumers who want their suffering alleviated in the fastest and most effective way, is the suffering alleviator. And the slow, obstructive, and competition-free corrupted public sector, the FDA, is the one causing drug innovation costs to be sky high, thereby causing excess deaths and suffering that the private sector would otherwise have been preventing.

You're siding with the baddy and blaming the goodies for his wrongdoing.

dboat · 2 years ago
No, I'm not pretending that the FDA is nothing but good, that is a straw man. What I said was correct as I said it, you didn't need to invent a point that I did not make.

Your arguments come from a hypercapitalist fantasy that systemically fails to protect vulnerable populations. Letting market forces satisfy the need of alleviating human suffering is terribly naive nonsense. When the corporations get around to policing themselves, if they do at all, the human toll will be far greater than if we as a society continue to vote for representatives who will reign them in.

You see and comprehend flaws in the current system, but you for some reason cannot see or comprehend that the dumb things you are writing here are much worse.

Bringing up paternalism in this conversation is especially puerile nonsense.

dboat commented on Two pharmacists figured out that oral phenylephrine doesn't work   scientificamerican.com/ar... · Posted by u/sohkamyung
jalapenos · 2 years ago
Self-responsiblity being "bullshit" is the most childish sentiment I've heard all year.

Each of us are responsible for holding others accountable too, as we all currently do with other products.

Someone's pill makes someone grow a third arm, they'll be on John Oliver in no time. And without being able to hide behind "FDA said it's OK" (a la opioid epidemic) they'll feel the full brunt of the consequences.

Soviet-style dumping the power and responsiblity on government bureaus is lazy & stupid vice masquerading as virtue.

dboat · 2 years ago
Rather than an agency that is accountable to publicly elected officials, in your mind profit driven entertainment businesses would perform this role more reliably?

Self-responsibility is just a phrase. When elaborated into the idea you have suggested it crumbles. By the time the market corrects industrial causes of human suffering, far too much preventable suffering will have occurred.

Unless you are philosophically indifferent to human suffering your ideas about self-responsibility are empty nonsense. You have no grounds to criticize others for childish sentiments.

dboat commented on Sam Altman's sister, Annie Altman, claims Sam has severely abused her   lesswrong.com/posts/QDczB... · Posted by u/doener
saeranv · 2 years ago
I read through the whole LW post, and think there's enough troubling evidence here that she shouldn't be dismissed. It certainly shouldn't be flagged.

I initially was leaning to this being a high possibility of a delusion springing from a mentally unstable person, for all the reasons other commentators are mentioning. But, two things in particular struck me that changed my mind:

1. She apparently mentioned the abuse to her mother as a child.

2. She describes childhood behaviour consistent with someone who has experienced sexual abuse (i.e. thoughts of suicide, weird night behaviour like taking baths, body issues as she got older).

A small child doesn't have any incentive to make accusations, or to pretend to have been assaulted. If true, this should be taken seriously. Her mother is still alive, and there may be doctors, relatives or others that would be able to substantiate these points.

Finally, why has this post (and previous related posts) been repeatedly flagged? It's very troubling, I expect this from some HN users, but would have thought the HN moderators would have unflagged (or reposted) it upon consideration of the seriousness, importance of the subject matter, and undeniable relevance to the tech industry. At minimum, you would think someone would have unflagged them to avoid the appearance of bias and favorable treatment to the former YC president. At this point HN looks really sleazy.

dboat · 2 years ago
I share your opinion on the likely veracity of the allegations and would also like an explanation for the flagging of this post and the repeated deletions of similar posts.

Why is HN taking a side here?

https://twitter.com/JOSourcing/status/1710390512455401888

dboat commented on System76's coreboot open firmware manages to disable Intel ME for Raptor Lake   blog.system76.com/post/ma... · Posted by u/airhangerf15
wmf · 3 years ago
What if... ME/PSP are actually very low security risk relative to everything else in the system.
dboat · 3 years ago
It's troubling to have even a potentially very low security risk in hardware I paid for being beyond my reach to resolve.
dboat commented on Rust: The wrong people are resigning   gist.github.com/fastertha... · Posted by u/SmileyKeith
robin_reala · 3 years ago
s/guy/woman
dboat · 3 years ago
Not sure if you are speaking out of knowledge of this particular individual but with respect to other cultures, a biological male presenting as female does not necessarily mean trans the way western cultures think of it.

Japanese Okama culture, for instance, is an entirely different animal. I don't know this specific person just thought I'd share that misgendering isn't as black and white as even a lot of trans people think it is.

dboat commented on Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books   telegraph.co.uk/news/2023... · Posted by u/GavCo
loeg · 3 years ago
> I'm kind of disappointed to see so many people asserting there is no common, derogatory, gendered use of the term just because they are unfamiliar with it.

Maybe worth reconsidering if your understanding of the term is truly "common."

> That's fine, but it's arrogant to assume things you don't know are nonsense.

It also seems pretty arrogant to assert you know better than everyone else.

dboat · 3 years ago
> It also seems pretty arrogant to assert you know better than everyone else.

I did not assert that. I made a correction, which was in fact correct.

The meaning does exist, and commonly, even if in regions you are unfamiliar with. I did not misuse the word common. I think you just emotionally reacted to being called arrogant, when in fact it was a merited criticism.

dboat commented on Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books   telegraph.co.uk/news/2023... · Posted by u/GavCo
stephen_g · 3 years ago
It may have a gendered connotation some places, I definitely don’t think it does in my English-speaking country (Australia). Screeching primarily used for inanimate objects (wheels, alarms, etc.) and animals and then secondarily mostly in a non-gendered way for children.

Interestingly the examples in both the entry from Oxford that Google brought up when I searched the term, and the second example in the Cambridge dictionaries are both boys doing the screeching. The other examples are inanimate and screeching describing the experience of tinnitus. So it seems the UK is similar.

So potentially for much of the English-speaking world this term wouldn’t bring up thought of any kind of gendered slur. So it goes both ways - just because something is the case in your region doesn’t mean it’s true across the board.

dboat · 3 years ago
> So it goes both ways - just because something is the case in your region doesn’t mean it’s true across the board.

I never said nor suggested that it did. I was criticizing the people saying it is not a common usage because they hadn't heard it. You and the other user trying to correct me by repeating how you are from a place where the meaning is different both completely missed the point.

The meaning exists, and is used derogatorily, and definitely commonly in some places. None of what you wrote has any bearing on that.

dboat commented on Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books   telegraph.co.uk/news/2023... · Posted by u/GavCo
lotsofpulp · 3 years ago
Either I am completely out of touch, or this comment is nonsense.

A screech is a high pitched sound, nothing more unless otherwise indicated.

dboat · 3 years ago
No, the person you replied to was correct (for my region and presumably his). My knowledge of the term mirrors his and I'm kind of disappointed to see so many people asserting there is no common, derogatory, gendered use of the term just because they are unfamiliar with it.

I see a lot of people with no knowledge or experience with this common usage. That's fine, but it's arrogant to assume things you don't know are nonsense.

dboat commented on The Great Crypto Grift May Be Unwinding   newyorker.com/news/our-co... · Posted by u/fortran77
andrewstuart · 4 years ago
Crypto will come back again.

The reason is because it's very closely related to gambling and triggers the same obsessive thinking as gambling does - based on my observations of how I felt and thought when I did some crypto investing - I found myself constantly checking prices and devoting huge amounts of thought to it - I even wrote a crypto trading bot to analyse strategies. If you know anyone into crypto you would know they talk about it non stop.

There are HUGE numbers of people who's brains are deeply involved with crypto. They'll be back for more.

Crypto had a big crash only recently - about 12 to 18 months ago I think, when Elon Musk made some comments that crashed the market. That crash was rapidly forgotten and people piled back in. Same thing will happen here.

Logic is not the driver of people's behavior.

Crypto is essentially legal, consensual large scale ponzi scheme participation - if you understand that then you might be able to win big.

dboat · 4 years ago
> If you know anyone into crypto you would know they talk about it non stop.

Not really. There are a lot of people holding, mining, DCA'ing into projects they believe in who have no trouble at all keeping it to themselves.

Your remarks about gambling are similarly projecting a portion of the community onto the rest. Those traders who treat it as a speculative asset are gambling as you say, and tend to be obsessive in the way you describe, but you seem not to be aware of everyone who deals with crypto differently than you did.

There are a lot of crypto projects that people don't expect to moon, that effectively serve their purpose right now, and will just get better at it in the future. None of what you wrote is nearly as generally true as you made it out to be.

dboat commented on Feds arrest couple, seize $3.6B in hacked Bitcoin funds   washingtonpost.com/nation... · Posted by u/mikeyouse
pshc · 4 years ago
Wow.

> Taihuttu has two hiding spots in Europe, another two in Asia, one in South America, and a sixth in Australia.

> We aren’t talking buried treasure – none of the sites are below ground or on a remote island – but the family told CNBC the crypto stashes are hidden in different ways and in a variety of locations, ranging from rental apartments and friends’ homes to self-storage sites.

I hope this is all a decoy or else it’s the worst opsec I’ve seen since about five hours ago.

dboat · 4 years ago
I would not want to be a friend to the sort of idiots who would say stuff like this. Having a target painted on my back as a decoy somehow makes it even worse.

u/dboat

KarmaCake day334October 26, 2011View Original