indy (u/indy) - Readit News

indy commented on The contrarian physics podcast subculture timothynguyen.org/2025/08... · Posted by u/Emerson1

Sabine's early video's seemed pretty sincere, and had a lot of valid points.

But later, I think the pressure of creating constant content, and moving into non-expert areas, has gotten just as pop-sci as anybody else.

Still think she is on another level from Eric who will throw out any crazy idea he can if someone will listen.

indy · 3 days ago

Sadly this is a common path for many people on Youtube. Once they reach a certain level of popularity the original topic of their channel becomes a vehicle for "content creation" which they try to maximize for "engagement". The quality of the original content always nosedives.

indy commented on Dicing an Onion, the Mathematically Optimal Way pudding.cool/2025/08/onio... · Posted by u/surprisetalk

re · 8 days ago

> It turns out that making horizontal cuts almost never helps with consistency.

They made the horizontal cuts evenly spaced between the cutting surface and the top of the onion, which is nonsensical to me. I believe that a single horizontal cut at around 15-20% height would be better for uniformity than a horizontal cut at 50% height.

indy · 8 days ago

Yes! They had all those visualisations and you could see the problem areas from vertical slicing were at the bottom of the onion, a couple of horizontal slices down there would have given the best solution.

indy commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth

vidarh · 12 days ago

Again, never heard it. Never felt remotely unsafe. Don't know anyone who has had issues with it.

And can't find any actual data to corroborate that robberies have somehow reached such endemic levels.

EDIT: It gets comical to see that Met stats are now somehow trustworthy after the number of people here making a big deal of distrusting them. But notably the data shows the numbers to be small - in the hundreds per month - and having dropped significantly between 2018 and 2023. Furthermore, most of these crimes are burglary or theft, rather than crimes such as robberies or violence, so the chance of having them taken off your wrist is substanlly lower.

The article then covers an increase in "high-value" watch thefts from 2021 to 2022. Between 2021 and 2022 the numbers did in fact increase, and they were lower in 2021 than in 2023 as well. But we're talking 4885 watches total (not restricted to "high value") in 2021, of which about 1/3 are robberies. So you're much less likely to have your watch taken off you than e.g. your phone stolen.

indy · 9 days ago

You're right probably nothing, just a far right conspiracy theory:

"I hunt phone thieves professionally – I was still targeted on Oxford Street Former detective turned private investigator warns some London areas have become ‘lawless’" https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/15/phone-thieves-ox...

"Some 78,000 people had phones or bags snatched from them on the street in the year ending March 2024, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

That is equivalent to 200 “snatch thefts” a day and is a 153 per cent increase on the number of incidents in the year ending March 2023.

London is seen as the “epicentre” of phone thefts with £50 million worth of handsets reported stolen in the capital in 2024.

In a blitz on the “scourge of mobile phone theft” in February, Met officers arrested 230 people in just a week and recovered 1,000 handsets by targeting hotspots such as Westminster and the West End."

indy commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth

vidarh · 12 days ago

I've literally spent hours walking around Shadwell and Commercial Road over the last couple of months, as well as places like Bow, Canning Town, Forest Gate, Romford that used to be awful. I've lived in Croydon most of the last 25 years.

I'm also not seeing any more homeless in London now than I used to see on Oxford Street when I lived by Marble Arch in 2000, for example. There were large encampments in the subways near Marble Arch at that time - I've not seen anything like it since.

> The general advice now is never to wear a watch in Central London, this wasn't the case 10 years ago.

Says who? I've never heard anyone say this, and don't know anyone who'd worry about wearing a watch in Central London.

indy · 12 days ago

"Says who?" Then we are living in separate universes because this is common knowledge.

Wearing a nice watch in Soho, Liverpool Street, Tower Bridge is super sketchy and you're likely to get comments about how 'brave' (stupid) you are. These are just the places I've been to, West London is meant to be much worse.

Edit: Here are some links I found

- "Machete-ban petition launched as London watch robberies rise" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-64991862

- Statistics for stolen watches from 2018 to 2023 https://www.met.police.uk/foi-ai/metropolitan-police/disclos...

indy commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth

vidarh · 12 days ago

I live in London too, and don't recognise these claims at all.

I've been here 25 years, and most of the areas that used to be sketchy are now not.

indy · 12 days ago

Which areas are you familiar with?

I witnessed the aftermath of a murder last week in Stoke Newington! (Saw that the road had been closed off)

I've seen women publicly urinating into drains on a busy road (Hackney)

There are massive increases in the number of homeless people (Tooting, Clapton, Shadwell), several times I've seen a homeless looking person harass women passing by.

Seen needles lying around (Shadwell, Commercial Road)

The general advice now is never to wear a watch in Central London, this wasn't the case 10 years ago.

I've seen security guards restrain people trying to leave shops in Central London after they shoplifted.

So yeah, some areas might not look sketchy, and these gentrified places (e.g. Stoke Newington) might be ok if you stick to the bars, restaurants and then Uber home, but for a lot of people these remain dangerous if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time.

indy commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth

piva00 · 12 days ago

It's also quite sad there isn't anyone with a big political voice connecting the dots between Brexit and the rise in crime.

Brexit has markedly made the UK's economy weaker, there are less opportunities, the opportunities that exist outside of finance/tech are quite low paid compared to other European countries while the cost of living in London is absurdly high when compared to other major European cities. It's the perfect storm coupled with high immigration: blame immigrants for the lack of opportunities caused by a policy pushed by anti-immigration rhetoric, it will just feed into giving power to Reform which, if given power, will continue to crash the UK's economical prospects.

The ship has sailed, it will take the UK quite a while to correct course, perhaps even a generation or so... While that correction course happens British society will just keep eroding away.

indy · 12 days ago

It's become a feedback loop of "crime", "erosion of trust", "polarisation of communities".

indy commented on Online Safety Act – shutdowns and site blocks blocked.org.uk/osa-blocks... · Posted by u/azalemeth

jama211 · 12 days ago

I always hear this but it seems to mostly be made up? Like yeah, there’s crime in London, but less than in most European or American cities… seems like a narrative that keeps being pushed without merit

indy · 12 days ago

I live in London and I can tell you no, it isn't mostly made up.

The crime rates in other places is irrelevant if the city you've lived in for the last 20 years has become noticeably more dangerous.

This is not "a narrative that keeps being pushed without merit", in fact the people who dismiss such claims are often the ones who live very insulated lives.

indy commented on Omarchy, a Linux Distribution by DHH omarchy.org/... · Posted by u/weakfish

miah_ · 18 days ago

Similarly that people are interested in running anything made by him after he's repeatedly shown his true colors.

indy · 18 days ago

Does this kind of woke scolding still work?

indy commented on Omarchy, a Linux Distribution by DHH omarchy.org/... · Posted by u/weakfish

JSR_FDED · 18 days ago

I really appreciate that he included a video with great narration. So much better than the animated gifs that provide too little context and go too fast.

indy · 18 days ago

He used a video with great narration back in the day to showcase the original release of Ruby on Rails.

Nearly 20 years later and it's surprising that more people don't do this.