reuben_scratton (u/reuben_scratton)

reuben_scratton commented on Apple mobile processors are now made in America by TSMC timculpan.substack.com/p/... · Posted by u/colinprince

reuben_scratton · a year ago

I can't believe iPhone chips, almost the supreme luxury good, are considered worthy of Federal subsidies.

Surely a better path would have been to slap imported silicon with tarriffs at least equal to their gov't subsidies?

(Unpopular opinion: The people that spent the last 30 years giving away US & EU manufacturing to the Far East - no doubt with plenty of "10% for the big guy" type deals behind the scenes - should all be shot.)

reuben_scratton commented on Brain overgrowth dictates autism severity, new research suggests medicalxpress.com/news/20... · Posted by u/jdmark

tenacious_tuna · 2 years ago

For those who's instinctive approach to autism (or other flavors of significant neruodivergence) is to treat it as something that has inherent tradeoffs, or as something that "obviously" people would want to manage or choose to not have when given the option: I highly recommend this article [1] and the book written by the same author, to recontextualize autism (in specific) and neurodiversity (in general) not as things to be managed but as forms of diversity in the human expression to be wholly welcomed in wider society.

Put differently: Autism is not something to be managed away.

> I don't think anyone who was somehow given the choice of autism or no autism at birth would choose autism would they?

I test in the statistically-likely range for autism on multiple diagnostic tests, though I don't carry a diagnosis from a psychiatric professional, so grain of salt, etc; but I find this kind of hypothetical offensive and degrading. It rings so much of how we approached queer identities throughout the years: blindly assuming that because wider society has difficulty interacting with autistic or otherwise neurodivergent people that THOSE PEOPLE would prefer to be like those more neurotypical members.

I like my brain. I don't want it to change. I don't want to be different. I don't want to be treated as someone suffering some condition, or like there's "tradeoffs" in my experience of the world that're any more significant or worthy of commentary than anyone else's experience of the world.

[1]: https://neuroqueer.com/throw-away-the-masters-tools/

reuben_scratton · 2 years ago

I have two severely autistic children who cannot talk and who need lifelong care. That's the REAL autism, the one Leo Kanner identified in 1943. Not the rebranded Aspergers with extra rainbows.

I wouldn't wish real autism on my worst enemy.

reuben_scratton commented on The effect of deplatforming hate organizations on their online audience pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas... · Posted by u/geox

icandoit · 3 years ago

Would you accept a definition that includes the KKK and ISIS? If the majority of an organizations public rhetoric is hate for other groups would you agree that makes them a hate organization?

What is the purpose of this line of argumentation? Would you take the position that there are no such things as hate-organizations or hate-speech?

The world is plainly better off with fewer organizations like the KKK and ISIS. Do you agree? That seems like as milquetoast as one can get.

Are there organizations that you feel are labeled as hate-groups but are not? What hairs are we trying to split?

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

Here's an example: The LGB Alliance in U.K. are routinely smeared as a 'hate' group for taking a dim view of male rapists in female prisons, males competing in female sports, and so on. Resisting that trend and arguing for sex-based rights is considered 'hate' by some.

It's a lazy, imprecise term that is only ever used in political spats, never to address actual intergroup violence. Personally I suspect the demand for hate groups to exist - thereby justifying the many orgs and careers built on countering it - far exceeds the genuine supply.

reuben_scratton commented on Brain activity of dying people shows signs of near-death experiences newscientist.com/article/... · Posted by u/RafelMri

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

When my mother died she had been completely unconscious for a whole week, but just 30 minutes before she died she opened her eyes and looked around the room. I was later told by a nurse that this is quite common when people are about to die. It seems to fit with the notion of one last burst of brain activity.

reuben_scratton commented on Researchers’ tests of lab-made version of Covid virus draw scrutiny statnews.com/2022/10/17/b... · Posted by u/russfink

bayesian_horse · 3 years ago

A pandemic virus circulating in the wild is an incredibly fine-tuned machine. Just mashing together integral parts from two quite different genomes is not going to result in a Variant that is tuned enough. In order to make a Virus virulent and transmissive, it needs to evolve through multiple, probably dozens of hosts, and only if that is on a broad scale, like thousands of such lineages, does it have a chance of success.

Even one lab leak isn't enough. The Virus would most likely die out on its own, if not it would get outcompeted by naturally developing variants. The risk of a lab leaking a variant in a way that it would outcompete natural strains is so miniscule compared to natural variants arising and doing the same, it's not worth mentioning.

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

You must know that virologists routinely "serial passage" viruses through animal hosts? Evolving a candidate virus "through multiple, probably dozens of hosts" is what virology labs do.

And lab leaks happen All The Time. SARS-1 escaped labs on six separate occasions.

reuben_scratton commented on Ask HN: How did you stop drinking? · Posted by u/chrisgd

alexmolas · 3 years ago

I used Allen Carr's book to stop smoking and it worked like a charm. Reading the book made me happy to quit, instead of the expected struggle that everyone that quits smoking goes through. Now I've spent 500 days without smoking and I've never felt the need to smoke again. I haven't read the Easy Way to Control Alcohol, but if it's as good as Easy Way to Stop Smoking I would recommend it.

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

Same here. Twenty-one years since my last cigarette now, and it's entirely thanks to the late great Allen Carr - may God rest and nourish his immortal soul.

(It was my 9th or 10th attempt to quit too, but my first and only with Easy Way)

reuben_scratton commented on Ask HN: How did you stop drinking? · Posted by u/chrisgd

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

Guided introspection.

Despite not considering myself alcoholic, my wife nagged me into going to local Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meetings. I came to realise that I had somehow slipped into alcoholism without being the classic street-drunk, shop-doorway kind. I had the mental obsession with alcohol in spades... every day I'd count the hours until, after work, I could start drinking.

Once I'd accepted I was alcoholic it was relatively easy. The simple fact is I don't want to be an alcoholic, or any kind of -holic, so I was suddenly highly motivated to stop.

The AA way gets you thinking deeply about why you started drinking heavily in the first place: What are the exact feelings you want to drown in alcohol, and why do you have them?

reuben_scratton commented on Ask HN: What's Your Biggest Regret? · Posted by u/xupybd

reuben_scratton · 3 years ago

Having kids.

I'm sure it's great for normies but my kids are mentally disabled and being their dad is grief and heartache without end. I have no close family to share any of it with - the little family I grew up with are all dead and I am looking forward to my own death.

I hope that one day genetic research will advance to a point where 23andme et al can help future young couples avoid these kind of outcomes.