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Comment Re: "COURAGE" and all that (Score 1) 21

They got to collect 30% of developers money for 20 years and will likely only be required to refund a tiny fraction. This isn't a mistake its weaponized disregard for what's right. Apple is only starting to follow the rules now after they were threatened with criminal contempt, that's how little their cost is of flaunting the law.

Comment Value (Score 2) 99

Things of value are usually rare. The amount of "entertainment" is ever increasing, and thus becoming cheaper and cheaper. Creating MORE isn't going to help.

And with AI starting to be used in the Creation process, that will lower the costs of making it, and start making it widely available to more people in the creation process.

This ends in a death spiral of more and more "entertainment" with less and less perceived value, chasing diminishing returns. I suspect that places like OF will make quick end once AI girls are able to do everything by prompts on the fly for their "users".

Comment wrong assumption leads to wrong conclusion (Score 1) 115

Meat and Dairy aren't being overproduced or overconsumed, even if they have risks, they are standing against the biggest problems facing world health. Dieticians might be asking people to replace meat and dairy with asparagus and quinoa but people are fat and malnourished because they're eating too much corn and other low nutrition density, high calorie foods.

This stands as a good reminder that if your assumption is that everyone else is wrong there's a good chance it's actually you.

Comment This was addressed (Score -1, Troll) 244

Because not vaccinating is simply one thing: dumb. And not vaccinating your childen is child abuse.

Yes, anything has risks. Not doing something alos has risks. The smart thing is to honestly and neutrally look at the data and then make a decision. Instead panicky, insight-less and idological approaches have replaced rationality. Pathetic.

This was addressed by RFK recently.

1) Most of the measles cases are in Texas, among their large Amish and Mennonite population. These people avoid vaccinations for religious reasons.

2) The number of measles cases is roughly 800, but the number of new cases has leveled off. The number of cases doesn't appear to be growing in the manner of an epidemic.

3) Canada has about as many cases, but with 1/8 the population of the US.

4) Other countries are seeing a rise in measles cases, and are doing less well than the US.

The US is apparently in good shape as far as measles go. Yes, it's a concern, but not much of a concern and it isn't expected to become a problem.

In comparison, the US has epidemics of obesity, childhood diabetes, and autism. These three are the elephants in the room, with autism rising to about 3% (one in 30) of boys, and 5% (1-in-20) in California. The rise in autism has been shown (by study) *not* to be due to changes in diagnosis method or access to medical professionals.

Since 2000, the incidence of childhood diabetes has tripled.

Measles is a concern, but for the three epidemics we *actually* have the MSM is strangely silent.

Almost as if reporting on the health of the US isn't really their goal...

Comment Great firewall? (Score 4, Interesting) 77

And Jesus fucking Christ what the hell happened to this website that that nonsense right-wing talking point of money hungry scientists is even a thing?

The US estimated that the China's great firewall employs 50,000 people.

With that assumption, you might reasonably conclude that a few of those 50,000 lurk on slashdot and try to direct the conversation in the comments section. It wouldn't take much, a single person could reasonably read all story posts and watch over the comments section.

Much of the analysis could be done by AI, so that no one has to pay attention... just wait for the AI to pop up an alert, verify by hand, and address the issue.

I would also assume that they have banks of automated slashdot logins, so that whenever something comes up that they don't like they can find a login that has mod points.

And perhaps several tiers of responders, so that the "no it isn't" response can be entered by a low-level employee with limited understanding of English, and perhaps a more nuanced fluent speaker for some of the more insightful posts.

And also, perhaps they have files on the individual commenters here, so that they can try out different techniques and see which ones tend to get the commenter angry. Has anyone noticed that responses to their posts have a sort of "tide" to them, where there will be a time period where everyone just contradicts, then a time period where people insult, then a time period where they all say that you (the commenter) aren't qualified? Perhaps they are searching for the correct way to get you so pissed off and leave slashdot.

I know, probably a conspiracy theory, but it doesn't take much of an imagination to visualize what resources *might* be used against various sources on the internet. I mean, if *you* were one of these people, what automated systems would you use to amplify the effective reach of your message?

Anyway, just a thought. Maybe foreign actors are inserting politically charged opinions here just to give the appearance of infighting and to goad people into anger.

(And as a thought problem, if you had access to Slashdot's internal system, what metrics would you use to detect various forms of system abuse?)

Comment Quick question (Score 4, Informative) 97

No.
It did not rewire your brain
That is ridiculous pseudo-scientific nonsense.

Shame on you, and any editor, Slashdot and otherwise, who lets this bullshit through.

We did an experiment in psych class where a student volunteer agreed to wear glasses w/prisms that turned his vision upside down. He reported that it was very confusing at first, but after 3 days his brain figured things out and flipped his vision around so that he "saw" it as normal.

Then at the next class he stopped wearing the glasses and once again everything seemed upside down until his brain figured things out and flipped his vision around once more.

A similar experiment uses prisms that angle everything in by 10 degrees. After several days the professor tells the student to close his eyes, take off the glasses, then open his eyes and try to hit his (the professor's) outstretched hand, and hilarity ensues. The student's vision goes back to normal a few days later.

This is explained by the visual cortex learning and rewiring itself to accommodate the changes in vision. People with spot defects in their vision can train their system to ignore the defects, and an experimental set of glasses from NASA mapped the complete vision input around the spot of a macular degeneration patient. The entire visual input was presented to the patient, but the input had to be "stretched" around the hole in his vision. After several days, the patient reported seeing the stretched/mapped input as normal.

So I'm curious: why do you think the brain can't be rewired, and why is any mention of this is bullshit?

(And yes, there are rewiring techniques for other conditions, such as certain forms of depression and phobias. Heck, brainwashing is a form of brain rewiring, and we know how that works and how to use it.)

Comment Re: Government Sponsored Research (Score 0) 265

I am not a capitalist. I'm free enterprise, the free exchange of goods and services kind of guy. Subtle but distinct difference.

If one wants the protection of Patents (which I'm 100% okay with), one ought to pay for that privilege, in taxes. 100% completely voluntary with the benefits of patents expiring when nobody wants to pay the tax. Mutually beneficial Exchange being key component.

Comment Government Sponsored Research (Score 0, Redundant) 265

As a Libertarian, I don't suppose to support tax payer funded research. Mainly because such research leads to patents and other protections that are held not by the public for the public good, but rather commercial for profit corporations.

IMHO, the best case for solving THIS issue is tax patent holders for their patents they enforce, as a TAX. Make it steep. Stop paying the tax, the patent goes public domain. This solves a whole bunch of abuses. Make private research funded patents less taxed, and those discovery/inventions that had public funded (tax payer) at the highest rates. Tax the rich, but make it avoidable, just release to the public domain.

The protection of intellectual property ought to come at a cost.

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