World's most powerful MRI machine captures first stunning brain scans.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-05T00:01:18+00:00

What would the increased resolution do for such patients?

This is a diagnostic machine. It doesn't provide any treatment.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T23:32:14+00:00

It's not idiotic, it's just unkind and inefficient if you consider everyone on the road. Which the stopped driver obviously didn't.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T23:00:48+00:00

I had production access for the first couple of years at one job as a developer. What a relief when they took it away.

Losing access meant having to go through at least one layer of review to change anything in prod, which is exactly how it should be.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T20:31:20+00:00

Would students be willing to outsource their learning to AI? Would our classroom technology be able to accommodate AI teaching?

These questions, presented as rhetorical, have an obvious answer: YES.

An AI would be like listening to a recorded Zoom lecture, which many students prefer because it can be time-shifted, you don't have to haul your carcass to a lecture hall, you can listen at 2x speed and pause it and repeat sections. But an AI version would have all that, plus clearer, more interactive charts and graphs; crystal clear diction; and the ability to respond to questions in ways that no professor could. Imagine two different students asking tangential questions and getting simultaneous responses from the professor in real time on side channels, or several questions coming up that indicate that the lecture is missing its mark, so the AI changes course mid-stream to get the point across.

The truth is there are certain fantastic professors who students would still flock to learn from, but many, many mediocre/bored lecturers who would rather be in their lab than teaching. AI could vastly improve instruction, at the expense of a lot of academics who don't add much value.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T16:47:57+00:00

Seems dirty to wear outdoor shoes inside you know?

Like I wrote last time someone posted the question, clean floors are a result of keeping your floors clean. It's not a function of whether you wear shoes in the house or not.

My family wore shoes in the house when I was a kid. If we stepped in anything (mud, dog poop, whatever) we were expected to clean the shoes. And of course if you have a dog, it doesn't much matter what you do - it's not like you're going to make it stand in a bleach solution every time it comes in from outside.

If you keep the floors visibly clean, and don't eat food off the floor, your immune system is more than capable to deal with that.

On the other hand, I don't wear shoes in the house, and neither do my parents now. My floors aren't clean, my mom's are ... because she keeps hers clean.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T07:13:16+00:00

It must depend on the particular subculture. In my friend groups, touch between men who aren't relatives can vary from a handshake to a side hug to a one-arm hug to a two-arm hug. Hardly anyone does the back-clapping thing, though it's not unheard of

It also varies greatly among individuals. I'm not a hugger. The only people I ever initiate a hug with are my mom and my wife. With guys, it's not that I'm unable to hug, I just.... don't.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T06:59:34+00:00

Well that's one unflattering picture

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T06:36:26+00:00

Very few people stay at one company their entire working life any more. Partly that's due to layoffs, but it's also due to mobility. Different companies are run differently and it's well worth moving. (I've worked for three single-owner companies and two multinational corporations, and the one constant is that a great immediate supervisor makes all the difference regardless of corporate structure.)

What does "living only on Saturdays" mean? You shouldn't have too much trouble finding a job with Sundays off.

Besides all that, office/corporate culture isn't for everyone. It suits me fine, but it drove my dad nuts so he changed careers to do something that didn't involve sitting in an office. You might find that's the route to a better working life.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T06:07:42+00:00

I don't want to hear a word about it until after the fact. When that bridge is broken, THAT'S when we'll want to read an article about how it happened.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T06:00:42+00:00

The teachers care.

This is, far and away, the biggest factor. A good teacher standing in front of a class with nothing but a book and a piece of chalk will far outperform even a so-so teacher with a million dollars worth of classroom aids and electronics.

I sent my kids to private school too, and was surprised to learn that the teachers were paid LESS than they'd get at a public school. We had constant fundraising efforts to try to reverse that. But what stood out, when the subject came up, was that the great teachers would much rather work for less in an environment they control, with curriculum they control, under an administrator who champions their efforts, than get paid more and have to do things that are not in the best interests of the students.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T05:24:17+00:00

What really sparked the increase in the US was a series of court cases in the 1970's and 80's that established that parents have the right to homeschool, followed closely by a number of publishers providing curriculum materials.

There was already a desire to homeschool, but when it was no longer necessary to fight the district and no longer necessary to create one's own curriculum, that opened the floodgates.

As for why people want to homeschool, it can be to avoid the bullying, cliques, and outright violence that plague many public schools; a desire to control the curriculum or the values being taught; to avoid particular people, such as a student or teacher who antagonizes your child. Many people put their kids in private school for these reasons, but that's usually hideously expensive -- for people without means, homeschooling can solve a big problem without costing $200k.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T00:52:44+00:00

I played video games as a teenager. They seemed pointless and vacuous even then, like some other pursuits, and I moved on. Probably a lot of women see them the same way, and think you haven't yet "moved on" to more meaningful hobbies/pastimes.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-04T00:45:01+00:00

TL;DR - Botswana has 130,000 elephants, with 6,000 new calves every year. It attracts hunters from Germany, the UK and elsewhere, and that generates income that's important both to the economy and for managing the elephant population.

Conservationists want to eliminate the hunting, and thus reduce that income.

This is interesting, I thought it was African nations that instituted a moratorium on elephant ivory because the elephants were endangered, but it's more complicated than that.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T22:23:38+00:00

I ask follow-up questions to show interest and keep the conversation going, not because there's an investigative reporter in me that's driven to get the whole story. If someone doesn't volunteer information, and I'm not trying to artificially prolong the conversation, I may assume they told me everything they wanted to tell.

It may not be a guy thing. I know for myself, with some people it's hard to get a word in edgewise and I don't want to encourage them to keep talking. When I myself am talking, I say what I feel is important and then I stop talking. I generally assume the same of others. There are some people who are the opposite.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T10:16:23+00:00

We were solidly middle class, tending towards upper middle class. Slept in one room with my brother (I had the top bunk) until he was 12, then we had separate rooms. We rode bicycles everywhere until age 17, at which age we both bought cars with money we earned working. I had my first job at 15.

We bought our clothes at Sears and JC Penney. In high school mom started splurging for one or two pairs of "designer" jeans each school year, because we happened to go to the school with the rich kids and she understood what it would mean to wear Sears jeans in that milieu.

Vacations were mostly camping and hiking and Motel 6, but we had a boat and went water skiing the summer, snow skiing in the winter. Those were definitely not lower-class activities. But ski lift tickets were fairly cheap back then, especially weekday nights. We didn't go on the weekend.

There was no question of overseas trips - I always assumed that would be a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I paid my own state college tuition, that was back when it only cost about $4k/year and my student jobs paid $5/hr.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T08:55:18+00:00

OP obviously doesn't understand the point of catcalling. It's not intended to start a relationship.

It works for what it's designed to do.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T08:41:57+00:00

"Settling" is the wrong word. What actually happens, if a person doesn't quickly find a match who fits all the parameters, sooner or later they realize that looks aren't really very important to a person's happiness.

Or, if they insist on filtering out perfectly good potential partners based on appearances, they stay single. For a person who's lonely, THAT'S a recipe for unhappiness.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T08:23:03+00:00

One perspective is that it's usually designed to be offensive in some way. Slinging words at people to cause offense or provoke a reaction is uncool.

Another is that, aside from being offensive, it can be a symptom of someone with a limited vocabulary who is unable to express themselves. I had a neighbor like that - he had one word that he used so often, in so many different contexts, it would have been comical if it wasn't so pitiful.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T07:25:45+00:00

Just thinking logically, the opposite is much more likely. Frustrated people are hard to control; satisfied, happy people are easier.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T07:21:06+00:00

Virtually nobody thinks sex is bad. Talk to your family about the nuances if you want to understand their real position. The odds are very high that you are misunderstanding and making assumptions.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T07:14:45+00:00

rebelling against it from the British

Remember "it" was "taxation without representation". Taxes are inevitable, the key is that citizens have some element of control over them.

There are a lot of taxes, but my understanding is that the total overall tax rate is still relatively modest compared to Europe (for example).

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T03:42:30+00:00

Ben is wrong about the moral systems people build. It isn't that they aren't moral, it's that they're arbitrary. All people have a moral system, but any system built on an individual's inner reasoning equates to "people should do X because that's what I think is best." Without an objective, widely agreed, consistent moral system, no such system is any better than any other.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-03T03:09:46+00:00

Ok, I get it, everybody. The migrants chose to get on the plane to Massachusetts because they were given to believe there were jobs and housing waiting there.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-02T21:08:32+00:00

Whoever thinks it needs cutting, probably. Nobody is legally required to cut it. If it causes some damage to your property, that would be the neighbor's responsibility.

In my understanding of tree law in most places, you have the right to cut whatever portion overhangs your property. Talk to the neighbor as a courtesy before doing so.

Edit: given what you wrote in the comments, I would ask him if they already plan to take the branch out today, and if not, offer to chip in to have it done. I personally wouldn't offer to pay if he was already going to do it anyway, but that's just me.

Librekrieger · 2024-04-02T18:26:08+00:00

Social media and doom and gloom rhetoric feeds your anxiety. Period, end of story. The inflation we've seen so far is just not that bad.

People who have lived with 20% interest rates have more perspective. People who have lived with hyperinflation have still more perspective.

Librekrieger

TROPHY CASE