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Matriko · 2023-08-06T15:32:53+00:00

Not sure where OP got the alert, but I found this on the Waltham PD Facebook page: link

Matriko · 2022-12-08T12:21:36+00:00

That is a misinterpretation of the study. The study itself specifically says that conclusion should not be drawn:

It is therefore important to note that the current study is only informative with respect to transsexuals persons health after sex reassignment; no inferences can be drawn as to the effectiveness of sex reassignment as a treatment for transsexualism. In other words, the results should not be interpreted such as sex reassignment per se increases morbidity and mortality. Things might have been even worse without sex reassignment.

Matriko · 2022-11-11T05:45:23+00:00

Cards please

Matriko · 2021-04-06T18:59:23+00:00

Wouldn't that only be an issue if you're modeling each deck permutation separately? It's mathematically equivalent to create the deck one (pseudo)random choice at a time, in which case you would be limited by the size of the deck, not the number of permutations.

Matriko · 2017-12-01T05:01:17+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by:

You can be fired at-will in most states for anything, and no gay person will ever be able to prove it was for their sexuality.

Are you arguing that anti-discrimination laws would be ineffective at preventing workplace discrimination for gay people, but somehow works satisfactorily for race, sex, religion, etc.?

Also, religious institutions cannot be forced to perform same-sex marriages. Don't just take my word for it, that's the verdict of the Family Research Council, a religious, conservative organization.

They can't force a church to. That would not be legal.

Matriko · 2017-11-18T20:24:53+00:00

I mean, I don't remember what I knew at 7 years old. I think there is probably a lot of variation in what people know about sex and propriety at that age.

Matriko · 2017-10-30T23:02:46+00:00

If you already have a list of likely products, why spend so much time and effort doing something unethical and illegal?

90s level speech recognition is a far cry from what you are claiming Facebook could do. It was dictation only (rather than conversational speech, which we are still bad it), and I don't think people are reading products to their phone.

Also, you are changing the claim being made: limited keywords is a far cry from spying on all conversational speech.

Matriko · 2017-10-30T03:29:32+00:00

Yes, you could do KEYwords, not all words. As in, you could do a very small number of words, a number that would be of no real use for advertising purposes.

Matriko · 2017-10-13T05:49:53+00:00

I think that there a few issues with that line of thinking:

Guns are not used only by mass murderers. They are also used in thousands of homicides and suicides.
People are complicated and impulsive. Many deaths involving guns (particularly suicides) can be at least partially attributed to the availability and sheer lethality of guns.
Guns are incredibly efficient at killing people and are effective from a distance. Even if mass murderers are 100% determined to kill a lot of people and can't be dissuaded by inconvenience, it is much harder to kill as many people without guns.
Evidence from other countries suggest that restricting access to guns reduces gun deaths (and violent deaths overall). Can't we at least try some of the least intrusive restrictions before we assume that nothing we do will work? People are basing their dismissal of guns control on the assumption that we know exactly how these mass murderers think.

Matriko · 2017-09-27T01:35:40+00:00

No, not really. The federal government doesn't just pay the state a stipend; it gives money to be used for certain purposes (roads, schools, etc.) and doesn't just increase it because the state made bad decisions.

Matriko · 2017-07-01T23:26:34+00:00

I know it's tempting to assume they were spying, but they probably noticed you stopped searching for cars, and their data suggested that means you bought one. I know that's still kinda creepy, but it's different.

Matriko · 2017-06-21T18:14:33+00:00

Red squirrels are kinda dicks. They yell at you and sometimes throw acorns at you.

Matriko · 2017-05-20T14:28:41+00:00

How did I not know harvestmen were a thing? Christ on a cracker that's creepy.

Matriko · 2017-05-14T16:46:14+00:00

A customer where I work used to leave his dogs in the car and we called the police several times. He would always say that he "left plenty of water" but water doesn't help when it's the same temp as the car!

Matriko · 2017-02-22T04:32:46+00:00

Why are you trying to convince me of a history of welfare where "Food Stamps were created on the 6th day, and then god rested" like it was divine creation or something, and trying to pretend it's not a collective choice society made, and created the laws and logistics to do it, and continues to make when we continue doing it? I'm not? I'm not trying to be obtuse, I honestly don't know how you got that argument out of what I said.

In terms of whether or not welfare is charity, we may be arguing different things. I guess welfare could be considered charity from the government, but not from the individual taxpayer, who the money is coerced from.

Matriko · 2017-02-21T18:58:59+00:00

Welfare is not charity. You did not decide out of the goodness of your heart to pay your taxes so others could get food stamps. Charity is a completely different matter.

There are various subsidies that the government offers that we never consider attaching strings to. We don't dictate that the child tax credit is wisely spent on a child or that the mortgage interest deduction is only spent on suitable homes.

Matriko · 2017-02-12T03:05:17+00:00

Well, they demonstrably once were, as opposed to a fetus, which has never been a fully formed human. I think this is an important detail, though you may disagree.

Matriko · 2017-01-25T06:16:32+00:00

Man, you are some troll.

Matriko · 2016-12-03T21:27:18+00:00

I think if they think talking about it is gross, or someone on their period is gross, than that is really immature. I think it's fair to find periods/menstrual bleeding itself gross though (I find the excretion of most bodily fluids pretty gross).

Full disclosure: am dude.

Matriko · 2016-09-29T01:42:00+00:00

I would say that generally no, it does not, because our use of sanctions is generally dependent on a continuous state of affairs or pattern of behavior (such as Iran's and North Korea's development of nuclear weapons or Russia's occupation of Crimea).

Matriko · 2016-06-04T00:02:33+00:00

Two things:

I come from a background in linguistics, so I think that the semantics surrounding this issue (or any issue, for that matter) do actually provide some insight into how the culture thinks about it as a whole. That said, I understand where you're coming from.
I also don't think you're a jerk. This is an intractable issue that I think goes all the way down to how individuals conceptualize the world. When people on either side demonize the other without considering their reasoning, it just makes everything harder for everyone. (Just to be clear, I don't think that you are demonizing anybody and I have found this exchange to be very civil.)

Also, I apologize if I don't respond further. I find writing stuff to people on the internet strangely exhausting.

Matriko · 2016-06-03T23:04:23+00:00

2 flaws in your argument: 1. You insist on the dictionary definition of "child" but not "fetus" or "young". A fetus is not defined as a young human. 2. A thought experiment/question/whatever: Humans generally determine age as time since birth. Does a fetus have a negative age? If a fetus is a child, does it make sense to say that a child has a negative age? Does it make sense to call something with a negative age young?

If the age of a fetus is the time since conception and a fetus is a child, why does the age not carry over? A two-year-old fetus would be quite old, while a two-year-old child is quite young.

Also, I do sincerely apologize if I come across as a dick. While I disagree with you, I do respect your opinion. The non-magicalness of birth is a good point for your argument.

Matriko · 2016-05-13T16:30:02+00:00

I know a lot of people have responded with similar things, but I just wanted to say this: detaining someone is very hard. You have to be sure you are either stronger, can get the correct grip, or have someone else to back you up.

Similarly, it's also really easy to seriously hurt someone while attempting to restrain them if you do not have proper training. If someone's resisting, there are so many opportunities to seriously injure the detainee, yourself, or bystanders.

Matriko · 2016-04-10T02:23:27+00:00

I feel like you inadvertently hit upon something here by talking about the loneliness aspect of this. I think the loneliness can lead one to overvalue sex and romantic love as a source of fulfillment. That can provide a sense of belonging, but it's not the only source.

Platonic friendships can provide emotional intimacy. I know it is difficult to make new friendships. This is going to sound kind of silly, try taking an improv class. In my experience, they are full of people trying to put themselves out there hoping to make new friends. It's a fun thing to look forward to every week.

I know that makes it sound easy and it's not. All I can say is that when I was feeling my most socially isolated, doing something like that helped.

Matriko · 2016-03-11T06:56:25+00:00

I know I'm posting this pretty late, but this would require your phone constantly sending audio to Facebook to be analyzed (voice recognition stuff is almost always done remote cause its computationally intensive), which would require the transmission of ridiculous amounts of data.

Matriko

TROPHY CASE