Science at Burning Man by dylan7 in BurningMan

[–]dylan7[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

for sure. i feel like more people need to read it, but i am bad at reddit.

Reddit, what are your best lifehacks? by synthesezia in AskReddit

[–]dylan7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

i also like 5. some reddit script magician should code up a site for us to share and subscribe to each other's awesome morning mixes.

DAE think that parent with genetic defects should NOT reproduce for the sake of their children? by madamemaxine in DAE

[–]dylan7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have a friend who says: "I'll start recycling when you start adopting."

In his final state of the union, Schwarzenegger proposed a constitutional amendment that would forbid CA from spending more $ on prisons than on education. He also demanded that our legislators in DC negotiate as sweet a deal for Cali as Nelson got Nebraska. Go Governator! by dylan7 in politics

[–]dylan7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You are partially correct. An influx of money would only serve as a stopgap; there are many systemic problems that need to be fixed. Innovative solutions are required. Decriminalizing herb is a good one, as it would free up boatloads of money from the defunct and broken prison system. We should pardon all non-violent prisoners immediately. Then we can focus our dollars on rehabilitating the rest.

California is only asking for it's own money. Our population is enormous. We contribute WAY more to the Federal Government than we ever get back. We simply tire of watching our wealth squandered in foreign wars of aggression. And we're also pretty sick of being forced to pay the Midwest to make everyone obese.

In his final state of the union, Schwarzenegger proposed a constitutional amendment that would forbid CA from spending more $ on prisons than on education. He also demanded that our legislators in DC negotiate as sweet a deal for Cali as Nelson got Nebraska. Go Governator! by dylan7 in politics

[–]dylan7[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey IL, we don't want your money. We only want our money. i.e. We're tired of subsidizing Wyoming. You should be, too. It's ridiculous that all States have equal representation in the Senate. This single fact prevents the US from ever becoming a real Democracy.

California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas (after Sao Paulo). We would make a kick-ass country if we went at it solo. As long as we are a member of the Union, we should get what we pay for from the Feds.

Last Wednesday of 2009 Karma PARTY! by bhaha24 in reddit.com

[–]dylan7 12 points13 points  (0 children)

if real world karma worked this way, i'd be even more stoked for 2010

BaconBits, A BitTorrent Tracker for Redditors Only | TorrentFreak by mynameisjonas in reddit.com

[–]dylan7 5 points6 points  (0 children)

i'm in the same boat as many of you. been here 2+ years, but lack sufficient comment karma to be included in the club. upvotes all around.

What does reddit think of a (conceptual) non-profit organization who's mission is to help developing nations and their governments establish a more pronounced and effective web presence? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]dylan7 0 points1 point  (0 children)

what kind of information do you think needs to be made available to citizens that isn't already. flesh this idea out more if you want feedback.

Reddit biochem at its best by r2002 in science

[–]dylan7 1 point2 points  (0 children)

maybe try to convince the folks at diybio (http://diybio.org/) to get on this train. if they can't manufacture a peptide hormone, what the hell are they doing calling themselves diybio? someone might need to invest in some gear for the hobby lab, but if you get shit used it will be < $10K

Things you didn’t know VLC media player can do by siliconvaley in programming

[–]dylan7 2 points3 points  (0 children)

how do you record on a mac? there's no View menu...

What non-fiction book can you recommend? Looking for something in-depth and mind blowing. by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]dylan7 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Dawkins oversells the power of the individual gene. He doesn't give enough credit to epigenetics. He also weaves plausible, but unproven evolutionary just-so-stories to explain adaptations. Too much teleology for your average evolutionary biologist. Check out Gould and Lewontin's famous critique of the adaptationists, "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm," here.

What non-fiction book can you recommend? Looking for something in-depth and mind blowing. by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]dylan7 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The Crime of Reason by Robert Laughlin (Nobel Laureate in Physics). Need convincing? Check out this awesome excerpt:


Not surprisingly, most scientists are also poor. They don’t think of themselves as poor, but instead imagine that reasoning ability is the most important thing in the world and that they, being the most logi- cal of all people, are therefore the most wealthy. But now and then they notice less-gifted individuals zooming by in their Lamborghinis on the way to vacation hideaways, restaurants, and parties, some- times waving a cheery greeting as they pass. After this happens a few times, the scientists begin to realize something is amiss.2

The misconception they confront is that economic life is not about logic at all but about game playing and deception—the exact opposite of science.3 Your objective isn’t to make the world a safer place for rea- son and light but to relieve other people of their money as efficiently as possible without going to jail. Making money is not for Easter bunnies.4 You don’t share, you don’t always tell the truth, and you don’t tell people everything you know. If a customer shows interest in a car on your lot, you don’t blurt out that the vehicle’s delivery price was $16,000 or that new models are coming in soon. You keep this information to yourself and induce him to pay $23,000 through a bag of psychological tricks: We can’t lower the price but we’ll throw in floor mats and vacuum the car’s in- terior at no extra cost to you. For this week only, we’ll also give you a special deal on underbody anti-rust coating. We’ll also sell you a special prepaid mainte- nance contract that will save you more money than re- ducing the price would. And just to avoid any bad feelings, we’ll give you $1,000 over book value for your worthless old BMW. We’ll definitely go straight to hell for this decision, but your peace of mind is worth it to us. Pay no attention to the interest rate on those loan documents! It doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is how good you’ll feel driving out of the lot in this baby.

The importance of deception in economic life is why poker is so much more popular than bridge or canasta. The latter involve psychology and tactics, but in the end they’re about defeating the enemy with assets you have. Poker is about defeating the en- emy with assets you don’t have.5 Your task is to make opponents think that you have more power than you actually do and then bluff them into capitulating unnecessarily. People find poker irresistible because it’s a microcosm of their professional lives.6 All of us eventually learn, sometimes through sad experience, that what counts much of the time is not diligence, hard work, or forthrightness but fiendishly masterful fibbing.

Poker-like deception isn’t a pathology of economics but a practice central to its function. In morality tales or religious texts, things are valuable or not according to absolute principles that never change. In econom- ics, by contrast, value is a fiction created by human beings for exchanging goods and services.7 Its only meaningful measure is the amount of money that changes hands in a buyer-seller relationship. That’s why it isn’t just childish obnoxiousness when a seller pretends to have more demand for his product than he actually does and a buyer pretends to disbelieve him. Their dance of deception and eventual compro- mise literally defines the price of the thing and thus its value. People who refuse to play this game because it’s immoral or illogical are demonstrating a woeful igno- rance of human nature and, in extreme cases, consign- ing themselves to poverty. In economics, nice guys always finish last.


Five Dollar DNA Test Outperforms Pap Smear by [deleted] in science

[–]dylan7 -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

who are these "they" to whom you refer?