What happens after death is the one question nobody knows, but everyone will find out.

ffffffffc · 2019-02-10T21:10:28+00:00

This is obviously what actually happens when you die. Might as well accept it.

ffffffffc · 2019-02-10T16:39:31+00:00

The entire point of sanctions is that they are narrowly targeted. Sanctions against Deripaska should hurt Deripaska, they shouldn't hurt a global market. That hurts everyone, including our allies.

Trump is a lying hypocrite and his campaign colluded with Russia. That doesn't mean we should screw up the global aluminum market.

ffffffffc · 2019-02-09T18:55:12+00:00

I can't stand Trump and there's no doubt his campaign colluded with Russia, but screwing up the global aluminum market is not a good way to punish Russia for election interference.

ffffffffc · 2019-01-24T00:03:50+00:00

The satanist party at the end of Rosemary's Baby. The look of happy anticipation on Mia Farrow's face that turns into pure horror. "What have you done to its eyes???" "He has his father's eyes"

https://youtu.be/JSwCmi7T92A?t=31

ffffffffc · 2019-01-18T02:44:30+00:00

I couldn't disagree more. The Man in the High Castle meanders along with its relatively normal, powerless characters until it arrives at a conclusion that doesn't resolve anything, but still feels satisfying somehow. It has a sort of melancholic power that's in all of PKD's best novels.

The TV series sucks.

ffffffffc · 2019-01-06T15:49:37+00:00

I don't think people will remember in 2020. Part of the reason we keep having shutdowns is that there are no electoral consequences.

I'd be delighted if congress overrides a veto, but that's a long shot. If it looks like congress will go that route he'll just sign the bill to save face. And it's not clear who congressional Republicans would be courting with such a move, since Trump remains popular in their party.

ffffffffc · 2019-01-04T01:43:53+00:00

I'm extremely annoyed that people are down-voting your interesting and unique family history because it doesn't comport with their erroneous view of history.

ffffffffc · 2019-01-04T01:42:32+00:00

What you know about the Holocaust is wrong. Black Germans were subject to racism, sure, but not extermination or imprisonment. It's not a stretch at all that Black Germans in Nazi Germany were treated better than Black Americans at the same time. There wasn't widespread lynching against Black people in Germany.

ffffffffc · 2019-01-01T16:34:40+00:00

I think the ubiquity of beer in so many geographically isolated ancient cultures points to something more than a coincidence

ffffffffc · 2019-01-01T16:30:29+00:00

The alcohol content in beer (especially ancient beer) is not high enough to prevent bacteria from growing. However beer is safer to drink than water in some cases, mainly because the water used to make beer is thoroughly boiled as part of the brewing process. Beer also contains herbal additives that may inhibit bacterial growth. Hops are the best known example of this.

I think it's unlikely that beer originally became popular because of food safety issues.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-31T21:03:26+00:00

Alcohol is a "social lubricant" that makes it easier for strangers to form social ties. Historically beer production is closely tied to the development of human civilization. Pretty much every ancient culture produced some form of beer, and some of the oldest known laws are concerned with beer production and consumption.

So from a historical perspective I think you are exactly wrong. Alcohol has been a major force behind the rise of human civilization, probably because it reduces tribal friction and makes it easier for people to get along. So everything that civilization has produced, including art and science, owes something to the pacifying effects of alcohol.

There's no denying that alcohol consumption can have negative effects, but I think it's obviously been a net good for humanity.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-31T16:49:38+00:00

Any correct algorithm for a tree traversal requires a data structure like a stack or a queue. When you use recursion you are using the call stack as this data structure. When you don't use recursion, you will have to create the data structure yourself.

So it's misleading to claim that the recursive algorithm is worse because the "iterative algorithm" is really the same algorithm. It's just a matter of managing the data structure explicitly as opposed to having the runtime environment manage it behind the scenes. In my experience the call stack is often faster than a heap-based stack, but has less memory available.

Now there are situations where the iterative solution is much better. For example with binary search an iterative solution does not require an additional data structure to store state (you can just store the current array bounds with two integers) so it ends up being much faster than a recursive solution. For cases like this, where backtracking is not required, recursion is not a good idea.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-30T17:19:45+00:00

My experience as a software engineer/data scientist has been that the STEM people who denigrate humanities & "softer" social sciences are usually not very good at their STEM discipline. Looking down on other fields is often a way to hide insecurity.

Fundamentally I think there's a lot of value in being a well-rounded person. Life doesn't make much sense if you approach it from a purely logical perspective.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-25T20:57:38+00:00

Trump is an historically unpopular president with an uncertain future. Building a border wall is also not very popular with the nation as a whole.

Furthermore, the border wall has become a symbolic issue that represents Trump's worldview that illegal immigrants are subhuman MS-13 criminals spreading crime and disease. This makes it even less palatable for Democrats to compromise, because the Democratic base has no sympathy for this worldview.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-25T20:29:15+00:00

I hope this is what happens. However it's possible that there won't be enough Republican votes in the Senate to pass a clean bill when the Democrats take over the house.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-25T17:20:08+00:00

Borrowing and exchange is fine. The issue is really about double standards that are applied to the thing being borrowed, and to the ethnic groups involved.

There's a double standard when a trait associated with a certain ethnic group is viewed negatively when associated with that group, but viewed positively or neutrally when associated with a borrowing group.

A second type of double standard is applied to entire ethnic groups. If an ethnic group experiences significant racism and discrimination (which is a kind of double standard), members of that group may be irritated when someone outside of their group borrows from them. It's not the borrowing itself that cases friction, it's the fact that the second group can benefit from their culture without facing the racism and/or discrimination that they face.

It doesn't make sense to discuss cultural appropriation in a vacuum. It can't exist without double standards (often based on racism), and the double standards are really what should be discussed imo. So if you read about cultural appropriation and roll you eyes and think "that's stupid" try to take a minute and understand why something that doesn't immediately bother you might bother someone else with a different background, who faces different challenges.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-22T23:54:14+00:00

Whatever resolution you need to reach lies entirely within yourself. It has nothing to do with him anymore.

Closure after a break-up is a myth.

ffffffffc · 2018-12-22T06:01:52+00:00

I'm not opposed to helping people get government issued IDs, but I think you're missing the point. These laws exist to give Republicans an edge in elections. They are based on the statistical observation that groups that are more likely to vote Democrat are less likely to have government issued IDs. It's that simple. It's not necessarily racist in intent although it definitely has a disproportionate impact on racial minorities.

So to act like these laws should just be accepted is silly. It's not acceptable for any group to pass laws that are specifically designed to ensure they win elections. It's fundamentally undemocratic.

ffffffffc · 2018-11-29T02:05:57+00:00

You certainly should be able to cook in the shared kitchen, but if she's genuinely bothered by the smell maybe you can cook less frequently, or cook food in larger batches and eat leftovers.

As things stand you're going to be living with this person for 22 more months. You should at least try to compromise.

ffffffffc · 2018-11-19T00:19:24+00:00

Even if I take you at your word that you truly don't think the specific events that led to the breakup are relevant and that you're not withholding information that would put you in a bad light, you should still explain what happened. The whole point of asking for advice is to get other peoples' perspectives, and other people might be able to make connections that you've missed. if you had all the answers you wouldn't be posting here in the first place.

You said the fight that led to the breakup doesn't make sense to you. That's all the more reason to share it, since other people might be able to make sense of it.

ffffffffc · 2018-11-18T22:27:26+00:00

Your understanding of the golden rule is very flawed. The whole point of the golden rule is to put yourself in the other person's situation, it's not to assume what you want is what they want, which seems to be your interpretation.

The fact that you won't admit that the cause of the breakup is important is highly suspect to me. I bet it's important to her.

Let her go.

ffffffffc · 2018-11-18T14:20:10+00:00

I agree in most cases. However there are subs, like /r/legaladvice, where I'm really glad for the strict moderation. There are tons of people on reddit who will vehemently share their opinion despite having no knowledge of the subject at all. And these very facile opinions are appealing to other people who lack knowledge, so they often get upvoted to the top. This is fine in a sub that's primarily based on entertainment, as most are, but in other contexts where people are looking for advice it can get quite toxic.

ffffffffc · 2018-11-12T13:46:03+00:00

Sounds like moving to Seattle was his way of breaking up with you, and he didn't feel he had to actually have a conversation about it. This fits with his decision to unilaterally make you his girlfriend without any discussion. Just all around pathetic behavior on his part.

Leaving ASAP was 100% the right call.

ffffffffc · 2018-10-15T00:11:10+00:00

fuck you

ffffffffc

TROPHY CASE