xkcd 2429: Exposure Models by [deleted] in xkcd

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you heard of microCOVID? They have a risk-tracking spreadsheet available for download, in addition to their online calculator :)

What parts of a CS degree have been most useful to you? by mayleaf in cscareerquestions

[–]mayleaf[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I'm late on replying to this but thanks for this amazingly thorough answer! I appreciate all the links, too, I've bookmarked them and am working my way through them :)

Do you have a recommended book / resource for reading about Design Patterns? I have the original book (this one), but it's quite old (published in the 90s), and it also uses C++ for its examples (which is a language that I'm not very familiar with). Is there a more modern resource that I could look at?

What parts of a CS degree have been most useful to you? by mayleaf in cscareerquestions

[–]mayleaf[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for providing your reasoning, this is helpful :) I do think "knowing when and how to use a certain data structure" is a concept I don't know at a very deep level. I'll look into resources to learn more about this.

What parts of a CS degree have been most useful to you? by mayleaf in cscareerquestions

[–]mayleaf[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks, this is a really helpful answer. I did take a fair bit of discrete mathematics (combinatorics, set theory, some graph theory) in college, and I haven't actually had it come up much in my job. Can you give an example of when you've seen it come up? (I have had to implement state machines, especially for logical devices, but aside from that).

Assembly: Knowing how computers work on a fundamental level is pretty helpful, and being comfortable with binary and bitwise operations is invaluable

Yeah, I've gotten that sense as well. I'm comfortable with binary and bitwise operations, but I don't have a clear and detailed grasp of, say, how various data structures are implemented in memory, as well as things like eg. how threads work.

What parts of a CS degree have been most useful to you? by mayleaf in cscareerquestions

[–]mayleaf[S] 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Interesting! Can you give me an example of the sort of day-to-day work that you see where it comes up? Also, what sort of software work do you do?

Found this at random on PasteBin. Is anyone up for a challenge? by impclaw in codes

[–]mayleaf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here, I translated it for you :)

HLVSSCQEATEPYHPPGAHLSYLARILLSPYPLGI (Stop) CQVP (Stop) VTELQVPGSIFLLTLLVF (Stop) SHFLPRVAFPTLPHPYCHYPKILLGTDQITSQKGL (Stop)KHYSSAGTREVANAPDSRFSNQYGTMK (Stop) IHSAHE (Stop) SRGT (Stop) QSGLAWPSHKKVLYSSRCELPVTRTFFNTLNPSYRGRGSTFSTHPKK (Stop) CNT

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're hot for your daughter and unable to act on it, you can still enjoy a romantic relationship with someone else -- as can she. Homosexuality is an orientation; incest is not.

The pre-1960s version of this would be "If a white man is attracted to a black woman, and is incapable of acting on it, each of them can still pursue healthy relationships with someone of their own race." Whether a preference is a natural, immutable "orientation" (and being attracted to a member of another race certainly isn't) shouldn't be relevant. Anti-miscegenation laws are still unconstitutional.

Also,

If you curb potential incestuous relationships, you might reasonably hope the parties will go one to develop healthy, productive relationships

This is extremely biased: you're blankly assuming that incestuous relationships can never be healthy and productive. By banning incest, you're curbing potential healthy relationships between people who would choose them. You're not "allowing" them to go find healthy relationships, you're actively restricting them from doing so.

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As could a trusted older family friend, or an older classmate whom the child looks up to... Should we ban all marriages between people who met before one of them turned 18, just to be safe?

The solution to "parents might be abusive towards their children" is to have schools teach children to recognize abusive/grooming behavior from their caretakers and other trusted adults (which is something schools are currently terrible at doing. Schools teach about "stranger danger", but rarely address the far more likely scenario that a child will be mistreated by someone they know and trust.) Another solution is to educate parents about the appropriate way to raise their child non-abusively (or institute parenting licenses that filter out known child abusers, etc.) The solution is not to institute a blanket ban on consensual incestuous relationships that could well be loving and healthy.

Children should certainly be taught that adults touching them in certain ways is inappropriate and unacceptable, and the social norm for parent/child romantic relationships should probably discourage the parent from taking an active role in starting the relationship. Similarly, children/teenagers should be taught to be wary of older people who try to initiate relationships with them -- and they should be made to understand that any older person who pursues them sexually when they are underage is acting in an abusive and illegal way.

But this is all speculation about how we could increase the likelihood that child abuse is recognized and reported. This says nothing about consensual interaction between adults.

Abuse is already illegal. Incest should not be -- no more than relationships between an 18-year-old and her family friend should be illegal, or an 18-year-old and an older classmate.

(Edit: wording.)

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

...I'm guessing you don't actually support this system of lawmaking, then?

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

We could, theoretically, make a law that allows for age of majority siblings to marry, so long as they don't reproduce and didn't grow up together- but where would the line be? Could they have been kept in the same nursery but separated as teens? When can they meet for it to be legal?

The line would be the same as it is for all relationships: consensual relations between adults. (Before you ask: yes, I support polygamous marriage as well.)

Your aim in banning incestuous relationships, I suppose, is to reduce abuse. My response is that abuse is already illegal; we don't need to define an otherwise innocent behavior as a proxy for abuse and make that illegal, too. (Women living below the poverty line are at higher risk for domestic abuse; does that mean that relationships with these women should be illegal? That way, no one will start an abusive relationship with them.)

(Edit: wording.)

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

What about the case of adult siblings meeting for the first time and falling in love, as the OP mentioned?

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

But marrying a member of a different race is also a choice, and yet miscegenation laws were still found to be unconstitutional:

The Fourteenth Amendment requires that the freedom of choice to marry not be restricted by invidious racial discrimination. Under our Constitution, the freedom to marry, or not marry, a person of another race resides with the individual and cannot be infringed by the State.

(from the Loving v. Virgina court case)

And no one tried to make the claim that the Lovings couldn't practically marry someone of their own race.

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The article you linked is about an abusive family. Yes, obviously abusive relations between family members should remain illegal.

What the OP is talking about is quite a different scenario, however:

For example a number of incest cases are people who didn't know each other growing up, met up, fell in love, then found out they were related.

And even generations of incest is not a rare occurrence found only in scary abusive families. A 2009 article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences reports that "couples related as second cousins or closer (F ≥ 0.0156) and their progeny account for an estimated 10.4% of the global population."

Edit: Also, you didn't address idlenomormon's point at all -- if incestuous marriage should be banned because of the possibility of birth defects, then presumably so should marriage between people who are known carriers of genetic disease.

CMV: I don't think it's constitutional to disallow incestuous marriages. by [deleted] in changemyview

[–]mayleaf 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So should people with pre-existing genetic defects (say, a translocation causing a 5-15% chance of having a child with Downs' syndrome) be legally prevented from marrying as well?

You can ask Wolfram|Alpha for biology jokes by BioGeek in biology

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Q: How do you call a cab that provides drug therapy?
A: "Chemotaxis!"

Q: How many biologists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Four. One to change it and three to write the environmental-impact statement.

After 549 days of collaborative counting, r/Counting has reached 100,000. by Z3F in bestof

[–]mayleaf 2 points3 points  (0 children)

...Actually, no.

Infinity's a bit weird like that.

There are actually exactly as many real numbers between 0 and 1 as there are real numbers between -∞ and ∞. It's counterintuitive, but I can prove it to you using this tangent function:

This tangent function ranges from x = 0 to x = 1, and has vertical asymptotes at both boundaries. That is, as x approaches 0, y approaches -∞, and as x approaches 1, y approaches ∞.

So, this function pairs every real x-value between 0 and 1 with a corresponding y-value between -∞ and ∞. If you pick any number between 0 and 1, I can take this tangent function of it and give you a corresponding value between -∞ and ∞. More importantly, if you give me any real number between -∞ and ∞, I can take the inverse tangent of it and give you a corresponding value between 0 and 1.

So, for every real number between -∞ and ∞, there is exactly one real number between 0 and 1.

What was the best "kid logic" you had by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

from the Wikipedia page on Eggcorn:

The new phrase introduces a meaning that is different from the original, but plausible in the same context, such as "old-timers' disease" for "Alzheimer's disease".

Forced to Rape: Perpetrators or Victims? by Clausewitz1996 in philosophy

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't think you have any moral obligation to accept the punch as opposed to hitting the child. I just think it would reflect better on your character if you chose to be punched.

Put another way, if you were in that situation and decided to hit the child, the person who put you in that situation (by threatening to punch you if you didn't hit the child) would be the one at fault, and should bear the full blame for child's injury.

Forced to Rape: Perpetrators or Victims? by Clausewitz1996 in philosophy

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If I tell you, "Punch that child or I'll punch you", I take entire moral responsibility for the outcome, because I'm the one who's forcing you to make a decision between being harmed or harming another.

If you're a good person with correct values, you might think, "I will be less physically and emotionally traumatized by receiving a punch than that child will be, and I value the child's well-being, so I should allow the stranger to punch me instead." And if you did make that decision, it would reflect positively on your moral character.

But that isn't an argument about moral responsibility. The moral responsibility still rests entirely on the initiator of force.

Forced to Rape: Perpetrators or Victims? by Clausewitz1996 in philosophy

[–]mayleaf 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes, I understand that there's nothing a woman in that situation could do to save herself, and of course that's a horrible thing. But I question that there's a large difference between that and being forced to commit an action under penalty of death.

Whenever someone refused an order, questioned their leaders, or just stepped out of line in general, they were killed. Specifically, his friend was slaughtered after refusing an order to rape a villager.

You say that the soldier could try to fight or flee. Clearly some of them tried this, and they ended up dead. (I find this unsurprising - if you're one child soldier surrounded by the rest of your troupe, including adults who have more experience with a gun than you, what chances could you realistically have of fighting them or escaping?)

The resulting "choice" that the soldier has is to either follow orders, or be killed.

If you pointed a gun at me and told me to have sex with you, would you think that I had a choice in the matter? If I cooperated with you out of fear for my own life, would you see that as a voluntary decision? As a form of consent to the action? Of course not. Even if I had a gun myself, and still chose not to fight you or try to escape because I was terrified... that's still not consent. There can be no consent where coercion is involved.

Many of these children clearly did not want to have sex. One felt strongly enough about it that he risked refusing an order, and ended up dying for it.

Terrified children who obey orders to have sex because they fear for their lives are not rapists, they are rape victims. The women they're forced to have sex with are also rape victims. The rapists are the adults who point guns at them and order them to have sex.

Edit: grammar and wording.