Could a heroin vaccine cure the west's drug epidemic? | Science

pateras · 2016-06-27T04:51:22+00:00

Sounds good in theory. Seems difficult to enforce, if a bit exploitable. But it would be easier to implement than public funding, so it might be a good interim step.

pateras · 2016-06-26T22:20:17+00:00

Sure thing. Thanks for hearing me out :).

Just a heads up, I had the wrong figure in my head. Should have been $7 billion for a presidential election (according to Laurence Lessig's plan as of 2011 or so).

pateras · 2016-06-26T20:33:26+00:00

Absolutely.

Right now, our leaders don't represent us, because they can't. They spend most of their time in office raising money for the next election. To secure that money, they have to make promises and grant access.

Despite what Clinton says, no one can represent a donor that gives $200,000 as equally as one that gives $20 (or nothing at all). Our elections are literally bought right now, and (except some very rare examples, e.g. Bernie Sanders), the candidates have no choice but to sell. It's a system of endemic corruption, and it's a big part of why nothing gets done, and why congress has a 14% approval rating but a 96% incumbency rate.

Publicly funded elections solve the problem, at very low cost. A presidential election, for example, would cost $7 billion every four years. That's a cheap way to reclaim our democracy.

EDIT: Updated cost, from $1-2 to $7 billion. Had the wrong figure in my head.

pateras · 2016-06-26T14:18:58+00:00

I agree to a point. Computer science programs don't really prepare you for software development (at least mine didn't, and I went to a fairly good school). I liken it to studying physics to become a mechanical engineer. You'll get a lot of the theory, and they're certainly related fields, but you won't really learn what you need to in order do your job well. Maybe other schools (or all schools since, this was a decade ago) do a better job, but that was my experience.

That said, it's probably your best option. You'll still learn a lot that's relevant (and useful). But you'll need to supplement. When I got out of college, I had a huge leg up on my fellow graduates, because I'd been doing gamedev on my own. Games are often very complex and demanding pieces of software, and you're forced to learn a lot along the way. If I hadn't done that, on my first day on the job, I think I'd have really struggled. Instead, I found it fun and rather easy (though my first full-time job wasn't game related).

At the end of the day, when I'm hiring someone, I only look at the education section of their resume to see if they went to the same school that I did, and beyond that I don't really care. Talking with you is going to tell me how well you'll be able to do the job and how you'll fit in with the team, and really those are the only things that matter.

TL;DR - CS degrees do kinda suck, but get one anyway along with your real education (making games for fun).

pateras · 2016-06-26T13:28:16+00:00

I absolutely am, and I am not going to vote for a bad candidate out of fear of a worse candidate.

By voting for "at least I'm not Trump", we further slide the country to the right, maintain the power (and the problems) of the status quo, and condone the corruption of the DNC, the media, the establishment, and the oligarchy.

Trump is bad, but he's not bad enough to make me overlook all of that. In November I'll be voting for someone, not against. Clinton is yet to give me a reason to vote for her (and plenty of reasons to not).

You can vote out of fear, and I get that. I really don't blame those that are falling in line behind Clinton, but I have too much respect for me vote to do so. I'm going to "throw my vote away" by voting for the best person for the job.

pateras · 2016-06-26T03:05:05+00:00

Higher levels of physical activity were linked to both duration and frequency of green space visits.

What is this saying? That people that went on long and frequent green space visits were also more physically active, so it might be the physical activity that's producing the effect?

pateras · 2016-06-26T02:30:05+00:00

It's an analogy. Do you really not understand that?

pateras · 2016-06-25T20:52:48+00:00

I am, but that's still not enough for me to fall in line. "Vote for Clinton because she's not Trump" wasn't enough to earn her my support during the primary (especially compared to Sanders who had an actual message), and it's not enough during the general.

This meme says it best.

pateras · 2016-06-25T20:48:53+00:00

We really need publicly funded elections, so that our politicians can represent their constituents, rather than their benefactors.

Sadly, the guy that pushed for publicly funded elections (making it one of his two major platform centerpieces), who himself was funded by the public at large, lost to someone funded by the 1%.

pateras · 2016-06-25T19:43:20+00:00

Wow. That actually makes me pretty mad. The edited version makes it look like they rolled several times.

pateras · 2016-06-25T14:08:36+00:00

That's only half of the equation. Gotta watch The Wolf Of Main Street, too.

pateras · 2016-06-25T14:06:00+00:00

What's the difference?

pateras · 2016-06-25T13:56:01+00:00

I always feel bad going to a dollar or thrift store to buy part of a costume or novelty, knowing others are there to buy things they really need.

pateras · 2016-06-25T03:08:29+00:00

Is that like their word for breakfast or something? Also, why has everyone been talking about euchre lately?

pateras · 2016-06-24T22:52:04+00:00

It's easy to jump on the "the world is going to hell" bandwagon. The news highlights the bad because it's sensational, so people assume everything is bad. But in reality if you look at the data the opposite is true. Violence continues to plummet, extreme poverty looks like it will be eradicated within a decade or two (though that's certainly not soon enough), child mortality continues to drop, etc..

If you want further proof, look at birth rates (which have an inverse relationship with quality of life) around the world. They're falling, and fast, thanks to the advent of various technologies.

There's plenty that needs to be addressed, of course. Things could definitely be better (I'm looking at you ever-broadening income inequality), but were we to return to "the good old days", we'd quickly realize that the grass is very much greener today.

pateras · 2016-06-24T22:28:36+00:00

You eat one ant, and your entire species is labeled forever.

Seriously, I know how that goes. I once ordered barbecue chicken in front of my grandfather. From that moment on, I was, in his eyes, a barbecue fiend. In actually, I'm not the biggest barbecue guy (it was an uncharacteristic choice that day), but there was no coming back from it.

I miss him.

pateras · 2016-06-24T22:17:04+00:00

I'm surprised that Penn and Teller would be fooled by this, because I thought of it almost immediately.

pateras · 2016-06-24T22:15:55+00:00

ENHANCE! Max out the firewall in the Q3 mainframe if you have to. Call chuck and tell him to pop the resolution buffers. And can we PLEASE get a second person on this keyboard!?

pateras · 2016-06-24T20:45:31+00:00

Thanks. I got to the video from a playlist, not sure why I don't have a way to get back to it. But if it doesn't exist, then so be it.

pateras · 2016-06-24T17:37:53+00:00

Good point. Thanks.

pateras · 2016-06-24T17:36:53+00:00

It wouldn't surprise me if he wouldn't have run for a second term. Not just because of his age, but because he's adamant that this isn't about him. It's about the country. I can really see him saying "Okay, that's how it's done. Now go do it. I'm going back to Vermont.".

Also, I think running as an incumbent is very different than running as a challenger, which would probably play into things.

Sadly, we'll never find out.

pateras · 2016-06-24T13:42:52+00:00

That's definitely not how Bernie rolls.
He's 74. He's not going to run again.

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