💾 Archived View for gemini.susa.net › tweeters › tweets_paulg.gmi captured on 2020-09-24 at 03:17:42. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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I know 11 adults (ages 30-45) who've had the coronavirus. Of those 11, 4 are still feeling the effects 5 months later.
1. Three weeks ago, everyone was bashing the University of Illinois for having the audacity to run an in-person semester at a large state school by developing an in-house testing program test to screen 10,000 students per day.
A significant fraction of advising early stage startups is reassuring them when they're already doing the right thing, but worry that it's a mistake because it's not the conventional thing to do.
When the coronavirus epidemic is over, I doubt I'll unfollow all the infectious disease experts I followed. Which means if there's another epidemic, I'll get an early warning of it. Which means my Twitter account has acquired immunity.
Building a Center for X is popular with people who want to seem like they're doing x, but it's rarely the optimal first step to actually doing x.
Get to work now, and only build the center when the lack of it is the main thing holding you back.
Three strikes seems like a good principle, but muting is a fairly lightweight penalty and there are a lot of people on Twitter, so I use a one-strike rule for muting.
SOME GOOD NEWS! Conservationists in Indonesia are celebrating the birth of two Javan rhinos—a species listed as critically endangered and one of the rarest large mammals on Earth #WorldRhinoDay earther.gizmodo.com/two-critically…
earther.gizmodo.com/two-critically…
This is true except when the alternatives are, or appear to be, roughly the same quality. Which is why marketing is so important for vodka, cigarettes, watches, and so on. And why it was so important for American cars in 1970.
11 yo has always taken the (heated) front seat on school runs. I told 8 yo it belonged to whoever got there first. So this morning he did. 11 yo angrily got in the back. Huge smile on 8 yo's face when he realized he wouldn't be ejected. "Turn it all the way up," he said.
Very good to see that Anthony Fauci, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden all agree on something important.
When they are looking for reliable data they all go to OurWorldInData.org. pic.twitter.com/nfaNGz5FBr
A teacher explains how Replit "has brought about a quantum leap in the way we are working with pupils." pic.twitter.com/iaFOwdiDa7
Jessica caught a glimpse of the book I was reading and was surprised that I'd become interested in American history. pic.twitter.com/5O6oc5EYZW
The great thing about this effort is that even if it doesn't win the election, it will at least help all these people.
Donating to politics always depresses me because when you lose it's like the money was just burnt.
11 yo and 8 yo were surprised to learn that Martin Luther and Martin Luther King were two separate people.
There was quite a lot of censorship of books in the past.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Licensing…
The trademark symbol weakens it.
Lower status tempts people to use more jargon, to cover up their insecurity. sciencedirect.com/science/articl… pic.twitter.com/efeYnKgix5
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
You can use AdBlock to clean up Twitter's web UI. Breaks messages, but you can get that back when you need by pausing AdBlock. pic.twitter.com/99qMWcOlpH
Neither learning to play chess, playing an instrument, nor learning a second language improves academic achievement/cognitive development, according to studies. twitter.com/emollick/statu…
Google.
"I need you to tell me what to do. I know what I want to do. I just need you to tell me to."
— how Jessica asks for advice
A long historical lecture apparently.
Imagine if, for example, the National Book Awards announced that a novel couldn't win unless it contained certain types of characters. It would seem pretty shocking. And yet when the Oscars impose such restrictions it seems par for the course.
We take for granted censorship of movies and TV shows that we'd be shocked at in books. Do we give books a pass because they're the way the elite communicate? Or are books ignored because the audience is so much smaller? Probably some of both.
Weak college leaders everywhere are willing to throw faculty to the wolves to appease absurd demands by ill-informed students. This is unethical and defies reason.
The Fight Against Words That Sound Like, but Are Not, Slurs. Via @conor64 theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
A really peculiar way to define π is undoubtedly Ramanujan’s formula for π [read more: bit.ly/2hLmwfT] pic.twitter.com/ZYOkTUkjsE
Macdonald's. When I was a kid it was the number one possible treat. But I'm not 100% sure the food didn't actually get worse. E.g. for sure the fries have less salt.
I wonder how they managed to stretch the image so much pre-Photoshop. Did they use a super thin model? Or did they stick her in afterward? pic.twitter.com/UeS7Azz2Sc
11 yo: Do you have a death wish?
8 yo: No, why?
11 yo: You asked Dad the purpose of something.
Infante Carlos, 1607-1632 & his sister, Infanta Maria Anna 1606-1646, painted in 1612
and
Ferdinand IV, 1633-1654 & his sister Archduchess Maria Anna, 1634-1696, painted in 1636
Twenty-four years is a long time in élite fashions...
(Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien) pic.twitter.com/C0yiMqPCsu
Yep! Works like a charm.
There is a connection between spelling and being smart though. Most people learn spelling by reading, and as Charlie Munger said, "In my whole life, I have known no wise people — over a broad subject matter area — who didn’t read all the time. None. Zero."
11 yo asked why he had to learn spellings. I told him honestly that although spelling may not really matter, if he couldn't spell, people would think he was stupid. And that was sufficiently motivating.
That's not true, incidentally. Officially it continued to be called Constantinople (Konstantiniyye) long after it was captured by the Turks. And informally it was called Istanbul long before it was captured.
cperciva is the current record holder for HN comebacks:
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083
news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35083
One of the most interesting essays I've read this year. Not surprisingly, since cperciva is one of the smartest people I know. (Once again, HN plays its traditional role of supplying the inspiringly mistaken opinion.)
daemonology.net/blog/2020-09-2…
daemonology.net/blog/2020-09-2…
You could get from Peking to Constantinople going through only two intermediate countries.
quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/laz…
quoteinvestigator.com/2014/02/26/laz…
"I'm not lazy, I'm efficient. They mean the same thing."
— 8 yo
Fascinating, if imperfect study finds eyeglasses may be protective v COVID19. 31.5% of Hubei are near-sighted, with only a small minority who don’t wear glasses. But among COVID19 hospital patients in 1 town, only 5.8% wore specs >8h/day (all for myopia). jamanetwork.com/journals/jamao…