Uncategorized

Here’s an interesting crowd control mechanism for discussion forums:

A hellbanned user is invisible to all other users, but crucially, not himself. From their perspective, they are participating normally in the community but nobody ever responds to them.

Neat. No point in rebooting with a new ID because nothing appears to be amiss. In the comments there’s this interesting tidbit, too:

You’d be surprised at how little of your identity is made up of login/OpenID/e-mail/IP/etc and how much of it is made up of behavior. Duplicate identities are very easy to spot in the vast majority of cases.

I’m reminded the brouhaha surrounding Scott Adams’ pseudonymous self-defense over some controversial article he wrote or something. Apparently, he was all over the web on all kinds of forums sticking up for himself. At the time it was pretty easy to find the stuff he was writing as ‘PlannedChaos’ (it still is).

The point is, to anyone familiar with his writing, it is brutally obvious that PlannedChaos is Scott Adams.

It seems that the moment there is some value to unmasking someone, pseudonyms are mostly useless.

Another way of saying that is: the only time they’re supposed to work, they don’t.

Here is Michael Lind:

it appears that there may be enough accessible hydrocarbons to power industrial civilization for centuries, if not millennia, to come

Hardly the last word, but so much for this.

Probably enough evidence on both sides for everyone to happily live in the status quo and predict its demise for decades to come.

 

• Nutrition
• Functional Movement (ie athletic injuries)
• Illnesses I’ve had before.

Equivalent to about 98% of my medical needs.

Does this mean doctors are a bigger or smaller deal?

Why is the most important one for overall health (Nutritionist) the only one NOT called doctor?

I got swindled today and learned something about Derren Brown’s tricks. The hard way. Continue reading Embarrassing Confession

I was well into my nth beer last night before my friend pointed out that we were being served by Paula “Walnuts” Meronek. I’m embarrassed to admit I was too weak-willed to suppress the tiny chill that accompanies a brush with celebrity.

What a bizarre phenomenon. Why is it so high status to be on TV? Everything else about this poor girl’s life is pitiable and from my interaction with her (supported by interviews) she seems to be fairly normal, have an engaging personality and carries moderate-to-severe personal baggage.

Is that impressive?

Of course not. Society is littered with the emotional wreckage and social problems of people who make bad decisions. Bad childhood? Bullied at school? Just plain stupid? God, who knows.

The point is that in every other context, Paula is well on the way to being a worn-out-waitress-with-a-boob-job. There’s something about the simple fact that she’s been on TV that gives her image a boost.

I just don’t understand it.

I’ll be sure to add to this as time goes on.

– things attributed to individuals are usually culturally driven (heroes don’t exist)

– things attributed to culture are usually geographically driven (geography is culture). Though Tyler Cowen shakes my confidence.

– I’m (rationally?) persuaded by anything Tyler Cowen says.

– top down solutions do not work (humans are bad at complexity)

– people lie about what they care about (politics is BS, generally, but prediction markets aren’t!)

– innovation is execution and luck (patents are mostly bullshit, too)

– demographics matter more than one might think (humans are crap at understanding long-term processes)

– I didn’t start caring about learning until I left school (schools are terrible places to learn things).

– I’ve spent years at my job and am barely good enough to tie my own shoes (I am a spexpert in most everything and you probably are, too)

– programming holds the keys to the next revolution (Alan Kay was onto something)

Well, some news!

And Web 2.0 was there to cover it:

Some links:

http://eu.techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/heres-the-guy-who-unwittingly-live-tweeted-the-raid-on-bin-laden/

http://tweetlibrary.com/damon/osamaraidlivetweets

And is Marginal Revolution the best website for interesting perspectives on current events? This on torture and this on winners. Do read. And here.

and this made me laugh

Went to an awesome Japanese restaurant for dinner the other night. I’ve never been to Japan, but it’s what I imagine an authentic Japanese restaurant to be. Beware, I’ve been impressed before! Continue reading Adventures in Translation

I often puzzle about why I do this. It’s pretty time consuming, even with only my meager output to show for it. Continue reading Traffic Meta

Not from the Onion.

McLaughlin had never golfed before he conceived The Dan Plan: to put in 10,000 hours of practice and become good enough to play [golf] professionally.

The article goes on to point out a few facts about Dan: Continue reading In a Bid For Attention, Lifelong Quitter Takes Up Life of Leisure