Derek

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• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  "Economics is not difficult to understand, It's just been obfuscated by academics and hijacked by political hacks" I'd add to the first phrase "except by economists". I had to take an introduction to Macroeconomics in first year university, and it...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  "There's a wide anti-authoritarian streak (probably not quite what you mean by socialist) in classic sf, and I wonder how it got lost." Come now! One of the most popular series of recent years, The Expanse is full-on anti-authoritarian, and...
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  So true. My introduction to SF was Heinlein. I stopped reading Heinlein for many years after I Will Fear No Evil, but when I reread The Door Into Summer it reminded me of everything that was wonderful about his stories....
• Commented on We're sorry we created the Torment Nexus
  I loved The World of Null-A, and surprisingly so did my wife. You don't have to believe it's possible to enjoy it. I just call it Fantasy. I'm not much of a fan of Jerry Pournelle as a person (quite...
• Commented on Summer webcomics
  So much great stuff! My current reads are QC (Jeph has moved to Halifax and I've just returned, so hope to stalkmeet him one of these days!), XKCD, and OOTS....
• Commented on Make Up a Guy
  "Without having more information, I'm guessing, probably you would not do it." And yet, around the world, couples routinely push that button and get a new "guy" about 9 months later. @31: While "copy and paste" would be possible, I'm...
• Commented on WTF
  The part I really love is that you have to "be checked to see if you are up to the rigid standards held by the BBB" to join the Social Club, but to be a member of Order 206 you...
• Commented on Decision Fatigue
  @2: I've been to Scotland often enough to believe it's already fully saturated......
• Commented on The ends of education
  Thanks for adding that Charlie. I was ready to turn on the flamethrower. "Diversity consultants" and "health and wellbeing managers" are a vital part of what can make us truly egalitarian. There's absolutely no down-side to being labeled an SJW!...
• Commented on The ends of education
  While I'm generally in agreement with Charlie, I have to completely disagree with "And today, a 1990 CS degree is about as useful in the CS workplace as a 1923 aerospace engineering degree (if such a thing existed)." I started...
• Commented on Crimes against Transhumanity
  "Can we do better?" Of course we can. Will we? Of course not! "Our current prevailing political philosophy of human rights and constitutional democracy" is just a thought experiment without the backing of legal frameworks. Legal frameworks require politicians, and...
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  I read that article about Clip. Those were spectacularly bad examples. If you take a Granny Smith and the network can identify it as an apple, and then slap a label on it that almost completely obscures the apple, you...
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  I kept waiting for you to tell me what D was doing. Everyone knows golf is played in foursomes......
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  "Even if it causes a GFC, I presume that a few other people's heads on pikes reduce the likelihood that MY head ends up on one." I really don't think that follows. When people start putting heads on pikes, they...
• Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
  Surely one can be both an "unspeakable bonehead" and "a hypocritical sectarian corrupt bigot, with a side order of fundamentalist religious zeal, and an unsatisfied yearning for ethnic cleansing."...
• Commented on The Inevitable Brexit Thread (1)
  Yes, the EU is under no obligation (nor, I think, likely) to extend the exit date. However, there was a ruling a year or so, supported by the EU executive, ago that Britain could unilaterally revoke Article 50. So, we...
• Commented on Deaths and Deadlines
  Very polite, Vincent. The first thing that came to my mind was "You &*()_@#$%!!!!!" Unicorns are never going to be the same again; and now he's going to ruin Peter Pan, too... But, I am of course going to read...
• Commented on Someone please cancel 2019 already?
  "'In both cases decentralising power and tax-raising powers is the answer.'" "Which may explain recent Ontario neocon politics — to whit, disempowerment of local governments in the name of "efficiency"" Precisely. Yes, decentralized taxation gives more control to the locals--and...
• Commented on Someone please cancel 2019 already?
  " by pissing in their wheaties." Ugh. Charlie, I know you make a living from putting images to paper, but that's not an image that ever belonged in my head......
• Commented on Sitrep
  "Because I think I need to work smarter, not harder, if I plan to keep this up for another 20 years." Please do!...
• Commented on That sinking feeling
  Your acquaintances have left? None of mine (in Marine biology) have. We even made two Italian PhDs redundant last year (shortly before the vote) and they're still in town. We have easily a dozen research scientists here who have other...
• Commented on That sinking feeling
  I hope you're wrong, Charlie. My Brexit bag is packed. I only moved back here from Canada in 2015, and always intended to return there by 2028 at latest, but I brought over a lot of money to buy my...
• Commented on That sinking feeling
  I totally agree that Amazon UK won't collapse. Sure, it's going to be more expensive for them to do business, but it's not going to be more expensive for them than for all the other businesses. Yes, the money currently...
• Commented on The Pivot
  "...to provide an adjustment period for leaving organizations like the Customs Union (which wasn't on the ballot in the first place)." Let's not be naive. It's true that the Customs Union was never specifically on the ballot, the Leave campaigners...
• Commented on Happy 21st Century!
  F! Charlie, I used to look forward to probably living to 150. It's still an option, but I'm about as optimistic as you that it'll be worth staying here into the 22nd century....
• Commented on Not dead but dreaming
  I loved the story about the Memorial Scrolls Trust. The other, not so much....
• Commented on Not dead but dreaming
  @JanneM You beat me to it, but I can't help thinking that the reason Hobby Lobby is headquartered in Oklahoma might be an attempt to protect themselves from marine eldritch horrors... I'm afraid you can run, but you can't hide....
• Commented on Dude, you broke the future!
  Good enough :-) I do subscribe to the theory that ideas want to be born, and will find multiple channels to do so!...
• Commented on Dude, you broke the future!
  So, who cribbed from whom? This looks an awful lot like Ted Chiang's: https://www.buzzfeed.com/tedchiang/the-real-danger-to-civilization-isnt-ai-its-runaway...
• Commented on The sudden eruption of news
  There was a lot of discussion of this at coffee break this morning. Everybody agrees they want the Cons out [I work for a scientific foundation that stands to lose significantly from Brexit, and we've already cut staff this year],...