Blissex

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• Commented on Omicron
  «But the scientific advice and th/e evidence is overwhelmingly to adopt test-trace-isolate as a strategy»` «It was. It's now too late. You can use test and trace to stop something getting out of control but, once it's out of control,...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «As to WWII, Germany was way overextended in Russia before the US stepped in. Both before and after Dec 7. The US stepping in made the conclusion faster.» But the USSR was on the verge of surrender, just like the...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «The plan by Japan was to shut down the US Pacific fleet then negotiate a new Pacific order. And they might have done it. IF IF IF they had finished the attack on Pearl.» That was their "forlorn hope" not...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «It seems that at present China might be the most financially able to outlast a major war - steadiest access to cash.» Total wars are not fought with cash, but with physical resources. A total war economy is a command...
• Commented on Omicron
  «she's been doing these straight-talking no-bullshit reports since the beginning of the pandemic, clearly listens to scientific advice,» But the scientific advice and the evidence is overwhelmingly to adopt test-trace-isolate as a strategy instead of halfbaked lockdowns to limit cases,...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «There are court cases in which sheriffs chased after the older kids to work off the debt incurred in years of drought, etc. They won too. Also entire families were part of the sharecropping deal. You can read a lot...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «Without the US, I agree that the most likely result is still the same eventual outcome but a year or two later» No, in both WW1 and WW2 Germany and allies wouuld have won if the USA has not financed...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «I don't know if 9/11 terrorized Americans so much as gave cover for certain authoritarians to make a power grab and we're still dealing with the after-shocks from that.» From the "The Financial Times", March 10th 2006: «But is clear...
• Commented on An update on the revolutionary experiment
  «Because Brexit is utopian it can never fail, it can only be failed. [...] around 1975 one particular wing of the True Believers gained control of the party.» Thatcherism is the truth and the way :-). It cannot fail, it...
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  «So I suspect that "weak" AI (e.g., trained neural networks) is about learning enough, not repeatedly relearning variations on the same pattern for 50 years, whereas "strong" AI (human cognition) relies on escalation [...] many years of contextual information that...
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  As to AI, "Machine Learning" is not it. If AI arises it will be from drones etc. As to SciFi, there is a the delightful "Distraction" by Bruce Sterling, where a plot feature is that in "the future" spam bots...
• Commented on Lying to the ghost in the machine
  «intuition would suggest that a WebAssembly framework (based on top of JavaScript running inside a web browser hosted on top of a traditional big-ass operating system) wouldn't be terribly fast» Actually the web browser has a just-in-time dynamic code generator...
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  «The "Arabs" ( Including the Palestinians ) were offered peace, on a plate, whole, unencumbered, EXCEPT for E Jerusalem, in late 1966, ion return for recognition of Israel's existence. "Land for Peace"» My guess is that from their point of...
• Commented on Books I Will Not Write #8: The Year of the Conspiracy
  There is a well-established, serious company that is pretty much at the centre of the contract-military system, and it is SAIC. Not many have noticed its existence....
• Commented on Playtime is over
  «forces in the West have been complicit with what the Russians are doing because higher living standards, especially sustainable such, are a threat to them. Comfortable people not living in fear» I think that our blogger's notion that it is...
• Commented on Writer, Interrupted
  «but now seem to be heading back through time as fast as we can go.» The dream seems to be to go back to 50s: for some it is the 1850s, for others the 1750s. :-( «It is slightly horrifying...
• Commented on Writer, Interrupted
  «this company would allocate a specific should-take time to different types of task, and if you achieved less than the target you'd miss out on raises and bonuses» That's often entirely intentional. Just like most companies intentionally set quite low...
• Commented on Writer, Interrupted
  «The dishonesty of the open plan advocacy is the worst part, in my opinion. I hate that it's sold as a productivity boost when a multitude of studies have shown just the opposite. We know it's about money. Don't bullshit...