Jar

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• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "It is a useful statistical measure for looking at systemic bias, I think. As a pass/fail test for quality (whatever that means), not so much." I am not sure that the Bechdel test is a working measure for looking at...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "If you're going to deny that it exists, or that it is a problem, then you're a fool." That would not be the only proof that I am a fool. I have been shown to be a fool much more...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "It tells you quite a lot about the population" Yes, true. But, despite the claims by the ignorant, it is NOT true that you can apply single point statistics over time. Sorry for the pun. We could go into the...
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  "So change it to a statistical distribution." Ah, but what the statistical distribution tells you? It does tell you much less than most people think. "Who decide what is crap and to be ignored and "good" and to be counted....
• Commented on Pass or Fail
  Personally I think that the Bechdel test is balderdash. The most important thing is how good you story is. If you write something like Robinson Crusoe, then it is very likely to have one sex narrative. Or consider something like...
• Commented on Empire Games (and Merchant Princes): the inevitable spoiler thread!
  I really like the idea of doing the Russian revolution right. The Commonwealth seems to be that. The beginning of the Soviet Union was not that terrible after the civil war ended. New economic policy until the death of Lenin....
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  “Sorry, but that’s IMHO utterly wrong. Got any examples?” What about the history of mercenaries over several thousands of years? Does that count? I am completely too lazy to count the atrocities made by mercenaries during the last couple of...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  “Note that since 1950 in AngloNorAm, agricultural productivity has roughly tripled.” This is one of the fallacies that interest me quite much. The agricultural productivity has not tripled if you discount the external incursions. When you discount those effects, then...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  "One politically timely in a knee-jerk-reaction type of change would be to extend Iran's compulsory military service." Ah. You do not really understand the concept of conscription. I assume that the misunderstanding comes from being a citizen of a country...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  "We could destroy the country …In addition, we would have zero allies" USA has the capability to destroy any country without any conseques.(*) As long as those countries do not have enough nuclear bombs and suitable means in order to...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  @343 I think that you are misinterpreting the situation. I honestly think that. You think that there exists a definitive faction that really plans in that way. Actually I would be very, very happy if that was the case. That...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  "He was also an enemy belligerent IN UNIFORM and as such was a legitimate MILITARY target, and the timing strongly suggests he was engaged in belligerent activities against the U.S. at the time he was killed." Ah, I had the...
• Commented on Introducing Dead Lies Dreaming
  "They would be overt about retaliation because their population is screaming for revenge ? All of this “retaliation” rests on the rather shaky foundations that Iran has nasty ways to hurt American that they have up until now not employed...
• Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
  Personally I find it very fascinating to see that the first state to opt out of the EU may be the first one to be the most likely to fall into fascism. I expected something completely different. I have used...
• Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
  "I think I noted a few blog posts ago that Poland is committed to eventually joining the Euro ... but still runs on the Zloty, a decade later." As far as I understand, the Euro is basically a weapon to...
• Commented on The obligatory general election discussion post
  Looking at this from the outside of the UK, I think that it is a given that Boris Johnson will get a landslide victory. Everybody understands what he is promising ("Get Brexit Done"). On the contrary, the promises by Labour...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  "For your future, choose at least one of the following life paths: --Help break capitalism and rebuild civilization to be sustainable --Prepare to survive the crash of civilization --Have a career, with family, house, mortgage, 401K, and time to do...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  The railway discussion in this blog is now, IMHO, fairly bizarre. Something like looking at a completely alien world. In my country the railways and roads have this far been constructed by using public money. The infrastructure is publicly owned...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  "That strongly suggests to me that civilization won't survive climate chaos of any sort, although our species will." I find that a very plausible assumption. Our current civilization is very, very fragile. Just consider the damage caused by simple numbers...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  "Modernity is worth fighting to preserve." No argument there. But I am just assuming that our economic model proceeds to its logical conclusion. Remember that the one and only purpose of a firm to exist is to generate profit. All...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  "The probability of the human species returning to its original condition of a low global population living in small groups in mindbuggeringly shitty conditions is considerably higher than that of it not even managing to hold on to that much...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  Yes, that is true. But still the problem is quite unlikely to be the survival of the human species. It is most likely that human species survives, but our economic and political systems do not survive. The transition is likely...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  Of course. Are there any other alternatives in a science fiction oriented scheme? (Sorry to OGH, but I could not resist.) In the case that you happen to be a female, then you have to plan a bit differently. But...
• Commented on Sucker bet (a thought experiment)
  Well... If you assume that you are healthy with no sicknesses and no need for spectacles or similar tools or modern medicine, then you just go to some northern country like Sweden. Buy some land and start being a farmer....
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  Ah, yes. Thank you. I had a closer look at the purchasing manual and it actually states that the Welsh dragons are more than average sensitive in that respect. The manual says that the thought-reading aspect of the Welsh dragons...
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  A Welsh dragon? Have you checked how many sheep they require during a week? And if you do not have a steady supply of virgins you need to upgrade the number of sheeps. Sure they live at least four centuries,...
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  Sorry for being not that polite. I have a room with classified security for intruders. The servers and firewalls sit there. The workroom has a much lower classification. No actual high-level security (with mercenaries, dragons or alligators). I do just...
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  Nah, nothing that strange. Just a hundred Chinese mercenaries with the permission to shoot everybody they do not know. And a moat with the alligators. The dragon just died of old age and no replacement before next year's budget....
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  I would (or actually my employer would) pay significant amount of money for a small pocket-sized device that could be used as a real desktop when there are a screen and a keyboard available. Something like 16BG RAM and 256GB...
• Commented on Tentative hypothesis
  Unfortunately the IEEE-documents are not binding regulations. Similar stuff can be found from ISO-documents. They have good stuff in them, but nobody punishes you or your employer of you have no understanding of proper quality control and do not perform...