Monthly Archives: June 2015

Reflections From The Halfway Point

I. A while back one of my patients was having a foot problem, so I consulted the hospital podiatrist. He met me in my workroom, and I explained exactly what I needed from him, but over the course of the … Continue reading

Links 6/15: Monsters, Link

Study shows that banning bottled water on campuses just makes students switch to bottled soda, with obvious detrimental consequences to health and no decrease in bottle waste. Pakistan’s transgender tax collectors. A couple of posts ago, I mocked the Muslim … Continue reading

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OT22: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Thread

This is the semimonthly open thread. Post about anything you want, ask random questions, whatever. Also: 1. Some people frustrated with the commenting system here are trying out r/slatestarcodex, a subreddit where they can comment on recent SSC articles with … Continue reading

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NYC Meetup 6/21

There will be a New York City rationalist/LW/SSC meetup at Highgarden House (851 Park Place, Brooklyn) on Sunday, June 21 at 6:00 PM. If you’re reading this and can make it to Brooklyn, you’re invited. There was some discussion at … Continue reading

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Fifty (More) Swifties

[see: Wikipedia: Tom Swifties, Tom Swifties Written By An Author Willing To Go To Any Lengths To Make A Tom Swifty Thus Resulting In Constructions That Often Require More Work For Readers Than For The Author, and Fifty Swifties. Previously … Continue reading

Fearful Symmetry

[Content warning: Social justice, anti-social justice, comparisons of social justice to anti-social-justice, comparisons of different groups’ experiences.] The social justice narrative describes a political-economic elite dominated by white males persecuting anybody who doesn’t fit into their culture, like blacks, women, … Continue reading

(Late) Predictions for 2015

I was supposed to institute a tradition of making predictions at the beginning of each year, then grading them at the end to test my calibration. Everything went according to plan last year – last January I made predictions for … Continue reading

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Michigan Meetup 6/13

There will be a Michigan rationalist/LW/SSC meetup at the Ann Arbor District Library (343 South Fifth Avenue, Ann Arbor) on Saturday, June 13 at 1:30 PM. You can find a map here. If you’re reading this and can make it … Continue reading

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Links 6/15: Everything But The Kitchen Link

Dogs’ reaction to magic tricks (EDIT: more at original source) Automated theorem provers and the changing foundations of mathematics (does not require much math knowledge to read). New American Statistical Association ‘premium’ membership plan will permit members to reject null … Continue reading

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Against Tulip Subsidies

I. Imagine a little kingdom with a quaint custom: when a man likes a woman, he offers her a tulip; if she accepts, they are married shortly thereafter. A couple who marries sans tulip is considered to be living in … Continue reading

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