Dennis Hackethal’s Blog
My blog about philosophy, coding, and anything else that interests me.
Tweets
An archive of my tweets and retweets through . They may be formatted slightly differently than on Twitter. API access has since gotten prohibitively expensive – I don't know whether or when I'll be able to update this archive.
But in case I will, you can subscribe via RSS – without a Twitter account. Rationale
They can always use such graphs to claim that restrictions aren’t *strict enough yet *, too. Doesn’t really matter how the graphs look, lockdown proponents can always rescue their theory. Which is why, by Popperian standards, they’re being unscientific.
Nice, this allowed me to change from spans with a custom class to a simple tag.
Nice. Used to be you had to render some invisible element above the target one to simulate this effect. twitter.com/piccalilli_/st…
Freedom is being granted conditionally, not presumed given unless violated—a dangerous trend that is gaining traction in many countries, even in the West.
If you think all that sounds bad—and it is alarming!—here's what, IMO, is much worse: the sheep-like acquiescence. According to my contact, most people in Singapore are happy with these measures. Most don't mind.
If you can afford to re-enter, you are submitted to a test at the airport. If you test positive, you are forcefully quarantined for two weeks in a hotel that has been repurposed for that (presumably not voluntarily).
Whenever people leave the country, they have to pay $1,600 to re-enter. It appears that the country is effectively closed down for anyone who can't afford to come back. Meaning freedom of movement—a basic civil liberty—is more or less gone for most.
My contact was unclear about the government's privacy policy—well, it's the government, so expect the worst. All that data about ~everyone's movement in the hands of government is bad news. If they didn't already get it from cellphones, now they have it for sure.
Everyone is required to scan a barcode whenever they enter a business or otherwise publicly accessible building. People who don't have smart phones are given devices for this purpose. The tech for that is developed and run by the government.
Just got off the phone with someone in Singapore. Singapore's lockdown policies are nuts. Some "highlights":
👇
How many lives were stolen by your restrictions today, @GavinNewsom? twitter.com/GavinNewsom/st…
RT @iamdevloper:
I’m sure base jumping is a thrill but have you ever tried running an UPDATE query on a live database before?
Been a while, but I loved this book when I read it.
@DavidDeutschOxf @yaacovlozowick
The “ka” reminds me of: Wieso sind in Kanada die Lichter aus? Weil kana da is.
RT @DavidDeutschOxf:
@yaacovlozowick
LOL. Ka' Mensch is' uns zwider. Die Union is' ja ka' Mensch!
RT @CommunistTerror:
This is a proof of a new booklet we have created. It is called "Communism: A little book of facts". It will be printed…
Think about what people could do with all that money if the state hadn’t stolen it from them. twitter.com/KevinKileyCA/s…
I just checked and when tasked with "hey siri, set a recurring alarm for Friday at 8pm" it sets an alarm for 8pm today.
I use the "recurring" feature for that. No special UI or laptop.
I can set alarms arbitrarily far ahead if I do it manually through the UI.
"Hey Siri, set an alarm for tomorrow at 6pm."
"I can't set an alarm for more than 24 hours ahead."
Why not?? That's "artificial intelligence," folks.
@dvassallo @FourFourths
Evo psych is overrated... it's not in people's "nature" to work any particular amount of hours per week, but in their interests and decisions, which differ from person to person.
What about morals? Can we put those at the forefront, too?
Non-refuted arguments in favor of lockdowns: 0.
Months of “two weeks to flatten the curve”: ~8. twitter.com/GavinNewsom/st…
"The order prohibits “all travel, including, without limitation, travel on foot, bicycle, scooter, motorcycle, automobile, or public transit,” with limited exceptions."
This is insane. And illegal.
I'm live streaming on Twitch again, answering programming questions on Stack Overflow. Join me!
Trying out Twitch for the first time... join me as I look through SO questions.
There wouldn’t be a tunnel without your pointless and cruel regulations.
And they eagerly pressured others, without warning or consent, into submitting to the “health orders.”
I think the underlying cause of that is altruism.
I had a related thought back in March regarding how readily people embraced totalitarian measures. They almost seemed relieved that somebody was telling them how live their lives. Also, they jumped on the opportunity for such nonsense as “cancel rent.”
Would you like to take responsibility for this @GavinNewsom @MayorOfLA? twitter.com/jakecoco/statu…
@GavinNewsom @senatemajldr
At whose expense? The other American people? Wait...
And apparently it's everyone's job to ensure hospital availability? twitter.com/hknightsf/stat…
Why does the government oversee vaccine distribution?
Can you decriminalize running a hair salon during a pandemic next?
But those are better because they can take a variable number of arguments at every step.
People keep bringing up Somalia... blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/28/lib…
RT @jeffreyatucker:
If you believe in lockdowns, lock yourself down. Leave everyone else alone.
Yes. Just re-read part of the chapter on man’s rights in VoS.
"A report by academics at the University of Exeter said health passports could interfere with fundamental rights, including the right to privacy, the freedom of movement and peaceful assembly, as well as lead to inequality and discrimination."
Look at all the things Newsom lets us do. twitter.com/GavinNewsom/st…
No government knows how to rise without stealing from its and other states’ subjects. But China is a particularly perverse version of this.
Are the pronunciations of that word on the following site correct? forvo.com/word/v%C3%A4st…
@SlaytonBenjamin
Maybe it’s a privilege, dunno.
If things are so bad at home that the child would rather be in school that means he wants to be in school. But a real solution wouldn’t be replacing one evil with another, albeit a lesser one.
*Get your kids out of any school they don’t want to be in. twitter.com/JesseKellyDC/s…
The consonant-to-vowel ratio seems higher overall in German, but those consonants need not be intimidating. :)
Both in English and German the “trick” is that several consonants are used to convey a single sound and/or one is dealing with compound nouns anyway, so one just needs to say words one already knows in a row.
Sometimes German words have more than four consonants in a row, but again we find that English can have just as many, e.g. “catchphrase.”
Some of these are compound nouns, but that’s usually the case in German, too. And all of the above words only have three consonant sounds in a row. E.g. the “ch” in lunchtime is two letters but one sound.
People are sometimes surprised about German words containing four consonants in a row. But English has those words, too: “lunchtime,” “trickster,” “birthday”...
“[...] it’s almost as though Mother Nature has sent us to our rooms for bad behavior to really take a moment and think about what we’ve done.”
Spaceship earth, attributing agency to nature, blaming covid on people, and timeouts. Hard fitting more bad ideas into one sentence. twitter.com/nypost/status/…
RT @ThomasEWoods:
Imagine thinking that the other side of the debate is, "I don't think saving lives is reason enough to wear masks."
Indeed. On the reasons why people live for others: blog.dennishackethal.com/2020/11/12/the…
People and businesses are leaving CA in droves. Many will falsely attribute that to the virus and the fires. It is, first and foremost, the state government that is driving people away.
I don’t agree with everything in this thread, but the development that freedoms would be granted rather than be the default is indeed bad. twitter.com/naomirwolf/sta…
How could one convince you that animals don't suffer? Is there a way?
It’s an interest they developed. It comes from within them, from their creativity.
Und schon damals hatten sie Werbung auf den Stufen, wie nett!
Good. Leave CA while you still can. Hit local and state government where it hurts: fewer taxes. twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX/…
RT @undertheraedar:
Here's the final version of the global population density graphic I made, because another one that is circulating was l…
"[...] protein folding isn’t the end goal of DeepMind, as the project’s efforts with complex games and protein folding are all in the pursuit of true artificial intelligence."
What does protein folding have to do with how the mind works? @DeepMind
What appears to be Popper's full lecture is available now: twitter.com/popper1902/sta…
"We're all in this together." Translated: we may force you to do what we think is right, and if you resist, you are selfish and don't care about people getting sick and you will be branded as such.
I don't care about sports, but I hope this will hit @SCCgov where it hurts: less taxes. twitter.com/NBCS49ers/stat…
Residents should note that their right to protest is being protected, albeit restricted to 100 people. So, consider going to the streets over this before they find a way to take that away, too.
The tacit assumption in all this is that it is not only everyone's job to keep cases down and hospital availability high, but that it's okay to force them to that end. @SCCgov is doing disgusting, immoral things. I hope they will soon be held accountable for their actions.
"[...] businesses are allowed to open to the extent allowed under the State’s Blueprint [...]"
Well, thank you again for your generosity, oh wise Health Officer, and for protecting us and sharing some of your endless wisdom. What would we do without you?
"Leisure and non-essential travel are strongly discouraged, and a new Mandatory Directive on Travel will require people to quarantine for 14 days upon return to the County from travel of more than 150 miles."
Or else what?
-> Government forcing businesses into their enforcers
"All recreational activities that involve physical contact or close proximity to persons outside one’s household, including all contact sports, will be temporarily prohibited."
How about no?
- "All facilities open to the public must establish a “metering system” to ensure that the applicable capacity limits are not exceed by, for example, posting an employee at the facility entrance to track the number of people entering and exiting."
Well, thank you for this kind concession for access to food, oh Health Officer.
From the linked order summary:
- "Stores and other facilities open to the public will be limited to 10% capacity indoors."
- "Grocery stores, drug stores, and pharmacies, however, will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity indoors to ensure adequate access to food and medicine."
This top-down decision affects roughly two million people. There appears to be no outrage in the general populace, no unrest, no demonstrations. People are just taking it.
"Also effective today, you must quarantine for 14 days after traveling more than 150 miles from Santa Clara County. For more information, visit sccgov.org/cv19summary."
Santa Clara County residents today received the following "emergency alert" on smartphones:
"COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise. The Health Officer has issued updated risk reduction directives to slow the spread and protect hospital capacity, effective today."
That's smart to put an arrow in the location pointing at your website. I'll borrow that. :)
@giovannibenussi @SimonHoiberg
The get fn would do the requisite checks using either question marks or null/undefined checks.