Chill Links

If nothing is curated, how do we find things?

Large Language Models Are More Persuasive Than Incentivized Human Persuaders.

Science funding was already way too low. Right on; should’ve already been 3-5x larger.

Medicaid Work Requirements Are Cruel and Pointless.

Foreign Investors Loaded Up on Treasury Securities in March Despite all the Turmoil in the Media.

New research reveals the strongest solar event ever detected, in 12350 BC.

America’s College Towns Go From Boom to Bust.

Religiosity

Chill Annoying, Politics

And the funny thing is the pro-immigration and anti-immigration people largely agree on this! That is, even the pro-immigrant side sees immigrants as punishment for alleged past Western sins.

Not very healthy on either side.

Housing

Chill Political Economy

And that is how you do it. At least 60% of the Polish economic miracle is due to the fact that they did not artificially constrain housing supply.

We could do the same here. But we probably will not.

Easy Expert

Chill Killin' It

It’s common knowledge that charging people for their time results in experts being paid less since they work faster, which is why experts charge more for their time.

This is true. My former side gig hired a few people to replace me when I stopped doing it due to lack of interest and time. These people eventually completed a project in approximately two months that would’ve taken me 4-5 hours of a single night.

My fee is $200 an hour so my charge for the project would’ve been $1,000. I estimate my replacements spent 80 hours real work time on the project overall. Let’s say the three people who worked on that project were charging $100 an hour. Pretty cheap in my field, by the way. That’s $8,000 there for their labor. And I am probably underestimating.

Even though I charge twice as much, I would’ve saved my former side gig approximately $7,000 and two months of wasted time.

Experts only look expensive if you don’t know a damn thing.

Chill Links

Carnivorous crocodile-like monsters used to terrorize the Caribbean. Actually, Gary Busey does still visit there sometimes.

Calling All Technologists: The Era of Neutrality Is Over.

RFK Jr. Is Coming for Abortion Pills. And he’s relying on bogus science to make his case.

As an American citizen, though, I don’t think it’s great for the country that we’ve now had three presidents in a row (counting Trump twice) whose judgment I wouldn’t trust in a crisis.

Psychologists like Roy Baumeister and others have studied the long-term effects of rejection, and they are not pleasant. People who have suffered rejections become, on average, more aggressive, less empathetic, have a harder time with self-control.

NASA resurrects Voyager 1 interstellar spacecraft’s thrusters after 20 years: ‘These thrusters were considered dead.’

It’s Not Just a Feeling: Data Shows Boys and Young Men Are Falling Behind.

The Blob Gazes into the Abyss.

Major European institutes join race to save US science data.

Takeout Used to Be a Convenience, Now It’s a Culture.

When a $130M aerospace company chooses to endlessly abuse free trials instead of typing git pull, you start to question gravity, or at least common sense.

Paleontologists discover a 500-million-year-old, 3-eyed predator.

Cooling Off

Chill Annoying, Clowns

Oh, fuck you, lady. You can always tell when dumbasses live somewhere that never gets all that hot or humid. And where it cools down at night.

Put her in Florida or Texas or Southern California and she’d be begging for AC. I hate those clowns so much.

Neverest

Chill Annoying

Why do people who aren’t funny and don’t make jokes get offended when it’s observed by others that they aren’t funny? Like, they aren’t even trying to be funny so why do they care?

It’d be like me getting offended if someone tells me I’ve never climbed Everest. I’ve never even tried or wanted to make the attempt. Why would that bug me?

Grun

Chill Amusing, Annoying

Bluesky is full of the dourest collection of spoilsport sourpusses I’ve ever seen. In its own way, that makes it sort of funny. Because you can’t tell if they’re doing some kind of bit. Then you realize they’re probably not…but it’s all so absurd maybe they are?

Anyway, they’re very Mrs. Grundy 24/7.

Harm Self

Chill Clowns, Evil

Nine Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed Everything.

Long term, by far the most moronic and clownish thing the Trump administration is doing is defunding scientific research. It’s just pure self-harm for absolutely zero tangible gain.

Why does science make so many conservatives so angry? I think it’s largely they just hate the idea that anyone is smarter than they are. Which means they hate a lot, lot of people.