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Comment Computer science or programming? (Score 1) 202

I'm concerned they're conflating programming and computer science here. Computer science is the study of algorithms, learning about things like Big O notation, designing efficient algorithms. It's heavy applied math. Programming is programming. One can be a successful programmer with absolutely no knowledge of computer science. I am all for kids getting exposure to programming, but the vast majority of the population has no need or interest in true computer science.

Comment Re:Nice Smackdown (Score 4, Informative) 603

Aldrin was involved in the program a long time. He knew scores of astronauts, several of whom died, both before and after the moon landing. I feel like most of us who will never be astronauts, especially during the nascent years of the profession, can never truly understand how insulting and offensive denialism like that is to someone in his position. Like, literally denying the thing that killed several friends and acquaintances. It's like when a covid denialist tries to downplay the pandemic to someone who lost several family members.

Comment Re:Making an Excuse (Score 4, Interesting) 115

I think it's a complicated one, more complicated than most people realize. People have legit concerns about the iconography, and I can understand that. However, Nancy Green, the first "Aunt Jemima" broke a ton of glass ceilings, and made a lot of forward progress for civil rights. She was an activist, a business woman, and the first female person of color to serve as a spokes-model. It seems trite, but that was a big deal. At least two of the families of subsequent models have stated that they disagree with the removal, because of similar legacies and that they feel it "robs them of their history again." Which I can also understand.

Comment Re:How was it trained? (Score 1) 91

Well, considering the article specifically cites using a human reviewer, I'm not too worried. If it ends up being used algorithmically, ok, I'd cede your point. But as of right now that is not the project as it's defined. As for appealing a ban, I'm not that worried about that as fall out. I have no fundamental "right" to access another person or company's systems. If they flag me and choose to remove me, that's their right to do so.

Comment Re:How was it trained? (Score 1) 91

I believe that's the purpose of flagging the user for a human review as described. There's a big difference between being nice to a kid, and being nice, then asking for location info, pictures, etc which could be grooming behavior.

Here's an example. Earlier today I was on a python forum and a kid was posting about learning Dijkstra's algorithm. So I sent the kid a message praising him for tackling it (because after learning it like 10x, it just won't stick with me). I told him/her that if they really like the algo, they should look into graph databases because pairing the two is extremely powerful, and potentially very lucrative. Kid wrote back that it meant a lot, that parents don't give them a lot of support on the things they like, etc. So I gave some guidance about other applications, told the kid I'd been through some similar things, and to keep doing their thing and let their interests guide them. Benign.

Now, if after the kid told me they were a kid I started asking them for pictures, where they lived, what they liked, etc, that's a bit more concerning, right? Especially since I'm asking those things after the kid told me they were a kid.

In either case, if the conversation was flagged, it would be pretty obvious one is benign, one is questionable and potentially warrants a closer look. If the reviewer looks at my other posts and sees a pattern of behavior, then it's probably safe to raise the red flag on me, you know?

Comment Re:And...? (Score 4, Interesting) 68

The real reason California is doing this - tobacco bonds. Thanks to the tobacco lawsuits and settlements years ago, tobacco companies must pay multiple states yearly payments based on the number of cigarettes sold. States such as California issued massive numbers of municipal bonds based on these predicted payments. Thanks to products like JUUL, the number of cigarettes sold has plummeted. This directly endangers the ability of states like California to pay the face values of tobacco bonds that are nearing maturity. So, here we are.

Comment So I assume.. (Score 1, Insightful) 68

...we can expect to see court cases pending against Grey Goose, Absolut, Bacardi, et al for making vodkas and rums that are flavored with fruit, right? Since if the bar is "fruit flavors," that means those liqours are obviously being marketed to kids too. Oh, and don't forget every single fruit beer out there, that's totally being marketed towards children due to fruit flavors.

Comment Re: No till farming (Score 1) 280

I don't think there is any supporting evidence that it's toxic to bacteria. About the only way I could see it presenting a major issue is by adding too much nitrogen to the soil (basically, the same thing you get from too much green compost). In a natural environment, you're going to see the occasional fruiting plant, but it won't be super heavily concentrated like we see in an acres-wide monoculture farm field. And even having too much nitrogen isn't necessarily "bad," it just isn't ideal and takes much longer to break down.

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