Friday, March 04, 2022
Tell HN: A way coders could help Ukraine
Ukraine is posting photos and videos of captured or killed Russian soldiers, for their families to find. But who wants to scroll through that? And might the resulting psychological harm[1] not damage Ukraine's support?
More effective, I think, would be a site that lets a relative upload some photos and matches them via facial recognition to data on her son, if available.
This could also help Ukraine fend off later accusations of violating the Geneva Convention, which says governments must protect POWs from “insults and public curiosity." https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/03/03/telegram-russian-war-dead-ukraine-pows/
[1] https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/12/21255870/facebook-content-moderator-settlement-scola-ptsd-mental-health
Monday, August 02, 2010
Parallel dimensions
Sunday, August 01, 2010
Neurological imaging
Sunday, November 02, 2008
Patter and Buddhism
Magicians talk while they perform. It's almost entirely used as a distraction, and yet it's such an important part of being a magician that they've designated a word for it: "patter". They even write the stuff in advance (although one has to imagine it's not entirely predetermined).
Society calls for patter too. Conversation may be edifying or not, but even when it is, the majority of it is not primarily aimed at the exchange of information, but rather for bonding. A steady stream of talk is useful in its own right, even if the particular information transmitted turns out to be of no independent value. First dates, for instance. Or job interviews. (Economists may note the parallels.)
When I was trying to study Buddhism, in high school, I came across a number of ideas (they all seemed to fall under the general umbrella of "expanded awareness") which, although they seemed meaningful and important on paper, I could not operationalize.
I think the idea of patter may offer a bit of practical insight. It's easy to get caught up in the high-frequency stream of ideas that patter contains, and thereby lose sight of the underlying reality, which is a very slow-moving process of people orbiting each other. Sometimes they get closer, sometimes farther away -- but underneath all the overlay of activity and talk, what's going on is fairly simple, and it's good to be aware of that foundation.
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Electric Battery idea
Thursday, August 31, 2006
A Bush speech that I buy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/31/washington/31text-bush.html?pagewanted=3&_r=1
His methods are wrong. But still, I'm amazed to find myself in such agreement.
Dubious hope
From the Financial Times, in a piece about the pending
The
But Bush pulled the
Monday, August 21, 2006
Most of life is an exercise in prioritization
(At various scales, that is.)