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12 posts found
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Jun 28, 2024
acx
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44 min 6,728 words 289 comments 196 likes podcast (39 min)
In 'Dominion', conservative Christian Matthew Scully makes a comprehensive case for animal welfare, critiquing practices like factory farming and hunting from religious, ethical, and scientific perspectives. Longer summary
Matthew Scully's 'Dominion' is a comprehensive exploration of animal welfare from a conservative Christian perspective. Scully, a former speechwriter for George W. Bush, argues that humans have a moral obligation to show mercy to animals based on religious, ethical, and scientific grounds. He critiques various practices including factory farming, hunting, and animal experimentation, while also engaging with philosophical arguments about animal consciousness. The book combines personal experiences, biblical interpretation, and criticism of both conservative and liberal approaches to animal rights. Shorter summary
Sep 29, 2020
acx
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42 min 6,476 words 71 likes
Scott Alexander maintains a list of significant mistakes in his blog posts, providing corrections and updates in reverse chronological order. Longer summary
Scott Alexander maintains a list of significant mistakes he has made in his blog posts, providing corrections and updates. He acknowledges errors in data interpretation, misunderstandings of studies, incorrect predictions, and instances where he changed his mind based on new evidence or reader feedback. The list is presented in reverse chronological order and covers a wide range of topics including medicine, economics, psychology, and social issues. Shorter summary
Mar 30, 2017
ssc
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16 min 2,417 words 752 comments
A links post featuring various news stories, research findings, and interesting facts, from Jewish pirates to ancient Roman artifacts to the fallout of various Trump-related controversies. Longer summary
This is a links post covering diverse topics in news and research. Stories include historical facts (like Jewish pirates in the Caribbean), scientific research (BDNF and sunlight correlation, Leek & Jager's paper on scientific findings), current events (Trump's FDA pick, immigration numbers, anti-Semitic incidents), technological developments (Uber self-driving cars, electric planes), and various social and political topics. The post follows Scott's typical links format, offering brief commentary and often humorous observations on each link. Shorter summary
Jun 02, 2016
ssc
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18 min 2,667 words 951 comments
A links post collecting interesting stories from around the web, including scientific studies, historical oddities, media criticism, and current events, with Scott's commentary and analysis. Longer summary
This is a links post collecting various interesting stories and studies from around the web. It covers topics from historical oddities (like Maoist China's mango obsession), scientific studies (on autism genetics, weight loss, and practice effects), media criticism (of Salon and coverage of Venezuela's collapse), and current events. The post points out interesting patterns and connections between the stories while maintaining a somewhat skeptical tone about extraordinary claims. Scott maintains his characteristic style of finding fascinating angles on seemingly mundane topics while questioning conventional narratives. Shorter summary
May 09, 2016
ssc
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28 min 4,206 words 315 comments
A collection of interesting links and studies on various topics, from bad statistics and media coverage to technological progress and scientific discoveries, with commentary from Scott Alexander. Longer summary
This is one of Scott's regular link posts, presenting a diverse collection of interesting articles, studies, and developments. The topics range from media coverage and politics, through scientific studies and technological progress, to social developments and cultural phenomena. Scott provides commentary on many of the links, often adding context, questioning methodology, or highlighting interesting implications. The post maintains a mix of serious academic content and lighter cultural observations. Shorter summary
Sep 16, 2015
ssc
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14 min 2,078 words 565 comments podcast (14 min)
The post uses a fabricated narrative about cardiologists to illustrate the Chinese Robber Fallacy and its role in media bias, emphasizing the importance of context in interpreting negative stories about any group. Longer summary
This post discusses the Chinese Robber Fallacy and its implications for media bias. The author begins with a satirical section presenting numerous examples of cardiologists committing various crimes and unethical acts, creating the impression of widespread issues in the profession. The second part reveals this as a demonstration of how easy it is to create a false narrative about any group using selective examples. The author then explores how this fallacy applies to media coverage of issues like police brutality and sexism in tech, emphasizing the importance of understanding base rates and population sizes when interpreting such stories. The post concludes by revealing that the initial section about cardiologists was entirely fabricated to illustrate the point. Shorter summary
Oct 18, 2014
ssc
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7 min 1,077 words 472 comments
Scott shares a diverse collection of interesting links and brief commentary on topics including linguistics, science, economics, and social issues. Longer summary
This post is a collection of interesting links and brief commentary on various topics. Scott covers subjects ranging from linguistics and philosophy to scientific discoveries and social issues. He discusses recent research on evolution, cold fusion claims, autism theories, and dark matter detection. The post also touches on economic topics like immigration effects and living costs in major cities. Scott includes some humorous content and critiques of social policies in countries like Saudi Arabia. The tone is informative and slightly humorous, with Scott offering brief personal opinions on some of the topics discussed. Shorter summary
Oct 07, 2014
ssc
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49 min 7,446 words 344 comments
The post analyzes a debate about the effectiveness of MIRI, an AI safety organization, focusing on critiques of their academic output and defenses of their outreach efforts. Longer summary
This post discusses a debate on Tumblr about the effectiveness of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI), an organization focused on AI safety. It covers critiques of MIRI's lack of academic publications and citations, as well as defenses of their outreach and strategic research efforts. The post examines arguments about MIRI's team qualifications, research output, and impact on the AI research community. Shorter summary
Aug 28, 2014
ssc
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16 min 2,385 words 176 comments
Scott Alexander shares a diverse collection of links on topics ranging from politics and economics to scientific studies, offering brief commentaries and critiques. Longer summary
This post is a collection of interesting links and brief commentaries on various topics. Scott Alexander covers a wide range of subjects including politics, science, social issues, and economics. He discusses studies on poverty traps, the relationship between poverty and crime, and the effects of marijuana legalization. The post also includes quirky facts, book reviews, and observations on cultural phenomena. Scott's tone is analytical and often skeptical, particularly when discussing scientific studies and their interpretations. Shorter summary
Apr 19, 2014
ssc
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7 min 972 words 56 comments
The post explores the contradiction between studies suggesting elite influence on policy and those indicating money's limited impact on politics, offering several hypotheses to reconcile these findings. Longer summary
This post discusses two seemingly contradictory political science findings: one suggesting that elite opinion strongly influences US policy, and another indicating that money has little impact on politics. The author presents several hypotheses to reconcile these findings, including the possibility that legislators are themselves elites, that elites control cultural institutions, or that money influences politics through lobbying rather than campaign contributions. The post critically examines each hypothesis, considering their strengths and weaknesses in explaining the apparent contradiction. Shorter summary
Feb 10, 2014
ssc
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20 min 2,981 words 83 comments
Scott shares and comments on various interesting links from February 2014, covering science, medicine, education, technology, and politics. Longer summary
This is a collection of interesting links from February 2014, covering a wide range of topics. Scott starts with unusual scientific findings about sobriety and chewing, then covers social experiments in schools, tech culture in San Francisco, medical system stories both good and bad, and various scientific studies about obesity, depression, and therapy. He also discusses education policy, with particular focus on coding bootcamps and charter schools, as well as various economic and political topics. The post ends with some technological developments including Bitcoin and a project for worldwide satellite internet. Shorter summary
Apr 18, 2013
ssc
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15 min 2,260 words 28 comments
Scott Alexander explores the concept of 'floor jobs' as easily accessible employment options that can serve as a safety net, presenting various examples and their pros and cons. Longer summary
Scott Alexander discusses the concept of 'floor jobs' - easily accessible jobs that can provide a safety net for those struggling in the job market. He defines these as jobs that don't require specialized education, are easy to get, and have some advantage over retail work. The post explores several options including teaching English abroad, programming, military service, camming, working in North Dakota's oil boom, oil rig work, truck driving, tutoring, and online micro-tasks. Each option is presented with its advantages and potential bottlenecks. The author reflects on his own career choice between philosophy and medicine, and expresses concern for friends struggling in the job market. Shorter summary
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