spacefearing

The the phrase white privilege is an ingenious attempt by malicious people and their useful-idiots to divert attention from issues of class to issues of race.

These toxic propagandists have tricked millions of people into believing that the poorest white person is as responsible for the poverty of black people as the richest.

Transforming the political fight from the 1% vs the 99% into a fight of the racial majority vs a racial minority. If the 99% are fighting among themselves, they can't unite against the 1%.

Millions of powerless white people predictably take offense at the idea that they're responsible for an economic system rigged by the rich to oppress poor people of all races. Of course prejudice exists but the core issue holding people back is purely economic, not racial.

Until I had kids of my own I did not quite comprehend just how capable little kids can be.

A 5 year old holding an AK47 is entirely capable of being a legitimate competitor to an adult holding an AK47. An average 10 year old armed with an AK47 might be more dangerous than an average 40 year old. Child soldiers are likely very effective, as depressing as this thought is.

Small children are profoundly ignorant but they're not dramatically less intelligent than adults. In limited domains, like driving or shooting, a high performing child can easily beat a low performing adult.

I'm not a fan of Airbnb's business but this is highly commendable.

The severance package is the core metric to judge a company that is doing layoffs. In this case, it sounds like Airbnb did the right thing. Airbnb fired people well in advance of when they were actually forced to. This enabled them to provide an ethical severance.

Some companies wait until the last minute and then provide two weeks or similar. These companies should be publicly shamed for all time.

Sounds like we need better heuristics. It doesn't make sense to ignore research papers based on their origin.

Each paper should be evaluated on its merits. A system with submission, voting, and comments (HN/reddit) is a good way to filter the wheat from the chaff. It's hard to believe this basic technology hasn't reached the scientific fields.

If there are aliens flying around, it would be nice if at least one country made high quality evidence public.

The U.S. Navy videos are intriguing but very far from conclusive. And yet they are likely withholding a ton more data that citizens should have access to.

If it's all a cover story for top secret stuff, then it's likely an unnecessary deception. I doubt any U.S. military project is actually safe from Chinese and Russian spies. So all they're doing is increasing the sense of distrust between U.S. citizens and their own government.

Modern people don't want to live in the Cold War secrecy paranoia of the last century. The U.S. military should focus on what really matters and leave that toxic cold war culture behind.