rnhttr

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries What are the benefits of a Christian society?

"just like Christ" Well now we're back to my original example. You can't actually have the benefits of a Christian culture without some critical mass believing in the literal truth of the Bible. It doesn't disappear *immediately*, but without actual belief in divinity, salvation, and eternal souls, a lot of the downstream effects of Christian culture will eventually evaporate. Believing otherwise is the same fallacy that the mass immigrationists make: the idea that once a stable and prosperous society exists somewhere, it can admit infinity immigrants, and the society and its benefits will remain unchanged. But that's ridiculous. A society of Somalians will not act like a society of Swedes just because they move to Sweden. A society of atheists will not act like a society of Christians just because they live in cities that Christians originally built. A society of adults who grow up never believing in Santa will not be able to instill the same reverence for the holiday season in their own children that their parents had before them. Christmas without Christ is already cheapened. Christmas without Santa will continue to lose essential features. And you might think that's an okay trade-off! My point is just that losing Santa will necessarily mean losing other aspects of Christmas as well.

Every couple of months or so, I bulk delete almost all my replies, and then go through my tweets and delete those that I expect won't have much future interest. What I discovered in going through old tweets from the past few months was that the post of mine that was greeted by the most virulent hostility — some of it truly unhinged — was the one in which I argued that parents shouldn't lie to their kids about Santa's existence. Not only did I get ratiod, but there were dozens of repliers calling me the worst names possible, and at least one recommending that I kill myself.

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries (2/2) Again, Santa can remain a fun and central part of Christmas without children *actually* believing in him, just like Christ. There are significant cultural norms around Christmas (everyone in the west stops working, spends time with family, vacations).

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries (1) It’s a leap to suggest that if kids stop believing in Santa, Santa will become an “object of mockery”, and Christmas will cease to exist. Mockery is actually one of the main reasons not to lie to your kids about Santa! “Get a load of this idiot! He thinks Santa is real!”

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries No one is proposing removing Santa altogether

In the US, the only real non-political holidays are Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanksgiving is great, but it's basically a one-day thing. Christmas is a holiday around which an entire season is built. And Santa is integral to it. Not hypothetically, but in actual practice. We can *imagine* a Christmas season without Santa, but it is not one we have ever practiced, and its actualization is dubious. I tend to think that such holidays are important for social cohesion. I wish we had a few more. You can overdo it, as they seem to in India and some other places, but we currently have none to spare.

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries What are the benefits of a secular Christmas?

Revolutionaries and the intellectually lazy always think that culture and society are a la carte buffets of components rather than interlocking pieces. You can't have the benefits of a Christian culture without a critical mass of people who believe in the literal truth of the Bible. Likewise, you can't have the benefits of a secular Christmas without a critical mass of people who believe in the literal truth of Santa Claus. Even if those people are children.

@Nemtastic1 @avidseries You can sing “Santa Claus is coming to town” and watch movies like elf without lying that Santa exists in real life

Santa is a cultural cornerstone. It's not empirically supported, but plenty of other cornerstones aren't either. The West is no longer Christian enough to support Christmas as a purely religious phenomenon. So without Santa, Christmas just fizzles away. We've already talked ourselves out of a lot of other culturally defining traditions. I think that the West without Christmas would be significantly impoverished from its loss.

@SciAdapt @mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ @grok You have a fundamental misunderstanding of average and statistical significance. You may be confusing the concept of “average range” with a distribution’s standard deviation

@rnhttr @mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ @grok would the difference between a 100 IQ and a 105 IQ be considered statistically significant?

You are not smart enough to homeschool your children

@SciAdapt @mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ The definition of average or mean doesn’t change in the context of a normal distribution. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arithmeti…

@rnhttr @mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ Ok. How about this. Why don't you Google what a normal distribution is. Average is not a single number. I can't even believe I having to explain this. 105 is average. Not above average.

@SciAdapt @mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ Please look up the definition of average

@mak3333 @gmiller @quesadaaa_ Yes, that's the median. But 105 is average. Not above average. Above average would be above 115.

@rivertowncards @DavidNorrish @AliceFromQueens Look at the picture in OP again

@DavidNorrish @AliceFromQueens *large %

ice needs to get the f out of my city

@acekingspades @AnthonyVicino We know with certainty that you were not in the top 0.00001% of climbers at any given time.

@AnthonyVicino Oh, its out of your ass. I'm disappointed.

This seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst non-climbers... But it's simply wrong. Honnold's climb of Freerider on ElCap (which was captured on film by the legendary Jimmy Chin) is EASILY 10x more impressive than what Alex did on the skyscraper. I don't think it's possible to fully appreciate the absurdity of Honnold's free solo of ElCap unless you yourself have been on that climb. I have... I've been up there... I've done all the moves... (and this was during a period of my life wher I was in the top 0.00001% of strongest climbers in the world) And I got my ass handed to me. The 13a crux 23 pitches off the ground is unbelievably technical and requires a level of precision that, to execute without a rope, is nearly unbelievable. This is a hill I will gladly die on: Honnold's free solo of ElCap is THE single most impressive athletic achievement in human history. Nothing else comes even remotely close. (and certainly not this skyscraper). If you want to have your paradigm for what humans are capable of turned upside down... Go watch Free Solo.

You can make human beings. Are you listening to me? You can literally make human beings. And it gets even better than that, because they’re not like random strangers, they’re literally constructed from the same genetic code that makes you who you are. They’re made from the same parts that make up your mother or your brother or your sister or your grandmother. They are new versions of the people on this planet who you love the most. It’s the craziest thing ever. It matters more than anything else, by an extremely wide margin. The fact that people log on here and talk about how they prefer sleeping in or going to the movies whenever they want is practically demonic, by comparison.

Retweet if you think it's time for the Steelers to fire Mike Tomlin.

@AliceFromQueens How do you engage with these bozos

These angry bros tell me Indian-Americans are "immoral" ppl who've secured only an illusory success in the corporate world, & have done so through "underhanded tactics," like the "Italian mob." They could make billions shorting Alphabet & Microsoft. Wonder why they don't.

@AdamBielski6 @TravisAddair @bgmshana @samwhoo The technical bit is very easily verifiable though and something we already do

@TravisAddair @bgmshana @samwhoo I don’t think so, people forget that programming is actually dealing with people technical and non-technical, it cannot be that much automated.

StackOverflow graph of questions asked per month. Holy shit.

@runliftrunlift Huh… interesting. Do you have any general guidance on proper form? Both shuffling and running faster

@rnhttr Super shoes reward mechanics that load the foam and plate effectively. Practically, it’s running faster. Someone shuffling in Alphaflys will often be worse off than in more conventional running shoes.

I forgot to add super shoes. Definitely will increase running economy, though it’s dependent on pace and good form.

@runliftrunlift Good luck! Hope you like alpine skiing!

New beginnings After living in Tokyo since 2011 when I first came to Japan, I’ve relocated to Hokkaido for a job opportunity. I’ll be working in Hirafu and living in Kutchan. Still keeping my apartment in Tokyo, my wife will stay at her job for the time being. I’ll be helping manage a physiotherapy clinic during the winter season, and then hopefully growing a local running community when the snow melts by May. This place is running heaven. My online coaching won’t change much, but my training will change a lot! Some combination of snow running, treadmill, and cross country skiing is my plan to stay fit over the winter, along with the gym facilities where I work. It’s a big change. I’ve been pretty comfortable in Tokyo. Just like with training though, sometimes in life you need to step outside your comfort zone to level up. Let’s see what happens.

@owletbabycare its ridiculous that turning off the base station (after it turned itself on!) causes 3 80 decibel beeps & the volume of those beeps cant be adjusted. And we turn off the base station bc when our baby is in our lap long enough, the Bluetooth connection breaks!

@gnoble79 @SenatorKarnes @MichaelDell @elonmusk @WellsFargo Tesla quarterly profitability btw

@gnoble79 @SenatorKarnes @MichaelDell @elonmusk @WellsFargo

Vote FOR @elonmusk. The award is only achieved IF he hits exceptionally ambitious market-cap and operational milestones—if he falls short, he gets nothing. If he succeeds, shareholders will win big through unprecedented value creation, and he will earn added voting rights to continue driving @Tesla's long-term vision.