Qiaochu_Yuan comments on Effective Altruism Through Advertising Vegetarianism? - Less Wrong

20 Post author: peter_hurford 12 June 2013 06:50PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (551)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: Kawoomba 13 June 2013 09:40:37PM 1 point [-]

So if you can factor-out, so to speak, the actual animal suffering: If you had to choose between "watch that video, no animal was harmed" versus "watch that video, an animal was harmed, also you get a biscuit (not the food, the 100 squid (not the animals, the pounds (not the weight unit, the monetary unit)))", which would you choose? (Your feelings would be the same, as you say, your decision probably wouldn't be. Just checking.)

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 13 June 2013 10:57:59PM 5 points [-]

you get a biscuit (not the food, the 100 squid (not the animals, the pounds (not the weight unit, the monetary unit)))

What?

Comment author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 13 June 2013 11:51:05PM 6 points [-]

A biscuit provides the same number of calories as 100 SQUID, which stands for Superconducting Quantum Interference Device, which weigh a pound apiece, which masses 453.6 grams, which converts to 4 * 10^16 joules, which can be converted into 1.13 * 10^10 kilowatt-hours, which are worth 12 cents per kW-hr, so around 136 billion dollars or so.

Comment author: TheOtherDave 14 June 2013 12:23:49AM 1 point [-]

...plus a constant.

Comment author: Kawoomba 14 June 2013 06:08:55AM *  0 points [-]

Reminds me of ... Note the name of the website. She doesn't look happy! "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."

Edit: Also, 1.13 * 10^10 kilowatt-hours at 12 cents each yields 1.36 billion dollars, not 136 billion dollars! An honest mistake (cents, not dollars per kWh), or a scam? And as soon as Dmitry is less active ...

Comment author: Vaniver 14 June 2013 12:24:17AM *  5 points [-]

"squid" is slang for a GBP, i.e. Pound Sterling, although I'm more used to hearing the similar "quid." One hundred of them can be referred to as a "biscuit," apparently because of casino chips, similar to how people in America will sometimes refer to a hundred dollars as a "benjamin."

That is, what are TheOtherDave's preferences between watching an unsettling movie that does not correspond to reality and watching an unsettling movie that does correspond to reality, but they're paid some cash.

Comment author: ciphergoth 14 June 2013 04:56:47PM *  4 points [-]

"Quid" is slang, "squid" is a commonly used jokey soundalike. There's a joke that ends "here's that sick squid I owe you".

EDIT: also, never heard "biscuit" = £100 before; that's a "ton".

Comment author: Vaniver 14 June 2013 06:12:06PM 0 points [-]

"squid" is a commonly used jokey soundalike.

Does Cockney rhyming slang not count as slang?

Comment author: wedrifid 14 June 2013 07:46:49PM 0 points [-]

Does Cockney rhyming slang not count as slang?

In this case it seems to. It's the first time I recall encountering it but I'm not British and my parsing of unfamiliar and 'rough' accents is such that if I happened to have heard someone say 'squid' I may have parsed it as 'quid', and discarded the 's' as noise from people saying a familiar term in a weird way rather than a different term.

Comment author: Qiaochu_Yuan 14 June 2013 12:26:11AM *  1 point [-]

Well, I figured that much out from googling, but I was more reacting to what seems like a deliberate act of obfuscation on Kawoomba's part that serves no real purpose.

Comment author: Vaniver 14 June 2013 12:27:49AM 4 points [-]

Nested parentheses are their own reward, perhaps?

Comment author: TheOtherDave 14 June 2013 12:42:26AM 0 points [-]

It amuses me that despite making neither head nor tail of the unpacking, I answered the right question.
Well, to the extent that my noncommital response can be considered an answer to any question at all.