Less Wrong is a community blog devoted to refining the art of human rationality. Please visit our About page for more information.

Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 11 April 2012 06:23:43AM *  3 points [-]

Or it's not Riddle at all. I was writing out a whack of reasons for this, but there is no need: Eliezer has spoken:

I've edited the birthdate of the person Amelia refers to, to be 1927 - too many people were interpreting that as "She thinks he's Tom Riddle" despite the House incongruence, an interpretation I'd honestly never thought of due to Illusion of Transparency.

Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 11 April 2012 06:17:55AM 7 points [-]

I can also make the testable prediction "The universe will cease to exist on May 19th, 2034 at 10:03:09PM", but unless I had some truly excellent supporting evidence which I posted along with that prediction, I would not expect people to think well of my statement (particularly if I made it in a rambling, melodramatic way that made it difficult to determine the purpose of the post).

Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 12 September 2011 01:16:52AM 3 points [-]

Likewise, when you go from growing plants to feed a cow to feed a human to growing plants to feed a human, you >reduce the amount of plants necessary at least tenfold,* which similarly sounds like a tenfold reduction in the animals >killed by farming processes.

This is the main motivation for many vegetarians, from an energy reduction perspective. Ten times (approximately) more plants means ten times (approximately) the energy taken for the same amount of food/energy for the consumer.

Toronto Meetup, May 24th

4 Spencer_Sleep 21 May 2011 06:16PM

When: Tuesday, May 24th, 20:00

Where: The Duke of York, 39 Prince Arthur Avenue

Hi everyone,

The Toronto meetup group is having one of our bi-weekly meetings this Tuesday at the Duke of York. The reservation is under the name Spencer Sleep. I have requested a table on the patio.  The reason for the move from the Bedford Academy (albeit by less than 10 metres) is that we are looking for somewhere quieter, thus more conducive to discussion.  Now that it is warmer, one of our best bets is most likely patios, so we are going to try the patio at the Duke of York.  Those of you who have been attending since the start may remember that we started out there.  The reason we moved was the existence of live music every Thursday.  Now that we are meeting on Tuesdays, that shouldn't be a problem.

As always, newcomers are extremely welcome.

If you want to hear about upcoming LessWrong events in Toronto, or have ideas about how or when those events should be run, join the Toronto LessWrong Google Group!

See you on Tuesday

Toronto Meetup, May 10th

5 Spencer_Sleep 09 May 2011 02:50AM

Toronto Meetup, April 28

6 Spencer_Sleep 25 April 2011 09:05PM
Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 13 April 2011 03:17:22AM *  2 points [-]

It trends forward every day, eventually wraps around

This sounds a lot like Non-24-hour sleep-wake syndrome. The defining symptom for Non-24 is (from Wikipedia) "a chronic steady pattern comprising one- to two-hour daily delays in sleep onset and wake times in an individual living in society". Your delays seem to be longer than 1-2 hours, but it may be a similar problem. I don't know how much you've looked into this, given the impressive extent of your other searches, but it may be something to look into.

Have you tried light therapy? Wikipedia (and this study) recommend it, perhaps in combination with melatonin, as the most effective treatment of Non-24.

Not sure how valid this is, but it might be worth looking into, if you haven't already.

Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 13 April 2011 12:53:20AM 1 point [-]

Once the group is a little more established, a private venue (someone's house) might work best. Completely dependent on whether or not people have large enough houses in the right neighbourhood (and are willing to put up with us).

Toronto Meetup, Apr 14 8pm

4 Spencer_Sleep 12 April 2011 09:16PM
Comment author: Spencer_Sleep 12 April 2011 06:58:58PM *  1 point [-]

What if it just kept the first three (or so) letters of the login name? The chances of two people with the same first three letters discussing the same thing is, while not infinitesimally low, well within acceptable limits. If you knew the person before deletion, it would let your recognize them, but it would keep their name from turning up in searches (the main reason, that I know of, for deleting accounts).

View more: Next