bell-cot

30 ms·

841.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
To clarify - John Brown was an American, with a Puritan/Calvinist background, born to fairly humble circumstances. Very unlike Acton. And Britain's record on slavery is both far more complex, and far less bad, than many modern id
842.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
The article is a nice little "company got shitty, workers got organized" story, but I don't see any notable history being made. Also - the article merely mentions management's sudden Heartless Betrayal(tm), with a horrib
843.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
If you're familiar with English history, then it's more understandable that Lord Acton (Catholic, and born a mere Baronet) was against powerful central authorities. And at least according to Wikipedia, Acton's positions on th
844.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
> Looking at the data, the turning point is clear. From the start of the 1990s through to the late 2000s, everything seemed to be going well for the UK economy. Gross domestic product (GDP) growth had trended upwards [...] > As the fi
845.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
> I don't even think most editors would know the difference. We're talking about Ars Technica , not USA Today . Kinda like MotorTrend editors should know what a Z-rated tire is. And I assume you've heard about the the
846.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Yep. And if one gives away the "QC Passed" pies - then as your skill improves, you're eating an ever-shrinking fraction of your output. And you feel like you're growing ever-thinner, as all your friends & neighbors
847.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Between "The Guardian" and it being a warm/fuzzy-type story, I'd read that as "fresh local ingredients when available". Vs. too many pies have fillings straight out of a can.
848.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
By "prosocial", I meant the parts where adherents are supposed to give alms to the poor, or take turns mowing Libertarian Park, or whatever. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosocial_behavior
849.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
On the one hand, a seems-solid article by an author I mostly trust. OTOH... with the recent journalistic scandal at Ars Technica, perhaps Dan should have made sure that he spelled "Ubiquity" correctly? (5th para; it's correc
850.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Yeah - but long before "electric" was a thing, the German car industry was screwing up in multiple dimensions. Just talk to a few mechanics about the traditional reliability and TCO of German cars, vs. Japanese ones.
851.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Sadly yes. And for "scratch", it's usually sufficient to compare the angry fanatic's views/actions with some of the more prosocial parts of their supposed ideology.
852.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Especially in modern online culture, with its oft-unhealthy obsession with ideology, performative behaviors, and political identities, one should recognize that there's a wide gray spectrum here - from someone who is "purely"
853.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
tl;dr; - Germany's situation and perspective is far more complicated and conflicted than the headline would suggest. Which is an especially bad situation to be in, when you're a (relatively) little democracy, trying to negotiate
854.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
"why is there not a law...?" If you're just venting with friends, or trying to build cred as a moral philosopher, then yes, obviously there should be such a law. Vs. if you're talking about cause and effect, in the real
855.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
From China's PoV, this hitting the news seems pretty useful. Assertion that they are a player in both this conflict and the Middle East, marketing their weapons globally, saber-rattling for both global and domestic consumption, etc. F
856.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
All the stupid human emotional and legal and political drama doesn't count for sh*t when the notional water that they are fighting tooth and nail over is physically non-existent. IIR, it was known in the 1980's that the American s
857.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
a.) But it's cool and shiny and all the cool kids are there AND IT'S FREE!!! b.) And more-or-less pretty much nobody ever that I remember suffered real consequences for doing what all the cool kids were doing. c.) Thinking abou
858.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
"Well, some guy I didn't know very well said it was marijuana - but how would I know? All it seemed to do was make my eyes water, and give me a headache..."
859.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Aren't the differences between "satnav sent him the wrong way on the motorway", "directions he'd memorize from his cousin's hand-written wedding invitation sent him the wrong way...", and "he just dro
860.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
The "stranded" language gets really tiresome. It was not an Andy Weir novel, there was no desert island adventure, and they could have returned home very quickly in case of any actual (say, medical) necessity. They stayed on t
861.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
The real problem with "free" is its emotional appeal to idealists who should never be allowed near transit policy, nor transit system management.
862.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Not to say that I'm a fan of Reason, or of primate research...but PETA's stances often look like performative extremism.
863.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
If you were comparing HS basketball coaches on the basis of how well their teams perform on the court, then you might find it useful to correct for how many tall kids went to the high schools they were coaching at.
864.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
1 - Assume it was decades ago. That I've heard, a fair number of the released emails mentioned Jeff's 2008 conviction. But to paraphrase Leona Helmsley, "only the little people need to follow laws". That attitude seem
865.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
It would be lovely if the Brits could truly clean house on this issue. (Sadly, expecting the Yanks to follow their lead on that would be pure fantasy.)
866.
by bell-cot 8mo ago
Any New Zealanders here, to comment on the root causes of this mess? My impression (mostly from British news sites) is that self-serving failure has long been the norm for Kiwi political leaders.
867.
by bell-cot 9mo ago
Too easily confused with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_paperclip - especially when you start talking about going to the moon.
868.
by bell-cot 9mo ago
The first few para's of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISBN are a better summary of the issue. tl;dr; - The ISBN is intended to be a physical Part Number, within the book business. Where "hardcover, or paperb
869.
by bell-cot 9mo ago
Issue 1: Governments which your own gov't likes, or ones which it doesn't? The latter has downsides similar to a black market sale. Issue 2: Selling to governments generally means selling to a Creepy-Spooky Agency. Sadly, cree
870.
by bell-cot 9mo ago
I'm no big fan of economists - but if some type of business is seen as highly desirable to be in, and has minimal barriers to entry, then the market will soon be saturated. Expecting otherwise is (at best) wishful thinking.

More ›