clock_tower

9 ms·

61.
by clock_tower 9y ago
The fox is in the henhouse, but he brought along a hammer and some nails and he really really doesn't like coyotes, so it's all good. Part of the article was a bit confusing, though: "According to the Financial Times, Google
62.
by clock_tower 9y ago
It certainly does when it's posted in the context of a romantic relationship!
63.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Happiness is dependent on other people holding up their side of the bargain? You have to have luck as well as effort, in order to be happy? A grim thought.
64.
by clock_tower 9y ago
The worst that can happen to General Atomics is that they don't get any new contracts after they're done building 3 (3!) fleet carriers. But building 3 carriers will give them enough expertise that they'll be able to bid on f
65.
by clock_tower 9y ago
SeaMonkey's pretty good -- it's Firefox oriented towards developers. I almost feel like it's a bit faster than Firefox proper, even though I'd expect it to be slower from extra developer tools; regardless, it can run all
66.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Firefox/SeaMonkey, NoScript, uBlock Origin. It's pretty cozy over here.
67.
by clock_tower 9y ago
"Don't Be Evil" was basic PR: figure out what you're most hated for, and loudly, repeatedly insist that you're the opposite of it. Delta promises comfort and ease in coach, which should only remind you of how hellis
68.
by clock_tower 9y ago
> Historically speaking, I suspect there's a correlation between "virtue-focused" schooling and bodies of predominantly-upper-class students who are already nearly guaranteed to get an entry-level job in a prestigious fiel
69.
by clock_tower 9y ago
I think it's a tolerably accurate definition; it's almost always more wise to cultivate enlightened self-interest instead of the unenlightened kind. Another generation of the current state of affairs, and the US will probably have
70.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Also a lot of tact. If you just leave a check on somebody's desk, you're calling him a crook, and few crooks enjoy being called crooks; it works better to hire a politician for a speech somewhere, or offer him a seat on a board of
71.
by clock_tower 9y ago
But remember where democracy came from: the no-aristocracy, one-man-one-vote model of democracy is primarily a child of the French Revolution. (The US revolution created a cozy oligarchy, complete with property qualifications; democratizati
72.
by clock_tower 9y ago
"Voluntary" is an old-fashioned term of art; it means "you volunteer your version of events to the information to the IRS" rather than "the IRS sends you what they know".
73.
by clock_tower 9y ago
It's packed like an MRE! (Only less ready to eat, and probably much more appetizing.) This is the first I've heard of Blue Apron, but I'm really seeing where the accusations of excessive waste come from.
74.
by clock_tower 9y ago
You were in excellent company, then! I've read other anthropological books from the period that took Castaneda more or less at face value...
75.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Buck's translation is garbled, from what I've heard, but there's a thoroughly readable scholarly translation that came out relatively recently. I think it's by the same author who did the two-volume _Romance of the Three
76.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Yes. But did he know that? This is the Renaissance we're talking about; I wouldn't be at all surprised if he just picked the experiment he wanted and laughed off the rest, applying Petrarch's style of rhetoric in the sciences
77.
by clock_tower 9y ago
I also like the part where: 1. Fundamentalist Islam is a "delusional superstition". 2. "Modern insurgent groups" -- the most famous of which all follow the said "delusional superstition" -- are the good guys. 3
78.
by clock_tower 9y ago
I see I shouldn't have let the article's reference to stones stand; the specific experimental apparatus used by both sides was lead balls -- Galileo rolled them down inclined planes, while his opponents dropped them from the Leani
79.
by clock_tower 9y ago
That's something else! And yet I'm not surprised; all sorts of things turn out to have valuable niche uses despite being superseded in the mainstream. Now I'm wondering if the future might hold robot-driven sailing ships (win
80.
by clock_tower 9y ago
This wouldn't surprise me, although manufacturing lithium batteries is still a bit complex. The railroads already use all-electric drivetrains; short-range locomotives carry batteries only, while long-haul ones use diesel to generate e
81.
by clock_tower 9y ago
"But then Galileo made the troubling discovery that the heavier stone does not fall any faster than the lighter one." It does fall faster, if you drop both stones in the atmosphere; the heavier stone has more mass per unit of surf
82.
by clock_tower 9y ago
I wish you hadn't been downvoted; I upvoted you, for what it's worth. Thanks for your response!
83.
by clock_tower 9y ago
I've always been skeptical of self-driving cars since they seem to be designed for Southern California conditions: clear weather and smooth, well-surfaced, well-marked roads. If Yandex starts out facing less optimized conditions, their
84.
by clock_tower 9y ago
But the whole point of this project is to appeal to the mass market, and give smartphones a ten-year life cycle. They're explicitly aiming at a much wider userbase than hackers alone.
85.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Better yet, it involves trapping them in summoning circles. ( https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/meet-the-artist-usin... )
86.
by clock_tower 9y ago
The Middle Ages most certainly had rights and liberties, but they were given or withheld based on the kind of person you were: a slave had almost no rights, a serf only a few (serfs and slaves both existed in this period); a nobleman, espec
87.
by clock_tower 9y ago
It sounds like you're saying that the Nuremberg trials amounted to lynching; this isn't true. Western jurisprudence has always recognized rights and obligations that arise from the natural law, and take precedence over any written
88.
by clock_tower 9y ago
It surprises me that "Hitler was wrong" is hyperbole now. The Islamic conquests are the same situation as the American conquests: numbers make it impossible to give the land back to the surviving descendants of the conquered, but
89.
by clock_tower 9y ago
Thanks for your answer, to begin with! But looking at the American Indians' situation, I'm not entirely convinced. The descendants of the expropriated Indians are strangers in their own country just like their ancestors were -- th
90.
by clock_tower 9y ago
So, if Hitler had successfully made the Volga into Germany's Mississippi, and then 200 years passed, it would be unjust to demand that the Third Reich give the land back to its former inhabitants? (Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, etc.)

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