iguy

47 ms·

571.
by iguy 7y ago
Lubrication is, I think, and under-appreciated aspect here. Trains got substantially more efficient circa 1850-1950, more miles-per-ton, and I believe the reason was essentially that they made hotter steam, because efficiency is bounded by
572.
by iguy 7y ago
I agree. I know why humans must diversify, to avoid having all their eggs in one basket, but why is it obvious that companies should? Their owners should invest in other things, but maybe it's better to admit that a given company is a
573.
by iguy 7y ago
We have a decent idea what small players like Pakistan/NK have got, I think, in terms of number & sophistication. While I'm very doubtful that the US or Russian stockpile contains a > 100MT warhead, I agree that if there wa
574.
by iguy 7y ago
Thanks, now I have this image of Jobs as the chief narco, menacing some UN-approved banana-republic democracy which really only controls a little green zone in the capital...
575.
by iguy 7y ago
I think you have a point about nuclear bombs keeping the peace. Exactly what one-offs the russians once made, I don't know how well this is known. But we have a pretty accurate picture of the stockpile of bombs existing now. And the th
576.
by iguy 7y ago
"The most effective organizations are the ones where the formal power structures are very close to informal ones " There's a nice parallel here to how parliamentary democracy arose. And conversely, there's no point havin
577.
by iguy 7y ago
But was this really in the nature of the technology, or was it a choice on the part of the German planners? Choosing to only have an invasion plan, and not bother scheduling out the 80%-option which leaves not quite as many troops but all o
578.
by iguy 7y ago
Have you read Philip Bobbitt? esp. "The Shield of Achilles" His theme is something like this, but stressing the coupling between technology (what weapons, and economies, are possible) and law (what states, and what goals, are thou
579.
by iguy 7y ago
Does the screen have to be off where the camera is located? I haven't dug deep but the few videos I saw showed a black bar covering the camera while it was in use (and bright colors when not).
580.
by iguy 7y ago
Right. Lots of big libraries have these, to save space, and while I guess they need a strong floor, moving a ton of books by hand seems to be no problem.
581.
by iguy 7y ago
I guess the relevant end-state here is civil war. For which the historical upper bounds are pretty high indeed, like 50%. (Unless you've defined terrorism so narrowly that it only counts if it's directly ordered from a different c
582.
by iguy 7y ago
That sounds good, thanks. Although it seems like the terms are fixed, and it's only smallish amounts for already-attending students, but still a great start.
583.
by iguy 7y ago
The price you sell things for is more about what people can pay than what they cost to produce. If jet propulsion majors easily get huge loans, and English majors only get tiny ones, then the university will easily find a way to charge them
584.
by iguy 7y ago
> But then this would lead us back to only wealthy kids being able to afford "the arts". To the extent that we want to fund talented but not wealthy kids in the Arts, let's spend the money on explicit scholarships for them
585.
by iguy 7y ago
I guess every market needs someone to set the rules (at least, any legal market in an advanced economy), but I agree that the rules we have chosen for this one are truly terrible. My favorite suggestion is to cap the repayments (of non-disc
586.
by iguy 7y ago
You sure? Think about the kingdoms that existed in say what's now Tanzania, before the some guys from Oman showed up (and some guys from Portugal, and maybe a few earlier too)... they certainly seem to have vanished from the map.
587.
by iguy 7y ago
Sure, it was . My point is that claiming something like "no European state faced an existential threat from Arabs" is a bit circular -- the definition of Europe is very close to being those parts of the Roman world which were n
588.
by iguy 7y ago
Worse than this: they switched from lemons to limes, assuming that they were equivalent (and cheaper). And then came to doubt the theory that citrus prevented scurvy as some pre-modern pre-scientific relic.
589.
by iguy 7y ago
Sure, I completely agree that a book discussing porn vs art can't literally start with definitions they way a math book can, that's too narrow. But if it wishes to use an existing word like "art" in a new sense, for inst
590.
by iguy 7y ago
Some paid, some fought -- it was the fact that they no longer flew the British flag that meant the Americans had to start playing this game too. Piracy certainly wasn't existential. But also wasn't the whole threat -- 1683 must ha
591.
by iguy 7y ago
> Like the assertion that the language of Orientalism serves to create an other in order to. . . > Like, wait right there. Then you got further than I did! Someone should have dragged that guy to math class -- before you can prove two
592.
by iguy 7y ago
> it is wrong to argue that every socialist country will share the Soviet fate Clearly not all of them will be invaded by the germans, but there are nevertheless strong similarities, and quite general lessons to be learned about human be
593.
by iguy 7y ago
This is true, and such humility/pragmatism is pretty much the core idea of one kind of conservatism. But I'm also not sure how much we should read these people's labelling of themselves as Marxists as indicating an opinion on
594.
by iguy 7y ago
Indeed some level of antisemitism was common. But don't forget that the vast majority of the Jews they murdered (96% or so) were living in other countries, who they had to invade first.
595.
by iguy 7y ago
One thing institutions had going for them is that they were large buildings with many employees, and thus had political weight. Spending the same money on community care might be more efficient, but doesn't have this weight. So if you
596.
by iguy 7y ago
I'm pretty sure it would be swamped by changes in precisely how big the average testing hall is, and how its heating system works. I would not be surprised if typical school-air CO2 level has changed by 50% over the last century, but w
597.
by iguy 7y ago
Normally this is my comment. And I contrast that agricultural yields sure as hell never change by a factor of 4... so I looked up Guatemala, and was surprised: https://www.indexmundi.com/agriculture/?country=gt&comm
598.
by iguy 7y ago
> Get sick, go to hospital, insurer covers. There is a shortlist of things the insurer won't cover. You pay the insurer each month. > Insurance isn't complicated. But for things they do cover, what price do they pay? That se
599.
by iguy 7y ago
It sounds uncomfortably close to a cynic's view of aid projects in poor countries. The customers aren't the students, but rather the Commission, and they were apparently sufficiently impressed with the TED talks to part with $1.5
600.
by iguy 7y ago
There are exceptions, and stories people tell, but GP is correct about the broad picture (in my understanding of the data). The west was unusual, and we have tended to misunderstand its past by looking at the more recent past of other socie

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