leot

90 ms·

391.
by leot 14y ago
If we find life on Mars, I'd wager it will end up being evidence for panspermia.
392.
by leot 14y ago
The big win seems to be from eliminating much of the heat dissipation that would otherwise normally occur if, e.g., you tried to use sunlight to boil water when nanoparticles aren't involved.
393.
by leot 14y ago
MediaWiki has an extension framework, so it's basically an elaborate add-on. Not yet publicly released ...
394.
Scholarpedia gets a redesign(scholarpedia.org)
3 points by leot 14y ago|2 comments
395.
by leot 14y ago
> I don't think that decreasing risk will result in more entrepreneurship. Wait, really? You don't think people factor in downside risk when making life choices?
396.
Scholarpedia is trying a competition-and-prize model to spur contributions(scholarpedia.org)
1 points by leot 14y ago|0 comments
397.
by leot 14y ago
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicast
398.
by leot 14y ago
Really? Remember how much most computers used to cost?
399.
by leot 14y ago
Yes, an entire "side" profoundly misunderstands basic economic principles. Which side was it, do tell, that created faux think tanks in the 70s to espouse a particular economic philosophy? These would be the same think tanks that seem to si
400.
by leot 14y ago
The division between "leisure" and "work" proffered is too coarse and binary. A continuity of work-y-ness makes more sense: the degree to which something qualifies as "work" is proportional to how distal the reward is. Most leisure provides
401.
by leot 14y ago
Canadian telcos seem to be universally worse than their US brethren, as they appear to be aided and abetted by a corrupt CRTC (Canadian FCC). Witness the CRTCs approval of bandwidth caps in order to delay/prevent users from moving to inter
402.
by leot 14y ago
In one corner, we have lawyers, lobbyists, and political groups whose sole mission is to cast fear, uncertainty, and doubt over claims of anthropogenic climate change. Every day they prevent action on CO2 emissions is another X $million mad
403.
by leot 14y ago
There is tons (literally) of evidence that evolution is real, from a wide range of independent, disparate sources. Here's one: the fact that volcanic islands, which have land that has been historically only accessible to birds, have a numbe
404.
by leot 14y ago
Real policy is a numbers game. Anyone who is sufficiently determined to do anything doable will probably end up approximately doing it. The issue is: how much, how often, how many people will be affected, etc.
405.
by leot 14y ago
The amount of determination required to do that much killing with a knife would have had its effects amplified by the ready availability of a gun. You think some person with a handgun would stand much of a chance against someone in body a
406.
by leot 14y ago
Oh look, Google: http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0309/Budget-hawks...
407.
by leot 14y ago
Arbitrage generally requires with equivalent commodities traded on different exchanges. It doesn't work when everything is different from everything else. In other words, arbitrage would only work if the bookies showed odds for the equivale
408.
by leot 14y ago
It's not really a lie. It's just that you're getting a bad deal. And it's not in any of the banks' interests to make it easy for you to get a good deal. You see one side of one trade for one security offered by one bank. Your analysis says
409.
by leot 14y ago
Yes, it seems that way, doesn't it. And yet. [Edit: imagine two bookies, both of them placing odds on different horses. how, exactly, are you going to figure out which bookie to bet with in order to get the fairest odds?]
410.
by leot 14y ago
"Financial innovation" seems to in large part consist of creating private information asymmetries, where the large banks are the only ones with enough data to accurately price the securities they engineer and then make a market for. Thus it
411.
by leot 14y ago
Are you referring to "rent control" or "rent stabilization" or both? It's not clear to me how/why rent stabilization (which merely limits how much rents can increase each year) would lead to less "building new capacity" -- an argument could
412.
The Economist on the LIBOR affair (video)(economist.com)
45 points by leot 14y ago|13 comments
413.
by leot 14y ago
Thank you. Good point. This also serves to demonstrate the artificiality and awkwardness of taxing capital gains v.s. simply taxing wealth directly.
414.
by leot 14y ago
Actually, I'm saying that if the 200+ Americans with >$2 billion in wealth consistently generated more than 4% return on capital, then at least 50% of the top 400 earners should stay relatively the same year after year (since those with
415.
by leot 14y ago
There are ~400 Americans with > $1 billion in wealth, and 200 with >$2 billion. $77 million in return on $1 billion is 7.7%. On $2 billion it's a mere 3.85%. Combined with the fact that only 27% appear more than once in the IRS's li
416.
by leot 14y ago
Most people spend most of their "free" time browsing the internet and being unfocused. Don't be like most people.
417.
The Secret Number(vimeo.com)
1 points by leot 14y ago|0 comments
418.
by leot 14y ago
Apologies. Have edited for tone.
419.
by leot 14y ago
Don't worry, in the "long run" the laissez-faire approach to corporate regulation will "end up" minimizing malfeasance and maximizing freedom. Liberty just needs more time. Like, say, another year. Two, max.
420.
Probation Fees Multiply as Companies Profit(nytimes.com)
6 points by leot 14y ago|1 comments

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