pnathan

51 ms·

601.
by pnathan 8y ago
> The way Chinese government contacted the people was by being everywhere and nowhere - omnipresent, through the imperial civil service, and yet unseen. What does everywhere and nowhere, mean, specifically, in the context of a society wi
602.
by pnathan 8y ago
Before reading the article, I estimate that the technical detail is this: a normalized statistical value is generated for a particular user's willingness to share fake news after reading the article: a normalized statistical value is g
603.
by pnathan 8y ago
An interesting perspective. I would like to understand more in depth the history in China of how influence has been gained and how ordinary people were able to affect the local politics. In the English/Germanic tradition, we might have
604.
by pnathan 8y ago
Rather than criminalizing a relatively harmless substance, the US should look into treating marijuana like alcohol. Carefully regulated quality for the stuff in stores; home brew is your problem and your friends' problem. WA has this
605.
by pnathan 8y ago
Colonialism was a bad experience for the colonized. :-/ You seem to be very up on current Mainland thought - do you have any web sites in English you'd recommend for a genuine (not exoticized) information source?
606.
by pnathan 8y ago
I would suggest that it's not appropriate to tell other people how to view their own history, particularly history that is recent enough that living people either remember it or spoke to those who did. I do think there's definitel
607.
by pnathan 8y ago
What if the US was invaded and the original Constitution stolen, and put on display? I think it would eat at any patriotic American's heart a little.
608.
by pnathan 8y ago
It's a growing recognition - a lot of the 90s commentary around China was, in my recollection, essentially mediated by genteelly stated Yellow Peril racism and fear, much like the 80s fear of Japan. Along with a fair dose of anti-Commu
609.
by pnathan 8y ago
This is a recognition that the Chinese world is a rising superpower, both in innovation and in politics. Reminds me to study Mandarin! I wish them all the best, and I hope that the interactions with the great qualities of YC produces an e
610.
by pnathan 8y ago
engagement is slightly weaselly and covers both addictive behaviors and useful behaviors. if your app provides a service that is useful frequently throughout the day - say, a local news app for the sake of argument, high engagement should s
611.
by pnathan 8y ago
the addiction design is the aspect to highlight. most of us here were, I think, fascinated by this new toy and we loved to program it and "play" with the code or hardware. very similar to gearheads and cars, or other hobbyist type
612.
by pnathan 8y ago
Oh, it's a terribly difficult issue, requiring a deep education in the humanities.
613.
by pnathan 8y ago
I doubt that we'll ever have a New Internet Citizen; we have to presume current levels of cupidity/ignorance.
614.
by pnathan 8y ago
A bit of nerd-hate there, eh? Financial types must really hate that nerds have taken over 1/2 of the stock exchange. There's a solid argument past the flamebait though. When your company becomes the de facto public commons, a f
615.
by pnathan 8y ago
In this scenario, I am quite comfortable checking my own numbers without the aid of specialized software. I use TaxAct today because of e-filing. In other scenarios, I would prefer to cough up money to talk to a specialist.
616.
by pnathan 8y ago
I would absolutely let the IRS prepare my taxes... if this workflow or one like it is followed: Jan, I get a 1040 form, prefilled out. If I don't agree that it states my financial position correctly, I can correct it & send it back
617.
by pnathan 8y ago
"extremely rare". :) not non-existent. Mr. Sumney is, I'm sorry to say, not dramatically variant in the indie folk sonic system. I would say that it is a somewhat more electric orchestration of someone like Jesca Hoop; the so
618.
by pnathan 8y ago
> I certainly don't think current music is garbage. But I do think innovation has slowed. I would agree quite strongly here. I make a point of grubbing through "new artists" and/or "new releases" on Amazon M
619.
by pnathan 8y ago
> I'm an insurance broker. Why this man didn't sign up for Medicare and Medigap ($300 a month for complete coverage of everything) is beyond me. People screw up. People forget. Errors occur, constantly. It should be an auto-s
620.
by pnathan 8y ago
I don't want an analysis of my browsing habits by anyone not me , fundamentally. I don't want "popular sites" sent to my machine, I don't want my habits sent upstream. Either is not my desire. I really don't
621.
by pnathan 8y ago
That only marginally makes it better...
622.
by pnathan 8y ago
installed firefox recently and it's showing me recommended content from Pocket. bro not cool. I don't want your backend recommendation engine tracking what I'm doing. (online or off) (and, yes, I disabled it, as well rewired
623.
by pnathan 8y ago
OP did not make those points, and I am not rebutting them, because they are true. :-)
624.
by pnathan 8y ago
You're coming at this more nuanced and from a somewhat different angle than OP. I largely agree with you, given this angle. But, it's Friday after noon... The physical provides a certain sense of satisfaction that is not obtainabl
625.
by pnathan 8y ago
noted this elsewhere - but toplevel - if you are ever in downtown Seattle, feel a bit lonely (work trip?) and want to get lunch or coffee with Someone From The Internet, I am usually up for such a thing on a work day. email in profile, etc
626.
by pnathan 8y ago
Outside of specific venues, no one I encounter has similar interests. Really disincentivizes me to talk to them. To counter that, I try to keep up with the local sports, as a base for small talk.
627.
by pnathan 8y ago
I've gone from "hick town" and going to church to cities (and going to church). Everything is better except for the light pollution.
628.
by pnathan 8y ago
When we visited NYC a few years ago, I thought NYC was one of the friendliest places in the USA I'd ever been. And I've been to the midwest, san francisco, the pacific NW, the southwest, and the DC area. We took the subway and the
629.
by pnathan 8y ago
The post-college life is very hard this way. A very good friend of mine did not grow up on the web, is very gregarious, and still finds that connecting with people is hard, despite whereever she goes. Some regions are worse - the PNW is n
630.
by pnathan 8y ago
> The gestalt of a farm transcends what pixels and speakers can convey. Humanity has historically fled from working on farms (note the % of farm workers over the last 300 years). Maybe before writing this sentence, question your pastoral

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