rquantz

12 ms·

61.
by rquantz 11y ago
Not sure what you mean by this? You're comparing him favorably to the modernists? Picasso, Braque, Miro, those guys? Or do you mean specifically abstract expressionists, who seem to get so much flak in this community? Pollock and Rothk
62.
by rquantz 11y ago
And untold millions died because of Japanese leaders' cautious stupidity. It seems like there are lessons to be learned here? Let's start with, whenever there are positions that are culturally unspeakable, you have a problem. Per
63.
by rquantz 11y ago
Well, military spending is half of discretionary spending, but it's nowhere close to half the federal budget. I'd rather these billionaires and corporations be paying into the commonweal and helping us to pay for the social progra
64.
by rquantz 11y ago
The President of Wesleyan University in Connecticut had a nice response to this kind of nannyish article. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/11/...
65.
University president sick of hearing about pampered students with coddled minds(washingtonpost.com)
1 points by rquantz 11y ago|0 comments
66.
by rquantz 11y ago
There are meaningful elections at least twice a year. If you don't realize that, maybe that's because you're not paying enough attention?
67.
by rquantz 11y ago
Odd and also somewhat unrelated, Peter Tomarken is the brother of my next door neighbor growing up. I used to go over to their house and have tea. I knew his brother was a game show host, but didn't know what show or anything... weird
68.
by rquantz 11y ago
I don't think that's what it's saying. When people are scared out of their minds they tend to respond reflexively rather than rationally, and in the case of terrorism they tend to do things that make things worse (confer legi
69.
by rquantz 11y ago
> We need big thinkers We need some, but there aren't anywhere near enough big-thinking jobs for all these PhDs. Yeah, man, jobs! It's all about jobs! Jobs jobs jobs! Steve Jobs! Jobs jobs! How about this? The world needs big
70.
by rquantz 11y ago
LEO is the most expensive part, but we know how to do it pretty well at this point. Landing something big enough to carry humans on Mars, on the other hand, is a problem we haven't solved yet.
71.
by rquantz 11y ago
Oh god, this again. I don't actually have to post a rebuttal to the WaitButWhy post because the comments on the post do such a good job of it. Go read them. That post is off base and incredibly condescending. Your quote of Ready Player
72.
by rquantz 11y ago
I took a theory class in the music of Stravinsky in grad school, and we used Craft's books at several points. It's interesting to think of the life of a person as having historical significance in large part because they acted as
73.
by rquantz 11y ago
I actually think you're probably right as well – my original post was done before I'd had much time to reflect. Terrorism is usually done to provoke some kind of hardening response, and today in practice that seems to mean trying
74.
by rquantz 11y ago
Terrorism is usually a rational act. It is terrible, but it has political goals. This, for instance, may be aimed at ending the European involvement in Syria and their taking in refugees.
75.
by rquantz 11y ago
Yes, the movie on the surface seemed to end on a note of ambiguity, but it in fact resolved in favor of science.
76.
by rquantz 11y ago
Phil Plait at Bad Astronomy has a good response to this story: http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astronomy/2015/11/03/antarcti...
77.
by rquantz 11y ago
Ah, but music is so a part of every culture. Everyone used to sing or play intruments. And the first chance they got to give that up, they bought that gramophone and stopped making music themselves. I wouldn't expect cooking (as oppose
78.
by rquantz 11y ago
Oh I didn't think you did, I was speaking generally.
79.
by rquantz 11y ago
That is an unacceptable post, but why not just flag it, instead of the whole submission? The discussion was split into two rather interesting topics, one about why corporations drag their heels and resist change instead of using their lever
80.
by rquantz 11y ago
The official response is that it was flagged heavily. dang notes that climate change submissions have tended to lead to flame wars in the past, so those posts tend to get a lot of flags now. It's a shame, because I thought the discussi
81.
by rquantz 11y ago
I didn't. The one thing I thought I might have done wrong was I commented with a link to an article with some additional background information, and then decided to submit that link as well.
82.
by rquantz 11y ago
And now I see that on dang's profile. Thanks for the info.
83.
by rquantz 11y ago
So HN can't discuss climate change because there are a few people who reflexively flag any climate change related articles? It seems like there needs to be a way to guard against that.
84.
Ask HN Moderators: Why did my submission suddenly drop off the front page?
18 points by rquantz 11y ago|22 comments
85.
Exxon Knew about Climate Change Almost 40 Years Ago(scientificamerican.com)
10 points by rquantz 11y ago|2 comments
86.
by rquantz 11y ago
If you haven't read it, here is an article that discusses some of what Exxon knew in the 1970s. They did groundbreaking research and determined climate change was a problem before it was a public issue. Then, instead of doing something
87.
Exxon Mobil Investigated for Possible Climate Change Lies by NY Attorney General(nytimes.com)
61 points by rquantz 11y ago|53 comments
88.
by rquantz 11y ago
But that doesn't sound as good as a dystopian science fiction story :)
89.
by rquantz 11y ago
Edit: to respond to your main point, you don't think this experience your kid had at whatever elite college is exactly what Robinson is decrying? This is the infiltration of the market into education, where students are treated as cons
90.
by rquantz 11y ago
That's silly, of course it can be taught, and it can even be measured if that's so important to you. Can this person read a text and understand the arguments that are being made? Can this person tease out subtexts and narratives a

More ›