rsj_hn

408 ms·

1. 2851.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   I also think that the long run future of humanity is speaking a single language. The trend has not been to fragment languages but consolidate them because of the metcalf law effects you pointed out. But even if that language is almost certa
2. 2852.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   So, I'm not talking about total use. English isn't the most popular first language even today. I'm talking about which language is the most popular second language used in international dialogue, especially research. And th
3. 2853.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   Many of these countries have a federal system -- the U.S. is not unique in this regard. In fact, switzerland makes our Federalism pale in comparison. Germany is more federalist. The U.S. is not unique in any way in having a federalist syste
4. 2854.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   They have not been "proven" to do that, and it's certainly up for debate. The very article you cite -- which is very far from a theorem or proof of anything at all -- points out that a very small percent of the population is
5. 2855.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   That's a bit unfair. You are talking about an event in the Great Terror ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror ), when thousands of people were executed by the Committee for Public Safety, both on the left
6. 2856.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   Latin was the Lingua Franca of science until the 17th Century, or 1300 years after the collapse of the Roman Empire (Sorry Byzantium), so if that's not evidence for the stickiness of languages, I'm not sure what else you'd ne
7. 2857.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   > All jurisdictions require some kind of ID to receive a ballot. That's false. See http://canadavsamerica.com/voter-id-laws-canada-vs-america/ 18 states do not ask for or require ID, including California, New Y
8. 2858.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   I went on Breitbart's site and it loads fine in chrome. Also, Google returns it as a top search result. So, credit where credit is due.
9. 2859.▲
   by rsj_hn 8y ago

   Now, I must revise and extend my remarks. I found this site: https://www.aaas.org/page/historical-trends-federal-rd From which you can download R&D spending as a percent of GDP in an excel spreadsheet. They also ha
10. 2860.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    OK, but the NSF research budget (7 billion) is small potatoes compared to the NIH (37 Billion per year), and DOD (70 Billion). And it's about the same as the Department of Energy (7 Billion, not including the national labs). There is p
11. 2861.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    I may be the outlier, but I don't think the Prius looks like crap. It's not super appealing, but IMO most modern cars all look alike and they are boring. At least the Prius looked a bit more quirky when it came out, so a little mo
12. 2862.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    I'm scared about a Saudi collapse. I can imagine that regime, which is already very radical, becoming much more so if the profits from extraction run out.
13. 2863.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    Yeah, far too often, prosecutors try to cut a name for themselves by vigorously prosecuting, rather than by vigorously refusing to prosecute, so this is a refreshing turn. From a systems point of view, I'm uncomfortable with the idea o
14. 2864.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    I was around when Bush won re-election. After he lied us into war. I couldn't believe it. I was absolutely stunned, depressed, and horrified that something like that could happen. Yet not once did I expect my employer to "comfort&
15. 2865.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    There are people personally threatened in every presidential election, and most of those fears are overblown pretty much all the time. Lots of extremist views in this country and lots of people feeling threatened about pretty much everythin
16. 2866.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    Yes, corporations are in it for the money, and they are hypocrites, etc. I don't think most people have a problem with that (except maybe those who think corporations are moral agents), but what's been happening recently is very c
17. 2867.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    That's a bit of a strawman, since the OP didn't talk about the first amendment but about "free speech". Free Speech is a principle coming from the enlightenment of which the first amendment is one expression, but certa
18. 2868.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    No, it's not surprising at all. Every company has a preferred candidate in pretty much every election, at least the CEO and top leadership certainly does. What is surprising is turning an all hands into a kind of mass grieving funerati
19. 2869.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    I think that was part of it -- the "deplorables" line really hurt her. Hillary didn't have anywhere near the political talent that Bill had, where by "political talent" I mean being able to connect with people and b
20. 2870.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    Fun Fact: A lot of people, when discussing Free Speech, bring up Nazis and how some views should be banned. In fact, Weimar Germany, although much more liberal than the republic under Bismarck, cracked down on hate speech and jailed many Na
21. 2871.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    That's just not the case. When Greece had its own currency, it could devalue against the Deutsche Mark and keep people employed. That devaluation would cause some inflation and it would also raise interest rates a bit -- no debt bubble
22. 2872.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    1. Almost all of the entire entire Western U.S. (including most of california) is an arid area. It used to be called "The Great American desert". For more information, I'd recommend reading "Cadillac Desert" 2. Whe
23. 2873.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    There are not valid environment or social reasons to avoid meat. Cattle is the most efficient way to produce calories in a dry region in which water rather than land is the binding constraint (Western U.S., middle east, north africa). Crops
24. 2874.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    These are the same geniuses that were cheerleading financial deregulation before the crash. Before that, they were cheering liberalization of international capital flows before the asian crash. After, they were cheering austerity. The econo
25. 2875.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    There is a way to measure economic and political performance other than "I have not yet annihilated the planet" -- I mean, that's a pretty low bar. In Italy, GDP per capita is below what it was since the Euro was introduced[
26. 2876.▲
    by rsj_hn 8y ago

    People can now remove that consent whenever they want and force their data to be deleted at any time. This is a win. There are other wins, too.
27. 2877.▲
    by rsj_hn 9y ago

    > They are under no obligation to host the videos, but they can't just delete them. One implies the other. If your media backup and recovery plan is Youtube, then you need another plan.
28. 2878.▲
    by rsj_hn 9y ago

    Very few tech companies have their HQ in SF. Of the top 100 tech companies in the valley, only Salesforce has their HQ in SF. Apple, Cisco, Oracle, Intel, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Adobe, Ebay, they all have HQs in the peninsula south of S
29. 2879.▲
    Isaac Newton Born on Christmas Day(*)(www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk)

    2 points by rsj_hn 9y ago|0 comments
30. 2880.▲
    by rsj_hn 9y ago

    You are confusing real and financial resources. Financial resources make sense at the micro level. If I have $100 and you have $10, I can purchase ten times the real resources that you can. But 1) that relative advantage doesn't corres