wrp

59 ms·

901.
by wrp 4y ago
Reading the 395 comments so far, I see a lot of reference to the history of church censorship, but surprisingly, nothing at all about culture under the communist regimes of the 20th century, which I think is a much closer analogy. I spent a
902.
by wrp 4y ago
The Library of Alexandria was not destroyed suddenly. It experienced a slow decline over centuries. By the time it completely shut down, it had not been a major center of scholarship for a long time. I suspect that most significant works in
903.
by wrp 4y ago
> ...I wonder how many just ended up in the dump... The really sickening part of studying medieval manuscripts is seeing how frequently they were treated as trash by later generations. We have what are now priceless artifacts that were u
904.
by wrp 4y ago
I know of this problem in Korea and even know one couple affected. I've thought that it may be caused by the stressful nature of Korean life. Is this difficulty in conceiving also prevalent among persons of Korean ancestry raised in Am
905.
by wrp 4y ago
I have been in and out of Korea for many years and know several families where the norm went from several children to one within two generations. The main factors that I think caused this trend are: 1. Husband and wife both now work, not ju
906.
by wrp 4y ago
"In the nineties, after oil money came to Russia, quality of life improved," he continued. More wealth brought more garbage, which meant more food for dogs (as well as for rats and crows). Yeah, that's a really strange clai
907.
by wrp 4y ago
During the period that educated Europeans believed in the reality of magic, it was understood to be of two types. "Natural magic" is when you are manipulating the physical world without understanding the mechanism by which it work
908.
by wrp 4y ago
> ...throwing the One Phone into a volcano... Ha! I read that and the outline of a whole epic adventure just shot through my mind.
909.
by wrp 4y ago
Good example. I sometimes teach programming to grad students who have no previous experience. When they first encounter syntax highlighting, they are impressed with how pretty it makes things look. However, it becomes apparent that it'
910.
by wrp 4y ago
About Putin, it appears he was an undistinguished functionary during his time at the KGB. It wasn't until he got into politics that he started to get noticed as an effective operator. His KGB experience doesn't seem to have imbued
911.
by wrp 4y ago
>...parents who frankly just don’t give a shit... From my experience teaching in multiple Western and non-Western countries, I believe that this factor outweighs all the others put together.
912.
by wrp 4y ago
I know of one serious movie about Army camels, Southwest Passage (1954), and two comedies, One Little Indian (1973) and Hawmps! (1976). One of the most interesting bits of folklore is the story of the Red Ghost of Arizona. ( https:&#x
913.
by wrp 4y ago
This article is a bit of a diatribe. Loren Graham's Lysenko’s Ghost: Epigenetics and Russia (which they cite) is a more careful analysis of the same history. There seem to be two distinct reasons for a resurgence of interest in Lysen
914.
by wrp 4y ago
> people took pride in their handwriting A handwritten letter was often how others got their first impression of you, so you had external motivation for caring about it.
915.
by wrp 4y ago
The use of "bug" to refer to an operational problem goes back to at least the mid 19th century. I vaguely remember an article where the author found reference to getting the bugs out of the design of a carriage.
916.
by wrp 4y ago
I've read that intestinal worms were nearly universal in post-WW2 Japan due to use of human feces in vegetable farming. I would guess that to be the most obvious explanation anywhere.
917.
by wrp 4y ago
That's pretty interesting, but I'm now wondering if there is another interesting story behind there being someone who feels strongly enough about it to downvote.
918.
by wrp 4y ago
I think FA has been like that from the beginning. I once did a thorough reading of 1930s issues to get an understanding of the run-up to WW2, and it was as you describe.
919.
by wrp 4y ago
If I wanted a small town with the facilities of a good university, Corvallis would be my first choice in Oregon. Eugene has I think not aged as well over the past 30 years and the central area has experienced rising property crime and homel
920.
by wrp 4y ago
Ashland has dramatically beautiful surroundings and an active arts scene, but it's a long drive from major urban areas and the "university" is a very, very minor outpost of higher education.
921.
by wrp 4y ago
I think your experience in the UK(?) may not be very indicative of what to expect. I gather that pubs in small town Britain fill a broader social role than bars in small town America.
922.
by wrp 4y ago
Modern popular culture and even some scholarship exaggerates the degree to which women were forcibly excluded from intellectual life in medieval Europe. Some time ago, I was perusing some late-medieval illuminated manuscripts and came acros
923.
by wrp 4y ago
Writing Interactive Compilers and Interpreters by Peter John Brown (1979) is quirky in the sense that he paid unusual attention to the literary quality of his prose. Among his admonitions for writing user manuals is this: Read. Books on
924.
by wrp 4y ago
Are not certain specialized packages like Gretl and GAUSS still the lingua franca of certain fields?
925.
by wrp 4y ago
In the past few years, I've started having this problem with offices where recent graduates handle outside interaction. Instead of bringing affairs to an explicit conclusion, they just stop responding. A few times, I've had to dir
926.
by wrp 4y ago
What is the quality of Russian-made computers? In the post-Soviet era, some Russian lab equipment gained a reputation for being a good economical alternative. I never heard anything about computers, though.
927.
by wrp 4y ago
So true, reb Tevye.
928.
by wrp 4y ago
I can add something relevant to this bit: One wonders, of course, why anyone would think the Japanese would think the atomic bomb was a one-off thing, or that the Americans wouldn't have the resolve to use it again. When I was a stud
929.
by wrp 4y ago
Allied casualties were expected to be in the high hundreds of thousands. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Downfall )
930.
by wrp 4y ago
I've heard that American fast food chains in general have not done well in Italy. Is that correct?

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