zeteo

81 ms·

721.
by zeteo 15y ago
The must-read book for the context is 1491 , by Charles C. Mann [1]. The main point is that pre-Columbian America was much more densely populated than previously thought, with the Native Americans managing a good deal of the ecosystem. Eur
722.
by zeteo 15y ago
> traditional medicine that works becomes modern medicine. This excludes the "help with spiritual issues" from being included within modern medicine, simply because there is no way to tell whether it works. The way the "help" probably w
723.
by zeteo 15y ago
That's "medications and treatments to control pain and other symptoms". It doesn't cover dealing with the philosophical issues.
724.
by zeteo 15y ago
Yes, he ended up having the surgery, but he wasted a crucial nine months on alternative medicine first. Here's a CNN article from 2008: http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/02/news/companies/elkind_jobs.f... "to the horror of the tiny circle of i
725.
by zeteo 15y ago
We're talking about two separate issues here, and you're mixing them up. There's nothing in modern medicine that teaches you how to prepare for death, or how to balance an extra 1% chance of survival with the pain of chemo. Take comfort in
726.
by zeteo 15y ago
> the statistics show that people who skip the N+1th round of chemo and switch to hospice care have better outcomes. Have you even read the article? This was not a case of choice between living two months with chemo or one month without
727.
by zeteo 15y ago
The mistake that this article makes is assuming that purely business decisions are what make or break large corporations these days. When it is, in fact, quite clear under the current system that politics can greatly determine such a corpor
728.
by zeteo 15y ago
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_strategy#Pure_and_mixed_st...
729.
by zeteo 15y ago
From the point of view of game theory, this is not an optimal strategy since it merely invites the opponent to place more ships on corners and edges. It might work well against a computer opponent, but a human will adapt quickly. The concep
730.
by zeteo 15y ago
If the only justification for doing something illegal is that sometime during WW2 someone might have had to do something similar in order to escape Hitler, I'd say that's a pretty weak justification. The continuum you suggest does exist, bu
731.
by zeteo 15y ago
It's not OK to falsify records in order to get into a better school without paying extra; look at the original post, that's what the argument was about. Taking a subsequent phrase out of context and stretching it to bring in baby killing is
732.
by zeteo 15y ago
This is confusing a set of legislative measures, aimed at the destruction of an illegal organization, with the attainment of the said result.
733.
by zeteo 15y ago
No, I'm not purporting that "falsehood is never wrong" (you meant "never right", I suppose). In context, I was talking about falsification of records with an intention to obtain educational benefits otherwise disallowed.
734.
by zeteo 15y ago
No matter how worthy the purpose, falsehood is falsehood. Is it really such good education for your children to demonstrate that lying should be used to obtain the important things in life?
735.
by zeteo 15y ago
>Ms. Williams-Bolar last year used her father's address to enroll her two daughters in a better public school outside of their neighborhood. This is not civil disobedience, it's just plain old falsification of records. If she had falsif
736.
by zeteo 15y ago
Yes of course there are lots of other factors, and history itself is a series of accidents. The point of this paper is that, all else being equal, a stratification in the distribution of food seems to improve the resilience of agricultural
737.
by zeteo 15y ago
The idea that social inequality automatically involves an incompetent, idle class of aristocrats giving orders to wretched underlings, who do all the work, is a straw man. All that's required, for this model at least, is an order of precede
738.
by zeteo 15y ago
That's fine, but we must also keep in mind that the difference in competencies can also lead to different definitions of success, of which Samsung's might be less visible. Samsung can still make a pretty good impact with a strategy for a sy
739.
by zeteo 15y ago
The key word in your example is "undisputed". The successful group that you describe must have previously adopted a system of beliefs that elevates some individuals over others. (It's a system of beliefs, and not sheer physical force, as ev
740.
by zeteo 15y ago
Both Amazon and Samsung Electronics have unique advantages in the tablet market (e.g. Samsung makes the iPad's CPU), and their market capitalizations are similar. Calling one an elephant and the other a chicken implies a difference of impac
741.
by zeteo 15y ago
>A successful campaign needs rapid coordinated efforts, which are best delivered by hierarchical models. This may be an argument for the superiority of militarist states (e.g. Assyria, Prussia), but it's anachronistic for the study at h
742.
by zeteo 15y ago
Here's the paper: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjourna... The crucial idea: > Our simulation results support the hypothesis that socioeconomic stratification may have spread due to its effects on the demography
743.
by zeteo 15y ago
The guide doesn't quite achieve what it sets out to, i.e. showing a GUI user some concrete examples where the command line gives you more power. Instead the reader is presented with lists of fancy ways to access a shell (you realistically e
744.
by zeteo 15y ago
> Shu managed to hover for 10 seconds at about 1 meter He would have probably done better if he had read a detailed article on the Wright brothers first. Successful flight is a matter of control, and eight engines do not compound well w
745.
by zeteo 15y ago
> robotic lawyers will bring cheap legal services to the masses who can't afford lawyers today. Just what in the world is a robotic lawyer good for?! It's hard to imagine a profession in which a weird corporeal presence might actually b
746.
by zeteo 15y ago
> regardless of the posted speed limit, driving at a speed lower than the rate at which traffic is flowing should be a primary offense One gets tailgated often enough for driving "only" 10 mph over the speed limit. I can only begin to i
747.
by zeteo 15y ago
I agree that "evolution" is usually a rather vague concept. In biology, however, we do have Darwin's definition based on the "strong principle of inheritance", involving differences in fitness among hereditary variations. Both methylation a
748.
by zeteo 15y ago
It's an interesting study, but the article is somewhat lacking. First off, the title is imprecise. This is specifically about epigenetics (DNA methylation). "Hidden code in DNA" is very vague, and can also apply, for instance, to introns, w
749.
by zeteo 15y ago
>Part of why Bernie Madoff lasted so long was that he arrived for an SEC investigation without a lawyer. Everyone in the room thought he had nothing to hide Got a source for that?
750.
by zeteo 15y ago
> there is actually no difference between how science works in astronomy and climate change – or any other scientific discipline for that matter. We make observations, run simulations, test and propose hypotheses, and undergo peer revie

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