zeteo

26 ms·

841.
by zeteo 16y ago
Have you even read any technological surveys? You'll find plenty of respectable histories of technology that don't even mention that Einstein was Jewish. See http://books.google.com/books?id=XvB1ZcsrDFAC&printsec=f... for example. T
842.
by zeteo 16y ago
We are all adults in the same society. Do you think it's possible to look at the history of technology before 1960 without looking at, say, Einstein's skin color?
843.
by zeteo 16y ago
There are so many interesting things in this video. Why would you choose to concentrate on race before anything else? There are some subjects where skin color is a very important dimension of the analysis, such as the political history of
844.
by zeteo 16y ago
You must have a pretty racist world view if the first thing that strikes you in a tech story is the skin color of the people involved.
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by zeteo 16y ago
There is a very good reason why hunter gatherers never built the Parthenon, and in general why their technological development is sorely lacking: they lack specialists . Masons, blacksmiths, and later scientists, engineers, and professors
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by zeteo 16y ago
Good point, but in any case "I'm never going to use this" is hardly ever a valid excuse. Its consistent application would rule out almost everything we call education, save the narrowest vocational training. It's also self-defeating: if you
847.
by zeteo 16y ago
>India is like that dorky adolescent kid with warts and pimples popping up all over the face. Give her 20-30 more years. Now that's a poorly chosen metaphor! What will the adolescent girl do in 20-30 years, replace pimples with wrinkles
848.
by zeteo 16y ago
I wonder why they need to put a crew in it. Building a robotic submarine should be easy in this age of GPS, pressure sensors and satellite phones. It would also decrease cost, while increasing cargo (no life support or living quarters neede
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by zeteo 16y ago
I think it had more to do with Čapek subscribing to Marxist theories about historical inevitability and such. His robots are in fact a mental abstraction, a caricature of early 20th century proletariat that was supposedly bound to revolt, s
850.
by zeteo 16y ago
After reading R.U.R., it's amazing how many themes of the subsequent 90 years' worth of dystopic literature it predicts! Robot rebellion, androids, human fertility crisis - it's all there, and more. It's also kind of ironic that the same pi
851.
by zeteo 16y ago
"I expected to begin about 4 billion years ago, for the entire history of our world." "History" means written records. That's why 3.999994 of those 4 billion years fall under prehistory.
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by zeteo 16y ago
France is an interesting and peculiar case, with lots of natalist policies and with laws impeding the collection of statistics based on religion and ethnic origin. I'd love to see the original INED study, though, if you have a link.
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by zeteo 16y ago
Falling, but still much higher than the 'native'. Also, the increased fertility rates of the second-generation immigrants are absorbed by these statistics into e.g. "Dutch-born", which skews the comparison.
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by zeteo 16y ago
Right, that post however doesn't seem to make a very good conclusion from the numbers presented. I've replied to it in more detail.
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by zeteo 16y ago
The post you're replying to argues that Muslim immigration has raised fertility rates, and your numbers confirm that opinion. Even the falling Muslim fertility rates, after 15 years, that you mention are far above the "native" rates (2.9 as
856.
by zeteo 16y ago
"Look at fertility in France. It's not because people here are highly religious, for sure." Not exactly true, see my comment above: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2354758
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by zeteo 16y ago
The laws of France make it notoriously difficult to gather data on the correlation between religion and fertility, but the best available studies show that in France "[t]he estimated fertility of a woman assisting [religious] offices every
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by zeteo 16y ago
It not religion per se that's becoming extinct in these nations, it's just some form of Christianity (usually, a very moderate and modernizing form). Detailed demographical studies show that fundamentalist religion (e.g. born again evange
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by zeteo 16y ago
After hearing so much about it for years, I've recently made time and read The Wealth of Nations . It's full of amazing insights that are still valid three centuries later. Thoughtful arguments in favor of free markets are balanced with l
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by zeteo 16y ago
The Japanese have a cultural fascination with humanoid robots. Unfortunately, most useful robots at the moment are rather unimpressive looking and decidedly not humanoid. Ergo, much of Japanese robotics research is closer to toy design and
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by zeteo 16y ago
I'm pretty sure this is the area: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&#38... The article talks about the Marisma de Hinojos marsh in the Coto Doñana National Park, just past the straits of Gibraltar. The map does show
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by zeteo 16y ago
Interesting, but this doesn't address the fundamental problem. The main reason that companies make you wait on the line is to differentiate the customers who care a lot about their problem from those who don't. By making the cost of waiting
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by zeteo 16y ago
By no means. The average marching rate for foot-borne, pre-industrial armies has been a pretty consistent 10 miles a day. Only a few exceptionally well organized forces, like the Roman legions, could march more than that on a regular basis.
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by zeteo 16y ago
"Differentiate or Die" Sounds like the punchline in a math joke.
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by zeteo 16y ago
"There's a lot you can not do with table-cells." Could you give a few examples? "it's semantically incorrect" So is "float".
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by zeteo 16y ago
If he shares it freely with people he barely knows, it's not a secret. It's dishonest to call it a "secret" just to bait the headline.
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by zeteo 16y ago
An interesting idea, but the experiment as described in the article doesn't prove it. If I played this game without knowing what "S", "D" and "?" stand for, I'd just assume that "S" means "few", "D" means "a lot" and "?" means "a moderate a
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by zeteo 16y ago
Most of this stuff is quite interesting, but towards the end it becomes rather stretched out. Especially point 10, which amounts to LSD + (Zen Buddhism) + (a touch of genius) = (the next Steve Jobs)
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by zeteo 16y ago
Many of these are not even predictions, and most are badly sourced and out of context. E.g. the guy who foresaw no further progress for engines of war in 84 CE was definitely right for the next few hundred years. But one quotation that I'm
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by zeteo 16y ago
Right, one state won't make a big difference in global CO2 emissions, but the point is to lead by example. There are a lot of people / political entities sitting on the fence right now, because it is unknown what the cost would be for these

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