False dichotomy. The information is already there and there are also people whose work is to handle it, releasing it or not has nothing to do with the workload on the engineers.
With that information disclosed, it could be analyzed by independent experts all over the world who would then pitch in with all sorts of things your ubermensch Japanese engineers missed.
At any rate, in principle it's always a bad idea to have this attitude towards information that belongs to the public. This attitude of "we, the old men in power know better than you ignorant childen" which is demeaning at best and leads to catastrophe at worst.
I dislike this kind of dissing of math in favor of praising a "hands-on" approach to programming.
I don't know if developing math skills helps with what is mostly a craft such as programming, but I think that encouraging an anti-intellectual atmosphere in the programming community will only lead to an even greater abundance of insultingly crappy code that consumes more effort and causes more frustration than any other factor in the industry.
yeah, I found the quote: "(Tokyo Governor Ishihara) referring to Chinese using the derogatory pre-war word "sankokujin" (third-country person) and calling for the SDF to protect Japanese from marauding foreigners in the event of a massive Tokyo earthquake, Tokyo Governor Ishihara has become infamous amongst the foreign community for his reactionary policies and inflammatory comments. "
http://www.japan-101.com/culture/ethnic_issues_in_japan.htm
As for the level of Japanese fluency, I see it more as an excuse than a legitimate reason to put yet another barrier between their country and the rest of the world. You don't see Mexican immigrants coming in with English degrees, yet they are oftenly praised for their hard-working attitude and good work output.
As I said, the elderly Japanese better realize they don't really have a whole lotta options here. Robots? that's a pipe-dream and everyone knows it. The Japanese are just in denial, and the longer they keep it up, the longer it's gonna hurt them.
But that was said to him by a (real) friend, that's the whole point.
This man has no friends, and all everyone wants from him is his work.
It is true that he would most likely be way better off if he used that work to make himself rich, but that's up to him and it's insulting to propose that he owes it to complete strangers such as us.
The way I see it, all e-book readers have at least one fatal flaw that defeats the whole purpose of the thing. The Kindle, etc. are too large and drm encumbered. Likewise, most devices have proprietary quirks and restrictions I just won't bother dealing with.
Only the iPhone/iPodTouch + GoodReader app + pdfs combo actually satisfies my mobile book reading needs: I'm carrying the phone anywhere anyways, the screen size has proven itself big enough for reading (though one has to get used to it) the app mentioned has pretty good functionality and dealing with bare pdfs (wish it supported djvu, alas) spares me from corporate arbitrariness and other bs.
Using this combo, I wonder why anyone would want a Kindle or similar non-pocket sized devices. If you have to carry something large, why not just get a book instead?
I can't help but feel that a lot of the Gates Foundation's efforts are misguided feel good fixes.
"Save the children" rather than fixing some of the underlying problems. For example, Iodine deficiency is perhaps the most cost effective human capital fix there is. Yet the Gates foundation has only given a few million to that cause as far as I can tell. Vaccines are sexy, saving children is sexy, makes your altruism feel good. Iodine in salt - not so sexy, no discernible results for 20+ years, no great feel good effect.
Oh awesome - Nikolas Kristof wrote about it :
here
Unfortunately, the most cost-effective aid interventions tend to be the kind that are incremental and save only a small proportion of lives—and are thus least satisfying to the giver. For instance, my wife, Sheryl WuDunn, and I have recently published a new book, Half the Sky, arguing that educating and empowering women is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. In the book we call on the U.S. government to adopt a program to help poor countries iodize their salt. Right now, about one-third of families in poor countries don't get enough iodine, and the result is not so much goiters as diminished intellectual capacity. Iodine is essential to brain formation for a fetus in the first trimester, and if a mother lacks iodine her child may end up mentally retarded. More commonly, children in such areas lose 10 to 15 IQ points, with girls particularly affected for reasons that aren't fully understood. This is a lifelong intelligence deficit and a significant burden on poor countries, and it can be resolved very cheaply; iodizing salt costs a couple of pennies per person per year.
Studies have suggested that iodizing salt brings real economic returns of nine times the cost—and yet we don't do it. The reason is, I think, that the results are statistical, not visible. You can never look at a child afterwards and say, "This girl would have been retarded if it weren't for iodized salt." All you can do is note that retardation rates fall and that, a decade later, school performance improves significantly.
Furthermore, taking advantage of the lack of a Somali government, Korean and Taiwanese trawlers depleted their coasts of fish, thus depriving them of a fishing industry and perhaps forcing some Somali into piracy (in addition to the ones who do it willingly, of course).
Mexico is better. Really, some of the laws the USians have to put up with, the hard-core racism and violence, and the amount of societal non-sense (among them your rampant Jeebus-ism), I wouldn't trade Mexico for the US.
Religion is dogmatic, which stands opposite to any genuine search for truth. Philosophy is to try to understand the nature of things using the mind and whatever else we have as humans when science meets its limits.
Certainly, there may incididentally be some philosophy contained in a religion's teachings, but whatever findings may be had from (for example) reading Jesus' parables are not inherent to the religion itself, but to philosophy. I tell you with certainty, mistaking religion with philosophy is truly intellectually dangerous, and can set back your understanding for years, if not your entire life.
Silent Hill 2... its weakness was that it sprawled thematically, leaving many loose ends, unanswered questions, unclear conclusions and unrelated elements.
That was not a weakness, it was one of its main strengths! The ambiguity of the story makes the viewer think and wonder about just what was it that was seen. And it does so in a masterful way, provoking interesting thoughts and interpretations on the part of the viewer. Not to mention that uncertainty is a key element of suspense and fear.
On a side note, this kind of attitude of wanting everything spoon-fed and explained is very lazy and too typical of people who just want to sit in front of a box to be entertained for a set amount of time. That's entirely different to wanting a piece of art that lingers in the mind long after experienced.
I think the French "inferiority/superiority complex" has deep historical roots. Now, I know little about France and history, but there was a time when French was the defacto language for diplomacy and trade, just like English is today. That's where the term "lingua franca" comes from.
Likewise, until the defeat of Napoleon, they used to be a major military power that not only maintained a vast overseas empire, but also managed to subdue almost all of the other European nations. Come to think of it, maybe they were sorta like the "Americans" of their time (though of course I don't think they ever matched the clout of the British Empire).
Now that they are far less relevant in the world stage, their "has been" status conflicts harshly with their prideful history hence, I think, their "inferiority/superiority complex".
Fool. The Iraq invasion was never a matter of military superiority. Are you implying that it was won because the usa hasn't been invaded or nuked or something since then? ridiculous.
What the Iraq invasion was a campaign to establish a sphere of influence that would secure usa economical and geopolitical interests in the region.
Years later and the usa has not only failed at that but (and this is what's killing you) in the process shown its true colors to the whole world.
The fall of the dollar, the collapsing economy, the conflict with Russia, that's just the beginning. The tide is turning, the world is starting to realize that "the world's only superpower" is more like a paper tiger and just as inertia pushed the usa forward despite the arrogance and ineptitude it's shown these last years, it will also send it crashing rock-bottom now that it has begun its fall.
It's not "criticizing a tyrannical regime", it's disturbing the public order, causing unrest, inciting chaos and upsetting the morals of the community. Now, off you go to re-education, kindly provided by our dear leaders!
Slashdot Mirror
Insightful analysis:
http://www.youtube.com/user/fairewindsenergy
False dichotomy. The information is already there and there are also people whose work is to handle it, releasing it or not has nothing to do with the workload on the engineers.
I think you're full of shit.
If anything, humanity (and children, as per your example) have always been damaged by LACK of information, not by free access to it.
I have no idea why you were modded insightful.
With that information disclosed, it could be analyzed by independent experts all over the world who would then pitch in with all sorts of things your ubermensch Japanese engineers missed.
At any rate, in principle it's always a bad idea to have this attitude towards information that belongs to the public. This attitude of "we, the old men in power know better than you ignorant childen" which is demeaning at best and leads to catastrophe at worst.
I dislike this kind of dissing of math in favor of praising a "hands-on" approach to programming.
I don't know if developing math skills helps with what is mostly a craft such as programming, but I think that encouraging an anti-intellectual atmosphere in the programming community will only lead to an even greater abundance of insultingly crappy code that consumes more effort and causes more frustration than any other factor in the industry.
yeah, I found the quote: "(Tokyo Governor Ishihara) referring to Chinese using the derogatory pre-war word "sankokujin" (third-country person) and calling for the SDF to protect Japanese from marauding foreigners in the event of a massive Tokyo earthquake, Tokyo Governor Ishihara has become infamous amongst the foreign community for his reactionary policies and inflammatory comments. " http://www.japan-101.com/culture/ethnic_issues_in_japan.htm
I hope they don't start slaughtering random foreigners like last time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake#Post-quake_massacre_against_ethnic_minorities
As for the level of Japanese fluency, I see it more as an excuse than a legitimate reason to put yet another barrier between their country and the rest of the world. You don't see Mexican immigrants coming in with English degrees, yet they are oftenly praised for their hard-working attitude and good work output.
As I said, the elderly Japanese better realize they don't really have a whole lotta options here. Robots? that's a pipe-dream and everyone knows it. The Japanese are just in denial, and the longer they keep it up, the longer it's gonna hurt them.
Non-Japanese care workers or die alone like dogs. That they're trying to solve this using robots is just sad... so pathetic.
But that was said to him by a (real) friend, that's the whole point.
This man has no friends, and all everyone wants from him is his work.
It is true that he would most likely be way better off if he used that work to make himself rich, but that's up to him and it's insulting to propose that he owes it to complete strangers such as us.
especially charities
The way I see it, all e-book readers have at least one fatal flaw that defeats the whole purpose of the thing. The Kindle, etc. are too large and drm encumbered. Likewise, most devices have proprietary quirks and restrictions I just won't bother dealing with.
Only the iPhone/iPodTouch + GoodReader app + pdfs combo actually satisfies my mobile book reading needs: I'm carrying the phone anywhere anyways, the screen size has proven itself big enough for reading (though one has to get used to it) the app mentioned has pretty good functionality and dealing with bare pdfs (wish it supported djvu, alas) spares me from corporate arbitrariness and other bs.
Using this combo, I wonder why anyone would want a Kindle or similar non-pocket sized devices. If you have to carry something large, why not just get a book instead?
I can't help but feel that a lot of the Gates Foundation's efforts are misguided feel good fixes.
"Save the children" rather than fixing some of the underlying problems. For example, Iodine deficiency is perhaps the most cost effective human capital fix there is. Yet the Gates foundation has only given a few million to that cause as far as I can tell. Vaccines are sexy, saving children is sexy, makes your altruism feel good. Iodine in salt - not so sexy, no discernible results for 20+ years, no great feel good effect.
Oh awesome - Nikolas Kristof wrote about it : here
Unfortunately, the most cost-effective aid interventions tend to be the kind that are incremental and save only a small proportion of lives—and are thus least satisfying to the giver. For instance, my wife, Sheryl WuDunn, and I have recently published a new book, Half the Sky, arguing that educating and empowering women is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism. In the book we call on the U.S. government to adopt a program to help poor countries iodize their salt. Right now, about one-third of families in poor countries don't get enough iodine, and the result is not so much goiters as diminished intellectual capacity. Iodine is essential to brain formation for a fetus in the first trimester, and if a mother lacks iodine her child may end up mentally retarded. More commonly, children in such areas lose 10 to 15 IQ points, with girls particularly affected for reasons that aren't fully understood. This is a lifelong intelligence deficit and a significant burden on poor countries, and it can be resolved very cheaply; iodizing salt costs a couple of pennies per person per year.
Studies have suggested that iodizing salt brings real economic returns of nine times the cost—and yet we don't do it. The reason is, I think, that the results are statistical, not visible. You can never look at a child afterwards and say, "This girl would have been retarded if it weren't for iodized salt." All you can do is note that retardation rates fall and that, a decade later, school performance improves significantly.
I have no friends, family nor someone to cook for me you insensitive clod!
Furthermore, taking advantage of the lack of a Somali government, Korean and Taiwanese trawlers depleted their coasts of fish, thus depriving them of a fishing industry and perhaps forcing some Somali into piracy (in addition to the ones who do it willingly, of course).
Mexico is better. Really, some of the laws the USians have to put up with, the hard-core racism and violence, and the amount of societal non-sense (among them your rampant Jeebus-ism), I wouldn't trade Mexico for the US.
Religion is dogmatic, which stands opposite to any genuine search for truth. Philosophy is to try to understand the nature of things using the mind and whatever else we have as humans when science meets its limits.
Certainly, there may incididentally be some philosophy contained in a religion's teachings, but whatever findings may be had from (for example) reading Jesus' parables are not inherent to the religion itself, but to philosophy. I tell you with certainty, mistaking religion with philosophy is truly intellectually dangerous, and can set back your understanding for years, if not your entire life.
You are mistaking religion for philosophy. Very dangerous mistake.
Silent Hill 2 ... its weakness was that it sprawled thematically, leaving many loose ends, unanswered questions, unclear conclusions and unrelated elements.
That was not a weakness, it was one of its main strengths! The ambiguity of the story makes the viewer think and wonder about just what was it that was seen. And it does so in a masterful way, provoking interesting thoughts and interpretations on the part of the viewer. Not to mention that uncertainty is a key element of suspense and fear.
On a side note, this kind of attitude of wanting everything spoon-fed and explained is very lazy and too typical of people who just want to sit in front of a box to be entertained for a set amount of time. That's entirely different to wanting a piece of art that lingers in the mind long after experienced.
I think the French "inferiority/superiority complex" has deep historical roots. Now, I know little about France and history, but there was a time when French was the defacto language for diplomacy and trade, just like English is today. That's where the term "lingua franca" comes from.
Likewise, until the defeat of Napoleon, they used to be a major military power that not only maintained a vast overseas empire, but also managed to subdue almost all of the other European nations. Come to think of it, maybe they were sorta like the "Americans" of their time (though of course I don't think they ever matched the clout of the British Empire).
Now that they are far less relevant in the world stage, their "has been" status conflicts harshly with their prideful history hence, I think, their "inferiority/superiority complex".
They are asking the reader to create entire fields! how lazy of them.
Fool. The Iraq invasion was never a matter of military superiority. Are you implying that it was won because the usa hasn't been invaded or nuked or something since then? ridiculous.
What the Iraq invasion was a campaign to establish a sphere of influence that would secure usa economical and geopolitical interests in the region.
Years later and the usa has not only failed at that but (and this is what's killing you) in the process shown its true colors to the whole world. The fall of the dollar, the collapsing economy, the conflict with Russia, that's just the beginning. The tide is turning, the world is starting to realize that "the world's only superpower" is more like a paper tiger and just as inertia pushed the usa forward despite the arrogance and ineptitude it's shown these last years, it will also send it crashing rock-bottom now that it has begun its fall.
True that. I reply to your thread to increase its visibility.
http://www.kunstler.com/mags_virtual.html
"One of the extremely painful lessons of our time, I'm convinced, will be that the virtual is not an adequate substitute for the real."
I agree (from my very own painful experience) with that general idea.
It's not "criticizing a tyrannical regime", it's disturbing the public order, causing unrest, inciting chaos and upsetting the morals of the community. Now, off you go to re-education, kindly provided by our dear leaders!