Certhas

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• Commented on The dumbest thing I heard anyone say in 2009
  Yeah, well, 5000 pounds is meaningless but the order of magnitude isn't that far off. 2 minutes with wikipedia tell me it should be about 10.000$ in 1990 or 2000 (didn't specify) US dollars in the US. That's probably a...
• Commented on Advisor: Deleting emails could make you happier
  My inbox is not my ToDo list. My ToDo list resides elsewhere. Hence my inbox is simply an archive of communications to be searched when appropriate. Never delete, never archive, just drop of the front page. The key point of...
• Commented on Humans are domesticating themselves with smaller brains as a result
  "A lot of people who might be interested were small children decades ago when YOU apparently got wind of it." I was not born when those books were written, I just don't make the assumption that we are the first...
• Commented on Humans are domesticating themselves with smaller brains as a result
  That might have been a bit harsh, sorry, it's a pet peeve of mine if you can't tell. :)...
• Commented on Humans are domesticating themselves with smaller brains as a result
  Meh. This has been discussed in academic circles for decades. The problem is that nobody bothers to read what people used to write, especially if its in the "soft" sciences or philosophical. In particular this is the point why nurture...
• Commented on Mark Dery on 2012 bunkum
  "[I]t seems to me that there is very little concrete sense of what 'the Mayans' (whoever that grand abstraction represents) thought about what would happen in the human world on 2012," he writes. "To my mind it is kinda disrespectful...
• Commented on Fireplace named world's most beautiful object
  Seconded....
• Commented on HOWTO flout the flavored tobacco ban and make DIY homemade clove cigarettes
  @57 As evidenced by numerous European states with public health care systems which were much more reluctant/slow to move on smoking than the US....
• Commented on HOWTO flout the flavored tobacco ban and make DIY homemade clove cigarettes
  The total societal cost of smoking varies from country to country, based mostly on the health system which takes a hit from people being sick and the retirement system which benefits from people dying earlier, and tobacco taxes. There are...
• Commented on Bletchley Park gets National Lottery preservation funds
  Complete agreement. Also, the very same maths apply to insurance. Really, what is the likelihood of crashing your car? Or of your house burning down? Certainly on average you get out less then you pay in! Complete rip off! No...
• Commented on The American Burqini, and modesty throughout the ages.
  Wait, so it's ok because it was the norm in Europe back when the vast majority of Europeans lived in abject poverty virtually without rights, often severly restricted by repressive societies and when women certainly did not have the right...
• Commented on Normalcy is the future
  Here are things that might make a substantial difference in the daily routine, from least to most: AI that can navigate the real world reliably. Biotech that can efficiently replace arbitrary parts of the human body. Biotech that can efficiently...
• Commented on French cops use racial profiling for stop and search
  "There. Now nobody else has to do that. With that out of the way, the French do have a justification. There was that "Civil Unrest" a while ago weren't there? And that "Civil Unrest" had no cause whatsoever. Certainly discrimination...
• Commented on Shaming Congress into voting against the industries who bribed them to stop public healthcare
  Svallie, you mean the police force paid for by public money? Because society deems you shouldn't have to pay to be safe from physical harm? The empirical evidence is absolutely clear, universal health care works and is more effective than...
• Commented on God Hates the World, by Westboro Baptist Church
  Wow. Just wow. That's crazy. I at first thought that was a parody... ... but most of all what's with the upside down Canadian flag?!?! WTF??...
• Commented on Jury reports that Steon's Orbo does not produce free energy
  "The law that entropy always increases holds, I think, the supreme position among the laws of Nature. If someone points out to you that your pet theory of the universe is in disagreement with Maxwell's equations — then so much...
• Commented on Iran: Tim Shey on Observing Social Unrest Online at 32,000 feet
  @Reginald and look at the result! If only they had. That said, constant connectivity still seems a ridiculous concept to me. Great that you can feel a part of it, but it isn't much more then that: a feeling. I'm...
• Commented on Scholarship of social influence
  #1-#3 To me the key word in that sentence seems to be "small-world building". A small-world phenomenon means that in a random graph you are connected via much fewer links then you'd expect to everyone else. What this research seems...
• Commented on Six good technological ideas for improving publishing
  Serendipitously finding books is easy on the Internet, serendipitously bumping into another person browsing the books isn't. Also while Amazons algorithms are strong if you know what you want/what your taste is, going to the bookstore with a salesperson you...
• Commented on Reuben Margolin's kinetic wave sculptures
  Marvelous! Is there anywhere to find out what music they used? Or does anyone happen to know what in particular the first one was? c...
• Commented on France to give free newspaper subs to 18 year olds
  Likewise for the articles comment: "Why not give them broadband!" Because having access to all the information out there is useless if there is no one out there employing the best and most idealistic and ethical journalists, producing high quality...
• Commented on France to give free newspaper subs to 18 year olds
  #1 said it perfectly: "[online] u dont have to pay" So if people will, due to various reasons, stop paying for news and real journalism, then the state needs to save it. Otherwise it will be FoxNews to the power...
• Commented on Article about quasi-perpetual motion technology
  This is way more absurd than Cold Fusion. Cold Fusion was at least superficially feasible within the context of what we know about nature. It didn't necessarily imply that loads and loads of other physics that is well established and...
• Commented on Make your own Alka Seltzer for a fraction of the cost
  "Salt is extremely toxic and irritating. I'd go online and find out the source of the problem, or seek out a holistic healer." Crickey. If you have a real medical problem the last thing you should do is seek out...
• Commented on New Rochelle school board mutilates books to protect children
  The book is partly about the issue of the personal freedom the patients are deprived of. Including sex. The same "institutional reflexes" discussed in the book are at work here to censor the discussion of these "reflexes". Very war-on-terror-esque: the...
• Commented on Obama's "Change" Inspires Controversy in Arab Online Media
  Well he is choosing hardened generals for the political battles he will pick. Lets at least wait to see what direction he sets them to march into. The key is this: In Germany universal health care, some degree of same...
• Commented on Obama's "Change" Inspires Controversy in Arab Online Media
  I am optimistic. Because Obama combines inspirational rhetorics and the ability to create a movement with rational, analytic and pragmatic instincts and views. He is of the reality based community, he is not swinging the pendulum wildly back to the...
• Commented on "Der Untergang" clip used as real estate downfall video
  Probably not, they are actually pretty difficult to watch for German native speakers as obviously we would naturally focus on what is actually being said rather then the subtitles. So for the German speakers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjHEUSmC1GQ...
• Commented on If It Walks Like A Duck and Talks Like a Duck Dept: The McCain-Palin Mob
  "You really think you could go to an Obama rally and not only easily find plenty of people who offer that garbage up, but also hear the meme being advanced on stage by the candidates themselves?" Fake balance, completely fake...
• Commented on YouTube Comment Snob hides badly spelled, profane, poorly capitalized YouTube comments
  1) The filtering method would punish non native speakers and dyslexics disproportionally. 2) YouTube merely shows you how a culture looks in which everybody, including the people who a few years ago merely yelled at their own TV, participates. Participatory...