Viewing profile — pattisapu

Willingness.

Is there something special about loading complexity into the level of the sentence as opposed to individual words? Agglutination in many Native American languages and compounding i…

"The Adventures of Captain Internet and CERF Boy” made me think of Vint Cerf. :)

Good point. People smell condescension, and then check out. The whole thing cools. They'll say just enough to get to the next topic gracefully. The dispute is patched up with somet…

A good analogy. And that stance is so different from "wanting to lose" -- it is "wanting a challenge." To get bested by a worthy opponent. That feeling can only be had after bringi…

Vigorous debate is a good thing. It's about learning to turn it off afterwards. Debate at its best is where the issues are at stake -- not the relationship. Getting clear on that i…

You mean like the cult and occult stuff? True, I guess there were some elements. Heaven's Gate, Scientology, and others appear to have adopted a religious outlook on science fictio…

As science fiction and fantasy have evolved, they have converged. We can see plenty of fantasy in works of science fiction in the conventional _forms_ of science fiction -- short s…

And there is value in that being the first time the whole Court sees it. Cards on the table at one definite time. How much the author had to sweat to get there, to the extent it ma…

Sorry if this is a dumb question -- but what would be the motive for a sitting justice to leak a draft? To test what celebrations or outrage would happen in the streets, maybe? If …

Oh of course -- I just meant that I can envision a scenario where a judge is essentially writing out a thought-experiment as he or she is trying to figure out how to rule on a case…

When I clerked for a judge (not on the Supreme Court), she sometimes asked me to write two draft opinions -- one where one side wins -- and another where the other side wins -- and…

Slurs seem to share some of this violence in expression. In English, at least, many unspeakable words used to describe Blacks, Asians, Jews, gay men, lesbian women, and others seem…

Makes sense. Reallocate the cost to the cheapest cost avoider.

Sanskritist and linguist here. Many discussions of Sanskrit outside the world of linguistics devolve into politics ... the discoveries of the Indians are what they are, just like t…

“Could a sufficient concentration of human will — millions of people exploited for a single end with their minds compressed into the same psychic space — unleash something comparab…

Just two generations ago, teaching Latin by "the direct method" was not uncommon in the West: http://www.arlt.co.uk/method.html Greek composition courses, too.

Are there any teenage girls here on HN who could comment from personal experience?

"Check out this unusual thing that I was able to do" is the emphasis rather than "Here is an interview with this person of interest."

At the Supreme Court a lawyer once said something was "entirely orthogonal" to the main issue. Chief Justice Roberts: “I’m sorry. Entirely what?” “Orthogonal,” the lawyer replied. …