Riding the New Silk Road • Hacker News Board

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#111

Post by discardorama » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 1:00 AM UTC

btilly wrote: post #34

Time to trot out trivia. As the article points out, the Silk Road faded in importance in the 1400s. But it doesn't say why. There were three major reasons why it faded. The first was the final fall of Constantinople in 1453, ending the last remnant of the original Roman Empire. This made trade with Europe harder. The second was the development, initially by the Portuguese but followed by others, of direct sea routes…

The Americas started rising in the 1600s. That would preclude them as a factor in the Silk Road's decline.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#112

Post by devb » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 1:22 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #52

dclusin wrote: post #16

It seems to me like we're finally witnessing the birth of a 21st century news paper. The New York times has always been well regarded for it's journalism. Now we're starting to see what can be accomplished when a credible journalism outfit is complemented by equally credible digital designers.

And yet, I can't see this being developed into something regular; I mean, artfully done as this is, eventually they're going to want to make money.

The paywall is more restricted now than when it was first enacted. I won't pay for much online, but I recently signed up for the weekend papers + full online access because I thought the journalism is better than most of the crap found online.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#113

Post by drcode » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 1:24 AM UTC

kiba wrote: post #12

Did anybody thought of the black market site "silk road" rather than the actual Silk Road before clicking on the link?

Good, maybe this "name clash" will prevent the illicit silk road from getting so much MSM attention (I say this because I think bitcoin has a lot to of very positivie things to offer and SR distracts from this.)

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#114

Post by volaski » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 1:32 AM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #52

dclusin wrote: post #16

It seems to me like we're finally witnessing the birth of a 21st century news paper. The New York times has always been well regarded for it's journalism. Now we're starting to see what can be accomplished when a credible journalism outfit is complemented by equally credible digital designers.

And yet, I can't see this being developed into something regular; I mean, artfully done as this is, eventually they're going to want to make money.

As Paul Graham says, "Do things that don't scale"

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#115

Post by dwaltrip » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 1:40 AM UTC

drcode wrote: post #113

kiba wrote: post #12

Did anybody thought of the black market site "silk road" rather than the actual Silk Road before clicking on the link?

Good, maybe this "name clash" will prevent the illicit silk road from getting so much MSM attention (I say this because I think bitcoin has a lot to of very positivie things to offer and SR distracts from this.)

The War on Drugs is a misguided failure

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#116

Post by lnanek2 » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:06 AM UTC

Good job NYTimes designing another high quality story site. This is what the coder community should have made instead of an exact clone of the last one that caused so much trouble.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#117

Post by lnanek2 » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:07 AM UTC

kiba wrote: post #12

Did anybody thought of the black market site "silk road" rather than the actual Silk Road before clicking on the link?

Haha, yes. This wasn't the new one at all. Badly titled article, although it did get me to read when I wouldn't have otherwise.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#118

Post by adrusi » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:32 AM UTC

discardorama wrote: post #111

btilly wrote: post #34

Time to trot out trivia. As the article points out, the Silk Road faded in importance in the 1400s. But it doesn't say why. There were three major reasons why it faded. The first was the final fall of Constantinople in 1453, ending the last remnant of the original Roman Empire. This made trade with Europe harder. The second was the development, initially by the Portuguese but followed by others, of direct sea routes…

The Americas started rising in the 1600s. That would preclude them as a factor in the Silk Road's decline.

But they were discovered in the late 1400s, resulting in a change of interest. Nations invested in New World colonies with similar goals as their trade with China. It would follow that trade with China decreased as resources were directed elsewhere.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#119

Post by NamTaf » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:37 AM UTC

cocoflunchy wrote: post #15

It's great to try new formats, but the experience is completely broken on my now-slightly-aging Windows laptop. I wish web developer/designers would test their pages on regular hardware instead of 27" iMacs or rMPB... The scrolling is horribly lagging, and the gifs/videos are all black: http://prntscr.com/1gq4he http://prntscr.com/1gq5b6

I'm confused. Some of the videos play in Chrome 28.0.1500.72 m (the gun turret bushes, the train driving, the control panel) but not all (the forklift container gauge change does not). Firefox 22.0 seems to play them all.

It's a pity the media experience isn't consistent across browsers.

Re: Riding the New Silk Road

#120

Post by btilly » Mon, Jul 22, 2013, 2:40 AM UTC

discardorama wrote: post #111

btilly wrote: post #34

Time to trot out trivia. As the article points out, the Silk Road faded in importance in the 1400s. But it doesn't say why. There were three major reasons why it faded. The first was the final fall of Constantinople in 1453, ending the last remnant of the original Roman Empire. This made trade with Europe harder. The second was the development, initially by the Portuguese but followed by others, of direct sea routes…

The Americas started rising in the 1600s. That would preclude them as a factor in the Silk Road's decline.

If you believe this, then you were probably educated in the USA.

Columbus sailed in 1492. The development of the Spanish colonies proceeded fairly quickly. The first Spanish city in the New World was founded in 1500, the first on the mainland in 1510, and by the 1530s a respectable empire had been carved out and colonized. By mid-century the New World was mining more silver than the old world.

It is hard to overstate how late English colonization began. Perhaps one of the most striking examples which brings it home is that when the Pilgrims landed in 1620 they were able to communicate with the natives thanks to meeting a native, Squanto, who already knew English on account of having lived in England. The mythology that they found a virgin land, untouched by white men, couldn't be farther from the truth!