101–110 of 115 posts
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We should be positive. We're the ones who end up on Elysium. Also, the new iPhone is really cool.
Plastic is the new aluminum (although I really like the 5c, actually, though the case is an abomination).
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> Africans aren't more corrupt or warlike than anyone else How do you know? My history teacher never hesitated to teach us how Prussia was good at war, and how France sucked at war. Edit: this is an honest question. If I said anything wrong, please let me know as well.
> My history teacher never hesitated to teach us how Prussia was good at war, and how France sucked at war. He should have hesitated, since historically France is one of the most militarily successful nations.
I don't claim to understand African issues very well, so take my comments with the grain of salt that I'm very ignorant. The civil wars that happen in certain African nations are troubling. But what was more troubling to me was reading news how factions would take control by poisoning wells that provided water for citizens. It was unthinkable to me that someone could actually do that, especially in certain areas wher…
It's just basic scorched earth tactics, which have been practiced for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth It's actually not short-term -- what better way to prevent your enemies from populating an area than to permanently render it unsuitable for habitation?
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@chrischen: (I cannot reploy to your latest comment) All I was trying to do is explain how one might come to the conclusion that africans are not intrinsically more corrupt or warlike than other people (instead of the opposite). I wasn't offended by your statement or wanted it to label as racism or anything. I'm sorry if you've misunderstood that.
Yes I understand how the OP came to his conclusion. In fact, the reason why I made my comment was to point out that his conclusion was based on fallacious logic.
Science and logic often lead to socially unpleasant realities. You can see the same thing when you talk to religious people about the scientific rationalization for an atheistic worldview. Those discussions don't go well either.
Especially in public forums, even better-than-average ones like HN, political correctness will always hold the emotional and populist trump cards.
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Hopefully people will, you know, stop dying and we hackers can go back to do real relevant things like instagram clones and settle once and for all which one is the better Lisp.
Some other suggestions along the same lines as you suggest: Interrupt a court case so that the courtroom can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to quibbling over legal wording. Speak at a conference for accountants so that they can appreciate the plight of dying African children before they get back to fiddling with spreadsheets. Share this in sexual abuse groups so that they can app…
Fantastic! Let's concoct some overly optimistic growth statistics for how this will stimulate the Kenyan economy. Let's say 19% for the first 10 years, then 15% for 10 more, then 12% for the next five. Based on those fudged figures, we'll convince the government to take on excessive debt to pay for water development, etc. projects. Since the figures are fudged, and since we'll do this hand in hand with local elites /…
fwiw, I can tell you haven't watched hans rosling recently either. We seem to have lost perception of it, but with all the crappy meddling from businesses, UN, ill-managed or bad willed NGOs etc.. life expectancy in sub saharian africa has doubled in the last fifty years, infant mortality has halved or more and many nice things have been happening along the horrible ones. I do not care for the new iPhone though, that…
Fantastic! Let's concoct some overly optimistic growth statistics for how this will stimulate the Kenyan economy. Let's say 19% for the first 10 years, then 15% for 10 more, then 12% for the next five. Based on those fudged figures, we'll convince the government to take on excessive debt to pay for water development, etc. projects. Since the figures are fudged, and since we'll do this hand in hand with local elites /…
Hey man, you need to clean your mind, seriously. I had only been in 5 or 6 countries in Africa, I want to visit way more. I had seen lots of good from foreign people (some of them giving their lives to others expecting nothing in return) so your comment is almost an insult. Don't read books, don't listen to other cynics like you. Go see yourself, go to Africa. You will discover and learn lots of things. In Africa the…
Overall, I'm actually quite positive re: human development.
Your advice to meet people and travel is well taken.
Regarding not reading, etc. Overvaluing personal experience vs. what has been observed by others is the basis of many classic flaws in human thinking. It's great for building empathy, though -- which we could use more of.
Think of bottom-up vs. top-down. There's tremendous knowledge to be gained from the bottom up, but often direct observation does not speak to the why of things. When you get an insider's account of events that have been obscured and have affected millions of people, it's not something that should be ignored.
Finally, I don't particularly like people, but I do like systems. I can better add value by fixing broken systems than by chumming around with more people (except to understand them, so I can fix systems).
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It's just basic scorched earth tactics, which have been practiced for centuries: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scorched_earth It's actually not short-term -- what better way to prevent your enemies from populating an area than to permanently render it unsuitable for habitation?
But what is the purpose of that action? Traditionally warfare [it seems to me] has primarily been about geo located resources. That is you want the land or the resources on the land that your neighbour is on. If you destroy the land/resources then you might as well have let the neighbour stay there so long as you ensured they didn't impinge on your resources.
Finally, some positive news out of Africa! Let's hope we (both local governments and groups, and Western "aid") don't screw this up. I'm not familiar with the Kenyan political climate, so if anyone else has some experience or knowledge about this, could you enlighten the rest of us about whether the government is helping the population as a whole or serves minority interests? Is the country stable? Bordering Sudan, E…
I'm not particularly knowledgeable about Africa, but as a human being I observe that all governments are a mix of these two activities. "Good" governments seem to focus more on the former (or maybe they have enough resources that minority interests can do well in less conspicuous fashion), but it isn't as though African governments come from a different planet than governments elsewhere.
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Yes I understand how the OP came to his conclusion. In fact, the reason why I made my comment was to point out that his conclusion was based on fallacious logic.
The problem is that you're trying to have a logical or even scientific discussion with people who are more interested in having a political, politically correct, socially non-offensive discussion. Science and logic often lead to socially unpleasant realities. You can see the same thing when you talk to religious people about the scientific rationalization for an atheistic worldview. Those discussions don't go well ei…
The fact that anyone believes it's possible to have a "scientific" or purely "logical" evaluation on a race of people in some kind of sterile/unbias environment without racism being a significant factor is wrong in today's world. Studies such as this[1] are just racism. How often does anyone try to connect white people with some negative trait? How many of those studies are done? But we love finding ways to support racism with "studies" masquerading as "science". Media, society, "studies" without all the context of history & corruption: anything to ensure black people, their culture, their home country continues to be looked down upon.
1. http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-men-smal...