HN user
F1 engines have overhead cams for specifically this reason.
F1 has displacement limits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_One_regulations#Engine
F1 is not relevant to the world outside racing, where there are no displacement limits. Important engine metrics in the consumer world are size, weight, reliability, repairability, fuel economy, and capex economy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube#Company_history
In March 2008, YouTube's bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately US$1 million a day. [...]
In June 2008 a Forbes magazine article projected the 2008 revenue at US$200 million
The term [devolution], as used commonly, implies some sort of objective heirarchy to evolution
Yes. Such an objective hierarchy of species is frequently referred-to in Charles Darwin's, The Descent of Man. http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext00/dscmn10.txt
Von Baer has defined advancement or progress in the organic scale better than any one else, as resting on the amount of differentiation and specialisation of the several parts of a being [...] In accordance with this view it seems, if we turn to geological evidence, that organisation on the whole has advanced throughout the world by slow and interrupted steps. In the great kingdom of the Vertebrata it has culminated in man.[...]
Thus we have given to man a pedigree of prodigious length, but not, it may be said, of noble quality. The world, it has often been remarked, appears as if it had long been preparing for the advent of man [...] The most humble organism is something much higher than the inorganic dust under our feet; and no one with an unbiassed mind can study any living creature, however humble, without being struck with enthusiasm at its marvellous structure and properties. [...]
no animal voluntarily imitates an action performed by man, until in the ascending scale we come to monkeys [...]
this is the first case known to me in the ascending scale of the animal kingdom [...]
It is generally admitted, that the higher animals possess memory, attention, association, and even some imagination and reason. If these powers, which differ much in different animals, are capable of improvement, there seems no great improbability in more complex faculties, such as the higher forms of abstraction, and self-consciousness, etc., having been evolved through the development and combination of the simpler ones. It has been urged against the views here maintained that it is impossible to say at what point in the ascending scale animals become capable of abstraction, etc.; [...]
He who believes in the advancement of man from some low organised form, will naturally ask how does this bear on the belief in the immortality of the soul. [...]
I am aware that the conclusions arrived at in this work will be denounced by some as highly irreligious; but he who denounces them is bound to shew why it is more irreligious to explain the origin of man as a distinct species by descent from some lower form [...]
In the lower divisions of the animal kingdom, sexual selection seems to have done nothing: such animals are often affixed for life to the same spot, or have the sexes combined in the same individual, or what is still more important, their perceptive and intellectual faculties are not sufficiently advanced to allow of the feelings of love and jealousy, or of the exertion of choice. When, however, we come to the Arthropoda and Vertebrata, even to the lowest classes in these two great Sub-Kingdoms, sexual selection has effected much. [...]
Man, like every other animal, has no doubt advanced to his present high condition [...] and if he is to advance still higher [...] Otherwise he would sink into indolence [...]
The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely, that man is descended from some lowly organised form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many. [...]
Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hope for a still higher destiny in the distant future. [...] with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system--with all these exalted powers--Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin.
what is referred to by "devolution" is just evolution.
Dictionaries do not define devolution as just evolution. They define it as retrogade evolution. http://www.google.com/search?q=devolution+%22retrograde+evol...
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devolution_(biological_fallacy)
I suggest you read the wikipedia link
I read it before you gave the link. The discussion page conflicts with the current state of the main page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Devolution_(biological_fal...
evolution can be both 'progressive' and 'regressive'. [...] if a population deteriorates genetically it certainly is something like 'devolution', and this article completely ignores this issue. [...] deterioration, misconceptions aside, is a real thing, and we need to stop giving people the impression that it is only a 'fallacy'.
The existence of higher mammals and higher animals implies the existence of lower mammals and lower animals, and therefore possible devolutionary directions.
So, then, are higher mammals and higher animals misnamed? http://www.google.com/search?q=%22higher+mammals%22
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22higher+animals%22
The Encyclopedia Britannica mentions plants that are more highly evolved than others: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22highly+evolved+plants%22
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/463192/plant
for example, the most highly evolved plants reproduce by means of seeds, and, in the most advanced of all plants (angiosperms), a reproductive organ called a flower is formed.
do you think a chimpanzee carrier makes it okay to inflict
What is the test for "okay"?
okay to inflict (with reasonably high likelihood) mutations and health problems on animals you are expecting will have near-human, or even human, levels of intelligence?
They could be aborted, instead, by not carrying out the project. http://news.google.com/news?q=abortion+birth+defects
In the process, an entire race of humans, or near humans, would also be aborted. http://news.google.com/news?q=racial+genocide
let's pretend you could find a human carrier to gestate your transgenic Neanderthal baby for you.
How about a chimpanzee carrier, as George Church suggested? http://www.google.com/search?q=george+church+chimpanzee+nean...
http://reason.com/news/printer/131717.html
Church would modify a modern human genome so that its DNA matches the Neanderthal version. [...] this Neanderthal genome would not be inserted into a human cell but instead into a chimpanzee cell. This chimp cell would be reprogrammed to an embryonic state, and then introduced into a chimpanzee's womb where it would develop into a Neanderthal infant.
I like "descent with modification" when explaining what evolution is to layman.
What, then, would devolution be?
All laptop manufacturers stopped using high-quality LCD panels and switched to selling overpriced TN-film based junk
It seems so: http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-9320-9...
We know of no IPS screens in current-model laptops, ThinkPads or otherwise, and it's a shame, because our T60's FlexView display has some killer attributes.
But that is a technology-based comparison, rather than a performance-based comparison. There are no intrinsic reasons OHV engines can't outperform OHC (overhead cam) engines; spray-on fireproofing can't outperform concrete fireproofing; or TN panels can't outperform IPS/PVA/MVA.
My latest Thinkpad took away true-color screen
Have you looked at the (TN-paneled) ThinkPad W700? http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-9320-9...
If you yearn for a laptop display that rises above acceptable, one whose colour accuracy matches a good desktop display, there's only one in this test: the ThinkPad W700. In fact, for us, it could just about replace a desktop display for colour critical work and even soft proofing for print in Photoshop
no-spec.com appears to be in violation of federal RICO laws. http://reclaimdemocracy.org/articles/2008/smithfield_union_r...
Smithfield says the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers International, and its officials violated RICO by issuing press releases, contacting civil rights and environmental groups, organizing protests and calling for boycotts.
possibly more [...] intelligent than humans
Do you think it is likely that mean modern-Neanderthal (Neanderthal raised in a modern environment) IQ would be higher than mean modern-human IQ?
How will we determine if he's competent
Why not use IQ testing? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_retardation#Treatment_an...
There are thousands of agencies in the United States that provide assistance for people with developmental disabilities. They include state-run, for-profit, and non-profit, privately run agencies.
Crack dealers are entrepreneurs.
Most crack dealers work in large organizations with only one or a few entrepreneurs at the top. Does working at Microsoft or Google make one an entrepreneur?
As the article said:
Felipe Dias is one of the convicts Catherine plans to redirect into a legitimate enterprise.
He was once a lieutenant of the Mexican Mafia gang and made tens of thousands of dollars a month importing drugs and selling firearms and stolen cars.
A lieutenant is not a founder.
Dup. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=482106
Turning crack dealers into chief executives (bbc.co.uk)
4 points by RiderOfGiraffes 22 hours ago | 1 comment
What's so scary about the Neanderthals is not that they were bigger or stronger, but that their brain volume was bigger then ours and from the skull shape we can tell the brain was shaped just like our brains. [...] So they might have been smarter.
The larger an animal, the larger the vegetative parts of its brain needs to be. Controlling for body size (and possibly even neglecting body size * ), Neanderthals did not have larger brains than do modern humans. An even greater advantage for modern humans would be seen in terms of neocortex size: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocortex#Evolution
The neocortex is the newest part of the cerebral cortex to evolve (hence the name "neo"); the other parts of the cerebral cortex are the paleocortex and archicortex, collectively known as the allocortex. The cellular organization of the allocortex is different from the six-layer structure mentioned above. In humans, 90% of the cerebral cortex is neocortex. [...]
The neocortex is part of the cerebral cortex (along with the archicortex and paleocortex, which are cortical parts of the limbic system). It is involved in higher functions such as sensory perception, generation of motor commands, spatial reasoning, conscious thought and, in humans, language.
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neanderthal#cite_note-5
a 1993 analysis of 118 hominid crania concluded that the cranial capacity of H.s. neandertal averaged 1412cc while that of fossil modern H.s. sapiens averaged 1487cc.
if [...] you're inflating the money supply way too much and way too fast, that can be disastrous.
Why?
Under the gold standard, there is a feedback loop allowing the market to control inflation
Why would one want to control inflation? Inflation does not have anything to do with economic health, does it? http://www.globalpolicy.org/socecon/bwi-wto/jubi2000.htm
below 40% inflation per year, 'there is no evidence that inflation is costly'. Furthermore, there is no evidence of a 'slippery slope' there is no evidence that one increase in inflation causes further increases. Thus 'the focus on inflation ... has led to macroeconomic policies which may not be the most conducive for long-term economic growth.'
(1) A productive society is one with experts.
Not according to Henry Ford: http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext05/hnfrd10.txt
If ever I wanted to kill opposition by unfair means I would endow the opposition with experts. [...]
None of our men are "experts." We have most unfortunately found it necessary to get rid of a man as soon as he thinks himself an expert--because no one ever considers himself expert if he really knows his job. A man who knows a job sees so much more to be done than he has done, that he is always pressing forward and never gives up an instant of thought to how good and how efficient he is. Thinking always ahead, thinking always of trying to do more, brings a state of mind in which nothing is impossible. The moment one gets into the "expert" state of mind a great number of things become impossible. [...]
As I have said, we do not hire experts--neither do we hire men on past experiences or for any position other than the lowest. [...]
It is particularly easy for any man who never knows it all to go forward to a higher position with us. [...]
There is not a single man anywhere in the factory who did not simply come in off the street. [...]
there is the pressing to take away the necessity for skill in any job done by any one. The old-time tool hardener was an expert. He had to judge the heating temperatures. It was a hit-or-miss operation. The wonder is that he hit so often. The heat treatment in the hardening of steel is highly important--providing one knows exactly the right heat to apply. That cannot be known by rule-of-thumb. It has to be measured. We introduced a system by which the man at the furnace has nothing at all to do with the heat. He does not see the pyrometer--the instrument which registers the temperature. Coloured electric lights give him his signals. [...]
The length of time required to become proficient in the various occupations is about as follows: 43 per cent. of all the jobs require not over one day of training; 36 per cent. require from one day to one week; 6 per cent. require from one to two weeks; 14 per cent. require from one month to one year; one per cent. require from one to six years. The last jobs require great skill--as in tool making and die sinking.
The company is not what is being called a scheme. What the company was being employed by the city of Paris to execute is being called a scheme:
Championed by Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, the bikes were part of an attempt to "green" the capital. [...]
The original contract gave the advertising company a 10-year licence to exploit 1,600 city-wide billboards in return for running the scheme [...]
The scheme was modelled on one in Lyon [...]
It is also being copied overseas with London, San Francisco and Singapore all intending to set up similar schemes.
saying that you know where there is a bicycle standing without a lock, clearly that should be legal.
Do U.S. lawmakers know that (facilitating crime should be legal)? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_(legal_term)
In some jurisdictions, criminal "facilitation" laws do not require that the primary crime be actually committed as a prerequisite for criminal liability. These include state statutes making it a crime to "provide" a person with "means or opportunity" to commit a crime, "believing it probable that he is rendering aid to a person who intends to commit a crime." [...]
The U.S. criminal code makes aiding and abetting a federal crime itself a crime [...]
The elements of aiding and abetting are, generally:
(1) guilty knowledge on the part of the accused ( the mens rea);
Many of your concerns were addressed by the author in the comments section: http://richardkulisz.blogspot.com/2007/04/aliens-dont-exist....
He completely ignores that humans actually took many tens of millions of years to evolve from scratch not from existing life forms.
Kulisz responded:
The point is that it didn't have to. Nothing in the universe prevented a technological civilization from arising 8 billion years ago. And certainly not 65 million years ago back when the dinosaurs ruled.
the relationship between the number of people that you have to employ to look after abusers vs the number of people that are actually productive is a good way to measure your success.
Yes. That is what I said. The workman with internal-locus-of-control improves his value-creation system based on feedback, and is seen as more successful. The workman with external-locus-of-control blames parts of his value-creation system for acting (in his eyes) wrongly, and is seen as less successful.
>> the customer base forms part of the toolset.
> Toolsets can be changed, improved or mastered. I [cannot] do [this] with my customers.
You cannot provide any value to the world that would involve a different customer base? After Kozmo re-emerged as MaxDelivery, it changed its customer base (one of its tools in value creation) by starting out with only high-density neighborhoods of Manhattan (and it continues to change its customer base as it gradually expands its delivery areas). It has mastered its customer base (again, one of its tools in value creation) by learning how that tool reacts to various delivery deals, and by employing improved delivery deals. Please see the article linked above.
For at least many decades, bike-sharing advocates and politicians have been failing to efficiently employ the tools at their disposal, one of which is their customer base. That tool, the customer base, has been blamed over and over again as "the problem" as bike-sharing advocates and politicians have repeatedly employed essentially the same defectively-designed policies.
if you increase the displacement the petrol engine will get more power but that is no longer a fair comparision.
Why? Are they both turbocharged? http://www.google.com/search?q=bmw+x5+35d+biturbo Do they both weigh the same and take up the same amount of room in the engine bay? Do they both cost the same?
test drive a BMW 5 series diesel
2009 X5 35d vs. 2004 X5 4.8is: http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/suvs/112_0902_2009_bmw_x... http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/suvs/112_0504_2005_luxur...
35d 4.8is
hp: 265 355
lb/hp: 19.3 14.1
0-60: 6.7 5.9
1/4 mile: 15.1 14.3
60-0, ft: 128 114
Though the engine produces a stunning 425 lb-ft of torque at just 1750 rpm, the forward surge doesn't feel dramatic. [...] X5 owners shouldn't feel too cocky [...]
Press the pedal to overtake [...] and the engine note invades the cabin. [...]
We often hear tall tales of European diesels, stories of ridiculous fuel economy, supercar acceleration, and unmatched utility. [...] the truth isn't quite so dramatic
I'm perplexed
Work (value creation) can be more or less efficient. As stated, an inefficient workman blames his tools, instead of the way he is going about his work. In this case, and often in other cases, the customer base forms part of the toolset. The workman is saying that his tools are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, and that it is their fault.
Here is more on this phenomenon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_of_control
Internals tend to attribute outcomes of events to their own control. Externals attribute outcomes of events to external circumstances.
In the present case, the customer base would be seen as uncontrollable (only susceptible to external control) by the inefficient workman, and controllable (susceptible to internal control) by the efficient workman.
work must be done to create value [...] regardless of [...] talent and abilities
Yes. But do you mean, as Marxists contend, that variance in ability plays little or no role in variance in the efficiency of the work?: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_theory_of_value#Marx.27s_...
nowadays if you design anything at all that has an end-user component you'll spend at least as much time at making it jerk-proof and doing all kinds of abuse analysis
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22always+blames+his+tools%22
Echoes of Kozmo: http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/14/technology/kozmo_redux
No more 50-cent deliveries [...]
Customers of Kozmo.com who fondly remember getting single pints of ice cream delivered on a whim won't get off that easy this time. MaxDelivery has a $10 minimum order, and there's a $4.95 delivery charge for orders under $50. Siragusa said this is to keep customers from abusing the system, as they did with Kozmo, and he says MaxDelivery's average order size is much different than Kozmo's.
"Someone ordered a pack of Mentos. Then two hours later they'd order a pint of ice cream," said Siragusa. "People did this because there was no penalty. Kozmo had a number of orders that were unprofitable."
Kozmo's founders designed its system to reward customers for making frequent low-value orders. When the customer base responded in a way that should have been predicted by the Kozmo founders, instead of recognizing and fixing their error, those founders instead called it "abuse".
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22teaching+to+the+test%22
By the way, some committee leaders think it's a great idea: http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/823
says Nancy Grasmick, Maryland's state superintendent of schools, in a recent article in the American School Boards Journal. "If you're teaching to the test [...] then we don't see anything wrong with that."