> "If the West is wrong about our ideals being universal, then our society is no better than others anyway and it doesn't matter (in the long run for the overall good of humanity) if the Chinese conquer us."
If our ideals are relative or subjective, wouldn't that make it all the more important to speak out, as to do otherwise would be conceptual-suicide?
Even if other cultures don't hold my values, I still must value them.
I don't disagree about educating foreign students, by the way. Barring empirical evidence to the contrary, my feeling is that exposure to foreign cultures ought to dampen nationalism in the long run.
I don't see how "Numbers" is any more intuitive than "Calc", not that Calc is really a good name for a spreadsheet application, but at least it makes sense. Spreadsheets do calculate things, it's just the name collision with the Windows app calc and the fact most people associate calculating with, well a calculator. Calc may be a poor name for a spreadsheet app but Numbers is definitely worse.
> I don't see how "Numbers" is any more intuitive than "Calc"
In an office, ask a bookkeeper, sales manager, whomever, "Hey, show me the numbers!", and you're going to see a spreadsheet. If you ask, "Hey, show me the calc!", you'll get a blank look.
Evidence suggests "Numbers" is a perfectly cromulent word.
Where I've worked, you'd be more likely to see a spreadsheet poorly pasted into a PowerPoint presentation with a poorly scaled bitmap of a logo in the corner that is a 6 MiB attachment to an email...
Here's the problem I have with cryonics: in what future do they need to defrost people from the past for another other than freak show/historical novelty? There are so many problems the defrosted will have:
* no skills for their new environment
* no money
* billions of warm-bodied, warm-blooded other humans already there
* suffering from lonliness knowing everyone you've ever known is dead
Unless the defrosting process is great and there's going to be gene therapy, and it won't be for maybe the first few hundred/thousand people, you'll be disabled, diseased or still suffering from whatever killed you in the first place.
You could spend all days coming up with possible reasons for not defrosting cryonics patients in the future. However you need to remember that no matter how low a probability you assign to your successful defrosting, this will be strictly greater than the probability of successfully being alive in the future if you go with the default, non-cryonics option of irrevocable destruction.
Ay, me... so little confidence in reincarnation within HN ;)
"The body of B. Franklin, Printer (Like the Cover of an Old Book, Its Contents torn Out And Stript of its Lettering and Gilding) Lies Here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be Lost; For it will (as he Believ'd) Appear once More In a New and More Elegant Edition Revised and Corrected By the Author.
" --Benjamin Franklin (self-authored epitaph)
If instead of investing into cryonics you invest time, effort, and money into extending your life span by one year -- that would increase your chances of living long enough to have life extension technologies developed.
The chance of it is small, but still much better, than almost zero chance of ever surviving through cryonics procedure.
The people doing the reviving will be the same ones who have been maintaining the dewar flasks the whole time. Alcor doesn't just toss corpsicles into a vault. They use the interest from investments to pay for research and indefinite maintenance.
> And I was dealing with all walks of life. Holiday makers of all kinds. From backpackers, to ... they were all affected by the truthful claim that almost everybody bought the package from me.
Wow, everybody falls for the pitch? Gee, I guess I'm convinced that social proof works.
We can laud the achievements Apple has accomplished without refraining from criticism where they fall short. Furthermore, even taking what you say for granted, these past achievements do not validate the approach Apple is taking today with their new in-app subscriptions policy.
That they are free to make this choice doesn't mean the community needs to roll over in accepting it. A response to this news that doesn't indicate displeasure would lack integrity.
Woah, I just noticed that when the mouse hovers over "Close tabs to the right" or "Close other tabs", the tabs that will close start to flash. (Chrome 9.0.597.67 beta, Windows) When did that happen?
Logically, this does not imply that ISPs have to start filtering for illegal content, but that is nevertheless what people started worrying about.