Jason Kottke's List of 52 Interesting Things He Learned in 2023 | Hacker News Reader

Jason Kottke's List of 52 Interesting Things He Learned in 2023

kottke.org

28 pointsarbesman9 comments

> 8. The founder of Lululemon picked that name for the company because he thought it would be funny to hear Japanese speakers try to say it. What an asshole.

From the Wiki: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_Wilson)

> On the founding of Lululemon, in a 2004 interview with National Post Business magazine, Wilson said "The reason the Japanese liked [my former skateboard brand, ‘Homless’] was because it had an L in it and a Japanese marketing firm wouldn’t come up with a brand name with an L in it. L is not in their vocabulary. It’s a tough pronunciation for them. So I thought, next time I have a company, I’ll make a name with three Ls and see if I can get three times the money. It’s kind of exotic for them. I was playing with Ls and I came up with Lululemon. It’s funny to watch them try to say it."[51]

Seems like it was more about standing out from the crowd.

"It's funny to watch them try to say it." is what makes him come across like an asshole

That's a fun list. Random pet-peeve.

"Human ancestors almost went extinct 900,000 years ago. “A new technique analysing modern genetic data suggests that pre-humans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals.”

Another interpretation is that there were always large numbers of hominids / humans alive at any point in the past 1M years. Rather the descendants of those 1,280 individuals out-breed and out-warred all other hominid / human groups.

> Rather the descendants of those 1,280 individuals out-breed and out-warred all other hominid / human groups.

Or maybe they out-prosocialed, cooperated for much higher productivity, reproduction (not to mention loyalty), and thrived while the other hominid groups killed and stole from each other.

Edit: Also, there's always the possibility the authors already addressed your question - the more obvious the possibility, the more likely (I don't know in this case). The paper:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abq7487

great points. thanks for the link, too. the abstract reads great, sadly the rest is paywalled.

Tip: Search for the article name and you'll often find copies of it, often shared by the author.

>Human ancestors almost went extinct 900,000 years ago. “A new technique analysing modern genetic data suggests that pre-humans survived in a group of only 1,280 individuals

This is very similar to what's claimed by Abrahamic religions based on the story of Noah's ark where only those who boarded the ark survived and has descendents.

For reference Titanic carried about 2240 passengers and crews

I didn’t know the rocket equation was that sensitive. I guess if you wanted to travel to space on a larger planet, you would have to have platforms in the atmosphere suspended with balloons and move material higher and higher.

Platforms don't change much. It's the velocity that matters, not height.

In other words - launching rockets from 100km above the ground wouldn't change much in terms of how much fuel you need.

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