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cotsukaon Culture is not about esthetics (2011)

Do we need more languages? I certainly enjoy being able to travel to most countries and be able to speak English as a relative standard across all.

cotsukaon Chapter Two of Peter Thiel's New Book

That's an organization or club, not a company.

cotsukaon In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps

I'm saying calling something Austrian or Keynesian is inherently political. We should come up with economic models, whether they're Austrian, Keynesian, alien, or dumb, test them against data to see if they hold up, and refine until we get close. Aka, what scientists do.

Great article the other day from Krugman about this very topic. Economics might be a science, but economists are not being scientists about it. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/21/maybe-economics-...

cotsukaon In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps

The other important thing is to reduce uncertainty as much as possible. You don't want your inflation rates to bounce around like crazy from day to day. Instead, you'd like to be able to keep them within certain limits so people can plan ahead to the future.

If I'm not sure what inflation will be day-to-day, I can't make an accurate prediction as to whether I should save my money or spend it.

cotsukaon In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps

Just edited my comment for clarity.

cotsukaon In Fed and Out, Many Now Think Inflation Helps

Austrian school not holding much weight with academics is like wondering why creationism doesn't hold much weight with academics. Lots of things can be explained with creationism, but it doesn't mean it's right. Many Austrian economists rail against the use of quantitative models and such. But without them, how can you measure the efficacy of your policies? Faith that the policy works... But most academics like to be able to test things.

I'm also not saying creationism isn't right. I can't prove anything.

cotsukaon Kolab 3.1 alpha released with iRony

Well there was that famous CIA statue that nobody could figure out for a while. Turns out the NSA solved it pretty fast, but they just didn't tell anybody.

And being the codemasters for the most powerful western country, I should hope that they employ people who are able to beat what people do on their free time.

cotsukaon Shocking response from Facebook about request to remove this offensive page

I agree encouraging rape is not acceptable. Neither is racism. Or disrespecting other people. But we have decided that it is better to have freedom of speech than no freedom of speech. Is Facebook's response in the right? I think so. We should be angry at the person who put up the photo.

cotsukaon Are Placebos Really Sugar Pills?

Chalk?

cotsukaon Editorial: "How piracy changed my life"

I responded to the people justifying piracy using this article here: http://nightra.in/random/ethics-of-piracy/

In short, I think Vlad is trying to explain that piracy was only a last resort for him. And it should only be a last resort.

cotsukaon Imminent Iran nuclear threat? A timeline of warnings since 1979.

This doesn't even belong on the main page.

cotsukaon Android 4.1 Jelly Bean is now available

For tech geeks, maybe. For the majority of the population? I doubt it. There are still people who aren't sure what version of Windows or OS X they're running on their laptops. Now they need to know which version of Android their phone is on?