zeteo (u/zeteo) - Readit News

zeteo commented on All the remedial classes in one place professorconfess.blogspot... · Posted by u/Plasmoid

parpfish · a year ago

a long-time peeve of mine is that people who frequently talk about the value of a 'well rounded (liberal arts) education' almost always have an implicit exclusion of math.

they think it's great to have some basic knowledge in a wide variety of subjects -- history, literature, music, etc. But when it comes to math, they'll just shrug and gleefully say "i'm not really a math person!"

zeteo · a year ago

Math is un-democratic.

zeteo commented on The Reign of Alexander III of Macedon acoup.blog/2024/05/17/col... · Posted by u/throwup238

costco · a year ago

I haven't read nearly as much as the author but having read the Peter Green book on Alexander a while ago, I agree with the general premise of the article but have a few reservations. Maybe I'm wrong, I read the parts of the book talking about the specifics of battles faster because I thought it was monotonous.

I guess the biggest thing is, if Philip II was so smart, why was it Alexander who became Lord of Asia and not him? Oh right, because as even Machiavelli (otherwise a fan of Philip II) notes in the Discourses, he got killed because he didn't avenge Pausanias after he was raped despite multiple complaints. So much for the pragmatic genius. And it's not like Philip invented the idea of the phalanx, though yeah he was a pretty incredible military organizer.

Did Philip even have the ambition or desire needed to conquer Persia? Would he have had the tolerance needed to actually rule these areas that Alexander demonstrated (i.e. marrying Roxane despite it upsetting "old guard" generals, keeping in place a lot of the local government structures/making deals with people like Porus) or would he have insisted on violent rule that would have created conditions ripe for rebellion?

Alexander had to fight in insane conditions against armies with elephants in India. And he won. Yes he inherited a lot, but I think he's more versatile than implied here.

zeteo · a year ago

Phillip figured out how to defeat the Greek phalanx (although it took him a while) and had some very limited success against the Persians. Alexander not only made short work of the Greek revolt on Phillip's death, but also went on to defeat the Thracians in their native mountains, the Scythians in their steppe, the Tyrians in an almost impossible siege, the largest Persian armies ever assembled, and of course the Indians with their elephants - at the end of some logistical lines that would be challenging for even mechanized armies.

Should the generals have been the secret to Alexander's success, he died young enough that they had plenty of chances to show their own mettle. But they got pushed back everywhere instead, not only by the rising powers of Rome and Carthage but also by Alexander's partially defeated enemies: the Indians, Scythians and, most humiliatingly, even by the Thracians. The significance of the "Great" nickname was not that they regarded him as a great moral teacher, or an example to be followed by the average person; rather, when looking at Macedonian kings before and after Alexander III, he stood out by far due to his accomplishments. Had he done nothing but founded the wonder-laden city of Alexandria, which dominated the Eastern Mediterranean for centuries, they would have still considered him "Great".

zeteo commented on Parents who are saying no to "extracurriculars" slate.com/life/2024/05/sm... · Posted by u/jseliger

ryandrake · a year ago

> The challenge is this approach flies in the face of so many of the messages parents are getting about admissions to selective colleges. At a recent event hosted by her 17-year-old daughter’s high school, “the college counselor was talking about kids’ essays, saying that teens should tie their passions and interests to what they want to major in,” she says. “To be pre-med, these teens are expected to already have volunteered in a hospital or a lab.

This is the root cause of the madness. Colleges insist on weighing these activities heavily in admissions decisions, so parents have no choice but to force their kids to jump through the hoops. It's a Prisoner's Dilemma problem: If parents all at once decided cooperatively that enough was enough, it would end. But any single parent who chooses "defect" and pushes their kid towards "activities" will be rewarded with an edge in admissions, so everyone else must choose "defect" and we're all worse-off because of it.

Colleges need to get their heads out of their asses. Is my kid really going to be a better student because she volunteered at a hospital or played high school softball?

zeteo · a year ago

> Is my kid really going to be a better student because she volunteered at a hospital or played high school softball?

Unfortunately, kids from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds have fewer opportunities to volunteer and to pursue expensive sports. These colleges are, in effect, selecting for what Thorstein Veblen would have called "conspicuous leisure" and "conspicuous consumption", i.e. for an upper middle-class background (or above). A long time ago I applied to one of the top business schools in the US and was told quite directly, during the interview process, that the MBA program was mostly about networking and not so much about academics. It looks like this attitude has now expanded to many four-year colleges as well. In business terms, it's all about "culture fit" these days.

zeteo commented on Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic trevorklee.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/gdudeman

SkyMarshal · a year ago

Any brand you recommend?

zeteo · a year ago

For someone trying it for the first time, I would recommend the Falim chewing gum, available on Amazon, or the mint-flavored toothpaste at mastic.gr. If you feel comfortable trying pure mastic, the best quality that I've found are the large tears from Chios Mastiha Growers Association.

zeteo commented on Reasons not to take Lumina's anticavity probiotic trevorklee.substack.com/p... · Posted by u/gdudeman

nikolay · a year ago

Not just xylitol but also mastic gum, which, in addition to cavities prevention, kills H. pylori and strengthens your jaw muscles as it's a bit harder than regular chewing gum.

zeteo · a year ago

+1 for mastic, completely nontoxic and it's been used for thousands of years. My cavity problems have pretty much disappeared since discovering it several years ago.

zeteo commented on Most of Europe is glowing pink under the aurora foto-webcam.eu/webcam/luc... · Posted by u/luispa

secondcoming · a year ago

This shows a scientific view of it:

https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/space/surface/level/an...

zeteo · a year ago

Is it visible from Australia as well?

zeteo commented on Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark' theverge.com/2024/5/9/241... · Posted by u/linguae

basil-rash · a year ago

Musicians might not think of their personal instruments in that way, but surely any musician will acknowledge that there exist cheaply made imitations of their instruments that can be treated as more or less disposable. I can get a trumpet on ebay for $60 shipped to my door, and I expect to be able to do whatever I damn please with it, screw what anyone else says.

zeteo · a year ago

Did the ad suggest to you that the iPad was a replacement for cheap, low quality physical objects? That would not be very good copy for Apple. On the contrary, all the instruments etc. seemed rather nice to me. The piano alone was probably worth thousands of dollars.

zeteo commented on Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark' theverge.com/2024/5/9/241... · Posted by u/linguae

because_789 · a year ago

Interestingly, basketballs are designed to be as standardized and replaceable as possible (so there’s no question about whether they affected the game.) Whereas musicians do not think of instruments that way. Nor photographers and their cameras, etc. The reaction might be specific to artists. They’re represented on HN, but not as much as non-artists, I bet.

zeteo · a year ago

Yes, a closer analogy would be "look, this guy had a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant in 1996, and now it's being blown to smithereens and replaced by a 3D model on his iPad".

zeteo commented on Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark' theverge.com/2024/5/9/241... · Posted by u/linguae

fl0ki · a year ago

So if you own a house or car then it's distressing to see one destroyed in a movie? Both of those cost much more than a trumpet, and for many people are more personal and unique, but somehow most people manage to keep their eyes on the screen.

zeteo · a year ago

If I saw a house, that looked like the one where I grew up, being cheerfully destroyed to build a Walmart parking lot, yes I might get a little distressed. It would certainly not improve my opinion of Walmart.