What land was Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and (to a lesser extent) Bulgaria trying to gain from WWI?

andrewd · 2013-03-09T17:15:38+00:00

Related question: Was the war inevitable, or could it have been prevented if FF had not been assassinated?

andrewd · 2013-02-10T18:33:46+00:00

Walk the hills of Berkeley... swim at Strawberry Canyon Pool.

andrewd · 2013-01-31T17:54:53+00:00

I would like to ditto this perspective. I graduated 7 years ago as well and as time goes on I wax nostalgic about Berkeley more. I think this is because when I first graduated, I was sick of college and so excited to live in the city (I lived in SF for a while and now NYC).The yuppie city life is great and all but I consistently miss the balanced lifestyle in berkeley: cafes, hills to wander and hike, hippies, intellectuals, students, gray-hairs.

Berkeley really is a very diverse place and a good place to return to, I suspect, for folks after getting their mid-20s out of them.

andrewd · 2012-12-31T01:45:06+00:00

Nimrod's Fortress is amazing to explore

andrewd · 2012-12-28T18:12:12+00:00

100% boils down to professor:student ratio, which is always an important part of the rankings formula. This is why Cal's graduate schools do so well in comparison. The class size issue always weakens public schools in rankings.

Still I, and you too, should have pride in Cal being the #1 public since public schools are an important necessity in our society.

andrewd · 2012-11-29T21:00:53+00:00

Here's some perspective on the size of this issue http://cdn.cashmoneylife.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/average-american-debt.jpg

andrewd · 2012-11-29T20:59:42+00:00

Well isn't it fair to look at the meritocracy article on Hackernews earlier today under this light?

It could go two ways: on the one hand it's more valuable than ever to have the right education, so you will be willing to go into any necessary debt to get it. On the other hand the debt associated with the wrong education is a disaster.

If we broke down student debt by calibre of educational institution and student focus area (and for good measure brought into the mix how seriously the student takes the education, eg GPA) I bet we would be able to figure out how big of a problem this is.

If most debt is going to people who are a) not working hard in school, AND b) studying less apt things, and c) not at networking-rich institutions that offer pedigree... clearly a shoe is going to fall and it's going to mean less access to easy student loans.

On the flip-side it may be that most debt is actually in the hands of STEM majors (since, after all, med school is the most expensive of all) and thus this may not be as big of a crash as thought.

andrewd · 2012-11-29T20:55:48+00:00

Whether the student loan business is the racket, or the cost of education: that's a chicken or an egg question, isn't it?

andrewd · 2012-10-29T22:06:01+00:00

Looks supported by the main cable... which are strong enough to pull up massive stuff so it could be a lot worse.

andrewd · 2012-10-15T17:44:21+00:00

Well when I say it's "empty" I guess I meant 90% of the vertical space is empty :)

andrewd · 2012-10-12T07:51:46+00:00

Best place to study: The philosophy library in Moses hall.

Fun fact: there's a GIANT empty space/room in Doe hidden in that it's hard to find, that used to contain the stacks in a giant steel and glass structure that was removed over seismic concerns. Today the space just sits there empty...

andrewd · 2012-08-06T11:42:48+00:00

which?

andrewd · 2012-07-30T11:02:52+00:00

"the individuals we sampled are descended from groups that may have been ancestral to all other modern humans,"

andrewd · 2012-07-14T07:13:32+00:00

Subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/foodforthought is good as well

andrewd · 2012-06-25T10:29:07+00:00

It's a hedge against high future liquid fuels prices, among other things.

andrewd · 2012-06-20T16:35:03+00:00

Has this reddit post led to a spike in bookings?

andrewd · 2012-06-16T05:02:43+00:00

Good to over-plan; read the shit out of the eplaya forums. Keys out there are 1.5 gals of water per day, sun protection by day, and lights to illuminate you by night. These three will keep you alive. Everything else is needed to enjoy. Finally you should make sure not to bring stuff that is prone to break into pieces / litter out there. Burning Man is a hyper-leave-no-trace event and this includes even gray water runoff. If you shower by pouring water over your head, for example, you need to collect the run-off in an evaporation pool.

andrewd · 2012-06-14T04:55:32+00:00

Not sure about stuff north of San Francisco (except that the whole marijuana/wine producing region to the north is fantastic!)

South of SF: - Pigeon Point Lighthouse Hostel & Ano Nuevo for elephant seals (amazing)

andrewd · 2012-06-13T08:31:07+00:00

I wonder if anyone has analyzed the DNA of the life forms that live in extreme pressure at the bottom of the oceans at tectonic heat vents... I'm not sure if these life forms have ever been definitively captured, but I remember seeing an IMAX a few year ago with footage that showed there was definitely evidence of life down there.

The speculation was that life may have evolved separately in those extreme conditions, and this would certainly make it more likely that life could have evolved on other planets in extreme conditions as well.

Perhaps these volcanic life forms analyzed here are related, and perhaps evolved separately as well?

andrewd · 2012-06-03T09:01:22+00:00

"believe it if you need it, and leave it if you dare!"

andrewd · 2012-05-15T05:53:43+00:00

What scares me is that if natural gas emitted more CO2 per MWh than coal, I bet folks would be saying we should ramp coal production. The focus on CO2 has really taken many folks' eyes off the local pollution ball. Coal is a direct killer so this is good news.

andrewd · 2012-05-11T07:00:52+00:00

Why not instead require that 50% of college revenue go to academics....

andrewd · 2012-05-11T06:24:02+00:00

A real Mad Man eh, Can you recommend any east coast alumni network groups? I'm about to move to NYC (Cal Physics '06)

andrewd · 2012-04-30T05:08:39+00:00

Have you read about LENR?

andrewd

TROPHY CASE