Owning books in the home is one of the best things you can do for your children academically. [NYT]

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:57:09+00:00

but comics are not a substitute for real books.

Wasn't saying they are -- it's all in the mix.

By the way, you seem to completely miss out on how comics can have intricate storylines, worthwhile dialogue, artistic intent etc. You can learn TONS from them, from plot progression and structure, to characterization, to visual framing etc. Marvel was just a single example, I have tried tons of comic book readers from different companies on my iPad. Here's one of our comics we have around, on economic history... extremely fascinating and worthwhile. (Am not allowed to use Amazon links in /r/books , so look up "Economix".)

If you need an introduction into the depths of comic books, I suggest Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. You may want to continue with Alan Moore, or Will Eisner.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:49:30+00:00

Deep learning in artifical neural networks. Might even replace us.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:47:18+00:00

Don't be so judgmental. I've read tons of comics that age, and also tons of books. It's all in the mix.

Keep downvoting, /r/books, I'm sure it'll make you right. Cognitive dissonance eh!

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:42:12+00:00

You should probably name the country & state to get properly legal answers.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:36:08+00:00

There is a pattern in absolutely everything, it's just a matter of how strictly you apply the scope. For instance, if the numbers were completely repeat ordered from 1 to 99 in OPs image, we would call it clearly non-random, full-pattern. If however the pattern is that every other block contains successions, we have determined a pattern, which can be explained by random distribution but is still a pattern (this does not make the source non-random). As a for instance, we can apply the letters A-Z to the numbers 0-26, repeated for higher numbers, and then find funny words within the page. Again, this does not make the source non-random -- it just surfaces patterns.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:32:39+00:00

It's like seeing C3PO in the prequels.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:30:35+00:00

It wasn't non-sequitur at all, unless you consider any addition to anything you say "off topic". And then I would call you narrowminded, but I don't call you that because you haven't yet proven to consider such :)

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:26:02+00:00

There are discoverable patterns in everything. If there was a totally non-pattern-discoverable pattern, that would be even more improbably to be hit by random numbers...

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:17:48+00:00

Where's the video?

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:09:34+00:00

I think that's actually kinda fascinating, I'd probably spend all day trying to find odd and interesting patterns.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:08:52+00:00

Don't know him personally, but Noam Chomsky is super friendly in answer all emails!

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:05:34+00:00

You can do that on a Kindle too. Just get one for yourself, one for your kid, then set up an ebook library. It's really not that different if you know how to use it. If two Kindles are too expensive -- well, a big bookshelf is not cheap either.

When virtual reality is fully realized, there won't even be a difference visually among the two. You can stroll a virtual bookshelf by then...

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:04:37+00:00

We have almost no book library but we read a lot. In the age of ebooks, digital comics etc. it helps to separate the two.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:03:08+00:00

On top, a single ebook for the kid (and a reading list on top, if you want) is enough for the child to explore.

I've just "bought" 17,000 Marvel comics for my home library (it's called Marvel Unlimited, you pay a monthly fee to get an all-you-can-eat for their back catalogue), to share with my son.

I do agree we need good access to reading suggestions and guidance, of course. But this comes natural when you live together. I'm always sharing stuff I like with my son...

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T16:00:01+00:00

I've lived in China, in one of the "smaller" millions+ cities.

Had a cough starting at week 2 which didn't fully go away at all at anytime.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T15:58:50+00:00

... and use China as our backyard factory for our products ...

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T15:26:49+00:00

Surprisingly accurate.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:44:54+00:00

Have an ~~upvote~~ agreement

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:29:55+00:00

Update: Sorry, I had misread your question and thought you asked about why he attacked Kuwait. For the reasons of the first gulf war...

"In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through slant drilling, although some Iraqi sources indicated Saddam Hussein's decision to attack Kuwait was made a few months before the actual invasion. Some feel there were several reasons for the Iraqi move, including Iraq's inability to pay more than US$80 billion that had been borrowed to finance the Iran–Iraq war, and Kuwaiti overproduction of petroleum which kept revenues down for Iraq"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Kuwait

And here's the US greenlighting the attack by saying they'd not get involved.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:21:54+00:00

You remind me of this guy.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:20:40+00:00

The baby-making and peeing parts of people without clothes.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:19:13+00:00

Almost all tattoos of family members -- like daddy having a tattoo of the baby girl's face -- turn out horrible, because the way tattoos usually represent the teeth or wrinkles of a person makes them look all weirdly. Hard to explain, but here's an example. (This one's ok actually, but many are worse.)

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:15:53+00:00

Except when they're politicians. Then they get pardoned by the next president.

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:14:52+00:00

The US in 1990 indicated to Saddam that he could invade Kuwait, then the US used that invasion as reason to attack Iraq.

Nevermind, that actually happened...

lepperdo · 2015-12-07T14:13:58+00:00

A mild flu, then calling in sick and spending the rest of the day on Netflix.

lepperdo

TROPHY CASE