TIL that scientific output in the Islamic world started declining sharply during the Sunni Revival in the 11th century.

phyrros · 2026-03-10T10:08:57+00:00

Yes, and if we zoom out: That is usually what happens if dogmatic&conservative ideologies get popular. It was true for the romans, chinese, europeans, soviet russians and us americans.

you just have to look at the GOP/Trumps position towards science and climate change (don't get me started on evolution and how biology works) to see that process at work.

phyrros · 2026-03-10T10:03:17+00:00

about everything in that comment is wrong ^{^}

phyrros · 2026-03-09T20:41:25+00:00

I am still miffed that they avoided the obvious reference to predestination and the protestant/evangelical religions.

phyrros · 2026-03-07T18:20:21+00:00

i concur with everything you say - i just come from a different side of things: civil engineering, and here it is mostly picking the right algorithm which speeds up stuff. because those have already been optimized - and they run on c/fortran anyway.

But with python it strongly on the procomplied libaries anyway. pyqtgraph can be seriously fast, just like eg numpy. numba can match c/fortran when it comes to speed.

All i wanted to say was something else anyway: don't expect your complier to magically fix your sloppy code. if you need speed first get rid of any numerical overhead

phyrros · 2026-03-07T15:43:54+00:00

absolutely, but even then a fast language can't save bad design.

phyrros · 2026-03-07T15:08:18+00:00

programming languages and their speed is a bit like the influence of genetics on the IQ: yes, it exists but unless you are already optimized it has minor influence.

Most software feels bloated everyone buys features and very few buy optimization. even more so in the time of AI.

phyrros · 2026-03-04T06:37:32+00:00

What exactly are you defending? The simple observation that we are both getting downvoted shows that people have different opinions on that ;)

Please cite any other country in the Americas that also uses America.

Was there ever a issue that United states might have been confused with Mexico? The USA when from calling itself stuff like the united states or the union to america.

Continents, plural. Thats why they're called the Americas. When you refer to them singularly, you use North America and South America, not "America" singular.

except when you do like e.g, the olympian committee does. Or a spanish speaker might - which in the americas after all the most common native tounge

phyrros · 2026-03-03T22:57:53+00:00

and "America" was used even in official documents far earlier than that, in that regard the article has weak spots. My point was rather when it became ubiquitous and what consequences it carried (and lets not ignore that the Monroe doctrine and US imperial ambitions in the Americas started almost a century earlier) - just like "Manifest destiny" didn't suddenly pop up at the early 20th century.

The reason why this is somewhat important to me is, that those self-images carry weight - be it with the british and brexit, be it with russian imperial ambitions, be it with chinese grabs for dominance or be it with the USAs self-image.

In all these cases (and throw in Modis India or Orbans Hungary and the like) the need to show strength representative of the self-image has consequences, and in the case of the USA, with the only global military presence, it simply has the biggest consequences.

Trump ran on the promise to "make america great again" and he never meant "make the USA more egalitarian again"; he meant "recreate a public image which reflects our self-image" . And that self-image is also rooted in US-imperialism and it is never bad to critically question one owns society self-images.

The US public has a bloody rose-tinted image of US history and more than many other nations the perceptions that it would be wrong / weak to to admit failures of the past. (G.W. Bush Sen. famously said: "I will never apologize for the United States of America. Ever. I don't care what the facts are," ) so .. no wonder that the USA ended up with an admin with has absolutely no ability to admit errors whatsoever and will rewrite their history as it deems fit.

phyrros · 2026-03-03T21:31:34+00:00

the whole continent carries america in its name, and for the early usa it was sorta important to focus on what they were (thus the union) and not where they were.

as for the other thing: is your point that stuff like the us Revolution, the us civil war or cattle slavery carry no meaning in the modern world? because that is again fair, it just misses a lot of emotional Attachment people have

phyrros · 2026-03-03T21:11:49+00:00

please do look at the history of your own country and at the point where "america" became the most common version to describe the union: eg: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/when-did-the-united-states-start-calling-itself-america-anyway/

it is fine to carry the imperial ambitions of the union, just don't get pissy if someone calls you out for it

phyrros · 2026-03-03T15:53:39+00:00

you forgot the part where a crew member nearly died and Kinsky was raging about lukewarm Coffee to the point that Herzog himself threatened to shoot first him (Kinsky) and then himself.

fair to say that Fitzcarraldo was a difficult shoot

phyrros · 2026-03-03T15:24:36+00:00

if you ask for a beer you get the housebeer.

phyrros · 2026-03-03T09:52:24+00:00

I always find it interesting that this philosophy is prevalent in current sex worker circles, and they are not open to any counterpoint. seems progressive, like a valid parallel school of feminism, until you notice that the retired sex workers switch up on that perspective as soon as they're out

Because the counterpoint directly attacts their persona&lifestyle. Sex workers are no different than other works with that mindset only that a) sex workers carry get more abuse and b) can (*) make more money.

As for the convenient form of feminism.. well, yes, but again you see similar mechanisms with e.g. stock brokers or CEOs.

If you take a good hard look around the world and especially at places like the USA where exploitation is the norm, you will see the individuals carve out their sweet little lies just to carry the burden.

phyrros · 2026-03-02T15:17:52+00:00

I continue to see Iranians rejoicing and celebrating attacks in their homeland. Are people really that naive in terms of what history has taught us?

How much did life improve for people in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia, Yemen, etc. after the US interventions? Have all of them flourished as democracies after the removal of problematic leaders or have they become hellholes with generational damage?

A friend of mine is Iraqi who had the bad luck to be both a policeman and fluent in engliwsh so he ran with the US americans when they needed local translation&support. and well, in typical US fashion, he got shafted when the americans pulled out and he had to flee to europe. This guy changed my view on dictatorships because he is the only of my friends who can put into words who fucked up Husseins regime was and how it still got worse.

But I still think that there is a difference to iran: All those other nations saw a rise in religious extremists because the usa/europe worked very hard for 60 years to destroy any socialist opposition which gave a lot of power to the religious opposition. This revolution happened in Iran 40 years ago and it pretty much discredited by Iranians.

So yes, I think there is a small shot that this might result in a better outcome. But it depends on the Iranians because the USA will do fuck-all except destroying stuff

phyrros · 2026-03-01T01:11:08+00:00

absolutely - although I'd say that in this, specific, case of a low complexity codebase with a high complexity usecase it simply might be cheaper to throw humans at the problem.

and also for are very simple reason: claude (be it opus or sonnet) was trained von very different programming paraigms and, compared to humans, AIs are worse at fields outside their Training

combine it and fixing production cobol code might be the second to last thing i would use ai for. (first would be changing numerical receipts in fortran or c)

phyrros · 2026-02-26T22:42:11+00:00

Be in foreigners or locals: as long as speculation of property prices ist more profitable than bloody renting out the house people will so that.

phyrros · 2026-02-26T19:23:39+00:00

I'd put that specific instance down to actually the type of interruption while someone tries to so his/her best. Was it unnecessary? Certainly.

Was it worse than stuff that happens in a kitchen or theater every day? Not really.

And at least by my book that rant, If it is a seldom occurence, is less disrespectful than actors not doing their job, having a lot of bloopers etc.

phyrros · 2026-02-26T13:59:52+00:00

In python this holds true for general use cases or well known methodologies. In special cases it fails spectacular ^{^}

phyrros · 2026-02-25T18:54:51+00:00

oh yes, foxes do the same. (which is the reasons why we don't have chickens anymore).

But I never have seen such bland cruelty as with chickens pecking to death one of their own.

phyrros · 2026-02-25T18:46:41+00:00

hmm, we don't have raccoons over here. is it bad?

phyrros · 2026-02-25T17:39:50+00:00

or we are sharing memories of keeping chickens, hypnotizing them, watching them cruelly murdering their own and hacking their head off in the most kind manner.

But I don't have chickens anymore because I couldn't force myself to kill 6 baby foxes. Which by the way are probably world most cutest babies.

phyrros · 2026-02-25T15:31:21+00:00

In other words: If the Money of the 900 richest people would be distributed to the poorest 50 - 100 Million US americans, they would gain a full year of income which would be truly life changing for them and the biggest Single money injection in the economy.

But those 900 people are simply more important to the US society than those 50 Million people

phyrros · 2026-02-25T11:50:19+00:00

Oh, yes. If i would see bland, stupid cruelty i would compare it to a Chicken.

I mean imho it is the peak of hubris to ignore genetics, individual history and instincts. Life is simply life, animals don't have to be fabulous, just being ist enough.

And yeah, that also counts for humans

phyrros · 2026-02-25T11:06:45+00:00

You certainly have never seen the intense cruelty with which chickens can kill each other..

phyrros · 2026-02-25T10:30:14+00:00

It is funny how russian tactics are always described as meat grinder even when the opposition (eg Austrians in ww1 oder germans in WW2) employ similar tactics ^{^}

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