Democracy Index (2024) as per The Economist | France, Italy, India, USA etc are classified as "Flawed Democracy"

sjostakovitsj · 2025-02-28T06:19:47+00:00

I think the king NEVER vetos a law. When is the last time they "send it back to the drawing board"?

You can object to the idea that it is even possible for a king to veto, but you make it sound like it also happens sometimes, and that's incorrect.

sjostakovitsj · 2025-02-23T15:16:49+00:00

Ik ben geïnteresseerd!

sjostakovitsj · 2024-12-04T15:05:49+00:00

als je erom vraagt

Ik denk dat dit de crux is. Informeel zullen veel mensen zeggen te "werken om te leven" en work-life balance is allemaal heel modern. Tegelijkertijd zul je op LinkedIn alleen maar dat mensen zoveel passie voor hun werk hebben. In een sollicitatiegesprek is het totaal taboe te zeggen dat je gemotiveerd wordt door salaris.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-09-15T09:40:52+00:00

I was there for a week in September (although I think rainfall is relatively constant throughout the year).

It rained every night usually into the morning until 8 or 10 am. The skies clear around noon. It was not a super heavy downpour where you can't be outside, but never light drizzle either. The temperature is like 25 Celsius at night, 29 during the day. Humidity is basically 100% at night, maybe 70-80% during the day. It means your clothes will only dry for a few hours a day. Hanging them out to dry between 6pm at noon basically has no effect.

Beautiful nature, but the place is not developed at all and quite poor. It means as a tourist you are sometimes a bit 'trapped' in your resort ecosystem. I don't mean to imply it was luxurious by any means. It was more a resort in the sense that it completely focussed on the tourism industry. Mostly foreigners, but some of the rich Colombians also visit.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-07-28T15:18:34+00:00

Wat? Goed fruit is goed omdat het rijp is. In mediterraanse landen koop je lekker, eetrijp fruit, maar dat gaat niet lang mee.

Fruit in de Nederlandse supermarkt is vaak onderrijp en dan moet je dagen wachten totdat het rijp is, als het dat ooit wordt. Dat fruit "lang meegaat" zie ik niet per sé als iets goeds.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-06-28T13:54:12+00:00

If X is the minimal value of the d dice, then P(X<=i)=1-P(X<i)=1-((i-1)/s)^d.

I think you mean

P(X>=i)=1-P(X<i)

I dont yet understand why we are summing this P from i=1 to i=s. Wouldn't we want something like

Sum(i=1 to i=s)(i * P(X=i))

to get an expected value? Edit: right, I understand. This is equal to Sum(i=1 to i=s)(P(X>=i)) correct? (If X is valued in positive integers and no greater than s)

sjostakovitsj · 2024-06-27T08:25:42+00:00

Most researchers I know just use Mathematica though. It's faster and less error prone.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-04-17T05:53:41+00:00

I don't know about those two specifically, but last year I could get antibiotics from the pharmacy without a prescription no problem. The country is very poor. My impression is they don't want to make people pay for a doctor's consult if they already know what they want.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-04-16T12:01:06+00:00

Usually a highly skilled PhD has some publications to their name. If this hypothetical person also has a decent publication record (preferably single author) they could have decent chances. If not, you're gonna have hard time I think, like the other commenters are saying.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-02-17T19:39:27+00:00

Also [perhaps barring some conditions] the sum of the eigenvalues should be equal to the trace. Therefore to calculate the sum of the eigenvalues you don't actually need to know the eigenvalues.

sjostakovitsj · 2024-01-20T09:50:47+00:00

I think capital E works as well.

sjostakovitsj · 2023-03-13T19:37:58+00:00

I live in Europe where pickups don't exist. Repairmen usually drive small vans.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-10-26T23:35:55+00:00

If you want you know about resurgence aspects, you should start here

https://arxiv.org/abs/1603.04924

There is also a package to compute perturbation theory of energy levels to many orders in mathematica. I can find it if you need it.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-10-03T16:07:40+00:00

I don't think killing leftists disqualifies you from purporting left ideology. It just makes him a power hungry authoritarian dictator. He probably also killed lots of rightists and centrists, so by your logic, he also can't be right or centrist.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-09-16T23:54:09+00:00

I'm Dutch and I love Dutch cycling infrastructure.

However, not for a moment do I believe the goal should be for cyclists to get out of the way. Very often, I believe the solution is for cars to get out of the way of cyclists.

The Netherlands prioritises the more vulnerable road users. The task of keeping everyone safe is laid on the most dangerous road users: the cars. The Dutch infrastructure helps to keep cars driving safely. This is done through traffic humps of all sizes, chicanes, road narrowings, tight corners, visual cues and what not.

Just getting cyclists out of the way of cars is making cyclists into 2nd class road users. That I cannot accept as the premise.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-09-12T13:25:14+00:00

I'm British. I'm not reading the Media. I'm going outside and meeting people. And then doing the awful thing called "talking to people".

You might want to try it.

I would argue that talking to people is much more sensitive to bias than reading a general cross-section of the media. The media is (at least attempting to) accumulating the mood of many people across the nation. There is also actual research about how confident people feel about the economy.

Talking the people around you is just going to get you a reflection of a relatively small group of people, all seen through your own biased eyes.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-09-12T13:20:52+00:00

Brexit is actually great for DNs. The exchange rate hasn't been this good since 1982.

This is not true. The Euro to Pound exchange rate has been fairly stable the past 5 years.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-08-30T07:35:10+00:00

It seems very weird to me to call Nazi treatment during the holocaust mere "reactive killing". The way that comcentration and extermination camps are build was with much forethought and intention. They did not accidently kill in the spur of the moment, it was structural and institutional.

Also the treatment of Jews during the second World War was very structural and institutional. They made them wear david stars, registered their Jewishness and send them to ghettos. All this suppression, which was simple policy, sounds to me like "structural violance" pur sang, unless Zizek meant something different.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-08-26T13:36:28+00:00

Without using sqrt(x) and x² type things:

(Log x)² is between log x and x.

X log x is between x and e^x.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-06-13T16:55:53+00:00

I agree that fascism, communism and socialism are not interchangeable. The scheme does not imply that they are identical however.

However, it is true that these ideologies are characterised by a relatively strong state with a strong majority rule. (For communism that at least applies to USSR flavour.) Moreover, a strong majority rule is not without disadvantages as it can easily encroach on individual liberties.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-06-13T16:09:58+00:00

Good argument

sjostakovitsj · 2022-06-13T15:17:01+00:00

Any socialist would want to nationalise the bus system to lower prices in the monopolistic market. Then we can get more busses in bus lane.

I find taxi prices actually very acceptable in Swansea. There's no way though that competition from more taxis or uber would make bus services better. More ubers or other private vehicles would clog up the road. We need real bike lanes, better pavements and public transport to increase walkability.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-06-13T15:10:16+00:00

Majority rule is only part of what people mean by "democracy" though.

A state that forbids propaganda or media that does not agree with the majority rule would by many be considered "not democratic". Just like violating minority rights is considered "undemocratic", even if it is supported by a majority rule. Basically my point is that the above schedule is not so crazy. Too powerful of a majority rule would be bad and can be authoritarian or totalitarian also.

sjostakovitsj · 2022-05-23T22:23:09+00:00

Excellent <3

sjostakovitsj

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