martalist's comments

martalist | 2 years ago | on: Researchers have developed a beef-rice hybrid

Even in developed countries I'm not sure this approach makes sense. Switching to grains and pulses for protein is viable. It's the lifestyle habits, including food preparation and flavour profiles, that are difficult to change. Embedding beef into rice grains doesn't seem to solve the problem of longing for the flavour/texture of steak or bacon.

martalist | 6 years ago | on: My 2020 Hackintosh Hardware Spec

Building a _new_ hackintosh is easy, and requires very little messing around if you follow sensible guidelines. It generally gets messy after a few years and several OS updates. There are generally less users on forums with the same hardward specs, asking less questions. Apple drop support for things, and recommended methods to install/update change enough to become painful.

I just upgraded my hackintosh from El Capitan to Catalina. It wasn't all fun, but wasn't too bad either. I'll probably get another couple of years trouble free with this OS, so it was worth it. After that I'll switch to Linux or Windows for my main system, though.

martalist | 7 years ago | on: The heroes of the Thai cave rescue

Are you saying the kids could have been sealed in plastic/latex bags that are flexible enough for the kids to move on their own, and filled with air? What about punctures, buoyancy, &/or suffocation, to name a couple of hurdles?

martalist | 7 years ago | on: A system to help you remember more of what you read

> Repetition and flashcards will help you remember the content, but it won't help you understand it.

I use flashcards in a very similar fashion to that described in the article, and what I have found is that it is something of an art form. Done poorly, it's an exercise in rote memorisation. Done well, with well phrased and thought provoking questions, it helps you understand. Moreover, it periodically engages you with the content and key ideas.

martalist | 8 years ago | on: A Map Showing How Much Time It Takes English-Speakers to Learn Foreign Languages

I ended up making my own notation early on, for exactly the same reason.

Adding to the difficulty is that some native speakers will enthusiastically correct your tone by over emphasiszing and embellishing their words (with trailing tones, ah's and lah's, etc). There are some people that I simply can't learn words from because I can never pick the tone. Luckily after a while you can pick those people fairly quickly!

martalist | 8 years ago | on: A Map Showing How Much Time It Takes English-Speakers to Learn Foreign Languages

> Unlike Japanese, Cantonese has a very simple grammar and no registers, so it would be easier to learn to speak.

Registers being different levels of formality (informal, formal, slang, etc)? If so, Cantonese has that in spades.

Your answer also ignores the tonal nature of Cantonese/Mandarin. Most guides can't event agree to how many tones there are. I get by with 7, but it can range from 6 to 10 depending on who you speak to (in contrast to 4 in Mandarin).

martalist | 8 years ago | on: What Dog Shootings Reveal About American Policing

> Dog owners: Do not bring your volatile, weaponized AI into public spaces.

Weaponized AI?

> How we arrive at the conclusion that the police are the problem is nonsense.

I think the last paragraph of the article is justified:

> If there are no consequences for filing police reports that do not reflect what actually happened, expect America’s police officers to keep filing them at the current rate.

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