user1239321421's comments

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: AmazonFresh Has Launched in Bay Area

Odd ... all big supermarket chains do this in all of the UK.

My Tesco delivery is arriving in the next 20 minutes ... plus no annual charge over here.

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: Most Talked About Scientific Articles of 2013

Sad, yet not surprising, to see the juxtaposition between all the money that society invests in research and the fact that current events and topics worthy of inebriated rants get all the attention.

Maybe it's just me, but I couldn't give a toss about most topics covered in these articles and don't see how they might ever have any importance beyond some meaningless chatter on Twitter.

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: 10 Linux distros to watch in 2014

Would somebody please write a random "X Y of Z" generator already?

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: Nobel winner declares boycott of top science journals

OK, Tenured Professor at UC Berkeley with loads of Nature, Science, and Cell papers who recently won a Nobel Prize ... I'll go against the grain here upon your command and not follow the footsteps of those that made it to the top of the system off of the back of luxury publications.

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: Dean Says Median Grade at Harvard College Is A-, Most Common Grade Is A

You're not on the ball since age 14 - your parents are ages 14 - 17 or 18 and you try and take over after that.

This is the problem with Harvard et al.: you get in b/c your parents have the financial resources to keep you on the ball until its time to sit your Harvard admission exam (or w/e the procedure to get). Financial resources will come in the form of being able to spend quality time with you (and teach you about keeping the ball close) instead of seating you in front of the telly or private tutoring etc.

European unis on the other hand (bar top notch British unis which are another kind of messed up) operate on the principle of offering young adults a bright future if they man / woman up and bash their heads through some severely tough undergrad years.

Social mobility and stuff ...

user1239321421 | 12 years ago | on: Dean Says Median Grade at Harvard College Is A-, Most Common Grade Is A

I went to ETH Zurich, Switzerland for both my BSc and MSc degrees.

The undergrad program that leads up to the BSc degree is ridiculously easy to get into (Swiss nationals even have to be accepted into the program by law AFAIK -- I'm not Swiss) but the first year of that program is so absolutely horrendously hard to survive (one massive set of 10 or so finals at the end of year 1) that you literally come out of your first year with five kilos off the scale and pale like a ghost (I'm Caucasian ... ?).

At any rate, point being at ETH Zurich in particular and other European unis in general (again AFAIK) the goal is to survive and get your degree whichever way you can.

Grade inflation at "top notch" American unis with their laughable grading standards, the constant availability of extra credit to push up your final grade at will, and the weird financial and social hurdles that applicants are presented with utterly confuse me.

Speaking of which, tuition fees at ETH Zurich were 750 CHF per year (830 USD).