The Internet is so much better now that everyone is on it. I remember usenet, I kno of geocities. You shouldn't assume English speakers on the Internet are Americans, some of the better I've encountered are not. Tbh, I'm bored with an American centric point of view. I consume a lot of culture tho.
Which is my next point. The Internet isn't the first translated thing. You said countries should focus on their own language but that's absolutely bs. As if you've never read something originally written in another language.
I kno a fair amount of Latin from my exposure to the stuff written during the era when all intellectuals had to know Latin or Greek - should we do that again? That was nice and uniform for the Western World at least.
For the record, by using English to make their content accessible to the global population, I have been exposed to more Chinese culture than China could ever hope. I watched Three Kingdoms and the Qin Dynasty series and the Kings War - that's over 350 hour long episodes of Chinese history I've now seen - I only knew Three Kingdoms before hand. So you are wrong about that also. Additionally, I'm developing an appreciation for Mandarin itself, as far a language goes it seems to be as expressive as English and the Chinese speak in idioms just like Americans but obviously different idioms, so I now also understand that to truly appreciate Chinese content, just like American content, I do need to know the language it was made in.
Lastly, the US was a single vote from German being the official language of this country, it's why we have no official language now. So I disagree with direct correlation of language and culture - it's often related but not always and English is an exception as today we live in a world where English is often used by people from countries that do not speak English to do business with other countries that do not speak English.
For me it is not so much the price as the product range.
I prefer Best Buy to Amazon when I can. I use my Best Buy credit card preferentially to my Amazon card. Best Buy's prices for movies are often better than Amazon's prices. However, Amazon Marketplace has more obscure movies. For instance I am into Chinese movies and TV shows like Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber and Wolf Warrior 2 and Best Buy just doesn't have these. Sometimes Amazon does, but I end up going to bootleggers from Singapore and other strange places to get my fix.
Sometimes I feel like Best Buy wants to fit me in a little box. I wanted an NFC reader for my PC. Best Buy chooses not to carry such things. I am looking for a VR headset to support software development, Best Buy chooses only to carry Facebook products. (Nope, I deleted my Facebook account and I'm not making a new one for that.)
Most interestingly, Amazon Marketplace lets you evade shortages by paying a higher price right now. For instance, Epson EcoTank Pro and EcoTank Photo printers are sold out at Dell, B&H photo, Adorama and such. You can pay a premium and get one today on Amazon.
I got interested in the show Alter Ego on Fox and wanted to catch up on what I'd missed. Fox let me watch one episode before registering (and paying?) but I was able to watch it all on Youtube.
Odds are better that you find anything on Youtube than any place else unless it is a Chinese TV series that shouldn't be obscure but practically is. (Like how I had to get a bootleg of Three Kingdoms from Singapore.)
These days it is different, mainland Chinese movies and TV have huge production budgets and are as good as anything Hollywood makes.
For instance the 2010 "Three Kingdoms" TV series is a big story that would appeal to people who like the Iliad or Tolkien or Game of Thrones. It boggles my mind that I couldn't get a legit copy or even find it on the Pirate Bay but had to get bootleg DVDs with atrocious subtitles via Singapore.
"Meritocracy" is a bad enough concept that it's harmful to use the word even to critique.
There is so much "achievement laundering" where wealthy people can pass on status to their children in a way that makes it look like the children earned it. Being able to afford to do an internship at something like the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is an example.
I have lately enjoyed the 2010 TV show "Three Kingdoms" from the PRC which is based on a 14th century novel based on the events at the end of the Han dynasty. Some major themes in it (which must be tolerable to the CCP if not driven by the CCP) are the heroism and villany of figures such as Cao Cao and Pang Tong who turned their back on Confucian values, and how the war triggers a desperate search for talent in a world where opportunities were distributed by family inheritance.
A case I think about is theoretical physics where it can take 50 or more years for an important result such as neutrino oscillations (predicted by a physicist who stole atomic bomb secrets and defected to the USSR) or the Blandford–Znajek theory of black hole jets to be experimentally confirmed.
Albert Einstein made a prediction of light being bent by the sun that was confirmed by Sir Arthur Eddington before Albert Einstein got old. That's a founding legend of physics, but today nobody can get ahead by entering into a dialogue with nature, rather you have endure a brutal job market and please old men until you yourself are old.
Hacker Cinema
7 comments on Hacker News
The Internet is so much better now that everyone is on it. I remember usenet, I kno of geocities. You shouldn't assume English speakers on the Internet are Americans, some of the better I've encountered are not. Tbh, I'm bored with an American centric point of view. I consume a lot of culture tho.
Which is my next point. The Internet isn't the first translated thing. You said countries should focus on their own language but that's absolutely bs. As if you've never read something originally written in another language.
I kno a fair amount of Latin from my exposure to the stuff written during the era when all intellectuals had to know Latin or Greek - should we do that again? That was nice and uniform for the Western World at least.
For the record, by using English to make their content accessible to the global population, I have been exposed to more Chinese culture than China could ever hope. I watched Three Kingdoms and the Qin Dynasty series and the Kings War - that's over 350 hour long episodes of Chinese history I've now seen - I only knew Three Kingdoms before hand. So you are wrong about that also. Additionally, I'm developing an appreciation for Mandarin itself, as far a language goes it seems to be as expressive as English and the Chinese speak in idioms just like Americans but obviously different idioms, so I now also understand that to truly appreciate Chinese content, just like American content, I do need to know the language it was made in.
Lastly, the US was a single vote from German being the official language of this country, it's why we have no official language now. So I disagree with direct correlation of language and culture - it's often related but not always and English is an exception as today we live in a world where English is often used by people from countries that do not speak English to do business with other countries that do not speak English.
(On the theme of fantastic fiction)
It's remarkably hard to find good translations of classic Chinese works such as The Investiture of the Gods, though there is
https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Teahouse-Retold-Investiture-Gods/dp/0595254195
China is having its best success with video games like Genshin Impact but I'd highly recommend the 2010 Three Kingdoms
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL33A390995E9A7F00
(you'd never see tough legendary warriors in western culture cry the way the heroes do in that show)
Also there is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ne_Zha_(2019_film)
which is pretty good despite being packed with the same kind of fart jokes you'd expect in a Dreamworks movie.
For me it is not so much the price as the product range.
I prefer Best Buy to Amazon when I can. I use my Best Buy credit card preferentially to my Amazon card. Best Buy's prices for movies are often better than Amazon's prices. However, Amazon Marketplace has more obscure movies. For instance I am into Chinese movies and TV shows like Three Kingdoms, Dream of the Red Chamber and Wolf Warrior 2 and Best Buy just doesn't have these. Sometimes Amazon does, but I end up going to bootleggers from Singapore and other strange places to get my fix.
Sometimes I feel like Best Buy wants to fit me in a little box. I wanted an NFC reader for my PC. Best Buy chooses not to carry such things. I am looking for a VR headset to support software development, Best Buy chooses only to carry Facebook products. (Nope, I deleted my Facebook account and I'm not making a new one for that.)
Most interestingly, Amazon Marketplace lets you evade shortages by paying a higher price right now. For instance, Epson EcoTank Pro and EcoTank Photo printers are sold out at Dell, B&H photo, Adorama and such. You can pay a premium and get one today on Amazon.
I got interested in the show Alter Ego on Fox and wanted to catch up on what I'd missed. Fox let me watch one episode before registering (and paying?) but I was able to watch it all on Youtube.
Odds are better that you find anything on Youtube than any place else unless it is a Chinese TV series that shouldn't be obscure but practically is. (Like how I had to get a bootleg of Three Kingdoms from Singapore.)
These days it is different, mainland Chinese movies and TV have huge production budgets and are as good as anything Hollywood makes.
For instance the 2010 "Three Kingdoms" TV series is a big story that would appeal to people who like the Iliad or Tolkien or Game of Thrones. It boggles my mind that I couldn't get a legit copy or even find it on the Pirate Bay but had to get bootleg DVDs with atrocious subtitles via Singapore.
Personally I like (mainland) Chinese movies and TV. It boggles my mind that I had to get a bootleg copy of the 2010 Three Kingdoms TV series.
"Meritocracy" is a bad enough concept that it's harmful to use the word even to critique.
There is so much "achievement laundering" where wealthy people can pass on status to their children in a way that makes it look like the children earned it. Being able to afford to do an internship at something like the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation is an example.
I have lately enjoyed the 2010 TV show "Three Kingdoms" from the PRC which is based on a 14th century novel based on the events at the end of the Han dynasty. Some major themes in it (which must be tolerable to the CCP if not driven by the CCP) are the heroism and villany of figures such as Cao Cao and Pang Tong who turned their back on Confucian values, and how the war triggers a desperate search for talent in a world where opportunities were distributed by family inheritance.
A case I think about is theoretical physics where it can take 50 or more years for an important result such as neutrino oscillations (predicted by a physicist who stole atomic bomb secrets and defected to the USSR) or the Blandford–Znajek theory of black hole jets to be experimentally confirmed.
Albert Einstein made a prediction of light being bent by the sun that was confirmed by Sir Arthur Eddington before Albert Einstein got old. That's a founding legend of physics, but today nobody can get ahead by entering into a dialogue with nature, rather you have endure a brutal job market and please old men until you yourself are old.