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Comment Re:Or Not (Score 3, Informative) 588

by ks9208661 (#36692376) Attached to: Why People Who Make Things Should Learn Chinese

Three of those 4 languages are of very little use unless you don't mind being confined to western Europe.

French is useful outside of Western Europe too.

While Dutch kids spend those 12+ hours a week learning geographically confined languages like Dutch, French and German, native English speaking kids have 12+ extra hours a week to learn more useful things, and still be able to communicate more effectively and with more people than someone who is fluent in Dutch and speaks some French, German and English. American kids can take classes like art, drama, debating, literature etc. and play in the school band. Do you think kids who are forced to study three foreign languages have time for this?

In the last PISA ranking, Dutch kids outscored American kids in all categories, despite being disadvantaged with 12+ hours a week of "learning less useful things" (i.e. languages). To be fair, PISA checked only reading, maths, and science, which, like language learning, are typical "left brain" subjects.

Worse still, try to find an adult who still knows those foreign languages (other than the same basic English half the world speaks) a few years after their graduation.

I work with Dutch adults who are equally fluent in English, German|French, and Dutch. They're in their 40s and 50s, and have graduated from school for more than a few years. I didn't even have to try to find them.
Politics

Submission + - Brain Structure of Liberals and Conservatives (go.com)

Submitted by ks9208661
ks9208661 writes: "Previously, some psychological traits were known to be predictive of an individual's political orientation," lead author Ryota Kanai from University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience said in a statement. "Our study now links such personality traits with specific brain structure." The researchers used a survey to probe the political views of 90 University students who later underwent brain scans. People with self-reported liberal views tended to have a larger anterior cingulate cortex — a brain area involved in processing conflicting information. And those with conservative views were more likely to have a larger amygdala — a region important for recognizing threats. "Individuals with a large amygdala are more sensitive to fear," and might therefore be "more inclined to integrate conservative views into their belief system," Kanai and colleagues wrote. "On the other hand, our finding of an association between anterior cingulate cortex volume and political attitudes may be linked with tolerance to uncertainty" — which may allow people to "accept more liberal views."

Comment GSM (Score 1) 276

by ks9208661 (#35571382) Attached to: How the iPhone Led To the Sale of T-Mobile

I need a GSM phone because of my international travels. I bought an AT&T prepaid SIM card back in 2007 but let it expire 6 months ago because of all the dropped calls and the overcharges I had in my last stay in the US. I was planning to buy a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card in my next trip, but now this news came out.

If this takeover gets approved, who else will compete against AT&T in the GSM space?

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