Peter Hagen

The key to spice trade is TINA - There is no alternative - in financial terms. The largest form of investment in Middle Ages had been farmland with average ROI of c.a. 7-8 percent but no guarantee (wars, diseases, crop failure). The ROI of spice trade was 200-300 percent over similar period.

So if you wanted double you capital it was either spice... See more

The problem is not that people are saying that they are now reading between 9-15 publications each week, nor that you probably think this is a high number. Nor is it a problem that the people who likely answered are all media professionals and thus don't really represent the larger public.

The problem is that this number is way too low and likely... See more

My whole life, I have had to change my values. I was a complete pacifist and now I understand that sometimes you need armies. I used to despise religion and I really came to respect the Catholic nuns I met during my time in Africa. The work they were doing and their reasons for doing it were amazing. I didn’t believe in giving aid through... See more

Planning a walk is hard. Planning a walk for a group is even harder. For months Chris sent research updates. During one reconnaissance trip he got lost and spent the night on the mountain curled up, waiting for dawn. On another he took a spill off his mountain bike while double-checking some of the road walking. His blood was on this path and soon,... See more

“We realized rasterization was reaching its limits,” he said, referring to the traditional, widely used method of rendering a 3D scene. “2018 was a ‘bet the company’ moment. It required that we reinvent the hardware, the software, the algorithms. And while we were reinventing CG with AI, we were reinventing the GPU for AI.”