Hacker News Reader

qwertyuiop1234on China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th Century

You still have to put down a 30% deposit for first home and 60% for a second, which is stark contract to 0% down payment or even borrowed down payment in US.

A main reason people buy properties is the lack of other type of investment. The public in general have no confidence in stock market. Housing is the only thing almost guaranteed to make money. As financial reforms such as allowing investing overseas kicks in, we should see money moving away to housing market.

qwertyuiop1234on China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th Century

The fundamental difference between China housing price drop and US is majority of Chinese buy properties with cash or get mortgage with very large deposit like 40%. So the risk of subprime crisis is very low.

qwertyuiop1234on China used more cement in 3 years than the U.S. did in the entire 20th Century

They are being filled up.

https://www.bullionstar.com/blogs/koos-jansen/guest-post-5-c...

qwertyuiop1234on Why do we care about Xiaomi?

I think author explained the copycat claim rather clearly:

"It's a common reflex in the USA to call Xiaomi and similar companies copycats, on both a hardware and software level, and there's certainly a lot of design inspiration going on, but dismissing these phones as rip-offs is rather lazy. When you actually hold them and use them you would never mistake them for iPhones, any more than you'd mistake a $500 coat or bag for the $2,000 example that sometimes inspires the colour or trim. You can sometimes see where it came from, but it's not the same, nor is it trying to be. Rather, they deliver a similar approach to the user experience at a lower price in a way that's often been absent from Android so far (it's hard not to look at some of Nokia's beautiful Lumia devices and wonder what impact they might have had on Apple if they'd run Android)."

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

http://www.napoleonicsociety.com/english/Life_Nap_Vol2_Chap1...

Also, Britain routinely paid other monarchies to have them send their soldiers. They hired Germans to fight against American independence. George Washington's famous first victory was crossing the Delaware river and surprise attacked what were actual German legions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hessian_%28soldiers%29#American...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington%27s_crossing_...

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

well, - religious toleration: french revolution basically wants to kill off the Catholic priests. Napoleon brought back Catholicism since there were still a lot of catholics in france but stripped its privileges. He was the first to emancipate the jews.

- His military conquest speeded up the abolition of feudalism across europe. Civil code is put in place in occupied regions.

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

He overthrew many monarchies in Europe, and installed French civil system to the newly occupied regions. Although he did assign his relatives to be monarchies in those areas, the reforms are real and the difference weren't felt until he was defeat and old monarchies came back. His military conscriptions certainly offset his reforms in popularity. Italians vied for independence from Austrian Empire after Napoleon was defeated. Interestingly, it was Napoleon III (Napoleon I's naphew) who helped eventually Italian won independence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Italian_War_of_Independe...

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

Whether or not Wellington promised to come to Blücher's aid at Ligny is debatable. Hofschröer claims he did. You can't call it revisionism because he was simply stating his view. Ask 10 people today who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo, 9 wouldn't even know Prussians were there.

Wellington has always reserved the option to retreat from the sea. That's why he left 10000+ reserve to cover the retreat path in case things go wrong at Waterloo. From Prussian point of view 1) they just lost a battle badly at Ligny 2) Wellington said he'd come but he didn't 3) Wellington could escape from sea in which case Prussians will surely be crushed facing French alone. Wellington does deserve credit but I would say Blücher's courage to trust his teammate and meet Wellington at Waterloo is more respectable. It's not a overstatement that it's a German victory.

Napoleon's biggest mistake is giving his marshals wrong tasks. He left his best marshal Davout in Paris while hoping Grouchy who just got promoted marshal to carry the weight to chase down Blücher. Grouchy is OK with carrying out orders but not so great at reacting to situation. Despite Gérard repeated asking to 'march to the sound of the guns', he decided to follow previous order and chase Prussians in the wrong direction. Although he didn't have too much of a choice, Davout is the only one whose loyalty is questionable. He didn't want what happened at Fontainebleau to repeat so he had to keep Davout at home. And then he used Soult for staff work who did a very sloppy job. The lack of information and misinformation may have well cost the battle.

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

British gold bought distractions. Britain has the best navy but on land it couldn't even compete with France. If the French were able to cross the channel from Boulogne, then it'd be the end of the empire.

At Austerlitz, Britain paid money for each dead Russian soldier. English agents were busy counting the dead making sure his majestry's money is well spent while French medics trying to save wounded from both side. Austrian emperor Francis allegedly said 'English are merchants of human flesh.

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

He said that many times throughout the war. At a formal settings obvious he'll say it a little nicer. British soldiers get paid only one shilling per day and are constantly short on supply and had to plunder to survive. There is even a book on why soldiers are not 'scum of the Earth'

http://www.amazon.com/All-Kings-Shilling-Wellington-Commande...

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

There is no 'order', only verbal agreement that they will come to each other's aid in case they run into Napoleon's army. Wellington rode to Blücher and promised to aid him at Ligny but he didn't which resulted in Prussian defeat at Battle of Ligny. Blücher himself was incapacitated. Chief of Staff Gneisenau didn't want to come to Wellington's aid because he didn't trust the British. Had Blücher not insisted marching onto Waterloo, Wellington would be crush like Alexander in Austerlitz.

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

What exactly do you mean 'fought peace'? France was defeated. The allies were simply there to divide up the land. And why is 'sought out Napoleon's former mistresses and seduced them' something to be proud of?

Royal Navy even lost ships to Argentina At Falklands Wars. That would never happen to American Navy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falklands_War#Sinking_of_HMS_Sh...

Britain's problem is the pure amount of hypocrisy. How hard is it to admit we are not number one any more and buckle down and do some real work.

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

Blücher's Prussian army arrived to save Wellington's ass despite Wellington not saving theirs at Battle of Ligny. Can we please give Germans some credit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Waterloo

qwertyuiop1234on How Good Was Napoleon? (2007)

I can never understand why Wellington would call soldiers 'scum of the earth'. Soldiers don't get anything whether 'His Majesty' wins the war or not. No wonder Scotland wants independence. They sent soldiers to Wellington's expedition. Scots Grays were the ones who charged French line and batteries at Waterloo which avoid disaster. And yet they are 'nothing but beggars and scoundrel' to Wellington.

History is written by winners. Had Napoleon not gone to Russia, European feudal system would have fallen much earlier, and we'd be writing this in French.

Napoleon's contribution to history is not military feat. It's the civil code, education, equal opportunity, emancipation of jews, tearing down of ancien régime and giving birth to idea of nation states.