WHY is python slow?

[Alex Martelli]

"Dave Kuhlman" <dkuhlman at rexx.com> wrote in message
news:992110734.956795 at rexx.com...
    ...
> It takes a long time for reality and facts to dislodge generally
> accepted beliefs, if for no other reason than that lots of people
> have a vested interest in the preservation of those beliefs.

There's more to it than that -- HOW does those beliefs become
'generally accepted', if counterfactual?  I recommend Timur
Kuran's masterpiece, "Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social
Consequences of Preference Falsification".  Cfr>
http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/KURPRI.html
and Jon Elster's penetrating critique thereof in "Acta
Sociologica", reprinted online at
http://www.geocities.com/hmelberg/elster/ar96rkur.htm


Alex