Sorry, but people in power are rarely in the top 5% in intelligence. However, if it was popularity then sure! Everybody loves a pretty face.
72 karma · joined February 13, 2008
Also where did faschist Stalinist-Communism come into this, we're talking about !!EUROPE!! here. Why not bring in Hitler to make your arguing skills completely inept.
Besides the fact you blatently know nothing about socialism, namely that the Anarcho-Communism movement in the Spanish Revolution led to 50-100% increases in worker efficiencies, before they got killed off and supressed. Similar happened during the Hungarian Revolution, both extremely successful but never powerful enough to survive military force. Also, it's nice that you miss out Cuba from your list, and make 'Modern China' sound like it's still not a Communist dictatorship, and BTW not Stalinist.
Now, back onto the subject of Europe. Nevermind that Europe, by your opinion, is going 'socialist' and apparently succeeding by beating the US economy. The fact that universal health care by US education seems to be 'socialist' and is in every WESTERN country except the US.
Every country in the west is a mixed economy, mixing nationalism and capitalism. Europe has done this to the best degree and is succeeding by it, the US has done it the least (yes you're part RED) and is suffering because of it.
I find your ignorance to social policy humourus. Capitalism is bull because the US doesn't practice it even though it waves the flag for it like crazy. I mean the US is basically like any European country, just piss poor at coughing up the cash.
I mean how far is banning drugs from banning certain hair cuts like in North Korea? It's on the same scale and 'banning' things isn't actually capitalist. I mean, the Netherlands by definition is more capitalist than the US because they're legalising drugs and prostitution.
Capitalism = ultimate left. Communism = ultimate right. Mixed = 50/50. No country is capitalist anymore because it doesn't work, it's a fantasy but communism does exist in its entirity and Cuba is an example of that, China too. The only part of China that you described as 'modern' China is Hong Kong, which is because it has British Laws that are mixed economy, and the only industries that have remained non-nationalised in China exist in Hong Kong because the government doesn't have its power to nationalise at will there.
> So today it is the turn of the United States to hold this place [#1 economic power], but tommorow it might be China (who knows) and [you see that AND it means CARRYING ON] I don't think you'll appreciate what Chinese reporters have to say about your lifestyle [They have state controlled communist media, that was a blatent fault on your part not the authors] (like not living as an ants colony wich is prejudiciable to your economy)[< those braketed comments, they're the writers side remarks, saying simply communism = bad].
Now that that is out the way; no France was never the worlds #1 economic power in the world. It's a country that has been habitually invaded repeatedly and its only point of success in the Napoleon Era crippled its economy through conscription and a complete halt in technological advances.
> Err, no. He sounds like he's describing instances of school curricula which are neo-Marxist. Credible criticism, as far as I can tell.
You obviously agree with the articles author, but its patently poor writing. It's barely above tabloid journalism and merely written to inflame. It's poor, it's biased and it's written like utter capitalist garbage and not credible criticism. Simply put: It's the same shit I've heard for years about socialism, the only thing is that Europe is a bigger faster growing economy than the US. Uhh that means socialism WINS and capitalism LOSES, the market is the ultimate truth and that is capitalist doctrine #1.
EU 3% growth, US 2.2% growth. EU $16.37 trillion GDP(OER), US $13.79 trillion GDP(OER) US inflation is also .9% higher, which means the US GDP(OER) is going to get worse every year.
The US currently beats the EU on poverty line by about 3%, however the EU keeps bringing in countries with unemployment and poverty lines well above acceptable levels, and hey go figure the EU is still growing better than the US.
I'm sorry, but all 'evidence' of a benefit to capitalism is bull. It's already been proven that people in the US spend on average twice as much on health care as people in the UK(with the worlds largest nationalised health survice) and the poor in the UK are as healthy as the US' rich. That means there's a proportionally larger, healthier and more productive work force in the UK than the US.
So EU has the #1 economy in the world, it has several of the best health care systems in the world (competing for #1 between UK and Germany really) that are slowly spreading throughout Europe... and the US has what now? The #1 country for citizens behind bars?
I find the saying "you can have it all" to be idealistic bullshit that dooms an economy and its people to failure and exploitation. It merely justifies the reason not to have a welfare system because it is your own damn fault if you take a leap against common sense that is never able to pay off.
Example: 50 years ago AT&T invented the picturephone AKA video phones. The reason it took almost 40 years for it to even become marketable was because it wasn't worth the risk for people. There wasn't enough reward to justify the risk of changing, so no one did.
Simply put it gave 10 frames per second of picture, gave no benefit over voice and cost a fortune. $20 vs $1200 for a handset, it was a retarded product and took 50 years to even get uptake and by that time it was on broadband phones and the housephone market is already beat by VoIP and Webcams.
Would a start-up have survived 50 years with no selling product?
I have only observations to base this on, but workers start dropping off well before 'flu season'. I do a lot of work outside and I find the comments about DST harming farming to be irrelevant; the main one is that harvesting labour becomes in efficient as crops have to be harvested after the dew. If I didn't need workers at 6am I'd tell them to come in at 7 or 8am when the crops are ready to be harvested. That's just common sense; if I'm working outside, I'm not going until it's safe for me to do it and if its too dark I'll tell the customer I'm coming later, if they don't like it lump it.
Although, on my more hackerish note: 2 million candela torch + power inverter = sun rise at 3am. I believe it's supposed to produce sunlight-like brightness over some 450m^2, although it isn't always useful and without it being hooked up to some form of power it's out of batteries within 15 minutes.
I think our aim should be to simulate the R-Complex part of the triune brain model. This is where our evolutionary intelligence came from and it is the best basis to start. Birds have managed high levels of intelligence without the neocortex present in mammals, so obviously there's more than one route to sentience.
I believe brain density is the key to sentience. In a small animals, like birds, they lose heat quickly and efficiently, which means their 'processors' can pump out more heat without burning out. Where as a human brain would cook itself if it was 'overclocked' as we're at the upper limit of the communication-efficiency ratio, and Elephants are above that ratio but get away with large processing and data storage with a form of 'low-energy' brains.
With the speed of electricity in synapses, a Crow might be able to achive 10 times as many messages in the time it takes one of our brains to make 1 message. Elephants might only make .5 messages a second per synapse. So a crow would benefit greatly by increasing brain density and be able to solve problems to the same degree as a human infant, however humans have phenominal storage in our brains and a crow simply doesn't have the brain mass to compete so we have more data to act on than a crow. Elephants use their brains to remember pretty much everything, they've even been seen taking short cuts that they have 'guessed' between paths they've taken before.
I think the brain is astounding, but to reproduce sentience we should follow evolution; not only because it gives us vast insights into how our brains evolved, but also because it should avoid us ever getting into the irrational AI situation. If an AI is made from simulating a human brain then it is human, which it would be capable of understanding as it would have to be 'taught' and I know I'm human because of the society I know around me that teaches me that I think and act in a similar method as everyone else, just with different data.
:Well, that should teach you for asking why.
I left Reddit because that's what happened with every story. You submit something and it gets burried within 10 seconds. If it was 10 minutes, sure some people red it but 10 seconds is barely time to read a title.
I'm thinking of slicehost with wordpress. It's an extremely stable blog, but it's too taxing to keep it up to date on my own rather than using someone elses free service.
Look at BB websites, a large number of polls is usually followed by a "Comment As To Why" afterwards. I mean what's the point of having a poll if you want comments. You don't get quantifiable data online, so why have a poll that is inherently useless because simply seeing a number influences peoples choices.
It's pack mentality. I'm sure "We'd have the same number of polls, but they wouldn't look as ugly" is getting a lot more votes now it's broken into the lead than when they were at 0 points.
I experience this fatigued problem regularly, I go from doing heavy hands on work as an electrician and when there's an ebb in the work I used to do little exercise as I'm used to getting more than enough whilst working. I go from 6 hours sleep to feel completely rested to sleeping 10 hours, on a good day. I also end up being unable to do any writing or any other work.
I recently found an old set of light weights and simply keep them next to me, I do about 100 reps per arm and afterwards I feel completely energised. After a few days I was even back to sleeping 6 hours. It seems odd that doing 20 minutes infrequent exercise through the day, like when I'm stuck on an idea, gave me about 4 hours extra time without feeling fatigued.
So I'd say dig up some old weights or buy a cheap pair of 5lbs and you're sorted. You'll end up with even more time in the day and you'll be more productive. Ironic that the more time you spend exercising, the more time you get back.
As for power, you've always got UPS'.
Internet is the tricky one as all private hosts use redundancies, although I don't see why you couldn't sign up for regular internet and a cable connection.
I've seen a handful of ISPs that let you run a server (or more correctly, don't stop you), although I think most ISPs prohibit it to force you onto business packages (which you can get in your home too).
I know in the Toronto region there is Mountain Cable, which doesn't have anything in their Terms of Service preventing you, and have unlimited bandwidth (From speed tests I've seen, they're faster than Cogeco, and get an upload speeds in the 1+MB/s range). I think you've just got to settle with DynDNS, however from what I've read this is reccomended for static IP's too. If you did have two ISPs then this would solve the IP problem when you switch.
I'm actually considering going with Mountain Cable anyway as they're cheaper than Cogeco. Although their lack of information on their website freaks me out; I mean their service area map isn't even online. (Edit: They do have a service area map for their internet, however they apparently provide service outside of the area)
I'm sure someone could implement it, but I'm not sure how wise it would be... maybe a PetSmart could do it first.
My centre of focus was on the MIDDLE bar. I like asymmetric web pages, but the design of that website just hurts. To actually get through the first page of my article I moved my laptop right so I was focusing propelry instead of looking to one side of my screen constantly.
The article takes up less than 50% of the area of the screen, which just squeezes it out of perceptibility. So I never got through the article, I'm sure it was good or it wouldn't have been posted but it was awfully presented. Poor writer, I hope he got paid well for people being unable to read his work.
The main problem is the hard drive is attatched by 2 screws and makes a funny creaking noise. However, the chassis above it flexes visibly with any form of pressure, I'm sure it's only a matter of time before the edging snaps clear of the main body. The DVD drive is attatched by one screw and merely having a two-tone CD in the drive can make it vibrate like hell; I believe the worst was the game disc for Black & White, it sounded like the drive was damaging itself. I downloaded a NOCD patch because I was nervous about having it vibrate that much.
In addition to this, the screen is held flimsily on by IIRC two screws and it has lost its rigidity over the years. Even just putting the laptop down while in use can cause the screen to shift by 2.5-5 degrees.
Comparably, I would go with a MacBook next. My brother, who's had his longer than my laptop, has had no problem with his except that they use torx screws so swapping his ram proved mildly problematic. $20 for a 7 piece set fixed that problem though... I'd sure swap the ease of upgrade in my flimsy Dell for an extra $20 to upgrade a sturdy Mac.
Firstly, they discuss hedonistic pleasure. This is essentially the pleasure of getting fat, lazy and dying of hardened arteries. It isn't happiness, it's a base instinct well below our consciousness that is designed to enjoy sugars, sex and laziness programmed into us as a survival mechanism. Essentially the more you eat, have sex and do nothing, the better chance you -had- of surviving; now not so much.
Secondly, they poorly evaluate the pleasure of accomplishment. Your higher brain is designed to dump a load of endorphins into your system, because some minor pain/discomfort has been rewarded. Breaking down into tears at your kids graduation ceremony is artificial, it isn't programmed into people like feeling happy when they see their kid. You get so overly joyed when your children accomplish something because it is something that is a hell of a lot better for you than all the hedonistic pleasures combined, hence why they -do- wipe out all the minor feelings that led up to the accomplishment, essentially because it was worth it!
Thirdly, heroin blocks endorphin (the happy chemical, as well as 3 other chemicals') production. This is completely the opposite of kids, who can amplify the production. Heroin is a drug that literally disables your ability to be happy, I somehow don't see the similarity to kids here. He's comparing delayed gratification with instant gratification and immense delayed suffering/death...
I believe my three points are sufficient, however I must add that hedonistic psychology is an amazing subject. Although that being said, it is fascinating in a way that should educate you to do everything -BUT- the hedonistic pleasures.
So I'll probably just go with the age old, convert a bedroom into an in-house office and do my socialising after hours.
They complained before global warming was even thought about, and they're just using fantasy CO2 statistics to bolster their claims. In fact, in some areas with low access to water, governments spend millions merely pumping water up elevations. I know where I live they have to do it, and we're only slightly up hill from the supplier. I wonder how much CO2 they're putting into the atmosphere by using vast quantities of power to pump water up a gradient, which is less efficient than merely moving it.
Also, for when I do need to drive, I'll switch to a hybrid. However, that requires a large amount of lead and acids that are extremely harmful to the environment and it also takes more energy to produce an hybrid car than is actually saved in the average use of the car.
I will personally help destroy the environment by doing EVERYTHING I've been told should SAVE IT. I fucking love irony!
Merely connecting people won't act as a barrier to war, but I think forming a universal governing structure would; however unlikely it is to actually happen. There's a saying that states democracy is just a farce to control the masses by giving the illusion of control, well I would say the EU does the exact same thing.
I can't speak for EU politics of late, I've rarely been in the UK the past year, however last I was keeping track the UK had a major problem with French farming subsidies (basically French farmers were being paid to be uncompetative) and the French wanted the UK to stop getting discounted for payments to the EU (each country pays like a tax that's supposed to benefit the whole, however the UK was paying less than it was getting in even though we're the richest country in the EU).
So, personally, I would say no level of communication will prevent war unless you're economically and socially tied as in the EU. I mean Kings would marry their daughters to Kings of other countries in an attempt to prevent war, the British bloodline has French descent in it. Even look at Richard the Lionheart, he barely even spoke english! Yet no amount of ties between England and France ever stopped war until the EU. Simple fact.
I'd accept 2 hour charge time for in city driving, but most of my driving with work isn't in a city, and thus electrics are useless until they're as fast to charge as a petrol is to fill.
I mean, combine this with regenative braking and thin-film solar cells (so as not to add unnecessary weight and lower mileage), you could greatly improve over most current full-electric cars.
With the low end of human muscle efficiency in the conversion of energy into power. Ideally you'd be able to fire the little beastie ~63km off the energy of a snickers.
However, I don't doubt natures ability to adapt. So there would possibly be life similar to our radiotrophic fungus, however I doubt there'll be many sentient fungais out in the universe.
I got a job at 16 by sending out letters, and after I'd learnt the editors style he was saying I was the best writer there and amazed at my age. Right now, if reviewing hadn't destroyed my love for video games and movies, I have little doubt I could have been at a news paper for two years, and I'm only twenty. Essentially I could have been working as a writer for the entire time I "should" have been in university learning "journalism".