onreact-com

Sociology has defined "need" long ago. Check out the Maslov pyramid: http://bit.ly/17Tfik

Yeah, but they do most of that already unless it's illegal and they can't get away with it.

"Communism has scored some massive failures when it comes to feeding people (5 year plans, etc. etc...)"

There was no commnism yet. It was state capitalism. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism

Capitalism worked to some extent and for some people, mainly capitalists, during a short period of time, something like 100 - 150 years.

Capitalism replaced feudalism, a system that didn't work anymore at all, it did of course only for a few people as well while it lasted. Now capitalism does not work anymore either. It's the information age and the situation has changed to such an extent that a new system will be born out of the current demise of capitalism. Those who will adopt the new system first, the most progressive parts of the world, will succeed first.

Some parts of the world still stick to feudalism. In Nepal a monarch just has been ousted. So progress won't happen everywhere at once this time either.

We don't exactly know what will follow, maybe Perecon or a similar system but we can't stick to capitalism as if nothing has changed since the steam engine has been invented.

The digital economy has it's own rules (see open source, music industry failure, successful companies making no profits like Twitter) and will most probably pave the way.

Nobody would suggest that we have to keep using the steam engine when there are better ways to solve the problems we face. Nonetheless most people treat the steam engine capitalism as the end of history. Those people will soon become history themselves.

"Capitalism works because the best businesses succeed while the worst fail."

So Microsoft, Wal-Mart, McDonald's and Exxon are the best?

I agree with you but you make one mistake. The Cuban system is capitalism as well, state capitalism where all capital is accumulated and managed by the state. They might call it communism or socialism to fool the people there but in both systems the means of production belong the people but in Cuba they don't.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_capitalism

The GDR was also called democratic but it never was, so don't get fooled by propaganda labels.

Self-interest is not greed. Greed is wanting more than you actually need. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=greed

Most people in the world don't have central heating, almost one billion is starving (a global food crisis was there before the financial crisis and still goes on), only a few nations guarantee health care, capitalist nations like the US don't. Globally the literacy is very poor and education rudimentary. There are more slaves now in the world than in any other periods of history.

Capitalist countries like the US, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa are the most crime ridden in the world. In the US alone more than a million people is in prison. People live in gated communities to protect themselves. Due to the digital divide only a small part of the world population has Internet access.

We have only one planet. We already use up more resources than it has. More economic growth equals destruction on a planetary level.

"The Federal Reserve System [...] was created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely as a response to a series of financial panics or bank runs, particularly a severe panic in 1907." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Reserve_System

So telling us that the Fed is the reason for the recent panic is ridiculous. Capitalism by itself is highly destructive. Without state interference you would have a famine in the US by now.

[edit:] See also: http://money.howstuffworks.com/fed1.htm

I haven't read that philosophical masterpiece that far. This is indeed a very innovative definition this guy has devised. So a person who causes losses to others while her or himself gaining, like a criminal for instance, is not stupid by definition?

Sadly most other common definitions are a little different: http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=stupid

"I think you're not using the author's definition of "stupid" "

The author does not offer one.

This piece has been written by an incredibly arrogant misanthrope maybe even a fascist. It has no substance, just opinion. It does not even define what "stupid" means. Low IQ? Ignorance? Lack of understanding of human relations (like in "saying stupid things")? This guy just denounces one of the main pillars of modern democracy - "all men are created equal" - and you applaud.

Next thing he'll tell us that we have to exterminate "stupid" people in the best case before they have been born because it's all nature and not nurture.

When you take a look at the map you only can think: This can't be all of it. Some areas have no high speed rail at all and the areas that have are often isolated from each other.

In Germany we have high speed rail all over the place, in France it's similar. It has been there for years. Japan is best at building high speed railway systems.

Yeah, now they're buried somewhere in advanced features or the invisibly being used. In the same amount of time they probably would have created some real product by now. Huge corporations stifle innovation.

Of course but with Powerset it's way to early. It's as if YouTube would have been sold before they actually have published the first video. Most startups sell too early. Also selling in a bad economy means a much lower price as well.

Powerset would have been 10 times as much in 2 years or even 100 times.

I see that happening all over the place. projects sold before they reach critical mass or long before have reached their peek. In most cases the lose steam afterwards.

This is a follow up on this submission:

"Teenager invents solar panel made from human hair (dailymail.co.uk)"

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=813103

Yes, it's a hoax. See here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=817099

Yeah. Read here as well:

http://community.discovery.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9701967776...

The Museum of Hoaxes is lagging a little:

http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/weblog/permalink/solar_pa...

Microsoft bought Powerset to waste it. It's such a shame. Without them the Powerset team probably would have a fully functional search engine by now.

This is what I don't understand about promising startups: How can you throw away your product like that?

"the studies found that children using the software scored no better than peers who did not have access to the software"

Yeah, but at least they know how to use computers while those without OLPCs do not.

I didn't even notice there is one. Why is it that there are almost no submissions from the blog to HN?

While this is an interesting read one thing will never happen:

"3D virtual reality meetings will all but eliminate business travel."

As some people only trust you when they actually meet you in person.

They did not cause it they contributed to it as the original source says:

"This paper assesses the extent to which the construction of new limited access highways has contributed to central city population decline."

There were many factors involved in suburbanization. Emergence of a new middle class, white flight, proliferation of cars (thus highways have been built) to name just a few.

"Taser International" "pain and suffering"? Sorry, but this article sounds like satire.

"Data source: manufacturer"

Also the models seem pretty old. I'm from Europe so I guess some of them are US only but not all.

While this advice is mostly true you can't split it up in days. You have to do most of this at once from the start.

I wrote this comment while not working on my projects.

Basically I made a career out of the stuff I do while not working on my projects. I did SEO for a while but I preferred to do blogging and social media in the meantime and now I do far more of it officially.

Exactly, that's why they had to act on Text Link Ads both the paid links and the company. Many web publishers used that instead of Google Ads.

This issue has been resolved years ago. Google even has a report paid links form in the Webmasters Tools. High profile sites get their PageRank and authority diminished whenever paid links get discovered.

Most reputable SEO firms refrain from paid links nowadays and rather focus on "killer content" creation to get links naturally.