Math Models Predicted Global Uprisings

retroworks writes "Just over a year ago, complex systems theorists at the New England Complex Systems Institute warned that if food prices continued to climb, so too would the likelihood that there would be riots across the globe. Sure enough, we're seeing them now. The paper's author, Yaneer Bar-Yam, charted the rise in the FAO food price index—a measure the UN uses to map the cost of food over time—and found that whenever it rose above 210, riots broke out worldwide. It happened in 2008 after the economic collapse, and again in 2011, when a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest."

Comments

Re:Meanwhile in Finland....

[Viol8]

"a Tunisian street vendor who could no longer feed his family set himself on fire in protest."

Well, it was also the constant harassment from officials too according to wonkypedia.

However I have limited sympathy with a certain type of person who you see on TV bleating that they can't feed their 5 or 10 kids. Perhaps if they'd invested some money in contraception or maybe just kept their pants on occasionally they wouldn't be in this situation. Unfortunately reproduction ability isn't governed by IQ - if it was there wouldn't be over 7 billion and counting on this planet already.

Populations go up...

[Viol8]

... food availability goes down for the same amount of farmland.

Sure , we could chop down all the forests and bulldoze all the other wild habitats to use more of it for agriculture , or ... people could use contraception or keep their fscking pants on now and then. If I see one more sob story of some halfwit who can't feed their ten kids....

Re:Populations go up...

[silentcoder]

Coming from a country where it's a political hot potato to have insurance cover birth control but not viagra... I find your comment incredibly stupid.

Re:Populations go up...

[Viol8]

"polyamorous and bisexual"

In other words you're a cheating gay man in denial - plenty of gay men get married and have kids and plenty of men like to dress up their cheating as some kind of acceptable lifestyle. Even Elton John was married to a woman once btw.

"Yes, actually, but it happens to be one I have a university degree in"

Sadly it doesn't seem to help your clarity. Please explain exactly which part of "Coming from a country where it's a political hot potato to have insurance cover birth control but not viagra" translates to "birth control should be readily available". Or perhaps you just use google translate for everything?

"To paraphrase G.B. Shaw"

Ah yes, quote or paraphrase some well known cliche - the last resort of those who can't think up their own counter arguments.

"says it's for smart-asses"

Actually the plural is spelt "ass's" Mr English Degree.

"you are a judgmental moralist who blame the oppressed for their own oppression"

Its only people who have no morals who *don't* judge others. And the only people oppressing those who have more kids than they can support is themselves. But I guess language degrees don't require the comprehension of simple logic.

Re:Hindsight?

[Chrisq]

Racists much?

What race is Islam?

Currently there are massive riots in The Ukraine, Venezuela, Thailand; signs of growing civil unrest in central Europe - reports of riots in Brazil; All countries of course known for their muslim leadership...

You might like to compare the reasons fro rioting with those that cause muzzies to riot

Re:Callous knobhead

[qbast]

How about ... not ? I can manage some empathy for people starving without their fault (for example war refugees). I will spare none for idiots who breed like rabbits and expect others to feed their spawn.

Re:Just as much

[benjfowler]

Heh, the liberals who cry "Islamophobia" at the drop of a hat, are the same people that Lenin once called "useful idiots".

"Anti-racists" are useful idiots for extreme-right Islamists who want to subdue and rape the world.