Science provides all the morals you need. The golden rule for instance as the most stable (for a species) paradigm. I hope you did not think that Jesus invented it or even stated it for the fist time. From it follows "do not kill" (unless for food), do not destroy the natural world, promote biological diversity, create sustainable socio-economic system est.
My personal altruism (which is said by the people around me to be global) is a DIRECT result of me realizing the realities of Life, Universe and Everything through Science. And some people tell me that as an atheist I have no moral compass? Really? I yet have to see a group of religious people that measures as high in moral as my beloved, non-religious relatives and friends. On the contrary - I never fully trust religious people because their allegiance lies to a lie, not to reality and the other fellows human beings. Religious folks will happily treat you inhumane if it advances their "saving the soul" quest. History, anyone?
Another thing - it is said that Science does not answer fundamental questions. Which ones exactly? Why are we here? - because matter organizes itself under specific conditions in line with the laws of Nature. Yes, the path from hydrogen to living organisms is long and fascinating but we already have pretty good idea what happened. Why do we die? - the easiest one. The Universe changes. Living organism that do not die, do not change and will become extinct. Why do we spend the intermediate time wearing digital watches? - I'll let you answer that one yourself:)
And since we are on DNA wave - do you remember who was against the building of "Deep thought"? The theologians and the philosophers! - "What is the meaning of us arguing if there is (or not) God if that machine gives us His telephone number in the morning?"
And so on...sure to some question we can only give probable answers (actually if you are pedantic every answer is a probability, absolute certainty does not exists) but a probable answer is MUCH better than fictional one.
Hey, how did he arrive at that number? Just sounds good? Maybe. The only significant 42 connected to our planet that I could find is the time [in minutes; and the number not exactly 42] needed to travel through Earth if there was a vacuum tube going through the center and you rely only on gravity to travel. Also, due to the nature of gravity any other tunnel that is not through the center will take the same travel time (again, not aided by any engine).
Though I agree that he seems to have achieved a lot, I wouldn't call him genius. The effects of terrorist attacks on a bloated, paranoid authority are known since hundreds of years - look at the story of the word "assassin" and what happened with the Persian authorities at the time.
When I was reading about gorilla/terrorist warfare I was really, really puzzled. If I , the common citizen, can get this info and reason out that the worst possible response to terrorist warfare is actually attacking another country, followed by ever increased paranoia, surveillance and arresting people left and right in yours, what about the professionals?!? Who advised the USA to do exactly the opposite of what every military expert/historian will tell you should be done if you are faced with this kind of warfare? That is the thing I want to understand. Why the reaction was so poor, so counterproductive. Incompetence - I don't believe it! Ignorance - impossible! So why?
I thought the matter is settled already - trying to find "gene for violence" is futile and dangerous. One of the cited studies found some such gene, but if the individual was not raised in harsh environment it did not turn on [and that group actually scored lower than "normal" on violence in such cases] but in the opposite case the gene was turned on. Also - if you don't have that gene and are abused you will also likely become violent.
So what do we have here? If you carry that gene you are more sensitive than others to violence against you. You run higher risk than others to become violent yourself if exposed to abuse. Such individuals then would require a tad more consideration rather than being already stigmatized as "potential troublemaker". See how this research will do the opposite of what they supposedly intent? See the pavement on the road to Hell? Yhea, me too...
Often the self-interest aligns with the interest of the group. No human can survive on its own (OK, perhaps a few dozens can, but that is in the noise).
The technological advancements only make it more so. Today, to exaggerate a bit, the action of anyone affect everyone.
At the end, it is in your best interest to act according to the golden rule. The most selfish thing to do - be an altruist!
I could not find the story on Wikipedia, but the introduction of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterline] was held back for quite a while due to business interests. The death toll at sea was unbelievable at the time and more often than not it was due to capsizing because of overload (reducing severely the reserve float ability). I remember reading that the special Loyds register of missing vessels used to be filled in years (rather large and thick book) whereas the last one is still in use for decades.
Sure thing technology helps reducing the number of disasters, but the real reason is that we as society has made it expensive to waste human lives. And - what a depressing thought - artificially expensive. Otherwise, based on supply and demand, human life is the cheapest commodity on the planet. If, like in those previous times I mention, life is not that expensive, business would happily waste it for profit. We still do it in more lucrative cases than shipping. War.
- Anybody around here familiar with something called "humor"?
- Is it like wit?
P.S. Bonus internet points if you get the reference, the joke and the relevance to this discussion, which so far is a brawl between Brits, Americans, French and Dutch.
BTW, this study is weird. Warm greetings from the oldest country in Europe that still exists under its original name despite many years of struggle and occupation - Bulgaria;) 681 AD, and that was the year of signing some piece contract with the East Roman empire; in fact, we were there before that...however, if the person who made this calculation can explain to me why Hungary is listed as 1000 years old and Bulgaria as 100...if he took the Ottoman occupation into consideration, then the Hungarians were also occupied....
Indeed! Best illustrated by the movie that opened the western audience to Akira Kurosawa - "Rashomon"
Check it out, it's worth it! The whole plot is people giving account to some events (even the dead one testifies via a medium) and at the end we see what really happened..
There is no resistance but the mass of the ship and the cargo will increase with the speed. Thus, if you had to spend, say, Z amount of joules to achieve 1g acceleration at low (compared to c) speeds, you woudl need many more joules to sustain the 1g acceleration the closer you are to c.
You completely ruined your post with the second sentence. With it, you revolted 95% of the human race..."for everyone", not just for numero uno - u commie or something, buddy?
Global empathy and altruism are such a rare comodity....although paradoxically, if one realises how connected our lives are today, that the whole world is really, fianlly, one big village then the global empathy just follows! Yesterday it was your family, group or country - it did not matter what the Chinesse emperror did to the peasant in Europe. Today it matters, so we just need to expand those nice human qualities we reserve for family and people who really influence our lives, to the whole of humanity. So simple...
"National Socialist in German traditionally abbreviates to Nazi"
You sure? It sounds logical but a few months ago I read in an etymological book that "Nazi" is the traditional fictional character of the stupid, ignorant, rural type of person that every country has. "Ivan the fool" in Russia for instance. Now the Germans already have "Hans/Kurt the fool" - many folk stories feature the character. Nazi was a subset an referred to such a person specifically (if memory serves) from Bavaria.
In fact if you called the Nazis "Nazis", you would have been in trouble - this was a name intended to point out the low quality of their electorate and the basic, vulgar, ultra-patriotic party rhetoric.
In the present day politics I find the most similarities with the Nazis on the right side. Appealing to basic instincts, ultra-patriots, gay-hating, women-degenerating, liberal-haters, minority-haters, xenophobes....
When the going gets difficult, it is not a time for nonsense. That is not surprising at all.
From "Plato and platypus walk into a bar" - One day a man fell into a well. While falling he managed to grasp a root and hanged precariously over the abyss. "Is there anybody out there" - shouts the man desperately. No reply for a while and suddenly a big voice booms from above "It is me, the Lord. Let go of the root and I will save you". The man thinks a little and shouts "Is there anyone else out there?".
From "Miracle in the Andes" (the famous true story, also shown in the movie "Alive") - in the beginning of the ordeal, the captain of the team (one of the most devoted believers, although all of them were in principle believers, or they were supposed to be) shows real leadership and courage. However, he firmly believes that God will save them and does with such conviction that once they hear on the radio that the search for them is cancelled suddenly the man collapsed completely. 3 people from the team are described as being shaky in their believes. One dies (fascinating conversations with this man can be found in the book) and the other two (one is the author of the book, Nando Parado) save them all. The two least believers did not loose the desire to try something and at the end they found a way to save them all. Read the whole thing - I am not good enough to describe it to you.
Third example - there is a countryman of mine, who is almost 40 years in the space and aviation industry of USA. He has a collection of 200+ stories on social , economic and military themes he experienced (just a few) or collected (the rest) from other people. Alas, all is in my native tongue which is perhaps understood by ca. 100/. readers at best. Anyhow, he has a fascinating story about a Vietnam veteran who was serving on a medical helicopter. When he was recruited for this specific job towards the end of the training, the major who was looking for people to do this job told him that he always looked for cynical, realistic people, preferably non-believers. Everyone else cracks on the job. Because it is such a horrific a job and more dangerous than being active soldier people who held any kind of delusions would not survive it. Reading the rest of the story shows that the recruiting major has nailed it in the center...
Which will bite them in the ass so badly, it will hurt their ancestors:)
Because, you see, all I hear is "stream, stream, stream, cloud, cloud, cloud". If the content providers want my money they'll have to figure out that my monthly cap on my phone is 250 MB which is 1/4 of a movie, if you go HD even less. So, no streaming on my device. I don't even watch youtube there....
What do you think - who makes more money (therefore hold much larger political power) - the pipe-provider or the content-provider?
Some businesses might be, but the people are not. In the US I had to constantly convert for the Americans, they'd ask for it. I, the European was the bilingual in fact...
Or that every land animal has the same pipe for breathing and eating - clearly a sloppy design which somehow can be found all the way back to the first creature that crawled on land....
Without any research (how/. like:) I'll make a statement - I cannot imagine medical condition where you have to turn vegan. On the contrary - IMO, the vegans are 99% politically/ideologically motivated and in fact such diet might harm you...
I am so "green" that grass gets blue of envy but I never agree with 1. let's all go vegan, 2. let's all eat insects and 3. never even say the word "nuclear" girls andd boys. Such people are not green; they only think they are.
Look, if we preserve the way we do things as civilization, there is never going to be enough. Of anything. Ever.
At this moment there is enough food to feed well the whole humanity. Period. At this moment if we stop our Ponzi scheme of a civilization and continue to develop technology while the need for ever increasing number of people and consumption per person is gone we will have ever more per person. Do you hear me? Finite demand in infinite Universe - is that so hard to understand?
Why is everyone hailing the "green revolution"? What did it do to us? Allowed us what, 2 decades of "phew, we fed the world" warm feeling? While replacing food with tasteless accelerated growth watery fodder! You know, people pay premium prices for "biological food", but in fact this is food. Not biological , just food. The other stuff is different - processed food. This should be the division - food and process food, rather than food and biological food.
Without going into discussion why and what , here is a statement for you - the green revolution did not "save people from starvation" Those people where already there. Understand! Noone started developing the revolution in anticipation of an increasing population. The increased population was already there. It existed, therefore it had food to eat. Instead the green revolution increased the yield so we can throw the food in the sea to keep the price "right". The revolution helped very little (if at all) the actual people that were lived with malnutrition.
So now we will eat the bugs. Then the fungi and the rest of the microorganisms. And then what? "Low environmental impact"? Are you kidding me? So 1 billion people eating beef or 3 billion eating insects - what is the difference. As I said it many years ago here - there is no "low environmental impact" as long as the Ponzi scheme works. More efficient engines - cars get cheaper - people buy more cars. Better plane engines - cheaper prices - people fly more. And so on...ad infinitum.
We are trying to cheat reality! It won't work!! It never does!!! Why nobody hears?! The whole issue is as usual heavily distorted by political and business interests. Why am I surprised...
Yes. This is also included in the 2000% efficiency.
Home schooling is a nice option but it's being used primarily to keep kids dumb, by avoiding "evil science". On the other hand, there are the occasional cases where the kid is bright and bored in class and if mom and dad are PhD',s or least as bright as Feynman's father, they could give better schooling. However, considering the frequency of the above two cases, and the many extra requirements for the successful application of the second (educated, willing parents with free time - is there such a beast in the world) for the good of society, better not have home schooling. Pity that the minority suffers due to the stupidity of the majority but that seems to be the way of the world.
The long maternity leave is....too short. The best I've seen is my country during the totalitarian years - 2 years full pay with reintegration program (if needed). My mom starter working at 19, after secondary school. Gave birth at 27, stayed with me for the full 2 years, did not need reintegration program and then went to become HRM in a company of 4000 people and for most of our lives brought home more money than dad, who was a construction worker.
I was laughing my head off (because the communist got at least one thing very right; there were precious few such achievements like education), after hearing from the Zeitgeist guys (the latest movie) that pregnancy is in fact 3 years, of which 2 years outside the womb, since we could not have the full development inside - the head would be too big to pass. So the first two years of a child's life are enormously important. Many a study have shown that the most crucial aspect is the simple touch between parents and kids, the physical and emotional presence of parents in child's life. Oh, but mom and dad cannot hold you, honey, they have to work, otherwise the economy will collapse! You know, today, when we have so much power and knowledge, when our civilization does not know what to do with unemployment, when we have people who could buy a country, we still cannot somehow manage to ensure healthy environment to raise our kids. Can you put monetary value to properly raised kid? How much money would be SAVED by society by providing good conditions for raising kids? Kids that would be healthier, happier, more productive, more creative and more humane (less crime, then).
Why it is that every time the moron politicians of the world reach for the cutting budget scissors they cut education, healthcare and social programs? Exactly the most important things needed for healthy society and the proper rearing of kids. Why is nobody thinking rationally and working a good compromise based on science?
My goverment takes 45% of my wages in taxes and I still can support whole family with one job + supproting old mother (widow) in former communist state. That is how we do things in Europe...
[wild sci-fi speculation]: imagine that it is possible to "tweak" the Universe through some amazingly advanced technology. You have a goal - to give maximum time for all beings in the Universe.
How does "dark matter" fit (if at all) in such scenario? Without it, would the Universe live longer or not? What is the current leading candidate for the cause of death of the Universe? If you had godlike powers, how would you tweak it to achieve the goal?
Anyone care to engage in wild (but very educated) speculation? My knowledge in this area is meager, so I won't even try...
Slashdot Mirror
The dark ages are due to the Catholic church. There was nothing "dark" in the East of Europe after the fall of Rome. We did great in fact...
What a load of Dingo's kidneys!
Science provides all the morals you need. The golden rule for instance as the most stable (for a species) paradigm. I hope you did not think that Jesus invented it or even stated it for the fist time. From it follows "do not kill" (unless for food), do not destroy the natural world, promote biological diversity, create sustainable socio-economic system est.
My personal altruism (which is said by the people around me to be global) is a DIRECT result of me realizing the realities of Life, Universe and Everything through Science. And some people tell me that as an atheist I have no moral compass? Really? I yet have to see a group of religious people that measures as high in moral as my beloved, non-religious relatives and friends. On the contrary - I never fully trust religious people because their allegiance lies to a lie, not to reality and the other fellows human beings. Religious folks will happily treat you inhumane if it advances their "saving the soul" quest. History, anyone?
Another thing - it is said that Science does not answer fundamental questions. Which ones exactly? :)
Why are we here? - because matter organizes itself under specific conditions in line with the laws of Nature. Yes, the path from hydrogen to living organisms is long and fascinating but we already have pretty good idea what happened.
Why do we die? - the easiest one. The Universe changes. Living organism that do not die, do not change and will become extinct.
Why do we spend the intermediate time wearing digital watches? - I'll let you answer that one yourself
And since we are on DNA wave - do you remember who was against the building of "Deep thought"? The theologians and the philosophers!
- "What is the meaning of us arguing if there is (or not) God if that machine gives us His telephone number in the morning?"
And so on...sure to some question we can only give probable answers (actually if you are pedantic every answer is a probability, absolute certainty does not exists) but a probable answer is MUCH better than fictional one.
Hey, how did he arrive at that number? Just sounds good? Maybe. The only significant 42 connected to our planet that I could find is the time [in minutes; and the number not exactly 42] needed to travel through Earth if there was a vacuum tube going through the center and you rely only on gravity to travel. Also, due to the nature of gravity any other tunnel that is not through the center will take the same travel time (again, not aided by any engine).
Though I agree that he seems to have achieved a lot, I wouldn't call him genius. The effects of terrorist attacks on a bloated, paranoid authority are known since hundreds of years - look at the story of the word "assassin" and what happened with the Persian authorities at the time.
When I was reading about gorilla/terrorist warfare I was really, really puzzled. If I , the common citizen, can get this info and reason out that the worst possible response to terrorist warfare is actually attacking another country, followed by ever increased paranoia, surveillance and arresting people left and right in yours, what about the professionals?!? Who advised the USA to do exactly the opposite of what every military expert/historian will tell you should be done if you are faced with this kind of warfare? That is the thing I want to understand. Why the reaction was so poor, so counterproductive. Incompetence - I don't believe it! Ignorance - impossible! So why?
No.
Signed:
Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper
According to YouTube 21 M people have already seen this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w [Zeitgeist 2011].
I thought the matter is settled already - trying to find "gene for violence" is futile and dangerous. One of the cited studies found some such gene, but if the individual was not raised in harsh environment it did not turn on [and that group actually scored lower than "normal" on violence in such cases] but in the opposite case the gene was turned on. Also - if you don't have that gene and are abused you will also likely become violent.
So what do we have here? If you carry that gene you are more sensitive than others to violence against you. You run higher risk than others to become violent yourself if exposed to abuse. Such individuals then would require a tad more consideration rather than being already stigmatized as "potential troublemaker". See how this research will do the opposite of what they supposedly intent? See the pavement on the road to Hell? Yhea, me too...
Often the self-interest aligns with the interest of the group. No human can survive on its own (OK, perhaps a few dozens can, but that is in the noise).
The technological advancements only make it more so. Today, to exaggerate a bit, the action of anyone affect everyone.
At the end, it is in your best interest to act according to the golden rule. The most selfish thing to do - be an altruist!
I could not find the story on Wikipedia, but the introduction of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterline] was held back for quite a while due to business interests. The death toll at sea was unbelievable at the time and more often than not it was due to capsizing because of overload (reducing severely the reserve float ability). I remember reading that the special Loyds register of missing vessels used to be filled in years (rather large and thick book) whereas the last one is still in use for decades.
Sure thing technology helps reducing the number of disasters, but the real reason is that we as society has made it expensive to waste human lives. And - what a depressing thought - artificially expensive. Otherwise, based on supply and demand, human life is the cheapest commodity on the planet. If, like in those previous times I mention, life is not that expensive, business would happily waste it for profit. We still do it in more lucrative cases than shipping. War.
- Anybody around here familiar with something called "humor"?
- Is it like wit?
P.S. Bonus internet points if you get the reference, the joke and the relevance to this discussion, which so far is a brawl between Brits, Americans, French and Dutch.
BTW, this study is weird. Warm greetings from the oldest country in Europe that still exists under its original name despite many years of struggle and occupation - Bulgaria ;) 681 AD, and that was the year of signing some piece contract with the East Roman empire; in fact, we were there before that...however, if the person who made this calculation can explain to me why Hungary is listed as 1000 years old and Bulgaria as 100...if he took the Ottoman occupation into consideration, then the Hungarians were also occupied....
Indeed! Best illustrated by the movie that opened the western audience to Akira Kurosawa - "Rashomon"
Check it out, it's worth it! The whole plot is people giving account to some events (even the dead one testifies via a medium) and at the end we see what really happened..
Do you compare the bills you both have to pay?
Cause, you know, in my homeland in Eastern Europe I can get along nicely with 1/5 of a German salary....
How did you see it? I though the light from the phone would be lost in all the lens flare....(sorry, could not resist)
There is no resistance but the mass of the ship and the cargo will increase with the speed. Thus, if you had to spend, say, Z amount of joules to achieve 1g acceleration at low (compared to c) speeds, you woudl need many more joules to sustain the 1g acceleration the closer you are to c.
You completely ruined your post with the second sentence. With it, you revolted 95% of the human race..."for everyone", not just for numero uno - u commie or something, buddy?
Global empathy and altruism are such a rare comodity....although paradoxically, if one realises how connected our lives are today, that the whole world is really, fianlly, one big village then the global empathy just follows! Yesterday it was your family, group or country - it did not matter what the Chinesse emperror did to the peasant in Europe. Today it matters, so we just need to expand those nice human qualities we reserve for family and people who really influence our lives, to the whole of humanity. So simple...
"National Socialist in German traditionally abbreviates to Nazi"
You sure? It sounds logical but a few months ago I read in an etymological book that "Nazi" is the traditional fictional character of the stupid, ignorant, rural type of person that every country has. "Ivan the fool" in Russia for instance. Now the Germans already have "Hans/Kurt the fool" - many folk stories feature the character. Nazi was a subset an referred to such a person specifically (if memory serves) from Bavaria.
In fact if you called the Nazis "Nazis", you would have been in trouble - this was a name intended to point out the low quality of their electorate and the basic, vulgar, ultra-patriotic party rhetoric.
In the present day politics I find the most similarities with the Nazis on the right side. Appealing to basic instincts, ultra-patriots, gay-hating, women-degenerating, liberal-haters, minority-haters, xenophobes....
When the going gets difficult, it is not a time for nonsense. That is not surprising at all.
From "Plato and platypus walk into a bar" - One day a man fell into a well. While falling he managed to grasp a root and hanged precariously over the abyss. "Is there anybody out there" - shouts the man desperately. No reply for a while and suddenly a big voice booms from above "It is me, the Lord. Let go of the root and I will save you". The man thinks a little and shouts "Is there anyone else out there?".
From "Miracle in the Andes" (the famous true story, also shown in the movie "Alive") - in the beginning of the ordeal, the captain of the team (one of the most devoted believers, although all of them were in principle believers, or they were supposed to be) shows real leadership and courage. However, he firmly believes that God will save them and does with such conviction that once they hear on the radio that the search for them is cancelled suddenly the man collapsed completely. 3 people from the team are described as being shaky in their believes. One dies (fascinating conversations with this man can be found in the book) and the other two (one is the author of the book, Nando Parado) save them all. The two least believers did not loose the desire to try something and at the end they found a way to save them all. Read the whole thing - I am not good enough to describe it to you.
Third example - there is a countryman of mine, who is almost 40 years in the space and aviation industry of USA. He has a collection of 200+ stories on social , economic and military themes he experienced (just a few) or collected (the rest) from other people. Alas, all is in my native tongue which is perhaps understood by ca. 100 /. readers at best. Anyhow, he has a fascinating story about a Vietnam veteran who was serving on a medical helicopter. When he was recruited for this specific job towards the end of the training, the major who was looking for people to do this job told him that he always looked for cynical, realistic people, preferably non-believers. Everyone else cracks on the job. Because it is such a horrific a job and more dangerous than being active soldier people who held any kind of delusions would not survive it. Reading the rest of the story shows that the recruiting major has nailed it in the center...
Which will bite them in the ass so badly, it will hurt their ancestors:)
Because, you see, all I hear is "stream, stream, stream, cloud, cloud, cloud". If the content providers want my money they'll have to figure out that my monthly cap on my phone is 250 MB which is 1/4 of a movie, if you go HD even less. So, no streaming on my device. I don't even watch youtube there....
What do you think - who makes more money (therefore hold much larger political power) - the pipe-provider or the content-provider?
A Golem May Not Harm A Human Being Or Allow A Human Being To Come To Harm Except When Ordered To By Duly Constituted Authority
Some businesses might be, but the people are not. In the US I had to constantly convert for the Americans, they'd ask for it. I, the European was the bilingual in fact...
Or that every land animal has the same pipe for breathing and eating - clearly a sloppy design which somehow can be found all the way back to the first creature that crawled on land....
Without any research (how /. like:) I'll make a statement - I cannot imagine medical condition where you have to turn vegan. On the contrary - IMO, the vegans are 99% politically/ideologically motivated and in fact such diet might harm you...
I am so "green" that grass gets blue of envy but I never agree with 1. let's all go vegan, 2. let's all eat insects and 3. never even say the word "nuclear" girls andd boys. Such people are not green; they only think they are.
I have just had enough of all this!!!
Look, if we preserve the way we do things as civilization, there is never going to be enough. Of anything. Ever.
At this moment there is enough food to feed well the whole humanity. Period.
At this moment if we stop our Ponzi scheme of a civilization and continue to develop technology while the need for ever increasing number of people and consumption per person is gone we will have ever more per person. Do you hear me? Finite demand in infinite Universe - is that so hard to understand?
Why is everyone hailing the "green revolution"? What did it do to us? Allowed us what, 2 decades of "phew, we fed the world" warm feeling? While replacing food with tasteless accelerated growth watery fodder! You know, people pay premium prices for "biological food", but in fact this is food. Not biological , just food. The other stuff is different - processed food. This should be the division - food and process food, rather than food and biological food.
Without going into discussion why and what , here is a statement for you - the green revolution did not "save people from starvation" Those people where already there. Understand! Noone started developing the revolution in anticipation of an increasing population. The increased population was already there. It existed, therefore it had food to eat. Instead the green revolution increased the yield so we can throw the food in the sea to keep the price "right". The revolution helped very little (if at all) the actual people that were lived with malnutrition.
So now we will eat the bugs. Then the fungi and the rest of the microorganisms. And then what? "Low environmental impact"? Are you kidding me? So 1 billion people eating beef or 3 billion eating insects - what is the difference. As I said it many years ago here - there is no "low environmental impact" as long as the Ponzi scheme works. More efficient engines - cars get cheaper - people buy more cars. Better plane engines - cheaper prices - people fly more. And so on...ad infinitum.
We are trying to cheat reality! It won't work!! It never does!!! Why nobody hears?! The whole issue is as usual heavily distorted by political and business interests. Why am I surprised...
Yes. This is also included in the 2000% efficiency.
Home schooling is a nice option but it's being used primarily to keep kids dumb, by avoiding "evil science". On the other hand, there are the occasional cases where the kid is bright and bored in class and if mom and dad are PhD',s or least as bright as Feynman's father, they could give better schooling. However, considering the frequency of the above two cases, and the many extra requirements for the successful application of the second (educated, willing parents with free time - is there such a beast in the world) for the good of society, better not have home schooling. Pity that the minority suffers due to the stupidity of the majority but that seems to be the way of the world.
The long maternity leave is....too short. The best I've seen is my country during the totalitarian years - 2 years full pay with reintegration program (if needed). My mom starter working at 19, after secondary school. Gave birth at 27, stayed with me for the full 2 years, did not need reintegration program and then went to become HRM in a company of 4000 people and for most of our lives brought home more money than dad, who was a construction worker.
I was laughing my head off (because the communist got at least one thing very right; there were precious few such achievements like education), after hearing from the Zeitgeist guys (the latest movie) that pregnancy is in fact 3 years, of which 2 years outside the womb, since we could not have the full development inside - the head would be too big to pass. So the first two years of a child's life are enormously important. Many a study have shown that the most crucial aspect is the simple touch between parents and kids, the physical and emotional presence of parents in child's life. Oh, but mom and dad cannot hold you, honey, they have to work, otherwise the economy will collapse! You know, today, when we have so much power and knowledge, when our civilization does not know what to do with unemployment, when we have people who could buy a country, we still cannot somehow manage to ensure healthy environment to raise our kids. Can you put monetary value to properly raised kid? How much money would be SAVED by society by providing good conditions for raising kids? Kids that would be healthier, happier, more productive, more creative and more humane (less crime, then).
Why it is that every time the moron politicians of the world reach for the cutting budget scissors they cut education, healthcare and social programs? Exactly the most important things needed for healthy society and the proper rearing of kids. Why is nobody thinking rationally and working a good compromise based on science?
My goverment takes 45% of my wages in taxes and I still can support whole family with one job + supproting old mother (widow) in former communist state. That is how we do things in Europe...
[wild sci-fi speculation]: imagine that it is possible to "tweak" the Universe through some amazingly advanced technology. You have a goal - to give maximum time for all beings in the Universe.
How does "dark matter" fit (if at all) in such scenario? Without it, would the Universe live longer or not? What is the current leading candidate for the cause of death of the Universe? If you had godlike powers, how would you tweak it to achieve the goal?
Anyone care to engage in wild (but very educated) speculation? My knowledge in this area is meager, so I won't even try...