Re:Errors are universal, humour is cultural
on
The Science of Humor
·
· Score: 1
There are a couple of books describing philosophical propositions and ideas through jokes ("Plato and Platypus walk into a bar" was the first volume). The authors claim that the jokes on which most of us would laugh despite our cultural background are usually rooted in a philosophical idea which is universal. Like the following one which discusses argument of numbers and argument of authority:
4 rabbi were in the habit of arguing religion and it so happened that one was always taking the opposite position of the others and thus always looses. One day however, he felt he was really right. They were walking under clear skies and the loser dropped to his knees and asked God for a sigh for he really felt he was right. At that moment a black cloud formed from nowhere lingered for a while and disappeared. The other rabbi are not impressed and argued that this might not be a sigh. The fourth drops to his knees again and this time four clouds gather and a lightning strikes. Again , no-one is convinced. Before the outraged rabbi drops to his knees for third time the whole sky turns black and huge voice booms "His is Right!". The fourth rabbi looks triumphal - "I told you so". "So what, reply the others - it's 3 to 2 - you lose!"
Have you ever played heavily modded Rome total war, Civilization 4, Morrowind or Oblivion? I just started new Oblivion game because I've missed a couple of mods that made it to the hall of fame. The added content is larger than the original game (hell, add the 10 most popular mods and you will triple it)! How old is Morrowind? Why are people still making mods for it?
Add to the above the GTA franchise and you have entertainment for ten bloody years (working, family man here, no kids but still...)! In fact I would go so far as to claim that people who play a game for a few weeks only are no real gamers. Add to that - no need to upgrade your rig just to spend 50 hours at best on the latest eye candy. Keep two years behind. Especially now when the PC version is the bastard child of every developer. Oblivion is unplayable on PC before mods. With them it is so ahead of the console version that it is ridiculous...
Steam. One game I have from them - Civilization 5. I hadn't played it for 4 months and tried just yesterday. It did not work, I need to reinstall. Thanks but no thanks. So what about Skyrim? Easy - buy the game in two years. Play the pirated version to avoid steam. If it's impossible well I will live without Skyrim.
I read in this tread something about bitterness of PC gamers towards consoles. Well, how can I be bitter since I have way more superior experience than a console player (let's not go again into controller vs. mouse discussion. I have a console too for the sole purpose to support the Logitech G25 racing wheel - the only console controller I ever use) ? What I am is sad, because the game developers just followed everyone else on the throw-away bandwagon that is sooo heading for a huge crash on civilization level. And anyway, those of us that are old enough to remember different - well, we think about the status of our pension funds already. I don't need to play to survive or even to have fun and I have money to give to those that respect me as a customer. If no-one respects me - tough but I will live without those particular content creators...
Mark my words - the world will never recover from the last crisis. The West for sure (we were sold wholesale by "our" businessmen and politicians). People who can fork 60 euros for merely 60 hours of "fun" will become ever scarce. What the content distributors and creators are doing right now is suicidal (not only games, but you already know this if you read/.).
when the Pakistani guy was selling the technology he stole from the Netherlands left, right and center?
According to a BBC documentary I saw a few years back there were at least 4 cases where the CIA asked to "deal with him" and was forbidden because at the time the US wanted to empower Pakistan against India which has become “dangerously socialist”.
So, under the approving eye of the west the dear doctor did sales pitches in Libya, Iran, Iraq, Syria and god knows where else. For more than a decade. Well done!
To summarize:
1. The nuclear powers have no moral right to deny development of nuclear weapons to any nation, especially since the most prominent member of the club is the only one that actually used them against civilians. 2. Fight the “red menace” by funding and training religious fanatics, allow them to build the bomb and then come back to squash them later. Win-win! 3. Lie your pants off in case they did not actually manage to build the bomb. 4. Invade 5. Profit
Folks, honestly I am totally disappointed by the reactions to the OWS. Why, oh why the vast majority of common people, who are also victims of the perverse financial system (hell, I am too - when those assess on WS screw up the whole world suffers) find the most stupid, misinformed or downright idiotic reasons to blame the protesters. You are being pounded in the ass and you say "thank you, I want some more". Un-fucking-believable!!
Listen, I am serious, you have surpassed the fucking communists!! You are well ahead of them. I was camping for month in front of our Parliament a month after the Berlin wall collapsed, when all the totalitarian assess were still in full control of the system and they did not harass us on a daily basis. They did not manage to buy all of the media and turn the rest of the population against us. They actually fell because of the protest and because of a recording by a journalist (do you hear that western journalists?) showing them discussing whether to send military force against the protesters or not (on top of that the generals told them to fuck off anyway)!
I am disgust by all this! Mod me into oblivion (my character is doing well anyway, 22 level battle mage), but I will shout now - SHAME ON YOU, SHEEP!
First rule of the world - stupid motherfucker with power is less dangerous than intelligent and cunning motherfucker with power.
I concur with you (but you still got negative modpoints, that's strange...)
Re:WTF does that have to do with IQ?
on
2011 Geek IQ Test
·
· Score: 1
Actually I reasoned few of the correct answers by elimination (the GUID one for instance), so I got a bit of pleasure from the test. Overall score not impressive, of course, I am lame Windows user. One of the older quizzes (2008 or 2009, can't remember) was pretty interesting though...Also noted that reading/. helped by providing few answers from "popular" subjects like different OS's and their revisions, geek jokes and folklore etc.
Hostile to the present "give us all your data, they are our property forever, we won't even ask when collecting it, we will sell it to the highest bidder" model - yes. Hostile to Social Networks in general - resounding NO! In fact under such conditions I will open social network account which I will never do under the present paradigm.
The device must have Wifi and you make her a/. account. Trying to figure out what the hell is going on here is a challenge for many nerds; it should do for our beloved grannies as well!
One of the hardest things I ever had to do was explaining to my granny the reasons for the existence and more importantly, the meaning, of the film Alien 2 which she dutifully watched with me during family gathering. Since we are talking about farmer-granny, who worked 12-14 hours a day all her life, was young woman during WW2, had black and white TV until the end and lived 90% of her life under communist regime, it was very challenging for both of us!
ShakaUVM says: I don't buy that the stated purpose for the system (independence from the US's military) is very credible, given that the US is, you know, part of NATO and whatnot
Well, you better buy it, because Galileo is an old project which so far was crippled solely due to politics. Already back in the days when http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright was secretary of state she was in Europe trying to stop the project using any pressure available. It was on the news.
Now, let us through away the polit-speak and polit-correctness for a moment and view the situation from purely pragmatic point. OK, ready?
Now, you are an empire. You control most of the world seas, have military bases in more than 100 countries (blatantly breaking even the agreement about Antarctica), your currency is the world currency, your language is lingua franka. Your military is larger than the rest of the world combined. Also, your military doctrine states that any attempt by any nation to diminish your almost complete dominance in space would be considered an act of war. You also do not subscribe to almost any international agreements that can even potentially harm your revenue, cultural, political or military dominance. Add to that the fact that in realpolitik there are no friends as such, only temporary collaborations with others that happen to have the same agenda or are benefiting from yours.
And empires in particular cannot have friends (even if there were friends in politics), only protectorates or enemies. By being so dominant you inadvertently position yourself as the enemy of everyone else. Sooner or later.
Now, last time I said on/. that the you-know-who is an Empire with all that implies, I was modded troll. Now, please do as you please, but try to think about this, read history, read between the lines and above all, find an intelligent military officer that can tell you what exactly they teach them in West Point. Then read history again. And remember - any other nation would behave the in the same way. Just don't fall for the "we are all friends and allies here, hell bent on promoting life, happiness and democracy all over the world"
Half way through your post I though you were going to say it is racist to the monkeys and I was like "Yhea, that's right, actually they are the offended party no matter to which particular human they are compared to"
It wouldn't work. If you think people are that stupid....I mean living this life in this world wouldn't you think after the first address (shameless plagiary from Terry Prattchet) "There is bound to be a HUGE razor-blade in a candyfloss as big as this"?
Robots or humans, no matter. Just stay away from animals.
Now you are thinking "oh no, some crazy environmentalist calling". But no.
My first though after reading the head line was about a hilarious short story from , if I remember correctly, Robert Shakely. We read about the thoughts of an astronaut who's ship is failing and he will soon be burned to crisps. Already at this stage of the story you kind of get puzzled that apparently the people who send this astronaut did not in fact take very good care about his life-support and kind of not really care if he dies. At that moment a huge alien ship appears and the astronaut is saved by the aliens. On board their ship though he goes into great detail telling them what a horrible, irresponsible, warmongering species we are and that if the aliens value their piece and way of life they should destroy us. The aliens are shocked and discus what to do for a long time. At the end they tell him that they cannot destroy us because it is against their principles but since we are such a dangerous species they will make a bomb but the button must be pressed by the astronaut. He agrees gladly. The last paragraph states roughly "They led me to the room with the bomb , showed be the button and I immediately pressed it without hesitation. Soon, the mankind will be no more. That is what you deserve, you arrogant humans, for thinking that just because I am an ape, you can do whatever you please with me"!
So, we should be careful that the first account of our deeds to the aliens is given by a human rather than any other species from Earth, cause we will get the same fate as in the story. I mean, the way we conduct our affairs even the ants probably have a grudge against us....
What we need is "speaker for the dead" as described by Card. I doubt however that we can find someone objective enough and even if we did he/she won't get any publicity.....
I've always wandered about this respect for the dead thing. I used to be ashamed that I couldn't bring myself to cry at funerals. Until I got it. The people who cry do so not for the dead but for themselves! That the beloved one will no longer be around for THEM to enjoy. Whereas I always think for the dead, not me, and the dead need tears add much as amoeba needs iPad...
And I definitely do not agree with "for the dead only good or nothing". BS! First we don't extend the courtesy to all (how much good words you hear about Hitler). Second, if the man was an ass then I will not state otherwise..... damn if I did it for my father (he ruined a lot my family with his drinking) then I will damn well do it for everyone else....
If you are so angry (I supprt your view BTW) let me introduce you to my personal grudge match against the whole western mdical establishment - phage treatment. In this dangerous times of super bugs due to rampant antibiotics use phage treatment should be use every time it works (delivery in the body is the showstopper AFAIK since you cannot use the blood stream ). Research the subject starting with the Horizon episode called "the virus that cures" and prepare to be outraged...
Really? Say that for Chaplin and Kurosawa since you are at it....
Agreed, some of the clasics are not that great but 7 samurai is THE action movie of all time and the Great Dictator is THE movie of all time. The rest of their works is also briliant (Rashomon and Modern Times spring immediately in mind...)
How about a button that turns off the cloud service? I bet there will be no such option.
Hopefully there will be at least one OS out there without this idiotic "feature". It seems with Win 7 MS is getting my euros for the last time. Of course miracles ate possible but I am not holding my breath....
Since a few weeks BBC wolrd news, the European version broadcasts small clip before its economy news called "America's lost decade" where with few graphs the dire straits of the US economy is revealed.
Coincidence? I think not. The plan of OBL worked like a charm, much to my despair.
I have nothing more to elaborate except to urge you to read on the first documented use of terror tactics in 13 century where a group of people managed to defeat mighty empire with 50 murders in 20 years. The rest of the job was done by the empire's rulers. I read it in Mike Green's 33 laws of strategy for instance.
The million (sorry trillion) dollar question is: why the US happily did exactly the opposite of what it should have done. I refuse to believe that the mightiest military in the world does not know strategy 101.
Actually, longer wavelengths are more dangerous for the eyes, because of their longer penetration depth. UV hitting the eye destroys the outermost laying layer that is naturally replaceable. Very painful experience no doubt but in most cases the outcome is positive. Infrared laser, however, will hit the back of the eyeball doing permanent damage.
Disclaimer: this info is from safety regulations and medical advices I received when starting my PhD in a university laser center were we had virtually every type of laser that exists.
Longer wavelengths are more dangerous for eyes because of their greater penetration depth. UV will be absorbed by the outmost laying layer of the eye. Certainly very painful but naturally repairable in most cases. Infrared laser will hit the back of the eyeball and do permanent damage.
think they can join the haves or their actions do not have any meaningful effect. Religion doesn't help either - they are in fact a major amplifier of the civilization's "mosClose to the bottom? I am sorry, this is...retarded. The myth than pre-civilized people lived on the verge of extinction is probably the biggest lie there is. It helps us feel good and righteous when we kill them people and steal their means of sustenance. The type of disastrous events that could wipe out the primitive people would kill us as well. In fact civilization is more vulnerable because it relies on a very complex logistics to operate. Even epidemics will spread quicker and kill much more people percentage wise than before civilization.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying we should go back to tribal life - it is impossible, too many people will have to die. But see what we have created, read the other good posts so I don't repeat it all. Agriculture artificially inflated by spending vast amounts of finite resources (oil), water shortage, fertile land shortage, climate change......
The statement that the way we conduct civilization is the only right way was called by some "the most dangerous idea" and it is only a bit removed from your sentiment that I am disputing. After all, Homo Sapient was living and thriving for 200 000 years before civilization; if it was that bad, how did we survive?! Compare that to 10 000 years of civilization and only less than 400 years after we opened the taps of technological development and we are already worrying (very rightly so) about our survival. Hmm, that is not a CV to shout about from the rooftops, don't you think?
Summary: The human species is very well fit for survival with or without civilization. Very well indeed. The civilization system has achieved its objectives - security in numbers and understanding the consequences of our own actions. The civilization system is now becoming a hindrance and needs to change - it has ran away from us and now we are the slaves of the system rather than the masters. Even our corporate/political/crime overlords are slaves, only the walls of their cells are gold-plated. No one has incentive to change the system - the haves think they are the masters, the have-nots are either dumb, or t dangerous idea".
Now that we have established the framework, perhaps we can discus partial or wholesale solutions. Agreed?
Slashdot Mirror
There are a couple of books describing philosophical propositions and ideas through jokes ("Plato and Platypus walk into a bar" was the first volume). The authors claim that the jokes on which most of us would laugh despite our cultural background are usually rooted in a philosophical idea which is universal. Like the following one which discusses argument of numbers and argument of authority:
4 rabbi were in the habit of arguing religion and it so happened that one was always taking the opposite position of the others and thus always looses. One day however, he felt he was really right. They were walking under clear skies and the loser dropped to his knees and asked God for a sigh for he really felt he was right. At that moment a black cloud formed from nowhere lingered for a while and disappeared. The other rabbi are not impressed and argued that this might not be a sigh. The fourth drops to his knees again and this time four clouds gather and a lightning strikes. Again , no-one is convinced. Before the outraged rabbi drops to his knees for third time the whole sky turns black and huge voice booms "His is Right!". The fourth rabbi looks triumphal - "I told you so". "So what, reply the others - it's 3 to 2 - you lose!"
10 years? Easily....
Have you ever played heavily modded Rome total war, Civilization 4, Morrowind or Oblivion? I just started new Oblivion game because I've missed a couple of mods that made it to the hall of fame. The added content is larger than the original game (hell, add the 10 most popular mods and you will triple it)! How old is Morrowind? Why are people still making mods for it?
Add to the above the GTA franchise and you have entertainment for ten bloody years (working, family man here, no kids but still...)!
In fact I would go so far as to claim that people who play a game for a few weeks only are no real gamers.
Add to that - no need to upgrade your rig just to spend 50 hours at best on the latest eye candy. Keep two years behind. Especially now when the PC version is the bastard child of every developer. Oblivion is unplayable on PC before mods. With them it is so ahead of the console version that it is ridiculous...
Steam. One game I have from them - Civilization 5. I hadn't played it for 4 months and tried just yesterday. It did not work, I need to reinstall. Thanks but no thanks. So what about Skyrim? Easy - buy the game in two years. Play the pirated version to avoid steam. If it's impossible well I will live without Skyrim.
I read in this tread something about bitterness of PC gamers towards consoles. Well, how can I be bitter since I have way more superior experience than a console player (let's not go again into controller vs. mouse discussion. I have a console too for the sole purpose to support the Logitech G25 racing wheel - the only console controller I ever use) ?
What I am is sad, because the game developers just followed everyone else on the throw-away bandwagon that is sooo heading for a huge crash on civilization level. And anyway, those of us that are old enough to remember different - well, we think about the status of our pension funds already. I don't need to play to survive or even to have fun and I have money to give to those that respect me as a customer. If no-one respects me - tough but I will live without those particular content creators...
Mark my words - the world will never recover from the last crisis. The West for sure (we were sold wholesale by "our" businessmen and politicians). People who can fork 60 euros for merely 60 hours of "fun" will become ever scarce. What the content distributors and creators are doing right now is suicidal (not only games, but you already know this if you read /.).
when the Pakistani guy was selling the technology he stole from the Netherlands left, right and center?
According to a BBC documentary I saw a few years back there were at least 4 cases where the CIA asked to "deal with him" and was forbidden because at the time the US wanted to empower Pakistan against India which has become “dangerously socialist”.
So, under the approving eye of the west the dear doctor did sales pitches in Libya, Iran, Iraq, Syria and god knows where else. For more than a decade. Well done!
To summarize:
1. The nuclear powers have no moral right to deny development of nuclear weapons to any nation, especially since the most prominent member of the club is the only one that actually used them against civilians.
2. Fight the “red menace” by funding and training religious fanatics, allow them to build the bomb and then come back to squash them later. Win-win!
3. Lie your pants off in case they did not actually manage to build the bomb.
4. Invade
5. Profit
Well, you would not listen even without the insult. See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-world_hypothesis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_justification
Folks, honestly I am totally disappointed by the reactions to the OWS. Why, oh why the vast majority of common people, who are also victims of the perverse financial system (hell, I am too - when those assess on WS screw up the whole world suffers) find the most stupid, misinformed or downright idiotic reasons to blame the protesters. You are being pounded in the ass and you say "thank you, I want some more". Un-fucking-believable!!
Listen, I am serious, you have surpassed the fucking communists!! You are well ahead of them. I was camping for month in front of our Parliament a month after the Berlin wall collapsed, when all the totalitarian assess were still in full control of the system and they did not harass us on a daily basis. They did not manage to buy all of the media and turn the rest of the population against us. They actually fell because of the protest and because of a recording by a journalist (do you hear that western journalists?) showing them discussing whether to send military force against the protesters or not (on top of that the generals told them to fuck off anyway)!
I am disgust by all this! Mod me into oblivion (my character is doing well anyway, 22 level battle mage), but I will shout now - SHAME ON YOU, SHEEP!
First rule of the world - stupid motherfucker with power is less dangerous than intelligent and cunning motherfucker with power.
I concur with you (but you still got negative modpoints, that's strange...)
Actually I reasoned few of the correct answers by elimination (the GUID one for instance), so I got a bit of pleasure from the test. Overall score not impressive, of course, I am lame Windows user. One of the older quizzes (2008 or 2009, can't remember) was pretty interesting though...Also noted that reading /. helped by providing few answers from "popular" subjects like different OS's and their revisions, geek jokes and folklore etc.
I call BS!
Hostile to the present "give us all your data, they are our property forever, we won't even ask when collecting it, we will sell it to the highest bidder" model - yes. Hostile to Social Networks in general - resounding NO! In fact under such conditions I will open social network account which I will never do under the present paradigm.
No, I think Ministry of Love is the best choice...
The device must have Wifi and you make her a /. account. Trying to figure out what the hell is going on here is a challenge for many nerds; it should do for our beloved grannies as well!
One of the hardest things I ever had to do was explaining to my granny the reasons for the existence and more importantly, the meaning, of the film Alien 2 which she dutifully watched with me during family gathering. Since we are talking about farmer-granny, who worked 12-14 hours a day all her life, was young woman during WW2, had black and white TV until the end and lived 90% of her life under communist regime, it was very challenging for both of us!
No. He thought the whole world owned him. A great deal of money. And if it didn't, they were holding it wrong....
ShakaUVM says: I don't buy that the stated purpose for the system (independence from the US's military) is very credible, given that the US is, you know, part of NATO and whatnot
Well, you better buy it, because Galileo is an old project which so far was crippled solely due to politics. Already back in the days when http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madeleine_Albright was secretary of state she was in Europe trying to stop the project using any pressure available. It was on the news.
Now, let us through away the polit-speak and polit-correctness for a moment and view the situation from purely pragmatic point. OK, ready?
Now, you are an empire. You control most of the world seas, have military bases in more than 100 countries (blatantly breaking even the agreement about Antarctica), your currency is the world currency, your language is lingua franka. Your military is larger than the rest of the world combined. Also, your military doctrine states that any attempt by any nation to diminish your almost complete dominance in space would be considered an act of war. You also do not subscribe to almost any international agreements that can even potentially harm your revenue, cultural, political or military dominance. Add to that the fact that in realpolitik there are no friends as such, only temporary collaborations with others that happen to have the same agenda or are benefiting from yours.
And empires in particular cannot have friends (even if there were friends in politics), only protectorates or enemies. By being so dominant you inadvertently position yourself as the enemy of everyone else. Sooner or later.
Now, last time I said on /. that the you-know-who is an Empire with all that implies, I was modded troll. Now, please do as you please, but try to think about this, read history, read between the lines and above all, find an intelligent military officer that can tell you what exactly they teach them in West Point. Then read history again. And remember - any other nation would behave the in the same way. Just don't fall for the "we are all friends and allies here, hell bent on promoting life, happiness and democracy all over the world"
Half way through your post I though you were going to say it is racist to the monkeys and I was like "Yhea, that's right, actually they are the offended party no matter to which particular human they are compared to"
It wouldn't work. If you think people are that stupid....I mean living this life in this world wouldn't you think after the first address (shameless plagiary from Terry Prattchet) "There is bound to be a HUGE razor-blade in a candyfloss as big as this"?
Robots or humans, no matter. Just stay away from animals.
Now you are thinking "oh no, some crazy environmentalist calling". But no.
My first though after reading the head line was about a hilarious short story from , if I remember correctly, Robert Shakely. We read about the thoughts of an astronaut who's ship is failing and he will soon be burned to crisps. Already at this stage of the story you kind of get puzzled that apparently the people who send this astronaut did not in fact take very good care about his life-support and kind of not really care if he dies. At that moment a huge alien ship appears and the astronaut is saved by the aliens. On board their ship though he goes into great detail telling them what a horrible, irresponsible, warmongering species we are and that if the aliens value their piece and way of life they should destroy us. The aliens are shocked and discus what to do for a long time. At the end they tell him that they cannot destroy us because it is against their principles but since we are such a dangerous species they will make a bomb but the button must be pressed by the astronaut. He agrees gladly. The last paragraph states roughly "They led me to the room with the bomb , showed be the button and I immediately pressed it without hesitation. Soon, the mankind will be no more. That is what you deserve, you arrogant humans, for thinking that just because I am an ape, you can do whatever you please with me"!
So, we should be careful that the first account of our deeds to the aliens is given by a human rather than any other species from Earth, cause we will get the same fate as in the story. I mean, the way we conduct our affairs even the ants probably have a grudge against us....
What we need is "speaker for the dead" as described by Card. I doubt however that we can find someone objective enough and even if we did he/she won't get any publicity.....
I've always wandered about this respect for the dead thing. I used to be ashamed that I couldn't bring myself to cry at funerals. Until I got it. The people who cry do so not for the dead but for themselves! That the beloved one will no longer be around for THEM to enjoy. Whereas I always think for the dead, not me, and the dead need tears add much as amoeba needs iPad...
And I definitely do not agree with "for the dead only good or nothing". BS! First we don't extend the courtesy to all (how much good words you hear about Hitler). Second, if the man was an ass then I will not state otherwise..... damn if I did it for my father (he ruined a lot my family with his drinking) then I will damn well do it for everyone else....
Question: what is 10000 lawyers on the bottom of the sea?
Answer: a good start
If you are so angry (I supprt your view BTW) let ..
me introduce you to my personal grudge match
against the whole western mdical establishment
- phage treatment. In this dangerous times of
super bugs due to rampant antibiotics use phage
treatment should be use every time it works
(delivery in the body is the showstopper AFAIK
since you cannot use the blood stream ).
Research the subject starting with the Horizon
episode called "the virus that cures" and prepare
to be outraged.
Really? Say that for Chaplin and Kurosawa since you are at it....
Agreed, some of the clasics are not that great but 7 samurai is THE action movie of all time and the Great Dictator is THE movie of all time. The rest of their works is also briliant (Rashomon and Modern Times spring immediately in mind...)
How about a button that turns off the cloud service? I bet there will be no such option.
Hopefully there will be at least one OS out there without this idiotic "feature". It seems with Win 7 MS is getting my euros for the last time. Of course miracles ate possible but I am not holding my breath....
Spot on!
Since a few weeks BBC wolrd news, the European version broadcasts small clip before its economy news called "America's lost decade" where with few graphs the dire straits of the US economy is revealed.
Coincidence? I think not. The plan of OBL worked like a charm, much to my despair.
I have nothing more to elaborate except to urge you to read on the first documented use of terror tactics in 13 century where a group of people managed to defeat mighty empire with 50 murders in 20 years. The rest of the job was done by the empire's rulers. I read it in Mike Green's 33 laws of strategy for instance.
The million (sorry trillion) dollar question is: why the US happily did exactly the opposite of what it should have done. I refuse to believe that the mightiest military in the world does not know strategy 101.
Sorry, some of the post went missing. Admins, please delete it. Everyone else, please ignore.
Actually, longer wavelengths are more dangerous for the eyes, because of their longer penetration depth. UV hitting the eye destroys the outermost laying layer that is naturally replaceable. Very painful experience no doubt but in most cases the outcome is positive. Infrared laser, however, will hit the back of the eyeball doing permanent damage.
Disclaimer: this info is from safety regulations and medical advices I received when starting my PhD in a university laser center were we had virtually every type of laser that exists.
Longer wavelengths are more dangerous for eyes because of their greater penetration depth. UV will be absorbed by the outmost laying layer of the eye. Certainly very painful but naturally repairable in most cases. Infrared laser will hit the back of the eyeball and do permanent damage.
think they can join the haves or their actions do not have any meaningful effect. Religion doesn't help either - they are in fact a major amplifier of the civilization's "mosClose to the bottom? I am sorry, this is...retarded. The myth than pre-civilized people lived on the verge of extinction is probably the biggest lie there is. It helps us feel good and righteous when we kill them people and steal their means of sustenance. The type of disastrous events that could wipe out the primitive people would kill us as well. In fact civilization is more vulnerable because it relies on a very complex logistics to operate. Even epidemics will spread quicker and kill much more people percentage wise than before civilization.
Now, don't get me wrong, I am not saying we should go back to tribal life - it is impossible, too many people will have to die. But see what we have created, read the other good posts so I don't repeat it all. Agriculture artificially inflated by spending vast amounts of finite resources (oil), water shortage, fertile land shortage, climate change......
The statement that the way we conduct civilization is the only right way was called by some "the most dangerous idea" and it is only a bit removed from your sentiment that I am disputing. After all, Homo Sapient was living and thriving for 200 000 years before civilization; if it was that bad, how did we survive?! Compare that to 10 000 years of civilization and only less than 400 years after we opened the taps of technological development and we are already worrying (very rightly so) about our survival. Hmm, that is not a CV to shout about from the rooftops, don't you think?
Summary:
The human species is very well fit for survival with or without civilization. Very well indeed.
The civilization system has achieved its objectives - security in numbers and understanding the consequences of our own actions.
The civilization system is now becoming a hindrance and needs to change - it has ran away from us and now we are the slaves of the system rather than the masters. Even our corporate/political/crime overlords are slaves, only the walls of their cells are gold-plated.
No one has incentive to change the system - the haves think they are the masters, the have-nots are either dumb, or t dangerous idea".
Now that we have established the framework, perhaps we can discus partial or wholesale solutions. Agreed?
Excellent post!
That is why I have always claimed that the best advice of all time was the inscription at the entry of the Oracle of Delphi - "Know thyself"
However, knowing yourself is probably the most difficult challenge for a human being.