Now, I would not mod you as troll, but I want to ask something - by the "creativity" of the private sector you actually mean cost effective, bean counters in space who WILL decide to cut corners and soon space stations will start raining from the sky? Before you ask I do work for a high-tech company and am very familiar with the process of "good enough for enough money". It would not do for space. Never.
However meager the NASA's actual profit for humanity is, they are strict scientists and engineers, no bloody managers. Quality first , money second. Otherwise in 50 years no one will be able to lift off because of the debris in orbit. I know it is already dirty but imagine the situations when we unleash the managers...
Oh come on...you cannot suppress the human urges, if you do they will "burst" in (most probably) undesirable direction. I never understood why deliberate abuse of human nature (celibacy) is considered a virtue. Face it, they failed in this. Miserably.
"Yes, all healthy people have sexual urges, but most of us don't act on them inappropriately, priests included." - here you are touching the truth but you do not go further. The emphasis is "healthy"! If you suppress the urges, that is not healthy and produces unhealthy people, both in mind and body. Not everyone succumbs, naturally, but the chances that some individuals will be perverted is much higher than if you did not have the celibacy on board.
I am not sure it has nothing to do with capitalism....
Dig up the BBC Horizon episode from far back called "The virus that cures" and watch it. You will be (perhaps) amazed to discover that bacteriophage were and are successfully used to treat almost any bacterial infection in Georgia and the whole USSR in past times. It is utterly astonishing to the layman (who slept in biology classes) to observe the ladies from the hospital taking water from the hospital's sewer system and making medicine out of it.
The west knows about this since the 60's when such treatment was introduced to animals in US yielding 99% complete recovery. Why nobody did something? Because you cannot patent an organism that just evolved.....You created a super-bug with your dumb ass antibiotics, well, there is a super-predator that evolves immediately to eat the super bug. Find it, extract it, purify it, multiply it, sell it, cure the people. Period.
The only drawback is that if the phage has to reach the infection via the blood circulatory system it gets attacked by the immune system. However, for anything else it works flawlessly. They used to send strains of super bugs from all over the USSR to this institute and they would make the cure (usually by asking sample from the shit-pipe of the hospital in question. Plenty of super bugs in there. Plenty of phages too.
And now the hospital which has the isolated strains for hundreds of very nasty bacterial infections is in ruins, the electricity stops often and the fridges worm up, taking with them the phages that can save thousands of lives RIGHT NOW in the (oh!!) so advanced and smart western world.
And how is that right? Stopping people because of a T-shirt?!?! Do you think that the jihadi will arrive at the airport with a shirt "Die, capitalist pigs!"
You know, I bought recently a hood from a respectable and expensive mountaineer gear company that closes completely the head with just two holes for the eyes (and it's lined with high tech materials for excellent heat retention).
Why - because I have had 4 surgeries on my jaw leaving a nice 2cm crater between the upper jaw and the nose which hurts like hell when it's cold. Ah, yeah, I live in Holland which means I am on a bike all the time, during winter as well. Guess what happened when I closed the hood and cycled through town (pay attention, I did not enter a bank, shop or any other public building like that, just biking on the street in winter time with show). Yep, I was stopped by the police. Three times. In a distance of 4 km. In Holland. If you allow me some black humor, if I had "end of the world" button hear by at the time, you won't find me hesitant.
It really drove me crazy. But that is not all. Let me tell you more of my clothing experience. I got a fantastic Lennon shirt from the US with "give peace a chance" slogan. I also got a rainproof jacket from US where people somehow fail to realize that the patriotic red, white nad blue stripes are in fact the national flag of Holland. So I got this US patriotic jacket. Then back in Holland and I got a nice black hood with white "Amsterdam" on the front. And a nice wallet from the same shop. Now, I go to work in all those mentioned clothes. Disclaimer : coming from the "barbaric" eastern world I had no idea that clothes and accessories from certain companies are "connected" in the minds of the populous with specific groups of people.
First reaction - the jacked. "Wow, you are quite patriotic about Holland for a foreigner" Unspoken : what a dick!! (in Holland display of national symbols is very rare and not at all the farce that has become in the US)
Second reaction - the wallet. "Oh, you are a Nazi" WTF? (little I knew that Londsdale is the "neo-Nazi choice")
Third reaction - the hood. "Oh, you are a football hooligan, supporter of Ajax" WTF?! Never been to a game, though my father was an Ajax fan from 2000 km away.
Fourth reaction- the shirt. "Oh, you are a communist" Yhea, you got that one right, brainwashed, label-putting, dumb-ass asses! If you were so dumb to label Lennon as communist , then I am too. Fuck you!
Final disclaimer: In my life so far I have never been prosecuted by law, even for trivial things. Two masters, one PhD, good job, pays taxes, non-violent person.
Judge me by the dress. How stupid is that. The biggest criminals on the plane have the most impeccable dressing style. 'Cause they know that the dumb ass society pays attention to this bull shit and act accordingly. How many lives that 50bn pyramid asshole (Meydoff?!) cost? He had amazingly neat suit.....
Let's be economical here - Godverdomme! One word only - definition "The worst swear word in Dutch; first word English speaking people learn when they go to Holland"
At the same time I see (at least in Western Europe) a decrease in the quality of services and ever increasing prizes. In fact the fear of the Western worker from the proverbial "Polish plumber" is well founded - for such money the Polish plumber will do excellent job , take care of your kids and cook you a dinner. What happened to the "quality first" way of working?!? I see it only in people above 45 - the culture has really changed:((
Is it not fun, BTW to watch just how far we (the so-called civilized humans) can push the "unchecked growth" strategy we exercise? We are living in interesting times, ladies and gentleman. We are living in a geometrical progression that will crash soon. I can’t wait!
What the hell??!?? Sustainable Economy Act has something to do with IP?? Ohh, how much I love demagogy...sustainable theft, that is what they are aiming for:)
Who needs an alternative of BBC? They are simply the best out there. I for one am willing to pay their licence even though I do not live in the UK. Just broadcast me all their channels and I'll pay. I have not watched any other television in 9 years. I tried the local channels (Dutch) a few times and got sick by the ads. Can't stand them!
Quote: "This "personal responsibility" bullshit is the last resort of the right-wing to try to justify the disgrace that the "free-market, no regulation" fundamentalism brought on all of us. A society where you should always be on your toes because you can't trust anybody is dysfunctional. And it's an obligation of the democratically elected officials (under scrutiny of the society) to regulate in order to prevent the chain of trust to break."
I salute you! You are a credit to the human race (no irony or sarcasm intended, I mean it). Unfortunately, people like you (I am compelled to say "us") are minority.
I especially love this sentence: A society where you should always be on your toes because you can't trust anybody is dysfunctional!
Having lived on the other side of the (communist) wall for a while, the single most frustrating feature of the free market is that everyone is out there to get you. I hate this, I really do. I hate becoming an expert on every single piece of equipment I need for home so I can choose among the myriad of lies and half-truths what is best. I am tired of being told by bankers that the conditions of the loan for the house or whatever are "too complicated to grasp by layman" Screw you, fuckers, I have 2 Masters and 1 PhD in science, I can figure it out and expose your lies and traps, but I DO NOT WANT TO. I have a life; I don't have time for your silly games.
Some say that the single most important feature that we lost when abandoning the hunter-gathering lifestyle for civilization is exactly this trust within the group, an ultimate sense of security because if it's hard it's hard for all, if it's good it's good for all.
And the above rant is from me living in Europe. I think I'll go mad in the US!
Well, I have hardly heard anyone who died of smoking before they procreated. Think, before you say something my friend.
On a side note - I am waiting with a certain sinful feeling of glee when exactly the governments will start the next war...on alcohol. Then I will get revenge for the Nazi-style persecution and of smokers that seems to be accepted without a thought in the so-called western world. I smoke, but do not drink, if you are wandering.
Warm memory - in 2005 I got pestered for smoking in a US restaurant by a granddad who was at least 200kg and has just finished 1.5litres of Cola before he even started his dinner. I offered him a bet for the time we see each other in the afterlife - who of us will live longer? He did not accept.
On an even more side note - why it is bad for the economy if I die 10 years earlier and do not spend my pension after a life time of bringing enourmous ravenue to the goverment via the absurdly high tax on tobacco? And no, I am not getting ill more often than my colleagues non-smokers so don't bulshit me with higher health care costs. And getting a lung cancer in the country where I live means I will need to spend a few taxpayers euros for the lethal injection. What an expense!!
I don't buy a word you are saying. I grew up in a Communist country as well and I am an atheist. The moral standards of all people around me in my country were never lower than the ones I am seeing now, living in Western Europe. The difference is that my beloved godless family and friends could never be persuaded to kill/invade/torture/ for faith, whereas your decent religious people do it all the time.
I strongly suspect that you have been indoctrinated heavily against Com. and because that implies atheism you made a connection where there isn't any. Forgive me to speak like I know you, but I definitely recognize the mindset. Its one of the most unpleasant ones - blindly accepting everything which claims to be anti-Communism. The Democratic Party in my country which from its creation was betting on anti-Com message and was attracting people like you went from 52% support to 3.5% support in 20 years (they had 4 goverments in this period). Because everyone finally realized that com. , cap. whatever are just labels. And that the hypocrisy of the democratic, religious First World rivals in nastiness and unpleasantness the arrogance of the communists.
Your comment about the lamppost I will not even attempt to answer - it is so childish and shallow....
You actually trust people whose moral standards are from an old book and who could hug you all your life and then kill you in a second if they suddenly perceive you as a treat to their faith! Speechless....
Absolutely!! Mister Pratchett has touched (more like dissected) every contemporary issue of our civilization and some of the not so contemporary ones (Small Gods anyone?)
However, do not expect him to be included in any lit class. He is too inconvenient, too intelectual, too provocative, too damn right. Which is....ing great, but will not go down well with the...ing politicians,...ing businessmen and the...ing religion. Basicaly the whole...ing Mother Culture thing.
Have you noticed that he is not very famious in the that bastion of critical thinking the US? Also, Holywwod does not like him and the feeling is mutual. He was approached once by Disney I believe about filming "Mort" but they asked him to remove Death (WTF?!?!?) because he was too....scary:))
I don't know...millions of preachers are spilling aggressive ignorant rubbish against science every second but as long as one irritated scientist bites back, its the end of the world. I for one, agree with Dawkins that this "treading on eggshells" approach when it comes to religion has to stop. Otherwise these nutters will wipe the civilization because of their delusions. And they want to shape my life according to their delusions. No way, I am fighting back with full force...
My problem (and I think the major problem of Dawkins) comes from the fact that the religious framework has nothing to do with reality and humans have come to a point where not accounting for reality is nothing short of deadly...for all of us. Will god repopulate the Earth when we kill everything? Clean the oceans? Repair the atmosphere? Undo all damage that we do to us and the the rest of life? Are YOU willing to bet your life, the life of your children and all humanity on this "premise"? I mean, really, do you?
And that thing about the supposed compatibility between science and religion. I do not agree at all. True, there are some people that can put those two ideas in one head and I always admire such power of self-delusion, but for the majority its either one or the other. In that respect the religious leaders are much more aware of the danger of critical thinking; that is why the war on science has never stopped and will go on. Once you put god between the first and second law of thermodynamics it is not obvious that you should not wear a condom or have an abortion. How many times it has to be explained that there is a HUGE difference between "There is a non-zero probability of the existence of a supernatural entity that created the Universe" (scientific statement) and "Thou shall not go on the street without a scarf" (preaching of some nutters, misinterpreting an old book). Scientist are against the latter - shaping society based on obsolete ideology. That is not a war between science and faith. It is a war between reason and "organized religion". Huge difference!
And the problem with popularity of science is obvious - our whole civilization is build on dreams, stories, opinions, emotions...reality check is discouraged at every possible level - politics, economics, belief. I see no solution or progress. Just sit back and enjoy the soap opera.
That was fast! Maybe too fast?
I lost 15 kilos in 6 months simply by cutting the fuzzy drinks to zero and 2 times a week 1 hour in the gym. Despite the gradual loss of mass I did have a period with similar complaints as yours. My character did change, I became more nervous and edgy. I felt underpowered, my hearth was weaker and so on...however, this passed after a while and I stabilized at my optimal weight.
I have struggled with those excessive 15-20 kilos for almost a decade and every time when I lost mass too fast I gained it back. Not now though; 3 years later I am still stable.
There was something I remember seeing on a BBC documentary about the fat deposits in the body. The conclusion was that after a certain threshold you simply couldnâ(TM)t get back to âoenormalâ. I think it was because the fat capsules once created never disappear, only shrink and expand. The bottom line is never allow yourself to become too fat; itâ(TM)s a one way road. I hope they are wrong, for the sake of the people who have this problemâ¦.
Sorry for the extremly stupid question, but how do you create a new paragraph in a post? I tried/n - well you can see the result...ohh shit, the rest is also messy, quatations, strikes, parences. HELP please, where is the f...ing manual, I must be the only one around who haven not red it...
Nope. It did not work for me. The reason being that I grew up in a poor country where you could go fishing at the mountain lakes and see the whole beauty. And I did, many times. So, after I moved to Amsterdam, naturally I visited the coffee shop first. And then, being high I wanted to look at the sky and yes, I saw only 2 planets. Utterly depressing.
Two years ago I could not stand it anymore. So off to Dahab in Egypt to see the two most magnificent sites in Nature â" the night sky and the coral reefs. There were no words to describe the beauty. If we loose the coral reefs in my lifetime I will become suicidalâ¦
Wasnâ(TM)t there a study which concluded that our brains go mad if we see only non-fractal, simple shapes, like buildings, rooms est and no plants, mountains, animals and so on?
They are so evil (the Dutch socialists) indeed that if you do not own a car, you can hire one, dirt cheap, because you are a "green" citizen. And yes, my evil socialist PRIVATLY OWNED company pays me the train ticket (approx. 300 euro per month, but I guess they get some tax incentive from the gov.).
And the bike between the train station and the company is tax-deductible as you say (which more or less means half-price - you know...taxes in Europe are high!).
Are there any Brits around here? I would like to know - is it true that your public transport is used only by trash and junkies as they claim on Top Gear at every opportunity?
So, you want to tell me that every minute of your workers time is spend on....work? Only with such premise you have the right to do your math the way you did. Are you from this planet?
I find the comparison between wages per minute and cost of electricity per minute absolutely ridiculous. So, the employees never ever WASTE even a single minute during the working day? They never chat a bit with a colleague, never have coffee, never have a smoking pause, never go to the toilet, never climb staircase.....
Gosh, when I come to work i directly go to the PC and turn it on. Then I have to remove my coat, hang it, make coffee and visit the privy - it takes minimum 5-6 minutes to do all this. By the time I am back the PC is ready for work.
Why do westerners (especially Americans)love to give (more like hammer) the (false) impression that they do useful work every second of their working day? I don't buy it folks, I have plenty of work experience in the west already. You only fool yourselves...
It is always puzzling to me when such sentiments as yours are expressed. Can you put aside your citizenship and explain why should I trust the wisdom and the good will of a country, which is the only one that ever actually USED nuclear weapons against civilians.
I would rather have every country in the world armed with nukes, now that the Pandora box is anyway open. I just do not trust you (US), dude! The discrepancy between talk and deeds is too large.
The only downside of the Netherlands is that so few locals actually understand how great they've got it - the Dutch are the most pessimistic people about their own country that I've ever met.
That is not exactly true. The Dutch are very proud of their country but at the same time it is in their culture that a:) you should complain about everything and b:) never really go "Wow, this is superb", because everything can be made better. Part of this comes from the Calvinism, part from history.
As for the personal freedom I agree with you 100%. During my first visit to the US I traveled in the bussines class (as a reward of being delayed due to overbooking) and spoke with a wealthy American. He asked me about the liberties in Holland and I listed them for him (abortion, prostitution, euthanasia, gay marriages and light drugs), pointing out that no other country in the whole world has the whole package. He was quite shocked and asked me "Why did you choose to live there then?" and I replied "Exactly because they have them".
BTW, speaking about the elections allow me to congratulate all americans for the right choice (in my opinion). I do not think that much will change, because the ideas in people's heads do not change so easily and quickly. Change in may opinion always starts from bottom up - the politicians are just taking the ride once the wave is formed. But at least the international image of USA will improve. Bush really managed to make the whole world to dislike(or even hate)America.
Funny fact: I was born and grew up in a communist country and I remember distinctly a history lesson I was thought in the last year of primary school. The teacher was discussing the political system in the US and said "It does not matter which party takes the power, they still push their militaristic imperialistic agenda". Of course all of the students decided that this was bullshit communist propaganda (at least they have two parties, we thought, not only one like us). However, I found out later in my life that the teacher was right! As it turned out, part of the communist propaganda was true! I am still recovering from the shock:)
I know another - The Netherlands. Amsterdam, with its miserable population of below 1 million is more culturally diverse than New York (177 nationalities vs. 150). If you look at the history you will see that the great success of Holland in the past is due predominantly to their willingness to accept people who would not be accepted in other countries. When Galileo was threaten by the Church, the ruler of Holland offered him a position in the Leiden University.
IMO, America is becoming increasingly xenophobic and afraid of everyone, it is certainly a place where I would not go to live.Pity!
Slashdot Mirror
Now, I would not mod you as troll, but I want to ask something - by the "creativity" of the private sector you actually mean cost effective, bean counters in space who WILL decide to cut corners and soon space stations will start raining from the sky? Before you ask I do work for a high-tech company and am very familiar with the process of "good enough for enough money". It would not do for space. Never.
However meager the NASA's actual profit for humanity is, they are strict scientists and engineers, no bloody managers. Quality first , money second. Otherwise in 50 years no one will be able to lift off because of the debris in orbit. I know it is already dirty but imagine the situations when we unleash the managers...
Oh come on...you cannot suppress the human urges, if you do they will "burst" in (most probably) undesirable direction. I never understood why deliberate abuse of human nature (celibacy) is considered a virtue. Face it, they failed in this. Miserably.
"Yes, all healthy people have sexual urges, but most of us don't act on them inappropriately, priests included." - here you are touching the truth but you do not go further. The emphasis is "healthy"! If you suppress the urges, that is not healthy and produces unhealthy people, both in mind and body. Not everyone succumbs, naturally, but the chances that some individuals will be perverted is much higher than if you did not have the celibacy on board.
I am not sure it has nothing to do with capitalism....
Dig up the BBC Horizon episode from far back called "The virus that cures" and watch it. You will be (perhaps) amazed to discover that bacteriophage were and are successfully used to treat almost any bacterial infection in Georgia and the whole USSR in past times. It is utterly astonishing to the layman (who slept in biology classes) to observe the ladies from the hospital taking water from the hospital's sewer system and making medicine out of it.
The west knows about this since the 60's when such treatment was introduced to animals in US yielding 99% complete recovery. Why nobody did something? Because you cannot patent an organism that just evolved.....You created a super-bug with your dumb ass antibiotics, well, there is a super-predator that evolves immediately to eat the super bug. Find it, extract it, purify it, multiply it, sell it, cure the people. Period.
The only drawback is that if the phage has to reach the infection via the blood circulatory system it gets attacked by the immune system. However, for anything else it works flawlessly. They used to send strains of super bugs from all over the USSR to this institute and they would make the cure (usually by asking sample from the shit-pipe of the hospital in question. Plenty of super bugs in there. Plenty of phages too.
And now the hospital which has the isolated strains for hundreds of very nasty bacterial infections is in ruins, the electricity stops often and the fridges worm up, taking with them the phages that can save thousands of lives RIGHT NOW in the (oh!!) so advanced and smart western world.
Enough said.
And how is that right? Stopping people because of a T-shirt?!?! Do you think that the jihadi will arrive at the airport with a shirt "Die, capitalist pigs!"
You know, I bought recently a hood from a respectable and expensive mountaineer gear company that closes completely the head with just two holes for the eyes (and it's lined with high tech materials for excellent heat retention).
Why - because I have had 4 surgeries on my jaw leaving a nice 2cm crater between the upper jaw and the nose which hurts like hell when it's cold. Ah, yeah, I live in Holland which means I am on a bike all the time, during winter as well. Guess what happened when I closed the hood and cycled through town (pay attention, I did not enter a bank, shop or any other public building like that, just biking on the street in winter time with show). Yep, I was stopped by the police. Three times. In a distance of 4 km. In Holland. If you allow me some black humor, if I had "end of the world" button hear by at the time, you won't find me hesitant.
It really drove me crazy. But that is not all. Let me tell you more of my clothing experience. I got a fantastic Lennon shirt from the US with "give peace a chance" slogan. I also got a rainproof jacket from US where people somehow fail to realize that the patriotic red, white nad blue stripes are in fact the national flag of Holland. So I got this US patriotic jacket. Then back in Holland and I got a nice black hood with white "Amsterdam" on the front. And a nice wallet from the same shop. Now, I go to work in all those mentioned clothes. Disclaimer : coming from the "barbaric" eastern world I had no idea that clothes and accessories from certain companies are "connected" in the minds of the populous with specific groups of people.
First reaction - the jacked. "Wow, you are quite patriotic about Holland for a foreigner" Unspoken : what a dick!! (in Holland display of national symbols is very rare and not at all the farce that has become in the US)
Second reaction - the wallet. "Oh, you are a Nazi" WTF? (little I knew that Londsdale is the "neo-Nazi choice")
Third reaction - the hood. "Oh, you are a football hooligan, supporter of Ajax" WTF?! Never been to a game, though my father was an Ajax fan from 2000 km away.
Fourth reaction- the shirt. "Oh, you are a communist" Yhea, you got that one right, brainwashed, label-putting, dumb-ass asses! If you were so dumb to label Lennon as communist , then I am too. Fuck you!
Final disclaimer: In my life so far I have never been prosecuted by law, even for trivial things. Two masters, one PhD, good job, pays taxes, non-violent person.
Judge me by the dress. How stupid is that. The biggest criminals on the plane have the most impeccable dressing style. 'Cause they know that the dumb ass society pays attention to this bull shit and act accordingly. How many lives that 50bn pyramid asshole (Meydoff?!) cost? He had amazingly neat suit.....
Let's be economical here - Godverdomme! One word only - definition "The worst swear word in Dutch; first word English speaking people learn when they go to Holland"
Beat that:)
Yhea, keep dreaming...
enlightening.
http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/goodaboutmen.htm
Understanding in general demolishes stereotypes and laughs in the face of political correctness and auto censorship. I love science....
Cheers,
Evtim
Good point.
At the same time I see (at least in Western Europe) a decrease in the quality of services and ever increasing prizes. In fact the fear of the Western worker from the proverbial "Polish plumber" is well founded - for such money the Polish plumber will do excellent job , take care of your kids and cook you a dinner. What happened to the "quality first" way of working?!? I see it only in people above 45 - the culture has really changed:((
Is it not fun, BTW to watch just how far we (the so-called civilized humans) can push the "unchecked growth" strategy we exercise? We are living in interesting times, ladies and gentleman. We are living in a geometrical progression that will crash soon. I can’t wait!
What the hell??!?? Sustainable Economy Act has something to do with IP?? Ohh, how much I love demagogy...sustainable theft, that is what they are aiming for:)
Who needs an alternative of BBC? They are simply the best out there. I for one am willing to pay their licence even though I do not live in the UK. Just broadcast me all their channels and I'll pay. I have not watched any other television in 9 years. I tried the local channels (Dutch) a few times and got sick by the ads. Can't stand them!
Quote: "This "personal responsibility" bullshit is the last resort of the right-wing to try to justify the disgrace that the "free-market, no regulation" fundamentalism brought on all of us. A society where you should always be on your toes because you can't trust anybody is dysfunctional. And it's an obligation of the democratically elected officials (under scrutiny of the society) to regulate in order to prevent the chain of trust to break."
I salute you! You are a credit to the human race (no irony or sarcasm intended, I mean it). Unfortunately, people like you (I am compelled to say "us") are minority.
I especially love this sentence:
A society where you should always be on your toes because you can't trust anybody is dysfunctional!
Having lived on the other side of the (communist) wall for a while, the single most frustrating feature of the free market is that everyone is out there to get you. I hate this, I really do. I hate becoming an expert on every single piece of equipment I need for home so I can choose among the myriad of lies and half-truths what is best. I am tired of being told by bankers that the conditions of the loan for the house or whatever are "too complicated to grasp by layman" Screw you, fuckers, I have 2 Masters and 1 PhD in science, I can figure it out and expose your lies and traps, but I DO NOT WANT TO. I have a life; I don't have time for your silly games.
Some say that the single most important feature that we lost when abandoning the hunter-gathering lifestyle for civilization is exactly this trust within the group, an ultimate sense of security because if it's hard it's hard for all, if it's good it's good for all.
And the above rant is from me living in Europe. I think I'll go mad in the US!
Once again, I salute you!
Well, I have hardly heard anyone who died of smoking before they procreated. Think, before you say something my friend.
On a side note - I am waiting with a certain sinful feeling of glee when exactly the governments will start the next war...on alcohol. Then I will get revenge for the Nazi-style persecution and of smokers that seems to be accepted without a thought in the so-called western world. I smoke, but do not drink, if you are wandering.
Warm memory - in 2005 I got pestered for smoking in a US restaurant by a granddad who was at least 200kg and has just finished 1.5litres of Cola before he even started his dinner. I offered him a bet for the time we see each other in the afterlife - who of us will live longer? He did not accept.
On an even more side note - why it is bad for the economy if I die 10 years earlier and do not spend my pension after a life time of bringing enourmous ravenue to the goverment via the absurdly high tax on tobacco? And no, I am not getting ill more often than my colleagues non-smokers so don't bulshit me with higher health care costs. And getting a lung cancer in the country where I live means I will need to spend a few taxpayers euros for the lethal injection. What an expense!!
I concur. Also, supporting cyrilic alphabet seems to be very low priority. Well, more than 300 M people use it, so yhea f...k them!
I don't buy a word you are saying. I grew up in a Communist country as well and I am an atheist. The moral standards of all people around me in my country were never lower than the ones I am seeing now, living in Western Europe. The difference is that my beloved godless family and friends could never be persuaded to kill/invade/torture/ for faith, whereas your decent religious people do it all the time.
I strongly suspect that you have been indoctrinated heavily against Com. and because that implies atheism you made a connection where there isn't any. Forgive me to speak like I know you, but I definitely recognize the mindset. Its one of the most unpleasant ones - blindly accepting everything which claims to be anti-Communism. The Democratic Party in my country which from its creation was betting on anti-Com message and was attracting people like you went from 52% support to 3.5% support in 20 years (they had 4 goverments in this period). Because everyone finally realized that com. , cap. whatever are just labels. And that the hypocrisy of the democratic, religious First World rivals in nastiness and unpleasantness the arrogance of the communists.
Your comment about the lamppost I will not even attempt to answer - it is so childish and shallow....
You actually trust people whose moral standards are from an old book and who could hug you all your life and then kill you in a second if they suddenly perceive you as a treat to their faith! Speechless....
It does include it...oh wait, I am playing the total realism mod:))
Absolutely!! Mister Pratchett has touched (more like dissected) every contemporary issue of our civilization and some of the not so contemporary ones (Small Gods anyone?)
....ing great, but will not go down well with the ...ing politicians, ...ing businessmen and the ...ing religion. Basicaly the whole ...ing Mother Culture thing.
However, do not expect him to be included in any lit class. He is too inconvenient, too intelectual, too provocative, too damn right. Which is
Have you noticed that he is not very famious in the that bastion of critical thinking the US? Also, Holywwod does not like him and the feeling is mutual. He was approached once by Disney I believe about filming "Mort" but they asked him to remove Death (WTF?!?!?) because he was too....scary:))
I don't know...millions of preachers are spilling aggressive ignorant rubbish against science every second but as long as one irritated scientist bites back, its the end of the world. I for one, agree with Dawkins that this "treading on eggshells" approach when it comes to religion has to stop. Otherwise these nutters will wipe the civilization because of their delusions. And they want to shape my life according to their delusions. No way, I am fighting back with full force...
My problem (and I think the major problem of Dawkins) comes from the fact that the religious framework has nothing to do with reality and humans have come to a point where not accounting for reality is nothing short of deadly...for all of us. Will god repopulate the Earth when we kill everything? Clean the oceans? Repair the atmosphere? Undo all damage that we do to us and the the rest of life? Are YOU willing to bet your life, the life of your children and all humanity on this "premise"? I mean, really, do you?
And that thing about the supposed compatibility between science and religion. I do not agree at all. True, there are some people that can put those two ideas in one head and I always admire such power of self-delusion, but for the majority its either one or the other. In that respect the religious leaders are much more aware of the danger of critical thinking; that is why the war on science has never stopped and will go on. Once you put god between the first and second law of thermodynamics it is not obvious that you should not wear a condom or have an abortion. How many times it has to be explained that there is a HUGE difference between "There is a non-zero probability of the existence of a supernatural entity that created the Universe" (scientific statement) and "Thou shall not go on the street without a scarf" (preaching of some nutters, misinterpreting an old book). Scientist are against the latter - shaping society based on obsolete ideology. That is not a war between science and faith. It is a war between reason and "organized religion". Huge difference!
And the problem with popularity of science is obvious - our whole civilization is build on dreams, stories, opinions, emotions...reality check is discouraged at every possible level - politics, economics, belief. I see no solution or progress. Just sit back and enjoy the soap opera.
That was fast! Maybe too fast? I lost 15 kilos in 6 months simply by cutting the fuzzy drinks to zero and 2 times a week 1 hour in the gym. Despite the gradual loss of mass I did have a period with similar complaints as yours. My character did change, I became more nervous and edgy. I felt underpowered, my hearth was weaker and so on...however, this passed after a while and I stabilized at my optimal weight. I have struggled with those excessive 15-20 kilos for almost a decade and every time when I lost mass too fast I gained it back. Not now though; 3 years later I am still stable. There was something I remember seeing on a BBC documentary about the fat deposits in the body. The conclusion was that after a certain threshold you simply couldnâ(TM)t get back to âoenormalâ. I think it was because the fat capsules once created never disappear, only shrink and expand. The bottom line is never allow yourself to become too fat; itâ(TM)s a one way road. I hope they are wrong, for the sake of the people who have this problemâ¦. Sorry for the extremly stupid question, but how do you create a new paragraph in a post? I tried /n - well you can see the result...ohh shit, the rest is also messy, quatations, strikes, parences. HELP please, where is the f...ing manual, I must be the only one around who haven not red it...
Nope. It did not work for me. The reason being that I grew up in a poor country where you could go fishing at the mountain lakes and see the whole beauty. And I did, many times. So, after I moved to Amsterdam, naturally I visited the coffee shop first. And then, being high I wanted to look at the sky and yes, I saw only 2 planets. Utterly depressing. Two years ago I could not stand it anymore. So off to Dahab in Egypt to see the two most magnificent sites in Nature â" the night sky and the coral reefs. There were no words to describe the beauty. If we loose the coral reefs in my lifetime I will become suicidal⦠Wasnâ(TM)t there a study which concluded that our brains go mad if we see only non-fractal, simple shapes, like buildings, rooms est and no plants, mountains, animals and so on?
They are so evil (the Dutch socialists) indeed that if you do not own a car, you can hire one, dirt cheap, because you are a "green" citizen. And yes, my evil socialist PRIVATLY OWNED company pays me the train ticket (approx. 300 euro per month, but I guess they get some tax incentive from the gov.). And the bike between the train station and the company is tax-deductible as you say (which more or less means half-price - you know...taxes in Europe are high!). Are there any Brits around here? I would like to know - is it true that your public transport is used only by trash and junkies as they claim on Top Gear at every opportunity?
So, you want to tell me that every minute of your workers time is spend on....work? Only with such premise you have the right to do your math the way you did. Are you from this planet? I find the comparison between wages per minute and cost of electricity per minute absolutely ridiculous. So, the employees never ever WASTE even a single minute during the working day? They never chat a bit with a colleague, never have coffee, never have a smoking pause, never go to the toilet, never climb staircase..... Gosh, when I come to work i directly go to the PC and turn it on. Then I have to remove my coat, hang it, make coffee and visit the privy - it takes minimum 5-6 minutes to do all this. By the time I am back the PC is ready for work. Why do westerners (especially Americans)love to give (more like hammer) the (false) impression that they do useful work every second of their working day? I don't buy it folks, I have plenty of work experience in the west already. You only fool yourselves...
It is always puzzling to me when such sentiments as yours are expressed. Can you put aside your citizenship and explain why should I trust the wisdom and the good will of a country, which is the only one that ever actually USED nuclear weapons against civilians. I would rather have every country in the world armed with nukes, now that the Pandora box is anyway open. I just do not trust you (US), dude! The discrepancy between talk and deeds is too large.
The only downside of the Netherlands is that so few locals actually understand how great they've got it - the Dutch are the most pessimistic people about their own country that I've ever met.
That is not exactly true. The Dutch are very proud of their country but at the same time it is in their culture that a:) you should complain about everything and b:) never really go "Wow, this is superb", because everything can be made better. Part of this comes from the Calvinism, part from history.
As for the personal freedom I agree with you 100%. During my first visit to the US I traveled in the bussines class (as a reward of being delayed due to overbooking) and spoke with a wealthy American. He asked me about the liberties in Holland and I listed them for him (abortion, prostitution, euthanasia, gay marriages and light drugs), pointing out that no other country in the whole world has the whole package. He was quite shocked and asked me "Why did you choose to live there then?" and I replied "Exactly because they have them".
BTW, speaking about the elections allow me to congratulate all americans for the right choice (in my opinion). I do not think that much will change, because the ideas in people's heads do not change so easily and quickly. Change in may opinion always starts from bottom up - the politicians are just taking the ride once the wave is formed. But at least the international image of USA will improve. Bush really managed to make the whole world to dislike(or even hate)America.
Funny fact: I was born and grew up in a communist country and I remember distinctly a history lesson I was thought in the last year of primary school. The teacher was discussing the political system in the US and said "It does not matter which party takes the power, they still push their militaristic imperialistic agenda". Of course all of the students decided that this was bullshit communist propaganda (at least they have two parties, we thought, not only one like us). However, I found out later in my life that the teacher was right! As it turned out, part of the communist propaganda was true! I am still recovering from the shock:)
I know another - The Netherlands. Amsterdam, with its miserable population of below 1 million is more culturally diverse than New York (177 nationalities vs. 150). If you look at the history you will see that the great success of Holland in the past is due predominantly to their willingness to accept people who would not be accepted in other countries. When Galileo was threaten by the Church, the ruler of Holland offered him a position in the Leiden University. IMO, America is becoming increasingly xenophobic and afraid of everyone, it is certainly a place where I would not go to live.Pity!