A lot of his prose sounds like schizophrenic word salads, with all kinds of unnecessary neologisms that don't convey any information. He reads like a neo-Platonic philosopher on hallucinogens.
The price of oil collapsed during the Depression so that you could buy a barrel of the stuff for two bits or so at one time. Fuel efficiency was the least of people's worries back then.
Tesla came up with a technology that made electrical power practical. He got weird in middle age when he ran out of his better ideas and kept trying to find people to give him money.
Fuller wasn't the only inventor with a cult following of dubious rationality. Just look at Ray Kurzweil. Though in Kurzweil's favor most of his inventions (1) work; (2) perform useful tasks; and (3) have had some commercial success.
I hate to break this to you, but that is a myth. All of the medical care I have seen there is about what you would expect from a third world country. Neither much better nor much worse. Actually, with the possible exception of one or two hospitals in Havana, particularly Cira Garcia [cirag.cu], which very few Cubans could ever afford, I would rate health care there as being at a somewhat lower level than most of the third world countries
Well, explain all that to the hundreds of Cubans who annually try to float on inner tubes to Key West.
By that line of reasoning, the millions of Mexicans who've flooded into the U.S. must make Mexico far worse than Cuba.
And why the qualifier quotes on "communism", anyway? Castro is perfectly comfortable saying he is a communist, why can't you admit he is?
The Chinese leaders call themselves "communists" as well, but their country's economy has exploded with capitalistic activity. I don't think the labels "communist" and "communism" mean much any more.
For all his faults, in some ways Castro valued human life more than you'd expect from all the propaganda in the U.S. about "communism." He kept his people from starving in the 1990's after the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off a lot of Cuba's oil supply (unlike North Korea's Kim, who clearly doesn't give a crap about the starving people under his heel); at least Cubans don't have to eat dirt, literally, like their neighbors on Haiti. He's kept up a basic healthcare system and invested his country's meager resources into finding treatments for tropical poor people's diseases ignored by Western pharmaceutical companies. He had moved his country's population out of harm's way when the inevitable hurricanes rake across the island. And he even offered to send medical help to the U.S. for Hurricane Katrina's victims. So in some nontrivial respects he wasn't a totally bad guy.
Read Tom Whipple's article.
In case you think this article doesn't matter because it's in an obscure newspaper, consider that Falls Church is a suburb of Washington, D.C., with a median family income of nearly $100,000, where a lot of the elite Federal bureaucrats live.
It's pretty clear now that the rate of progress has leveled off and fallen well short of the flying cars, space colonization, nanotech assemblers and friendly AI fantasy-future. Physicist Jonathan Huebner has gathered empirical evidence (PDF) showing that we're pretty much fucked for new, practical technological ideas already, and that includes AI. I'd respect Kurzweil more if he'd stop making an ass of himself with his sci-fi stuff, go back to his lab and work on something useful.
The theory is premised on the fact that there will be no more exponential grow in the nuclear and hydroelectric industries, which is a patently absurd assumption.
Regarding hydroelectric power, I wasn't aware that rivers suitable for damming have grown exponentially.
Regarding nuclear power, which depends on uranium, the Olduvai breakdown in southern Africa has already started to play merry hell with all sorts of mining operations, including uranium mining. We could see a positive feedback phenomenon where blackouts coming from fossil fuels shortages also cause shortages in new uranium supplies.
LRH's scam shows how easy it is to start a new religion that survives and gains passionate adherents after the death of its founders. Most people couldn't do it, but a few individuals have the kind of personality that can pull it off in the right social environment.
In fact, we have enough recent historical data on cults that turn into competitive new religions (for example Mormonism and Baha'i, both founded in the 19th Century) that I don't think it's even all that mysterious how older religions like Christianity & Islam could have originated through normal social processes. (We don't have to postulate "supernatural" causes to explain their existence, in other words.)
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."
Slashdot Mirror
I have no plans to see this movie. J.J. Abrams already has enough money, and he doesn't need any of mine.
. . . at Sterling Cooper?
A lot of his prose sounds like schizophrenic word salads, with all kinds of unnecessary neologisms that don't convey any information. He reads like a neo-Platonic philosopher on hallucinogens.
The price of oil collapsed during the Depression so that you could buy a barrel of the stuff for two bits or so at one time. Fuel efficiency was the least of people's worries back then.
Tesla came up with a technology that made electrical power practical. He got weird in middle age when he ran out of his better ideas and kept trying to find people to give him money.
Fuller wasn't the only inventor with a cult following of dubious rationality. Just look at Ray Kurzweil. Though in Kurzweil's favor most of his inventions (1) work; (2) perform useful tasks; and (3) have had some commercial success.
"Drug him well. I don't feel like wrestling." Well, somebody had to say it.
We should in no way follow their example. Conservative American radio talkshows tell me so.
Given how the dollar has tanked lately, smart Cubans would prefer Loonies and Euros instead.
For all his faults, in some ways Castro valued human life more than you'd expect from all the propaganda in the U.S. about "communism." He kept his people from starving in the 1990's after the collapse of the Soviet Union cut off a lot of Cuba's oil supply (unlike North Korea's Kim, who clearly doesn't give a crap about the starving people under his heel); at least Cubans don't have to eat dirt, literally, like their neighbors on Haiti. He's kept up a basic healthcare system and invested his country's meager resources into finding treatments for tropical poor people's diseases ignored by Western pharmaceutical companies. He had moved his country's population out of harm's way when the inevitable hurricanes rake across the island. And he even offered to send medical help to the U.S. for Hurricane Katrina's victims. So in some nontrivial respects he wasn't a totally bad guy.
Back in 1978 Robert Anton Wilson predicted that we'd be "immortal" by now. Boy, did he get a serious reality-fucking about a year ago.
Read Tom Whipple's article. In case you think this article doesn't matter because it's in an obscure newspaper, consider that Falls Church is a suburb of Washington, D.C., with a median family income of nearly $100,000, where a lot of the elite Federal bureaucrats live.
It's pretty clear now that the rate of progress has leveled off and fallen well short of the flying cars, space colonization, nanotech assemblers and friendly AI fantasy-future. Physicist Jonathan Huebner has gathered empirical evidence (PDF) showing that we're pretty much fucked for new, practical technological ideas already, and that includes AI. I'd respect Kurzweil more if he'd stop making an ass of himself with his sci-fi stuff, go back to his lab and work on something useful.
Their own search engine has popularized Richard C. Duncan's Olduvai Theory (.pdf) which now has empirical support.
I can't wait until astronomers find a planet with other planets and its star orbiting around it.
Something about a white trash guy in the desert, and an old black woman in a corn field.
What do you think life is -- some kind of miracle?
Warren's philosophy seems to buck the Buddhism trend in the West.
LRH's scam shows how easy it is to start a new religion that survives and gains passionate adherents after the death of its founders. Most people couldn't do it, but a few individuals have the kind of personality that can pull it off in the right social environment. In fact, we have enough recent historical data on cults that turn into competitive new religions (for example Mormonism and Baha'i, both founded in the 19th Century) that I don't think it's even all that mysterious how older religions like Christianity & Islam could have originated through normal social processes. (We don't have to postulate "supernatural" causes to explain their existence, in other words.)
"He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name."