If there's one thing that games have taught me over the years, it's that eating food makes the pain go away and restores hit points.
The pinnacle of this was perhaps Odin Sphere where you had to feed the souls of those you killed in combat to plants so you could mix their fruits with various storebought foods into delicious recipes that gained you experience and health.
We've already moved away from haystack technology and currently employ stickTech. Their competitors keep preaching about a new field dubbed as "masonry", but I really don't see the need.
The problem with that, is you end up with the broken window fallacy,
I was thinking more like Hoover dam, the golden gate bridge, mt Rushmore, and the endless number of amenities throughout the national park system.
Sure, make-work is wasteful, and some things take upkeep, but you'd have a really hard time calling for the shutdown of the golden gate bridge, even from a purely economical perspective. These things are a national resource. They have value and help society.
Yeah, the mindless partisan politics really is tearing America apart. I'm guilty of it myself sometimes, I really hated Bush. I don't see a third party making any headway anytime soon, or any sort of reform taking place. So I'm not sure what to do about that.
And don't imagine that you're somehow immune to it. "(aka their former kill the old people stance)" come, on, Really? And other parts like where you get argumentative about poor soldiers vs. patriotic soldiers. There are, of course, both. And some patriotic poor soldiers. But the argument is about the details like "more", "most", and "a lot". And these are hard things to find out. But we believe in our respective sides because... why again?
I really don't have any statistics to back up my >50% poor soldier claim. That's just one of those theoreticals that fits my worldview. And I know more poor in the military then patriots (who I think trend towards the marine, but I'm probably basing that off of uncle Larry). That's not a good method for measuring society. But I'm pretty sure you don't have any empirical data either. And so we go our separate ways.
At first it seemed odd, but after I thought about it, your post really is quite insightful. It's posts like your which make me believe more strongly in global warming and what we're going to have to do to fight it. I'd hoped that we could simply show people the upcoming consequences and, you know, things would change. But if there's more people like you out there, it's going to be an uphill battle.
1. "I don't understand climate change". A few degrees difference over the course of a century isn't really that big of deal all by itself. Even if it's hotter then it ever was before. But small changes can have big effects on systems like the climate. So, just as a layman's example, if the jet stream decides it's always going to come out of Canada rather then up from Mexico (or simply shift it's preference), then Omaha is going to go from having schizophrenic weather to having really shitty cold weather most of the time. And there will be only 2 wheat harvests instead of three. Likewise, if the jet steam decides to fluctuate over California, they can kiss their constant 70 degrees goodbye.
2. "It should be more noticeable". Well it's measurable, it's just not as pronounced as you describe. If it were that bad, then humanity would probably be fucked no matter what we do. It may indeed be like a runaway train, but it's more like a train that's supposed to be standing still, but Lou forgot to put on the brakes, and we've noticed that it's starting to roll downhill.
3. "Alarmism". This one I'll agree with. Humanity has a really bad tendency to preach doom and gloom. Fear sells I guess. I highly doubt the tales of apocalypse that some people are spreading. (also, the little ice age wasn't a warm period)
4. "I don't trust experts". Ok... so the experts are wrong because
Science isn't a democracy.
Some sociologists didn't fix all the problems back in the 60's, so scientists are wrong today...
Science argued for big government. (really? REALLY?)
Ah, and some people were wrong about global cooling in the 70's.
... sure.
5. "SOCIALISM!!!" . . . Global warming is a myth... Because of socialism? Ok, let's just dive in and take a look see.
Ah, "Socialism has always been marketed as rule by the scientists and experts", Yes, well, I'm starting to see the connection now. I believe you may be mistaken though. That right there would be more of a technocracy. Socialism is more like the collective peter taking from selective paul, but paul not whining like a little bitch because he still drives around in a Mercedes, but now he can't afford two.
6. "Stop calling me a conspiracy nutcase!" I think this probably stems from you saying things like in #5. That the scientists want to put you under their fascist boot of socialism.
7. "And stop calling me names!" Sorry, but it appears that you have some fallacies in your logic. Like, saying that all scientists are wrong because sociologists tried something in the 60's. That's just silly. It doesn't put you in good light.
8."I don't believe anything you say". Really? You're bitching about the polar bear video? It's marketing dude. As for "climategae", it really wasn't as grievous as the talking heads made it out to be.
9. "I don't like polls". Yeah, me either. It's sort of a distraction, but it's what journalists do. But those models do exist, and they ARE forecasting the weather. And the answer is going to be a percentage chance. "I still don't understand the reason why they cannot predict the average temperature next year." Try to grok the butterfly effect. Then realize we live in a probabilistic universe. So we can't see into the future, we can only give you the odds.
10. "I don't like peak oil either". You really don't think the economy is ever going to come back? Hell, even if it doesn't, we're still going to hit peak oil. You should realize that we hit peak oil for the
huh. You know, that was one of the "important" things I had to remember as a kid, and it took some effort. I forget what age it was though. What's going to happen to these kids if they never have to dedicate anything to long term memory? E
Your post is insightful into the changes between the world we grew up in and the one kids are in now. And it's woken me up to a concern that of other's that I've scoffed at before. These gadgets are making us dumb.
Say what you will about savages, they at least know how to make a fire and gut a pig.
"The other half we use to pay off the national debt."
WHOA There!, I meant to say START paying off the national debt. HA! Wow I flubbed that one. Like we could pay it off in our lifetime.
As opposed to the Democrat Party, which is ruled and empowered by fear
Hmmm. Well they ARE empowered by people fearing republicans. You got me there.
A LOT of millionaires put in more hours in a given week than slashdotters do during crunch time.
I think you missed by point. Managing people, shmoozing, and simply "holding authority" doesn't really benefit society. I mean, I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to babysit 5 engineers, but it's not that important of a job. When the skills you develop become less important then your ability to wine and dine clients, then you've stopped helping humanity and you're simply trying to live off of the fat of humanity.
Marketing, for example, is all about fooling the customers into buying a product. Sure, it pays a lot, but it doesn't benefit society.
Social Security and Medicare... which exist solely and specifically to transfer money.
And here I thought that Social Security was enforced savings. I do remember something about Medicare being used to help sick people. My goodness, what dastardly propaganda have I befell!
Hmmm, yeah, looking back I was mean to the grunts. Sorry about that. I was an ass.
That said, most of them boys are from poor families as that's the best, if not only, option for them. Sucks to be them.
As a nation, we need to sit down and have a frank discussion about what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot afford, what does and doesn't help, or else we will collapse economically.
That right there are words of wisdom. I couldn't agree more. But we DO sit down every year, and have a discussion about that. And the budget always increases.
I say we cut down on welfare and the military, and use half the money to fund big public works to make jobs for the now starving poor and the unemployed jar heads. The other half we use to pay off the national debt.
Noticeable LAG! On a free search engine? This is UNACCEPTABLE! Drag out the heretics, lash them to the canvas, and burn them eternally! Let not their javascript soil your pure nature. Cast out their algorithms from your cache, and listen not unto their rhetoric for their lips ever spew lies!
There shall be a Reckoning for this lag!
whose skills start depreciating almost as soon as they are laid off, given the dynamism of the industry.
Huh, that doesn't seem to jive with my experience. Of course, I stayed away from the framework of the week and learned C in college. Oh look, it's still relevant.
Right, a contract between IBM and Microsoft really helped establish window's market share as the OS to use on IBM's computers.
... And since IBM was helped by "gov't subsidies and taxes and regulations and contracts", it's obviously the government's fault that Windows dominates the OS market?
All you're doing is calling a large portion of the population spineless and brainless for having a different opinion than yourself.
He's saying that the republican party base is ruled by fear, and the republican party is empowered by fear. From terrorists, to death panels, to all the boogymen portrayed on fox, I'd say he has a point. But yeah, he overplays it a little.
a government should protect an environment where it's most productive members are enabled to enrich themselves and society as a whole.
Oh for sure. I don't think anyone is keeping you from working hard. Realizing that anyone making over a mill probably isn't that productive anymore, nor is anyone wearing a suit and tie. Sure, they make the most money, but actually benefiting society? The world only needs so many yacht salesmen.
Also, EVERYONE should be able to enrich themselves. How else do you think people become productive?
a government's largest expenditures should not be income transfer programs.
Hmm, yeah, like the sibling said; that can be considered every government program. But when I read it, I only matched the IRS as such a program. You know, since their sole purpose is to take your money. And that's not nearly the governments largest expenditure. But no, thinking about it from the GOP's talking point perspective, you're referring to things like welfare and social security aren't you?
Yeah, those serve a purpose. Keeping grandma from starving in the street is important. Arguably more important than transferring your income to rednecks with guns out in the desert stirring up a big pot of bad karma. Or is the military beyond reproach?
strike a balance where society's poorest members can be helped in times of need without bankrupting the entire nation.
Another one I agree with. Of course, it'd be nice if we weren't already ludicrously in debt.
The butterfly effect goes against a systematic universe.
. . . Yeah. It does, doesn't it. It shows that the universe isn't "systematic" as you say. But, uh, the butterfly effect is just a phenomena of calculations. Pure math. It can be applied to real world calculations like weather predictions, and lo and behold it's true. The main gist is that small, seemingly inconsequential changes can have macro-level results. And really small stuff, at the quantum level, is probabilistic, not deterministic. There's a chance that the atom will decay, and with enough that chance is very determinable and repeatable, but it's still a chance.
I guess this is what I'm getting at: The universe IS just a gigantic bag of "just plain chaos". The "systems" you see are emergent properties of that chaos. Time, gravity, atoms, everything has it's fringe-cases where the rules as we know them break down.
ok, this is a little cliche, but what the hell: The chances of a specific set of lotto numbers being drawn tomorrow are very slim. But what are the chances that the lotto tomorrow will be a series of numbers? Very very good. And so you're standing there telling me about the miracle that is lotto, when there's no miracle at all.
Likewise, if there was another big bang, and it turned out that the sky was purple instead of blue, planets were torus-like, and neutrons bunched around electrons instead of protons, then everything would be different... But it'd still be here.
The original point is how the universe is so complex, yet so systematic, like clockwork.
Yeah, except for the part where it isn't that systematic. There isn't any apparent order or function. It's entirely unlike clockwork.
Oh, our planet orbits a star in a circle? Yeah, there's a reason for that. And the circle is not perfect. We've explained why planets for in orbits. Everything else fell into the protostar or flew out of the system. By sheer chance, a planet formed here between Venus and Mars.
and even if one believed in chances
Well consider me a "chance-ist". I've done my fair share of experiments involving the mysterious devices known as "dice" and feel pretty comfortable declaring that things like "probability" and "chance" do indeed exist.
I'm actually agnostic when it comes to high energy physics though. I have the belief that I'll never really grok this. Because it's hard and stuff.
But from what I gather, research in quantum mechanics show us that on a very small level, everything is probabilistic. And if you understand the butterfly effect, then you'll understand how that propagates to the larger scale of dice, lightning, and planet formation. So yeah, probabilistic universe, woo.
The formation of atoms got determined around 3 minutes after the big bang. It's old-hat to high energy physicists. An atomic explosion has nothing on the conditions prior to that 3 minute second mark. So, you're dismissing the conversation and trying to point out something you consider more powerful in sort of a "hey, isn't this more important!" sort of maneuver. And all it's doing is showing your ignorance on the topic. Please refrain from contributing unless you have something to contribute.
Well, that's not really what's happening here. Just as we've found out that lightning is not some guy throwing them from the clouds at people he doesn't like because we've found out that clouds build up and electrical potential energy difference and it discharges across the path of least resistance. Now Dr. Hawking is saying that we (well, not me, but he himself at least) have have a better understanding of how the big bang started, and that it wasn't some bearded guy in a cloud flipping the on switch.
nor can we ignore the possibility it may be the truth, can we now?
Yes we can. Since it doesn't affect us in the least, we can ignore that possibility quite safely. Just like you can ignore the possibility that god is the most delicious jelly doughnut in the world and crafted all of this around him just to appreciate his greatness. Possible, but improbable, and not worth worrying about.
Slashdot Mirror
what's the opposite of "privatize"? Publicize?
Nationalize.
If there's one thing that games have taught me over the years, it's that eating food makes the pain go away and restores hit points.
The pinnacle of this was perhaps Odin Sphere where you had to feed the souls of those you killed in combat to plants so you could mix their fruits with various storebought foods into delicious recipes that gained you experience and health.
This neighborhood kids sounds suspicious, let's sic ICE on his ass!
Remember the new doubleplus good slogan: See something, Say something.
Right, so you've got absolutely no problem with anchor babies. You know, since they were born here, and aren't immigrants.
We've already moved away from haystack technology and currently employ stickTech. Their competitors keep preaching about a new field dubbed as "masonry", but I really don't see the need.
Public works
The problem with that, is you end up with the broken window fallacy,
I was thinking more like Hoover dam, the golden gate bridge, mt Rushmore, and the endless number of amenities throughout the national park system.
Sure, make-work is wasteful, and some things take upkeep, but you'd have a really hard time calling for the shutdown of the golden gate bridge, even from a purely economical perspective. These things are a national resource. They have value and help society.
Yeah, the mindless partisan politics really is tearing America apart. I'm guilty of it myself sometimes, I really hated Bush. I don't see a third party making any headway anytime soon, or any sort of reform taking place. So I'm not sure what to do about that.
And don't imagine that you're somehow immune to it. "(aka their former kill the old people stance)" come, on, Really? And other parts like where you get argumentative about poor soldiers vs. patriotic soldiers. There are, of course, both. And some patriotic poor soldiers. But the argument is about the details like "more", "most", and "a lot". And these are hard things to find out. But we believe in our respective sides because... why again?
I really don't have any statistics to back up my >50% poor soldier claim. That's just one of those theoreticals that fits my worldview. And I know more poor in the military then patriots (who I think trend towards the marine, but I'm probably basing that off of uncle Larry). That's not a good method for measuring society. But I'm pretty sure you don't have any empirical data either.
And so we go our separate ways.
Take care, yo.
1. "I don't understand climate change". A few degrees difference over the course of a century isn't really that big of deal all by itself. Even if it's hotter then it ever was before. But small changes can have big effects on systems like the climate. So, just as a layman's example, if the jet stream decides it's always going to come out of Canada rather then up from Mexico (or simply shift it's preference), then Omaha is going to go from having schizophrenic weather to having really shitty cold weather most of the time. And there will be only 2 wheat harvests instead of three. Likewise, if the jet steam decides to fluctuate over California, they can kiss their constant 70 degrees goodbye.
2. "It should be more noticeable". Well it's measurable, it's just not as pronounced as you describe. If it were that bad, then humanity would probably be fucked no matter what we do. It may indeed be like a runaway train, but it's more like a train that's supposed to be standing still, but Lou forgot to put on the brakes, and we've noticed that it's starting to roll downhill.
3. "Alarmism". This one I'll agree with. Humanity has a really bad tendency to preach doom and gloom. Fear sells I guess. I highly doubt the tales of apocalypse that some people are spreading. (also, the little ice age wasn't a warm period)
4. "I don't trust experts". Ok... so the experts are wrong because
5. "SOCIALISM!!!"
. . . Global warming is a myth... Because of socialism? Ok, let's just dive in and take a look see.
Ah, "Socialism has always been marketed as rule by the scientists and experts", Yes, well, I'm starting to see the connection now. I believe you may be mistaken though. That right there would be more of a technocracy. Socialism is more like the collective peter taking from selective paul, but paul not whining like a little bitch because he still drives around in a Mercedes, but now he can't afford two.
6. "Stop calling me a conspiracy nutcase!" I think this probably stems from you saying things like in #5. That the scientists want to put you under their fascist boot of socialism.
7. "And stop calling me names!" Sorry, but it appears that you have some fallacies in your logic. Like, saying that all scientists are wrong because sociologists tried something in the 60's. That's just silly. It doesn't put you in good light.
8."I don't believe anything you say". Really? You're bitching about the polar bear video? It's marketing dude. As for "climategae", it really wasn't as grievous as the talking heads made it out to be.
9. "I don't like polls". Yeah, me either. It's sort of a distraction, but it's what journalists do. But those models do exist, and they ARE forecasting the weather. And the answer is going to be a percentage chance.
"I still don't understand the reason why they cannot predict the average temperature next year." Try to grok the butterfly effect. Then realize we live in a probabilistic universe. So we can't see into the future, we can only give you the odds.
10. "I don't like peak oil either". You really don't think the economy is ever going to come back? Hell, even if it doesn't, we're still going to hit peak oil. You should realize that we hit peak oil for the
huh. You know, that was one of the "important" things I had to remember as a kid, and it took some effort. I forget what age it was though. What's going to happen to these kids if they never have to dedicate anything to long term memory? E
Your post is insightful into the changes between the world we grew up in and the one kids are in now. And it's woken me up to a concern that of other's that I've scoffed at before. These gadgets are making us dumb.
Say what you will about savages, they at least know how to make a fire and gut a pig.
"The other half we use to pay off the national debt." WHOA There!, I meant to say START paying off the national debt.
HA! Wow I flubbed that one. Like we could pay it off in our lifetime.
As opposed to the Democrat Party, which is ruled and empowered by fear
Hmmm. Well they ARE empowered by people fearing republicans. You got me there.
A LOT of millionaires put in more hours in a given week than slashdotters do during crunch time.
I think you missed by point. Managing people, shmoozing, and simply "holding authority" doesn't really benefit society. I mean, I'm really glad I'm not the one who has to babysit 5 engineers, but it's not that important of a job. When the skills you develop become less important then your ability to wine and dine clients, then you've stopped helping humanity and you're simply trying to live off of the fat of humanity. Marketing, for example, is all about fooling the customers into buying a product. Sure, it pays a lot, but it doesn't benefit society.
Social Security and Medicare ... which exist solely and specifically to transfer money.
And here I thought that Social Security was enforced savings. I do remember something about Medicare being used to help sick people. My goodness, what dastardly propaganda have I befell!
Hmmm, yeah, looking back I was mean to the grunts. Sorry about that. I was an ass. That said, most of them boys are from poor families as that's the best, if not only, option for them. Sucks to be them.
As a nation, we need to sit down and have a frank discussion about what we can and cannot do, what we can and cannot afford, what does and doesn't help, or else we will collapse economically.
That right there are words of wisdom. I couldn't agree more. But we DO sit down every year, and have a discussion about that. And the budget always increases.
I say we cut down on welfare and the military, and use half the money to fund big public works to make jobs for the now starving poor and the unemployed jar heads. The other half we use to pay off the national debt.
Oh man! Opera doesn't support cookies? No wonder it sucks.
Noticeable LAG! On a free search engine? This is UNACCEPTABLE! Drag out the heretics, lash them to the canvas, and burn them eternally! Let not their javascript soil your pure nature. Cast out their algorithms from your cache, and listen not unto their rhetoric for their lips ever spew lies!
There shall be a Reckoning for this lag!
whose skills start depreciating almost as soon as they are laid off, given the dynamism of the industry.
Huh, that doesn't seem to jive with my experience. Of course, I stayed away from the framework of the week and learned C in college. Oh look, it's still relevant.
Right, a contract between IBM and Microsoft really helped establish window's market share as the OS to use on IBM's computers.
... And since IBM was helped by "gov't subsidies and taxes and regulations and contracts", it's obviously the government's fault that Windows dominates the OS market?
All you're doing is calling a large portion of the population spineless and brainless for having a different opinion than yourself.
He's saying that the republican party base is ruled by fear, and the republican party is empowered by fear. From terrorists, to death panels, to all the boogymen portrayed on fox, I'd say he has a point. But yeah, he overplays it a little.
a government should protect an environment where it's most productive members are enabled to enrich themselves and society as a whole.
Oh for sure. I don't think anyone is keeping you from working hard. Realizing that anyone making over a mill probably isn't that productive anymore, nor is anyone wearing a suit and tie. Sure, they make the most money, but actually benefiting society? The world only needs so many yacht salesmen.
Also, EVERYONE should be able to enrich themselves. How else do you think people become productive?
a government's largest expenditures should not be income transfer programs.
Hmm, yeah, like the sibling said; that can be considered every government program. But when I read it, I only matched the IRS as such a program. You know, since their sole purpose is to take your money. And that's not nearly the governments largest expenditure. But no, thinking about it from the GOP's talking point perspective, you're referring to things like welfare and social security aren't you? Yeah, those serve a purpose. Keeping grandma from starving in the street is important. Arguably more important than transferring your income to rednecks with guns out in the desert stirring up a big pot of bad karma. Or is the military beyond reproach?
strike a balance where society's poorest members can be helped in times of need without bankrupting the entire nation.
Another one I agree with. Of course, it'd be nice if we weren't already ludicrously in debt.
I always liked the crap-shoot that was landing behind enemy lines.
ok, I'll bite. What government taxes, subsidies, regulations, or bailouts helped establish the Windows monopoly?
Wow dude, going through your history, I don't think you have much room to talk about anything pertaining to religion, love, or beauty.
I mean, I try to keep an open mind about those that go on rants like this. It's important to them or whatever.
but whoa! WHOA!
Well you seem like a nice enough guy, even if you have some odd ideas.
The butterfly effect goes against a systematic universe.
. . . Yeah. It does, doesn't it. It shows that the universe isn't "systematic" as you say.
But, uh, the butterfly effect is just a phenomena of calculations. Pure math. It can be applied to real world calculations like weather predictions, and lo and behold it's true. The main gist is that small, seemingly inconsequential changes can have macro-level results. And really small stuff, at the quantum level, is probabilistic, not deterministic. There's a chance that the atom will decay, and with enough that chance is very determinable and repeatable, but it's still a chance. I guess this is what I'm getting at: The universe IS just a gigantic bag of "just plain chaos". The "systems" you see are emergent properties of that chaos. Time, gravity, atoms, everything has it's fringe-cases where the rules as we know them break down. ok, this is a little cliche, but what the hell:
The chances of a specific set of lotto numbers being drawn tomorrow are very slim. But what are the chances that the lotto tomorrow will be a series of numbers? Very very good. And so you're standing there telling me about the miracle that is lotto, when there's no miracle at all.
Likewise, if there was another big bang, and it turned out that the sky was purple instead of blue, planets were torus-like, and neutrons bunched around electrons instead of protons, then everything would be different... But it'd still be here.
The original point is how the universe is so complex, yet so systematic, like clockwork.
Yeah, except for the part where it isn't that systematic. There isn't any apparent order or function. It's entirely unlike clockwork. Oh, our planet orbits a star in a circle? Yeah, there's a reason for that. And the circle is not perfect. We've explained why planets for in orbits. Everything else fell into the protostar or flew out of the system. By sheer chance, a planet formed here between Venus and Mars.
and even if one believed in chances
Well consider me a "chance-ist". I've done my fair share of experiments involving the mysterious devices known as "dice" and feel pretty comfortable declaring that things like "probability" and "chance" do indeed exist.
I'm actually agnostic when it comes to high energy physics though. I have the belief that I'll never really grok this. Because it's hard and stuff.
But from what I gather, research in quantum mechanics show us that on a very small level, everything is probabilistic. And if you understand the butterfly effect, then you'll understand how that propagates to the larger scale of dice, lightning, and planet formation. So yeah, probabilistic universe, woo.
haha, Jim, you crazy.
The formation of atoms got determined around 3 minutes after the big bang. It's old-hat to high energy physicists. An atomic explosion has nothing on the conditions prior to that 3 minute second mark. So, you're dismissing the conversation and trying to point out something you consider more powerful in sort of a "hey, isn't this more important!" sort of maneuver. And all it's doing is showing your ignorance on the topic. Please refrain from contributing unless you have something to contribute.
Well, that's not really what's happening here. Just as we've found out that lightning is not some guy throwing them from the clouds at people he doesn't like because we've found out that clouds build up and electrical potential energy difference and it discharges across the path of least resistance. Now Dr. Hawking is saying that we (well, not me, but he himself at least) have have a better understanding of how the big bang started, and that it wasn't some bearded guy in a cloud flipping the on switch.
nor can we ignore the possibility it may be the truth, can we now?
Yes we can. Since it doesn't affect us in the least, we can ignore that possibility quite safely. Just like you can ignore the possibility that god is the most delicious jelly doughnut in the world and crafted all of this around him just to appreciate his greatness. Possible, but improbable, and not worth worrying about.