The problem with the bonus system, Taleb explains, is that it provides an incentive to take risks: 'The asymmetric nature of the bonus (an incentive for success without a corresponding disincentive for failure) causes hidden risks to accumulate in the financial system and become a catalyst for disaster.
There's always a disincentive for failure. It's called losing your job, and having your business fail. But, wait, that's right, by creating the bailout, government got rid of the disincentive for failure, so now you tell me they have to get rid of the incentive for success as well. Idiots.
Let the government stick to punishing real crimes, like fraud and assault, and let failure be its own punishment.
Quit messing with my incentive for success, I'm trying to feed my family here. The bank I work for is already under a pay freeze, I count my lucky stars that I escaped the layoffs, I don't need any more "helpful ideas" from people who hate the industry I work for.
After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."
There's a good article here that goes into the real difference. It's not about which party is in charge.
The word "republic" comes from the Latin res publica — which means simply "the public thing(s)," or more simply "the law(s)." "Democracy," on the other hand, is derived from the Greek words demos and kratein, which translates to "the people to rule." Democracy, therefore, has always been synonymous with majority rule.
So, what do you want to put your trust in? A law, or a crowd?
Lee Strobel (former atheist and crime beat journalist) has several great books that take a serious, rational look at whether the evidence stacks up for or against Christianity. I just recently finished The Case for Faith, and he looks at Hawking's arguments. He's got a good methodology: He takes the skeptic's view, and interviews top theologians, philosophers, and scientists. Here's just a few good pieces out of the chapter on miracles and science:
Craig chuckled. "Of course, something coming from nothing doesn't make sense! Lee, you've been quoting the famous skeptic David Hume quite a bit in our interview. Well, even he said: 'But allow me to tell you that I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that anything might arise without a cause.' "Atheists recognize this. For example, one of contemporary philosophy's most prominent atheists, Kai Nielsen, once said: 'Suppose you suddenly hear a loud bang... and you ask me, 'What made that bang?' and I reply, 'Nothing, it just happened.' You would not accept that. "And he's absolutely correct. Yet think about it: if there must be a cause for a little bang, then doesn't it also make sense that there would be a cause for a big bang?"
"First, whatever begins to exist has a cause. Second, the universe began to exist. And, third, therefore, the universe has a cause."
"Atheists themselves used to be very comfortable in maintaining that the universe is eternal and uncaused," he replied. "The problem is that they can no longer hold that position because of modern evidence that the universe started with the Big Bang. So they can't legitimately object when I make the same claim about God-- he is eternal and he is uncaused."
So, it seems to me that atheists are stuck trying to explain away "turtles all the way down" this time. In a nutshell: Thanks to Hawking, we can see gravity either in the old-school attraction-between-masses way, or in the curvature-of-spacetime way. Either way, gravity is built in to the universe. It does not compute that a part of the universe could be its own cause.
There's another interesting thought. As the story said: The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered.
Let's twist it around the other way. Some folks might have a religious or dietary concern over this "fake meat". I mean, look at the big stink and controversy over genetically selected or modified strains of grain. Not to mention, does "fake meat" fit into kosher rules?
How do I know that I'm getting "natural" meat? Even today with grain products and organic fruits and veggies, the FDA is a bit fuzzy on letting manufacturers label their products as "all natural".
Several senators felt that the actual legal code would be too cryptic and complicated to be useful.
Translation: The voters who elected us are not only too stupid to make their own personal financial and healthcare decisions independent of government, but they are also too stupid to understand the laws that we are enlightened enough to impose on them.
They need to get over themselves. A friend of mine from Romania became a new American citizen this year. I showed him a "pocket" copy of the Constitution I have, and we started talking about it. He said that the greatest thing about it is its simplicity. Anyone with a decent vocabulary can read the Constitution and understand its plain language, even if English is their second language, even though it's now more than 200 years old.
It was a law written to be understood by the people. When the law is no longer simple enough to be understood by those who live under it, it becomes a weapon of tyranny.
And these politicians want to tell us that we are too stupid to understand how our own government works. They tell us this because if we believe it, they have power over us.
Just one thing to add on to my previous response. Not to pick a fight, but hopefully, to present you with a conundrum. As you may have figured out by now, I'm what you might call a believer. But I have a somewhat analytical mind, if I do say so myself, and I seek that same scientific understanding of how and why things work that you say believers don't need. Strange, don't you think?
Even then I was struck by the vastness of the universe, and the idea that some god person had made it all seemed a bit too simple.
I understand what you're saying. Real things aren't simple. But then, what you're describing isn't really Christianity, as I understand it.
The odd thing that strikes me about the Judeo-Christian creation story is how un-mythlike it is, especially when you compare it to other ancient creation stories. No eggs laid by black birds from which the universe is hatched, no titans' entrails, no children of cosmic kings becoming islands... As a matter of fact, if you take out the time scales, up until the time humans show up, it sounds a lot like what astronomers tell us.
And as for the whole birds and galaxies thing, yeah, it may sound a bit silly if that's all you take it for. But if you take it for poetry, and see that there really is some sort of complex order in all things, whether the scale you're looking at us cosmic or microscopic... Well, any being with the capability to create and maintain such an order wouldn't strike me as "dumb". But that's just how I see it.
I'd be honored if you would read, and if you wish, possibly respond to, my latest journal entry. Just happens to be on this topic.
Are you kidding? There's a huge "business" case for public parks, if you recognize that the "business" of local politicians is (usually) increasing their own power, perks, and tax revenue.
How do they increase their power and perks? Most local politicians, at least where I've seen, are thoroughly "in bed" with local housing and commercial real estate developers. Build and keep pretty parks, sell more houses. Grow the population, get more stores.
More population and more stores all bring in more tax revenue. And if your local politicians are anything like mine, more tax revenue means they get to vote themselves raises and build themselves nice, new offices.
So, yeah. It's all about putting more dollars in someone's pocket. Even those public parks.
Municipal WiFi just doesn't have the power to sell houses the way public parks do.
YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. The advertisers are the customers, and they are selling your eyeballs.
And the customer is always right. All the lawsuits and legislation in the world won't change that.
Interesting timing on this, for me, anyway. Just last weekend, the wife and I canceled service on our dish service. We figured out that we were paying about $50 a month, and only watching about 6 channels out of the hundreds available, for about an hour a night, at most. The only cheaper deal we could get would have been about $30 with only 3 channels we like, none of them our favorites.
It makes more sense for us to stick with dvds at that price. And with the freedom to set our own entertainment schedule, we now have time to enjoy each other's company. What a concept.
So, neither the cable company nor the dish company has our eyeballs to sell any more. Maybe they can have them back when they see us as the customer again. If the price is right.
Hey, with the kilogram losing mass, I figure it won't be long before the meter starts shrinking. Those NASA folks were just thinking ahead by a few billion years.
Slashdot Mirror
Someone get an infinite number of these word-recognizing baboons, and an infinite number of typewriters!
There's always a disincentive for failure. It's called losing your job, and having your business fail. But, wait, that's right, by creating the bailout, government got rid of the disincentive for failure, so now you tell me they have to get rid of the incentive for success as well. Idiots.
Let the government stick to punishing real crimes, like fraud and assault, and let failure be its own punishment.
Quit messing with my incentive for success, I'm trying to feed my family here. The bank I work for is already under a pay freeze, I count my lucky stars that I escaped the layoffs, I don't need any more "helpful ideas" from people who hate the industry I work for.
You can't stop the signal.
After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked, "Well, Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?"
Franklin responded, "A republic, if you can keep it."
There's a good article here that goes into the real difference. It's not about which party is in charge.
So, what do you want to put your trust in? A law, or a crowd?
Anyone who attends is sure to have a blast!
Lee Strobel (former atheist and crime beat journalist) has several great books that take a serious, rational look at whether the evidence stacks up for or against Christianity. I just recently finished The Case for Faith, and he looks at Hawking's arguments. He's got a good methodology: He takes the skeptic's view, and interviews top theologians, philosophers, and scientists. Here's just a few good pieces out of the chapter on miracles and science:
So, it seems to me that atheists are stuck trying to explain away "turtles all the way down" this time. In a nutshell: Thanks to Hawking, we can see gravity either in the old-school attraction-between-masses way, or in the curvature-of-spacetime way. Either way, gravity is built in to the universe. It does not compute that a part of the universe could be its own cause.
do you think people are crazy?
Is this a trick question?
There's another interesting thought. As the story said:
The big question is how could you guarantee you were eating artificial flesh rather than flesh from an animal that had been slaughtered.
Let's twist it around the other way. Some folks might have a religious or dietary concern over this "fake meat". I mean, look at the big stink and controversy over genetically selected or modified strains of grain. Not to mention, does "fake meat" fit into kosher rules?
How do I know that I'm getting "natural" meat? Even today with grain products and organic fruits and veggies, the FDA is a bit fuzzy on letting manufacturers label their products as "all natural".
Just move the mouse.
Sounds like Windows ME.
Windows MEow in this case.
Translation: The voters who elected us are not only too stupid to make their own personal financial and healthcare decisions independent of government, but they are also too stupid to understand the laws that we are enlightened enough to impose on them.
They need to get over themselves. A friend of mine from Romania became a new American citizen this year. I showed him a "pocket" copy of the Constitution I have, and we started talking about it. He said that the greatest thing about it is its simplicity. Anyone with a decent vocabulary can read the Constitution and understand its plain language, even if English is their second language, even though it's now more than 200 years old.
It was a law written to be understood by the people. When the law is no longer simple enough to be understood by those who live under it, it becomes a weapon of tyranny.
And these politicians want to tell us that we are too stupid to understand how our own government works. They tell us this because if we believe it, they have power over us.
Are they ill-tempered?
Like this job here?
For the love of all that's good in the world! Do not give the government ideas on more ways to tax us!
Or my personal favorite, Black Perl....
There's an idea.
Politician: "We need to spend more money on (insert pet pork project)!"
Me: "Constitutional citation needed."
I think that's just more proof that speaking English is the real culprit here...
Tonto and Tarzan were unavailable for comment.
The fortune at the bottom of the page reads:
You will gain money by a speculation or lottery
Well, someone is, at least....
Just one thing to add on to my previous response. Not to pick a fight, but hopefully, to present you with a conundrum. As you may have figured out by now, I'm what you might call a believer. But I have a somewhat analytical mind, if I do say so myself, and I seek that same scientific understanding of how and why things work that you say believers don't need. Strange, don't you think?
Even then I was struck by the vastness of the universe, and the idea that some god person had made it all seemed a bit too simple.
I understand what you're saying. Real things aren't simple. But then, what you're describing isn't really Christianity, as I understand it.
The odd thing that strikes me about the Judeo-Christian creation story is how un-mythlike it is, especially when you compare it to other ancient creation stories. No eggs laid by black birds from which the universe is hatched, no titans' entrails, no children of cosmic kings becoming islands... As a matter of fact, if you take out the time scales, up until the time humans show up, it sounds a lot like what astronomers tell us.
And as for the whole birds and galaxies thing, yeah, it may sound a bit silly if that's all you take it for. But if you take it for poetry, and see that there really is some sort of complex order in all things, whether the scale you're looking at us cosmic or microscopic... Well, any being with the capability to create and maintain such an order wouldn't strike me as "dumb". But that's just how I see it.
I'd be honored if you would read, and if you wish, possibly respond to, my latest journal entry. Just happens to be on this topic.
You are not entitled to listen to the same crappy song more then once
Unless you're listening to the radio, in which case you get to listen to the same crappy songs on every station, over, and over, and over....
Are you kidding? There's a huge "business" case for public parks, if you recognize that the "business" of local politicians is (usually) increasing their own power, perks, and tax revenue.
How do they increase their power and perks? Most local politicians, at least where I've seen, are thoroughly "in bed" with local housing and commercial real estate developers. Build and keep pretty parks, sell more houses. Grow the population, get more stores.
More population and more stores all bring in more tax revenue. And if your local politicians are anything like mine, more tax revenue means they get to vote themselves raises and build themselves nice, new offices.
So, yeah. It's all about putting more dollars in someone's pocket. Even those public parks.
Municipal WiFi just doesn't have the power to sell houses the way public parks do.
YOU ARE NOT THE CUSTOMER, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT. The advertisers are the customers, and they are selling your eyeballs.
And the customer is always right. All the lawsuits and legislation in the world won't change that.
Interesting timing on this, for me, anyway. Just last weekend, the wife and I canceled service on our dish service. We figured out that we were paying about $50 a month, and only watching about 6 channels out of the hundreds available, for about an hour a night, at most. The only cheaper deal we could get would have been about $30 with only 3 channels we like, none of them our favorites.
It makes more sense for us to stick with dvds at that price. And with the freedom to set our own entertainment schedule, we now have time to enjoy each other's company. What a concept.
So, neither the cable company nor the dish company has our eyeballs to sell any more. Maybe they can have them back when they see us as the customer again. If the price is right.
Hey, with the kilogram losing mass, I figure it won't be long before the meter starts shrinking. Those NASA folks were just thinking ahead by a few billion years.