"I suspect that if you add up all the proxy wars, you'll get a death toll that easily exceeds that of World War I."
Those are squat next to WWII, still far lighter than WW1, as well as having less impact on important modern nations and therefore less impact on modern man. Loss rate were far less traumatic too. There was nothing in the Cold War to match the First Day at the Somme or Verdun, not even in Korea or Viet Nam.
The proxies are easy enough to add up, and while internal fusses like the Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge follies in Kampuchea are considerable they were internal matters and not between combatants.
Re:There is Always More Work to Do
on
The Real Job Threat
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· Score: 4, Insightful
"I'm more worried that people have forgotten how to clean a chicken or simply grow enough vegetables and plants to survive (should we ever be thrust backwards)."
Plenty of us can do those things. We share our insights via the internet instead of by mimeographed newsletters. If we are "thrust backwards" the knowledge will survive and propagate. We have hundreds of years of technology to choose from.
Self and wife raise chickens, who are healthier because of what we learned on the internet even though we have plenty of farmer friends we also ask for info. We obtain parts for our 1937 Chevrolet truck (and our other trucks and motorcycles) via Ebay. I use Purox oxy-acetylene torches which are essentially unchanged since the 1930s. I learned about them via the internet, and can have most any part I wish in-hand in a few days.
Modern technology offers many ways to learn about less-modern technology. Being "thrust backward" is unlikely, but modern information tech makes learning about the spectrum of useful tech much easier.
I grew up before computers were commonplace. If anyone tells you those were "the good old days", punch them in the throat with my compliments.
"Open source basically makes me better at my job and ensures my future by empowering me to do my job better."
Of course. Open Source means you aren't locked out like some sharecropper from land he'll never control.
You always park downhill. The guy at the parts house is listed as a dependent on your income tax form. You get in a car and are surprised when all of the instruments work.
You tell your wife that you were out until 3AM because the car broke down... and she believes you. The family is no longer upset in having to share the dinner table with a bunch of SU parts. You don't trust anyone named Lucas. When your generator dies, you just pull another out of your Lucas pile of bits. You wash your hands before working in the engine compartment. You'd rather give the family pit bull a bath than tune your SU carburettors again. You allow four hours for a trip, 3 for repairs and 1 for driving. You can unstick a jammed starter in the dark, in the rain, in 5 minutes and don't think it's a big deal. There's no oil on the garage floor so you know the car's completely empty. Your car makes a funny sound and you immediately know what's wrong, how much it will cost, and what tools you will need to repair it.
"The last thing my kids need is to get cancer or at the very least be rendered sterile by HPV because they fell in love with someone that didn't make good choices. "
Bottom line, even if you trust your offspring, trusting EVERYONE ELSE is a bit of a stretch.
"I was a child when the Cold War ended but even a decade and a half later it seems so pointless."
Moderate nuclear wars were and remain quite practical. That was proven by atmospheric testing. Militaries on both sides developed procedures for continuing the fight near areas which had been nuked, including driving through them buttoned up in APCs and tanks.
Given the context of Total War which was fought in WWII, destroying enemy nations was a very reasonable option to have in the toolbox. Japan and Germany had, LITERALLY, tried to destroy many of the Allies. This wasn't some game of Risk, it was real. In that context, being able to obliterate similar threats was flawlessly RATIONAL.
Had Imperial Japan refused to surrender, it was reasonable to keep striking it until there were no more Japanese. The entire population was a weapon. The current geek weaboo view of Japan has nothing to do with the reality of what Imperial Japanese Army did to much of Asia. Japan worked long and hard to deserve every casualty it sustained, and don't forget it. The Japanese people pretend differently, but their victim neighbors are under no such delusions.
Nuclear weapons finished WWII, and deterred nuclear war thereafter. That's a pretty good record. Don't use current PC fashion to judge history. Learn the details of why things came to be that you might better understand. Because the Cold War was fought "well enough", you enjoy tasty freedom and so does much of the former Soviet Union. Detente worked (praise be to Nixon!) and China is far freer than under Mao.
Willingness to kill billions coupled with restraint and diplomacy over time worked. Apart from a few minor scuffles the Cold War was quite peaceful. Thank atomic weapons in the hands of RATIONAL, not "insane" actors.
Without the power to kill, diplomacy means nothing because enemy power can dictate terms.
Auto trannys are also MUCH more expensive to overhaul, which means "replace with a remanned unit" in practice.
I keep my vehicles long enough to wear out auto transmissions or manual clutches. Clutch replacement is MUCH cheaper. IAAM (I Am A Mechanic), but the folks who aren't pay far more for such expensive repairs.
Romance is competing with science. The only reason to DELAY actual exploration by rapidly evolving remote-manned tech in order to sent TOURISTS is the misconception that this is helpful.
That which explores must be expendable. Wooden ships and iron men WERE expendable. Now, humans only serve impose prolonged "Space Shuttle" life cycles and costs while retarding technological development.
Humans MUST interact with the utterly hostile off-world environment by using MACHINES because they MUST be protected by armored barriers (space suits qualify), so develop remote-manned versions first.
Trucks are convenient because they are already subject to thorough inspection to enforce weight compliance and safety. A few TSA folks adding a sniff check is hardly horrific.
Without inspection stations commercial trucks would kill plenty of citizens without "terrorist" assistance.
Don't be overweight (yes, I know companies don't care how much they overload your truck), do a proper pre-trip (yes, I know companies will hand you junk to drive or pull), and don't have any violations they can write up.
There are many junk trucks out there. Ask any big wrecker driver or truck mechanic. By the time many of them limp in for service, it's typical to remove suspension parts with a cutting torch. Structural damage from cracks or corrosion is often severe. If not for inspection stations much of this would in tears.
"'Welcome to the nastiest adult site on the net,'' the text on the home page began. ''Our speciality is young girls drunk or drugged before they are brutally abused!!''
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"I suspect that if you add up all the proxy wars, you'll get a death toll that easily exceeds that of World War I."
Those are squat next to WWII, still far lighter than WW1, as well as having less impact on important modern nations and therefore less impact on modern man. Loss rate were far less traumatic too. There was nothing in the Cold War to match the First Day at the Somme or Verdun, not even in Korea or Viet Nam.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Verdun
The proxies are easy enough to add up, and while internal fusses like the Cultural Revolution and the Khmer Rouge follies in Kampuchea are considerable they were internal matters and not between combatants.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties
"I'm more worried that people have forgotten how to clean a chicken or simply grow enough vegetables and plants to survive (should we ever be thrust backwards)."
Plenty of us can do those things. We share our insights via the internet instead of by mimeographed newsletters. If we are "thrust backwards" the knowledge will survive and propagate. We have hundreds of years of technology to choose from.
Self and wife raise chickens, who are healthier because of what we learned on the internet even though we have plenty of farmer friends we also ask for info. We obtain parts for our 1937 Chevrolet truck (and our other trucks and motorcycles) via Ebay. I use Purox oxy-acetylene torches which are essentially unchanged since the 1930s. I learned about them via the internet, and can have most any part I wish in-hand in a few days.
Modern technology offers many ways to learn about less-modern technology. Being "thrust backward" is unlikely, but modern information tech makes learning about the spectrum of useful tech much easier.
I grew up before computers were commonplace. If anyone tells you those were "the good old days", punch them in the throat with my compliments.
"Open source basically makes me better at my job and ensures my future by empowering me to do my job better."
Of course. Open Source means you aren't locked out like some sharecropper from land he'll never control.
Old, but Jags are still pretty and still junk:
"You know you've owned a Jaguar too long when...
You always park downhill. ... and she believes you.
The guy at the parts house is listed as a dependent on your income tax form.
You get in a car and are surprised when all of the instruments work.
You tell your wife that you were out until 3AM because the car broke down
The family is no longer upset in having to share the dinner table with a bunch of SU parts.
You don't trust anyone named Lucas.
When your generator dies, you just pull another out of your Lucas pile of bits.
You wash your hands before working in the engine compartment.
You'd rather give the family pit bull a bath than tune your SU carburettors again.
You allow four hours for a trip, 3 for repairs and 1 for driving.
You can unstick a jammed starter in the dark, in the rain, in 5 minutes and don't think it's a big deal.
There's no oil on the garage floor so you know the car's completely empty.
Your car makes a funny sound and you immediately know what's wrong, how much it will cost, and what tools you will need to repair it.
-- George Cohn and others "
http://t2000.kvaleberg.org/t_light.html
"It makes a person question our own effectiveness of our own humanity, for what it is worth."
No, it makes a person question the merit of CURRENT POPULAR BELIEFS.
The idea that competing herds are not competing herds is quite new and highly debatable.
Watch birds sometime. We have painted buntings where I live.
Beautiful little things, but without illusion. They don't hesitate to fight for space on the feeders or for other territory.
They don't appear to ask if this competition is a threat to their "birdality". They are busy being birds.
"The last thing my kids need is to get cancer or at the very least be rendered sterile by HPV because they fell in love with someone that didn't make good choices. "
Bottom line, even if you trust your offspring, trusting EVERYONE ELSE is a bit of a stretch.
"I was a child when the Cold War ended but even a decade and a half later it seems so pointless."
Moderate nuclear wars were and remain quite practical. That was proven by atmospheric testing. Militaries on both sides developed procedures for continuing the fight near areas which had been nuked, including driving through them buttoned up in APCs and tanks.
Given the context of Total War which was fought in WWII, destroying enemy nations was a very reasonable option to have in the toolbox. Japan and Germany had, LITERALLY, tried to destroy many of the Allies. This wasn't some game of Risk, it was real. In that context, being able to obliterate similar threats was flawlessly RATIONAL.
Had Imperial Japan refused to surrender, it was reasonable to keep striking it until there were no more Japanese. The entire population was a weapon. The current geek weaboo view of Japan has nothing to do with the reality of what Imperial Japanese Army did to much of Asia. Japan worked long and hard to deserve every casualty it sustained, and don't forget it. The Japanese people pretend differently, but their victim neighbors are under no such delusions.
Nuclear weapons finished WWII, and deterred nuclear war thereafter.
That's a pretty good record. Don't use current PC fashion to judge history. Learn the details of why things came to be that you might better understand. Because the Cold War was fought "well enough", you enjoy tasty freedom and so does much of the former Soviet Union. Detente worked (praise be to Nixon!) and China is far freer than under Mao.
Willingness to kill billions coupled with restraint and diplomacy over time worked. Apart from a few minor scuffles the Cold War was quite peaceful. Thank atomic weapons in the hands of RATIONAL, not "insane" actors.
Without the power to kill, diplomacy means nothing because enemy power can dictate terms.
That didn't work then, either. It was pretended that it worked.
Also, even if you trust YOUR boy never to fuck until marriage, do you trust every girl, or HER parents?
We all know trust is pretty stupid, and utterly stupid when applied to sex.
Auto trannys are also MUCH more expensive to overhaul, which means "replace with a remanned unit" in practice.
I keep my vehicles long enough to wear out auto transmissions or manual clutches. Clutch replacement is MUCH cheaper. IAAM (I Am A Mechanic), but the folks who aren't pay far more for such expensive repairs.
Nature makes excess with the expectation they will die off.
Pointing out this applies to humans because we are part of nature is Politically Incorrect As Fuck, but it's also accurate.
Those are EARNED benefits, not gifts. Know the difference.
"The Chinese government hands cash to their panel manufacturers to lower their prices so they can put our manufacturers out of business. "
The US should do the same thing. Business is war.
Schools tailor courses to fit da money.
Shit idea waiting for a storm to turn it into a "Deltoid Shenandoah".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Shenandoah_(ZR-1)
Helium is very difficult to confine even in industrial conditions.
Romance is competing with science. The only reason to DELAY actual exploration by rapidly evolving remote-manned tech in order to sent TOURISTS is the misconception that this is helpful.
That which explores must be expendable. Wooden ships and iron men WERE expendable. Now, humans only serve impose prolonged "Space Shuttle" life cycles and costs while retarding technological development.
Humans MUST interact with the utterly hostile off-world environment by using MACHINES because they MUST be protected by armored barriers (space suits qualify), so develop remote-manned versions first.
"And this is why vigilantism is dangerous - because it's riddled with collateral damage since the attackers answer to nobody."
Unlike the law of the masters and elites, which is pure and without corruption.
(So-called) Freedom Hosting can choose to take that shit down and choose to protect good sites.
If the only reason you don't kill people is because you respect "law" but don't respect "people", please explain that logic.
If someone is deserving of death in your eyes, why does "law" restrain you and to what purpose?
Laws don't apply to the powerful, so why respect them at all?
Obey or disobey as expedient.
"Just act like a decent moral human being."
History suggests doing that isn't globally competitive, however much idealists wish it were.
Trucks are convenient because they are already subject to thorough inspection to enforce weight compliance and safety. A few TSA folks adding a sniff check is hardly horrific.
Without inspection stations commercial trucks would kill plenty of citizens without "terrorist" assistance.
Don't be overweight (yes, I know companies don't care how much they overload your truck), do a proper pre-trip (yes, I know companies will hand you junk to drive or pull), and don't have any violations they can write up.
There are many junk trucks out there. Ask any big wrecker driver or truck mechanic. By the time many of them limp in for service, it's typical to remove suspension parts with a cutting torch. Structural damage from cracks or corrosion is often severe. If not for inspection stations much of this would in tears.
Top Gear USA is lame by design and sucks harder than a black hole.
It could be amusing, but isn't.
Now go say that to the Libyans. In person, loudly and repeatedly.
Explain to them the joys of their lives under the old regime, as your insight clearly surpasses their personal experience.
Because doing that is much more difficult than it looks in the movies.
"'Welcome to the nastiest adult site on the net,'' the text on the home page began. ''Our speciality is young girls drunk or drugged before they are brutally abused!!''