Look. You may not balance your checkbook every month. I know I don't. I DO trust that my bank will do the arithmetic correctly most of the time.
However, would you like to get a bank statement that just list your beginning and ending balance?
Not me and I doubt you would accept it too. While I don't check the arithmetic usually, the bank knows that I CAN CHECK it any time I want. Thus, they work to make sure that there're no problems.
Similarly, knowing that the source code is visible makes the vendor think carefully about what to put in it in the first place. And that's worth a lot.
While I agree that this issue does not divide cleanly between party line, let's not forget which party has its hold on the lever of power right now. So whatever executive decision and legislation are made in the next 2 years is squarely according to the wishes of the Repulicans. There's nobody else to blame this time around.
After WWII, the US invested huge sums of money to help Europe and Japan to rebuild. Much of that was never directly repaid. Did USA complained? Did the Europe sink into a dependency relation economically?
Not a bit. Because USA knew that it's necessary to rebuild these other economies to become productive trading partners and to forestall further political unrest.
I can understand the IMF and US wanting to use the loans as leverages. HOWEVER, historically the levereage have been used to promogate neoclassical economic doctrines and to benefit domestic constituents of the donor coutries. Thus, the # of pragmatic improvements are few as even the head of World Bank acknowledges.
If you want to better understand developing economies, study some real examples in historical contexts, say Malaysia and Chile. That'll give you some real insights.
Actually, Yu Yu Hakusa is a good series. But it is very long and CN is only showing the few beginning episode before it gets very interesting. It DOES have many fights and tournaments episodes. But it distinguishes itself with the inventiveness of the battle techniques and the evolving bonds between the characters. Both aspects handled far better than DBZ.
While I generally agree with you on the English dubbing of anime, one of your example, Cowboy Bebop, is an unique exception. I feel that the main character's English voice is younger and more appropriate than the Japanese voice which is a deep bass. It also has perhaps the best use of music to advance/convey the emotional tone of the show. If you love jazz, this show's for you.
If you're going to boycott all products made in countries with lower wages than the USA, I think you need to move to a commune and grow your own food.
The fact is that we live in a global economy where parts for basic infrastructures like telephone, power are often made oversea. Don't even start with the abysmal condition of mines around the world which supplies the raw materials for EVERY manufactured products. Basically, if you live in the modern world (probably since you're on SlashDot) you cannot escape from this.
A more valid question is how to improve the lot of other people less fortunate than you. In that vein, sending manufacturing jobs oversea is NOT such a bad thing. It allows the local industry to develop and help motive the education of local population. While PRC has its problems, it has managed to avoid (so far) some of the nasty pitfalls that Russia has suffered from.
To make an analogy, if you live next door to a family with less wealth. You could offer to let them clean your house for you and pay them a small wage. BUT that's insulting to them and you refuses. Now, they have less income than the other alternative.
Look at the prices of hardware these past 20 years. It's been dropping exponentially.
THAT is NOT just a result of Moore's Law. Because if you had a monoploy, it will control the pricing to maximize profit.
We Have VERY efficient competition between manufacturs working in US, Japan, Malaysia, China, Korea, etc. So YES, the the cost savings DO get passed onto consumers like yourself. Perhaps not 100%, but most of it.
The reason the pay gap persists is due to Different Cost of livings and Exchange Rate between contries. Those, in turn, depends on the economic strength of the entire country.
Such structural ecnomic differences CANNOT be fixed by having Unions and honest officials. While they are a small part of the problem, getting rid of them will NOT bring US and PRC wages up to parity.
Not to mention the strain of racism that ran through the LOTR mythology. Look at the allies of Sauron and Saruman. Look at their skin colors, the oliphants, etc. We need not even talk about the whole white/dark sybologies.
If you look on the cover of books published in North America, you'll likely see 2 prices: 1 for the USA and one for Canada. The price differences build in the exchange rate of somewhat less than 1.50 CD to 1 USD. At least in the publishing industry, there are some consistency in pricing.
GWBush will solve all our problems here. By start a war in the middle east that will culminate in the third world war, we'll solve the problem with our Patent processs. WHAT A RELIEVE. Thanks for clearing that up for us. (_8(|)
You said: "Aside from the fact that social conservatives (presumably including a few creationsits) are among the critics of this development I don't see anything about creationsts at all in this story."
You may recal this paragraph from the story:
"Consistent with that possibility, HHS officials recently told committee members they hope to name Mildred Jefferson to a reincarnated version of the committee that the department hopes to create. Jefferson is a medical doctor who helped found the National Right to Life Committee and who three times served as that organization's president."
Creationism and Right to Life doctrines shared a common ancestry, a certain strand of Christian theology. In both cases, specific religious beliefs are injected into and sometimes disguised as scientific discourse. Creationism assert the the universe was created abruptly with all species in place. Right to Lifer assert that the soul is present in the embryo a the moment of conception.
If you are saying that a 'scientific' panel of Right to Lifer are just as valid as a panel of secular medical research, than that's just like saying creationism is as valid a 'scientific' theory as evolution.
If this was an ethical or religious advisory panel, then I'd have no problem with it. The model of the scientific process requires that all ideas and experiments be 'proven' to other researchers with comprable knowledge. THIS is why some science are mainstream and some are fringe. The mainstream scientists are MORE likely to be correct than the fringe ones ( discouting for money incentives ).
It seems we agree that it's desirable to minimize the biases of scientists on the panels. I also agree that political views will always play a part in such panels. But rather than throw up one's hand and say 'politicians will be politicians', I argue that we should PRESS for such reforms actively.
How about buying a magazine and a few news papers to peddle my pet political theories. Then, try to buy enough votes to become the US president while peddling a flat tax scheme?
OK. Creationism is just another view no different from evolution, right? So one can make just as competent scientific policy decisions using one as a basis as the other, right?
EVERYONE has a viewpoint. But how that viewpoint is arrived at and how many people subscribe to that viewpoint DOES make a difference in terms of its scientific validity or plausibility.
The whole point of having independent peer panels is to try to keep the recommendations away from the needs of the demagogue or politician of the moment. When someone is dismantling this mechanism, then WE the public should indeed take notice and remember it at voting times.
If you're truely so cynical as to believe that all views are the same, then I suggest you follow the conclusions of the tobacco company funded studies which said the cigarettes are good for you. Take a big puff!
That's where they're pilfering their formats from, not to mention announcers! The problem for them is that they CANNOT do the morality plays with robots.... Yet. At this point, the gear and mayham angle is still predominate. I guess the sponsors plan to draw the same audience as demolision derby and monster truck shows. So don't expect much changes to occur.
For more engineering oriented contests, check out Tech Games or Junkyard War or Robotica.
Your comments on the reliance on standardized tests are right on target. In fact, I fear the blind adherance to test scores for just such reasons.
In terms of the aesthetics and application of a topics, I don't see them as being exclusive. In fact, I suspect "application" may be better seen as "relevance" to something else. The other topics may be abstract of applied, it doesn't matter. What's important is to get a cluster of concepts and ideas to relate to each other such that they gain coherence and meaning.
My wacky math teaching ideas is to introduce Probabiliy and statistic right after arithmetics. Then, back in from there to algebra. Not only will the students learn to do statistica reasoning. ( woefully lacking in the public) They will have a meaningful application for the algebra that is learn later.
Divide bill by 10. Add half of that amount to that amount for tip.
This is VERY different conceptually from "solving an equation". The fact that you arrive at the same number does not make the mental procedures equivalent.
While you make some good points, there is one significant change that we've not evaluated in depth yet.
By the DOJ trying to apply the NET law, the cost of protecting the copyrights is being shifted from the copyright holders to the Federal government, i.e. to the taxpayers. In contrast, a trademark infringement case requires the trademark holder to file suit and press for action. There is a significant difference between a civil violation and a criminal offense.
Apparently, this is justified by the 'vital' role IP play in the US economy. An interesting question to consider is: WHY is the copyright holders is such a privileged positions vis-a-vis the other IP holders? Does the FBI help Coca Cola protect its brand? Does the DOJ investigate patent infrinements??
The key is to plant and grow a BETTER dream. By proving to my wife that diamond is NOT a 'precious' stone, I convinced her to get another stone, emerald, which IS 'precious'. This is a scientific classfication, not a sentimental one. When she realized that diamond value is only propped up by de Beer's advertising budget and monopoly practices, she had no problem switching the stone.
Mind you, I did not spend LESS money. However, we are confident that the stone will hold value much better than diamonds due to the intrinsic rarity of emeralds.
I am glad that your library have these treasures of human cultures. The question is just what was taught in class.
Was Ramayana (a terrific and simple adventure story) ever read? How about Journey to the West? or the Popul Vuh?
By the original poster's definition, these works are all 'banned' in his/her class. But I'm sure that's not what he/she means. By any measures, these works are much greater literature that any C.S. Lewis fictions. How come most people in the US have never read them?
The fundamental problem is ethnocentrism - that we think everyone else think and believe the same things as ourselves and that those who do not are irrelevant.
Do slashdotters think its more important to learn about how other cultures think about themselves and the world or to read allegories of believe systems that they are already immersed in?
First of all, think about how they'll find out that you have their copyrighted materials. What kind of snooping might be involved? How will they know if you're trading legal home recordings or one of theirs?
They could install a keyboard capture program to intercept and relay all your keystrokes - this can be justified as gathering evidences. None of the safeguard from the FBI key capture program might be in place here as it's done by a private company.
While there are limitation in the bill on deleting or altering data on the targeted PC, snooping is NOT altering your existing data.
Also, the limitation of economic damage to the target PC may not be effective. What is the lost of you privacy or damage to reputation worth in dollar terms? The court may not agree with your asessments.
How does one hack a PC without altering existing data?
For example, they could fill up the harddisk and main memory with junk data. We all know what happens when windows runs out of memory!
What are other ways that a target PC might be hacked without deleting existing data?
I think with more thoughts we can come up with many disasterous scenarios...
After reading the article, I surmise that Dr. Weed may have some ego problem as well.
I submit that most doctors and specialists are reasonably effective in their jobs because MOST of the commonly seen diseases are covered adequately in their trainings. Where Dr. Weed's system can help is in rare diseases and where the patient have a history that the doctor is unfamiliar with ( say moved from a foreign country ). Thus, the most that this system can help are the rare cases which would NOT lead to a disruptive change in a diagnostic sense.
However, the article shows a secondary effect which CAN accelerate a disruptive change that is already taking place: the increasing situations where the patient take an active role in diagnoses and treatment. Not only does this empower the patient psychologically, it makes the patient much more willing to buy into the treatment. THIS to me, is the major benefit rather than the putative diagnostic accuracy.
Of course, this does require the doctors to give up some power in the relationship. What might be the catalyst for that to happen quickyl ?
So instead of moving a clock arms to follow lights, we have to answer to the beeping cell-phones and be monitored by cameras in every corners. Instead of trudging en masse to assembly lines, we are nestled in cubicles 'writing production reports'.
Instead of living in underground warrens, we are living in dense overground apartments.
So while the specific technologies are different, are we not still enslaved by our technologies?
Has not the gap between rich and poor grew at unprecedent rate in the past decades?
Will DubbarU Bush's slapping the wrists of a few CEOs really bridge the gap between the 'head' and the 'hand' ?
"oh yeh, the "martial applications" of tai chi. Which are so deadly that they can never be demonstrated. Give over. I am prepared to concede the possibility that there might once have been a martial art which had the name "tai chi". But the connection between that and the art taught under that name today are as tenuous as... well, the "Lineages" of most traditional chinese martial arts instructors taking them back to the Shaolin Temple or Yang Lu-Chan. They're fairy stories. You can pretend to yourself that any human movement might be a concealed attack if you've got an active enough imagination (I've seen an instructor claim with a straight face that the opening movement of the form is actually a deadly strike with the backs of the wrists). But the fact remains that tai chi practitioners don't spar and don't train for combat, and those few people who do claim to practice "combat tai chi" invariably cross-train with a system that works (usually a form of jujitsu)"
Since YOU have not seen these trainings must mean they don't exists, right?
If you can stop worshipping jujitsu for a minute, perhaps you can learn something. First of all, Tai-chi is based on the philosophy of Taosim. It's a distinct lineage from the Shaolin temple style. In fact, many styles, esp. internal styles, exist outside of the Shaolin styles which tend to be external systems. Some of them purport to teach these "dim mak killer touches", but that is NOT in the TaiChi curriculum.
As for sparring and combat, I can testify that I've seen taichi practitioner sparring. They can be as fast a furious as any other styles. The difference lies in how the forces are applied and directed: not something obvious to the casual observer. As for jujitsu, there doesn't seem to be any techniques there that is not already covered in the various "qiam na xao" (Capture & Grasping Hand) techniques. Nothing special here.
From you last paragraph, I see that you seem to be only interested in disjointed hand to hand combat techniques. This, however, does not translate into knowledge about martial arts systems. I am just a beginner myself, but I can see that you don't have a foot inside the threshold. Instead of putting down people and things which you don't understand, perhaps it's worthwhile to learn more deeply first.
"Christ almighty, you've nearly collected the whole set of useless martial arts; all you need now is tai chi and perhaps a little bit of boxercise."
As a matter of fact, I have studied tai chi. What you are ignorant of, though, is that tai chi is a very effective fighting system. However, the practical applications are only taught to very advanced students. Most people indeed only practice it for its health benefits.
Why should a sports or artforms be disqualified as 'martial arts' just because they are impractical in this age? Archery and Greco-Roman wrestling are important contests within the Olympics. I don't see any spectators laughing. If you are only interested in kiling and maiming, you'd be better off studying assassination techniques. But then, I would question you on where your 'art' is.
Slashdot Mirror
Look. You may not balance your checkbook every month. I know I don't. I DO trust that my bank will do the arithmetic correctly most of the time.
However, would you like to get a bank statement that just list your beginning and ending balance?
Not me and I doubt you would accept it too.
While I don't check the arithmetic usually, the bank knows that I CAN CHECK it any time I want. Thus, they work to make sure that there're no problems.
Similarly, knowing that the source code is visible makes the vendor think carefully about what to put in it in the first place. And that's worth a lot.
While I agree that this issue does not divide cleanly between party line, let's not forget which party has its hold on the lever of power right now. So whatever executive decision and legislation are made in the next 2 years is squarely according to the wishes of the Repulicans. There's nobody else to blame this time around.
After WWII, the US invested huge sums of money to help Europe and Japan to rebuild. Much of that was never directly repaid. Did USA complained? Did the Europe sink into a dependency relation economically?
Not a bit. Because USA knew that it's necessary to rebuild these other economies to become productive trading partners and to forestall further political unrest.
I can understand the IMF and US wanting to use the loans as leverages. HOWEVER, historically the levereage have been used to promogate neoclassical economic doctrines and to benefit domestic constituents of the donor coutries. Thus, the # of pragmatic improvements are few as even the head of World Bank acknowledges.
If you want to better understand developing economies, study some real examples in historical contexts, say Malaysia and Chile. That'll give you some real insights.
Actually, Yu Yu Hakusa is a good series.
But it is very long and CN is only showing the few
beginning episode before it gets very interesting. It DOES have many fights and tournaments episodes. But it distinguishes itself with the inventiveness of the battle techniques and the evolving bonds between the characters. Both aspects handled far better than DBZ.
While I generally agree with you on the English dubbing of anime, one of your example, Cowboy Bebop, is an unique exception. I feel that the main character's English voice is younger and more appropriate than the Japanese voice which is a deep bass. It also has perhaps the best use of music to advance/convey the emotional tone of the show. If you love jazz, this show's for you.
If you're going to boycott all products made in countries with lower wages than the USA, I think you need to move to a commune and grow your own food.
The fact is that we live in a global economy where parts for basic infrastructures like telephone, power are often made oversea. Don't even start with the abysmal condition of mines around the world which supplies the raw materials for EVERY manufactured products. Basically, if you live in the modern world (probably since you're on SlashDot) you cannot escape from this.
A more valid question is how to improve the lot of other people less fortunate than you. In that vein, sending manufacturing jobs oversea is NOT such a bad thing. It allows the local industry to develop and help motive the education of local population. While PRC has its problems, it has managed to avoid (so far) some of the nasty pitfalls that Russia has suffered from.
To make an analogy, if you live next door to a family with less wealth. You could offer to let them clean your house for you and pay them a small wage. BUT that's insulting to them and
you refuses. Now, they have less income than the
other alternative.
Does that really help the sitiuation?
Look at the prices of hardware these past 20 years. It's been dropping exponentially.
THAT is NOT just a result of Moore's Law. Because if you had a monoploy, it will control the pricing to maximize profit.
We Have VERY efficient competition between manufacturs working in US, Japan, Malaysia,
China, Korea, etc. So YES, the the cost
savings DO get passed onto consumers like yourself. Perhaps not 100%, but most of it.
The reason the pay gap persists is due to Different Cost of livings and Exchange Rate between contries. Those, in turn, depends on
the economic strength of the entire country.
Such structural ecnomic differences CANNOT be fixed by having Unions and honest officials.
While they are a small part of the problem,
getting rid of them will NOT bring US and PRC
wages up to parity.
Not to mention the strain of racism that ran through the LOTR mythology.
Look at the allies of Sauron and Saruman. Look at their skin colors, the oliphants, etc.
We need not even talk about the whole white/dark sybologies.
If you look on the cover of books published in North America, you'll likely see 2 prices: 1 for the USA and one for Canada. The price differences build in the exchange rate of somewhat less than 1.50 CD to 1 USD. At least in the publishing industry, there are some consistency in pricing.
I get it.
GWBush will solve all our problems here.
By start a war in the middle east that will culminate in the third world war, we'll solve the problem with our Patent processs. WHAT A RELIEVE.
Thanks for clearing that up for us. (_8(|)
You said:
"Aside from the fact that social conservatives (presumably including a few creationsits) are among the critics of this development I don't see anything about creationsts at all in this story."
You may recal this paragraph from the story:
"Consistent with that possibility, HHS officials recently told committee members they hope to name Mildred Jefferson to a reincarnated version of the committee that the department hopes to create. Jefferson is a medical doctor who helped found the National Right to Life Committee and who three times served as that organization's president."
Creationism and Right to Life doctrines shared a common ancestry, a certain strand of Christian theology. In both cases, specific religious beliefs are injected into and sometimes disguised as scientific discourse. Creationism assert the the universe was created abruptly with all species in place. Right to Lifer assert that the soul is present in the embryo a the moment of conception.
If you are saying that a 'scientific' panel of Right to Lifer are just as valid as a panel of secular medical research, than that's just like saying creationism is as valid a 'scientific' theory as evolution.
If this was an ethical or religious advisory panel, then I'd have no problem with it. The model of the scientific process requires that all ideas and experiments be 'proven' to other researchers with comprable knowledge. THIS is why some science are mainstream and some are fringe. The mainstream scientists are MORE likely to be correct than the fringe ones ( discouting for money incentives ).
It seems we agree that it's desirable to minimize the biases of scientists on the panels. I also agree that political views will always play a part in such panels. But rather than throw up one's hand and say 'politicians will be politicians', I argue that we should PRESS for such reforms actively.
Regards,
How about buying a magazine and a few news papers to peddle my pet political theories. Then, try to buy enough votes to become the US president while peddling a flat tax scheme?
OK. Creationism is just another view no different from evolution, right?
So one can make just as competent scientific policy decisions using one as a basis as the other, right?
EVERYONE has a viewpoint. But how that viewpoint is arrived at and how many people subscribe to that viewpoint DOES make a difference in terms of its scientific validity or plausibility.
The whole point of having independent peer panels is to try to keep the recommendations away from the needs of the demagogue or politician of the moment. When someone is dismantling this mechanism, then WE the public should indeed take notice and remember it at voting times.
If you're truely so cynical as to believe that all views are the same, then I suggest you follow the conclusions of the tobacco company funded studies which said the cigarettes are good for you. Take a big puff!
Get it?
That's where they're pilfering their formats from, not to mention announcers!
The problem for them is that they CANNOT do the morality plays with robots.... Yet. At this point, the gear and mayham angle is still predominate. I guess the sponsors plan to draw the same audience as demolision derby and monster truck shows. So don't expect much changes to occur.
For more engineering oriented contests, check out Tech Games or Junkyard War or Robotica.
Your comments on the reliance on standardized tests are right on target. In fact, I fear the blind adherance to test scores for just such reasons.
In terms of the aesthetics and application of a topics, I don't see them as being exclusive. In fact, I suspect "application" may be better seen as "relevance" to something else. The other topics may be abstract of applied, it doesn't matter. What's important is to get a cluster of concepts and ideas to relate to each other such that they gain coherence and meaning.
My wacky math teaching ideas is to introduce Probabiliy and statistic right after arithmetics. Then, back in from there to algebra. Not only will the students learn to do statistica reasoning. ( woefully lacking in the public) They will have a meaningful application for the algebra that is learn later.
I'll bet that your grandmother is correct!
She probably uses this ALGORITHM:
Divide bill by 10.
Add half of that amount to that amount for tip.
This is VERY different conceptually from "solving an equation". The fact that you arrive at the same number does not make the mental procedures equivalent.
While you make some good points, there is one significant change that we've not evaluated in depth yet.
By the DOJ trying to apply the NET law, the cost of protecting the copyrights is being shifted from the copyright holders to the Federal government, i.e. to the taxpayers. In contrast, a trademark infringement case requires the trademark holder to file suit and press for action. There is a significant difference between a civil violation and a criminal offense.
Apparently, this is justified by the 'vital' role IP play in the US economy. An interesting question to consider is: WHY is the copyright holders is such a privileged positions vis-a-vis the other IP holders? Does the FBI help Coca Cola protect its brand? Does the DOJ investigate patent infrinements??
Yes they are selling a dream.
The key is to plant and grow a BETTER dream.
By proving to my wife that diamond is NOT a 'precious' stone, I convinced her to get another stone, emerald, which IS 'precious'. This is a scientific classfication, not a sentimental one. When she realized that diamond value is only propped up by de Beer's advertising budget and monopoly practices, she had no problem switching the stone.
Mind you, I did not spend LESS money. However, we are confident that the stone will hold value much better than diamonds due to the intrinsic rarity of emeralds.
I am glad that your library have these treasures of human cultures. The question is just what was taught in class.
Was Ramayana (a terrific and simple adventure story) ever read? How about Journey to the West? or the Popul Vuh?
By the original poster's definition, these works are all 'banned' in his/her class. But I'm sure that's not what he/she means. By any measures, these works are much greater literature that any C.S. Lewis fictions. How come most people in the US have never read them?
The fundamental problem is ethnocentrism - that we think everyone else think and believe the same things as ourselves and that those who do not are irrelevant.
Do slashdotters think its more important to learn about how other cultures think about themselves and the world or to read allegories of believe systems that they are already immersed in?
He is wise indeed.
An average caucasian in the US have great difficulty telling apart Hmong, Filipino, and Japanese.
Vincent Chin, a Chinese immigrant, was killed by baseball bats because the murderers thought he was Japanese.
Sikhs, from India, were attacked this past year because they wore turbans and looked 'arabic' to their attackers.
Until the majority can distinguish between Mongolian, Vietnamese, Mapaysian, Pakistani... It is indeed wise to be Asian Americans.
First of all, think about how they'll find out that you have their copyrighted materials. What kind of snooping might be involved? How will they know if you're trading legal home recordings or one of theirs?
They could install a keyboard capture program to intercept and relay all your keystrokes - this can be justified as gathering evidences. None of the safeguard from the FBI key capture program might be in place here as it's done by a private company.
While there are limitation in the bill on deleting or altering data on the targeted PC,
snooping is NOT altering your existing data.
Also, the limitation of economic damage to the target PC may not be effective. What is the lost of you privacy or damage to reputation worth in dollar terms? The court may not agree with your asessments.
How does one hack a PC without altering existing data?
For example, they could fill up the harddisk and main memory with junk data. We all know what happens when windows runs out of memory!
What are other ways that a target PC might be hacked without deleting existing data?
I think with more thoughts we can come up with many disasterous scenarios...
After reading the article, I surmise that Dr. Weed may have some ego problem as well.
I submit that most doctors and specialists are reasonably effective in their jobs because MOST of the commonly seen diseases are covered adequately in their trainings. Where Dr. Weed's system can help is in rare diseases and where the patient have a history that the doctor is unfamiliar with ( say moved from a foreign country ). Thus, the most that this system can help are the rare cases which would NOT lead to a disruptive change in a diagnostic sense.
However, the article shows a secondary effect which CAN accelerate a disruptive change that is already taking place: the increasing situations where the patient take an active role in diagnoses and treatment. Not only does this empower the patient psychologically, it makes the patient much more willing to buy into the treatment. THIS to me, is the major benefit rather than the putative diagnostic accuracy.
Of course, this does require the doctors to give up some power in the relationship. What might be the catalyst for that to happen quickyl ?
So instead of moving a clock arms to follow lights, we have to answer to the beeping cell-phones and be monitored by cameras in every corners. Instead of trudging en masse to assembly lines, we are nestled in cubicles 'writing production reports'.
Instead of living in underground warrens, we are living in dense overground apartments.
So while the specific technologies are different, are we not still enslaved by our technologies?
Has not the gap between rich and poor grew at unprecedent rate in the past decades?
Will DubbarU Bush's slapping the wrists of a few CEOs really bridge the gap between the 'head' and the 'hand' ?
It's still a very relevant movie in my books.
"oh yeh, the "martial applications" of tai chi. Which are so deadly that they can never be demonstrated. Give over. I am prepared to concede the possibility that there might once have been a martial art which had the name "tai chi". But the connection between that and the art taught under that name today are as tenuous as ... well, the "Lineages" of most traditional chinese martial arts instructors taking them back to the Shaolin Temple or Yang Lu-Chan. They're fairy stories. You can pretend to yourself that any human movement might be a concealed attack if you've got an active enough imagination (I've seen an instructor claim with a straight face that the opening movement of the form is actually a deadly strike with the backs of the wrists). But the fact remains that tai chi practitioners don't spar and don't train for combat, and those few people who do claim to practice "combat tai chi" invariably cross-train with a system that works (usually a form of jujitsu)"
Since YOU have not seen these trainings must mean they don't exists, right?
If you can stop worshipping jujitsu for a minute, perhaps you can learn something. First of all, Tai-chi is based on the philosophy of Taosim. It's a distinct lineage from the Shaolin temple style. In fact, many styles, esp. internal styles, exist outside of the Shaolin styles which tend to be external systems. Some of them purport to teach these "dim mak killer touches", but that is NOT in the TaiChi curriculum.
As for sparring and combat, I can testify that I've seen taichi practitioner sparring. They can be as fast a furious as any other styles. The difference lies in how the forces are applied and directed: not something obvious to the casual observer. As for jujitsu, there doesn't seem to be any techniques there that is not already covered in the various "qiam na xao" (Capture & Grasping Hand) techniques. Nothing special here.
From you last paragraph, I see that you seem to be only interested in disjointed hand to hand combat techniques. This, however, does not translate into knowledge about martial arts systems. I am just a beginner myself, but I can see that you don't have a foot inside the threshold. Instead of putting down people and things which you don't understand, perhaps it's worthwhile to learn more deeply first.
"Christ almighty, you've nearly collected the whole set of useless martial arts; all you need now is tai chi and perhaps a little bit of boxercise."
As a matter of fact, I have studied tai chi. What you are ignorant of, though, is that tai chi is a very effective fighting system. However, the practical applications are only taught to very advanced students. Most people indeed only practice it for its health benefits.
Why should a sports or artforms be disqualified as 'martial arts' just because they are impractical in this age? Archery and Greco-Roman wrestling are important contests within the Olympics. I don't see any spectators laughing. If you are only interested in kiling and maiming, you'd be better off studying assassination techniques. But then, I would question you on where your 'art' is.