The plea bargain is the most disturbing element for me. Apparently anyone can be charged with anything, and then forced to do whatever in exchange for a plea bargain for lesser punishment. The US is a very dangerous place to be right now.
I don't agree with the article myself. The middle class usually have something to lose, and are more likely to raise a fuss politically than engage in criminal pursuits for dubious gain. The glass ceiling imposed by corruption doesn't last long after the middle class grows strong enough.
It is doing something different, you pointed out the differences yourself.
VCs earned the nickname "vulture capitalists" because they have a tendency to pump up companies as quickly as possible and then reap the benefits - the dot com bubble was largely a VC creation. Anytime I see a company with a staff of fifty doing a job that could be done by five, sure enough there's a VC trying to float/seeking rounds of investment from bigger fish behind it. The latest buzzword is "nano", the sexier it sounds the more interested they are. Also to the contrary, crowdfunding isn't just donations, its more like preordering, and is used for this purpose by many companies.
Bottom line is a lot of companies are getting started without having to depend on loans or VCs, which can only be a good thing. The next stage in the evolution will be to allow microinvestment, where instead of donations people can actually buy shares in new ideas, true public investment, and I believe legislation is currently being cleared to allow that.
Crowdfunding really is gathering some serious momentum though, I'm seeing a lot more projects rapidly exceeding their goals now than a few years back. The word is spreading. Maybe the end of the VC era?
Are you saying the Nobels aren't political? I've nothing against Obama but awarding him the peace prize before he'd even done anything was a very clear political statement.
I'd say rather that the main criteria for becoming a published reviewer was being entertaining. Nobody wants to read a fair and balanced review, everyone wants fun, witty and interesting reviews. Everything else could fall by the wayside as long as the reviewer wasn't blatantly lying.
Oh, so physically powerful or fit people can't be part of the club? I see. Tell me though, I'm curious, where do you draw the line, is it by BMI, height, weight, gender, or what? Are there lower standards for women? I know a couple of very small and light Asian (and one African-American) ladies with all sorts of martial arts qualifications who would be considered very physically competent while not being at all physically imposing, how about them? This really is through the looking glass here.
The major language in India is English (it was a part of the Empire for a very long time).
More like the 70 year period during which England had machine guns and field howitzers and the Indians did not (1880s-1950s). Prior to that all england held was a constantly changing squabbling collection of coastal fiefdoms and minor holdings, much like the rest of the "empire". To say that India as a whole was part of the empire for a very long time is a major mischaracterisation. See for yourself.
More closely related languages are much easier to learn. French and German should be easiest to learn for example since between them they directly comprise about two thirds of English, more French than German. Six months of either should be enough to get up to speed, even learned simultaneously. Once you get the ground rules for a language the rest is just learning the exceptions and the meaning of particular words.
There's no substitute for actually visiting those countries and immersing yourself in the lingo for a while though. That's a market of what, well over 100 million people you've just opened up for yourself, not too bad for a few months effort.
They can already do 1) and 2) is not going to happen, its just too loaded with pitfalls. Dave was going for his mother's funeral, whoops, lawsuit. I don't think people appreciate the demand for even low quality stock photos out there.
Instagram has apparently a billion odd photos uploaded. Lets say that optimistically 1% of those are saleable at all. That's 10 million photos, now lets say 10% of those earn a dollar a month in sales between them, that's a million bucks a month. Not too shabby, and quite possible, one photo in a thousand earning a dollar a month. That they'd have to do it for around a century just to break even is beside the point, I've no idea what the hell they were thinking spending that much money on a photo upload service in the first place.
Still, its an all round scummy move by facebook and probably illegal too. Maybe if they offered an opt-in profit sharing system instead, or something, that might be good.
If we are compassionate, we can give the displaced workers opportunities to learn new skills.
From a purely economic standpoint, compassion has little to do with it. Either find new work for them or be prepared to support them. Or, see how civil insurrection looks on a balance sheet.
As we move towards a post scarcity society some questions are raised that can only be answered by something closely resembling central wealth redistribution. Not full blown communism but the guarantee of a reasonable standard of living for everyone, with the opportunity to get more if you want to. Much of Europe is basically operating on this principle at the moment, and as time passes I feel we'll see a higher standard emerge.
As such, it's pretty much essential that we focus on figuring out how best to help people learn and reach their potential.
Slashdot Mirror
nuts posted this in the wrong place, and once more from the top:
Do they? I think you may be thinking of Australia there...
Do they? I think you may be thinking of Australia there...
So we can make stuff out of lasers now? I would like to place an order for my lightsabre, please!
Venus is most like Earth in the solar system, not Mars.
The plea bargain is the most disturbing element for me. Apparently anyone can be charged with anything, and then forced to do whatever in exchange for a plea bargain for lesser punishment. The US is a very dangerous place to be right now.
Eh westerners did, smuggling e-waste out of the EU is big business. Look up some of the customs reports.
I don't agree with the article myself. The middle class usually have something to lose, and are more likely to raise a fuss politically than engage in criminal pursuits for dubious gain. The glass ceiling imposed by corruption doesn't last long after the middle class grows strong enough.
It is doing something different, you pointed out the differences yourself.
VCs earned the nickname "vulture capitalists" because they have a tendency to pump up companies as quickly as possible and then reap the benefits - the dot com bubble was largely a VC creation. Anytime I see a company with a staff of fifty doing a job that could be done by five, sure enough there's a VC trying to float/seeking rounds of investment from bigger fish behind it. The latest buzzword is "nano", the sexier it sounds the more interested they are. Also to the contrary, crowdfunding isn't just donations, its more like preordering, and is used for this purpose by many companies.
Bottom line is a lot of companies are getting started without having to depend on loans or VCs, which can only be a good thing. The next stage in the evolution will be to allow microinvestment, where instead of donations people can actually buy shares in new ideas, true public investment, and I believe legislation is currently being cleared to allow that.
Crowdfunding really is gathering some serious momentum though, I'm seeing a lot more projects rapidly exceeding their goals now than a few years back. The word is spreading. Maybe the end of the VC era?
Now you know why we don't RTFA around here.
Are you saying the Nobels aren't political? I've nothing against Obama but awarding him the peace prize before he'd even done anything was a very clear political statement.
Third, don't allow people to review products they haven't bought through Amazon.
This by itself should fix most of the problems with reviews.
I'd say rather that the main criteria for becoming a published reviewer was being entertaining. Nobody wants to read a fair and balanced review, everyone wants fun, witty and interesting reviews. Everything else could fall by the wayside as long as the reviewer wasn't blatantly lying.
Which means flying cars may be back on the table. Maybe.
I look forward to eating your rations.
Oh, so physically powerful or fit people can't be part of the club? I see. Tell me though, I'm curious, where do you draw the line, is it by BMI, height, weight, gender, or what? Are there lower standards for women? I know a couple of very small and light Asian (and one African-American) ladies with all sorts of martial arts qualifications who would be considered very physically competent while not being at all physically imposing, how about them? This really is through the looking glass here.
"Nerd" doesn't have to mean "physically weak".
Intelligence is still not fully defined, or even usefully defined.
A swing and a miss, but thanks for playing!
What do we have for our lucky contestant, Bob?
Nothing, Rick.
The major language in India is English (it was a part of the Empire for a very long time).
More like the 70 year period during which England had machine guns and field howitzers and the Indians did not (1880s-1950s). Prior to that all england held was a constantly changing squabbling collection of coastal fiefdoms and minor holdings, much like the rest of the "empire". To say that India as a whole was part of the empire for a very long time is a major mischaracterisation. See for yourself.
More closely related languages are much easier to learn. French and German should be easiest to learn for example since between them they directly comprise about two thirds of English, more French than German. Six months of either should be enough to get up to speed, even learned simultaneously. Once you get the ground rules for a language the rest is just learning the exceptions and the meaning of particular words.
There's no substitute for actually visiting those countries and immersing yourself in the lingo for a while though. That's a market of what, well over 100 million people you've just opened up for yourself, not too bad for a few months effort.
Istockphotos are doing a brisk business towards the lower end of the market, there are a few others as well...
They can already do 1) and 2) is not going to happen, its just too loaded with pitfalls. Dave was going for his mother's funeral, whoops, lawsuit. I don't think people appreciate the demand for even low quality stock photos out there.
Instagram has apparently a billion odd photos uploaded. Lets say that optimistically 1% of those are saleable at all. That's 10 million photos, now lets say 10% of those earn a dollar a month in sales between them, that's a million bucks a month. Not too shabby, and quite possible, one photo in a thousand earning a dollar a month. That they'd have to do it for around a century just to break even is beside the point, I've no idea what the hell they were thinking spending that much money on a photo upload service in the first place.
Still, its an all round scummy move by facebook and probably illegal too. Maybe if they offered an opt-in profit sharing system instead, or something, that might be good.
That gave me a little thrill. That's one of the building blocks of the future, folks, literally!
If we are compassionate, we can give the displaced workers opportunities to learn new skills.
From a purely economic standpoint, compassion has little to do with it. Either find new work for them or be prepared to support them. Or, see how civil insurrection looks on a balance sheet.
As we move towards a post scarcity society some questions are raised that can only be answered by something closely resembling central wealth redistribution. Not full blown communism but the guarantee of a reasonable standard of living for everyone, with the opportunity to get more if you want to. Much of Europe is basically operating on this principle at the moment, and as time passes I feel we'll see a higher standard emerge.
As such, it's pretty much essential that we focus on figuring out how best to help people learn and reach their potential.