ou have to remember that for every person with an IQ above average, there's one with an IQ below average.
Only if the distribution of intelligence is the same above and below. You can have many slightly stupid people and a genius or in the reverse many slightly intelligent people and one brain dead.
I'm not so sure that Chinese isolation was a conscious decision rather than a well working autarky.
For hard protectionism, look to Tokugawa Japan. They closed their borders to everybody but a bunch of Chinese, Koreans and Dutch, under very stringent conditions. They spent centuries in peace and isolation. It took Commodore Perry's black ships to open the Japanese ports. This caused the Meiji Revolution who decided to modernize/Westernize almost the whole country (military, politics, industry, culture,...). In 40 years, Japan was beating the Russians in East Asia.
Compare with Siam who was more open to foreign influences.
Probably there are more factors than mere "isolationism superceded by modernization", though. Japan was capable of rebuilding itself again after WW2.
More than fear, the case was that China produced everything that they could need. The only ware they require viciously was silver, hence the Manila Galleon traded Mexican and Peruvian silver for Chinese exports.
Other imports were clockworks, but only as novelty items for the emperor.
Then the British found that they could produce in India something that the Chinese would get hooked on: opium. When the Chinese authorities found that their subjects wre smoking their lives away and their officers being bribed, they rejected British trade. The British Parliament debated whether the Navy should force the Chinese authorities to allow their drug traffic. Eventually they democratically decided so, and attacked China.
I am collecting signatures to put subways out of everybody's sight, say, underground. If someone wants to go to the subway, they know where to find it.
You should read the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. He explains exactly why the diseases were on the side of the Europeans. In short, Europeans had been living in cities for a long time before they came to America. Since people were living closer together, the chance of spreading disease was very high
Read it again. Tenochtitlan was bigger than any city in Europe. Eurasians had been living with, on, besides, around, under and behind various types of tamed animals for millennia.
In the Americas, they have a lesser range of tameable animals to get sick from.
Zooko's Triangle [Zooko] argues that names cannot be global, secure, and memorable, all at the same time. Domain names are an example: they are global, and memorable, but as the rapid rise of phishing demonstrates, they are not secure.
Though no single name can have all three properties, the petname system does indeed embody all three properties. Informal experiments with petname-like systems suggest that petnames can be both intuitive and effective. Experimental implementations already exist for simple extensions to existing browsers that could alleviate (possibly dramatically) the problems with phishing. As phishers gain sophistication, it seems compelling to experiment with petname systems as part of the solution.
Your arms and shoulders would get painfully tired after just a few minutes using this...
Myron Krueger proposed already in the 1980s the Kungfu Typewriter, where you type by kicking and punching. A healthier alternative to sitting all day developing RSI.
There are rules linking working area and angle. You want a horizontal DIN A-4, a tilted drawing board and a vertical canvas. Painters have been working for centuries on big vertical surfaces.
Unless you have to work like Michelangelo, upwards on the Sistine Chapel what was extenuating for him.
From Wikipedia: Michael Jackson purchased ownership in ATV Music Publishing in 1985, which owns the publishing rights to songs written by The Beatles and many other acts. In 1995, Jackson and Sony Music Publishing merged their two Catalogues to create, Sony-ATV. Jackson's 50% interest in the company (Sony Music Entertainment owns the other half) is estimated to be worth USD 500 million. Jackson also owns his own music catalogue called MiJac Publishing, which contains all of his songs and songs from Sly and the Family Stone.
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ou have to remember that for every person with an IQ above average, there's one with an IQ below average.
Only if the distribution of intelligence is the same above and below. You can have many slightly stupid people and a genius or in the reverse many slightly intelligent people and one brain dead.
Ghandi would do okay here... in China, he'd be dead by now.
We need to keep that in mind when dealing with China. They do not have remotely the same set of moral axioms that the west does at this point.
Someone did follow Gandhi's example in the US. He's dead by now. He was shot.
What about Islam?
So the German authorities have lists of citizens classified by religion, including Jews.
Do they process them with Dehomag machines?
I'm not so sure that Chinese isolation was a conscious decision rather than a well working autarky.
For hard protectionism, look to Tokugawa Japan. They closed their borders to everybody but a bunch of Chinese, Koreans and Dutch, under very stringent conditions. They spent centuries in peace and isolation. It took Commodore Perry's black ships to open the Japanese ports. This caused the Meiji Revolution who decided to modernize/Westernize almost the whole country (military, politics, industry, culture,...). In 40 years, Japan was beating the Russians in East Asia.
Compare with Siam who was more open to foreign influences.
Probably there are more factors than mere "isolationism superceded by modernization", though. Japan was capable of rebuilding itself again after WW2.
More than fear, the case was that China produced everything that they could need. The only ware they require viciously was silver, hence the Manila Galleon traded Mexican and Peruvian silver for Chinese exports.
Other imports were clockworks, but only as novelty items for the emperor.
Then the British found that they could produce in India something that the Chinese would get hooked on: opium. When the Chinese authorities found that their subjects wre smoking their lives away and their officers being bribed, they rejected British trade. The British Parliament debated whether the Navy should force the Chinese authorities to allow their drug traffic. Eventually they democratically decided so, and attacked China.
I don't believe Simon Singh's The Code Book is available online
At least the CDROM is.
As long as they keep with the GFDL, texts from Citipendium could be grafted into Wikipedia.
I am collecting signatures to put subways out of everybody's sight, say, underground.
If someone wants to go to the subway, they know where to find it.
there was no native American disease that killed large number of the colonists.
Some think syphillis comes from the Americas.
You should read the book Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond. He explains exactly why the diseases were on the side of the Europeans. In short, Europeans had been living in cities for a long time before they came to America. Since people were living closer together, the chance of spreading disease was very high
Read it again. Tenochtitlan was bigger than any city in Europe.
Eurasians had been living with, on, besides, around, under and behind various types of tamed animals for millennia.
In the Americas, they have a lesser range of tameable animals to get sick from.
because of religious dogma.
Really? I'd thought that the breakup of trade leaving collections of introverted villages in Western Europe would have an influence.
The Eastern Empire was under (conflicting) religious dogmas, though. Did it went backwards or just taught the Muslims their basics?
But the chips in those Playstations could be used for Saddam's weapon systems!
Not looking like a Muslim is better for a terrorist.
You made me laugh.
You'll lose my comments, insensitive clod!
There is even a Firefox extension.
That's like saying you don't know what a road is.
In Venice?
Your arms and shoulders would get painfully tired after just a few minutes using this...
Myron Krueger proposed already in the 1980s the Kungfu Typewriter, where you type by kicking and punching. A healthier alternative to sitting all day developing RSI.
There are rules linking working area and angle. You want a horizontal DIN A-4, a tilted drawing board and a vertical canvas. Painters have been working for centuries on big vertical surfaces.
Unless you have to work like Michelangelo, upwards on the Sistine Chapel what was extenuating for him.
Brin's "The Kiln People" is a detective novel in such a society. Another plot elements are one-day golems that work for you.
I use Google and block their advertisements. Is that enough?
It is not the same to buy rice from China and collaborating with the repression.
drive it lengthwise down the center of a cigarette so the ash wouldn't fall off while he was smoking
A similar story is told of Winston Churchill.
From Wikipedia:
Michael Jackson purchased ownership in ATV Music Publishing in 1985, which owns the publishing rights to songs written by The Beatles and many other acts. In 1995, Jackson and Sony Music Publishing merged their two Catalogues to create, Sony-ATV. Jackson's 50% interest in the company (Sony Music Entertainment owns the other half) is estimated to be worth USD 500 million. Jackson also owns his own music catalogue called MiJac Publishing, which contains all of his songs and songs from Sly and the Family Stone.