This is... a really good idea. I like this. It does allow for one generation to be entirely lazy non-productive members of society, which is not ideal, but only one generation rather than many. So that's a big improvement.
We do income taxes rather than net worth, not because it's preferable from an economic or moral perspective, but because taxes on net worth are extremely difficult to implement.
I don't know the particulars of this situation, but if these people are trying to hold an illegal election, as the summary suggests, then we're basically talking about revolutionary separatists. I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "suppress people's freedom," so... what freedom are you referring to, exactly?
Mind you, I'm not arguing with you. Any limitation on what you can do is a limitation on your freedom, at least in some sense, and these people are being limited. And that usually pisses people off. Every once in a while I get annoyed that my freedom to go on a murderous killing spree has been curtailed. (God damn nanny state...) But I get over it.
So I guess my question is: what do you know about this situation that I don't know?
Most people don't think about it too hard. The argument for the existence of property is usually tied to development of that property. In other words, it's the work that you put into something which makes it yours. This is what the parent is referring to.
It's not mentioned that it's a title because even Americans have heard of the title 'Baron'.
It still stands out. I don't want to speak for all Americans, but this is the first and only person that I think of when I hear the word "Baroness." I can't think of a single other baron or baroness unless maybe you want to talk about robber barons, or the trope of naming villains "Baron Von German Name."
There are a few people in this thread asking the important question: "Is her name baroness?" But nobody answering it. I guess I'll have to be that person...
It it looks like it's a title, her name is Martha. Though apparently it's not a title by birth, but rather awarded to her by virtue of the fact that she's rich.
That's interesting. I find it odd that he was called N- due to his fair complexion, was it an ironic nickname? That seems less likely if the local black population is not called n-.
The word 'soccer' is disliked because brits see it as American.
Where are you getting this from? The word soccer is British. They know this. We know this. I did say, explicitly, that their dislike for the word soccer parallels, in some ways, the civil rights movement in the United States. Did you decide to just ignore that part? Are you asking me to educate myself on why the word soccer is hateful, or are you just being an ignorant American?
How about "faggot"? Do you get angry every time British people talk about cigarettes? Or, in that case, are you willing to acknowledge that language has cultural differences? That words don't have the same impact everywhere?
("Hateful" isn't really accurate for soccer, n- and soccer don't parallel one another that closely, but it's close enough to make an effective analogy.)
Sweden doesn't have much of a history or present-day pattern of oppressing black people either. It's perfectly understandable that the word might not have the same significance for PewDiePie that it does for Americans.
You know how British people get upset when Americans refer to a certain sport by the name "soccer"? And Americans just laugh at them for getting worked up over nothing? The British aren't being arbitrary in this, they have their own reasons for disliking the word soccer and in some respects it parallels the civil rights movement in the United States.
This whole deal sounds an awful lot like Americans exporting their outrage.
I'm not sure that end-users have as much influence as you're suggesting here. How many people do you think were saying, "I like mobile phones, but... They need to get rid of these removable batteries and headphone jacks. And also prevent me from installing software from any source that isn't paying them money. Oh! And forced upgrades and locked bootloaders! Man, I can not get enough of those."
Funny thing, there's a documentary on this which just aired on Frontline. There was one bank which was prosecuted for the subprime mortgage crisis, just one. A tiny one based in Chinatown in New York.
I'd never heard this before so I did some searching, just to see what I could find. Wow, these people sure do like the term "globalist." For such a vague nonsense-word, they certainly use it a lot.
There's a lot of talk about Jews too, and the two words seem to get used together pretty often (example), but they are distinct. If you look at that example, this person is talking about two groups of globalists which are led by Jews but (by implication) not wholly comprised of Jews.
The site is www.core-econ.org. I don't know how a story gets written about a cool new free online economics course which you can do right now for free online... and doesn't provide a link to the course.
Where did this "more frequent" thing come from? The claims that I've seen have always been, "Climate change will probably not make more storms, or not many more, but the storms which we do get will be stronger, on average."
Just to humor you, and all of the other people here who keep talking about frequency, I went looking for an article from 2006. I didn't find one, but the IPCC did a report in 2007. I figure that's close enough:
While overall numbers of tropical cyclones worldwide have shown little variation over the past 40 years (Pielke et al., 2005), there is evidence for an increase in the average intensity of tropical cyclones in most basins of tropical cyclone formation since 1970 (Webster et al., 2005) as well as in both the number and intensity of storms in the Atlantic (Emanuel, 2005), the basin with the highest volatility in tropical cyclone numbers (see Trenberth et al., 2007, Sections 3.8.3 and 3.8.3.2).
Eh, that's not the way my chemistry prof described it: there's so much water in the atmosphere that the spectrum that water absorbs is essentially absorbed completely. Thus, more water doesn't make any difference.
There's no need for Machiavellian scheming, China has a massive pollution problem and their economic development requires large-scale investment in projects much like this one. This is a better use of funds than manufacturing ghost-towns, and they know it, so they do it.
Not that I'm disagreeing with any of what you say, but Niven writes some awfully self-centered characters too. He's a better author than Pournelle and better than most writers, and has received some deserved acclaim, but I can't stand to read his books. He's protagonists are generally contemptible people, and I can't help but think this reflects on his character. It seems possible that they worked together on so much because they saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things.
Or you could quote the paper you linked, which explicitly states that hurricanes have NOT gotten more powerful
... What?
"Observed records of Atlantic hurricane activity show some correlation, on multi-year time-scales, between local tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and the Power Dissipation Index (PDI) —see for example Fig. 3 on this EPA Climate Indicators site. PDI is an aggregate measure of Atlantic hurricane activity, combining frequency, intensity, and duration of hurricanes in a single index. Both Atlantic SSTs and PDI have risen sharply since the 1970s, and there is some evidence that PDI levels in recent years are higher than in the previous active Atlantic hurricane era in the 1950s and 60s."
The Atlantic hurricane power dissipation index has increased very substantially since the 70s. This value combines frequency, intensity, and duration.
Since hurricanes result from a difference in temperatures, rather than from high sea temperatures alone, that image gives two potential predictions for the future. In the top (pessimistic) scenario, the north Atlantic and tropics warm unevenly and power dissipation goes up, in the bottom (optimistic) scenario warming is even and power dissipation remains mostly the same. Regardless of the future, it is undeniable that in recent decades hurricanes have gotten worse.
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This is... a really good idea. I like this. It does allow for one generation to be entirely lazy non-productive members of society, which is not ideal, but only one generation rather than many. So that's a big improvement.
We do income taxes rather than net worth, not because it's preferable from an economic or moral perspective, but because taxes on net worth are extremely difficult to implement.
... In context, given the post that you're replying to, it sounds like you're saying that you hate Americans.
Assuming that's not what you intended, maybe you could have picked a better place to put this comment.
I don't know the particulars of this situation, but if these people are trying to hold an illegal election, as the summary suggests, then we're basically talking about revolutionary separatists. I'm not sure exactly what you meant by "suppress people's freedom," so... what freedom are you referring to, exactly?
Mind you, I'm not arguing with you. Any limitation on what you can do is a limitation on your freedom, at least in some sense, and these people are being limited. And that usually pisses people off. Every once in a while I get annoyed that my freedom to go on a murderous killing spree has been curtailed. (God damn nanny state...) But I get over it.
So I guess my question is: what do you know about this situation that I don't know?
Most people don't think about it too hard. The argument for the existence of property is usually tied to development of that property. In other words, it's the work that you put into something which makes it yours. This is what the parent is referring to.
Ah, that makes sense.
It's not mentioned that it's a title because even Americans have heard of the title 'Baron'.
It still stands out. I don't want to speak for all Americans, but this is the first and only person that I think of when I hear the word "Baroness." I can't think of a single other baron or baroness unless maybe you want to talk about robber barons, or the trope of naming villains "Baron Von German Name."
There are a few people in this thread asking the important question: "Is her name baroness?" But nobody answering it. I guess I'll have to be that person...
It it looks like it's a title, her name is Martha. Though apparently it's not a title by birth, but rather awarded to her by virtue of the fact that she's rich.
This was disappointing in every respect.
Thank you! You would make a terrible politician, but you would probably somehow still get elected anyway.
Good news! This will help the children, along with everyone else, so all of your bases are covered.
That's interesting. I find it odd that he was called N- due to his fair complexion, was it an ironic nickname? That seems less likely if the local black population is not called n-.
Okay, fair enough. Replace the word "faggot" with "fag" in my post above, and the point remains the same.
The word 'soccer' is disliked because brits see it as American.
Where are you getting this from? The word soccer is British. They know this. We know this. I did say, explicitly, that their dislike for the word soccer parallels, in some ways, the civil rights movement in the United States. Did you decide to just ignore that part? Are you asking me to educate myself on why the word soccer is hateful, or are you just being an ignorant American?
How about "faggot"? Do you get angry every time British people talk about cigarettes? Or, in that case, are you willing to acknowledge that language has cultural differences? That words don't have the same impact everywhere?
("Hateful" isn't really accurate for soccer, n- and soccer don't parallel one another that closely, but it's close enough to make an effective analogy.)
Sweden doesn't have much of a history or present-day pattern of oppressing black people either. It's perfectly understandable that the word might not have the same significance for PewDiePie that it does for Americans.
You know how British people get upset when Americans refer to a certain sport by the name "soccer"? And Americans just laugh at them for getting worked up over nothing? The British aren't being arbitrary in this, they have their own reasons for disliking the word soccer and in some respects it parallels the civil rights movement in the United States.
This whole deal sounds an awful lot like Americans exporting their outrage.
I'm not sure that end-users have as much influence as you're suggesting here. How many people do you think were saying, "I like mobile phones, but... They need to get rid of these removable batteries and headphone jacks. And also prevent me from installing software from any source that isn't paying them money. Oh! And forced upgrades and locked bootloaders! Man, I can not get enough of those."
San Francisco loves its left wingers ... wielding identity politics
Right. Sure, buddy.
"The other group is always othering other groups. It's outrageous! We would never other others. That other group is scum."
Honestly, I had to read your comment three times before I figured out that it was the tech companies that you were labeling as "left wing."
Funny thing, there's a documentary on this which just aired on Frontline. There was one bank which was prosecuted for the subprime mortgage crisis, just one. A tiny one based in Chinatown in New York.
I'd never heard this before so I did some searching, just to see what I could find. Wow, these people sure do like the term "globalist." For such a vague nonsense-word, they certainly use it a lot.
There's a lot of talk about Jews too, and the two words seem to get used together pretty often (example), but they are distinct. If you look at that example, this person is talking about two groups of globalists which are led by Jews but (by implication) not wholly comprised of Jews.
The site is www.core-econ.org. I don't know how a story gets written about a cool new free online economics course which you can do right now for free online... and doesn't provide a link to the course.
Just to humor you, and all of the other people here who keep talking about frequency, I went looking for an article from 2006. I didn't find one, but the IPCC did a report in 2007. I figure that's close enough:
While overall numbers of tropical cyclones worldwide have shown little variation over the past 40 years (Pielke et al., 2005), there is evidence for an increase in the average intensity of tropical cyclones in most basins of tropical cyclone formation since 1970 (Webster et al., 2005) as well as in both the number and intensity of storms in the Atlantic (Emanuel, 2005), the basin with the highest volatility in tropical cyclone numbers (see Trenberth et al., 2007, Sections 3.8.3 and 3.8.3.2).
Eh, that's not the way my chemistry prof described it: there's so much water in the atmosphere that the spectrum that water absorbs is essentially absorbed completely. Thus, more water doesn't make any difference.
There's no need for Machiavellian scheming, China has a massive pollution problem and their economic development requires large-scale investment in projects much like this one. This is a better use of funds than manufacturing ghost-towns, and they know it, so they do it.
Not that I'm disagreeing with any of what you say, but Niven writes some awfully self-centered characters too. He's a better author than Pournelle and better than most writers, and has received some deserved acclaim, but I can't stand to read his books. He's protagonists are generally contemptible people, and I can't help but think this reflects on his character. It seems possible that they worked together on so much because they saw eye-to-eye on a lot of things.
Or you could quote the paper you linked, which explicitly states that hurricanes have NOT gotten more powerful
... What?
"Observed records of Atlantic hurricane activity show some correlation, on multi-year time-scales, between local tropical Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and the Power Dissipation Index (PDI) —see for example Fig. 3 on this EPA Climate Indicators site. PDI is an aggregate measure of Atlantic hurricane activity, combining frequency, intensity, and duration of hurricanes in a single index. Both Atlantic SSTs and PDI have risen sharply since the 1970s, and there is some evidence that PDI levels in recent years are higher than in the previous active Atlantic hurricane era in the 1950s and 60s."
The Atlantic hurricane power dissipation index has increased very substantially since the 70s. This value combines frequency, intensity, and duration.
Since hurricanes result from a difference in temperatures, rather than from high sea temperatures alone, that image gives two potential predictions for the future. In the top (pessimistic) scenario, the north Atlantic and tropics warm unevenly and power dissipation goes up, in the bottom (optimistic) scenario warming is even and power dissipation remains mostly the same. Regardless of the future, it is undeniable that in recent decades hurricanes have gotten worse.
You can read the full article here, if you like.