Technically, he should have used "goddamned" instead of "goddamn". "Goddamn" is a noun, and he wants to use an adjective, which would be "goddamned".
Of course, it should be two words, "god damned", and in our western culture, the G in god should be capitalized as it usually means the particular Christian god Yaweh who is going to be doing the damning at the behest of the invoking mortal.
By the way, we can tell we're losing the "war on drugs" because, as conservative columnist George Will, among others, points out, the price of drugs on the street is falling and the purity is increasing.
Julian Simon.com is the guy who preceeded this Lombard guy in the news.
He noted (this is my description, not his words) that free societies will rise to the occasion of need much better than command and control economies. In fact, and this is even more important, they are so powerful they will adapt to any shortages, so much so that the things that are "short" will never appear to be in shortage because people will look harder for new sources, find substitutions, and build in efficiencies.
He had a famous bet in 1980 with a gloom and doom cartoon of a character (you'd think he was a straw man to be knocked down, but he's real) called Erlich. "Pick any 10 resources, your choice Erlich, that you, Erlich, think will be scarce or run out. Barring any government intervention, I claim they will be cheaper, which is the only meaningful economic measurement of scarcity."
Erlich took the bet, picked his ten items (copper, etc.) and lost. Not only was stuff cheaper, but it was mostly (all?) cheaper not even discounting inflation.
Simon stands there saying, "Don't tell me about the weather, or about forest cover. That's like betting on the condition of the track. I am betting on the speed of the sprinters."
Pick general health, nutrition, life span, general wealth, any real, actual measure of human progress, and a free economy will be ahead of a command and control one, and you will not have shortages.
The last thing we want is a bunch of aliens destroying the earth because our first face forward to the stars was an "evil, Borg-like communist regime."
And with humanity living longer, healthier, better lives, one wonders how badly this planet is wrecked. Doom is always just around the corner, buy my book, give me a grant.
> The only way to do it is for people to exercise > reproductive responsibility. A naive hope, but our > only chance.
You seem to be worried that a growing population is a serious problem, rather than a fantastic boon to humanity, as is actually the case. We all need to stop reading 1970's sci-fi stories and get with the picture.
> Can you imagine the amount of resources it would > cost to move that many people to Mars and to > provide for them there a livable environment?
Exactly. The purpose for colonization was to spread humanity, and not because of the "Lost in Space" model, where somehow we magically create enough space ships to ship enough people to make a dent in the world population.
Not that it couldn't be done, but nothing short of an impending catastrophe like our sun going nova would make work like that.
Of course, we all know high population is "bad", but that sentiment may be more based on images of starving people in third world countries than in any meaningful economic sense. As far as real-world scientific advancement goes, big population good, good, good. The more people, the more problem solving capacity to solve all these problems environmentalists worry about. Which will win, the problems or the problem solving ability?
The past two hundred years on this planet show that not only is this anti-common sense view accurate, the race isn't even close.
Don't laugh. I remember reading a kids' sci-fi story wherein a sourdough (newbie) child to a Mars colony bitches at the long-timer children how lame Mars is -- "Your mountains are only a few hundred feet high!"
> I hope that the Chinese governments efforts will > start the space race up again- and maybe broaden > human horizons.
We already do. We now have an Official American Roadmap to permanently colonizing the moon and Mars. Building permanent space colonies in the L-whatever points of the earth-moon and earth-sun systems.
> We've only been terraforming one planet (albeit for > the worse) for a few hundred years.
As Ann Landers says, "Wake up and smell the coffee."
This old common sense saw is in danger of making things worse by causing us to do things to ameliorate its false worries.
It was the grotesque pollution of industrialization, the choking pollution, that allowed people to NOT die, thus causing a population explosion before people realized they didn't need 10 kids to hope 1 made it to adulthood.
The result of all this is the increasing quality and length of life for more and more humans. Are there some serious problems? Yes, and strong economies can handle the solutions better than weak ones. Any "solution" that, when all was said and done, caused people to live shorter, less healthy lives is no friend to humanity. A weak economy has more power to do more damage than just about any benefit you might get.
No governments, democratic or otherwise, are wise. A democracy is bright shiny things promised if you'll only give me the power to konk that other group over the head.
2. degraded education
We import what we need. The rest serve the economy by buying food and staffing Rally's.
> You would drink the soda then pull open a plastice > zipper to introduce the bacteria into the bottle.
Johnny Cochrane: Are you trying to tell this distinguished Jury that your corporation never tested the direct consumption of the bacteria pack? Are you aware that children like to "huff" the bacteria pack because of the high it gives them? You never even went so far as to smear some in the eyes of a rabbit!?!?!?
The book was only 3 pages long. Here's the ending:
> Gas prices are currently at $50 a gallon and > climbing, with OPEC saying it will, once again, > raises prices.
Then, a few billion dollars later, scientists created bacteria that produced oil and, two weeks later, ones that produced gasoline directly. They began heaving the gigatons of crap barfed up on this subject by any number of no-it-alls' masturbatory cathartic environmentalist gloom and doom fantasies into tanks filled with this bacteria, and prices went back to normal.
You're letting logic and science get in the way of a good, hysterical, common sense story that drums up money for newspapers and political power for socialists!
> Venus has a big problem: the day lasts there some > 200 earth days. 280? The day there is longer than > the Venus year:-/
That doesn't make sense. If it was being slowed by tidal forces, it would slow until it matched the year, then stop. This indicates it was rotating more slowly, possibly even in the other direction, and is currently being sped up by the forces.
Any list of the greatest sci-fi movies never made that includes Aliens vs. Predator invalidates itself.
And, while a well done Fantastic Four would be so sci-fi it makes X-Men look like Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, it's two decent Marvel movies to about 10 hideous ones.
It's why I didn't see X-Men (in the theaters) and might very well not see Spiderman. As the man said, "Who wants to watch little men lift little weights?" That, and some of Spidey's jumping in the previews had about as much convincing physics as Jar Jar Binks.
Bring on the FF and let's see the sci-fi big iron!
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Technically, he should have used "goddamned" instead of "goddamn". "Goddamn" is a noun, and he wants to use an adjective, which would be "goddamned".
Of course, it should be two words, "god damned", and in our western culture, the G in god should be capitalized as it usually means the particular Christian god Yaweh who is going to be doing the damning at the behest of the invoking mortal.
"God damned", as in "You God damned asshole!"
By the way, we can tell we're losing the "war on drugs" because, as conservative columnist George Will, among others, points out, the price of drugs on the street is falling and the purity is increasing.
Julian Simon.com is the guy who preceeded this Lombard guy in the news.
He noted (this is my description, not his words) that free societies will rise to the occasion of need much better than command and control economies. In fact, and this is even more important, they are so powerful they will adapt to any shortages, so much so that the things that are "short" will never appear to be in shortage because people will look harder for new sources, find substitutions, and build in efficiencies.
He had a famous bet in 1980 with a gloom and doom cartoon of a character (you'd think he was a straw man to be knocked down, but he's real) called Erlich. "Pick any 10 resources, your choice Erlich, that you, Erlich, think will be scarce or run out. Barring any government intervention, I claim they will be cheaper, which is the only meaningful economic measurement of scarcity."
Erlich took the bet, picked his ten items (copper, etc.) and lost. Not only was stuff cheaper, but it was mostly (all?) cheaper not even discounting inflation.
Simon stands there saying, "Don't tell me about the weather, or about forest cover. That's like betting on the condition of the track. I am betting on the speed of the sprinters."
Pick general health, nutrition, life span, general wealth, any real, actual measure of human progress, and a free economy will be ahead of a command and control one, and you will not have shortages.
Uh uh. We all know where this is headed.
"You fool! This is Mars Alpha Six!"
The last thing we want is a bunch of aliens destroying the earth because our first face forward to the stars was an "evil, Borg-like communist regime."
> Your assuming that all biological processes are like us.
That babe from Crystalania cut the hell out of my dick.
And with humanity living longer, healthier, better lives, one wonders how badly this planet is wrecked. Doom is always just around the corner, buy my book, give me a grant.
"What's the difference between your two signs?"
"That idiot has to re-do his sign every day!"
> The only way to do it is for people to exercise
> reproductive responsibility. A naive hope, but our
> only chance.
You seem to be worried that a growing population is a serious problem, rather than a fantastic boon to humanity, as is actually the case. We all need to stop reading 1970's sci-fi stories and get with the picture.
> Can you imagine the amount of resources it would
> cost to move that many people to Mars and to
> provide for them there a livable environment?
Exactly. The purpose for colonization was to spread humanity, and not because of the "Lost in Space" model, where somehow we magically create enough space ships to ship enough people to make a dent in the world population.
Not that it couldn't be done, but nothing short of an impending catastrophe like our sun going nova would make work like that.
Of course, we all know high population is "bad", but that sentiment may be more based on images of starving people in third world countries than in any meaningful economic sense. As far as real-world scientific advancement goes, big population good, good, good. The more people, the more problem solving capacity to solve all these problems environmentalists worry about. Which will win, the problems or the problem solving ability?
The past two hundred years on this planet show that not only is this anti-common sense view accurate, the race isn't even close.
> a fuel can be generated to handle flying back to Earth.
Why would you want to? On Mars, all women this side of Roseanne Barr are spinners.
Assuming you and your stuff doesn't spontaneously burst into flame, of course.
Don't laugh. I remember reading a kids' sci-fi story wherein a sourdough (newbie) child to a Mars colony bitches at the long-timer children how lame Mars is -- "Your mountains are only a few hundred feet high!"
> I hope that the Chinese governments efforts will
> start the space race up again- and maybe broaden
> human horizons.
We already do. We now have an Official American Roadmap to permanently colonizing the moon and Mars. Building permanent space colonies in the L-whatever points of the earth-moon and earth-sun systems.
A return to the golden age!
> We've only been terraforming one planet (albeit for
> the worse) for a few hundred years.
As Ann Landers says, "Wake up and smell the coffee."
This old common sense saw is in danger of making things worse by causing us to do things to ameliorate its false worries.
It was the grotesque pollution of industrialization, the choking pollution, that allowed people to NOT die, thus causing a population explosion before people realized they didn't need 10 kids to hope 1 made it to adulthood.
The result of all this is the increasing quality and length of life for more and more humans. Are there some serious problems? Yes, and strong economies can handle the solutions better than weak ones. Any "solution" that, when all was said and done, caused people to live shorter, less healthy lives is no friend to humanity. A weak economy has more power to do more damage than just about any benefit you might get.
I think you mean Porcelain by Moby, not Enya.
Ehh, not that either. They're both billionaires, having sold their hook songs to advertising.
1. not very wise goverment
No governments, democratic or otherwise, are wise. A democracy is bright shiny things promised if you'll only give me the power to konk that other group over the head.
2. degraded education
We import what we need. The rest serve the economy by buying food and staffing Rally's.
3. fat people
See #2.
I remember some story I read about how they were used to help clean up a spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
> You would drink the soda then pull open a plastice
> zipper to introduce the bacteria into the bottle.
Johnny Cochrane: Are you trying to tell this distinguished Jury that your corporation never tested the direct consumption of the bacteria pack? Are you aware that children like to "huff" the bacteria pack because of the high it gives them? You never even went so far as to smear some in the eyes of a rabbit!?!?!?
The book was only 3 pages long. Here's the ending:
> Gas prices are currently at $50 a gallon and
> climbing, with OPEC saying it will, once again,
> raises prices.
Then, a few billion dollars later, scientists created bacteria that produced oil and, two weeks later, ones that produced gasoline directly. They began heaving the gigatons of crap barfed up on this subject by any number of no-it-alls' masturbatory cathartic environmentalist gloom and doom fantasies into tanks filled with this bacteria, and prices went back to normal.
Oh come on!
You're letting logic and science get in the way of a good, hysterical, common sense story that drums up money for newspapers and political power for socialists!
> Venus has a big problem: the day lasts there some :-/
> 200 earth days. 280? The day there is longer than
> the Venus year
That doesn't make sense. If it was being slowed by tidal forces, it would slow until it matched the year, then stop. This indicates it was rotating more slowly, possibly even in the other direction, and is currently being sped up by the forces.
> those 128 MB GeForce 4 will probably get you
> average performance (ok I know this is an
> exaggeration but you get the point).
Yes, you're exaggerating. GeForce 4 will get you nowhere near average performance in two years.
A 128 MB GeForce 4 with a 2.2 GHz Pentium IV? Ok, Jethro. I'll go find a copy of Wolf 3D for you.
I liked Doom 3 better the first time...when it was called Quake II.
Quake = space marine vs. magical monsters
Doom = space marine vs. space monsters
This should be called Doom IV.
Let's also remember it was 30 years between Disney's use of microwave ovens in The World of The Future and the reality in real homes.
From the table of contents to that book:
> Aliens vs Predator
Any list of the greatest sci-fi movies never made that includes Aliens vs. Predator invalidates itself.
And, while a well done Fantastic Four would be so sci-fi it makes X-Men look like Abbott and Costello Go To Mars, it's two decent Marvel movies to about 10 hideous ones.
It's why I didn't see X-Men (in the theaters) and might very well not see Spiderman. As the man said, "Who wants to watch little men lift little weights?" That, and some of Spidey's jumping in the previews had about as much convincing physics as Jar Jar Binks.
Bring on the FF and let's see the sci-fi big iron!