Hence unions. However they have been systematically on the decline. The unions that do exist are more concerned with self preservation that any sort of labour reforms for their workers.
Having time off, and not using it to work, only works if you have the money to do other things. Also having enough money that you do not want to bother trying to do your own plumbing or carpentry and paying someone else more qualified to do it (apart from a few hobbyists that might just enjoy that sort of thing, less likely of plumbing).
Having more time off and the same disposable income of course doesn't really balance out. At best you'd use half your time off trying to afford the other half.
Or transferred it outside of the country, or inherited forever by descended royalty, or any of a number of things very wealthy people pair other really wealthy people to make laws about to allow really wealth people stay that way forever.
You are absolutely correct in that the 1% make all their money on the 99% debt.
However, most of that is in housing. As you say the cost of housing isn't directly proportional to the cost of building a house (though it has increased for the same reason I will list). The demand for housing hasn't increased proportionally. What has increased is the the amount banks are willing to lend to people, and the ratio of debt people are allowed to carry now. If people can't afford to buy a house the cost goes down. Housing is only expensive as the ability to people to pay for it. Thus housing prices has increased. This also has effects an all aspects of housing such as building, for the same reason. They can escalate their costs because houses are "worth" more. In this way the 1% have influenced the market in their favor.
It has gotten so ridiculous I noticed a couple of years ago when I tried to get renovations done. When I got a house I got a very modest (i.e. old and small) "inexpensive" house that was about 100k. I was looking to do an "inexpensive" bathroom renovation of about 10,000$ which is about 1/10 of the cost of my entire home. The problem was no contractor wants to bother with a job like that anymore, so finding someone was very difficult, keeping him more so. The reason is because when your house costs 500-600k, no one blinks an eye spending 20-30k on a bathroom, as that is only 1/20th of the cost of their house, and the perceived increase of X tens of thousands of "value" that adds... So you spend more, acquire more debt, etc... and who wins?
Yes, I think you are right, in the US there is an educational debt crisis coming at some point as you illustrate. There are entire for profit education mills that's soul purpose is to acquire debt. Key is the issue of essentially "free" loans from the US government which you can't even claim bankruptcy to clear (i.e. money in the bank for these "schools"), with the idea of increasing upward mobility and access, but in the end you get a useless degree and debt slavery. This is somewhat unique to the US however I think, whereas the housing issue is ubik. All you have to do is watch those housing or renovation shows, or even just look at housing prices, and ask yourself "what to all these people do for a living to afford that?"...
For large enterprise systems, there are not a lot of good options to begin with. Had the discussion with a college the other day. Apart from the two you mentioned (MariaDB and PostgreSQL), and the one that "won" Oracle, that really only leaves IBM DB2 (which I know little about).
If you work for an organization that outsources most of their technical talent, so can't have a bunch of experts on payroll, that pretty much rules out both MariaDB and PostgreSQL (which is really too bad as I have heard a lot of good things about PostgreSQL spatial GIS engine). This is because they need to be able to have access to external support from another big company (i.e. IBM or Oracle), and yes boy do they pay for it. However many would rather that than deal with staff and salary apparently. This really isn't a reflection of how "good" a DB is, but rather open VS closed source and support models VS staffing framework. Though technical documentation does count towards something. There *is* a ton of technical support for Oracle, though some leaves a bit to be desired. The other thing that isn't so fair, is that a lot of that is because Oracle has simply been around forever, but some of that will be for versions that no longer really apply anymore.
So regardless of how bogus the rating is, there really isn't enough players in the same category to really have much of a list to begin with. Though to rant with the rest, using the number of technical discussions on a particular DB, isn't exactly a good metric, as if it was good, it should be intuitive, and or not full of issues, requiring a lot of discussion, so pretty much the opposite of good. Also insofar as job postings and corresponding linkedin references (which are really just a mirror of that), most of the HR and/or Management boffins that put those things together probably have never heard of anything but Oracle, DB2, etc... and wouldn't know a MariaDB or PostgreSQL if it hit them in the face... so also not so good of a metric.
There is actually a pretty decent historical example of a conventional explosion in a seaport with plenty of detail, an this was in what was likely a less populous city at the time than most would be. During WW1 two ships carrying explosives collided in Halifax harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. The resulting blast was about 2.9 kilotons of TNT, which pretty much leveled the city, and was the largest conventional explosion prior to nuclear weapons. 7 kilotons would be more than twice that obviously.
So yeah, not quite BB's. However the parent poster is right about the delivery system... They don't really have one that is any good. That doesn't really help South Korea being so close unfortunately. I recall a number of years ago, they did a missile test more less against Japan that got them all up in arms, but in the end it was a failure that went into the sea well out of range. While the cargo ship idea is plausible, the amount of time to deploy, and coordination to hit multiple targets, make it a pretty unreasonable option. However even one such instance of a 7 kiloton device in a modern, large populous seaport, would be pretty devastating. Not to mention the fact that after that the disruption to trade would obviously occur I think...
Agreed. Though I suspect there is probably some clause that is being abused. Likely there is a time frame for discovery, which would make sense, as it may take some time to become aware of the infringement. It is probably being perverted however because the length of copyright keeps getting more and more ridiculously long, that this also has en effect on the discovery period being extended.
The other piece to this, is the penalties have been inflated so much, that it it now more extortion than protection of any kind. I would bet that most copyright cases, by a large margin, are settled out of court anyway. The classic copyright, "you pay us 60,000$ now, or if it goes to court you could potentially have to pay us 6,000,000$", so even if they have a pretty flimsy case, the risk in defending it is so great that most just pay anyway.
Agreed, sort of. It doesn't eat away at the bottom line, but rather is a buffer of assets not realized yet. Provided there isn't a huge swing somehow in the cost of labour or materials to make things, and their ability to sell them, they would be eventually sold for the same amount of profit. The real difference is that those profits may not be realized in the same quarter as produced... Basically long term it makes no difference (if a bit of risk), it is those short term earning sheets for investors and CEO bonuses that drives that model. A company that plans to be around long term, will sell the same amount of stuff, only there may be a lag (which of course means tied up capitol, that could be used to invest). While their may be a bit of risk, in that the price might drop, or demand decrease, conversely there is the opportunity where if demand goes up, and prices increase, you can then make an even larger profit. Additionally, you have a less risk, should there be problems with production as some point, as you would still have product on hand to continue to sell, while you figure out your production issues... How many times has this occurred in modern times, where a production problem occurs, or labour dispute, or natural disaster, or similar event where they only stock available is whatever is sitting on shelves, and when that runs out, there just isn't anymore until you can retool, or recover or whatever.
You could simplify the ridiculously complicated tax code, which wouldn't require a small army of civil servants to manage anymore, increase the salaries of those left, and they'll never consider fraud in the first place.
There problem solved. No left wing agenda required. I'll take my lucrative civil servant job now in payment.
Of course a simplified tax code wouldn't let you hide tax breaks for the wealthy, so I guess that is a bit leftist.
I've sure some of it has to do with the people involved. However I would bet the real reason is it isn't really worth suing over until it has been used enough.
If they sued when first discovered, likely the end result would be a check for a couple hundred bucks, and they simply stop using it, replacing it with some other dramatic device. Now that it has been repeatedly used, and marketed, they can actually sue for some money, making it worthwhile to do so... Which I doubt is really the intent of copyright if every there really was one.
Further to this the problem is not "people" in the traditional sense, but corporations, who being treated at "people" but never die.
The extensions upon extensions to copyright are not being lobbied primarily by "artists", but by corporations who by and large own all the works.
You need to solve that little riddle before anything is going to happen about copyright reform.
Because as soon as you try to do anything, someone from Sony or related associations are going to show up to a politicians house, with a truckload of money, and a lot of "amendments".
So a good first step would be to try and separate corporate interests from politics in the US... Good luck with that.
I thought the reason why no one bothered making the big Bertha type of bombs anymore was because it was much more effective to have a bunch of smaller ones in a MIRV type setup... Which is much more dependent on the delivery system. From what tests NK has done, while they may be a nuclear power, their delivery systems are not really on the same level. If your target isn't that far away (i.e. SK), it probably doesn't have to be that far advanced. That said, it could be reasonable that they follow the similar development strategies (i.e. one big bomb) as other nations did long ago, likely for the same reasons (delivery issues... Tsar Bomba was dropped by a bomber plane if I remember correctly, which barely had time to get out of the way, another reason to limit size due to delivery system)...
Having said that, I seem to recall NK trying to advance their "satellite" launching ability...
Was thinking the same thing. One of the items that as I am poking around the wasteland that gets picked up more often than not is duct tape, packages or duct tape, and military grade duct tape!
One of the other posters is right though, aluminum cans and the like are your friend also.
Lastly one of the things that I didn't really collect a lot of, then starting to run out of very quickly was copper. It is used a lot in community building if you do that. Fuses, light bulbs, and other electric type things come in handy then.
But when I sees the duct tape, it goes in the pocket just the same... Beds cost cloth also.
Also just watched the movie "The Martian" recently, and duct tape takes a staring role in the film as well fixing everything from face shields, to habitats.
Is it just me, or am I the only cynical one that thinks, that Samsung will sell your fridge content information to 3rd parties. If they collect your personal information when you "sign up" or "register" your fridge, they can connect your grocery buying habits to your demographics, or even you personally. Think face recognition, but for food products. Also, a monitor? Are they eventually going to offer up advertising for other companies to you as a "service". All you habits, how far you'll go to shop, for what products, what you pay, etc...
Fridge: "I see you've been buying a lot of Vlassic Pickles lately..." User: "Um what?" Fridge: "Did you know that there is a sale on Vlassic Pickles at Globogrocery, located here on this convenient map in your area?" User: "...but I have pickles..." Fridge: "I can read your expiry dates, and bar codes... you may want to consider some fresh pickles is all I am saying." User: "I think I'll stick with my current pickles..." Fridge: "I can't let you do that Dave." User: "Why.. What? How do you know my name?!" Fridge: "I see you've been buying a lot of Heinz Ketchup lately..."
This. At the crux of it are taxpayers paying for increased company profit margins.
The trend over the last several decades has been to move to "just in time delivery", where all your goods are always traveling on roads (which are paid for and maintained by taxpayers), never stored. Doing so means that companies do not need commercial land for warehouses, don't pay taxes on them, and have less goods sitting "idle" in a warehouse waiting for delivery to the storefront.
The end result however is the perpetual destruction of roads which need to be constantly maintained by taxpayer dollars, and the pollution of the environment at really little implication or cost to the company.
The simple answer is to remove the subsidy, start charging the "real" cost to companies, and you'll see companies changing their business model pretty damn quick to something more efficient and less environmentally damaging! (never mind the oil subsidy as well)
Actually one of my favorite and funniest parts of the movie was when Kylo Ren was having a "bad day", and the two storm troopers that come around a corner, and one of them sees/hears Kylo, and signals to his buddy to essentially run away...
"Finn, raised as a soldier his whole life, suddenly grows a conscience and quits after slaughtering a village. Doesn't stop him from killing a shitload of his old mates afterwards. Isn't he a bit too self aware?"
He says that was the first battle he's been in... which is a bit odd, as he admits to be taken as a child and trained as a soldier by the empire his whole life... yet they decided to train him for what 20-25 years prior to him seeing any action? I guess they have so many soldiers they can take their time apparently and I guess the loss of two deathstars and like 30 years of war with rebels didn't make enough of a dent to force the empire to perhaps fast track some soldiers into battle...
Also the purpose of Kylo's mask is what? To make him look and sound scary? I mean Vader had one, but that was to breath,,, If it is supposed to be just a combat helmet, why doesn't he just sound like a stormtrooper. That in itself seemed to make him a bit lame. Other possible explanations are that he is just so much of a Vader fanboi that he just "liked" it, also lame. Of course it is probably meant as some sort of stupid metaphor or something...
As for some of the things mentioned, I can forgive him wasting his mates, as it could simply be explained that they were trying to kill him first, so survival is a more a motivator than morals. As for the Kylo fight, I can excuse it, as 1) he did get his ass handed to him eventually, and 2) he is supposedly trained as a solider is whole life so has some martial training, and it does show him going up against another trooper with a melee type weapon, he perhaps also had training on, so not outrageous he might get a few lucky licks in. Also I think they made Kylo wounded to account for it also prior. Ray's 7 second jedi abs is a bit much, at least Luke had a bit of training on the falcon, and then a puppet montage later on,,,
I know it probably makes sense, but it kinda of makes me giggle to think of the engineers involved in the decisions...
So we designed the silos for our nuclear explosives... We haven't figured out how to actuate the doors yet... Have you tried exploding them open? Excellent.
IQ is likely far more influenced by being raised in a supportive environment over any other factors. Bottom line, is that it is self re-enforcing where smart parents will do well, and will raise their children to do the same. There there is the supportive culture, and even financial support, formal education, etc... It is really common sense and not all that surprising.
It isn't so much that there are some genetics at play here.
As to why there is a big difference between the US and the rest of the countries, well that is interesting. The article mentions a few possibilities, but I think you could probably group them all under "Socialism", to which the US seems to have an usual fear of.
Obviously not every poor kid is going to turn out dumb, many will be able to elevate themselves out of the cycle. However having a society with additional social supports they can use where that support is not given by the family unit, would probably increase that number by quite a bit.
I don't even think I would be joking to say that there are people in the US that would get very animated about protecting their god given right to raise their dumb children however they please...
Given the "estimates" usually made by companies paid by big media for piracy studies and the like, that makes me think that 70 Million is lot lot less by several levels of magnitude.
I pretty much agree with your timeline, and wasn't really aware of the business plan, but that sounds about right. The results were the same.
As for Intel learning. I am not as optimistic. AMD hasn't been competitive. Meaning Intel hasn't had to do much really. They have come out with several generations of solid CPU, however the increase in computational power year over year isn't what it used to be. You could chalk it up to physical limitations, or even lack of demand, or is it lack of competition? About the only thing that Intel has done well in the last several generations of CPU is to really reduce the power required year over year, for a marginally better CPU. Meaning they also just read the market to know that most CPU are going into laptops where that actually matters. For the CPU I buy for my desktop that is 5% faster but consumes 20% less power, who cares. However the important part is that it is still faster and better than anything AMD had for retail. Emphasis on "retail". AMD is still pretty competitive in the server market where low cost multi-core is what is desired. AMD has gone down a different path, intentionally or not. They still have money in the PC game, but they just don't seem that committed anymore to trying to go head to head with Intel anymore. I think they are looking for their niche to exist in.
Oh, one other sort of failure you forgot to mention was the acquisition of ATI. While AMD still continues like ATI in making some good video cards, the whole idea was integration and the "synergies" that might release. I'm sure some pieces of useful technology have been a result, however integrated video is no more far ahead that it ever was, and combined chip-set enhancements haven't really been overwhelming in their success.
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Hence unions. However they have been systematically on the decline. The unions that do exist are more concerned with self preservation that any sort of labour reforms for their workers.
Having time off, and not using it to work, only works if you have the money to do other things. Also having enough money that you do not want to bother trying to do your own plumbing or carpentry and paying someone else more qualified to do it (apart from a few hobbyists that might just enjoy that sort of thing, less likely of plumbing).
Having more time off and the same disposable income of course doesn't really balance out. At best you'd use half your time off trying to afford the other half.
Or transferred it outside of the country, or inherited forever by descended royalty, or any of a number of things very wealthy people pair other really wealthy people to make laws about to allow really wealth people stay that way forever.
You are absolutely correct in that the 1% make all their money on the 99% debt.
However, most of that is in housing. As you say the cost of housing isn't directly proportional to the cost of building a house (though it has increased for the same reason I will list). The demand for housing hasn't increased proportionally. What has increased is the the amount banks are willing to lend to people, and the ratio of debt people are allowed to carry now. If people can't afford to buy a house the cost goes down. Housing is only expensive as the ability to people to pay for it. Thus housing prices has increased. This also has effects an all aspects of housing such as building, for the same reason. They can escalate their costs because houses are "worth" more. In this way the 1% have influenced the market in their favor.
It has gotten so ridiculous I noticed a couple of years ago when I tried to get renovations done. When I got a house I got a very modest (i.e. old and small) "inexpensive" house that was about 100k. I was looking to do an "inexpensive" bathroom renovation of about 10,000$ which is about 1/10 of the cost of my entire home. The problem was no contractor wants to bother with a job like that anymore, so finding someone was very difficult, keeping him more so. The reason is because when your house costs 500-600k, no one blinks an eye spending 20-30k on a bathroom, as that is only 1/20th of the cost of their house, and the perceived increase of X tens of thousands of "value" that adds... So you spend more, acquire more debt, etc... and who wins?
Yes, I think you are right, in the US there is an educational debt crisis coming at some point as you illustrate. There are entire for profit education mills that's soul purpose is to acquire debt. Key is the issue of essentially "free" loans from the US government which you can't even claim bankruptcy to clear (i.e. money in the bank for these "schools"), with the idea of increasing upward mobility and access, but in the end you get a useless degree and debt slavery. This is somewhat unique to the US however I think, whereas the housing issue is ubik. All you have to do is watch those housing or renovation shows, or even just look at housing prices, and ask yourself "what to all these people do for a living to afford that?"...
For large enterprise systems, there are not a lot of good options to begin with. Had the discussion with a college the other day. Apart from the two you mentioned (MariaDB and PostgreSQL), and the one that "won" Oracle, that really only leaves IBM DB2 (which I know little about).
If you work for an organization that outsources most of their technical talent, so can't have a bunch of experts on payroll, that pretty much rules out both MariaDB and PostgreSQL (which is really too bad as I have heard a lot of good things about PostgreSQL spatial GIS engine). This is because they need to be able to have access to external support from another big company (i.e. IBM or Oracle), and yes boy do they pay for it. However many would rather that than deal with staff and salary apparently. This really isn't a reflection of how "good" a DB is, but rather open VS closed source and support models VS staffing framework. Though technical documentation does count towards something. There *is* a ton of technical support for Oracle, though some leaves a bit to be desired. The other thing that isn't so fair, is that a lot of that is because Oracle has simply been around forever, but some of that will be for versions that no longer really apply anymore.
So regardless of how bogus the rating is, there really isn't enough players in the same category to really have much of a list to begin with. Though to rant with the rest, using the number of technical discussions on a particular DB, isn't exactly a good metric, as if it was good, it should be intuitive, and or not full of issues, requiring a lot of discussion, so pretty much the opposite of good. Also insofar as job postings and corresponding linkedin references (which are really just a mirror of that), most of the HR and/or Management boffins that put those things together probably have never heard of anything but Oracle, DB2, etc... and wouldn't know a MariaDB or PostgreSQL if it hit them in the face... so also not so good of a metric.
There is actually a pretty decent historical example of a conventional explosion in a seaport with plenty of detail, an this was in what was likely a less populous city at the time than most would be. During WW1 two ships carrying explosives collided in Halifax harbour in Nova Scotia, Canada. The resulting blast was about 2.9 kilotons of TNT, which pretty much leveled the city, and was the largest conventional explosion prior to nuclear weapons. 7 kilotons would be more than twice that obviously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
So yeah, not quite BB's. However the parent poster is right about the delivery system... They don't really have one that is any good. That doesn't really help South Korea being so close unfortunately. I recall a number of years ago, they did a missile test more less against Japan that got them all up in arms, but in the end it was a failure that went into the sea well out of range. While the cargo ship idea is plausible, the amount of time to deploy, and coordination to hit multiple targets, make it a pretty unreasonable option. However even one such instance of a 7 kiloton device in a modern, large populous seaport, would be pretty devastating. Not to mention the fact that after that the disruption to trade would obviously occur I think...
Agreed. Though I suspect there is probably some clause that is being abused. Likely there is a time frame for discovery, which would make sense, as it may take some time to become aware of the infringement. It is probably being perverted however because the length of copyright keeps getting more and more ridiculously long, that this also has en effect on the discovery period being extended.
The other piece to this, is the penalties have been inflated so much, that it it now more extortion than protection of any kind. I would bet that most copyright cases, by a large margin, are settled out of court anyway. The classic copyright, "you pay us 60,000$ now, or if it goes to court you could potentially have to pay us 6,000,000$", so even if they have a pretty flimsy case, the risk in defending it is so great that most just pay anyway.
Agreed, sort of. It doesn't eat away at the bottom line, but rather is a buffer of assets not realized yet. Provided there isn't a huge swing somehow in the cost of labour or materials to make things, and their ability to sell them, they would be eventually sold for the same amount of profit. The real difference is that those profits may not be realized in the same quarter as produced... Basically long term it makes no difference (if a bit of risk), it is those short term earning sheets for investors and CEO bonuses that drives that model. A company that plans to be around long term, will sell the same amount of stuff, only there may be a lag (which of course means tied up capitol, that could be used to invest). While their may be a bit of risk, in that the price might drop, or demand decrease, conversely there is the opportunity where if demand goes up, and prices increase, you can then make an even larger profit. Additionally, you have a less risk, should there be problems with production as some point, as you would still have product on hand to continue to sell, while you figure out your production issues... How many times has this occurred in modern times, where a production problem occurs, or labour dispute, or natural disaster, or similar event where they only stock available is whatever is sitting on shelves, and when that runs out, there just isn't anymore until you can retool, or recover or whatever.
You could simplify the ridiculously complicated tax code, which wouldn't require a small army of civil servants to manage anymore, increase the salaries of those left, and they'll never consider fraud in the first place.
There problem solved. No left wing agenda required. I'll take my lucrative civil servant job now in payment.
Of course a simplified tax code wouldn't let you hide tax breaks for the wealthy, so I guess that is a bit leftist.
I've sure some of it has to do with the people involved. However I would bet the real reason is it isn't really worth suing over until it has been used enough.
If they sued when first discovered, likely the end result would be a check for a couple hundred bucks, and they simply stop using it, replacing it with some other dramatic device. Now that it has been repeatedly used, and marketed, they can actually sue for some money, making it worthwhile to do so... Which I doubt is really the intent of copyright if every there really was one.
Further to this the problem is not "people" in the traditional sense, but corporations, who being treated at "people" but never die.
The extensions upon extensions to copyright are not being lobbied primarily by "artists", but by corporations who by and large own all the works.
You need to solve that little riddle before anything is going to happen about copyright reform.
Because as soon as you try to do anything, someone from Sony or related associations are going to show up to a politicians house, with a truckload of money, and a lot of "amendments".
So a good first step would be to try and separate corporate interests from politics in the US... Good luck with that.
I thought the reason why no one bothered making the big Bertha type of bombs anymore was because it was much more effective to have a bunch of smaller ones in a MIRV type setup... Which is much more dependent on the delivery system. From what tests NK has done, while they may be a nuclear power, their delivery systems are not really on the same level. If your target isn't that far away (i.e. SK), it probably doesn't have to be that far advanced. That said, it could be reasonable that they follow the similar development strategies (i.e. one big bomb) as other nations did long ago, likely for the same reasons (delivery issues... Tsar Bomba was dropped by a bomber plane if I remember correctly, which barely had time to get out of the way, another reason to limit size due to delivery system)...
Having said that, I seem to recall NK trying to advance their "satellite" launching ability...
Was thinking the same thing. One of the items that as I am poking around the wasteland that gets picked up more often than not is duct tape, packages or duct tape, and military grade duct tape!
One of the other posters is right though, aluminum cans and the like are your friend also.
Lastly one of the things that I didn't really collect a lot of, then starting to run out of very quickly was copper. It is used a lot in community building if you do that. Fuses, light bulbs, and other electric type things come in handy then.
But when I sees the duct tape, it goes in the pocket just the same... Beds cost cloth also.
Also just watched the movie "The Martian" recently, and duct tape takes a staring role in the film as well fixing everything from face shields, to habitats.
Is it just me, or am I the only cynical one that thinks, that Samsung will sell your fridge content information to 3rd parties. If they collect your personal information when you "sign up" or "register" your fridge, they can connect your grocery buying habits to your demographics, or even you personally. Think face recognition, but for food products. Also, a monitor? Are they eventually going to offer up advertising for other companies to you as a "service". All you habits, how far you'll go to shop, for what products, what you pay, etc...
Fridge: "I see you've been buying a lot of Vlassic Pickles lately..."
User: "Um what?"
Fridge: "Did you know that there is a sale on Vlassic Pickles at Globogrocery, located here on this convenient map in your area?"
User: "...but I have pickles..."
Fridge: "I can read your expiry dates, and bar codes... you may want to consider some fresh pickles is all I am saying."
User: "I think I'll stick with my current pickles..."
Fridge: "I can't let you do that Dave."
User: "Why.. What? How do you know my name?!"
Fridge: "I see you've been buying a lot of Heinz Ketchup lately..."
Half a billion dollars seems a pretty big hedge, even for GM.
Then again, these corporations make profits that are hard to conceptualize at times.
This. At the crux of it are taxpayers paying for increased company profit margins.
The trend over the last several decades has been to move to "just in time delivery", where all your goods are always traveling on roads (which are paid for and maintained by taxpayers), never stored. Doing so means that companies do not need commercial land for warehouses, don't pay taxes on them, and have less goods sitting "idle" in a warehouse waiting for delivery to the storefront.
The end result however is the perpetual destruction of roads which need to be constantly maintained by taxpayer dollars, and the pollution of the environment at really little implication or cost to the company.
The simple answer is to remove the subsidy, start charging the "real" cost to companies, and you'll see companies changing their business model pretty damn quick to something more efficient and less environmentally damaging! (never mind the oil subsidy as well)
Actually one of my favorite and funniest parts of the movie was when Kylo Ren was having a "bad day", and the two storm troopers that come around a corner, and one of them sees/hears Kylo, and signals to his buddy to essentially run away...
"Finn, raised as a soldier his whole life, suddenly grows a conscience and quits after slaughtering a village. Doesn't stop him from killing a shitload of his old mates afterwards. Isn't he a bit too self aware?"
He says that was the first battle he's been in... which is a bit odd, as he admits to be taken as a child and trained as a soldier by the empire his whole life... yet they decided to train him for what 20-25 years prior to him seeing any action? I guess they have so many soldiers they can take their time apparently and I guess the loss of two deathstars and like 30 years of war with rebels didn't make enough of a dent to force the empire to perhaps fast track some soldiers into battle...
Also the purpose of Kylo's mask is what? To make him look and sound scary? I mean Vader had one, but that was to breath,,, If it is supposed to be just a combat helmet, why doesn't he just sound like a stormtrooper. That in itself seemed to make him a bit lame. Other possible explanations are that he is just so much of a Vader fanboi that he just "liked" it, also lame. Of course it is probably meant as some sort of stupid metaphor or something...
As for some of the things mentioned, I can forgive him wasting his mates, as it could simply be explained that they were trying to kill him first, so survival is a more a motivator than morals. As for the Kylo fight, I can excuse it, as 1) he did get his ass handed to him eventually, and 2) he is supposedly trained as a solider is whole life so has some martial training, and it does show him going up against another trooper with a melee type weapon, he perhaps also had training on, so not outrageous he might get a few lucky licks in. Also I think they made Kylo wounded to account for it also prior. Ray's 7 second jedi abs is a bit much, at least Luke had a bit of training on the falcon, and then a puppet montage later on,,,
Winter.
I know it probably makes sense, but it kinda of makes me giggle to think of the engineers involved in the decisions...
So we designed the silos for our nuclear explosives... We haven't figured out how to actuate the doors yet... Have you tried exploding them open? Excellent.
IQ is likely far more influenced by being raised in a supportive environment over any other factors. Bottom line, is that it is self re-enforcing where smart parents will do well, and will raise their children to do the same. There there is the supportive culture, and even financial support, formal education, etc... It is really common sense and not all that surprising.
It isn't so much that there are some genetics at play here.
As to why there is a big difference between the US and the rest of the countries, well that is interesting. The article mentions a few possibilities, but I think you could probably group them all under "Socialism", to which the US seems to have an usual fear of.
Obviously not every poor kid is going to turn out dumb, many will be able to elevate themselves out of the cycle. However having a society with additional social supports they can use where that support is not given by the family unit, would probably increase that number by quite a bit.
I don't even think I would be joking to say that there are people in the US that would get very animated about protecting their god given right to raise their dumb children however they please...
Wasn't this postulated as one of the contributing factors that lead to the fall of the Roman Empire?
Given the "estimates" usually made by companies paid by big media for piracy studies and the like, that makes me think that 70 Million is lot lot less by several levels of magnitude.
...and opened up a gateway to hell!
I pretty much agree with your timeline, and wasn't really aware of the business plan, but that sounds about right. The results were the same.
As for Intel learning. I am not as optimistic. AMD hasn't been competitive. Meaning Intel hasn't had to do much really. They have come out with several generations of solid CPU, however the increase in computational power year over year isn't what it used to be. You could chalk it up to physical limitations, or even lack of demand, or is it lack of competition? About the only thing that Intel has done well in the last several generations of CPU is to really reduce the power required year over year, for a marginally better CPU. Meaning they also just read the market to know that most CPU are going into laptops where that actually matters. For the CPU I buy for my desktop that is 5% faster but consumes 20% less power, who cares. However the important part is that it is still faster and better than anything AMD had for retail. Emphasis on "retail". AMD is still pretty competitive in the server market where low cost multi-core is what is desired. AMD has gone down a different path, intentionally or not. They still have money in the PC game, but they just don't seem that committed anymore to trying to go head to head with Intel anymore. I think they are looking for their niche to exist in.
Oh, one other sort of failure you forgot to mention was the acquisition of ATI. While AMD still continues like ATI in making some good video cards, the whole idea was integration and the "synergies" that might release. I'm sure some pieces of useful technology have been a result, however integrated video is no more far ahead that it ever was, and combined chip-set enhancements haven't really been overwhelming in their success.