At the risk of sounding like a free market wanker, capitalist markets will find a way to subvert regulatory reform. Now that they've had practise undoing reforms put in place during the first great depression, they'll just get 'er done faster this time. We need revolution not regulation. I don't mean Tea Party style guns a-blazing revolution, just a complete rationally based restructuring of our economy. Worker owned cooperatives might be a compromise economic structure that will satisfy both Marxists and capitalists. If not that, than something else. Using your nuclear analogy, we don't need an improvement to fission plants, we need fusion, because, to paraphrase Murphy, if shit can go wrong, it will.
Ever since the Fukushima incidents, I have been wondering if steam powered coolant pumps are ever used for backup? It seems like the simplicity and ruggedness of steam power would make it much better than electrically powered pumps. An overheating reactor could power them directly.
Also, it seems like maybe the nuclear industry could win public confidence by releasing open source plant simulation software that would allow people look for problems in the safety systems in various disaster scenarios.
It's not just about trust. It's a failure of critical and rational thinking, and people opting for news sources that'll tell them what they want to hear.
TED Talk:Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" Points out that search algorithms tend to help to feed us what we want to hear. My take on it,is that it leads to a sort of feedback loop that breeds extremism and delusion.
People need to wake up to the reality that most Democrats, almost all Republicans, almost all Tea Baggers and almost all Libertarians who stand any chance of being elected are really members of the same party. They work for the corporations and the elites to suck every one else dry. The differences between them are just theater to distract us from the reality that we do not live in a democracy and they are screwing over us and the rest of the world. It is high time to get serious about organizing against them and taking control.
Sometimes I think that you have to be stupid and inconsiderate to want an SUV and that is why they are generally driven with such stupidity and inconsideration. Other times I wonder if maybe sitting so high above the road ensconced in steel has psychological effects that makes average people act like jerks.
I almost always walk which gives me free time to observe driving habits. I have lost count several times, but roughly speaking, SUV drivers endanger my life about 20:4 over cars. They are typically the drivers who enter the crosswalk while I'm crossing, gun their engines to try to hurry me along, swerve onto the shoulders when there is no sidewalk, burn rubber to hurry around a round-about so they can barrel down on me, and etc. The problem cars are generally cheap sports cars driven by students yakking on cellphones.
Did you pick 8.5 to specifically exclude Hong Kong (8.4), to specifically include Iceland (8.5), or was 8.5 just a good number?;-)
I was thinking a committee of about 11 countries would be about the right size and since it is an odd number, they wouldn't have to worry about ties in voting. However, I really should have counted countries instead of looking at the ranks since I ended up with the wrong number.
I personally wouldn't put too much trust in their figures, though, given the subjectivity of the questions they ask to "country experts" (e.g. "Is the country’s economy free of excessive state involvement?" You would get wildly different answers from a socialist and a capitalist).
Actually, I hadn't heard of Transarency International until I came across it in one of the Wikileaks. The following cables (as of yesterday) reference it:
/cable/2006/02/06SKOPJE105.html
/cable/2008/06/08TUNIS679.html
/cable/2009/11/09MOSCOW2823.html
/cable/2010/02/10MOSCOW317.html
i read it in one of the Moscow ones. I figured if it was good enough for diplomats, it is probably half-way descent. However, I do your see points and those of stdarg who also replied. Do you know of a more reliable dataset to base a possible selection?
I think those with a score of 8.5 or better at
Transparency International should temporarily get the power to re-organize the UN to make it better. Until the UN is fixed, I can't agree with allowing it to set Internet law since it basically means the corrupt majority of countries would end free speech. I really like the idea of an international government, so long as it protects human rights.
Full disclosure: My country, the USA, scores 7.1, so it wouldn't get the temporary power.
Is it just barely possible that there is no world wide conspiracy to bring about a global police state?
It seems to me that's exactly what the US has been up to. I don't think those 800+ military bases around the world are landing strips for Santa and his 8 tiny reindeer. I don't believe it is because all of those other countries are too stupid to defend themselves. It is so we can exert control.
Doubtlessly some might argue that we have every right to exert such intimidating force on our neighbors. I say, try to remember what being an American was supposed to be about. What would you say of the bully on the playground who dominates and forces his will upon everyone else through slander, intimidation and violence. I hate those fuckers. Yet, that is what my country has become.
Please read this. That is what we are doing to ourselves and the rest of the world. We are the guards.
If any heads should roll over the leaks, it should be those of the guy who stole the data and whatever dunce(s) allowed peons access to the data. Although, overall so far, I'm generally pleased with the leaks because they show that most of the world's leaders are fallible but basically rational human beings. For instance, it is good to see that most of the middle eastern leaders understand that Iranian leaders are nutjobs who cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. Same goes for China's recognition that Kim Jong Ill is off his rocker. I feel much better about the world in general now because so far the leaked info confirms my suspicion that the world's messes aren't as insurmountable as it sometimes seems.
That said, I am deeply embarrassed that the Pentagon is incompetent enough to have allowed the leak of things said in confidence. They are idiots who shouldn't be trusted with so much power.
Even more, I am embarrassed over the USA's strong-arming of Germany over the arrest of one of its citizens. World ***please*** don't take that kind of shit from us (the USA).
I really think it is high time for the USA to turn over the job of policing the world to a democratically elected world government. It is unfair for the US taxpayers to pay so much for world security and to get all of the blame when our leaders fuck up and holy fuck do they ever fuck up. More importantly, it is unfair to the world for the US to have so much say in how the world is run.
I like the bamboo one and HOUSE because form seems to follow function and the end results don't look like the more silly entries in a clothing fashion show or like mobile homes accessorized with cars on cinder blocks and beer gutted rednecks.
However houses are for suburbia and suburbia is a stupid idea because it increases commute distances and wastes land. The lack of shared walls wastes materials and reduces energy efficiency.
IMO, a contest for high-rise building and urban designs would be more interesting and green. Combine homes and shops in one building surrounded with gardens and recreational areas to form a mini village. Cluster villages around light industrial areas. Layout everything to capture solar power and funnel wind for wind power. Surround the cities with wilderness. Connect cities with high speed rail. If done right, no one would need a car. Since, IIRC, cars end up using more energy than houses, getting rid of cars would save more energy than green houses ever could.
Nice job sliding the anti-firearm propaganda in there, but don't forget that firearm ownership happens to be very common in "wholesome" parts of the country where crime is rare and weapons are treated with respect.
Huge honking load of bullshit in my personal experience. I lived most of my childhood in a "wholesome" rural southern community of about 40 households. By the time I was 13, I had had a shotguns pointed in my face twice by different gun-toting NRA Tea Party types. Once for trying to visit a girl I went to school with. Once for trying to bring my run-away dog back home. Scout's honor, I had done absolutely nothing wrong. As a teen I was again threatened, though more subtly, by a different neighbor because my family took the neighbor's friend to court because the friend built a fence across our driveway. This neighbor also shot my cat with a BB gun and laughed at me for crying when she died.
There are legitimate reasons to own a gun, but as far as I can tell, the people most interested in owning guns are seriously fucked up and should not be trusted with firearms.
How exactly do you test solutions for catastrophe of unknown nature...
By having built a simulator that can reproduce all possible conditions and seeing which kill methods work. If solution does not exist, then do not drill. That is what the oil industry would have done if they were the trustworthy people conservative asshats claim they are. However, the evidence seems to suggest these are sociopathic criminals without regard for life, human or other. They are another perfect example of why free market capitalism does not work.
I lived in the US south for many years and I think you are on the right trail.
Tied in to your second point, when met with failure, a common psychological defense mechanism is to blame that failure on some external factor-- other races, the government, atheists, liberals, gays, Catholics, Jews, the French, the damn yankees, and etc-- instead of blaming oneself. Southern churches capitalize on this human weakness by teaching that gays, atheists and liberals are sick. Republican politicians are capitalizing on the weakness too, they stir up the southern hatred of government and dream up all kinds of enemies to hate. And now, religion and Republican politicians have teamed up to take advantage of the rednecks. I'm pretty sure politicians in WWII Germany and religious leaders in the Middle East today did/do pretty much the same thing to manipulate the masses. How did Germany solve this sort of problem?
Assuming anyone is really considering the nuclear option, do we even have enough data to do a reasonably accurate risk-benefit analysis? For instance, can we really know that a nuke will not fracture the rock and allow oil and gas to continue to spew, but now from hundreds of unsealable places? What was the failure mode for the Russian's use of the bomb technique? Unless there is excellent data that says to a very high degree of certainty that the nuclear option is less risky than letting the damn thing leak for another two months, I can't see using it.
Of course, after reading TFA, it looks like this is yet more political FUD from Slashdot. When are kdawson and timothy going to be fired? As best as I can tell, they are both paranoid nitwits with political agendas and a severe lack of nerdhood and it shows in their work.
Slashdot Mirror
At the risk of sounding like a free market wanker, capitalist markets will find a way to subvert regulatory reform. Now that they've had practise undoing reforms put in place during the first great depression, they'll just get 'er done faster this time. We need revolution not regulation. I don't mean Tea Party style guns a-blazing revolution, just a complete rationally based restructuring of our economy. Worker owned cooperatives might be a compromise economic structure that will satisfy both Marxists and capitalists. If not that, than something else. Using your nuclear analogy, we don't need an improvement to fission plants, we need fusion, because, to paraphrase Murphy, if shit can go wrong, it will.
Ever since the Fukushima incidents, I have been wondering if steam powered coolant pumps are ever used for backup? It seems like the simplicity and ruggedness of steam power would make it much better than electrically powered pumps. An overheating reactor could power them directly.
Also, it seems like maybe the nuclear industry could win public confidence by releasing open source plant simulation software that would allow people look for problems in the safety systems in various disaster scenarios.
In capitalist America, the corporations railroad you!
Thanks for the blue balls
When you can just make the helium-3 on Earth.
TED Talk:Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" Points out that search algorithms tend to help to feed us what we want to hear. My take on it,is that it leads to a sort of feedback loop that breeds extremism and delusion.
Do you at least get paid for being a Koch sucker or are you just in it for the humiliation and smegma?
Shouldn't it be America's Third Reich? http://american3p.org/american-voice/a3p-state-chair-gets-last-word-on-discrimination-in-pa/#idc-container
People need to wake up to the reality that most Democrats, almost all Republicans, almost all Tea Baggers and almost all Libertarians who stand any chance of being elected are really members of the same party. They work for the corporations and the elites to suck every one else dry. The differences between them are just theater to distract us from the reality that we do not live in a democracy and they are screwing over us and the rest of the world. It is high time to get serious about organizing against them and taking control.
http://gdblather.blogspot.com/2010/05/us-debt-and-us-presidents.html
Sometimes I think that you have to be stupid and inconsiderate to want an SUV and that is why they are generally driven with such stupidity and inconsideration. Other times I wonder if maybe sitting so high above the road ensconced in steel has psychological effects that makes average people act like jerks.
I almost always walk which gives me free time to observe driving habits. I have lost count several times, but roughly speaking, SUV drivers endanger my life about 20:4 over cars. They are typically the drivers who enter the crosswalk while I'm crossing, gun their engines to try to hurry me along, swerve onto the shoulders when there is no sidewalk, burn rubber to hurry around a round-about so they can barrel down on me, and etc. The problem cars are generally cheap sports cars driven by students yakking on cellphones.
Did you pick 8.5 to specifically exclude Hong Kong (8.4), to specifically include Iceland (8.5), or was 8.5 just a good number? ;-)
I was thinking a committee of about 11 countries would be about the right size and since it is an odd number, they wouldn't have to worry about ties in voting. However, I really should have counted countries instead of looking at the ranks since I ended up with the wrong number.
I personally wouldn't put too much trust in their figures, though, given the subjectivity of the questions they ask to "country experts" (e.g. "Is the country’s economy free of excessive state involvement?" You would get wildly different answers from a socialist and a capitalist).
Actually, I hadn't heard of Transarency International until I came across it in one of the Wikileaks. The following cables (as of yesterday) reference it:
i read it in one of the Moscow ones. I figured if it was good enough for diplomats, it is probably half-way descent. However, I do your see points and those of stdarg who also replied. Do you know of a more reliable dataset to base a possible selection?
I think those with a score of 8.5 or better at Transparency International should temporarily get the power to re-organize the UN to make it better. Until the UN is fixed, I can't agree with allowing it to set Internet law since it basically means the corrupt majority of countries would end free speech. I really like the idea of an international government, so long as it protects human rights.
Full disclosure: My country, the USA, scores 7.1, so it wouldn't get the temporary power.
Is it just barely possible that there is no world wide conspiracy to bring about a global police state?
It seems to me that's exactly what the US has been up to. I don't think those 800+ military bases around the world are landing strips for Santa and his 8 tiny reindeer. I don't believe it is because all of those other countries are too stupid to defend themselves. It is so we can exert control.
Doubtlessly some might argue that we have every right to exert such intimidating force on our neighbors. I say, try to remember what being an American was supposed to be about. What would you say of the bully on the playground who dominates and forces his will upon everyone else through slander, intimidation and violence. I hate those fuckers. Yet, that is what my country has become.
Please read this. That is what we are doing to ourselves and the rest of the world. We are the guards.
If any heads should roll over the leaks, it should be those of the guy who stole the data and whatever dunce(s) allowed peons access to the data. Although, overall so far, I'm generally pleased with the leaks because they show that most of the world's leaders are fallible but basically rational human beings. For instance, it is good to see that most of the middle eastern leaders understand that Iranian leaders are nutjobs who cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons. Same goes for China's recognition that Kim Jong Ill is off his rocker. I feel much better about the world in general now because so far the leaked info confirms my suspicion that the world's messes aren't as insurmountable as it sometimes seems.
That said, I am deeply embarrassed that the Pentagon is incompetent enough to have allowed the leak of things said in confidence. They are idiots who shouldn't be trusted with so much power.
Even more, I am embarrassed over the USA's strong-arming of Germany over the arrest of one of its citizens. World ***please*** don't take that kind of shit from us (the USA).
I really think it is high time for the USA to turn over the job of policing the world to a democratically elected world government. It is unfair for the US taxpayers to pay so much for world security and to get all of the blame when our leaders fuck up and holy fuck do they ever fuck up. More importantly, it is unfair to the world for the US to have so much say in how the world is run.
I really wish I could agree with you but I have to go with the evidence: Look at the load of bull crap we (USA) have elected to government.
Leave it to Slashdotters to mod a complete lack of insight as +5 insightful.
I like the bamboo one and HOUSE because form seems to follow function and the end results don't look like the more silly entries in a clothing fashion show or like mobile homes accessorized with cars on cinder blocks and beer gutted rednecks.
However houses are for suburbia and suburbia is a stupid idea because it increases commute distances and wastes land. The lack of shared walls wastes materials and reduces energy efficiency.
IMO, a contest for high-rise building and urban designs would be more interesting and green. Combine homes and shops in one building surrounded with gardens and recreational areas to form a mini village. Cluster villages around light industrial areas. Layout everything to capture solar power and funnel wind for wind power. Surround the cities with wilderness. Connect cities with high speed rail. If done right, no one would need a car. Since, IIRC, cars end up using more energy than houses, getting rid of cars would save more energy than green houses ever could.
Nice job sliding the anti-firearm propaganda in there, but don't forget that firearm ownership happens to be very common in "wholesome" parts of the country where crime is rare and weapons are treated with respect.
Huge honking load of bullshit in my personal experience. I lived most of my childhood in a "wholesome" rural southern community of about 40 households. By the time I was 13, I had had a shotguns pointed in my face twice by different gun-toting NRA Tea Party types. Once for trying to visit a girl I went to school with. Once for trying to bring my run-away dog back home. Scout's honor, I had done absolutely nothing wrong. As a teen I was again threatened, though more subtly, by a different neighbor because my family took the neighbor's friend to court because the friend built a fence across our driveway. This neighbor also shot my cat with a BB gun and laughed at me for crying when she died.
There are legitimate reasons to own a gun, but as far as I can tell, the people most interested in owning guns are seriously fucked up and should not be trusted with firearms.
How exactly do you test solutions for catastrophe of unknown nature ...
By having built a simulator that can reproduce all possible conditions and seeing which kill methods work. If solution does not exist, then do not drill. That is what the oil industry would have done if they were the trustworthy people conservative asshats claim they are. However, the evidence seems to suggest these are sociopathic criminals without regard for life, human or other. They are another perfect example of why free market capitalism does not work.
Shouldn't it be: big .u..... and f.cking? I mean, f*cking could be fucking "fucking" or fucking "flocking," for example.
Fuckin'-A!
I lived in the US south for many years and I think you are on the right trail. Tied in to your second point, when met with failure, a common psychological defense mechanism is to blame that failure on some external factor-- other races, the government, atheists, liberals, gays, Catholics, Jews, the French, the damn yankees, and etc-- instead of blaming oneself. Southern churches capitalize on this human weakness by teaching that gays, atheists and liberals are sick. Republican politicians are capitalizing on the weakness too, they stir up the southern hatred of government and dream up all kinds of enemies to hate. And now, religion and Republican politicians have teamed up to take advantage of the rednecks. I'm pretty sure politicians in WWII Germany and religious leaders in the Middle East today did/do pretty much the same thing to manipulate the masses. How did Germany solve this sort of problem?
Assuming anyone is really considering the nuclear option, do we even have enough data to do a reasonably accurate risk-benefit analysis? For instance, can we really know that a nuke will not fracture the rock and allow oil and gas to continue to spew, but now from hundreds of unsealable places? What was the failure mode for the Russian's use of the bomb technique? Unless there is excellent data that says to a very high degree of certainty that the nuclear option is less risky than letting the damn thing leak for another two months, I can't see using it.
Of course, after reading TFA, it looks like this is yet more political FUD from Slashdot. When are kdawson and timothy going to be fired? As best as I can tell, they are both paranoid nitwits with political agendas and a severe lack of nerdhood and it shows in their work.