Here in russia there is one intresting idea since 1977 ( so seems patent free already ) to build a transport using 'strings' see demo pictures here http://www.unitsky.ru/ . Now, using strong tethers developed for space elevator instead of steel strings in the mentioned design, one gets quite a cheap transport solution - less construction costs than for railroads with the same energy to deliver the cargo.
as you may see it is recommended for western people
AT is particularly appealing to the Western mind, because unlike many forms of meditation and yoga it has no cultural, religious or cosmological overtones, and requires no special clothing or unusual postures or practices.
another thing which I use in similar situations is Eleuthero ( or Eleutherococcus or Siberian ginseng , search google for details). while it does not directly concerns the ability to deal with people - it greatly helps to fight fatigue and stress and is not a drug in a sense - it is herb.
Though initially eleuthero ( esp. in big doses) could cause increase in strenuous (physical) activity , in time ( or with less doses - which I recommend to start with - so initially use three times less dose than it stated in prescript for the herb ) this side effect becomes negligible and Eleuthero becomes just a very good assistant to fight stress and helps to deal with difficult situations.
I just know from personal experience that intercostal neuralgia is awfull pain which could be taken as heart problem - still nothing special with heart - would anyonyone suggest him to read on intercostal neuralgia ?
another thing - actually it is quite common to have
'viral infection feelings' while having no desease - just that are described ( including weakness).
from research doctors ( Moscow institute of immunology) I know that sometimes immunomodulatory drug make a big difference.
so again - will someone suggest him just to consult on the issue. On average - it is not uncommon that only hightly profeccional doctors could recognise actual problem. Average docs would just say 'guy you are OK' while guy could suffer quite a lot....
so I think what he needs - a really good doctor.
prefereably who deals with intercostal neuralgia and immunology problems... sorry I just would not dare to contact him personally - but maybe this is a way to help...
game developer experience
on
NYT on EA Games
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· Score: 2, Insightful
I would share few thoughts on game development.
Actually management faces several tasks - develop innovative games, availability of specialists to implement high end and low end subtasks ( I mean design of soft and on other side some really hard coding of well known things).
and while 'optimizing' the production way game companies usually come to that - 'older specialists' facing new problems would spend amount of time which is not allowable for the project. As in game development there are actually a LOT of different difficult tasks to resolve. still young guys would always miss the things - but could move forward due to their young power.
Thus to reduce the pressure ( if it is possible) is a way - that there are MORE really good lead developers which plan and resolve tasks ( looking ahead and not gathering all the difficulties) in a way which makes less time to implement. And from what could be seen at EA job site they look for specialists with several years of experience.
Do they find such specialists - I do not know....
so I think the focus of an article is somewhat incorrect. If only there were enough specialists and they could resolve tasks quickly leading others - then there would not be need to overtime. But the game development lacks the necessary amount of specialists thus there is an overtime.
For game companies here in Russia - most successful are those which found a balance between overtime and good leaders which lend working ideas to the projects.
as for age...
just few years ago there were no such a discipline - game development or graphics development....
thus older specialists with required skills are in shortage.
Also to move from another field these specialists need somehow self educate or something - there are NO way to get knowledge other than to study - but if there is time and desire for those who already have some working experience which bring money positions etc?
I personally suffered from overtime working as game developer. But still the overtime was a result of short seeing the outcomes.
Which was unavoidable. as the steps forward in game development are always steps into unknown.
Bright persons are good to resolve the things - but again - there are no much bright guys out here around. If the team has bright - then the pressure on programmers is much less - as things go smoother. Still there are anyway problems which require efforts to resolve.
so my conclusion - the situation is described ( if to
extrapolate the facts on game development in whole) correctly.
Still if one wants to play games should understand - the way games are developed is naturally grown from the limitations - lack of enough specialists and also that younger people really could resist less to try to fast implement innovative things and most probably it comes that older specialist underestimate the time which younger spend on the task ( I know from my experience:) in a month I developed an animation demo with advanced internals starting from almost no knowledge at hand on human animations - I thought it will take me half an year - still it was finished in a month - so kick was necessary -thought kick was really a pain....) again as in previous example - if I knew the animations well I would know things - still older people do not have knowledge at hand on most of gaming technologies - thus they tend to resist much more than young people.
For myself - to avoid problems in my future career
after I finished one attempt to develop own way to develop games ( using remote approach - guys in russia for company in europe) - I really had a lot of experience what might go wrong ( and byt my will I worked 80 hours a week... as it was my creature;))
I spend last year gathering ALL gaming tech knowledge;) so I hope in future I will be resolving tasks fast and people under my lead will suffer less - as they will always know better - where to go.... but I think that t
Pay attention to air quality. Cool, dry air, especially on your face, helps keep you alert, while heat and humidity make you drowsy. Studies show that mental performance, such as rule-based logical thinking, can be reduced by 30% at temperatures not even warm enough to cause sweating. So keep the room at 70 degrees, the average optimum temperature for mental work in the United States. (Not everybody shares the same optimal temperature -- some are "cold-blooded"; others are "hot-blooded" -- so you may need to adjust up or down.)
Optimal Thermal Conditions
Thermal comfort has been shown to influence task performance, attention spans and levels of discomfort. In general, historical empirical studies going back 50 years have indicated that temperatures above 80 degrees F tend to produce harmful physiological effects that decrease work efficiency and output (McGuffy, 1982). Thermal conditions are below optimal levels affect dexterity, while higher than optimal temperatures decrease general alertness and increase physiological stress.
One researcher (Harner, 1974) when reviewing optimal temperature levels for the performance found that reading and mathematical skills were adversely affected by temperatures above 74 degrees F. Reading speed and comprehension were most affected by temperature. A significant reduction in reading speed and comprehension occurred between 73.4 degrees F and 80.6 degrees F. This researcher also found that achievement is mathematical operations such as multiplication, addition and factoring have been shown to be significantly reduced by air temperatures above 77 degrees F.
There was another novel
'Space'
by James A. Michener
which had a good coverage of the history of that time
BTW, during my days in university I studied in the same building that German scientists worked in after the ww2 on designing soviet jets and rockets in Himki near Moscow . These were the buildings of Lavochkin Association company ( the one which built famous La-5 during ww2 then the company developed first russian jets and later produced russian space vehicles which flew to Moon Mars and Venus).
There is one notable point in the article that actually persons are more productive when they perform one task.
I could say that from the experience this is a fact which I would easily admit.
And also would say that the way to resolve is better planning of activity and here - where most people would fail - just because they are not about to be self controlled and self motivated, and rather most are driven by outer stimulus. And taking the last fact for truth it is logical that to organize one person there is need in someone else that performs organizational tasks - and here it is automatically less efficient than two unorganized persons.
I think that either we should live with the fact and accept the stress under modern demands or somehow teach people to be more self organized and more efficient.
Personally ( again as I learn by experience that doing things as it described in article one per one is really MUCH more efficient than chasing few tasks altogether) I prefer make one task and be more efficient - the problem is that sometimes managers tend to overload me ( as there are quite a bit of my skills to use;) ( maybe more correct to say abuse in this context;) including ability to proces a lot of information fast) ) and give number of tasks to perform simultaneously. And really if skills are abused -
I become inefficient - but rarely people would allow me to run efficient way when I tell them I could run better in things are better sorted out.
So - being really useful and efficient for company and submission to manager's will to move faster in many tasks simulataneously are contradictory goals which could not be achieved.
And there is a difficult situation which requires to make decisions. One thing unfortunate things here in Russia that job market is very demanding and thus one has almost no way to affect management decisions being a specialist ( so no feedback is taken)but fortunately in russia things are less formal in job market and I could keep to be efficient without destroying myself just changing work ( though sometimes after investing all the efforts during several years to develop something it is a very tought decision).
So for me as a software developer and a foreigner it is really very interesting related question - how in US software developers could deal with demands which actually stifle their productivity still keeping relations with managers to be OK ? What is the practise? Are managers ready to move to plan things better? Or accept planned things which are planned to be implemented in order one by one?
actually US already works on the issue.
America started Generation IV power systems initiative few years ago http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/
I've read here in russian press that recently russian scientist visited US to discuss possible cooperation to build pebble bed reactors.
as thought it is not mentioned in article - many things in new chineese reactors are developed by russians and here we developed plans on pebble bed reactors which span to year 2020 and 2050
( you might see old russian pdf file http://old.minatom.ru/presscenter/document/news/st rat.pdf
- at least as matter of fact that in russia there are plans on pebble bed reactors as well)
And as it was already mentioned - the most problem which US scientist rise with the new reactors is the way to deal with waster - so far americans are reluctant to reprocess it ( as it might lead to more places where nuclear materials could be stolen for nukes) but reprocessing is a way to make less waster.
Re:Supply of uranium for nuclear power is limited?
on
China Goes Nuclear
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· Score: 1
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought if the entire world switched over to uranium nuclear power, it would exhaust the worlds uranium supply in around 50 years? (In less time mind you than the world's oil supplies are current being depleted.)
you are correct that there are available deposits of Uranium 235 only for 50 years. Uranium 235 is used in all current nuclear reactors - but using uranium 233 and Torium ( and that type of nuclear fuel would be used in pebble bed reactors) would provide supply of nuclear fuel for hundred ( if not few thousand) years.
BTW while I agree with the meaning of your critics to that hardard guy, I somehow amazed on your attitude to darwinism.
Btw did you read books by
Richard Dawkins?
To some extent I would claim that harvard guy conclusions (at least how they are described in toronto newspaper article) just flawed.
But this has nothing to do with darwinism. Or extending darwinist's conlusions on social dynamics and social processes. Biological evolution science is just another
branch of knowledge than science on functioning of brain..
While I agree with most of your conclusions I could call me darwinist:) and thus I'd oppose to some of your motions.
So - while I see that the topic and discussion start to be dated ( almost no one would visit this pages to read) - I would suggest if you are intrested to discuss - please contact me - my contact info is in my profile.
I think that possible discussion could be usefull for both of us;)
a) I test the sig to hint on that I'm outside english speaking world... as anyhow I make mistakes and want others to know beforehand that it is natural for me to make mistakes - this would help to sort out possible misunderstandings
and if I speak too much there would be enough mistakes to care for.
b) actually the subtle meaning of words without live use of language anyway is eluding my understanding.
and in sensitive discussions this could lead not just to minor misunderstandings but to confusions. For example in my post - while in russia use of word 'sect' is very common - I was unsure if the word is commonly accepted and isn't a marginal word for english speaking person ( yes the word is correct but could be too loud to pronounce). I care for all the matters as I have experience that direct transfer of my russian thinking to english words led to the fact that people accept me too straight and rude. So thanks for feedback. I already think on less direct hint on my origins:)
Consider it a part of the view of the "enlightened" "modern" man.
the intresting follow to the conclusion could be that actually those enlightened are just social machines which try to adapt with elementary psyhological tricks.
on the other side we could see those who just get
proves that if things are natural - then nothing to do with these incstincts - and this is also shortsigned point...
here arises a question which I ask myself- and what then is really natural ?
for myself I consider myself acting in order of natural instincts still I really appreciate that at some point I learned from other people how to deal with them and control them - so being natura still I would most probably not revenge even in severe cases.
It is a bit of skill - making desire to revenge to calm and feel OK and also not to be dissatisfied (frustrated) . It takes time to learn to fight natural emotions with other natural approaches and not just mechanically thinking and thus unnaturally blocking and finally even harming body pfysically as it is not just and easy trick to block natural emotion without consequences..
just a remark - after all those "enlightened" "modern" men could in some cases be just more animal like than those who admits that they have animal features in themselfs - at least I know those who are kind in words and are quite evil in their unconscious following animal insticts.
returning to feeling desire of revenge - I think a lot people could agree -sometimes in case of real harm from other person - it is natural to feel desire to revenge - still there is also a need to be socially adaptive and really there is need to take into account consequences of revenge.
And here - if one can naturally deal with emotions - this is a very good thing. The skill really happens to resolve the situations.
I think that yes - to keep the situation under control there is need cleverly give feedback to those who are wrong. But if this is really revenge in instict sence? I think no. Following harsh insticts just streigtly and following them in intelligent way when things are assesed by mind - are different things.
for me to learn deal with emotions took quite a bit of time. This does not meant I'm a follower of any
sectarian organizations with intentions to 'save the world by teaching them good' ( I consider such organisation to be just histerical).
But I either do not see that except church or meditaion sects such organisations like schools or other common social institutions teach masses to deal with emotions.
And this is quite a strange things . While everybody recognises really enlightened men and the last usually are very good in dealing with their emotions and good in their skills to be natural.
But these enlightened have to go a long way -
learning their valuable skills.
sometimes wasting their times to find thier way to be natural either in biblical societies ( which after all have some insights how to teach people to forgive) or hysterical meditation societies.
And I ask myself - why general social institutions do not teach people to deal with emotions in natural way ?
And why instead society produces such mechanical "enlightened" "modern" men?
and then there are discussions like these one.
This after all - if to try to look from far on the
subject and discussion - it just shows - dealing with emotions is NOT what most people recognise as their skills...
Personally I would dream that people could learn to forgive and naturally manage revenge and similar emotions ( just for example by sensing them and then deciding what and how approach them using for example as someone suggested here to think on the situation with a bit of humour ) without necessity to become either member of Christian society or a member of meditation sects for some time.
To some extent seems that additionally some ideas on subject could come after reading articles by Forgas for example http://eqi.org/forgas.htm
There are cases when intelligent management of affective conditions could be beneficial to man to resolve difficult life situations. Still there is need to recognise what is intelligent . And to be intelligent....
I agree,
of cause there are a lot of different mental exercises which could make brain as you say
the mind can learn to activate pleasure centers... its pretty a pretty well designed system
and thus it is possible to have pleasure even without revenge.
The most close thing I could think of it is what Bible teaches - forgive and you will be happy.
I by myself not being believer thought had to learn to forgive ( as there were many reasons to revenge - but it modern society it is most often not so natural to revenge and thus being effectively prohibited) and can say - hey. It is possible to forgive and be happy without revenge.
I apply this skill in my daily life and this helps me a lot. So . The another point I would agree - instead of abusing obvious facts like sex is pleasure , revenge is pleasure ( and what if to kill those harmed someone is pleasure - so what - allow it or make acceptable and inserted into culture?) it would be nice to teach people to use their wonderful device called mind ( brain) to be
more socialized rather to slide by such researches into something animal like behavior in society.
PS. my english is not so good as my native language is Russian.
Living in Russia and seeing some potential for outsourcing started three years ago a process to build team of software developers based on completely remotely work with one German guy.
This though it was a bit difficult ( as pure remote team without bureaucracy of managers etc)
But this succeeded, and
thought of cause this brought jobs to former USSR countries ( as my guys were from Russia , Ukraine, Belarus) but also
this made my partner richer and finally he started to hire local guys, extending his business from one man company to 'normal' GmbH.
Maybe other things on which I worked are less country skills specific, nevertheless I think
that without me the developed soft would be just unviable - my partner customers were not ready to pay high prices for the specific simulations ( for example I was working to created realistic vehicle dynamics to properly simulate dynamical parameters for design of sound properties of the passenger cars - so that my
dynamics should really be close to that which real
cars exhibit) and while this simulation was important - nobody was sure that this is what needs investments ( but this is another story - how guys were savvy in business) - anyhow - lower costs on development allowed the business ( of partners of my partner) to move and develop nessesary things and when being developed it rewarded all involved ( though they did not predict that forehand risking their money..).
As another example other members of the team which I led would also allow for my partner for fast accommodate to business demands -for example he would be asked by his customers from time to time for development of very special video processing software - in case of hiring local guy - he would just lost time fining appropriate candidate for part time job - there are no much highly skilled video processing guys who are available for short term jobs, while lower cost would just allow develop customized soft but also keep them on development of spare things such as that mentioned video capture shareware program ( which I passed for the development for other guy - finding him here) and have someone always ready for urgent for any new video processing demands from customers.
And finally - when shareware will go this will also allow to hire local German guys to extend software, provide customer support etc.
That just few insights of possible benefits.
But overall my experience gives the picture - for a German guy outsourcing allowed to start business, to grow it, allowed to hire more people and will allow to hire even more in future.
For him outsourcing highly benefited him. Though the process has some pitfalls - due to them I just stopped the work. This requires really high skills to communicate on all sides. And if (in my case German side) lacks motivations to support quality communication the job might start to be just a nightmare ( not for outsourcing side... as it has all the benefits). Anyhow - though my personal dreams were not realized - the guys from former USSR are happy to continue to work on the company. And the company will keep development. As for me, after all my experience to create things like I already created will probably allow someone else create something similar but more efficient;) and will ( I hope) both sides.
Anyway - I think (as my experience of outsourcing says outsourcing brings benefits to both sides ) - it will keep develop. And with widespread of new means to communicate ( I mean voice and video in addition to email exchange ) there would be more cases of outsourcing in small companies and custom software develop and it will be more efficient than it sometimes happens now - when outsourcing for most of the companies is the first experience.
As for the fact that different to my experience outsourcing schemes might hit western workers. I could agree. But here seems that if there is a way to regulate the things cleverly so that outsourcing harm less maybe it worth to think on that possible solutions. But outsourcing in ad
For God's sake, if you want to fight crime, why don't you use police force?
currently almost all operations in Chechenya are operated by police, also frontier troops are involved as Chechenya has borders with foreign countries .
Making people disappear, raping women and demanding money for the privilage of burying your son is a way of fighting crime???
do you think that the things you mention is a norm ? I think it is crime. And those ( who are in charge and commit such misdeeds are punished).
Just what Lebyed did
no quite - he did complete remove of forces including police forces. Chechenya was almost independent for a while.
And again you know what it lead to - invasion of hundreds of armored people into Dagestan and also
explosion of houses in Volgodonsk and Moscow.
You can make a "sanitary cordon" around the republic, screen everybody going in and out
this was suggested here but after computing outcomes most come to conclusions that such thing is an utopia.
As it is not possible ( other than having massive military presense on border to prevent hundreds of people to invade.
Note that quite a bit of boder with Chechenya goes in mountains.
And also quite costly.
start negotiating with Maschadov, help him introduce rule of law in Chechenya.
Do you think Maschadov is intrested to have Moscow
liked rule - no. He was given a chance to build his country as he wanted. But the degree of crime rose inside his republick greatly.
Are you aware that Chechens kidnaped people, made some to be slaves etc?
The another problem is that Maschadov is nominally ruled the republick - the are a lot of who formally under his governance but actually are self governing leaders. So just talking with Maschadov it is like speaking with representative of tiny minority of actual power in republick.
The USA is bashed for doing far less crimes in Iraq that Russia did in Chechenya. Don't get offended, this is sad truth.
no offense taken. and my reply is.
There were crimes. But the central ( Russian) government makes quite a bit effort to reduce it in Chechnya not increase. More - now almost everything in the republick is controlled by local Chechens themselfs including police ( if you read the news from there - for example - few days ago after new attack on Grozny 20 of Chechen policemen were killed ( and dozens of peaceful people) by rebel forces - so the presence of russian central forces is reduced and the operations are held by local police.
And actually - I see the situation like - the more time passes the less crime is commited against chechens - as they by themselfs make internal decisions.
Now the new phase began - the recovery of houses etc. So currently to speak on crimes against Chechens is to think on two years ago times.
It is quite different situation now there.
And it has a tendency to get easier each month.
So - I think instead of urging Russia for talks with Maschadov it is wiser to support those who will be elected. As after all - killed president Kadyrov got votes of almost ALL population of Chechenya. Maybe not all liked him but the fact was that he was accepted by majority of population.
And there new elections will be held end of august. Yes again - most probably Moscow biased man would be elected. But it will not be falsified election - but open and democratic one.
And seems that this way - establishing peaceful force in the republick of Chechenya is a way to go.
In Poland, "shock therapy" (a rather biased name for the set of economic reforms administered in 1990) was meant to curb inflation, not to increase it. Poland had some market infrastructure in place, since first pro-market reforms were introduced in 1988 (small business only).
yeap it is intresting how the same advisers ( and Gaidar specifically invited people from US who helped in Polish reforms) came to different outcomes in different contries.
Actualy the first what was done in 1992 was increasing prices several times just in few months.
The last effectivly eliminated all money stocks of people. And Gaidar was pround of that in his interviews, the next his deed was - to stop giving money to big enterprises. So effectivly completely eliminating way they worked in communist times. Yes
this should be effective measure in theory BUT after this happened almost NO one that big enterprise survived ( and I think just because there were no real means they could function - there should be something in place of communist managment - but while communist things were droped no one bothered to think on establishing other ways). And destroying big industrial enterprises which were the backbone of the russian industry
led to not pleasant consequencies.
Yes i could think of that there were economical merits in the deeds on our goverment that time - but fortunately now many economists call the deeds mistakes ( fortunately that it heals some mental feelings - how it could be- good measures which destroyed country..)
I remember reading recently they are planning to take away veterans' and students' benefits, like free metro tickets for students in Moscow. Many other companies than Yucos did not pay taxes too, somehow they are not molested. Perhaps because their owners show no interest in politics?
not quite correct- they replace non monetary benfits to be paid benefits - so instead of free tickets students would be getting price of the ticket. What is the idea? - Hey , student might decide to have a walk to the university and save money spending them on something. This step will possibly help to optimise market processes.
So - there are no such thing as halting benefits. Instead next year the official money on benefits are more than spent current year (as if measured in money).
Pull out of Chechenya and wait for the phone calls.
yeap OK.. and have bandits which rob the nearby cities and bombing houses in Moscow and other cities?
We actually gave freedom to Chechenya for several years. And Chechenya become even more dangerous place than previously.
so - maybe you are right - but here is a choice. Either allow banditism and not punish it, or have unfriendly relations with western countries ( I know Russia is especially blamed by Europian countries for Chechenya but their blames does not help. if they actually could resolve the problems - that would be much better. But when complains do
not help... then it is wise to skip them
sorry no links - but briefly from what I read in russian press -the outcome after the things they did was unavoidable. But then ALL similar reactors were equipped with new features which will make the similar situations avoidable. So now if the things at any power plant will go the same way - then there will not be tragedy.
I think the hardships faced by the USSR citizens after 1989 were caused by the degree to which communism pervaded Soviet society.
on my side as I remember that days quite well I think
that reasons were not such.
Actually - Eltsin following his strategy -
to get power in Russia ( one of the republic of USSR) and hey - he was then ( when he was moving to power the ULTRA communist and was more eager on words to 'improve' communism than Gorbatchev) - when he got it.
He decided that it is not possible to perform market reforms in entire USSR - as he had not power over than ( Gorbatchev did).The market reforms were discussed by Gorbachev and others in power of USSR- but bureaucracy was against any changes and slowed down the reforms) and the key thing here was that Gorbachev was not ready to make real changes. That is why Eltsin move was at least logical.
But destroying USSR ( by making new agreement with Belarus and Ukraine) lead to the situation - no PLANS where to move. And here Gaidar appeared who told - hey no need to make reforms, we 'free market economists itself guaranty - that things will go OK - the only thing we need now - to get all moneys off the people by the mean of harsh inflation ( shock therapy) .
Maybe in Poland the step was more thought in detail. But shock therapy in Russia which HAD no even any market infrastructure that time led to entire halt of the economy.
So the destruction of the country economy took just
two years Gaidar was in power for two years economy contracted 4 times.
So I would make conclusion that actually the problem were WRONG steps.
Actually many economists that time ( I read The Economist review that days. They wonder what are idiots in Russia hoping to make privatization without having ANY specialists on market operations. Actually there was need to gradually develop such specialists etc. Why it succeded in Poland I'm not aware... but heard of big loans and many help from western countries. And yes - that Poland had always small business, farmers etc - they at least had those who had some experience of
private initiative - there were NO in Russia...
The last thing COULD be taken into account.
And maybe slow reform will make life a bit more difficult. But fast reforms led to 4 times contraction of the economy. The consultants from US were THE same as they were to Poland. And they advised the same recipes. But I think they really overlooked the differences and also west did helped Poland and other eastern European countries. To much less degree it was ready to help Russia ( not sure why - but since that west considered Russia as enemy was always and still is here - and actually it is the reason which does not helps to make world safer...
Russians would like to have good relations with west. Still it is not possible to call them worm till now.
Putin is cutting down people's benefits and still his popularity soars.
I'm not aware of cutting benefits other than YUCOS
case - but they really did not pay taxes by using very dangerous ways to come around the law. Yes they managed to come around it - but then when state lawyers took a look at their practice they found that what is used to avoid tax pay is actually illegal.
Overall I would not pay much attentions to those people who started 10 years ago like you and me and in ten years become multi billionaires.
Yes - the situation was unique still those who were following law are not billionaires here;)
And his popularity gradually vanishes. Still why he is in power the economy grows contrarily to all 90s when economy only collapsed.
Overall Putin is more liberal than most of politicians here and he really makes liberal changes here and there. Though it is followed with a degree of autocracy but the things he does are necessary as that complete chaos which was created by crocked hands of 'talented free market economists' ( they called such themselves but actually they were not) should be overcame.
I think that Russia becomes more democratic now than it was before ( just allo
In Poland, the average life expectancy increased and infant mortality rate dropped substantially after the transition from communism to capitalism. I would be very surprised if it was different in the Soviet Union.
just to surprise you.
russian link ( a report to Eltsin)
http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/NO_COMM/DEMOGOV.HTM
( you may try babelfish to translate)
a quote
-
since 1989 to 1995 the number of died increased in Russia form 1.6 million people in 1989 year to 2.2 million people in 1995 year so rose 1.4 times, the number of born childre contracted from 2.2 million people to 1.4 million people so contracted 1.6 times.
--
and so on.
Actually reforms in Russia which were performed the liberal way ( just to mention - ther reforms which were performed with assistance of US consultants - firs non communist prime minister ( actually acting prime minister - but this makes no difference) Gaidar was building his politics after US Republicans phylosophy ( he claimed it here and there) and accordingly invited Republican minded economists to russia to consult him)
were devastating.
In 1998 the income was $ 15 000 per capita annually
now ( after 5 years of 6 - 7 percent annual growth it will
reach till the end of this year the mark of $ 10 000 annually) so
it will take us some time - seems 5-7 years to reach the economic positions which we had in 1989.
It is just to make you aware which price russians paid for such kind of reforms.
I'm personnally for reforms, but I think that was happening after 1989 was rather destructing the enemy rather than modernising the country.
I hope russia will modernise - and thanks God it has a positive tendencies now. But it would pay almost 20 years for transition from socialism to market society.
But the other way could be chosen. But it was not due to desire quickly to destroy everithing communist like. Yes communism is evel still destroying the entire infrastucture is not better than gradually replacing it.
Which is why they sent their high-ranking people to the west for advanced surgeries
any examples , please.
Contrarily to what you say - as living in ussr I could say - almost no high ranking people were getting treatment in the west.
Though being old people ( and most of the high ranking people in 70 80 s were old) they had a great number of different deceases).
For them there was a special department if I remember correctly the 5 th department of the Ministry of health. And , boy, the quality of this treatment called among people 'kremlevka hospital'
was extremely high.
Though I could think on a special cases when it was known that somewhere in the world there were NEW methods to cure difficult deceases. But visiting west for treatments were absolutely not a natural way.
Seems you somehow confused North Korea or some other contry with USSR.
also.
Regarding teeth. The treatment of teeth was not advanced
still was very good and in most cases based on western ( imported) equipment I might say that in my high school I was checked each 6 months for teeth and when there were problems they were immediately fixed,
in some social groups though it was very prestigious ( fetish) to have golden teeth - that is why you probably could notice them.
overall I could say thouth there were problems in health care - those who wanted to be cured would always get nessesary and hight quality treatment ( of cause those abused alcohol would not have will to induce a health system to provide good medicaltreatment for them..)
but my personal experience - I got quite good treatment when I become hardly ill, though it took time to get to good clinic and yes - it affected on how long I was getting rid of my decease.
But eventually I was healed and the soviet system provided best western and local equipment and best doctors for that.
And hey - I was absolutely average guy.
A fascist society is singular: the state / party opinion is the truth (tm) and those that disagree will be punished, the severity of which will be determined according to the priorities on topics to which dissenting opinion has been voiced. To make it short, a bias is okay as long as everybody gets to have theirs.
I still have arguments , but OK - we see each other positions, and I think they are clear to others.
But I would add
I have read interesting article recently
http://eqi.org/forgas.htm
I think to clarify things it is OK to get a bit to harder to the arguments, if last leads to more understanding.
That is - personally for me making more accents is not just plainly believe in what I say, but rather reveal by associated emotions some other thoughts.
as there is interesting topic why fascist or communist theories appear and how societies accept them.
and there is interesting note - both fascism and communism were build as humanity theories - fascist ( Hitler theory) was intended to save and develop German
nation. Communism was about to make everyone happy (except of capitalists).
And I hope I voiced one thing - I suspect that thinking on good it is possible to exaggerate it and make it not good at all. After all in societies there are those force means which exist in societies so that state functioned ( see for example articles here on slashdot on screening in US airports) could be extended. So I think - keeping thinking on good ( without avoiding dangerous pitfalls in those thinkings) could develop harm.
So - it is better that members of societies think 'wider' really taking into account not only logical arguments but also paying attention on if the logical arguments are context correct.
And I think ( after reading articles I mention) - modern western societies are still not prevented from slowly moving to fascism. And the mean - is not just peaceful acceptance of someone's opinion ( as the last seems could inadvertently lead to destructive ideas)- but the mean is more education, teaching those who thinks only on logical arguments to think on context avoiding pushing ideas which are context incoherent.
So when people would be more educated ( by means which new technologies provide) then there would be better. while current thins like described here
coupled with that - purely logical conclusions could lead to development of fascist and communist ideologies ( BTW - both theories came from Germany)
I think that to trying to avoid inherited problems in thinking of western people would be a good help to the world.
As I really think that at some point modern ' humanity' could come to fascism-like dictatorships.
And there are no proven arguments that 'a plural society' is stably to moving into something awful. So there is need to make some improvements to the overall good ( for my eyes) structure of western society and ideology - but which should have some more internal means to fight moves into dictatorships.
Also read this link URL:http://www.zircondesigns.com/Support/incompete nce.PDF
Maybe my links and thinking on those internal problems in western societies - tending to think 'purely logically' not providing feedback to idiots on their stupidity ( being 'correct' in respect to pure insanity of some members of society) could lead to thinking that there are not only problems in past but there is need to avoid building fascism or communist ( any totalitarian theory) in future. And for that it is a good idea to look on existing problems around than looking them in someone's opinions on Stalin attitude to Jews ( esp if they have some basis for be
Slashdot Mirror
Here in russia there is one intresting idea since 1977 ( so seems patent free already ) to build a transport using 'strings' see demo pictures here http://www.unitsky.ru/ . Now, using strong tethers developed for space elevator instead of steel strings in the mentioned design, one gets quite a cheap transport solution - less construction costs than for railroads with the same energy to deliver the cargo.
>It's my nature to remain calm and collected
I would recommend to try autogenic trainingAutogenic training
as you may see it is recommended for western peopleAT is particularly appealing to the Western mind, because unlike many forms of meditation and yoga it has no cultural, religious or cosmological overtones, and requires no special clothing or unusual postures or practices.
Unfortunately it is mainly practised in europe and not such popular in usa. though there are several books at amazon Autogenic Therapy: Self-help For Mind And Body Autogenic Training: A Clinical Guide search for more books at book stores for 'autogenic' or 'autogenics'another thing which I use in similar situations is Eleuthero ( or Eleutherococcus or Siberian ginseng , search google for details). while it does not directly concerns the ability to deal with people - it greatly helps to fight fatigue and stress and is not a drug in a sense - it is herb.
Though initially eleuthero ( esp. in big doses) could cause increase in strenuous (physical) activity , in time ( or with less doses - which I recommend to start with - so initially use three times less dose than it stated in prescript for the herb ) this side effect becomes negligible and Eleuthero becomes just a very good assistant to fight stress and helps to deal with difficult situations.
another thing - actually it is quite common to have 'viral infection feelings' while having no desease - just that are described ( including weakness). from research doctors ( Moscow institute of immunology) I know that sometimes immunomodulatory drug make a big difference. so again - will someone suggest him just to consult on the issue. On average - it is not uncommon that only hightly profeccional doctors could recognise actual problem. Average docs would just say 'guy you are OK' while guy could suffer quite a lot.... so I think what he needs - a really good doctor. prefereably who deals with intercostal neuralgia and immunology problems... sorry I just would not dare to contact him personally - but maybe this is a way to help...
I would share few thoughts on game development.
Actually management faces several tasks - develop innovative games, availability of specialists to implement high end and low end subtasks ( I mean design of soft and on other side some really hard coding of well known things).
and while 'optimizing' the production way game companies usually come to that - 'older specialists' facing new problems would spend amount of time which is not allowable for the project. As in game development there are actually a LOT of different difficult tasks to resolve. still young guys would always miss the things - but could move forward due to their young power.
Thus to reduce the pressure ( if it is possible) is a way - that there are MORE really good lead developers which plan and resolve tasks ( looking ahead and not gathering all the difficulties) in a way which makes less time to implement. And from what could be seen at EA job site they look for specialists with several years of experience. Do they find such specialists - I do not know ....
so I think the focus of an article is somewhat incorrect. If only there were enough specialists and they could resolve tasks quickly leading others - then there would not be need to overtime. But the game development lacks the necessary amount of specialists thus there is an overtime.
For game companies here in Russia - most successful are those which found a balance between overtime and good leaders which lend working ideas to the projects.
as for age...
just few years ago there were no such a discipline - game development or graphics development.... thus older specialists with required skills are in shortage. Also to move from another field these specialists need somehow self educate or something - there are NO way to get knowledge other than to study - but if there is time and desire for those who already have some working experience which bring money positions etc?
I personally suffered from overtime working as game developer. But still the overtime was a result of short seeing the outcomes. Which was unavoidable. as the steps forward in game development are always steps into unknown. Bright persons are good to resolve the things - but again - there are no much bright guys out here around. If the team has bright - then the pressure on programmers is much less - as things go smoother. Still there are anyway problems which require efforts to resolve.
so my conclusion - the situation is described ( if to extrapolate the facts on game development in whole) correctly. Still if one wants to play games should understand - the way games are developed is naturally grown from the limitations - lack of enough specialists and also that younger people really could resist less to try to fast implement innovative things and most probably it comes that older specialist underestimate the time which younger spend on the task ( I know from my experience :) in a month I developed an animation demo with advanced internals starting from almost no knowledge at hand on human animations - I thought it will take me half an year - still it was finished in a month - so kick was necessary -thought kick was really a pain....) again as in previous example - if I knew the animations well I would know things - still older people do not have knowledge at hand on most of gaming technologies - thus they tend to resist much more than young people.
For myself - to avoid problems in my future career
after I finished one attempt to develop own way to develop games ( using remote approach - guys in russia for company in europe) - I really had a lot of experience what might go wrong ( and byt my will I worked 80 hours a week... as it was my creature ;))
I spend last year gathering ALL gaming tech knowledge ;) so I hope in future I will be resolving tasks fast and people under my lead will suffer less - as they will always know better - where to go.... but I think that t
just before reading the article as far as I know not such warm climate is optimal :)
see
http://www.usaweekend.com/00_issues/000116/000116b iology.html
Pay attention to air quality. Cool, dry air, especially on your face, helps keep you alert, while heat and humidity make you drowsy. Studies show that mental performance, such as rule-based logical thinking, can be reduced by 30% at temperatures not even warm enough to cause sweating. So keep the room at 70 degrees, the average optimum temperature for mental work in the United States. (Not everybody shares the same optimal temperature -- some are "cold-blooded"; others are "hot-blooded" -- so you may need to adjust up or down.)
see also http://schoolstudio.engr.wisc.edu/energysmartschoOptimal Thermal Conditions Thermal comfort has been shown to influence task performance, attention spans and levels of discomfort. In general, historical empirical studies going back 50 years have indicated that temperatures above 80 degrees F tend to produce harmful physiological effects that decrease work efficiency and output (McGuffy, 1982). Thermal conditions are below optimal levels affect dexterity, while higher than optimal temperatures decrease general alertness and increase physiological stress. One researcher (Harner, 1974) when reviewing optimal temperature levels for the performance found that reading and mathematical skills were adversely affected by temperatures above 74 degrees F. Reading speed and comprehension were most affected by temperature. A significant reduction in reading speed and comprehension occurred between 73.4 degrees F and 80.6 degrees F. This researcher also found that achievement is mathematical operations such as multiplication, addition and factoring have been shown to be significantly reduced by air temperatures above 77 degrees F.
new way to harness the power of the sun
this is at least viable alternative to biodisel
one more link is Center for materials research in energy conversion
Clean Energy Systems paper
Carbon Capture and Storage from Fossil Fuel Use
Capturing and sequestering carbon dioxide"
the research in the field seems to be quite activewhy doesn't Korolev get the same political backslash von Braun does
maybe because Korolev himself spent years in Gulag.
BTW, during my days in university I studied in the same building that German scientists worked in after the ww2 on designing soviet jets and rockets in Himki near Moscow . These were the buildings of Lavochkin Association company ( the one which built famous La-5 during ww2 then the company developed first russian jets and later produced russian space vehicles which flew to Moon Mars and Venus).
There is one notable point in the article that actually persons are more productive when they perform one task. I could say that from the experience this is a fact which I would easily admit. And also would say that the way to resolve is better planning of activity and here - where most people would fail - just because they are not about to be self controlled and self motivated, and rather most are driven by outer stimulus. And taking the last fact for truth it is logical that to organize one person there is need in someone else that performs organizational tasks - and here it is automatically less efficient than two unorganized persons.
I think that either we should live with the fact and accept the stress under modern demands or somehow teach people to be more self organized and more efficient.
Personally ( again as I learn by experience that doing things as it described in article one per one is really MUCH more efficient than chasing few tasks altogether) I prefer make one task and be more efficient - the problem is that sometimes managers tend to overload me ( as there are quite a bit of my skills to use ;) ( maybe more correct to say abuse in this context ;) including ability to proces a lot of information fast) ) and give number of tasks to perform simultaneously. And really if skills are abused -
I become inefficient - but rarely people would allow me to run efficient way when I tell them I could run better in things are better sorted out.
So - being really useful and efficient for company and submission to manager's will to move faster in many tasks simulataneously are contradictory goals which could not be achieved.
And there is a difficult situation which requires to make decisions. One thing unfortunate things here in Russia that job market is very demanding and thus one has almost no way to affect management decisions being a specialist ( so no feedback is taken)but fortunately in russia things are less formal in job market and I could keep to be efficient without destroying myself just changing work ( though sometimes after investing all the efforts during several years to develop something it is a very tought decision).
So for me as a software developer and a foreigner it is really very interesting related question - how in US software developers could deal with demands which actually stifle their productivity still keeping relations with managers to be OK ? What is the practise? Are managers ready to move to plan things better? Or accept planned things which are planned to be implemented in order one by one?
actually US already works on the issue. America started Generation IV power systems initiative few years ago http://gen-iv.ne.doe.gov/
I've read here in russian press that recently russian scientist visited US to discuss possible cooperation to build pebble bed reactors. as thought it is not mentioned in article - many things in new chineese reactors are developed by russians and here we developed plans on pebble bed reactors which span to year 2020 and 2050 ( you might see old russian pdf file http://old.minatom.ru/presscenter/document/news/st rat.pdf
- at least as matter of fact that in russia there are plans on pebble bed reactors as well)
And as it was already mentioned - the most problem which US scientist rise with the new reactors is the way to deal with waster - so far americans are reluctant to reprocess it ( as it might lead to more places where nuclear materials could be stolen for nukes) but reprocessing is a way to make less waster.
Please correct me if I'm wrong but I thought if the entire world switched over to uranium nuclear power, it would exhaust the worlds uranium supply in around 50 years? (In less time mind you than the world's oil supplies are current being depleted.)
you are correct that there are available deposits of Uranium 235 only for 50 years. Uranium 235 is used in all current nuclear reactors - but using uranium 233 and Torium ( and that type of nuclear fuel would be used in pebble bed reactors) would provide supply of nuclear fuel for hundred ( if not few thousand) years.
Btw did you read books by Richard Dawkins?
To some extent I would claim that harvard guy conclusions (at least how they are described in toronto newspaper article) just flawed. But this has nothing to do with darwinism. Or extending darwinist's conlusions on social dynamics and social processes. Biological evolution science is just another branch of knowledge than science on functioning of brain..While I agree with most of your conclusions I could call me darwinist :) and thus I'd oppose to some of your motions.
So - while I see that the topic and discussion start to be dated ( almost no one would visit this pages to read) - I would suggest if you are intrested to discuss - please contact me - my contact info is in my profile.
I think that possible discussion could be usefull for both of usword 'sect'
correction - used 'sect' word in another my post in this discussion.i thought you spoke english natively.
there are two aspects
a) I test the sig to hint on that I'm outside english speaking world... as anyhow I make mistakes and want others to know beforehand that it is natural for me to make mistakes - this would help to sort out possible misunderstandings and if I speak too much there would be enough mistakes to care for.b) actually the subtle meaning of words without live use of language anyway is eluding my understanding. and in sensitive discussions this could lead not just to minor misunderstandings but to confusions. For example in my post - while in russia use of word 'sect' is very common - I was unsure if the word is commonly accepted and isn't a marginal word for english speaking person ( yes the word is correct but could be too loud to pronounce). I care for all the matters as I have experience that direct transfer of my russian thinking to english words led to the fact that people accept me too straight and rude. So thanks for feedback. I already think on less direct hint on my origins :)
Consider it a part of the view of the "enlightened" "modern" man.
the intresting follow to the conclusion could be that actually those enlightened are just social machines which try to adapt with elementary psyhological tricks.
on the other side we could see those who just get proves that if things are natural - then nothing to do with these incstincts - and this is also shortsigned point ...
here arises a question which I ask myself- and what then is really natural ? for myself I consider myself acting in order of natural instincts still I really appreciate that at some point I learned from other people how to deal with them and control them - so being natura still I would most probably not revenge even in severe cases. It is a bit of skill - making desire to revenge to calm and feel OK and also not to be dissatisfied (frustrated) . It takes time to learn to fight natural emotions with other natural approaches and not just mechanically thinking and thus unnaturally blocking and finally even harming body pfysically as it is not just and easy trick to block natural emotion without consequences..
just a remark - after all those "enlightened" "modern" men could in some cases be just more animal like than those who admits that they have animal features in themselfs - at least I know those who are kind in words and are quite evil in their unconscious following animal insticts.
returning to feeling desire of revenge - I think a lot people could agree -sometimes in case of real harm from other person - it is natural to feel desire to revenge - still there is also a need to be socially adaptive and really there is need to take into account consequences of revenge. And here - if one can naturally deal with emotions - this is a very good thing. The skill really happens to resolve the situations. I think that yes - to keep the situation under control there is need cleverly give feedback to those who are wrong. But if this is really revenge in instict sence? I think no. Following harsh insticts just streigtly and following them in intelligent way when things are assesed by mind - are different things.
for me to learn deal with emotions took quite a bit of time. This does not meant I'm a follower of any sectarian organizations with intentions to 'save the world by teaching them good' ( I consider such organisation to be just histerical). But I either do not see that except church or meditaion sects such organisations like schools or other common social institutions teach masses to deal with emotions. And this is quite a strange things . While everybody recognises really enlightened men and the last usually are very good in dealing with their emotions and good in their skills to be natural. But these enlightened have to go a long way - learning their valuable skills. sometimes wasting their times to find thier way to be natural either in biblical societies ( which after all have some insights how to teach people to forgive) or hysterical meditation societies.
And I ask myself - why general social institutions do not teach people to deal with emotions in natural way ? And why instead society produces such mechanical "enlightened" "modern" men? and then there are discussions like these one. This after all - if to try to look from far on the subject and discussion - it just shows - dealing with emotions is NOT what most people recognise as their skills...
Personally I would dream that people could learn to forgive and naturally manage revenge and similar emotions ( just for example by sensing them and then deciding what and how approach them using for example as someone suggested here to think on the situation with a bit of humour ) without necessity to become either member of Christian society or a member of meditation sects for some time.
To some extent seems that additionally some ideas on subject could come after reading articles by Forgas for example http://eqi.org/forgas.htm There are cases when intelligent management of affective conditions could be beneficial to man to resolve difficult life situations. Still there is need to recognise what is intelligent . And to be intelligent....
Disclaimer - English is not my native language.
the mind can learn to activate pleasure centers... its pretty a pretty well designed system
and thus it is possible to have pleasure even without revenge. The most close thing I could think of it is what Bible teaches - forgive and you will be happy.
I by myself not being believer thought had to learn to forgive ( as there were many reasons to revenge - but it modern society it is most often not so natural to revenge and thus being effectively prohibited) and can say - hey. It is possible to forgive and be happy without revenge. I apply this skill in my daily life and this helps me a lot. So . The another point I would agree - instead of abusing obvious facts like sex is pleasure , revenge is pleasure ( and what if to kill those harmed someone is pleasure - so what - allow it or make acceptable and inserted into culture?) it would be nice to teach people to use their wonderful device called mind ( brain) to be more socialized rather to slide by such researches into something animal like behavior in society.
PS. my english is not so good as my native language is Russian.
Living in Russia and seeing some potential for outsourcing started three years ago a process to build team of software developers based on completely remotely work with one German guy. This though it was a bit difficult ( as pure remote team without bureaucracy of managers etc) But this succeeded, and thought of cause this brought jobs to former USSR countries ( as my guys were from Russia , Ukraine, Belarus) but also this made my partner richer and finally he started to hire local guys, extending his business from one man company to 'normal' GmbH.
Maybe other things on which I worked are less country skills specific, nevertheless I think that without me the developed soft would be just unviable - my partner customers were not ready to pay high prices for the specific simulations ( for example I was working to created realistic vehicle dynamics to properly simulate dynamical parameters for design of sound properties of the passenger cars - so that my dynamics should really be close to that which real cars exhibit) and while this simulation was important - nobody was sure that this is what needs investments ( but this is another story - how guys were savvy in business) - anyhow - lower costs on development allowed the business ( of partners of my partner) to move and develop nessesary things and when being developed it rewarded all involved ( though they did not predict that forehand risking their money..).
As another example other members of the team which I led would also allow for my partner for fast accommodate to business demands -for example he would be asked by his customers from time to time for development of very special video processing software - in case of hiring local guy - he would just lost time fining appropriate candidate for part time job - there are no much highly skilled video processing guys who are available for short term jobs, while lower cost would just allow develop customized soft but also keep them on development of spare things such as that mentioned video capture shareware program ( which I passed for the development for other guy - finding him here) and have someone always ready for urgent for any new video processing demands from customers. And finally - when shareware will go this will also allow to hire local German guys to extend software, provide customer support etc. That just few insights of possible benefits. But overall my experience gives the picture - for a German guy outsourcing allowed to start business, to grow it, allowed to hire more people and will allow to hire even more in future. For him outsourcing highly benefited him. Though the process has some pitfalls - due to them I just stopped the work. This requires really high skills to communicate on all sides. And if (in my case German side) lacks motivations to support quality communication the job might start to be just a nightmare ( not for outsourcing side ... as it has all the benefits). Anyhow - though my personal dreams were not realized - the guys from former USSR are happy to continue to work on the company. And the company will keep development. As for me, after all my experience to create things like I already created will probably allow someone else create something similar but more efficient ;) and will ( I hope) both sides.
Anyway - I think (as my experience of outsourcing says outsourcing brings benefits to both sides ) - it will keep develop. And with widespread of new means to communicate ( I mean voice and video in addition to email exchange ) there would be more cases of outsourcing in small companies and custom software develop and it will be more efficient than it sometimes happens now - when outsourcing for most of the companies is the first experience.
As for the fact that different to my experience outsourcing schemes might hit western workers. I could agree. But here seems that if there is a way to regulate the things cleverly so that outsourcing harm less maybe it worth to think on that possible solutions. But outsourcing in ad
For God's sake, if you want to fight crime, why don't you use police force?
currently almost all operations in Chechenya are operated by police, also frontier troops are involved as Chechenya has borders with foreign countries .Making people disappear, raping women and demanding money for the privilage of burying your son is a way of fighting crime???
do you think that the things you mention is a norm ? I think it is crime. And those ( who are in charge and commit such misdeeds are punished).Just what Lebyed did
no quite - he did complete remove of forces including police forces. Chechenya was almost independent for a while. And again you know what it lead to - invasion of hundreds of armored people into Dagestan and also explosion of houses in Volgodonsk and Moscow.You can make a "sanitary cordon" around the republic, screen everybody going in and out
this was suggested here but after computing outcomes most come to conclusions that such thing is an utopia. As it is not possible ( other than having massive military presense on border to prevent hundreds of people to invade. Note that quite a bit of boder with Chechenya goes in mountains. And also quite costly.
start negotiating with Maschadov, help him introduce rule of law in Chechenya.
Do you think Maschadov is intrested to have Moscow liked rule - no. He was given a chance to build his country as he wanted. But the degree of crime rose inside his republick greatly. Are you aware that Chechens kidnaped people, made some to be slaves etc? The another problem is that Maschadov is nominally ruled the republick - the are a lot of who formally under his governance but actually are self governing leaders. So just talking with Maschadov it is like speaking with representative of tiny minority of actual power in republick.The USA is bashed for doing far less crimes in Iraq that Russia did in Chechenya. Don't get offended, this is sad truth.
no offense taken. and my reply is. There were crimes. But the central ( Russian) government makes quite a bit effort to reduce it in Chechnya not increase. More - now almost everything in the republick is controlled by local Chechens themselfs including police ( if you read the news from there - for example - few days ago after new attack on Grozny 20 of Chechen policemen were killed ( and dozens of peaceful people) by rebel forces - so the presence of russian central forces is reduced and the operations are held by local police.
And actually - I see the situation like - the more time passes the less crime is commited against chechens - as they by themselfs make internal decisions.
Now the new phase began - the recovery of houses etc. So currently to speak on crimes against Chechens is to think on two years ago times. It is quite different situation now there. And it has a tendency to get easier each month. So - I think instead of urging Russia for talks with Maschadov it is wiser to support those who will be elected. As after all - killed president Kadyrov got votes of almost ALL population of Chechenya. Maybe not all liked him but the fact was that he was accepted by majority of population.
And there new elections will be held end of august. Yes again - most probably Moscow biased man would be elected. But it will not be falsified election - but open and democratic one. And seems that this way - establishing peaceful force in the republick of Chechenya is a way to go.
In Poland, "shock therapy" (a rather biased name for the set of economic reforms administered in 1990) was meant to curb inflation, not to increase it. Poland had some market infrastructure in place, since first pro-market reforms were introduced in 1988 (small business only).
yeap it is intresting how the same advisers ( and Gaidar specifically invited people from US who helped in Polish reforms) came to different outcomes in different contries. Actualy the first what was done in 1992 was increasing prices several times just in few months. The last effectivly eliminated all money stocks of people. And Gaidar was pround of that in his interviews, the next his deed was - to stop giving money to big enterprises. So effectivly completely eliminating way they worked in communist times. Yes this should be effective measure in theory BUT after this happened almost NO one that big enterprise survived ( and I think just because there were no real means they could function - there should be something in place of communist managment - but while communist things were droped no one bothered to think on establishing other ways). And destroying big industrial enterprises which were the backbone of the russian industry led to not pleasant consequencies.
Yes i could think of that there were economical merits in the deeds on our goverment that time - but fortunately now many economists call the deeds mistakes ( fortunately that it heals some mental feelings - how it could be- good measures which destroyed country..)
I remember reading recently they are planning to take away veterans' and students' benefits, like free metro tickets for students in Moscow. Many other companies than Yucos did not pay taxes too, somehow they are not molested. Perhaps because their owners show no interest in politics?
not quite correct- they replace non monetary benfits to be paid benefits - so instead of free tickets students would be getting price of the ticket. What is the idea? - Hey , student might decide to have a walk to the university and save money spending them on something. This step will possibly help to optimise market processes. So - there are no such thing as halting benefits. Instead next year the official money on benefits are more than spent current year (as if measured in money).
Pull out of Chechenya and wait for the phone calls.
yeap OK.. and have bandits which rob the nearby cities and bombing houses in Moscow and other cities? We actually gave freedom to Chechenya for several years. And Chechenya become even more dangerous place than previously.so - maybe you are right - but here is a choice. Either allow banditism and not punish it, or have unfriendly relations with western countries ( I know Russia is especially blamed by Europian countries for Chechenya but their blames does not help. if they actually could resolve the problems - that would be much better. But when complains do not help... then it is wise to skip them
or was the outcome unavoidable....
sorry no links - but briefly from what I read in russian press -the outcome after the things they did was unavoidable. But then ALL similar reactors were equipped with new features which will make the similar situations avoidable. So now if the things at any power plant will go the same way - then there will not be tragedy.I think the hardships faced by the USSR citizens after 1989 were caused by the degree to which communism pervaded Soviet society.
on my side as I remember that days quite well I think that reasons were not such. Actually - Eltsin following his strategy - to get power in Russia ( one of the republic of USSR) and hey - he was then ( when he was moving to power the ULTRA communist and was more eager on words to 'improve' communism than Gorbatchev) - when he got it. He decided that it is not possible to perform market reforms in entire USSR - as he had not power over than ( Gorbatchev did).The market reforms were discussed by Gorbachev and others in power of USSR- but bureaucracy was against any changes and slowed down the reforms) and the key thing here was that Gorbachev was not ready to make real changes. That is why Eltsin move was at least logical. But destroying USSR ( by making new agreement with Belarus and Ukraine) lead to the situation - no PLANS where to move. And here Gaidar appeared who told - hey no need to make reforms, we 'free market economists itself guaranty - that things will go OK - the only thing we need now - to get all moneys off the people by the mean of harsh inflation ( shock therapy) . Maybe in Poland the step was more thought in detail. But shock therapy in Russia which HAD no even any market infrastructure that time led to entire halt of the economy. So the destruction of the country economy took just two years Gaidar was in power for two years economy contracted 4 times. So I would make conclusion that actually the problem were WRONG steps. Actually many economists that time ( I read The Economist review that days. They wonder what are idiots in Russia hoping to make privatization without having ANY specialists on market operations. Actually there was need to gradually develop such specialists etc. Why it succeded in Poland I'm not aware... but heard of big loans and many help from western countries. And yes - that Poland had always small business, farmers etc - they at least had those who had some experience of private initiative - there were NO in Russia... The last thing COULD be taken into account. And maybe slow reform will make life a bit more difficult. But fast reforms led to 4 times contraction of the economy. The consultants from US were THE same as they were to Poland. And they advised the same recipes. But I think they really overlooked the differences and also west did helped Poland and other eastern European countries. To much less degree it was ready to help Russia ( not sure why - but since that west considered Russia as enemy was always and still is here - and actually it is the reason which does not helps to make world safer... Russians would like to have good relations with west. Still it is not possible to call them worm till now.
Putin is cutting down people's benefits and still his popularity soars.
I'm not aware of cutting benefits other than YUCOS case - but they really did not pay taxes by using very dangerous ways to come around the law. Yes they managed to come around it - but then when state lawyers took a look at their practice they found that what is used to avoid tax pay is actually illegal. Overall I would not pay much attentions to those people who started 10 years ago like you and me and in ten years become multi billionaires. Yes - the situation was unique still those who were following law are not billionaires here ;)
And his popularity gradually vanishes. Still why he is in power the economy grows contrarily to all 90s when economy only collapsed.
Overall Putin is more liberal than most of politicians here and he really makes liberal changes here and there. Though it is followed with a degree of autocracy but the things he does are necessary as that complete chaos which was created by crocked hands of 'talented free market economists' ( they called such themselves but actually they were not) should be overcame.
I think that Russia becomes more democratic now than it was before ( just allo
In Poland, the average life expectancy increased and infant mortality rate dropped substantially after the transition from communism to capitalism. I would be very surprised if it was different in the Soviet Union.
just to surprise you. russian link ( a report to Eltsin) http://vivovoco.rsl.ru/VV/NO_COMM/DEMOGOV.HTM ( you may try babelfish to translate) a quote - since 1989 to 1995 the number of died increased in Russia form 1.6 million people in 1989 year to 2.2 million people in 1995 year so rose 1.4 times, the number of born childre contracted from 2.2 million people to 1.4 million people so contracted 1.6 times. -- and so on. Actually reforms in Russia which were performed the liberal way ( just to mention - ther reforms which were performed with assistance of US consultants - firs non communist prime minister ( actually acting prime minister - but this makes no difference) Gaidar was building his politics after US Republicans phylosophy ( he claimed it here and there) and accordingly invited Republican minded economists to russia to consult him) were devastating.
In 1998 the income was $ 15 000 per capita annually now ( after 5 years of 6 - 7 percent annual growth it will reach till the end of this year the mark of $ 10 000 annually) so it will take us some time - seems 5-7 years to reach the economic positions which we had in 1989.
It is just to make you aware which price russians paid for such kind of reforms.
I'm personnally for reforms, but I think that was happening after 1989 was rather destructing the enemy rather than modernising the country. I hope russia will modernise - and thanks God it has a positive tendencies now. But it would pay almost 20 years for transition from socialism to market society. But the other way could be chosen. But it was not due to desire quickly to destroy everithing communist like. Yes communism is evel still destroying the entire infrastucture is not better than gradually replacing it.
Which is why they sent their high-ranking people to the west for advanced surgeries
any examples , please.
Contrarily to what you say - as living in ussr I could say - almost no high ranking people were getting treatment in the west. Though being old people ( and most of the high ranking people in 70 80 s were old) they had a great number of different deceases). For them there was a special department if I remember correctly the 5 th department of the Ministry of health. And , boy, the quality of this treatment called among people 'kremlevka hospital' was extremely high.
Though I could think on a special cases when it was known that somewhere in the world there were NEW methods to cure difficult deceases. But visiting west for treatments were absolutely not a natural way. Seems you somehow confused North Korea or some other contry with USSR.
also. Regarding teeth. The treatment of teeth was not advanced still was very good and in most cases based on western ( imported) equipment I might say that in my high school I was checked each 6 months for teeth and when there were problems they were immediately fixed, in some social groups though it was very prestigious ( fetish) to have golden teeth - that is why you probably could notice them.
overall I could say thouth there were problems in health care - those who wanted to be cured would always get nessesary and hight quality treatment ( of cause those abused alcohol would not have will to induce a health system to provide good medicaltreatment for them..) but my personal experience - I got quite good treatment when I become hardly ill, though it took time to get to good clinic and yes - it affected on how long I was getting rid of my decease. But eventually I was healed and the soviet system provided best western and local equipment and best doctors for that. And hey - I was absolutely average guy.
A fascist society is singular: the state / party opinion is the truth (tm) and those that disagree will be punished, the severity of which will be determined according to the priorities on topics to which dissenting opinion has been voiced. To make it short, a bias is okay as long as everybody gets to have theirs.
I still have arguments , but OK - we see each other positions, and I think they are clear to others. But I would add
I have read interesting article recently http://eqi.org/forgas.htm I think to clarify things it is OK to get a bit to harder to the arguments, if last leads to more understanding.
That is - personally for me making more accents is not just plainly believe in what I say, but rather reveal by associated emotions some other thoughts.
as there is interesting topic why fascist or communist theories appear and how societies accept them.
and there is interesting note - both fascism and communism were build as humanity theories - fascist ( Hitler theory) was intended to save and develop German nation. Communism was about to make everyone happy (except of capitalists).
And I hope I voiced one thing - I suspect that thinking on good it is possible to exaggerate it and make it not good at all. After all in societies there are those force means which exist in societies so that state functioned ( see for example articles here on slashdot on screening in US airports) could be extended. So I think - keeping thinking on good ( without avoiding dangerous pitfalls in those thinkings) could develop harm.
So - it is better that members of societies think 'wider' really taking into account not only logical arguments but also paying attention on if the logical arguments are context correct.
And I think ( after reading articles I mention) - modern western societies are still not prevented from slowly moving to fascism. And the mean - is not just peaceful acceptance of someone's opinion ( as the last seems could inadvertently lead to destructive ideas)- but the mean is more education, teaching those who thinks only on logical arguments to think on context avoiding pushing ideas which are context incoherent. So when people would be more educated ( by means which new technologies provide) then there would be better. while current thins like described here
"Article 1 - Culture and cognition" "Article 2 - How Culture Molds Habits of Thought" [trinicenter.com]
coupled with that - purely logical conclusions could lead to development of fascist and communist ideologies ( BTW - both theories came from Germany) I think that to trying to avoid inherited problems in thinking of western people would be a good help to the world. As I really think that at some point modern ' humanity' could come to fascism-like dictatorships.
And there are no proven arguments that 'a plural society' is stably to moving into something awful. So there is need to make some improvements to the overall good ( for my eyes) structure of western society and ideology - but which should have some more internal means to fight moves into dictatorships.
Also read this link URL:http://www.zircondesigns.com/Support/incompete nce.PDF
Maybe my links and thinking on those internal problems in western societies - tending to think 'purely logically' not providing feedback to idiots on their stupidity ( being 'correct' in respect to pure insanity of some members of society) could lead to thinking that there are not only problems in past but there is need to avoid building fascism or communist ( any totalitarian theory) in future. And for that it is a good idea to look on existing problems around than looking them in someone's opinions on Stalin attitude to Jews ( esp if they have some basis for be