Just drop that point, because sex is unhealed scab tissue on our culture's skin. Nobody wants to actually tackle the question of why certain people get laid and others don't. It reveals too much ugliness.
On the second- our technological army can't even capture one old crazy man with a bad kidney living in a cave
With modern equipment, it's a lot easier (when you place the value for human life as high as we do in the West) to topple a building from afar, than ring its front door. During the war in Iraq, the US hasn't permitted itself (not too often, anyhow) such a course of action. Should China ever attempt to invade the US, the battle will look nothing like the one in Iraq. Nobody, far from the frontlines though he may be, would think, under THAT situation, that you (Americans) have the luxury of so called "humanity". Knowing you have the nukes, and that you are prepared to use them, what could motivate China into such a war?
Do remember, by the way, China's neighbours. They're not that small. Not all of them are on very friendly terms with China. The US hasn't such a problem. The US government people could stand to take far more damage and still keep their heads, if not their seats.
what makes you think they're sufficient to face a force several times their size invading a half a world away from the current theater of operations?
At no point was I talking about the US invading China. We were talking about China invading the US, when and if the US shirks its financial debts. (And invasion is all we can talk about, since any other militaristic course of action will still have costs, but no benefits.)
Depends on whether or not they've learned the same lesson Iran has from Iraq.
Whether China does or doesn't use nuclear weapons on this hypothetical war, China is open to a retaliation by nuclear weapons from the US. "Conventional" as well as nonconventional attacks simply aren't worth it when you could lose as much as China can.
They get strategic advantage. It's all about strategy here.
Strategic advantage in what form?
That is because it IS insane. It's giving away the country in return for cheaply made crap
I meant China is insane in your scenario...
in three ways that are all linked:
How is exportation heeding their cause for infrastructure if they don't import anything back? How is it any different than, say, dumping the cargo in the middle of the ocean?
3. Strategic advantage militarily over the United States as Chinese Government interests invest the excess in US Defence Contracting companies, and transfer their manufacturing to China in the name of cost cutting.
Your first explanation that I accept, but it doesn't explain enough of this away.
And given a country that can comfortably support a standing army of 5 or 6 million, do you have a suggestion on how one might refuse to honor such a promise?
China doesn't really need the excuse to take what it wants by force, so giving it one isn't tantamount to launching their attack against the US.
Also, I'd like to dispute an half-implied assumption - the US, with its resources, technology, alliances, etc., isn't far enough behind China on cannon-fodder for a Chinese invasion of the US to be profitable. Also, what with the modern arsenal including as many nuclear bombs as it does, China probably couldn't afford to do anything of the sort even if it had twenty times the US's manpower.
Well, don't take my word for it, Google It!
I will tomorrow, and get back to you. Remind me if I forget.
Actually, to me that would be a *very* bad sign- if they were taking serious amounts of raw materials from us
Them bomabarding the American shores with finished goods for which they had provided both the materials and the labour? What DO they get in return? The picture you're painting me - empty containers (assuming it wasn't a one-month oddity) going back, coming back full, and so over and over - sounds insane. Moreoever, you lament it... I still don't understand.
And my point is there ain't no such thing as a free lunch
Leaving us with only one option I can think of - this isn't really happening. Either China is getting paid back indirectly, through trade goods it's receiving from the US's other trade partners, or the guys shipping in one direction didn't land the contract for shipping the other way (sounds very unlikely), or it was a one-month thing... either way, your description of matters can't be accurate, the way I see it.
Those little bits of paper represent a promise, which, if push comes to shove, one might refuse to honour. If things are the way you put them (and I do not acknowledge it is so), freighters are, day and night, bringing in goods from China to the US, and take about nothing in return. Not any serious amount of raw materials, hardly any manufactured goods, nothing. Not to China, and, on that route and in those quantities, approximately nothing to anywhere else. By any realistic dissection of the situation (assuming for a moment it really is so), the US is having as many free lunches as it can take.
It goes without saying that, based on his academic achievements, he's probably a very intelligent guy. It just doesn't prove he's a genius. He might be - not all of us here need to put him down to keep feeling good about ourselves. But there's no reason to believe so just yet. Saying "have the reporters get back to us when he's done something greater" doesn't mean what he's done so far isn't impressive. It's just not very newsworthy.
Anybody with an ounce of sense in their head would rather do something they love
Many people don't have anything they'd love to do. It's not possible to eke out even a meager living watching TV, and even if you could, it would probably get old.
Once you accept your shortcomings on the romantic front, you can at least move past them, to hookers. You give up the hope to ever get laid, and settle with paying for sex.
Slashdot Mirror
Industrial use? What industry requires a ruggedized laptop?
* Yeah, but does it run Linux?
* Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those!
* In Soviet Russia, disaster ITs you!
I started shaving without a cream due to laziness, and never saw a reason to use cream since.
Do remember, by the way, China's neighbours. They're not that small. Not all of them are on very friendly terms with China. The US hasn't such a problem. The US government people could stand to take far more damage and still keep their heads, if not their seats.
At no point was I talking about the US invading China. We were talking about China invading the US, when and if the US shirks its financial debts. (And invasion is all we can talk about, since any other militaristic course of action will still have costs, but no benefits.)
Whether China does or doesn't use nuclear weapons on this hypothetical war, China is open to a retaliation by nuclear weapons from the US. "Conventional" as well as nonconventional attacks simply aren't worth it when you could lose as much as China can.
Strategic advantage in what form?
I meant China is insane in your scenario...
How is exportation heeding their cause for infrastructure if they don't import anything back? How is it any different than, say, dumping the cargo in the middle of the ocean?
Your first explanation that I accept, but it doesn't explain enough of this away.
Those little bits of paper represent a promise, which, if push comes to shove, one might refuse to honour. If things are the way you put them (and I do not acknowledge it is so), freighters are, day and night, bringing in goods from China to the US, and take about nothing in return. Not any serious amount of raw materials, hardly any manufactured goods, nothing. Not to China, and, on that route and in those quantities, approximately nothing to anywhere else. By any realistic dissection of the situation (assuming for a moment it really is so), the US is having as many free lunches as it can take.
It goes without saying that, based on his academic achievements, he's probably a very intelligent guy. It just doesn't prove he's a genius. He might be - not all of us here need to put him down to keep feeling good about ourselves. But there's no reason to believe so just yet. Saying "have the reporters get back to us when he's done something greater" doesn't mean what he's done so far isn't impressive. It's just not very newsworthy.
I can't afford a peek at the PS3. I am saving for a glance, though.
This one's my favourite, since about yesterday: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_porn_stars_wh o_appeared_in_mainstream_films
... trying to pick a fight with every man in the techbar.org.
45 pages in the TFA... Give the guy a break.
No need to ask me twice!
In case someone comes along and changes this, let it be recorded that someone has modded you "informative", and he's a comic genius.
The same place where we find those things every night - your father's porn stash.
You mean slashdot.org?
I take offence at that. I am NOT excited.
Once you accept your shortcomings on the romantic front, you can at least move past them, to hookers. You give up the hope to ever get laid, and settle with paying for sex.
Have you ever considered becoming a school teacher?