*shrug* sure, there are issues with "corporatism". I wouldn't agree with the assessment that it's "not all that superior in the long run", but ok, let's give him that. So what?
This is akin to saying "sure, motorized vehicles are better than horse-drawn carriages, but I'm not sure fossil fuels are better in the long run". Ok... so what? Does that mean we should keep using horses? Of course not! We'll go with the best possible system we can implement right now, and work towards making it better. As a worst-case scenario, we improve things for a couple hundred years and then slide back to the same problems we had before. More likely we improve things now, and keep improving them in the future. Either way, it's not an argument against implementing a particular system/technology; it's merely a list of issues we need to keep working on.
now, i am trying to undo the approx 18 years of educational, and 25 years of media brainwashing that i was subjected to, and yes, i am trying to become a left wing person.
You're trying too hard. Not sure what happened - brain injury, or just marriage - but you need to relax and try looking at the facts instead of simply rebelling against your previous indoctrination. Your instant dismissal of dissenting opinions as coming from "Fox News" is emblematic of the problem - you haven't actually learned how to think, you've simply swapped one set of ridiculous beliefs for another. I am neither "right-wing", nor a fan of Fox. As my sig says, I am also most definitely NOT an American (you should really read sigs once in a while). I'm just a rational individual capable of critical thinking, and a fan of skepticism.
Sorry to blow you off, but I see no reason to address any of your other statements. A person who can honestly say that the USSR was more free and democratic than the USA is clearly not a person to be taken seriously. I could go point-by-point and rebuke everything you've said, but until you fix whatever underlying issues are at the root of your twisted world-view there's no point in trying to address the details.
there is no relevance in between 'communism' and 'oppression'. you set it up at the first sentence of your post, showing your utter ignorance on the concept.
Of course not. The fact that they've always gone hand in hand is mere happenstance. An accident. A historical fluke. No connection whatsoever. Likewise, the fact that communism requires a massive bureaucracy to oversee the forced redistribution of wealth and resources in no way, shape, or form, implies that it's wide open to abuse and corruption. Thank you for Speaking Truth, Comrade. Your bravery will not go unnoticed - you will be remembered as a Hero of the Revolution!
and you even went further tea party on us, by talking about a 'democratic' government in capitalist society - utterly oblivious of the fact that the governance of ussr was much more democratical than u.s. in all its oppression
Substitute "Capitalism" for "Communism" and the exact same thing can be said about the USA. They have a strong belief that the US system is superior to all other systems, and they have freely interfered with the politics of other countries via military and political intervention and of course lots of espionage.
The difference being, of course, that the US is right. We can objectively measure the difference between an oppressive communist regime and a democratic government operating in a capitalist/socialist society. Anyone who is incapable of seeing that difference is either an idiot, brainwashed, or some pseudo-intellectual halfwit (might be repeating the first category, there).
This is akin to me saying a person is "bad" because he kills people, and you saying "oh yeah? well the cops kill people too!". It's a ridiculous response.
The whole anecdote about the Americans spending time and money to develop a pen that could write in space versus the Russians who just used pencils may be just a story, but it serves as an excellent illustration in the difference in approaches.
Heh. "It may be false, but it's still true!".
Please. Nobody is saying Russia is "inept and backwards" - what they are is stagnant. They do what they do quite well, but when it comes to developing anything new they either don't attempt it, they fail miserably, or they eventually get there by a process of mistakes and failures that make Microsoft look absolutely brilliant in comparison. So if the "difference in approaches" you're talking about is that the Russians are afraid to try anything new, then yes, you're right - otherwise you're WAY off the mark.
I doubt Putin has much to do with it. Conspiracy theories have always been very popular in that part of the world. It's unusual to see a publich official spouting off in that manner, but it's not particularly surprising either.
Because it's VERY expensive to ship earth-moving construction equipment (sorry, MARS-moving equipment) through space, and it'd take far too long to dig a habitat with a shovel.
A small bobcat-type vehicle would be easier to ship than that habitat they've developed.
Or send some shovels, a couple fence-post diggers, a drill or two, and a couple hundred pounds of C4. Plastic explosives make for wonderful "earth moving construction equipment". A 4 man team could dig down 20-30 feet (and wide enough for a small common-room) in a day, easy. Once you have the initial structure in place, expanding is relatively easy.
Of course, as someone already mentioned, the easiest solution is to use the terrain to your advantage. Lava tubes are a great solution. Any kind of cave system would work great.
What does he do when US Customs decides to take his computer for a year of analysis?
Probably the same thing he does when a meteor hits his house. Nothing, since it's so rare that it's unlikely to happen in the average persons lifetime.
Its not as if the US fossil fuels industry hasn't been doing the same here with respect to climate science.
"Microsoft has put out some faulty software, so I'm gonna buy my next operating system from VaporWare Inc"
They keep growing their economy at between 8-10% per year
That's part of the problem:
A new study from Wuhan University, for instance, estimates that the market for dubious science-publishing activities, such as ghostwriting papers on nonexistent research, was of the order of 1 billion renminbi (US$150 million) in 2009 - five times the amount in 2007.
The big issue is for people who have jobs and don't qualify, but who aren't rich - a medical emergency which isn't covered by their insurance, if they have insurance, will easily bankrupt any middle class family.
And then they'll qualify for medicare! It's a self-correcting problem, right?:p
They're not predictions, they're statistical measures. If you're told "you have 6 months to live", it means the average person with your condition dies in 6 months. If it's based on a wide bell-curve is, you might die tomorrow or you might live another 20 years.
It's like telling a newborn "you have 75 years to live" - on average, you're going to be roughly correct.
You're missing the propaganda which gets fed to the rest of the world, thanks largely to people like Michael Moore and other far-left American activists. Here in Canada it seems to be an article of faith that American hospitals leave people to die in the gutter unless they have insurance or cash on hand.
Anybody knows what the liability is when parts of somebody's rocket land on somebody's home and kill someone?
Depends. If it's a Russian rocket, they send someone to "convince" you that you've been compensated. If it's a Chinese rocket, they tell the media you're part of the great capitalist plot to discredit their space program, then they ignore you. If it's an American rocket, you get sixty million dollars, followed by a 2 year investigation into faulty rocket designs, and the conspiracy theorists claim it was a secret experiment to test UFO technology.
Would it not be more feasible to genetically engineer ourselves and other organisms to other planets' environments than to go traipsing around the universe with the faint hope that we find one that is just like ours?
I'll only agree to that if you promise that all the women will have three tits.
I know, sounds fanciful, but it's more realistic than to think that we'll be sending human beings to other solar systems. The amount of oxygen, water, food, and other resources required - even if we invent some kind of suspended animation - makes it laughably unlikely.
I know. I always find it laughable when people say that we'll burn thousands of liters of hydrocarbons just to send a few ugly bags of mostly water from one side of the planet to the other. Clearly this "airplane" thing won't be feasible until we can figure out a way to put human consciousness on a 3.5" floppy, and send those instead!
The crisis we find ourselves in was partly created by projects like these, which do not create value at all, save for pride.
And now you've exposed yourself as a troll and a liar.
Well, either that, or you (in your original comment) meant to type "does not create any value" but accidentally slipped, fell, and while falling randomly hit a bunch of keys which just happened to spell out "this is no doubt good news". Personally, I'm going with the "liar" explanation.
Really? Has it really been established that orangutans "go ook a lot"? Is that one of their defining characteristics?
I just assumed that they were implying it was a behavioral trait which the Orangutans would pick up from human iPad owners.
How nice of them to include an image of an orangutan holding an iPad -- which was obviously Photoshopped, because the video quite clearly states that the researchers haven't got to the point of letting the orangutans hold the iPad, because they are powerful animals and would probably "destroy it in an instant."
That photo appears to be of a very young Orangutan, and it doesn't appear to be Photoshopped. Obviously it would be fairly safe to give one to a very young individual for a quick photo-op.
This is no doubt good news, but why should I care? Folks I know, even in the IT sector, need jobs, period!.... These missions can wait till our economy gets better. What's wrong with that?
Yep, shut down NASA and cancel all future projects - that ought to create more jobs!
If you ever run for congress, I'm sure you'll have no problem getting elected.
Slashdot Mirror
*shrug* sure, there are issues with "corporatism". I wouldn't agree with the assessment that it's "not all that superior in the long run", but ok, let's give him that. So what?
This is akin to saying "sure, motorized vehicles are better than horse-drawn carriages, but I'm not sure fossil fuels are better in the long run". Ok ... so what? Does that mean we should keep using horses? Of course not! We'll go with the best possible system we can implement right now, and work towards making it better. As a worst-case scenario, we improve things for a couple hundred years and then slide back to the same problems we had before. More likely we improve things now, and keep improving them in the future. Either way, it's not an argument against implementing a particular system/technology; it's merely a list of issues we need to keep working on.
now, i am trying to undo the approx 18 years of educational, and 25 years of media brainwashing that i was subjected to, and yes, i am trying to become a left wing person.
You're trying too hard. Not sure what happened - brain injury, or just marriage - but you need to relax and try looking at the facts instead of simply rebelling against your previous indoctrination. Your instant dismissal of dissenting opinions as coming from "Fox News" is emblematic of the problem - you haven't actually learned how to think, you've simply swapped one set of ridiculous beliefs for another. I am neither "right-wing", nor a fan of Fox. As my sig says, I am also most definitely NOT an American (you should really read sigs once in a while). I'm just a rational individual capable of critical thinking, and a fan of skepticism.
Sorry to blow you off, but I see no reason to address any of your other statements. A person who can honestly say that the USSR was more free and democratic than the USA is clearly not a person to be taken seriously. I could go point-by-point and rebuke everything you've said, but until you fix whatever underlying issues are at the root of your twisted world-view there's no point in trying to address the details.
Good luck.
there is no relevance in between 'communism' and 'oppression'. you set it up at the first sentence of your post, showing your utter ignorance on the concept.
Of course not. The fact that they've always gone hand in hand is mere happenstance. An accident. A historical fluke. No connection whatsoever. Likewise, the fact that communism requires a massive bureaucracy to oversee the forced redistribution of wealth and resources in no way, shape, or form, implies that it's wide open to abuse and corruption. Thank you for Speaking Truth, Comrade. Your bravery will not go unnoticed - you will be remembered as a Hero of the Revolution!
and you even went further tea party on us, by talking about a 'democratic' government in capitalist society - utterly oblivious of the fact that the governance of ussr was much more democratical than u.s. in all its oppression
:D
Good troll, sir, good troll.
Substitute "Capitalism" for "Communism" and the exact same thing can be said about the USA. They have a strong belief that the US system is superior to all other systems, and they have freely interfered with the politics of other countries via military and political intervention and of course lots of espionage.
The difference being, of course, that the US is right. We can objectively measure the difference between an oppressive communist regime and a democratic government operating in a capitalist/socialist society. Anyone who is incapable of seeing that difference is either an idiot, brainwashed, or some pseudo-intellectual halfwit (might be repeating the first category, there).
This is akin to me saying a person is "bad" because he kills people, and you saying "oh yeah? well the cops kill people too!". It's a ridiculous response.
The whole anecdote about the Americans spending time and money to develop a pen that could write in space versus the Russians who just used pencils may be just a story, but it serves as an excellent illustration in the difference in approaches.
Heh. "It may be false, but it's still true!".
Please. Nobody is saying Russia is "inept and backwards" - what they are is stagnant. They do what they do quite well, but when it comes to developing anything new they either don't attempt it, they fail miserably, or they eventually get there by a process of mistakes and failures that make Microsoft look absolutely brilliant in comparison. So if the "difference in approaches" you're talking about is that the Russians are afraid to try anything new, then yes, you're right - otherwise you're WAY off the mark.
I doubt Putin has much to do with it. Conspiracy theories have always been very popular in that part of the world. It's unusual to see a publich official spouting off in that manner, but it's not particularly surprising either.
Heh. Was that published by the Flat Earth society? It's about as "refreshing" as the Copernican model of the universe.
Because it's VERY expensive to ship earth-moving construction equipment (sorry, MARS-moving equipment) through space, and it'd take far too long to dig a habitat with a shovel.
A small bobcat-type vehicle would be easier to ship than that habitat they've developed.
Or send some shovels, a couple fence-post diggers, a drill or two, and a couple hundred pounds of C4. Plastic explosives make for wonderful "earth moving construction equipment". A 4 man team could dig down 20-30 feet (and wide enough for a small common-room) in a day, easy. Once you have the initial structure in place, expanding is relatively easy.
Of course, as someone already mentioned, the easiest solution is to use the terrain to your advantage. Lava tubes are a great solution. Any kind of cave system would work great.
You can't say that SOMEONE didn't create everything since you can't prove that a Supreme Someone does not exist.
Sure I can:
Someone didn't create everything.
See? Easy!
What does he do when US Customs decides to take his computer for a year of analysis?
Probably the same thing he does when a meteor hits his house. Nothing, since it's so rare that it's unlikely to happen in the average persons lifetime.
You should be asking - why someone WOULDN'T use a 30 year old device when it does everything they need it to do.
Talk about an unstated major premise!
"I don't get why you want to replace your beowulf cluster of Commodore 64's when they do everything you need them to do!"
I know, right? Only those evil Americans would ship food to starving people. It's horrific.
Besides, I be curious to know what specific research has been falsified?
Here's a decent summary of the problem:
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100112/full/463142a.html
Its not as if the US fossil fuels industry hasn't been doing the same here with respect to climate science.
"Microsoft has put out some faulty software, so I'm gonna buy my next operating system from VaporWare Inc"
They keep growing their economy at between 8-10% per year
That's part of the problem:
A new study from Wuhan University, for instance, estimates that the market for dubious science-publishing activities, such as ghostwriting papers on nonexistent research, was of the order of 1 billion renminbi (US$150 million) in 2009 - five times the amount in 2007.
The big issue is for people who have jobs and don't qualify, but who aren't rich - a medical emergency which isn't covered by their insurance, if they have insurance, will easily bankrupt any middle class family.
And then they'll qualify for medicare! It's a self-correcting problem, right? :p
I'm a Christian but not a creationist. I have a degree in physics and a degree in theology.
Obligatory Futurama reference.
They're not predictions, they're statistical measures. If you're told "you have 6 months to live", it means the average person with your condition dies in 6 months. If it's based on a wide bell-curve is, you might die tomorrow or you might live another 20 years.
It's like telling a newborn "you have 75 years to live" - on average, you're going to be roughly correct.
What am I missing?
You're missing the propaganda which gets fed to the rest of the world, thanks largely to people like Michael Moore and other far-left American activists. Here in Canada it seems to be an article of faith that American hospitals leave people to die in the gutter unless they have insurance or cash on hand.
No.
Long answer .... no, but it's still a cool project.
Roman soldiers on alpha? What?
Anybody knows what the liability is when parts of somebody's rocket land on somebody's home and kill someone?
Depends. If it's a Russian rocket, they send someone to "convince" you that you've been compensated. If it's a Chinese rocket, they tell the media you're part of the great capitalist plot to discredit their space program, then they ignore you. If it's an American rocket, you get sixty million dollars, followed by a 2 year investigation into faulty rocket designs, and the conspiracy theorists claim it was a secret experiment to test UFO technology.
Would it not be more feasible to genetically engineer ourselves and other organisms to other planets' environments than to go traipsing around the universe with the faint hope that we find one that is just like ours?
I'll only agree to that if you promise that all the women will have three tits.
I know, sounds fanciful, but it's more realistic than to think that we'll be sending human beings to other solar systems. The amount of oxygen, water, food, and other resources required - even if we invent some kind of suspended animation - makes it laughably unlikely.
I know. I always find it laughable when people say that we'll burn thousands of liters of hydrocarbons just to send a few ugly bags of mostly water from one side of the planet to the other. Clearly this "airplane" thing won't be feasible until we can figure out a way to put human consciousness on a 3.5" floppy, and send those instead!
The crisis we find ourselves in was partly created by projects like these, which do not create value at all, save for pride.
And now you've exposed yourself as a troll and a liar.
Well, either that, or you (in your original comment) meant to type "does not create any value" but accidentally slipped, fell, and while falling randomly hit a bunch of keys which just happened to spell out "this is no doubt good news". Personally, I'm going with the "liar" explanation.
Really? Has it really been established that orangutans "go ook a lot"? Is that one of their defining characteristics?
I just assumed that they were implying it was a behavioral trait which the Orangutans would pick up from human iPad owners.
How nice of them to include an image of an orangutan holding an iPad -- which was obviously Photoshopped, because the video quite clearly states that the researchers haven't got to the point of letting the orangutans hold the iPad, because they are powerful animals and would probably "destroy it in an instant."
That photo appears to be of a very young Orangutan, and it doesn't appear to be Photoshopped. Obviously it would be fairly safe to give one to a very young individual for a quick photo-op.
This is no doubt good news, but why should I care? Folks I know, even in the IT sector, need jobs, period! ....
These missions can wait till our economy gets better. What's wrong with that?
Yep, shut down NASA and cancel all future projects - that ought to create more jobs!
If you ever run for congress, I'm sure you'll have no problem getting elected.