Comment Re:They Don't Really Work Everywhere (Score 1) 209
Apropos your sig: I've never heard of the fire department breaking into someone's house and shooting them dead.
Apropos your sig: I've never heard of the fire department breaking into someone's house and shooting them dead.
No one with any STEM knowledge, evidently. But there are a lot of such people in "the West".
Ain't capitalism efficient?
Oh yes, it is very efficient. But at what?
America is the greatest country in the world, and I'll shove my red white and blue boot up the ass of anybody who claims otherwise just because one random company isn't what it used to be.
Ironically, that is exactly the attitude that lies behind the widespread failures and plummeting standards in the USA. Arrogance, entitlement, and unreasoning belief in your unconditional superiority to all other humans - based on what? Why is America "the greatest country in the world"? Just because you say so? Because of its wonderful constitution, which has been ignored whenever it became inconvenient right from Day One?
Right from the foundation of the republic - and actually long before - it was dominated by ruthless, predatory men who sought wealth and power and cared nothing for law, religion, or their fellow humans. By 1776 large swathes of land had already been conned out of unsuspecting or uncaring European governments. After 1776 the process went into overdrive. (For a plethora of details, see Gustavus Myers' "History of the Great American Fortunes" and Fredinand Lundberg's "The Rich and the Super-Rich", both of which should be required reading for all American children especially). Men like Astor, Vanderbilt, Gould, Sage and Morgan were about as far from being virtuous citizens as it is possible to imagine. As Myers remarks, American society has always been an undisguised kleptocracy – perhaps the worst form of government known to man. At one point he admits,
“Through all of these pages have we searched afar with infinitesimal scrutiny for a fortune acquired by honest means. Nor have the methods been measured by the test of a code of advanced ethics, but solely by the laws as they stood in the respective times. At no time has the discovery of an ‘honest fortune’ rewarded our determined quest. Often we thought that we had come across such a specimen, only to find distressing disappointment; through all fortunes, large and small, runs the same heavy streak of fraud and theft, the little trader, with his misrepresentation and swindling, differing from the great frauds in degree only”.
Before 1941, the consequences of that ruthlessness were transparently obvious: violent repression of workers, cynical cheating in politics, and finally the Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression. Then WW2 gave the American ruling class exactly what they wanted: the destruction of all serious competition abroad. Paradoxically, for 20 years or so ordinary Americans flourished, as jobs were plentiful and pay fairly good. Then, as the idea of American supremacy took hold, employers bit down hard; today average Americans earn no more in real terms than they did in 1970.
By rights the USA should be a paradise by now - for everyone. Almost as good as Hollywood and TV portray it as being. After all, the USA and Canada were established on a virgin continent, its resources untouched by industry or even civilisation. North America had an enormous economic advantage over the rest of the world. Unfortunately, it fell under the control of a small group of selfish, cynical, unscrupulous businessmen and bankers who squeezed out everyone else and kept the profits for themselves. Today their attempt to extend their control to the rest of the world is in the process of failing.
The quotation from Korzybski is exactly to the point. A model represents a particular abstraction from reality, where "abstraction" is a process of selective leaving out. A model may be useful for specific purposes provided that nothing has been left out that is essential for those purposes.
Oddly perhaps (or perhaps not), clever people used to be sceptical about the use of models to predict aspects of reality. That seems to have changed when many people began to use computers that let them create elaborate models with a minimum of effort (and sometimes knowledge about the real systems being modelled).
"To convert a model into a quantitative formula is to destroy its usefulness as an instrument of thought".
- John Maynard Keynes
"Syukuro Manabe, right here in Princeton, was the first person who did climate models with enhanced carbon dioxide and they were excellent models. And he used to say very firmly that these models are very good tools for understanding climate, but they are not good tools for predicting climate. I think that’s absolutely right. They are models, but they don’t pretend to be the real world. They are purely fluid dynamics. You can learn a lot from them, but you cannot learn what’s going to happen 10 years from now".
- Freeman Dyson, interview with Yale Environment 360 (4/6/2009)
"As a scientist I make a sharp distinction between models and theories. A theory is a construction, built out of logic and mathematics, that is supposed to describe the actual universe that we live in. A model is a construction that describes a much simpler universe, including some features of the actual universe and neglecting others. Theories and models are both useful tools for understanding nature. They are useful in different ways, and it is important to keep the difference in mind. A theory is useful because it can be tested by comparing its predictions with observations of the real world. On the other hand, a theory may be useless because its consequences are too complicated to be predicted. A model is useful because its behaviour is simple enough to be predicted and understood. On the other hand, a model may be useless because it leaves out too much and loses any connection with reality. As we explore the universe, we move out from well-trodden ground into the unknown. On well-trodden ground we build theories. On the half-explored frontier we build models".
- Freeman J. Dyson, "The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet" p. xiv
The single most valuable asset of the courts (in any country) is the faith, respect and trust of the public.
In that case, the UK is certainly doomed. (As is the USA).
Maybe they were paid by the line of code.
As usual, it took less than 30 seconds to find this:
"To Fight Global Warming, Eat Bugs"
"Farming insects could produce less heat-trapping gas than raising cows and pigs"
https://www.science.org/conten...
One of very, very many.
"[C]onflating climate scientists and rich/powerful/elite people" may not be as foolish as it might sound.Many people touted as "climate scientists" are not necessarily specialists in "climate science" with current expertise and credibility. But they may find that the more excitedly they talk and write about the approaching doom the wealthier they mysteriously become.
I think Archangel Michael was thinking more of people like Al Gore. https://www.aei.org/carpe-diem....
If I had become world-famous for warning that the seas are going to rise and drown us all, I probably wouldn't invest heavily in expensive property right next to the sea.
"Last month, the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party -- in an effort spearheaded by Representative Mike Gallagher, Republican of Wisconsin -- recommended that an interagency government committee study potential risks of RISC-V".
How I would like to be there to see them try to understand what an instruction set is, how it can be implemented, what RISC-V is... and then ponder what its "potential risks" might be.
There will be a few exploded brains lying around.
Do politicians not know what the word "open" means???
Yes, but... SECURITY!!! Besides, if it's "technology" it must belong to the USA. Because foreigners are too stupid to invent anything.
Don't worry about being modded down and abused by the ignorant rabble, jdawgnoonan. If Slashdot were the open, tolerant, factually-oriented discussion forum that it isn't, your comments would be calmly accepted or perhaps argued over.
I completely agree with you, and I am sure many others do too - others who see nothing to be gained by exposing themselves to the insults of the vulgar.
But it does serve a useful purpose to run up the flag from time to time, even if it is inevitably going to be spat on, torn to shreds, and eventually burned.
Apparently some people are still back in 1967, when "plastics" sounded new and spiffy and... profitable.
Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?
There is, actually, a great deal to be said for traditional glass and ceramics.
It is easier to change the specification to fit the program than vice versa.