Assuming that range is correct how is that in any way useful? And where would you place Libertarians or Anarchists on your chart? Not in the same category as Republicans I hope. Actually we Libertarians would place Republicans and Democrats on the same point on the chart. Probably communists would too. They are nearly indistinguishable from our perspective. A distinction without a difference.

English is difficult for Japanese people? Haha. I wonder how they would feel about Russian or Czech.

Arrogance and narcissism is just what today's parents, at least in the US, teach their children. That they come first. That they are smart and good and that the most important thing is that they love themselves and respect themselves. What did we expect to come from that sort of upbringing? Kind altruists?

I'm not even sure when the term "self-esteem" began to be used outside of psychology books. I don't think I ever heard that term at all until the late 80s and never in common usage. Nowadays I see kids actually using the term. WTF? Self-esteem has become our new god. Loving ourselves our highest value. It used to be that boasting about yourself was considered a demonstration of poor character. Now it is expected. Even demanded. Modesty is considered a flaw.

This is a failure of our cultural values and has absolutely nothing to do with iPhones or Apps. Nothing to do with computers or any other modern gadget. MySpace/Facebook are just symptoms and not the cause.

I do think Facebook encourages narcissism as well as attracting people who were already arrogant and self-loving. My first reaction to Facebook (and MySpace) was something like, "Make a page about myself? Why? Who would care? Am I really so interesting that I have to publish a page about how great I am?" I found the whole idea repellent and I still do. Obviously the Millienials don't typically share this view. Probably because they were taught that loving yourself and boasting were positive traits and that modesty was very much a negative trait.

I recently was advising a foreign student about how to act at an interview at a US university. I said, "Don't be afraid to boast. Here in America it is both expected and desired." If you don't speak highly of yourself and sing your own praises then there is something wrong with you. Luckily it is not yet like that in every country, but it may be eventually.

I'm an atheist, but I can't help but think that religion did have some effect on curbing the natural selfishness of human beings. It was a way of brainwashing people to be nicer to each other. It was all based on lies, but it may have resulted in a better world overall.

Not that I think Millenials are so terrible, but they do seem a bit more selfish, self-centered, and myopic. A bit less likely to care about others. A bit more focused on me,me,me. To be fair it's how they were taught to be. When it comes to an "every man for himself" attitude I actually think the US does pretty well compared to some places I have lived, but things do seem to be getting worse.

Actually IME pre-internet youth *were* a lot less boastful. When I grew up in the 70s and 80s people who boasted about themselves would tend to become friendless in a very short time. And there was much talk about "conceited" people which was considered a *bad* thing. Imagine that! And the term "self-esteem" wasn't even used let alone worshipped as it is now.

I think you are missing the point. I believe the argument is not that narcissism is a new phenomenon, but that more people are narcissists as a percentage of the general population than before.

She was a hell of a lot more popular in the 60s actually. Libertarianism is not exactly new. It has been around for quite a while. Hell the founding fathers of the US were basically Libertarians. If anything it has become less popular in the new millenium. Libertarianism doesn't mean "looking out for number one". Although it may be convenient for you to believe that. Saves you from having to think too much I suppose, but it does make you look stupid.

Uh. We are talking about the US here. Are you sure you are thinking of the right country?

No, but it seems doable. Although it wouldn't be easy to do it in such a way that the NSA couldn't decrypt it. Maybe with something like the playing card cipher Neal Stephenson wrote about in Cryptonomicon. Of course there really isn't any reason to do things that way when you can just type in the dead tree text, encrypt it with software, and then burn the originals.

This will be a good deal when prices drop below the MSRP of $549 if you are going to water cool it. It still uses 50%+ more power at idle and quite a bit more power when gaming though. It also runs hotter and will stress a water cooling system that much more, especially in crossfire mode. Nevertheless it seems like a good card for a water cooling setup.

What bothers me is that you pretty much *have to* water cool it if you don't want it to sound like a vaccuum cleaner. The Nvidia cards are usable with stock air cooling or water cooling.

Keep in mind that a water block for the 290x

will set you back around 100 euros or $140. So that brings the price from $549 to $689 or about $40 *more* than the GTX780. Of course for $40 more you get a card that is somewhat faster than the 780 at least at stock clocks.

That's very true. If I buy this I'll be running it with a 1600x1200 20" monitor.

For some problems violence is the only solution. The only way to 'resist' bullying is with violence. I chose not to go down that path, but sometimes I regret it. Sometimes I think it would have been better for me if I had met bullying head on with a weapon in my hand. Being a bully's victim changes you somehow. It is more difficult to respect yourself when you chose to submit and obey instead of fighting. I believe it had a deep effect on my psychology. If I could go back and do it again I think I would opt for using a weapon to even the odds and striking back at the bully. Trying to badly injury him without killing him and then facing the consequences.

Determining physical harm is easy. Determining emotional harm is not. How does one know what will or will not hurt another person? You cannot get inside their head to determing what the "emotional damage" is.

I could imagine some kind of benevolent dictator like Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew passing a law against insults or teasing or saying mean things to people. In a way it would seem to make a better society. A happier society. I've lived in some countries that have nicer people who don't seem to insult or tease each other as much and I far prefer life there for that reason. I cannot even begin to imagine how I would be different as a person if I had grown up in a country where most people are nice to each other. It would be great. I just don't think it is practical and would just lead to most people being in jail.

The freedom to communicate ideas without worrying about the Thought Police listening to everything we say vs. people having their feelings hurt when people say mean things to them. For me the freedom to communicate trumps the right of people not to get their feelings hurt. I just wouldn't want to live in such a world. Things like this always start with such good intentions. You could say "Well just don't insult or tease people. Just don't be mean. Once people start going to jail for it people will learn to be nicer to each other." The problem is I think it would result in a society where people are afraid to speak to each other for fear of accidentally saying something the listener finds offensive and going to jail or getting fined.

Yeah. That can happen, but it's not always the case. When I was a kid, at least where I lived, it was considered dishonorable to gang up on someone. You'd be considered kind of a pussy if you couldn't fight one on one. So it could work some of the time if the bully has a sense of pride in showing that he can best you in a fair fight and not just with a group of friends helping him. Not that there is much you can do without a weapon and once you pull out a weapon you raise the stakes and all bets are off and you are again faced with defending yourself against everyone with him.

Admittedly there isn't much you can do against 7 or 8 assailants. At least without a real weapon like a gun and even that might not be enough. It's easy to forget how shitty life can be when you're a kid.

Where I lived if you were considered "tough" you would mostly be left alone by the bullies. The way to be seen as tough was to get into actual one-on-one fights and prove that you can win.

It may take courage for only a moment, but during that moment it takes far more courage than anything else most people will ever do. People who think ending ones life is easy have never tried it. It is anything but easy. If I hadn't been such a coward I would have killed myself by the age of 13, but it is very, very difficult to do. I have a friend who has been dying to kill himself for years, but he just doesn't have the iron will and steel courage necessary.

Obviously this 12 year old girl did have that courage. I can only admire such people. They are braver than I am. I can only hope that I will one day have the courage to end my life. It's easy to say that you are planning to kill yourself but actually doing it is something else entirely. I think most of us are too wimpy to actually go through with it.

Yeah. In my case it was my older stepbrother who used to hit me and physically intimidate me into obeying him. Man, I still hate him for it to this day and needless to say we maintained no contact with each other whatsoever when we were older. He was a natural born bully and quite cruel. I'm surprised he didn't become a cop. Well some people grow out of that. The rest get jobs in law enforcement.

Yup. Me too. There's no reason to take other people's opinions so seriously. When people tell me I'm ugly for instance I just agree with them. They don't seem to get that. I am ugly. I know it. It's just a fact. Did they think I didn't realize it? How can you hurt someone by just telling them something they already know? Or just by reciting a list of unpleasant facts?

How? If someone is older than you and bigger and stronger than you how do you make that clear? The only way I know to even the odds is with a weapon, but using a weapon tends to have serious consequences. Of course there are martial arts, but that takes years to get good enough at and as a child you don't necessarily have the choice to study them and besides many of the moves in martial arts are intended to kill so that may be just as bad as using a weapon.