Preface: Said as a person who lived in China full-time for 6 years, and has spent the majority of the last 3 years in China. And married to a Chinese national...
China has a lot of really, really smart people. However, innovation does not exist culturally within the vast majority of Chinese - and seems to be even less present in those with university degrees. There is still a lot of the old Maoist "follow orders only/don't speak up" culture well set within China.
If you want to execute on an idea, China can be a good place to do so - lots of very smart people who, for the most part, follow direction. But if you're looking for innovation/inspiration? Look elsewhere.
NOTE: the current generation of college students being educated overseas are starting to movement towards innovation. My feeling is that it will be their kids that really kick off the innovation revolution within China. About 30 years out, at this time...
I remind everyone that the Chinese Communist Party is made up of the smartest people in China. It is full of scientists and engineers, people with analytical minds, and people who are qualified to make decisions for others. If Slashdot were based in China, the most thoughtful constantly-modded-up users would be mostly CCP members.
WHAT? Hi there, I've lived in China the vast majority (like 80%+) of the last 10 years, and am married to a Chinese national. Most of the CCP members inherited their positions from their parents. They also tend to be the ones who inherited the biggest companies in China as well (banks, telecoms, heavy industries). Capability/intelligence is NOT the reason you're in the CCP - relationships/political gamesmanship/familial relations are what keep the CCP members in the CCP.
Think of John Gruber, the MIT economist who helped get the badly needed Affordable Care Act passed despite opposition from lesser minds.
Badly needed ACA? The biggest failure of legislation in the last several decades, that had to be unilaterally amended by the President to provide political cover for members of his party? That ACA? If you want to claim Gruber as "one of the best and brightest" because of the ACA, you have a really, REALLY low bar...
There are plenty of nerds that would love to hang out Friday or Saturday night and talk about his 68000 and other geekiness...
Oh, you mean "with a girl" kind of date?
The bloggy post is in response to an article calling out organizations such as his. The main argument is the $1B/year spent on AGW FUD is really the sum total of those groups entire budgets, not just what they spend on trying to trick people into doubting that CO2 emitted by human activity is causing detrimental climate effects (which it is of course). How much of the budget? Why don't I just say 10% for no good reason. He then says environmental groups get $1.6B/year claiming thats almost entirely for pushing AGW. Thats the exact argument he JUST REFUTED IN HIS OWN BLOG! WTF?!
Good for the goose, good for the gander. If you're going to apply certain rules to one side, you need to apply the same rules to the other side. And you end up with it skewed towards the pro-AGW group.
Um, since when was skepticism the foundation of science? Repeatability of observations and utility of prediction are the foundations of science.
Hmmm... Why do we repeat and VERIFY findings by others? Why don't we just take the word of anyone who claims anything? It's called "skepticism". The whole core of the scientific method is to not simply take a person's word at face value, but to see if you can repeat what they claim independently before accepting the claim. That's scientific skepticism and is really expected of anyone in any research/scientific/engineering role. Show your work, show your data, allow others the opportunity to examine and repeat as needed to quell their own skepticism.
Grow the fuck up.
Given the nature and non-sequitur nature of the rest of your screed, I might suggest you try it yourself...
Faces change, policy doesn't.
pulled us out of Iraq and Afghanistan
If by pulling out of Iraq you mean sending thousands more troops or if by stating pulling out of Afghanistan you mean leaving troops until the next Administration, then you're correct.
(and socialist AND fascist, and they don't know why those don't work together either)
Pssst. Fascism is just socialism with the class warfare replaced by nationalism. Two sides of the same coin.
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain." -- Karl, as he stepped behind the computer to reboot it, during a FAT
