You completely ruined your post with the second sentence. With it, you revolted 95% of the human race..."for everyone", not just for numero uno - u commie or something, buddy?

Global empathy and altruism are such a rare comodity....although paradoxically, if one realises how connected our lives are today, that the whole world is really, fianlly, one big village then the global empathy just follows! Yesterday it was your family, group or country - it did not matter what the Chinesse emperror did to the peasant in Europe. Today it matters, so we just need to expand those nice human qualities we reserve for family and people who really influence our lives, to the whole of humanity. So simple...

"National Socialist in German traditionally abbreviates to Nazi"

You sure? It sounds logical but a few months ago I read in an etymological book that "Nazi" is the traditional fictional character of the stupid, ignorant, rural type of person that every country has. "Ivan the fool" in Russia for instance. Now the Germans already have "Hans/Kurt the fool" - many folk stories feature the character. Nazi was a subset an referred to such a person specifically (if memory serves) from Bavaria.

In fact if you called the Nazis "Nazis", you would have been in trouble - this was a name intended to point out the low quality of their electorate and the basic, vulgar, ultra-patriotic party rhetoric.

In the present day politics I find the most similarities with the Nazis on the right side. Appealing to basic instincts, ultra-patriots, gay-hating, women-degenerating, liberal-haters, minority-haters, xenophobes....

When the going gets difficult, it is not a time for nonsense. That is not surprising at all.

From "Plato and platypus walk into a bar" - One day a man fell into a well. While falling he managed to grasp a root and hanged precariously over the abyss. "Is there anybody out there" - shouts the man desperately. No reply for a while and suddenly a big voice booms from above "It is me, the Lord. Let go of the root and I will save you". The man thinks a little and shouts "Is there anyone else out there?".

From "Miracle in the Andes" (the famous true story, also shown in the movie "Alive") - in the beginning of the ordeal, the captain of the team (one of the most devoted believers, although all of them were in principle believers, or they were supposed to be) shows real leadership and courage. However, he firmly believes that God will save them and does with such conviction that once they hear on the radio that the search for them is cancelled suddenly the man collapsed completely. 3 people from the team are described as being shaky in their believes. One dies (fascinating conversations with this man can be found in the book) and the other two (one is the author of the book, Nando Parado) save them all. The two least believers did not loose the desire to try something and at the end they found a way to save them all. Read the whole thing - I am not good enough to describe it to you.

Third example - there is a countryman of mine, who is almost 40 years in the space and aviation industry of USA. He has a collection of 200+ stories on social , economic and military themes he experienced (just a few) or collected (the rest) from other people. Alas, all is in my native tongue which is perhaps understood by ca. 100 /. readers at best. Anyhow, he has a fascinating story about a Vietnam veteran who was serving on a medical helicopter. When he was recruited for this specific job towards the end of the training, the major who was looking for people to do this job told him that he always looked for cynical, realistic people, preferably non-believers. Everyone else cracks on the job. Because it is such a horrific a job and more dangerous than being active soldier people who held any kind of delusions would not survive it. Reading the rest of the story shows that the recruiting major has nailed it in the center...

Which will bite them in the ass so badly, it will hurt their ancestors:)

Because, you see, all I hear is "stream, stream, stream, cloud, cloud, cloud". If the content providers want my money they'll have to figure out that my monthly cap on my phone is 250 MB which is 1/4 of a movie, if you go HD even less. So, no streaming on my device. I don't even watch youtube there....

What do you think - who makes more money (therefore hold much larger political power) - the pipe-provider or the content-provider?

A Golem May Not Harm A Human Being Or Allow A Human Being To Come To Harm Except When Ordered To By Duly Constituted Authority

Some businesses might be, but the people are not. In the US I had to constantly convert for the Americans, they'd ask for it. I, the European was the bilingual in fact...

Or that every land animal has the same pipe for breathing and eating - clearly a sloppy design which somehow can be found all the way back to the first creature that crawled on land....

Without any research (how /. like:) I'll make a statement - I cannot imagine medical condition where you have to turn vegan. On the contrary - IMO, the vegans are 99% politically/ideologically motivated and in fact such diet might harm you...

I am so "green" that grass gets blue of envy but I never agree with 1. let's all go vegan, 2. let's all eat insects and 3. never even say the word "nuclear" girls andd boys. Such people are not green; they only think they are.

I have just had enough of all this!!!

Look, if we preserve the way we do things as civilization, there is never going to be enough. Of anything. Ever.

At this moment there is enough food to feed well the whole humanity. Period.
At this moment if we stop our Ponzi scheme of a civilization and continue to develop technology while the need for ever increasing number of people and consumption per person is gone we will have ever more per person. Do you hear me? Finite demand in infinite Universe - is that so hard to understand?

Why is everyone hailing the "green revolution"? What did it do to us? Allowed us what, 2 decades of "phew, we fed the world" warm feeling? While replacing food with tasteless accelerated growth watery fodder! You know, people pay premium prices for "biological food", but in fact this is food. Not biological , just food. The other stuff is different - processed food. This should be the division - food and process food, rather than food and biological food.

Without going into discussion why and what , here is a statement for you - the green revolution did not "save people from starvation" Those people where already there. Understand! Noone started developing the revolution in anticipation of an increasing population. The increased population was already there. It existed, therefore it had food to eat. Instead the green revolution increased the yield so we can throw the food in the sea to keep the price "right". The revolution helped very little (if at all) the actual people that were lived with malnutrition.

So now we will eat the bugs. Then the fungi and the rest of the microorganisms. And then what? "Low environmental impact"? Are you kidding me? So 1 billion people eating beef or 3 billion eating insects - what is the difference. As I said it many years ago here - there is no "low environmental impact" as long as the Ponzi scheme works. More efficient engines - cars get cheaper - people buy more cars. Better plane engines - cheaper prices - people fly more. And so on...ad infinitum.

We are trying to cheat reality! It won't work!! It never does!!! Why nobody hears?! The whole issue is as usual heavily distorted by political and business interests. Why am I surprised...

Yes. This is also included in the 2000% efficiency.

Home schooling is a nice option but it's being used primarily to keep kids dumb, by avoiding "evil science". On the other hand, there are the occasional cases where the kid is bright and bored in class and if mom and dad are PhD',s or least as bright as Feynman's father, they could give better schooling. However, considering the frequency of the above two cases, and the many extra requirements for the successful application of the second (educated, willing parents with free time - is there such a beast in the world) for the good of society, better not have home schooling. Pity that the minority suffers due to the stupidity of the majority but that seems to be the way of the world.

The long maternity leave is....too short. The best I've seen is my country during the totalitarian years - 2 years full pay with reintegration program (if needed). My mom starter working at 19, after secondary school. Gave birth at 27, stayed with me for the full 2 years, did not need reintegration program and then went to become HRM in a company of 4000 people and for most of our lives brought home more money than dad, who was a construction worker.

I was laughing my head off (because the communist got at least one thing very right; there were precious few such achievements like education), after hearing from the Zeitgeist guys (the latest movie) that pregnancy is in fact 3 years, of which 2 years outside the womb, since we could not have the full development inside - the head would be too big to pass. So the first two years of a child's life are enormously important. Many a study have shown that the most crucial aspect is the simple touch between parents and kids, the physical and emotional presence of parents in child's life. Oh, but mom and dad cannot hold you, honey, they have to work, otherwise the economy will collapse! You know, today, when we have so much power and knowledge, when our civilization does not know what to do with unemployment, when we have people who could buy a country, we still cannot somehow manage to ensure healthy environment to raise our kids. Can you put monetary value to properly raised kid? How much money would be SAVED by society by providing good conditions for raising kids? Kids that would be healthier, happier, more productive, more creative and more humane (less crime, then).

Why it is that every time the moron politicians of the world reach for the cutting budget scissors they cut education, healthcare and social programs? Exactly the most important things needed for healthy society and the proper rearing of kids. Why is nobody thinking rationally and working a good compromise based on science?

My goverment takes 45% of my wages in taxes and I still can support whole family with one job + supproting old mother (widow) in former communist state. That is how we do things in Europe...

[wild sci-fi speculation]: imagine that it is possible to "tweak" the Universe through some amazingly advanced technology. You have a goal - to give maximum time for all beings in the Universe.

How does "dark matter" fit (if at all) in such scenario? Without it, would the Universe live longer or not? What is the current leading candidate for the cause of death of the Universe? If you had godlike powers, how would you tweak it to achieve the goal?

Anyone care to engage in wild (but very educated) speculation? My knowledge in this area is meager, so I won't even try...

So now we know why "Belgium" is a swear word throughout the Galaxy....

What is the "other" section consists off? Jedi, FSM, est..?

Then they are not religious in the traditional sense and suddenly "atheism in respect to any major religion" climbs to number two after the Christians. Moreover I have never seen an unbiased statistics about the only country I can speak off with authority – my own. According to the CIA fact book everyone in my country who belongs to the majority ethnic group (white Caucasian) is Orthodox Christian. Well, at least from my generation more than half are atheists and among everyone else not everyone is Christian. I think the greatest public secret of religion is that one, it loses ground unless extreme peer pressure and violence is used and two, many of those that belong to a particular church follow because of tradition, fashion or conformism, not so much from actual belief. And anyway, can you say that you have a true believer unless he/she is prepared to give his/her life and the lives of anyone (if deemed necessary) for your God? How many such people are out there? What was the saying? If God tells you to kill your kids and you don't, you are an atheist. If you do, you are a madman that should be locked away.

"I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands..."

"I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the
most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad..."