One of the major reasons the US is rich is because the rest of the world has been using US dollars they receive to buy and sell oil instead of using them to buy US goods and services. It's like if I write a cheque to pay my landlord, who doesn't cash it, but uses it to pay his mortgage, and the bank uses it to pay their employees, and so on, without anyone ever cashing it. The wealth of the US comes at the rest of the worlds expense, for the most part, and they stablize and extend the system with their war machine.

With China now selling oil and natural gas in renminbi and Russia giving China unfettered access to their natural resources, there are going to be some pretty dramatic changes in store for the American people, and most of them don't appear to even have a clue.

They're going to need immigrants desperately, though, because they have a demographic imbalance that's going to leave them with too few young people to maintain things and care for all the retiring boomers.

If they were to close their doors and try to go it on their own, they would be so completely fucked that it's laughable to think about.

And the standard of living of the rest of the world would go up dramatically.

I know the perfect theme song for this product.

Turnaround, off the Onwards Through the Fog album.

Why does everyone feel the need to pretend that George Lucas didn't go looking at foreigners for inspiration for his bad guys? It's so painfully obvious that he did. Everything these people are saying is true... the only question is, should it be taken seriously, and if so, how seriously. Saying, "Yeah, so what?" is one thing, saying "It didn't happen." just makes you look like an idiot.

Oi! Oi! Oi!

I only had temporary residency, but I lived there for years... my kid was born there, actually. I saw what he was talking about with the whole "wanting to be like America" thing. I mostly saw it in the rhetoric used by the folks who wanted Australia to change from a constitutional monarchy to a republic, which was pretty commonplace when I was there.

As a Canadian, I like the connection we have to Australia through being in the Commonwealth, and never saw why so many of you guys got bent out of shape over what is really just a figurehead...

You became a professional soldier but you don't see that as an expression of your violent tendencies?

Step back from yourself for a moment and think about that.

He's being sarcastic. Raspberry Pi had all the hardware problems he referred to.

That is how leaders are supposed to be. They are not there to coddle you, they are there to pursue and inner vision with complete integrity to that vision. You raise them up when the world needs them and you diminish their influence when it doesn't. What you don't do is expect them to sacrifice their integrity. If they do that, they're not leaders, they're just the guy who happens to be in front.

Your statement is not that far removed from "Most youth learned about computers through devices with only a gamepad. It's true, but it doesn't mean much. The thing that makes what we call a "computer" a "computer" is that it's general purpose, and designed to empower creative work. Barring radical developments, tablets and phones are not going to displace the traditional computer any more than game consoles did.

This law is unreasonable, but it's still hard to have sympathy for the largest for-hire propaganda organization on earth...

Does the Serval Project factor into your plans for Ubuntu in the mobile space, and if so, how?

BTW, thanks for funding it. I've been following the project for quite some time, and the strides that have been made in a short time are nothing short of amazing. I've got some crazy ideas about how I might leverage it to build decentralized voting systems, and may be offering you a new way to put that money of yours to good use if things go well.

You may as well ask gun makers why they created a need for bullet proof glass. If you think they're going to modify their guns so they won't hurt you, you're out of your mind.

Advertisers don't want you to make an informed decision as to what you should do. They want you to skip the decision and skip thinking about what you SHOULD do, and instead simply do whatever the client that paid them this week wants you to do. Advertisers hurt people the same way gun manufacturers hurt people, and neither group is interested in appeals to their compassion or to the common good.

There is simply no defense for what they do. They're worse than muggers. If they can, muggers will simply take your wallet and leave. Advertisers take your sanity as well.

When I hear people talk about how advertising supports the free internet, all I hear is "Leave that mugger alone and let him do his thing, he's supporting my favorite website with the kitties on it."

You got beat up because you're selfish and inconsiderate. That makes you inferior, not superior. I expect you sacrificed large aspects of the human experience in your efforts to forge yourself into a useful tool for others to use, and tell yourself constantly that your usefulness makes you better than others who didn't decide to sacrifice themselves in that way, but it doesn't. I get it because I used to be just like you, before I learned humility.

There's no utility in "owning" a listing in a public directory for an organization that you're not a part of beyond misrepresenting yourself and deceiving the public. If the existing rules don't recognize that, that doesn't that we need to distort reality and pretend that what he's doing is perfectly right and good, it means that means the rules need to be fixed.

Well, it's all about the trade. Personally, I think trading for profit is evil, period. We have to make compromises because we're weak. But it's never wise to do business with someone who sells things that he didn't make. They're parasites.

Video: "Money As Debt"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5352106773770802849