You mentioned China as an example of how good a government/society headed by engineers can be. And I think you're right. Sort of. China is rapidly growing, old Chinese people especially are astonished at how much richer they've become, and China is on track to be the world's new #1 financial center. However, that's pretty much all you can say in China's favor. With regard to human/civil rights, the environment (!), income inequality, working hours/conditions, and basically every intangible aspect of the country, they are the same or worse than the US.

This isn't surprising, given the nature of the engineering mindset. Engineering is the study of solving rational, material problems (the budget and military are two areas of government where engineering would excel). To solve problems as effectively as possible, you must presume absolute license. You must also regard the problem unsentimentally - if you get emotionally involved with it, you'll cloud your judgment and overlook what could be a better solution. The engineers I know all view politics as a series of "problems" waiting to be solved, rather than the conflicts they actually are. They prize "social efficiency" and "harmony" above principles like dignity, individualism, or limited government. They have contempt for anyone who makes it harder for them to do their jobs.

The reason the US is going down the tubes is because we're becoming too much like China, with its "one right way" philosophy. If we're "falling behind" China, it is only because we are both in a race to the bottom. The really important things in life are compassion, trust, respect, dignity, self-direction, and laughter. Beyond having a decent place to live, having enough food to eat, having a little extra to help out needy family and neighbors, and having access to adequate medical care, and basically having a way to secure the important stuff, money can do very little for you. If you have these things (and I'm fully aware that not all Americans do), why does it matter if another person or another nation is wealthier than you? I thought envy was supposed to be a character flaw or something.

If you're so impressed with China, I would suggest you move there. The US used to have a decentralized, individualistic society that would have been pretty much perfect if it had only treated minorities and women better. "Falling behind" and "getting back on top" are important concerns for an empire, not for a republic.

"The search for a material paradise is a flight away from humanity into the sterile nonlife of mechanisms where everything is perfect until it becomes junk. " -- John Taylor Gatto

I'm pretty confident that's exactly what they'll do in a few years. The day they do that, I will buy at least 1 copy for myself, and possibly more for friends to use at LAN parties or such (screw battle.net, the real Diablo fun goes on entirely in people's basements).

The longer they wait, the lower the price will be when I buy it. So what's it going to be, Blizzard? Want me to give you $50 now or $20 a few years later? I'll be looking at patch logs to see what your answer is.

That is the best strategy we can come up with? Punching CTRL-Z on the whole fossil fuel thing and hoping for the best?

Carbon emissions are integral to our whole way of life. If cutting carbon (especially cutting carbon faster than we already are through market forces like nuclear reactors, electric cars, etc) is the best strategy we have, then we need to find a better strategy!. I thought a lot of the predictions for future temperatures were being made by supercomputers that could run simulations of the entire Earth and produce actionable data. As far as I can tell, the scientists running these nearly-omniscient models have never bothered to adjust a variable other than CO2 concentration (what about sulfate aerosols, for instance?). Perhaps the scientists/UN/policymaker crowd could come up with something a little more practical, something that wouldn't impoverish millions/billions of people. And maybe something that doesn't require global shadow government (Goldman Sachs supports cap-and-trade since it would effectively function as a tax levied/collected by banks) and something that won't put the US/Europe at much more of a disadvantage compared to China/India and other countries that don't/won't give a fuck.

First off, the parent post needs to be modded +6 correct. VERY few ordinary people realize how much power they actually have in the American political process because they obsess over choosing "D" or "R" in the poll booth. I voted for Ron Paul in the Iowa primaries last January, and most people I spoke to just didn't feel going to the primaries was "worth it" (regardless of which candidate they liked). Even though Iowa is one of the most (the most?) important, I just couldn't get them interested.

I'm pretty suspicious that this happens in US Congress as well. It seems like America is moving away from the somewhat Athenian-ish style of democracy it had in the 18th/19th centuries and toward a more Spartan-style "democracy" where an elite group of Ephors makes all the real decisions behind the scenes. We've certainly adopted Sparta's ideals of strict, hierarchical supervision, along with professional soldiers who take up a large part of the budget...

Precisely why this lawsuit is teaching these kids a very bad lesson.

If these kids are concerned about the climate's future, shouldn't they be studying ways to better predict and manage the climate? Winning the argument in a courtroom matters about as much as winning a debate tournament. Doing research and finding ways to get results could save countless lives.

The Navy should be handing out research grants left and right (if it isn't doing so already) for research on climate management. If all the artic sea ice thawed, it would radically change the face of naval warfare for the US, and not for the better...

Wow, that's roughly one text message every 5-6 minutes, assuming 8 hours' sleep per day, along with a 31-day month.

I'm in my early twenties and I feel like I'm getting old. I miss the '90s when people actually spoke to other people in the same room as them. It seems like everyone was more relaxed, or maybe that's just the economy these days, I don't know. But back in the day, if the conversation lulled, someone would change the subject instead of everyone folding their hands in iphone/android prayer until someone found a meme to share.

It's a lot like Aliens vs. Predator (2004): Whoever wins... we lose.

All excellent points. I'd like to add a couple of my own that are from the same vein...

When I encounter people old enough to start facing age discrimination in their line of work (age 40+, seems like), I notice that all the ones with really successful and lucrative careers have one common trait: they don't need to look to other people for job openings; job openings look for THEM. If you are playing your career right, by the time you're getting old you'll have made as many casual friendships with former co-workers and bosses in as many different businesses/universities/whatever as humanly possible. Even if you're not looking for a new job, hopefully old co-workers from a few years back are calling you out of the blue and offering you interviews for positions. I mean, some of your favorite old co-workers are definitely managers now. When people are starting a new company or a new project and they're looking for people to add to the team, they're asking each other "Who's good? If we could pick anybody we wanted, who would it be?" Even if you're not the most brilliant person they've ever worked with, all people have a favorable bias for someone they've met, unless you were a total dick to them or something. But if they have an opening, I'm sure they would much rather interview you than a bunch of random strangers.

Notice that the words "diploma", "degree", and "title" are missing from the last paragraph? That's because smart, adaptive, practical people (the exact kind of people who will NOT be prejudiced against you if you are old) aren't interested in the "right" degree or the "right" certificate from the "right" institution, they're interested in people who get results, no more, no less. Considering that the entire American system of giant research universities with heavily layered bureaucracy and titles like "PhD" was imported straight from Germany in the early 20th century, I wouldn't be surprised at all if Germany suffers from the same cancer of worship for meaningless titles that you see in so many Fortune 500 and public sector workplaces.

TLDR: A nice diploma from a nice university is useful for gaining access to anti-meritocratic institutions like large corporations that cannot accurately judge employee worth. Practical knowledge, experience, and professional contacts are more valuable if you want to work in a place that doesn't resemble a Dilbert cartoon.

(emphasis mine)

What is the problem with expensive catalysts? My chemistry knowledge is not the greatest, but I thought that catalysts were not used up during chemical reactions... meaning that even if you needed to buy an expensive chunk of platinum to get this electrolysis doohickey working, it wasn't a big deal because you could always salvage the platinum and liquidate it (in the financial sense) if you wanted to shut down the operation for whatever reason.

You're my hero.

I've never seen it myself, but I've heard from a few people that many parts of the south, particularly rural Virginia, have replaced de jure segregation with the de facto variety.

Example: You are a white man and you want to get some lunch while you discuss forming a business partnership with your friend (he's black). Since it's the 21st century and jim crow laws are gone and neither you nor your friend are bigots, everything should go great! You go to a charming roadside restaurant and get a table. However, you lose your appetite after a few minutes once you both notice that the people at all the other tables have completely stopped talking and are just staring at the two of you. Replace the white man with a white woman and the situation gets uglier.

TLDR: Legislation does not erase centuries of social attitudes. I don't know what the best way to end racism is, but I'm pretty sure it looks more like what the Freedom Riders did than any law.

What planet do you live on?? Careful buddy, you might be taking life seriously. You gotta watch out for that.

Been there, done that, and I must agree with your results. I don't drink much soda, but I think the worst soda with cane sugar tastes better than the best soda with HFCS.

However, if you think that coca-cola can't ever win a taste test, you might have just never had good coca-cola. A lot of american grocery stores carry coca-cola intended for the mexico market, presumably so mexican-americans can drink the familiar stuff they got back home. It is remarkably better than american coke in every way - it comes in a glass bottle (not plastic), the label is painted on (not glued on), it is a half-liter instead of 12 or 24 ounces (metric > imperial), and the wording is in spanish (being american, it is easy for me to forget other languages exist). But the best part is the taste - it doesn't have that slightly painful chemically tinge that american coke does, and it has cane sugar, not diabetes-in-can HFCS.

I'm gonna take a wild stab here and assume that Ron Paul, R-TX, voted "No" on this shitpile.

Is scopalomine the only glutamate-enhancing treatment you've tried? Also are you dosing high enough to ever have hallucinations from it? I know that in high doses it is a deliriant (frank, often scary hallucinations in lieu of LSD-like technicolor laser beams) just like Benadryl. Does not sound like fun, especially for a severely depressed person. If all you've got is dry mouth, scopalomine sounds like a good deal.

I would be interested to hear about how doctors are administering ketamine to patients (are they IVing 80+ mg all at once to send people to the K-hole or just giving people a slow drip?). The DEA has ketamine in Schedule III and I don't hear about it being used much outside of veterinary hospitals, so I'm curious how they settled on a dosage plan.

I would be interested to know if these doctors can work up a ketamine treatment that offers long-term improvement, whether it's through something like indefinite semi-weekly treatments or a one-time treatment combined with psychiatric counseling to start a new chapter in the patient's life, so to speak. Users of dissociative anesthetics have known about the ketamine/pcp/dextromethorphan "afterglow" for a while now, but they've also known that it fades after a day or two and that paranoid ideation and emotional instability often settle in soon after.

Also, scopalomine occurs naturally in some plants. Have you looked into finding a cheaper source than some pharmaceutical patch? And finally, you should really submit this story to Slashdot. I mean, you're talking about a depression treatment that's not just some stupid SSRI, but something that actually works, right away? This is much more interesting and important than crab-based computing.