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Comment Re:Here the propaganda machine starts again (Score 1) 528

I believe it's true that Americans give more of their income to charity than other countries do, but much of that stays within the USA. In terms of foreign aid, the USA is quite far down the list.

I consider this a good thing. As William Easterly of NYU and others have shown, there has been no correlation between economic growth and foreign aid for poor countries. Africa has received well over $500 billion in foreign aid over the past decades, and it is in many measures just as poor as it was in the 1970s. And I believe people have a better idea of how effectively their charity money will be spent the closer it is to home, so it is a good thing more of it stays in the US. One is more likely to be familiar with the staff, more likely to be able to see results for one's self, etc.
Technology

'Innovation In a Flash' Is a Myth 163

An anonymous reader writes "A New York Times article spells out what most of us probably already knew: real innovation takes lots of time and hard work to come to fruition. The article looks at the origins of new ideas, and attempts to dispel the myth that 'Eureka' moments create change. Comments author Scott Berkun, 'To focus on the magic moments is to miss the point. The goal isn't the magic moment: it's the end result of a useful innovation. Everything results from accretion. I didn't invent the English language. I have to use a language that someone else created in order to talk to you. So the process by which something is created is always incremental. It always involves using stuff that other people have made.'"

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