Politics

It seems those in power tend to be greedy and not very inclined toward science. I often wonder if this is simply human nature. It seems that in order to attain a position of power you require certain inclinations and mindsets that tend to include a certain level of greed, among other things. I suspect It's far more complicated. Positions of power often involve stepping on eggshells and trying to please several parties (or at least not offending some parties). But I also feel a lot of it is related to greed and lack of empathy for other people. If this trend continues, and corruption along with it, where are we heading? How can we solve this problem? I feel lik…

With the release of ChatGPT 4 and the development of numerous other generative A.i. platforms, the A.i (re)/(de)volution is clearly upon us. Mass unemployment is one many potential upheavals A.i. could bring. A report from the World Economic Forum in 2021 projected when A.i will take over various sectors: For me, the structural changes A.i. will bring to practically every sector of the economy demand a fundamental rethinking of how our economy is structured. In alignment with the current dialogue catalyzed by Geoffrey Hinton regarding the dangers of A.i. should be a universal discussion on what benefits A.i. must legally afford human society. Su…

Those of you who publish original research may find the following interesting, and suggesting of an 'agenda' not backed up by science ( wish BeeCee was still here; he was passionate about this sort of thing, and had great respect for L Krauss ) Lawrence Krauss: Whiteboards are racist because woke physics journal says so (msn.com) What do you guys think; tempest in a teapot, or the unravelling of society as we know it ?

Well, she isn't a Dem now, so she's got to get the 2024 campaign cash from somewhere... hasn't she?

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/05/new-study-finds-a-high-minimum-wage-creates-jobs.html The assertion in a 2010 op-ed was that higher minimum wage meant “Say goodbye to entry level jobs and hello to permanent double digit unemployment.” “Over the next thirteen years, a long list of cities and states enacted minimum wage increases of unprecedented size. Between 2014 and 2022, California increased its minimum wage by 56 percent in inflation-adjusted terms. Over a similar time period, New York raised its wage floor by 72 percent. Permanent double digit unemployment did not ensue. In fact, not only did these historically large minimum wage hikes fail…

Because money is directly involved in the patient-doctor relationship, do you think it pushes the scale of the problem upwards? When medicine becomes self-funded, I think the dynamic changes between doctor and patient, and they possibly are more likely to succumb to the patient's wishes, rather than advise what's best for them. About 9 people died every hour last year from opioids (cdc).

Classified Documents According to Reuters, the WP is reporting that the FBI search at Mar-a_Lago was prompted by concerns at the DOJ that the remaining 12 crates of White House documents unlawfully taken there by Donald Trump contained classified documents about nuclear weapons. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-attorney-general-garland-confirms-fbi-investigating-trump-2022-08-11/ A Twitter thread posted by Mark Hertling offers an overview of federal document classification systems in the US: https://twitter.com/MarkHertling/status/1557911337468133377 Briefly, the sequence in ascending order of sensitivity is Confidential Secret…

Given that he is using 'Nazi-like' symbolism, but only really alludes to it as a fascist example, is Germany going over the top? Waters album has been around since '79. Rogers is many things, but I don't think he's fascist. It's obvious to me as a long time fan of PF, but may look different to others. It's ironic that they let him hold a massive concert near the Brandenberg Gate (Ithink) when it toppled. He wasn't seen as a fascist then, when he used the same work.

Pakistan politics is very hard to understand I don't knew why they remove Imran Khan.....

Don't Americans make far too much of all that "Birth of a Nation" bullshit? Canada and Australia did just fine without a war of independence, and anyway, the true motives for the war are being airbrushed out of existence. From my reading, the British government had put huge money into establishing the colony, and protecting the colonials, but the colonials didn't want to pay any share of it. And the other bone of contention was that the British wanted to expand westwards into the Indian lands more peacefully, by treaty etc, whereas the colonials wanted to drive the Indian nations off their lands by force and try to exterminate them. As they subsequently did. …

From Politico today: The Supreme Court on Thursday significantly shrank the reach of federal clean water protections, dealing a major blow to President Joe Biden’s efforts to restore protections to millions of acres of wetlands and delivering a victory to multiple powerful industries. The ruling from the court’s conservative majority vastly narrowing the federal government’s authority over marshes and bogs is a win for industries such as homebuilding and oil and gas, which must seek Clean Water Act permits to damage federally protected wetlands. Those industries have fought for decades to limit the law’s reach. …

I don't know anything about boosted fission bombs, but from a quick read, it occurred to me that if Tritium is an essential component, then the often repeated claim that fusion doesn't contribute towards production of weapons of war isn't really true. There is a world shortage of Tritium, which they are hoping will be met by producion from fusion plants, once they become operational. So more abundant Tritium will mean smaller, cheaper and more powerful nuclear weapons.

What questions would I ask a search engine to get the data and possible fruitful search strings on the subject?

Disney has been very busy tweaking some of its governance practices and rules preparing for DeSantis-friendly stooges on its board. Will the GOP be able to dismantle what Disney has done? The last paragraph made me smile... quite original.

Chemical and biological and even landmine weaponry has effectively been banned, and it could be argued that this type of weaponry is, potentially, more deadly; especially if it had the same level of investment. Why can't we do the same with nukes? I understand that the genie is already out of the bottle and that there remains, chemical and biological and landmines among us and has even killed some of us, and that a single nuke equal's a large number of us; but given the number of times that we've come close to global armagedon, either by design or mistake or accident, the number's are very small indeed, especially when we factor in the number of deaths from car …

Further into the article there seems to be two options: Build their own or have US ones stationed there. I'd go with the latter - if it had to happen - because they don't need the learning curve of building them, which would embed a nuclear infrastructure into the country. That would be another autonomous nuclear power, which just complicates future global disarmament even more.

I dare say there are a few teachers on this forum (specifically secondary level and perhaps sixth form) best placed to provide realistic feedback on my proposal. The idea being that whilst the public understand that education (for minors) is not free; specifically with fee paying schools in the private sector, that the same applies to the public arena. I could be wrong, as Free School and Academies (basically chicken and egg) address this to a point, but not on the relationship with the parents, as the local authority still behaves as the proxy, if only for the financing. With the understanding that the pupil is the product and the school is the factory, the par…

Sounds like he's prepping... One thing is clear. He has not changed his MO one iota. Do people think he'll try and cause another riot if his arrest occurrs?

Recently I've been reading and watching some of Peter Zeihan's views, specifically in his latest book: The End of the World is Just Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization. Zeihan is an expert on demography and geopolitics, and combines the two disciplines to produce some sobering forecasts about what the world will look like in the coming decades, particularly as numerous countries suffer irreversible population implosions due to insufficient birth rates. China is possibly the most well known case, but many other countries will suffer exactly the same fate in the 21st century. A key point that Zeihan makes is it will be extremely difficult, if not imposs…

If you live in a big city in North America these days, you probably encounter homeless drug addicts on a regular basis. Cities like Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Vancouver are dealing with escalating crimes waves due to policies that are soft on crime and drug addiction. Addicts shoot up in broad daylight, leave their needles on the sidewalk in public areas, treat public spaces as their own personal toilet, and assault citizens in brutal stranger attacks. Stranger attacks are becoming increasingly prevalent, jumping 39% in Vancouver, with a probability that 1 in 4 Vancouverites will be victimized by such attacks. So far the corrective approach …

Is this the right thread? "Principal fired after Florida students shown Michelangelo statue" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65071989

It turned out that I am eligible for the Dutch citizenship. I know a reason not to apply for it, but in case I am missing something, is there a reason to apply for it?

It is eye opening to me: Why US mothers are more likely to die in childbirth - BBC News

The governor of Florida (who is likely going to be a presidential candidate) has banned what he essentially called "woke" topics from textbooks. Often with rather unclear guidelines https://abcnews.go.com/US/textbook-publishers-left-dark-florida-rejects-long-list/story?id=84244697 After math textbooks, apparently social studies are next on line and publishers are trying to sanitize US history https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/16/us/florida-textbooks-african-american-history.html including removing mentioning of race in the account of the arrest of Rosa Parks. Overtly, this is of course an attempt to galvanize the base, but also a clear attack on academic freedom (which…

How does a Texas judge ban a drug as though they have jurisdiction over the whole country? I'm prompted by the abortion pill farce playing out in red state courts. For reference: