Peterkin

When was anything in the colonial Americas horizontal? No, that's not a fair question, because some things were - and still are, Seventh Day Adventists and a number of functional communes, as well as consensus-based undertakings, being cases in point. These tend to be small numbers, but can be diverse in membership. I mean, it was really both, wasn't it? On the community/discrete settlement level, there may have been a social contract that bound all the white men to one another in a mutual respect, mutually dependent relationship, but it didn't include Natives or women. At the same time, all of the colonies were legally ruled, indirectly through governors and garrisons, by the kings of their respective parent nations, and morally ruled, through priests, pastors and ministers, by the church hierarchy of their denominations. Except the Quakers, who had a remarkably different take on morality from the mainstream Christians of their day. https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/history-of-quakerism

Oh, sure. Just answering the question.

For all those mega container-ships? Yes, it might be better than diesel, eventually, but all it does in the longer term is reduce the particulate and CO2 emissions from shipping all that unnecessary crap around the world in all those giant containers. The unnecessary crap is still going to be manufactured - according to whatever the regulations, or lack thereof, happen to be in the country of origin, by whatever labour practices obtain there, packaged in miles and miles and miles and miles of plastic wrap, and whatever other packaging happens to be deemed marketable by the manufacturers, and taken from places of cheap labour and dirty water to places that used to be more prosperous when its citizens had jobs in manufacturing that no longer exists, but are not buying the unnecaesary crap on credit, which is driving their entire entire nations into a pit of debt, in ships that disrupt migration routes of sea-life and birds and drived whales mad enough to commit suicide. A nose-frontwards approach might be to make necessary goods and food products close to where they'll be used.

Turing. It's not about the mind or the contribution: all scientific knowledge builds on previous knowledge. It's about the circumstances that propel a particular branch of science forward. War gets government funding and backing for enterprises that might otherwise come to naught, or just have to wait for the next big push.

I don't think the link to numbers is a direct one; I think the situation (or etiology of vertical morality) is more complex than simple arithmetic. It's more like geometry. As number grow, and because of the means by which numbers grow, so does the complexity of a social structure. The more complex and stratified it becomes, the more up-to-down control is required to keep order, and the more agencies are put in place to exert that control. How large numbers of human population come about is a major factor. It's not normally though the growth of a single genetic grouping. If that were so, the society would simply keep its same world-view and divide into satellite colonies, the way that ant societies do. Rather, it tends to come about through expansion by conquest and domination. When one group dominates another, the up-down system of governance and law-making is established. The subjugated group is inferior in power and readily seen as inferior in every other way. (My guns are bigger than your spears. My king can beat your chief. My God can out-magic your gods. I'm better than you.) Humans enjoy a sense of superiority, so the rulers exploit that desire in their agents. This is why all despots have willing minions to carry out their will on the less powerful: they like it. In this way, and with the aid of other forms of coercion and manipulation, they can establish an entire system of belief and values to displace the subject people's original belief and value system. This is how the Roman Empire spread Christianity and how the successive Muslim empires spread Islam into territories that were previously pagan.

I have no idea, but if you're actually looking to save the environment, it's a completely back-assward approach.

That's a relatively low consideration, when you count in the carbohydrate content of legumes and nuts. Hazelnuts are pretty good from several points of view. Not as nutritious as almonds, but far more sustainable to cultivate, and doesn't take as long as walnuts, which are also pretty good. Better yet, peanuts - less tasty, but high in protein and fat, contain calcium, potassium, fibre; they're also cheap and less demanding of the environment than tree nuts. Good approach. There is a lot know. Be mindful that you will probably not always have the luxury of dietary experimentation. If you embark on an experiment, it's best to get your information lined up - not just from the physiological point of view, but all the other considerations: access, price, environmental impact, life-style changes, social implications. Don't forget to take and keep good notes!

Clever! A little way outside my scope, but very clever. I'll remember it next time somebody tries to sell me a beautiful Russian girl. Have you noticed they're not much on the screen lately?

Thanks, that's funny. I leave the possibility of error open, though, because when there was a problem before and I brought it to their attention, they fixed it . That doesn't much happen, so I owe them a little goodwill. In normal size, which is not advantageous for the game, the video runs concurrently in a small window. And has a pause button, so I can stop it while I'm playing. I hate unwanted things jumping around and strangers talking at me! I leave still ads alone - except the really distasteful ones.

One thing I noticed recently. An online game I like to play runs ads, sometimes that videos that run for 10-12 minutes, behind the the game, completely invisible, when I have it on full screen. I assume it's a programming oversight, since there doesn't seem to be any point in running an ad that's not even seen - it's just eating my bandwidth. But, of course, there could be a whole host of stowaways and parasites in your computer, running all kinds of programs. Our bank was recently hacked, so we had to move all our financial information to a dedicated computer and now have to monitor all transactions very closely, to see if our data's being misused. The sharks are out there; better get all the cages and repellents you can!

You could equally well call those the 'civilized' and 'primitive' world-views. What we usually refer to as civilizations are all hierarchical, pyramidal structures, with a broad base of workers/peasants, distinct specialized artisan, military, clerical and merchant classes, culminating in a small elite and a single powerful head. Civilized societies tend to be strictly stratified, with the rulers (the great and the good, as the British used to say) being considered most valuable, while the lives of the ruled are worth relatively little. Laws and directives, as well as allocation of resources come from the top. Such societies tend to become urbanized, with concentrated populations that result in overcrowding, and therefore suffer cyclic shortage and require growth of territory - usually achieved through conquest of other peoples... who, being non-consenting subjects, must then be ruled with force and fear. Primitive societies tend to be more egalitarian, with a generalized labour pool, with all able-bodied adults and children contributing as needed - hunter and warrior and canoe-maker and fisher; builder and gatherer and shoemaker and butcher - and so is division of resources. They usually have no surplus population, so that each individual is needed for the welfare of the group, and no unaccounted surplus of supplies, which affords less opportunity for hoarding and gouging. They're usually monolithic in ethnicity, related by blood, plus incomers by marriage. If they war with other tribes (when you have no disposable manpower, this is not something undertaken lightly, or on a large scale), the captives are either killed outright, sold for ransom or assimilated. Governance is commonly by consent of the governed and law is administered by a council of elders or leaders. Morality is a function of life-style: what works in the group whose relationships it regulates. The model on which religions are based are a direct illustration of the world-view of the people who adhere to that religion. Even Christianity, which is structured on the Roman model of governance, works differently in each of its denominations, and quite differently on the level of a church as a whole from the level of single parish or monastic order.

Nothing.

O. K. Just wanted to make sure you were talking about G.O.D. another one... sigh

It? Something? "Set up?"

Offhand, I's say Iron and Vitamin C, probably lots more, and I'm guessing you'd do better with potatoes for the carbohydrate, but I'd rather you did the research for your question than me.

I always considered her one of the most attractive women on television. I happened to see this charming snippet of an interview just a few days ago https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-a-kiss-on-star-trek-made-history/p05xhchv

They may not be all that obvious, but many engineering solution can be implemented. https://www.engineering.com/story/how-can-engineers-prevent-surface-water-flooding It's not, unless a large-scale project is undertaken by private enterprise. Most dams, flood-ways and levees are public works projects, which require a lot more from government than permission: government needs to be take the lead in planning, funding, removing obstacles - which may well include business interests, political opposition and people who have to be relocated, none of which is simple or easy - building and maintenance of the required infrastructure for years and decades after it's built. Governments usually contract out the actual construction work to private companies (which of course raises the price of any project for taxpayers) but if the entire project is left to private enterprise - which is a perfectly viable option - there is no control at all by the citizens, and very little by the government, either of the project or the price. I don't know what those are - people often use the word "obvious" without illustrations. Kentucky, like all states and provinces, has a policy, has flood and control-related regulations and contingency plans. https://www.kymitigation.org/kentucky-floodplain-manangement/

We statistical measurements of which democracies are working best, according to the criteria set by academics. (very good ones, IMO) The whole article is worth a close reading. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/democracy-countries As to which is best, results vary. So much depends on the ethnic, cultural and economic makeup of the given popultion, as well its history and how past power dynamics have shaped the voters' and leaders' world-view and the need/mood/volatility of the current environment in which an election takes place. Methods and means of the dissemination of information plays a prominent role and so does the extent to which special interests are allowed to meddle in the form of campaign financing and lobby policies. https://aceproject.org/epic-en?question=ES005&f=h Information on what, where and how is readily available, but best is still largely a matter of opinion. https://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/en/no-electoral-system-is-perfect-but-some-seem-fairer/

Even without the various fraudulent paractices, the percent of eligible voters who actually elect a candidate by the first-past-the-post system is typically about 30-35%. And that successful candidate will also represent the 20% who are eligible to vote but not registered, plus the under-age, disqualified, recent and undocumented immigrants. Of the registered voters, only 60-70% show up in the polls. There is a world of difference between "enough" and a majority, and even the enough are as likely, if not more, to vote on the basis of what a candidate promises to do, than what he or she has actually done. (Besides, just how much can any one representative do?)

After a highway is built, and people have been driving on it, does it sometimes need repair? Snow clearance, salting and sanding, verge and shoulder maintenance? Signs replaced and lines repainted? How were the people screwed/cheated by having to pay for the work of all those people and the materials they work with? Well, neither God nor Exxon provided it, so...

Those warts cause a lot of the trouble, both for politicians and for the people they fail to represent while they're representing the loudest and meanest of their constituency. Of course, the leaders should ideally be chosen from among the best - the smartest, most competent and level-headed. But how are the best to be identified in an egalitarian population? Aristocrats and prelates have proven as warty as peasants and knaves; the middle class as error- and corruption-prone as the upper and lower. Some other complications intrude, as well: balance of power between interest groups, religion and economics, foreign and domestic relations, men and women, ethnic groups, doves and hawks.... Yes, there should be a simple, enforceable contract. That's the idea behind national constitutions: to lay out the respective obligations of governing entities and the governed. But how is that contract made? Who drafts it? Who signs it? Who enforces it? The administration of a large collective, any kind, is complicated. With contrary, emotional, fickle, fractious, gullible humans, it's labyrinthine. Add superstition, money and outside threats from other collectives, and becomes so difficult that only enormous good will and co-operation can make it work. Amazingly, it sometimes does work, for decades at a time, in whole nations.

If the Republicans are not permitted to kill the EPA, there is hope. https://www.epa.gov/water-research/drought-resilience-and-water-conservation https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/who-we-are/how-we-work/policy/water-management/ States have different levels of awareness, preparedness and resources to deploy. There is a lot going on that's never reported in the news, because it's just not sensational enough. https://www.usgs.gov/centers/oklahoma-texas-water-science-center/science/floods-and-droughts

It's serious everywhere. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-52399373

Never dictate your text to a millennial.

That works. It also you means you can arbitrarily - or, rather, selectively, according to the purpose of the exercise - limit or extend which factors, properties or dimensions that you take into consideration.