Sunday, January 08, 2012
Recent Reading - Philosophy More Than Actions
Al Fin on the inherent cultural anti-progressivism of Islam
"United States published 10,481 scientific papers that were frequently cited, while the entire Arab world published only four"
Scary considering the Islamic immigration of Europe.
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Frank Furedi on how the "leftist" Luddites are stealing the term "progressive" - having already stolen and debased so many other terms like "liberalism", ""socialism", "science", "environmental", "sustainable", "equality", "freedom" etc etc.
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Video of "peaceful protest" to promote their "ideas" by the Occupy thugs.
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Some laws of Systemantics
The Primal Scenario or Basic Datum of Experience: Systems in general work poorly or not at all. (Complicated systems seldom exceed five percent efficiency.) etc
No system works well. The bigger the are the worse they work.
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The same as above as seriously applied to science. H/T Charles Crawford
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New Year’s Resolutions For Climate Scientists by Steven Goddard
I will admit that warming has been much slower than we expected etc
They never will.
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!982 article on how the De Beers diamond monopoly and Madison Avenue kept up the price of diamonds. Apparently no De Beers senior executive had, then, for 40 years, set foot in the USA to avoid being questioned under anti-trust laws. H/T Steve Sailer
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Dan Hannan on how the ONLY remaining argument for staying in the EU is that otherwise we might become like Norway or Switzerland - the 2 richest countries on the continent.
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Me on Pournelle's
Health Care as a Social Concern
When it comes to infectious diseases we are not individuals. We are all vectors in the disease pool. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the growth of cities which have always been pools for infectious diseases. I suspect this is not unrelated to the growth of welfare states, from Bismarck’s to Roosevelt’s at the time. Nobody, no matter how libertarian, says people in cities should be free to store shit in our apartments. The great Victorian public sanitation systems were carried out by city governments run by unrepentant capitalists.
For the long term i.e. decades not presidential terms, the important fact is that infectious diseases are no longer serious killers (with the possible exception of AIDS) but diseases of age and lifestyle to which we react as individuals not vectors. This means that much of the social basis for welfare is gone.
In some ways I regret this. As a society we are far richer than the Founders could imagine & we can afford to look after people to an extent they couldn’t.
"United States published 10,481 scientific papers that were frequently cited, while the entire Arab world published only four"
Scary considering the Islamic immigration of Europe.
-------------------------
Frank Furedi on how the "leftist" Luddites are stealing the term "progressive" - having already stolen and debased so many other terms like "liberalism", ""socialism", "science", "environmental", "sustainable", "equality", "freedom" etc etc.
--------------------------
Video of "peaceful protest" to promote their "ideas" by the Occupy thugs.
--------------------------
Some laws of Systemantics
The Primal Scenario or Basic Datum of Experience: Systems in general work poorly or not at all. (Complicated systems seldom exceed five percent efficiency.) etc
No system works well. The bigger the are the worse they work.
--------------------------
The same as above as seriously applied to science. H/T Charles Crawford
--------------------------
New Year’s Resolutions For Climate Scientists by Steven Goddard
I will admit that warming has been much slower than we expected etc
They never will.
---------------------------
!982 article on how the De Beers diamond monopoly and Madison Avenue kept up the price of diamonds. Apparently no De Beers senior executive had, then, for 40 years, set foot in the USA to avoid being questioned under anti-trust laws. H/T Steve Sailer
----------------------------
Dan Hannan on how the ONLY remaining argument for staying in the EU is that otherwise we might become like Norway or Switzerland - the 2 richest countries on the continent.
---------------------------
Me on Pournelle's
Health Care as a Social Concern
When it comes to infectious diseases we are not individuals. We are all vectors in the disease pool. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw the growth of cities which have always been pools for infectious diseases. I suspect this is not unrelated to the growth of welfare states, from Bismarck’s to Roosevelt’s at the time. Nobody, no matter how libertarian, says people in cities should be free to store shit in our apartments. The great Victorian public sanitation systems were carried out by city governments run by unrepentant capitalists.
For the long term i.e. decades not presidential terms, the important fact is that infectious diseases are no longer serious killers (with the possible exception of AIDS) but diseases of age and lifestyle to which we react as individuals not vectors. This means that much of the social basis for welfare is gone.
In some ways I regret this. As a society we are far richer than the Founders could imagine & we can afford to look after people to an extent they couldn’t.
Labels: conspiracies, eco-fascism, Social
