The Hall of Fire

As an investment vehicle SS is a dreadful ripoff. Only because it is deliberately designed to have extremely low risk and high security. The problem with putting everyone's collective retirement money into (eg) the stock market is similar to the problem of relying on an electric sump pump to keep y...

Yes, the ultra-right pundits are absolutely frothing over the prospect of a McCain candidacy. I tried to listen to a Rush rant yesterday sheerly for entertainment value, but couldn't take more than a couple minutes of it. I can't say I understand why they loathe him so much.

But you still need money for housing, food, winter heat, transportation, and a whole lot of other things, right?

Not really related to this topic, but still very interesting: How rich are you? It's not altogether accurate to measure wealth with money. There's no doubt that the average 1st-world citizen is richer than almost any African no matter how you measure it, but there are a lot of places in the world w...

it's possible people saw it, determined they didn't have the money to do anything at all, and just left. There's a time when it's appropriate to cut your losses and move on. The Mississippi delta is not a sensible place to locate a major city, and I'm with those who say keep the port, keep the unda...

The problem with passing judgment is that there's so much going on, it's difficult to tease things apart and decide who's responsible for what. Are young Americans under the impression that they need a bunch of stuff that didn't even exist in their parents' time? Absolutely. Are advertisers encourag...

Here's another one of those stories:
http://www.wkowtv.com/index.php/news/story/p/pkid/24372

Drudge is of course a muckraker who often breaks sensation material without proper verification. However, the overwhelming portion of his site consists of links to supposedly more responsible sources. I still have no reason to question the validity of this particular source, though I'll admit I hav...

Drudge has dropped the headline now (he had it up before). Sounds like it is probably a hoax.

In the grand scheme of things, is it actually possible to teach 14 year olds anything? In a classroom? 14 works out to 8th or 9th grade in the US; I can certainly still remember things I learned in school then. Basic algerbra and geometry, diagramming sentences, basic chemistry and physics, geology...

I have a British friend my age who's been a working PhD for close to 5 years. I kind of hate her. :P For most people in the US, getting a doctorate means four years of ordinary college plus 5+ years going to grad school and writing a thesis. Unless you're very driven and don't get distracted by litt...

Jnyusa wrote:The elderly and the military consume about 80% of our federal budget.

I thought the stat was SS/Medicare/Medicaid plus defense plus interest on the national debt made up 80% Or is that already out of date?

I'm not using the word Naturalist in any technical sense; I mean someone who lacks belief in the supernatural. It should probably be further qualified to "pessimistic Naturalist"; i.e. someone who believes nature is not just indifferent but ultimately hostile to human needs.

most are better characterized by free-floating hostility. :P...Yes, I think that hostility is kind of a poor man's despair. Either denial or open rage would feel better, from a purely emotional perspective. I think the type of hostility you're thinking of has more to do with the person's perception...

I don't think that Naturalists are automatically courageous; I do think they need to choose between courage, despair, and denial. I also don't think Northern Courage is only valuable for naturalists; it comes in handy for pessimists of all stripes!

This has been sitting on my hard drive for some time. It's not quite as polished as I'd like, but I'm worried if I don't just post it now I'll never get around to it. ************ The pre-Christian inhabitants of northern Europe had a fundamentally pessimistic worldview. History was to culminate in ...

My dad's always told me that it's a myth diesels pollute more..at least today's modern diesel. According to him, they are better. I don't know enough about cars to find out if this is really true or not. It's not an easy calculation. Even if diesel creates more pollutants per gallon, you don't need...

As for overpopulation, I have high hopes that it will be balanced out in the long run by two factors. One is economic growth, which leads to high living standards, high levels of education, smaller families, and zero population growth eventually (see parts of Europe, for example). The other is tech...

Every time a subject like this comes up, I recommend this: Arithmetic, Population, and Energy It's a lecture by Dr. Albert Bartlett, who's been talking about population and resource issues for 30 years. You can download it, stream it, or just read the transcript. "What I hope to do is I hope to...

Ellienor wrote:DaveLF, what you are describing is known as the "tragedy of the commons"

That's right; I was thinking Jevons' paradox, but TOTC is more accurate. Jevons discovered that if resource usage is made more efficient, consumption rises instead of falling because more people hop on board.