This is a great article! It explains why Japan and now Europe are more technologically advanced then the US. Why the US is falling behind in education, production... you name it!
...in the current fiscal year (2008) we are spending insane amounts of money on "defense" projects that bear no relationship to the national security of the United States. Simultaneously, we are keeping the income tax burdens on the richest segments of the American population at strikingly low levels.
...we continue to believe that we can compensate for the accelerating erosion of our manufacturing base and our loss of jobs to foreign countries through massive military expenditures - so-called "military Keynesianism", which I discuss in detail in my book Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic. By military Keynesianism, I mean the mistaken belief that public policies focused on frequent wars, huge expenditures on weapons and munitions, and large standing armies can indefinitely sustain a wealthy capitalist economy. The opposite is actually true.
...American strategists began to build up a massive munitions industry, both to counter the military might of the Soviet Union (which they consistently overstated) and also to maintain full employment as well as ward off a possible return of the Depression.
It is often believed that wars and military spending increases are good for the economy. In fact, most economic models show that military spending diverts resources from productive uses, such as consumption and investment, and ultimately slows economic growth and reduces employment.
It is, of course, impossible to know what innovations never appeared as a result of this diversion of resources and brainpower into the service of the military, but it was during the 1960s that we first began to notice Japan was outpacing us in the design and quality of a range of consumer goods, including household electronics and automobiles.
I selfishly want this Star Trek movie to be awesome, but fear it won't. Here is my premise why.
According to box office sales, the latest Star Trek movie Star Trek Nemesis didn't do as well as it's predecessors. I've heard many reasons for this and the reason that resonates best with me is the movie does not appeal to what Star Trek stands for. It makes weak parallels on our current human condition, a concept that has made Star Trek what it is today.
They instead replaced depth with some action packed moments which can be enjoyed as an action thriller, not Star Trek. I admit, I've watched the Enterprise saucer section crashing into Shinzon's ship in slow motion at least 5 times, but that's more an obsession with the sheer size of the ships (yes, I'm a size queen).
JJ Abrams is a great director, but he's best known for super action thrillers such as: Cloverfield and Mission Impossible III. I hope they put some substance into this movie, I really do!
quality of being brave: the ability to face danger, difficulty, uncertainty, or pain without being overcome by fear or being deflected from a chosen course of action.
That is what it takes! I just showed Part 2 of The ZEITGEIST Movie to someone close to me and he asked me, "So what can we do", a very courageous moment, but short lived. He then said, "You know what, I think it's best that we all just live out our lives, there is nothing we can do."
I understand it's hard, so I'll leave it at that. As for me, I refuse to sit idle by. I'm not sure what I can do, but I know I can start by sharing what I've seen and see if my peers see this as something serious. Now that I'm aware of the mere possibility of lies, lies everywhere I can begin to recognize if the lies are truly there or not.
A year or two ago I heard a prominent atheist say that Secular Americans as a society are currently where the gays were in the late 60s right before or right after the Stonewall Riots.
I was very excited to hear this as a homosexual living in America not having the right to adopt or marry. I know how important rights are and how public awareness decreases ignorance and allows people of different walks to stop fearing others around them based on their differences.
Being an Atheist in America can be dangerous depending on where you live. I'm glad I live in a tolerant part of the country.
I see this as the beginnings of a nationwide Freethought, Coming out. I am personally out to everyone I know about my atheism and my homosexuality. I've also helped many people feel confident enough to come out about their homosexuality. I'm so proud :)
In computing, regular expressions allows programmers to match complex patterns within text. I was fortunate to learn how to work with regular expressions when I was 20, in 2001 through the help of a perl programmer named Larry back in the day when I was working for qode.com.
A friend of mine asked me how he could match different parts of a url. He wanted the: [1] the entire url [2] the entire domain [3] only the domain & tld.
Business-Week's Ten Likely Events in 2008
