for those of you whom i actually talk to and dont hate, you may have gotten the impression that i am a intellectual. i have been spending alot of time thinking about some topics and onethat bothers me is the state of our world. i figured i would put a topic up to share my opinions and get some of others on this topic. not too long ago we had a horrific scientific event happen. the space shuttle has been offically retired with no goverment plans in the united states to go back to space other than to contract to russia and china. the shut down of the shuttle means that transportation to the international space station rely's on countiries that were not always friends of the USA, Canada, and Europe. this also means that there are no current plans for people to return to the moon that have been shared with the public. this is due to the concerns and issues of putting man on a hostile environment. plus we need to ship supplies to keep them alive as well. as human kind we have put robots on mans, yet we have not put the same robots on the moon. a round trip for an astronaught to mars is 8 months. to the moon is around a 14 day trip. in 1969 human kind was inspired to reach for the stars and make the most from scientific exploits, to expand our mind. now we focus on stock markets, trading in false monies, and using algorithims to do trading for us in 3 micro seconds... or less... if you trade at 7 microseconds, you are obsolete already, if you trade at 1 milli second, you are broke...how is this science? where is the inspiration for human kind? why do we not dream like we used to? next point in Canada we upgraded our radioactive isotopes lab last year to meet with the growing medical demand of the world. in the process of upgrading, it was closed for a total of over 9 months. this was because when they shut it down and inspected before the upgrades they found unknown issues with the reactors. Chalk River shut down resulted in a short of radioactive isotopes for medical treatment. this resulted in the deaths of thousands of people in lower income areas that could not afford the rising cost of medical supplies. radioactive isotopes that they produced at the Chalk River plant varied from a 12 hour isotope *produced in over 50 diffrent facilities in North America due to transport time for treatment* to the vary rare isotopes that decompose in around 50 days, which they are one of three facilities able to produce them on the planet. this was a major issue, money was lost, lives were lost. this did not make international news. know what did? lindsey lohan and miley cirus. there is an issue with our world when we will put celebrities on the front page of the news, when there is real news to report on. next point i have not watched television in almost 12 years now, other than hockey on streamed internet TV. (i am canadian, i go crazy without hockey) this is due to the overflowing amount of crap on TV. "Reality TV" as many of you know is nothing like reality. there is something wrong with our society when we are willing invest millions of dollars to allow a bunch of spoiled rich kids drink and make fools of themselves everywhere, instead of putting it towards a endevour that will benefit mankind. but we still report on the idiots instead of the news, we show stupid tv shows instead of educate our populace, TV was created to share news, to connect the people, to inform, just as the telephone was, not for this garbage that we have on tv. this year, the united states of america will spend enough money on the war in iraq and afganistan that if they were to transition that all toward paying for education of graduating high school students, they could pay for every single high school grad to continue schooling in what ever that child chose. the nations at war, drop bombs that are worth more than i make in a year. single bombs that contain explosives and electronics that are more powerful than any computers we on this site use. these smart bombs have killed friends due to tracking issues. they are expencive. they make more than some of the kids that play here will make in a given year in their lives. some of these kids will get to blow things up with them. as a society we are creating situations we cannot get out of, science, technology, information sharing, these are what humanity is about. not about taxes, money, watching drunken idiots. i encourage all the parents on the site to encourage their children to search for the unseen, look for questions, and explore that which they do not know. i have told this same message to many kids on the game. being wrong is not a bad thing, not learning from it, denying that you are wrong, or lieing, that is the crime. i find we are taking science away, we are taking beleif away. we allow lawsuits to happen now. the western way (some confuse this with the american way) is to work hard for what you want, to be smarter than ever before. this has been lost to the new west way, of getting ahead via lawsuits, via lawyers, lottery, and lies. cheaters are getting ahead, people that are unfaithful to their partners are forgiven, instead of reprimanded. people do not explore anymore... we do not allow parents to discipline children now, because that is abuse. i am willing to bet that those of us with good parents can remember when we were spanked or smacked, and remember why we got it. and we didnt do it anymore. i went to school with no fear of being gunned down. my kids will not. that is a problem.
How intellectual. I actually agree with this, I didn't think that I wouls be Shot while going to school either, while on the other hand, the next generation maybe me murdered as they go to school, or bombed, or kidnapped. Too right.
My beef is with the whole way people go about solving problems. Most of the time, people look for a top-down sort of solution to problems when a bottom-up solution is the only way to achieve a permanent fix. Half the time, people work with one section of a problem or the part of the problem with the area of widest effect. However, a bunch of small problems left over, leading to one big set of problems. To go slightly political/economical for a moment (without trying to start any further points, as I prefer societal discussions to either of the aforementioned two points), this is where both Communism and trickle-down economic theories fail. The hold up is at the top. Both "look good on paper" but that doesn't really matter. Someone above you on the chain is most likely not exactly willing to share their goods or money (as with the person above them to them, and so on). A reverse problem also on the other end of the scale is the handout problem. If people find that they are able to get help without having to do anything, we get a free-loader problem, and who wants to help people who don't care to help themselves? I hate the analogy of "the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer," because I feel like that doesn't tell the whole picture. I'm not exactly on either end of the spectrum, but it's really easy to get in or out of a bind. Maybe I just get tired of complaining on both ends (taxes for the rich, lack of money for the poor...also I'm a mod, I get tired of those too). /rant Glad to have some good conversation on here pyro! Hope I didn't kill the thread...you did make some good points though!
I once saw a news article where a pregnant woman broke a guy's leg while he was trying to steal her purse. I think the guy is in jail, but suing her for what she did. Also, I'm pretty sure people can be sued for stuff like this guy, who stopped a home invasion because he was able to see the thugs coming (it's a video). If you watch it, note that the guys breaking in a most likely carrying automatic weapons.
In the United States, our worst criminals are essentially treated like animals. Well-fed animals, yet animals nonetheless. And what happens is when they are let out, they have no idea what the hell to do with their lives, except go back to what they ended up in jail for. In Norway, on the other hand... You've all heard about the terrorist bombing that took place? Well, I learned a few tidbits about Norwegian prison. Apparently, they run it as a community hotel of sorts. Prisoners have private, fully-equipped bathrooms, entertainment, good food... They encourage guards to interact with the prisoners and visa versa. They even EAT together. They probably all come out of prison, thinking, "What the heck was I thinking before? I want a life like that, I need to get my priorities straight!"
You just got banned from life. and Pyro: I agree in general, however, I can't say that we don't dream anymore, and we're not seeking advancement, and that the advancements we're making are pointless. So yeah, it is a bit silly that all this trading happens so fast, but think about it this way: Isn't it amazing that it can happen that fast? The power of our current technology is amazing! Computers are getting stronger and stronger all the time, and maybe it's not that important to have it for stock trading, but once we have it, think of all the things we can do with that tech! That's why I love computers and computer science. It's where real development is right now. Whatever field you have, you are almost certainly using computers in some way. So our world is pretty pitiful, I admit, but science is still advancing. It's just advancing in a different way. I do wish the shuttle program would come back, though...
Pyro: 1) Hockey's awesome. I'm going to a Philly Flyers game on the 15th. 2) I'm with you 100% on how society's falling into entertainment hell. Science advances, but not at the rate that it used to, and not in the amazing ways it used to. Really, who cares if you shaved another ounce off your laptop's weight? IMHO, we need to take a serious look at our leaders, and consider whether they're really performing as well as they ought to, and keeping people informed on what matters, not another worthless celebrity scandal. Now, not trying to get political, but there's too many uninformed voters. A frighteningly large percent of voters here in America vote purely on looks without watching a single debate. 3) Again, not trying to turn this political, but as far as Afghanistan goes, America needs someone war-smart in office. One of the helicopters overseen by Obama that was going to go in and take down -alqueada leader whose name escapes me right now- crashed because it was carrying too much weight. Too much weight. America needs the right war-smart person in office, to end the war and end it with a victory. 4) Regarding the shuttle program, I can't wait to see what NASA is going to come up with next.
They are leasing space on private company spacecraft. Not contracting someone to build it. They are RENTING the rockets. We have no Manned launch capability. We are fighting a war we cannot win. The soviets invaded Afghanistan, and they couldn't win. The dollar is inflating extremely rapidly Infrastructure is collapsing. Have you noticed how crappy the roads are nowadays? Have you taken a look at the bridges nowadays? The gas prices are through the roof. Alternative energy is still in a fledgling state. The Government is psycho about terrorism. People are rude. Fashion isn't about looking good anymore, its about showing the most skin. People are more attached to their electronic devices than their family, myself included. We went to the moon in a decade, but spent the next 40 some years in low earth orbit twiddling our thumbs building a Tinkertoy space station. If you do not have competition, how can you measure progress? We, as a species, need to pull our heads out of our asses, fix our shit, and get off of earth and explore.