rj40,
This was Iran's chance at an Iraqi Tet. Drive American forces out of the Green Zone. Uprisings all across Iraq. Basra captured.
Iran couldn't pull it off. My guess is that Iran did not get what it paid for.
The purpose was to influence the election in Nov so a certain political party could surrender Iraq to Iran.
Do you remember all those operatives from a certain political party flocking to Syria (Iran's client) a while back? Well I'll let you draw your own conclusions.
Did you know that the cease fire was signed off by the head of the Iranian Qods (Quods) Force? Iran was humiliated. They had their noses rubbed in it. We must have captured some very high ranking officers to bring them running.
http://fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com/200 ... -iraq.html
He has links. I also have soldiers with on the ground experience commenting at my blog.
We will be in Iraq until the Iranian government is overthrown and stabilized. About 25 more years minimum.
What is happening to the whole ME is that we are liquefying them with cell phones and computers. The military action is just a holding action until Western ways take hold.
If you are interested in the Pope - see what he has been doing re:Saudi Arabia. Islam is in retreat. About where the USSR was in 1983. Still looks solid but, the rot is eating their vitals.
Islam being more tribal than the USSR is going through its Ghost Dance Phase. When they figure out Allah is not on their side it will all come crashing down.
A Green Wants to Reduce the Numbr of Humans on Earth
Simon,MSimon wrote:Islam being more tribal than the USSR is going through its Ghost Dance Phase. When they figure out Allah is not on their side it will all come crashing down.
I'm not sure Polywell is the proper place to go deep into politics. Do you have a preferred list/blog, or we could take it to my little madhouse of a list.
Duane
Vae Victis
I think the generation of wealth is becomming less reliant on natural resource exploitation and more reliant on human endeavor. Both China and India have fast growing economies, and are relatively short of Natural Resources. If the Polywell or other technologies can move energy production away from natural resources, then human endeavor will become ever more important to the generation of wealth.Nanos wrote:The difficulty I see in raising the standard of living for all is it only gets raised for those with jobs, and that modernisation is all about reducing the number of jobs to reduce costs.
Perhaps if you had a way to share things out a little better, you wouldn't end up with so much povety.
We should be looking at all high expected value technologies for energy production, among them Wind, Solar, Geothermal, water flow, Load local storage, New Fission techniques, and new Fusion techniques. All these technologies will involve human endeavor as a major component.
Poverty in the main is caused by bad government. In America the poor people are fat and the rich are thin.Nanos wrote:The difficulty I see in raising the standard of living for all is it only gets raised for those with jobs, and that modernisation is all about reducing the number of jobs to reduce costs.
Perhaps if you had a way to share things out a little better, you wouldn't end up with so much povety.
About 100 years ago the rich were fat (fat cats) and the poor were thin.
If the highest rewards go to those who improve profits the most then you get more improvement.
In any biological system the 80/20 rule applies. About 20% produce 80% of the output. That 20% should be encouraged as much as possible. In time the results trickle down. The average poor man today lives a life the Kings of 150 years ago couldn't even imagine. Central air, computers, telephones, TV, electricity, piped in fuel, running hot and cold water etc.
Right now due to some unfortunate life circumstances I'm near the very bottom of the economic pile. I feel blessed.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
> the poor people are fat and the rich are thin.
One sees a similar picture here in the UK, though the poor fat tend to be on government benefits, the real poor are in low paid jobs and do without many of the benefits those on benefits enjoy, such as low rental government housing for example.
I notice that 20/80 rule often comes up in things, and have been wondering about just how many people would be needed to support everyone, based on recently seeing that in one area of the UK 75% of people was unemployed and on benefits.
The trickle down effect here at least isn't trickling down to the bottom, with such widespread effects as hundreds of people living in graveyards, much like in improvished countries found elsewhere in the world.
Due as far as I can see to high housing costs. (We looked at a very cheap $30,000 home the other day, but it would still cost us more than where we are renting one room at the moment, plus here they have withdrawn the last 100% mortgage option.)
One sees a similar picture here in the UK, though the poor fat tend to be on government benefits, the real poor are in low paid jobs and do without many of the benefits those on benefits enjoy, such as low rental government housing for example.
I notice that 20/80 rule often comes up in things, and have been wondering about just how many people would be needed to support everyone, based on recently seeing that in one area of the UK 75% of people was unemployed and on benefits.
The trickle down effect here at least isn't trickling down to the bottom, with such widespread effects as hundreds of people living in graveyards, much like in improvished countries found elsewhere in the world.
Due as far as I can see to high housing costs. (We looked at a very cheap $30,000 home the other day, but it would still cost us more than where we are renting one room at the moment, plus here they have withdrawn the last 100% mortgage option.)
Nanos,
The UK has lost its way. Since this is not a political blog I won't go into it.
I will say that having an unwritten Constitution and a Parliamentary system (which fragments the polity) are big parts of the problem. Winner take all tends to drive government to the middle.
The UK has lost its way. Since this is not a political blog I won't go into it.
I will say that having an unwritten Constitution and a Parliamentary system (which fragments the polity) are big parts of the problem. Winner take all tends to drive government to the middle.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
No. It's the result of a non-functional civil society. The nongovernmental formal & informal underpinnings of society. Without respect for law, property and the persons of others, the machinery called "government" doesn't matter. And those informal things have only been damaged by government in recent decades, not reinforced.MSimon wrote:Poverty in the main is caused by bad government.
That applies in Zimbabwe, and to lesser degrees in the banlieues of Paris and the worst parts of the American inner city respectively.
The trickle down theories of the '80s never worked. The finance capital model in place since '78 or so simply works to double and redouble the monies of the top tier players. Its the wealth condensation effect, which leads to the Pareto distribution and has created to an American Gini Coefficient (economic measure of income inequality) that is approaching those seen in Latin American countries. That has had me concerned for several years.MSimon wrote:In America the poor people are fat and the rich are thin.
About 100 years ago the rich were fat (fat cats) and the poor were thin.
If the highest rewards go to those who improve profits the most then you get more improvement.
In any biological system the 80/20 rule applies. About 20% produce 80% of the output. That 20% should be encouraged as much as possible. In time the results trickle down.
Per an article in the Harvard Business Review (the most expensive periodical I have yet encountered) some years back, taxes do serve a useful purpose in leveling the Gini. Money redistribution keeps money "flowing" through the economy, not locked up in private bank accounts, which acts to reduce the Gini.
However, to steal a line from a certain pastor, the effects of radical pro-Wall Street deregulation are now "coming home to roost." IMO we'll see a successful push for reregulation in the next few years. Not necessarily a bad thing. All the major Western empires of the last 500 years (Spanish, Dutch, British) have fallen in love with finance capitalism shortly before their declines.
For those interested in a political forum, please contact me by private email. This isn't the place.
djolds21_at_hotmail_dot_com
Vae Victis
My son got a Free ride at Rockefeller U (UChicago). He graduated with honors.
Worth something like $160,000. Trickle down worked for me and him.
And where did my central air (included with my apt rent minus electrical power) come from? In 1920 only the rich could afford it. We have an auto. Used but nice. What would an auto like that cost in 1890? I have two telephone lines plus 180 minutes of free long distance a month. About $20 plus tax. What would that have cost in 1900? My mate has a cell phone for emergencies. About $40 a month. What would that have cost in 1960? I have broadband equivalent to six T-1 lines for $35 a month plus tax. What would that have cost in 1950?
I have a Cray one equivalent on my desktop. Cost $800 brand new. What would that have cost in 1950?
Well you get the idea. Trickle down seems to be working very well for me. Things that at one time only Kings could afford are now with in the reach of all but the very poorest.
The rich have invested to lower the cost of things I want. Direct cash is not the only way things trickle down. If you focus on that you miss the forest and probably can't even see the trees.
I live like a King on poverty level income. The USA been berry good to me.
Worth something like $160,000. Trickle down worked for me and him.
And where did my central air (included with my apt rent minus electrical power) come from? In 1920 only the rich could afford it. We have an auto. Used but nice. What would an auto like that cost in 1890? I have two telephone lines plus 180 minutes of free long distance a month. About $20 plus tax. What would that have cost in 1900? My mate has a cell phone for emergencies. About $40 a month. What would that have cost in 1960? I have broadband equivalent to six T-1 lines for $35 a month plus tax. What would that have cost in 1950?
I have a Cray one equivalent on my desktop. Cost $800 brand new. What would that have cost in 1950?
Well you get the idea. Trickle down seems to be working very well for me. Things that at one time only Kings could afford are now with in the reach of all but the very poorest.
The rich have invested to lower the cost of things I want. Direct cash is not the only way things trickle down. If you focus on that you miss the forest and probably can't even see the trees.
I live like a King on poverty level income. The USA been berry good to me.
Last edited by MSimon on Sun Apr 13, 2008 11:08 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
This is the General Forum. Life Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.
General Political philosophy is on. At least until some one posts on one of the technical topics.
If Joe comes in and says No Mas - OK. As one of the moderators as long as there is no spam and nothing about candidates or parties - general philosophy only - I'm OK with it.
Politics/culture is just as important in figuring out how to make Polywell work for everyone as is the technical stuff. I'm taking a big leap of faith here and assuming we can make it function technically.
General Political philosophy is on. At least until some one posts on one of the technical topics.
If Joe comes in and says No Mas - OK. As one of the moderators as long as there is no spam and nothing about candidates or parties - general philosophy only - I'm OK with it.
Politics/culture is just as important in figuring out how to make Polywell work for everyone as is the technical stuff. I'm taking a big leap of faith here and assuming we can make it function technically.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
I would need to know the nature of the free ride to comment knowledgeably.MSimon wrote:My son got a Free ride at Rockefeller U (UChicago). He graduated with honors.
Worth something like $160,000. Trickle down worked for me and him.
If it was a grant or scholarship from a foundation - charitable foundations endowed by the formerly rich are not the same thing as the post-Keynesian finance capital theory of trickle-down.
Technological progress and the specific subspecies of finance capitalism called trickle down economics are not the same things, and trying to equate them is a false comparison.MSimon wrote:The rich have invested to lower the cost of things I want. Direct cash is not the only way things trickle down. If you focus on that you miss the forest and probably can't even see the trees.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trickle-down_economics
Vae Victis
Fair 'nuf.MSimon wrote:This is the General Forum. Life Liberty and The Pursuit of Happiness.
General Political philosophy is on. At least until some one posts on one of the technical topics.
If Joe comes in and says No Mas - OK. As one of the moderators as long as there is no spam and nothing about candidates or parties - general philosophy only - I'm OK with it.
Politics/culture is just as important in figuring out how to make Polywell work for everyone as is the technical stuff. I'm taking a big leap of faith here and assuming we can make it function technically.
Duane
Vae Victis
Let me add that income inequality means nothing to me. If the top guy is making 1,000,000X as much as I am and yet I'm 2X as well off as I was 50 years ago I'm fine with that.
Let the rich invest (what else will they do with their money?) I'm very happy with the crumbs from their table and grateful too! I think they do a better job investing than the government ever can.
High taxes and regulation drive business to lower tax and lower regulation places. I want to attract rich people to this country and I want to have conditions such that if they make wise investments they get huge pay offs. The bigger the better.
Envy is not one of my sins (I have others).
Let the rich invest (what else will they do with their money?) I'm very happy with the crumbs from their table and grateful too! I think they do a better job investing than the government ever can.
High taxes and regulation drive business to lower tax and lower regulation places. I want to attract rich people to this country and I want to have conditions such that if they make wise investments they get huge pay offs. The bigger the better.
Envy is not one of my sins (I have others).
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
I don't care if it is technical trickle down or monetary.
The effect is the same. What is the difference between living better on more money or living better on the same money? Makes no difference to me if I'm living better.
Technical trickle down comes from fin-cap. If my wage level is stuck (retired) then technological trickle down looks very attractive to me.
I want faster tech change. That requires investment. Better for me if the investors keep their money than if the government gets it. I'll have my Cray II that much sooner.
The effect is the same. What is the difference between living better on more money or living better on the same money? Makes no difference to me if I'm living better.
Technical trickle down comes from fin-cap. If my wage level is stuck (retired) then technological trickle down looks very attractive to me.
I want faster tech change. That requires investment. Better for me if the investors keep their money than if the government gets it. I'll have my Cray II that much sooner.
Engineering is the art of making what you want from what you can get at a profit.
Whilst nowdays I can find a 500Mhz PC lying in the gutter in my street and bring it home for zero cost, what used to cost a pittance to rent in the past, now costs you far more.
A decade ago I could rent a flat up north in the UK for $120 a month, now a single room, let alone a flat is $800 a month. (Home prices are now so high it would take 8 people on minumn wage to afford the mortgage payments on a single room flat..)
Yet with only 10% of the UK I hear built on, couldn't we just build another load of far cheaper housing on another 10%.. ?
If I wanted to go to university in the UK, it would cost me $150k to do so, there are far less grants now than there once was years ago. (Even then, just because you get a degree doesn't mean your get a job, an example of that is one years class I know who got an IT degree, a year after leaving university, only one had a job, and that was working at the uni!)
Wage levels due to the influx of cheap illegal labour means you now see an hourly wage of $1 an hour not being uncommon at the bottom, even though the offical minumn wage is more like $15.
Rules to get on the government housing list (which in my area was 79,000 last year, is now down to 17,000 after a snazzy re-registration scheme which means you have to register each year to stay on the list, only they are not so good at telling you this..) now mean you must have lived in an area for 10 years before being elegiable, and have proof of for each month of those ten years!
All the time this is leading to what might be described as a 3 class system, those with money at the top, those who can exploit the government benefit system in the middle and those at the bottom.
I'm all for encouraging rich folk, its just that I see too much greed in the eyes of many, who once they are alright, don't really think about helping those at the bottom.
Its one of the reasons I want to build my own village/town, provide very low cost rented housing so even the poorest can stand a chance to get a roof over their head, rather than having to squeese 50+ people into a 3 bedroom home just to afford to pay the rent..
(I don't intend to do this at a loss, but at a profit, but plough the profit back into the community, almost like a cooperative, rather than to extract it and spend it on holidays for myself..)
As such, a Technocratic approach looks worthwhile to examine to see what aspects of it might benefit implimenting in a society, and to that end, I have joined the Network of European Technocrats in an endeavour to test out these theories in a MMORPG environment at first (Having already played Eve-online for 2 years previously, where I tested out two approaches to group managment, the democratic and the dictatorship style, with the latter being 10x more productive GDP wise for the same work hours.), and a real life village when enough funding can be raised. (I have pledged 10% of profits from one of my businesses towards NET's goals, whilst the other 90% I'm going to spend working on the problem myself, but I hope to see some overlap and common ground between both myself and NET such that spending will all end up for a single purpose in the end, eg. cheap housing for the poor.)
To me, cheap rented housing would solve several key issues effecting the UK today;
Mobility of labour, its hard for people to easily move to where there are jobs if housing isn't available there within their budget range.
High wages causing companies to subcontract out to either illegal cheap labour locally, or to another country. Solution I see there is by providing very low cost housing, you could provide a supply of cheap legal minumn wage labour pool for companies and thus provide the means for people to support themselves, rather than rely on government handouts.
A gated community approach where law and order can be established, even if that means a private security force keeping trouble makers at bay. This would provide a safer environment for middle income+ people and familes to move to, and thus avoid creating just another poor ghetto environment full of low paid people.
To that end, I had pondered a rental approach based on square footage;
Rent of $200 a month gives you say 400 square feet of space, suitable for one or two very poor people.
Rent of $800 a month, giving you say 1,600 square feet, suitable for a couple on middle income range.
And rent of $8,000 a month, for wealthy individuals who want a village life without having to employ a team of security guards just to make sure its safe to buy a bottle of milk at the corner shop..
I'm keen on the scientific approach of testing various ways of running communities so we can fully document and see which actual approach in practice gives the best results. As at the moment, you have a bunch different folk all saying their way is best, and little clear idea on what actually is the best approach to take. (And one of the main reasons to run a MMORPG, so one can test out theories in a controlled environment, as at least with the European Technocrats, they are willing to change their mind on theories if it can be proven there is a better way of doing things, unlike most other groups who are set in their ways.)
I can only see as far as the benefits of cheap housing, and little beyond that, so would welcome ideas on how to take things further and develop a thriving local industry (which sadly is rather a bad word here, in that many green groups are against the idea of wealth creation through industrial job creation, yet how is everything going to be paid for!) whose profits are reapplied to the local community, and not extracted in the form of shares or property values.
Also, as such, I'm keen on such things as geothermal power to provide low cost electric to not just peoples homes, but to local industry to make it more competitive against imports.
And such approaches as looking at providing free public transport in the shape of taxi's, on the basis that it appears to offer a better solution than buses. (Eg. no need for street furniture buses, or bus routes which tend to cause congestion, instead let taxi's take the shortest A to B route via side streets. No need for fare collection, or evasion worries, no big expensive buses..) No waiting times in the rain at bus stops, instead door to door transport, no sharing with smelly people! less road accidents due to having only a small section of your population actually driving.
http://www.taxibus.org.uk
I'm keen on an earth sheltered village design, so that the topside can still be used for farming, or pretty countryside, thus avoiding the need to blot the landscape with modern day carbuncles. Plus earth sheltered can provide security benefits from adverse weather, crime, and long term low maintence, along side low heating/cooling costs if your employing geothermal heatpumps at the very least.
http://www.foe.co.uk/forum/index.php?to ... icseen#new
For the greens argument against geothermal working in the UK.
The GEOHIL method of extracting geothermal energy looks promising (Though UK greens inform me that it cannot work according to the laws of physics.. so I would welcome a more educated look at it by anyone here who could tell me whether its a route I should be examing in more detail or not..)
GEOHIL method here www.bassfeld.ch
For those interested in what I have in mind architectually, I've began to put together some walk through videos of the building designs I have in mind, as I was getting a lot of confusion from people on just what underground earth shelted housing might look like. (Baring in mind these are hurridly put together examples, but begin to give a feel as to the space and light I have in mind.)
http://uk.youtube.com/user/NDTRA
As I get more time, I'll improve the videos, flesh out some furniture, build the outside countryside/etc. so it all ends up pretty looking. (I'm looking at moving the videos to a Silverlight front ended site to allow for better picture quality, as youtube only allows low res storage.)
A decade ago I could rent a flat up north in the UK for $120 a month, now a single room, let alone a flat is $800 a month. (Home prices are now so high it would take 8 people on minumn wage to afford the mortgage payments on a single room flat..)
Yet with only 10% of the UK I hear built on, couldn't we just build another load of far cheaper housing on another 10%.. ?
If I wanted to go to university in the UK, it would cost me $150k to do so, there are far less grants now than there once was years ago. (Even then, just because you get a degree doesn't mean your get a job, an example of that is one years class I know who got an IT degree, a year after leaving university, only one had a job, and that was working at the uni!)
Wage levels due to the influx of cheap illegal labour means you now see an hourly wage of $1 an hour not being uncommon at the bottom, even though the offical minumn wage is more like $15.
Rules to get on the government housing list (which in my area was 79,000 last year, is now down to 17,000 after a snazzy re-registration scheme which means you have to register each year to stay on the list, only they are not so good at telling you this..) now mean you must have lived in an area for 10 years before being elegiable, and have proof of for each month of those ten years!
All the time this is leading to what might be described as a 3 class system, those with money at the top, those who can exploit the government benefit system in the middle and those at the bottom.
I'm all for encouraging rich folk, its just that I see too much greed in the eyes of many, who once they are alright, don't really think about helping those at the bottom.
Its one of the reasons I want to build my own village/town, provide very low cost rented housing so even the poorest can stand a chance to get a roof over their head, rather than having to squeese 50+ people into a 3 bedroom home just to afford to pay the rent..
(I don't intend to do this at a loss, but at a profit, but plough the profit back into the community, almost like a cooperative, rather than to extract it and spend it on holidays for myself..)
As such, a Technocratic approach looks worthwhile to examine to see what aspects of it might benefit implimenting in a society, and to that end, I have joined the Network of European Technocrats in an endeavour to test out these theories in a MMORPG environment at first (Having already played Eve-online for 2 years previously, where I tested out two approaches to group managment, the democratic and the dictatorship style, with the latter being 10x more productive GDP wise for the same work hours.), and a real life village when enough funding can be raised. (I have pledged 10% of profits from one of my businesses towards NET's goals, whilst the other 90% I'm going to spend working on the problem myself, but I hope to see some overlap and common ground between both myself and NET such that spending will all end up for a single purpose in the end, eg. cheap housing for the poor.)
To me, cheap rented housing would solve several key issues effecting the UK today;
Mobility of labour, its hard for people to easily move to where there are jobs if housing isn't available there within their budget range.
High wages causing companies to subcontract out to either illegal cheap labour locally, or to another country. Solution I see there is by providing very low cost housing, you could provide a supply of cheap legal minumn wage labour pool for companies and thus provide the means for people to support themselves, rather than rely on government handouts.
A gated community approach where law and order can be established, even if that means a private security force keeping trouble makers at bay. This would provide a safer environment for middle income+ people and familes to move to, and thus avoid creating just another poor ghetto environment full of low paid people.
To that end, I had pondered a rental approach based on square footage;
Rent of $200 a month gives you say 400 square feet of space, suitable for one or two very poor people.
Rent of $800 a month, giving you say 1,600 square feet, suitable for a couple on middle income range.
And rent of $8,000 a month, for wealthy individuals who want a village life without having to employ a team of security guards just to make sure its safe to buy a bottle of milk at the corner shop..
I'm keen on the scientific approach of testing various ways of running communities so we can fully document and see which actual approach in practice gives the best results. As at the moment, you have a bunch different folk all saying their way is best, and little clear idea on what actually is the best approach to take. (And one of the main reasons to run a MMORPG, so one can test out theories in a controlled environment, as at least with the European Technocrats, they are willing to change their mind on theories if it can be proven there is a better way of doing things, unlike most other groups who are set in their ways.)
I can only see as far as the benefits of cheap housing, and little beyond that, so would welcome ideas on how to take things further and develop a thriving local industry (which sadly is rather a bad word here, in that many green groups are against the idea of wealth creation through industrial job creation, yet how is everything going to be paid for!) whose profits are reapplied to the local community, and not extracted in the form of shares or property values.
Also, as such, I'm keen on such things as geothermal power to provide low cost electric to not just peoples homes, but to local industry to make it more competitive against imports.
And such approaches as looking at providing free public transport in the shape of taxi's, on the basis that it appears to offer a better solution than buses. (Eg. no need for street furniture buses, or bus routes which tend to cause congestion, instead let taxi's take the shortest A to B route via side streets. No need for fare collection, or evasion worries, no big expensive buses..) No waiting times in the rain at bus stops, instead door to door transport, no sharing with smelly people! less road accidents due to having only a small section of your population actually driving.
http://www.taxibus.org.uk
I'm keen on an earth sheltered village design, so that the topside can still be used for farming, or pretty countryside, thus avoiding the need to blot the landscape with modern day carbuncles. Plus earth sheltered can provide security benefits from adverse weather, crime, and long term low maintence, along side low heating/cooling costs if your employing geothermal heatpumps at the very least.
http://www.foe.co.uk/forum/index.php?to ... icseen#new
For the greens argument against geothermal working in the UK.
The GEOHIL method of extracting geothermal energy looks promising (Though UK greens inform me that it cannot work according to the laws of physics.. so I would welcome a more educated look at it by anyone here who could tell me whether its a route I should be examing in more detail or not..)
GEOHIL method here www.bassfeld.ch
For those interested in what I have in mind architectually, I've began to put together some walk through videos of the building designs I have in mind, as I was getting a lot of confusion from people on just what underground earth shelted housing might look like. (Baring in mind these are hurridly put together examples, but begin to give a feel as to the space and light I have in mind.)
http://uk.youtube.com/user/NDTRA
As I get more time, I'll improve the videos, flesh out some furniture, build the outside countryside/etc. so it all ends up pretty looking. (I'm looking at moving the videos to a Silverlight front ended site to allow for better picture quality, as youtube only allows low res storage.)