The tragic irony is that if the vaccination program had continued we would have eradicated all three diseases and future generations wouldn't need to be vaccinated.

After all, most people these days aren't vaccinated for small pox.

>> ^GeeSussFreeK:

I have been considering heading back to school for nuclear engineering for said thorium, @Spacedog79. Problem is, schooling for it is all actually for the uranium stuff, and they mock thorium based reactors. I have a friend whom is a freshman in nuclear engineering and he already discounts it at the direction of his teachers. I think I am going to drop Kirk Sorensen an email and ask what should my course be, I know he just (last year) started the Flibe energy company to develop the LFTR, I want to try and be involved with that in whatever way is the smartest for me. Even so, like this video points out, growth makes it so that even thorium, anything that is consumed is limited. The energy advancement we make will make future generations even more dependent on even further advancements. The failing of that will result in more massive suffering than if no advancement was ever made, or at least that is a risk (one of many). Either way, thorium seems like a good solution in the interim. I'll let you know what I hear, if I hear, from Kirk.


awesome. dig it.

Myself and a few friends are very serious about buying some land and building a sustainable teaching farm in the next few years. aquaponics, etc.

We certainly can't wait for politicians to lead.

I wish more peeps would upvote this vid. sucky title but a very comprehensive summary of the world.

I have been considering heading back to school for nuclear engineering for said thorium, @Spacedog79. Problem is, schooling for it is all actually for the uranium stuff, and they mock thorium based reactors. I have a friend whom is a freshman in nuclear engineering and he already discounts it at the direction of his teachers. I think I am going to drop Kirk Sorensen an email and ask what should my course be, I know he just (last year) started the Flibe energy company to develop the LFTR, I want to try and be involved with that in whatever way is the smartest for me. Even so, like this video points out, growth makes it so that even thorium, anything that is consumed is limited. The energy advancement we make will make future generations even more dependent on even further advancements. The failing of that will result in more massive suffering than if no advancement was ever made, or at least that is a risk (one of many). Either way, thorium seems like a good solution in the interim. I'll let you know what I hear, if I hear, from Kirk.

>> ^Jinx:

History will talk about the American Empire.


It will be written about much like Pravda wrote about the USSR. Future generations will have to look at those books with disgust and current Liberal Academics who talk about our great role in the world will be ridiculed as idiots. Good thing we can write our own books without having our heads chopped off.

His head tilts as the Call of the Wild instinct is rewritten for more cultured future generations.

>> ^petpeeved:

I find it interesting that many of the same constituency (Conservative Christians) who play the "what if it isn't true" card in climate change arguments and are in general what I would describe as science skeptics, make frequent use of the "what if it is true" card (Pascal's Wager) in debates with non-believers.


I really appreciate this comment, 10 upvotes if I could. The hypocrisy and general disservice denialists do to future generations is astounding, appalling and makes me (in cases where the denialist is a christian,) disgusted and ashamed that I used to call myself christian.

Here's a great site for any questions, or nagging "what ifs" people might have.

>> ^Peroxide:

Beautiful. Good thing our civilization isn't causing the destruction of the natural world, and the next great extinction or anything...
http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html
I hate to be Debbie Downer, but lets wake up people, let's make sure future generations can enjoy the beauty of the natural world too.

Well, we might not survive the mess we make of the planet, but life will.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/upload/2011/06/what_mother_nature_thinks_of_u/sweetnature.jpeg

Beautiful. Good thing our civilization isn't causing the destruction of the natural world, and the next great extinction or anything...

http://www.actionbioscience.org/newfrontiers/eldredge2.html

I hate to be Debbie Downer, but lets wake up people, let's make sure future generations can enjoy the beauty of the natural world too.

>> ^Peroxide:

If you cut out all the back and forth rhetoric that inevitably spews between oil(and gas) corporations and communities who want clean air and water and a future, it all comes down to neoclassical economics' false dichotomy.
Corporations (and left and right wing politicians who over romanticize the free market) will tell citizens,
"you can either have:
a) a strong economy, or
b) a clean environment."
and
they
will
insist
we
can't
have
both.

In Canada for the last couple elections people have been scare mongered by this false dichotomy.
I tell you, there is a sustainable economy, there is a sustainable future: dare to dream. Let's all grow the f ck up and build the new economy that defies the bullshit neoclassical economic lies that have been entrenched in our culture. They will tell you the choice is between a job or cancer. Fuck. that. shit.
It's time for the next industrial revolution, the green revolution, I'm in. Change your light bulbs, then change your leaders.


absolutely, this short term thinking they want us to buy in to is nonsense and is ruining everything for future generations.

In light of Jobs' resignation and his appearance, it would seem that this building is Jobs' contribution to the *future.. his "dream" of how business -- his business -- will be in the future.. such that future generations can walk the grounds that he will never see.

Or perhaps only visit in his dreams..

There is a balance between society as a whole providing opportunities and personal responsibility for ones own actions. Sure, kids can feel they have no opportunities if they are locked in a cycle of irresopnsible parents = irresponsible kids. But anyone with an IQ large enough to allow them to tie their own shoes knows that smashing windows, setting fire to others personal property, stealing, and all the other crap that went down is wrong and criminal, regardless of how horrible their home life is. The coddling of these whining morons with a sense of entitlement who look on social programs as a way to fuck the system rather than as a way of getting out of the loop of despair for future generations has to stop. The trough is empty, the programs don't work, and the people who participated in these riots are simply criminals that should be dealt with more harshly than they will be.

How hard could it be? You show up and communicate information within your field of expertise. The students take it all in. Job done.

It's not that simple.

You would have a very different perspective if you ever tried teaching yourself.

If you were responsible for educating 200 - 300 students with different learning styles, different motivating factors, different attention levels, different levels of discipline, different levels of comprehension, different types of psychology, different levels of intelligence, different levels of interest, different levels of sanity, different stages of physiological development (AKA puberty), etc. you'd get it.

In addition to 'teaching', an educator also needs to be a leader, a negotiator, a salesman, a disciplinarian, a politician, an administrator, a motivator, a receptionist, an advocate, a librarian, a manager, a public relations agent, a psychologist, an entertainer, an accountant, and for some students, a parent. If you are a music teacher, you get even more hats - arranger, copyist, bus scheduler, event planner, fund raiser, critic, graphic designer, contractor etc. (Running a high school band is like running a business, complete with a board, fundraiser income, expenses, employees, audits, etc.)

The 'teaching' part is the easiest part of the job. If there weren't so many responsibilities outside of the actual 'teaching', you and chilaxe would have a point. And, I haven't even mentioned dealing with administrators and parents, which is an art in and of itself.

I know you grew up in a region of the country that does not have high educational standards (and cruel stereotypes that reinforce these low standards), so I don't doubt that you've had more than your fair share of bad teachers. If anything, I think you have first hand experience of what happens when public education is neglected and underfunded. If you get the cuts you want in education, you will be saddling future generations with the same substandard education you experienced growing up. Is that really what you want?

I grew up in middle class Southern California, with teachers that were paid fairly, schools that were well funded and parents that involved themselves in the academic lives of their children. (3 of the biggest factors in student achievement). Out of the 40+ teachers I had from K-12, I can think of two that were bad (one was a morbidly obese right wing history teacher that spent as much time praising Reagan and Capitalism as he did teaching history, the other was a self-loathing Science teacher who seemed to fear any kind of social interaction). I can think of 14 that were exceptional teachers and human beings - I'm still in touch with a few of them. The rest were competent at their jobs, if not particularly memorable.

I got good grades and received a half scholarship to a prominent west coast university (fight on). Since then I've had the luxury of being able to play music for a living (and occasionally teach or compose). Public education did me a solid.

PS: I like when you share stories from your life with me. I find it much more moving and persuasive than being called a statist idiot.

It was great to have the opportunity to meet the omnipotent overlord of us all (even those of us now in absentia). And yes, dag and James were drinking fruity beer from a truck, but they were drinking them with THEIR MINDS.


This photograph can also serve as a decade-by-decade survey of popular male pornstar facial hair styles for future generations.

I don't pretend to love every person of every race like leftists do, so there are Blacks I find despicable and Blacks I like. It's almost as if I'm judging people by the content of their character!

As for the stats about crime, no one has a right to their own facts. When it comes to facts, you can either learn them or be ignorant. Righteous indignation and a dollar will buy you a cup of coffee at McDonald's.



>> ^blankfist:

>> ^quantumushroom:
Is that what liberal Blacks are doing? Being 'playfully racist' to make up for oppression they never experienced?
One percent of the population commits 50% of the murders. Sound fair?

>> ^blankfist:
>> ^Sarzy:
Women are allowed to be playfully sexist towards men for the same reason black people are allowed to be racist towards whites -- to make up for hundreds of years of oppression (that is still going on to some extent). It seems like a fair enough deal to me.

Hundreds of years of oppression by dead men. And now every future generation of white people must pay. I never bought into that line of reasoning. I hear it a lot, too.


I think you may not like black people.

>> ^quantumushroom:

Is that what liberal Blacks are doing? Being 'playfully racist' to make up for oppression they never experienced?
One percent of the population commits 50% of the murders. Sound fair?

>> ^blankfist:
>> ^Sarzy:
Women are allowed to be playfully sexist towards men for the same reason black people are allowed to be racist towards whites -- to make up for hundreds of years of oppression (that is still going on to some extent). It seems like a fair enough deal to me.

Hundreds of years of oppression by dead men. And now every future generation of white people must pay. I never bought into that line of reasoning. I hear it a lot, too.



I think you may not like black people.