Your video, Why Didn't Germans Just Go Around the Berlin Wall?, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

That was amazing! *doublepromote

Locations in order of appearance:

1:15 Pont de Bir-Hakeim, Paris, France
1:30 Berlin Wall Memorial, Berlin, Germany
1:43 La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain
1:56 Hoxton Alley, London, UK
2:11 Regents Park, London, UK
2:33 Calle Traghetto Vecchio, Venice, Italy
2:49 St. Pauls Cathedral, London, UK
3:08 Rooftop Terrace, Copenhagen, Denmark
3:25 Sand Dunes, Dubai, UAE
3:33 Red Square, Moscow, Russia
3:45 Gulfoss and Gljúfurárfoss Waterfalls, Iceland
4:01 Mrs. Macqauries Point, Sydney, Australia
4:19 Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo, Japan
4:36 Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, United States of America

Very, very interesting -- thanks for the sift!

I'd love to see more, specifically about the US / Cuba talks and the Pope's involvement. As an atheist, I tend to think of Catholicism / the Pope / organized religion in general as generally having a primarily negative influence on world affairs (Crusades, Inquisition, birth control, anti-condoms, molestation, homophobia, etc.), but negotiating peace and better relations between the US and Cuba is a pretty undeniably positive thing.

I knew Latin American countries were highly Catholic, but I kinda figured that some of the USSR anti-religious stance would have rubbed off on Cuba. I guess maybe it did, but the missile crisis and fall of the Berlin wall / end of the cold war was long enough ago that Cuba has greater freedom to make up their own minds on this sort of thing.

Enough so that perhaps the Pope's involvement was necessary, or at least very helpful, to act as a mediator between the two sides. Props where props are due.

Anyway, all quite interesting.

@rbar np, take your time, I'm quite busy as well.

Did East Germany have a great economy? Like you said, it faired well in some sectors, highly subsidized sectors I might add, at the huge expense of the rest of its economy which was miserable compared to West Germany (or to what it could be if it were capitalistic). Think of all the "luxuries" enjoyed right outside the Berlin Wall that were denied to east germans. Can you see purchasing or providing those products and services as economic activity being denied, and, therefore, less cooperation?

You have to question your assumption that capitalism universally strives for competition, or that it always should, or that it's the philosophy of free markets to make everyone compete. There are forces *for* and *against* competition everywhere in capitalism, from those who benefit and lose from it, respectively. I think that's what you mean by "near perfect competition", the perfection being the balance between competing and not competing as required.

Why are labor unions formed? So workers can compete less with each other and cooperate for better employment terms. Does that favor companies? No, but who cares, it's meant to favor the workers. Why are cartels formed? So companies can compete less with each other and cooperate for better profits. Is that good for the consumers? Usually not, but it's good for the companies in the cartel. Why are consumer groups formed... you get the point. These institutions operate against competition, but that doesn't make them any less capitalistic or contrary to the incentives of free markets, assuming they're formed without the use of force, criminal or lawful. A lawful association between individuals or companies to cooperate instead of compete with each other is capitalism at work too.

When you talk about situations where there is less or no competition, you're not considering the competition that arises on the other side of the demand-supply relation!

If there is large demand and little supply, you correctly point out that there is little competition *among suppliers*, right? However, aren't you overlooking the increased competition among the *demanders*? Like I said, competition is increasing as supply and demand differ. Who is competing with whom is beside the point.

You might argue, "well, how is competition among the demand going to help??", because it sucks to be in the demand for something in low supply, that unmet demand represents an incentive for more supply. Supplying something in high demand is a coveted position. Resources from elsewhere will tend to be allocated towards that coveted position, supplying that demand, and increasing competition in what started out as a less or non-competitive environment.

So, I don't follow your "markets universally tend towards monopolies" argument. As much as companies like monopolies, they like it because it profits from the clients/consumers' desperate demand for it, but these people are not ok with fighting each other for something in low supply. THAT is the incentive towards competition, towards destabilizing any monopoly that abuses its position.

The derivatives market is a complex example, but you're blaming the "free market", when the banking system is far from a free market if there's a central bank. Banks should be allowed to make risky investments and, if these investments don't pan out, they should pay the price with loss and bankruptcy, like it happens with any business that makes bad decisions. That is one of the best incentives to make good decisions! If the whole banking system is to blame for that, then it would collapse, which would be disastrous, but it would expose the disaster that is central banking.

Would the government want society to realize that central banking is terrible? Of course not, they're the ones who profit from it the most, which is why it stepped in with a massive taxpayer-funded bailout. None of what I just described is allowed in a free market.

Just like people realized the Church and State should be separate centuries ago, it will take a while for people to realize the State and Banks should be separate as well. The evidence is unravelling right before us.

why is he stood next to Berlin wall and why is this been recorded on a Phonograph cylinder ?

but nice.

>> ^jwray:

"Lying cunt" in what way?


look here! :-)

The comment toward the end is exactly what I was thinking when I heard the news. This is this generation's "Berlin Wall" moment.

I can't sleep when I think about the times we're living in,
I can't sleep when I think about the future I was born into,
Outsiders dressed up like Sunday morning,
With no Berlin wall what the hell you gonna do.

(Chorus:)
It's a New Year,
I'm glad to be here
It's a fresh spring,
So let's sing.

In 2080
I'll surely be dead
So don't look ahead,
Never look ahead

It's a New Year,
I'm glad to be here
It's the first spring,
So let's sing.

And the moon shines bright
On the water tonight
So we won't drown
In the summer sound.

If you find me I'll be sitting by the water fountain,
Picket signs, letdowns, meltdown it's Monday morning
But it's alright, it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
It's alright,
Cause in no time, They'll be gone I guess I'll still be standing here.

(Chorus)

(Bridge:)
Yeah Yeah we can all grab at the chance and be handsome farmers,
Yeah you can have twenty one sons and be blood when they marry my daughters,
And the pain that we left at the station will stay in a jar behind us.
We can pickle the pain into blue ribbon winners at county contests.

(Chorus)

(Bridge)

>> ^westy:
um WTF , why are people so moronic.
The only times its worth standing outside in the cold is for like the colaps of the Berlin wall or something like that. this blindly idolising and celebrating people is irrational ignorant and dangerous.


Haven't you realized?! Barak is the second coming! Join the club, douche!

um WTF , why are people so moronic.

The only times its worth standing outside in the cold is for like the colaps of the Berlin wall or something like that. this blindly idolising and celebrating people is irrational ignorant and dangerous.

Give me back my broken night
my mirrored room, my secret life
it's lonely here,
there's no one left to torture

Give me absolute control
over every living soul
And lie beside me, baby,
that's an order!

Give me crack and anal sex
Take the only tree that's left
and stuff it up the hole
in your culture

Give me back the Berlin wall
give me Stalin and St Paul
I've seen the future, brother:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it has overturned
The order of the soul

When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant.

You don't know me from the wind
You never will, you never did
I'm the little Jew
Who wrote the Bible

I've seen the nations rise and fall
I've heard their stories, heard them all
But love's the only engine of survival.

Your servant here, he has been told
to say it clear, to say it cold:
It's over, it ain't going any further.

And now the wheels of heaven stop
You feel the devil's riding crop
Get ready for the future:
it is murder.

When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant
When they said REPENT, REPENT
I wonder what they meant.

There'll be the breaking of the ancient Western code
Your private life will suddenly explode
There'll be phantoms
There'll be fires on the road
And a white man dancing..

You'll see a woman
Hanging upside down
Her features covered by her fallen gown
And all the lousy little poets
Coming round
Tryin' to sound like Charlie Manson
And the white man dancin'.

Give me back the Berlin wall
Give me Stalin and St Paul
Give me Christ
or give me Hiroshima
Destroy another fetus now
We don't like children anyhow
I've seen the future, baby:
it is murder.

Things are going to slide, slide in all directions
Won't be nothing
Nothing you can measure anymore
The blizzard, the blizzard of the world
Has crossed the threshold
And it has overturned
The order of the soul

When they said REPENT, REPENT ...

Thanks!

In reply to this comment by RhesusMonk:
on the contrary: *promote this gem! this is a folklorish remnant of our post cold war *history. and so magically facetious.

They were pictures of some of the single moments that portrayed world-changing events or at least photos that revealed startling and unseen significant events occurring at the ignorance of most of the rest of the world. They are hindsight exemplified for sure. I recognized most of them or at least could identify what they were shooting and I've seen them in my history classes or at least in historical articles. Rougy's right. There wasn't a complete centering on America, but even if it had, America defined many of the paradigm shifts in western culture of the recent decades.

The prohibition pic may have been a bad choice I'll admit, but that's one out of how many? Come on.

Tell me that Tienamen Square, Vietnam, the nuke, Titanic, Hindenburg, flight, exploration of ancient cultures, scaling Everest, the Nazi holocaust, the fall of the Berlin wall, the Indonesian tsunami, and the Beatles are purely a American and I'll eat my hat.

Please tell me the Beatles are purely American. I'd like to watch all the brits around beat you to a pulp.

racist.

In reply to this comment by kronosposeidon:
Thanks black man!

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Well, it's about time that comic book nerd got himself a rank of *quality! He's only been here since just after World War II! Congrats, K0MMIE, though I think your fascist death grip has loosened since the fall of the Berlin wall. Here's some government provided A$$ GR@V33 for you.

Thanks black man!

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Well, it's about time that comic book nerd got himself a rank of *quality! He's only been here since just after World War II! Congrats, K0MMIE, though I think your fascist death grip has loosened since the fall of the Berlin wall. Here's some government provided A$$ GR@V33 for you.