I guess I should clarify; I think that the pace of our advances is being bottlenecked by our current system because we (as nations) continue to exploit via a relentless focus on profit rather than try to actually spread knowledge and tech as best we can.

A free education system for the world would be incredibly easy to achieve with our current technology, but as nations we don't even try to aim for such a thing. As universities and other education institutions (publishing companies, etc), we have no incentive to truly aim for this in the current paradigm because it reverses profit growth (which, honestly, in the case of education, is pretty much all over-inflated anyway). There's no malicious intent, no conspiracy, and noble goals abound, but we're doing it at a snail's pace out of selfishness.

Individual people act much more nobly than large, well-established institutions. You see a rather strong trend of such large groups behaving closer to the "rational" approach from economic game theory, i.e. the one where self-preservation and gain are maximized first and foremost. If we just rely on our institutions to fix the problems at their root or think that the incidental improvements tied to increased tech and knowledge are being nurtured even half as well as they could be, I think we'd be gravely mistaken.

I think we both ultimately hope for the same outcome, but we clearly disagree on the extent to which our current society(/societies) effectively move towards those outcomes. I would personally like to see us double down on those things that help move us forward.

EDIT: Some examples of ways we're bullshitting ourselves and not doing half as much as we could, for your pleasure.

Princeton University's motto is "In the service of the nation and of all nations" (probably slightly off on the phrasing, sorry), and they have BILLIONS of dollars of endowment. If they and their alumni network took this motto seriously, with their knowledge of business, tech, and science, they could easily bring entire nations out of poverty by simply helping local people adapt tech in sustainable ways to provide food for their population more easily, institute strong education access, and more. Harvard, Oxford, all the other big names are in similar situations. They can do SO MUCH, but just do little projects while answering to their boards about making sure to keep the cash flow positive, keep the endowment growing, keep using alumni donations to pay for things where possible. It's bullshit.

Most large organized religions are also lazy about service. There are many who do seriously just aim at food and medical aid, but most are more interested in conversions and extra tithes than eliminating poverty. How many Christian missionaries of various sects are there around the world? Of them, how many devote their missions to actual service of everyone they can to show their religion through their works as opposed to just focusing on bringing people into the fold via preaching? Additionally, the old "teach a man to fish" concept comes into play here; giving food is good, but we need to be helping people help themselves as well so that they can thrive.

I know shit is very complicated and the answers aren't easy, but we can EASILY do better than this.

Wouldn't it actually be easier if he maintained exactly 8.65mph (ideally) in the run-up? If he's going any faster, then he'd just be fighting his own linear momentum as soon as the incline started, being that he's not a rolling wheel or ball and instead relies on stationary foot placement and pushing to move. On the other hand, once the direction starts changing you'd have to pump really hard to maintain speed.

I would also imagine he needs to engage his core muscles to keep from folding forward; my understanding is that there would be a significant "outward" force generated, which in this case keeps him on the track, but does so by pushing him against it.

Here is everything my mother remembers about the recipe (and as it turns out, I was wrong about the oatmeal):

Marzipan Coconut Cookies

egg whites
marzipan paste
wheat flour
confectioners' sugar
unsweetened shredded coconut
lemon juice

1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.
2. Combine the other ingredients, then fold in stiff egg whites.
3. Form cookies with a spoon and bake.

The cookies should be golden but still soft.
Optionally, you could add a chocolate glaze to some of the cookies.

She doesn't remember the quantities of the ingredients or the oven temperature. I hope that's okay.

I can spot an atheist a mile away, hehe.
While all those people you admire are atheists, there are 10 fold more people who believe in God but you disregard them. And I'm talking from all religions.
But that's okay. God made atheists and I'm sure God loves atheists. I feel bad for them because of the richness of life they are missing out on. They seem to be very unhappy people and rabidly anti-social. That's a major agenda to fight against everything spiritual.

Later, when he got to work, he folded the car up and put it in his wallet.

But, Africa isn't able to feed itself. Regional instability being an overwhelming part of that. When farmer and family spend a year growing a crop and raising animals for food, only to have men with guns come and take it at the end of the year, your production next year goes down. It doesn't take more than a single generation to go from prosperous ag to mass starvation, and for a multitude of reasons Africa has been facing that problem for multiple generations.

If we can agree the reasons for it are many fold and complicated, can I get agreement that there DO exist circumstances where foreign intervention absolutely is in the interest of the local people? It seems undeniable if you look at Rwanda that all of Central Africa would've been better served by action than the inaction our world collectively provided.

Betcha my "child's play crease-and-fold creation" flies further.

I usually sneeze into a 3-4 times folded handkerchief, fold it one more time to contain the mess and put it in my pocket, and my hands don't get wet. As a kerchief user, it seems odd to go one ply.

In a pinch I'm a fan of bend over and sneeze straight at the floor, elbow is my second choice, straight into the hand is only for the most awkward of positions when the others are not feasible.

The assumption you're making is that these kids are the first people to look at changing packaging when they're not. There are some unbelievably clever card packing solutions out there. Just go and buy a large format HP printer and marvel at the way the box fits every component perfectly, its a real work of art. Rather than a simple box packed with polystyrene packaging they use almost exclusively cleverly folded card inserts and boxes to pack their stuff.

That's fine for very precise requirements but for general packing there's a simplicity to a cardboard box that's very useful. They're dead cheap to make, the material cost is tiny so any savings there really aren't going to be great.

It's the universalness of the product that makes it so useful. Everyone knows what to do with a box, and even if you'd never seen on before you could pretty quickly work out what to do. This clever solution they've found in this video is missing that bit. You'd need to print instructions or train people how to use it and then all your economy is gone.

It's a big industry and the box makers have very clever box designers already working for them and already doing incredibly clever things for lots of very large companies. There's no catching up to be done. The only difference between these kids and the real box designers is that the kids have a youtube video to impress people who aren't in the industry.

What??!?!? You're both wrong. Look @ that stupid pulley setup that's oddly in the shape of a set of folded legs and unusually thick in just the right places.

after the video stops playing it's on a perfect freeze frame of his body for you to see he's all contorted and uncomfortable b/c he's sitting turned exactly 90° facing the audience with his legs facing the right.

so, just put a penny in a folded paper cup and pretend like you are playing ping pong?
This will be the hottest thing in asia in about 3 months.

You see that guy walk away at 2:08 and back again about 3:27. I'd guess he is there to help assist the magician fold and unfold his legs into his white suit so that his legs become his chest while he pushes his butt back into that triangle behind him. The girls of course distract you from that guy and the magician's odd squirming... Still, live for the first time it is probably a neat trick.

Hmm cool, but the fingerprint/DNA collage doesnt really make sense, the "script" window seems to show the 60-something codons that matches the 20 different amino acids that makes up the proteins , and the middle part shows a PCR result in gel electrophoresis, a system of displaying DNA markers, (Admittedly sometimes referred to as DNA fingerprinting, but it doesnt actually have much to do with actual fingerprints..) In short, while these three things are linked in that they all have to do with living cells and identifications, there isnt actually any direct links, and, importantly no direct link to math..

Sure, math is used in genetics, protein folding and I guess fingerprint-recognition, but that particular slide made a mess of it.

He means you fold up the open end to keep it fresher for tomorrow.

Didn't we just have the lifehack in the top sifts? It showed that all you have to do to get a chip bowl is open from the top then start curling/folding in the bottom to push the chips upward until they reach the top. I guess this way is the "non-hack" version.