I like the Scandinavian version of "salad."

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Cool stuff - our first Scandinavian Sift up?

>> ^vaire2ube:

works on so many levels... well about three


Well Mroney is Scandinavian for Mormon Fucktard.

lolz
In reply to this comment by geo321:
My instant reaction to that is a memory of Ferris Bueler's day off. lol. Ididn't see the connection to my Scandinavian video before.

My instant reaction to that is a memory of Ferris Bueler's day off. lol. Ididn't see the connection to my Scandinavian video before.
In reply to this comment by lurgee:
ha! they sampled this


In reply to this comment by geo321:
This is one I sifted way back when that will annoy you unless you're under the influence of something.....

>> ^longde:

It just seems like you have an ax to grind with africans, and your last comments show it.
African people aren't violent warlords; but they are homophobic, dogmatic, and patently dishonest. I get it. Thanks for your contributions to this anti-stereotyping video.
Who doesn't try to put themselves in the best light? British people, atheists, and gay people -three of the most moral peoples on the planet -never do that. >> ^Deano:
>> ^longde:
I'd rather like to see you in Nairobi in their faces patronizingly asking them about their personal beliefs.

I'd be quite happy to. Though I don't see why it would have to be patronising. If you want to have an honest dialogue then those matters are going to come up and everyone should be willing to discuss them.
It would make a change from my experience in London where it's quite the opposite way around. I often encounter Nigerians who are often more than comfortable sharing their views about religion and not so subtle opinions about homosexuality. They tend to be women due to the sector I'm in and one was so pushy as to wonder what I did on a Sunday if I didn't go to church. And then followed it with "Are you gay?" She was blissfully unaware that she was putting herself in disciplinary trouble. She just didn't care.
My mate used to work at the passport office here in London which was the centre of quite a few heated political disputes in the last few years. The workforce included a bunch of really nice African guys but dodgy as hell and always pulling some scam.
This is, in my view, definitely a cultural difference. My friend is a straight arrow, very reliable and honest so the contrast between him and others (hell even myself as I like to cut corners sometimes) is more pronounced. In another country some of those behaviours (including racial bullying and generally taking the piss) might be fine but here not so much. The problem with the passport office is that they lacked leadership and strong management so everyone ran amok.
So getting back to the video, yes it's nice to challenge stereotypes but let's remove the rose-tinted spectacles at the same time. I'm sure these chaps are as super nice as they are depicted, but it IS a depiction designed to promote a charitable cause. Everyone has prejudices and blind spots, everyone can and will be an arsehole. Even after you strip away the stereotype you can't get rid of that.



Apologies for not replying promptly @longde but work has consumed most of my time over the weekend.

I have no axe to grind. I thought I had expressed myself clearly but I apologise for failing to do that. My original comment was intended to counter the somewhat rosy, unrealistic and some might say shallow depiction of African men in the video.

It's not much different from those lovely promo videos showing off everyone in their best light (anyting from the Olympics springs to mind). We intuitively KNOW the reality behind such things and my comment was merely a reminder of that. And I put the smiley face on because, no, I do not have a problem with anyone from Africa and I resent that accusation. I have plenty of experience and appreciation for people from all walks of life but I'm not afraid to call it as it is. If this video was going the other way I'd be providing counter-examples as well. I've got plenty of experience of the good and bad in people - and if you heard me rant about my Norwegian family I can only assume you'd think me anti-Scandinavian

Finally I'm a bit puzzled by your last sentence. It really doesn't make any sense to me. Perhaps you could explain. Honest question.

@Drachen_Jager, ah you have been the perfect intellectual gentleman indeed, while I've been all over with my crazy analogies. Hey, I'm just glad you narrowed it down to Sweden.

It's never enough that history is littered with examples of socialist countries just plain failing, Sweden and other Scandinavian countries (including Finland, sorry Ryjkyj!) have to be touted as examples of socialism's success, when they're mostly cases of countries that achieve moderate success *despite* socialism because they just happen to not be as socialist as liberals claim they are. They were the worst in their history when they were the most socialist, and Sweden has since moved away gradually towards capitalism and experienced growth as a result.
http://www.thewelfarestatewerein.com/education/2011/07/sweden-is-not-marilyn-munroe.php

The reason is this , in general most african countries are pore so the only the ritchest fsamilies in africa will get to send kids to USA and given the distance and cost they have to make the most of it or they will get boloxed by there family they will also be aware of how fucked they might be if they don't get a high degree.

the same thing happens with indean and Chinese students or allot of students that are studying in another nation to there own , if you are going to another country to specifcsly study something chances are you have a specifc motivation and will be sumone that will work harder at the given subject.

another factor is that forghen students in a given nation are often older and have held jobs and so have more maturity and drive than your average native student thats just progressed through the schooling system . In uk you find allot of Scandinavian students that come into degrees have more knowlage and practical skills than some of the lecturers and are simply doing the degree for the paper at the end that says they have a degree/masters.

We are at a time where you can easily pick up a 1970s standerd of knowlage from the internet alone its all there years of lectures and free acces to reeding materals , grante din the 70s you could get allot from books but the internet offers a streem line way to learn and comunication with people that can help guide you where as pre 80s you would realy have to be told what books to get or buy acess to the knowlage and tutorship.

@GenjiKilpatrick

Try to elevate intellectual discourse and be a champion of science even if it goes against Western cultural mores. This was a key point you were looking for: "Whatever policies get increased by a shift to socialism are fair to call socialist."

Before you resort to insults, you should be prepared to explain how advocating East Asian, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigration is anti-immigration. Asians do count as minorities, even though they score so much better than white people that liberals discriminate against Asians in college admissions.

We bring you peace.
>> ^chilaxe:

@Porksandwich "Socialism works in other countries, and works quite well."

Does this apply to socialist countries outside of northern Europe?
Socialism works in Scandinavia because it's full of Scandinavians. Scandinavians in the US - regardless of whether their family has been here 100 years or 1 year - are like East Asians and Jews in the US... they contribute to society at a rate far above other cultural groups.
If the US was full of Scandinavians it would rank similarly to Scandinavia, regardless of the differences in economic systems. US outcomes in general are driven by cultural groups.

>> ^chilaxe:

@Porksandwich "Socialism works in other countries, and works quite well."

Does this apply to socialist countries outside of northern Europe?
Socialism works in Scandinavia because it's full of Scandinavians. Scandinavians in the US - regardless of whether their family has been here 100 years or 1 year - are like East Asians and Jews in the US... they contribute to society at a rate far above other cultural groups.
If the US was full of Scandinavians it would rank similarly to Scandinavia, regardless of the differences in economic systems. US outcomes in general are driven by cultural groups.


It would be a lie to say you knew every aspect of every country without living in those countries to judge whether it "works" or not. You'd have to live at every income level and in various locations within each country to really KNOW for yourself. For example the US works quite well if you are a billionaire, but not so much if you make minimum wage. Your opportunity chance is going to be a magnitude higher as a billionaire, and if you fail you won't be destitute...versus the minimum wage worker.

With that said, there is a general theme in the US that if they don't believe they came up with the idea, plan of execution and implementation without basing any of it on "other" countries then we don't want it.

The common argument during the universal healthcare debate was that while other countries offer it, it wouldn't work in the US. And that's where the explanation usually ended, they would always follow up with the US needs to come up with it's own solution. And then inevitably it would be slight changes to the current system that already doesn't work for many. Then we would ignore that something like 30-35% of the US population is already receiving Medicare/Medicaid coverage that would typically be considered a universal healthcare program if it included everyone else.

It was a really disingenuous argument when you consider that they are trying to keep corporations involved in healthcare and never considered that maybe they should throw them out of the decision making process until they've come up with a plan. Then figure out how they could allow them in that wouldn't be detrimental.

I just think they never looked at other countries implementations to see what they could use for a framework in the US and see what would be required to implement it corporations or not.

But the point of all this is that, despite the evidence that things work in other countries. The US fosters the idea that borrowing ideas from other countries and suiting them to ourselves makes us inferior, and we'd rather stew in the mess we've created until we can come up with something wholly uninfluenced by things outside the country rather than try to fix it sooner by looking abroad. This would be a fine mentality if we didn't cut funding on things that were designed to give us the edge when it comes to discoveries of new things and ideas throughout various fields. There was a time when we were openly giving many of those findings to other countries to do what they will with them, but now we in turn are too good to look at them and consider what we could gain from their methods.

Our government is there to serve and protect it's people, but it doesn't protect them from corporations through regulations or limitations of the powers they have over us. SOPA and John Doe piracy lawsuits are good examples. Mortgage crisis is better. None of those serve the people or the society the people make up. And corporations are not people, so they are part of the society but they do not create the society. Corporations should exist as long as they are beneficial to society, not a minute longer.

It may be cultural group driven, but it seems the younger people are willing to abandon cultural beliefs to attempt something else so they have a chance at a future. We as a nation are unwilling to undo what we have done...we look at our past and despite there being evidence of marching down a slowly declining path that is becoming steeper and steeper.....we continue downward. Now we have to wonder if it's so dark we can't see the huge spiked pit with the very narrow walkway for the well off to tread upon. While the rest of us walk blindly into the pit.

Wool over our eyes, blinders, cart on a lead. Tracks to the cliffs edge. Whatever analogy you want to use.

Edited for clarity and thinking ahead and using the wrong word in a couple places.

@Porksandwich "Socialism works in other countries, and works quite well."


Does this apply to socialist countries outside of northern Europe?

Socialism works in Scandinavia because it's full of Scandinavians. Scandinavians in the US - regardless of whether their family has been here 100 years or 1 year - are like East Asians and Jews in the US... they contribute to society at a rate far above other cultural groups.

If the US was full of Scandinavians it would rank similarly to Scandinavia, regardless of the differences in economic systems. US outcomes in general are driven by cultural groups.

Actually there are a lot of people that aren't "white" in Minnesota... well the Twin Cities area at least. If I'm not mistaken it has the largest population of Somali immigrants in the country. There's also a large Hmong and Hispanic community, as well as a large African American population. That said there's a lot of Scandinavians and Germans too.

As for the Carlson School of Mgmt... I can't stand that place. It's a school for taking spoiled little children that haven't worked a day in their lives and trains them to be the next generation of middle management, or worse, executives. Luckily the building is surrounded by the Arts Quarter, so at least they're outnumbered during their brief tenure at the U.

>> ^therealblankman:

Hey here's a question... are there any black people in Minnesota? If there are, apparently none of them go to this school.

Common sense would dictate that drug companies be allowed to offer deals to terminally ill patients, perhaps in exchange for paying for their care. But the FDA is there to make sure common sense is kept locked away.

Everything you've stated is true, and the fadeouts of these potential 'cures' certainly don't sell papers like hype does.



>> ^bamdrew:

These are costly and typically slow-moving ventures. A lot of waiting for approvals, signing up and weeding through subjects, processing collected data, etc.. Many promising ideas get lost in the ~4-8 years from rodent animal model to large human trials (researchers leave the project following new ideas, funding dries up, etc.).
One trick you'll often see if you look for it is the country the initial human data is collected in; Portugal (and Scandinavian countries to an extent) has laws with a higher tolerance for experimental use of clinically approved devices and devices shown to be biocompatible than the US, so you'll see a group from Purdue in the middle of Indiana gathering data with surgical staff and subjects who are in Portugal.
The study you cite is also surgically invasive, and the obese subjects are not going to be the healthiest people out there... the fear of random health complications can keep project leaders up at night, and can quietly kill a project if they're bad enough. Related to the study you cite, I'm aware of vagal nerve stimulation being researched for treating depression... in other words, systems in the body that seem straightforward often reveal themselves to be a part of complex, intertwined feedback loops.

>> ^quantumushroom:
While far from a conspiracy nut, I notice that fat-reducing products that have great potential (and even actual results) are never seen nor heard from again. In America alone the 'diet industry' is 40 billion a year.

Two I remember:

Intra-abdominal vagal blocking (VBLOC therapy): clinical results with a new implantable medical device
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18549888


There was also a pill that mimicked exercise (stuck at the mouse phase).
Both of these items are from 2007-2008.

These are costly and typically slow-moving ventures. A lot of waiting for approvals, signing up and weeding through subjects, processing collected data, etc.. Many promising ideas get lost in the ~4-8 years from rodent animal model to large human trials (researchers leave the project following new ideas, funding dries up, etc.).

One trick you'll often see if you look for it is the country the initial human data is collected in; Portugal (and Scandinavian countries to an extent) has laws with a higher tolerance for experimental use of clinically approved devices and devices shown to be biocompatible than the US, so you'll see a group from Purdue in the middle of Indiana gathering data with surgical staff and subjects who are in Portugal.

The study you cite is also surgically invasive, and the obese subjects are not going to be the healthiest people out there... the fear of random health complications can keep project leaders up at night, and can quietly kill a project if they're bad enough. Related to the study you cite, I'm aware of vagal nerve stimulation being researched for treating depression... in other words, systems in the body that seem straightforward often reveal themselves to be a part of complex, intertwined feedback loops.


>> ^quantumushroom:

While far from a conspiracy nut, I notice that fat-reducing products that have great potential (and even actual results) are never seen nor heard from again. In America alone the 'diet industry' is 40 billion a year.

Two I remember:

Intra-abdominal vagal blocking (VBLOC therapy): clinical results with a new implantable medical device
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18549888


There was also a pill that mimicked exercise (stuck at the mouse phase).
Both of these items are from 2007-2008.