QM, Oil, regardless of environmental impact, is not a long-term solution. Exploration and drilling is a long process, and the relative depth and scarcity here make it a very expensive process...which is why we import it. And, as oil resources are depleted, too much in the way of this nation's disappearing wealth is used to secure those resources (see Iraq) not to mention the f-ing chaos that ensues.
we are all addicted to oil. It is the reality that we know.

I agree with Fedquip, I don't think we should be downvoting videos for regionblocking.

I like the idea of *regionblocked. Ideally it'd be slightly like *dead, only the video stays where it is (frontpage or queued), but is labeled regionblocked, and gives people of the appropriate rank the ability to change the embed so if they have a non-regionblocked code for it, they can insert it. If a code is inserted, the video loses the regionblocked flag.

I'm as against the braindead mentality of region-locking to create false scarcity as anyone, but us blocking those vids won't bother the corporations doing it at all.

I'd rather put methods for bypassing regionblocking in the FAQ, instead of depriving ourselves of the manna that comes from Comedy Central.

Book review from Publishers Weekly:

A brilliant and important exercise in exposing the limitations of received opinion, this book presents to the lay reader and specialist alike an exhaustively argued case that animals have multiple shades of sexual orientation.

The book is broken into two sections, the second containing species "portraits" detailing recorded homosexual/transgendered behaviors. The main portion of the book sets out to reveal and, indeed, revel in the documented evidence to date that some 450 species engage in both sustained and occasional "gay," "lesbian" and transgendered pairing, parenting and play. Animals (both heterosexual and homosexual) also rape and divorce, commit "child" abuse and infidelity and can be lifelong celibates.

Human claims to uniqueness in this arena are shown to be increasingly difficult to maintain. The overall effect is to detonate the myth that animals are solely driven by heterosexual reproductive urges, as Bagemihl, a biologist, amasses evidence with case study after case study of species ranging from whiptail lizards to bottlenose dolphins, flamingoes, vampire bats and giraffes.

But his book offers more than a zoological laundry list. Biologists who have long classified these behaviors as taking place only in "abnormal" conditions or as "pseudo-copulation," "mistakes," "practicing" and domineering sexual bullying are frequently shown to be willfully ignoring behavior that does not reflect their own worldview or accepted scientific thought.

What might so easily have turned into a tub-thumping activist tract hitched to the need for acceptance of homosexuality among humans is instead elevated to a hugely inclusive, celebratory biological interpretation of the world. Bagemihl convincingly overturns previous inviolable "truths" that scarcity and functionality are the prime agents of biological change, and advances instead the idea that abundance and extravagance ("biological exuberance") are just as crucial to the mosaic of life. Numerous illustrations by John Megahan.

By "abundance and extravagance," I guess they mean, if it overall results in more reproduction, evolution can benefit from turning up biologically-expensive sexual impulses so high that in some cases it results in non-reproductive copulation.

Jonny,
The problem I see is that, rather than his being a perspective or set of ideas which illuminate, he is approaching the question of a God from preconception of existence. This is not one which I share, due to the scarcity of any evidence for God. So I find his continued attempts to seek explanation and meaning though "God" to be like madness. (Why not assume that God is sometimes evil, or cruel, or even moody).
I also find his thoughts on the nature of "God" to be very self-obsessed and unreasonable. He described the change he experienced when giving a sermon on the Tsunami. However, the world did not chance that day, and I find his invocation of that event to be superficial. Perhaps one life cut short is not as objectively terrible than thousands, but for an individual parent or child, one death will be terrible enough. God's omnipotence requires reflection then, not only as the result of a huge tragedy.

His talk seems like a rather ham-fisted attempt to "have his cake and eat it". To maintain the existence of a God, with qualities, while creating those qualities himself.

The comparison with art is interesting, but I don't think art is presumed to be more than the product of human (or animal) imagination. God is. If God and Art are to be equated, then that may be helpful. But that is a significant change from the Creator, the Father, the Sky-Man with plans and designs and laws for us to follow.

*laughs*

never was a huge fan of diamonds. its not hard to see through this charade of scarcity and slick marketing doesn't work on everyone. Part of the reason why diamonds are prized, however, is because they are actually very very pretty. So far as the scarcity hoax goes, that pretty much works on the more well-to-do. Telling a poor person that a pretty bauble is scarce and therefore outside their price range only may make some of them want it more but for the most part, if something completely out of your reach, you don't waste your time fretting over it and no one is spending the family savings on buying a pretty stone just cuz the evil De Beers family makes them believe it is scarce.

As Farhad said, it's marketing, and not all that sophisticated at that. Illusion of scarcity for a luxery item is the only way to keep it valuable. Otherwise it's just a pretty stone.

There is a severe misconception when it comes to discussing the World Trade Organization. Very briefly I will try to clear some things about what the WTO does...

The WTO negotiates trade agreements on the global level between governments for trade standards, it succeeded the General Agreement on Trades and Tarrifs (GATT).

Trade is one of the most important factors of economic development, if one country is good at producing one specific item it would trade with another nation that is good at producing something else, both parties benefit in a fruitful trade environment. This is important because trade creates what is called comparative advantages, e.g. Germany is good at producing beer, Russia is good at producing vodka, the both trade to gain benefits. Basically some countries are better at producing goods A and others at goods B, both trade and both expand and benefit as such.

Before the great depression and both World Wars, trade between nations was fairly open, nations would freely allow the movement of goods from one point to another. However post these economic shocks protectionism entered, countries started to close borders and introducing tariffs, import restrictions, quotas and variable import restrictions. This is problematic, some countries would not say have the infrastructure for heavy industry so cannot efficiently produce cars, other countries don't have the labor for cost efficient agricultural development. So there is a economic opportunity cost when investment takes place in industries that the benefit has no basis or advantage in, for example in my country they opened a computer factory during soviet times even though we were so far behind in development and software. There is a waste of scare economic resources then.

With GATT and WTO afterwards it, many of the trade restrictions have fallen the world over, leading to the cases we see of economic development in areas like South East Asia (China, India and the Asian Tiger economies).

However there are problems.

- Both WTO and IMF represent private corporate interests, siding with larger economies over smaller ones, so private interests in Western Nations can dictate the terms to smaller ones.

- Larger players possess the legalese and knowledge to push charges against smaller players, e.g. in the form of dumping charges (country A is dumping goods at below cost of production to penetrate the market to country B). For example the South East Asian economies are commonly accused of dumping their goods to the western world, when in fact its simply comparative advantages such as larger labor poll and such.

- Since trade barriers were existent already, large areas were already protected via political interests, the biggest being agriculture between 1st world and the 3rd world or smaller ones like timber trade between US and Canada.

An organization like the WTO is needed in that its a common form for discussing trade on a global scale, but it does not represent the interests of all fairly or provide a platform for such, one glance of their website will show you how many nations the US accuses of unfair trade advantages because its protections local interests.

However this is illogical, no nation can possess all production assets, due to scarcity, and the global economy is tightening year on year and becoming interdependent, which is a good thing, its very hard to bomb someone if your and theirs economies are connected through trade, this is happening between the US and China.

Its also presentative of the different rearrangement of economies over the long term, take the case of the UK a country that has went from primary industry, secondary and now is almost purely a services economy. China is now the worlds producer of simple secondary goods, the US is now a bigger R&D developer. The third world if it was allowed could feed the whole world and so on and so forth.

The economies are now interdependent as well, take your average laptop, the technology was probably developed in the US and Japan, the semiconductors were made in Malaysia and South Korea, and it was all put together in China.

Its not a perfect system by a long shot, however looking over the ages, economics is far better at leveling the playing field and brining together nations then idealistic statements and or anarchy which is common seen at WTO/IMF/G8 meets.

Of course there is a million other issues to consider... but I said this was a *cough* very brief description.

A one hour conversations with renowned "Comprehensivist" Polymath Buckminter Fuller at his "World Game" offices in Philadelphia. Much time is given to asserting his "synergetic" major premise that in terms of mankinds collective technological augmented advancement through time we had reached a point - in terms of our collective capabliity to provvide "life suport" to the people of "Spaceship Earth" - within a correct assumption there were more "haves" than "have nots" for the first time in human history and that by utilizing "Anticapatory Design Scince" we could beginning serious modeiling the premise we had transcended material scarcity and we had reached that "Critical Point" in the year 1970.

(above per original poster-harold channer, dir.)