Being a huge Soccer fan I'm interested in the "World Cup" coming to countries where this kind of thing is going on. Something tells me it has something to do with deregulation and FIFAs ability to make as much money as it can leaving the public with the bills. I mean we can look at South Africa now and see how well they're doing with their fancy new stadiums they built...while FIFA made off with Billions.

If CBS fills that half-hour slot with nothing but dead air it will be an improvement. According to Wiki they've made 177 episodes, it's considered one of the biggest hit shows of the past decade, and it is syndicated in 49 other countries, including Iceland, Panama, Taiwan, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.

And you guys wonder why I'm a cynic.

First, the western world has so many foundational ideas beyond Christianity that we take for granted. For instance, rights language. We talk about our right to this and that, but that is only after hundreds of years of getting it wrong and consciously working towards better models. The "east" only has one rival school, Confucianism, which the middle east does not hold. The middle east has no real rights language at all, spare religious orders.

One again, Japan isn't a "great" model for liberty, but compared to the dictatorships of the middle east, it is a pillar. I mean, just 50 years ago they had a emperors, and not just ceremonial ones. I don't want to breeze by all the very important points you bring up, they have a long way to go...and they still are very exclusionary in many ways. But comparable that to women being stoned for being in a room with a man that is not their husband.

I don't think any of his examples where bad, in fact, they showed the small case compared to the large cases. Japan has had partial implementation of western ideas and values, and has had partial success with social change for the better. He has to be careful what examples he uses. He can't use the USA as an example without being completely ostracized. And even then the United States has a similar story to tell about colonization and displacement of natives.

>> ^undefined:

Mmmm I don't know, I think his praisal of western culture comes from being frustrated with his own culture. In fact, what's so different about western world and the spread of Christianity vs the spread of Muslim teachings and its expansion to east and west? It's basically the same thing when you think about it. Both the west and middle east wanted to spread their teaching (by means of conquest most of the time). It's not like west did things any different than the Arabs.
And his examples are misleading. Japan isn't a great model for liberty and democracy. Japanese still very much live in a very closed society with limited exposure to foreign ideas. You don't hear of certain things on the news, females are still expected to behave certain ways, etc etc. The Yakuza still acts as the 'Samurai class' of the old days where they can get away with bullying its citizens. So much for individual liberty and freedom of ideas. However, its economy, technological innovation and civil infrastructure did benefit largely from western teachings tremendously, which it could not have gotten from within its closed society model.
Australia and South Africa was born out of colonization and by enslaving the indigenous population and this too makes for a terrible example. But in today's world these guys enjoy stability and happiness where its citizens are happy and isn't looking to revolt at any second because they too adopt western technologies and other foreign ideas and methods to cope with their own environment.
One thing I do agree with him is when he says closed society lag behind other nations. Japan certainly was a closed society before the Americans forced open its gates, and the Japanese ended up with an empire of their own in the East. America opened its gates towards all immigrants and saw an incredible rate of growth for the past 3 centuries. 15th century Europe got a huge boost in culture and technology when they started accepting knowledge from outside their own worlds like the Arab culture and the Far East Chinese.
Openness to other cultures, philosophies and technology gives benefits to your own. This is what this man was trying to say, despite all the bad examples

Mmmm I don't know, I think his praisal of western culture comes from being frustrated with his own culture. In fact, what's so different about western world and the spread of Christianity vs the spread of Muslim teachings and its expansion to east and west? It's basically the same thing when you think about it. Both the west and middle east wanted to spread their teaching (by means of conquest most of the time). It's not like west did things any different than the Arabs.

And his examples are misleading. Japan isn't a great model for liberty and democracy. Japanese still very much live in a very closed society with limited exposure to foreign ideas. You don't hear of certain things on the news, females are still expected to behave certain ways, etc etc. The Yakuza still acts as the 'Samurai class' of the old days where they can get away with bullying its citizens. So much for individual liberty and freedom of ideas. However, its economy, technological innovation and civil infrastructure did benefit largely from western teachings tremendously, which it could not have gotten from within its closed society model.

Australia and South Africa was born out of colonization and by enslaving the indigenous population and this too makes for a terrible example. But in today's world these guys enjoy stability and happiness where its citizens are happy and isn't looking to revolt at any second because they too adopt western technologies and other foreign ideas and methods to cope with their own environment.

One thing I do agree with him is when he says closed society lag behind other nations. Japan certainly was a closed society before the Americans forced open its gates, and the Japanese ended up with an empire of their own in the East. America opened its gates towards all immigrants and saw an incredible rate of growth for the past 3 centuries. 15th century Europe got a huge boost in culture and technology when they started accepting knowledge from outside their own worlds like the Arab culture and the Far East Chinese.

Openness to other cultures, philosophies and technology gives benefits to your own. This is what this man was trying to say, despite all the bad examples

This is a great video. Very moving stuff.

This shows the worst and best of humanity. The situation in South Africa is terrible, but people like Ben Goldacre, who are prepared to make a stand give me hope that we can fix the situation. The more people see this and understand the importance of science and critical thinking the better.

Ben Goldacre is a personal hero of mine, long may he continue his crusade.

Sadly, in South Africa, according to one survey 1 in 3 men admits to raping a woman and 1 in 4 women says she has been sexually assaulted. Watching this vid just makes it depressingly obvious the problems they are having over there with violence against women.

>> ^Tymbrwulf:

I want to see them try this with a 40 inch CRT. Those things weigh a little over 300 lbs.(136 kg) each.


I still have my CRT TV from 1996.

This is my favorite haka. From the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa. This was probably the best All Black team in history. Sean Fitzpatrick led the most fearsome Haka's. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GpTsPNwwms&feature=related

This is relatively common, so its not all that surprising that he managed to "perfectly record it at the exact time"

In reply to this comment by mxxcon:
hmm the way he managed to perfectly record it at the exact time...seems like a viral..

Wasn't impressed by the Australian one. Like most fake Aussie accents things started sounding like something from South Africa.

This happens so frequently in South Africa that I'm surprised more haven't been caught on camera.

Let me first make it clear that I support gay marriage, because it's about to sound like I don't.

This argument is always framed wrong by both sides. See, gays already have the same marriage rights as the rest of us: a man can marry a woman and a woman can marry a man. Opponents make this argument but then continue with another that's not true: that gays are asking for special rights. Gays are not asking for special rights, they're asking for new rights. These new rights would apply to us all. Straight or gay, we could all marry whomever we wanted, genders be damned. You should be happy to gain rights in a time when they are being whittled away in the name of safety. Just because you have no desire to utilize those rights doesn't mean they have no value. I don't own a gun but I'm glad I have the right to.

This is not about sexual orientation; it's about freedom from government control over your personal life. What kind of "conservatarian" are you that thinks the government should have this sort of power?

@quantumushroom (re: Freedom from Religion)
It depends on how you interpret "freedom from religion". If you interpret it as meaning I should be able to live my life without ever being exposed to anything religious, then no. That's obviously ridiculous.

What it's supposed to mean, and what is protected by the First Amendment, is that I can live my life without having religious beliefs imposed on me by the government. The government cannot tell me I can's go out after sundown on Friday or go to work on Sunday. They cannot make eating pork and shellfish illegal, at least not on religious grounds.

@quantumushroom (re: Gay marriage in history)
Same-sex marriage was legal and common in the Roman Empire up until the Christians took power and made it illegal. They also had anyone who was in such a marriage executed.

Same-sex marriage was also legal and common in parts of China during the Ming dynasty.

Presently, full marriage is legal in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, South Africa, Spain and Sweden.

Basically, the trend seems to be that when and where people are reasonably intelligent and not of an Abrahamic religion, gays are A-Ok.

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Nice links! Would be interesting to see that fallout map correlated with cancer prevalence per capita....

>> ^alizarin:

1) They forgot Israel and South Africa in 1979... that would make it 2054.
2) This diagram is awesome.
Looks like the atmospheric vs underground count vs underwater counts are:
US 206/912/5
USSR 223/756/3
UK 21/24
France 50/160
China 22/26
India 0/6
South Africa/Isreal 1/0
Pakistan 0/7
North Korea 0/1
3) The fallout map is fun.
4) The Nevada and Kazakhstan need to surrender already