The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency
This article reminded me of a CFR essay by Benn Steil titled The End of National Currency that I read a couple of years ago. Steil's essay is remarkably astute, not only for his understanding of national fiat currencies, but of the nature of gold as real money as determined by thousands of years of human interaction. While I would welcome the end of nationalistic currencies, I utterly detest the idea of a global 'paper' currency mani
Dogfish Head Olde School Barleywine
Sweet lord. This is a fucking punch in the head compared to Flying Dog's Horn Dog Barleywine. Horn dog is sweet and malty, this stuff is more like a strong bock. Then again its 15% alcohol. There's definitely more hops and it has a somewhat bitter and citrusy taste underneath the noticeable alcohol, but not enough to outdo the barley. Each sip warms the full length of your gullet and in no time, you'll try to stand up and nearly crash through the coffee ta
Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver."
-- Jack Handy
If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer
This really inspires confidence in my democratic efficacy.
http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/20...oting_here.html
Anyways... since Gaius has mentioned Thomas Paine in a few discussions, I nabbed a book on clearance at B&N called 46 Pages by Scott Liell and so far I'm captivated. I'll give some more opinion once I'm finished - which may be a while since I'm usually reading about 4 books simultaneously and randomly for whatever reason that eludes me.
The forum upgrade is finally done after many hours of testing and preparation. I'm happy with how smoothly it went... in fact I've never had so little trouble with a script upgrade.
Thanks Invision! /high five
So I'm totally wasted, and I feel like writing something. I'm not drunk because it's New Year's, I'm drunk because I had to spend my New Year's Eve with in-laws and I find that I'm far more indifferent with some beer and liquor in me than I would be otherwise. That's only half of the reason though, the other half is that I've decided to be a drunk while read a giant tome of four Ernest Hemingway novels that I picked up at Barnes and Noble for a fucking pittance. The idea might be ridiculous or i
Google agrees to China censorship.
Some of the censored topics:
Tiananmen Square Massacre
Taiwan's Democracy
The spread of evil is the symptom of a vacuum. whenever evil wins, it is only by default: by the moral failure of those who evade the fact that there can be no compromise on basic principles.
- Ayn Rand
Google's Motto: "Don't be evil."
I just remembered a concert I went to some years ago. It was Opeth at the Fox Theater in Boulder and I don't remember exactly what year it was. Opeth is what you might call progressive death metal from Sweden. In Opeth's case, its death metal blended with 70's prog and jazz. Anyways, right before the show starts, I turn around and right behind me is a 70-something year old man and his wife, both looking very excited to be there.
You might think that they'd be old hippies or perhaps adhere t
Television and radio are very important tools for influencing perception. I don't how many times someone has told me how people with opposing political views are basically brainwashed by the particular media channels they adhere to. It seems to me that most people are fully aware of this aspect, but once they pick their alignment, it seems that the caution involved in gathering information from their chosen corporate media is mostly disarmed.
I understand how practical this is, because I've
http://www.fln.vcu.edu/struwwel/struwwel.html
I read this 19th century picture book (with these exact illustrations, but a different translation) when I was young, like my mother did and her parents did. What a trip...
Sounds pretty sick, right? Actually, BigDump is a staggered MySQL dump importing script. Anyone who has loaded a large database backup, transported a large database to a new host, or made a mirror test database knows how challenging it can sometimes be if you administrate remotely without using shell access.
Fortunately, this script makes it a complete snap. Instead of breaking the SQL file into chunks that wouldn't cause a PHP timeout, then loading each one manually, I let this thing run wh
I've recently discovered a new situation to test my patience. I started entry-level at my unspeakable dayjob... after a promotion to a different position, I've now been 'promoted' to a position managing the 'entry-level' department. I don't think there is a better situation to be able to witness the overwhelming lack of competence and work ethic of the average American male.It actually saddens me to see these guys who bounce from job to job, never grasping the idea of 'earning', unable to use se
Most universities have recently restriced access to their actual course lecture podcasts. Instead, they now typically offer boring crap or political keynote lectures. However, Berkeley still offers public access to complete semester course lectures going back several years. Hopefully, they keep it up.
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php
Some interesting quotes from Mussolini that I've come across in my reading, judge for yourself how they apply to modern reality as you percieve it:
"Fascism ought to more properly be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power."
"Granted that the 19th century was the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy, this does not mean that the 20th century must also be the century of socialism, liberalism, democracy. Political doctrines pass; nations remain. We are
After finishing my last round of books, (one of which was 'Ilium' by Dan Simmons, the most enjoyable science fiction book I've read in a while) I picked up a few more to read. I like to read several books at once, not only because my obsessive attention to things swings wildly about, but also because even the most disparate books can sometimes profoundly enhance each other in strange ways.
Brave New World & Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley
A History of Western Philosophy b
I've been reading things here and there about the EU mandating, on penalty of an incredible fine, that Microsoft ship its own product Windows without Microsoft's own media player and to reveal parts of its programming code to rivals. Microsoft has already settled with the U.S. Justice Department, revealing code and allowing PC makers and conumsers to hide the bundled software. All this in the name of 'fair competition'.
This isn't just about Microsoft, it's about property rights. Personally
