tuco
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Posts posted by tuco
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It will be enough if it will be competitive on regulated market (either subsidized or by taxing non-clean sources) as argument for regulated market is relatively easy to make and matter of political consensus. Energy (production) is matter of national security and in this sense it does not, at least in the EU, need to compete on open market like for example chocolate.
I wonder if there are any consumption of electricity predictions for several decades ahead. We already know, for example, that combustion engine cars are dead.
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Clean energy, demand for respectively, is difficult to enumerate.
Lets take a tree, for analogy, and lets try to enumerate value of it. Some would simply say that value of tree is what market offers for its wood, but there are other factors like: uptake of CO2, cooling down surroundings, anti erosive and wind breaking function, or even aesthetic and psychological considerations. In this sense, perhaps economic model is not the most important factor to consider.
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Predicting economic models several decades ahead is tricky if not impossible, however, if today's economic model of nuclear power plants is any indicator, the road to clean energy will be thorny.
What energy requirements, with regards to consumption, will be in couple of decades?
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3 hours ago, Airbrush said:
I think you mean "agonizing" that our democratic process as being incapable, compared with the ease of dictatorship. That does not mean I prefer a dictatorship. Who in N. Korea knows much about the REAL world outside of government-controlled media? Don't you think Kim, himself, gets to see the REAL news of the world? He does not really believe the myths his media spouts.
Out of curiosity, what (do you think) myths do his media spouts? I am asking because: a) except for news about military affairs I have not seen anything from NK media, b) because I have some idea how media works under totalitarian regimes as I used to experience it myself. Its not really important, just trying to understand lets say the mood here.
Personally, I would prefer if the US administration would stop antagonizing the NK one as it seems to me they do not respond well to threats.
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3 minutes ago, Raider5678 said:
So.....
You what you mean by this test is that you simply eliminate the ability for the other party to vote because they're stupid?
What test?
With technological progress allowing for concepts never before feasible (access to and speed of information for example), the most common argument against (elements of) direct democracy is that people are stupid. I dunno about that but without learning how to do direct democracy (through trial and error), people are destined to hand away their right to influence politics every couple of years. The only test I propose is .. let them burn their hand when touching stove.
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7 hours ago, Strange said:
Doesn't this already? People write letters to newspapers, appear on TV, post on the Internet, hold demonstrations, organise petitions, meet with their representatives, lobby, pay bribes, etc. All of these, and more, allow people to influence the way the country is run.
I would think, with regards to OP, that is "indirect influence". Direct influence would be having public debate, on "Roman Forum" then casting vote from a mobile phone. However, there are several conditions needed for the so-called wisdom of the crowd (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisdom_of_the_crowd) as well as problematic areas.
Personally, I consider current model of representative democracy dearly lacking elements of direct democracy. There are exceptions, but overall people, unlike corporations or other influential groups, have little direct influence. People can talk, in the media you noted, but that is mostly it. As Václav Bělohradský (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Václav_Bělohradský) noted: there are two kinds of dictate; one where word has such weight that one can be jailed for it (referring to totalitarian regimes), and second when word has no weight at all (referring to current environment). While this is simplified view of the world, I believe it has some merit.
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7 hours ago, iNow said:
The same people who feel vaccines cause autism, evolution is a lie, global warming a conspiracy, Obama a Kenyan, Trump anything other than a fraud, and that chocolate milk comes from brown cows?
Well yes, the same people who .. let me think .. voted in Mr Trump or voted for Brexit.
Direct democracy, elements of having "direct influence" respectively, can only be realized through trial and error.
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Value of freedom of speech depends on point of view, however, I think its safe to assume that for vast majority such value rests in their own protection in sense that freedom of speech and expression was curbed by every totalitarian regime in lets say modern history. In other words, those (societies) valuing freedom of speech and expression highly by protecting it and practicing it, are less successible to falling of the democratic wagon. This is not ethical but pragmatic argument.
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IMO 3, related, issues are the biggest problem of the US Americans:
1. self-sustainable culture
2. inequality
3. educational system
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Not sure if this is the appropriate section, have considered "Politics" , though I think "Ethics" is alright.
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EU Piracy Report Suppression Raises Questions Over Transparency
One of the most important aspects of online piracy is whether it affects sales. So, when the EU Commission spends 360,000 euros on a study to find out, one might think it would be useful to publish the results. Instead, Member of the European Parliament Julia Reda had to jump through hoops to obtain them. Why all the secrecy?
[snip]
https://torrentfreak.com/eu-piracy-report-suppression-raises-questions-transparency-170922/
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Report: Estimating displacement rates of copyrighted content in the EU - https://cdn.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/2017/09/displacement_study.pdf
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Rhetorical question: Can studies like this one influence how legal system views copyright infringement? Can it be used to counter arguments of "lost sales" to enumerate damages and severity of punishment?
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Seems to me like a matter of definitions. If one is dead, one cannot be brought to life by definition. Then there is Theseus's paradox: is it still the one?
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Since autonomous cars are dependent on software, "soon" is a bit ambiguous term. Jokes aside, as there are several levels of automated driving (https://www.sae.org/misc/pdfs/automated_driving.pdf). I'd guess it will be couple of decades before high/full automation will take place. That is mainly, and unlike in case of smart phones for example, due to legal, unlike technological, challenges (http://www.autonomousregulationscongress.com/).
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Football is another thing which can bring different people together
Assuming multiculturalism implies diverging lets say worldviews, I would think its "good" in sense that it creates dynamics in society and dynamics leads to progress.
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As it was noted, its a social construct in sense that as AAA puts it:
QuoteIn the United States both scholars and the general public have been conditioned to viewing human races as natural and separate divisions within the human species based on visible physical differences. With the vast expansion of scientific knowledge in this century, however, it has become clear that human populations are not unambiguous, clearly demarcated, biologically distinct groups. Evidence from the analysis of genetics (e.g., DNA) indicates that most physical variation, about 94%, lies within so-called racial groups. Conventional geographic "racial" groupings differ from one another only in about 6% of their genes. This means that there is greater variation within "racial" groups than between them. In neighboring populations there is much overlapping of genes and their phenotypic (physical) expressions. Throughout history whenever different groups have come into contact, they have interbred. The continued sharing of genetic materials has maintained all of humankind as a single species.
http://www.americananthro.org/ConnectWithAAA/Content.aspx?ItemNumber=2583
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The North Korea Problem
in Politics
Posted
I do agree the administration knows well about outside world.
As for local populace, I imagine as I have not done my research .. ok just googled this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_North_Korea_Radio, drawing from my experience, that local populace is coerced more by police state than propaganda. Propaganda is important when getting to power, than it becomes more or less necessity rather than effective tool.
What North Koreans probably understand, whether they believe state propaganda or not, is that in case of war they will suffer even more. Which is another reason I believe in deescalation rather than escalation we are witnessing these days.