Vapymid

On the face of it it is a problem. However, in our democracies people don't actually get to vote on anything other than who will represent them in the government and the legislature, with the exception of really major issues for which referendums are called, and very rarely at that. The actual running of the countries involved is then done by their respective executive and law-making organs. If anything, such system is vulnerable not to the incompetence of regular "hoi poloi" voters but to powerful groups who influence the acting of the government in their own self-interest and *outside* any democratic process - hello, lobbyists! And democracy is the only thing that can at least moderate that problem - by replacing overfed and lazy crooks with new hungry ones... Regards

Never going to work - will turn into a closed oligarchy and end up in tears and blood, just like any other dictatorship. Democracy is still the best form of government, even with its shortcomings of populism and short-termism. But all too often people forget that the true value of democracy is not how rulers get voted in but how they are voted *out*. Democracy is first and foremost a system where a failing government can be changed in an orderly process. And *any* government will fail if it stays in power long enough. The problem with dictatorial governments is that when they fail they can still cling to power for a considerable period of time which leads to much greater disruption and cost (economical and human) when they are eventually replaced. Regards

Urban legend alert Regards

tsbUT-5swgI Their propaganda touched my soul... Regards

Thing is - it's impossible to know. Therefore the belief in God and belief that there is no God are equally a matter of faith. @tuff117 - religion as in "belief in a higher being" does not in itself cause hatred and wars. Religion as in "ideology" does, just like any other ideology may do. Regards

It's been a few years since I've programmed anything other than an occasional DVD... The last thing I've done - a simple game - is attached (a zipped .exe - safe, no viruses/trojans, maybe a bug or two). The language used is called SiMPLE which is basically an abstraction layer for a C++ compiler. Regards P.S. Forgot to mention - press to enable cheats...

I agree, that was by far the best quality material. IIRC, this was done by the same person who did CGI for "District 9" but, unfortunately, he has made it clear that he has no intention to make the actual movie Regards

A. Mankevich and team have released a new trailer for their upcoming Half-Life 2 video. (in Russian) vXVH1ttdtek They seem to be working in earnest on the movie and it is likely to come out sometime in 2012. Will be interesting to see how it compares with "Beyond Black Mesa" and "Escape(s) from City 17"... Regards

6SLEFQ63dTc Regards

Merry Christmas everyone! Regards

Businessmen are so last century - this century's villains are bankers! Next century's? Who knows, maybe bus drivers? Regards

Wealth is a surplus which has value for somebody, other than its owner. If you are alone on your island there is no value in any abundance of food beyond what you yourself can eat. If you are not alone - you have a society. Scientific research, Army, Navy, Air Force, roads, street sweeping, diplomatic corps, police, healthcare (you won't like that, I know), forestry... While this is an important part of life, you cannot maintain modern society on that alone. Far from every investment into public area of life will make a return (within the timeframe meaningful for the investor or ever). If you look at modern examples where private companies invest into public infrastructure and make money you will see that the moneys are coming from the state in most cases (as guarantees, top ups, availability payments etc.). I hope you don't think that these corporations don't each have central management and company-wide budgeting... Regards

Some more... Ubb__W5JMXA liUr1tcKJsE H9Z6_euqQRw k5u01mSRq8g Regards

pfLcMaB4Qt8 ngBhJqAtDRU xCpTY3rd1XY rY_nquw3iok 7zWsHK3cUO0 See if you like any of these... Regards P.S. If you have a spare 40 minutes or so, try listening to the "Thick As A Brick" by Jethro Tull.

I am tired of all this. But this is a good reminder that the "freedom" of the Internet in the West was never due to the politicians protecting the liberties of the people but because those politicians could not think of ways how to shut it down. Every time they think they might just know how to do it they never fail to try (all the while shouting indignantly about the lack of freedoms elsewhere). Regards

Talking about Iraq - it seems that the fun is really only starting now. The breakup of the country is a distinct possibility. The Shia areas are already controlled by Iran, the Sunnis openly want to secede. The Kurds in the North were always unto themselves but they are the most to lose from breakup of stability because while everyone else were busy blowing each other up the Kurds were building a proper working country with thriving economy. Now it is possible that many people in the South will regard Kurdistan with envious eyes... Which is the ultimate shame because if ever anything good came up from the NATO adventure in Iraq that was the free Kurdistan. Regards

There is actually already a thread about it here viewtopic.php?f=55&t=2407 (But I may have accidentally stifled it by short-circuiting the readers brains... ) Regards

VF9BjBXKX10 Regards

Oh that reminded me of several... LqHA23AaQ3A yqxbCFdn3w8 A__uPMnHDtk P6CyTtHDpm8 I know which one I like best Regards

uZKPZmfg-6Y Regards

It's called the "Citadel" , by the way. Regards P.S. They believe it is the oldest continuously occupied place on Earth... http://www.erbilcitadel.org/ErbilCitadel/history.php

Erbil, Kurdistan, Northern Iraq Modern business accessories: Lounge suit - check Tie - check Mobile phone - check AKSU submachine gun - check Regards

One of my favourite pre-Rumours pieces... rlZTTQFqec4 Regards

eVCNIWdJz_k Regards

That may sounds catastrophic but in fact it's totally irrelevant. It's one of these dramatic visualisations often used to impress the punters, like "oh, if we print money to cover all this debt in 1 dollar bills the stack will reach the Moon and back and then some..." In reality it is not a requirement that debt must always be less than the total available money supply - the economy just doesn't work like that. First, not all debt falls due at the same time. Second, moneys are circulating, so a sum of money which has been used to repay one slice of debt can then be used to repay more debt, once it worked its way through the system. What really is important is the value of the assets securing the debt, the ratio of debt to disposable income and the dynamics of their change. The guy is right - the situation is very difficult and the household debt is not much talked about, even though it is that particular issue (and not the bank debt and really not so much the national debt, if we are talking about the US) which is causing the current economic problems. And, yes, there are three solutions - print and hand out more money to people through government spending (and hyperinflate), write off debt (and hurt everybody's long term economic prospects) and find ways to return to economic growth. Somebody needs to invent something that makes life so much better that everyone would want to get it, or find a way to drastically reduce the cost of energy or find an abundance of cheap natural resources. Or go explore the asteroid belt, colonise Mars and Moon etc, which is what I would propose but perhaps we are not quite ready for this just yet... Regards