daniel.duffy20

daniel.duffy20

  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    Lets try that again: ............................Culture ............................More Control....Less Control Economics Less Regulated....Republican......Libertarian More Regulated...Tea Party.........Democrat...
  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    The Tea Party fills what had been an empty niche in the American poitical matrix: Culture More Control Less Control Economics Less Regulated Republican Libertarian More Regulated Tea Party Democrat...
  • Commented on The Ferguson Question
    Side observation: As a hazardous waste/environmental engineer based in the Midwest my remediation jobs take me from the Alleghenies to the Ozarks (through the arc of Greater Appalachia) – for some reason toxic sites are never found in posh urban...
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    "The Internet of Things" - where everything becomes alive and inanimate object are given mind and personality just like in a fantasy novel. Trees, rocks, weapons, etc. will come alive aand speak like in any sword and sorcery novel. Like...
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    I hope it works as advertised, but its hard to draw final conclusions from one test. Yet it does make intuitive sense that it is easier to alter the industrial carbon cycle than to try to stop it competely....
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    Mr. Stross - Your comments on the slowing down of Moore's Law and technology in general seems to dovetail with Horgan's "End of Science". Do you agree with him on the slowing or even halting of significant scientific advances?...
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    In response to Big Brother (and a host of Little Brothers) watching our every move and recording every word, won't technology allow the Common Man to turn the tables at watch the Watchers? This is fellow SF writer David' Brin's...
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    Brilliate essay on the coing technological changes. But won't our world be shaped more by demographic changes such as urbanization: http://www.who.int/gho/urban_health/situation_trends/urban_population_growth_text/en/ By 1990, less than 40% of the global population lived in a city, but as of 2010, more than...
  • Commented on YAPC::NA 2014 keynote: Programming Perl in 2034
    As for CO2 emissions we can't stop the world from burning cheap, plentiful, useful and dirty coal. Even the Germans with their famous committment to solar energy are burning more coal than ever before. Whether its its burning coal or...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    I admit to being a bit surprised to find that the Scots are more liberal than their English neighbors. It seems that people living in isolated mountain communities (Tea Partiers in Appalachia, Taliban in the Hindu Kush, Swiss Bankers in...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    Mr. Stross, I look forward to a discussion on possible devolution of the US....
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    If Scotland's main economic asset is North Sea oil could they risk becomong yet another corrupt petro-state? How did Norway avoid that fate?...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    If Scotland leaves the UK would somebody please redo "Braveheart" so that it is historically accurate?...
  • Commented on Schroedinger's Kingdom: the Scottish Political Singularity Explained
    If Scotland leaves, what happens to Ulster and Wales? Would Scotland stay in NATO? How does the UK's military get divided up or would Scotland and England maintain a joint military?...
  • Commented on The myth of heroism
    IIRC Lex Luthor's biggest complaint about Superman is that he made us lazy and dependent on him. Why bother to design and build a system to protect Earth from a massive asteroid impact when Superman can just fly up and...
  • Commented on The myth of heroism
    Then you are missing out on the Golden Age of Television: The Wire Breaking Bad Game of Thrones Just because its TV doesn't mean its bad...
  • Commented on The myth of heroism
    And this is what Frank Herbert had to say about charismatic leaders: "The mistakes (of leaders) are amplified by the numbers who follow them without question. Charismatic leaders tend to build up followings, power structures and these power structures tend...
  • Commented on The myth of heroism
    What your fellow SF writer the late Frank Herbert had to say about heroes: Don't give over all of your critical faculties to people in power, no matter how admirable those people may appear to be. Beneath the hero's facade...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    "Doesn't vertical farming requires horizontally arranged suns?" Nope http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22129524.100-vertical-farms-sprouting-all-over-the-world.html#.U0-lh_ldWSo and nope, http://www.verticalfarm.com/ "Your 30-story farms will require soil, and tremendous amounts of energy" Nope again, http://inhabitat.com/indoor-vertical-farm-pinkhouses-grow-plants-faster-with-less-energy/...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    Slums will save the planet. For the first time in history more people live in cities than in the country. By mid century over 85% of humanity will live in urban areas. Many of them in slums. And that is...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    What will the other 90% do? Pan et circes. Automation and AI will destroy jobs for humans the same way cheap slavery destroyed the jobs of Roman citizens. The solution will be the same, feed and entertain the masses while...
  • Commented on Generation Z
    "We can still manufacture stuff, it seems, but manufacturing no longer provides mass employment. And service jobs are rapidly being automated, as witness the spread of self-service checkouts and ATMs and lights-out warehouses." See http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/01/making-it-in-america/308844/ At one time, 90% of...
  • Commented on Catching a Blighty
    "I can't really see a German victory over the USSR in WWII happening." Quite the contrary, Hitler came within an ace of beating the Soviets in late 1941. Had the Wehrmach taken Moscow, the Soviet regime would have never survived...
  • Commented on Catching a Blighty
    You speak as if the Great War was somehow avoidable. Given the politics, demographics, diplomacy and economics of the era, the First World War was as inevitable as a landslide. Given the weapons of the time (barb wire, poison gas...
  • Commented on Catching a Blighty
    "Ignoring the PacRim sideshow" Compared to the Eastern Front, everything in WWI was a side show (Pacific, Burma, North Africa, Italy, D-Day, U-Boats, bomber campaign, etc.). Total tank losses in the single Battle of Kursk approached 6,800 (760 for the...
  • Commented on The next moves in the Spooks v. News cold war
    When Octavian defeated Anthony to become the sole ruler of Rome (and its first Emperor, taking the name of Augustus) he kept all the forms of the now dead Republic. The Senate still debated. The Magistrates still stood for election....
  • Commented on Lies, damned lies, and popular beliefs
    "The Germans eventually won, since the Soviets betrayed the Poles, but nobody would call it easy." Former USAF officer actually. To destroy resistance in a heavily built up urban area of 1.3 million inhabitants in only two months does count...
  • Commented on Lies, damned lies, and popular beliefs
    "The most relevant feature of counterinsurgency is that it never works." There is a very simple, effective and historical proven method of winning a counter-insurgency: You exterminate the local civilian population. The Assyrians exterminated whole tribes and kingdoms, often relocating...
  • Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
    BTW, her is an intersting article on the physics of actual space combat and space navies. Don't know much about the author, but I enjoyed the article: http://denbeste.nu/cd_log_entries/2004/04/SpaceNavies2.shtml...
  • Commented on Crib sheet: Singularity Sky
    Mr. Stross, Ok, so you don't like stories about "Napoleonic Space Navies". How about stories about the real thing? How do you like the "Horatio Hornblower" or "Master and Commander" series? Everyone remembers the movie staring Russel Crowe, but there...
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