30 JUL 2024 by ideonexus

 Life in the US is More Complicated to Exploit Less Intell...

Coming from Europe, everything in the US seems more complicated, and set up with the purpose of making it hard for less intelligent people. Filing taxes is always the responsibility of the private citizen instead of the employee, the price of goods is displayed without sales tax and it's up to the citizen to calculate the real price, health insurance and car insurance are both overly complicated and full of clauses, financing and credit cards are literally shoved in your throat. Every proces...
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Also applies to standard vs metric, phonetic spelling, and other unnecessarily complex systems.

02 SEP 2016 by ideonexus

 Neil DeGrasse Tyson's Rationalia

In Rationalia, the Constitution stipulates that a body of convincing evidence needs to exist in support of an idea before any Policy can established based on it. In such a country, data gathering, careful observations, and experimentation would be happening all the time, influencing practically every aspect of our modern lives. As a result, Rationalia would lead the world in discovery, because discovery would be built into the DNA of how the government operates, and how its citizens think....
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22 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Science is Human Power, Needing Guidance

It is against the background of conflict and confusion in the relations of science and society that we find ourselves confronted with a crisis in the history of mankind, and particularly in the history of human government. It is a crisis arising from the rapidly increasing power given to man by science. It is a crisis such as we are accustomed to leave to the arbitrement of sectional interests supported by shouts and cries. But it is one to which scientific inquiry can provide a solution. For...
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And science can provide the guidance through managing human beings through biological knowledge.

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Imperialism and Feudalism are Mountains Weighing Down the...

There is an ancient Chinese fable called "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains". It tells of an old man who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. With great determination, he led his sons in digging up these mountains hoe in hand. Another greybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, "How silly ...
Folksonomies: government revolution
Folksonomies: government revolution
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The Chinese overthrew kings just as Americans and Europeans did.

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 China Must Reject "Great Power Chauvinism"

Things develop ceaselessly. It is only forty-five years since the Revolution of 19II, but the face of China has completely changed. In another forty-five years, that is, in the year 2001, or the beginning of the 21st century, China will have undergone an even greater change. She will have become a powerful socialist industrial country. And that is as it should be. China is a land with an area of 9,600,000 square kilometres and a population of 600 million people, and she ought to have made a g...
Folksonomies: communism government power
Folksonomies: communism government power
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Cautionary words from Mao.

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Ultra-Democracy

Education in democracy must be carried on within the Party so that members can understand the meaning of democratic life, the meaning of the relationship between democracy and centralism, and the way in which democratic centralism should be put into practice. Only in this way can we really extend democracy within the Party and at the same time avoid ultra-democracy and the laissez-faire which destroys discipline. "The Role of the Chinese Communist Party in the National War" (October 1938), ...
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An interesting concept from the perspective of Mao's socialism, a democracy that goes too far and becomes corrupt under its own (greed?).

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Resolving Contradictions in Society

In the conditions prevailing in China today, the contradictions among the people comprise the contradictions within the working class, the contradictions within the peasantry, the contradictions within the intelligentsia, the contradictions between the working class and the peasantry, the contradictions between the workers and peasants on the one hand and the intellectuals on the other, the contradictions between the working class and other sections of the working people on the one hand and t...
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The term "contradictions" here describes social conflicts, conflicts of interest.

02 JAN 2014 by ideonexus

 Democracy in Socialism

The people's democratic dictatorship uses two methods. Towards the enemy, it uses the method of dictatorship, that is, for as long a period of time as is necessary it does not let them take part in political activities and compels them to obey the law of the People's Government and to engage in labour and, through labour, transform themselves into new men. Towards the people, on the contrary, it uses the method not of compulsion but of democracy, that is, it must necessarily let them take par...
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An important point to remember that one is a form of governance and the other is an economic model; therefore, the two are not in opposition.

30 DEC 2013 by ideonexus

 Science is the Enemy of Kings

Kings and Priests have, in some cases, made partial pretensions to patronize the Arts and Sciences, as a cloak for their enmity towards them. They ever were, and ever will be, in reality, their direst foes. An advanced state of Science cannot benefit them. Their present distinctions, and misery-begetting splendour, could not be tolerated, when mankind shall so far be illuminated as to know the real cause and object of animal-existence. Common sense teaches us that good government requires non...
Folksonomies: science government
Folksonomies: science government
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By getting to the roots of all things, it usurps their pretensions to power.

04 APR 2013 by ideonexus

 The BRAIN Initiative

As humans, we can identify galaxies light years away, we can study particles smaller than an atom. But we still haven’t unlocked the mystery of the three pounds of matter that sits between our ears. (Laughter.) But today, scientists possess the capability to study individual neurons and figure out the main functions of certain areas of the brain. But a human brain contains almost 100 billion neurons making trillions of connections. So Dr. Collins says it’s like listening to the strin...
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Text of Obama's comments on the initiative itself.