tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post776022684993131772..comments2024-03-28T22:45:34.599-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Two Very Different Excuses for Government InterventionDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger113125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71885324664935185812016-03-31T13:22:52.772-07:002016-03-31T13:22:52.772-07:00I think that "On the other hand, some inequal...I think that "On the other hand, some inequality of outcomes is absolutely required in order to maintain the kinds of incentives that spur creative people to take risks and develop great new things" needs further consideration. Every study I have read where what really motivates creative people was studied, it has turned out that 'wealth inequality' a.k.a. getting stinking rich has not been that significant a motivator. As long as the renumeration is 'enough' -- enough to take the question off the table -- creative people do creative jobs because they want to create and for reasons other than monetary reward. Mastery, autonomy, having fun, doing something that will be _so cool_, making the world a better place, getting to work with other top-notch people and getting to do the best work of one's life always seem to be the actual things that motivates creative people.<br /><br />see: https://vimeo.com/15488784 for an amusing presentation of the surprising findings about what motivates us.<br /><br />But creative people run into real propblems when they need to getting their project funded. Among the the loaning classes the desire to maximise revenue often is the only concern.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-44194723010001045442016-03-26T00:18:15.495-07:002016-03-26T00:18:15.495-07:00Umm ... so where *is* part 3? You didn't link ...Umm ... so where *is* part 3? You didn't link to a copy (or even upload a copy somewhere and then link to it, should that be necessary).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04281085686060496086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-34853019429290762532016-03-25T13:26:32.533-07:002016-03-25T13:26:32.533-07:00onward
onwardonward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51781793468870817312016-03-25T13:26:16.233-07:002016-03-25T13:26:16.233-07:00Fluid Dynamics I am sorry that part III of my refo...Fluid Dynamics I am sorry that part III of my reform Libertarianism essay is missing online. But I am working on turning the whole thing into a book.<br /><br />WF thanks and I agree that libertarianism has been mostly hijacked by the very oligarchs Adam Smith despised. By making the core incantation "hate all government" and "unlimited propertarianism" the movement has been cozened into assisting oligarchy at the expense of the words that should be at the movement's core -- flat-open-fair-creative competition." The kind of competitive creativity that benefits all, but that is routinely crushed by feudal or quasi-feudal oligarchy.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51331185639646425882016-03-25T11:27:24.131-07:002016-03-25T11:27:24.131-07:00It frustrates me to no end how modern libertarians...It frustrates me to no end how modern libertarians like to claim Adam Smith as one of their own despite having never read him. Also many that I've talked to seem to think he was combating "socialism" when he was actually combating mercantilists on were more conservative than him and later made up the British right-wing. If every libertarian could just read Smith we might have a decent libertarian movement that did good, instead of the current that is just constantly trying to transfer wealth upwards or, at worst, create an economically unstable capitalism that would create so much poverty it could result in an ACTUAL communist revolution (as it almost did in the early 20th century. Libertarian and Conservative policies are actual radicals only hope of taking power, ironically enough).<br /><br />On Trump's wife... meh. Who cares she posed nude? There's a million other reasons to not vote for him but I think we Americans are too uptight about that stuff. I think she's much more questionable for her choice in husbands :) At least it would windup the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia if the First Lady was a former model, that would be entertaining to watch.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17973580598290240182noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48202158482039610832016-03-24T22:03:02.954-07:002016-03-24T22:03:02.954-07:00Regarding http://web.archive.org/web/2010103110095...Regarding http://web.archive.org/web/20101031100957/http://reformthelp.org/reformthelp/marketing/positioning/models.php<br /><br />I can't seem to get web.archive.org to cough up part 3 of that. Where is it?Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04281085686060496086noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-35061423533699352812016-03-24T15:42:14.115-07:002016-03-24T15:42:14.115-07:00All I know is that when I see "Anonymous"...All I know is that when I see "Anonymous" and "car-sitting" in the post, it means "Don't waste any more time reading this."LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20536534593556632016-03-24T15:01:10.099-07:002016-03-24T15:01:10.099-07:00It means driving and also sitting in backed up tra...It means driving and also sitting in backed up traffic. I assume it's meant to point out some of the absurdity of automobile-based transportation compared with the other forms.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61388694004774049142016-03-24T13:49:45.905-07:002016-03-24T13:49:45.905-07:00Can anyone explain to me what this "car sitti...Can anyone explain to me what this "car sitting" meme is?<br /><br />I've Googled it and only found out what to to with the car in my driveway.Smurphsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79998484857256492222016-03-24T12:52:14.340-07:002016-03-24T12:52:14.340-07:00Paul, it is not up to me to do your research. You ...Paul, it is not up to me to do your research. You argue a point. You are the one who needs to present citations when required - especially when you pull out a citation for your argument that post-dated your claims by nine years.<br /><br />Thank you for <i>proper</i> citations. I still disagree with their criterion. Pluto is not some dead body deep in space but appears to have many features associated with proper planets. It is also quite different from Ceres... and from Triton, which assumptions had been made Pluto would be akin to.<br /><br />If you look at Jupiter and then look at the Earth, it would be easy to claim Earth isn't a planet by comparison. And yet there is the subclassifications of terrestrial (rocky) planets and gas giant planets. And when you look at Pluto... it has far more in common with the Earth than Earth has with Jupiter. It seems obvious a third <i>planetary</i> classification, Ice planets, is needed to describe planets such as Pluto and probably Eris - worlds that have geological features, possible weather, and yet exist far enough out for nitrogen and methane ices. <br /><br />As an aside, we may also need to reconsider what could be called a moon. The fact you could have Earth orbiting Jupiter and it would no longer be a planet is idiocy. If you had an Earth-sized companion orbiting a brown dwarf star, is it a planet or a moon? What if that free-floating starless wanderer was just of Jupiter mass, but had an Earth-sized companion? Given the size of the galaxy and of the multitude of galaxies around us, we will discover systems like this.<br /><br />Rob H.<br /><br />P.S. - What we need next is for twin research projects to be sent - one to Neptune to investigate Triton, and the next to return to Pluto for a more in-depth exploration, and the ways these two bodies differ... and resemble one another.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41051551775873509832016-03-24T12:14:44.908-07:002016-03-24T12:14:44.908-07:00Paul451:
It's interesting that you liken it t...Paul451:<br /><i><br />It's interesting that you liken it to politics. To me the whining over Pluto is just another example of spoilt American baby-boomers thinking that everything that happened during their childhood was always that way,<br /></i><br /><br />I live in Chicago, so I'm well acquainted with the plaque on the wall of the Adler Planetaium which depicts the "eight" planets. Back when I was a child, my dad explained to me that the plaque pre-dated the discovery of Pluto in 1930.<br /><br />So everything old is new again.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-1077317360245111592016-03-24T11:51:13.091-07:002016-03-24T11:51:13.091-07:00"Might I suggest EbscoHOST [...] It is an exc...<i>"Might I suggest EbscoHOST [...] It is an excellent product"</i><br /><br />It's so good that you couldn't use it?<br /><br />Stern, S. Alan, and Levison, Harold F. (2002). "Regarding the criteria for planethood and proposed planetary classification schemes". Highlights of Astronomy 12: 205-213, as presented at the XXIVth General Assembly of the IAU - 2000Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51157455714385307242016-03-24T11:17:16.109-07:002016-03-24T11:17:16.109-07:00You guys go ahead and argue about planetary defini...You guys go ahead and argue about planetary definitions here. But I have posted a new blog for all else....<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87581021770164285362016-03-24T10:35:38.817-07:002016-03-24T10:35:38.817-07:00If you are going to argue something, you use valid...If you are going to argue something, you use valid information from the time it was presented. You present a 2015 article saying "this proves that there was a scientific basis for demoting Pluto" and when I point out the flaw, handwave and state "well there's earlier mathematics also proving this that was used in 2006." But you don't show that. <br /><br />Might I suggest EbscoHOST as a means of finding the data needed to prove your argument? It is an excellent product; I should know, I work for the company behind it. And it's always good to get extra business sent their way so I remain employed. ;)<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61135136046070039962016-03-24T10:14:38.687-07:002016-03-24T10:14:38.687-07:00cont.
It's interesting that you liken it to p...cont.<br /><br />It's interesting that you liken it to politics. To me the whining over Pluto is just another example of spoilt American baby-boomers thinking that everything that happened during their childhood was always that way, everything they did during their youth was the greatest achievement of mankind, and anything that changed afterwards (or challenges their delusions) is some kind of treason against America. Something we've seen the right-wing media exploit.<br /><br />So swinging back to the topic:<br />This white-whine factor is why I think the burden on proof over equality-intervention should be on opportunity-equalisation, not on outcomes-equalisation as David wants.<br /><br />This is because opportunity-inequality affects those with less power. Outcome-equalisation affects the majority and especially the powerful.<br /><br />By placing the most visible effect <i>on the powerful</i>, the natural conservatism of the system will ensure that outcome-equalisation doesn't grow to excessive levels. (You only need to look at the whining of the wealthy ("it's like the Holocaust!") and the Treebeardy white Christian males over the current system in spite of its high inequality in their favour.)<br /><br />If you place the burden of proof on outcome-levellers, then inequality of opportunity can be easily hidden behind unstated racist, ignorant or lazy assumptions, or ignored because it doesn't affect those in power and therefore "isn't important". Under such a system, any change requires the powerful to decide they are in the wrong, when every instinct will be in the other direction ("I'm not racist! How dare you...") Allowing wealthy, white, male baby-boomers to set the criteria of "proof", they will never accept that they are wrong, nor than the system that put them in power is wrong.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41954232114370035002016-03-24T10:14:19.117-07:002016-03-24T10:14:19.117-07:00Rob,
"That is a draft paper for 2015. Pluto w...Rob,<br /><i>"That is a draft paper for 2015. Pluto was demoted to Dwarf Planet status in 2006.<br />[...] The IAU did not use proper science when coming to their decision. "</i><br /><br />Stern and Levison's original paper was presented at the 2000 IAU convention. Stern called the 8 current planets "uberplanets" and Pluto/Ceres and all the newly discovered KBOs were "unterplanets". <i>He</i> came up with the first formal scientific system to "demote" Pluto. Using the original Stern-Levison parameter: Earth scores 153,000, Mars 942, Ceres 0.0008, Pluto 0.003, Eris 0.002. <br /><br />Steven Soter refined Stern/Levison's system for the 2006 conference, and Jean-Luc Margot has further improved it so that it can be adopted as the definition for exoplanets. There's nothing vague about it, it's a clearly defined mathematical system; and the <a href="http://mel.ess.ucla.edu/jlm/epo/planet/dotchart.png" rel="nofollow">distinction between true planets and dwarfs</a> falls naturally out of the data.<br /><br />[That's not true for Stern's current preference which is based on "roundness" and ignoring the distinction between planets and moons. Mimas (395 km) is round, but Vesta (538 km) is not round. So is Mimas a "world", but the much larger Vesta <i>isn't</i>? And, of course, we can't determine the shape of exoplanets or even most KBOs. It's mushy, self-contradictory, and extremely difficult to apply in practice.]<br /><br /><i>"And when they DID decide, it was on the last day of a meeting in which under 5% of the world's astronomers were attending."</i><br /><br />There were multiple rounds and negotiations on the planet definition throughout the assembly. The final floor vote was open to all attendees and was well attended.<br /><br />The screeching about foul play comes from those who lost their preferred vote -- both the early vote that killed their proposal, and for the vote that approved the final definition. <br /><br />Stern's preferred model was voted down six days earlier (by 3:1), and so they haggled over the details for another 6 days and the final vote was nearly unanimous. There were no tricks (**), no ramming through a vote without notice; the various proposals were thrashed out repeatedly over the course of the assembly, everyone who cared to had been involved and everyone who cared knew when & what the final vote was.<br /><br />Most astronomers are, frankly, embarrassed by Stern&co's childish performance since they lost the vote. Stern's group circulated a petition against the IAU 2006 vote, of the full 4000 registered IAU members they had to draw on, they've gained 79 signatories in a decade.<br /><br />(Likewise, Stern himself plays games with the wording of the definition, "cleared its orbit". Any interested astronomer would know the idea of "clearing its orbit" (dynamical dominance) is based on work that <i>Stern himself</i> pioneered, and therefore his pretending to misunderstand it is disingenuous and deceptive.)<br /><br />**(Actually there was an initial dirty trick. The planetary definitions group tried to ram through a proposal based on shape. The broader group rejected it (3:1) and forced greater deliberation. The <i>third</i> version was the one eventually voted on and overwhelmingly approved.)Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-61238686644044316772016-03-24T09:04:18.367-07:002016-03-24T09:04:18.367-07:00Delightful, delightful, that one particular though...Delightful, delightful, that one particular thought-system du jour is so very obviously such good, and a particular eleventh century European political system that, somehow, has morphed into a 60-century excuse for not thinking, much bad, and anyone who has not embraced the obviousness of this obviousivity, so, so very sad. Mere marketing drivel, and a touching illustration of the American "my shit doesn't smell" school of thought. Your disgusting windshield view intersection optimism ignores the Officer Paula Medrano case, and millions of others--everyone must car-sit, because America. If you're not car-sitting, well, best of luck with that, and your next-of-kin, if they are lucky, might possibly wring something from the car-sitter in civil trial, maybe. Or how many more Ojhri camps do we run through, where there are no $SOVIETS_OR_INDIANS_OR_OR_WHO_IS_IT_NOW left to shoot, so boy howdy that there budget shore need balancing so let's pull the US-AID after weaponizing the heck out of that land. And how many trash trains pull daily out of your "wastes far less" shrines to mindless consumerish consumption?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-74893660735655736242016-03-24T06:30:40.451-07:002016-03-24T06:30:40.451-07:00Alfred Differ:
Large wealth disparities are poten...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />Large wealth disparities are potentially problematic when the people who own them CAN’T LOSE. The immoral things they do are generally related to rigging the rules and that is where our interventions are safest. Whether we level outcomes or opportunities or both, we are intervening because someone broke a meta-rule regarding fairness. Focus upon the actual immoral behavior and the correct intervention usually suggests itself.<br /><br />As long as the super-rich can lose, I’m going to be tempted to let them be until I see them rigging the rules.<br /></i><br /><br />I don't think most people here would argue with that. I don't favor taxes on the rich just to take their money. I favor taxes on those who have cornered the market <b>on</b> money. I mean, if they've got all of it, then who else are you gonna tax?<br /><br /><i><br />A trader doesn’t have to understand the big picture to benefit. Their selfish motivations can be interpreted any which way they like because the Invisible Hand takes care of the rest. We’ve been doing this for thousands of generations without deep comprehension. We can keep doing it for thousands more I suspect.<br /></i><br /><br />I don't mean everyone thinks at the conscious level, "Hey, we're creating value!" every time they buy a stick of gum. But neither do I expect people are content to spend decades of their lives engaging in hundreds of transactions every day thinking "Well, I've broken even again!"LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-26536877737430336212016-03-24T06:14:31.696-07:002016-03-24T06:14:31.696-07:00I was busy starting to write up an argument concer...I was busy starting to write up an argument concerning dwarf planets and equations when I noticed something.<br /><br />That is a draft paper for 2015. <br /><br />Pluto was demoted to Dwarf Planet status in 2006.<br /><br />The IAU did not use proper science when coming to their decision. And when they DID decide, it was on the last day of a meeting in which under 5% of the world's astronomers were attending. You know, if Republicans went and pushed through legislation giving the rich a big tax cut after the Democrats had left for the year and George W. Bush signed it into law, then there'd be a huge outcry.<br /><br />Similar to what is going on nearly ten years later with Pluto.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-43893718722913687812016-03-24T04:57:28.661-07:002016-03-24T04:57:28.661-07:00Putting economic disparity down to "equality ...Putting economic disparity down to "equality of opportunity" vs. "equality of outcome" males it sound like it's just an issue of jealousy. For some that is exactly what it is, as petty as that sounds. But there is also an issue of trust, and that issue is far more of a concern with corporations than with individual wealthy people. The corporate structure tends to disperse authority, something that is a problem for large-scale populations anyway, but greatly exacerbated when institutionalized in the business world.<br /><br />I had a geology professor ages ago who had a rather scary medical issue. One morning she woke up and could not remember her own name, where she was, who was the guy in bed with her (who she had been married to for 10 years) and there was no alcohol involved. her memory had been declining for years, but at that point her husband decided it was worth taking her to a doctor. It took months of tests but they eventually concluded that her memory loss was caused by overexposure to MSG. The doctors told her that most food companies put tons of the stuff in our foods, but you can't tell if it's in there by looking at the label. They convinced the FDA to let them disguise their secret ingredients with terms like "natural flavors" so they would not be revealing their trade secrets. However, the reason they put so much MSG in food is not so much as flavor but because it is mildly addictive. You can't just stop at one, you feel compelled to keep eating. She pretty much has to subsist almost entirely out of her own garden, because the stuff is so pervasive in the food stream.<br /><br />Trust is the issue. What are we breathing, ingesting or otherwise being exposed to that is seriously harming us that really doesn't have to be there? I'm not a particularly jealous person. If some bastard wants to drive around in a Mercedes to show the world how rich he is, the best response in my mind is "meh." Some individual wealthy people are good and decent people, but huge corporations exist for profit, and if they are foisting products on us that mess us up, take years off our lives or leave us cripples, the company doesn't care. And the Republicans go lax on enforcement, because they are free market fetishists. Let business do whatever the hell it wants, because the Invisible Hand will fix everything! <br /><br />Natural flavors, anyone? Oh, and just ignore the plastics in all our food and beverage containers. They can't really prove those things are endocrine disruptors. The Invisible Hand will fix it. Pray to the Invisible Hand. Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3342331609058432852016-03-24T04:38:26.944-07:002016-03-24T04:38:26.944-07:00Rob H., I'm not a doctor, but has your proble...Rob H., I'm not a doctor, but has your problem been diagnosed? It sounds to me like a disjunction between the temporal and parietal lobes. Have you been like this all your life, or is this something that has happened more recently? Another thought is that the electrolytes in your cerebrospinal fluid are out of balance, which could relate to a melatonin deficiency. Forgive me if I'm being nosey. After being on this blog for a couple years, you guys feel like my buddies, even if I'll probably never actually meet any of you.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-17017140150742899232016-03-24T02:46:38.637-07:002016-03-24T02:46:38.637-07:00"let them be until I see them rigging the rul..."let them be until I see them rigging the rules."<br />https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_CouncilJumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83692804533903190672016-03-23T21:45:35.557-07:002016-03-23T21:45:35.557-07:00Geez.
Again stupid tablet. Should be 'nor tha...Geez.<br /><br />Again stupid tablet. Should be 'nor that they.raitonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4334218915759464052016-03-23T21:27:26.498-07:002016-03-23T21:27:26.498-07:00* "No, but they'd find it easier to give ...<b>*</b> "<i>No, but they'd find it easier to give orders. "Feed me," or "Worship me as the goddess that I am."</i>"<br /><br />Good: that would make the necessary uprising against the decadent aristocracy of the perfidious felines come sooner.<br /><br />***<br /><br /><b>*</b> "<i>We all didn’t benefit from rivalry between Jobs and Gates?</i>"<br /><br />We got the Control Freak's Walled Garden built by slave labor on one side versus a bunch of shitty, blue screen of death inducing OSes like Windows 95, Windows 2000, Windows Vista, Windows 10 (which also function on hardware built by slave labor) coupled with the "<i>Throw money at problems and buy off the competition</i>" approach from which the "<i>Bill Gates will just buy the whole fucking world</i>" meme emerged.Laurent Weppenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-63238534811627327102016-03-23T21:17:23.261-07:002016-03-23T21:17:23.261-07:00LarryHart,
The zero-sum pizza eaters believe that...LarryHart,<br /><br />The zero-sum pizza eaters believe that the pizza is worth exactly $10, and can't think any further. They can't think through to the idea that the pizza maker would rather have $10 than a pizza, not that they themselves would rather have a pizza than $10.raitonoreply@blogger.com