Discussions

28 minutes ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@Bass: you think a plough or a harvester is a bad invention aswel?

as it puts hundreds of people out of a job.

How about a shovel? how about an electronic switchboard?

How about this forum? You are putting postal workers out of a job by using this forum, kind of hypocritical don't you think?

It's called progress, we free ourselves from trivial jobs, increasing efficiency, decreasing costs and freeing up people to perseu better work.

As to your being a fan of big gov, we tried that, didn't work. People died.

Wow, you really didn't read his post at all, did you? He never said that progress was bad, that inventions that replace human labour with automation were bad, and he explicitly said he was not a huge fan of big government.

All that he's saying that people who lose their jobs because of it and don't have money to acquire new skills are effectively doomed without some form of social welfare. And that's society's responsibility to find a solution for that.

17 hours ago, GoddersUK wrote

*snip*

Really? I just thought there was no "u" in the American alphabet.

(I'm not sure they are superfluous - we don't say col - or; the pronunciation is closer to cul - ur. Not sure why the "o" is there though... and mostly I think we say either fave - rut (when being sloppy) or fave - ur -ut. And "aluminium" we do actually pronounce as we write.) 

This reminded me of this:

No no, you must follow the assembly instructions in reverse. That's what Police Quest 2 taught me.

2 hours ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@Dr Herbie:

I wouldnt say that new management every 2-4 years as a very good way to run an insitution that manages 50% of our economy. So I wouldnt put that down as a plus.

You finally said something I agree with. Things like climate change, or even the recession or the US's debt problem, require long-term vision to tackle. Changing everything every four years just to spite the previous administration isn't going to accomplish anything in the long run.

1 hour ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

@Sven Groot:

How is a hospital different then a car manifacturor?

If you don't have money, you can always choose not to drive. I can't afford a car or petrol, so I use my bicycle and public transportation. That's my choice.

If you have a heart attack and don't have money, you can't choose not to go to a hospital. Yet if hospitals are a business, they have no interest in helping a patient who has no prospects of ever being able to pay for the procedure.

EDIT: And there's another problem, which is plainly visible in other examples of privitization. Since the NS has been privatized, they have reduced or even eliminated service on non-profitable routes. In some cases the government had to step in to keep trains running in certain places. Since post offices privatized, many small towns now find themselves without a post office.

You had a heart attack? Sorry, the nearest hospital is 100km away because your area wasn't profitable enough to have one there, there's no way the ambulance can make it in time. Have a nice day!

2 hours ago, Maddus Mattus wrote

I know it sounds crazy to see hospitals as businesses providing a service, but if you take out all emotion and look at it from a pure logical viewpoint, then a hospital is just another business.

I would argue that is a crazy thing to do when human lives are at stake.

Hospitals must always put the welfare of their patients above the bottom line. If they are businesses, they cannot do that.

8 hours ago, GoddersUK wrote

Surely if you have to tell me why it's good, it's not good?

 (For artistic/opinion things only,  obviously not for issues of hard fact )

Okay, let me rephrase that. It should give you an idea of why some people (including me) praise the movie as much as we do.

Wrath of Khan is good because of its strong themes and writing. I highly recommend SFDebris's review, it should give you an idea of why it's good.

I agree about First Contact but I still like it.

@spivonious: 2, 6 and 8 are the best Trek movies. Five is horrible and should never be mentioned.

@Charles: But speculation is fun...