Brin: Urangutan granted human rights. First step to Urangutan uplift?
A court in Argentina granted human rights to a captive Urangutan: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/21/us-argentina-orangutan-idUSKBN0JZ0Q620141221 http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/orangutan-granted-basic-legal-rights-in-argentina#.fimQx6Xkb http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/landmark-ruling-orangutan-granted-basic-rights-argentina/ http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30571577 (that's a great improvement from a country where, 40 years ago, humans didn't have human rights) Now, let's Uplift them!!! Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Introducing Myself
William Taylor wrote: The 4th dimension is going to close down as the galaxy that Jijo is in breaks away from the other four galaxies. It also mean that all the magic will go out from Jijo. Everything that can't be explained by XX-cent technology will cease to work. No more psychic powers either. Some of the lifeforms will go extinct. Some sentient beings that rely on magic will go crazy. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: For David Brin and the rest of you
Dan Minette thread-killed: I don't expect to see it, ever. But, that demo is an example of the very easy baby steps that would have to be taken very early in the project. The fact that we don't have a demo of baby steps is a very good indicator of where the project is. This is not fair-play! :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: For David Brin and the rest of you
David Hobby wrote: Or are you worried about energy being beamed down inefficiently, producing much more heat than just the amount from people using energy directly? No, even if it was possible to beam energy with 100% efficiency... it's still energy. It comes down, it must get out. If not, Earth gets cooked. Hell on Earth, the nightmare of science fiction, brought to us by those that try to save the planet. Isn't this the scenario of some cheap sci-fi, where the Mad Scientist tries to destroy the Earth by placing an enormous mirror or lens in orbit, concentrating solar energy? Just we don't need mirror or lens, place a lot of death ray satellites. Sorry, power satellites. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: For David Brin and the rest of you
Even if these things were economically viable (which they probably ain't), ambientally it would be a disaster. I can't image the Earth getting such extra amount of radiant energy and not turning it (she? Gaia?) into a hell much worse than the most pessimistic images of the most radical ecogroups. Alberto Monteiro (oil company guy) ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Heaven's Reach
A new user (E. S. zoon33@h...) tried to subscribe to this list, but it seems that some of the gear is not working properly. Since we know each other from the Tolkien mailing list, and I have no idea what is happening, I will try to forward the message to the Brin-L list. (...) is part of the message that I edited out. Alberto Monteiro -- Forwarded message -- From: E. S. zoon33@h... Date: 2013/5/16 Subject: RE: Brin-l List: How to join? To: ALBERTO VIEIRA FERREIRA MONTEIRO albm...@centroin.com.br (...) I haven't read Heaven's Reach in a while, but I don't remember the book answering these questions. Maybe some list members might know. Spoiler warning to anyone who hasn't read Heaven's Reach!! 1. When Gillian traded things with Uriel, did she take any rewqs? They'd be very valuable both for Earthclan and for that Hoon colony Alvin and Huck moved to. 2. Did we ever find out why Gillian wanted a herd of Glavers? I doubt they're legally available for uplift yet, but Contacting Aliens does say they haven't been spotted (in the other Galaxies) in 2000 years. Did she figure they might be the last of their kind, and want to prevent the Jophur from killing them all? 3. When Streaker and Polkjhy exchanged people and chunks of hull, did Lark and Ling give any of the red rings to Gillian? Those rings are a potent biological defense against Jophur invasions, so it'd be nice for Earthclan to have some. (It would hypothetically also have made it possible for Dwer to take a few back to Jijo, but I doubt David Brin would make things so narratively easy for Jijo.) 4. Lark saw an Urs on Polkjhy, stuck in an air bubble. Why would any Urs accept such a watery/confined fate? She'll be stuck in that little bubble for the rest of her life. Why didn't she go onto the Streaker while all those Dolphins were going onto Polkjhy? ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Brin: Lots of Cars and Trucks, No Traffic Signs or Lights: Chaos or Calm?
This sounds like something you were saying some time ago: http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/04/lots-cars-and-trucks-no-traffic-signs-or-lights-chaos-or-calm/5152/ Except: Shared space is a term that simply describes a shift in thinking away from the regulated highway towards using the natural skills that humans are blessed with to negotiate movement and allow the normal civilities of life to continue, says road designer Hamilton-Baillie. copy-and-paster Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Power and civilization
Dan Minette wrote: The poison you talk about is roundup. And, yes, if I drank a bottle of it, I'd probably be sick. But, I've used it on weeds. Spray it on grass, and the grass dies, but spray it on weeds 3 inches from grass, and the small amount that gets on the grass doesn't hurt it. If Roundup were that bad, wouldn't we see the effects on the laws of folks who use it, on the animal life in the area, etc? That's not how slow poison works. People don't die for smoking a cigarette, or for smoking 100 cigarettes a day for 30 years. But then they die in the 31st year. Alberto Monteiro PS: is bringing cigarettes to the discussion like bringing Hitler? ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses
Klaus Stock wrote: Nope. In Germany, political reasons are the real reasons, not common sense. The europeans are crazy. They don't know what to do, they add a lot of uncertainty to the economy with all those subsidies that come and go, taxes that come and go, and regulations that come and go. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses
Dan Minette wrote: Wind just needs one, effective storage. The lack of it is why wind power cannot be counted on as part of peak demand. It only made sense when natural gas was expensive. Here in Brazil, Wind is used as part of the electric grid (there is a country-wide electric grid, only some parts of the Rain Forest are outside it). It helps save water and not consume natural gas when the wind blows. So, Wind is _not_ one black swam away, it can be used complementary to other sources of energy. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Greens add to Greenhouse gasses
For God's sake (written as 日本酒), Japan had the earthquake of the century, it hit hard on the nuclear plants, and almost nothing happened. If this is not a very good security test on nuclear power, then I don't know what could be. Maybe hit a nuclear plant with an airplane? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Where to now?
Dan Minette prayed: We need a black swan. Maybe we already have it. The wiki model is working for editing wikipedias (not only _the_ Wikipedia, but many other clones, parodies, porn sites or just silly stuff), It began with IMDB and if they hadn't been such stupid jerks IMDB would have turned itself into what Wikipedia became. Why can't we apply the wiki idea to _engineering_? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Obama II
Bryon Daly wrote: Further, as a Mormon, Romney doesn't quite pass the WASP test so he basically had to tack hard right to build up his conservative cred to get the party nomination. Ugh. Mormons have taken control of the Internet (by Facebook). I'm glad they didn't take control of the USA too. Alberto Monteiro the paranoid ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
George Takei
Marriage equality AND marijuana laws passed? Now we know what Leviticus really meant by A man who layeth with another man must be stoned. -- attributed to George Takei, 2012-11 for the copy-and-paste, Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Obama II
So... What about Obama's reelection? Here in Brazil, we had the impression that the Republicans chose the worst possible candidate, someone they put there to lose. Or maybe the Democrats voted in the Republican primaries to make him win. Did anyone over there ever think that Mitt Romney had _any_ chance? Alberto Monteiro PS: BTW, brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff, is _boring_. Three years as president, and there's not _any_ single joke about her. Nothing. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Job opportunity?
Dan Minette wrote: Spam spam spam spam lovely spam, wonderful spam.a spambot got into brin-l. Did you'all notice that 99% of all wikis are controlled by spam bots? A lot of people create wikis and then abandon them. And the spam bots take over. Spammers no longer attack mailing lists, wikis are an easier target. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: On Gasoline
Dan Minette wrote: And, ethanol has been a highly subsidized substitute, which should lower gasoline consumption about 3%, even with fuel consumption constant. BTW, isn't it funny that, in 2011, Brazil was a huge importer of USA's ethanol? So, the american taxpayers are financing brazilian sugar exports. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Clash of Titans
BTW, those who like movies and/or greek mythology, stay away from this crap. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Troll Wars 2: Report from Wikipedia
David Hobby wrote: The proposer, Abductive, may even have been right. But that does not mean that he is not a troll. The troll sent me a message. I didn't even bother to reply a f-y. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Br?n on global warming
Keith Henson wrote: I could go into detail including the economic models, but I don't know if there is anyone on this list who can follow the physics, chemistry and math. Probably not, we are very stupid when it comes down to the math used in astrodynamics, chemistry or economy. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
The wikipedia trolls may win again :-/
Article Alvin Hph-wayuo was proposed for elimination. From what I know about such things, it will be eliminated :-( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alvin_Hph-wayuo Maybe it's time to setup a Brin wiki Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Brin: Life after people - The Invaders
A great episode!!! Tool-using dolphins, self-uplifing chimpanzees, dolphins that remember humans as Gods in the Golden Age. What's next? Whales, Gorillas or AIs? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Knowledge of Complex Systems and Ecconomics
On 2009-09-05, Dan M wrote: We know that, while we cannot see trends as absolute rules when dealing with complex systems, the most persimmons model consistent within the data has the best chance of being a reasonable approximation of what we will understand as we gain a better, more detailed understanding of the system. In addition, it has the best change of future predictions. Note, I didn't say that it would always be right; there are many times that extrapolations beyond data are wrong. But, if one were to consider all possible theories available at the time,, one's best chance of being close is choosing that theory. I had a feeling that I had predicted the crisis, but I didn't find my message. Here it is: Subject: Welcome to Hyperinflation! Date: 2008-08-29 12:30 I was just checking the evolution of PPI (PPI and CPI measure inflation in the USA), and noticed that _this year_ the accumulated inflation is about 10% (!!!) Welcome to Hyperinflation. If you want any hints on how to survive and prosper under hyperinflation, just ask me. Brazil had it for decades. Which means that I could see the sympthoms of the next blow-up, but not the actual blow-up... Alberto Monteiro, brin-l cassandra number 2 (number 1 is JDG) ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Sausage surprise at Miskatonic University
Dave Land wrote: But of course I was referring to the conspiracy-theory _secret_ nazi base. The secret nazi base in the other side of the Moon was found when the first spaceships mapped that place, and it was preemptively destroyed with the first successful time-travelling experiment. I think that preemptively destroyed with the first successful time- traveling experiment may be the best phrase I've read in a long time. Believe it or not, I know people who _believe_ in those conspiracy theories. They claim that The Philadelphia Project movie was based on _real facts_! But wait. If they did that, how would the spaceships have mapped it? Did they map the ruins? Did they destroy it after it was mapped? If so, how would that qualify as preemptive? Did they destroy the rockets that were delivering the Necronomicon to the moon before the secret base was even built? If so, then what did the spaceships actually map? No, no, no. In the 70s, when the first russian or americans ships began mapping the other side of the Moon, they found a huge Nazi occupation, that began in the 1945s. So, they (CIA or KGB or both) used time-travel to go _back_ to 1945 and destroy the base (or, probably, destroy the nazi launch sites) so that there would not be any nazi moon base. Probably that's when they destroyed the german copy of the Necronomicon, therefore cutting out the information that would enable time-travel. History and Meta-History was preserved because a few gifted people retain memory of what-should-be, and this memory is enhanced with the use of anphetamins. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Death Note [was: Weekly Chat Reminder]
Rceeberger wrote: OTOH, right now my favourite series is the Anime Death Note - I don't miss an episode. I've seen the whole series and the movies based on the series. They are excellent! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-SpNRR8FZk Opening theme for season 2 by Maximum the Hormone. Irony: This song is the only occasion I hear the word fucker used on TV and it is on a cartoon network. But here it's not broadcast on normal channels, but on the cable-channel Animax (aka The Hentai Channel :-) ) I'm still on Season 1, so no spoilers please. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Death Note
Rceeberger wrote: But here it's not broadcast on normal channels, but on the cable-channel Animax (aka The Hentai Channel :-) ) I'm still on Season 1, so no spoilers please. How many episodes have you seen? I assume you have met L if you have gotten in far enough to be hooked. Yes, the last episode was the one where L placed cameras on Yagami's house, and Kira became a suspect because he acted too normally. The previous episode was when Kira kired the hot chick widow :-( Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Aliens 'may be living among us' undetected by science
Deborah Harrell wrote: And as I'm rereading _Glory Season_ by Himself (thought I'd give it another go, as it was back in '95 that I read it first, and didn't like it much compared to the Uplift series), it too deals with aliens - um, non-genetically modified humans - 'invading' a world. Upon second go, it is much more interesting to me; of course, it could be that I've matured a bit in the past 1 1/2 decades, and am less easily unnervevd by certain concepts... In _Glory Season_, the humans _are_ genetically modified. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Brin: an Obama joke!
After four years trying to fix USA's economy, Obama dies. But he does not die alone: as an asteroid smashes against Earth, everybody dies. However, in the confusion of dealing with 7 billion incoming souls, the afterlife bureaucracy sends Obama to Hell. There, he complains, but only after a long time he is heard. - 'I think I don't have to be here' he says 'I am aware that I couldn't do much to save the economy, but I tried hard. And, considering the utter mess that was sent to me, I think I did a good job!' The archangel gets his files, and says: - 'Yes, I'm sorry. There was a terrible mistake here. You were sent to Hell, yes, but not as a form of punishment. You were sent to Hell to rule it and fix it. Hell after 6,000 years of Satan administration isn't as hopeless as the USA after 8 years of Bush administration.' Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brazil's Twin Town
Jim Sharkey wrote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/4307262/Nazi- angel-of-death-Josef-Mengele-created-twin-town-in-Brazil.html Joseph Mengele apparently found a way to increase the birthrate of the master race, at least in this small Brazilian enclave. Pretty wacky stuff, though it's unfortunate they get into any of the science of how he did it. Sure, there's some fertility treatments involved I'm sure, but the article seems to suggest the multiple births have continued long since his death. I would laugh, if this was not sad. All this assumes that Mengele had _any_ competence either as a physician or as a scientist. What's next? That Mengele cloned his own bones, found the longetivity drug, and is planning to take the world? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Obamamania, Rio style
Obamamania, Rio style: http://g1.globo.com/Carnaval2009/0,,MUL959331-16634,00.html Partial translation: Obama masks are a hit in Rio Each mask is sold at R$ 4.90 (c. US$ 2.10) in the streets of Saara (Translator's note: an acronym for a commercial area). Lula and Eduardo Paes (TN: just-elected mayor of Rio) dispute the preference. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name?
Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name? Bull? Burt? Bast? An interesting thing: those past weeks, the stock market was so hysterical that _anything_ Obama said would make it go up, then panic would resume the next few days and it would crash down again. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Twitter user for Brin-L
Nick Arnett wrote: I've created a Twitter user, KillerBs, associated with the list. (...) I have no fidea of what is a Twitter. I guess it's a kind of robot, and, in my wish list, a robot that I would like to see is one that grabs the messages in Brin's blog and reposts here. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Ecosystem to collapse in next twenty years?
Dan M wrote: I simply can't get wind into my head as an important source of energy. Meddlying with the natural wind systems all over the planet will cause such an horrible impact in the ecosystem that would make the AGW scenarios look like the Garden of Eden. Well, we do it when we build cities, right? The annual energy budget of the world is about 5e17 Joules. A quick back of the envelope calculation reveals that the energy in the earth's wind is greater than 1e20 Joules. So wind could be an efficient way to extract solar energy. Ideal solar energy would give, per year, 1410 W/m^2 x pi x (6378160 m)^2 x 365.25 x 86400 = 5e24 How much of that can be turned into biofuels? And, of course, that's constantly being replensihed as friction slows the wind down. Think of how quickly a hurricane can winds down when cut off from its primary source. So, the fraction of a percent of the total energy budget of the earth's wind that we would be changing by having wind farm would produce effects that would be hard to measure. If the average wind speed were to drop from, say, 5.678 to 5.677 m/s, do you think that the ecosystem would be changed much? No. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Ecosystem to collapse in next twenty years? [was: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?]
Dan M wrote: But, it also means that wind can't be counted on. In another forum I was debating this, and was led to a website maintained by the company that has the largest fraction of wind in its mix. They stated that they can only count on about 5% of nameplate capacity, and that this was becoming a limiting factor on their use of wind. I simply can't get wind into my head as an important source of energy. Meddlying with the natural wind systems all over the planet will cause such an horrible impact in the ecosystem that would make the AGW scenarios look like the Garden of Eden. Alberto the Hyperbolic Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: HAL's Pals: Top 10 Evil Computers
Nick Arnett wrote: HAL is 17 today. Sort of. http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2009/01/top-10-evil-com.html In terms of body count, HAL wouldn't even score 100. But, as I saw in Terminator: The Sarah Chronicle Series, you are anthropormorphisizing (or something like that) machines. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
Dan M wrote: Personally, I'd bet a beer that bioengineered fuels, that have 10x the efficiency of ethanol production will have a significant market share in 10 years (say 10% of jet fuel), but electric cars will not be a significant player (5% of cars sold worldwide in 2019) in that time. But, I have no problem in placing chips on battery development, because the payoff from a given winner should be substantialwe just don't know which bet will pay off. Why there are no natural gas cars in the USA? Argentina lead South America into this, and now we have tetrafuel cars in Brazil: they run on ethanol, compressed natural gas, the brazilian 75% vol gasoline / 25% vol ethanol and gasoline. Probably they could also run on methanol or propane (both are illegal in Brazil - as is pure, unmixed gasoline). Not to mention those extravagant vehicles that run on liquid hydrogen... Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Over the counter nuclear power systems?
Bruce Bostwick wrote: (Gripe: 10 cents a watt? I hate it when people are ambiguous about whether they mean power or energy ..) I hate it when people ignore existing units, like Joule, and invent abominations like kwh or MMBTU :-/ Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
Dan M wrote: and you'll see what I mean. We know that the energy density of gasoline is about 46 MJ/Kg. Compare this to the best, most expensive battery (Li ion), and we get a factor of 100. Electric cars are more efficient (90% vs 20%), so this gets down to a factor of 22 or so in power/weight. And, using the highly efficient batteries has a cost, that's why the Tesla Roadster costs Does it really matters? As long as the generation of energy is costly, batteries are irrelevant. I saw with horror a story about a green city in Japan, where all houses were covered with beautiful solar arrays. Very nice, but each monstrosity cost 40.000 _dollars_. For what? Giving 200 dollars a month of green energy for the next 10 years? Alberto Monteiro the neocynical ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
Doug Pensinger wrote: On an SF list you forget Aerospace? Aerospace is no longer future history, it's alternate history. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: on the telly again
d.brin wrote: Seems I'll be on the telly again. The two-hour special First Apocalypse aka What Really Killed the Dinosaurs is scheduled to air on Wednesday, January 07 @ 09:00 PM on History (please check your local listing) So, they also dropped the marijuana-AFT there too? Here in Brazil it was THC, but now it's History (and not História, as it should be in good old Portuguese). Happy new year, all. And here's hoping for a revival of civilization. Hmmm... Just in case you were right about the manchurian-candidate conspiracy (right conspiracy, wrong person :-)) I will stay in a natural anti-nuclear protective valley on 2009-01-20... What if Obama is brainwashed by Bush and decides to wipe out the whole Western Civilization? :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Africa to collapse in 5 years?
Charlie Bell wrote: No it's no - the UN and African Union have peace-keeping operations in Darfur. They're underfunded and undereffective, but that's not tacit approval. OTOH, I had already read that Africa would collapse due to the AIDS pandemic, and it seems that it's happening right now. Congo/Zaire, Guinea, Uganda, Sudan, Somalia, ZImbabwe... It seems that civil wars are getting worse then when they funded by the CIA and the KGB. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
Dan M. wrote: As if Things Weren't Bad Enough, Russian Professor Predicts End of U.S. In Moscow, Igor Panarin's Forecasts Are All the Rage; America 'Disintegrates' in 2010 I read this a few weeks ago and got a good chuckle out of it. It shows than Americans aren't the only ones who can be clueless about how things work in other countries. :-) Maybe we could work around a Big Bet about which is the next country that will disintegrate. Russia? Canada? USA? China? Brazil? India? Australia? South Africa? I bet on China, but Bolivia came close to it a few months ago. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Scouted: U.S. to collapse in next two years?
David Land wrote: Right. As everyone knows, Mexico is a great power that is poised to take over the entire Southern tier of the United States. And those damned Canadians have been quietly biding their time since the American revolution, lying in wait for just the right moment to arrive. And the European Union is so blatantly an effort to organize Europe for a take-over of the United States that it's a wonder no one's mentioned it before... Clearly, the only solution is for the US to mount a massive attack on all the countries listed in the article at once. It's surprising that not a single piece of the future-former-USA went to Israel. Those conspiracy theorists are getting unimaginative. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Incoming!
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: Still in the 60s here, though I've already closed the windows. Expected to be in the upper 30s by morning, and maybe as low as 20 (°F, for Alberto, et. al.) Monday or Tuesday morning . . . It's depressingly cold here in the (alleged) tropics. We miss the days when temperature was 40. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Incoming!
Euan Ritchie wrote: It's depressingly cold here in the (alleged) tropics. We miss the days when temperature was 40. Yesterday was the Summer solstice here in the South Pacific and the day before was cold - only 6 degrees celsius. Global warming harumph. The science-deniers at Conservapedia are making fun of Global Warming. It seems that AGW proponents were involved in scientific fraud. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Russian strippers [was: Russia]
Wayne Eddy wrote: Cyprus was full of them working bar, waiting, or worse being exploited in strip clubs. (It wasn't like London where an attractive woman could make good money doing exotic dancing a couple of times a week - these girls were often being forced to have sex with customers). How did you establish that the girls in the strip clubs were well educated russian girls? (lines added. those that might feel offended please delete this message) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Probably they didn't speak when their mouths were full. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Russia (Was What is wealth?)
Dan M. wrote: I would have thought that a low birth rate is very very good evidence of being part of the first world. It does have that in common with the first world. But, the life expectancy of both men and women in every age catagory is less than it was 40 years ago. And how can we trust communist statistics? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Hitchhiker's quote from the blog
There is another metaphor from fiction that would seem to apply, from the Douglas Adams series The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” In book #3 (I think), our heroes find themselves on the “C Ark” from Golgafrincham, carrying the entire planet’s supply of “middle-men, managers, account executives and factotums” who had been tricked aboard and sent away by the two-thirds of the home population, who, thereupon, ended their long dark era and entered a golden age. It's from Book #2 of the Trilogy (of five books), it's the Ship B, and the biggest error of the Golgafrinchans was that they included in the Ship B the telephone cleaners - they civilization was wiped out by a bug that lived in telephone dirt. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: On Topic shocker!
Nick Arnett wrote: Wikipedia probably has an article on the subject. Try searching on democracy. Found it! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleptocracy#The_Bush_Administration Oops, the page was vandalized :-( Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: rude and insulting
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: If someone _physically_ attacks one of my kids or my wife (all hypothetical atm), they may find themselves suddenly with one or several surplus body openings in whatever caliber I can lay my hands on at the time . . . So, your kid (or wife) is playing with a 4-year-old, and he kicks his (her) leg - you would butch him? :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Ask the Next Question Q---
John Williams wrote: Did you make any posts predicting the housing crisis before, say, 2004? I did. Unfortunately, I can't find the post where I predicted it. But I always predict disasters, so it's not surprising that sometimes I'm right. Cassandra Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: $290 billion down the government money hole
John Williams wrote: I think that heroin addicts should use drugs responsibly. I think anybody does. Let's give the addicts a plentiful suppy of heroin and hope they behave! I don't like to feed the trolls, but this time I think you crossed the line. Comparing government expending with heroin addicts consuming heroin is disproportional, abject and disrespectul. The heroin addicts deserve a little respect! Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: How's Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion?
How's Obama Going to Raise $4.3 Trillion? Who fscking cares? AFAIK, in the past 100 years, only _two_ elected politicians proceeded according to what they promised. The other one is bolivian Evo Morales. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: correct geography nomnclaturee
Jon Louis Mann wrote: thanks for the correction, alberto. what part of the netherlands is holland? The most important part: Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, etc are in Holland. Now there are two: Northern Holland and Southern Holland. is it correct to call natives of the netherlands, dutch? jon Yes, but I think there is no useful adjective relative to Holland. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: from Saturday's blog
Ever notice that Sarah Palin anagrams to Sharia plan. So, clearly, she's the one who plans to institute Muslim law in the United States. Other anagrams include: a sharp nail a plain rash. Any chance of a numeralogical match with 666? Pleze? Numerology is an easy science! Sarah Palin Vice President USA if we add the _roman_ digits, we get: Palin = L + I = 51 Vice = V + I + C = 106 President = I + D = 501 USA = V = 5 adding together, we get 663. Now, why we should add 3? - she was the third children from her parents - she finished third in Miss Alaska - she has three terms as administrative experience (2 in Wasilia + 1 in Alaska) So, it's clear that _3_ is Palin's lucky number. Adding 663 + 3, we get 666! Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Redistribute the wealth
Jon Louis Mann wrote: A Democratic congress will tax the wealthy and redistribute the wealth to the poor and middle class. If McCain wins he will continue GOP policies of subsidizing the corporate state and cutting social programs. Jon This is something I don't understand. If Obama is the anti-corporation candidate, how he gets 2-3x more money for the campaing than McPalin? Alberto Monteiro PS: former terrorist, bank-robber, kidnapper, communist, quasi-nudist and marijuana apologist Gabeira lost the Rio election with 48.5% of the valid votes _for him_. That's a pity, he had some really interesting ideas. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Future of the list / Questions?
Nick Arnett wrote: I'm not sure exactly what David B.'s attitude is toward the other list, but he is subscribed, albeit filtered, to this one. David only sees messages whose subject starts Brin:. Not counting times when He uses a sock puppet just to see if we are still worshipping Him in His absence :-))) Alberto the paranoid ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: The Core
Was there any advance in the credit/lawsuit/whatever related to the rip-off movie The Core? I was editing the Portuguese Wikipedia article about it, and I would like to know if there is any hard data (references, frex) about it. The English Wikipedia article only mentions that it was ripped off (ripoffed?) from Paul Creuss's book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Core The Core is a science fiction disaster film loosely based on the novel Core by Paul Preuss. It concerns a team that has to drill to the center of the Earth (...) Alberto Monteiro PS: about wikis, you mentioned in the (yikes!) blog the... http://www.galaxiki.org/ ... however, I think there are some problems with this site: - they ask users to _buy_ stars (wikis and .org are supposed to be freesites!) - they don't pay too much attention to physics when randomly generating star systems ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Racial and religious bigotry
Jon Louis Mann wrote: I agree, but only because the economic collapse has actually made it likely that he will be elected. I still would have preferred that Obama picked a qualified Hispanic woman for his VP. Jon Like, say, J-Lo? Alberto Monteiro PS: fwiw, here's the uncyclopedia page about the (most likely) furure mayor of Rio de Janeiro (election this Sunday). Some facts are true. http://desciclo.pedia.ws/wiki/Fernando_Gabeira ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Gen. Colin Powell, Pres. Obama's Secretary of Defense
Julia Thompson wrote: It's like the people running around accusing Obama of being a Muslim -- it's inaccurate, but they may have been lied to by people who want to turn opinion against Obama, and not be intending to lie. That would be the perfect conspiracy theory, following the Bush-is-a-Manchurian-candidate conspiracy. If Bush is at sold of some foreign sheiks, what would be best for them then to blunder everything in the final weeks, weaken the Republican candidate to death, and place a Muslim at the POTUS? :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Off-topic., monotonous posting (was Child-killing religion)
Kevin B. O'Brien wrote: At this point I cannot rule out some stupid technical problem, like a message that got caught in a queue somewhere and just now shook loose. It *does* happen sometimes. No, I think he means that the financial system crashed because the USA abandoned God and became an atheist country. Alberto must stop reading the Conservapedia Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Whales: one good news among the chaos and mayhem
I'm watching the news, and among the economical disasters (which reached Brazil - interest rates, that were immorally high before the crisis, are even higher), there are good news. The Jubarte whales found out that the coast of Sergipe, BR, is a whale sanctuary (as all brazilian coast - enforcing it is a problem), and their population is recovering. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: My contribution to the bail-out
John Williams wrote: Imagine that you, me, and a few other stupid guys believe that some stock prices will go up tomorrow by 10%. What should we do? Not enough information. What probability will they go up by 10%. What are other possible outcomes and probabilities? How much money do we have to risk? It should be implicit, by what I wrote next, that those stupid guys knew for sure that prices would raise by 10% - and they are wrong. After all, what's the point calling them stupid? Now suppose that some smart guy _knows_ that there's a 50% chance that tomorrow's price will raise by 100% and there's a 50% chance that tomorrow's price will get back to 0%, and that whenever he puts money in that, the g*vernment steals 1% from him. That is straightforward to profit from with any number of options strategies. Look up long straddle and long strangle for example. I am making it simple. There ain't no options. Just buy or (short) sell. Would s/he be wise to put his/her money into this lottery just to prove that we are fools? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: My contribution to the bail-out
John Williams wrote: I am making it simple. There ain't no options. Just buy or (short) sell. Oversimplifying, and missing obvious ways to make money. Typical of people who think they know better how to spend other people's money. Goodbye. I won't waste my time with Trolls. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin
William T Goodall wrote: That assumes there aren't crazy religionists trying to play the system to promote their superstitious pernicious garbage. When it's split between crazy creationists in one side and mass murdering atheist baby killers on the other side, I think I side with the creationists. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Sarah Palin
Jon Louis Mann wrote: When it's split between crazy creationists in one side and mass murdering atheist baby killers on the other, I think I side with the creationists. That is not thinking, Alberto, that is feeling!~) I unequivocally side with the mass murdering atheists!~). I don't. When atheist-based ideology condemns every baby with Down Syndrome to be search and destroyed, it's a message that people with Down Syndrome should also be hunted and gassed. Even if you don't give a fuck about people with Down Syndrome, remember that, not long ago, someone else started doing the same thing, and he-who-should-not-be-mentioned-in-mailing-lists began the pogrom by mass-murdering those with mental handicaps. Exclusion is usually irreversible, when you started excluding people from Humanity the final outcome is that only _one_ group remains. I wonder if Sarah Palin is deliberately using her Down Syndrom pregnancy with four kids already, and at an age when the risk of fetal abnormalities is massively escalated? This is nonsense. There's no way (at least for euploid adults) to make the chance of having a Down Syndrome baby more than a ridiculously small value. Even for very old women the rate is still less than 5%. By not aborting, her moral position has advanced her political career. It IS a terrible, selfish, morally bankrupt example to set, especially if McCain wins and she is a doddering heartbeat away from the presidency. So, you think that someone does the _right_ thing, it's only because it benefits the political career? In other words, if I am in a position, say, to accept a bribe, and I don't accept, I only do it because it will benefit me? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Honest terminology
Jon Louis Mann wrote: Just think of how many children's' lives in Africa could be saved with the resources used to support the world's first surviving set of septuplets, born in Des Moines, Iowa to Kenny and Bobbi McCaughey. (...) So you believe that the logic of capitalism should be used to decide on who lives or who dies? For example, think how many children's lives in Africa could be saved if we took all those infected with HIV, gassed them, burned their bodies (in an anthropothermic power plant - let's now waste biofuel!) and saved the money they bleed from HIV researches and treatment? Add those old people with cancer - why do those selfish bastards want to live a few more years? atheism is evil, why it should be eradicated Maru Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Sarah Palin
Dan M wrote: With all due respect, so what? Most people prefer drilling everywhere over $4.00 gasoline. And, the Republicans are winning that argument...the polls show a massive preference now to drill to bring down the prices. Right now, this is one of the two arguments I (internally) would justify voting for Obama (if I could cast my vote, 10.000 km away...). Less drilling means less oil supply, means higher oil prices, means more money in _my_ pocket :-P Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brazilian volleyball girls
Jon Louis Mann wrote: I bow down to the Chinese volleyball girls, Err... They were blasted 3 x 0 by the Brazilian volleyball girls :-P missed that, congrats to brazil!~) It was the first time the girls won the gold medal. They didn't even win it at the Pan american games, here in Rio - they lost to the archnemesis Cuba team. BTW, I think I mentioned this before. During the closing ceremony, everybody cheered the USA team, and booed the Cuba team, because Cuba left the games one day before the end - the Zero Hypothesis was fear of desertion, the Alternative Hypothesis was the aerial chaos in Brazil. did you happen to see the joke on letterman about the chinese volleyball girl? No. BTW, how can China still have female teams, with its enormous abortion rate? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works?
David Brin wrote: But of course I am distracted by the elections, hoping we'll at last save America and civilization from a criminal gang. (What we're seeing -- including the outright and direct theft of half a trillion dollars -- goes far beyond regular issues of mere left or right.) Now I'm curious - what's so wrong about McCain (beyond his killing of McAbel)? Alberto Monteiro PS: one guy is named Cain, the other is named Hussein... definitely, the writer of this story ran out of names... ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Sanity prevails
William T Goodall quoted: World History and Cultures in Christian Perspective This well-researched text stands on the conviction that God is the Creator of the world and the Controller of history. (...) and concluded: These people are mad Maru And yet, if _we_ are right (i.e., Evolution rulez), then _we_ are mad, because it seems that believing in nonsense is a reproductive advantage... Survival of the craziest Maru Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Genesis 1:28
Jon Louis Mann wrote: And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. surely you don't believe that gawd created man to have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth? OTOH, if this command should be taken _literally_, then it already has been fulfilled. Man _was_ fruitful, replenished the earth and subdued it. Now it's the time to stop! Alberto the hypocrite ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Louisiana passes first antievolution academic freedom law
Olin Elliott wrote: What's really scary about this is that rejecting evolution requires rejecting the entire framework of modern science, I must disagree. It requires the freedom of religious belief. When you believe in a God that is good and respectful, you automatically must believe that the Universe is ruled by stable laws. However, believing in an Evil and Mischievous god enables one to think that the whole purpose of natural laws are to deceive people who want to use the brain to think, instead of using it to obey. Check Trickster in the Wikipedia, and Theory of Evolution in Conservapedia, to see what I mean. The god of the creationists is Satan. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin-l Digest, Vol 377, Issue 3
William T Goodall wrote: So we don't really know how available some minerals are until we start looking for them harder? It happened with oil and gas. Brazil was considered with no oil back in the 1930s - they were almost right, considering the technology of the time. Probably the UK and Norway were also considered places with no oil. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Just one complaint about Forbidden Kingdom
Julia Thompson wrote: The moon. The frakkin' moon. By what they said in dialogue at one point, I figured it was waning. Then when we saw it on the screen, it was waxing. Do they need to hire someone who understands the phases of the moon there? The idiocy of script writers spoiled the first time I saw Ladyhawke. When there was that riddle about a day that is not a day, a night that is not a night, I yawned and thought solar eclipse. But then they showed an almost-full moon, three days before that event, and I suddenly thought that it should be something else - maybe the SN 1054, the Crab Supernova. Of course, they decided to ignore science and put a trivial solar eclipse :-/ Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin-l Digest, Vol 377, Issue 3
Dan M wrote: I'd guess $75, because of the fall of the dollar, but with the big Brazil findand the fact that two countries with tremendous reserves (Venezuela and Iraq) are marginal producers for political reasons. Only Venezuela and Iraq? What about Nigeria, Iran, Russia, Alaska... As for the brazilian big oil fields, there's something I must say: these F $s��^�SVW3ۋt$ U NO CARRIER ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Global Warming
Kevin B. O'Brien blasphemed: Or does IAAMOAC mean that civilized behavior includes throwing other people under the wheels in order to save themselves? I don't recognize the acronym you used, WHAT??? You herectic scum! Alberto Monteiro PS: I am a member of a Civilization - Brin's motto ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Adressing Global Warming
Charlie Bell wrote: Yeah. The point of solar hot water is it's so cheap, and pays for itself very quickly (3 - 5 years) if it's installed in a new house. So while it'll never amount to a huge percentage, it's still an inexpensive way of saving a significant amount of energy. So, like mandating loft and wall insulation and double-glazing (and rainwater tanks) these are small but significant contributions that everyone can do. Reducing the total energy consumption of a house by 15 - 20% is a lot of energy that you don't need to generate! sarcasm Yeah, place every single family of the 6 Giga humans in houses with solar power... This would be very friendly to the environment! /sarcasm Seriously, if we want to save the planet, domestic solar power should be banned! People should live and work in the smallest possible area, and it means packing families in huge buildings. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Adressing Global Warming
Charlie Bell wrote: Seriously, if we want to save the planet, domestic solar power should be banned! People should live and work in the smallest possible area, and it means packing families in huge buildings. Solar hot water, not solar electric. Black pipes in a glass cabinet on the roof. Does it matter? The more area of the surface each family takes, less surface is available to the environment. People can live well in packed spaces, wildlife can't. So, it's immoral to allow people to live in houses with gardens and pools. Alberto 'must update my list of the 100 things I will do when I become the Evil Overlord' Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Adressing Global Warming
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: Which brings us righ back to the dirty little secret of the environmental movement: that the real underlying problem is that there are by about an order of magnitude just too darn many people already, particularly darker-complected ones with no money who don't speak English well. Yeah, bwana, an whail we remane poor and unpoluising, we coze no poblema to the envrinoment. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Food Wars
Charlie Bell wrote: Petrol in Melbourne is now $1.51 a litre (USD1.43 a litre, or about $5.70 a gallon). Petrol (gasoline) in Rio de Janeiro is now (and for many months) about R$ 2.70 a litre (about USD 1.625 a litre), of which 25% is ethanol and 50% are taxes. And food prices are rising obscenely, despite the fact that we are net exporters of food. It's a bless that 1st world countries put so many barriers to brazilian food, otherwise much more would be exported, and I would have to pay more for less food. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: What were they thinking? (MS Office 2007)
Nick Arnett wrote: So... I upgraded to Microsoft Office 2007 recently. Can't do half of what I used to do because I can't find anything. They seem to have succeeded in making it harder to use. And you don't even have to handle the mistranslations of the commands. The idiots that translated M$ products into Portuguese decided to aportuguesar the commands. So, if in Portuguese paste is colar, and the Control-C was taken by Copy, some idiots use Control-L to paste, other idiots use Control-O, or Control-U, or Control-A - whatever its single neuron was thinking at that moment. So, the user must memorize one set of Control-things for _each_ application. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Peak Oil [was: Brin-l Digest, Vol 376, Issue 5]
Keith wrote: Alberto 'oil rulez, fsck space!' Monteiro Completely correct. But what do you do when you run out of oil? Try this web site. http://www.drmillslmu.com/peakoil.htm We will *never* run out of oil. It's more likely that we will run out of oxygen in the air :-P The part on what it takes to replace the cubic mile of oil per year we are now using is instructive as well as the concept of net energy which you mention. Cubic mile? Someone must be utterly insane to use those weird units in any serious study. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: An interesting response
Dan M wrote: The trick is, as it always has been, to lower launch costs. Unfortunately, even in inflation adjusted dollars, launch costs haven't dropped much over the past 40 years. Maybe even if launch costs were _zero_, orbital power satellites could still have a negative energy net production. Last time I heard (when I was working in the Space Industry, and not in the Oil Industry), solar arrays required more energy to be built than the energy they produced during their lifetimes. Alberto 'oil rulez, fsck space!' Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Muslims More Numerous Than Catholics
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: I think that's one of the best responses anyone has ever made to one of WTG's posts on religion. Well worth repeating, also . . . OTOH, being as far from muslims as possible, I think that message is scaring. AGW, Dengue and Muslims Maru Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Mail help needed . . .
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: Firefox may be a satisfactory browser but I am quite disappointed in the lack of functionality of Thunderbird as a mail client compared with Eudora, so I thought I'd ask if anyone has any (obviously, non-M$) recommendations? This is so insane. If you don't like M$ programs, why you use M$ OS? There's no point in recommending a non-M$ program to be run under M$'s OS. :-P Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi
Wayne Eddy wrote: I have enjoyed all the Uplift novels, but ever since I first read Startide, I have been waiting for a sequel that shed some light on the fate of the crew of the skiff. There are many hints in _Heaven's Reach_ about that fate. For example, there's a description of Tom's house O:-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Genes show Latin America's past
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7308102.stm Genes show Latin America's past Results from a genetic study of Latin America suggest most Latin Americans are descended from European men and Native American or African women. Scientists say the study, said to be the largest of its kind, backs up historical theories about the Spanish Conquistadors of the 16th Century. This is old news here in Brazil. But the conclusion is pure nonsense: This supports the historical argument that European colonisers killed off many of the native men and had sex with native women or with African slaves. The _religion_ [William will love this] of the natives preached that each woman should try to get babies from the fiercest warrior. Europeans-with-guns perfectly matched this characteristic, so they knocked all native girls. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Brin: Life after People
Life After People will air on 2008-03-10 21:00 on brazilian's tetrahydrocanabiol oops... The History Channel. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Per capita cost/value of infrastructure?
Julia Thompson wrote: Well, if there had been anyone across the street *to* see on one of the recent windy days (as if we got any other kind right here?), they would have told you I wasn't a proper Scotsman. Take that however you like. :) OTOH, here in Brazil we are experiencing a quite normal Summer. Lots of hot days, with sporadic heavy rains. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Per capita cost/value of infrastructure?
Warren Ockrassa wrote: I'd like to see you go for a week's worth of posts without once mentioning religion. Think you could manage that kind of a challenge? I will pray for William so that he may resist this temptation. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: malaria in Africa
Doug Pensinger wrote: But McCain has been quoted as saying he wouldn't mind if we stayed there for another hundred years and talks about surrender as if there was someone to surrender to. We keep hearing Viet Nam analogies about what might happen if we leave precipitously (though other Viet Nam analogies that are more accurate are dismissed), but there's no NVA in Iraq. Iran? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Lead (was: Resending: Malaria in the world)
Deborah Harrell wrote: Hmm, no parallels to global warming and certain researchers either... The possible link between crime and lead levels is intriguing; articles on lead's harmful effects particularly WRT children have been posted previously, so I won't add any. O quit cheering! I am curious about this (lead tetraethyl) - crime link. Brazil was one of the first countries to ban lead (because of ethanol, whose octane rating is high), and we don't have nice numbers on crime. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Prediction time
Ronn! Blankenship wrote: So how many people expect that Fidel Castro won't live out the week? The month? Is He alive? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: malaria in Africa
Dan M wrote: 1) Neli told me at Christmas that she got word from home (Zambia) that the EU is threatening a withholding of funding if Zambia does not stop the spraying of house walls with DDT to prevent malaria. 2) This technique has been demonstrated in South Africa and shown on this list to be very effective. 3) I therefore conclude that the The EU is more worried about the political power of Green parties than children in Zambia dying. It's interesting to notice that the EU in Brazil is generally seen as a benign force, while the USA is seen as an evil force. However, this is gradually changing, as the EU usually puts arbitrary embargoes on brazilian exports. Some time ago, I read an essay that tried to predict an EU-islamic (evil) alliance with the purpose of destroying the USA, and urging Brazil to take USA's (good) side. The rude fact is that almost every country (including mine) worries only about itself, and fsck the rest of the world. Children are collateral damage in global politics. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Experience Uplift in the comfort of your own home!
Nick Arnett wrote: And here's the game's site: http://www.spore.com/ There I was, thinking, gee, this seems like Sim City, but with evolution. And then Will Wright's name appears. Ah. The idea seems live Civilization - but begins earlier. Is there a multiplayer version, where each species will compete against each other? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Number of gays [was: Polygamy]
William T Goodall wrote: So by my personal experience of college and the workplace up to that point I'd have to say between 10% and 17% (at least) of men were gay. Let's be non-scientific! I remember, at school, that every class had one or two gay men, and no lesbians. In classes of 40 to 60 people, with half to 2/3 male, this turns out ranges of 0.5 to 2.5% of gay men, and an upper bound of 2% for lesbians. OTOH, my middle daughter reports a rate of 12% among her male classmates - probably in this age it's more common to get out of the closet. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Polygamy
Keith Henson wrote: Considering that polygamy is the norm for the vast majority of the cultures in the world, it's an interesting question how the western countries, and a few others, became monogamous. It seems to be associated with settled agriculture but I don't know if there is a connection or why. I would guess that it's peace that doomed polygamy. There can't be polygamy unless there's more women than men, otherwise the men without women will revolt. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Young Earth Math?
David Hobby wrote: An interesting find! That's the first I've heard of the Conservapedia. It's sometimes hard to tell, but my sense is that it's not actually meant as humor? They think they are serious - which makes it even more fun. A masterpiece of (unintentional) humour is... http://www.conservapedia.com/Kangaroo#Origins ... but the older versions were better, because they didn't included the alternate evolutioary view. And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: it was round all about, ... and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. Of course we _can_ be fundamentalists and yet don't accept that Pi = 3 - the 'molten sea' was elliptical, and the ratio comes from C/(2a). In the good old days I even calculated its eccentricity, using cartographic formulas. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: US Doomed
Nick Arnett wrote: Um... William, if Huckabee is elected president of my country, would you have room for me and my family in yours? In other words, I'd rather live with a rabid atheist than in a theocracy. What makes you think it would be _easy_ to flee? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
