Rockets!

Submitted by roger3b on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 17:56

Save The World

Funny video showing amateur rockets crashing, exploding, and 'oh shit' moments! TED talks

.

Submitted by paul h on Mon, 04/07/2008 - 21:10.

Cool vid.

She didn't come off as a particularly good speaker, but the founder of Zipcar has some cool things to say.

O'rly?

Submitted by guerciotti on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 12:58.

That woman is stone cold crazy, totally off the wacko charts.

Also Bloomberg's unamerican congestion pricing bullshit plan was just killed by NYC Democrats. I've said it before and I'll say it again, America ain't England nor Europe, thus we're not going to put up with these stupid elitist plans.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

.

Submitted by paul h on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 13:28.

I personally love the idea of a congestion tax, especially if it can be targeted at non-residents of the city (i.e., suburbam folk). But how is that un uh 'merican? I thought American was all about working hard and paying fair, honest prices for goods and services that you use.

I thought the bit about MESH networks was cool.

Also, I don't even know why I'm responding to an anonymous troll.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

>>>I thought American was

Submitted by guerciotti on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 23:23.

>>>I thought American was all about working hard and paying fair, honest prices for goods and services that you use.

Oh, bro, you gotta put the crackpipe down, cuz that ain't the real Democratic party Amerika.

After Democrats defeated Bloomberg's congesting pricing bill they decide to bill his ass and those just like him.

see: http://wcbstv.com/politics/millionaires.tax.congestion.2.695064.html

'Millionaire's Tax' Could Fund NYC Mass Transit
Democrats' Answer To Congestion Pricing: Tax Anyone Working In State Making $1 Million-Plus
----
this is the true version of Amerika from the Democratic pov. Seriously you can not make this stuff up.
OPM is alive and well!!!

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

.

Submitted by paul h on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 01:17.

Let's slow down.

Explain to me what's unamerican about a congestion tax and maybe I'll be able to understand your other point better.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

America is not a class

Submitted by guerciotti on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 10:09.

America is not a class system like Europe, we expect to all be equal. So when you start to cordon off sections of the country, for no matter what justification, you're creating two america's, oh my god a John Edwards reference.

We've already had a system with unequal access to places and the Black community has never forgot about it.

Congestion pricing is just a naked power/money grab (they're always couched for your benefit). Think about it, we already have congestion pricing in the form of delay, so the currency is time, which also happens to be evenly (democratically?) distributed to everybody, where they can choose how to spend it.

Where do you think the banking and nearly every other industry got the idea of nickle and diming their customers? ie. by watching the government riddle us with user fees. This is nothing but a shake down for money and I'm glad it was rejected, as I'm also hopeful that Georgia wont produce a bunch of private toll roads.

I think freedom of movement is sacrosanct and the government should just move along, perhaps they could focus on being more efficient and less corrupt. just a thought.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

or could focus on having

Submitted by ckdake on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 10:24.

or could focus on having fewer roads but making the roads better.. (not wider)

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

bull shit

Submitted by chis crash on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 19:05.

America is not a class system: bull shit, read Adam Smith. Free market capitalism is a class system.

we are all equal: Bull Shit, read Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol for an example.

we've already had a system with unequal access, and we still do, racism, inequal access to education, ghettos, lack of transit and spacial de-concentration.

Congestion pricing is just a money grab, I agree, but it has some benefits.

where do you think the industry's got the idea of nickel and dimming... again read Adam Smith.

the rest of your complaints, Demorcy is just an enactment of the fallacy Arumentum Ad Populum.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

agreed

Submitted by griggey on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 19:40.

america acctually has pretty strong class divisions. take a ride down edgewood for a nice tour of how on one street, there are people of multiple classes.

and don't tell me that just because the government doesn't explicitly group people into classes that means they aren't in classes. classes are a result of the economic system.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

false equivalence

Submitted by guerciotti on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 11:29.

and basic pedantic wanker bullshit.

Capitalism is what has given you whatever freedom you might have. If you dont add something of value to society you wont received much in return, boo fucking hoo. Its called reciprocity.

Obama is giving the lie to the poverty pimps and professional race baiters.

Furthermore and for the mere sake of completeness the existence of some imperfections is not dispositive of systemic issues.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

false equivalence = equivication

Submitted by griggey on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 17:22.

That is true, but it is a necessary truth of capitalism that there are people who hold private property and those who do not. honestly, few people actually have private property. The banks and credit companies own a good part of America. The reason people work is because they don't have private property. They must sell their labor to those who do in order to live.

BUT as long as we're capitalists, I'm stickin' by the libertarians. Redistributive taxes and other things the democrats put out to help the "little man" only delay the teleology of the demise of capitalism.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

You need to ride your bike

Submitted by Teh Black Hole on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 21:30.

You need to ride your bike more and read less Greg.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

agreed

Submitted by griggey on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 22:25.

i just got a new bike on account of tube separation on my old bike.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Did you have one of those

Submitted by Teh Black Hole on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 09:37.

Did you have one of those Technium bikes?

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

yeah...

Submitted by griggey on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 09:42.

now i have the soma rush frame....

+ new miche cranks.

= finally be able to ride at the track

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Regarding the Soma and

Submitted by Teh Black Hole on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 12:30.

Regarding the Soma and riding at the track: Nice!

Regarding Technium frames: I never did like the idea of a bike put together with glue.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

fallacy

Submitted by chis crash on Thu, 04/10/2008 - 23:40.

good ol Ad Hominum, if you cant prove em wrong, attack them. Through in some Appeal to Ridicule, and Appeal to Emotion to balance it out, then ignore the arguments that are devastating to your point.

I win.

and for the record, I'm not necessarily an anti-capitalist, I think humans are basically screwed no matter how we organize our selves into.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Oh i missed

Submitted by chis crash on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 01:23.

You made a point I missed, that capitalism has given us freedom, this sir is untrue, capitalism as an economic system is just as able to exist under fascist governments as democratic ones, though by its nature capitalism creates oligarchy.

Now late me show how your original theory is fatally flawed. You contend that America is not a class system. You also contend that it is a capitalist system. Capitalism is inherently a class system (yet again I point you to Adam Smith, the "Farther Of Capitalism") ergo America cannot be both class free, and capitalist.

From your fatally flawed theory you concluded that congestion pricing will not work in America, this, and all other conclusions drawn from a fatally flawed base must be rejected as themselves fatally flawed, no matter how emotionally appealing they may be.

And finally, with out committing ad hominem, i would call into question your ability to speak authoritatively on capitalism as you seem to have not read any of its founding texts.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

the truly sad part here is

Submitted by guerciotti on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 11:45.

the truly sad part here is that these might actually be your sincere beliefs, which I'm sure speaks to the fucked up nature of education from merry olde england as much as your own twisted view of the world.

Capitalism is your salvation, accept or reject as you wish, but by all means feel free to travel to Cuba, Venezuela, China and Iran at anytime.

PS. So on which page does Adam Smith make your ludicrous claim that "Capitalism is inherently a class system"?

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Born in

Submitted by chis crash on Fri, 04/11/2008 - 22:59.

The USA, raised in the USA. Not that it matters, as the UK has a much better education system.

Cuba- cant go I'm american
Venezuela- Chavez is an idiot, but has done better then most
China- free market capitalism
Iran- The communists lost the civil war. The president is democratically elected, the "Supreme Leader" is appointed.

Capitalism is an economic system, it grants little political freedoms.

adam smith is constantly referring to class in his works, more importantly, modern capitalism (as it exists in the USofA)is a system with rigid division of classes. My copy of Wealth Of Nations is in England, or i would give you some page numbers.

Your theory is fatally flawed, you must abandon it. have a nice day.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

I'm curious

Submitted by Tex on Sat, 04/12/2008 - 02:06.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Author:Adam_Smith

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Before you say nice things

Submitted by Teh Black Hole on Sat, 04/12/2008 - 05:05.

Before you say nice things about Cuba, talk to a Cuban refugee about Castro and control.

Growing up as a child of a former impoverished immigrant from a country where a true class system does exist (India) and having stayed there for a while, I can honestly say that the USA is the most classless country I've ever stepped foot in.

Granted there is a lot of fucked up bull shit here (like the death tax), but the only person that determines your station in life here... is you. To me, having seen real true abject poverty that is the result of a real class (caste) system, I can say that this nation (the USA) is full of squandered opportunity. A lot of us here are living proof that classes do not exist, classes that subject the members to eternal enslavement. Shit if they did, then I'd be destined to be a blue collar tradesman instead of the higher educated white collar digerati I am now.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

.

Submitted by paul h on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 15:34.

Now that I'm on a computer that doesn't have user icons blocked, you're no longer anonymous to me. And I'm shocked that you don't see her method of creating social change through a capitalist venture doesn't at least amuse you

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Bike snob

Submitted by chis crash on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 22:28.

has some funny things to say about zip cars

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

he does make some excellent

Submitted by ckdake on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 22:47.

he does make some excellent points.

Login or register to post comments
jump to parent

Eh... The part about driving

Submitted by Tex on Tue, 04/08/2008 - 23:27.

Eh... The part about driving an unfamiliar car makes some sense but the rest doesn't; a large amount of a car's lifetime carbon emissions come from manufacturing. Also, I think the more time you spend on the street on foot or bike, the more careful you are when piloting a large steel box...