675900+ entries in 0.456s
mircea_popescu: * RUchamp_ (a2e354cb@gateway/web/freenode/ip.162.227.84.203) has joined #bitcoin-assets << dear chan, since i've made
that 0.1 btc for
titties post, mind voicing new names off webchat for a while ?
decimation: it
takes an hour
to get downtown, stopping at every useless ghetto on
the way
decimation: I found
the metro
to be generally useless
assbot: The One Fiber Optic Cable No One on
the Dig for
Tysons Rail Wants
to Hit
decimation: yeah most cable companies "rent"
the low wire on power poles
decimation: there was another amusing example in
the DC area a few years ago, after
the "derecho"
thunderstorm. power was out everywher - why? because none of
the
treehuggers would let
the power-line clearances be maintained
decimation: it's quite enlightening
to study
the ownership path of
the right-of-way deeds. One realizes
that us infrastructure is pretty much like openssl: everyone knows it's a horrible pit, everyone uses it, no will
to 'fix' it
decimation: they only reason
the right-of-ways survived coherently is because utilities like power were still in use long after
the railroads went bankrupt
assbot: WB&A
Trail | Maryland
Trails |
TrailLink.com
decimation: my own understanding of many of
the 'trails'
the DC area is
that
they were mostly railroad right-of-ways
decimation: this is a big problem in
the maryland/dc area because it's a swamp
decimation: yeah
the amusing
thing about most of
those
types is
that
they seem
to want
to "own"
their own own bunker or whatever, rather
than
the more obvious strategy of "recruit army,
train"
decimation: yeah it's interesting
that
the "lead standard" crowd seems
to have not adopted bitcoin
decimation: your kid comes out a 'tard - it's
the doctor's faul
decimation: yeah ob/gyn is a known
target for legal scammers in
the us
mircea_popescu: "Roughly half
the counties in our nation lack a single OB/GYN physician
to care for women."
mircea_popescu: the guy does have one excellent point
tho : if you're concerned about a collapse,
the marginal utility of putting 10% of your assets into a hedge probably far exceeds
the marginal utility of putting
the other 90%
mircea_popescu: maybe he doesn't want
to advertise it, or maybe he ran off with who knows what braindamage on
the
topic
decimation: I'm surprised he hasn't got on
the bitcoin bandwagon, he seems
to be a likely suspect
decimation: the author does agree with your earlier point about having 4% of your remaining assets: "Well,
that's far from clear.
The one
thing one shouldn't do is assume
the present system will persist until you're ready
to retire, and invest your retirement savings entirely on
the assumption nothing will change."
decimation: I imagine
the arguments in court over long-lived estate's fee
tails would be amusing
assbot: Reading List:
The Death of Money (Fourmilog: None Dare Call It Reason)
mircea_popescu: anyway, fee
tail used
to exist, as
the practical consequence of alodial
title
decimation: in Hawaii,
there are six layers of bureaucracy from
the state down
to
the county level, each of which is empowered
to
tell you what you can do with "your" land
decimation: plenty of people in
the west
think
that
they 'own'
their land
decimation: it makes
the situation plain as day:
there is no allodial
title outside
the government
decimation: "In English law, a fee simple (or fee simple absolute) is an estate in land, a form of freehold ownership. It is
the way
that real estate is owned in common law countries, and is
the highest ownership interest possible
that can be had in real property. Allodial
title is reserved
to governments under a civil law structure"
assbot: Fee simple - Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
decimation: in
the same way
that ascii's hunter finds
that
the deer walk up
to him and lay down
decimation: there's no other conclusion
than: white people in
the west "want"
to be invaded, crushed, and forgotten
mircea_popescu: "dude failed but
that's ok, he worked hard". wtf just how rotten is
that mental space.
mircea_popescu: "But
that’s not his style. He rolls up his sleeves. He puts his
theories into action. He drives himself as hard as anyone I know." gates now a "hard work" apologist ?
mircea_popescu: the benefit of diversity is quite plainly
that anytihng
that can be butchered should be butchered.
decimation: so
therefore, open
the
third world's floodgates
decimation: right but
they can sit and chat amicably for a few hours
mircea_popescu: they have all
these points of conflict all over
the environment, such as who fucked
the blonde escort last
mircea_popescu: yeah dude, some guy in a five star hotel is so very likely
to butcher some other guy in a five star hotel.
decimation: "Another reason Sachs offers for
the benefits of diversity is
the rather common one
that
the more contact we have with other ethnic groups,
the more we develop
trust, forgetting his own previous observation
that
trust declines in diverse societies, but calling attention instead
to some research about
the amicable ways in which individuals from different ethnic groups, jet set businessmen and academics, interact with different ethnic
mircea_popescu: and nobody could have predicted
that nobody wants crap in
the middle of nowhere.
mircea_popescu: All of
the interventions involved – health, agriculture, infrastructure, education, and business seed money – make sense if carried out carefully, over
time. But I am surprised by how little Sachs dug into country budgets, and
that he didn’t work
to convince governments
to commit
to additional
taxation
mircea_popescu: Warren Buffett likes
to say, “The rearview mirror is always clearer
than
the windshield.”
Through
that rearview mirror, we can see
that
the project never had an economic model
that could sustain successes once
the MVP dollars ran out.
mircea_popescu: Of course, Sachs knows
that it’s critical
to understand market dynamics; he’s one of
the world’s smartest economists. But in
the villages Munk profiled, Sachs seems
to be wearing blinders.
mircea_popescu: all
this disavowing pretense of "helping
them" and "world better place" bs.
mircea_popescu: i wonder how long until
these schmucks can earnestly admit "we like going
to poor villages in africa because it is enjoyable
to peruse in detail
the
troglodytism of lesser people"
mircea_popescu: But
the MVP didn’t simultaneously invest in developing markets for
these crops. According
to Munk, “Pineapple couldn’t be exported after all, because
the cost of
transport was far
too high.
There was no market for ginger, apparently. And, despite some early interest from buyers in Japan, no one wanted banana flour.”
The farmers grew
the crops, but
the buyers didn’t come.
mircea_popescu: So what went wrong? For one
thing,
the villages
that Sachs picked experienced all kinds of problems – from drought
to political unrest. For another,
the MVP
took an idealistic “Field of Dreams” approach. MVP leaders encouraged farmers
to switch
to a series of new crops
that were in demand in richer countries, and experts on
the ground did a good job of helping farmers
to produce good crop yields by using fertilis
decimation: well, like any engineering project it depends on
the design
decimation: they can't have a portable nuclear reactor because it would make
the evrionmentalists batty
decimation: my point is
that many americans and 'allies' died in Afghanistan and Iraq
transporting fuel
to bases
assbot: Project Iceworm - Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
decimation: then use
the energy
to convert carbon via fischer-troph
to synthetic fuel
decimation: So
the US Dod in
the past had a program
to put a 2.5 mw generator on a
truck and put it in a combat zone
assbot: Army Nuclear Power Program - Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
mircea_popescu: the one exception is uruguay, where
they're not. so if you manage
to knock up a girl in buenos aires, you have
to ship her across
the river.
mircea_popescu: but it won't be free, because
there's better way
to extract value from
the us consumer
than
taking 2 cents out of his 10 bux
decimation: surely
the bezzleers on wall street want a place
to play
mircea_popescu: nevertheless, do
the math. if 100 mn us citizens spend 10 bux
to buy from you over a year, out of
the 0.2% you charge
them you've made... 2mn
decimation: you would have
to engage lawyers in 50 states and DC for sure
decimation: well,
there's
the issue of
the usg
taking 96% of your assets at a point of
their choosing
decimation: mircea I'm just amazed
that
there is clearly an opportunity
to make a profitable exchange on US soil, yet it appears no one is
trying
mircea_popescu: letters used
to come with latin in a package for
this reason
mircea_popescu: doesn't really matter anyway, a kid
that's not bilingual is not literate anyway
decimation: mircea what portion of
the youth in argentina speak english well enough
to read
trilema?
decimation: it's interesting
that
this kind of wealth exists
today in bitcoin yet no one is willing
to spend it on bureaucracy
decimation: bloctoc: you might be right, but I suspect
the "floor price" of buying into
the entire us regulatory system is somewhere in
the 10's of millions of dollars, perhaps low hundreds
bloctoc: if
the answer is more
than 0
they are double plus dicking around
decimation: because if
the answer is 0,
they are just dicking around