Monthly Archives: January 2014

My gripes on libertarianism and Laissez faire – Video

Posted: January 10, 2014 at 1:42 am


My gripes on libertarianism and Laissez faire

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My gripes on libertarianism and Laissez faire - Video

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BILL MAHER ON LIBERTARIANISM AND DRUGS – Video

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BILL MAHER ON LIBERTARIANISM AND DRUGS
One of the many Larry King interviews with Bill Maher on CNN.

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BILL MAHER ON LIBERTARIANISM AND DRUGS - Video

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John Cornyn again questions feds’ pursuit of late hacker-activist Aaron Swartz

Posted: at 1:42 am

Aaron Swartz in Miami Beach in 2009. He died Jan. 11, 2013 at age 26 in New York City. (Michael Francis McElroy/The New York Times)

WASHINGTON The pushback by some in the Republican Party against the Obama Administrations embattled defense of secrecy and surveillance is well-documented. Tea Party champion Rand Paul, with a strong libertarianism strain, has promised to file a class-action suit aimed at the National Security Administrations massive snooping operations.

Sen. Ted Cruz, another of the movements bannermen, has kept mostly quiet so far on many of the issues that have so riled up Paul and a small band of others.

But on Thursday a very different kind of Republican, Sen. John Cornyn, weighed in on a related issue, raising his own objections to what he called the reckless way in which the Department of Justice under President Obama has wielded its powers against individuals.

It was an interesting move for Cornyn, who as a former Texas Supreme Court justice and attorney general is about as conservative, as law-and-order as any senator in Washington.

He engaged the debate by evoking a name that hasnt been much discussed in Texas political circles, a name I first heard a year ago this Saturday.

I was sitting in funky little coffee shop in San Francisco trying to make sense of a piece of fiction that I had begun. I was on leave, and it was a year for trying new things. Across the table was a young guy in his late 20s looking like he had lost his iPad somewhere or dropped one of the gadgets that seemingly everyone in Northern California carried like ammunition. I asked him how he was. His response: Im just devastated by Aaron Swartzs death. I cant believe it.

Aaron Swartz. I had heard a report of his suicide at age 26 that morning on the way into the city from my home in Palo Alto, and seemingly alone in that tech-juiced city, hadnt recognized the name. Turns out, seemingly everyone I met that day and the next was reeling from the news.

Aaron was the computer wunderkind who as a teenager had emerged as kind of a hacker white knight and thinker that made the computerati take notice. One of his earliest achievements was to help write the code for what became RSS newsfeed software. His close mentors as a teen were MIT professor Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the, well, the Internet, and Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig. The New Republic would write in a February obituary that Swartz was welcome on any e-mail thread or chat room populated by the worlds leading hackers before he could shave.

But of course all that had seemed like an eternity ago for Swartz in January of last year, when he killed himself. He had been pursued for two years or more by the Department of Justice for the crime of illegally downloading 4 million articles from an academic database and making them available to the public. Trouble was, none of the articles belonged to him. That Friday a year ago was the first day I had heard his name.

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John Cornyn again questions feds' pursuit of late hacker-activist Aaron Swartz

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County hires new HR director

Posted: at 1:41 am

Staff Writer

Archuleta Countys new human resources administrator is slated to begin his post Jan. 31.

Robert Smith accepted the offer for the position earlier this week after being interviewed along with three other finalists on Jan. 2.

Smiths base pay will be $56,100.

Former HR administrator Mitzi Bowman vacated the post on Nov. 15.

Smith, of Monte Vista, most recently worked for the City of Monte Vista as the human resources manager.

Prior to that, Smith worked as the human resources manager for the City of Fountain, Colo., with prior HR work for several other cities and municipalities.

Smith holds a bachelors in resources management and business administration from Colorado Christian University.

The other finalists interviewed for the position were Tonya McCann, Peter ONeill and Bowman, who previously withdrew her application, but was reinstated as a finalist prior to the Jan. 2 interviews.

The position is one of several administrative positions within the Archuleta County organization to be filled this fall and winter. Other positions recently filled include county administrator, fleet manager, director of emergency operations and Department of Human Services director.

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County hires new HR director

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When The Economy Stinks, Our Books Get More Depressing

Posted: at 1:40 am

S

American futurism gets pretty dark during bad economic times. Many people start to see technology as the enemy, like they did in the 1930s and 1970s. And people generally feel less optimistic for the future.

But new research shows that it's not just futurism that becomes more gloomy during economic recessions. When the economy stinks, all authors start to adopt a more depressing vocabulary.

A recent study out of London took different "mood words" that were then broken up into six categories: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise. From there the researchers made what they call a "literary misery index" to gauge the relative number of positive moods against the negative moods in 20th century books.

Not surprisingly, books released after periods of economic distress use language that reflect a general malaise. The Great Depression of the 1930s and the recession of 1970s saw an explosion of downer books on their heels much like the various forms of popular futurism from these eras.

From the new study:

Visually, the literary misery index seems to respond to major phases of the 20th century: literary misery increased after the economic Depression, then declined after the post-War years, then rose again after the recession of the 1970s, and declined again following on from the economics recovery of the late 1980s.

S

"When we looked at millions of books published in English every year and looked for a specific category of words denoting unhappiness, we found that those words in aggregate averaged the authors' economic experiences over the past decade," Professor Alex Bentley of the University of Bristol, a lead author of the new study said in a statement.

"In other words, global economics is part of the shared emotional experience of the 20th century," Bentley explained.

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When The Economy Stinks, Our Books Get More Depressing

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2014 Predictions by Futurist Bettee Giles – Video

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2014 Predictions by Futurist Bettee Giles
2014 Predictions.

By: Bettee Giles

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Nicholas Webb – Futurist, Speaks on Innovation, Customer Service – Video

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Nicholas Webb - Futurist, Speaks on Innovation, Customer Service
Nicholas J. Webb is a world-renowned business futurist and innovation thought leader. Webb is the author of The Innovation Playbook and The Digital Innovation Playbook. He is also a successful...

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The National Intelligence Council Predicts a Very Transhuman …

Posted: January 9, 2014 at 6:46 am

A soldier testing an exoskeleton prototype

The National Intelligence Council is a high-level agency best known for producing National Intelligence Estimates forecasts predicting future trends and issues of the next fifteen years. These extensive reports are produced every election year and are directly delivered to the incoming President between Election Day and Inauguration Day. The latest NIC report released on December 2012 is called Global Trends 2030: Alternative Worlds (read it here) and discusses several issues such as the decline of the role of the United States as a global policeman and the rise of non-state actors in world politics. It also mentions another key issue: A fast-paced race towards transhumanism.

Human Augmentation is indeed considered a key issue in the next 15 years as new technologies will allow all kinds of modifications ranging from implants and prosthetics to powered exoskeletons, human augmentation enhancing innate human abilities. These augmentations would be used on soldiers, workers and anyone that can afford them, giving them super-human powers and capabilities, whether it be on a physical or a mental level.

Some might say: That sounds cool VC, what is wrong with that? Why do you always say that it is wrong. I personally never described transhumanism as being right or wrong, I dont make these kinds of judgement calls. I however do have facts about the issue. First, transhumanism is undeniably being actively pushed by mass media and promoted as something that is necessary and inevitable in the future; Second, it is a logical continuation of the Luciferian philosophy held by the world elite where godhood and immortality is meant to be achieved by humans by their own means. In fact, Max More, a leading transhumanist philosopher considers himself as a Luciferian.

The DevilLuciferis a force for good (where I define good simply as that which I value, not wanting to imply any universal validity or necessity to the orientation). Lucifer means light-bringer and this should begin to clue us in to his symbolic importance. The story is that God threw Lucifer out of Heaven because Lucifer had started to question God and was spreading dissension among the angels. We must remember that this story is told from the point of view of the Godists (if I may coin a term) and not from that of the Luciferians (I will use this term to distinguish us from the official Satanists with whom I have fundamental differences). The truth may just as easily be that Lucifer resigned from heaven.- Max More, In Praise of the Devil.

Lastly, due to the prohibitive cost of human augmentation, transhumanism will only be available to the richest and most powerful people and the world (the world elite) and will created an even wider gap between the masses and the elite. The National Intelligence Council report states:

The high cost of human augmentation means that it probably will be available in 15-20 years only to those who are able to pay. Such a situation may lead to a two-tiered society.

This is why transhumanism is so heavily promoted in mass media. It will only be available to the richest people on Earth, creating a separate, elite class of superhumans and this concept needs to be accepted by the masses, even if it goes against its best interests. Through predictive programming using movies, TV and video games, the masses are programmed in perceiving transhumanism as an inevitability, as something that is bound to happen. That way, when it will actually happen, nobody will be outraged by it, it will be considered as something normal.

Heres an article on the NIC Report.

The National Intelligence Council has just released its much anticipated forecasting report, a 140-page document that outlines major trends and technological developments we should expect in the next 20 years. Among their many predictions, the NIC foresees the end of U.S. global dominance, the rising power of individuals against states, a growing middle class that will increasingly challenge governments, and ongoing shortages in water, food and energy. But they also envision a future in which humans have been significantly modified by their technologies what will herald the dawn of the transhuman era.

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Starting Fire in Water Tested On Space Station – Science@nasa Video – Video

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Starting Fire in Water Tested On Space Station - Science@nasa Video
Astronauts have been experimenting with supercritical water that can aid ignition of fire in microgravity. It has down to Earth applications for municipal wa...

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Dead Space 2 – Necromorphs attack when I’m drinkin ma coffeh [4K HD Xbox 360 PS3] – Video

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Dead Space 2 - Necromorphs attack when I #39;m drinkin ma coffeh [4K HD Xbox 360 PS3]
Can we reach *1* Like? b)b or *1* Dislike? q()q Top Vids: 1. GTA V - White water raftin #39; Trevor you da man http://youtu.be/uShF_wSL6uE?hd=1 2. T...

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Dead Space 2 - Necromorphs attack when I'm drinkin ma coffeh [4K HD Xbox 360 PS3] - Video

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