Drowsy Emperor

I just researched that event a bit and it does seem like De Gaulle's big "no" wasn't as big as previously thought. Ah well, live and learn

The Le Pen news don't mean much unless she wins the elections. Which is probably possible for the first time around. It is nevertheless symptomatic of an increasing sentiment. It is sadly definitely possible that she wins the elections though. What's sad about her winning the elections? She's the only major independent politician in France. She's also the only one that has any idea how a respectable nation state should act in the international arena and has definite principles, unlike spineless characters such as Sarkozy/Hollande. All real parties of the right in the EU have been systematically demonized in european media, branded as "extreme right" and equalized with the Nazis even though they plainly do act like the traditional extreme right in any shape or form. Same with Le Pen. All because she's proposing a policy outside the dominion of Brussels and Washington. Regardless, I have a feeling her bark is worse than her bite. She has not committed to getting France out of NATO if she wins, and likely won't. Politicians as a rule soften up their rhetoric the moment they come into power, so I don't expect much from her.

The Le Pen news don't mean much unless she wins the elections. Which is probably possible for the first time around.

I really doubt the sanctions would be lifted no matter what happened. I think you have gravely and completely misunderstood the motivations behind the interests which are behind this. There is only one prime interest of every industry - making money. Doing business with Russia at the moment (err... before the crisis) was pretty much a win for every industry. From Russia you import the raw materials needed to build more refined stuff, which you sell with a surplus. To Russia you export the stuff they don't build/grow themselves. Making up sanctions and blocking free trade is the worst thing a capitalist society can do to itself. That is especially true with regards to the economic "elites" of these societies. Believe me when I say that if it is anything these elites want, it is global peace and global free trade. Previously, the argument was "LOL SANCTIONS GONNA DO NOTHING, SHOOT YOUR SELF IN FOOT!!!", now the argument seems to be "OH POOR RUSSIA, WHY WEST CONTINUE WITH SANCTION?!!". The truth is of course somewhere between these two. Both economies are hurt equally bad in absolute terms. But because the economy of EU+US is so much bigger than that of Russia, the end average effect on the former is only about 1/16 of the effect on Russia, procentually speaking (this is before taking account mitigation efforts by writing new trade contracts and sanctions in the banking sector which works somewhat differently). Nevertheless, you can be sure that the lobby groups of pretty much every industry that is affected is nagging politicians to remove the sanctions every day. The question is, in case you haven't understood at this point, why would EU instigate economic warfare with Russia that won't amount to anything except hurting both sides, over Ukraine. How is it in the EU's interest to damage economic ties with Russia over an american/NATO project. The casual answer would be: well they're all in NATO, so there's some cooperative benefit to trying to take over Ukraine and push the Russians from it. Except there isn't, at the end of the day, Russia will still be there, as will trade deficits and bad blood and a bankrupt, unstable, semi-fascist government "leading" 50 million people from one loan package to another. In the best case scenario european predatory businesses will gobble up some of Ukrainian industries, what the americans let the have anyway. That money will go to private pockets while the average EU citizen gains nothing but more expenses out of the whole affair. The US on the other hand, has managed to create a conflict, where they have very little to lose but a lot to gain (compared the costs they incurred). The question is really, how can the leaders of Europe be such utter muppets, to take a dump in their own back yard, that will stink for years to come, for the profit of another country halfway across the world. And please don't reply something along the lines of "human rights", "Putin being a dictator bent on resurrecting the soviet union and has to be stopped" or other such tripe. The only reason I'm even writing this response is because I know you're not stupid enough to believe that.

Terrorism isn't much of a threat. More people die in car accidents in a month than the sum of terrorist attacks in a western country in probably a decade. That would probably include the sum of the most pessimistic casualty outcomes of foiled plots as well. It could be ended in a fortnight by leveling Riyadh and bringing the Gulf states to heel, who are its major, if not only sponsors. Instead the US is fighting "terror" in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Because the goat herders of afghanistan and two self centered autocrats were a threat to american national security. Framing the discussion of this torture around terrorism is rubbish, because that's not what its about. Its about showing power: "if you annoy us we will kidnap you, stick you in a jail and rape you" outside of international law or court, and no one will know what happened to you. In fact, if these grisly details didn't leak, the whole endeavor of holding these people prisoner and torturing them (as opposed to just shooting them and dumping them somewhere) would be utterly pointless.

I'm surprised that anyone is surprised. A country trying for a century to achieve world supremacy has secret dungeons to torture its enemies? Its like wondering how come that Caesar of "civilized" Rome brought Vercengetorix on a leash to show him around. To even ask the question shows how little the questioner knows of Rome.

Well, obviously things are not going back to normal until the situation in Eastern Ukraine is settled. Duh. Its a semi frozen conflict, its not going to be settled. It can go on like this for years.

Crimea isn't going back to Ukraine, I think everyone knows that at this point

I don't think Ukriane is relevant anymore, the conflict has wound down to a semi stagnant state, yet the US and EU push on with sanctions. That tells me that some new goals have been set and I'm pretty certain they're to do with engineering a colored revolution in Russia. We've seen how those go and sanctions are just the first step.

I spent 5 years weight lifting and I know for a fact, through personal experience, that what you say is a half truth. One gets better at what they practice. If what you are saying is true powerlifters would easily compete with other athletes in a multitude of sports. Yet they do not, how do you explain this? Instead the reality is that weight lifting is a supplementary activity to many sports. It is beneficial, no doubt about it. But it is supplementary precisely because its pointless to engage in extremely heavy lifting for most sports. It does not further anything other than strength in any significant way compared to whatever their primary activity/need is. To get dexterous you need to engage in tasks that demand dexterity. To become more coordinated you need to practice tasks that demand real coordination. I spent around two years training Russian Systema and the first thing I learnt that weight lifting doesn't give you much in a real fight. I bring up fighting as an example of a task that requires dexterity and coordination, among other things. I was as strong when I walked in as the day when I stopped, but at the end I could throw a mean punch and take a lot of physical punishment as well as move surprisingly well for a man my size. Boxers don't need leg strength to do what they do although I'd venture that as a rule they're miles above regular people in that category. They train strength, extreme stamina and endurance and maneuvering in a ring requires excellent dexterity and coordination. A good boxer is strong, fast, coordinated, fluid... or he isn't a good boxer. I suppose Muhammad Ali he isn't a good example of athleticism? Comparing them to a very specialized activity such as powerlifting and claiming that the latter gives superior all around athleticism is a joke. Finally, I have done compound exercises and isolation exercises. Both give strength gains. You talk as if compound exercises are a secret skill instead of the first thing a gym goer tries. I have since switched to bodyweight training, which at 95kgs are sufficiently difficult to give strength gains. Many of them work as compound exercises. I have also tried various other things and found out that the gym gave me a solid foundation, but it would be pure fantasy to claim it makes you anything other than strong, and mostly strong in limited areas of motion.

I disagree, it is indeed not mind expanding but there is no law written that hobbies have to be. Lifting is all about the challenge. What keeps me going right now is working on my goal to deadlift 5 reps of 250 kg and shoulder pressing my own body weight 5 times with no leg drive, thats a goal I want to reach and I slowly and steadily get closer to that it whenever I exercise. Its very hard. Performing feats of strength makes me feel great, picking up huge weights that weigh three times as much as an ordinary untrained man could lift feels pretty damned cool, because its very hard honest work to get there and you have to work years for it. Reaching those goals is extremely gratifying. And thats what hobbies are about. Also as a nice side effect you get better body awareness, you get healthier, your testosterone production increases and stays high even when you get older. Its a fun, extremely challenging and healthy hobby. Perfect. Of course, you CAN make it boring, if you only do body building exercises (isolations instead of compounds) things can get pretty boring, you have to perform powerlifting exercises. Couldn't agree less with you, compound exercises are very demanding, for a deadlift you are using 75% of your bodies muscles simultaneously, your brain has an enormous amount of calculations to do to coordinate them all. Or one armed dumbbell presses standing, with your feet touching shoulder pressing 50 kilograms above your head with one arm you need extremely good balance and you have to coordinate almost all the muscles in your body. Actually, few sports require as much muscle coordination, dexterity and constant nervous system adaption. If your dexterity is low, technique sucks and you muscle coordination is off you will never be able to lift several hundred kilograms of weight, even with balloon sized muscles. If you had been a true lifter you'd have quickly discovered that. Just going there and doing dumbbell curls for bigger guns to impress some superficial girls is not what I'm talking about. Talk about mythologizing your hobby. Yes it is very demanding to lift high weights and there is an amount of skill involved. But no, you're not becoming any more coordinated or dexterous doing it for anything other than lifting weights. Top powerlifters are blubbery masses of mucle and fat unfit for anything other than lifting extreme weights. Try going toe to toe in a sparring match against even a recreational boxer and you'll be taught in an instant what good all around athleticism is. I'm not going to pretend its a fair comparison, boxers were always among top all around athletes, but what you're saying is simply not true. Pro-powerlifters also consume immense amounts of steroids to get there. In turn they consume huge amounts of food to compensate for the steroids and wreak havoc on their internal organs. At a professional level its an unhealthy and destructive activity that puts an immense strain on body and the heart and the only people in worse health are pro bodybuilders. I never went into the gym with the intent to become a powerlifter. Even if I did, at 6ft3 with very long limbs it would be an uphill struggle. I went to gain all around strength and that's what I got.

Higher general education level benefits everybody, as it ensures that people know what they are doing in their jobs, and it also make it easier to ensure that people get that education which they want making them more productive members of society. This is reason why education for example in is payed from taxes from kindergarten to doctorate level in universities and addition to pay education state also gives student allowance that ensures that people can study without need to worry how they can pay their rent and food when they study (some of this allowance is paid in form of cheap loans). This system makes Finnish education system equal opportunity system to anybody from any economical and social background. I don't say that Finnish education system is necessary better than education systems in USA, but I would not change it even though I now pay it from my taxes, but I got my University education to paid by state and I am from economical and social background that it is high probably that I wouldn't had afforded similar level schooling if I had lived in USA for example. But anyway point is that education of citizens is first and foremost for common-good of the country so it should be paid from common funds, as that ensures that country has better ability to compete in markets and develop to better place to live. For same reason I support publicly funded universal health care systems, because it has higher probability to ensure healthy public from bottom to top which means that society as general has higher change to be more productive as whole. Although I must admit that my view to this things is heavily biased as I have lived my whole life in country which has publicly funded education and universal healthcare and I have benefit form both greatly. Well you just did my job for me. I believe Finland is at the top of the list for the most educated populace in general according to statistics. Top in book consumption too, but those obviously go hand in hand. Its hard to believe that in the 21st century these things are even up for debate.

I weight lifted for years and I don't see anything mind expanding about it. Go in, pick up weights, put weights down, rinse, repeat. Its one of the most mind numbing physical activities there are. The only reason I did it because gyms work on practical schedules and they're everywhere. Its good for getting all around muscle building results quicker than most sports, but the trade off is that you don't gain anything you typically gain in a sport. Hand-eye coordination, dexterity, the ability to take a punch ... whatever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBWhkcSsdQk&src_vid=L-dHqZBnHrs&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_2096976977 And another trailer

Minecraft in space. Your goal is to get to the galactic center, for which you need to trade/fight/craft to upgrade your ship and suit. There is some lore according to the developers but none of it has been released at this point.

New No Man's Sky trailer: http://www.ign.com/videos/2014/12/06/no-mans-sky-gameplay-trailer?utm_campaign=fbposts&utm_source=facebook Its probably going to be my first day one purchase, ever.

There is no such thing as communism in the US. US is the complete opposite of communism's ideal of wealth redistribution. Having the state run health care, education etc. does not make a country communist, if it does, most of Europe is communist as well. You could argue that the US is basically a one party state where its impossible for another party/idea to penetrate the political spectrum or for any other actor to successfully participate in politics due to the extreme costs of running a campaign and tight media control of set topics that the system allows to circulate. By extension you could argue that its essentially authoritarian in nature (like communist states used to be) and under complete control of moneyed elites (unlike communist states, where the elite was political first and foremost), but whenever I hear a person from the US argue that the US is communist, I can't help but wonder what's going through your head.

It looks staged for the journalists. If there was a real threat at that moment they'd be running for cover and not idling around

If I was to draw a conclusion from that it would be that the 90% of those not in the elite, don't work? Because they aren't all first generation immigrants. Besides, that isn't really relevant to the question I was asking. The US is a large economy and some individuals, like Schwarzenegger, come a long way from nothing. But an individual should not have to be as rich as he is to be able to afford good education (that would not send a family into debt), health care, etc. for his children? Or even necessarily in the middle class, let alone the 1%? If there is so much wealth to go around (and there is, many times more so than in France, Germany, UK etc.) then why are some of the basic services a government should provide on the level of a third world country? The last official comparisons placed US health care in the same category as Cuba. And Cuba has been living under a US enforced embargo and in poverty for over 50 years. You don't need to be rich to afford a good education in the US. What is wrong with taking on debt to pay for school? It's part of a social contract, they are offered at extremely low interest rates, and you are given a long time to pay them back. I certainly don't regret the $40,000 I spent on college and grad school, I've been paying it off slowly over the last decade and now only have $7k left on the loan. That's without my parents help. My parents paid for my first year of school, which came out to about $10k. After that I got a part time job and managed my debt carefully. Some people make dumb decisions about how much debt they take on, but there are plenty of chances to succeed without drowning yourself. I'll agree with out health care being screwed. I've got insurance and I still have a pile of ridiculous medical bills sitting on my desk right now. Why take on a debt when the state can provide it for free, or close to it?

If the game is open world and much larger than Witcher 2 I wouldn't be surprised that it ends up looking more or less the same as W2. W2 is still the best looking RPG of this generation. That said, the way this franchised turned from an underdog success, with a pleasant, almost depressive eastern european atmosphere and decent humor to bombastic high fantasy full of itself killed all my excitement for it.

200 people were arrested, presumably there were many more. Can't imagine they rounded them all up

I thought this topic could also be useful to pile in some of the board game adaptations of computer games people here know. So for all Master of Orion and space 4x lovers we have: Its heavily abstracted of course since its only cards and plays in about 20 minutes, but I've played it.. a couple of hundred times. Available on Board game arena.

I have only one question.. are there phd courses in English :D

If I was to draw a conclusion from that it would be that the 90% of those not in the elite, don't work? Because they aren't all first generation immigrants. Besides, that isn't really relevant to the question I was asking. The US is a large economy and some individuals, like Schwarzenegger, come a long way from nothing. But an individual should not have to be as rich as he is to be able to afford good education (that would not send a family into debt), health care, etc. for his children? Or even necessarily in the middle class, let alone the 1%? If there is so much wealth to go around (and there is, many times more so than in France, Germany, UK etc.) then why are some of the basic services a government should provide on the level of a third world country? The last official comparisons placed US health care in the same category as Cuba. And Cuba has been living under a US enforced embargo and in poverty for over 50 years.

223 people arrested in NY protests.