A democracy is not necessarily the best form of government for innovation, a totalitarian state can force it, while a democracy always has to compromise. Just think of the lack of greens China is enjoying.

lol...i think most of us here agree that a well-governed dictatorship is best, but has the problem that there very much isn't something like a well-governed dictatorship.


Talking about dictatorship, did you guys have a good laugh at the Russian elections too? Poetin 80% of the votes lol. They're so democratic.

Let's hope for the russians (and for us, in fact) that he proves to be a benevolent rather than a totally whacked out leader. On the bright side; he doesn't talk crap about God like Bush does all the time. This is the first time poetin controls EVERY governing organ in Russia.Contrary to how it might have looked before already, althought it already looked like he did before lol. Now he can really work his will.

Great. Another 'benevolent' Russian leader. I assume you mean Putin got reelected. Yay. I prefered Gorbachev...at least he had a map of Japan tatooed on his head.

Anyway...

1. I don't think democracy/socialism/communism in-and-of-themselves encourage or discourage innovation. Well, communism does, since you don't get shit out of it. It's more a social climate thing, I think. I don't see the Chinese government encouraging a whole lot of free thought and interchange of ideas (the great firewall of china, eh?). That's why I don't think they can compete. China vs the rest of the world, basically, since at a professional level noone cares what nationality their counterparts are. err...anyway...

2. Power failure. There are some issues with the infrastructure, but the biggets problem (from what I understand) was some sort of software glitch. Doesn't matter, the fact it happened is bad enough and is a strong reason for not having such a massively integrated power structure.

3. New job. The current job I do tech support. I talk to customer (usually telecom or IT people representing some company). New job would have been in the quality assurance part testing software and hardware. No more talking to customers. That's a good thing.

Blah. Bored of typing.

Damn right that's a good thing, getting bothered by stupid ppl happens enough as it is during one's spare time, any way of cutting that down professionally speaking is a godsend. Good point about the internet-china thing. I'm gonna have to do some thinking on how big the impact of the internet (or better; lack of it) would be on a society like China's, if i get majorly bored. Problem is that i'm lacking sleep lately and the places where i'm usually bored (class and on the bus) are mostly catching-up sleep things atm. poop.

On Poetin:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/03 ... index.html

LOL

Btw, found some funny stuff while looking and reading about Poetin's coup-ing

http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/36 ... ident.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/ ... alien.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/ ... iment.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/ ... antis.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/ ... rtian.html
http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/ ... 3_UFO.html

what a great site w00t

This is the book that I mentioned earlier:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=books


everyone should read it, it's good shit. Not necessarily buy it off Amazon of course, but i figured that a link with a shiny cover showing would impress you guys more than just the name of the book and the author.

damn it you mentioned something being shiny so naturally I had to check it out, but then only to find out it was not shiny afterall

Awh, sorry. Next time I will use "glossy", aight?