Posts by BenWilson
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
For all of human history but the twentieth century – excluding colonisation, because that usually wasn’t about deliberately making war on people, making profits was preferable – going to war meant, pretty exclusively, going to war with your neighbours.
It did, and it still does. But I dispute that war was some unusual thing that made little sense. It was a source of profits. You take another tribes land and enslave some of it's people and kill or drive off the rest, and you've made more than you could ever dream of growing out of your own soil. It was the number one most popular way to make incredible riches, until you reached the limit imposed by the others who were doing it too. If you weren't in the class of people capable of leveraging military power, your chances of great fortune were next to nothing - anyone with a hundred goons could turn up at your house, kill you, and take everything you had.
The slightest military advantage was seized immediately, no matter how enlightened the society, as the perfect time to wage war on neighbors, and the more successfully you did it, the more you would do it.
Even now there are huge profits in war. The arms industry is enormous. The economic power of military projection is huge. The war in Iraq is so clearly about controlling oil. Even if it's just to stop the Russians or the Chinese getting it cheaper. There is simply no more decisive and powerful way to nullify a competing economy than by smashing it in war.
What decisively changed in the 20th Century was the realization that intra superpower war was no longer viable. Only proxy war could possibly make sense, when the major powers had the ability to destroy entire cities with a single bomb.
So we have had near endless proxy wars ever since. When the Soviet Union collapsed, American military power projection didn't end - it just flailed around for new enemies and didn't have to look far. It's quite amazing that the total collapse of all reason for maintaining such an enormous drain on US coffers didn't lead to any reductions at all. Even now, facing recession bordering on depression, there are no moves to cut those costs. Obama has not brought the troops back home from Iraq in 3 years since he was elected. If anything, his use of military power has simply become more direct and brutal, substituting black ops executions for open conflict, striking with impunity wherever in the world he feels like it.
This is my greatest fear about capitalism, that it is intricately tied to war. And it is my greatest reason to think that it should not be fought directly, using war, which only feeds it. But I don't know what to do, and I think this is precisely why the Occupy Wall Street movement appears scattered.
In this kind of time, the world is unfortunately especially ripe for decisive cult-type leadership. I hope that leader will be more like Gandhi than the obvious alternatives that have been so popular through human history.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to James Butler,
Can't decide if this is an accidental or deliberate misunderstanding of Ben's joke...
It's a whole angle on saliva getting into food I'd never considered. On a spoon.
Proper chefs use a new spoon for every tasting, they will cook with half a dozen small spoons tucked into their whites.
How silly. They only need 2 spoons to keep it sanitary. One to get it out of the pot, onto the other one which goes into their mouth. This can be repeated as many times as they like.
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OK, I tried this Twitter business again for a bit. I can see how it's fun to be there at the start of a trending topic, but man do they get thrashed. And it's like a full time job! Had to turn off tweet-deck, pop up messages are crazily distracting.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Martin Lindberg,
So either I have raised my tolerance-level to chilli or the increased popularity of Indian food (in the Western World) has watered down the dishes to suit our (on average) mild palates.
I think that's exactly what's happened. It's not all bad, it does mean I can take my kids to an Indian restaurant, and not have to leave because they are crying in pain, vowing never to return. But I still like it hot myself. It takes many years of burning the sensitivity off your tongue to be able to handle spicy food. Indians get a head start. I'm building up the kids ability to handle spices, the youngest has a real experimental streak. And the eldest has learned that yogurt soothes the burning tongue.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Russell Brown,
Nah. If you want a Vindaloo, it has to be hot. That's how it's made.
What if I want it extra hot? But not pepper spray? Fine line there. Just gimme the powder...
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Lucy Stewart,
Or what this nation could be like by now if our Pakeha ancestors had worked together with Maori rather than fighting to take their land, and continued the economic path of Waikato's communal market gardening and integrated export fleet.
Yes, we might be a republic already.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Bart Janssen,
Oh you mean objective measurement
Of course. A chef can be trained to weigh things with their hands, too, but they can just use a scales, particularly if they are using a new recipe. Unfortunately, for spices, there's no such device.
Great chefs are all very well, fine if you're prepared to pay top dollar, and also if you like having arguments about the "meaning of heat", during which you will most likely come off sounding like a difficult customer, rather than someone with actual helpful advice. Also very good if you like the taste of spit in your food, which I personally don't.
That's the advantage of actual measures. If you can say "I want it at 24 on the ISO spice scale", then it's not a discussion of "good taste", but simply you placing an order that give you a higher chance of not having an unpleasant experience.
On table spices give you the ability to fine tune the tastes, particularly the heat. It doesn't mean they are absolved from preparing the food properly, and seasoning them as they go etc. They're optional additions. If you don't like adding them, then don't.
Those seasonings change the flavour of the food as it cooks. If you add the seasoning afterwards you may as well just eat a seasoning sandwich.
I didn't say they shouldn't put flavours in the food as they cook. It's about fine tuning. I find it quite an enjoyable part of the meal, working out how the base flavors interact with extras. It also adds variety to the meal the entire way through.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Simon Grigg,
Indeed. One wonders what exactly Cuba would've been like if big brother had long ago engaged. The Cubans were open to doing so.
Yes. Similarly, I have to wonder what the Soviets might have achieved if there hadn't been the Cold War for 40 years. Or what Vietnam could have been like if it hadn't been bombed with more munitions than were used in the entirety of WW2.
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Hard News: Where are the foreigners?!, in reply to Megan Wegan,
I even have an “alien number”, to go along with all my other UIDs.
Does that mean I am _actually_ performing one of the aforementioned alien weddings?
Not a rushed wedding because the terrestrial IUDs didn't work?
Ooops UID!=IUD.
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Hard News: About Occupy Wall Street, in reply to Russell Brown,
It remains a very depressing place in many, many respects.
Not least because it has suffered a constant trade embargo from the most powerful capitalist nation in the world since the revolution. If the USA decides you must suffer for your beliefs, then suffer you will.
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