Sal9000

This is an excellent question. Your assertions are true, but you oversee the role of banks. These can engage in fractional reserve lending thus causing inflation. There was a heated debate in late 19th century on the question of bimetallism, since many were afraid that a pure goldstandard would lead to a concentration of wealth: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimetallism

Yeah, this is why we need open access. The most valuable asset on Earth is a page from a scientific peer reviewed journal. In extreme cases it is worth around 300$ per page. Companies with skin in the game (reinsurance companies) agree that we are beyond the point of no return. No matter what we do now, anthropogenic climate change will happen. The question is if we can alleviate the consequences a bit.The positive feedback loop is described in the wikipedia article on global warming. An increase in C02 causes that infrared electromagnectiv 'bounce' back and heat up the atmosphere. This is well understood since the 19th century. This in turn heats up the oceans that then emit water vapour. Water vapour itself acts the same way like CO2 increasing the effect it has.The main problem is not climate change in itself. Humans can adapt to it. Rather, it is the abrupt changes that eventually ensue. The current economic system is pretty vulnerable to sudden changes with production lines stretching hundreds of miles. Any longer lasting disruption in the food process will likely lead to a collapse or to severe crises.

As a guilty pleasure I entertain the theory that Kubrick shot the moon landing to get cameras and lenses for making Barry Lyndon.See the nice mockumentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQTYxTj5sE for more infos

Salut, I am not French, but I studied in Paris at a University. Welcome to the board and à bientôt!

Sounds good for me

Go ahead Robin! I have no clue about good new games

Sounds good What game do you propose? I have to prepare myself

A wonderful idea Robin. I would be interested too. I play chess too (on an amateurish level though).

I have yet to see five lawsuits where declaring your sovereignity actually worked. Until I see legal documents that it works I am highly sceptical.

How do you test truth values about the physical world or maths with philosophy?

This is the original Soylent diet. Potatos are the only cheap veggie afaik that include all minerals and nutrients required. Guess I will have to create a website and sell my dietary advide

This is not always true. In 19th century, there was trade between Brittain and China. Chinese traders sold tea and porcelain to British traders and companies. Since they did not want any of the goods Europe had to offer, there was a trade deficit that got worse and worse over time. Hence the Opium wars started to balance this deficit.

Churchill dehumanizes the enemies. The oldest trick there is.

How dare those degraded brown people fight back when Englang brings them science, Christianity and death!

I have not read the book but I think Piketty misses an obvious point. Capital or money cannot be created in the current system without creating debt at the same time. As a corollary: When you have debt, somebody else has an asset with the same value. On the monetary side, the economy is a zero sum game.

I think it has a lot of merits. I read some books by Ellis and they are pretty convincing. However, since then new therapeutic approaches have come up that include methods on how to deal with stress more effectively (ACT is one example).Here you can find Ellis' approach in a nutshell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKby0E_U_F4 I can recommend 'A guide to rational living' by Ellis when you are interested in books.

What kind of Behaviorism are we talking about? The classical one with operant conditiong or the newer one that focuses on higher cognition? I think the latter one has some merits. The main proponent of the 'second wave' of Behaviorism was crucial for developing Acceptance and Commitment therapy which can hardly be seen as a dangerous movement. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_C._Hayeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_Frame_Theoryhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_Commitment_Therapy

You are right with regards to Aesop. However, the hapax legomena don't complicate the story. And chances are high you already know the story. I have no clue if Cicero's letters are translated into English, but I guess some of them are. I told my students to have a good translation ready to check their translation if need be. Nice meetin another person interested in the Antiquities :Welcome:Vale!

Do you have evidence for that?

There are five Categorical Imperatives. The most well known states "Act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law."This maxim helps you to distinguish different kind of duties (permissible, non permissible, and universal). Thus, the preferences and UPB are included in this formulation of the Categorical Imperative. You may prefer to drink Earl Grey, but this cannot be a maxim since it fails to be turned into a Natural Law (You cannot conceive a world where everyone has to drink Earl Grey). Nonetheless, it is permissible (you can imagine a world where some persons drink Earl Grey while others have Chai or coffee). The other formulations of the CI introduce new concepts such as autonomy and an end in itself. For a concise intro see:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant-moral/ It is a little bit more complicated. A Categorical Imperative because it does not depend on any conditions "Answer every E-Mail you get." A Hypothetical Imperative includes conditions "When you get Spam, then you can delete it. Answer every other E-Mail."According to Kant, lying in front of a murderer to save persons you love cannot be a Categorical Imperatives, since there are conditions involved.

I know Latin and Greek really well (I studied philology at Uni). I would start with easy stuff like Aesop's tales or Cesar. Be careful though: Cesar's latin has its own rules. If possible, get some Latin text with an English translation. Once you have mastered this, you can start reading the Vulgate (Latin Bible) or Sueton (Life of the Emperors). Don't start with Cicero unless you are really good at it. He certainly knew how to speak and how to construct some complicated sentences.

According to the Austrian Economy. In mainstream economics it is seen as a rise of the general level of goods and services. I think this view is more accurate since an inflation of money does not necessarily lead to an increase in the price level of goods and services. Most Austrians expected a hyperinflation after the collapse of 2008. This did not happen since the new money was used to pay back debt. Hence it did not enter the market. In fact, the velocity of money went down for some time. Indeed, there are two culprits. The state offers the drug and the banks take it willingly. This is often missed by Austrian economicists who like to blame the State when the government gives in fact an incentive to create money. Most money is created by banks and not the State.