This is the very pragmatic reason for supporting equal access to opportunities for all citizens, leaving aside any concept of justice or fairness. You get more innovation that benefits everyone.
Dec
05
Dec
04
If the future is better than the past, it will be because of people like this.
If the future is better than the past, it will be because of people like this.
Originally shared by Self-Rescuing Princess Society
“It is an honor and a great responsibility to be part of the network that gathers the best of the best of women (and some great men) from across the Middle East, Asia, and Africa and now Latin America, who have the same issue to fight, who face radicalization and foster sustainable peace. I found a diversity of expertise. We have the common goal, and I am learning from them and they are learning from me. It was a blessing to have women from different ages, backgrounds and religions come together. I want to have that wisdom to represent my community.”
Dec
04
These are interesting thoughts.
These are interesting thoughts.
One thing the article doesn’t take into account: the establishment of mechanisms by which people who can’t personally weather a shock have effective assistance made available to them (such as a government-provided health service, retraining for people put out of work, and the like). I suspect this is because the author is writing in a context where these things don’t really exist and are not likely to exist any time soon. But in some countries, they do, and they provide a brake on the tendency of societies to become more unequal for the reasons outlined here.
Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger
If you want to know how wealthy you really are, ask what kind of financial shock you could weather.
If you want to know why inequality happens without any seeming outside force, it’s because people who get hit with a random financial shock end up dropping an economic level, and much of the wealth they lost gets redistributed among everyone else. That’s true for both random shocks like flat tires, and coordinated shocks like economic downturns or a mortgage crisis.
And then changes in bargaining power happen, and that’s what shapes societies.
Dec
03
A grand scheme gone awry may be just what your story needs. Here’s one.
A grand scheme gone awry may be just what your story needs. Here’s one.
Originally shared by Singularity Hub
Desertec and the Tantalizing Dream of a Solar Sahara http://suhub.co/2AECLpN
Dec
02
Creativity is not something you just wait and hope will happen. There are ways to encourage it.
Creativity is not something you just wait and hope will happen. There are ways to encourage it.
Dec
02
For your alternate computing story needs.
For your alternate computing story needs.
(Accessibility issue: small, non-adjustable font.)
Originally shared by Winchell Chung
https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/hardware/not-your-fathers-analog-computer
Dec
01
Some good info on the OP.
Some good info on the OP. It takes a lot of infrastructure, and consistent demand, to make brickmaking feasible. (Since I work for a company that makes masonry blocks, I have both some knowledge of and some interest in this topic.) So if you chuck brick buildings into your setting, you’re implying a lot about the state of industry.
Adobe (sun-dried) bricks are a somewhat different proposition.
Originally shared by Derrick “Quite Clever” Sanders
Here’s a weirdo topic that is probably of some interest to fantasy gamers (of a certain stripe) as well as those of you with some historical and archaeological curiosity.
Bricks. Ancient Romans could make bricks. They built lots of buildings out of them. However, in medieval Europe we see brick construction become sporadic. My understanding is that the making of the bricks themselves became guild secret.
I’m hoping that the esteemed Ara Winter can hook us up with some primary documentation on this one (and I bet he can). Or maybe Amanda Rachelle Warren?
Nov
30
Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates, which is my personal favourite of his books, is on sale at Amazon.
Tim Powers’ The Anubis Gates, which is my personal favourite of his books, is on sale at Amazon. Excellent use of time travel in the plot, a kind of proto-steampunk feel (very well executed), and all around a unique and memorable book.
https://smile.amazon.com/Anubis-Gates-Ace-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B006UMI0OK/
Nov
30
I wonder if I can use this in the Gryphon Clerks. The gnomes are always making stuff out of mushrooms.
I wonder if I can use this in the Gryphon Clerks. The gnomes are always making stuff out of mushrooms.
Originally shared by Danie van der Merwe
Leather Made from Mushrooms!
– 1 inch grows within 1 week
– 2×3 feet within 1 month
– Full cow hide size within 2 months
– Extracted from mushroom caps
– Tanning process is natural and doesn’t contain any toxic chemicals like the ones used in processing leather
– Muskin is natural and non-toxic so it’s safe for contact with your face and skin
– Softer than leather, is water repellant and breathable
– 100% biodegradable
– Stops the proliferation of bacteria
– Strong absorbent capacity
– Any exotic animal skin can be emulated like elephant or snake and comes with a soft shammy backing
Watch the short video at http://bit.ly/2Bz1HN3
Nov
30
This is similar to my “genres considered as restaurants” blog post from a while back, but takes a different angle.
This is similar to my “genres considered as restaurants” blog post from a while back, but takes a different angle.
Originally shared by Yonatan Zunger
A few years ago, I came across an interesting theory of how to divide up stories implied in a talk by Lois McMaster Bujold: that stories are most usefully divided not by their structural elements, or their set dressing, but by the type of emotional experience they try to create. Romances, in this model, are fantasies of love; mysteries may be fantasies of justice or of understanding, and the latter category is shared with spy thrillers and Lovecraftian horror. Literary fiction about painful divorces may have more in common with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre than with Agatha Christie.
(Member post)