What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[Speaker to Animals]

Score another one for the MIC.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731



USA! USA! USA!

Whete have you been? Ever heard about Operation/Project Paper Clip?


https://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassifi ... -secretary

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-new ... 180961110/

Of course, but that was to get Werner Von Braun. At least some good came of it.

Never knew we did the same with the Japanese.

Von Braun was actually lower level. The Soviets got the best rocket scientist, but he was very old and died. We just happened to get the younger guy. A lot of their very cool research programs were actually being conducted in what became East Germany and Poland. Soviets got there first.


https://www.airspacemag.com/space/the-r ... s-4376617/

It's kind of a myth that our entire space program was German. We invented rockets, after all. Germans accomplished what they did out of desperation, similar to Confederates building submarines and ironclads in the 1860s. When you are overwhelmed and facing imminent defeat, wonder weapons are pretty much your go-to strategy before the occupation comes, at which point we now know you have to switch to insurgency mode.

The truth of the matter is one that the pro-Nazi space program people don't want to think about: we leaped forward scientifically because the Nazis drove all the Jewish scientists into our loving arms.

[Montegriffo]

China might have something to say about who invented rockets.

[Speaker to Animals]

China might have something to say about who invented rockets.

That's not what is meant by modern rocketry.

[SuburbanFarmer]

China might have something to say about who invented rockets.

That's not what is meant by modern rocketry.

We had some sounding rockets, but nothing like the V2. No Von Braun, and there’s a hammer & sickle on the moon.

Probably lying next to the body of the guy that brought it, but still...

[Speaker to Animals]

China might have something to say about who invented rockets.

That's not what is meant by modern rocketry.

We had some sounding rockets, but nothing like the V2. No Von Braun, and there’s a hammer & sickle on the moon.

Probably lying next to the body of the guy that brought it, but still...

The V2 is just a scaled-up version of what Goddard was doing, with actually good guidance and control systems. It was flight control and thrust where the Germans made good advancement, and Von Braun wasn't even their top guy at all. The Soviets got the good ones.

[Okeefenokee]

I was looking for this,



when I saw this,







bonus points, look what I found!

https://www.f169bbs.com/bbs/news/93439-oh-hillary

I wonder who the baggots are...

[heydaralon]

Awhile back, Fife recommended Hitler in Hell. I'm enjoying it. My only gripe is that I was unable to buy a paper copy and had to purchase it on kindle. It is pretty off the wall. I'm poor, but I only spent $5 on it, so its not gonna break the bank for me. I think a lot of people on here might enjoy it. The dude missed his dog. Blondi was a loyal dog and worthy of a Marley and Me sequel...

[Fife]

I'm just about to start Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life.



“I hope for Goldman Sachs’ bankruptcy”: Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Skin in the Game
In Taleb’s universe, the fieriest circle of hell is reserved for bankers and neoconservatives.

“The best thing that could happen to society is the bankruptcy of Goldman Sachs,” he tells me. “Banking is rent-seeking of industrial proportions.” Taleb, who became rich as a derivatives trader, is not a foe of capitalism but of “cronyism”. “If you’re taking risks, God bless you. This is why I accept inequality. I’ve seen people go from trader to cab driver and back again.”

He similarly denounces armchair interventionists. “There’s a corrective mechanism in nature: a predator typically inflicts risk on others but also on itself. Unless warmongers are more exposed to dying than others it’s the equivalent of reckless drivers being isolated from the risks of reckless driving.” Is he suggesting that, like George Orwell in Spain, neocons should have joined the Iraq frontline? “They should have kept their mouths shut,” he replies.

. . .

Our conversation concludes on an optimistic note: “We’ve survived 200,000 years as humans,” says Taleb. “Don’t you think there’s a reason why we survived? We’re good at risk management. And what’s our risk management? Paranoia. Optimism is not a good thing.” Is the paradox, I ask, that human pessimism offers grounds for optimism? “Exactly,” Taleb replies. “Provided psychologists don’t fuck with it.”

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm just about to start Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life.



“I hope for Goldman Sachs’ bankruptcy”: Nassim Nicholas Taleb on Skin in the Game
In Taleb’s universe, the fieriest circle of hell is reserved for bankers and neoconservatives.

“The best thing that could happen to society is the bankruptcy of Goldman Sachs,” he tells me. “Banking is rent-seeking of industrial proportions.” Taleb, who became rich as a derivatives trader, is not a foe of capitalism but of “cronyism”. “If you’re taking risks, God bless you. This is why I accept inequality. I’ve seen people go from trader to cab driver and back again.”

He similarly denounces armchair interventionists. “There’s a corrective mechanism in nature: a predator typically inflicts risk on others but also on itself. Unless warmongers are more exposed to dying than others it’s the equivalent of reckless drivers being isolated from the risks of reckless driving.” Is he suggesting that, like George Orwell in Spain, neocons should have joined the Iraq frontline? “They should have kept their mouths shut,” he replies.

. . .

Our conversation concludes on an optimistic note: “We’ve survived 200,000 years as humans,” says Taleb. “Don’t you think there’s a reason why we survived? We’re good at risk management. And what’s our risk management? Paranoia. Optimism is not a good thing.” Is the paradox, I ask, that human pessimism offers grounds for optimism? “Exactly,” Taleb replies. “Provided psychologists don’t fuck with it.”

On my list now.

[Speaker to Animals]

That's what I keep trying to tell you guys. Not only are banks unnecessary to capitalism, they are fucking killing us.

Banks + government = no actual consequences to the risk takers.