On Fri, 27 Apr 2012 11:01:46 -0400, Tom Del Rosso wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ-4g...layer_embedded

If I wanted America to fail I'd put 45 mammals on the endangered species
list, and 46 clams.

I'd make the cost of regulatory compliance 10% of GDP, not including the
cost of time waiting for approvals.

But that's just what I'd have done in the 20th century. I'd do all
sorts of new things now.

I'm thinking that's not the problem. We want to fix the blame on some
group, or an individual, or a mentality or a political party or
whatever. I think it's way more complex than that, and probably not
amenable to being fixed.

As I look now at the US, I am struck by the similarities between us and
England ~100 years ago. England was the main superpower at the time,
with an almost-invincible navy, colonies and other territories throughout
the world - "the sun never sets on the British Empire." But the sun sets
for everyone.

England wound up doing what we're doing - letting herself go, screwing
around with the stock market, usury, excessive credit, too much military,
not enough social services, pig-headed arrogance, and on and on. I guess
when you're the masters of the world, you don't have to pay attention to
what the little people say...

Eventually it all fell apart. I see that happening here in the US now.
Seems to me that as a country we've grown "old" so to speak, and are now
declining into senescence. If we follow England's course, we'll become a
second-rate power, not helpless but not able to impose our will as easily
as before.

Looks to me like China's turn is next to be the big kid on the block.
Russia is also declining; India, while massive, hasn't yet had a
renaissance. The countries of Islam are so far behind in science that
they pose little threat at the moment. But China... it has the
population, the money, the scientific training, everything it needs to
start to kick ass and take names. And I don't think there's a damned
thing anyone can do about it.

--
It's certainly easy to calculate the average attendance for Perl
conferences.
-- Larry Wall in