America's Downfall

The chief and main reason America is screwed up as a country is that the Government and its citizens' main agenda is to make MONEY on EVERYTHING. And I mean EVERYTHING.
There are many things you cannot make a business of. Chief examples: basic healthcare and prisons.
But, unfortunately, the type of people that live here are, on average, too greedy and stupid to understand that.

This is a single biggest mistake that is taking America down, this extreme capitalism. It will fail the same way Russian Extreme Socialism failed.

If you take anything to the extreme, it's bad. The way the American government makes money on EVERYTHING is absolutely hurting the country.

It's the WRONG approach.

Solar Sail to Power electricity

Not sure if this is a viable idea, but what if there is a giant sail launched into earth's orbit, connected by a thin cable back to earth. This sail collects electricity from the sun and sends it down to the cable.

The future of internet access is through cell phone networks, not satellites

In 5-10 years, we might see DSL and Cable being replaced by internet through mobile networks - current ones are Verizon/T-Mobile/ATT/Boost/Virgin Mobile.

Elon's Musk's suggestion of covering the planet with wifi through low orbiting satellites is not practical. He suggested launching more than 4,000 satellites (through SpaceX, of course), to cover the planet with wifi signals, especially in hard to reach places.

While this approach would work well for remote locations, it is not practical for areas already covered with cell phone signal and towers (most of the urban areas in the world). The most practical solution is to deliver internet through the same networks our cell phones currently use, and, in fact, this is already happening. The issue is that it's just too expensive at the moment, but eventually, very decent internet speeds will be obtained at fairly cheap prices through cell phone networks.

While they would probably never match the speed of a wired signal, not everyone needs that speed, for most people, the speed achieved through cell phone network will be sufficient. 

Elon Musk pursues personal financial goals when advocating colonizing Mars

Reddit, and especially its Futurology sub, is peppered with articles about Elon Musk. I guess the click bait works well with his name in it.

On the list of the problems United States is facing today, colonizing Mars should really NOT be a priority. This endeavor, if ever undertaken by human kind, should be a JOINT effort by the whole human civilization, not by the US government giving billion dollar contracts to SpaceX, which is what Mr. Musk specifically wants.

The United States currently faces a failing healthcare, education and prison industry. The available money shouldn't be going to SpaceX or NASA, it should be going towards those in need and towards reforms of those industries. Going to Mars should be a joint effort, like the International Space Station, however, I do not see the European, Russian or Chinese space stations advocating colonizing Mars, mainly it's just Mr. Musk

To underline, I do NOT oppose Mr. Musks companies - Tesla and SpaceX. It's great that SpaceX is researching rocket technology and putting people to work. However, Musk's ultimate goal in all this is self-fulfillment and enrichment. He wants to be famous. He wants to be rich. He is now both.

He is advocating things that directly financially benefit him. This must be understood and remembered in relation to all the online PR his team generates daily to prop up Tesla's stock price while it keeps losing money every quarter without fail.

Time Relative to Size - and how it all relates to speed.

Experience of time is definitely relative to size.

If we take an hour of time, to a bigger entity it will seem shorter than to a smaller entity. Bigger animals for the most part live longer than smaller ones as well.

If we take the same amount of time, it will seem longer for something smaller than something bigger. IE, for a fly, living one day is like a lifetime for humans. So if we expand it to the universe, the whole existence of the universe might seem like ONE SECOND for the universe itself. or even, just a blink of an eye. Human life, in universe terms, passes in the blink of an eye. but yet to each human, it's long.

----

We all know that time slows down once you get closer to the speed of light. But how's this related to size?? So, if we take someone going on a star journey and coming back, time slowed down for them in comparison to someon on earth.

But could it be that your size EXPANDS once you travel faster, ie you are sort of in TWO PLACES AT ONCE, thus becoming a literally bigger physical entity??

American Education System is an elaborate financial scam

One more thing I've realized after living in US for 20 years: the American education system is largely an elaborate financial RUSE. What the masses don't seem to realize is that the main benefactors of American education are the SCHOOLS and the people who run them, ie the 0.01% who own everything in this country.

This is not to say that the schools have no benefit. Quite the contrary, they do have a lot of benefit. The >problem< is that they are severely and catastrophically overpriced.
I am not even going to mention all the University of Phoenix and DeVries, as it's clear that those institutions and mainly driven by profit. But, in fact, even the most prestigious American schools brainwash many people to believing they are the ultimate places to go to get educated (for a huge cost, of course).

The whole school ranking system is one elaborate brainwash. People are fooled into dreaming of attending Stanford or Harvard? In hopes of being next Google founder? It's another American pipe dream. The most likely consequence of attending college is huge financial debt. That's guaranteed. A job is not.

The whole "ranking system" that puts American schools at top of the world's list is bought and paid for. Since American schools collect an enourmous amount of money, they can influence the rankings. As always, it all centers around money.

There are no friends in America - only competitors

The way americans treat each other deserves a special mention. it's a spartan society that is robotic, and merciless. weakness is frowned upon and dealt with quickly and severely. success is worshipped.
for many years I thought: maybe this is just me. People seem to be happy around me. Am I imagining all this? But no, I don't actually think I am.

I've never had a SINGLE true friend here, in all my years of living here. I had more happiness in my 13 years in Russia, even though we didn't have much there. I fondly remember my friends there. I don't have a SINGLE person in the US that I really connected with on any meaningful way. Instead, every single place I've been into, I was made to feel inferior in some way, like some kind of a sub-human.

i feel sorry for people born here actually. they've never experienced true friendship or true, kind interaction. it's all some kind of a rat race.
the system is designed to make everyone feel inferior, and the answer to inferiority is achievement or money? how goddam pathetic and tiring. this system results in extreme isolation as well, as everyone constantly measures each other on some scale, instead of actually enjoying life.

Government fees, Real Estate Prices and general American decline

The reason everything was better in the 1950s and 60s and before, is because back then, the american government was wasting much less money. once it started wasting money on wars (vietnam/korea/etc) things started going down hill. the crazy military spending was one of the main reasons soviet union fell apart. this might happen to US.

this trickles down to EVERYTHING. Let's take housing, for example. Reason housing dramatically went up in price is because THERE IS NOT ENOUGH OF IT BEING BUILT. Why? Because the government fees to build/permit things have increased, and places like San Francisco specifically limit and forbid new construction to artificially keep the prices up. If building new housing in SF were easier (like it is in Ohio/Indiana), prices would fall very quickly. But who wants that, right? Not the existing property owners with money who control things there.

Facebook Psychological Effect

Facebook is a very interesting psychological phenomenon. The reason it seems like everyone is doing great when looking at FB is that people almost NEVER post anything bad that happens to them. So you compare everything that happens in your life to only the greatest things that happen to other people.

Drug users need medical HELP, not prison time

If I were to discuss the many problems facing America today, I could write a book a million pages long, and I still would only cover the tip of the iceberg.

In today's post, I'd like to focus on the so-called war on drugs that America has been waging. Unfortunately, if the true purpose of this war was to eradicate drugs, perhaps things would not be so bad. But, it's not. The true purpose is to put more people in prison to generate profits for the prison industry and lawyers. The problem is that drugs, as many other things in our country, are a profit driven industry.

Since prisons are a huge for-profit industry, every drug user put in prison generates income for the criminal justice system. Lawyers make money, local governments make money, private prison corporations make money. That is cruel and barbaric - and frankly I think it violates the US constitution forbidding cruel and unusual punishment. 

America's response to someone using drugs is to put them in prison. A huge percentage of America's prison population (the larges in the world on a per-capita basis) are there for drug offenses. It could remotely make sense if they were there for selling drugs, but alas, no - most are for USING drugs.

And what are the causes of drug use? Easy answer: lack of education, lack of opportunity - a culture of mass media glorifying get rich quick schemes, rappers, movie stars and alike.

How cruel and barbaric is our society for putting drug users in prison? Drug use is an addiction and a medical condition, much like diabetes or heart disease. Drug users are SICK. Well, how is putting a sick person in prison going to help them? Answer - very little. Instead, it takes people already in a difficult spot and makes their life worse.

Drug users need to be treated by a doctor - not go to prison. These people need help. They are crying out for help and our society fails them. It's very sad and unfortunate.

Travel to distant stars could take a very short amount of time if spaceship travels close to speed of light

A common notion that traveling to other stars will take generations upon generations of people living and dying on a spaceship is only true if the spaceship travels relatively slow (in relation to the speed of light).

An important thing to consider is that "An object traveling AT THE SPEED OF LIGHT arrives to its destination in an instant, from its point of view" . TRAVEL TO OTHER STARS COULD TAKE A VERY SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME if we got the spaceship to travel close to the speed of light.

According to Einstein's theory of relativity, time slows down relative to the observer the closer you get to speed of light, so they theorize that if you travel at the speed of light, time stops and that for a photon, particle of light, from its point of view, its absorbed as soon as its emitted, ie in an instant.

So, let's say someone gets into a ship traveling at light speed to a star 5 light years away. FROM OUR PERSPECTIVE, it takes them 5 years to travel there, but from their perspective, it's instant?

Well, then that would make star travel a piece of cake, because if you can get a starship very close to speed of light, trip will seem VERY short ... ?

That does make sense, because time slows down, so 5 years on Earth will seem like MUCH LESS than 5 years to the people on the ship itself

Serge Bronstein
6/6/2015

America - are we in a police state? Analysis

It's 2015, but it might as well be the 1960's - the news are filled with one main topic - police and it's frequently videotaped misconducts. Just a few days ago, Baltimore suffered through one of the biggest riots in American history, with the angry crowd burning stores and police cars.

To make this simple, it seems there are three main questions:

1) Are the American police out of control?
2) If so, what are the causes?
3) What can we do to correct the situation

Let's start with analyzing each question.

#1

Media, sensationalism and earnings

MEDIA and Earnings

Media sensationalizes and LIES about how much certain people make all the time, thus deceiving millions of people. At least in Europe, you don't get this constant barrage of stories about tech billionaires/rap millionaires/actors/etc

The truth is, 99.9% of those people are POOR. Yet all these stories make millions of people go into those professions thinking they are going to be rich, thus taking resources away from other things they could be doing!

Suicide mainly caused by psychological comparison of yourself to people around you

Suicide is mainly caused not by how you feel inside, but by COMPARISON of yourself to other people.

in reality, people feel better when they are surrounded by people perceived to be SAD and UNHAPPY

Therefore, if you are feeling SAD, go to an area where people are sad/poor and you'll feel better.

http://www.thewire.com/national/2011/04/study-happiest-states-also-tend-have-most-suicides/36905/

America's Junk Food Problem

America has a huge junk food problem. Sometimes I let myself slip and get Subway/Jack in the Box/Popeyes. I get stomach aches like 75% of the time from it.

Yet, I am pretty sure about 80% of US eats there daily. It's literally hard not to, since when you are hungry, that's ALL you see, for example, here in Hesperia. This city looks just like a typical american city and is littered with junk food. I don't know how people even FUNCTION when they eat there regularly, and yet the majority of Americans do.

If you go to Europe, you just see a bunch of small cafes with quality food.

Lenovo steals my computer, ignores my repeated requests for refund!

I made a huge mistake and bought a Lenovo U530 computer. In 4 months, screen broke and I had to send it for repair.

The support specialist asked me if I wanted a refund or the computer back, I said I want the refund. Now, the computer has been in repair for several months, they completely ignore my emails and haven't sent me the refund or the computer back!

Dear Mr. Bronstein,

My name is Debbie, and I am the Lenovo Customer Care Manager that has been assigned to your escalated case # 1387179. I just tried to contact you at (714) 326-8977 and it was a wrong number.

I know your U530T has been at our depot since Jan. 26. The LCD Cover has come in and the repair is in process. I expect it to ship by Monday. However, if you would like to have a refund instead, I will need to get a copy of your proof of purchase. If it is from an authorized business partner,  I can provide a full refund.

If you have any questions, please get back to me, and be sure to reference your case # 1387179.

We DO appreciate your business. Thank you for your time.

Kind Regards,

Debbie Mitchell Case Manager       Lenovo Customer Care North America	dmitchell1@lenovo.com Ph: (919) 804-5708 Fax: (919) 342-3343
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Does opposition exist in the United States politics?

Recently, a Russian opposition figure, Boris Nemtsov, was killed in the heart of Moscow near the Kremlin. While we still don't know who exactly killed him or who ordered his killings, there is no question that Russia has plenty of opposition to the current regime. These opposition figures frequently criticize the Kremlin's position on virtually everything, and quite vocally. Zhirinovsky often makes speeches denouncing many things the Russian government is doing in very colorful terms. Russia, although it has a dominant party in United Russia ("Edinaya Rossiya), has several other parties, including the Communist party and LDPR with a sizeable percentage of voters.

But, if we look at the United States, that supports oppositions in Russia and Ukraine, a question arises - does the United States itself really have an opposition or an opposition party? A frequently, the things US officially criticizes are the thing it has problems with ITSELF.

US has just two official parties - Democrats and Republicans, which is an oligopoly - a thing very frequently present in the US business markets - even though it's system is based on the principles of free enterprise and free competition, in reality, large corporations dominate the US market with little opposition, because the LAWS are written to favor them.

So, the US political system, consisting of Democrats and Republicans, is not really two parties opposing each other, rather - they are (emphasis added) pretending to oppose each other. Which one of these parties was:

1) Against the war in Iraq
2) For free basic healthcare
3) Free or subsidized basic college education
4) Fighitng for changes in the brutal and oppresive police force that regularly kills innocent people

Answer is, neither party campaigned for any opposing view points on any of those issues. And since we don't have any other parties with any significant traction, we can conclude that the US, for all practical purposes, does NOT have an opposition.

The system is somewhat similar to the Communist Party in China, however, the difference is that the US system is setup to make it look like there are two opposing parties, to make it look like people have a choice. Furthermore, does the US have any opposition politicians with any significant traction? Again, the answer is no. All politicians within a grasp of the next presidency all have similar views on all major issues - and no solutions to any major American problems.

The problem is exacerbated with the fact that an average American is not interested in politics - common US culture idolizes musicians and actors and the average person follows entertainment news much more than political views - in contrast to Europe, where people are quite interested in politics. This creates a situation where the country, largely indifferent and obvlivious, is run by a small group of politicians with virtually no real opposition.

Serge Bronstein
March 9, 2015

War and inflation

germany after WWI experienced mega-inflation due to its war expenses, ie gov't simply started printing money to pay for the army.

does that remind you of anything happening now? that's exactly what happened in russia - russia printed money to compensate for what was stolen during olympics + ukraine war.

it's simply AMAZING that US has not experienced inflation even though it has wasted trillions in Iraq ...

Psychology

i think everyone, especially parents , must be required to take a course in psychology. the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was successful in very large part due to his knowledge of PSYCHOLOGY when creating facebook, because its a typical exercise in human psychology, probably like no OTHER COMPANY IN HISTORY OF MANKIND

Amazing life

I am kind of thinking what Carl Sagan has been saying - although I am in now way copying him - these are all my personal thoughts - but then again, i am jewish, he's jewish, i am smart, he's smart - so we have same thoughts in our heads tongue emoticon

Carol Sagan:
“You are alive right this second. That is an amazing thing,” they told me. When you consider the nearly infinite number of forks in the road that lead to any single person being born, they said, you must be grateful that you’re you at this very second. Think of the enormous number of potential alternate universes where, for example, your great-great-grandparents never meet and you never come to be. Moreover, you have the pleasure of living on a planet where you have evolved to breathe the air, drink the water, and love the warmth of the closest star.

Human accomplishments

Human practice of attributing accomplishments of an individual to that individual is highly questionable, because humans are a product of nature, so any human accomplishment is simply nature giving this capacity, assigning it to someone, so to speak. Those who accomplish more than others are simply picked by nature, ie Bill Gates/Einstein were simply born with the right genes in the right place at the right time.You could also think of it as LUCK. It's not like they ORDERED to be created this way, they didn't participate in that process. So it's just all nature. Same thing with ... a murderer ... it's not like a murderer wants to be one, or picked to be one, it's just that in nature, a certain percentage of people are born that way, not being able to tell right from wrong.

furthermore, even though humans have been jailing murders since the dawn of time, the percentage of them in society stays relatively constant ... pointing to genetic factors, which are determined by nature"