Our first mobile Space City in 20 years using present day technology? One Engineer says yes, basing the project on the Starship Enterprise.

4ThePeopleMedia · 7 days

Great quote, thanks, and yeah, agreed. Still, I'm thankful for how much it's got me to read in the last few hours, it certainly got me asking a lot of questions.

4ThePeopleMedia · 7 days

Thank you for these, I did a search before sharing to see if I could find any actual discussion, but not these. The first on in particular was invaluable.

notatthetablecarlose · 18 days

Ah, nice pic, I did something similar a while back, when the moon was the closest it had been to the earth for sometime. Kinda stylised it I admit, but you can check it out here ;)

quentinnuk · 23 days

Shared out over Facebook etc, but do you have a better picture of her by any chance? I appreciate you may not be involved directly but just wondered.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

I think you may be thinking of this tool? Megaphone? The astroturfing app? That's not quite the same, and is a bit old now, but it is interesting never-the-less ;.)

(From the wikipedia link above)

According the Jerusalem Post, Amir Gissin, head of the Public Affairs Department of the Foreign Ministry of Israel, has expressed support for the tool's use. "The Foreign Ministry itself is now pushing the idea, urging supporters of Israel everywhere to become cyberspace soldiers in the new battleground for Israel's image." it reports.[11] Computing website The Register has described use of the software as "highly organised mass manipulation of technologies which are supposed to be democratising" and claimed Megaphone is "effectively a high-tech exercise in ballot-stuffing"[12] The Register also reported that the BBC History magazine website "noticed an upsurge in voting on whether holocaust denial should be a criminal offence in Britain. But the closing date had already passed and the result had already been published, so the votes were invalid anyway." Stewart Purvis, former editor-in-chief of ITN, has noted that an independent panel reviewing the BBC's Israeli-Palestinian coverage received a large number of letters from North America which accused the BBC of being anti-Israeli. He states there was evidence of "pressure group involvement".

Interesting times we live in, eh? But I don't think it's targeting reddit, through there may be other applications that do so for various lobby/ activist groups.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

Sorry, I don't quite follow your argument. I appreciate my headline was hastily put and I should have made myself more clear, but I fail to understand your anger or analogies. Did you read the article at all? You understand that gold is actually rare and diamonds are not I presume? We can of course make near perfect ones for very little in laboratories and they are getting harder to distinguish from 'natural' diamonds. Also, as regards iPods, and other similar new technologies, upon release, are staggeringly rare, having never existed before they come to market. Their value reflects this, and declines as more are produced to the point one witnesses a massive drop in their second hand value after a few years, and this, of course, amongst other things, drives innovation.

I don't really see how this article or my headline warrants me being called a 'pitiable contrarian fool', it seems an odd way to start a discussion with a stranger whether you agree with me or not, and reflects poorly on you. And as to whether I am suffering from cognitive dissonance, I merely posted the article as I found it interesting and thought others may be equally interested. I've then read through the differing perspectives and adapted my understanding accordingly. It would appear from the nature of your post that it is you who may be suffering from such dissonance, I have no strong views on diamonds either way. I only shared the article as I thought it interesting and it raises issues that I thought would be of interest to some people. I was not preaching from a pulpit. As such I don't really understand the points you raise, or the manner in which you raised them, and fear neither do you. It appears you presume much and know little.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

Ah, no, I've known about this for a while, but thought it interesting to share. Looking through the comments now I'm not sure it's as common knowledge as people presume, with a remarkable level of misunderstanding of the issue common as well.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

Ah, this article was about perceived supply and associated demand created by a huge marketing operation, the supply is huge and the current price does not in fact reflect the supply available.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

Thanks for that, a great summary update on the current position of De Beers in the market. Thanks for the link.

4ThePeopleMedia · 27 days

Very interesting subreddit, thanks for the link ;)

WeSavedLatin · 27 days

Hey, good luck with giving up. I gave up for about 8 years after reading this book, from being about a 40 a day man. Just for full disclosure, I did start again (as a rational choice, not because I felt I had to believe it or not- work related). But have stopped again, for a few weeks this time via the same method. It's really easy, and I found it almost impossible before reading that book. It goes into detail of the psychology of smoking and how the feeling of self denial is what triggers the 'cravings' for cigaretts. Really interesting to read, even if you weren't a smoker.

For me, I modify it slightly, I use a regime of nicotine replacements to work my way through the physical addiction part of it, mainly because I can't afford the downtime of having a day or two being grumpy and feeling off.

I start off on the 4mg niquitin CQ lozenges as you can tailor the nicotine dose easily by 'shaving' bits of the tablet off (makes sense if you use them), then go down to the 2mg one. Then I go to the 4mg micro tablets (as they are more discrete, but you can't control the dose so effectively), then the 1.5mg version of them, then the 1mg lozenges and, by then, it's easy just to wean yourself off. I'm sure I could go 'cold turkey' over it, but my view is if we have the technology to make it less unpleasant then why not use it.

Anyways, good luck with that, really, that book and a graduated nicotine replacement programe work well for me, to the point it's easy to give up this way (and, for me, I find it staggeringly hard any other way), so, should you have difficulties, bear it in mind. There is no real downtime, and, once you get used to the 4mg tablets you end up preferring them to smoking, as you get your sense of smell and, to some degree, health back even whilst on them. Good luck, and yeah, contrary to what many people say, you do get out of it and never look back. That always worried me when I was trying to quit first time.

TL;DR, good luck, but if you have problems look at that book I recommended above, and think of a nicotine replacement regime. I couldn't give up any other way, but if you've found one, awesome. It does get easier and within a few months you should have forgotten you were ever even a smoker ;) Then it's super easy :)

4ThePeopleMedia · 28 days

Ah, agreed, but less valuable than is generally perceived. I should have put it more clearly.

4ThePeopleMedia · 28 days

Ah, sorry, I meant in terms of economic value, not utilitarian value. I was just trying to write a header that summed it up as briefly as possible and perhaps didn't make myself clear.

4ThePeopleMedia · 28 days

Ah, I meant as regards scarcity, sorry, should have put it more clearly. Gold has value due to it's scarcity and due to the fact it is so unreactive, thus a good tool for use as currency. The same can't be said of diamonds, their apparent scarcity is an illusion.

4ThePeopleMedia · 28 days

Ah, apologies, reddit showed me one with 1 upvote, so thought I'd reshare it to get it out there, my bad.

4ThePeopleMedia · 1 month

I only put it up as I found it, then thought I'd find some better sources elsewhere.. my bad on that one, I know but couldn't edit it once up of course.

4ThePeopleMedia · 1 month

I did link to alternate sources, but it got buried in the comments. Here is a starting point on wikipedia regarding this story.

4ThePeopleMedia · 1 month

Cool cool :). As I say, I only shared it as something I thought was pretty awesome, hope I can talk as fast as that if I'm ever involved in werewolf accusations ;)

4ThePeopleMedia · 1 month

Ah, apologies if you think that. This had nothing to do with religion. I posted it as an interesting look at the old werewolf cases. Where religion comes into this I fail to understand. Werewolves are not part of christian lore but are found in many folk tales worldwide. Why you draw the connection with religion, or see it as in any way related as regards the article or title, baffles me.

4ThePeopleMedia · 1 month

Amazing, and thank you. It's fascinating to hear the different perspectives. Elsewhere in this thread a guy studied in a Dominican School, and apparently there were rumours of them converting to wolves in the service of god. Amazingly complex and interesting, and this version would make a fantastic movie... Love folklore ;)

4ThePeopleMedia

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