We learnt a lot since 9/11 about how radicalization works. It's not happening mainly through personal trauma, but through indoctrination, usually through schools and universities.
Sageman’s “bunch of guys” theory has really won out now that anybody can interact with terrorists on social media. You can’t run a big terrorist organization made up of people seeking revenge because they’re power-seeking and will replace you. Instead you take a bunch of guys out of college, give them a way to seek status that conveniently involves them dying before they can replace you, and then go out and fundraise.
But what would she find one? Go to the second result on Google?
Most people would never be able to find a real hitman since it would require taking very obvious risks to find a real hitman - and would just give up.
This is the sort of thing that makes me wonder if I’m backward as all get’out. I’ve never been very tough-on-crime, but if you genuinely hire a hit (murder) on somebody through a shady website, and agree on a contract, well, this is an act that seems indefensible.
The fact that it was a parody site seems amusing, but not defensible, since presumably she was not aware of the parody.
The whole part about her meeting the hitman at a Waffle House, and giving him a $100 down payment seals the deal. That's not LARPing. That's an overt act.
Notion.
It's the first organization tool that can effectively tie Todo lists, project and time planning, and knowledge management.
It's the first Todo system that stuck for me since it allows you to work with higher level goals, scheduling and hierarchy.
Construction costs generally rise with the height of the building, both due to higher structural demands and because of additional functional (usually also legal) demands - like two elevators and two fire escape stairways for buildings higher than 8-10 stories. Maintenance is also more expensive for higher buildings.
Higher buildings also demand larger distances between them to allow light and ventilation. Because of that - except for places with unusually high density like Hong Kong and parts of Manhattan - the sweet spot for high density, construction costs and quality of life might lie in the 5-7 stories range (typical for Paris and Barcelona).
Regarding Hong Kong housing situation - in spite of the high level of economic freedom in other areas, the housing market is in a large part state controlled, with waiting lists for buying an apartment.
I actually went to Kunskapsskolan as the equivalent of a High School student. Graduated in 2005. It work out very well for me, the freedom to go about the curriculum at my own pace suited me perfectly. The experience of going there was very much like what you would find at a university. The school demanded a very high level of motivation and discipline. And this makes it problematic, since quite a lot of students at that age were ill prepared to face that.
I might be hesitant to say that this reform has worked out well for Sweden as a whole, as I think for-profit entities in charge of public education is a step in the wrong direction.
"The school demanded a very high level of motivation and discipline. And this makes it problematic, since quite a lot of students at that age were ill prepared to face that."
Cherrypicking of the self motivated ones will reduce the level of motivation and self-discipline seen in the 'safety net' schools. Not good for society as a whole. I worry about this in the UK.
Definitely the wrong direction, because it can go wrong on so many ways.
Myself I am a victim of for-profit education (well, my spouse is), effectively locked in by contract at a company for 10+ years more. It sounds so good in the beginning, but once you finish your studies and you stand in front of that loong walk...
If modern human life is a drama (consumption), the house is the center location where it mostly occurs. Most people work for a house for all their lives. You feel safe and comfortable in your house, you sleep there, keep all the stuff you bought such as computers there. Most of us are enjoying our sunday at our houses enjoying the Internet.
We had a lot of variations for the "house"; the wood > shared caves by a community > single house > apartment(flats). Hotels, cottages as complementary. So the question is, can the current tech start-ups disrupt the concept of the house? It is a broad topic, but random things which comes to my mind without going too deep:
- make virtual windows where you and your selected facebook friends see a common virtual place or a real scenery where you install cameras (for example in beautiful places on earth), use high quality display and cameras. (google's very fast internet may have a use here)
- kill the walls by replacing them with always-on displays and cameras to your remote counterpart. two distant house should feel become virtually "one". (rasperry pi or cheaper hardware may help here in the next one)
- rethink home automation (irobot does it in some sense) or simply build a branded robot which can simply fetch a sandwich. a central web service can be at the center, or a social web service.
- make location-independent apartments(flats) which are stackable, moveable, expandable.
- managed kitchen or fridge based on your dietary requirements by a web service.
I've always thought of creating a dining room where one wall would be a projected screen that would give you the illusion that your dining in a different part of the world.
It would be actually be even cooler if you could get a live stream from restaurants for their "virtual table" dining guests
