Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bandaid

"Skin in the Game": New political treatise for liberty that upends the golden rule

Arnold Kling
Foundation For Economic Education
Sun, 20 May 2018 00:00 UTC
Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Author Nassim Nicholas Taleb
"Skin in the Game" makes a strong case for liberty based on double-negative utilitarianism in the presence of risk.
"Reality doesn't care about winning arguments; survival is what matters." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (page 13). [1]
In his latest book, Skin in the Game, Nassim Taleb offers an approach to social and political philosophy that he believes will encourage socially constructive change and increased freedom. He starts with "double-negative utilitarianism," which means to minimize harm. This leads to a focus on the proper management of risk.

Taleb argues that only when people are, themselves, exposed to the adverse consequences of their choices do they take risks that are constructive for society. When they do not have "skin in the game," they take risks that are harmful and dangerous. This leads Taleb to advocate libertarianism, in which decentralized entrepreneurs are heroes, while those who impose centralized decisions are villains.

Comment: If Taleb's ideas are sound (as they would appear to be), then it looks like the US - with all its attempts at enforcing its political policies, values and biases around the world and domestically - is bound as a nation to "eventually blow up," and learn the lessons the hard way.

      Read More...
Cross

Interview with a Christian who moved from US to Russia to save his kids from moral decay

Hal Freeman
Russia Insider
Fri, 25 May 2018 00:01 UTC
christian king guy
Last week a I received an e-mail from Tudor Petcu, who is a Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Philosophy of the the University of Bucharest. I did not know him, but he had read my blog on being Russian Orthodox although I'm not Russian. He asked me if he could do a written interview with me and ask me questions on how living in Russia has impacted me and how it is that I became Orthodox.

This would be part of his research for his Ph.D. He was very gracious and I gladly accepted. I received his permission to post his questions and my answers on my blog.
      Read More...
Health

Hospital refuses to save twin infants, born premature, despite mother's pleas

Nancy Flanders
Live Action
Thu, 24 May 2018 11:23 UTC
premature infant
In a heartbreaking video released by Created Equal, Amanda, the mother of premature twin boys Emery and Elliot, can be heard pleading for her sons' lives. In June of 2017, Amanda was experiencing bleeding when she went to Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, at 22 weeks and two days gestation. Medical staff informed her that if her babies were born before 22 weeks and five days gestation, they would not resuscitate them. Three days later, at exactly 22 weeks and five days gestation, Amanda gave birth to Emery and Elliot, and though the boys moved, breathed, and even cried, the doctors still refused to help them.

"I pleaded with nurses and other hospital staff to help try to save my babies," Amanda said in a statement. "I was told they would not survive. I asked if they would at minimum assess the babies after they were born to determine possibility of survival. I was informed NICU would not assess the twins and that the babies would probably be stillborn or at best breathe for a moment."

Comment: What is it with doctors and institutions refusing to intervene in cases when infants are in need of care? Is it that the doctors have a supreme lack of empathy or is there something more going on here?

See also:

      Read More...
Info

Syrian army discovers large amount of weapons and ammunition in northern Homs

Leith Aboufadel
Al Masdar News
Sun, 27 May 2018 20:39 UTC
Ammunition discovered by authorities in Homs
© SANA
The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) has seized another large weapons cache that was left behind by the rebel forces in the northern countryside of the Homs Governorate.

According to a military source in Homs, the Syrian Army uncovered this weapons cache while combing through the northern Homs town of Al-Ghanto, which was a major supply hub for the rebel forces.

The source added that local residents aided the Syrian Army in uncovering this weapons cache.
      Read More...
Cheese

French gourmets 'totally cheesed off' with new camembert rules


teleSUR
Wed, 23 May 2018 00:01 UTC
Camembert cheese
© Reuters
A worker checks a Camembert cheese after the maturing process in the dairy La Ferme de la Heronniere, Camembert.
About 30 award-winning French chefs demanded "raw milk Camembert for all" in an open letter with the rallying cry: "Liberte, egalite, Camembert!"

More than 27,000 people have signed an online petition meant to protect authentic French Camembert "born in the limbo of the French revolution and in the heart of Normandy."

The culinary row erupted over a recent deal signed between milk producers and Camembert manufacturers in the Normandy region, the cradle of the pungent soft cheese.
      Read More...
Attention

Jury awards $1B verdict against security company after guard convicted of raping 14yo girl


CBS News
Thu, 24 May 2018 13:29 UTC
Brandon Lamar Zachary rape 14yo girl atlanta georgia

The guard, identified in the lawsuit as Brandon Lamar Zachary, was convicted of statutory rape and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, according to online prison records.
A Georgia jury has awarded an eye-popping $1 billion verdict against a security company after an apartment complex guard was convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl. Hope Cheston was outside by some picnic tables with her boyfriend during a party in October 2012 when an armed security guard approached, attorney L. Chris Stewart told The Associated Press on Wednesday. The guard told the boyfriend not to move and raped Cheston, Stewart said.

The guard, identified in the lawsuit as Brandon Lamar Zachary, was convicted of statutory rape and is serving a 20-year prison sentence, according to online prison records.

Renatta Cheston-Thornton filed a lawsuit in March 2015 on behalf of her daughter, who was still a minor at the time. The jury on Tuesday handed down the verdict against Crime Prevention Agency, the security company that employed Zachary.

Zachary, who was 22 at the time of the rape, should never have been hired because he wasn't licensed to be an armed guard, Stewart said.

The judge had already determined the security company was liable, so the jury was only determining damages, Stewart said. After reading the verdict, Stewart said, jurors immediately left the jury box - without waiting for the judge's permission - to hug Cheston and her mother.
      Read More...
Red Flag

Yulia Skripal and the Salisbury 'press conference'

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
Thu, 24 May 2018 16:50 UTC
yulia skripal press conference
© Press Association
Yulia visibly had a scar on her neck after being discharged from hospital
It was happy to see Yulia alive and looking reasonably well yesterday, if understandably stressed. Notably, and in sharp contrast to Litvinenko, she leveled no accusations at Russia or anybody else for her poisoning. In Russian she spoke quite naturally. Of the Russian Embassy she said very simply "I am not ready, I do not want their help". Strangely this is again translated in the Reuters subtitles by the strangulated officialese of "I do not wish to avail myself of their services", as originally stated in the unnatural Metropolitan Police statement issued on her behalf weeks ago.

"I do not wish to avail myself of their services" is simply not a translation of what she says in Russian and totally misses the "I am not ready" opening phrase of that sentence. My conclusion is that Yulia's statement was written by a British official and then translated to Russian for her to speak, rather than the other way round. Also that rather than translate what she said in Russian themselves for the subtitles, Reuters have subtitled using a British government script they have been given.
      Read More...
Network

US tech companies scramble to overhaul practices as EU data privacy rules take effect

Harper Neidig and Morgan Chalfant
The Hill
Fri, 25 May 2018 11:18 UTC
EU GDPR
A sweeping set of new data privacy regulations descending on Europe is leaving internet companies in the U.S. scrambling to overhaul their practices to avoid steep penalties.

Companies like Google, Twitter, Yelp and Uber have in recent weeks sent notices to their users about updates to privacy policies and user agreements aimed at making their data collection practices more transparent.

The moves are part of an industry-wide effort to prepare for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which goes into effect on Friday and forces companies to give full disclosure about what they do with the digital data they collect and offer their users more control over their information.

Under the new rules, European users are able to request copies of the data that websites have on them or ask companies to delete that information; websites have to ask for permission to collect and share user data; and companies need to disclose their data practices in clear language, instead of obscuring them with legalese.

The GDPR only applies to the member states of the European Union, but users in the U.S. will also see changes as some websites decide to apply the new protections beyond Europe.

The law will affect virtually any company that collects and stores sensitive data, from health-care organizations to banks, but the burden of complying will fall harder on some companies than others depending on their data practices.

Comment: More on the GDPR regulations:

      Read More...
Heart - Black

Four men assault Muslim man in N. India for being friends with Hindu woman


RT
Sun, 27 May 2018 16:47 UTC
indians
© Reuters
A Muslim man has been threatened and assaulted by a group of attackers in northern India for being friends with a Hindu woman, local media reported. A video purportedly showing the attack was posted online and has gone viral.

The incident took place in the city of Kanpur in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh earlier in May. However, Indian media broke the news only this weekend.

The 24-year-old man identified in reports as Mohammad Rizwan went to a railway station to meet a Hindu woman, and was followed by an angry mob. In the video, the perpetrators can be seen cornering the man and slapping him, asking him about the nature of his relationship with the woman. One man can be heard saying that the Muslim "will have to pay for what he has done."

The attackers also tell the man that they will change their names "if we don't ruin you." It's not yet clear if the victim had already met the woman before he was attacked. The woman is not seen in the footage.

Police later confirmed that they had opened a case against four attackers. "We are investigating why the youths beat him up. Prima facie, it seems he was meeting a Hindu woman at the time," Railway Police Officer Rahul Pandey told the Indian Express.

Comment: Two words: identity politics.

      Read More...
Star of David

70 years of suffering with no end in sight for Palestinians

Eric Margolis
ericmargolis.com
Sun, 27 May 2018 16:31 UTC
gaza open air prison
© Farr
To date, 62 Palestinians have been shot dead in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army and over 5,500 wounded by gunfire. Their crime: protesting the loss of their ancestral homes in the West Bank.

Here was an example of Gandhi-style passive resistance that failed. Israeli sniper teams just fired at will at the protesters, some of who were throwing rocks or firing sling shots. High concentration tear gas was dumped by drones on the demonstrators. Israel claimed it was killing 'terrorists.'

The United States, Israel's patron and financier, reveled in the move of its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, a move seen by Bible Belt religious fundamentalists as a key step to the return of the Christian Messiah and Armageddon. The rest of us, Jews included, are fated to be burned alive. The American Republicans, who have become a far-right theocratic party, cheered this good news. The Trump administration, by now an extension of Israel's hard right Likud Party, was cock-a-hoop.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts