frankhustings-blog

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Humans Will Never Explore Space

Michael Hiltzik, a pulitzer-prize winning journalist, published a column, titled: “Trump's call for human space exploration is hugely wasteful and pointless”. As if though it’s Trump’s fault that everyone is in love with this moronic idea. Did you guys just realize that humans are not meant for space? Do we really need a quote from astronomer Royal Martin Rees in your 1,000+ word essay to make this point Mikey?

I’ve had it with you morons. Here are some basic reasons of why humans will do poorly in space:

1. Humans, as a biological system, grew on Earth. This sack of meat evolved for the conditions on Earth, not space and not at light speed.

2. To really travel in space effectively, or at least cover some tiny distance, light speed will not be enough. Can a meat sack travel faster than light? The best way to hit this speed would be by turning yourself into data. Thus, the best way to travel in space is not to have a body at all. Just be an impulse of information that travels from object to object, if necessary. 

3. What will be the most efficient way to travel in space? Maybe singularity will give us an answer, but the answer will not be in this meat sack, which is constrained by the nature of the atmosphere it evolved in.

So get rid of your bodies and become pure light you space travelling bastards.

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Bank fines will not curb regulatory violations

Bank fines will not curb regulatory violations, only jail time and a temporary revocation of an individual’s right to practice finance will have an effect. A fine becomes a budgeted cost, similar to a reserve for defaults any financial institution is required to have. Thus, fines become just part of the business model with the risk shifted to the shareholders rather than the executives.    

From Bloomberg:

“Banks globally have paid $321 billion in fines since 2008 for an abundance of regulatory failings from money laundering to market manipulation and terrorist financing, according to data from Boston Consulting Group.”

Note, estimated cost of the GFC stands at about $10-15 trillion (approximately 3-4 times more than the 9/11 attacks).

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IB Analyst Knock Knock Joke

*Knock knock!

Who’s there?

ASAP!

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Politics, justice and the law.

Cost of the September 11 attacks is estimated between $2-3 trillion. Cost of the GFC stands at about $10-15 trillion. Waterboarding is exclusive, like elevators.

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The Hitler Syndrome

In 2010, a lecture hall full of somewhat promising and seemingly educated university students applauded and cheered on a loud speech by a young man dressed in a red shirt. The logic and coherence of his appeal was lost to most that day, but this didn’t matter. His idealistic fisting won the hearts and minds. Later, at a tutorial, I asked a young lady about her cheer and the nonsense. She said he was passionate. Her responce is blurred by time, but I do remember that it was as ridiculous as what I witnessed that day. I called it the Hitler Syndrome - it’s a disease of the social fabric, in essence it makes the loudest guy in the room win, no matter how ridiculous the ideas or the absence of these, loud noises seal the deal. 

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War and Dicks

Apparently the best way to shoot a guy is to aim for the tummy or the balls and work your way up the midsection with the recoil. I assume this method is used widely by those smooth operators. Only if Michael Bay would show the world more action with dicks getting shot off, maybe there would be peace after all.

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Moment of Pain

Pain is a basic function that allows any organism to survive. Animals have a limited ability to express pain and derive complex interpretations of it, such as poetry, films and art that can communicate a moment of pain over time, make it memorable and relatable. However, the basic function of pain is in the moment. This applies to humans as well. The moment of pain and it’s reality is the same for you and for the introverted cow.

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The Romantics of Terra Nullius

Mars exploration is exciting, it’s likely to be the first instance of marvellous exploration that will not involve genocide.

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The only guy in Tel Aviv

“There’s only one person in all of Tel Aviv who knows what God wants. That’s me,” 

“Why? Because I know God wants what’s best for Avi Katz.”

Avi Katz

Founder of Cofix in his interview with Bloomberg

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Failure by Definition: AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI), the fashionable new topic, seems to concern us. Back in 2008, AI was a philosophy elective with a sleepy attendance, now the lecture halls must be buzzing. By looking so far into the future, we completely overlook the main problem that is here with us now. This problem is - us. It is us and the definitions we create to forcefully box everything into categories, which corrupts our understanding of the present and its consequences.

In this case, we proudly proclaim this new discovery as an artificial creation. We define it by our limitations. Why the combination of the two - ‘artificial’ and ‘intelligence’? Because we perceive ourselves as the holders of true intelligence. Otherwise, why would there be an ‘artificial’ intellect? This pride is our weakness that will prevent us from seeing what will come. 

What will come? Alternative Intelligence.

Alternative Intelligence, is something that a human will never be able to comprehend or even predict. It will be an ‘intellect’ created by the first generations of the so called AI. It might have biological components, but it will not be us. It will be an extension of us. The next step in the chain. 

This extension will have a different set of values and understanding of life, being, existence, purpose. Keep in mind, these are not emotive values, here these are given simply as factual components present in our life, our equation of existence and awareness. Our purpose, for millenia, has always been survival and use of finite resources for the latter. These resources, may have been external (wood, coal, oil) or internal, kJ of energy we burn to dance and think of other creative means to execute a mating ritual. The point is, Alternative Intelligence will have its own equation of existence that will have more or equal freedom to share awareness of the world with us, or it might be indifferent altogether. We will never know. 

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Stupid Stories: Private Property

Private property is a myth. In most cases it belongs to your bank, the government (who can come and seize it) or someone/something that needs you there, that is usually stronger than you are unless proven contrary to the fact.

A king would grant a peasant some land (that he previously seized from some other free farming guy) to keep him there through a cycle of constant dispair.

Door opens. Enters a figure.

K: Have some land you dirty bastard.

P: Thank you and you are?

K: You can call me King.

P: King.

K: You owe me 5,000 sacks of grain, 300 bushels of eggs, 10 cows a year for this land. I am generous, so if you keep up with the KPIs, your sons may keep this land or may not.

P: Thank you.

K: Your highness.

P: Yes?

K: Your highness.

P: Yes?

K: I am your highness and you owe me, for I gave you land for free.

P: I thought it was free.

K: No.

P: Then who owns it?

K: I do.

P: Why?

K: You need protection.

P: From who?

K: Enemies.

P: I have none.

K: We will soon.

P: We who?

K: Us, the State, you are part of a great plan.

P: What plan?

K: A great plan. It came to me in a dream.

P: Like a day dream? Or a night dream?

K: A night dream. Don't worry.

P: About?

K: Death.

P: I don't worry about it.

K: So you want to die then?

P: No.

K: Then I will protect you.

P: Thank you.

K: Your highness.

P: Yes?

K: Nevermind. Don't forget the grain.

The peasant comes back to his home, carefully stacked out of the best cow shit he could find, and tells his wife the good news.

P: The King let us stay here.

W: Yay, King sounds like a nice name. What is it?

P: We must do all this shit for him now, like bring a tonne of food and he will give us KPIs.

W: What are KPI?

P: It's part of a great plan he said, so it must be great.

W: Can you do all that?

P: Yes, but we will have to stay here our entire life, in ten years we won't be able to travel for long. Plus look at all the great things that have filled our dirt box

(makes a wide jesture at all the things hanging on the wall and pats the couch).

W: We can take the box with us.

P: It will be too heavy and we will not be safe out...there.

W: Where?

P: In the woods.

W: We just came from there.

P: These woods are better.

W: Why?

P: I have a feeling.

W: I like when you talk about feelings. It shows your sensitive side.

P: For all the king's necesities I will need 10 sons. Give them to me now.

W: Now?

P: Yes, now.

W: But the first one will not be ready until next spring.

P: Next spring?! ...We must get to it then..and hope it's twins!

W: Or triplets! May God have mercy on my lady bits!

P: The King is looking after us now. Your lady bits are safe!

A moment of pleasure interrupted. *Knock knock*

P: Who's there?

K: Feed my soldiers. We are at war.

(the king enters).

P: But we just arrived.

K: Then give me your son.

P: I have none.

K: Do you think murdering our enemies is easy and cheap? You will give me your first born(s), so that they can have the opportunity to serve his majesty's army and join the holy cause. Don't you know whom we're fighting?

P: Who?

K: The Enemy.

P: Where?

K: He can be anywhere. Even here amongst us.

P: We will be vigillant.

K: Your son and 10,000 sacks of grain.

P: But you said 5,000.

K: You did not deliver any this year. My duty is to protect you and I can't protect you if you don't help and pay the taxes due.

P: Taxes?

K: You must get on to work and I must court the battlefield.

The King exits. The wind closes the door. The peasant returns to the bed chamber two feet away to continue his manly duties.

A moment passes. Door opens. Enters a figure.

P: And you are?

*: I am the owner of this land.

W: There are two owners?

*: only one. It is I. The King.

W: We just spoke to the King.

K: I killed him. His lands and servants are mine.

P: But we are free.

K: Do you want to die?

P: No.

K: Vere good.

W: But we are free.

K: Do you want to die?

W: No, we must put food in our mouthholes and we get it from the fields.

K: Those fields?

P: Yes.

K: They are mine.

W: I thought they were ours.

P: We have papers.

K: Those are papers, but that is land. Look how beautiful it is. Soaked in blood and peppered with guts of my men. Delicious and fertile. Can your papers cover such glory in its entirety?

P: It's just six A4 size papers and this receipt.

W: Eight pages. Eight.

P: Yes eight. Plus the receipt.

K: These lands could be yours, but you must give me 20,000 sacks of grain, 600 bushels of eggs and 15 cows every year, before taxes. For twenty summers.

P: But that's twice as much as we agreed.

K: With who?

P: The other ...fella.

K: He's dead. Do you want to die?

P: No.

K: You are a good man. Good men like you have good sons. They will serve in my army. To fight.

W: Who?

P: The Enemy.

K: Yes.

K: I am generous. Tax is due next year. You have until next week to bring the cows. Now I must go see about some virgins. I am a man of faith.

Lightning strikes, house, fields, good side and bad side of the woods, everything is engulfed in flames. The land is torn like a baguette. Swallows the army, the king, the villages and eight A4 size papers with the receipt. Red silence.

An ape walks the charcoil fields, finds a burned A4 size paper and writes a piece of Haiku that could grant an Emperial pardon, there is no one there to read it.

The End.

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Kings of Logic & Suspense

Saying that a terrorist might have ties to Al-Qaeda, is the same as saying that a stock broker might know someone at Goldman Sachs or that he might have a sofa from IKEA. There are only a few shopfronts around the world that offer the same goodies. 

Nothing but scaremongering by would be experts and ex-MI-CI-analysts.

Journos and whoever is paying them should drop that line already; or label all your news that way: "Fat man with triple bypass might have had fries from McDonald's." 

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Economics of Murder & the Order of Zero

Ordinary citizens don't murder one another due to risk and cost that surpasses the perceived benefit of the action. The risk/cost variables in the calculus are ethics and the rule of law.

The State can murder and do so uninhibited due to its monopoly over violence given to it via a citizen's mandate, but also when that same calculus applied to its citizens (above) becomes skewed in its favor towards a perceived cost of zero.

The status quo of the international law/order presents its participants (States) with a nearly zero risk environment when it comes to collateral damage. The situation is dangerous for the same reason its dangerous to give cheap money to bankers - they make stupid decisions and become highly arrogant towards reality. The reality is - you are employed not to do as you please, but as stated in your mandate and contractual obligation to your client (the citizenry). The mandate is underpinned by ethics, violation of these fundamental standards makes the entire overarching contract void. 

Every mandate, is underpinned by an ethical standard, even if not exclusively stated. This silent agreement forms the base of order. One must note, that in combination with other deterrents, ethics is stronger than law, because law, essentially, is comprised of two: words on paper and an executive branch that has to have enough power to put the law into action in the first place. Ethics, on the other hand, can only be compared to an evolutionary survival instinct, breaking which destroys trust, absence of trust dissolves an organization, subsequently diminishing its functionality and survival. In other words, without trust, you're on your own and your chances of survival in the wild are closer to zero than they were before. Hence, ethics is not just a Utopian fantasy standard, it carries functional value in the order of our society.

The current state of affairs points to a continuous breach of contract and trust, on all levels. We do as we please, because we can. Yes. We. Can. We want, we can, what we're ought is out of the question. 'Can' has become a paradoxical mix of Darwinist realpolitik and ethical interventionalism. It is not a matter of politics, but a matter of the very fabric of a newly evolving multi-polar post-WW2 international order that we are precisely ought to build, where good and bad intentions (if such exist) can be equally dangerous to its stability.   

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Economics of Violence

An army is a State's questionable monopoly of violence held via a democratic contract and reinforced by a constitutional mandate. This is the way it should be.

Proxy wars are international franchises of violence outside the legitimate scope of the current mandate. It is much cheaper to have a proxy profit-sharing operation than a conventional operation on the ground. In view of all the logistical, investment, political benefits [for the special interests of the State], however, the risk of such an operation is quality control [of immediate and long-term outcomes] and the long-term deterioration of international law (not merely the paper it's written on but order itself). Hence, in view of the cost/risk/damage carried by this concept, it is irrational (wrong) to employ this strategy. 

The risk management instrument we have created, the UN, only seems to partially fulfill its purpose, where the dysfunctional void is filled by this proxy irrationality. Talks of stability and reduction in a conventional military budget only mean that the capital is allocated elsewhere to achieve the same counterproductive goals via a more 'efficient' use of the assets at hand.

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A Proper Welcome

Whenever I take an important call, I take off my pants, it keeps me sharp. 

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Change or Accept

Old age is when the things you did wrong and the ones you thought you did right catch up to you. 

A recession is a company's old time.

Most players on the market have never truly grasped Renatus's tract regarding peace. 

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The Conversationalist: Students & Professors, 2008

S: With enough information about the movement of particles within a system, and knowing the qualities of these, you can predict the movement and behavior of this system with not full but some certainty.

P: This has been done before! And it didn't work!

S: During the Cold War! By blind men! Without the amount of data available today! It's called data analysis! The paper was published almost three decades ago! (this is what I should have said in response and this is what is wrong with our education system. It's called data analysis you arm chair bastards!)