- Thread starter gsbuickman
- Start date
What movie or show is that from?
Respectfully, Id have to disagree with that. While he makes many valid points, and notes many of our problems, can you think of another place you'd rather live? To me the real question is WHERE do we go from here, and HOW do we get there? Where are the men of true vision, who are not just mouthpieces for the same old crap? Ron Regan had some of it, but he was still of the old school. Whether you liked his politics over all, the last man of true vision I remember was JFK. He had the vision to take us into space. He inspired hope. Now the word hope has been turned into bullshit to forward backward political agenda.
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The Newsroom...HBO.
The link doesn't work for me here, but I'm assuming you're talking about season 1 episode 1 of The Newsroom. If so, that is a DAMN good show starter.
I agree with maggot, but a quote from the clip says a lot:
"The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem"
My hope is that more and more people will recognize there is "a problem", so we can then start to fix it. We certainly can't continue on the road we're on forever.
"The first step to solving a problem is recognizing that there is a problem"
My hope is that more and more people will recognize there is "a problem", so we can then start to fix it. We certainly can't continue on the road we're on forever.
That's 'Maggot', with a capital M....
just sayin....
And that was the only good part of that show, the first 3 minutes. The rest of the episodes are just another liberal pulpit spouting off their agendas using the guise of a balance un-opinionated "news" show. I didn't make it through 3 episodes before I had to turn that drivel off.
It's just sad that the only time we hear such passion and truth is from some unknown TV show.
Well i hate to rain on the parade.
Statement:
1. 207 FREE countries.; There are 118 Electorial democracies, not all of which are fair. So call this false.
Freedom in the World 2013 | Freedom House
2. Seventh in literacy: False ranks equally with G8 countries.
GeographyIQ - World Atlas - Rankings - Literacy - total population (All Descending)
3. 27th in math: 25th So I'll call this true. With Austria, Italy and Norway ranking worse.
International Comparison of Math, Reading, and Science Skills Among 15-Year-Olds | Infoplease.com
4. 22nd in science: 20th so I'll call this true.
Same source as above.
5. 49th in Life expectancy. Actually 51st so I'll call this true. This is a big one and usually the prime component to ranking of "BEST".
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
6. 178th in infant mortality. Actually 43th so call this false. This together with Life expectancy usually account for 2/3' rds of the ranking of BEST countries.
List of countries by infant mortality rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Above is to 2:41 of the video. Where I lost interest in pursuing this further.
The widely respected Economist intelligence unit ranked the US at 13th.
International
The lottery of life
Where to be born in 2013
Nov 21st 2012 |From The World In 2013 print edition
Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930). A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988 light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top. But which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013?
To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, has this time turned deadly serious. It earnestly attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.
Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too. In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and the state of the world economy.
A forward-looking element comes into play, too. Although many of the drivers of the quality of life are slow-changing, for this ranking some variables, such as income per head, need to be forecast. We use the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.
Despite the global economic crisis, times have in certain respects never been so good. Output growth rates have been declining across the world, but income levels are at or near historic highs. Life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe, most recently in north Africa and the Middle East. In other ways, however, the crisis has left a deep imprint—in the euro zone, but also elsewhere—particularly on unemployment and personal security. In doing so, it has eroded both family and community life.
Enlarge Where to be born in 1988
What does all this, and likely developments in the years to come, mean for where a baby might be luckiest to be born in 2013? After crunching its numbers, the EIU has Switzerland comfortably in the top spot, with Australia second.
Small economies dominate the top ten. Half of these are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro zone. The Nordic countries shine, whereas the crisis-ridden south of Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate. The largest European economies (Germany, France and Britain) do not do particularly well.
America, where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place. Despite their economic dynamism, none of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) scores impressively. Among the 80 countries covered, Nigeria comes last: it is the worst place for a baby to enter the world in 2013.
Boring is best
Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese. America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts. In the film “The Third Man”, Orson Welles’s character, the rogue Harry Lime, famously says that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock.
However, there is surely a lot to be said for boring stability in today’s (and no doubt tomorrow’s) uncertain times. A description of the methodology is available here: food for debate all the way from Lucerne to Lagos.
Laza Kekic: director, country forecasting services, Economist Intelligence Unit
International: The lottery of life | The Economist
Statement:
1. 207 FREE countries.; There are 118 Electorial democracies, not all of which are fair. So call this false.
Freedom in the World 2013 | Freedom House
2. Seventh in literacy: False ranks equally with G8 countries.
GeographyIQ - World Atlas - Rankings - Literacy - total population (All Descending)
3. 27th in math: 25th So I'll call this true. With Austria, Italy and Norway ranking worse.
International Comparison of Math, Reading, and Science Skills Among 15-Year-Olds | Infoplease.com
4. 22nd in science: 20th so I'll call this true.
Same source as above.
5. 49th in Life expectancy. Actually 51st so I'll call this true. This is a big one and usually the prime component to ranking of "BEST".
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html
6. 178th in infant mortality. Actually 43th so call this false. This together with Life expectancy usually account for 2/3' rds of the ranking of BEST countries.
List of countries by infant mortality rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Above is to 2:41 of the video. Where I lost interest in pursuing this further.
The widely respected Economist intelligence unit ranked the US at 13th.
International
The lottery of life
Where to be born in 2013
Nov 21st 2012 |From The World In 2013 print edition
Warren Buffett, probably the world’s most successful investor, has said that anything good that happened to him could be traced back to the fact that he was born in the right country, the United States, at the right time (1930). A quarter of a century ago, when The World in 1988 light-heartedly ranked 50 countries according to where would be the best place to be born in 1988, America indeed came top. But which country will be the best for a baby born in 2013?
To answer this, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a sister company of The Economist, has this time turned deadly serious. It earnestly attempts to measure which country will provide the best opportunities for a healthy, safe and prosperous life in the years ahead.
Its quality-of-life index links the results of subjective life-satisfaction surveys—how happy people say they are—to objective determinants of the quality of life across countries. Being rich helps more than anything else, but it is not all that counts; things like crime, trust in public institutions and the health of family life matter too. In all, the index takes 11 statistically significant indicators into account. They are a mixed bunch: some are fixed factors, such as geography; others change only very slowly over time (demography, many social and cultural characteristics); and some factors depend on policies and the state of the world economy.
A forward-looking element comes into play, too. Although many of the drivers of the quality of life are slow-changing, for this ranking some variables, such as income per head, need to be forecast. We use the EIU’s economic forecasts to 2030, which is roughly when children born in 2013 will reach adulthood.
Despite the global economic crisis, times have in certain respects never been so good. Output growth rates have been declining across the world, but income levels are at or near historic highs. Life expectancy continues to increase steadily and political freedoms have spread across the globe, most recently in north Africa and the Middle East. In other ways, however, the crisis has left a deep imprint—in the euro zone, but also elsewhere—particularly on unemployment and personal security. In doing so, it has eroded both family and community life.
Enlarge Where to be born in 1988
What does all this, and likely developments in the years to come, mean for where a baby might be luckiest to be born in 2013? After crunching its numbers, the EIU has Switzerland comfortably in the top spot, with Australia second.
Small economies dominate the top ten. Half of these are European, but only one, the Netherlands, is from the euro zone. The Nordic countries shine, whereas the crisis-ridden south of Europe (Greece, Portugal and Spain) lags behind despite the advantage of a favourable climate. The largest European economies (Germany, France and Britain) do not do particularly well.
America, where babies will inherit the large debts of the boomer generation, languishes back in 16th place. Despite their economic dynamism, none of the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) scores impressively. Among the 80 countries covered, Nigeria comes last: it is the worst place for a baby to enter the world in 2013.
Boring is best
Quibblers will, of course, find more holes in all this than there are in a chunk of Swiss cheese. America was helped to the top spot back in 1988 by the inclusion in the ranking of a “philistine factor” (for cultural poverty) and a “yawn index” (the degree to which a country might, despite all its virtues, be irredeemably boring). Switzerland scored terribly on both counts. In the film “The Third Man”, Orson Welles’s character, the rogue Harry Lime, famously says that Italy for 30 years had war, terror and murder under the Borgias but in that time produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance; Switzerland had 500 years of peace and democracy—and produced the cuckoo clock.
However, there is surely a lot to be said for boring stability in today’s (and no doubt tomorrow’s) uncertain times. A description of the methodology is available here: food for debate all the way from Lucerne to Lagos.
Laza Kekic: director, country forecasting services, Economist Intelligence Unit
International: The lottery of life | The Economist
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Maggot I am soooo fucking hot for you in a non homosexual way right now....
Reminds me of a recent commercial, you can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.
