Interesting Links for 19-10-2017

[andrewducker]

The future is everyone having their own currency

Clearly not. But it's an interesting idea. And fascinating how easy it is now. (I'm reminded that Emperor Norton had one too)
(tags: currency Technology economics )

The eyes of dyslexic people are different

(tags: dyslexia eyes )

Anyone can track your location by using $1,000 of mobile ads. (Never felt better about blocking ads)

(tags: advertising surveillance OhForFucksSake )

An open letter to anyone struggling to understand cryptocurrencies

(tags: bitcoin software money )

The concept of “compensation” makes sense of several autism puzzles

(tags: autism psychology )

A new LEGO set honors the women of NASA

(tags: NASA women lego )

Let's talk for a minute about "he knew what he signed up for."

Context here.
(tags: war politics usa death OhForFucksSake )

Dying chimpanzee recognises old human friend before smiling and embracing him

(tags: chimpanzees death )

Millennial Women, More Than Older Women, Think Men Have It Easier

(tags: women society usa )

75% decline over 27 years in total flying insect biomass in protected areas

(tags: insects OhForFucksSake doom )

New law bans California employers from asking applicants their prior salary

(tags: salary usa privacy )

Giant robots clash in US-Japan battle

(tags: robots funny video usa japan )

Google's AI now learns without human intervention

(tags: ai learning )

More girls aged 13 to 16 are self-harming than ever before - but why?

(tags: girls women children mentalhealth uk )

Spain moves to suspend Catalan autonomy

(tags: Catalonia spain democracy )

Kevin Smith to donate residuals from his Weinstein-produced films to Women in Film

(tags: women abuse movies GoodNews kevinSmith )

Why are the Illuminati advertising on my journal? And why don't they have their own domain?

(tags: illuminati spam conspiracy )

Comments

[cmcmck]

The 'truck' currencies of the 19th century also prove how rapidly such a system can become utterly corrupt too!

[casimirian]

Yeah. What's with that Illuminati spam?

[calimac]

If that dyslexia diagnosis is correct, you could cure it by simply wearing an eyepatch.

I could have told the autism researchers about compensation. My few successes in social interactions come when I have a flash of insight into WWND (What Would Neurotypicals Do?).

"He knew what he signed up for" thread puzzles me. First, because the argument is that soldiers don't sign up to be killed, or even in anticipation that they might be killed. Really? I don't see that sort of denial in, say, the letters home of WW1 soldiers. But maybe that's because they predated what the writer claims is the highest priority of the military, to protect their soldiers' lives. That priority worries me, because it's belief by the US police that protecting their own lives is their highest priority that causes too many of them to shoot anything that moves, or occasionally that doesn't move.

Second, the comments by others accusing the author of not quoting the context of Trump's remark. But none of them that I saw give the context either, so I don't know what they mean. Maybe they mean Trump's next phrase, which was something like "but it still hurts when it happens." That dosn't excuse it. Trump's mistake wasn't that his statement was wrong, it was the way that he phrased it (something like "he knew this could happen" would be less bad), and the utter utter crassness of saying it in a consolatory phone call. Before he tries doing something like this again, Trump needs an intensive course in WWND.

[andrewducker]

I am curious about the dyslexia diagnosis. And whether some of it is about eye training, so even with a patch it would take some time to recover.

Discussion elsewhere indicated the dyslexia is probably multiple different issues that present similarly, so this might only be a solution for some people, in some ways.

[cyprinella]

The US military spent a lot of decades not getting shot at between Vietnam and Iraq (and I'd argue Afghanistan/Iraq, not the one under Bush I given how little of that was ground based). People had whole careers and retired without ever seeing action. People who signed up during WW1 and 2 knew they were going right to the front. I think anyone who signed up pre 2001 probably didn't think it would happen. And like the tweeter said casualty rate is really low compared to the size of the actual military (and definitely low compared to the civilian losses :( ) and there's probably still a decent chance you're going to get out with minimal scaring and a decent financial footing. Something someone without any options before signing up would look at as a good deal. I mean, I just checked and the US per capita car crash death rate was 11.59/10000 or six times as high last year.

That priority worries me, because it's belief by the US police that protecting their own lives is their highest priority that causes too many of them to shoot anything that moves, or occasionally that doesn't move

If it helps you feel any better, I've heard from a bunch of veterans how they get tons more training in de-escalating a situation than cops do.

The future is everyone having their own currency

[jack]

I remember someone (the city planner book woman?) saying she thought a natural economic unit might be a large city with associated areas. Where most people's salary, rent, and food in that area are all in the same currency (because you want to pay your debts in the same currency you get paid in so you don't get constantly exposed to currency fluctuations), even if other expenditures might be tied to a different city.

That would mean, say, some parts of the country devaluing while others didn't. Which would be good in that you don't get stuck in a recession because people 100s of miles away are doing ok with the currency where it is and the government's not investing in your region. But bad because it means you can have a lot of inequality if you end up paid in YorkshireGBP and buying food or paying rent in LondonGBP. The last thing we want is to go back to "rich people's currency and poor people's currency" or an even more divided system.

This used to be nearly impossible for practical reasons, dealing with lots of currency is difficult, both practically (physically accepting different coins/notes) and economically (which is why the Euro was suggested in the first place).

Now, with much more electronic payment and pricing systems, it would be more physically possible to accept different currencies. Imagine if more shops just took euros at the appropriate rate (like they often accept cards from another country), but the rates for converting weren't extortionate.

But I've no idea of the economic implications. Would it be better, because more areas could find their own level? Or worse, because of increased barriers to trade, etc.

Re: The future is everyone having their own currency

[jack]

Or, come to think of it, I had a really disturbing idea. The effect of devaluing a currency is something like, "everyone there gets less well off compared to outsiders, but you don't go bust and there are jobs because exports go up, and the economic misery is spread around somewhat instead of being people with jobs are mostly ok and everyone else is screwed"

But if you'd like to devalue your currency but don't have your own currency... the traditional way is something like "hope the richer parts of your currency region invest in you and reap the benefits of economic revitalisation over 50-100 years". Or "hope they invest in you but accept a millwheel round your neck of debilitating debt".

I wonder if there could be "invest in you, but have tarrifs on imported things". That mirrors the currency effect, but possibly more selectively than "everything". But then, "not having internal tarrifs" is one of the main benefits of having the same currency so maybe it's pointless speculation.

ETA: Or a basic income. A basic income would help a lot.

Re: The future is everyone having their own currency

[calimac]

It would be illuminating to study the history of Social Credit in Alberta in the 1930s. The provincial government tried to increase the money supply by issuing scrip that vendors were required to take. Would have been fine in a closed system, but those vendors needed to buy supplies from outside of Alberta, and the scrip didn't run there.

Re: The future is everyone having their own currency

[nancylebov]

The (anti-)city planning woman is Jane Jacobs.

Re: The future is everyone having their own currency

[andrewducker]

I'd long assumed that there are advantages to local currency (because if one part of your country is financial and one is manufacturing then cheaper currency has its advantages to the manufacturing part) but the current situation where our devaluation just makes it more expensive to buy in materials to manuacture things from is making me rethink that.

But it's possible that given more time to adjust we'd move more materials-production locally. If we're big enough to make that feasible.

Certainly, without financial transfers large currency unions are fucked - the UK devalued dramatically in 2008, and if Greece had been able to do likewise it'd be in a much better place today.

There are costs to cross-currency transfers, of course. But not as high as the costs of being in a union which is acting againt your interests.

[elf]

I wonder how that California law works for contractors where the hiring company is located in another state (like me, for my last three jobs).