Oh, as a follow up to my previous dig, I just want to add on the emphasis of the author's deceptiveness.From the author's site: "The Miniature Earth is not a charity organization and does not have nonprofit tax exempt status. This project is maintened by only one person, the 5 USD contribution to download a standalone version, will help to cover the website maintanence costs and for each dollar spend 10cents will help to fund a social project."Ok, I'm a skeptic. Here are reasons why I think this guy is cheating your money:1) $5 to cover website costs? Uh, it only costs $6 or less for a decent webhost like ICDsoft for gigabytes of bandwidth. Maintenance costs? Why, I don't think one flash movie will take much to maintain, compared to a website like digg.com or a blog.2) Every dollar yields only 10 cents? Wow, that means that only 1/10th goes to charity itself. Where does the rest usually go? The scammer's food bills from a fancy restaurant.3) Non tax exempt and double negatives to trick the reader. Why use tricky unclear statements? Couldn't you have said that you're just a non profit individual helping out the world? So, what is the meaning of this? That means that he's getting profit from this business.So.. there you go. A nice long dig.
@MiddleOfNowhereWhen the French, Dutch and British Empires came upon sub-Saharan Africa, they didn't even have the WHEEL, let alone mathematics, a written language or even the simplest of any technology whatsoever. They were f**ked to begin with. It is NO FAULT of Europeans that they are still so damn backwards over there. Western Civilization had literally 3,000 years of development time over those poor bastards.
No, we do enough, Do you realize how much food we grow compared to the rest of the world, proportionately?We use 25% percent of the worlds resources, and produce 30% of the worlds finished products. We do it better.You want a clear example of why?Iraq.When Iraq was flush with money did its leadership spend it on it's people? Nope, they started a war with Iran, and Invaded Kuwait, and built Palaces.When they got spanked and we did it the civilized way and made a nice ceasefire with Saddam still in power, his army still intact and an agreement on how he would act, did he keep the agreement? Nope, he took a program that was meant to aid his people in buying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, and instead built more palaces, bought more weapons and bribed those well known Humanitarians the French, Russians, Germans and Chinese. And blamed the lack of food, Medicine and other Humanitarian items on the Americans because they were demanding he abide by the ceasefire he signed in 1991. He never did, Thus the war began again. So now we are trying to fix this Turd world country, and they are resisting the change, which is the what you can expect. Democracy is hard when you have three groups of people who do not want to share power. The Sunnis had it and want it back, The Shia Want their turn on top and wont give up the opportunity, and the Kurds would be happy (for now) just to be left the f**k alone without the risk of Chemical agents coming down on top of them.You are not going to pay them to meet your criteria of Civilization, and we see how hard it is to force them. You are probably going to be a hell of a lot less successful than Christian missionaries were. And you have the handicap of not believing your culture is superior. The missionaries are not handicapped this way, nor or the people you are trying to change. They know their culture is superior to ours, in their hearts, and you are not gonna change. Except maybe by showing them the benefits of your culture over theirs. Of course that alone causes animosity. Then they fly planes into your cities, then crash them. Maybe you have a better solution?
Regardless of how accurate this whole thing is, the statistic about internet access has to be WAY off. These numbers are from 1990. I have no information to back this up but I'd guess that at least 75% (or more) of the people who have internet access right now, didn't have it in 1990.I'm sure all the geeks here will chime in claiming to have been online since the late 70s or whatever, but we're talking about the general population here. The internet didn't really become a household thing (in the US at least) until the mid/late 90s.
I am not a World Citizen.I am an American CitizenWhen the world chooses to adopt the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I will call my self a world citizen.Until then, not gonna happen.
I loved this story...really makes you understand the magnitude of different problems in the world, in terms of numbers that are easy to grasp and compare to a whole.
The point is, this stuff is relative. They will catch up to us as we are now, and we will surpass what we have now. Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars to help 0.001% of their population under the ignorant idea that we're somehow helping them all is ludicrous. We aren't even putting a dent in the situation, and we never will by following present policies. It's futile.The only way to stop this is not to try to "help" them, but to stop HURTING them. Whether it's through exploitation, taking away their natural resources (like we do with Africa), we need to stop that. Stopping that is the only way to HELP them.<a class="user" href="http://www.dell-computer.in/dell-computer-for-sale/">http://www.dell-computer.in/dell-computer-for-sale/</a>
Thoughtful and interesting comparisons. Ignoring the sceptics and those with vested interests who want to deny this reality, people with compassion, conscience and a less selfish attitude will undoubtedly be moved and informed by this short piece. As an attempt to place many facts about our human world into context, it does a reasonable job.
andrew1193Sep 9, 2006
"6 people own 59 percent of the entire wealth of the community."Socialist bulls**t. Wealth does not belong to the "community".
nuewaySep 9, 2006
Oh, as a follow up to my previous dig, I just want to add on the emphasis of the author's deceptiveness.From the author's site: "The Miniature Earth is not a charity organization and does not have nonprofit tax exempt status. This project is maintened by only one person, the 5 USD contribution to download a standalone version, will help to cover the website maintanence costs and for each dollar spend 10cents will help to fund a social project."Ok, I'm a skeptic. Here are reasons why I think this guy is cheating your money:1) $5 to cover website costs? Uh, it only costs $6 or less for a decent webhost like ICDsoft for gigabytes of bandwidth. Maintenance costs? Why, I don't think one flash movie will take much to maintain, compared to a website like digg.com or a blog.2) Every dollar yields only 10 cents? Wow, that means that only 1/10th goes to charity itself. Where does the rest usually go? The scammer's food bills from a fancy restaurant.3) Non tax exempt and double negatives to trick the reader. Why use tricky unclear statements? Couldn't you have said that you're just a non profit individual helping out the world? So, what is the meaning of this? That means that he's getting profit from this business.So.. there you go. A nice long dig.
whisk3rsSep 9, 2006
Sobering indeed. I'm gonna have nightmares now about 3-person internet. That must be quite boring, who'd post all the youtube videos and porn?/rimshot
thebloomsSep 9, 2006
@MiddleOfNowhereWhen the French, Dutch and British Empires came upon sub-Saharan Africa, they didn't even have the WHEEL, let alone mathematics, a written language or even the simplest of any technology whatsoever. They were f**ked to begin with. It is NO FAULT of Europeans that they are still so damn backwards over there. Western Civilization had literally 3,000 years of development time over those poor bastards.
duffy40Sep 10, 2006
No, we do enough, Do you realize how much food we grow compared to the rest of the world, proportionately?We use 25% percent of the worlds resources, and produce 30% of the worlds finished products. We do it better.You want a clear example of why?Iraq.When Iraq was flush with money did its leadership spend it on it's people? Nope, they started a war with Iran, and Invaded Kuwait, and built Palaces.When they got spanked and we did it the civilized way and made a nice ceasefire with Saddam still in power, his army still intact and an agreement on how he would act, did he keep the agreement? Nope, he took a program that was meant to aid his people in buying food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, and instead built more palaces, bought more weapons and bribed those well known Humanitarians the French, Russians, Germans and Chinese. And blamed the lack of food, Medicine and other Humanitarian items on the Americans because they were demanding he abide by the ceasefire he signed in 1991. He never did, Thus the war began again. So now we are trying to fix this Turd world country, and they are resisting the change, which is the what you can expect. Democracy is hard when you have three groups of people who do not want to share power. The Sunnis had it and want it back, The Shia Want their turn on top and wont give up the opportunity, and the Kurds would be happy (for now) just to be left the f**k alone without the risk of Chemical agents coming down on top of them.You are not going to pay them to meet your criteria of Civilization, and we see how hard it is to force them. You are probably going to be a hell of a lot less successful than Christian missionaries were. And you have the handicap of not believing your culture is superior. The missionaries are not handicapped this way, nor or the people you are trying to change. They know their culture is superior to ours, in their hearts, and you are not gonna change. Except maybe by showing them the benefits of your culture over theirs. Of course that alone causes animosity. Then they fly planes into your cities, then crash them. Maybe you have a better solution?
mathSep 10, 2006
[delete]
redividerSep 11, 2006
Regardless of how accurate this whole thing is, the statistic about internet access has to be WAY off. These numbers are from 1990. I have no information to back this up but I'd guess that at least 75% (or more) of the people who have internet access right now, didn't have it in 1990.I'm sure all the geeks here will chime in claiming to have been online since the late 70s or whatever, but we're talking about the general population here. The internet didn't really become a household thing (in the US at least) until the mid/late 90s.
iclangSep 11, 2006
This site also does something similar but it's a good resource for knowing your place in the world and how to act as a better "world citizen."<a class="user" href="http://www.worldcitizensguide.org/">http://www.worldcitizensguide.org/</a>
duffy40Sep 12, 2006
I am not a World Citizen.I am an American CitizenWhen the world chooses to adopt the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights, I will call my self a world citizen.Until then, not gonna happen.
nygirlSep 20, 2006
I loved this story...really makes you understand the magnitude of different problems in the world, in terms of numbers that are easy to grasp and compare to a whole.
koorlle44erNov 6, 2006
The point is, this stuff is relative. They will catch up to us as we are now, and we will surpass what we have now. Throwing hundreds of millions of dollars to help 0.001% of their population under the ignorant idea that we're somehow helping them all is ludicrous. We aren't even putting a dent in the situation, and we never will by following present policies. It's futile.The only way to stop this is not to try to "help" them, but to stop HURTING them. Whether it's through exploitation, taking away their natural resources (like we do with Africa), we need to stop that. Stopping that is the only way to HELP them.<a class="user" href="http://www.dell-computer.in/dell-computer-for-sale/">http://www.dell-computer.in/dell-computer-for-sale/</a>
Closed AccountJul 23, 2007
:-D haha! something really very weird
randitaylorFeb 27, 2011
i'm feeling very fortunate!! peace
randitaylorFeb 27, 2011
i'm feeling very fortunate!! peace
stuartakenApr 26, 2012
Thoughtful and interesting comparisons. Ignoring the sceptics and those with vested interests who want to deny this reality, people with compassion, conscience and a less selfish attitude will undoubtedly be moved and informed by this short piece. As an attempt to place many facts about our human world into context, it does a reasonable job.