This is another thing Japan has implemented in certain areas. There's a supermarket near us called Trial that has this method of checkout: https://www.trial-net.co.jp/prepaid/regi-cart/
Yeah, it's really a shame that geo-engineering projects keep getting shut down. We either control the climate, or it kills people. It's that simple. Without controlling the climate you don't get to pick and choose who lives and who dies because of "nature". It's not even a coordination problem. It's a regulation problem. People don't all need to agree before progress can happen and errors can be corrected. We just need any organization to show some backbone and stop kowtowing to the suicidal environmentalists.
Yes. It's one of the few countries where citizens are protected from the government. This means anyone can make huge mistakes, and it's viewed as immoral to stop them. Myopically, it drives a politics of fear and control ('Won't someone please think of the children [who we don't consider people with rights, so as to individually choose not to go to school, for example]'). Long term, America has provided more progress to the world in terms of ideas, technology, knowledge, than any other community in human history. It also means that they are free to make ideological mistakes, no one is embraced to say their opinion even if it's wrong. This is a Tradition of Criticism, and it extends to the West in general, but is exemplified by America (Hollywood, US media, etc). All progress comes from criticism. America is 'exceptional', but with that power comes great responsibility--something recent generations don't seem to want. So, giving up rights, puts the responsibility in some other's hand--an appeal to authority. This has lead to a great culture of pessimism. I hope that will end soon and more American's will be optimistic and proud of their responsibility to infinite knowledge growth through a Tradition of Criticism.
Claim 1: bubbles are natural, that doesn't mean that underlying solutions are wrong, just that not all speculators are right or understand the problems being solved.
Claim 2: Google 'Bitcoin Spacechains'
Claim 3: On a long enough time scale all discoveries are minor, this is what it means to always be optimistically solving problems at the beginning of infinity.
All value is explanatory, that is, even if it has "intrinsic value" like carbohydrates in ATP in a cell, it is still knowledge instantiated for a resilient purpose (eg to power a cell to replicate its knowledge).
As explanations change, value changes, so anything can be a currency at the level of the individual--in this way, at least for conscious minds, a public monopoly on money is, while possible, morally wrong. It's a form of Marxism.
There's already been a solution the problem of state monopoly on symbolic abstractions for value (money), that started with Bitcoin and has been growing a new global economy since 2009.
It starts with knowing why it was originally pronounced "eh-mohjee", and not "ee-mojee".
The better question, then, if you really want to learn about culture, is why red is a good color in Japanese culture.
I'll just tell you: Red is related to sun symbolizm in Shinto, it scares away evil spirits of 'the dark'. And the Japanese emporer (before McArthur said otherwise) was a sun god (descended from Amaterasu). Some Japanese still intrinsictly believe this. This is represented in the Japanese 'asahi' emperial flag with the red circle and red lines, and in the current national flag with the red circle (white is a symbol of purity in Shinto, as well, btw). Torii gates are also red, etc etc.
I don't think you should quit, but oddly enough, this other HN post about quitting seems really appropriate. Check out the first flow chart here: https://jmsbrdy.com/blog/leaving-spring/ Mirroring what some others have said, if it was me, I'd talk to the manager and work things out from there.
Peer review is a waste of time, it becomes gatekeepers. Even Einstein got in a huge argument with a journal that went over his head because of this kind of gatekeeping. The best ideas can't be bought with money or PhDs. Bitcoin itself is a great example of this. But so is: geocentricism, relativity, quantum multiverse, etc etc.
Best Bitcoin content of the year, hands down. Check out BIP-119, too utxos.org. Bitcoiners may also want to consider sponsoring him on Github (I am), it's good for the ecosystem to support and signal paths for the future of Bitcoin: https://github.com/JeremyRubin
Flickr is awesome. As Instagram plays out, Flickr, and those that have paid for it for years, will be rewarded with full control over years and years and years of photos. I have full control of tens of thousands of photos I've taken since I was in high school. I LOVE Flickr. hey have excellent customer support, too. I'm less interested in the community aspect, though that is fun, as just the photo storage and organization product. It is indeed leaps and bounds ahead of the competition.
I suspect most people won't understand the value until they immediately need the privilege of using it--a privilege which anyone with a computer has, but no one is required to exercise (unlike every other national currency).