31 May 2013

Welcome back to Filosophy Fridays for your Saturday mornings.

Today we look at a famous, albeit brief, motivational speech from the most Western Eastern philosopher in recent times. The Daily Quota has alluded to his work before, but this is a much more well-known speech.

It's called 'What if Money were no Object?' and it bascially asks that very question - if money were out of the equation, what would you be doing?
What would you like to be doing - either as a profession, or with the free time you have from not working as hard?

It's a simple question, but remarkably weighty in its requests. We often pick a comfortable lie over a harsh reality, and it is often because we're afraid of answering this very question...

Watch the 3-minute recording below and start your weekend with a dash of enlightenment.

30 May 2013

Welcome back, Daily Quoters, to the second-ever Throwback Thursdays.

It's time again to go back to the Recycle Bin and restore some of the crème de la crème.

Today's Daily Quota is from the end of December 2012 and it discusses the philosophical and social differences between Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.

Which dystopia do we live in now?

29 December 2012

Welcome to Sardonic Saturdays, where every silver lining has a cloud!

What if I offered you a device that I said will make your life easier. What if this device was able to track your location, record everything that is being said, even when it is switched off?
What if this device was able to construct an identity that knows you better than you know yourself? Your curiosities, your vices, your favourite foods, your thoughts, your friends and your enemies?
What reasonable person would accept such a gift?

Now what if I were to offer you a brand new smartphone.
It has GPS for your convenience, and your favourite location and history is tracked (again, for your convenience). You can do all of your communication through your phone - emails, texts, calls, Snapchat...
It also gives you direct access to social media like Facebook, so that you can share your thoughts without filter, share your location without concern, voice your ideology and carve yourself an extroverted identity. Everything will be in your phone. Your life.
All of this is stored for you by Google, and is offered for free. Because hey, they're a charity.
Who would say no, right?
Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

There's a reason why authorities love iPhones - they don't have removable batteries.
Happy Days.

In recent times, a lot of attention has been given to online privacy; whether it be on social networks or financial institution or the authorities granting themselves power to monitor your browsing.
These are the times we live in, and I guess this movement is a product of its context.

Whatever the case, an equal amount of attention has been given to two works of literature that best encompass people's fears for the future; Orwell's 1984 and Huxley's Brave New World.
These works are multiple posts in themselves.
Both depict (contextually) futuristic dystopias where populations are kept in check, where classes are formed in stone and where order is maintained.

Today's Quota is not a summary of these works, but rather an interesting comparison between them.
Activists worry about a future where we are all watched, monitored, and kept in order by coercion. However, they have neglected to see that we willfully succumb to such a future.
It is not the Illuminati that is to blame, but rather...us.

Until tomorrow, keep those smiles beaming.
The cameras can't detect you if you're smiling.

VIEW IT HERE

29 May 2013

Here at The Daily Quota, we only ask life's big questions - What hurts more: giving birth or being kicked in the balls?
A tough one, but not without some resolve.

Today's Daily Quota is a video from ASAPScience titled 'Childbirth v Getting Kicked in the Balls' - it's pretty self-explanatory.
One of my favourite myths 'busted' is one that's been floating around the internet as of late - 'the most a human body can take is 45del of pain (the 'del' isnt even a real measurement...), and giving birth is 57dels while a very hard kick in the balls is 9000dels'.
Yep, none of that makes any sense; from a scientific view or a logical one.

The video goes on to draw links between the different pains, and how they may send nerve signals to other organs (thus why you can throw up sometimes after a hard kick to the balls).

Although it comes to a somewhat underwhelming conclusion, it's a pretty good view if you have 5 minutes to spare.
Check it out below.

28 May 2013

As long-time Daily Quoters might know, cyber warfare is a recurring theme on The Daily Quota - partly due to its relevance to future geopolitics and partly because some of the resources at my disposal are just so good. 

We've been hearing a lot about Chinese hackers recently, especially in the Australian news. However, think-tank Mandiant have put together some limited resources and great methodology, joined the dots, and have identified what appears to be the elusive cyber-warrior division of the Chinese PLA.

Mandiant began researching one particularly sustained cyber attack on the US and other Western countries which it had code-named APT1 (Advanced Persistent Threat 1). Combining quantitative data and some intelligence, it had discovered that a lot of the activity from this group (ranging from a few dozen operators to a few thousand) was coming from a vicinity suspiciously close to the PLA's 'Unit 61398'. 
Could this be the infamous PLA cyber division?
Here's their succinct conclusion:

Conclusion
The sheer scale and duration of sustained attacks against such a wide set of industries from a singularly identified group based in China leaves little doubt about the organization behind APT1. We believe the totality of the evidence we provide in this document bolsters the claim that APT1 is Unit 61398. However, we admit there is one other unlikely possibility:

A secret, resourced organization full of mainland Chinese speakers with direct access to Shanghai-based telecommunications infrastructure is engaged in a multi-year, enterprise scale computer espionage campaign right outside of Unit 61398’s gates, performing tasks similar to Unit 61398’s known mission.

It's interesting to see how some joining-the-dots can yield very important results for Western military, civilians and businesses - and all made public via the link below. Have a read of the report (I recommend the Executive Summary and the first few dot points for the time-stricken).

READ IT HERE

27 May 2013

Everyone has their favourite paintings - the ones you know the name of in several languages, the ones you throw around conversation like a matchbox in a tornado, or in my case, the ones that monopolise your desktop backgrounds.

My personal favourite is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.
Painted in 1942, it is said to portray the sombre quiet that swept the US following the announcement of the Pearl Harbour attacks. The feeling is definitely captured, however, I love this piece for its silence, its tranquility, and its inherent voyeurism. A coffee, a late hour of the night and your own thoughts - sometimes just what the doctor ordered.

Like an iconic piece, there have been loads and loads of (pretty awesome) parodies.

The full resolution image can be found here, and the Wikipedia page here.

26 May 2013

Sydney is currently amidst the enchantment of the Vivid Sydney Festival, famous for its light show. 

As open-minded as it is to share music, ideas and a breath-taking display of light, news has emerged that some photographs have been censored and deemed excessive for the eyes of the public.
I am personally against such censorship, but one must remember that not everyone as as desensitised to such content as Gen Y.

I had a flick through some of the censored content, and some of these photographs are incredibly confronting. However, they are as stirring as they are confronting - many conveying strong political messages, particularly those relating to the Arab uprisings.

Today's Daily Quota is a collection of those censored photographs as provided by Sydney Morning Herald. 

VIEW THEM ALL HERE

25 May 2013

Welcome back to Sardonic Saturdays - where every silver lining has a cloud!

Today's Daily Quota comes from the blog from the website of Protein 180 - a relatively new supplement that contains only whole foods and grain-fed whey. It's supposed to be a substitute for mainstream body-building supplements.
In this piece, they ask the question 'How Safe is our Drinking Water?' - a fully loaded query, and one in which a single post is grossly insufficient. 

Guy talks to naturopath and nutritionist Tania Flack about the effects of flouride on our bodies, and tries to find the rationale for putting it into our water supply - despite 90% of the developed world rejecting this process.

If you're interested in this topic, or if you're just a conspiracy theorist that just needs to beef up their arsenal, then this is a great, digestible piece on the topic.

READ IT HERE

24 May 2013

Yep, he's in that painting!

Another Filosophy Friday for your Saturday Morning!

Today we take a look at Greek philosopher Zeno of Elea and one of his most famous paradoxes - The Dichotomy Paradox, or, the Paradox of 'cutting in two'.

He coined this term theorem whilst taking a walk to the park. After noting the time to travel one half of the trip, he then noted another half, and then another half, and so on.
Basically, he managed to qualify a descending exponential curve - always halving, but never reaching zero.

Admittedly, the video explains it a bit better - complete with diagrams and videos!

23 May 2013

When I had first started this blog on 2 December 2012, I decided to kick it off with a bit of dark humour - an article about how we no longer have the patience to read anything on the internet.

Today marks the first edition of Throwback Thursdays, where once a week we revisit some Golden Oldies for any new Daily Quoters who haven't had the time to look back that far.

Ever look back at your own work a few months after you've written it and just think to yourself 'Man I was shit back then'?

Me neither.

2 December 2012

'Pancake People' - a term used by playwright Richard Foreman to describe someone who knows very little about a lot of things. Knowledge spread thin.

Kind of like the first part of Huxley's quote; "Know something about everything, and everything about something".

This 2008 article from The Atlantic poses the question; is Google making us stupid?

Has instantaneous access to information, trivial or not, reduced our attention span to nothing?

With all the knowledge that Google has on hand, why do we still squander our time with the superfluous?

The first post of many.

Here is your quota for the day.

See you tomorrow; same bat time, same bat channel.

READ IT HERE

22 May 2013

The Occupy movement has been one of the largest civil movements of our generation - at least in the Western world.
In the wake of the Global Financial Crisis, and the subsequent unconditional bailing-out of financial institutions with taxpayer money, a lot of people got quite angry. Especially since it was the greed of these very institutions which crippled the economy and caused widespread financial hardship.

These protests were held in almost every Western country around the world, with many still going.
Some of you might have seen the makeshift dwelling outside the RBA building in Sydney's Martin Place. 

Today's Daily Quota takes a contrarian view towards the movement - instead of glorifying the hacktivism, it dismisses it as misdirected; instead of applauding what the protesters have done, it asks 'what could they have done?
They didn't make any demands, push for any particular legislation or amendments - instead, they went on a crusade against greed, income inequality and corporatism.

Despite its contrarianism, the article is fair, balanced and holds back every punch. 
Have a read and decide for yourself.

READ IT HERE

21 May 2013

The Daily Quota provides something for you every day. We try to provide a good mix of every facet of culture.
With the recent release of Fitzgerald's long-awaited Hollywood adaptation of The Great Gatsby, 1920's fashion has well and truly returned to the spotlight - especially for men.

Today's Daily Quota is a light article from BuzzFeed titled '12 Gentlemen's Fashions from The Great Gatsby that are Back'.
Some examples include:

• The ol' bow-tie
• Suspenders
• Fedora hats; and
• The timeless Dapper Dan haircut.

An interesting piece for those that are even half-fashion-aware.
Everyone loves a good 1920's do! 

VIEW THEM HERE

20 May 2013

Welcome back, Daily Quoters, to another week of enlightenment!

Today we discuss 'The End of Everything'.
Admittedly, that title is somewhat of an over-exaggeration. Today, we look at an article by Washington Post reviewer Carlos Lozada as he reveals an observation from his years of book reviews - everything seems to be ending.

Source: The Washington Post

What he is referring to is the 'End of X' phenomenon that seems to be sweeping the literary world. Every month we seem to see the end of something - starting with Fukuyama's The End of History.
He lists a few more examples:

If you thought these things were still around, just pick up “The End of Sex,” by Donna Freitas, published last week, or Moises Naim’s “The End of Power,” which came out last month. Try David Wolman’s “The End of Money” or David Agus’s “The End of Illness.” Those came out in 2012, the same year that Hanna Rosin affirmed “The End of Men” and John Horgan imagined “The End of War.”

It's a pretty interesting observation, and definitely says something about our contemporary mindset.
Check it out below.

READ IT HERE

19 May 2013

There is little better than a Sydney skyline in the evening. What better setting to enjoy an intellectual cheat day and delve into this week's edition of Superficial Sundays - where we pursue the trivial.

Pokemon doesn't even need a hyperlink. It was the biggest thing in the world a decade ago - a craze that was probably unprecedented, even today. In 2006, Pokemon was worth $800billion - the equivalent of 1/6 of Japan's entire GDP.
Stop and reflect on that statistic for a second.

Since its heydey, it has brought in immeasurable revenue, sold countless versions of its original Gameboy Black & White game, and accumulated a staggering number of fans. 

To celebrate, today's Daily Quota is a clip from All Time 10s titled '10 Things You Didn't Know About Pokemon'.
Enjoy!

18 May 2013

Today's edition of Sardonic Saturdays asks the question, 'Why don't men understand women?'
Yes, a fully loaded question, indeed. How do we attempt to answer it?
Why, with fMRI scans, of course!

Today's Daily Quota is a research paper conducted by Plos One titled 'Why Don't Men Understand Women? Altered Neural Networks for Reading the Language of Male and Female Eyes'.
Yep, they examined eye movement, and the relative brain functions, so try and adduce whether men respond better, emotively, to women or men.
Sadly, men respond far better to men.

Below is a brief summary of their findings:

We found that men actually had twice as many problems in recognizing emotions from female as compared to male eyes, and that these problems were particularly associated with a lack of activation in limbic regions of the brain (including the hippocampus and the rostral anterior cingulate cortex). Moreover, men revealed heightened activation of the right amygdala to male stimuli regardless of condition (sex vs. emotion recognition). Thus, our findings highlight the function of the amygdala in the affective component of theory of mind (ToM) and in empathy, and provide further evidence that men are substantially less able to infer mental states expressed by women, which may be accompanied by sex-specific differences in amygdala activity.

Have a read, and reflect on your biological inability to ever win in life.
Sardonic Saturdays - where every silver lining has a cloud!

READ IT HERE

17 May 2013

What an edition of Filosophy Fridays we have for you today, Daily Quoters!

The debate about God
People often get caught up in the -isms - theism, atheism, agnosticism, and yes, existentialism. However, those that have some background in this area of scholarship

Richard Dawkins is a real philosophical heavyweight, a rosy-cheeked Englishman and arguably the most famous atheist alive today. His most famous work, The God Delusion, discredits any approaches to religion that aren't based, even loosely, on scientific method. 
He does not discredit religion or God per se, but rather places limitations on it to what can be proven with evidence (which is quite a limitation, especially since the very word 'faith' seems to denote otherwise).

I love a good debate on religion. But I especially love militant-atheist intellectuals break a sweat in a global interview. 
In the following video, Oxford graduate and Al Jazeera journalist Mehdi Hasan interviews Richard Dawkins for and pushes him right into a corner.
The crux of his questioning is thus - If Dawkins is a man of science, and scientific method, if he wants to prove his atheism, he should first try to disprove the existence of God.

Aaaah, the ol' switcheroo.
This is a fantastic article, especially seeing Dawkins squirm. It gets really good at around the 15 minute mark.

WATCH IT HERE

16 May 2013

I had read a quote in an article recently that had really caught my attention. I forget which article and the source, but I remember the gist of the quote.
The author was discussing the behemoth that is social media, and he said something along the lines of "These days, we express ourselves 140 characters at a time."

This is, of course, a reference to the proliferation of Twitter as a medium to broadcast our thoughts and share information. 
What if we did tell the stories of our lives in 140-character tweets? What if the literary greats used Twitter instead of a typewriter?

Today's Daily is the amusing little collection of stories titled Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in 20 Tweets or Less.
It's pretty self-explanatory. It's a compilation of some of the most iconic literary works of all time, told via Tweets. 
Here are some examples.

The link below is to the contents page of this book, where you can see the stories on display, and even read a few to get a feel for it.
If you're a fan of literature and you're fluent in the language of social media, this is definitely the book for you.

READ IT HERE

15 May 2013

Source: dreamcenter.org

Al Jazeera is increasingly becoming one of the most well-respected media sources in the world.
They've always been in the spot light in the eyes of those that have them open, but only recently did
they shoot to greater fame with their coverage of the Egypt revolution and the rest of the Arab Spring.

 Recently, they've gotten into the realm of documentaries, all accessible via their YouTube Channel. Each of them touch on various geopolitical issues from around the world, and all are brilliant works of journalism.

Today's Daily Quota is titled 'Bridal Slaves: A 21st Century Evil' and contains some truly provocative content.
This 24 minute documentary follows a British journalist into Indian villages where he learns more about arranged marriages, abortions and how they contribute to the 27-million cases of enslavement around the world.

First-world viewers truly appreciate the safety that they take for granted when they hear first-hand stories of druggings, beatings and female lives damaged beyond repair by this sickening phenomenon.

This is an incredibly moving documentary, and only scrapes the surface of the tip of the iceberg of this global problem.
Set some time to watch this at home and spread the awareness of, what I think is, the most heinous thing someone can do to another human being. 

WATCH IT HERE

14 May 2013

Every once in a while, an Australian journalist or academic conjures up the courage to write a provocative piece criticizing the state of this country.

It's an even greater rarity if it gets published by a mainstream media outlet.

It's an eeeeven greater rarity if the grunting social-media masses do not chastise the author on grounds of misguided nationalism,  or the non-rebbutable presumption of misogyny. 

Today that rarity occurred - and so today's Daily Quota is that very article.
Titled 'Why Australia hates thinkers' it takes a stab at the 'hard yakka' Australian culture and its dismissal of all things academic.

This article is a pleasure to read, and you can tell that the author really struggles to keep her passive-aggressive sarcasm to a minimum. She criticises the Australian culture as 'anti-intellectual' and makes comments on the under-appreciation of 'thinkers' - both fiscally and socially.
There are some real gems in this piece, here are a few:

The lowest common denominator exerts a tyrannical sway and tall poppies are lopped with blood-soaked scythes. Children learn from an early age that being clever is a source of shame. Ignorance is cool.

and

There's also no room for cleverness in our models of masculinity or femininity. For women, intelligence equates with a dangerous independence that doesn't sit well with your role as a docile adoring fan to the boys at the pub. It's equated with sexual unattractiveness. And for men, carrying a book and using words longer than one syllable is a form of gender treason. It's as good as wearing bumless chaps to a suburban barbecue. Real blokes have practical wisdom expressed through grunts and murmurs. Real Aussie chicks just giggle.

Savour it, Daily Quoters. 

This doesn't happen often. 

READ IT HERE

13 May 2013

...is it really?

You know that saying, 'be careful what you wish for?'
Fitness fanatics have been calling for a 'health revolution' and a 'health epidemic' for years, trying to get people aware of their diets, into gyms and onto the fast-track to a healthier life.

Alas, here we are!
The Australian 'health industry' has never seen better days - people are spending a larger proportion of their disposable income on supplements and training regimes and the such.
But are we training correctly? 
Most people even fail to raise the more important question - why are you training?

Gold Medal Bodies is a blog that specifically targets anyone interested in gymnastics for strength, conditioning, fitness, aesthetics, etc. Being an enthusiast myself, I'm always reading their guides and I own a pair of their gymnastics rings.

Today's Daily Quota is an article titled 'Getting in Shape - How much conditioning do you really need?'
One of the ironies of the modern 'fitness epidemic' has been that we are all training to either look good, or for purposes that have little to no practical benefit to us.
CrossFit teaches you how to explosively lift a relatively big weight, repeatedly, until fatigue - which might possibly help us lift our backpack into the overhead compartment. On the bi-annual occasion that we end up on a plane.
Tough Mudder gets us training to run extremely long distances and crawl through mud and avoid barbed wire before going back to our desk jobs.
I, personally, find my training most employed whilst standing in a moving bus; and even that is pathetic. 

Some people train for conditioning - so pile on the resistance.
Others train for efficiency - so aim to minimise effort. 
Some train for cardiovascular ability, others for practical strength, others for aesthetics. 

So ask yourself - What are you training for?

READ IT HERE

12 May 2013

Well today is Mother's Day - and it has fallen on Superficial Sundays; where we pursue the trivial!
How very appropriate.

Whatever your stance on this quasi-holiday, social obligation and mass appeasement dictate that we should probably discuss the topic - and so here we are!

Today's Daily Quota is a 2-minute video on the history of Mother's Day.
Discover the humble origins of Mother's Friendship Day, and how its creator, ironically, was firmly against the purchasing of cards or gifts.

Happy Days!

WATCH IT HERE

11 May 2013

We find ourselves at another Sardonic Saturday on The Daily Quota.
Every Saturday we play Devil's Advocate to all the positivists out there - and discuss topics that are sure to dampen your delusional, cheery outlook on life.

Then, we make you thank us for doing so.

Today's Daily Quota is a poem by Philip Larkin titled Ignorance. 
Here, Larkin takes a nice, swift punch at the ignorance of humanity as a whole. He pokes fun at how we do not even know the extent of our own ignorance, and how our efforts seem to be dedicated to trivial or mundane 'imprecisions' of life.
This ignorance, it seems, we carry all the way to the grave.

The beauty of this piece lies in its satire, which is hidden deep within the turn of phrase.
For instance, in the first few lines, the narrator is perplexed at just how much he doesn't know. This appears somewhat comical because the narrator is ignorant of his own ignorance.

Here are some descriptions of Larkin's poetry from his Wikipedia page:

Larkin's poetry has been characterized as combining "an ordinary, colloquial style", "clarity", a "quiet, reflective tone", "ironic understatement" and a "direct" engagement with "commonplace experiences", while Jean Hartley summed his style up as a "piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent"

Indeed.

Check out the full poem below:

Strange to know nothing, never to be sure
Of what is true or right or real,
But forced to qualify or so I feel,
Or Well, it does seem so:
Someone must know.

Strange to be ignorant of the way things work:
Their skill at finding what they need,
Their sense of shape, and punctual spread of seed,
And willingness to change;
Yes, it is strange,

Even to wear such knowledge - for our flesh
Surrounds us with its own decisions -
And yet spend all our life on imprecisions,
That when we start to die
Have no idea why.

10 May 2013

How endowed we are, Daily Quoters, to have such literary warriors as contributors!
Today's edition of Filosophy Fridays is brought to you by the very capable, very linguistic Madeleine.

Some of you may recall her contribution last week; she's back this week to share with us one of her favourite works - Sartre's Nausea.
This text is akin to the Bible for Existentialists, and a must-read for anyone seeking a more post-modern form of enlightenment. Luckily, we have midwives such as Madeleine to assist us in our journey:

For my second foray into the realm that is The Daily Quota I have chosen to share with you something that is incredibly close to my heart: an excerpt from Jean-Paul Sartre’s philosophical novel Nausea (1938). This is the first novel that Sartre wrote and it is the perfect example of French existentialism during the twentieth century. It was pretty smart of him to write a novel instead of a philosophical treatise because, most of the time, we’re totally absorbed by the atmosphere that we don’t realise the journey we’re being taken on. Though, at times, the prose shifts from fiction to very clear sections of a philosophical essay. 

The excerpt below is from the latter half of the novel is one of the most beautiful and well-developed passages of existentialist writing. 

You might think that this isn’t really your kind of thing. However, I can wholeheartedly assure you that it is; mostly because Nausea perfectly articulates the very essence of human existence and answers our most desired questions. At some stage, all of us have felt confused about life: whether that be our career choice, our individuality or our relationships. These feelings are the catalyst for existentialist thought. Cleverly, because it is a novel after all, Sartre uses his protagonist’s own personal crisis to make us think about what precisely our purpose is. If life is pointless then what do we find meaning in? If everything is pointless then are all actions random? If life is pointless can we ever be free; if freedom exists? 

This passage answers a whole novel’s worth of seasickness and confusion. It is an extraordinarily liberating revelation which Sartre is sharing with us. This world and this life are superfluous and random: existence is without memory. Recognising our transience is the key to personal freedom. It means that we have the absolute responsibility to give our lives meaning and to commit to it. We are free to do so and exist outside of the realms of religion, politics and society. 

The excerpt mentioned above can be found below. 

Print it off, save it to your favourites, do whatever you have to do. Read it alone, preferably late at night, and make sure you allow time to wallow in your own fragile mortality.

READ IT HERE

9 May 2013

As attentive Daily Quoters would know, we are often blessed with contributions from a number of people on a number of interesting topics.
Recently, The Daily Quota was lucky enough to make a contribution of its own.

Young, Savvy and Sydney is a local blog that tackles all things sociological - from gender politics to social commentary to general discussion on the life of a cosmopolitan law student in a city that reflects its occupants - beautiful, successful, and frighteningly elitist.
The Daily Quota recently had the opportunity to contribute to a piece titled The Bare Truth in which she discussed the changing nature of cross-generational feminism (except in a far less elitist manner).
She summarises her post with one swift kick in the teeth - Please donate generously to the girls of our generation, as their lack of clothing keeps them cold this time of the year.
Since I've had some experience in gender-political satire, she decided to get me on board. 
Here is a brief snippet of our contribution to YS&S:

Ah yes, us men are smarter than we look.We’ve sat by while feminism grew and grew to the point where it grew so big that it became self-aware – and since Feminism is most likely female, it then also became self-conscious.You’ve burnt your bras, we’ve enjoyed the show. You ripped at your clothes in an act of defiance, we’ve enjoyed the show.Oh you pretty things have walked right into our trap! The above is default proof that women are confused. Or perhaps they’re unsure if they’re confused?Either way, we now have a generation of little women wearing littler apparel – then insisting that we do not look. No, they hadn’t anticipated that the Feminism umbilical cord stretched further than the Venus of Willendorf - where art thou, Fairer of the Sexes?

Her immediate response was thus; "Alex, you're sleazy and condescending, but you're a good boy."
Aww shucks.
Have a read of the article in full below.

READ IT HERE

8 May 2013

Commerce student or not, we've all heard of the 'Gold Standard' - but what is it?

Learn Liberty is a great YouTube channel for beginners to economics and finance. These days, a lot of these concepts are almost required knowledge - lest you
Don't worry, Daily Quoters - we've got this concept covered.

Today's Daily Quota is a video titled What is a Gold Standard? presented by Prof Lawrence White of the George Mason University. It goes for less than 5 minutes, and provides a simplified overview of the concept of gold standard, the concept of fiat currency (our current standard) and some significant dates since its abolition in the 1930's.

This video's underlying message seems to promote the Gold Standard above the Fiat Currency Standard, noting the latter's lack of market control and vulnerability at the hands of a few people that tend to control it. Basically  fiat money has no intrinsic value, and it is easily manipulated.
Here's a Fun Fact: Under the Gold Standard, the highest inflation rate ever reached, during the Gold Rush of the 1890's, was around 1.5%.

Interesting stuff!

WATCH IT HERE

7 May 2013

Some geopolitics is always good on a Tuesday night. Especially when discussing two heavyweights - the US and China.
A lot of diplomatic rhetoric has been flying around concerning the US and Japan, China and the 'war for the Western Pacific'.

Today's Daily Quota is an article from Wired titled 'Why Beijing Could Win the China-America Showdown of 2030'. It discusses, in great brevity, some key findings from a recent book by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. 
If you're interested in the topic, but don't know too much about it, this should provide enough of a foundation for further research.

David Axe presents three hypothetical, but somewhat simplistic, scenarios:

1. New World Order - In this case, all the cards stack up in China's favour - they continue with another few decades of 10% GDP growth, investing more and more into their naval expansion in the South China Sea. At the same time, their regional adversaries - the US and Japan - face deeper and deeper fiscal ruin; in turn, having to make dramatic cuts to their military spending. The highly anticipated F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program flunks, and the US Navy is unable to foresee the growth of a Chinese submarine fleet.
   This scenario is possible, but unlikely.
2. America Rules - The other side of the coin - Japan and the US experience a near-miraculous economic recovery, and manage to sustain their military spending and allegiance with neighbouring friendly states. The new USAF projects work as advertised, and the US military initiative is now armed with a new generation of Stealth aircraft.
3. Middle Ground - In this more likely scenario, both parties make economic sacrifices - having to resort to innovation over brute military capacity. Japan trains its Navy in US Marine Corps style combat and China continues making marginal improvements to land, sea, air and cyber capabilities. 

However, a friend had recently outlined some flaws in the article, especially 'left field' factors such as miscalculation by NK which might prompt Chinese intervention, recalibration of the Japanese constitution in favour of defence and random political and military agendas regarding the South China Sea.

I myself had noted the simplistic nature of the findings, despite being based on a wealth of relevant and up-to-date information.
Whatever the case, the article is great - it's brief, it's full of useful hyperlinks, and its made with succinctness in mind.

Enjoy!

READ IT HERE

6 May 2013

A pill-sized Daily Quota for today, folks.
Assessments have deemed me incapacitated as of late, despite my endearing love for you all.

Long-time Daily Quoters would know that I'm a huge comic-book fan.
As such, I've amassed a wealth of knowledge in the area - but I do still require the odd preview and review.
That's where Kapow comes in - hosted by Sonya and Al and shot from Sydney's own King's Comics, it goes through some notable comics, cartoons and collectibles for the week. They even do the odd movie review. 

If you're interested in anything remotely comics-related, this is a good place to ease into the genre.
Below is a link to the final episode of their recently concluded season. Have a flick through their YouTube Channel and delve into a Multiverse of your choice!

WATCH IT HERE

5 May 2013

Welcome back, Daily Quoters, to another edition of Superficial Sundays, where we take it a bit slower, and enjoy an academic cheat day.

Today's Daily Quota is a 3 minute video from All Time 10s called 10 Unsolved Mysteries of World War II. 
Some interesting examples include:

• The Battle of Los Angeles
• The disappearance of the head of the Gestapo upon Soviet entry into Berlin
• The British sinking of German ships, with 10,000 concentration camp inmates onboard

Unfortunately, the Flying Hellfish didn't make the list. Perhaps they're an even greater mystery than can be accounted for?

Happy Sunday, folks!

WATCH IT HERE

4 May 2013

May the Fourth be with you all!

Today we celebrate Star Wars Day - yes, a fan day was created as as result of a coincidental pun. Star Wars Day or not, we must carry on with our Sardonic Saturdays on The Daily Quota, so I've decided to combine the two.

In staying faithful to both occasions, today's Daily Quota is a blog post from Take Me To Your Reader by Dave, a friend of mine, and an incredibly talented writer (especially when agitated). His sardonic prose is perfect for such a Saturday.

He writes about his disgust for the Mars One Project, a project which aims to put a group of inhabitants on Mars. Pretty cool stuff.
However, here's the twist - they plan to fund it by turning the entire endeavour into a reality TV show - where a global audience has a say in the astronauts, their lifestyle and other aspects of the mission.
No, they're serious.

Yep, that's right. A reality TV show where the contestants are on fucking Mars.
Dave, a huge science fiction fan himself, hates the concept. He sees it as hubristic and fiscally superfluous. He describes it as "the most irredeemably stupid idea that [he has] ever had the displeasure of being alive to hear about."

Here's a snippet:

That's all Mars One is: some rich idiot's pot-valiant rigadoon, and the most extravagantly wasteful project ever proposed in the entire history of unforgivable bullshit. The arrogance and solipsism required to conceive a multi-billion-dollar manned mission to another planet after what we’ve done to this one is astonishing. 

Well said. 
Dave's blog is a pleasure to read - his prose has wit, his content is lol-worthy and his writing is very much a reflection of himself.
Sardonic Saturdays on The Daily Quota - where every silver lining has a cloud.

READ IT HERE