(Part 2) Top products from r/belgium

Not sure if you've played then, but haven't: Kerbal Space Program is the best way to get an intuitive understanding of orbital mechanics. If you like to play God you should also try the Universe Sandbox, and if you want a really really hardcore space sim you should play (or wait, it's still in alpha) for Rogue System.


As for actual books, OpenStax recently published their free astronomy book, and it's quite good for an introduction. From there, it depends entirely on what you're interested in, there's literally a universe's worth of information about
Astrophysics,
Astrochemistry,
Astrobiology,
Astrometry and
Orbital mechanics (for the aspiring galactic navigator),
Cosmology,
Planetary geology and
Cosmochemistry (careful, these last two lead to geology and meteorology which are equally disastrously addictive fields!)


Also, feel free to follow NASA's, ESA's, and JAXA's blogs. And spend a minute each morning checking the astronomy picture of the day.


Just don't end up llike me and annoy all your friends.

> I know that every piece a lot of legislation they pushed through was in the interest of the diamant sector not in the public interest. So why?

Got me there, better?

Let's be clear, the diamond sector is a mafia organisation that deals in blood money.

Do you need more sources, read this: https://www.amazon.com/Mazzel-Ritual-Culture-Customs-Diamond/dp/0387959599

Another source:
http://www.gva.be/cnt/dmf20170329_02806092/positie-van-antwerpen-in-diamantwereld-bedreigd-banken-weigeren-diamantairs

If all the streets in a city are wet it has rained. You either accept that or you go running around that the sky has been clear all day and that it's your neighbours fault. Have fun with that.

> Serious question here and I really don't mean any offense. Are you authistic?

i never got tested so i can't say for sure, but i do not think so.

> I'm asking because you seem to be unable to relate to other human being

Why do you think this? It is true that i see no gains in empathy but i truly feel compassion for people, i align for the most part with the view of Paul Bloom on this.

> abstract concept of ideology

can you tell me what you mean with this?

Well the Poetic Edda would be where you start. It's all the stories of the norse mythology. I bought two transcripts of two texts that were written in old icelandic and in arabic. Book 1 was about the discovery of Vinland (North America) by the vikings. Book 2 one is about an Arab who wrote down what he saw when he met Vikings. This is the only detailed account that we have about a viking burial.

I recommend them very highly, but the Poetic Edda would be what you're looking for ;)

1984, the book by George Orwell. If you have not read it, read it.

In the book there's a dialogue between someone from the Inner Party and Winston that I suspect will become reality in Turkey sooner than later:

"There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always—do not forget this, Winston—always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever."

edit: It's a cheap book now if you want a paper version: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nineteen-Eighty-Four-Penguin-Modern-Classics/dp/014118776X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1468837534&sr=8-1&keywords=1984

And iirc it's in the public domain as well, so if you have an ereader you should easily find an epub version as well.

edit 2: the movie with John Hurt is also really good if you don't like reading, though the book has fragments of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism which are worth reading.

King Leopolds Ghost 3 books in one: rivetting Indiana Jones about the Stanley-Watson expedition, history politicial, how Belgium got this enourmous colony, and a detective story on how the world discovered Leo's atrocities (a lowly clerk in an Antwerp shipping company wants to know why full ships come in and empty ships go back)

https://www.amazon.com/Fly-Cathedral-Cambridge-Scientists-International/dp/0374157162/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=fly+in+the+cathedral&qid=1566474821&s=books&sr=1-1

https://www.amazon.com/D-Day-June-1944-Climactic-Battle/dp/B00A2ATJ1Y/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=d-day+ambrose&qid=1566474874&s=books&sr=1-1 or anything by Stephen E Ambrose (also great is his history of the first railway through the US, or the Lewis expedition.

I love how they leave out the part where the Ottoman empire were one of the biggest slave traders ever known to mankind.

And the part where they declared Jihad, no longer allowed pilgrims to Jersulem and the systemic oppression and mistreatment of Christians in their lands that led to the first crusades.

Sources, the first on is by a Belgian author I sadly never learned about in school. Second one is a rebuttal years later and third one a rebuttal of that.(1 2 3 )

Have the book as a .pdf if you want should be public domain

> "Quality" means nothing without privacy and comfort.
>
> This just feels like separating the rich from the poor even further.

Indeed, just take a standard dystopian sci-fi book and you will notice the poor people living in a container.

Have a little ambition, please.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Congo-History-David-Van-Reybrouck/dp/0062200119/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1375373811&sr=1-5

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wisdom-Crowds-Many-Smarter-Than/dp/0349116059

Well, I tried to take a course on transportation economics and the exam question for 2013 was on the Oosterweel. During the first class the professor mentioned the Oosterweelverbinding would not be worth it, but that the government never listens to experts in the field. I ended up choosing another class because it seemed too hard and I expected something else from it.

Here's the book that was used:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Economics-Transport-THEORETICAL-APPLIED-PERSPECTIVE/dp/0415419808/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425627933&sr=8-1&keywords=the+economics+of+urban+transport

>My Friends all got children last year and this year... They practically gonna live in underground caves by the time they're 30. And we could be with 10 billion people by then.

Such ridiculous hyperbole. If nothing changes Belgium will have the climate of Southern France. How will we ever survive this?!!?

You're right that changing peoples behavior isn't the answer. Startups focused on carbon removal, otherwise known as carbon sequestration, are working on technologies that range from biology to geology:

• Swiss startup ClimeWorks uses something called “Direct Air Capture” to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere with what is, essentially, a large air filter that bonds to carbon dioxide.
  
• Newlight and Carbicrete manufacture building materials—bioplastics and cement-free concrete, respectively—that are carbon negative, meaning the process to manufacture them removes carbon from the atmosphere.
  
• Large-scale environmental initiatives are also underway. Project Vesta aims to cover shelf seas with volcanic rock, the weathering of which will, in theory, remove carbon from the atmosphere.
  
  Just a small sample of companies working on the problem.
  
  Stop being a prophet and start thinking like a wizard.

Proof:

Intelligence
http://www.amazon.com/The-Factor-Evolution-Behavior-Intelligence/dp/0275961036
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160289610001340

Genetics
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18212819
https://www.soc.umn.edu/~uggen/Caspi_SCI_02.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25082653
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4369574/
http://www.antoniocasella.eu/archipsy/Beaver_2013.pdf
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16801953
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monoamine_oxidase_A#Aggression_and_the_.22Warrior_gene.22
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2756753

Tool to study crime in the US
http://www.ucrdatatool.gov/

Also I never claimed inferiority of peoples. Don't try to strawman me. I claim big genetic differences lead to violent conflicts.