Japanese

[Dinaric Leather]

They're probably going to be fucked forever seeing as how the best of their society kills themselves constantly, thus eliminating the most honorable (positively correlated with intelligence) from their society and gene pool. Most of the best probably died in WWII. Too bad, they were probably the most intelligent and interesting of the east Asian nations. I guess east Asia will be all China here on out and Japan will just be an unsinkable aircraft carrier for the US.

[David_Brent]

Apparently this Biosphere dude saw it all coming:

"Decided to make an album inspired by the Japanese post-war economic miracle. While searching for more information I found an old photo of the Mihama nuclear plant. The fact that this futuristic-looking plant was situated in such a beautiful spot so close to the sea made me curious. Are they safe when it comes to earthquakes and tsunamis? Further reading revealed that many of these plants are situated in earthquake-prone areas, some of them are even located next to shores that had been hit in the past by tsunamis.

A photo of Mihama made me narrow down my focus only to Japanese nuclear plants. I wanted to make a soundtrack to some of them, concentrating on the architecture, design and localizations, but also questioning the potential radiation danger (a cooling system being destroyed by a landslide or earthquake, etc). As the head of the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said: "the plants were so well designed that 'such a situation is practically impossible'."

The interesting fact: Biosphere - N-plants has just been released. Hope that will ease their pain!

[Conservationist]

All the good nations have been asleep for seventy years since they can't believe they lost that war. Japan, Germany and Italy gave the world just about everything... Russia, next to nothing, and the USA, outside of technology, just about nothing. The UK is a mixed bag but it's dying so fast that no one cares.

Hitler won WWII by standing up for eternal principles, even if he was a fucking murdering bastard who snuffed six million Jews for his own sadistic pleasure. He also "lost" the war, but the former Axis nations are bouncing back while US and UK go down, Russia is so far down she has nowhere to go.

[Reginald Gillette]

Y'all are on some serious other-level type shit now.

the best of their society kills themselves constantly, thus eliminating the most honorable (positively correlated with intelligence)

Are you sure it's the best of their society?  I would think that suiciders would be, by definition, the weakest/unintelligent.  Even if they see their society is totally routinized, sanitized, and domesticated, wouldn't the strong/smartest somehow get by?

... Japan, Germany and Italy gave the world just about everything... Russia, next to nothing, and the USA, outside of technology, just about nothing. The UK is a mixed bag but it's dying so fast that no one cares.

Hitler won WWII by standing up for eternal principles... He also "lost" the war, but the former Axis nations are bouncing back while US and UK go down, Russia is so far down she has nowhere to go.

What, what, and what?
Hitler gets an A for 'effort'; that's rather EGALITARIAN, MAN!  He made a good stand, though his military was thrashed by the Allies and the Red Army, and they later split his country in 4. 

That's not a win by any stretch of the imagination.

How are the Axis nations bouncing back, while US and UK go down?
Like, by what measure? At a loss for any other, I looked up GDP per capita.  http://tiny.cc/vp37z

I'll at least agree about Russia, and US income inequality is increasing:
http://tiny.cc/m4w44

[▓]

Russia's economic present is the American future of the next 25 years. The USSR's billions were grabbed by well-placed officials who grabbed the continent's assets and syphoned them off through investments, overseas holdings, and criminal laundering operations. The end product is today's Russia which appears to be an anarchy in some regions - there is literally no infrastructure remaining.

The asset strippers are already at work in America today and once again, the ordinary people think they are safer if they keep their heads down and stay quiet.

[Annihilation]

Are you sure it's the best of their society?  I would think that suiciders would be, by definition, the weakest/unintelligent.  Even if they see their society is totally routinized, sanitized, and domesticated, wouldn't the strong/smartest somehow get by?

A common point against this, by Jiddu Krishnamurti:

"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."

[Dinaric Leather]

Are you sure it's the best of their society?  I would think that suiciders would be, by definition, the weakest/unintelligent.  Even if they see their society is totally routinized, sanitized, and domesticated, wouldn't the strong/smartest somehow get by?

Normally, you'd be right, suicide is for losers, but we're talking about Japan. Suicide is viewed as an honorable method of removing yourself once you have failed a great task, a military campaign for example. The problem is, only an honorable person would embark on a great task, so when they kill themselves, especially without having children first, they are taking an honorable person out of their society and their gene pool. Instead of making themselves stronger after a failure, they self-destruct.

It has been noted many times that many of the best humanity had to offer died in the Second Great War, I feel that this applies to the Japanese two-fold due to their suicidal nature during the war. They didn't seem to realize there was no use for a dead soldier. Not to mention the many great generals and warriors that felt compelled to commit seppuku long before that war.