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This is one of the largest problems with copyright. It mixes copyright with authorship rights (or as Europeans call them "moral rights"). Authorship rights should remain distinct from copyright. Copyright is a limited privilege. Authorship is perpetual. The author of a document will always be its author, but that author will not always have a monopoly over it. This gives authors the misguided idea that they should have a perpetual monopoly as well.

It is a cliche because it is true. Real estate is an order of magnitude more precious in Japan than in the United States - simply divide the total population by the total land area of the country:

Japan: 130 million / 395,000 km2 = ~ 340 persons/km2

U.S: 291 million / 9 million km2 =~ 32 persons/km2

See: Japan Statistics and U.S. Statistics for the exact figures.

It is a cliche because it is true. Real estate is an order of magnitude more precious in Japan than in the United States - simply divide the total population by the total land area of the country:

Japan: 130 million / 395,000 km2 = ~ 340 persons/km2

U.S: 291 million / 9 million km2 =~ 32 persons/km2

See: Japan Statistics and U.S. Statistics for the exact figures.

I agree there can be some improvements to the voting system, but I think these issues are less significant than the more important problems plaguing the structure of power in the United States.

This may not seem obvious until you examine a country like Switzerland and their democratic process and power structure. In the U.S., we vote for a President, who in turn appoints people in charge of key areas of government: defense, transportation, agriculture, education, etc. More often than not, these appointees are not even modestly qualified to hold the positions they're given. The president doles out these assignments as rewards for those who are loyal in their service to his campaign.

In contrast, Switzerland divides the management of the government into a set of distinct areas and there is a vote for the best-qualified person for that particular specialization. This is the Federal Council and it allows the people to select the best-qualified person to manage defence, foreign affairs, communications, etc.

In the ancient world, the citizens of a democracy voted on laws directly. No one practises this anymore

You might want to read about Direct Democracy in Switzerland. Why does it seem so inconceivable here? Well, (from the second link there), "the extensive choice of media play a decisive role in ensuring the proper functioning of this particular form of State."

I didn't know any of the Swiss cantons, but now I do: http://www.admin.ch/ch/e/schweiz/kantone/index.htm l

we can trow out stuff to ... it is more like 200
you can read it herehere in german, french or italian

Try looking at a map sometime - the world is not just America and "some other little bits". Get a clue - the population of the EU member states totals 376 million making it a larger market than the USA.

When Munich defected, Balmer flew over there personally to try and talk them out of it, as I recall. And thats just one city - do you think they are going to let (almost) a whole continent go and use something other than MS?

It prostrated both parents (in their early 30's) and the eldest daughter, leaving only the five-year-old daughter (later my grandmother) to prepare food for the family and care for her baby sister.

The quaratine period for smallpox is 17 days, so I assume the relatives or local health officials would leave food on the doorstep for them (brave people!)

Given today that most people in the US don't have relatives living nearby to perform such a service, how many /. readers have 17 day's worth of food in their houses?

Chip H.

37.6% of Geneva are foreigners. I doubt you'll find a similar number in DC. The only way to really find a meaningful way to see how the number of guns affect crime would be to find two nearly identical cities that have contrasting gun laws (very difficult) or show an increase or decrease in crime as guns are either outlawed or legagalized in a country.

but the Empire destroyed an entire planet with no weapons on it

That would be like if North Korea decided to nuke the Swiss.

The Swiss are neutral, not pacifists. Switzerland has a heckuva lot of weaponry - every member of the Swiss Army stores their weapons in their homes when not doing their annual 2-3 week drilling, including heavy weapons such as mortars. Check out This link on Swiss gun ownership. The fact that about 14% of Swiss households have military weaponry could be why gun crime in Switzerland is rare. You can make a strong case for saying Switzerland is peaceful, but you'll have a harder time arguing that they have no weapons.

Switzerland
CIA World Factbook entry

Make that four: fr, it, de, rm.

Make that four: fr, it, de, rm.

Make that four: fr, it, de, rm.

Make that four: fr, it, de, rm.

We have a GPS-based system for Trucks here in Switzerland.

Hrshgn

> As a Swiss, I'm happy that we're not in the EU, so we don't have to comply with the EU directive. But our government has the nasty habit of "autonomously" implementing virtually every piece of EU legislation...

Don't forget Direct Democracy

Rince

• Protocol IV to the 1980 convention
• FAS' take on the same convention
• Comment from the Human Right Watch

They use a "town hall" style of voting, where they meet in the town square, debate and vote normaly by a show of hands
this is called "landsgemeinde" and is only used in two very small cantons. the rest of switzerland votes "normally" www.admin.ch

Yo may think that is arcane. But at least the woman got the right to vote in the late 1980s
women can vote on national elections/referendums since 1971 (not much better)
on the other hand, the death penalty was abolished in 1944 (mmm... maybe that's arcane too) ;-)

Art. 3 Recht auf Waffenerwerb, Waffenbesitz und Waffentragen

Das Recht auf Waffenerwerb, Waffenbesitz und Waffentragen ist im Rahmen dieses Gesetzes gewährleistet.

http://www.isb.admin.ch/dok/dokumente/opensource/m etagroup-linux-w2000_2002-10-17.pdf

The only site I know of for jobs in Switzerland that is available in English and is fairly comprehensive is Monster. http://www.monster.ch/ (As you probably know, the CH stands for Confoederatio Helvetica, other words for Switzerland).

This page, from the Swiss Embassy in London, will tell you all about attaining employment in Switzerland. It seems to be more helpful than many I've found. As someone said below, by the sounds of things it can be quite hard to secure a work permit. Like many other countries, they must not have any available local applicants who are as qualified as you are in order for you to get the job. In other words, they must fill positions with their own citizens first.

This site can you give you a lot of info about Switzerland. As terrible as it looks, it does have useful information.

Good luck!

> Further, there are many countries that don't even belong to the U.N. [...]

According to the Swiss government (see this link) the UN used to have two non-members, Switzerland and the Holy See, until recently. As the Swiss finally agreed to join the UN on March 3 this year, this leaves the Vatican as the only non-member worldwide.

Call me an optimist if you want, but I don't expect to receive too many of those "bigger [d*ck | t*ts] / herbal viagra / h*rny coeds" spams from the Pope if worldwide legislation against spam were ever put into effect.

Greetings from Switzerland,
Raymond

I read some of the Austrian StGB (Strafgesetzbuch = Penal Code) yesterday, and IMO there is nothing illegal about adultery there. Polygamy and incest are illegal. OTOH, there are some very questionable laws over there.

If you can read German fluently, the Austrian StGB is available here. The Swiss StGB is here and the German one is here.

While the EU is not as "mad" as the USA yet, it is heading in the same direction. I think that all entities that become too large and powerful get corrupt (power corrupts). Therefore I oppose the EU (I'm an EU citizen who fled to one of the last remaining "free" spots).

it's an awful layout, no consistency throughout everything und you don't find anything, though there's a lot of information on their sites. see it for yourself at www.admin.ch

I can only recommend Switzerland. Of course, you might consider me biased, as having grown up there. You get decent salaries, affordable taxes, and excellent public services. Due to the country being multilingual (four official languages), people know about foreign languages, and you will always be able to find help, even if you don't speak one of these four, but only English :-)

If you are looking for a position, there are several online resources available (use this link for research-related jobs.

For Germany (and many other parts of Europe), Die Zeit (a German newspaper) offers good job search opportunities, with a lot of links to other, more specialized sites.

Wherever you want to go: Get a company interested in hiring you, then they will do all the paperwork for you (and they are typically effective at doing so). No worries, no lawyers to pay etc.

-Marcel

Apparently, Monsanto has developed such a rice, too. This article (in german) says they intend to provide it to farmers without demanding royalties.

This paper claims golden rice is a hoax and will not alleviate vitamin A deficiency.
Propaganda, by the look of it, but then I'm no biologist.

Apparently, Monsanto has developed such a rice, too. This article (in german) says they intend to provide it to farmers without demanding royalties.

This paper claims golden rice is a hoax and will not alleviate vitamin A deficiency.
Propaganda, by the look of it, but then I'm no biologist.

Swiss law on war materials regulates "weapons capable of firing in bursts". Individual cantons have their own restrictions.

Many Swiss army reservists are authorized to keep their issued assault rifle at home. Such soldiers have completed their initial training, undergo (at least) annual training, and are subject to military discipline with regard to military weapons. When their term in the reserves expires, the weapons are turned in.

According to the Swiss Federal Statistical Office, Switzerland has a population of 7'123'500 (of which 19.4% aliens, who don't get to vote) and a surface area of 41'284 km^2.

As a Swiss citizen, I feel justifiably proud of our system of direct democracy (even if some feel it favors political stagnation overmuch). Our governmental executive body (the Federal Council) is a coalition of the four major parties (who get >80% in parliamentary elections), and has been so for the last 40 years. It is notable that we have managed to maintain our system even given the ever-accelerating urbanization and anonymization of our society - I wouldn't see it as impossible even with a population of 70 or 700 million.

(On a sidenote, if any of you happen to be in Switzerland presently, you'd better forget about Y2K-induced looting and rioting :-) ...nearly every citizen has an army issue assault rifle at home and knows how to use it.)

Happy new (take your pick) Year / Century / Millenium / Eon / 42!