Slashdot Mirror

The CBC TV investigative consumer news show Marketplace did a story on high-tech trash earlier this year.

They talked to Seattle's Basel Action Network, which made one of the earliest documentary videos of a cluster of villages in Guiyu, China, where 100,000 people live and work in what is essentially a giant computer dumping ground.

You can watch the report in Quicktime or in Real Video format.

The CBC TV investigative consumer news show Marketplace did a story on high-tech trash earlier this year.

They talked to Seattle's Basel Action Network, which made one of the earliest documentary videos of a cluster of villages in Guiyu, China, where 100,000 people live and work in what is essentially a giant computer dumping ground.

You can watch the report in Quicktime or in Real Video format.

The CBC TV investigative consumer news show Marketplace did a story on high-tech trash earlier this year.

They talked to Seattle's Basel Action Network, which made one of the earliest documentary videos of a cluster of villages in Guiyu, China, where 100,000 people live and work in what is essentially a giant computer dumping ground.

You can watch the report in Quicktime or in Real Video format.

The CBC TV investigative consumer news show Marketplace did a story on high-tech trash earlier this year.

They talked to Seattle's Basel Action Network, which made one of the earliest documentary videos of a cluster of villages in Guiyu, China, where 100,000 people live and work in what is essentially a giant computer dumping ground.

You can watch the report in Quicktime or in Real Video format.

No one has to say it's a good suggestion, it is by itself, a good suggestion. This cannot be disputed.

Huh? I could say the same thing about my suggestion... Anyone can _say_ they are making a good suggestion, but that doesn't make it so... If it did, all suggestions would be good - which isn't the case.

A distributed computing client is needed in order to take another possible measure to protect ourselves against this happening again. If you disagree, that's your opinion, but it is one lone voice crying out for the sake of hearing itself.

Well, I think there are more people who aren't interested in a distributed computing project to detect asteroids than there are people crying out for one, first of all. This can be proven by the fact that it doesn't exist. If everyone but me wanted it, I'd imagine that we would already have it.

Also, recent news has pointed out (Asteroid impact factor less than thought: scientists, Asteroid threat reassessed) that the risk of an asteroid hitting is less likely than we used to think. And remeber that we thought it was pretty unlikely in the first place.

It sounds to me that you, like many, are making too much of this threat, which drums up hysteria for nothing, much like with Y2K. People wasted a lot of time (and money) worrying about nothing then - this asteroid hullabaloo seems like a repeat to me. A lot of actual experts on the topic (of which I am not, and I doubt you are, either) seem to think so as well.

So let's make more distributed computing projects for other things, too, including asteroid detection. There's enough PCs in the world to handle all these projects nicely.

Unless I'm wrong, you _yourself_ asked why we waste computing power on something that is unlikely to get results, such as seti@home. (Or am I attributing another AC's comment to you?) If there are enough PCs in the world to do everything, why complain that people waste computing power on Seti@home?

There may be enough PCs out there- I don't know about that, but I doubt it- but are there enough people willing or able to join in on every project? It seems there is a limited pool of people who understand what distributed computing is and will join in projects, at least without some sort of campaign to recruit more.

A lot of experts think an asteroid hit is almost as unlikely as us discovering alien life. So why not spend our limited resources research on more timely, and pressing issues?

You're arguing for the sake of arguing. I should really stop feeding the trolls.

I'm arguing because I have an opinion. If it offends you that someone might have an opinion that differs from yours (and is willing to voice it), I suggest you avoid posting in public forums - especially forums as rife with conflicting opinions as this one.

As far as me being a troll, the "troll card" just seems like something someone pulls out when they feel like trying to discredit someone's opinion. Note that I'm posting with my real name while you are both anonymous _and_ insisting on using an annoying bold tag on all your comments (which implies that you feel your comments are more worthy of being read than everyone else's, but are at the same hesitant to commit yourself to them). Also, I have not made any antagonizing or dismissive comments about you, while you have dismissed mine as noise for the sake of noise, among other things...

If you want to discuss this, fine, but stop whining about trolls.

hella cool and all. But they're of course giving preference to people with some related knowledge or experience...
Oh, and they have to be physically fit too. That cuts out most of the /. crew (lazy bastards that we are...)
Oh, and it may cost the successful applicant a few thousand dollars.
Here's a story about it on CBC.

As an American living in Canada, I find it very surprising to see the pent up anger that a several Canadians seem to have for Americans. This post seems to bring out that sentiment that I see on a daily basis. Most Americans are ignorant to the anti-American sentiment that exudes from the Canadian media and the general population.

The crack made that fired this guy off isn't exactly what I call Canada bashing. It's our brand of humor we like to call sarcasm.

Why is it that a faction of the population seems to dislike the US so much?
Americans don't create beer commercials that express an annoyance or hatred for Canadians. (Molson) We don't produce shows that attempt to depict the American population as ignorant fools. (Talking to Americans)

Most Americans love Canadian culture. We love Canadian sports. We love Canadian comedians and entertainers. I don't know why there seems to be a hatred that isn't reciprocated.

Having seen both sides of the coin, I'd have to say that America bashing is far more prevalent and mainstream here in Canada. (Per capita of course)

This seems a neat toy, but as I'm getting fed up with powerpoint presentations, I hope I never see one. Most presenters come loaded with far too complicated presentations, each slide with too much data (that's why they need the laser pointer) and they spend all there time driving the computer not telling the story.CBC had a story on Monday about this, andTom Creed from Saint John's University has some more insite.

First of all, what mailing list is that, exactly? I'm not sure I believe that's an accurate representation of the facts. Phrases like "small army," "homeless encampment," and "international call for solidarity" make it pretty clear that that's a heavily biased report.

But most importantly, there's nothing evil about this, for several reasons.

1. Home Depot was ordered, by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, to evict the squatters (not "homeless encampment," but squatters) in November, 2000. The order was based on the premise that the vacant lot was formerly the site of an iron foundry, and not fit for direct human habitation.

2. In December, 2000, Home Depot put flyers all over the squatters' tents saying that they would be clearing the site and asking people to leave. That pretty much blows your "with no notice" theory out of the water.

3. In August, Home Depot actually starting building shelters on the site in preparation for winter. Does that sound evil to you?

There's even more to the story. A good-- and unbiased-- synopsis can be found on the CBC's web site, here.

Do it in Canada, and you might wind up with the PM's own hands around your throat.

Check out this image of the Shawinigan Strangler. (Sorry, I can't find a full body shot.)

There is an interesting story about a man who has been a Canadian citizen for 15 years after moving from Syria when he was in high school. He was last month on his way back to Montreal he was routed through New York's Kennedy airport, two weeks later he was deported to Syria! Only after he was deported was the Canadian consolate contacted and no one has since been able to contact him. The US isn't just trampling over its own citizens rights but it is also violating the rights of citizens of other countries as well. And it will be interesting to see how the US plans to maintain its international support while trampling over other countries soverignty.

>Why does everybody want to vote on-line?

This is simple. Jean Chretien is straining to leave a "legacy" behind in this country after 3 terms of heavy-handed rule. He doesn't like what his opposition paints as his legacy -- A liar on the GST "The GST is history!", a thug with his shawinigan handshake, a bumbling moron infront of cameras, a person who can't even keep himself safe from break-ins no matter how much security he can pay for, a man who puts the lives of the Canadian military in jeopardy without them even being on a mission, a man who can't handle being wrong, a man who doesn't believe in your chartered right to free speech, a man who wrongfully invests your money, a man who supports things by doing nothing, such as the CD-Levy that assumes all Canadians are criminals, and the anti-piracy laws that leave at least 3 million Canadians with the inability to be multicultural in their television watching.

The rubber suit is wearing thin, finally.

Vancouver's Mayor had more police manpower directed towards a high profile pot shop in the area than the case of the 50 missing women. Rossmo's thesis was pooh-poohed and he was demoted and effectively run off the force.

The missing prostitute case continued to be a willfully low priority of the Vancouver police department until it recieved some publicy (including, I believe, being featured on "America's Most wanted" -- "Vancouver's a great place to be a serial killer -- cops cry '50 missing and all's well!'"

A little over 2 years later, they've charged a guy with killing 15 of those missing women, and are searching for more remains on his pig farm.

From what I've been able to piece together, he abused them, killed them, ran their bodies through a meat grinder (or branch grinder) and buried the ground-up bits on his farm.

In the meantime, Downtown Eastside residents who were formerly unwilling to report mysterious disappearances of friends to the cops have now brought the number of missing women into the 60 person range.

More info on the missing women case can be found on the CBC website.

Vancouver's Mayor had more police manpower directed towards a high profile pot shop in the area than the case of the 50 missing women. Rossmo's thesis was pooh-poohed and he was demoted and effectively run off the force.

The missing prostitute case continued to be a willfully low priority of the Vancouver police department until it recieved some publicy (including, I believe, being featured on "America's Most wanted" -- "Vancouver's a great place to be a serial killer -- cops cry '50 missing and all's well!'"

A little over 2 years later, they've charged a guy with killing 15 of those missing women, and are searching for more remains on his pig farm.

From what I've been able to piece together, he abused them, killed them, ran their bodies through a meat grinder (or branch grinder) and buried the ground-up bits on his farm.

In the meantime, Downtown Eastside residents who were formerly unwilling to report mysterious disappearances of friends to the cops have now brought the number of missing women into the 60 person range.

More info on the missing women case can be found on the CBC website.

I live in Vancouver, where Kim Rossmo got his Ph.d and started his geoprofiling.

He was very successful, and it led to his rapid advancement in the Vancouver Police Department. But like most police departments, it's still old-boys, and alot of them resented an educated individual rising through the ranks so quickly.

Finally, they told him they weren't extending his contract when he was promoted too far. He sued. During the trial, the senior VPD members were made to look like fools for lying under oath.

One of the interesting things that came out was that he suspected (back in June, 2001) that a serial killer was involved in the disappearance of 20 to 30 Vancouver women. Well, he was right. The Vancouver police are conducting a huge investigation at a pig farm in the Vancouver area, and Robert William Pickton is now Canada's most prolific known serial killer with 16 or so charges in the works, and more pending as they find more DNA at the farm.

I don't know much about the technology (or psychology) involved, but I do know that when he applied his software to some of Canada's other serial killers (Paul Bernardo, Cliffard Olsen, etc) his software picked a 4-block area which included the killer's home. It was also used to catch a killer in Abbotsford.

Thanks to a bunch of fat old men who's ego has extended past their intelligence, Vancouver has lost what appears to be a top-rate talent.

There's a short article on the findings and also some mention of the concept of phytomining.

The Privacy Commisioner of Canada is objecting to a number of airport security developments, especially that shared airline records violate travellers' rights. Yes, that is an governement office quoted as saying "The government of Canada has no business compiling a giant database on where all of us travel, with whom we travel, how long we stay in a given place ... just to have it there, in case it comes in handy to use against any one of us"

That is what a governement official (on the federal payroll) is quoted as saying. It is the privacy commisioner's job to oppose "Big Brother" schemes. That is one thing that we here is Canada have that ensure we retain more freedoms than our southern neighbours are tossing away.

While part of the government is ready to record our every move, another part is ready to stop that in the interests of citizens rights.

-----

Sure enough, they've got an audio archive. Best thing is, individual interviews are downloadable mp3s or oggs. (Check out the 'what's an ogg' link beside each of the latter!)

You say they can't do anything? You obviously don't know about the agressive actions taken by Canadian fisherman when they barricaded our state's (Alaska) ferries!

They're viscous I tell ya! They turned me into a NEWT! ... ... I got betta

Where's the other 25 years??? I betcha people in Canada are saying...

On Sept. 6, CBFT Montreal goes on air. CBLT Toronto follows on September 8. The first broadcast picture on CBLT was the station's call letters - upside-down and backwards. The broadcasting day was three hours long. Lorne Greene read the news.

For more info on the CBC TV's 50th anniversary...

On Sept. 6, CBFT Montreal goes on air. CBLT Toronto follows on September 8. The first broadcast picture on CBLT was the station's call letters - upside-down and backwards. The broadcasting day was three hours long. Lorne Greene read the news.

For more info on the CBC TV's 50th anniversary...

Please pray to the computer gods now. That is all. Isn't this story a bit like hearing the Cancer Society has been driving people around in busses.

Why let MSNBC filter your news? These others are one step closer to the source.

If you don't have access to Clarinet (which you should) then you can check via the web:

• Reuters
• The Associated Press
• United Press International
• BBC
• CBC
• NPR
• even Times of India

(AFP don't count - spelling, grammar, and factual errors. NYT - heavy circulation does not a good news source make. )

I would have considered it a proper debunking if it had done a peoper statistical analysis of the deaths -- or something like that. Instead, it simply explained away a couple of the deaths, and hand-waved the others. When the original story went out, I was willing to explain away 3 of the original 11 deaths as 'normal' That still left a cluster of 8 wierd disappearances. This article hand-waved at least one of the deaths that I had already considered 'normal'.

On the pro-cosnpiracy side of this story:

A similar story occured in Vancouver: about 50 or 60 women mysteriously disappeared over the last 10 years in Vancouver. Most of these women were drug users and/or prostitutes. The nature of a prostitute's business is such that a prostitute would be a very juicy target for a serial killer (where else can you consistently get a woman to wander off with a stranger to a remote and secluded area?)

In any case, the Vancouver Police department continued to pooh-pooh complaints of Downtown Eastside residents that these disappearances were unusual. They simply explained it as 'they probably just skipped town'. It wasn't until America's Most Wanted did a story about how Vancouver was a great place to be a serial killer, that they responded at all to the complaints. They still spent a year, or more claiming that it was just a coincidence, despite the fact that a forensic statistician on their own staff found clear evidence of improbability.

It wasn't until last year that some real manpower was put into the investigation, and this year a pig farmer was charged with the murder of a half dozen or more of the missing prostitutes. This summer police hired a bunch of anthropology students to help look for bone fragments and body bits in the dirt pile on his farm.

The moral of the story: Just because something MAY be a coincidence, doesn't mean that it is. If you want to prove, or disprove, a conspiracy around this cluster, you need to look at the whole cluster -- not just point out the easily explainable (or more worrisome) deaths and hand-wave about statistics.

The story at the base of this article neither proves nor disproves the probability of a conspiracy around this cluster of deaths. It simply points out that they're not all unexplainable (something that was clear some time ago).

Why did the quebecois have to steal the "poutine" name from a traditional Acadian dish? Don't they have any creativity? Here's a real poutine!

...dead of cocaine !!!!

Fucking druggies. They get what they deserve.

Be careful not to mix up governments and economic systems. Pure communism is only an economic system (i.e. it's actually possible to have a democratic government and a communist economic model). Nazism is a form of fascism, which is a system of government. Stalinism was a dictatorship - also a form of government.

The economic spectrum ranges from capitalist to communist, with socialism somewhere in the middle. Since there are no strict examples of pure capitalism or pure communism in the world (and probably never will be) we all basically live in socialist economies, which lie at various points along that spectrum. As an example, Americans like to dub Canada a socialist country, because it has universal health care, but Canada and the U.S. are actually close together on the socialism continuum: both have public schools, welfare, and strong labour unions, for instance.

On the other hand, there are tonnes of different governments... democracies, republics, monarchies, dictatorships, fundamentalist regimes, you name it. Many are also combinations of those systems.

Perhaps even more immediately, would the US military or the US government in any capacity trust Microsoft to this degree? Considering that the the US doesn't trust UN-sanctioned International Criminal Court, how could the US government trust a corporate entity to this degree, especially when it's a corporate entity that they've now spent years fighting in court?

The CBC carried the semi-finals and finals live, and aired a number of games on tape delay. They also used the BBC audio feed, which provided probably the best English language commentary.

However, I'm told that FIFA was asking for an enormous amount of money for the rights to broadcast games ... CBC nearly didn't carry it, but they worked out some sort of deal. Maybe ABC thought it was too much to pay for a 6 AM broadcast ...

I would post examples from The NYTimes, but they don't let you see previous issues of the paper online for free. However, as I recall their picks closely mirrored The Washington Post's:

The Washington Post
Top Story: Cyber-Attacks by Al Qaeda Feared
No. 2 Story: SEC Charges WorldCom With Fraud
No. 3 Story: U.S. Court Votes to Bar Pledge of Allegiance

The Los angeles Times
Top Story: 'Tweens: From Dolls to Thongs
One of the store mannequins wears a fringed denim skirt riding low on the hips and a top pushed high on the midriff. Another has shorts that roll down on the tummy and a one-shoulder top.
No. 2 Story: Pledge of Allegiance Violates Constitution, Court Declares
No. 3 Story: WorldCom Hit With Federal Fraud Lawsuit

The Los Angeles Times shows a consistent bias toward "Reader's Digest" type stories that are entertaining and give you something to gossip about but don't really tell you anything of value. I also get the sense that many LA Times reporters are really failed screenplay writers who can't let go of the need to create drama. However, they do occasionally print something worth reading.

The LA Times is owned by The Chicago Tribune , which puts even less original content on its Web site and is more "in-your-face" about pressuring you to subscribe.

I suspect Slashdot would link to The Wall Street Journal more often if the paper made more than 1% of its content available to non-paying subscribers. (I had a paid subscription to wsj.com for about a year, but I no longer do because it's just not worth that much to me.)

I'd like to read Le Monde , but the French refuse to publish an English version. Go figure.

All of Knight-Ridder's newspapers (The San Jose Mercury News , Miami Herald , Philadelphia Inquirer , et al) have been crippled by the "RealCities Network" which forces all of its sites to use the same content-poor, ad-rich design. The saddest story of the group is the SJMercury though, which has just fallen apart since the parent company began slashing costs and forcing the RealCities conformity on its once industry-leading site. The Miami Herald is an unofficial training school for future Washington Post reporters, but that doesn't matter if you can't find their content on the Web.

Slashdot doesn't link to the Financial Times often (ever?), though it's a great paper. It just doesn't turn out a lot of unique content that's of interest to most Slashdot readers.

Newspapers aside, Slashdot has linked to CNN and the BBC in the past, though not the CBC . ABC, CBS and NBC generally provide watered down news for people who don't like to read newspapers -- not Slashdot readers.

Slashdot often links to MSNBC , but I expect that will begin to decline -- MSNBC.com's founding editor (Merrill Brown, a former Washington Post reporter) recently announced that he's resigning after 6 years to pursue other, undisclosed "opportunities." The New York Times noted on June 12 (you'll have to pay for the archived version of the story) that he offhandedly mentioned that MSNBC.com is about to be swallowed by MSN for economic reasons. (In other words, Microsoft put its foot down and said financial concerns outweigh editorial concerns.)

The International Herald-Tribune writes some of its own content, but a lot of the paper is an amalgamation of New York Times and Washington Post stories.

I haven't read the Seattle Post-Intelligencer or the Seattle Times in a while, but you may find some good technology stories there.

Bottom Line: Slashdot links to a disproportionate number of New York Times and Washington Post stories because both papers' sites post a lot of content and that content is top notch. It also helps that they're among the most recognizable names in journalism, but the Slashdot system is set up to allow editors to pick from the best stories that are submitted, regardless of the content provider's brand recognition. If you read a good story somewhere, submit it -- the quality of the story is more important than the misguided registration policies of the content provider. And if I've missed a good site people should be reading, reply to this message and let people know.

Why does the major media ignore this?

What are the ethical issues involved?

Currently, the best source for stem cells is a human embryo. But using human material, such as aborted fetuses, in research is a contensious issue because it can be construed as the sacrifice of human life for scientific progress.

source

Even if much of the potential of adult stem cells is realised, there are circumstances where they are unlikely to be useful.... The isolation and growth of adult stem cells have to date proved very difficult. Stem cells generally represent a very small proportion of cells in adult tissues. Unambiguous identification is difficult as their presence in a tissue or mixture of cells is generally inferred from a research observation rather than indicated by any specific biochemical marker which might aid their purification... Current understanding of the potential of adult stem cells for redifferentiation is still very limited. Although many studies suggest that such processes occur, there is often a degree of ambiguity... In their natural location in the body adult stem cells do not exhibit great potential for differentiation into new cell types but have evolved to give rise only to specific cell lineages.

House of Lords report

While adult stem cells hold real promise, there are some significant limitations to what we may or may not be able to accomplish with them. First of all, stem cells from adults have not been isolated for all tissues of the body. Although many different kinds of multipotent stem cells have been identified, adult stem cells for all cell and tissue types have not yet been found in the adult human. For example, we have not located adult cardiac stem cells or adult pancreatic islet stem cells in humans. Secondly, adult stem cells are often present in only minute quantities, are difficult to isolate and purify, and their numbers may decrease with age. For example, brain cells from adults that may be neuronal stem cells have only been obtained by removing a portion of the brain of epileptics, not a trivial procedure.

Stem Cells: A Primer

It's true

If you live in Ontario tomorrow night (2002-06-11) at 21:57 the ISS with docked shuttle will show up in the NorthWest near the horizon and make it's way across the sky in 5 minutes to set in the SouthEast. It will show up near Venus which will also be in the NorthWest. Apparently the shuttle docked with the ISS makes for quite a bright celestial object (twice as luminous as the ISS normally is). According to the editor of Sky News who was speaking about this (and the eclipse) on CBC this afternoon it will be unmistakable (not only due to its movement but also its brightness).

A good tool for tracking the ISS can be found at liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov for those who are interested.

OBEclipse: The moon is in space -- so is the ISS :-)

CBC will knock the ignorance out of your brain. Afghanistan is still in a full fledged civil war - the only difference is that America just propped up a dictatorial rat bastard, and they get him to do whatever the fuck they want. How do they do it? Well, as a green beret said, "We promise him, as long as you do what we want, foreign aid won't come in to interfere with your rein."

Well if you think the Chinese are gullible then you should watch "Talking With Americans" by Rick Mercer. Rick is a Canadian comedian who interviews Americans in the US posing as a Canadian journalist (which is he is). He interviews regular people, politicians, anyone. He'll stun them with facts like we just got indoor plumbing, paved roads, tv, the 24 hour clock...lmao and the people believe it! It's so stupid how could anyone believe it!!!

here

and here

Well if you think the Chinese are gullible then you should watch "Talking With Americans" by Rick Mercer. Rick is a Canadian comedian who interviews Americans in the US posing as a Canadian journalist (which is he is). He interviews regular people, politicians, anyone. He'll stun them with facts like we just got indoor plumbing, paved roads, tv, the 24 hour clock...lmao and the people believe it! It's so stupid how could anyone believe it!!!

here

and here

The US could drop another nuke on Japan, that would have a lot of energy. The only problem is nobody in the military is samrt enough to find Japan on a map. Proof. And also this

The US could drop another nuke on Japan, that would have a lot of energy. The only problem is nobody in the military is samrt enough to find Japan on a map. Proof. And also this

This sounds like a mixture of two of my least favourite CBC programs. Which wouldn't surprise me, knowing CBC executives.

This sounds like a mixture of two of my least favourite CBC programs. Which wouldn't surprise me, knowing CBC executives.

I prefer the British system (and I am biased) where some of the RF spectrum is reserved for public radio (The BBC). This has some varied, and quality stuff. There is also commercial space, with the more homogonized genres. It is probably more workable over here, as we have a comparatively small geographic area.

Geographic size has nothing to do with. The system here in Canada is similar to what you describe in Britain. cbc.ca

Well, I've already replied to the same report in another post, but to summarize: the report does not consider liberty, does not consider democracy, and considers prosperity only as a minor factor (all of the five nations which scored above the US are poorer per capita and in average pre-tax salary than we are, some of them signfigicantly so). So how does this relate to our discussion?

And as long as we're discussing that report, how much credibility are we supposed to give a report which ranked Canada as the best nation to live in for each of the several years before the report cited? Remember that twice as many Canadians move to the US per year as vice versa, according to the CBC (and that even though the US population is 9 times the size of Canada's)...

In Afghanistan, we are doing our utmost to avoid civilian casualties by putting brave men in harms way, on the ground, to pinpoint targets to be hit. In contrast, the September 11 terrorists did their utmost to maximize the number of civilians killed. You don't see a difference?

Ok, Rah Rah U-S-A and all that... go America.

However, it bothers me that you seem to think that the civilians on the ground in Afghanistan are supporters of the Taliban, or Osama bin Laden. They did not vote the Taliban into power, and they did not invite Al Qaida (sp?) to their country. As a matter of fact, I believe that the people of Afghanistan (and their army, the Northern Alliance) were already fighting against Taliban rule LONG before the US or its allies ever got involved.

Therefore, when you say that the US is doing its "utmost to avoid civilian casualties", I fail to see why America should be canonized for this. The 9/11 attackers targeted civilians because they are terrorists, and they see American civilians as their enemies. The Afghan people are not your enemies, they are your allies! It makes sense to avoid shooting your own allies, but I guess Americans don't get that.

You are in error. The only reason you believe that the only casualties for these two conflicts were friendly fire is because:

1. You're a moron.
2. The media gives greater coverage to friendly fire incidents.

Actually, friendly fire accounted for a large percentage (but by no means all) of the battle casualties during the Gulf War. The Allies lost many more than those 9 British soldiers that were mistakenly bombed. However, there were actually more non-battle deaths in the Gulf War than battle deaths. Furthermore, the U.S. military suffered more casualties outside the Persian Gulf than in it during the Gulf War (training accidents, etc) [DIOR Casualty Statistics]. Bet you never would have thought that more people died as a result of normal activities than battle. That's because non-battle casualties don't get the coverage and attention of battle casualties.

In Afghanistan friendly fire again seems to be to blame (finally figures are not yet available) for a large percentage of casualties.

Friendly fire accidents are horrible and they do need to be addressed (they are). I think we're seeing a general increase in the number of friendly fire deaths (percentage-wise) because we've gotten so much better at killing than our enemies. We've drastically reduced the casualty figures in recent conflicts. I've no doubts that our government is working to reduce casualties even further. And you can bet that they are giving friendly-fire and the bad coverage it gives them more than it's fair share of attention.

• American casualties in Afghanistan
• First British casualties in Afghanistan
• Canadian casualties in Afghanistan

Will the X-45 have an impact on casualties? Who knows ... it has yet to be tested.

And we all know how good the US armed forces are at aiming

The article I read a day or two ago (on CBC's website compared it to the human ear. Our ear works basically the same way as these sensors. When there's a lot of noise, it tends to be ignored, but you can still pick out differences. My guess would be that the first few drops may get the gator's attention, but after that it would become background "noise". However, an animal splashing around would proably make bigger waves, and thus be more noticeable.

I heard this recently on CBC's As it happens (it's the story about Air North and their expanding service to the 'South').

In Canada we're dealing with the Air-Canada monopoly which is making things very risky for new airline startups. However, the Yukon government recently tabled a policy where they will explicitly avoid doing business with companies that engage in unfair practices (such as flooding the market with cheap seats for the purpose of driving a competitor out of business). A similar policy in American governments might help keep the little guys trying to get a leg up on MS.

Pretty much. Can you name a country with an economy like ours? I bet you can't. That's because we don't allow our government to interfere with the markets.

Except for the Lumber, Steel markets among others...

-- iCEBaLM