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Here's a link: Virgin eyes gyms, casino, double beds on A380 jets

Gyms, beauty parlours, private double beds and an in-flight casino will feature on Virgin Atlantic's giant Airbus A380 planes when it starts flying them in three years' time, the airline's half-owner Richard Branson said.
"Since you have gaming and you have private double beds maybe there are two ways of getting lucky on a Virgin plane," entrepreneur Branson told reporters in France.

Announcing Virgin's plans for the double-decker jet to be unveiled later on Tuesday in Toulouse, France, Branson said a gym and gambling area offering blackjack and roulette would be available to economy and business class passengers.

Virgin Atlantic, which already offers seats which convert into double beds on some of its existing aircraft, plans to install 35 private double beds on each A380.

Did you mean Ka-shing? (Follow the link for irony overload.)

"I can't speak to the embarassment part, but until our fearless leader convinced them to send troops to Iraq postwar Japan was content to be a very pacifist nation with a self-defense military."

This is too much. North Korea violated their 1994 agreement within about 45 minutes, and liberals try to claim that Pyongyang didn't develop nuclear weapons until the "Axis of Evil" speech.

Likewise, Japan's military has been on a steady buildup since the mid 90s, and now we're told that Bush "tricked" them into building up the military as recently as 2003. See Japan Strengthing Its Forces (date 1999), or Japan Flexing Military Muscle (tracking the buildup to at least 1992).

This is more paranoid anti-Bush lies. No news here.

If you look at the GDP of China, they are where we were in 1970!

Me, I will stick with the USA and what we stand for.

As for Sudan, have they asked for help? Do you even know what you are talking about? Sudan has been in a 20-year civil war. It is not the US's job to police the world. The people of Sudan have been fighting back and it is the people who will have their way, just as the USA didn't need intervention during our _own_ civil war. Also,

The Government of Sudan and southern rebel forces signed a framework peace agreement in early June 2004

As for Zimbabwe, there has been a lot of humanitarian assistance, just search Google and see the tons of aid from the USA and the people of the USA.

You need some new history books.

India and China are using trade to defeat us.

If you look at the GDP of China, they are where we were in 1970! I certainly wouldn't call that "China defeating us", since they are over 35 years behind us. Oh, and the GDP of India doesn't even come close to that of the USA. Just because a few low-tech jobs are out-sourced to India, doesn't mean we are being "defeated". A simple bill passed by congress could stop India and China in their tracks. Congress just needs to pass a bill that charges all US companies an extra "heavy" tax for out-sourced labor or any imported goods from China. That would slow things down for China and India and US companies could still do the same trade with other nations like Taiwan. The USA still has _plenty_ of tricks up-her-sleeve to make sure that we don't lose that #1 spot.

So go on now and take your tree-planting-kit and move to Canada, eh!

The comments sounded like the ones at China Daily's "opinion" boards. There's something cute about people who are fanatic.

For China, revaluation now poses an unacceptable risk. No one knows for sure how much any currency is over- or under-valued. Estimates of the yuan's under-valuation range from 10 per cent to 40 per cent.

China fears that, if it simply re-pegs its currency, it will not convince financial markets that the new value is the equilibrium one.

This might then invite more speculation as to further movements of the currency, destabilising it and discouraging capital account liberalisation.

Worse, as the equilibrium value of the US dollar is also not known, it might continue to fall - especially if the Chinese withdraw funds from the US bond market as their export earnings fall - causing the yuan to once again become 'under-valued' and spurring yet more pressure for a further revaluation.

For a counter perspective, check out 1UP's look at the issue.

Long story short, the lead designer for The Playboy Mansion and the lead product developer for Bloodrayne are female, and the lead designer for Beyond Good and Evil is male. Many of the people listed in the article cross the line between the traditionally expected viewpoints. Many female designers and artists are comfortable with a larger degree of sexuality in their characters, and many male designers take a more respectful "kid's gloves" approach to the issue. The designer most directly responsible for the look of Laura Croft left the company after the first game because they wanted to sex her up too much (Legend has it she is based upon his niece).

This is not as black-and-white an issue as "men are sex-starved, women are victims." Quite frankly I find that reductionism insulting. The majority of the male gaming population does not act like 13 year old boys. Have you been around 13 year old boys recently? If the current statistics are correct, the percentage of 6 - 17 year old boys playing videogames is holding at about 20%. Which means 1 in 5. Which means that the obnoxious kid that you bump into on the Halo 2 server is probably in reality an obnoxious kid. And if he understands that the behavior is unacceptable, he will change. But if you shrug and make gross generalizations based on sex, that makes it OK for him to continue and insults the rest of us unproductively.

And please lose the stereotype of the lifeless piply male gamer. It's been debunked. Multiple times. over and over again.

The U.S.-led occupation authority in Iraq has said that at least 300,000 people are buried in mass graves in Iraq. Human rights officials put the number closer to 500,000, and some Iraqi political parties estimate more than 1 million were executed. ...
The deadliest atrocity associated with Saddam's government was the scorched-earth campaign known as the "Anfal," in which the government killed an estimated 180,000 Kurds in Iraq's far north. Many were buried in mass graves far from home in the southern desert.
Another 60,000 people are believed to have been killed when Saddam violently suppressed rebellions by Shiite Muslims in the south and Kurds in the north at the close of the 1991 Gulf War.

% GDP/US$ spent on defence:

USA: 3.3%, $370.7b

China: 3.5-5.0%, $60b

Russia: 1.4%, $18b (2005)

France: 2.6%, $45b

Germany: 1.5%, $35b

North Korea: 22.9%, $5.2b

Cuba: 1.8%, $0.57b

Iran: 3.3%, $4.3b

Syria: 5.9%, $0.86b

Canada: 1.1%, $9.8b

Australia: 2.8%, $14.1b

Japan: 1%, $42.4b

UK: 2.4%, $42.8b

Israel: 8.7%, $9.1b

Europe and Canada have high tax burdens compared to the U.S. Think how much higher those tax burdens would be if those countries were spending 5%+ of their GDP on their militaries. That might not cause many of their compaies to fail, but it surely wouldn't help any of them succede!

On the contrary, it looks as though the going rate is about $30-60b for industrialised countries, including most-likely hypothetical symmetric opponents, regardless of GDP, size of territory or population.

I'd say more pertinent questions are 'Who does the US feel so threatened by that it feels the need to spend more than China, Russia, the UK, France, Germany, Japan and Australia combined?' and 'Might it be that the US is just a little paranoid?'

One way to look at this is that the U.S. taxpayer is subsidising the socialist economies of the West by providing their defense. It's an open question whether those countries could maintain their social programs and provide for their own defense if we didn't keep them dry under our umbrella. The fact that they are right now having to cut back their social programs and taxes to save their economies suggests that they would be forced to choose between guns or butter if we left them on their own.

Maybe during the Cold War that point of view could be taken, but I don't think it's valid any longer.

So, we pay for the Canadians and the Europeans to have a fancy ``social safety net'', then they laugh at us because we don't have one, and insult us because we have a big military. Maybe we should let those sleazeballs on the Continent deal with the Balkans and the Middle East and Russia and China on their own dime, and just take care of ourselves for a while? I bet we'd be laughing a lot longer than they would ....

If you're worried about China, stop providing about one third of their defence budget purely through Wal-Mart!

As far as the Balkans go, yes, Europe probably should have taken a greater, and sooner interest. Given the history of that region, though, some reluctance is pe

Alternatively, if you search for Accoona on Google, it is the top hit with only the news story of Accoona.com launching above it. Yea, looks like a real winner here.

Ever wondered why the copy-protection measures are so much more draconian in games than elsewhere? It's because people who play games are quite happy to copy them, and it's extremely difficult to make money from them.

Ah, yes. That's why the computer game industry is making more money than Hollywood. Now I understand.

Read Entering Space by Robert Zubrin. He breaks down the problem of transportation amazingly well. (Besides going into the details about fusion. Just an amazing book.)

His biggest point is the need to bring cost/kg down from $10,000/kg to $100/kg. We can just look at the X-prize for inspiration that this would be possible.

I know China has talked about looking at the moon. No suprise that the White House has also expressed interest: the moon has amazing strategic importance.

The bacteria didn't evolve it was naturally immune to antibotics. So based on your scientific findings then people who are immune to HIV evolved. Check this link the one woman is in her 40's. Born long before there was an AIDS problem. So just how did she evolve?

You were right until you started thinking you knew the Chinese. The current only maglev implementation between Shanghai and Pudong airport was made by German company. The Chinese are also looking at using French TGVs and Japanease bullet trains for inter city connects.

Maybe the reason you think China is too socialist to use outside companies is that they absolutely will not buy American? I'm sure they're very impressed with Amtrak :-)

But the fact that this story contains the magic words porn, internet, & communist is likely to generate 1,000 responses. Sigh.

For something truly fun and interesting along the same lines, recently the Chinese had a brilliant spin on "citizen crime busters", offering bounties for people with camcorders who caught drivers breaking the law! Now there is a great idea!

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

"China Daily reports that researcher Tuofu Zhu has discovered two women in an HIV Research program that are immune to the disorder via a mutant gene."

Visit http://www.hubbertpeak.com/ or, http://dieoff.org/42Countries/42Countries.htm for some brief but interesting overviews. Talk a grain of salt with you and open mind.

However you don't need to be an Economist to know that as Iraq stabalises and it will eventually oil product will ramp back up again under US supervision and the price at your "pump" will come back down.

As for the remarks on China. China's economy isn't as susceptable to the woes of the World economy because its currency and markets still are not as exsposed as many other economies. Although this is changing slowly, with their accession to the WTO http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/countries_e/ch ina_e.htm

and changes to the position of thier currency,
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/commentary/story/ 0,4386,275733,00.html

Its fairly safe to say that China will play this game carefully because they understand the risks of exposing their economy.

Is this enough facts for you to take this spin of what appears to be a reasonably logical theory. I don't think the author meant to do more than postulate a theory. Probably the best I've heard about the situation to date.

Hey even the Chinese news media a reporting a dependency on crude oil imports...

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/en/doc/2003-12/11/con tent_289499.htm

For more info go and google with things like Chine , WTO, G7, yuan, currecny exchange etc etc.

Many Iraqis wanted it and a free Iraq influences the rest of the middle east. Iran has been close to revolution for a long time, and with free countries on two of their borders, it may not be long before the silent majority in Iran revolt.

I agree that many Iraqis wanted a free Iraq -- free from Saddam Hussein. According to stuff I've read, however, the Shiite majority want to run the government. This could be problematic as far as the US is concerned, as the Shiites' priorities are different from the US.

Can you prove that there would have been less deaths?

I believe that was my point -- you can't prove one way or the other, so it's not the greatest point to bring up.

Saddam wasn't going anywhere and UN sanctions were killing more people than the first and second wars.

I don't like this rationalization: More deaths due to poor health care and lack of food is worse than less deaths due to war. Shouldn't we try to prevent both? Any preventable death is bad. People shouldn't be starving -- there's enough food in the world for everyone. War is hell. In this so-called civilized world, neither should occur. But they do, and that's not right.

In China, where big pharm isn't in control (remember, this is the land of the bear gall bladder as medicine guys) today's news is reporting that over half urban dwellers are sick ! And that the hardest hit there are middle managers, whose life expectancy is down to 58 years old for well below the national average of 72. Yet the article's stll defending "traditional chinese medicine". Bears of the world, watch out!

And chinese porn

I speak passable French, although I would probably not clear an A-level exam. I agree with the parent: speaking French in France does open a lot of doors.

> Speak English to a Frenchman in France, though, and you have just earned yourself an enemy for life.

This is also true, and IMO is a bug. Folk who speak English in Holland or Scandinavia just don't have to face the same hostility-at-worst/truculence-at-best as Paris or (worse) any of the smaller towns. Even the Germans don't react quite as badly to English, dash it.

And after all this they wonder why their tourism revenues are dropping.

More than 2,800 coal mining accidents occurred in the first nine months of the year, killing more than 4,600 people.
In Dobrnja, Yugoslavia, 1990,178 people were killed in a coal mine accident.

we have at least enough oil for 50-100 more years, unless everyone in China & India start to drive.

China's economy is growing exponentially at a rate of about 7% a year - That's a doubling time of about ten years.

It's now estimated that China will require about 80% of the world's oil exports by 2015 if this trend is continued.

we have at least enough oil for 50-100 more years, unless everyone in China & India start to drive.

China's economy is growing exponentially at a rate of about 7% a year - That's a doubling time of about ten years.

It's now estimated that China will require about 80% of the world's oil exports by 2015 if this trend is continued.

China's economy is growing exponentially at a rate of about 7% a year - That's a doubling time of about ten years.

It's now estimated that China will require about 80% of the world's oil exports by 2015 if this trend is continued.

Indeed..Read this story for instance. The thing is, I don't think the Government there really cares if teens are using it to look at porn or not, although the crackdown on cafes earlier was supposedly to stop this sort of activity.

Any sort of information being freely disseminated by sources other than approved ones is seen there as a threat. I am simply stating a fact, not blindly bashing the Chinese government. They don't like news/information to come to the masses from sources they can't control.

Here's a quote from a Chinese Web Site... "If we continue on the traditional growth path, energy consumption in China will surge to 3.3 billion tons of standard coal by 2020 from the current 1.4 billion tons" Here's another quote, from an American Publication "Total U.S. coal consumption is also projected to increase from 1.07 billion tons in 2002 to 1.57 billion tons in 2025, and production from 1.1 billion tons to 1.54 billion tons." Perhaps on a per-capita basis we're outrunning them...but on a country-wide scale they are already out-burning us 1.4 gtons to 1.54 gtons. We (ya, the USA) are in the midst of scaling back our use of coal through lots of draconian rules that have devastated regions of the country...China shows little sign of backing off on their use. Think about it...in less than 20 years they will have more than doubled their use of coal...in around 20 years, we will have increased our use by around 57%. Coal is a way of life in China, have you ever seen the little coal cakes that people use to heat their houses? There was a program on PBS the other night that showed little shops everywhere liquefying the coal and making the pressed-and-dried blocks. One guy mentioned he could heat his house for the winter for about $25. They will not stop doing that to retrofit to bottled propane or dig up their cities to put in natural gas.

A Spaniard fashion designer figured out how to turn what might otherwise be beautiful women into what look like post-op transexuals without the use of surgery. Check out these beauties. They are absolutely fabulous. If that wasn't enough to make your head spin, how about this number that smacks you upside the head and asks "Are you ready for your anal probe?"

A Spaniard fashion designer figured out how to turn what might otherwise be beautiful women into what look like post-op transexuals without the use of surgery. Check out these beauties. They are absolutely fabulous. If that wasn't enough to make your head spin, how about this number that smacks you upside the head and asks "Are you ready for your anal probe?"

Here's what the ChinaDaily story said:

Given that the 1,300-kilometre Beijing-Shanghai line links up more than 20 other railway lines, it has to be compatible with other trains, Wang said. And the maglev cost is as high as 300 to 400 million (US$36 to 48 million) per kilometre, twice that of wheel-track lines, he said.

And here's what the AP story said the ChinaDaily said:

The maglev cost can be as high as $36 million to $48 million per half mile, twice that of wheel-track lines, the China Daily said.

(Kilometre -> half mile. And no mention of the 20 other rail lines' tying in being a factor.)

(AP's Score: -1, Erroneous)

China where piracy is rampant, and there is no such thing as private property

Funny you should mention that as they are about to vote on a constitutional amendment for it.

Nonetheless, they already have private property except from the government who can basically take whatever they want. For the purposes of GPL and selling software, this is probably sufficient.

Heck they sued over the Itunes store on July 4th

Pentagon halts $18bn Boeing deal
( 2003-12-03 10:06) (Agencies)

The Pentagon has postponed action on $18 billion in contracts for 100 Boeing 767 tankers until the deal is investigated after Boeing fired two officials for ethical violations, U.S. Defense Department officials said Tuesday.

U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told leaders of the Senate Armed Service Committee in a letter dated December 1 that he was ordering a "pause in the execution'' of the Air Force contracts to lease and buy the mid-air refueling tankers, a major setback in Boeing's two-year effort to sell the planes.

Study geography before posting.

This article from China (in English) provides a good bit more information about Lieutenant Colonel Yang Liwei.

Okay, so this is offtopic, but it's funny! Read the headline at China Daily's website: Disgraced official highlights chinks in system. China has chinks in its government? You're kidding me!

Just read this headline at China Daily's website: Disgraced official highlights chinks in system. They found chinks in China's government? You're kidding me!

You can argue Open Source and not lose. It can be like the argument for Democratic, Free Market, Open Societies; these are things that can not be easily contended, when debated in a forum open to Peer Review. It is difficult to overcome the fact that even Microsoft has gone Open Source with its largest clients. Microsoft Operating Systems ARE Open Source to NATO, the Chinese, British, & Russian governments; governments demand it -- there are reasons for this.

Trust & Security:
The principle of Trust Services is based on Peer Review. You cannot be Secure without Trust in your Systems. Peer Review is an incarnation of Adam Smith's Invisible Hand. Without Peer Review, what kind of Government do you have ? What kind of System do you have ?

Flexibility:
Milton Friedman's theories on "The Role of Government in Education" & how to introduce flexibility into school systems, could be employed to solidify the point that there is merit in Systems designed with Flexibility in mind. The fact that Open Source solutions run across all levels of computing, from PDA to Supercluster, should be sufficient to quell any questions regarding its Flexibility. [ref: YOPY & SGI Altix 3000]

Support:
Peer Review & Peer Support are very similar.

Cost:
IT'S FREE !!!

You may ask your foe: Why would you want to implement a System model based on central planning & subject yourself to countless regulations, restrictions & licenses ? [ref: MS EULA & how it changes] What would Hayek say about that ? Is that not "The Road to Serfdom" ?

This may also be a good time to reference Hayek's "The Use of Knowledge in Society".

This is a copy and paste of a response made to a comment I made a while back, it really opened my eyes as to *why* chinese are so into open source. I believe that Chinese frugalness (as explained by the below re-post) is to blame for the rampant piracy of The Two Towers.

Before I get to the repost i'd like to add in my own link and two cents from the SVCD Faq I read.

• The political objectives of the Chinese government. It was decided that DVD - while undoubtedly a good technical specification as such - is all too tightly controlled by DVD Consortium, a closed body of foreign companies. The Chinese government did not quite like the idea that the domestic home electronics industry would have to pay royalties to foreign companies in order to manufacture next generation video disc products for Chinese people. It was calculated that creating a royalty-free, full-fledged video disc format on their own would be a major long-term win for the domestic industry. Moreover, this was also considered an issue of national pride; an opportunity to flex some technical muscle, and to send a clear signal to the outside world that China has enough critical mass to be able to ignore foreign entertainment standards it does not want to conform to. (Chinese politicians and researchers are now keen to celebrate SVCD as the first international high-tech standard that has been developed in China.) Finally, it was also thought that a Chinese video disc standard would help in pressuring the DVD Consortium to keep the licensing fees down, at least for the Chinese market.

Cool huh? It's a part of their culture folks. How can Hollywood fight an entire culture of 4 billion people?

The only thing that strikes us Americans as odd is the communist goverment that is in power there. As geeks we are appalled that they would dare install a firewall to protect their people, which in our eyes is a violation of their free speech, but this is what their society just does. How do you convince this culture of 4 billion people that what they are doing is not being frugal but stealing

It would begin at a goverment level, and the police would have to crack down on the street vendors that bootleg it. Will it happen? I doubt it, from the above snippet of the SVCD faq I bet the goverment is celebrating yet another victory.

Like many other Slashdot readers I figure, "How is computing applied to humanites?"

Randomly, one specific example (rejected at least twice here) was the work of using compression algorithms to determine language and authorship of pieces of text.

However, I think one of the more fascinating aspects of the humanities is understanding more about the "human machine" and understanding how we get programmed to respond in certain ways.

Is there any Chinese Slashdotters...that can provide a cultural insight as to why china would be so open to open source?

First of all I would like to state that I am of pure Chinese descent.

To answer your question, I believe there are 3 factors that make China very open to open source: Confucianism, the WTO, and Microsoft licensing.

The centuries-old mentality of being extremly frugal with one's money or possesions. Though this idea is ancient, the Communist government began to encourage the use of this virtue in times of famine and hardship. This article from Time Magazine titled "Overeating Dying in China" further explains:

"In the early 1980s when some nouveau rich squandered their money on restaurants delicacies and government officials took advantage of their jobs to attend luxurious feasts, a distorted concept was built up in most Chinese's minds: the wealthier one is, the more fatty foods are on your dinning table.

The grumbles about upstarts' arrogance and the government officials' corruption turned into general disapproval. People began to look favorably at the ancient Chinese maxim which praises abstinence in consumption....Considering the 30 million destitute Chinese struggling in remote mountainous areas and those laid-off work who are living a hard life, traditional virtues like fighting one's way up and building the country through hardship and thrift are still highly encouraged by the Chinese government. "

This "frugal ideal", reinvigorated in the minds of mainland Chinese, compounded with ancient Confucian values of filial piety encourage the development and acceptance of open source software over propeitery ones in China. The bit about filial piety applies to the corporate environment of Chinese businesses. Filial piety in Chinese families enforce the younger family members' respect of older ones. This encourages the younger members' to set priorities that value the importance of the older family member (typically the father, mother, and grandparents). Chinese children, raised under this mentality, carry these priorities over to their workplace where they place their upmost importance upon the boss and senior officials (formerly occupied by older family members).

In most, if not all jobs in China involving internal technology, the IT manager must find software that will create a stable infrastructure while saving as much money as possible. This is where the "frugal mentality" and the rigid set of priorities converge to brighten the appeal of open source software. Because China is attempting to gain full membership within the WTO, which requires its adherance to strict IP rules, the country began an enormous crackdown on the "pirated" software industry. Using pirated (MS) software no longer was an option, as it used to be 10 years ago. Another path would be to purchase MS software licenses. However, the thought of accepting the dinosauric financial demands of Microsoft licensing contracts clashed with the frugal mentality prolific with Chinese tech companies, and the set of priorities spawned by Confucian filial piety led them to consider the amount of funds that could be saved and allocated for other departments by not buying licenses. In turn, Chinese techs were left with another option: Open source software, more specifically Linuix. The legal and cost-free nature of the penguin OS became an appealing option to the Chinese techs, and in turn took the opportunity to develop and integrate it in to their corporate infrastructure.

Chinese cultural traditions of filial piety and frugality are further explained in this excerpt of the site "Paul Herbig's Working Papers":

Chinese Network

The Chinese commonwealth is a group of small Chinese companies from all over the world affiliated with each other, protecting and taking care of each others businesses. They are also referred to as 'Greater China', or the 'Chinese Network'.

The survival mentality and the Confucian tradition of patriarchal authority, form the values of a typical Chinese entrepreneur - one who seeks to control his own small dynasty. These so call life raft values are:

l.Thrift ensures survival.
2.A high, even irrational, level of savings is desirable, regardless of immediate needs.
3.Hard work to the point of exhaustion is necessary to ward off the many hazards present in an unpredictable world.
4.The only people you can trust are family-- and a business enterprise is created as a familial life raft.
5.The judgment of an incompetent relative in the family business is more reliable than that of a competent stranger.
6.Obedience to patriarchal authority is essential to maintaining coherence and direction for the enterprise;
7.Investment must be based on kinship or clan affiliations ,not abstract principles.
8.Tangible goods, like real estate ,natural resources, and gold bars are preferable to intangibles like illiquid securities or intellectuals properties.
9.Keep your bags packed at all times,day or night (Kao,p.25).
Unlike the Japanese Keiretsu, the Chinese network is an open system for all Chinese entrepreneurs all over the world. They watch for each others businesses and help those who are in need. These Chinese entrepreneurs have a give - and - take relationship. The network is usually formed by joint ventures, weddings, political opportunities and common cultures. Ownership of the company are usually passed to relatives, regardless of their educational background or competency (the classic example is An Wang's passing of his company, Wang Computers, to his mediocre son instead of professional managers--which ended in failure). Generation after generation, no matter in what culture they were brought up, every Chinese seeks control and security of their businesses.
The first Chinese generation has a survival and Confucius mentality. Every business decision is made for the future of the family. Unlike the old generation, the younger generation are born in other countries outside of mainland China. They do not only carry the Chinese culture, but the one they were born in as well. This generation, especially if born in a western country, has a sense of individualism. Companies like Winbond,a high-tech company in Taiwan, which considers themselves to be a Chinese company , believes that you should respect your family and love ones but you have to set your mind on what is right for the company. D.Y. Yang,owner of Winbond, says, "A Chinese company depends less on data and more on intuition,feelings,and people." But on the other hand, he also mentions, "Of course you have to respect the family business structure, but since this is a high tech company,individual contributions are important (Kao,p31)."
---snip

I have heard about the open markets in china where you can purchase bootlegs of any software for near the cost of the CD. If the choice is between M$ at .5 dollars and Linux at .5 dollars linux wins.

On a side note, frugality, combined with Communist ideals and Confucian values led to the explosive growth of the pirated software and media industry in China, as this essay written by Rutgers Univesity student Sheng Ding explains:

"Confucius's concept of the transmission of culture and Marx's views on the social nature of language and invention arose from very different ideological foundations. Nonetheless, because each school of thought in its own way saw intellectual creation as fundamentally a product of the larger society from which it emerged, neither elaborated a strong rationale for treating it as establishing private ownership interests.[15] Deeply influenced by these two ideologies, China falls behind all developed countries and many developing countries in the field of intellectual property protection. It is also not difficult to understand why most of Chinese did not know what were IPRs in 1980s."

Well, I am confident that this reply answers your question. More information about Chinese philosophies and other ideals that are involved in China's flourishing open source movement can be found below:

Paul Herbig's Working Papers

A Paper on IP Rights in China, by Sheng Ding

The Chinese Way with Money, an article from the Shanghai Star

I see that China Daily is licensed as number 20100000002731 - they actually put a scan of the license on the site.

Steve.

I see that China Daily is licensed as number 20100000002731 - they actually put a scan of the license on the site.

Steve.

... and smoking and smoking and smoking. There's still lots of yummy smoking in China. Maybe they should just ban smoking in "Internet Cafes".

...is another man's evil cult. Imagine if the Chinese see some athletes stretching or doing sports visualization/meditation, and mistake them for members of Falun Gong?

Although constructing such a huge building scores high on the coolness factor and even generates a bunch of tourism and national pride such a project is a terrible idea.

There are several problems.

Today's tallest buildings such as the towers in Kuala Lampur are actually less useful and efficient than somewhat smaller sky-scrappers because of the amount of building space occupied by elevators. Once a building reachs a certain number of stories/height the amount of space inside the building that needs to be devoted to elevators becomes so large as to make the building economically impractical.

As another poster noted the price tag of about 15B USD is extremely high

There is also the issue of earthquakes and wind. Constructing the largest sky-scrappers today takes most to all of architects and civil engineers Knowhow to prevent them from falling over in a storm of earthquake. The proposed Arcology goes way beyond anything we seem to have the Knowhow to do, which is quite dangerous. We also have 0 experience in building things of this size.

Speaking of dangerous, China has quite a reputation for buildings that collapse due to poor construction. This is because the Chinese goverment is not regulating construction effectively. Here are a couple stories on the recent collapse of a shopping mall in China in which dozens of people died. Time of India &nbsp &nbspChinadaily Note... this is not the recent case of a school explosion in China which killed 41.

If China needs to build large buildings to stop urban sprawl, which may well be the case, multiple 60 or 70 story buildings would be a much better solution.

OK, I'm off topic - deal with it.

Did anyone else follow the link to china daily?

This is a highlight?