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Most Olympians aren't poor people looking to provide for their families. Give me a break. They are athletes with access to training and an organized support system. They aren't making money off of it either. Most would be better off working at McDonalds if it was to provide for their families. What a joke. They do it for the individual glory. That is fine, but don't pretend otherwise. Also, what is wrong with the Olympics is that public money is used to provide the facilities. Brazil is being sucked dry by it and they can't afford it, most of all the people who are looking to provide for their families. Step out of your white suburban bubble.

How about this:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/ta...
China gave out $1M to medal winners.
By "most athletes, " do you mean "most U.S. athletes", "most western athletes", "most third-world athletes", or "most athletes worldwide"?

Taiwan actually has more capacity than the US. http://m.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2016/03/02/459646/Taiwan-overtakes.htm/ shows Taiwan with 21.7% of the world total capacity; North America as a whole with 14.2% and China at 9.7%. Intel isn't locating the true cutting edge processes in Asia, but claiming taiwan is a distant second list a laughable claim. They aren't cranking out xeons, but the ARM market is a huge part of the cpu game.

Ma Ying-jeou, the president of ROC government, just gave a talk on several days ago, claiming mainland China was part of ROC under the R.O.C. Constitution. link 1 link 2 link 3 link 4.

The amount of proven reserves in oil shale (tight oil, NOT shale oil which is just low grade kerogen, a step up from peat moss) are limited. Planetwide use of "oil" is about 85 E6 barrels per day. You get into trouble with definitions - do you include condensate from natural gas wells or not, but we're going to do an order of magnitude calculation here, so don't get too picky. So, about 3 E10 barrels / year - that's a shitload of fossilized plant poo.

So, even if you take the cornicopian approach of quite a bit of tight oil available world wide (30 billion [3 E 10], you only get a year's worth out of it. Of course, there are other forms of oil - conventional oil from the big, classic fields in the Middle East and Alaska, oil sands, and others, but you begin to see that all of that tight oil doesn't kick the can much further down the road.

We're doomed.

It's an interesting article, and I find the subject of censorhip in China to be interesting in general, but can't you find a source a little more objective than the Epoch Times? You're quoting a story about a television show produced by the Falun Gong, and your source is a newspaper owned by the Falun Gong.

Here are some other sources:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/06/21/307009/Chunghwa-Telecom.htm
http://en.rsf.org/taiwan-taiwanese-tv-satellite-operator-24-05-2011,40343.html

From the Wikipedia article Epoch Times, it's hard to tell whether Epoch Times is owned by the Falun Gong or not. (Although I've read it, and I'd say that if it's not owned by the Falun Gong, it's certainly owned by people extremely sympathetic to them).

Apparently this has been going on since May 25, 2010 (almost 1 year ago)...

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/05/26/258184/p1/Apple-maker.htm

http://www.chinasourcingnews.com/2010/05/31/552238-foxconns-working-conditions-in-china-under-scrutiny/

In the most recent quarter reported, Apple (with a tiny share of the market) was already making more profit on its iPhone than Nokia was on all of its handsets combined -- both dumb and smart phones. Also, AAPL's market cap is about four times that of NOK. So I'm not sure I agree with your conclusion about who is the big guy in this battle.

This link put mobile phone users at 3.3 billion at end of 2007:
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/global%20markets/2008/05/26/158188/Mobile-phone.htm

This Wikipedia page put worldwide PC users at 1 billion as of June 2008 - see Market and Sales paragraph:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_computer

So, if the numbers for both are correct and Linux users are ( probably not for long ) greater than iPhone users
then, yes, Linux is a success. However, it just doesn't have the cachet of the iPhone.And I don't think the Chrome OS
browser will change that unless they jazz up that interface - what I saw and the VM of it I used seemed rather cheesy.
gOS is better, IMHO.

right handed versus left handed traffic. solution best decided by vanuatu:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9b/Vanuatu_driving.png

rail gauge. there's european and chinese, standard, but russia uses a broad gauge, which is a serious problem for economic development:

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/2008/01/11/138592/Beijing-to.htm

I think it is dangerous to solely rely on hope in change because somebody has convinced us it's going to happen. The most important duty of the demos in a democracy is to make sure it does, by giving its support when things are moving and discontent when they are moving in the wrong direction.

I am totally with Obama here, but let's not forget we should be doing our job of checking things are doing OK, and give the elected few a hand when it's straying off track.

Take a look atUkraine four years after the revolution... (may not be the most "democratic" source, but it's vaguely along the right lines :)

There was a good chance change would have happened, but what was missing was a healthy level of checks and balances on behalf of the public.

----
On account of being a democracy and run by the people, we are the only nation in the world that has to keep a government four years, no matter what it does.
- Will Rogers (1879 - 1935)

To me, this means that there could be a day where "Psychology" as we know it might actually end, and DNA fixes could actually be the cure to depression, etc...

The Max Planck institute agrees with you, and screens DNA to find the right pill to cure your ill. I'm sure the direct fix would be preferable if possible.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/health/genetics/2008/01/25/140504/Genetic-changes.htm

China is not fascist IMHO because they don't have an institutionalized ideology of racism and military expansionism. I just think western political science doesn't have a word yet for what they are yet.

China runs like a communist state in that "The Party" makes all the decisions. As Lenin said, "the party is the vanguard of the proletariat [the people]" -- so the proletariat should just shut up. People join the party and then are slowly promoted up the ranks, appointed to various positions, committees, etc. based on internally made decisions by fellow party members ("Inner Party Democracy"). At the very top is the central committee and the chairman of the central committee is nominally the head of the government.

Here's a good article on political reform within the party and the strengthening of "inner-party democracy":
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/commentary/2007/09/19/123161/All-eyes.htm

The economic system is different from the west in that banks run with heavy state influence but never contract credit. In the U.S a bank makes a lot of bad loans -- it goes out of business. They all tend to do that at the same time when credit stops expanding -- which causes a contraction in lending, which causes a slowdown in the economy.

In China bank make tons of bad loans to people the government wants them to and the loans never get paid back. The banks get continually bailed out by the government and so the credit cycle doesn't really happen. The problem with this system is that if the banks lend money to inefficient industries, or cronies, inflation will get rolling along. China counteracts this by regularly executing corrupt bank officials. They also stomp on asset bubbles by doing things like raising taxes and instituting mandatory down payments on real estate loans.

In the west we have the law and only the law and lots of lawyers to go with it. In China they have the law and a lot of arbitrary rules made by party officials that they change from time to time. The whole thing hangs together IMHO because of a strong sense of solidarity and patriotism within the party and brutal action against dissent from outside the party and corruption inside the party.

Usually new ideas get introduced into the party dialog by internal party think tanks who make speeches and float trial balloons which are collectively accepted or rejected by the higher levels of the party.

It's a different system but it works. The problem is is that these kinds of systems have to be particularly careful to keep power evenly distributed -- and keep out Stalin like sociopaths -- in order to prevent the party from becoming too rigid or power from becoming too concentrated and thus making irrational policy decisions and stifling "legitimate" criticism as happened during Mao's reign.

The Chinese are getting fully licensed computers. I'll bet that's not what Microsoft was hoping for when the Chinese made that promise :-) And not only that, they're using a superior chip to the Intel/AMD kludge. Unlike a certain American company that switched. It looks like soon the Chinese will be setting the standards for tech and civil rights(that's not good).

Maybe they can use this to help the families in New Orleans, since 3 months later there are still over 300 bodies still unidentified, and over 4,000 people still missing.

"You're doing a heckuva job, Brownie!"

Here, here and here.

China already DID create and launch a HD disc format, EVD. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/technology/detail.asp? ID=1477&GRP=a Longtime Hong Kong-based online DVD merchants HiViZone are still selling the player with some discs, although it could probably be considered a failed format at this point, with poor sales in China and no takers for the format elsewhere. https://www2.setssl.com/~hivizone/dvdplayer/shinco 8830/shinco8830.htm In case anyone's wondering, there's no English subtitles on that HD copy of HERO... dammit. It'd be a neat toy for someone with an HD setup, though.

Probably this is just a trick by a Merrill Lynch publicist, who found a way to get free publicity. Or, maybe it is a way to distract people from some fraud involving the Taiwanese firm and Merrill Lynch.

Otherwise the story just doesn't make sense. To believe the story, Fubon cuts loss to NT$50 mil. in NT$8 bil. mistake, as it was written, you have to believe that the Taiwan firm hires inexperienced people, gives them little training, and does not review their large trades.

Do you really believe that a low-level employee spent a quarter billion dollars because of a keystroke error? In any case, the people who should know don't believe the story. Shares of "Fubon Securities' parent firm Fubon Financial Holding rose by 0.47%".

According to the U.S. government's SEC department, corruption of the media is not the only corruption from Merrill Lynch: SEC Charges Merrill Lynch, Four Merrill Lynch Executives with Aiding and Abetting Enron Accounting Fraud.

The U.S. government's Justice Department says, Three Top Former Merrill Lynch Executives Charged With Conspiracy, Obstruction Of Justice, Perjury In Enron Investigation.

There is general agreement that there has been no serious change in the U.S. government and big corporations like Merrill Lynch and Citibank. Apparently the only change is that they will be more careful in the future when they engage in deceptive practices. For an example of what has been written about this, see Iraq Could Produce Another Enron, by Nomi Prins. Ms. Prins wrote an excellent book about corporate and government corruption in the U.S., Other People's Money. At Powell's: Other People's Money.

Apparently most of what is written about the financial markets is fradulent in some way. Generally it fits into the category of "What we want you to think so that we can make more money". Employees and investors in the U.S. have lost billions of dollars due to fraud in the last few years.

The corruption is extremely widespread. Here are short reviews of 35 books and 3 movies about conflict of interest in the U.S. government: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government. (To those who think there is little or no corruption: If you can't give any example of a book or article you have read that supports your view, please consider not commenting this time.)

which is most likely to be imposed soon

As much as Bush is trying and pushing for it, for now the FTAA isn't much more than a pipe dream. CAFTA, Central America Free Trade Agreement, has a better shot. There's Brazil and Venezuela Bush has to contend with. The WTO meetings in Cancun "fail apart" because Brazil wasn't about to bow down to Bush and Lula isn't about to start anytyme soon. Neither is Chavez. Instead they are work on Mercosur, a trading block of South American nations. Brazil's government is getting fed up with Washington:

Brazil Considers Suspending Copyright on U.S. Products

2005/6/13
By Jerry Hirsch Los Angeles Times

Angered by subsidies to U.S. cotton growers, Brazilian lawmakers said Thursday they are considering suspending the intellectual property rights of American products in their country if the U.S. government does not explain how it intends to change subsidy programs by July 1.

The deadline was set earlier this year by the World Trade Organization, which found that U.S. assistance to cotton farmers distorts world prices by encouraging overproduction. If implemented, Brazil's plan would negatively affect a range of U.S. industries, from entertainment to software to pharmaceuticals.

"Essentially, the Brazilian position would be, "We're going to have state-sanctioned piracy,'" said Neil Turkewitz, an executive vice president of the Recording Industry Association of America, the music industry's largest trade and lobbying group.

While it's not unusual for nations to slap high tariffs on a marketbasket of goods as retaliation in trade disputes, sanctioning the copying of one country's products is unconventional and possibly illegal, trade officials said. At the minimum, the move would require a new law in Brazil and WTO approval, they said. The plan was the topic of a legislative committee meeting in Brasilia, the nation's capital Thursday.

Richard Mills, a spokesman for U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman, called talk of Brazilian action premature. ``We intend to comply so there will not be any need for retaliation,'' he said.

U.S. cotton farmers received $1.6 billion in federal subsidies last year, according to Environmental Working Group, a Washington-based nonprofit that tracks the data.

Brazil's proposed strategy is designed to draw Hollywood, Silicon Valley and big pharma into the trade battle, said Pedro de Comargo Neto, the head of a large farm organization and a former trade official who oversaw the nation's successful challenge of U.S. cotton payments.

"We want other parties in the United States to understand that what the cotton lobby is doing is not in their interest," Comargo said Thursday.

Rather than enlisting allies, the strategy could have the opposite effect.

Any Brazilian move against U.S. copyrights or patents probably would draw retaliation from the U.S. government on key Brazilian exports, said Dan Glickman, chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America and agriculture secretary during the Clinton administration.

"They sell a lot of airplanes in the U.S.," Glickman said, referring to commuter aircraft maker Embraer. "This could become a pretty serious tit-for-tat trade dispute."

A trade war would be the last thing Brazil wants, said Alan Tonelson, a trade expert at the U.S. Business and Industry Council in Washington. "They need the U.S. market far more than we need them," he said.

Brazil is America's largest trading partner in South America and ranks 14th overall, according to the World Institute for Strategic Economic Research. About $35 billion of trade occurs between the two nations each year.

Ordinarily, Brazil would raise tariffs on U.S. goods, the typical WTO-sanctioned remedy for ge

This massive campaign towards securing and extending the definition of intellectual property in the US appears to be, ironically, the nation's response to globalisation and the China price (a term used to describe the price of goods and services in China, usually meaning the lowest possible price). By creating extremely powerful IP laws and then extending that to the third world countries producing lower cost products, tying it in with other treaties (no aid unless you accept our IP laws and enforce them, we'll also loosen up our immigration policies towards you too :D).

This way those in "control" of ideas and concepts can continue to milk them while maintaining control over these third world countries, who can afford low cost mass production, but will not then be allowed to build on the knowledge they have, due to it being restricted by IP laws. And so, the USA manages to effortlessly keep its technological lead over these countries, who might otherwise swiftly overtake it in technical ability and production capacity.

Not to be alarmist, but these marketing drones and legal eagles are leading us into a new dark age, where knowledge itself is restricted to a select few, a tyranny of DRM. That the concept is difficult to grasp by the masses is not going to make the penalties for infringement any less harsh. Sadly this problem is not self correcting, nor do I see any immediate method to stop or slow it, short of a massive reduction in the influence of the USA in international relations or a complete reversal of policy by the adminisration there.