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maybe we really should be trying to get our local house in order before opening branch offices

Our difficulties trying to get our local house in order are one of the reasons we need to look into opening branch offices. Hundreds of thousands of years of progress later, the life expectancy near Olduvai Gorge is still 45 years.

You are right that the benefits of Apollo involved politics, science, and technology (in rapidly descending order) and not colonization. That doesn't mean we need to give up on manned spaceflight, just that we need to look for more sustainable ways to accomplish it.

This story simply does not add up.

The real story behind this story is that the American government is doing one of two things: (1) psy-ops (i.e. psychological warfare) against the enemy or (2) political games to improve support for the Iraqi war effort.

Washington knows that the Muslim fascists monitor worldwide news sources. Washington may be publicizing these documents in an effort to hint (to the fascists) that (1) these documents are just the tip of the iceberg and (2) there are additional documents (in our possession) that indicate where the fascists are hiding and what their next moves are.

Alternatively, Washington knows that some pro-war Republican/Democratic bloggers will scan these documents. Further, Washington knows that on, say, page 15 (of the documents), there is a tidbit or blatant statement asserting that Saddam Hussein had planned to create weapons of mass destruction all along. Washington hopes that the bloggers will find page 15 and will start hollering about how right we were to invade Iraq. In short, the bloggers are mindless automatons, and Washington has just skillfully manipulated public opinion.

P.S.
Another version of this story was already published by SlashDot on March 19.

South Korea wants $33 Billion with a B.

A non-trivial slice of a ~750B GDP

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/field s/2195.html

That would be like the US asking for ~$500 Billion using relative GDP as a rough comparison.

It's hard to believe that Microsoft has made that much money in South Korea especially with the piracy rate.

Even better link. Sorry.

I guess not that Germany is a completely a western country, they must learn that the best way to grow a bussiness is to supply products the people want. And, of course, if artificial barriers are erected to try to force consumers to buy stuff they don't want, then those consumers will just find another way to get they stuff they do.

I call, "BS", on this story.

The American government already knows what those documents state, in the Iraqi language. The purpose of presenting those documents to the public is to slyly hint, to the Iraqi insurgents, that Washington has even more documents and, more importantly, all the detailed information about their whereabouts and their next set of moves. Washington hopes that this threat just might scare the insurgents into leaving Iraq. Basically, Washington is doing psy-ops (psychological warfare) on the Internet.

The situation in Iraq is dire. Lacking sufficient troops to quell the insurgency, Washington just might exit Iraq, leaving it to spiral into civil war. The latest reports talk about Shiite death squads rounding up Sunnis and executing them. Sometimes, American soldiers are caught in the cross fire.

Washington will do everything (including psy-ops) that it can up until 2007 January 1, the start of the next presidential campaign season. After 2007 January 1, Washington will pull the troops out of Iraqi. On this matter, the veto-proof majority of Republicans and Democrats are united, and they will pull the troops out of this mess. The only people who disagree are George Bush, Condoleeza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld.

Well, the gender representation in China isn't really that alarming. According to the CIA World Factbook, males represent 53.0% of the 0-14 age group (lower for the 15-65 age group), compared to 51.1% in the US, and the UK for the same 0-14 age range.

If you want to see something really disturbing, look at the 15-65 age group for mid-east countries such as Kuwait and Qatar: 63.8% and 69.5% respectively.. ~2:1.

Well, the gender representation in China isn't really that alarming. According to the CIA World Factbook, males represent 53.0% of the 0-14 age group (lower for the 15-65 age group), compared to 51.1% in the US, and the UK for the same 0-14 age range.

If you want to see something really disturbing, look at the 15-65 age group for mid-east countries such as Kuwait and Qatar: 63.8% and 69.5% respectively.. ~2:1.

Well, the gender representation in China isn't really that alarming. According to the CIA World Factbook, males represent 53.0% of the 0-14 age group (lower for the 15-65 age group), compared to 51.1% in the US, and the UK for the same 0-14 age range.

If you want to see something really disturbing, look at the 15-65 age group for mid-east countries such as Kuwait and Qatar: 63.8% and 69.5% respectively.. ~2:1.

So you honestly believe that your life is worth $20 million? Let's see:

• The per capita GDP in the USA is $41,800; we'll use that as a proxy for average income.
• The median age is 36.
• The average retirement age is 64.
• The average person, then, has about 28 more years of work at $41,800 ahead of them.
• Ergo, you can expect to earn about $1.2 million dollars more before you die.

Please feel free to enumerate the reasons why you should be able to sue for 2000% of your expected total life earnings.

I am for unlimited actual damage compensation. That is, if you can prove that your injury will cost you $50,000,000, then I see no reason why you shouldn't be able to sue for the whole amount. Jackasses like you, though, who want the pain and suffering portion to be a lottery should be taken out and shot for ruining health care for the rest of us.

Officially, Neteller is based in Isle of Man, which is a British crown dependency. Similarly, PartyPoker is in Gibralter. Tons of sportsbooks are based in the Carribean. IANAL, but I don't have to be to see that these guys planned ahead.

Officially, Neteller is based in Isle of Man, which is a British crown dependency. Similarly, PartyPoker is in Gibralter. Tons of sportsbooks are based in the Carribean. IANAL, but I don't have to be to see that these guys planned ahead.

Oz Military expenditures - dollar figure: $16.65 billion (2004)
Sing Military expenditures - dollar figure: $4.47 billion (FY01 est.)

-- CIA Factbook

Must be the new math.

What if Australia dismantled their military, and few years from now they noticed that "Shit, China/Indonesia is about to invade us in just few months time!". They couldn't build an effective defence against it.

If China invaded, I think we'd all have to learn to say "Ni Hao".

The CIA World Fact Book

Manpower available for military service:

Australia: 4,943,676 (2005 est.)
China: 342,956,265 (2005 est.)

as on who also believed that Iraq had both Chemical and nuclear weapons in 2003, I decided to look up the answer to that. The answers I've gotten so far are:

1) before ODS (Operation Desert Storm) Iraq had Nuclear weapons, Chemical weapons and Biological weapons.
2) during ODS all or nearly all of the capability to produce, refine, or use these weapons was destroyed, either through US bombing or from inspectors.
3) after ODS and before OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) the US had poor intelligence as to the Iraqi production capabilities of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological weapons, so it was easy for them to assume that Saddam's saber rattling about having such weapons was true.
4) now, after (or during) OIF, the truth is that we think that there was no Nuclear or Chemical weapons capability in Iraq, (though the materials to make chemical weapons were certainly there), and there is some question as to where alot of Biological weapon stockpiles were.

Source of this is http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd_2004/

Ira

http://www.cia.gov/robots.txt

A government that sometimes acts in secret cannot be said to be a democratic government, because the citizens cannot supervise what they don't know.

Ok, so like 90% of what CIA does is not covert operations. They actually employ secretaries and useless middle management folks like other organizations. Not everyone is a uber kool secret agent. In fact, that secret agent role is a tiny portion of what they do. see for yourselves.

I certainly hope you're not confusing today's people of Germany with the Nazi regime.

You might wish to draw a parallel with Turkmenistan

To end off, let's compare some major economies and their level of debt.

UK--40.8%

Germany--65.8%

Italy--105.6%

Japan--164.3%

Russia--28.2%

Spain--53.2%

India--59.7%

Brazil--52%

Canada--68.2%

South Korea--20.5%

France--66.5%

US--64.7%

See the rest here--http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook /fields/2186.html

For some shits and giggles, check out this report comparing the US to the EU.http://www.timbro.com/euvsusa/

That things were bad before the war does not mean the war changed things for the better. I remember looking up life expectancy figures before the war to see if there was any significant difference between Iraq and neighboring Syria and Iran. Life expectancy in Iraq was around two years lower. After reading your post, I checked again.

Accoring to the CIA, the war made no difference; Iraq- 68.7 years, Iran - 69.96, Syria - 70.3.

According to the BBC, "Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 60 years (women) (UN)", or a full ten years lower than the CIA claims. The BBC website claims the UN as source; I haven't checked the UN website.

Score: Saddam 2 years - USA 12 years?

That things were bad before the war does not mean the war changed things for the better. I remember looking up life expectancy figures before the war to see if there was any significant difference between Iraq and neighboring Syria and Iran. Life expectancy in Iraq was around two years lower. After reading your post, I checked again.

Accoring to the CIA, the war made no difference; Iraq- 68.7 years, Iran - 69.96, Syria - 70.3.

According to the BBC, "Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 60 years (women) (UN)", or a full ten years lower than the CIA claims. The BBC website claims the UN as source; I haven't checked the UN website.

Score: Saddam 2 years - USA 12 years?

That things were bad before the war does not mean the war changed things for the better. I remember looking up life expectancy figures before the war to see if there was any significant difference between Iraq and neighboring Syria and Iran. Life expectancy in Iraq was around two years lower. After reading your post, I checked again.

Accoring to the CIA, the war made no difference; Iraq- 68.7 years, Iran - 69.96, Syria - 70.3.

According to the BBC, "Life expectancy: 57 years (men), 60 years (women) (UN)", or a full ten years lower than the CIA claims. The BBC website claims the UN as source; I haven't checked the UN website.

Score: Saddam 2 years - USA 12 years?

"Bowling for Columbine" tried to make a point like that, but is it valid?

I'm not convined that there are "more guns than people in Canada." The population of Canada is 32 million. The number of guns is difficult to determine, but is in the range of 7 to 11 million (corroborated here, and numbers of 7-16 million are used in some official canadian government rhetoric). That's alot of guns... but not more guns that people. It's 0.28 guns per person, on average.

The population of the US is about 295 million. The number of guns in the US (also hard to estimate) is, according to one estimatem, around 200 million (corroborated here, although that includes estimates of undeclared guns; a different site indicates at least 60 million declared guns). That's 0.68 guns per person, on average.

Those stats are debatable, of course. Estimating such things is hard. I also fully acknowledge that the websites I pointed to are not especially trustworthy sources (some are about gun-control, hence they will typically use the biggest stat for number of guns to make their point). However, the take-home message is that, indeed, there are lots of guns both in Canada and in the United States, yet the number of gun-related deaths (per person) in the US seems worse than in Canada. This is the point that "Bowling for Columbine" was trying to make... however it is a great exagerration to say that there are "more guns than people" in Canada.

"Bowling for Columbine" tried to make a point like that, but is it valid?

I'm not convined that there are "more guns than people in Canada." The population of Canada is 32 million. The number of guns is difficult to determine, but is in the range of 7 to 11 million (corroborated here, and numbers of 7-16 million are used in some official canadian government rhetoric). That's alot of guns... but not more guns that people. It's 0.28 guns per person, on average.

The population of the US is about 295 million. The number of guns in the US (also hard to estimate) is, according to one estimatem, around 200 million (corroborated here, although that includes estimates of undeclared guns; a different site indicates at least 60 million declared guns). That's 0.68 guns per person, on average.

Those stats are debatable, of course. Estimating such things is hard. I also fully acknowledge that the websites I pointed to are not especially trustworthy sources (some are about gun-control, hence they will typically use the biggest stat for number of guns to make their point). However, the take-home message is that, indeed, there are lots of guns both in Canada and in the United States, yet the number of gun-related deaths (per person) in the US seems worse than in Canada. This is the point that "Bowling for Columbine" was trying to make... however it is a great exagerration to say that there are "more guns than people" in Canada.

So again, what does America produce that people in other countries might want to buy? I can't think of very many off the top of my head, other than Hollywood movies (which are frequently and easily copied, and also are subject to fickle consumer tastes), and maybe some raw materials, coal, and agriculture products (corn, etc.), which aren't exactly high-value goods the way manufactured goods are.

If you can't think of any, I'm not going to do your thinking for you. The US exported about a trillion dollars of goods last year, third behind the EU (which is a little tough to think of as a "country") and Germany (a member of the EU, thus counted twice). I'll leave it to you as a Google exercise to figure out what the content of those exports were, but I'll give you a freebie: Movies aren't near the top.

By the way, the GDP number is hardly crap - GDP is the only real measure of a country's economic output. It doesn't exist in a vacuum - but, again, I'm not going to do your thinking for you. Google is your friend and it will teach you a little bit about economics if you ask the right questions. But, again, a freebie for you: your assumptions in the third paragraph are a red herring.

-h-

We did that almost 40 years ago.

I note you failed to respond to the comment concerning the recent mission to Jupiter's moons.

But OK, which country currently has a more advance space program than we do?

6 percent of undergraduate students in the United States receive their degrees in science or engineering, compared to 59 percent of undergraduates in China and 66 percent in Japan. In 2004, the United States graduated 70,000 engineers, while China graduated 500,000 and India graduated 200,000.

From the CIA Factbook:

China's population: 1,306,313,812
India's population: 1,080,264,388
US population: 295,734,134

Do the math. As a percentage of the population, education-wise we're extremely competitive.

As opposed to doing real science. Hubble has been used to discover moons around Pluto. Hubble has provided data for thousands of scientific papers. Hubble proved the existence of black holes. Hubble determined that gamma rays originate outside of our solar system. In the early 90's Hubble cleared up the mystery of quasars: It confirmed that quasars are actually active galactic nuclei in distant galaxies and are powered by black holes. The list goes on and on, but it's not just pretty pictures.

And exactly what practical value is that information to us? The distinction here isn't between science and non-science, it's between applied science and pure science.

You do realize that the people doing the exploring were scientists, don't you? You know that it was scientific exploration, don't you?

Thank you. See above response.

So we should send non-scientists off in spaceships to roam the universe and see what is discovered -- much as Spain and England did with sailing ships in centuries past? My prediction: We'd discover that most of them died in their spaceships without ever reaching another planet. The universe is a very big, empty, and inhospitable place. While Christopher Columbus could sail until he reached land and then just step off his ship and breathe in the fresh air, that's not likely to happen to a modern Christopher Columbus even if he reaches some other world.

See above response.

Why indeed would a chinese person or an Indian buy an american product?
What kind of products are you talking about?

Here's some products that you cant buy from non american companies

http://www.beckman.com/products/instrument/automat edsolutions/biomek/biomekfx_inst_dcr.asp

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/

There are more products out there than tennis shoes and bubble gum, and these products have a much higher profit margin than the 10 cents a chinese company makes per pair of shoes.

Americans have been benefited from the price of chinese manufactored goods for decades.

Here are some fun statistics. I love the GDP per capita sections.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2001rank.html

I think stating that these two different situations of economic change are the same is overlooking a few key values which played a part in the creation of the present day Japan.

After WWII the Japanese spent a great deal of time and money on their children (many who didn't have parents). They decided that their future generations would have the knowledge to make a better Japan, and backed it up with their pockets. Now, decades later, it has paid off. The investment in the minds of these children so many years ago has returned 10-fold, and their economy is amazing. They are creating better and cheaper products faster than the competition, and a good deal of these people are making a good wage (30.4k per ala CIA Factbook).

This sort of investment doesn't really seem to exist in India, nor do they seem interested in making it. Instead of jobs like engineering or doctors, these jobs that are being created a simply "minimum-wage jobs" (3.4k per ala CF) in America, call centers, etc etc. Until the country decides to invest in the education of it's people, you won't see the same effects as Japan.

wait, what does america produce these days, other than malls and walmarts?

Oh, about $12 trillion worth of odds and ends.

-h-

...because the biggest economy spot is already taken by someone else.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html#Econ

1.) We have to cut a lot of our emissions since american business and activity is responsible for a lot of the emissions at issue. China is racked with Poverty. That makes it a developing nation. Try not to get confused by syntax or technicalities. It might help if you actually knew what the phrase "developing nation" meant.

Besides, if we really live in a capitalist society, where people innovate and create, Kyoto is no different than any other business condition like new competition or a new technology. Afterall, no one is seriously debating if global warming is just made up or arguing against it (unless they are working for big oil) and the our life as humans as we know it on this planet is hanging in the balance. But no, there's money to be made, so screw it all -- the planet, the environment, future generations.

Inventors and innovators, partly driven by the profit motive, would figure out a way to make business work without the emissions (like algae-biodiesel!)

2.) Are you seriously still drumming up support for Iraq? Because it's worked out so well so far? We've run into a cost over-run by about a factor of potentially 20 (1 - 2 trillion total cost for the war, versus Bush's people's estimate of less than 80 - 120 billion). We invaded for a few reasons, oil being one of the largest, hegemony being another. Saddam was our pal up to the first gulf war and we actually helped put him in place in the 1960's since we wanted strong partners in the region. Why? For oil. That's the whole reason we are there. The entire world was NOT convinced about the WMD, that's why they all said not to invade. At the United Nations Security Council French and Russian Foreign Ministers Dominique de Villepin and Igor Ivanov garnered an unusual applause inside the chamber with their speeches against the war and for a continuation of the weapons inspections. WMD were not transfered to Syria. There's no better opportunity in the world for business than there is in Iraq. The government will always pay for it, you can subcontract it out, etc.

As for the cease-fire demands? We sure don't care when our dictator allies are anti-democratic or are breaking the law. Take the Saudis. They piss people off in Saudi Arabia regular basis; they don't even have a constitution. We overthrew a democratically elected government in Iran in 1953 to install a dictator; they're still a litte bitter about the whole operation. Or how about in Chile? Guatamala? Or the Iran-Contra affair (wanton breaking of the law by Regan)?

Funding for Terrorism? We fund a lot of that under the auspicies of the CIA, mostly in the aforementioned countries. When they do it is terrorism, but when we support and train people who bayonet preagnent women in the stomache, torture children, dissapear people who disagree, it's called "fighting for democracy".

3.) The connection is via government. Car/Oil needs oil reserves. Government is influenced by them by $$$ for campaigns. Military contractors also see this and help by making war profitable and easier. Try reading War is Racket, book by former USMC Major General Smedley Butler where he discuses how business benefits from war. He became disenchanted with a lot of his work when he came to his convictions after, in his words, realizing that he was a "gangster for capitalism".

4.) Trains! Mass-transit! The fact that we as Americans like to own McMansions on large acre plots in bedroom communities doesn't help. No, the trains won't make money but it is a choice society can make that makes life easier. Privitization is a fundamentalism here in the US and people just assume that a privitized industry is a better industry. People

Farming might not be wildly destructive to the environment, but if you look at countries like Nauru, mining for fertilizer can devastate the environment.

sorry, forgot about line breaks:
It strikes me that most of the people here don't realise that Jordan is a relatively modern westernized country when compared to, say, Georgia or Kazakhstan, and doesn't have anything like the civil disobedience problems of Iraq or Afghanistan. Look it up on the CIA World Factbook .

Although I'm sure Isam will comment on this, it seems unlikely that the state of Technological and Economic infrastructure is anything like as bad as some people would like to make out. Again - according to the CIA factbook: microwave radio relay transmission and coaxial and fiber-optic cable are employed on trunk lines; considerable use of mobile cellular systems; Internet service is available

Anyway, on to my Question: As a student in the UK studying computer Science I try to keep abreast of what other people are learning atound the world. What is the state of CompSci (as we like to call it) education in Jordan - is it freely available for everyone to a high (ie. equivelant to a good European/US university) level?

Come to think of it, in a more general sense: how does the Jordanian University System compare to universities in Europe and the States?

Finally, I would be interested to know: Did you study in Jordan, or abroad?

It strikes me that most of the people here don't realise that Jordan is a relatively modern westernized country when compared to, say, Georgia or Kazakhstan, and doesn't have anything like the civil disobedience problems of Iraq or Afghanistan. Look it up on the CIA World Factbook. Although I'm sure Isam will comment on this, it seems unlikely that the state of Technological and Economic infrastructure is anything like as bad as some people would like to make out. Again - according to the CIA factbook Jordan has: microwave radio relay transmission and coaxial and fiber-optic cable are employed on trunk lines; considerable use of mobile cellular systems; Internet service is available Anyway, on to my Question: As a student in the UK studying computer Science I try to keep abreast of what other people are learning atound the world. What is the state of CompSci (as we like to call it) education in Jordan - is it freely available for everyone to a high (ie. equivelant to a good European/US university) level? Come to think of it, in a more general sense: how does the Jordanian University System compare to universities in Europe and the States? Finally, i would be interested to know: Did you study in Jordan, or abroad?

CIA Factbook entry on Jordan
Less than 10% of the population was on the internet in 2003. POTS service was available to just over 10%, I suspect broadband isn't really popular over there.

I know fools like you typically fail at math and logic and also rarely have a firm grasp on reality. Analyzing the actual dollars spent is worthless. What's important is $ per capita and as a percentage of a countries total GDP.

Measured as $ per capita the US is #3 (behind Israel and Singapore):
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/mil_exp_dol_fi g_percap

Measured as a percentage of GDP the US is #36:
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/ranko rder/2034rank.html

Random countries that spend more (as a % of the GDP): Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, Singapore, China, Greece, Chile, Egypt

US Defense spending as percent of GDP from 1940-2000.

But I'm sure whatever you've learned in school (in whatever country you're from) doesn't cover these sort of things. Your ignorant leftist teachers just point out the the US is evil because it spends more money than other countries, as if that has a thread of logic to it.

I'm curious if distributed computing could be used to crack the CIA "Kryptos" code designed by James Sandborn. In 1988, the CIA selected Sanborn's entry called "Kryptos" (meaning "hidden" in greek) to design the monument at CIA headquarters. Mr. Sandborn worked with retired CIA cryptographer to devise codes used in the sculpture. Mr. Sandborn wrote the text to coded in collaboration with a prominent fiction writer. James Sanborn is noted for saying "They will be able to read what I wrote, but what I wrote is a mystery itself." Only two people have been able to crack 3/4's of the kryptos code - A computer scientist. The other, a physicist. The remaining message is still unknown. http://cia.gov/cia/information/tour/krypt.html

You did not include cost estimates of all these other costs in your original calculation, and as I don't feel like coming up with numbers for them, I can't account for them.

But as for $100/year being too much for billions of people, of course this is true. I was not suggesting that everyone on the planet contribute $100/year, only putting the number in perspective in per capita terms. World GDP according to the CIA world factbook was approximately $59.38 trillion last year, so 600 billion per year is a fairly small fraction of this. Of course, most of it would come from the first world, but if we're talking about powering the whole world, we have to look at it in terms of the economic cost to the whole world, and 600 billion out of 59.38 trillion is not as massive as you make it sound.

As for peaceful worldwide decade long multi-trillion dollar projects, well probably I couldn't point to any that are multi-trillion dollar, that's true. But there have been prolonged worldwide projects at somewhat lower budgets that have been unprecedented and highly successful, like the eradication of smallpox, as well as some that have not yet succeeded but that have produced a great deal of knowledge, like the ITER project.

More importantly, powering the whole world with nuclear power is not likely to be one giant international project, it's likely to happen in a decentralised way. All I was trying to establish is that given the numbers that you gave, the costs are not all that great as a percentage of world GDP.

Aah, yes, of course

Sweden has not contributed a single thing to science, and its people live in fear.. or?

Sweden is a monarchy.

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ sw.html

CIA World Factbook

Go ahead, find Taiwan in there. I dare you.

As far as the United States government is concerned, Taiwan is part of China. (I love how they label it "Taiwan" anyway, but it's clearly marked as Chinese territory.)

Amusingly enough, Taiwan gets a spot on the World Flags page - in the same section that the European Union does.

CIA World Factbook

Go ahead, find Taiwan in there. I dare you.

As far as the United States government is concerned, Taiwan is part of China. (I love how they label it "Taiwan" anyway, but it's clearly marked as Chinese territory.)

Amusingly enough, Taiwan gets a spot on the World Flags page - in the same section that the European Union does.

http://www.cia.gov/robots.txt
# Disallow any type of crawler.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /_notes
Disallow: /Templates
Disallow: /includes
Disallow: /javascript
Disallow: /scripts
Disallow: /graphics
Disallow: /search

Are these the same people bitching about Bush pushing our version of democracy around the world? And if so, how the hell is this any different?

It isn't the job of companies to do business internationally with the intent of breaking laws and changing foreign government policy. That's the CIA. Feel free to apply.

...nearly all living within a narrow band:

approximately 90% of the population is concentrated within 160 km of the US border

So, Canada averages 28.8 people/km^2 in a very narrow ribbon. US similarly averages 30.2 people/km^2, but across a huge landmass. I can imagine why it would be much easier to outfit a small, concentrated population than a large, unevenly distributed one.

While I admire the intent behind this movement, this will serve only to further limit Chinese exposure to American culture and ideas. We should be encouraging businesses to push into Chinese markets, both for social reasons and to restore (as much as possible) the trade balance between nations.

While I admire the intent behind this movement, this will serve only to further limit Chinese exposure to American culture and ideas. We should be encouraging businesses to push into Chinese markets, both for social reasons and to restore (as much as possible) the trade balance between nations.

While I admire the intent behind this movement, this will serve only to further limit Chinese exposure to American culture and ideas. We should be encouraging businesses to push into Chinese markets, both for social reasons and to restore (as much as possible) the trade balance between nations.

I'm the last to argue the American experience has been beneficial to the country - it's been disasterous and a stain on their history - but drawing them as the eternal boogyman makes no sense. From the CIA fact book regarding one aspect of Vietnam's challenges:

"logging and slash-and-burn agricultural practices contribute to deforestation and soil degradation; water pollution and overfishing threaten marine life populations; groundwater contamination limits potable water supply; growing urban industrialization and population migration are rapidly degrading environment in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City"

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ vm.html

Looks like the CIA have screwed up again then! :-) Check this: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html