Slashdot Mirror

From the article:

Taiwan produces about a third of the world's chips, more than 60 percent of its laptop computers and 70 percent of the mother boards, among other things. Personal-computer giants Dell and Hewlett-Packard buy most of their products in Taiwan and China.

Sounds similar to the substantial position of some western corporations to me, only that the producer

• is a country
  
• is a country the size of which is merely the sixth part of Kansas
  
• is a country which has roughly ten times as many inhabitants as Kansas, which in turn is flatter than a pancake and thus should take precedence in producing wafers
  

On a side note: I would be grateful if one of our American friends could explain the fact that Taiwan is available through the CIA-factbook mentioned above, but cannot easily be found on the pulldown located on the main page.

your misreading of OMB figures (such as describing a nearly 10% decrease in unemployment as a `jobless recovery'

Those wishful OMB figures are projections, whereas the jobless recovery is the fact on the gound, right now. You can hope all you want that trickle-down policies will hire those newly unemployed three million by next November, but it's not looking good.

last year the government of Sweden admitted that Sweden's economy is in such bad shape that were Sweden to become the 51st state of the US, it would not only be the poorest state of the union, but Swedes as an ethnic group would be the poorest

Nonsense, the Swedish government said no such thing. Your right-wing propagandist on "Tech Central Station - where free markets meet technology" made the glaring error in his lede of comparing per-capita median income without denominating the comparison with the cost of living in the respective countries. If he had done so, he would have had to admit that Swedish household purchasing power is on par with that of the U.S. Reputable news organizations such as Reuters frequently report Sweden scoring tops on aggregate quality-of-life rankings.

But don't take my word for it, or Reuters, why don't you see what the CIA says about Sweden's poverty rate?

you're double counting here, since you already counted that $89 billion just two paragraphs earlier

Sorry, I don't follow you. Net interest on the national debt is projected by the OMB to be $260 billion in 2008. Subtract the $171 billion from FY2002 and you get $89 billion, a 50% increase. All those T-bills will make the debt market look quite a bit different, and raise interest rates a lot more than 0.6%.

the last six months alone, joblessness has dropped from 6.4% to 5.9%, and there are no reasons to believe this drop won't continue apace.

Keep wishing. We'll see in November.

Made me think, WTF is Gabon.

The 10,766,471 people living in Angola might disagree with you, for starters.

Jackass.

Bengali/Bangla is the language of Bangladesh.

See the CIA Word Fact Book for some information about Bangladesh.

Did you know that Bangladesh is the 8th largest nation on the world (note: "World" is the first in this ranking) ?

Bengali is spoken by some Indians as well, India being the second largest nation on the world.

Bengali/Bangla is the language of Bangladesh.

See the CIA Word Fact Book for some information about Bangladesh.

Did you know that Bangladesh is the 8th largest nation on the world (note: "World" is the first in this ranking) ?

Bengali is spoken by some Indians as well, India being the second largest nation on the world.

Bengali/Bangla is the language of Bangladesh.

See the CIA Word Fact Book for some information about Bangladesh.

Did you know that Bangladesh is the 8th largest nation on the world (note: "World" is the first in this ranking) ?

Bengali is spoken by some Indians as well, India being the second largest nation on the world.

References:

1. Classification guidelines
2. More info on FOUO
3. Document marking guidelines
4. EO 12958, which gives the authority to classify information

You should remember that the men and women who defend this country do so largely without public knowledge of their activities and methods, for obvious reasons. They do so often at the expense of an orderly family life, friends they can confide in, and even their lives. They have strict rules by which they must follow, and make obligations which last them for the rest of their lives, even if they leave public service. A polygraph from time to time means nothing to them, nor did it to me when I was an applicant. If you're going to criticize polygraphs, or the people that take them, go right ahead, but please give some privacy to the hiring process for people who are out there risking their lives on your behalf.

If you feel that I'm a government shill, I invite you to apply for a position at the NSA, CIA, or DIA. It doesn't even have to be in Operations. I know for a fact that the government is looking for highly talented people like you.

Of course, they do have a lingering border dispute with China as well.

Distance between New Delhi and Islamabad: 406 miles (653 km)

Distance between New Delhi and Beijing: 2341 miles (3768 km)

None of the USA's current fleet of ICBM's (AFAIK) use cryogenic motors for their primary stages. However, previous generations certianly did, (Redstone, Titan, etc)

Although this rocket may very well be intended for civilian or commercial service, I think that it is also to demonstrate to the world India's continued development of rocket systems, keeping in the audience's mind that they can put increasingly large nuclear payloads increasingly farther away.

3. Move to Mars.That's the best, most viable option I can see.

Well, there's always Somalia , kind of like Mars but it includes such valuable attributes as an atmosphere and shipping ports. With no functional government it would be an anarcho-capitalist's dream, except for the " uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves" which invite a bush/Haliburton invasion.

3. Move to Mars.That's the best, most viable option I can see.

Well, there's always Somalia , kind of like Mars but it includes such valuable attributes as an atmosphere and shipping ports. With no functional government it would be an anarcho-capitalist's dream, except for the " uranium and largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, copper, salt, natural gas, likely oil reserves" which invite a bush/Haliburton invasion.

South Korea
Area (sq km): 98,190
Population: 48,289,037 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Users: 25.6 million (2002)

Your statistics is incomplete unless you have data for "the other half," my country. Here you go.

North Korea
Area: 120,540 (sq km)
Population: 22,466,481 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 1 (2000)
Internet users: 3 (my guess)

[source]

some math

ISP / Population: 1/22,466,481

Not to mention, I am one of the three internet users in my country. The other two are hackers working for the government, cracking gentoo servers. My nation rock.

Kim

It's probably higher because the population density is higher and in particular the density of internet users is higher, thus lowering the cost per home to wire them up (less km of wire). It's interesting to note that there's more % internet users in the US though, so maybe the density is not the whole story.

South Korea
Area (sq km): 98,190
Population: 48,289,037 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Users: 25.6 million (2002)

[source]

USA
Area (sq km): 9,158,960
Population: 290,342,554 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Users: 165.75 million (2002)

[source]

Some math.

South Korea
% Internet Users: 53.0%
people per sq km: 491.79
Internet users per sq km: 261

USA
% Internet Users: 57.088%
people per sq km: 31.70
Internet users per sq km: 18.097

It's probably higher because the population density is higher and in particular the density of internet users is higher, thus lowering the cost per home to wire them up (less km of wire). It's interesting to note that there's more % internet users in the US though, so maybe the density is not the whole story.

South Korea
Area (sq km): 98,190
Population: 48,289,037 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Users: 25.6 million (2002)

[source]

USA
Area (sq km): 9,158,960
Population: 290,342,554 (July 2003 est.)
Internet Users: 165.75 million (2002)

[source]

Some math.

South Korea
% Internet Users: 53.0%
people per sq km: 491.79
Internet users per sq km: 261

USA
% Internet Users: 57.088%
people per sq km: 31.70
Internet users per sq km: 18.097

But how much of this is really news? Our very own Canadian intelligence folks describe themselves as "...an organization with secrets to protect, not a secret organization." They provide detailed information on what's involved if you want to join them. The CIA have a detailed employment FAQ Try the GCHQ recruitment page.

If you click on Employment Opprtunities at the NSA, you get a blank window (at least in my version of Mozilla). The web version of invisible ink, perhaps?

...laura

First let me revise the 30% figure I gave, the CIA world fact book reports North Korea spending 33.9% of Gross Domenstic Product on their military. US spends 3.2%.

----------

While what you said is perfectly true, you looked at it from the employee perspective. Now look at it from the employer perspective. The government decides how many soldiers it is willing to employ. Each soldier it hires means one less worker in the economy manufacturing goods, supplying services, or growing rice. Each soldier it hires is an employee that must recieve training, that must be supplied with equipment, that must be paid, that must be fed. The government can only train, supply, pay, and feed soldiers by commandeering (taxing) those services, goods, money, and rice from the rest of the population.

Nearly one thrid of the entire economy is diverted to the army. For every three bags of rice you grow one is seized and goes to the army. For every $300 you earn $100 is taxed and goes to the army. The same goes for anything and everything you earn, grow, build, or mine.

That is above and beyond of the usual taxes you pay to run the rest of the government. However much you earn yearly, figure out 30.7% of that. Now imagine adding that figure to your existing taxes.

Actually the impact would be even worse than that example indicates - the economy has a multiplier effect built in. Consider the people who are paying you your income - they get hit with the 30.7% tax hike too. They have that much less money to pay you with. The people who pay your employer also have that much less money give, and on and on. That is the multiplier effect. Everyone's gross paycheck would be divided by 3 or worse. So first you get hit with a massive paycut THEN your taxes are hit with 27% bump.

The entire US economy would fall apart. It would make the Great Depression look like a hiccup. The Soviet Union collapse was largely due to Cold War military spending - and that was at around 16% of GDP. North Korea's 33.9% level is absolutely crushing. One of North Korea's primary exports is large arms - particularly missles.

-

Think of it as income redistribution. Global taxes, as it were.

That's way off. Those that are redistributing income actually still have income. The problem here is it's not cheapening developers so much as it's making them completely unemployed. Check with the IRS as to how much tax is paid by those that are unemployed.

In the US, services make up 80% of GDP compisition. That's because anything else a skilled developer could do has already been outsourced for the most part. Meanwhile, cheap labor goes mostly to aliens here. Even been to an interview where someone told you that you're overqualified for the job? Look for that to happen more and more often as jobs developers are qualified for land in another country.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm told that Sweden's unemployment is 4% and national debt is 30% of annual GDP, or about US$7500 per capita.

Not to feed the troll, but according to this, Norway has a per capita GDP of $31,800, a Gini index of .26, and $68 billion in exports vs. $37 billion in imports. Not too shabby for a bunch of fjord-huggers -- and they're Gini index sure kicks the US's ass (we're at something like .43)

• New Zealand Military branches
• • New Zealand Army
  • Royal New Zealand Navy
  • Royal New Zealand Air Force
• Military manpower - military age
• • 20 years of age (2003 est.)
• Military manpower - availability
• • males age 15-49: 1,021,770 (2003 est.)
• Military manpower - fit for military service:
• 
  
  • males age 15-49: 859,505 (2003 est.)
• Military manpower - reaching military age annually
• • males: 26,803 (2003 est.)
• Military expenditures - dollar figure
• • $605.7 million (FY02)
• Military expenditures - percent of GDP
• • 1% (FY02)

This is bullshit. If you can't handle the responsibility of parenthood, THEN DON'T HAVE KIDS!!
Condider the fact that even in "Western" countries, many farmers had kids to help on the farm, and help with the work, not just because they felt like having kids.

This is bullshit. If you can't handle the responsibility of parenthood, THEN DON'T HAVE KIDS!!
Condider the fact that even in "Western" countries, many farmers had kids to help on the farm, and help with the work, not just because they felt like having kids.

This is bullshit. If you can't handle the responsibility of parenthood, THEN DON'T HAVE KIDS!!
Condider the fact that even in "Western" countries, many farmers had kids to help on the farm, and help with the work, not just because they felt like having kids.

The United States is not a democracy, it's a Representative Republic. The distinction is important, because if electronic voting ever realised its full potential, the argument that 'the people can't elect their own president directly because it would be too difficult to coordinate, too hard to count' would be difficult to defend.

Well, why not?

After all, CIA has a site for kids, too.

Too late. India is way above one billion now. Check out the CIA World Factbook. If it's to be trusted, Inida is about 200 million people behind China as of January 1, 2003.

West, North and East Africa are regions of the African continent. South Africa on the other hand is a country. So the swallow is named after a country, not the continent. "South African X" always pertains to the country, if you want to talk about the region it's "Southern African X".

It would be a bit like saying "the only two American X named after the continent is the North American X and the USA X".

No kidding. The CIA World Factbook describes South Korea as " slightly larger than Indiana", so all we could do is wire up Indiana, and I don't want to have to move to Indiana.

If you look at the numbers their complete budget for 2000 was only $95.7 billion. Assuming it starts now & ends on time, without any cost overruns, we're looking at something like 12% of the government's spending going towards this project.

That's some commitment to closing the 'digital divide'. Well, as long as they make reasonably affordable computers available to their citizens when this thing goes live.

I would argue that most intelligent poeple would reckon that "Fux the Penguin" is talking crap. I'm an Australian and I have never heard of "Julie Arhoolian".

I also find someone calling Australia "society's backwaters" to be mildly offensive. The CIA's The World Factbook describes Australia's economy as "a prosperous Western-style capitalist economy, with a per capita GDP on par with the four dominant West European economies."

And do you realise that NORML is an organisation for the reform of marijuana laws? Obviously it has nothing to do with the music industry.

The person who has to outgrow their petty bigotry and idolatry is Fux the Penguin. So I repeat Chuck Chunder's assertion that the crap post should be modded down.

Click on 'Select a Country'. That should give you some idea.

Actually, it's true:
Coastline: 3,218 km
if you're traveling by boat, hugging the shore.

3. Neither the surface nor the subsurface of the moon, nor any part thereof or natural resources in place, shall become property of any State, international intergovernmental or non-governmental organization, national organization or non-governmental entity or of any natural person.

Compare it to Maritime claims on Antarctica: none; 20 of 27 Antarctic consultative nations have made no claims to Antarctic territory (although Russia and the US have reserved the right to do so) and do not recognize the claims of the other nations;

I agree whole heartedly. Saddam was not overthrown for being a dictator. The US (of which I am a citizen) only goes after certain types of targets. They have to directly effect the US. They have to be easily overwhelmed.

The African nations are an excellent example, but I like to use China. It's been a dictatorship since the cultural revolution. It's treated it's people poorly. It's treated it's neighbors poorly (Taiwan).

There's no chance that the US will do to them what it's done to Iraq. Check out the statistics at CIA World Fact Book. China has enough military manpower available (basically physically fit males from 18 to 49) to have soldier available for nearly every man, woman and child in the US. (It's 230 million potential Chinese soldiers to 290 million US citizens.)

Yup, a small country with 60 million population and and 1.5 million muslims according to the CIA Factbook

Hence, UK must be on USA's hitlist in its "war on terror"

In case the US 1,000 pound bombs don't find the target, the UK's geographic coordinates are 31 30 N, 34 45 E.

Some reasons why Microsoft owes many of us money.

In case you haven't heard, Microsoft (MSFT) has been deeply unprofitable since 1996, when it began to rely on holes in the GAAP accounting standards that allowed it to report historic profits in its NASDAQ filings up until this very day, so making it look like the hottest business since ACME, Inc.. Large fund managers bought into it to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, making MS at its peak ($700B) which for comparison made it the largest component of the S&P 500, the equivalent of the 16th largest country or ~1.5% of the GDP of Earth. Heh, and we thought it was Windows.

Who cares? The biggest funds involved were retirement funds of large social programs across the US, who automatically invest in S&P components at rates proportional to the components' value. MS paid for its bottom line with those peoples' money, so much so that pentioners are majority owners of MS today. Too bad for them that the bottom fell out of MS stock and their savings are worthless. But it did help create two of the richest personal accounts on Earth.

You could argue that this was all legal and that they won the king of the hill prize. Perhaps. But is it ethical to block GAAP reforms via corporate shills in Congress (e.g. Joe Lieberman) so your huge losses won't be exposed? Enron execs are being hung out to dry for being only slightly on the other side of that thin line in the sand. No, it's likely MS knew what it was up to. As Bill Parish, who broke the story, tells:

"Microsoft's perspective is best reflected by Bob Herbold, Chief Operating Officer, to whom the CFO reports. Bob very sincerely replied, "Bill, everyone is doing it.""

You misstate my argument.

My argument is that if the environment is as deadly critical as environmentalists suggest then the same rules should apply to all. Just as being poor isn't an excuse to accept a thousand bucks to kill someone, nor is being poor an excuse to pollute the world--IF we are to believe the environmentalists that the threat of our pollution is so grave. Plus most of the pollution in developing countries isn't from poor people--it's from the factories of the rich and/or factories that belong to companies based in developed countries. By exempting pollution controls in developing countries you are giving a handout to the rich in those countries or the rich in developed countries at the expense of even worse health for the poor in those developing countries.

More likely than not the threat is NOT that grave. In that case I resent the environment being used as an excuse to justify worldwide wealth redistribution. If they want handouts for the poor they should say so and let us debate that on the economic or ethical merits.

You have, what, 1/24th the world population and you use 25% the world's energy.

The GWP (Gross World Product) was 45.9 trillion in 2001. The US GDP was 10.4 trillion in 2002 (sorry for the one year difference in stats). So the US generates 22.7% of the world's wealth. And the U.S. produces 23.3% of CO2. Are you seeing the similarity? 22.7% of the wealth and 23.3% of the CO2. We produce an amount of CO2 proportional to what we contribute to the world economy.

Further, the U.S. growth in CO2 production was 9.9% from 1990 through 1996. In the same period, China grew by 40%, India grew by 47.7%, and South Korea by 69.2%. Is it of no concern to you that the two most populous countries in the world are increasing their CO2 production at the rate of over 40% per year?

And all those goods are not flowing to other countries, either, they are mostly going to be used by you at home.

Irrelevant. Wealth is wealth. Even if most products are consumed at home the wealth enters the U.S. banking system and the effects are worldwide. If U.S. wealth goes down by 50% believe me everyone in the world will feel the pinch big time.

I don't really give a damn about your personal comfort, it's still inequitable.

Bingo! So we're talking about what is fair and wealth redistribution. Then let's make that the topic and stop making the environment a scape-goat to achieve economic rather than environmental goals.

American culture is invading Japan far faster than Japanese culture is invading the US. Our ambassadors are Jeans, television, Brittney Spears and Explosion movies. English names in products are not only common over there, they're marketing wins for being cool. Japanese games and movies are starting to be made in English (with Japanese subtitles), the US is a bigger market and globally English makes more sense (if you exclude China).

The US imports and exports more to Canada and Mexico than Japan. Look it up in the big book of facts.

(And by the way, Qualcomm is an American company).

Yeah, I thought of this, too. There was a BBC radio story on this the other night, I think: Russia considering pricing its oil in euros, and what effect that would have on the US.

On the whole, I don't think it matters much. Saudis want riyals, so they end up selling the dollars that the Danes buy. Or they want UKP to buy Bentleys.

The other thing limiting the impact is that Danish consumers buy gasoline, heating oil, etc., in kroner [Thank you CIA factbook]. In all, only the US's 25% of the world oil consumption is driven directly by dollar prices. The other 75% is influenced by the dollar-X exchange rate. This does create a large, active market in hedging against fluctuations in dollar-X exchange rates, but I still think the end result is that any trend in the dollar's overall value is going to cause the offsetting effect in oil prices. I.e. that the U.S. gains no real price advantage over the other 75% of the world economy.

Some econometrist should probably jump in to point us to real research instead of wild-ass guessing.

How's this "nationalist" when every country in the workl, except European countries have understood how vital it is to keep their populations from consuming more foreign than local goods for economic sanity's sake ?

Hmmm, here are some facts (paid for by the American taxpayers, should I add) :

USA Exports : $687 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
USA Imports : $1.165 trillion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
USA balance : - $487 billion

France Exports : $307.8 billion f.o.b. (2002)
France Imports : $303.7 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
France balance : $4.1 billion

Germany Exports : $608 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Germany Imports : $487.3 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Germany balance : $120.7 billion

Belgium Exports : $162 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Belgium Imports : $152 billion f.o.b. (2001)
Belgium balance : $10 billion

Finland Exports : $40.1 billion f.o.b. (2002)
Finland Imports : $31.8 billion f.o.b. (2002 est.)
Finland balance : $8.3 billion

Come on now, who hasn't figured your statement yet ? The USA is widely known for having a hugely negative trade balance. These few figures are just examples.

A small island situated somewhere around Europe or somewhere like that.

See the CIA World Factbook Entry for more info.

How about the UK? I'm an American, and even I've heard of them! They must be important: Revenues: $565 billion Expenditures: $540 billion Hmm...looks like there's no deficit there.

Ok, how's about a country that's really had troubles, like Russia. I mean, we won right? Go Democracy! Revenues: $70 billion Expenditures: $62 billion Damn!

Let's try again...this time with a true socialist country! I've often heard they don't know how to run an economy! Heeeeeeere's Norway! Revenues: $71.7 billion Expenditures: $57.6 billion

Well, crap. It looks like there are countries other than Germany that have good fiscal policy.

How about the UK? I'm an American, and even I've heard of them! They must be important: Revenues: $565 billion Expenditures: $540 billion Hmm...looks like there's no deficit there.

Ok, how's about a country that's really had troubles, like Russia. I mean, we won right? Go Democracy! Revenues: $70 billion Expenditures: $62 billion Damn!

Let's try again...this time with a true socialist country! I've often heard they don't know how to run an economy! Heeeeeeere's Norway! Revenues: $71.7 billion Expenditures: $57.6 billion

Well, crap. It looks like there are countries other than Germany that have good fiscal policy.

How about the UK? I'm an American, and even I've heard of them! They must be important: Revenues: $565 billion Expenditures: $540 billion Hmm...looks like there's no deficit there.

Ok, how's about a country that's really had troubles, like Russia. I mean, we won right? Go Democracy! Revenues: $70 billion Expenditures: $62 billion Damn!

Let's try again...this time with a true socialist country! I've often heard they don't know how to run an economy! Heeeeeeere's Norway! Revenues: $71.7 billion Expenditures: $57.6 billion

Well, crap. It looks like there are countries other than Germany that have good fiscal policy.

You think the situation in the Middle East is bad now? Wait until the world no longer relies on them for their oil and their economies fall apart. It will be a complete disaster. I would like to not have to rely on oil as much as the next guy, but I think it's going to cause just as many social problems as it will solve environmental problems.

And not just in the Middle East. The US has a huge deficit, which it supports by priniting copious amount of money. Other contries with our levels of deficit and debt are places like Argentina, which has rioting in the streets... but we're saved from that kind of hyper-inflation because people around the world demand the dollar and they'll buy them up nearly as quickly as we can print them. George Monbiot points this out and covers some of the reasons for it, like the fact that the world's oil supply is priced in dollars, which means that people need our dollars to buy oil.

So, while the Middle East is dependent on us for it's economic welfare, it turns out that we're dependent on it as well. What America needs to do is keep oil prices in dollars and convince China to hit the crude-oil crackpipe. Otherwise we may have to pay off our debts...and I'm not going to find my share of 6 trillion dollars lost beneath the couch cushions.

Er, France has a Moslem population of somewhere between 5% and 10%. That's hardly "vast", when its Catholic population is over 80%.

CIA Factbook entry for France

Indeed, it's a political thing. Some countries want to be on good terms with the People's Republic of China, so they don't officially recognize Taiwan. Even the US government belongs to this group, there are no official diplomatic relations between the two countries (see CIA factbook entry). The topic came up once during the Clinton Administration, because the US wanted to get China as their trade partner they had to be careful about Taiwan.

US net migration rate: 3.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
UK Net migration rate: 2.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Source: World Factbook
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html#People
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ uk.html#People

US net migration rate: 3.52 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
UK Net migration rate: 2.2 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)

Source: World Factbook
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ us.html#People
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ uk.html#People

You didn't invade Cuba? Oh.