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If the EC complains it is so unfair, Oracle can suggest they either stop selling SUN hardware or Oracle software to the EU, and let those bueacratic bastards pick how they best wish to further retard the quality of their citizens lives.

Yeah, right. Because Europe is such a minor third world market ...
Ooops.

Whoever suggests that this is a feasible way for the Maledives where the average distance between two atolls is much longer than even the large Afsluitdijk (20 mls), got something wrong.

What makes things even more problematic is that the dutch North Sea coast is relatively shallow, while the Maldives are 350km out in the ocean where it is much deeper. So even if you did throw some dikes between a few atolls (which doesn't seem impossible from the looks of it) you would end up with a lot of vulnerable land much lower than sea level. A few meters of difference can be easily done, but dozens of meters? Lets hope no one has to poke his finger in that dike.

You could try to create artificial islands like they did off the coast of Dubai, but due to the underwater terrain you'd need to haul up a massive amounts of sand.

The only choice they have is to reinforce their current islands, but they probably don't want to erect concrete barriers to ward off erosion and slowly build up landmass. It's either that or pack up and leave.

60 million are children, there's 1/5 of the populace
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html#People

Last count of felons actually IN prison was about 8 million, the number that are not in prison brings that number potentially up to 15 million, as many never did time, instead receiving probation.

Hundreds of thousands of clinincally insane people.

I wonder how many people are disabled to the point of not being able to bear a weapon? That's probably another easy million. The list goes on and on and on. All it takes is some critical thinking.

Elderly people that can't bear a gun because they're too weak physically? 30 million or so, likely.

I'll bet autistic people probably wouldn't be able to bear a gun.

Nor the people currently laid up in a hospital.

You think 280 million guns is going to be useful when there aren't that many hands to hold them and use them?

Ukraine isn't Communist. Go back to school, starting with the fourth grade.

It was when I was in the fourth grade.

Ukraine isn't Communist. Go back to school, starting with the fourth grade.

Let's do the math here.

Average incoming sunlight to a desert location in the southern U.S. is about 300 W/m^2 averaged over the day and year. Let's assume 25% conversion efficiency from sunlight to electricity (better than photovoltaics, but worse than fossil fuels). To produce 300 GW of electricity (about half of present US needs), we need about 4 billion square meters of mirror. (Laid out flat, it'd be an area 63 km on a side. It's a lot of land, but it's doable.)

Let's assume we're making these out of solid aluminum sheets -- if we're talking ordinary glass mirrors here, it's *glass* that's the limiting factor, not aluminum -- about 3 mm thick. That should be enough for a panel to maintain a rigid shape, with a little bit of crossbracing. Anyway, that comes to 12 million cubic meters of aluminum, or 32 million metric tons.

Global aluminum production in 2001 was 25 million metric tons, with another 10 million tons from recycling.

So as long as you build out your solar plants over the course of a decade or so, you'd be using "only" 10% or so of the world supply of aluminum. At current prices of $2000/tonne, it'll cost you $64 billion. If you assume aluminum prices will spike when you do this, maybe $100 billion.

It's not a cheap proposition, but we're talking about powering the whole US here. At $80/megawatt-hour wholesale prices, 300 GW of electricity is worth $210 billion/year.

The electricity produced has a wholesale value Solar panels will eventually need to be replaced, but that's easy: recycle and re-cast them on-site, using solar electric power.

In short, it's massive but totally doable.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html

http://preview.tinyurl.com/oygcnb

http://seekingalpha.com/article/105000-wholesale-electricity-prices-fall-by-51-to-77

3. Why does the mass transit in Europe, heavily subsidized and nationalized by it's member states, use less than 20% of the energy that we do for cargo and passenger movement?

I am not necessarily disagreeing with you, but the United States covers an area 2.22 times larger than the various member states of the European Union. Also cities in the United States, especially those more to the west, tend to sprawl out more, leading to less efficient energy usage.

OK, this is for the retard who modded me troll. According to ANWR the reserves are between 6 and 16 billion barrels (recoverable). And from the CIA FactBook the USA used 20.68 million barrels a day in 2007. Generous estimates 16B/20M ~= 800 days. Worst estimate, 6B/24M (2010 estimate) ~= 250 days. So, under a year to under 3 years. Definitely not 20 years reserves.

Let's take a look at ANWR...

Oil reserves are estimated at 5 to 10 billion barrels of oil, with the number of those barrels that are economically feasible to extract rising and falling in line with the price of a barrel.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/fs-0028-01.htm

Now let's take a look at our oil consumption...

We are the leading consumer of oil in the world, with a consumption rate of around 20 million barrels a day.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/us.html
http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

Hypothetically speaking, if all 10 billion barrels are extracted in ANWR, this gives us 500 days worth of oil. This is not something that will make a bit of difference to our reliance on foreign oil reserves, especially when you consider that it wouldn't be possible to add this oil to the market all at once.

"If I may be allowed to pursue the idea of 'addiction to oil,' I think the nation just reached the point where we sold our wedding ring for one night's fix."

European Union: $18,85 trillion
US: 14,33 trillion

Now that we know the 3 million-strong Chinese army is going to cross the Himalayas on foot with RPGs, lets all just sit there and make paper cranes. And the same goes for Pakistanis and Bangladeshis (there may be some truth to that last one), but seriously, that was one of the dumbest, most misguided statements I've ever read. India has fought 4-5 wars depending on how you count them, in the last 60 years. I think that's enough reason to spend money on defense. Especially when it's 2% of its GDP. Compare that to the rest of the world, including the US. Here, I'll make it easier for you to learn: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2034rank.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Liberation_Army

Maybe this comparison would be better considering the debate is over who lives longer, not who survives prostate cancer the best.

USA:
Life expectancy at birth: 78.11 years

Canada:
Life expectancy at birth: 81.23 years

source source

Maybe this comparison would be better considering the debate is over who lives longer, not who survives prostate cancer the best.

USA:
Life expectancy at birth: 78.11 years

Canada:
Life expectancy at birth: 81.23 years

source source

Country Comparison: Life expectancy at birth

So when you talk about simple, old-fashioned cell phones, what exactly do you mean by "dial a number?"

I believe he means something like this:
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/cia-museum/spy-fi-archives/item15.html

And to quote a more credible source, saith the CIA World Factbook:

Government type:
Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition

Silly Americans.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2178rank.html

And we have yet to touch the arctic.

Even more interesting is the fact that any person I have met from China has loved their country. We seem to ignore the fact that their population is in the billions, and we likely only hear the *bad* news that happens, much like our own news channels do. I'm sure that given all the school shootings in the past few years, on top of our unpopular war on terror, people must thing U.S. citizens have it incredibly bad. We don't ever see stories about how little Jennifer found a puppy on her doorstep, but we do see plenty of stories of some teen going over the deepend and killing 20 of his classmates.

Giving away taxpayer money causes inflation.

You're not thinking of the program correctly.

The Cash for Clunkers program is a money-injection system like the stimulus program, and one that is working faster. It's targeted towards the automobile sector, and it has the side-effect of helping the environment. The stealth intention is to help the economy by getting new money in the system quickly. That's why they're throwing more money at it, because they're going "holy shit- it works! This is getting money out there faster than some of our other stimulus programs..."

You can rightly argue that GM management were a bunch of short-sighted buffoons, but we are where we are.

The U.S. government has no money. In the entire history of the world, it is the entity most deeply in debt.

this is misleading. It may be the deepest in debt in absolute dollars, but #1 that is not adjusted for inflation, and #2 it is not represented as a percentage of GDP, which is the right way to look at it.

If you look at it in those terms, the US is barely in debt compared to other nations. Or national debt load as percentage of GDP is 22nd, after countries like Italy, Greece, Canada, Egypt, India, France, and Germany.

It is not even the highest in our own history. We're now at about 70% of GDP. After WWII it was 117.5%.

I've discovered that U.S. citizens do not want to believe that their government is corrupt. When they are presented with evidence of corruption, most avoid awareness.

I've discovered that some people do not want to believe their government is anything but evil. When they are presented with evidence of good works, most avoid awareness.

I will add....America has very few exports now. IP is basically it. So, it is in the interest of America's wealthy to impose strict IP laws (and hence artificial scarcity) all over the planet.

What did you say your sources were for this?
The United States is the 3rd Largest Exporter in the World. The Top 10 Exports from the United States are:

• Transportation Equipment
• Chemicals
• Computer & Electronic Products
• Machinery, Except Electrical
• Petroleum & Coal Products
• Miscellaneous Manufactured Commodities
• Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components
• Food & Kindred Products
• Plastics & Rubber Products
• Fabricated Metal Products

While it is true that the United States has a trade deficit, it is not for lack of exports. Which is to say, there is no excuse at all for the media companies to push for stronger Imaginary Property laws, except that they want a larger piece of the, relatively very large, exports pie. This is pure greed. To frame it as a survival response lends credibility to their arguments that they do not have.

Yes, moving out of the largest economy of the world will sure seem like a very good idea to all the shareholders of MS.

There is actually 1.66 children per household in the UK. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/UK.html

I have of course heard of the comedy program 2.4 children.

"I want to see recent telescope pictures of the moon showing the rovers and the flag."

And I want to see gnat's testicles at 200 yards using only official "Austin Powers" glasses.

Both of us are likely to be disappointed.

The CIA World Factbook would be a good start. Lots of demographic information such as language, economy, geography, etc. are available. A lot can be determined from the information available there.

You seem to imply that healthy countries carry zero national debt. Please point me to a healthy country with zero national debt.

As of 2008, the united states' national debt was a smaller percentage of GDP than that of 21 other nations - below Canada, France, and Germany for example.

I don't think you quite understand how national debt works.

GDP: Gross Domestic Product, otherwise known as GDI: Gross Domestic Income is 14.33trillion dollars. Our DEBT is 11 Trillion, if you clicked either of those links (atleast the first one) you would see that you are flat out wrong. Though it would appear in the CIA world factbook (link above): Debt - external: $12.25 trillion (30 June 2007) Also, why yes I do understand we have trillions in programs, if we were to devote 100% of our income to paying down our obligations to others those programs (which give money to US citizens) would be paid back. I gave you a link with our total obligations. So again, do you know what you are talking about you very snide individual. Also for more fun reading! https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2186rank.html

Do you even know what you are talking about? Supposed if we gave 100% of our profits to the US Gov it would take 1 year to pay off and build a nice reservoir for our gov. $14.29 trillion (2008 est.) https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/US.html to 11trillion http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

"The CIA, with Eisenhower's approval, helped the Shah overthrow Mosaddeq's government in return for allowing foreign oil companies to gain valuable contracts to extract Iranian oil."

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no2/article10.html

I agree with your statement,excepting the "absolute disaster" bit. The Shah was useful during the Cold War, which was far more important to the West than the relatively piddling squabbles afterward,including those in Iraq and Afghanistan we are now involved with.

Things are going reasonably well, and for Islamist regimes to lose legitimacy by killing fellow Muslims is quite like Communist regimes plinking internal Communists. The protests in Iran are not rejecting religion, are not directed at destroying the theocracy, and don't display much of a central goal other than wanting some of the pie.

According to the CIA world factbook, the current male:female ratio of the world population is 1.01:1. If anything, the local imbalance in China/India/etc. is countering out an opposite imbalance just about everywhere else. For example, in Canada and the UK, the ratio is 0.98, the US has 0.97, and Russia has 0.86 (How's that for convenient? A country with a male shortage and a country with a female shortage right next to each other). China and India both have 1.06.

except the age distributions are different, because the causes are different. there are fewer russian men not because fewer are born, but because russian men die very young. This means that for 20 year olds, the male:female population is probably pretty close to 1:1, but for 70 year olds, you'll likely have many more females. At breeding age, the ratio should still be pretty close to even, and then drop off rapidly in favor of women.

According to the CIA world factbook, the current male:female ratio of the world population is 1.01:1. If anything, the local imbalance in China/India/etc. is countering out an opposite imbalance just about everywhere else. For example, in Canada and the UK, the ratio is 0.98, the US has 0.97, and Russia has 0.86 (How's that for convenient? A country with a male shortage and a country with a female shortage right next to each other). China and India both have 1.06.

Yugoslavia wasn't a Warsaw Pact state and I remember the name, and the names of all the states it became, thanks.

Czechoslovakia is now two states, which was voted on and happened all nice and calmly.

The poster I replied to said - "After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe..." therefore we are ignoring the USSR.

The three states you mention, Hungary, Poland and Albania - well the remark that Poland "never used to be where it is now", isn't accurate, but thats fine. Its been bigger, its been smaller but its generally been centered on what is now Poland.

In 1020, its pretty much where it is now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Poland1020.png

Poland as a melting pot - Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other and unspecified 2.7%

Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/PL.html

Hungary as a melting pot, wow its diverse! - Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001 census)

Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek Catholic 2.6%, other Christian 1%, other or unspecified 11.1%, unaffiliated 14.5% (2001 census)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/HU.html

And Albania, also diverse as heck.

Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)

Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/AL.html

Iran, its got a nationalistic streak, its going to remain whole just fine. Israel will bomb it unless they agree to give up offensive weapons, but it will survive as a state.

Yugoslavia wasn't a Warsaw Pact state and I remember the name, and the names of all the states it became, thanks.

Czechoslovakia is now two states, which was voted on and happened all nice and calmly.

The poster I replied to said - "After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe..." therefore we are ignoring the USSR.

The three states you mention, Hungary, Poland and Albania - well the remark that Poland "never used to be where it is now", isn't accurate, but thats fine. Its been bigger, its been smaller but its generally been centered on what is now Poland.

In 1020, its pretty much where it is now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Poland1020.png

Poland as a melting pot - Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other and unspecified 2.7%

Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/PL.html

Hungary as a melting pot, wow its diverse! - Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001 census)

Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek Catholic 2.6%, other Christian 1%, other or unspecified 11.1%, unaffiliated 14.5% (2001 census)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/HU.html

And Albania, also diverse as heck.

Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)

Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/AL.html

Iran, its got a nationalistic streak, its going to remain whole just fine. Israel will bomb it unless they agree to give up offensive weapons, but it will survive as a state.

Yugoslavia wasn't a Warsaw Pact state and I remember the name, and the names of all the states it became, thanks.

Czechoslovakia is now two states, which was voted on and happened all nice and calmly.

The poster I replied to said - "After the Kremlin exited Eastern Europe..." therefore we are ignoring the USSR.

The three states you mention, Hungary, Poland and Albania - well the remark that Poland "never used to be where it is now", isn't accurate, but thats fine. Its been bigger, its been smaller but its generally been centered on what is now Poland.

In 1020, its pretty much where it is now
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Poland1020.png

Poland as a melting pot - Polish 96.7%, German 0.4%, Belarusian 0.1%, Ukrainian 0.1%, other and unspecified 2.7%

Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/PL.html

Hungary as a melting pot, wow its diverse! - Hungarian 92.3%, Roma 1.9%, other or unknown 5.8% (2001 census)

Roman Catholic 51.9%, Calvinist 15.9%, Lutheran 3%, Greek Catholic 2.6%, other Christian 1%, other or unspecified 11.1%, unaffiliated 14.5% (2001 census)

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/HU.html

And Albania, also diverse as heck.

Albanian 95%, Greek 3%, other 2% (Vlach, Roma (Gypsy), Serb, Macedonian, Bulgarian) (1989 est.)

Muslim 70%, Albanian Orthodox 20%, Roman Catholic 10%

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/AL.html

Iran, its got a nationalistic streak, its going to remain whole just fine. Israel will bomb it unless they agree to give up offensive weapons, but it will survive as a state.

"The folks running the government are Iranian. The president is Iranian. The secret police are Iranian. The thugs who will torture and kill democracy advocates are Iranian."

There is no "Iranian" Iran is a hegemony like the United States. From Wikipedia - The main ethnic groups are Persians (51%), Azeris (24%), Gilaki and Mazandarani (8%), Kurds (7%), Arabs (3%), Baluchi (2%), Lurs (2%), Turkmens (2%), Laks, Qashqai, Armenians, Persian Jews, Georgians, Assyrians, Circassians, Tats, Mandaeans, Gypsies, Brahuis, Hazara, Kazakhs and others (1%).

Languages - Persian and Persian dialects 58%, Turkic and Turkic dialects 26%, Kurdish 9%, Luri 2%, Balochi 1%, Arabic 1%, Turkish 1%, other 2% - https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/IR.html

So its hard to compare what is or isn't happening in Iran to what happened in the Warsaw Pact states, they are not cultural melting pots. Its also not proper to call Iran a "failed state", Pakistan, Zimbabwe, and it looks like Mexico are going down the road to "failed state" while Somalia is one and Afghanistan was one until NATO showed up.

There are 736 members in the European Parliament.

200 more than the US Congress. It all seems a little unwieldy. Difficult to make an impression.

The median age:

Sweden 41 US 37 CIA World Fact Book

Reality shows are the most successfully exported European television programmes, notably to the United States.

Programmes such as Survivor - produced by British-Swedish company Planet 24 and which has contestants competing in the wilderness for cash and other prizes, Big Brother of the Netherlands' Endemol - where a group of people live together in a house isolated from the outside world while constantly watched by cameras, and British 19 Television's Pop Idol - a show for music star wannabes, have become massively popular with American viewers.

Under EU rules, the majority of the European channels' programming must be devoted to European works, with at least 10 percent of that time or of their programming budgets to independent European productions.

Currently, certain channels in eight EU member states - Belgium, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the UK - still do not comply with these requirements however, and European productions account for less than 50 percent of their programming.

Europe's Biggest TV Export: Reality Shows [May 29}

This suggests to me that support for piracy is strongest where support for the politically-mandated domestic product is weakest.

Did you honestly just claim that Vietnam is not that much better off than North Korea? You do realize that Vietnam also undertook significant market reforms in the past two decades, yes?

Vietnam's GDP in 2008 U.S. dollars as measured by PPP was $241.8 billion in 2008. By contrast, North Korea's GDP was $40 billion, and that's definitely an overestimate.

South Korea's GDP is certainly much bigger, but I hope you're not seriously trying to say that $241.8 billion is "not that much better than" $40 billion.

Did you honestly just claim that Vietnam is not that much better off than North Korea? You do realize that Vietnam also undertook significant market reforms in the past two decades, yes?

Vietnam's GDP in 2008 U.S. dollars as measured by PPP was $241.8 billion in 2008. By contrast, North Korea's GDP was $40 billion, and that's definitely an overestimate.

South Korea's GDP is certainly much bigger, but I hope you're not seriously trying to say that $241.8 billion is "not that much better than" $40 billion.

What? The streets are allot cleaner now than they were 100 years ago.

But most of that was biodegradible and fed other living things (starlings love horseshit).

We still suffer from congestion, but the streets have a hell of allot better throughput.

And to pay for that 'throughput' we kill over 40,000 people a year and injure another 2,500,000 people.
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx

I can eat almost any food all year round by walking down the street and buying it from the same supermarket that I buy a mortgage from.

Mixing apples and oranges. The supermarket or the the company that owns the building the supermarket is in rents space to a bank or mortgage company. You really didn't get your mortgage or free checking from Bank of the Safeway. But beyond that there is an economic and political cost for those countries in the opposite hemisphere that grow summer fruit for your winter table.

I have instant access to almost all publicly available knowledge and a reasonable chance of living over a century, and after I post this it's likely to be seem almost immediately by many people from all over the world.

While it is true that a great deal of current and ongoing knowledge and facts are going online most historical data from before the advent of the net is not available for instant access. I can't find anything in the instantaneously available knowledge that asserts a 'reasonable' chance (what ever that is) of living to 100. On the other hand (she had warts) there are 40 other countries in the world with better infant mortality rates than the USofA.
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2091rank.html
And why am I not impressed that many people can read your drivel.

When I'm bored I can go anywhere in the world by flying there, and when I'm sick my doctor can build an extremely accurate 3d model of my insides and probably help me.

The privileged have always had access to the tastest modes of travel and health care, even when that care was 'bleeding'.

Culturally religious magical thinking is becoming a niche in much of the developed world.

Huh? Do you mean the 'magical thinking' that just because I can afford to fly to the Falkland Islands fueled by boredom that most people could or that a 3d model of your body could illuminate a cure for your ennui? Sir or Madam, I find your Comment to be riddled with unwarranted assertions.

But short of going belly up entirely and leaving people in anarchy, government never has to worry about going out of business.

Solution: move to Somalia. Government free since '92.

First, suggesting that government is less efficient than private industry is not suggesting that government be removed. It is a strawman to imply otherwise.

Second, anarchy is exactly what he is referring to when government fails.

Third, you just proved his point. Somalia has a significantly higher per capita GDP than four other African countries with governments.

Datagrid or not, if your site requires flash for anything other than playing sound or video files, then it is more than likely I will not spend much time there

Absolutely. And it is not just for being unavailable to disabled people, slow, insecure, buggy, destroyer of the control a user has about the navigation (top-of-the-head example: if a menu is implemented in flash, how do you choose whether to open a menu entry in a new tab or new window?), bandwidth-wasting, proprietary, restricted and not class-platform; it is also about the content.

There is a very strong negative correlation between the usefulness of a site and the amount of bling in it.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook : no Flash; javascript unnecessary
http://www.c-faq.com/ : no Flash; no javascript
http://news.google.com/ : no Flash ; javascript not necessary
http://news.bbc.co.uk/ : Fash restricted to the videos ; javascript unnecessary

Now compare this to a typical teenager-oriented website: even menus are Flash. They choose Flash both
for things that make 0 sense being flash (like menus) and for things that may be easier with Flash, but are almost always a big waste of time. They think a website needs to animate every other element.

The one positive aspect in Flash is that it its use warns you against the quality of the content before you waste your time loading and reading it.

The US has a greater percentage urban population than France. We also have a greater rate of urbanization than France. As of 2008 we were 82% urban. Still think mass transit should be a low priority?

Source: CIA World Factbook

Civil does not equal free. A full oppressive police state can be quite "civilized". Or like they are wont to say, "pacified".

I meditate on this periodically as I watch my wonderful neighbours to the south slowly change their laws to have more civility at the expense of freedom and good will. Its sad to watch them devolve into the type of police state they once opposed in other countries.

--
I am from the second largest country in the world.

You can stubbornly call it Ukraine in all cases, but I prefer to follow the spoken english aid of adding a definite article to precurse the yoo sound, for instance, after a preceding oo as in "to the Ukraine". Per proper English pronounciation, the 'the' in this case is with a long 'ee' as with 'thee'. ...

Great, I will take your suggestions into account the next time I go to the Utah or to the Uganda.

Regarding your other examples, they are all correct except Yucatan. The article is used for the Yucatan Peninsula, but not for the Mexican state.

Other posters have mentioned a very good reference on why Ukraine mistakenly got an article, why the use of the article is going away, and in when it is correct to use the article in the name of a country: http://www.infoukes.com/faq/the_ukraine/.

You can stubbornly call it Ukraine in all cases, but I prefer to follow the spoken english aid of adding a definite article to precurse the yoo sound, for instance, after a preceding oo as in "to the Ukraine". Per proper English pronounciation, the 'the' in this case is with a long 'ee' as with 'thee'. ...

Great, I will take your suggestions into account the next time I go to the Utah or to the Uganda.

Regarding your other examples, they are all correct except Yucatan. The article is used for the Yucatan Peninsula, but not for the Mexican state.

Other posters have mentioned a very good reference on why Ukraine mistakenly got an article, why the use of the article is going away, and in when it is correct to use the article in the name of a country: http://www.infoukes.com/faq/the_ukraine/.

Who gives a crap about HIV? HIV infection can be prevented. The methods for prevention are known. Clinics provide free condoms to anyone. What more would you like them to do?

The real issues are unemployment, poverty, lack of education, racist politicians repeating the injustices of the past and crime.

The HIV infection ratio is 18.1%
The unemployment ratio is 21.7%
Literacy: 86.4%
GDP per capita: 10000 USD

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/sf.html

I did not know that - and was curious. Found this and it seems to back up the claim.

There are 21,262,641 people in Australia. Forty-three billion is 2,022 Australian dollars for every man, woman, and child in the country. It's difficult to believe that the government could spend that much money, particularly since I understand that Australia does not have sufficiently fast internet connections with the rest of the world.

Read the Australian government announcement.

LOL: "... if you're in Tasmania (and who isn't?)"

Well to be fair - people in Japan do get older than in other places, so they have to draw the line somewhere... The CIA factbook lists life expectancy by nation here: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2102rank.html I think it is interesting that the US with rank 50 scores lower than most of the other wealthy nations. Japan is on rank 3 btw - the average Japanese has a 4 year longer lifespan than the average American. Not that I believe that health care is the only contributing factor there or that quality of life equals length of it, but I'd like to see some supporting information for the claim that universal health care could have dire consequences. Lots of other countries clearly manage just fine with it - that doesn't mean it's the best option, but it's clearly a viable one.

I read your comment and the comments below yours. There is a misunderstanding. In July of 2009, there will be only an estimated 5,250,275 people in Finland. The entire country has the population of one large city. Much of what they have comes from somewhere else.

I have gathered considerable information about why Scandinavians speak English. This is the story, using the Finns as an example:

Since so few people want to learn Finnish, they had to choose some other language, or not be able to communicate with the rest of the world. What other language should they choose? Not German, since the Germans made so much trouble for everyone in World War Two. Not French, since the French treat people who can't speak French perfectly as social inferiors. Not Italian, since you have to be passionate to be Italian, and besides, Italians are so self-defeating.

In the late 1800s, the chosen language was French. But, a little at a time, the arrogance of the French caused people to choose a lesser evil: English. It's not that the English were wonderful, it's just that the English were the least annoying. Also, the English had been engaged in violent empire-building, so anyone who knew English could go anywhere in the empire to do business.

It helped that people in the United States spoke English. There was a huge amount of material available in English, because it was spoken in two populous countries. So choosing English gave more benefits than other languages.

There are other reasons, but I have to go back to work.

Don't forget the American logo: Terrorist Buster!