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1. RoHS - Restriction on Hazardous Substances - also known as "lead free" directive but in fact includes a whole list of other stuff
   
2. WEEE - Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment - forces producers to buy-back and recycle electronic equipment properly (no more shipping it to SE Asia)
   

A fiscal conservative's first priority is reduced spending. Anyone who calls them self a fiscal conservative because they call a vote for a tax increase a vote to reduce the deficit is a fraud. Kerry's health plan is less than half of the new spending he is proposing, and how can he get credit for both being better for health care and better fiscally because his health plan won't pass? The only spending Kerry has voted to cut recently is the $87 billion to support our troops.

And they mention the deficit but make no mention of Social Security. Kerry is completely unwilling to change our 1930's retirement program and believes that the government ponzi scheme cannot be improved upon. Social Security reform will reduce current revenue in order to reduce spending by more in the future. When Kerry compares the deficit of Social Security reform, which is a reduction in spending, to his deficit, which are an increase in spending, he is an even bigger fiscal conservative fraud.

And why does the Economist see our deficit as a threat? Our deficit is less than GDP growth, Europe's deficit is much greater than GDP growth, and our public debt is half that of Europe's total public debt. They should be looking in a mirror if they are worried about deficits.

I'm wondering since I thought EURid was supposed to take care for that TLD? Can anybody elaborate on this issue?

European Union on the issue

The asterisk is not allowed.

I've already got first dibs on fuck.eu. I put in a bid to the commission to run the .eu TLD back in 2001, but they've passed the decision back to ICANNt before going ahead with awarding the contracts.

In all probability there will be some strict guidelines that will be the least unpalatable to everone in Brussels. That translates to "an unworkable mess of rules that some scum will exploit, some big businesses will abuse, and will lock out most reasonable requests". Cynical, moi?

the AC
also wanting ilove.eu, ihate.eu, fuckthe.eu, fork.eu, me.eu, notme.eu, etc

The course is an elective, and was offered for the first time last year; not many students decided to take it. Those who did, got hooked; some commented that it was the course where they really understood what it meant to program.

The following projects were completed last year:

• Support for PDF actions in PDFBox.
• Improvements to the GUI interface of the ZGRViewer
• The addition of a new question type in the ETH Lecture Communicator

This year the course will be taught in English and will be offered to students across Europe through the EU's Erasmus student mobility programme. I hope to be able to report on new exciting results through slashdot next year.

Currently, paper made with industrial hemp fiber is significantly more expensive than paper made with wood. Hemp paper pulp can cost up to $2,000 a ton versus $500 a ton for wood paper pulp. Still, there are a handful of economically feasible uses for industrial hemp paper, particularly because it would probably be feasible to produce hemp pulp at a cost well below $2,000 a ton. http://www.louisville.edu/org/sun/sustain/articles /hemp/paper.html

Perhaps with large capital investment in new plants, economy of scale in mass production, and refinement in the process, hemp fiber will be only slightly more expensive than wood fiber. I do work in the paper industry and know first hand the fear of possible plant closures due to the tight margins industry wide. If hemp looked promising as a low cost fiber source we, and every other manufacturer, would be raising a stink heard nationwide to get access.

uses less chemicals than paper made from wood

The process chemicals and energy from the spent liquor are recovered. http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy_transpo rt/atlas/htmlu/ppblg.html

Hemp could save some chemical usage when it comes to wet strength additives, but that is a fairly small percentage of the whole system. The majority of chemical additives required for wood fiber paper would still be required for paper with hemp fiber.

If hemp is going to use a mechanical fiber preparation system instead of a closed loop liquor system, prepare to bite the bullet for some major energy costs.

Don't think our friends at Dow Chemical didn't know this when they lobbied to make marijuana illegal.

Dow chemical does manufacture some chemicals used in the papermaking industry (coating polymers, defoamers, biocides primarily), but is far from being one of the major players in that market. I reckon using Eka as the conspiracy name does not carry the same demonizing weight.

One acre of annually grown hemp may spare up to four acres of forest from the current practice of clear-cutting

The only clear cutting that is used to supply fiber to the paper industry comes from stands of ten year old poplars on tree farms getting the whack. The other primary wood fiber sources are waste chips and sawdust from lumber mills and post consumer (recycled) fiber. The percent of virgin, natural forest fiber used in paper manufacturing is in the low single digits.

Compared to wood, fewer chemicals are required to convert low-lignin tree-free fibers to pulp

Actually we are kinda fond of the lignin in the wood fiber. That lignin is the energy source recovered in the boilers that recycle the pulping chemicals, produce steam used throughout the plant, and generate enough electricity that we actually sell back to the market.

Less bleaching results in less dioxin

Dioxin is a ghost from the past in the paper industry. Very few mills still use elemental chlorine in the bleaching process. Quite a few still use chlorine-dioxide, but even these are giving way to newer bleaching plants based on newer technologies with zero dioxin byproducts.

In the US, New York State and Louisiana have imposed some regulatory requirements on PayPal.

If you lost money with Paypal between 1999 and 2003, there's a class action settlement.

PAL/SECAM are limited to 625 lines of resolution. It's not considered to be High Definition. See this eu paper for more details.

(From a regulatory standpoint, it's important to ensure widespread takeup of DTV, as the old analogue channels can be sold off for other uses, once large majorities have switched. The paper speculates on how the HDTV aspect of digital television might be a better "selling point" than SDTV multicasting, which often is of poor quality.)

The EU data protection directive is the basis of much of the privacy law in Ireland.

America's true authority in the world isn't military, it's moral. If neither our citizens nor our allies trust our government to act wisely, our ability to influence the world is much diminished. We can hardly persuade people to act against truly dangerous rogue nations like North Korea if they think we might be a dangerous rogue nation ourselves.

An official study was done last year in the EU that showed 53 percent of EU citizens consider the US a threat to world peace (page 82 in the pdf), making the US one of the most dangerous nations in the world to global peace in the minds of EU citizens. Incidentally, the percentage of EU citizens who consider north korea a threat to world peace is also 53 percent. And the EU is relatively moderate. It is just unimaginable how much fear there must be in the middle east for the vagaries of US military might. America hasn't acted from a position of moral superiority for a long time. It's fear that keeps the local systems in line. OK, I jest, but americans might want to be aware just how low their public image has sunk around the world.

If the pdf throws up an error, download it to disk first. Firefox choked on displaying it in-page.

"I would however demand compensation for the cost of a new launch and lost service and work on some kind of cooperation agreement so that I can deny service to agreed upon bad guys rather than just having my stuff shot down."

The US would gladly pay. In fact, whenever possible it would pay in advance.

Think, for example, about the US buying off all of IKONOS images of a country, to hide their movement from the enemy. Or, better yet but not very likely, "buying degradation" of the forthcoming Galileo positioning system .

Sadly, this system's rationale is only that it will be available in case of intentional degradation of the GPS signal, so these satellites are the most likey targets of any US "intervention".

First, Open Source or Free Software is not alone about free access to the source, it's also about helping each other. Even when in commercial settings this is not an option in all aspects, it can still help.

For example there is the Open Source Observatory -- when you do not trust OS zealots, you may trust more independent sources. There are documents (like the Open Source Migration Guidelines), case studies and events where you may meet others with similar questions.

In short: look around and get a clue. Helps enormously and makes much more things better than just software.

First, Open Source or Free Software is not alone about free access to the source, it's also about helping each other. Even when in commercial settings this is not an option in all aspects, it can still help.

For example there is the Open Source Observatory -- when you do not trust OS zealots, you may trust more independent sources. There are documents (like the Open Source Migration Guidelines), case studies and events where you may meet others with similar questions.

In short: look around and get a clue. Helps enormously and makes much more things better than just software.

An idea of the low level of discussion the European consultation provoked can be seen here.

More interesting is the fact the European document is very very very similar to the one issued by Ofcom.
I'd say Ofcom's done a poor and copy and paste and rephrasing job - too late to enable people in the UK influence the law that will affect them - and our journalists - on and offline have failed us in not bringing the European consultation to our attention.

An idea of the low level of discussion the European consultation provoked can be seen here.

More interesting is the fact the European document is very very very similar to the one issued by Ofcom.
I'd say Ofcom's done a poor and copy and paste and rephrasing job - too late to enable people in the UK influence the law that will affect them - and our journalists - on and offline have failed us in not bringing the European consultation to our attention.

Not that it makes much difference to what you're saying, but it's being replaced with the EU standard 112

Single European emergency call number 1-1-2

AFAIK, they're currently parallel running both numbers.

The culprits are the intellectuals who fear science. We hear about it all the time - crisis of the science, we need to reconcile science with faith and all that crap. Meanwhile, 52% of the Europeans agree with the statement "Science and technology can solve any problem we are faced with" (Eurobarometer 2003 survey - link). So despite all the "mad scientist" crap people still are extremely positive and optimistic about science.

If we didn't have illiterate retards running the media (the overwhelming majority of people in the same survey agreed that journalists are not qualified enough to cover science and 30% think science is portraied too negatively), it would become obvious just how much the "Average Joe" loves science, scientists and even science spendings.

Do you know the actual difference in figures between English and French as second langauges? They are HUGE. Just take a look at this Eurobarometer survey. Although this is confined to the EU, it does give a useful indication of how the situation is reflected in the world.

French used to be a very influential language but this has declined significantly over the past few decades. There is no ifs or buts about it - English FAR surpases the importance of French in the international community.

French maybe the dominant language of European institutes you stated, but this certainly doesn't apply all around the EU.

I'm sure French is useful to know, but it frankly, there isn't much point in learning it if you already know English unless you plan on spending much time in a French country.

The WTO has never ruled against the US? Maybe they favour the USA over Mexico, but they sure don't give the USA a free pass in disputes with Europe.

Combined with the fact that mexican politicians would never do anything to upset Uncle Sam...

Are you sure?

Has cynicism become the new naivety?

I think worse situation is in Europe.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza (newspaper from Poland) by the 2010 year Europe will be lack of 700 000 young scientist. Every year in EU 2,8 mln people get master's degree (USA - 2,1 mln, Japan - 1,1 mln), but many of these scientists go to America or Canada. America provides better earnings, research equipment and less bureaucratic problems. To prevent this European Commision run ERA-MORE and The Researcher's Mobility Portal which helps European scientist.

I think worse situation is in Europe.
According to Gazeta Wyborcza (newspaper from Poland) by the 2010 year Europe will be lack of 700 000 young scientist. Every year in EU 2,8 mln people get master's degree (USA - 2,1 mln, Japan - 1,1 mln), but many of these scientists go to America or Canada. America provides better earnings, research equipment and less bureaucratic problems. To prevent this European Commision run ERA-MORE and The Researcher's Mobility Portal which helps European scientist.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

You don't have to do the politically correct he/she thing when refering to groups that are composed entirely of one gender. Or were you just trying to go for the funny mod points?

You're right - there are no woman commissars.

What good would an IE-free version of Windows 98 be to any of us right now?

No good, but what about XP Reloaded (or SP2 for all I care)?

Suspending the sentence is only done if the appeal is considered likely to succeed, it is NOT done in all cases.

Then it's a deal with Bolkestein, obviously. Doesn't he look sympathetic? I'm glad my interests are represented by such an upright and honest man who cares about citizens and small businesses. If you find any irony, you may keep it.

Actually, price discrimination (the selling of like goods to different people at different prices) is illegal in many market-driven countries.

In Europe, Article 82(c) of the European Commission Treaty outlaws price discrimination by an entity in a position of market dominance.

Interestingly, this case is being brought in Canada, where the defense needs to prove its case.

Population of Canada: 35 million
Population of the United States: 293 million
Population of Europian Union: 380 million

So, assuming that Cisco had to stop selling in Canada and instead sold in just the United States and Europe (ignoring Asia, Australia, etc., entirely), their sales would decrease by less than 5% (35/708). Wouldn't it be reasonable for them to just ignore this lawsuit, and in the meantime continue selling in Canada? If the government eventually forces them to stop, it'd really be no particularly big loss, except to Canada--who would no longer have access to Cisco technology. Which would therefore make the government unlikely to stop Cisco from selling there. Seems like Cisco holds all the cards, here.

There is one higher level court in Germany and one in Europe. And the EU is okay with the law as it stands (one and two).

There is one higher level court in Germany and one in Europe. And the EU is okay with the law as it stands (one and two).

EU has not allied itself with Arafat, but gives foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is in dire need of economic aid. EU has good relations with the state of Israel and e.g. grants Israel special status on trading issues. Quoting from the EU website:

The EU-Israel Association Agreement is the main agreement governing relations between Israel and the EU. It is much more than just a free trade agreement and enables ongoing dialogue and cooperation between Israel and the EU in a wide variety of fields.

In order to reach a sustainable solution in the ongoing Middle-East conflict foreign powers, in my view, should not try to ally themselves with either side but to try to look at the issues fairly and support the warring sides to reach a consensus based on the UN security council's resolutions.

I'm missing the word "yet". As the recent software patents in Europe painfully demonstrates, the European union is sold to big corporations. Ask Bolkestein , he'll confirm

More information about Galileo can be found here . Also take a look at the video.

More information about Galileo can be found here . Also take a look at the video.

Just like China wanting to be independent technologically, the EU also does not want to be dependant on the USA.

Read the FAQ where it says one of the objectives is just that:

Why is there any need for GALILEO when we already have GPS? GALILEO will ensure European economies' from independence from other states' systems, which could deny access to civil users at any time, and to enhance safety and reliability. The only systems currently in existence are the United States Global Positioning Service (GPS) and the Russian GLONASS system, both military but made available to civil users without any guarantee for continuity. Important macro-economic benefits will be derived from GALILEO, in particular through achieving a European share in the equipment market, efficiency savings for industry as well as social benefits e.g. through cheaper transport, reduced congestion and less pollution. Above that, with it's open service at least offering the same performances as GPS by the time of GALILEO's deployment, GALILEO will offer also value added services with integrity provision and, in some cases, service guarantees, based on a certifiable system.

They're in on Galileo: see here

The UK is indeed a member state of the European Union.

http://europa.eu.int/abc/european_countries/eu_mem bers/uk/index_en.htm

Yes indeed, Here are the details about the flag, and here's the Icon

Yes indeed, Here are the details about the flag, and here's the Icon

The stars doesn't represent the member nations. The circle of golden stars represent the solidarity and harmony among the European peoples. There are twelve stars because, according to the EU website (go to FAQ, then "The EU at a glance" and then "Flag"): "There are twelve stars because the number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and unity. The flag will therefore remain unchanged regardless of future EU enlargements."

Not knocking Spain (I lived there 3 years and LOVE it), but with an average income ~70% of the EU average, and Extremadura being the poorest region of Spain, and unemployment running at near 30%, 'extremely poor' might well be a valid descriptor.

However, they did win a 2004 European Regional Action Award with their GNU/LinEX project.

Hopefully, more projects like this will help them boost their economy.

Here's a start

It's not quite as simple as this; you can read the relevant section of the Maastricht Treaty here. (Search the page for Article 189b.)

It's very complicated, but as far as I can understand it, there is parity between the Parliament and the Council of Ministers. If they can't agree, there is complete deadlock and the only option is to retain the current legal position (software patents being granted but which are potentially vulnerable to a legal challenge).

The danger in this decision by the Council is that Parliament will be persuaded to give in at some point. It only takes one lost vote and the directive will be adopted, in basically the original form proposed by the Commission. Also the beneficial amendments will be lost unless the Council can somehow be persuaded to agree to them.

The upside of the decision is that it has annoyed a lot of people who don't care about software patents. MEPs who care about the separation of powers in the EU are annoyed by the Council's actions, even though patent law may be a closed book to them.

Because I'm studying in Sweden, where you are not required to get an undergraduate degree before going on to a masters' (or rather, the equivalent thereof).

I did it all in one swoop, so of course, I count it all together as five years.

This is due to change though, The EU:s Bologna declaration means they're going to harmonize the standards of higher education in Europe. The current suggestion is to institute a more american-style system.

The EU is run from Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. From the europa.eu.int website :

European Parliament : The monthly plenary sessions, which all MEPs attend, are held in Strasbourg (France) - the Parliament's "seat". Parliamentary committee meetings and any additional plenary sessions are held in Brussels (Belgium), whilst Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices (the "General Secretariat").

European Commission : The "seat" of the Commission is in Brussels (Belgium), but it also has offices in Luxembourg, representations in all EU countries and delegations in many capital cities around the world.

Britons haven't served a foreign ruler in such a capacity since the Roman Empire.

Well, the Roman Empire is back, and the EU is part of it. You can visit the New Roman Empire's web site.

(Though if Britain joined the EU, the Euro will probably take it's place, but for the time being the UK isn't in a rush to join because of it's oil supplies, but I digress).