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Nothing accelerates forever, which is the assumption you're making here. You can calculate the acceleration effects of gravity on an apple out to infinity (well technically the speed of light), but in the real world that apple eventually hits something.

Now let's forget all of that and look at your rate of change. If deaths by terrorism has tripled in the past 39 years we could confer that these deaths increase 100% every 13 years. The number of deaths for the last 13 years is 3167, in 2020 it will be 6334, in 2033 it will be 12668. 2046 it will be 25336, in 2059 it will be 50,672 for the past 13 years and I will be 80 years old well above the average age for an American male.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3165/is _n4_v29/ai_13787851

The increase in auto accidents between 1992 and 2005 is 8.6%. Suggesting that the yearly auto fatalities will rise (slowly) from 43,200/year on up. Essentially, if fatal auto incidents between 2046 and 2059 are less than 50,000, you're more likely a prophet than a mathematician. Assuming we still drive something that resembles cars.

Finally, if you're using derivatives and rates of change for your investments stop, unless you're a budding economist. Your investments are far better off placed in straddled/diversified positions. Use derivatives for say the auto market in general then invest broadly in Ford, GMC, Nissan and others. For midrange investments (6mo-10years) buy both puts and calls and base your investments on retracements and corrections or invest in the money markets.

Sure. Here are some NHTSA data. A total number of 300 fatal crashes from 1991-2002 killed 275 occupants of other vehicles. Since we're discounting the "one dude in the ambulance," I won't factor in the 82 ambulance occupants killed in those 300 fatal crashes over a 11 year period into my figure. 275 fatalities over 11 years is certainly less than the tens to hundreds of thousands saved by ambulances each year.

The "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case is currently before the Supreme Court this term and covers much of this ground.

If nothing else, it's enormously entertaining just to hear the Supremes uttering the phrase "Bong Hits 4 Jesus".

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4155/i s_20060830/ai_n16693097

Famous Scumbag Lawyer Ken Starr doesn't have any more of a chance here than he did on his other big case a few years ago, since there are plenty of prior rulings protecting students' free speech rights off-campus:

http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/scripts/lc.pl?countr y=&start=450&lang=&entry=Tinker+v.+Des+Moines&site s=any

If you are wondering what they are yelling from the trucks it's basically limited to "This is Hiromi Yoshida, We hope we can count on you in the upcoming election, Thank you very much."

That's just a worker doing the actual announcement, the politician himself is probably just sitting in the van waving his white-gloved hand. The white glove is supposed to symbolize honesty but Mr. Yoshida has had his own scandals.

Interesting older article on supernova burps.

Oh, the EU has fined so many companies for price fixing, I don't even know where to begin--Bayer & Chemtura, Siemens, Dow, escalator firms, Heineken, Aventis, animal feed companies, the Deutsche Post, many vitamin producers, Nintendo and, of course, the well known case of Microsoft.

I'm not saying that none of these fines are unjustified but I am saying that, if I may opine, the EU has been issuing a lot of fines. With this recent Apple one, it does seem as though Apple had no choice and if they aren't given an alternative to losing their contracts with record companies for the sake of running one Europe encompassing store, then I don't blame them. On the surface, the EU Commissions seem to be discouraging big businesses from selling things like XBoxes, PS3s or iTunes inside all of the countries. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I guess time will tell ...

Airports that are wanting to welcome the A380 are doing renovations to handle the aeroplane. The USA is generally lagging behind in its readiness, but accommodating the A380 is in many airports interests. Currently the A380 is flying to various destinations, so airports can check that are capable of handling the aeroplane, as well a general marketing tour. Just last week the A380 made visit to JFK. A few links on airport readiness:

  - http://www.airliners.net/discussions/general_aviat ion/read.main/1493607/
  - http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05333/614282.stm
  - http://www.airport-technology.com/features/feature 653/
  - http://www.atwonline.com/channels/aircraftEquipmen t/article.html?articleID=1187
  - http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CWU/is _2002_March_6/ai_83557785

The extra problem that the aeroplane poses, on top of the plane itself, is dealing with the number of people arriving in the airport at any one time. Think gate waiting lounges and customs clearance.

Yes, he was. I watched it on television at the time, and I was more than a little amused. Clinton was indeed flustered, because those allowed to be present at those "Town Meetings" were very carefully screened for the proper political bias, but apparently a ringer got in. Clinton was blindsided.

Here's the relevant portion:

President Clinton, I believe that you were elected largely on the basis of your promise of a middle-class tax cut. But for the last 90 days or so, we've seen both you and the Congress transforming that promised middle-class tax cut into an unprecedented round of more taxes and new spending. Our county has been in a deepening recession for the last three years. There's no end in sight, and a malaise is beginning to set in our county, like the Carter era. Please understand, Mr. President, San Diegans just don't have any more money to contribute to the coffers of government.

My question is, can you name one country that has ever taxed and spent itself back into prosperity? Thank you.

THE PRESIDENT: The answer to your question is, I can't. But you can't fairly characterize my program as that.

Clinton went on from there with an extended rendition of his accomplishments, but I trust you take my point. I'm not disagreeing with your evaluation of President Clinton's ability to dissemble, but he was indeed asked that question and he did not have an answer.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is _n17_v47/ai_17374449

Among other things, a Kodak safety lecture discussed an employee that modified his Bullard Hood hose connection. He accidently hooked it up to a Nitrogen line. Three breaths later, he was unconscious, and he was dead before anyone could resuscitate him.

They'd better make damn sure NO ONE can defeat the safeties to get into that room. You'll never know what hits you.

"We developed a dual-bladder fuel tank," says Moore, "to hold the residue created by this process." Refueling pushes the filtrate out of the second bladder and into a collection tank, where it is held until returned for reprocessing. "Unlike gasoline, the tankers won't return to the refinery empty," says Moore, "so the trip back is value-added." And vehicle dynamics are more consistent due to the retention of the residue. There is no dramatic weight variation between "Full" and "empty".

The technology currently is undergoing testing in a Chrysler minivan. "Technically, the vehicle is a hybrid," says Moore, "because the fuel cell recharges a lithium-ion battery pack that provides power for the wheels." Early testing has shown the van to be capable of 0-60 mph in 16 sec., the equivalent of 30 mpg, and of 300 miles on a tank of, well, slush. That tank, by the way, holds 54 gallons of new fuel, up to 40 gallons of residue, and is located between the rear axle and bumper under the van floor.

Ironically, U.S. Borax, Former sponsor of Death Valley Days, owns most of the borax reserves in the world. There are 600 million metric tons of known borax reserves (dry lake beds are the greatest source), and estimates predict the 50 million vehicles currently on the road would use 20 million tons of borax each year, most of which would be recycled.

How are they going to spend all those tax dollars in their budget if the software is FREE?

There's only so many $600 hammers a person needs.

Holy right winger Batman!

Reading some of his other articles is scarier than hell. CNN isn't nearly as far from center. That guy is just nuts...

That's not true: read this article. It's rare but not impossible, and more common in other countries.

...with the now defunct Rendition Socket X http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EKF/is_n22 26_v44/ai_20894055 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CGN/is_n12 5/ai_20831295

...with the now defunct Rendition Socket X http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EKF/is_n22 26_v44/ai_20894055 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CGN/is_n12 5/ai_20831295

• Genes contribute to religious inclination
• Letters : The God gene
• Is the Capacity for Spirituality Determined by Brain Chemistry?
• The roles of religion, spirituality, and genetics in paranormal beliefs

While I agree that the some of items you mentioned are problems, none of these are really Bush's fault and the attempts to fix them have been blocked by Democrats.

huge trade deficit
Nothing new. An economics professor told me once that a trade deficit is a sign of a good economy. Besides, I don't know if this is really that much of a problem. Can you remember the last time the US had a trade surplus? I can't. Yet we are still doing much better better than those that have a surplus over us.

budget deficit
Nothing new. The US gov't has been in debt since World War II.

outsourcing
Nothing new.

insufficient education
I disagree. If you want a good education, the opportunity is there for you. Most of the reasons that students are not learning is because they simply don't put in the effort. That is a parental problem, not a department of education one. Granted, there are schools that just suck, and the students have no choice but to attend those crappy schools, but that has been fixed (or at least it would have been had "vouchers" not been blocked by Democrats).

Social security issues
Bush tried to fix this, but again, blocked by Democrats who, for some reason, prefer the status quo to a limited privatization of Social Security. While the Democrats were busy screaming about how it wouldn't work, the good citizens of Galveston Texas are proof that it would. Didn't matter since it was a Bush plan, Democrats must oppose it (see my sig for another example).

soaring medical costs
Nothing new. Still, I'd rather pay too much for health insurance that too much in taxes!

Here's the first relevant looking article I found.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0UBT/is_4_1 4/ai_58946883

It's not proven, but the assumption is that while the entertainment computers weren't on the same networks, etc, as the flight computers, their components traveled through the same conduits so an unexpected electrical fire took them all out.

My point isn't that this did happen, but that while the "rules" are good practice, they are no real guarantee of safety. They keep evolving after crashes.

Rind et al. (1998) similarly concluded that students with childhood sexual abuse histories were slightly less well adjusted than controls, but that this was more likely attributable to family environment than abuse experiences per se. These assertions are consistent with other studies that have noted when other abuse (i.e., physical, emotional) experiences are held constant, childhood sexual-abuse-symptom relations frequently disappear (e.g., Cole, 1987; Eckenrode, Laird, & Doris, 1993; Higgins & McCabe, 1994; Ney et al., 1994).

Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, and Michaels' (1994) random probability U.S. sample found that men with sexual abuse histories reported three out of nine sexually related problems and women reported four out of eight problems, the differences between sexually abused and non-sexually-abused groups were small.

With an eye for statistical logic, what this says is that.... a small group of those abused have severe problems. The majority, however, have no problems at all and bring the "median" of the group back to almost the same as non-abused samples.

(from the same article) A number of researchers have reported that the relation between childhood sexual abuse and later adult adjustment (broadly defined) appears to be accounted for, to a large extent, by family background rather than sexual abuse per se. For example, using path analysis to examine child sexual abuse-adjustment relations among female students across 32 U.S. colleges, Wisniewski (1989) concluded that factors such as family violence had a greater impact on current emotional adjustment than did the specific effects of sexual abuse.
Tromovitch (1997) concluded that "the results from psychological adjustment measures imply that, childhood sexual abuse is related to poorer adjustment in the general population, the magnitude of this relation is small ... [and] cannot safely be assumed to reflect causal effects of the childhood sexual abuse" (p. 253).
The authors suggested that differences in adjustment between sexually abused persons and controls observed in national samples may be attributable to larger differences in social environment, rather than to the sexual abuse. In a later meta-analyses of 59 studies based on college samples, Rind et al. (1998) similarly concluded that students with childhood sexual abuse histories were slightly less well adjusted than controls, but that this was more likely attributable to family environment than abuse experiences per se. These assertions are consistent with other studies that have noted when other abuse (i.e., physical, emotional) experiences are held constant, childhood sexual-abuse-symptom relations frequently disappear (e.g., Cole, 1987; Eckenrode, Laird, & Doris, 1993; Higgins & McCabe, 1994; Ney et al., 1994).

The only conclusion I can come to is that there can be some effect and other studies I recall (I cannot find a reference) show that harm is more common with girls, more damaging when they are very young and manifest more severely when incest is involved. With the "I did my teacher" example of a teenage boy willingly engaging an unrelated woman, the long-term perceptions and adjustment coorilates actually show those relationships to be viewed (from the "victims" point of view) as usually a positive experience.

I can tell you from experience that several of my friends had older lovers in their young teens. As those relationships were neve

Just surround the globe with 840 satellite.

G'uh.

or is that to 1995?

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is _n1_v16/ai_15958051

NPOV doesn't mean giving equal time to any crackpot who can string two words together. For example, the article on the Holocaust doesn't give equal weight to the possibility that Hitler was just defending the hapless Aryans from predatory Jews. See undue weight. While this does happen, it's not in accordance with policy, and you should refer people who yell "NPOV!" at you to that section. It's a sad truth that those who bang on the rules the most are those who are trying to abuse them.

I looked at the "The Chronicles of Narnia" article, and noticed that the Hensher reference (about racism in the depictions of the Calormen) is hosted on the Discovery Institute, of all places, but Googling for a phrase gets a copy (with popups) citing The Independent of London, on December 4, 1999--which is a real newspaper; the criticism has been reputably put forth, and so has a place in the article.

And if you think that was too old, here are some recent problems:

Oct, 2004: (problems when customers switched to generics because of quality control)
http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/archives/editorial/ genric_drug_problem_raises_questions_on_quality.as p

Jan, 2000 (generic company lost license because of quality problems, it served 10% of market in GB)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcg i?artid=1128727

Dec, 1997 (generic company hit with record fine for among other things falsifying records to cover up deviations from approved manufacturing processes)
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1370/is_n7_ v31/ai_20097793

"The biggest, IMHO, is that switching to them ends up taxing people's savings - especially retirement savings - twice. It was taxed once, at various rates, while it was was being squirreled away. Then it gets taxed again, at confiscatory rates, when it is spent."

You do know that most (all?) federal retirement plans are pretax, right?

http://www.irs.gov/retirement/index.html

"Right now is especially nasty, since you've got the entire baby boom just reaching retirement age. They've already been massively soaked by the Social Security pyramid scheme to give bread and circuses to previous generations - amid constant predictions that it would collapse when THEY retired."

Source

"Myth #1: Social Security is in crisis and facing bankruptcy.

Even if Congress were to leave Social Security untouched, the program would be able to pay currently guaranteed benefits in full until 2042, according to the program's trustees. Thereafter, about 70 percent of promised benefits could be financed. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office is even more optimistic: it projects that, without changes, Social Security will be able to meet its obligations in full until 2053, after which about 80 percent of benefits still could be paid for. Even under those worst-case scenarios, decades from now the system would be far from "bankrupt," "flat-out bust," or "broke," which imply that no resources would be available to pay any benefits. At that time, workers and their employers still will be contributing payroll taxes to finance benefits for retirees.

So Social Security is facing a long-term financing problem, but it is far from a "crisis" by any definition of that word. And the problem is much less immediate and threatening now than in the recent past, even though no changes have been made to the program. In 1997, Social Security's trustees had projected that the program's trust funds would last only another thirty-two years and would be depleted in 2029. Those forecasts have improved steadily-largely because of stronger than expected economic growth-so that the trust funds now are expected to remain sufficient for thirty-seven more years.

Like a doctor who recommends "watchful waiting" while a patient becomes healthier, Congress should think twice before performing radical surgery on an enormously successful program that appears to be getting better with age. "

"So they had to build their own retirement nest-eggs on top of it, while paying the ever-climbing interest on the national debt (which first became intractable when their parents ran the Vietnam War on credit, back when the bulk of the boomers were opposing it)."

Later than that.

"And: Sales taxes zap the lower income earners harder than the upper (since the lower-income people are working hand-to-mouth and need to spend pretty much all of it, while the upper can avoid spending much of it - investing it to make more, moving it to places and situations where the tax can be avoided before spending it, etc.). This scheme attempts to avoid the effect by "rebating" a certain amount of tax to each individual - approximating a flat-tax plus dole scheme. What a massive opportunity for cheating (by creating multiple fake identities to get multiple "rebates".) What a massive excuse for the government to impose a national ID / registration / citizen tracking system."

Flat Tax fiascos

Hmmm, interesting there's no biblical "flat tax" :)

What the hell is the bomb squad for?

One night at a conference, though, up in the hotel room after a good deal of beer, one of them apologized to my jewish collegue for the holocaust. (To which my friend replied, in typical fashion, "Hey, no problem."). This guy clearly felt very bad about it, although not from anything anyone actually said or did.

The thing about the holocaust, however, was the way it sucked in the entire german culture. It wasn't that there were a few mass murderers; rather, the whole society became geared towards the genocide of "outsiders" within it. Yes, there were heroes among the people of germany, but something terrible happened within the society as a whole. The feelings of guilt are collective because the society as a whole acted. And the culture doesn't disappear, it's transmitted through the generations. It wasn't the case of a small group of individuals.

From my rather distant vantage point, and from meeting these two post docs, it's clear that as individuals and as a society, a great deal of soul searching has been done in germany. (Again, I'm sure there are plenty of individuals there who would be Nazis if the whole thing started up today.) It seems to be important for german society. And it seems to be coming from within german society - I don't see it much being imposed from without. There are plenty of German tourists in Israel- I even stayed in a German run kibbutz when I was there several years ago. Whatever Germans are doing, they are doing for their own reasons.

And the Holocaust is not yet completely in the past. There are still Nazis being hunted down today. There are still problems with people recovering art, money, and bank accounts that were seized by the Nazis. Claims are still being fought over to this day.

If you want to see societies which have NOT acknowledged their complicity, just look at Austria and the extreme right wing politics on the rise over there. The Germans seem determined not to do it again. Given the opportunity, Austria might. Look at Hungary, which was only occupied at the tail end of the war - but thanks to help from the local population, over two thirds of the Jews there were killed. Millions died in Poland. There has been no widespread acknowledgment of complicity, and there's plenty of antisemitism in both of these countries.

I have met plenty of Germans, and had no problems with any of them. But I am pleased to see Germany still grappling with their past, of their own accord. Perhaps we could learn something.

They were wrong, and their parent publications were generally too stupid (or embarrassed) to archive their words on the Internet, so I don't have links for you...
Oh God.. Don't remind me. I was trying this weekend to write a college paper on the history of the internet. I eventually gave up and picked another topic because the myraid of things I remember that were interesting and not just technical simply aren't recorded or have been removed. Some of the things I remember myself (got my first email account and was big into MUDS in the last 80s) simply can't be found anymore and I needed solid references not just what I remembered. Sad really.

I don't know if they have any of it but have you thought of checking out the Way Back Machine, Internet Archives? Another place to look is Find Articles.

Yes actually... as part of their premium $19.95 service. So aparently the ability to backup her mail isn't worth 20 bucks a year. They also have a 6 buck account preservation thing where your account wont get deleted. Also they've had POP access since 2002 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is _2002_May_14/ai_85911533 i.e. before she got her account. And if her ISP gave her an email address she could have forwarded all incoming mail. Not easy but you'd have a backup.

so...
1) 2002, Company offers free service with additional features like account protection/backup capability at a price.
2) 2005, New customer signs up for free service without additional features that she sees no value to.
3) Two years on she loses all her mail because of the ToS of her free service.
4) She now sees value of additional features.
5) Emails customer support asks for help.
6) Is told please pay 20 bucks to get your mail back.
7) Despite apparent value of offer, she accuses company of extortion and refuses to pay.
8) She loses all her mail.
9) and gets told to FOAD by customer service rep.

Am I missing something?

Sidebar, new Windows interface from Quarterdeck
Newsbytes News Network, April 6, 1994

NEWSWEEK: If one of our readers confronted you in a CompUSA and said, "Bill, why upgrade to Vista?" what would be your elevator pitch?

Bill Gates: The most effective thing would be if I could sit down with them and just take them through the new look for a couple of minutes, show them the Sidebar...

Sidebar is delivered on a single floppy disk, takes up less than 1 megabyte (MB) of hard disk storage space, and less than 300 kilobytes (K) of random access memory (RAM). It also fits on the right edge of the computer's display to take up as little screen space as possible.

Quarterdeck has exclusive license of Sidebar from Paper Software of Woodstock, New York. Paper Software originally distributed the product on a try-before-you-buy basis as shareware, then Quarterdeck licensed it, made significant changes, and is now shipping the product. The suggested list price is $59.95.

This article points out that even doctors are susceptible to drug company advertising:

"...according to a review published in the Jan. 19, 2000, Journal of the American Medical Association. Ashley Wazana, M.D., of McGill University, analyzed 29 studies of relations between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry and found that the industry's marketing efforts clearly influence doctors' prescribing habits, although most doctors do not believe this to be true."

Relevance? What's that?

Perhaps you aren't aware of the history behind the use of the RICO law, going back at least to Rudolph Giuliani's use of the law against Michael Milken. For your further amusement, see e.g. The continuing expansion of RICO in business litigation.

Yes, we all know we can trust the IRS to give us accurage information.

You mean like this?

"Microsoft Invites you to Book Your Passage Aboard the Titanic"
(seriously, an actual MS promotional material, seen here:)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200 211/ai_ziff31603

CO2 levels are not the only control on global temperature. To assume such is asinine.

Hey, there's a concept we can both agree with!

However, in similar conditions, we might expect similar results.

Notice in your link that compares the Scotese global temperature scale to the Berner CO2 levels... that the last time that both were at minimal levels was during the Permian.

The Permian ended with a coincidental increase in both global temperature and CO2 levels, according to your data.

Yeah, I also notice that the author points out that ice ages occur whenever a) we have land masses that extend from our north to south pole AND b) a large south polar land mass... Could it be that one such land mass broke up due to continental drift at just about that time?! Hey, don't bother yourself with reading or examining evidence. Just look at one graph, assume it was the CO2, and contradict the first words that came out of your mouth.

THE LAST TIME THE EARTH HAD LOW TEMPERATURES AND LOW CO2, and CO2 LEVELS ROSE, ALMOST EVERYTHING DIED.

Tell me about it when 'runaway' plate techtonics splits up the Isthmus of Panama.

Perhaps being intelligent, hardworking, and having a thorough knowledge of the company and how it works are not the most important factor in being CEO?

The similarity between CEOs and sociopaths has been pointed out before. From a Psychology Today article

Home flywheels. I used to have some much better links bookmarked, but here's what a quick google search turned up:
http://home.earthlink.net/~fradella/homepage.htm

In a related note, it was this article in Discover magazine back in the day that influenced my decision to go into engineering. It's a shame we've never seen anything come of it.

This is a lame excuse.
Here is the logic behind this: SOX punishes CEOs and CFOs for false financial statements. If we deliver something after the customer has paid, we can not recognize all the revenue when we receive the cash. Since we want to recognize the revenue right away because it boosts our earnings, we can't deliver you the update or else we will commit a fraud. Hence, we make you pay for it separately.
The controversy started at the end of the '80s, early '90s, when Circuit City had to restate its earnings because of FASB 90-A that regulates accounting for extended warranties and service contracts. M$ used that rule to decrease earnings in the wake of the antitrust case by postponing recognition on Office sales and also built cookie jar reserves to smooth earnings.

IIRC that political movement hired away many of Borland's top developers attempt to eliminate Borland's C/C++ as a competitor. Prior to that, Borland was at the top of proprietary C/C++ compilers.

So how much of the motivation behind this recent hire is just an attempt to hurt IBM ? Clearly the overall development of the IT sector would be better if he had stayed.

Even if Walmart doesn't give them all of their numbers, they will still track Walmart as well as all other over-the-counter sales through sampling.

Here is an example of NPD tracking Walmart purchases.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FNP/is _16_43/ai_n6161035

The most obvious and conspicuous difference is that the former is civil and the latter criminal law.

The most recent amendment to criminal copyright infringement was the No Electronic Theft Act of 1997 (Net Act), which made it a felony to reproduce or distribute copies of copyrighted works electronically regardless of whether the defendant had a profit motive ...
A commercially motivated infringer can receive up to a five-year federal prison term and $250,000 in fines; a noncommercial willful infringer is subject to up to a one-year prison term and $100,000 in fines. The maximum prison term for repeat infringers is up to 10 years for commercially motivated ones and up to 6 years for noncommercial infringers.

Part of the EULA for Windows is agreeing to the possibility of being audited. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) is the group that usually carries out the audits on behalf of Microsoft (and several other large vendors). So you can't actually use Windows without having first agreed to subjecting yourself from audits. And there is precedent for enforcement of these audits with the aid of Federal Marshalls.

but I do know you are mistaken about astronomers not reporting UFO's. I would suggest that you might do better research before making any more such bold and misleading statements, (like your previous comments regarding photography).

Talk about pot calling the kettle black. I suggest you read what reasonable people like Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, Richard Feynman, or the folks at The Skeptic have to say. Mustn't forget to include Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy take on UFO nuttiness.

There is a difference between scientific ignorance and gullible ignorance. I know I don't know anything and am willing to be educated, but it doesn't mean I have to take what people say at face value, and if I learn it's bullshit, I'll call it bullshit. Especially UFOs as alien spacecraft bullshit. Having an open mind doesn't mean a lack of critical thinking.

If there really are aliens visiting earth in flying saucers, why then, and I'm really trying to understand this, why then would someone travel, perhaps, thousands of light years to abduct some stranger on a farm or isolated spot and give him an anal probe?

This happened when W2K and XP was released.

During the same period (around the first few monnths of its released) people said the same old thing, the same old articles were being writen...

http://news.com.com/2100-1001-249972.html?legacy=c net

http://www.serverwatch.com/news/article.php/140020 1

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FOX/is _10_5/ai_63507054

I know slashdot is the mecca of microsoft bashing but please shut-up, nothing to see here.

New platforms take time to get into production. I am sure most compitent IT shops have a team devoted to looking into planning Vista deployments. I am sure in most places IT desktop purchses for the past six months have been changed to taken into account the greater hardware requirements that Vista will need.

Software needs to be ported API's and driver models need to be learnt. With all new computers starting to be pre-installed I am sure soon enough more of an effort will be put into software applications to be ported.

Some later historians, such as Howard Zinn, cite the Philippine-American War as an example of American imperialism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine-American_W ar/
During the war 4,324 American soldiers died, only 1,000-1,500 of which were due to actual combat; the remainder died of disease. 2,818 were wounded. ... Philippine military deaths are estimated at 20,000 with 16,000 actually counted, while civilian deaths numbered between 250,000 and 1,000,000 Filipinos.
http://www.historyguy.com/PhilipineAmericanwar.htm l/
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1132/is _4_51/ai_56640457/

----------------
Russia? Central Asia? Pardon Moi, but the remainders of Russian Hegemony are not asian, they are central european see,
http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?i sbn=0521864038/

-------------

Catholic nations are hardly "christian" for the Protestant US.

_____________

US Imperial power? See http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/class/clis734/webguid es/milbase.htm/
U.S. European Command, in Stuttgart-Vaihingen, Germany, is responsible for 13 million square miles in 89 countries and territories. This area of responsibility begins at the North Cape of Norway and extends through the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas, through most of Europe and parts of the Middle East, to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. The Command's mission is to support and advance US interests and policies throughout the region and to provide combat ready land, maritime, and air forces to Allied Command Europe or to US Unified Commands.

Point out another country holding military bases covering 13 mega-miles in Europe, alone. You can't and there isn't any other country with the US power as demonstrated by our basing. Iraq has a base under construction that is larger than the Vatican - because we want control over Oil.... nothing else.

Sadam Hussein has less than 30 days to live - my question: does "W" have a fetish in the killing of people? Think back to the execution of Carla Fay Tucker - where "W" mocked her plea for mercy.

I think "W" is one sick puppy. Tell me you don't agree.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is _5_30/ai_n16714533

Criticising the president is a political statement, and not the same as disrespecting an officer or anything.

Since when does German law apply in other countries?
Since when does French law apply in other countries?

I'm pretty sure I could come up with a few other things as well. Oh yes, in this particular case it might be since Russia started to join the WTO.