Slashdot Mirror

"We can't possibly compete with a company in Asia that's willing to forgo environmental rights, worker rights, and human rights"

Then why is US manufacturing output near an all-time high?

It turns out that only low value-added manufacturing can be done by counties with low-skilled workers in bad conditions.

China is working up the scale of value-add, by their workers rising in skills, conditions, and wages, just like South Korea, Japan, and Singapore did.

Hey, good news. China is changing.

Now, they tell you up-front that in order to sell a small number of units in China, you must hand over all your technical documentation so that they can start making and selling them after the initial sale.

I am guessing that you are referring to Stephen McIntyre of Climate Audit. Have a look at his biography:

Mr. Steve McIntyre has been appointed as Chairman of the Board of Trelawney Mining and Exploration Inc with effect from June 30, 2011. Mr. McIntyre has over 30 years experience in the mining and mineral exploration business, including over 10 years with Noranda Mines Ltd. and 20 years as an officer and director of several junior mineral exploration companies, including Dumont Nickel Inc., Northwest Explorations Inc., Timmins Nickel Inc. and Vedron Gold Inc. Most recently, Mr. McIntyre has achieved international prominence through critical statistical analysis of climate research. In 2010, he was named as one of "50 People Who Matter" by the New Statesman, an English magazine, and was co-winner of the Julian Simon Award from the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

Why is it that so many prominant climate nay-sayers can be traced back to the mining industry? The common complaint about scientists in this field is that they spruke global warming to get research funds, but those same complainers don't seem to care about how the denialist scientists make their money.

Have a look the next time a "scientist" comes out against climate change. You will often find that a lot of those scientists are actually geologists. I accept that geologists can tell us a lot about atmospheric conditions going back over time, but I also accept that the biggest industry that employs geologists is the mining industry.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d99ebe6c-b90d-11df-99be-00144feabdc0.html

Germany’s energy companies are expected to give to the government part of the windfall profits generated by extending the lifetime of nuclear power stations, with the funds used to invest in renewable energy.

...

Relations between the energy sector and government were soured by Berlin’s plans for raising €2.3bn ($2.9bn) a year via a tax on nuclear fuel rods – part of its separate attempts to reduce the country’s public sector deficit. This tax is now expected to be time limited.

Nuclear is in fact subsidizing an anti-economic "renewable" energy expansion.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/275db4d0-6cdf-11df-91c8-00144feab49a.html

There was a surge of subsidy-driven spending in Spain’s photovoltaic sector, with €23bn invested since 2002 – a quarter of that in 2008 alone. The annual cost of subsidies for all renewables reached €5bn last year and could hit €6.3bn this year.

http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/465409/spanish_nighttime_solar_energy_fraud_unlikely_in_uk.html

Spanish newspaper El Mundo found that between November and January, 4500 megawatt hours (MWh) of solar energy were sold to the electricity grid between midnight and seven in the morning. It has been suggested that some plants in the regions of Castilla-La-Mancha, Canarias and Andalucía have been using diesel generators connected to their solar panel arrays to illegally benefit from government subsidies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_policy_of_Brazil

Facebook also filed an ammended S-1 with the SEC:

http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1326801/000119312512222368/d287954ds1a.htm

That says right in it:

"Our business is subject to numerous risks described in the section entitled “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this prospectus. You should carefully consider these risks before making an investment. Some of these risks include: ... Growth in use of Facebook through our mobile products, where our ability to monetize is unproven, as a substitute for use on personal computers may negatively affect our revenue and financial results; "

This was reported on by major financial news sources almost two weeks before the IPO:

http://blogs.ft.com/tech-blog/2012/05/facebook-admits-to-mobile-weakness/#axzz1viB00j8h
http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-05-07/tech/31602869_1_zynga-facebook-linkedin

This information was freely available to anyone who was paying attention. They're trying to blame Facebook for their own failure to do even basic due dilligence.

Meh, from what I see if you're one of the favoured companies when you screw up big time they'd roll back the trades for you. I bet even someone like me can make a lot of money if my trades got rolled back whenever I screwed up big. And if you screwed up really big you get a bailout and keep your bonus.

There was also that infamous case when humans outsmarted the algo but they got prosecuted, convicted and lost their profits: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f9d1a74a-d6f3-11df-aaab-00144feabdc0.html

Why should they get prosecuted? Why should the algo users keep the money if it wins when they also get to keep the money when it loses? Sounds stupid and unfair to me.

âoeWe want to dump a lot of money into Facebook,â one says, citing peersâ(TM) activity on the site as evidence of its longevity. âoeYouâ(TM)re on Facebook half your day, if not more. Itâ(TM)s a necessity. Itâ(TM)s water, itâ(TM)s death and now itâ(TM)s Facebook.â

People have high hopes for Facebook.

Of course not! The Chinese will never even think about seizing islands in the Pacific that belong to Japan, Vietnam, or The Philippines for their undersea resources! The Chinese have absolutely no imperalist impulses, not at all!

My problem comes when people don't think they should "work their way out of" poverty, but that the government should do it for them, not by helping them to get better work or creating an environment where business thrives so jobs are created (not a liberal strong point), but by simply giving them the money to support a better lifestyle.

Slight problem with that Randian storyline - even if it were true - giving poor people money to support a better lifestyle is not only a more moral system than the "up from your own bootstraps" nonsense, but it makes for vastly better economics than cutting taxes on the rich.

Working stiffs can't take lengthy unpaid internships to get a job in their field after college. They better hope that they find one though before their student loans become a weight around their neck. If George Bush was George Johnson, he'd be lucky to be the assistant manager of a Burger King, if he wasn't in prison for cocaine possession. Not handed business after business no matter how many he drove into the ground, much less the presidency. Or have beautiful women sent to your hotel room to have sex with you because your last name is Bush.

Social spending isn't about "hand outs". It's about basic human decency and equality of opportunity.

Japan has essentially no internal oil or natural gas resources. Everything has to be imported. As a result of the nuclear shutdown, imports are up. Way up. So are prices.

From the Financial Times:

As utilities last year met the shortfall of nuclear power, Japanese consumption of LNG rose by 56 per cent, crude oil for direct burning by 27 per cent and fuel oil usage by 20 per cent. The trend, which is helping to keep spot LNG prices in Asia and global oil prices higher, is set to accelerate in the next few months as utilities burn more hydrocarbons to compensate for the lack of nuclear power.

Energy analysts say utilities have maximised LNG-fired electricity output, leaving crude oil and fuel oil to meet additional needs. Oil traders believe that Japan's nuclear cutback could add between 450,000 and 800,000 barrels a day to world demand for crude and fuel oil. The figures are significant. The bottom end of the range equals the production of Ecuador and the upper end matches the output of Qatar.

Zu Guttenberg is now adviser to the European Commission on the digital agenda. This shows that his political carreer is far from over. He is now very close to the most powerful people in europe.

http://blogs.ft.com/brusselsblog/2011/12/zu-guttenbergs-brussels-political-comeback/

Here is what it said:

Fewer than five per cent of Muslims polled believed they should separate themselves from non-Muslims, and fewer than 10 per cent believed it was acceptable for religious or political groups to use violence for political ends.

and

Almost 80 per cent agreed that the attacks on the London Underground in July 2005 had damaged the image of Muslims in Britain.

Hardly as as damning as you suggested. The right wing media in the UK has been doing its up most to portray Muslims as the enemies of the "truly British" white majority. I'm not saying there is no issues with Muslims in Britain, but anything negative written about them needs to be read with a whole heap of salt.

Of course Japan and Germany trade more with us, they're developed! They were both highly developed nations before they ever got a dollar of aid from us. China was somewhat in the 1930s before Japan went in.

Post-WWII the U.S. gave huge amounts of aid to Europe including Germany. Later on the US went through an economic boom in part selling stuff to Europe to help it rebuild. Japan was less lucky initially. Post-WWII they were desperately poor, with wide spread food shortages and so on. However come the Korean war the U.S. started to see the importance of a stable Japan and gave them generous military supply contracts which kick started their high growth era in the 1950's.

In another example Japanese war repayments helped kick start Korea's development in the 1960's. Another example is Taiwan which received significant U.S. aid helping them kick start their economic development.

There is no way to develop Pakistan, they'd have to want to do it themselves.

Of course they have got to be willing to do it themselves. However aid can provide a helping hand. The point I was making was that the U.S. is better off in a world of rich nations to trade with (E.g. Pakistan v.s. Japan/Germany). Hence providing aid to help other nations develop can be justified by self interest.

Somalia is not a security problem. Not a significant one anyway. For some private shipping, but the US Navy can blow anything they have with their lowest tech gear out of the water. The threat is nothing compared to the cost of developing it.

Somali piracy costs $7bn despite fall in hijacks. That is in 2011 alone. $7bn of development aid a year buys you quite a lot

Just like that $10B or so a year bought Pakistan's loyalty when our chopper crashed.... and oh, wait, they gave China a look at it.

You mean $10B since 2001. I guess the U.S. didn't spend enough to buy the rights to land a stealth helicopter loaded with navy seals in their territory without notifying them (not that I'm saying that the U.S. wasn't justified in doing so). More to the point do you genuinely believe that aid cannot help improve relations with countries receiving it or help buy their loyalty? If you don't disagree that that can be the case then there isn't really any argument to be had.

We are a democracy in the UK. If the people don't like the law banning "incitement to racial hatred", we get rid of it.

The freedom of speech argument is bogus. I'm fairly sure that the US has laws against slander, libel, shouting "fire!" in a crowded subway when there is none, advertising medicine as cure for cancer when there is no evidence, etc etc.

I am not an English lawyer but wife is. She pointed out to me that England has a long history of civil peace (our last revolution was in the 1640s), a legal system that has been copied by many countries throughout the world and is the first choice for foreign companies and Russian oligarchs to have their cases heard. English law must be doing something right.

I'm sorry, but comparing the yelling of fire in a crowded theater to a guy going to jail for an insult is beyond moronic. Thank God I don't live in the UK, or I could go to jail for calling you a moron. No country that outaws "hate speech" can claim to have anything even remotely resembling free speech and all the asinine comparisons to libel and slander can obscure that fact.

We are a democracy in the UK. If the people don't like the law banning "incitement to racial hatred", we get rid of it.

The freedom of speech argument is bogus. I'm fairly sure that the US has laws against slander, libel, shouting "fire!" in a crowded subway when there is none, advertising medicine as cure for cancer when there is no evidence, etc etc.

I am not an English lawyer but wife is. She pointed out to me that England has a long history of civil peace (our last revolution was in the 1640s), a legal system that has been copied by many countries throughout the world and is the first choice for foreign companies and Russian oligarchs to have their cases heard. English law must be doing something right.

"tl;dr"

Your loss. The Skills of Xanadu is an amazing story, especially for having been written in the 1950s. It inspired Ted Nelson to invent hypertext, which we are essentially using to communicate right now.

As for forests, the Native Americans were surrounded by them, and probably did not plant most of them. So, you can have "permaculture" without too much work. See also:
http://www.primitivism.com/original-affluent.htm

If robots are more expensive than Chinese labor, why do we see things like this article?
http://www.plasticsnews.com/china/english/headlines2.html?id=1278958338
"In the wake of labor unrest, Chinese factories are adding automation to control rising labor costs. It was bound to happen."

What would it take to convince you that robots can be used for mining, manufacturing, and for services if we truly wanted to do that at this point?
http://roboticnation.blogspot.com/
http://p2pfoundation.net/backups/p2p_research-archives/2009-November/005926.html
http://econfuture.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/structural-unemployment-the-economists-just-dont-get-it/
http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm

People for decades wanted to make agricultural robotics but were stymied by the economics of our society and its acceptance of cheap (slave wages) illegal labor. Give it a decade to adjust and we'll see robots in the Georgia and Alabama fields.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_robot
http://roboticnation.blogspot.com/2009/04/autonomous-grape-vine-pruner.html

Then you will see how software can be eaten. :-)

What are "raw materials" but stuff collected from the surroundings? Robots can build new factories too (as if we did not have more than enough already). Don't confuse the fact that for historical reasons some few humans claim entitlement to "rent" on accessing resources they control socially with the issue that robots can increasingly supply substantially all the labor needed to use resources to make stuff. See Marshall Brain's Manna for one idea on how that might work economically:
http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna5.htm

And to see how robotic mining is emerging:
"Rio on edge of new world of robotic mining"
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f6cc3482-6756-11df-a932-00144feab49a.html

That all said, it can be fun to do things and make stuff, especially when we are deciding for ourselves what to do or make. Look at how much people like Minecraft. So, it's not clear we need the robots in a big way. The alternative is to rethink the work so it is fun. How many trillions of one meter cubes have been mined over the last two years in Minecraft? People even pay for the privilege of doing so.

If China were simply limiting the amount of rare earths permitted to be dug out of the ground, there would be no WTO issue. The problem is that this is an export cap which has the potential to create different pricing for rare-earths between domestic and foreign purchasers of these materials.

Now if you look at mentions of today's prices of rare earths (by googling for "rare earth prices"), as yet, there is no such disparity. The linked WTO article also doesn't directly talk about price disparities between domestic and foreign purchasers. It turns out that global demand for rare earths went down quite a bit last year, and as a result, only about 60% of the export quota was used up (according to this FT article).

The concern is that as the global economy recovers, if demand is seen to exceed the quota, then a huge price difference between what domestic companies and foreign companies pay will emerge. This would amount to a kind of state subsidy (making prices for domestic producers artificially cheap) and would violate WTO rules.

The two metrics to watch to determine whether or not the claim of environmental protection vs. economic protectionism would be:

(1) Domestic rare earth production volume (e.g. in tons) - If slope of this curve continues unchanged, then there really is no environmental effect. If the slope flattens out, then it could be argued that the quota did slow down the pace of mining and did have an environmental consequence

(2) Domestic (China buyer) vs. Foreign (non-China Buyer) price (e.g. difference $/ton) - If this disparity is big, then there's a stronger case that there is some kind of domestic subsidy occurring, if the disparity is small, then the case that there is a subsidy is weaker.

This is not really a matter of sovereignty since China is a willing party to the WTO and has volunteered to play by those rules.

Several provisions of the 1933 Banking Act sought to restrict 'speculative' uses of bank credit. Section 3(a) required each Federal Reserve Bank to monitor local member bank lending and investment to ensure there was not âoeundue useâ of bank credit for âoespeculative trading or carryingâ of securities, commodities or real estate.

Most would agree that when the fox is put in charge of the hen house, foul play will ensue. Just a couple examples:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/665c90e8-ecf4-11e0-be97-00144feab49a.html
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/29/us-lme-warehousing-idUSTRE76R3YZ20110729
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10290085/1/goldman-citigroup-to-make-markets-on-cbot.html
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2009/0413/096-sachs-semgroup-goldman-goose-oil.html
http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/cvi/description

Forget about the economies their bookcooking destroyed, more important are the stooges being PLACED(not elected) into Euro leadership positions:
http://www.infowars.com/banker-coup-goldman-sachs-takes-over-europe/

Sure, it's no longer as popular to hate on homosexual people as it was in the past, but we have all new forms of hatred and intolerance which our modern society deems acceptable, and which will be just as subject to the next generation's ridicule and derision.

Atheism is the new red-headed step-child.

Hold on, hating on religion is popular, not hating on not-religion. Grow up.

Sure, it's no longer as popular to hate on homosexual people as it was in the past, but we have all new forms of hatred and intolerance which our modern society deems acceptable, and which will be just as subject to the next generation's ridicule and derision.

Atheism is the new red-headed step-child.

Seems that even Alan Greenspan agrees with you that H1Bs are a racket:

"But an additional contributor to inequality in America is our immigration law, which “protects” many high earners from skilled migrant competitors. The American H1B programme is in effect a subsidy for the wealthy, a policy that is anathema to the supporters of capitalism."

From yesterday's Financial Times (26 January 2012).

I'd be careful about believing all the stories that have been floating around about the captain. It seems like the company is trying to distance themselves from a "fall guy", and as it has been established that the ship and others from that company had taken close routes to the island before:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/27aff644-437c-11e1-8489-00144feab49a.html#axzz1k9N66b6k

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16583187

It seems the company wants all the negative attention to be on the captain rather than them, so we should expect that they are throwing out lots of spin, instead of facts, as companies often do.

bonch (maybe?)
DCTech (2545590)
ge7 (2194648)
zget (2395308)
cgeys
*x**y*y**x* (not sure of correct spelling here)
InsightIn140Bytes
SharkLaser
HankMoody (2554362)
TechGuys (2554082)
GreatTech (2557540)
FreeCoder (2558096)

(there are *at least* 4-5 more than that. it's been happening for over a year)

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html

Facebook has admitted that it secretly hired a public-relations group in the US with the aim of generating stories critical of Google’s approach to privacy. ...
Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted US newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2614186&cid=38654948

It's the [...]Anti-Google astroturfer. The last one got killed because it he admitted he was a paid astroturfer for MS. This one isn't going to last very long either. Note for anyone who is wondering why I know (with >95% certainty) that DCTech is a paid astroturfer:
* brand new handle
* posts random Google is evil posts in the most unrelated topics
* does so within seconds of the article being up
* does little other than post Google is evil

Also:
* Will often praise Apple or RIM or another non-google company in a fake concession to hide the motive of the post
* Often will criticize Linux
* Will say things like "well, at least this is one thing MS/FB gets right, compare that to how "evil" Google is
* Often complains about cloud services compared to MS's tried and true PC model
-------

It's sad we have to chase you around with a running list of handles just to have a non-astroturfed discussion here. And if anyone wants to report this
post as abuse please feel free. The Slashdot admins need to wake up and get involved or this place will end up like Digg.

bonch (appears to be one of the subscribed accounts)
DCTech (2545590)
ge7 (2194648)
zget (2395308)
cgeys
*x**y*y**x* (not sure of correct spelling here)
InsightIn140Bytes
SharkLaser
HankMoody (2554362)
TechGuys (2554082)

(there are *at least* 4-5 more than that. it's been happening for over a year)

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html

Facebook has admitted that it secretly hired a public-relations group in the US with the aim of generating stories critical of Google’s approach to privacy. ...
Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted US newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2614186&cid=38654948

It's the [...]Anti-Google astroturfer. The last one got killed because it he admitted he was a paid astroturfer for MS. This one isn't going to last very long either. Note for anyone who is wondering why I know (with >95% certainty) that DCTech is a paid astroturfer:
* brand new handle
* posts random Google is evil posts in the most unrelated topics
* does so within seconds of the article being up
* does little other than post Google is evil

Also:

* Will often praise Apple or RIM or another non-google company in a fake concession to hide the motive of the post
* Often will critisize Linux
* Will say things like "well, at least this is one thing MS/FB gets right, compare that to how evil Google is"
-------

I like google too, but in this case Google admitted they did it.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html

Facebook has admitted that it secretly hired a public-relations group in the US with the aim of generating stories critical of Google’s approach to privacy. ...
Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted US newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2614186&cid=38654948

It's the [...]Anti-Google astroturfer. The last one got killed because it he admitted he was a paid astroturfer for MS. This one isn't going to last very long either. Note for anyone who is wondering why I know (with >95% certainty) that DCTech is a paid astroturfer:
* brand new handle
* posts random Google is evil posts in the most unrelated topics
* does so within seconds of the article being up
* does little other than post Google is evil

-------
bonch (possibly one of the subscribed accounts they use)
DCTech (2545590)
ge7 (2194648)
zget (2395308)
cgeys
*x**y*y**x* (not sure of correct spelling here)
InsightIn140Bytes
SharkLaser

It's sad we have to chase you around with a running list of handles just to have a non-astroturfed discussion here. And if anyone wants to report this post as abuse please feel free. The Slashdot admins need to wake up and get invoked or this place will end up like Digg.

That's not how guerrilla marketing works. As soon as this story falls from the front page he will make sure an mod up himself before it hits the archive. They've been at this at least a year, probably more. I could name at least a dozen of the handles involved. However, they change handle when a non-AC calls them out on it. Expect a new 2.6m UID soon.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html

Facebook has admitted that it secretly hired a public-relations group in the US with the aim of generating stories critical of Google’s approach to privacy.

The disclosure is the latest sign of the increasing rivalry between Facebook and Google, as they go head-to-head over internet users’ time and advertisers’ budgets.

Burson-Marsteller, a WPP-owned PR agency whose clients also include Microsoft, contacted US newspaper reporters and opinion-piece writers with a view to securing coverage on Google’s alleged use of personal information from Facebook and other social networks.

The agency did not inform the journalists that it was acting on behalf of Facebook.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/12/facebook-admits-hiring-pr-firm-to-smear-google/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/05/12/facebook-admits-being-behind-smear-campaign-against-google/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/cdd1ea06-7cc0-11e0-994d-00144feabdc0.html

Time to retire this handle now, shill. Sleep well knowing you not only are basically a paid liar, but you have now resorted to insulting people for your job.

Link to FT article

Key quote:
"Roughly 25 per cent of all global hard drive assembly facilities are located in Thailand, according to industry tracker iSuppli, which said supply would be constrained until the fourth quarter of 2012."

75% of the manufacturing capacity is unaffected. 25% was affected, though production was restarted back in December. The prices remain at about 200-250% of pre-flood prices, even for producers completely unaffected by the floods. Check Newegg yourself... This amounts to "not gouging" and "not cartel pricing" how?

Vista was a downgrade. Win7 was an upgrade from XP, barely. Windows Explorer was actually an improvement:
1) You can set the default view as you wish. You can do the same in XP of course, except that submitting that request doesn't work.
2) Win7 WE lacks the autocrash feature of XP. To crash XP, choose File -> New -> Folder and run the mouse beyond the context sub-menu.
3) The folders view doesn't erratically turn itself off.

Nice analysis about the 11% drop though. But business environments require multiple levels of security and they can't rely on their least attentive employees. Heck they can't rely on their most attentive either: Conde Nast was phished for $8 million last year. The Controller for Experi-metal revealed passwords after receiving an emailed phish in 2009: $1.9 million was subsequently wired to Russia. Experi-metal sued the bank last year for not monitoring its account activity adequately. Then again, I'm off on a tangent: Win7 wouldn't help in this instance though intrusive and annoying anti-malware software might.

http://www.piworld.com/article/2011-year-felony-418406/1
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/951f0efe-2d60-11e1-b985-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1iNBBiMVH

This article thinks that shutting the Straits of Hormuz won't have the impact that it might have ten years ago. Oil could be transported by highway across the Arabian peninsula to ports in Oman. The US also has a reserve of five to six weeks of petroleum in it's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Not saying that shutting down the straits wouldn't have an impact, but I don't know that life would grind to a halt in two weeks, either.

Denmark is doing fine (10 year bond rate 1.71%), as is Sweden (1.66%). Both rates from here http://markets.ft.com/RESEARCH/Markets/Government-Bond-Spreads at time of typing this, they will have changed by the time you read it.

Of course, what those countries have in common is that they are not in the Euro, so they can control their own monetary policy.

"You do realise you are posting on slashdot right?" - by mSparks43 (757109) on Wednesday December 28, @04:33PM (#38519420) Homepage

The place where for YEARS penguins said "Linux = secure" & what I post shows it's ANYTHING but that? Sure, I do! You bet... lol!

---

"But every windows machine connects to at least 20 Linux machines a day, which is where your argument falls flat on its face." - by mSparks43 (757109) on Wednesday December 28, @04:33PM (#38519420) Homepage

Linux users connect to many orders of magnitude MORE systems running Windows, because Windows is MORE WIDELY USED by a HUGE MARGIN... period!

---

"->fixed before they were exploited." - by mSparks43 (757109) on Wednesday December 28, @04:33PM (#38519420) Homepage

YOU wrote that, not your source - they weren't & aren't the only guys that know how to exploit that KERNEL LEVEL SECURITY BUG IN ANDROID @ that time either (others did also). I mean, face it: Just because you publicly state you have discovered something, doesn't mean you're the first!

---

"It's true you've posted lots of links" - by mSparks43 (757109) on Wednesday December 28, @04:33PM (#38519420) Homepage

That dealt in 64++ security vulnerabilities being present &/or exploited on ANDROID (a Linux variant) - you need more, thus, my p.s. below will have them (8 more, making the total now a 72:1 ratio vs. your "opinions", lol)

APK

P.S.=> Lastly - "continuing the trend" here, posting MORE ANDROID (a Linux variant) SECURITY BLUNDERS (72 by this point):

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/29/android_data_disclosure_bug/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/14/android_chinese_stealing/

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/bf3d6002-452e-11e0-80e7-00144feab49a.html#axzz1FdlXHJmB

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/10/12/30/1856242/Android-Trojan-Found-Spreading-From-Chinese-App-Stores

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/137143/20110421/android-phones-track-users-movements.htm

http://www.bangobang.com/2011/04/android-phones-are-no-more-protected.html

http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/11/02/23/1640252/Mobile-Spyware-Conferences-Into-Your-Calls

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/04/google_android_market_peril/

Don't worry - I have PLENTY MORE where that came from, should you need even more...

... apk

Let's not be racist about it. The plant was designed by General Electric (GE nowadays). Immelt, slimy toad that he is, jumped in the media fray VERY early on, to do damage control:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/56fb5f92-4e0e-11e0-a9fa-00144feab49a.html#axzz1hguiUtBH

He offered help! He should have started by offering excuses! A group of GE whistleblowers were pointing out design flaws in that exact type of plant in the 970s! Design flaws which played a role in the accident, moreover:

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/03/15/3520/reactors-heart-japanese-nuclear-crisis-raised-concerns-early-1972-memos-show

also, this:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/03/15/956586/-Whistleblower-Expose-of-GE-Inspection-Coverup-RARE-EU-Authored-US-BWR-Damage-Report-?via=tag

Be be even more blunt, your example is wrong. They have not been producing tidal power there since the 1950's. My point stands, it is very doable to make a tidal power station, it's not very doable to keep a tidal power station.

Hey, dumbass. We have this thing called The Internet now. You can videoconference over it, and share text and pictures you create on your computer. Actually being in the same room with someone is less productive, overall, since you end up catching their diseases and have to spend the next week on the ship hanging over the rail. And then the pirates take all your shit and kidnap your IT department and the US Navy bills you 18 times your 5-year-plan to get them back for you.

Fucking seriously. Why are airlines still in business? Oh wait, they're dropping like flies. Clue.

Get a computer. Get a wi-fi router and a broadband modem and an ISP. Get Skype and a bluetooth headset and a $5 webcam. Then go the fuck away, stay the fuck away, and show up on time for your meetings.

Despite Brazil having ethanol (from sugar cane) available they do not run exclusively on it. Having worked with and met a number of Brazilians at my current job it sounds like it isn't the panacea that they were promised either. They have flex fuel vehicles there that run on either one just as we do but like many flex fuel vehicle owners here in the US they have discovered that they get substantially fewer miles per gallon and that the cost per mile ends up being higher when running on alcohol fuel. Brazil does have alcohol only vehicles which are better optimized for alcohol than the flex fuel ones that have do deal with blends of alcohol and gasoline. It would also appear that Brazil has been importing the US made corn ethanol.

Who are the US troops protecting us from?

Ask your own politicians. I mean, US troops aren't there for fun, they are there as part of the NATO defense pact. If the UK considers it no longer necessary, it can simply leave NATO. And since WWII, the UK keeps asking for US help with European problems:

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ace535c2-b088-11e0-a5a7-00144feab49a.html

But worry not: US politicians are increasingly getting tired of this b.s. Maybe soon you'll be able to clean up the messes that European colonialism left around the world and in your backyard yourself again.

Apple is the largest company right now.

http://www.ft.com/cms/f808f946-ef56-11e0-918b-00144feab49a.pdf

It's funny you should mention Germany and Sweden. The entire EU is currently collapsing. Have you heard nothing of PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain) economies? Greece just effectively defaulted on their debt a few days ago, Ireland has already gone tits-up, and Italy is next on the chopping block. They keep pouring money into Greece to postpone the inevitable: A complete banking collapse. Once Italy goes, France goes, Germany can't contain anything at that point, and that's the end of the Euro.

What's this have to do with oil? See for yourself:

http://blogs.ft.com/energy-source/files/2010/04/oil_eurotrib.png

The PIIGS economies are imploding, and they just happen to be the ones most dependent on oil.

There is no time to develop nuclear plants on a scale to replace oil. You cannot just re-train a bunch of paper-shuffling office drones to go out and build nuclear plants. The number of engineers required to build what needs to be built, in the time frame in which it needs to be built, simply does not exist. Before you create enough nuclear engineers to build all the plants, you'll be out of time.

Maybe if we started 20 years ago.

problem is, they must also ratchet back the banks' inroads they've built all up and down the supply chain. It is an interesting correlation in that every single commodity on the market has tripled in value in the last 10 years. Seriously, look at some 20yr graphs in foods, energy, metals...it's like hurricanes and droughts and China did not exist prior to 1999. I think of DeBeers and the diamond market when the LME is berating Goldman Sachs for creating artificial supply shortages for slow deliveries from their 'storage warehouses'. How does Goldman respond...?
buy the LME

... also he was skilled at claiming credit for ideas he didn't actually come up with and similar dirty tricks. If you dig into his personal life a little you quickly discover he wasn't exactly a nice guy, nor quite as brilliant as generally supposed.

You don't see this kind of stuff in China

You may not see it, but it is most definitely there. It's just that China's government is a hell of a lot more quiet about it, and the little bit that does see daylight is considered normal, especially when compared to the more outrageous crap (by Western standards) that businesses pull off both with and against each other.

It also helps the facade when you occasionally execute the occasional minor official or two who don't pay enough of a 'vig' to keep the upper echelons' bank accounts properly greased.

Prime Minister David Cameron said:

Mr Cameron said: “What happened on our streets was absolutely appalling behaviour and to send a very clear message that it’s wrong and won’t be tolerated is what the criminal justice system should be doing.

Mr Cameron is no stranger to appalling behaviour, being a former member of the Bullingdon Club, "notorious for its members' wealth and destructive binges". The club song apparently goes: "Buller, Buller, Buller! Buller, Buller, Buller! We are the famous Bullingdon Club, and we don't give a fuck!"

Cameron's 'Buller' escapades include running from the police through the streets of Oxford after a heavy flowerpot was thrown through a restaurant window.

The problem is that measures of uncertainty using the bell curve simply disregard the possibility of sharp jumps or discontinuities and, therefore, have no meaning or consequence. Using them is like focusing on the grass and missing out on the (gigantic) trees. In fact, while the occasional and unpredictable large deviations are rare, they cannot be dismissed as âoeoutliersâ because, cumulatively, their impact in the long term is so dramatic.

The Godfather tried to warn them. Don't know if I'm pleased or saddened that he lived long enough to see his incredible tools turned into "weapons of financial destruction". [Emphasis mine]

Luckily, he will be spared the repeat performance. Nothing's changed, they're still "printing money" every day. [emphasis theirs]

It didn't last for very long though. The process was halted back in June after multiple earthquakes, and the UK is pretty stable geologically - earthquakes strong enough to be felt usually make the national news - so a connection seems highly likely. Coverage at the BBC, FT and Independent.

NPR reported on the same sort of thing happening in Faulkner County, Ark. I think they later stopped the drills for a period to see if it stopped the small quakes and found that the quakes did stop.

It didn't last for very long though. The process was halted back in June after multiple earthquakes, and the UK is pretty stable geologically - earthquakes strong enough to be felt usually make the national news - so a connection seems highly likely. Coverage at the BBC, FT and Independent.

Still, it is good for a chuckle every now and again if you are a Galactica fan since journos keep using headlines starting with "Fracking Protesters..." until someone gets it changed. :)

There are doubts about the effectiveness of the UK deficit reduction strategy.

The US credit rating has been in danger of being downgraded for years, and the credit rating agencies themselves say it's because of out of control spending.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/40f3a2be-bfa9-11dc-8052-0000779fd2ac.html