Slashdot Mirror

"WWII was the best thing to happen to the US in its economic history."

Citation needed...

Counter argument:
http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2011/05/was-world-war-ii-good-for-the-american-economy.html
" Had trends persisted in the absence of war, employment, TFP, and labor productivity would all likely have been higher in 1942â¦housing construction was robust and growing in 1939, 1940, and 1941, and when the postwar housing boom emerged with full force in 1946, it took off from where it had been arrested in 1941. Since the failure of residential construction to revive fully was one of the major contributors to the persistence of low private investment spending during the Depression, its signs of revival in the years immediately preceding the war suggest that had peace continued, investment, output, and employment growth would have continued as the economy reapproached capacity.
        â¦There continues to be a popular perception that war is beneficial to an economy, particularly if it does not lead to much physical damaged to the country prosecuting it. The U.S. experience during the Second World War is the typical poster child for this point of view. Detailed research into the effects of armed conflict, however, has usually produced more nuanced interpretationsâ¦In that spirit, the research reported in this chapter represents a revisionist approach to the analysis of the Second World War, although one that is not entirely unanticipated."

However, it is true that the fact that the USA was the only major industrial economy left mostly unscathed by WWII did set the stage for major export-led growth in the USA in the next couple of decades.

But ultimately, the same could have been achieved with different social policies without the war and related death and destruction -- if we were more enlightened.

Sections of Iraq have been turned into a radioactive wasteland by US depleted uranium munitions, leading to high rates of birth defects. I guess its true that some people benefit from that (doctors? health care supplier?). But what a way to "build democracy".
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/falluja-cancer-children-birth-defects

War is a racket:
    http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

But it is also true, as I say at the link below, that "transactions of decline" can prop up a scarcity-based socioeconomic model that does not make sense anymore by creating artificial scarcity even when abundance is possible:
    http://knol.google.com/k/beyond-a-jobless-recovery

There has been allegations of sexual agressions by Strauss-Kahn for at least five years : http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/16/dominique-strauss-kahn-tristane-banon

In a hospital the government will have absolute control over him mentally and physically. He will have no rights whatsoever.

What gives you that impression of (British) hospitals? While things have got worse since Thatcher pushed for care facilities (not hospitals per se) to be sold off to private business and we occasionally get this sort of thing, successive Mental Health Acts have given more "freedom" to the individual - even the seriously mentally ill individual. You're far more likely to be put on the street when you should be in compulsory residential care than the other way round.

School shootings have occurred in two countries, Finland and Germany,

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

In Europe, when crimes do occur, they really are almost exclusively between various breeds of mafiosi.

I don't even know where to begin with this one. Browse these and tell me how many look to be perpetrated by "mafiosi". (at the time of this post, half the stories in the "most recent" column were murders. none looked related to organized crime)

And these are just examples from the UK, where I can find them with an English language google search. I'm sure you'd find others in other countries if you spoke the language. You have a throughly unrealistic view of Europe. It is not a Utopia in the same way the United States is not a violent hellhole. There are good areas and there are bad areas. I come from an area of the US where many people don't lock their doors at night. I have friends in Europe who live in really sketchy neighborhoods. If you want to compare crime statistics or gun ownership rates, that could be a productive discussion. But saying everywhere in the US is plagued by violent crime while everywhere in Europe is totally peaceful is dishonest.

'The cost of the proposed scheme is not indicated, but is likely to be substantial, including the running cost of two non-judicial independent bodies and the cost to ISPs of permanently blocking websites,' Consumer Focus said.

MAFIAA: austerity my ass, we don't give a fuck about UK deficit (to surpass the Greece one), you just take care I still receive my money

How about we wait, till they actually catch someone, before we start felling all high and mighty?

It started this morning.

Still, I do love the smell of fascisme in the morning!

You've previously stated you're European.

On another note; is it not about time the U.S. changed that national anthem of yours?

O’er the land of the oppressed and the home of the cowards!

Two problems with that. First, that ones already taken... somewhere in Europe I believe. (Maybe you recognize it? Or perhaps you sing it?) Second, It's not really a good description of the United States as Americans aren't oppressed, nor are they cowards. Italian fascists, German Nazis, Imperial Japanese, and various flavors of communists and Islamic extremists have all made that misjudgment, much to their regret. Thanks for offering to share, but no thank you.

Please note that your abusive comments will be ignored, only intelligent comments will be responded to from this point forward.

Aside from the fact that Apple sells more music than any other retailer, the RIAA cannot dictate to Apple that they have to try to trap pirates.

Here's the latest stats on UK music sales, downloads account for 25% of all music sales in the UK. Based on that, I'd be very surprised if iTunes sold more music than Amazon, bearing in mund 3/4 music sales are still physical media and Apple doesn't sell CDs whilst Amazon sells loads of them.

Apple *CAN'T POSSIBLY* agree to that. That would utterly destroy Apple.

We can but hope.

Um, by definition it will be low, since you *CAN'T* buy individual tracks from a CD the way you can on iTunes. CD singles have always been priced to be a poor value. However, none of what you wrote here implies people buy CDs won't find a value in using iCloud.

I don't know why I am bothering to argue with you coherently because you clearly have a fixed viewpoint from which you will not be swayed, despite reasoning that clearly shows your viewpoint to be wrong.

I am saying, yet again, that most serious CD music buyers do not, and will not, buy downloadable music. Therefore they have no use for iCloud.

And this doesn't even make any sense. CD buyers are EXACTLY the type of people who would find value in the iCloud match feature. In fact, it is specifically targeted at them. The people who only get their music from iTunes won't have any use for this feature, and already get to use the free portion right now.

Rubbish. I have proven that most CD buyers are serious about music, therefore they don't buy downloads. Plus if they're serious about music then they rip the stuff themselves at an appropriate rate to what they want to play it on.

$25 p.a. or not, iCloud is a pointless service for the 75% of people (at least in the UK) who still buy CDs.

Do you think the labels all come to Apple and just dictate terms?

Yes. Music industry does not need Apple, Apple needs music industry.

I had to google this, being an American I wasn't aware that Lockheed Martin was involved in handling UK Census data.

That's weird.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/feb/19/census-boycott-lockheed-martin

Just curious, what's the average annual tax bill per person to pay for the NHS?

Have a look here. In 2009/10, the NHS cost £100bn (about $160bn). That's about 8% of the UK's GDP, and actually less a a proportion of GDP than the US spends on healthcare.

Yes, we get universal healthcare, free at the point of delivery, and it costs us less per person than the US system which, as TFA shows, drives people to commit crime in order to get treatment. Of course, health insurance companies don't make as much money over here, so maybe our system is the flawed one, eh?

Also, not to nitpick (well, yes to nitpick), but I think that part that says "suddenly every piece of software works..." needs a bit of filling out. Especially at the "suddenly" part.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2001/nov/15/neilmcintosh

You're operating under the critical misconception that a whole billion Chinese have been elevated to high standards. (By the way, there are actually 1.3 billion now).

No, I don't believe that all 1.3 billion Chinese are shopping for Gucci in a chic Shanghai highrise shopping center right now, and I realize that true wealth is only found among the ruling and business class. And yes, I do know the population of China: one of the reasons I talked about the fate of "1 billion Chinese" rather than 1.3 billion is because several hundred million are still stuck working on the same rice fields their grandfathers farmed.

But while only a few have become wealthy, the majority have seen huge relative gains, and very few Chinese could be said to have been totally "left behind". If you look at the data and research any statistic that applies to the population as a whole rather than the elite -- % of population earning below $2 a day, food calories consumed per person, electricity use per person, infant mortality, access to clean water and improved sanitation, cell phone use -- all of these show huge gains that extend to (almost) all of society, not just the elite.

The ruling class and the business class are living well, and the other billion are just scraping by.

The definition of "just scraping by" has changed radically. Now it's, "can I afford a cell phone? A computer? Maybe a car someday?" rather than "will my child die of malnutrition this year?"

As for the ability to travel, consider that 230 *million* Chinese traveled from the cities where they work to their home towns this past Chinese new year. That's not just the elite business class: that's mobility for the working person.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/jan/27/china-railways-audio-slideshow

Some civilian casualties does not equate to "indiscriminately killing as they please".

If anyone is killing indiscriminately, it's the forces the US is fighting against. Take Afganistan, for example (where the GP noted that only 55% of strikes used precision guided munitions). The Guardian reported that 3/4 of civilian casualties were caused by anti-government elements.

Assuming arguendo that drone-fired weapons don't constitute "hostilities," what about F-15's? Helicopters and ship-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles? F-16's and EA-18's? (Note: that's the DOD's press release, so it's probably reliable.)

Here's a great graphic breaking down just who is sending what. Breakdown for the US: 12 ships, 153 airplanes, 228 cruise missiles. It doesn't break down by aircraft type, but it's a fair bet they're not all UAVs.

MS themselves offered nothing drastically better over unix, novell and apple back in the days... What they offered, was a massively inferior package that was also a lot cheaper

We are talking about the base OS here. Yes, Windows was cheaper ... what? Cheaper than VAX/VMS? Cheaper than Cray? Fact is, Windows was the only game in town on PCs (aside of DOS,) and the PC market was exploding. Windows had no reason to compete with UNIX - I personally haven't even seen UNIX until - what was it - 1991? - but I certainly saw Windows far before that, since I was setting up Windows for Workgroups in 198*.

Cheaper is most definitely of interest to a business, $130 may not be a lot but $130 * 500 is a significant amount

You don't buy retail in quantity 500. Volume deals drop the price to something like $50-70. Besides, you can't simply add costs up, come up with a large number and wave it in the air. If you have 500 employees you have far greater expenses, and you have even greater profit that those employees make.

There is one more thing in business, it is called COGS. It reduces the effective cost of a tool, and MS Office is a tool. So you have now a competition between a cheap top-notch tool and a free but somewhat weirder tool. What will you, as a business leader, buy? I think the decision is preordained here.

Keeping your data in proprietary formats is a huge risk to your business, and the only problem is that the people running many of these businesses simply don't understand technology.

That is indeed a concern. However most businesses in the USA are not thinking in the long term - neither forward nor backward. They live in "today." Therefore such issues as file formats are not considered.

It must be said, though, that MS Office always offered a plain text format (RTF) so the migration path was always there. Newer formats are zipped XML, so the point is largely moot.

No, you catch what you can. If you get an instigator, that's excellent. It's the prime goal; these people are enemies of everyone around them (dare I edge up to the "T-word"?). But "useful idiots", when they are encountered, should not be thrown back because they are too small. Does it bother me that the instigators may go free? Yes. I'm not suggesting otherwise. However, I do not believe for one second that "provoked to riot" gets anyone off the hook or is cause for leniency. If the investigation-trail exposes a "useful idiot" with blood or broken glass on his hands, off to jail they go, and then you keep hunting. This isn't a riot over police murdering innocents then conspiring to cover it up. This is drunken frat-boys and poor losers who believe that a lost hockey game is just cause to burn cars and destroy stores, and who need to be punished hard enough to leave a life-long lesson.

Humanity has instincts and primal urges. It is our ability to overcome those primal urges that sets us apart from shit-flinging monkeys. If someone lacks sufficient willpower to resist mob-think over something as trivial as a hockey game, or thinks they can shelter behind that excuse, they ARE a shit-flinging monkey. We don't let those out of cages. You're either sufficiently evolved to call yourself a human being (and warrant human respect) or you're not. If someone is so weak that they give in to the slightest excuse to break windows, stab people, loot buildings, and set cars on fire, they do not need to be wandering in the streets. They need to be locked up because they have conclusively proven they cannot be trusted not to hurt others on impulse. If they do not have a functional conscience strong enough to overcome their base instincts, maybe some harsh punishment will instigate a lasting fear of further punishment that WILL be strong enough to overcome those base instincts. I'm good with either as a motivator; behave with human dignity because it's the right thing to do, or behave with human dignity because you're afraid of a thorough ass-kicking if you don't. Every person demonstrates on a daily basis which technique motivates them. The goal is to have people who can behave like humans free (regardless of motive for acceptable behavior) and to have those who demonstrate they cannot control the urge to violence in concertina-wire cages (regardless of excuse).

Or, to put it in hockey-terms, five-month major in the penalty box for "useful idiots", permanent suspension for instigators.

It looks like that would be under threat from Chrome.... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2011/jun/15/google-chromebook-os-microsoft-threat

This just sounds like another game where they're focussing on the little guys whilst ignoring the big tax avoiders.

Like this guy, who's a member of the House of Lords (comparable to the Senate, except half of the members get inn through birthright): http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/04/lord-ashcroft-vat-conservative-polls

Never mind the six billion quid HMRC let Vodafone off for free. You can now measure cuts to services in percentages of a Vodafone.

Or George Osborne's personal tax evasion.

No, it's all the eBay traders. Yes, they must be the problem.

Just like the recycling industry, eh?

See The Guardian (Great Britain):

"Apple to pay Nokia big settlement plus royalties in patent dispute
Tuesday 14 June 2011 18.20 BST

The Finnish phone-maker Nokia could receive a one-off payment of more than €800m (£700m) from Apple and receive further royalties of €8 per iPhone sold in future, after winning a settlement in a long-running patents dispute.

Although terms of the settlement were not disclosed, previous patent licensing deals in the phone industry have been worth up to 5% of the price of the device involved. At €8, or $11.50 (£7), they would represent about 4.5% of the estimated average $264 cost price of an iPhone, which Apple sells to retailers and phone networks for an average of $660. Apple has sold 108m iPhones since their launch."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/14/apple-nokia-patent-case

There are not the usual kinds of riots and protests in China. It's no longer peasants in the villages protesting against stolen land, pollution or corruption - these are formally relatively quiet urban workers going on multi-day riots that the government is struggling to contain and that threaten to spread everywhere the same bad conditions exist. Things like stagnant wage rates with high inflation, abusive authorities and employers, political repression, etc: article from the Guardian

It is completely possible/practical to have zero downtime for a website

It is not, and no sane engineer would agree with your statement. Accidents happen. You talk about redundancy, but even EC2 have been down. Heck, even Google have been down last year in part of the world. A chaos monkey can screw up your servers, or maybe a old lady just cuts your country off the internet

one giant container ship can emit almost the same amount of cancer and asthma-causing chemicals as 50m cars

Appears OP confused greenhouse gases with poison gases. Idiot. Looks like were OK then.

http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=single+large+container+ship+emits+as+much+greenhouse+gasses+in+a+day+as+all+the+cars+in+US+do+in+a+year

Or since you've already proven you're lazy. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/09/shipping-pollution or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_shipping#Exhaust_emissions

Is likely to??? Are you saying he is not already suffering whether guilty or not? The conditions he was held in from July to April were cruel and spiteful to say the least - this is before being convicted (a formality I suspect, regardless of whether he is guilty or not).

Fair point. I must admit, I was thinking long term and overlooked the fact that he is already experiencing just the beginning of what life will be like for him if convicted.

I have heard the doom and gloom stories regarding the release of this information but from what I can see, the aftermath seems to be a spring cleaning of oppressive regimes, it appears to be a bit cheaper than it has cost / is still costing to remove Saddam.

If Manning is responsible, perhaps he should get a medal - unless the U.S. government wants these thugs to stay in power.....

This is old ground. I find it rather disingenuous to treat Wikileaks as the sole fount from which freedom in the Arab states sprung. I would even go so far as to suggest that this was going to happen with or without Wikileaks. Otherwise it opens up some rather interesting questions as to exactly when US-sourced information is credible, when it isn't, and how easy it would be for the supposed diabolical US Government to manipulate the world.

And that doesn't even touch on the fact that Manning exposed no smoking guns. He provided no evidence of horrific crime and provided little insight to anything that wasn't already reported or known. Manning deserves no medal for putting his own freedom on the line for, in the end, not blowing any whistles. But he did achieve fame. And on that note, he has managed to be on par with the latest cast of The Jersey Shore.

Manning, however, is likely to suffer for his actions if, in fact, he is the leak.

Is likely to??? Are you saying he is not already suffering whether guilty or not? The conditions he was held in from July to April were cruel and spiteful to say the least - this is before being convicted (a formality I suspect, regardless of whether he is guilty or not).

I have heard the doom and gloom stories regarding the release of this information but from what I can see, the aftermath seems to be a spring cleaning of oppressive regimes, it appears to be a bit cheaper than it has cost / is still costing to remove Saddam.

If Manning is responsible, perhaps he should get a medal - unless the U.S. government wants these thugs to stay in power.....

lol - so according to someone that works for Rupert Murdoch, apple is not actually evil!!!!!!

I think that says it all really.

anyhow, what a shame that you put all that stuff onto the shiny ipad and no one really wants to look at it (or pay for it, which of course is what matters to a mercenary little cocksucker like you!)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jun/05/will-tablets-be-the-cure-for-newspaper-ills

fucking hell - i hate apple people more and more. not more than you hate yourselves though.

What's a GRE

It's one of the third class of solutions to the general "P=NP?" range of problems, described by many (DNA in particular) to be an SEP. For the generic case of these, under fairly wide conditions, a problem P that is in the set SEP, is indeed, "NP" (No Problem).

and why would passing one allow you to know hypothetical problems with Star Wars tech.

I think it should be clear now.

Just as a matter of interest, who is Slashdot UID #42?

Thankfully, The Guardian (UK) are doing the same thing. Dug

Forgot adding this link: Major US Bank found to launder billions of drug cash http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/03/us-bank-mexico-drug-gangs

This was all made possible because Wachovia laundered a sum of money equal to 1/3 of Mexico's GDP for the drug cartels.

Of course as soon as this was discovered the Justice Department sprang into action and initiated a RICO takedown of the entire institution and all its executives (in an alternate universe). What they actually did was politely request that the company pay a fine equal to 2% of their profits which was then refunded to them by the Treasury Department via a $54 billion bailout.

It makes sense because laws don't apply to the aristocracy like they apply to us peasants - they're doing God's work after all.

Making claims that about redaction or (possible) missing emails is not talking about resources and time. It's a premeditated attack that potential evidence of wrongdoing has been removed. So if nothing incriminating is found...well they must have removed it is the excuse rather than there was nothing incriminating to begin with!

But the Guardian has the emails online and humorously is using the PUBLIC to let them know if there's anything scandalous! They can't even be bothered to put an intern on it?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2006/feb/05/aolyahootost

What happened to the rumours a while ago about charging for E-mail? This might stem the tide if an E-Mail cost a very small fee to send, but considering the volumes of E-Mail sent around the world, this would not be very popular at all. There will be some bright spark out there that will come up with a solution for spam E-mails soon, but those Nigerian E-mails sure are funny...

Okay, on some things like energy, you can argue that the problem is US overconsumption and ill distribution. But on things like food?

Here's an analysis of the global grain market:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/10/world-food-prices-climbing?INTCMP=SRCH

The short version is that large proportions of the world are already being fed by grain grown through overpumping finite aquifers. When those run out, that section of food production will disappear. Add to that additional environmental factors putting pressure on the food supply, and it seems plausible that food production is going to fall, just as consumption increases. You can ask people to save power and turn off the lights. But you can't ask people to stop eating and drinking.

Spain does not export energy to France. It imports energy from France, and exports energy to Portugal, Morocco, and Andorra.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/28/spain-renewables-energy-electricity-france

One in four US hackers 'is an FBI informer':

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/06/us-hackers-fbi-informer

APK

That's like saying I can steal your car and then leave it in parking lot some where with the keys in the ignition.

Here we are talking about intellectual property, as opposed to tangible goods.

The military documents were definitely not in the public domain.

On one hand, you have information as completely abstract concept which is not a property, and you have documents (classified or otherwise) which are tangible copyrightable work of the US agencies. Since US has a rule that government-produced work cannot be copyrighted it does not enjoy the level of protection that other copyrighted works enjoy. This applies to all documents produced within the government. Military documents are, naturally, covered by this, as well as documents produced by CIA, NSA, and any other government agency, with a few exceptions like USPTO.

I imagine that the only people who could be charged are those that released the material first.

You'd have to find out who wrote the original law, then. :)

The guy charged with the theft has so far only been charged in respect to the military material.

Manning is charged with lots and lots of stuff. These include not only unauthorized transmission of classified documents (breaking the rules of handling classified documents, right?) but also aiding the enemy, and other stuff like illegal installation of software to extract the documents, etc. If you care, look up "Bradley Manning charges" and you'll find many articles on the topic.

The protection of government documents is facilitated through the system of classification. This system prescribes storage options and handling rules to all government subjects depending on the level of classification and their level of clearance. So, if someone leaves a document out there "with the keys in the ignition", he is breaking the handling procedure, not the copyright law. The documents are already in public domain, so they can't break copyright laws. Therefore, those documents are not stolen, but mishandled. The crimes of mishandling do not (at least should not) extend to non-government people, and especially not the press.

The government is probably using the charges which have the harshest penalties such as execution in an attempt to gain his cooperation. Personally I hope the military and government prosecutors show some restraint if the guy is convicted.

The reason the military and the government have not shown any restraint whatsoever when treating Manning in a way that borders on torture is that they needed to make it clear that they won't tolerate such leaks. He was more of a message to others working within the government.

He is not charged with Treason either. Why not? Could it be that the 'worst leaker in US military history' didnt leak anything all that important? Could it be that the state department over-classifies most of its material for political reasons?

No, it's because Treason is a crime specifically defined in the US Constitution. Manning's circumstances don't meet the Constitutional test for treason.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

As far as I recall or know, only one person has been charged with treason since WW2.

$1 million for arrest of American al Qaeda charged with treason

An American al Qaeda propagandist was indicted Wednesday on treason charges, the first person charged with the offense during the United States' war on terrorism, officials said.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, who has appeared in five al Qaeda videos, is also charged with offering material support for terrorism, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said.

But think about it, he is charged with aiding the enemy. That is treason by any common understanding of the word, and would constitutie treason in most countries, it just does not meet the US Constitutional meaning.

The State Department has been relocating diplomats and warning activists and sources around the world after Wikileaks outed them. This has been very disruptive.

WikiLeaks sparks worldwide diplomatic crisis
WikiLeaks cables prompt US to move diplomatic sources
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations

You might want to go back and look at some of those issues in your post using different sources, you're heading in the wrong direction in many cases.

Kind of reminds me of "Curveball", the Iraqi defector who cried wolf just to trick Bush into invasion. I can't say I blame him. If I was oppressed, I would do everything in my power to use a foreign nation as a weapon too.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2011/feb/15/curveball-lies-us-war-iraq-video

What do you do when your neighbor seeks to expand and you just happened to dump all your military budget on a giant mirror in Neptune's orbit?

When I read about Kaiser Wilhelm's plans to invade US during WWI, the sensation was similar to reading War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells -- hair-raising terror.

While losing military budget after WW2 propelled both Germany and Japan to become economic superpowers, I wold prefer to hold on to it just a tad longer.

Reforestation couldn't hurt. We're still pretty boned though if this study is confirmed: Trees absorbing less CO2 as world warms.

It's likely that they're trying to protect the genetic purity of their own crops.

When a GM crop is created, it's patented. Natural pollination will contaminate the genetic purity of the natural crop. Eventually, the local farmers won't be able to keep seed for their own crops because they'll all be contaminated by the GM grown nearby.

But this is ludicrous in itself. If Monsanto crop spreads itself from farmer A's field to farmer B's field, that's Monsanto's problem, not farmer B's. It shouldn't be possible to sue farmer B for not preventing patented crop to sow itself on his fields. If anything, farmer B should be able to sue Monsanto for contaminating his own crop.

If the consequence of this is that crop patents become hard or impossible to enforce, well, then we have to accept that crop patents are hard or impossible to enforce.

Go to 3:49 in the video, and you see they request permission to engage the moment they see an armed group in the militarized zone. And they are given permission precisely because people shouldn't be walking around armed there. That right there is basically the end of the argument. Anyone who carries a rifle into a militarized zone better prepare to get shot at.

At 4:08 in the video, you see the RPG set on the ground and then picked up. It is vastly longer than any camera lens I've ever seen in my life. And people don't throw expensive camera lens bags on the ground like that. Nice lenses are fucking expensive and fragile. Third-party reports also mention the RPG.

Want even more proof? ASSANGE HIMSELF ADMITS THERE WAS AN RPG.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2010/apr/14/julian-assange/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-tells-colbert-per/

Not a single news article I've even seen on the subject confirms children were in the van, or that any children were killed. And if they were, then the kids were killed by irresponsible adults putting them in the line of fire.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/jul/12/reuters.pressandpublishing

Do you see any mention of kids? That's because there weren't any kids. I just did Google News searches for the past few minutes. Not ONE SINGLE MENTION OF DEAD KIDS IN ANY OF THE NEWS REPORTS.

Anytime kids or medical staff were killed in incidents like this, it was reported on. Either every single news outlet who covered the incident all lied in this one exception, or WikiLeaks lied in their editorializing of the video.

But let's say for the sake of argument the unmarked van was medical staff, and they randomly keep kids in their vans (which makes zero sense), the moment they go into an active combat zone and pick up people being shot at, they're endangering everyone in that van.

Again, not a soul has filed war crimes charges, because nothing wrong was done.

There weren't children in the helicopter. There were trained soldiers. Their job during wartime is to kill their enemy. Their life, and the lives of people around them depend on their ability to kill their enemy before the enemy kills them. It may seem wrong and jarring for people to hear them celebrate the fact that they shot people, or ask permission to open fire again, but I suspect you haven't received military training. I suspect you don't know what it is like to serve your country and risk your life for others.

It's likely that they're trying to protect the genetic purity of their own crops.

When a GM crop is created, it's patented. Natural pollination will contaminate the genetic purity of the natural crop. Eventually, the local farmers won't be able to keep seed for their own crops because they'll all be contaminated by the GM grown nearby. This has happened time and time again. Local farmers are raided and shut down because their crops have been contaminated and they're now infringing on the IP of some bio-tech firm.

Additionally, GMO toxins have been detected in the blood of fetuses, potentially effecting development. The jury is still out on the safety of GMO foods. God has had millions of years to work on this stuff, but we've been at it for only a few years and already a significant amount of commercially available food is GMO. What are the long term consequences? The bio-tech firms don't care what the consequences are...because they're making a buck.

So, for all those calling this "terrorism", you need to take your weenie hat off and man-up. I would liken a GM crop grown nearby to an uncontrolled wildfire. The local farmers who are protesting this are trying to protect their own crops.

his talk would be wasted on them anyway.

Funny how history repeats itself. 60 years ago there was a group of people who found another group of people of inferior race. They also had the view that things went wasted on them.

The Palestinians don't believe in freedom of speech

A lot of Israel supporters also don't believe in freedom of speech when you try to criticize the state of Israel. You think this doesn't happen the other way around ? Read this

Less than a fortnight before the event, the university director, Monique Canto-Sperber, withdrew permission for the event. A few weeks later, she refused permission for a Palestine Collective-organised conference as part of "Israel Apartheid Week". When her decision was applauded by a group of Jewish organisations, the Palestine Collective - a group of 15 students and teachers - accused her of bowing to pressure.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/21/ecole-normale-superieure-debate-row

Why do you accuse me of peddling dodgy treatments? Just google for zinc and cold.

It works better than placebo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12462910
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/for-cold-virus-zinc-may-edge-out-even-chicken-soup/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/

Stick to the pills/lozenges, take them at early onset of symptoms, don't overdose and definitely don't spray your nose with it (or you might damage/lose your sense of smell). May not be a cure, but most subjects would feel better and that's good enough for most people.

AFAIK doctors in some countries are still prescribing antibiotics to those with colds and flu. Despite being told year after year not to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/20/coughs-colds-cures-treatment-antibiotics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6526575/GPs-told-to-stop-prescribing-antibiotics-for-coughs-and-colds.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574995/Stop-giving-antibiotics-for-colds-doctors-told.html

My current guess (not enough proof yet :) ) that most people get antibiotic resistant bacteria from hospitals, not farms.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20524852

RESULTS:
Neither the preintervention rate of MRSA colonization or infection (0.56 cases per 1,000 patient-days [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.49-0.62 cases per 1,000 patient-days]) nor the slope for the rate of MRSA colonization or infection changed significantly after the first intervention. The rate decreased significantly to 0.28 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.17-0.40 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the second intervention and to 0.07 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.06-0.08 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the third intervention, and the rate remained at a similar level for 8 years. The MRSA bacteremia rate decreased by 80%, whereas the rate of bacteremia due to methicillin-susceptible S. aureus did not change. Eighty-three percent of the MRSA isolates identified were clonally related. All MRSA isolates obtained from healthcare workers were clonally related to those recovered from patients who were in their care.
CONCLUSION:
Our data indicate that long-term control of endemic MRSA is feasible in tertiary care centers. The use of targeted active surveillance for MRSA in patients and healthcare workers in specific wards (identified by means of analysis of clinical epidemiology data) and the use of decolonization were key to the success of the program.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/718935

March 22, 2010 â" A multifaceted infection control program led to a significant decline in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases in Paris-area hospitals with high endemic MRSA rates, according to an article in the March 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

There are other superbugs too:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/enemy_pr.html

It's true that many species of acinetobacter flourish widely in the environment. Thriving colonies have been recovered from soil, cell phones, frozen chicken, wastewater treatment plants, Formica countertops, and even irradiated food

I thought California had banned British libel cases so I wonder why the a California court is ruling against twitter in a Tyneside libel case?

Gold is not that suitable to be money either. Gold is too useful to be used as money.

Why? Because it has VERY useful properties as an industrial material. If everyone used gold as money, due to its rarity it would artificially become more expensive as an industrial material.

Supply and demand and all that.

Find out how much gold there is in the whole world (estimates range from 4 to 10 billion troy ounces). Divide it by the number of people. Then keep in mind that the top 1-2% own a lot of it ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2006/dec/06/business.internationalnews ) , so once you've "shifted" the gold around to reflect the current distribution, the average person would have even fewer grams/ounces of gold as their TOTAL cash holdings (includes bank balances) not necessarily net worth - since some people may have cash but have a mortgage.

Estimate how many ounces/grams of gold you'd get paid per month. You are probably richer than the average person in the world. But would you get paid an ounce of gold every month? Think the people paying would now be able to afford that? So the relative cost of gold would go up.

The US benefits from being able to create US dollars practically on demand. Because by doing so it can transfer wealth from other countries who are still using the US dollars for billions of stuff.

The USA's real problem is what its Government does with that transferred wealth...

Because now that Osama is dead, this abomination is now to protect from mysterious random people....

Lets clarify this a bit, shall we?

Yes, it will help protect us from mysterious people - currently unknown people who are in contact with terrorist groups, as well that people plotting attacks. That is the point after all, isn't it?

Although most people on Slashdot seem to oppose spying on anyone, most Americans are OK with spying on people in direct contact with terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda (organizations trying to kill large numbers of people, not Dennis Kucinich/Ron Paul voters ... unless they happen to be eco-terrorists engaged is actual terrorism).

And maybe you've forgotten, the Patriot Act has been amended in the past to address civil rights concerns.

As to Osama being dead... let's try a thought experiment.....

If Steve Jobs were to die tomorrow,... would Apple computer vanish? Would the board of directors and senior executives vanish? The tens of thousands of employees and contractors? The factories that make Apple products? The thousands and thousands of stores that sell their products? The tens or hundreds of millions of customers that own or are buying Apple products? Would the products vanish? Would any of it vanish anytime soon if Steve Jobs died tomorrow? The answer is: No. The Apple board of directors would name a new CEO and the company would continue. Apple might ultimately fail and vanish after some years due to lack of vision, or drive, or by losing its iconic chief visionary, but it wouldn't vanish immediately. It is also possible that they would benefit from Jobs exiting the scene... it would take time, probably years, to determine.

So, what about Al Qaeda? Now that Bin Laden is dead,... has it vanished? Has Al Qaeda's world-wide leadership vanished? Have the tens of thousands of varied terrorists and insurgents around the world swearing loyalty to Al Qaeda vanished? Have the caches of weapons and cash vanished? Have the tens or hundreds of thousands of people that they trained vanished? Have the hundreds of thousands or millions of active supporters around the world vanished? Have the tens of millions of Muslims that approve of them vanished? The answer is: No. Al Qaeda has named successors to Bin Laden, and they are carrying on in their various plots and campaigns of destruction, murder, and mayhem. In a sense they may even be more lethal now --- Al Qaeda's leadership has vetoed some planned attacks in the past since they projected that it wouldn't meet the Al Qaeda standard for body counts. The new leadership may take what they can get. Of course, if you have enough incidents killing dozens or hundreds at a time, you can still reach a total body count in the thousands. So, yes, Al Qaeda is still dangerous.

It has been understood by anyone interested that this is a problem that will almost certainly last decades - that was being discussed not long after 9/11. Here is something from 2007: Pace Says War on Terror Will Require Decades of Effort. What is the alternative? Give in the their demands? Bin Laden's demands are that the United States convert is Islam, throw away the Constitution, and govern by harsh Sharia law. In case you are wavering about which way to go, here are the top ten reasons this may not be a good thing from the previous link:

10. Islam commands that drinkers and gamblers should be whipped.
9. Islam allows husbands to hit their wives even if the husbands merely fear highhandedness in their wives.

Next up : Dell. Hey if you got to copy so

Hey, don't knock it, it's the thinnest notebook! Based on Dell internal analysis as at February 2011. Based on a thickness comparison (front and rear measurements) of other 15" laptop PCs manufactured by HP, Acer, Toshiba, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, MSI. No comparison made with Apple or other manufacturers not listed."