Slashdot Mirror

I said that cost is a first-order approximation.

I said that it's an awful one. It makes very little sense and only then in terms of energy cost, not environmental impact. Consider this:

Palm oil and canola oil both cost a similar amount, so they should have the same order-of-magnitude damage. Palm oil may have a large impact, but it's a cherry-picked example of a bad product.

How can a counter-example be cherry-picked when it's disproving a statement? If you say X is true, and I provide an example of X not being true (two examples, actually), then you can't dismiss it as being cherry-picking. I've shown that X need not be true. Furthermore, I'm challenging you to show why it should be true.

Energy cost of product (in dollars) * energy factor + labor cost of product * labor factor * ..

That doesn't mean anything. I can say it too but it tells us nothing about any particular instance which is the point because you're saying that it tells us something about a general case. It doesn't. For product A, your energy cost might be very low and your labour cost very high. For product B, this might be reversed. In either case, your "cost" was listed in dollars which does not have a connect to environmental impact. The logic isn't even bad, it's missing.

If palm oil is "cherry-picking" then how many examples would you like of this principle being wrong. Trafigura dumped toxic waste off the African coast in order to save money. If they had disposed of it properly, both the energy cost that you give so much weighting to, and the financial cost, which you rely on for your hypothesis, would be much higher, yet the environmental impact would be far, far lower. What about mark-up. If two models of car are made with, similar in size and perhaps only 10% different in fuel economy, say a Porsche and a Ford, then your principle of "final cost is an approximation of impact" is going to say that the sports car, costing four times as much, has four times the impact. Patently false. I have a limited edition book at home, it cost twice as much as the ordinary run of the book (with nearly the same page count). But the content is somewhat different. You assign them different impacts?

But like I said, the first-order-approximation can just use total cost. It won't be very accurate, but it's an easy way to compare a dog to a SUV on the back of a napkin.

It's a terrible, terrible way to compare a dog with a SUV. You can't just say "owning a dog over its life costs the same as a SUV, therefore environmental impact is the same" or whatever ratio of dog to SUV you want to say. How does that make sense? Does the environmental impact of a SUV fluctuate with the economy, supply and demand? If one SUV factory is in France and is powered by a clean nuclear powerplant and one is in the US and powered by a filthy coal-plant next door, is the environmental impact of both SUVS the same because they're priced roughly similar? Dear gods, man.

I do indeed

60% of doctors plan to refuse it.

Citation is
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/aug/24/doctors-refuse-swine-flu-vaccine

You are making the wholly unfounded assumption that half of the dead kids were obese. Where is your justification for that?

Over half the US population is obese.

It sounds like you have a personal issue with obese people. That's well and good, but that doesn't translate into "data"

Ya, but i'm not putting together the data, I'm just telling you about it. Really, is google now beyond the means of the average /.er?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2009-07-10-swine-flu_N.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/19/AR2009051902609.html
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601202&sid=aM.7Dg3Z_msI

http://www.naturalnews.com/006781.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/dec/11/medicalresearch.health
http://health.families.com/blog/a-link-between-obesity-and-your-immune-system

> The EU is more then just the economic union it was meant to be.

It never was meant to be just an economic union, the economic union was just a mean to an end. Just read the Schuman Declaration.
The economic union was a mean to an end: To craft a political union, which would render war in Europe impossible.

> Berlesconi was not chastised for his many crimes.

Berlusconi is subject to Italian law. Should he not prosecuted, it would hardly an argument against the overreaching powers of the European Union.
Besides, his immunity has been overturned

"if a us official tried to punish me for expressing my political opinion, that official in turn could be punished, sued, even possibly charged with a crime."
Where do you think you live again?

Here is just one of the many examples where the government chooses to silence those that oppose them. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2009/sep/25/sonic-cannon-g20-pittsburgh

Bin Laden was, though, a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies. Throughout the 80s he was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan. Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians.

Robin Cook in the Guardian.

Examples of Exxon's animosity towards green energy, and items outlining their profit motivation:
1. Exxon records huge profits this year amidst recession: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013003744.html
Why not help us out and lower oil prices? Or show interest in alternative energy besides publicity stunts?

2. Exxon's own website: http://www.exxon.com/USA-English/Lubes/Products_Services/Products_Services_Collection.asp
Not a single service regarding 'green energy'. And this company make billions, but where are the alternative energy options? They don't care. They have the monopoly among many others in the OPEC conglomerate.

3. "In this class action, the class representatives proved that Exxon failed to provide the agreed reduction in wholesale prices...":
http://www.exxondealerclassaction.com/faq.php3

4. Exxon buys out global-warming, green energy think tank, denies global worming: http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/02/news/companies/exxon_science/index.htm

5. Exxon flips on global warming because the rockafeller tell them they will lose money: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/28/climatechange.fossilfuels

6. Exxon contaminates water amidst its own scientist suggestions otherwise: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125598438080394827.html?ru=yahoo&mod=yahoo_hs

7. Oil Congress: http://www.exxposeexxon.com/ExxonMobil_politics.html

8. Overall campaign contributions: http://www.campaignmoney.com/exxon_mobil.asp

7. I know correlation is not causation, but consider the following: Exxon is the largest publicly traded oil company: finance.yahoo.com
They even state that on their own website. They have flip-flopped on global warming to please politicians, so they can please their constituency. They have donated money to people who have money in their company. Lets see, largest traded oil company, has Washington in it's back pocket, they protect their financial interest over anything else.

Yes "something inherently wrong with a system where I pay someone to follow me around all day, just to spy on me"
Charlie Skelton working for the Guardian found that out when he went to the Bilderberg summit in Greece.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/series/charlie-skeltons-bilderberg-files

1. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/sep/29/cloud.computing.richard.stallman
2. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10367052-16.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5

However, because his ideologies and his interests aren't in line with the West's, we try to make it out as though he's a carbon copy of Stalin.

As far as the approval ratings, it is easy to publish figures like this when you use your power in government to shut down any media outlets that speak out against you and use goons and thugs and police state practices to silence critics. Besides, given the right questions or the right analysis, statisticians can show anything to be true. Especially if you own them. Example: do you think Putin is doing a better job than Yeltsin (who was a drunk clown)? Yes. There your go, another tick in the approval column!

And are far as the west thinking Putin is another Stalin, generally the west believes in free political dialogue, the government not interfering with the media (not shutting them down if the don't like what they have to say about you), and not interfering with other legitimate political parties, like throwing their leaders in jail on trumped up tax charges or chasing others into exile, and generally frowns upon killing detractors with radioactive isotopes while they are residing in foreign countries, or using goons and thugs (who often are also the police) to stop free association and political protests. So if you say many in the west think that Putin is a carbon copy of Stalin, then you'd be wrong. It is probably more correct to say that we think he is a Stalin wanna-be, but can't get away with it... yet. But he is working on it. Not only is he as tall or short as Napoleon, he has the complex as well.

Microsoft have derived a stack of publicity from the Sensecam and lifeblogging - it's made them look like a terrific company. I think this PR needs some counter-balance: Microsoft made Lyndsey Williams, the inventor of the Sensecam, redundant. Possibly not the best way to reward someone who was responsible for millions of dollars of positive PR; you don't get rid of the people who are doing brilliant work if you plan on delivering brilliant products in the future. But this has probably been a good thing for the rest of us; Ms Williams is prolific in bringing new devices to prototype and beyond. Her site shows her recent work, including the Sensebulb - a device for non-intrusive monitoring of elderly people who live alone. It can detect unusual situations and alert friends and relatives. This would have saved the lives of two people I knew. She has a stack of other interesting projects on the go too. Her site is well worth reading.

Disclosure: I know Ms Williams and take the opportunity to promote her work whenever I can. I'm not paid for this: I'm not in PR.

Hi Bozovision, Many thanks! You are correct into your comments, a bit more on my blog about Sensecam's true history which is not what Microsoft want people to see
  http://tinyurl.com/yjpz2hm
Microsoft have erased me completely from history.

Lyndsay Williams Cambridge

Microsoft have derived a stack of publicity from the Sensecam and lifeblogging - it's made them look like a terrific company. I think this PR needs some counter-balance: Microsoft made Lyndsey Williams, the inventor of the Sensecam, redundant. Possibly not the best way to reward someone who was responsible for millions of dollars of positive PR; you don't get rid of the people who are doing brilliant work if you plan on delivering brilliant products in the future. But this has probably been a good thing for the rest of us; Ms Williams is prolific in bringing new devices to prototype and beyond. Her site shows her recent work, including the Sensebulb - a device for non-intrusive monitoring of elderly people who live alone. It can detect unusual situations and alert friends and relatives. This would have saved the lives of two people I knew. She has a stack of other interesting projects on the go too. Her site is well worth reading.

Disclosure: I know Ms Williams and take the opportunity to promote her work whenever I can. I'm not paid for this: I'm not in PR.

Thanks for writing that, I was discussing this with the gal pal tonight.

It reminded me - the last paragraph in particular - of this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/06/edwyn-collins-sharing-music

For Maxwell, this has been emblematic of everything that's wrong with the music industry. "[We are] aware of who the biggest bootleggers are," she said. "It's not the filesharers." While Collins has worked to make A Girl Like You freely available to his fans, she alleges that the same track is sold illegally "all over the internet". "Not by Edwyn, [but] by all sorts of respectable major labels whose licence to sell it ran out years ago and who do not account to him."

You have a pretty skewed view of the whole situation. For example, Prescott Bush founded the family fortune on working for a company which funneled funds to the S.S. to do Hitler's bidding. And since we're talking about IBM, this is an excellent time to mention that IBM of Germany built and delivered the machines to manage the concentration camps, and actually printed the punch cards as well, but does their level best to deny their part in history. Nonetheless, many racial groups have reason to recall. No, I don't have any Obama hating to do today, don't worry... But to have the head of a dynasty founded by a known Nazi collaborator head the CIA, then become president, then get his son into the office... Well, it should put this whole conversation into perspective.

Hot diggity DAMN I love the internet. It makes it so easy to cite your sources. If articles like these start dropping off these here internets, you'll know to run and not look back.

A pin is more likely to occur (and already is used in Europe- in fact I had trouble using my american card in 1 or 2 places due to lack of a pin). Although hopefully they use more than the laughable 4 digits.

The PINs used in many European (and other) countries have produced a massive drop in fraud.

From here: "The amount of money being lost through card fraud fell by 23% in the first half of the year in the UK, as criminals changed their strategies and prevention measures began to take effect, according to figures published today.
"fraudsters realising that they can prosper more by targeting foreign issued cards, particularly those without chip and pin protection and which currently have stronger currencies than sterling."

Note that the same system is used for both debit and credit cards.

It would eliminate the ability to charge over the phone, do tabs (they typically take your credit card once and then charge it at the end if you walk out)

With PINs you can still do this, but the risk is carried by the retailer rather than the bank if a PIN isn't used (i.e. the retailer loses the money, but if the card + chip has somehow been cloned the bank would lose the money). Shops will demand a PIN if the card supports it, but a hotel might not -- they know where you're staying, after all.

It would help a lot if more women said that, louder.

We also need to do something about discrimination against men in traditionally female roles, whether work (nurses, for example) or in private life (childcare - see this article:

British, working in the gambling industry, and possibly wanting to visit the US in the future? Why don't you ask David Carruthers, Gary Kaplan how that worked out for them?

(To be fair, they were the guys at the top and I haven't heard of any lower level staff being arrested, but still, I doubt US immigration would look too kindly on it if you ever were to apply for a green card.)

political correctness strike a blow to the rule of law:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/09/obama-immigration-arpaio-arizona-sheriff

What country in history has survived the complete destruction of it's borders? Can any of you liberal apologist pussies name a single example? Perhaps actual tax-paying citizens wouldn't be so pissed off if they weren't having to foot the bill for food and medicine for Congress' army of illegal day laborers, nannies, and gardeners. Why did the Democrats defeat amendments to the Obamacare bill demanding proof of citizenship be confirmed before medical care can be received? Where in the world can one go outside of their home country to receive absolutely FREE food and medicine? What the fuck is wrong with you idiots? I'm going to say this slowly so that you can understand. WE... ARE... BROKE! The middle class can no longer afford to pay for your liberal white yuppie angst. The dollar is worthless. We can't afford to pay more taxes, and we can't print more monopoly money. And the absurdity of faulting Sheriff Joe for racial profiling - WTF? They're ALL hispanic. Why the fuck else are they crossing the desert from Mexico into Arizona? How many Europeans make that shitty journey illegally? Fucking liberals can't even see obvious facts that are right in front of them. They'd destroy the country just to advance their insane and dangerously naive Kumbayah agenda one inch!

Incidentally, the BBC had a reporter in Iran -- at least until he was expelled, I don't know what they have there now.

You must visit the graundiad to read that piece:

Damien Thorn, offspring of Satan, was educated at Yale before inheriting a global business conglomerate at a shockingly young age and using it to hypnotise millions in a demonic bid to hasten Armageddon. James Murdoch's story is quite different. He went to Harvard.

His son has been ranting on about the BBC and how it hurts 'real' journalism because of the unfair competition http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8229779.stm

This is an awesome article by Charlie Booker about Murdoch's son.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2009/sep/05/charlie-brooker-on-james-murdoch
quote:-"he's the son of Rupert Murdoch, which makes him the closest thing the media has to Damien from The Omen."

All I can say is thank f^ck for BBC news and Google.

First, that's not true. Bush did more to stop AIDS in Africa than any person in the world, anywhere at any time.

This is far from the truthe. The fact that Bush would not fund any help that included condoms as a means for reducing the spread of HIV actually hurt African AIDS efforts. US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda. AIDS actually spread significantly in Africa under Bush.

They may have spent more money, but that money was targetted towards religious groups that promoted abstinence. The abstinence programs have been shown to have an actual NEGATIVE effect towards reducing AIDS in every country where they have been tried without actively promoting condom/vaginal-barrier use as the primary method of AIDS prevention.

Read the comment above yours. It appears you are wrong.

Sure, the program does teach abstinence over condoms, it still teaches condoms. And if the Guardian is so upset about the US not giving more condoms to Africa, maybe they should petition their host government, the UK, to pick up the slack and send some condoms themselves. You can do the same as a private citizen or whatever country you are from.

I hate people that sit around and bitch about other people not doing more while they do nothing themselves!

First, that's not true. Bush did more to stop AIDS in Africa than any person in the world, anywhere at any time.

This is far from the truthe. The fact that Bush would not fund any help that included condoms as a means for reducing the spread of HIV actually hurt African AIDS efforts. US cuts in funding for condoms and an emphasis on promoting abstinence had contributed to a shortage of condoms in Uganda. AIDS actually spread significantly in Africa under Bush.

They may have spent more money, but that money was targetted towards religious groups that promoted abstinence. The abstinence programs have been shown to have an actual NEGATIVE effect towards reducing AIDS in every country where they have been tried without actively promoting condom/vaginal-barrier use as the primary method of AIDS prevention.

"Anything leaked is leaked deliberately with a concrete reasoning behind it."

sometimes, mistakes just happen. but some people have to see secret plots and cabals around every turn. you sound dangerously close to this unfortunate psychological state. secret plots exist, yes. but they are rare and few between, and they usually get revealed. most leaks are just that: oops, i screwed up

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/09/bob-quick-terror-raids-leak

Bob Quick, Britain's most senior counterterrorism officer, was forced to stand down today after an embarrassing security leak resulted in a major anti-terror operation, designed to foil an alleged al-Qaida plot to bomb Britain, being rushed forward.

The London mayor and chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, Boris Johnson, announced the resignation this morning, saying it had been accepted with "great reluctance and sadness".

Assistant Commissioner John Yates, the high-profile Met officer who headed the 19-month "cash for peerages" inquiry, will replace Quick as the head of counterterrorism, Johnson said.

Police were forced to carry out raids on addresses in the north-west of England in broad daylight yesterday, earlier than planned, after Quick, the Metropolitan police's assistant commissioner, was photographed carrying sensitive documents as he arrived for a meeting in Downing Street.

A white document marked "secret", which carried details of the operation being planned by MI5 and several police forces, was clearly visible to press photographers equipped with telephoto lenses.

Somewhat related to this, the biggest german women's magazine announced a couple days ago that they will no longer hire professional models because they are too thin: Article at The Guardian. Money quote: "For years we've had to use Photoshop to fatten the girls up. Especially their thighs, and decolletage. But this is disturbing and perverse and what has it got to do with our real reader?"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/26/big-brother-dropped-channel-4 "Channel 4 confirmed today that it will axe Big Brother after a decade following next summer's 11th series." Only seems appropriate.

Eating Candy at the age of 10 does not put you in jail 24 years later???
Yet improving the diet of jail populations does seem to reduce violence too.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/17/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime
Thankfully smart people around the world will follow this up and I hope get some idea of diet, a spike in sugar, hormones, brain activity and ongoing development.
It might the a cheap colouring, cheap high-fructose corn syrup like structure or amount consumed during development.

let's not forget the screwed by sony part...
sony pushed a "special" screw for 61+ euro when it was not special at all.

http://i35.tinypic.com/2q1z68m.jpg

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2007/may/28/sonyuserscrew

The prior system had 6 years of 0-nines uptime. No failures in six years. Windows and .Net couldn't squeek through three years without a catastrophic failure that shut down the entire system for nearly an entire trading day - and it failed when it mattered most.

No, according to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/09/londonstockexchangegroup.stockmarkets

In June last year the LSE switched from its 10-year-old Sets system in favour of a new platform called TradElect, which runs on Microsoft software. TradElect was hailed as a huge advance in an increasingly competitive market, primarily by reducing the time taken to complete a trade from 140 milliseconds to 10 milliseconds.

It started in June 2008, and failed in September 2009.
So the uptime was 15 months.

I find it humorous how quickly so many want to bask in the glow of this, using it as proof of something, when I'm fairly certain that it was discarded as proof of nothing when the LSE first went the .NET route.

Well, someone certainly thought LSE was proof of something, why otherwise would they have bragged about it? Now that that bragging has been shown to be moot surely you can understand this modest amount of schadenfreude?

You may think that the 6.75x speed increase of linux over .NET is a lot but keep in mind that .NET provided a 51.8x performance improvement (140ms/2.7ms) in 2007 when it was rolled out.

The article about the 2008 LSE crash says that before the LSe migrated to .net in June of 2007, trades took 140ms. .NET reliability turned out to be less than ideal but at the time of the migration the speed boost was little short of phenomenal.

I don't think in 2007 Linux had any wins in the trading market. Which is an advantage the linux platform they bought has now; a proven track record running stock exchanges.

Heh.. I *love* this:

Benefits

One hundred per cent reliable on high-volume trading days

Umm, yeah.. for various definitions of the value "one hundred", right?

Since every Mac is by definition, a personal computer. I have a couple of Apple Macs and several white-box PC's dotted around the house; none of which run Microsoft Windows.

It appears the researchers were asking the wrong question. The Guardians resident Mac-hater, Charlie Brooker put it best.

Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway

So perhaps the question the researchers should have asked is this:

Given a choice between fellating a syphilitic leper and using Microsoft Windows, what brand of mouthwash would you use?

Which is precisely why corporate CEOs - and sundry other people at the top of various food chains - are likely to be the least ethical people you're going to meet. Ethically ambiguous people are thus more capable of making decisions that maximize profit, in true the-end-justifies-the-means fashion.

Yep, I know. Part of what led to this is the "shareholder value" ideology that originated in the 1970s and became common in the 1980s. Here is some links: http://thenextwavefutures.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/the-end-of-shareholder-value/ http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2005/oct/02/theobserver.observerbusiness4 http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~dobbin/cv/articles/2005_PPST_Fligstein.pdf http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-28502078_ITM http://www.globalchange.com/shareholdervalue.htm It is off-topic though.

George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, ...

Palin: Iraq is a task 'from God.'

Sarah Palin (R-AK) addressed the graduating class of commission students at the Wasilla Assembly of God church. During that address, Palin portrayed the Iraq was as a quest decreed by God, and said that U.S. soldiers were carrying out "God's plan"

I'm sure we could find the same kind of thing for every country you listed, these were just the ones I could remember from the top of my head

but because of Britain's great welfare scheme many are traveling all across Europe and then sneaking into the UK.

UK accused over asylum seekers left to live on $1 a day

• Hundreds of thousands living in extreme poverty
• Charities brand current situation inhumane

A series of governmental policy decisions including preventing asylum seekers from working in 2002, cutting legal aid in 2004 and an overhaul of the system in 2007 has lead to an "untenable strain" on local charities.

Asylum claims have fallen sharply in recent years and are at a 14-year low, with 23,430 applications for asylum in 2007 - 4% of all immigration applications.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/16/asylum-seekers-immigration-poverty

It actually needs MORE immigrants as it is loosing population due to low birth rates and an aging population.

Are you sure about that?

Also, stating that the UK is quite racist is generalising more than a little bit. There are a few idiots in every country, but claiming that the entire nation is racist is more than a bit hypocritical.

Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway...

There you go again, being excessively positive about Microsoft.

Windows Vista was deliberately released even though executives knew it wasn't finished, because Microsoft sells to people who lack technical knowledge.

Now everyone will pay again to get a small update to Windows Vista, called by an entirely new name.

Microsoft ads are bad because only the most clueless, unfriendly people are still working there.

That's because the video is intended to mirror the real-life experience of using a Microsoft OS.

To quote Charlie Brooker;

It's grim, it's slow, everything's badly designed and nothing really works properly: using Windows is like living in a communist bloc nation circa 1981.

Seriously though, I think the video is pretty successful. Microsoft has been desperate to hype Windows 7, and the OS itself just isn't an exciting product. The average computer-buying person will notice there have been a few interface changes, muddle through getting their favourite apps and files on the machine, then carry on using it as though it was still 1995.

Under the hood, the software may be vastly more sophisticated, but in terms of user interaction, not much has changed for more than a decade. And in many ways, that's what their main customers, large businesses want. They don't want to have to retrain employees, change business process, etc, etc.

So for Microsoft to get people to notice they have a new product out, they need to get some discussion going. They can't outcompete Apple in cool, and that's not their key market. They've chosen a slightly retro, awkward and geeky theme to these adverts, and trust me, the awkwardness is intentional (Remember Bill Gates and Seinfeld?).

It's not a bad marketing trick for a vast, habitually arrogant organisation to portray itself as a geeky underdog. It feels a lot less threatening that way.

You know that Bush's advisors were smart guys, certainly smart enough not to put him on YouTube waving a Bible, so the absence of such a video means nothing other than political practicalities lead to religion being less visible in the West. Just because Bush doesn't go on YouTube waving a Bible, it doesn't mean that his actions weren't influenced by religion.

Bush says God chose him to lead his nation

Bush, Gog and Magog

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush

Honest. This isn't a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins."

Of course, you are still free to believe that all of these people are lying, and that Bush's actions were completely uninfluenced by religion...

You know that Bush's advisors were smart guys, certainly smart enough not to put him on YouTube waving a Bible, so the absence of such a video means nothing other than political practicalities lead to religion being less visible in the West. Just because Bush doesn't go on YouTube waving a Bible, it doesn't mean that his actions weren't influenced by religion.

Bush says God chose him to lead his nation

Bush, Gog and Magog

A French Revelation, or The Burning Bush

Honest. This isn't a joke. The president of the United States, in a top-secret phone call to a major European ally, asked for French troops to join American soldiers in attacking Iraq as a mission from God.

Now out of office, Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their "common faith" (Christianity) and told him: "Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins."

Of course, you are still free to believe that all of these people are lying, and that Bush's actions were completely uninfluenced by religion...

Read the Guardian article. What you're feeling is called "shitasmia".

Correct, I find the viewpoints of an editor of the NYT (whom were amongst the first to publish the erroneous translation) to be of less value than those of a professor on Middle East history as well as another professor on Political Science (I cited both).

The Wikipedia article would actually need a bit of cleaning up. There's a tiny badly phrased sentence on Steele mentioning in an article that Bronner is actually misrepresented in the text you quoted - see the link below - that is of quite high significance:

This, in my view, is the crucial point and I'm glad the NYT accepts that the word "map" was not used by Ahmadinejad. (By the way, the Wikipedia entry on the controversy gets the NYT wrong, claiming falsely that Ethan Bronner "concluded that Ahmadinejad had in fact said that Israel was to be wiped off the map".)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jun/14/post155

Bush: God Told Me to Invade Iraq (sourced from The Independent)

God told me to invade Iraq, Bush tells Palestinian ministers

George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'

For one, they agreed NOT TO.

And they have not yet rescinded that agreement.

They can certainly withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty if they wish. I believe so, anyways.

Is rioting an "extreme circumstance"?

It seems the Guardian takes a more positive view on the protesters than other publications (for example, "protesters riot as police used tear gas", which is somewhat skewed for the protesters compared with the Times article I linked). I personally don't believe any politician would have dared to risk his chair for dispersing a violent mob, unless they were stealing and/or murdering locals. You know, they do like power.

The use of agents provocateurs is standard practice at these sort of events. You can't legally break up a peaceful riot, so you send men in, incite the crowd, and then break up the riot you started. It happened at the last G20 in london. It happened at the WTO protests in Seattle. And you can bet your ass it's happening here.

Well, there's a simple solution, if it's really a peaceful demonstration. If anybody in the crowd starts to riot, rest of the crowd should subdue them and tie them down (like with cable ties or duct tape). Problem solved.

The use of agents provocateurs is standard practice at these sort of events. You can't legally break up a peaceful riot, so you send men in, incite the crowd, and then break up the riot you started. It happened at the last G20 in london. It happened at the WTO protests in Seattle. And you can bet your ass it's happening here.

To have someone set some damn passwords? (10th Paragraph).

Francis Spufford's book The Backroom Boys has a chapter about the creation of Elite, and a fair chunk of it is on The Guardian's website. One of my favourite bits is, after they came up with the procedural method for creating the universe, how they picked the seed:

"Braben and Bell called the starting number for a galaxy "a seed" and, in truth, creating the game this way was more like gardening than deliberately constructing something. You had to plant the seed and see what grew. It was another sense in which they were ceding direct control over the game in favour of working indirectly on the player's experience. But they did want to start the player off in a reasonably friendly bit of space, where the pickings were good and they wouldn't get instantly clobbered. Since there was no way to edit a galaxy, you just had to try galaxy after galaxy, seed after seed, until something suitable grew. "I remember thinking it was very wasteful," Braben says. "You'd type in a number, a birthday or something, and see what galaxy that came out with. 'No, I don't like that. No, I don't like that. That cluster looks horrible'." They also decided they had better check the 256 system names in the galaxy where the player would be plunked down, in case any of the four-letter words were actually four-letter words. "One of the first galaxies we tried had a system called Arse. We couldn't use the whole galaxy. We just threw it away!""