Slashdot Mirror

Having professional editors is great, but there has to be talent to create the content that the bloggers inevitably rip to shreds. The Guardian Unlimited has had bloggers eviscerating their talent for well over a year now http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/ and it's been interesting to see how the writers react to the bloggers comments, this type of journalism will require thicker skin than the walls of the editor's office or down at the bar where such criticism might previously have been leveled. I can just see the former path of the newspaper delivery boy in the worst part of town becoming a page one writer changing to the poor just out of journalism school guy being told to moderate the blogs until something better opens up. 5 moderation points is quite enough pain at one time for me :)

It also enables the corrupt rulers of countries like Angola to anonymously move public funds out of their countries, and terrorist organisations to easily move money around.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/nov/04/world.oil

Is a little secrecy worth the damage done to millions of lives? Is there a problem allowing the tax department to look at banking records so that they can actually effectively collect taxes? Why should wealthy companies and individuals be able to get away with avoiding taxes?

What you really need is a map showing bandwidth. There was one in a recent (paper) edition of The Guardian. The online version (it's in the bottom right) is a bit too small to be very useful, but it's big enough to see that yes, Iceland needs a better connection is it is to become the world's data centre.

What you refer to is the Great Sparrow Campaign which was an attempt to combat a severe grain shortage in China by exterminating airborne and landborne pests that consumed or fouled the grain. Like most large-scale attempts to restructure nature this one failed with ugly ugly consequences. In this case, absent birds to eat them the locust population exploded killing the grain.

Interestingly enough just at the same time that China was facing this massive grain shortage Russia called in, loans that it had outstanding demanding grain and other food in payment. Rather than Default the communists forced the loans to be paid but that ended whatever positive relationship the two countries had. All through the 80's when people talked of a "Communist Conspiracy" they ignored the fact that after that little stunt the Chinese hated the Russians.

One possible consequence of cloud seeding may be hinted at in this Guardian article RAF Rainmakers 'caused 1952 flood' Let's hope that isn't the case.

Makes things more interesting...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2006/jan/05/energy.g2

On paper, Merlin was supposed to stunt the development of Tehran's nuclear programme by sending Iran's weapons experts down the wrong technical path. The CIA believed that once the Iranians had the blueprints and studied them, they would believe the designs were usable and so would start to build an atom bomb based on the flawed designs.

The Russian studied the blueprints the CIA had given him. Within minutes of being handed the designs, he had identified a flaw. "This isn't right," he told the CIA officers gathered around the hotel room. "There is something wrong." His comments prompted stony looks, but no straight answers from the CIA men. No one in the meeting seemed surprised by the Russian's assertion that the blueprints didn't look quite right, but no one wanted to enlighten him further on the matter, either.

In fact, the CIA case officer who was the Russian's personal handler had been stunned by his statement. During a break, he took the senior CIA officer aside. "He wasn't supposed to know that," the CIA case officer told his superior. "He wasn't supposed to find a flaw."

"Don't worry," the senior CIA officer calmly replied. "It doesn't matter."

We'd probably have more of that cool stuff if people could learn to get along a little better. But as it stands, they failed to mention that people today still lock their doors, have automatic car alarms, and that nine tenths of the world's population not only don't have flying cars, but live in mud huts while working for some cruddy manufacturing company for pennies a day. --With unexploded cluster bomb ordinance scattered outdoors.

Neal Stephenson, were he born in the Forties, could have put a more realistic spin on this article. Too bad.

I predict that by 2015 or thereabouts, and probably a bit sooner, the earth will be a meteor pock-marked hell dealing with super-fast glacial rebound where there really is no more paper money, and the only domed cities will have George W. Bush and/or Vladimir Putin living inside them.

-FL

someone mod parent troll. :)

However, i must still say the parent is obviously highly ignorant and likely republican. The kind of people who does rip your privacy away.

U.S. Govt watches your income just as well, they do collect tax, don't they? ;) Last time i checked, they collected legal and ILLEGAL taxes :D Atleast, we have only LEGAL taxes.

Self-righteous republican bastards like bastard always says Europe is corrupt and socialist. However, your mails don't get read here, hell, you won't even get sued for millions for piracy around here, especially if you are 12yr old kid downloading 2 songs of your favourite artist (however, those higher up in distribution hierarchy of pirated content does get punished, and in some countries, they tend to be catched.)

Plus, you got to admit the perks of having * FREE * education and health-care, albeit some of it isn't the best, but it's still free, and good schools and healthcare for * FREE * does exist in large degree, you just got to pick where you go :) Nevermind the fact that they infact ** PAY YOU ** to goto school here and get educated, and govt ** PAYS ** for innovation, and sometimes for employing people too. Nevermind that no one even cares if you have a passport if you travel within EU in practice (tho, take it with you, rarely they do ask questions), snoops through all your stuff, collects passenger information, past associations, criminal records, professional records etc.

Never mind the fact that we DO NOT wiretap masses at will, we DO NOT track where you are by your cell phone at will if you do not approve. We do not kill prisoners neither at a whim, but actually punish them by having them to live for their actions. Neither do we torture ( http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/torture.htm, http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=usai_torture, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/dec/10/usa.comment, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/apr/30/television.internationalnews) people at will, nor arrest without any due reason, or sentence without having proven quilty first. Nor do we stop you leaving the country DeCSS tattooed on your back

Nevermind the tiny fact that here our presidents are chosen by the people, not by the chosen few.

someone mod parent troll. :)

However, i must still say the parent is obviously highly ignorant and likely republican. The kind of people who does rip your privacy away.

U.S. Govt watches your income just as well, they do collect tax, don't they? ;) Last time i checked, they collected legal and ILLEGAL taxes :D Atleast, we have only LEGAL taxes.

Self-righteous republican bastards like bastard always says Europe is corrupt and socialist. However, your mails don't get read here, hell, you won't even get sued for millions for piracy around here, especially if you are 12yr old kid downloading 2 songs of your favourite artist (however, those higher up in distribution hierarchy of pirated content does get punished, and in some countries, they tend to be catched.)

Plus, you got to admit the perks of having * FREE * education and health-care, albeit some of it isn't the best, but it's still free, and good schools and healthcare for * FREE * does exist in large degree, you just got to pick where you go :) Nevermind the fact that they infact ** PAY YOU ** to goto school here and get educated, and govt ** PAYS ** for innovation, and sometimes for employing people too. Nevermind that no one even cares if you have a passport if you travel within EU in practice (tho, take it with you, rarely they do ask questions), snoops through all your stuff, collects passenger information, past associations, criminal records, professional records etc.

Never mind the fact that we DO NOT wiretap masses at will, we DO NOT track where you are by your cell phone at will if you do not approve. We do not kill prisoners neither at a whim, but actually punish them by having them to live for their actions. Neither do we torture ( http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/torture.htm, http://www.hrw.org/doc/?t=usai_torture, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/dec/10/usa.comment, http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/apr/30/television.internationalnews) people at will, nor arrest without any due reason, or sentence without having proven quilty first. Nor do we stop you leaving the country DeCSS tattooed on your back

Nevermind the tiny fact that here our presidents are chosen by the people, not by the chosen few.

Does that include the privacy of the guys who blew up the underground?

Or this guy?

See, I don't like the thought of a government snooping anymore than the tinfoil hat crowd on here, but legitimate investigative techniques require extraordinary methods, certainly in this day and age. And, of course, it's all the fault of the US - but why is that little bastard Bin Laden hiding in a cave if he's so well loved in the Middle East? Maybe it's because one of his devoted followers will sell out his sorry ass for the $25 million reward. And if it takes a little snooping to find the coward, well then so be it.

That's funny, I was able to find all kinds of stuff about gangs in London with a quick Google search. Either you're a liar, or completely naive.

Mugged by gang:
http://icsouthlondon.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0550wandsworth/tm_headline=mugged-by-gang-of-thugs&method=full&objectid=18485578&siteid=50100-name_page.html

169 gangs currently active in London:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2007/03/14/gang_insider_feature.shtml

Islamic gangs in London have guns:
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/755

16-year-old boy murdered by gang:
http://forums.canadiancontent.net/news/64167-boy-skewered-death-railings-violent.html

Armed london gangs recruiting via YouTube:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=437617&in_page_id=1770

"London violence scarred us all":
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/jul/01/youthjustice.crime

Thug gangs ruining Liverpool:
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Thug-gangs-ruining-Blackpool.3781214.jp

Have fun when you have children and they're forced to join a gang.

Is there no honor among vile mass-murderers any more?

source?

However, the point is still valid. The people transporting the device might very well either not know or not, themselves, be on a suicide mission. They could simply be transporting an item to a staging area for deployment.

See MEMRI [memri.org] for translations of this charming material that would have made Hitler's propagandists proud (for its viciousness if not its sophistication).

MEMRI has a pretty good reputation for propaganda themselves...

See MEMRI [memri.org] for translations of this charming material that would have made Hitler's propagandists proud (for its viciousness if not its sophistication).

MEMRI has a pretty good reputation for propaganda themselves...

That happened two years ago:

Man charged with stealing Wi-Fi signal
Beware the wardriving menace

As reported by the St. Petersburg Times, Benjamin Smith III was recently arrested in Florida for "hacking into" an open WiFi network. According to the newspaper report, Richard Dinon, a St. Petersburg resident, saw an SUV parked outside his home, with its driver "furtively hunched over his computer," and called the cops. Smith was charged with unauthorized access to a computer network, a felony.Benjamin Smith III, 41, faces a pretrial hearing this month following his April arrest on charges of unauthorized access to a computer network, a third-degree felony.

London Man Arrested for 'Stealing' Wi-Fi

Police officers in London arrested a 39-year-old man using his laptop to access someone else's wireless Internet connection on Tuesday.
His actions could potentially breach the Computer Misuse Act and the Communications Act, according to a Metropolitan Police Service statement. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrest on Thursday.

U.K. man arrested, fined for using open WiFi signal

Gregory Straszkiewicz, 24, was found guilty of "dishonestly obtaining an electronic communications service" and "possessing equipment for fraudulent use of a communications service" after he was found logging on with a laptop outside an apartment building. Straszkiewicz was fined £500 ($872) and given a year's probation; he also had his laptop confiscated.

The all-stock offer from JP Morgan values Bear Stearns at about $280 million, compared to its valuation of $7.7 billion a week ago - Reuters

On the subject of 'fact checking', do see Peter Wilby in The Guardian, Monday March 17 2008 http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/mar/17/pressandpublishing2 ('Errors in omissions') for an old-fashioned, well-argued reflection on what is happening to professional standards of both literacy and accuracy in all journalism as proprietors and editors wilt under the multiple challenges posed by rolling online deadlines and digital competition. Or the business model perpetrated by Gawker Media, for example, where 'journalists' are 'paid per click'. And yes, dear reader, I am a sub-editor.

There is more. London has a travel scheme called 'Oyster'.
The scheme offers drastically cheap fares for the tubes, trains and buses (normal tickets are being priced out).
Before getting on a tube for instance, you touch your card against the reader and your journey is charged to you. Unfortunately this also logs your whereabouts. Travel details and hence whereabouts are then accessible to anyone with your cards serial number via the website (or obviously to people with access, via the database itself).
The Mi5 is now asking for the ability to analyse this data, so they can uncover 'suspicious' trends in the movements of individuals.

Your sarcasm is noted, re: this article, but you are spot on in your distrust.
No chick ever trusted any guy who said "I'll just put the tip in", and no thinking person should trust a government that says they are trying to make your life safer by invading your privacy.
I have seen and heard comments that are dismissive and arrogant to anyone who brings up the privacy issue, and that article seals it for me. We go from making your life safer by installing cameras everywhere, then to watching where you travel, in the name of anti-terrorism, then to collecting your DNA and making predictions about whether you will become a criminal.
George Orwell was not only an author, but apparently also somewhat of a prophet.

It is unbelievable the ratio of how many people are calling Tibetans liars and cheering on the Chinese. These are recent posts calling the Dalai Lama a terrorist ringleader.

One of the reasons I am wary of this whole Tibet issue is that China happens to be the West's main economic rival, and now it is convenient for Western governments to support the Dalai Lama's cause. The Dalai Lama is not a democratically elected leader, and pre-1949 Tibet was not exactly the merry free independent country you see in Hollywood depictions. Most of the Tibetans were serfs and enslaved in all but name, serving the religious aristocracy of the Lamas.

As long as China was an ally of the US against the Soviet Union, you did not hear much about Tibet or the Dalai Lama. Gone the Soviet Union, grown the Chinese economy, and hey presto! Here is a flurry of Hollywood movies designed to show just how ugly and mean the Estasians are, since Eurasia has always been our ally—right?

See, one of the downsides of reading "Manufacturing consent" by Chomsky is that I start to see unsettling patterns like this one: a piece of news is convenient for the government, that piece is spun in the best possible way for the government by the same press that should be the government's watchdog. Of course it happens as well in China: I read some CCTV Web pages with the predictable pro-China spin.

Now, where is the truth anyway? Well, obviously some Tibetans are quite angry. Some Tibetans have been assaulting Han Chinese (so much for the Buddhists who never raise a finger in violence), because of the rivalry between ethnic groups. So, as far as I can see, this is an issue of a group of people not liking another group of people, spun by every external party in their favour: the US say the Chinese are evil and the Tibetans are peaceful protesters, the Chinese say they are only criminals, and everyone else says whatever is most convenient for them.

China has encouraged immigration of Han Chinese into Tibet for a long time, and the privileged Han are an obvious target for racial hatred for the underprivileged Tibetans. What the Chinese should have done is to follow the good old way to deal with separatism: throw money at the problem. Tibet has a ludicrously small population compared to China (not even three millions), and China could afford to subsidize separatism to death. That's what Italy did to fix the terrorism problem in South Tyrol, and, guess what, it worked just fine.

But they can put you under house arrest and detain you for 28 days without trial, or send you to the US to be tortured at Gitmo or be the subject of extraordinary rendition.

But they can put you under house arrest and detain you for 28 days without trial, or send you to the US to be tortured at Gitmo or be the subject of extraordinary rendition.

AFAIK, there have been two infamous false-positive cases in recent years. These are just the ones we hear about as they are the most egregious. Despite all the other contrary evidence, the DNA 'matches' led the inquiry and resulted in the investigation and arrest of individuals who could not possibly have been involved in the crimes. It is a major concern that the compelling evidence of innocence (like being 200 miles away at the time of the crime) will take a back-seat to the supposedly infallible "DNA match".

There are reports that 1 in 8 DNA records on the database are incorrectly filed.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/technology/technology.html?in_article_id=519568&in_page_id=1965

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/28/ukcrime.forensicscience

"What they will do is discover and harass political opposition. "

Yes, and from a very early age:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/16/youthjustice.children

Oh dude, you are just SO right. These losers need to get a sense of humor. Hey, I gotta joke I know someone like you can appreciate...

Q: What is the New York City Fire Department's favorite song?
A: "It's Raining Men"

Hahahahaha, that is SOOO FUCKING HILARIOUS!!! Get it? Remember when the towers were burning and all the people were leaping to their deaths! It was literally raining men that day! But since that isn't REALLY the NYFDs favorite tune, then it's really fucking funny to think about all those innocent people splattering on the pavement. Oh, oh, I've got another one for ya!!

Q: What was the last thing going through Mr. Jones' head when he was working on the World Trade Center's 90th floor?
A: The 91st floor.

Hahahaha, that is soooo fucking funny!! Get it? You know it's about that time when thousands of Americans died. Hahaha, he had his brains smashed out by an entire floor of a building!! Hahahahaha, but since there was no real Mr. Jones, that's fucking hilarious!!! If he were real, Mr. Jones would have probably been thinking about his wife, or his family, or how he wasted his life working in some cubicle on the 90th floor... but literally, the building collapsed so the last thing going through his head was the floor above him! Oh, that reminds me of another one...

Q: How many Americans died in 9/11?
A: Who gives a fuck?

Hahahahahaha!!! Get it??? Everyone hates Americans because they're all sick fucking pricks. The rest of the world is appalled when things like Abu Ghraib come to light, but Americans just shrug and wonder what all the fuss is about. "Pound me in the ass prison" and "don't drop the soap" jokes are as American as apple pie, so why would Americans care if some 14 year old arab foreigner suspected of terrorism is ass raped without trial? Really, American's just don't understand why anyone else should care when we kidnap, rape, and torture their friends and family, so nobody gives a fuck when Americans die!! Isn't that fucking hilarious?!? Hahaha, everyone hates America because they've had their sense of humor removed too.

Now watch this!

Re: Bulldozing, I specifically remember the case of Rachel Corrie, but there have been others my Google-fu is rubbish for.

Re: Matan Vilnai using the word Shoah the other week - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7270650.stm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/29/israelandthepalestinians1

If I'm giving the impression that I see an equality between the two sides, I've typed poorly, however. Hamas's tactics are disgusing. What I'm trying to get at is that Israel, as a well-resourced democracy who have the firepower to keep military barracks standing without their neighbour flattening them every five minutes can afford to obey the Geneva convention in this way. They've pushed Palestine into a position where desperation is leading Hamas to terrible things, and then acting suprised that they won't just die quietly.

Nope. The full-story links never last long, and the only ones remaining give very 'spun' versions. Funny about that, eh? It's up to the individual to watch carefully and maintain a memory of events as they unfold. --When truth needs to be sourced for those who don't want to see, or who aren't aware enough to stay vigilant, and the source is subject to take-down notices and threats from a well-funded and persistent nation like Israel, then 'Truth' becomes rather hard to put on a witness stand.

However, the patterns do remain. . .

There seems to be a familiar story relating to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict - see if you can recognise the pattern of:

(1) peace talks/Israeli instability/international pressure on Israel

(2) a suicide bombing

(3) some sort of Israeli action

(4) abandoning of the "peace process" at step (1)

It seems that as soon as some talk of peace or withdrawing West Bank settlers is mentioned, some sort of hostilities take place in this troubled zone.

The following list was mainly compiled using the Guardians excellent Middle East time line available here. It makes for some of the most depressing reading on the web.

JANUARY 2003

January 3 2003
It emerges that Ariel Sharon's Likud party has suffered a sharp drop in support during a corruption and organised crime scandal that has touched senior politicians, including Mr Sharon's son

January 5 2003
A dual suicide bombing in the heart of Tel Aviv kills 25 people, including the two bombers. Many of the victims were migrant workers from Africa, eastern Europe and the Philippines. The slaughter ends a six week lull in attacks on Israel and comes just three weeks before a general election.

January 6 2003
Palestinian officials are barred by Israel from attending a meeting in London to discuss progress towards an independent state. The travel ban was imposed by the Israeli cabinet in direct response to the previous day's suicide bombings.

MARCH-APRIL 2003

March 19 2003
Mahmoud Abbas officially accepts Yasser Arafat's offer of the post of Palestinian prime minister. He is expected to be sworn in after he selects a new cabinet, when the US will publish its long-awaited peace plan.

March 30 2003
A suicide bomber blows himself up in the Israeli coastal town of Netanya, injuring 58 people. The attack, marking Palestinian 'Land Day', is the first suicide bombing in Israel since the start of the war in Iraq.

April 2 2003
Israeli forces launch two days of raids on occupied Palestinian territories, killing six Palestinians, including a 14-year-old, and detaining more than 1,000 boys and men.

APRIL 2003

April 23 2003
Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian prime minister-delegate, Mahmoud Abbas, finally agree on the composition of the new Palestinian cabinet after frantic last-minute negotiations. In response to the move, the US indicates that it will publish its long-awaited road map for peace some time next week. Meanwhile, a Palestinian suicide bomber blows himself up at a crowded railway station in central Israel, killing a security guard who tried to prevent him from entering the building.

April 30 2003
The US releases its long-awaited road map for peace to Israeli and Palestinian leaders hours after the new Palestinian prime minister, Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, and his cabinet are sworn in. But, on the same day that Mr Abbas pledges to take the first step on the road map by cracking down on Palestinian terrorists, a suicide bombing at a bar in Tel Aviv kills three Israelis. Hamas and al-Aqsa claim joint responsibility, but Israeli police say that the suicide bomber and his accomplice, who escaped unharmed, were British.

MAY 2003

May 10 2003
US secretary of state

Well, the Guardian has just published an article saying "that the BBC thinks the loophole has been closed".. However, it still works just fine.

My only guess is that you aren't on a video that is allowed for the iPhone (not all videos are; in particular the news is not allowed on the iPhone, which is the only part of this loophole I would use). My advice is to go to the bbc iplayer page as the iPhone, and then pick from the selection you are presented with. I neglected to mention this originally, apologies.

The cost of setting up a plant is hardly "cheap" and what happens when coal becomes scarce? It IS a finite resource - unlike the sun.

Once again the cost of setting up a nuclear power plant is in the billions. Fissile materials are also finite, when they begin to run out we'll see huge increases in price. See the case of oil now.

I also take issue with your point that nuclear energy is "green". Even if we say that plants are entirely safe (Which seems to be the Slashdot consensus) there are many other issues. First of all, what does one do with the waste? Plutonium 239, the most common material used, has a half life of 24,000 years. That's longer than civilisation has so far existed. None of our current methods of storing waste are viable and many have been proven useless.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0606/S00198.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cumbria/4589321.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7068041.stm

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jul/18/japan.justinmccurry1

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003816157_webhanfordleak01.html?syndication=rss

Let's not forget the insane amounts of energy required to both commission a plant, continually mine and transport uranium and then decommission it.

I don't understand how you can argue that replacing our dependence on finite resource that pollutes the environment with another finite resource that pollutes the environment is a good thing. I suggest you read the recently commission Garnaut Review (Professor Ross Garnaut is an economist at the Australian National University) which states that nuclear is a non-viable option and the world must develop renewable sources of energy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garnaut_Report. Or the Stern review (also made by an economist) which reaches a similar conclusion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stern_Review. I do believe these two in particular have a broader depth of knowledge surrounding economics than you do.

This article quotes a Wal-Mart spokesperson as saying it was due to lack of demand. Hey, don't blame me, I'm just posting a link and summarizing it.

Says the UK's Guardian

Check out what happened to Desani here in the UK http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2004/mar/20/medicineandhealth.lifeandhealth

Needless to say it's not available here any more.

If you can't be arsed to read the article it's basically:

1. buy clean, uncontaminated tap water @0.06p litre
2. add carcinogen
3. sell for £1.80 litre
4. profit!!!!
5. get found out, "voluntarily" withdraw product

even in the oil for food scandal, us companies accounted for 52% of all kickbacks paid to saddam hussein's govt. those kickbacks were often facilitated by the us govt. bet you didn't know that.

in some parts of the world people use elephants for labour. elephants are large and can easily kill humans, hence people make sure to keep them trained and constantly under control. the size of the elephant is immaterial. a similar attitude should be held towards governments. a small govt. will waste your money and your freedom just as quickly as a large one if it isn't controlled. i'd have thought that lesson would have been learned by now.

He also mentions that the Olympics site contains games very similar to those wonderful Ferry Halim games from www.orisinal.com - of course, they might be licensed from him. Anyone asked Ferry?

Any lawyers out there fancy taking on the Chinese Olympic Committee? Might not be a good idea...

How about wanting to ban all Muslims (of which there are about 2 million in the UK) from flying in or out of Britain?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2006/oct/05/uk.advertising

You do not get to the "House of Lords" in UK re extradition proceedings for "nothing" http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jul/31/news.hitechcrime

We now know that the universe is flat with only a 2% margin of error.

This would make a good bar bet - which is flatter, the universe, or Kansas?

-Military intervention is not a true cost of providing oil. (Even spun agreed with this.) It should not be counted as a subsidy if consumers don't pay a cost that shouldn't exist.

Wolfowitz, the lead architect of Bush's Iraq policy, would disagree with you. While the article originally misreported him as saying that the Iraq war "was about oil", what he actually said still had the same effect: we went to war with Iraq, and not with North Korea, because Iraq's oil wealth meant that we couldn't use economic leverage against him. We wouldn't have gone to war with them if they didn't have oil wealth to support themselves.

Why do you think we've been involved in so many major conflicts in the middle east, while we've ignored dictator after brutal dictator in Africa? Pure coincidence, I'm sure? Of course not. Securing our energy supplies is of *critical* natural interest. That doesn't mean owning them, or profitting off of them, or anything of that nature. It just means that the government is paranoid of a repeat of the 1970s oil embargo and will do whatever it takes to prevent any situation that could potentially lead to countries cutting off oil sales.

While pollution is a valid negative externality that is unpriced, it's magnitude (after substracting positive externalities like my brother not dying because of plastics) is almost certainly less than the taxes that already exist on oil, meaning consumers ALREADY feel that cost.

1) Plastics would still exist whether we burned oil as a fuel or not. In fact, they'd be cheaper, since we wouldn't have to be producing oil from more expensive sources to meet market demand.
2) Taxes are not a "loss". It's not like the government collects tax money and then just throws it away. Those taxes pay for your roads. Want to drive without roads?

Pollution externalities are very real and are *not* accounted for by oil prices.

The economically correct solution to such underpricing is to tag on a tax that captures the damage, *and then is applied to fixing the damage*. We should not be thinking in terms of "miles per gallon". The correct miles per gallon on a car is whatever the market produces once it sees the environmental cost in the price.

Which would be accomplished by taxing based on miles per gallon.

Enabling Act?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enabling_Act_of_1933

And no, it was not the only time in history similiar measures were done, just the most famous.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/24/usa.comment

And now, I'm not saying it happened here or is happening here, but there are alarming paralells. You may be right, GWB has good intentions (such as they are) but it will be abused later.

This leads to the second problem. The agencies responsible implementing the legislation or using the new powers are not bound by the politicians admonitions about their use. In fact, quite the opposite it true- their very nature and mission encourages them to take the full advantage of whatever powers, rules or procedural changes are implemented in the framework of legislation and common law under which they operate. The only way they can determine the true boundaries of their new powers or a new law is by a process of trial and error, generally involving court cases and other legal mechanisms.

Which is all fine and is the way that laws have been passed and refined by courts for a considerable period of time (if disasterous if you are the individual caught up in a grey area). However it becomes rather more slippery when the implementation of the legislation in question is subject to national security constraints, secret courts, exceptions for back-filling of paperwork and other get-out clauses.

Whilst I might object strenously to the notion that the FBI should be able to tap into my conversations without a warrant or that the UK govt. might like to lock me up for 42 days without charge on spurious 'security' related charges, my most strenuous objections are to the lack of transparency and oversight by independent judiciary in open court or similarly ungagged proceedings.

Well, if the Church wants to give the impression that they want to fix their mistakes and apologize for them, I think it would be better if they apologized for supporting dictatorships and benefiting from them

Another good one would be to stop claiming that condoms have tiny holes in them that let AIDS through.

Undoubtably I'll be modded down to flamebait, but as a non-US citizen I get pretty tired of the US trying to be the 'policeman of the world' and at the same time pull these underhanded tricks.

Another example I came upon today is how the White House was planning to overthrow the democratically chosen Hamas party, because it didn't stroke with their plans.

What happened with "With great power comes great responsibility"? The US is just acting as the schoolyard bully.

Note that I understand that "The US" != "all US citizens", but please, you're the only ones that can do something about this. So please do so.

My grandparent comment was intended to be completely relevant. It seems to me that what a person does affects that person's ability to rest and the quality of rest. Sleep is one kind of rest.

To me, this is the whole issue: Does what you do in your life, the way you live your life, affect your ability to sleep? It seems to me it does, and that there is plenty of evidence that it does.

You said: "... I resent the implication that killing people leads to damaging a person mentally."

I've studied the issue a long time, and to me it seems true that killing other people, or helping kill them, causes thought process degradation. One woman told me, "After the men returned [from the 2nd world war] they were never the same." That seems to me to fit the observable facts.

I'm not saying anything that should cause resentment. I'm stating an opinion, an opinion that seems to fit the facts. For me it is an issue of logic only. I am certainly not against you; I believe I am on the side of anyone who wants to be healthy. I am not suggesting anything that would promote violence or even anger. The sole issue for me is whether what I say fits the facts, or not.

You said: "... choose to serve our country..."

When Saudis attack, invade Iraq? The war was started by people whose families, friends, and business associates are oil and weapons investors. Their purpose was to have a way to act out their anger, apparently, and to make more profit. The weapons investors, and their particular kind of oil investor, did not like the lessening budget for war after the breakup of the Soviet Union. They wanted a long-term war. The way the invasion was conducted made sure that Iraqis who were against being invaded had plenty of explosives and weapons.

If the deaths caused by destabilization are counted, the U.S. government has been responsible for the deaths of an estimated 9 to 12 million people since the end of the second world war. The U.S. government has bombed or invaded 25 countries since then. See the Wikipedia entry: List of United States military history events.

You said: "... neither I nor any of my coworkers kill anyone. We are intelligence analysts, providing strategic guidance to GEN Petraeus."

If you are participating in the Iraq war, you are helping kill. You are helping destabilize the entire region around Iraq. You are damaging the reputation of the U.S. government. You are helping Arabs and Muslims who say that the U.S. government is violent, corrupt, and should be attacked. Violence breeds violence. The 2nd war with Iraq has now killed more U.S. citizens than the World Trade Center bombers, and, according to respected statistical studies, more Iraqis than Saddam Hussein. If you didn't have the excuse of war, you would be an accessory to murder.

The general violence and support for violence seems to be a contributing factor to the people in the U.S. not being able to sleep. That theory may or not be correct, but it is not a radical theory; people often make statements that show they think that.

The alternative is to say that actions have no consequences, that what you do has no effect on your mental health. I don't think anyone truly thinks that alternative fits the facts.

If you need more support for what I said about the Iraq war, see, for example, Coups Arranged or Backed by the USA. Most or all of that corruption happened for profit, such as kickbacks of U.S. government foreign aid. When the governments of Israel or Pakistan buy weapons from U.S. manufacturers using money from "foreign aid", that is embezzlement of taxpayer money.

For one example of profiting from violence, read How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power or

A month ago, on a related note, The Guardian published a note about the world's 10 best bookshops. Worth looking at

I'm happy that slashdot continues to have some sort of respect for the intellect of the reader. I'm pretty sure that everybody here made the mental connection to Italy, and if they didn't, they should be reading Geography 101 instead of slashdot. Espicially with the "Google Translate" link. And the original document in Italian.

Crafications such as 'London, England' are only necessary when it is likely that the reader could be confused. Hence there is no need to write 'Beijing, China', for example

The "dumbing down" of American media isn't really apparent until you compare similar publications from the US to their closest British counterparts. Compare Newsweek or Time Magazine to The Economist or The New York Times to The Guardian. And this isn't just my opinion, it has been validated in studies of the matter.