Slashdot Mirror

I think I'd prefer to get wet or use an umbrella than breathe the horrible smog that blankets Beijing. In fact, the rain is often the only thing that reduces the smog and air pollution for a shirt while.

NPR had a story about how they're forcing 1/3 of the cars to stay off the road and shutting down a bunch of factories to try to reduce the air pollution for the olympics. Maybe just letting (or making) it rain, instead of stopping it from raining, would do even more good.

Cory Doctorow suggests in 'The Guardian' that the sensible thing to do is have one set of copyright rules for commercial operations and one for non-commercial situations.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/29/copyright.law

Now, there's probably room for some debate, devil's in the details and all that, but seems like a reasonable course of action to differentiate in law between me borrowing a CD and ripping it onto my PC vs a commercial pirating operation that churns out hundreds of stamped CDs.

Aside from the normal round of robot-asteroid-which-corporate-cocksuck-for-president-will-fuck-us-next news, how about something for US, the people of this country:

Marijuana vending machines are a reality in California:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2248565,00.html
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2008/01/28/vending-machines-in-california-dispense-medical-marijuana.aspx
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/01/hot-button-medi.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7212778.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/28/wvend128.xml
http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_8104481
http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/01/29/Cannabis_to_be_dispensed_from_vending_machines
http://www.kwtx.com/medicaldirectory/headlines/14453477.html
http://wkrg.com/news/article/marijuana_vending_machines/9588/

Offtopic, flamebait, troll, pony, whatever, at least this news will appear before the next Slashdot pro-marijuana, pro-nature, pro-peoples-fucking-rights-in-action story hits ten years from now after marijuana is legalized in this still-puritanical, but now we can butt fuck legally, backwards cross-licking country.

> working class

working class? only little people pay taxes.

http://arts.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1840232,00.html

Avoid NFS unless you want blood on your hands. They provide services to Redwatch - a site where the identities/names/addresses/personal information of libertarian protesters are posted. They're then freely available for use by right wing vigilantes to go and attack them (and it has happened):

NSF are providing DNS for a UK Redwatch mirror (Nominet WHOIS data for redwatch.org.uk):

        Domain name:
                redwatch.org.uk

        Name servers:
                ns.phx1.nearlyfreespeech.net
                ns.phx2.nearlyfreespeech.net

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwatch

"Anyone listed on Redwatch may be at increased risk of violence from far right supporters. According to Searchlight Magazine, a Leeds teacher who complained about a notorious far right activist from Leeds called Tony White leafleting his school took his details and listed them on Redwatch, allegedly after the jailing of Tony White other far right supporters decided to firebomb his car as a reprisal. [4] Another instance, according to Indymedia, is of an anti-racist reportedly followed and attacked on 16 May 2006 after the recent appearance of his personal data on the Redwatch website. The assailants reportedly shouted "We'll kill you, you leftist motherfucker!" .

Merseyside TUC organiser Alec McFadden received death threats shortly after his details appeared on the site. At precisely the same time Joe Owens, an official Merseyside BNP candidate with several convictions for violent offences (see above) began sending him e-mails gloating that he had photographic details of his house, car, and family [5]. Since standing as a Respect candidate in the May 2006 elections, McFadden has been physically attacked at his own home. [6]

There have been many reports to the police of people suffering death threats after their details have appeared on the site. These have included Members of Parliament and their families. [7]"

The Guardian also has details of the site:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/farright/story/0,11981,1125242,00.html

Despite the link between the site they host and death threats to innocent civilians NSF continue to provide services. I've heard of freedom of speech - but I'm pretty sure most people agree it goes too far when violence is involved. I'm surprised this isn't illegal under US law.

I thought you'd get modded down - I'm glad it's not so. The overwhelming reaction of the online community over the Warner announcement made me very angry as it was clear it was the phraseology of the news titles, fueling the fanboys, that was causing significantly more damage than the announcement itself.

This alone gave the fanboys more reason to troll 'the war is over' in such force and with such conviction as never before.

Why was this so out of place with fanboys, nearly the ultimate of online extremists? Well, it's flat out counter their interests and even starkly in contrast with the overwhelming opinion of Sony after the rootkit scenario. With still plenty of support behind HD-DVD, the cheaper technology, the more consumer friendly technology (both now and including any fears for the future - got to love a company that wants to stop you lending or selling on your property, right?) and HD-DVD AACS and region encoding being optional, more dedicated players in peoples homes made it the true consumer choice (the PS3 isn't dedicated Blu-Ray - it's a games console, however I view the 360 add on as a dedicated player as it has NO other function and is a full optional purchase, not bundled with the console. Finally a lot of people have bought them as they also work on PCs), by far the most logical choice for the majority of online enthusiasts was HD-DVD. So what if per-layer Blu-Ray held more? Most of us are unlikely to afford a burner in the next 15 years.

The only thing Blu-Ray had going for it was the pushiest marketing scheme ever. I'm disappointed in HD-DVD on that front but never thought it would take in so many online. A carefully orchestrated viral campaign from a Sony backed product would not surprise me in the SLIGHTEST, considering their consistent history of such. The only surprise would be that they pulled it off so subtly compared to their previous attempts. I guess one of the other Blu-Ray backers would have stepped in and overseen its careful deployment, though I'm still surprised at the total lack of tact when someone from the Blu-Ray camp was very publicly quoted as saying "they knew what they were getting into" about early adopters when people started to complain about the redundancy of all the very expensive first (and second?) generation players other than the PS3. I'm also surprised about the small scale of the backlash from that comment alone currently. I mean: what more proof did people need of Blu-Ray's total lack of regard for their customers, even those so loyal they'd spend so much on the earliest systems?

I own neither HD-DVD or Blu-Ray systems, or a 360 - I wouldn't have minded a PS3 IF they'd maintained backward compatibility (I admit I love my mini PS2, ironically rubbish DVD player that it is - GREEN screen if you want RGB out? hah) but I would never have bought one as I couldn't bring myself to support a format that was so likely to attempt to trample over and even strip yet more consumer rights in the future.

I think you are confusing "has been regulated" with "has been imagined to be regulated by lawyers and naive fools." To be "regulated" requires a bit more than the mere existence of regulations on paper. It requires that these things have actual force, that they actually do something, they restrain people in some way.

I guess among the naive fools you find Goering, Milosevic, Taylor, and W. Bush. Of course, the frat boy Bush hasn't really paid the price yet, while the US has lost status morally and politically because of torture being done by CIA and US military. Only a naive fool believes that torturing suspect enemies do not have a price both economically and politically, while influencing directly the security of US citizens abroad and at home.

Do you think Bliar checked with the lawyers just for fun before the Iraq invation? Do you think commanders in the field don't know that one day there will be peace and maybe it would not look so good if it appeared in the papers that his troops raped those civilian girls? Do you think armies court martial soldiers for unlawful killings just to lose some pure killing machines? My interpretation is that any military knows that keeping to international laws and standards is good for moral, gives an advantage in the propaganda war and that a displined army is infinitely stronger than a bunch of random killers.

Heck, even al-quada justify their killings with their twisted interpretation of the Quaran; notice how bin laden replaces international law with his own sets of laws taken from a religious text to justify for his supporters and backers how al-quada is conducting their jihad (holy war).

It seems to be hard for naive fools to understand that diplomacy is not weakness, that international law exists because it is a win-win for nations, and that breaking international law has consequences even though there is no world police. The bully on the block maybe thinks that he will always be the strongest, but the smart guy knows that he needs friends and allies to get by and survive.

In 1965, U.S. corporate taxes amounted to 4% of gross domestic product, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development which includes local, state, and federal income and capital-gains taxes in its calculation. By 2000, that figure had dropped to 2.5%.

House approves $30 billion in corporate tax breaks

Article promoting it on MSN.com without mentioning MSFT :
A corporate tax break that could benefit you

Microsoft Reduces Irish Corporate Tax Liability To Less Than 10%

WTO rules against US corporate tax breaks

The EU was set to implement retaliatory tariffs

Senate Approves Tech Corporate Tax Break

Ms use share options to reduce their tax bill by $5.5 billion

Microsft & Cisco pay $0 Federal Income Tax

Please forgive me for posting like this, but this is a dead-serious issue, so please, please,
please read on. This is a story that *has* to be told. So, I beg you: read this out before you hit the del button. If you do, Slashdot will be on CNN tonight and Bush will be out of the White House.
So please, give me the benefit of the doubt and read this trough before you hit delete.
--

Slashdot readers are smart people that can add one and one together. So, when they read why Second Life's supposed economy isn't a whole lot more than a typical pyramid scheme because the Linden company can print Linden dollars out of thin air at any rate they like, and can therefore buy and sell as much dollars at the exchange market as they like, so they can pretty much manipulate the whole SL economy as they please, they will also be able to figure out that the real US banking and monetary system can be manipulated at exactly the same way, because the Federal Reserve has enjoyed the absolute power to do literally anything it wants, which is probably why Henry Ford said he believed there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning if "the people of the nation" would "understand our banking and monetary system".

If they also read how the US corporations, owned by the same people that own the FED, systematically and consciously rape the poorest people of the world by using the trick of putting whole nations into debt to make them dependent and controllable by raising inflation tax, just as has been described in protocol number 6 of the so-called Zion protocols and continue reading that protcols, they would also understand why Henry Ford was a known anti-semite, as well as Winston Churchill, who wrote about a world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality that "has been steadily growing".

If you believe, like Ford and Churchill, in the existence of such a conspiracy, Slashdot readers would not just take for granted that it was "the Jews", but look at the most logical place for the conspiritors, which would be at the top of the pyramid, for who wars are very profitable as well, as is also described in said protocols. So, When Slashdot reades also learn that following Hitler's money leads al but directly to the White House and that Al Qaida in a way can be more or less considered to be the last remaining and still active Waffen-SS Division, because there are pretty direct links to the Waffen-SS Muslim Devision hardly anybody knew existed, they will also be able to understand Multatuli's extremely inconvenient truth laying this all out in detail.

Then they will also realise that 911 was an inside job after all and never be able to trust anyone on the memberlist of the order of Skull and Bones. Since Ron Paul was on the video Multatuli watched to get insight into the workings of the Fed, he gave him the benefit of the doub

Why Slashdot will be on CNN tonight and Ron Paul will probably be the next US president.

and Ron Paul will probably be the next president of the United States.

Slashdot readers are smart people that can add one and one together. So, when they read why Second Life's supposed economy isn't a whole lot more than a typical pyramid scheme because the Linden company can print Linden dollars out of thin air at any rate they like, and can therefore buy and sell as much dollars at the exchange market as they like, so they can pretty much manipulate the whole SL economy as they please, they will also be able to figure out that the real US banking and monetary system can be manipulated at exactly the same way, because the Federal Reserve has enjoyed the absolute power to do literally anything it wants, which is probably why Henry Ford said he believed there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning if "the people of the nation" would "understand our banking and monetary system".

If they also read how the US corporations, owned by the same people that own the FED, systematically and consciously rape the poorest people of the world by using the trick of putting whole nations into debt to make them dependent and controllable by raising inflation tax, just as has been described in protocol number 6 of the so-called Zion protocols and continue reading that protcols, they would also understand why Henry Ford was a known anti-semite, as well as Winston Churchill, who wrote about a world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality that "has been steadily growing".

If you believe, like Ford and Churchill, in the existence of such a conspiracy, Slashdot readers would not just take for granted that it was "the Jews", but look at the most logical place for the conspiritors, which would be at the top of the pyramid, for who wars are very profitable as well, as is also described in said protocols. So, When Slashdot reades also learn that following Hitler's money leads al but directly to the White House and that Al Qaida in a way can be more or less considered to be the last remaining and still active Waffen-SS Division, because there are pretty direct links to the Waffen-SS Muslim Devision hardly anybody knew existed, they will also be able to understand Multatuli's extremely inconvenient truth laying this all out in detail.

Then they will also realise that 911 was an inside job after all and never be able to trust anyone on the memberlist of the order of Skull and Bones. Since Ron Paul was on the video Multatuli watched to get insight into the workings of the Fed, he gave him the benefit of the doubt and linked to his site from his article.

Given the importance of this message, the chance that this will end up on the front page of Slashdot equals more then 99%, *IF* enough readers read this message. Since it will

and Ron Paul will probably be the next president of the United States.

Slashdot readers are smart people that can add one and one together. So, when they read why Second Life's supposed economy isn't a whole lot more than a typical pyramid scheme because the Linden company can print Linden dollars out of thin air at any rate they like, and can therefore buy and sell as much dollars at the exchange market as they like, so they can pretty much manipulate the whole SL economy as they please, they will also be able to figure out that the real US banking and monetary system can be manipulated at exactly the same way, because the Federal Reserve has enjoyed the absolute power to do literally anything it wants, which is probably why Henry Ford said he believed there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning if "the people of the nation" would "understand our banking and monetary system".

If they also read how the US corporations, owned by the same people that own the FED, systematically and consciously rape the poorest people of the world by using the trick of putting whole nations into debt to make them dependent and controllable by raising inflation tax, just as has been described in protocol number 6 of the so-called Zion protocols and continue reading that protcols, they would also understand why Henry Ford was a known anti-semite, as well as Winston Churchill, who wrote about a world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality that "has been steadily growing".

If you believe, like Ford and Churchill, in the existence of such a conspiracy, Slashdot readers would not just take for granted that it was "the Jews", but look at the most logical place for the conspiritors, which would be at the top of the pyramid, for who wars are very profitable as well, as is also described in said protocols. So, When Slashdot reades also learn that following Hitler's money leads al but directly to the White House and that Al Qaida in a way can be more or less considered to be the last remaining and still active Waffen-SS Division, because there are pretty direct links to the Waffen-SS Muslim Devision hardly anybody knew existed, they will also be able to understand Multatuli's extremely inconvenient truth laying this all out in detail.

Then they will also realise that 911 was an inside job after all and never be able to trust anyone on the memberlist of the order of Skull and Bones. Since Ron Paul was on the video Multatuli watched to get insight into the workings of the Fed, he gave him the benefit of the doubt and linked to his site from his article.

Given the importance of this message, the chance that this will end up on the front page of Slashdot equals more then 99%, *IF* enough readers read this message. Since it will be extremely cool, as a side-effect of sending the world's biggest war-criminals to justice, to

In the meantime I wonder if Newspapers as a medium are capable of making the transition to the Internet and incorporating the new freedoms that brings? Slashdot is way ahead it seems in dealing with some of the issues raised by offering discussion forums, as an article being discussed in today's Guardian CIF : The bullies' charter by Linda Grant makes clear.

If anyone's interested, the role of online news papers is being discussed in a couple of recent articles running on First Monday at the moment:
Western European newspapers and their online revenue models: An overview. By Valerie-Anne Bleyen and Leo Van Hove.
Outside influences: Extramedia forces and the newsworthiness conceptions of online newspaper journalists

you might want to read on, anyway. Last week, I realised that Second Life's economy isn't the only economy that's a pyramid scheme benefitting above all the Guys at the top of the pyramid. I combined that with John Perkins story about how the super rich manage to rape the poorest people on the world, so I got a little worried, and decided to follow the money. Then, in a hunch, I decided to follow Hitler's money and also discovered a clear and credible link between the Nazi's and Al-Qaida. A few more steps and reality makes your worst nightmares look like a walk in the park. -- Multatuli --

If you realise that Second Life's economy isn't the only economy that's a pyramid scheme benefitting above all the Guys at the top of the pyramid, and combine that with John Perkins story about how the super rich manage to rape the poorest people on the world, you get a little worried, so you begin to follow the money.

Then, in a hunch, you decide to follow Hitler's money and discover a clear and credible link between the Nazi's and Al-Qaida. A few more steps and reality makes your worst nightmares look like a walk in the park.

-- Multatuli --

This story here http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,2188777,00.html delves deeper into the Pakistan link.

Maybe you heard about the French (and German, Canadian) companies because the US and British companies that were doing exactly the same had been initally removed from the disclosed documents relating such practices:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/01/wsaddam101.xml http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1485546,00.html
Don't be naive.

French companies were involved in illegal oil deals with Saddam - in violation of UN treaties - and was one of the primary reasons the French Government was so opposed to the current war in Iraq - but they claim that American's are the "bad guys".

The French are adamantly opposed to allowing any "English" words to become used in French conversation and thus insist on creating 'proper' French words to avoid the inclusion of non-French words into daily use

Thousands and thousands of non-French servicemen gave their lives to help France fight for it's independence after being quickly taken over by the Nazis - when the latest war started in Iraq, how did young French people show their "support" for all of those dead servicemen? By painting swastikas on their tombs and overturning their headstones.

I don't claim these are great or even reliable sources, just the first ones that turned up in a casual Google search.

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

Invasions that involve hardly anyone at all?

Too bad we can't do that in real life.

I think Switzerland intended to procure an invasion with hardly anyone at all, reinforced by CGI soldiers, but I hear it didn't turn out so well.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7210652,00.html

The UK Newspaper the Guardian says more than a million kids in the UK don't have access to a computer at home.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uklatest/story/0,,-7210652,00.html/

The supported use of FOSS software could make a radical difference. Recycled hardware running free operating systems and applications could reduce the cost of student PCs to almost zero, and truly put computing within the reach of every child.

I have several computers at home that my children use for school-related activities. TOTAL cost of each (hardware, OS, office suite, image manipulation) is that of the monitor. These boxes are absolutely fit for purpose, and would otherwise be landfill.

My children regard computing at home as a commodity, which funnily enough, it is, if you step outside the wierd monopolistic force-bubble that is our educational computing practice.

The only excuse for the situation in our schools, the only reasoning that could possibly hold water, is 'They should use what they'll use at work'. This is short, snappy, and is accepted easily by those only peripherally involved in the question. I don't think it bears examination though. Some thoughts:

A trite one:

I don't believe any otherwise suitable candidate has ever been passed over because they were trained on the wrong spreadsheet, but if they were they should count themselves lucky to have escaped. They are more likely to be passed over if they didn't do well on the coursework because their parents couldn't afford to give them access to a PC.

A less trite one:

Office 2007's new UI, if it achieves the any sort of foothold on corporate desktops, will render all experience of word processing at schools until now totally obsolete. Or will it? No of course not - conversion courses will help the latest intake drive the latest software.

If this change can be handled between versions of the same product, then exactly the same case can be made for conversion between products. So (for example):

Train on OpenOffice (or other product if it's free at least for educational and domestic use, and runs on a free operating system.) With the money you save on buying no Microsoft Office or Windows licences build and deploy short conversion courses for people about to leave school, getting them up to speed on the current commercial favourites. This would spit out kids with more up-to-date experience of the commercial softwarescape than the current policy.

The benefits of this approach come from breaking the lock-in: commoditisation spreading children's access to computing in a way that otherwise only massive subsidy could (fail to) achieve; our children, their teachers and parents able to take advantage of the freely-given, high-quality work of a global community, while ending their education better trained on the latest commercial tools than they are today.

No, for real poetic justice, you'd want to see the head of a major bank be the victim of identity theft. For Clarkson, poetic justice would involve something with a Lada, a polar bear and rising waters....

If I were drinking 3 nights a week I would be a healthy person.

Barclays boss falls victim to ID fraud
A fraudster posing as the chairman of Barclays stole £10,000 from the bank after tricking a member of staff into sending him a credit card, it emerged today. The conman duped call centre staff into issuing a credit card in the name of banking boss Marcus Agius and then used it to withdraw funds at a high street branch.
It is believed that the thief, working alone or as part of a gang, used the internet to find out details concerning Agius, such as his date of birth and address. He then contacted a Barclaycard employee and requested that a new card be sent out.

No. The exit polls did not agree with the vote count:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/01/exit_polls_obama_and_mccain_ah.html

Later, the exit poll is changed to agree with the vote count:
http://www.mysterypollster.com/main/2004/11/the_difference_.html

More like the authorities arm and fund them. This technology doesn't catch terrorists - never has and never will - it doesn't even try to, it's just good for moving tax dollars into "security industry" profits. Much cheaper in the short and the long term just to not fund "freedom fighters"(=terrorists) in the first place.

Why are they so expensive in the USA? You can buy one for £10 ($20-ish) in the UK, see this news article. Most are £20, still much less than your $100+.

One in four Americans read no books last year

Wednesday August 22, 2007

A quarter of US adults say they read no books at all in the past year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. The typical person claimed to have read four books in the last year and, excluding those who had not read any books at all, the usual number of books read was seven.

Of those who did read, women and pensioners were most avid readers, and religious works and popular fiction were the top choices. The median figure for books read - with half reading more, half fewer - was nine books for women and five for men. The figures also indicated that those with college degrees read the most, and people aged 50 and over read more than those who are younger.

People from the West and Midwest are more likely to have read at least one book in the past year. Southerners who do read, however, tend to read more books - mostly religious books and romance novels - than people from other regions.

Those who said they never attend religious services read nearly twice as many as those who attend frequently but the Bible and religious works were read by two-thirds in the survey, more than all other categories. Popular fiction, histories, biographies and mysteries were all cited by about half, while one in five read romance novels. Every other genre - including politics, poetry and classical literature - were named by fewer than 5% of readers. More women than men read every major category of books except for history and biography. Industry experts said that confirms their observation that men tend to prefer nonfiction.

There was even some political variety evident, with Democrats and liberals typically reading slightly more books than Republicans and conservatives.

Book sales in the US have been flat in recent years and are expected to stay that way indefinitely. Analysts attribute the listlessness to competition from the internet and other media, the unsteady economy and a well-established industry with limited opportunities for expansion. The publishing business totaled $35.7 billion (26.4 billion) in global sales last year, 3% more than the previous year, according to the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association. About 3.1 billion books were sold, an increase of less than 1%.

Not trying to track me...

Just like the congestion charging cameras in London, UK don't track you or where you go. Or how some cameras on the motorways don't track you either to judge your average speed and fine you if you go over...

You know one of the main reasons their introducing more cameras in the UK - to get rid of street crime.. by intimidating you (the randomly violent thug) into being really cautious about what you do because you're almost always on CCTV. See what I'm getting at...

Ofcourse there are two sides to the argument - you might feel safer by knowing that if a drug pushing terrorist paedophile were to assault you in the street, atleast there'll be easier to convict them if their ever caught...

My point is: with a current trend of power hungry politions, leveraging whatever they have now to ensure their political ideals are on-top in future; are you sure you're happy with that?

All it takes is a little bit of c*****ship, a touch of fascism and dictatorial policy before it starts sliding - ever seen that movie V for Vendetta? :)

Just this week, a parliamentary enquiry in the UK found that ebay profits by colluding with black-market ticket agencies.

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/ad+hominem

As for the definition of the word "racist": There are only a tiny handful of peoples who are capable of producing a man who can win a Fields Medal or a Nobel Prize in Physics: Largely they are Caucasians [to include the Ashkenazim & the Lebanese Christians], Pacific Rim Asians, and [only] the very highest castes from the Indian Subcontinent; conversely, the finals of the 100 meter dash at the Olympics will always consist almost entirely of men who are descended from the tribes of West Africa [or at least the finals would consist almost entirely of such men if national quotas didn't unfairly and unnaturally limit and restrict the participants at the Olympics].

No one - not even the most ardent marxist academic - bothers to try to convince himself otherwise anymore.

But, of course, the modern definition of "racist" does not identify, as the villain, he who notices these differences - we all notice them - but rather the word "racist" has come to apply to anyone who has the temerity [or foolhardiness] to verbalize the observation.

On the other hand, that's not what the word "racist" is supposed to mean: A racist is supposed to be someone who believes that a government should enforce [with the barrel of a gun] an agenda which:

1) Involves seizing the private property of dis-favored races.

2) Involves setting aside educational appointments and business opportunities for favored races.

3) Involves denying taxpayer-subsidized goodies to dis-favored races.

4) Involves the racialization of criminal arrests, prosecutions, and convictions.

5) Involves the seizure of entire continents from dis-favored races.

6) Involves the enslavement of dis-favored races.

7) Involves the slaughter of dis-favored races.

Etc etc etc.

So it's impossible for any classical liberal - one who believes that men should be judged not by the color of their skin, but by rather the content of their character, and who believes that governments, and their gun barrels, really ought not exist in the first place - it is impossible for him to be a "racist" within the bounds of any meaning which that word was intended to connote.

But, again, as I have said over and over in this little conversation of ours: NONE OF THE SEMANTIC DISTINCTIONS ARE OF ANY IMPORTANCE WHATSOEVER.

What is important is the underlying truth of the matter: Barring some unforseen tragedy [your being struck by lightning, etc], YOU WILL LIVE TO EXPERIENCE THE IMMINENT TRAGEDY [& CATASTROPHE] OF DYSGENIC FERTILITY.

In the meantime, perform your very small - yet almost infinitely important - role in making the future a better place for us all [both we who are already born, and those of us who are yet-to-be-born]: Go find the smartest girl yo

Huh? I thought they'd concluded it was a meteorite?

30 quid? You're out of date..

They should be about $15 in the US I'd expect.

You clearly deserve a government job!

Perhaps in Denmark.

Or Spain

Or, hey, maybe you should produce videos for Greenpeace, threatening anyone who doesn't agree with them. I'm sure that would help.

Is there a law that says that telco's can't tap a line.

Various eavesdropping laws and wiretap laws?

I don't see what the cost is.

Abuse of the power. Loss of trust in the government.

You mean, like this? They got the 2006 Ig Nobel prize for this.

Men won't date overweight women

Might be different some other place, e.g. More than 90% of Tongans are overweight, making the South Sea islanders the world's fattest nation.

CC.

Good luck finding me. I'll be building one chemical weapons plant, and twenty big mirrors, 19 of which I'll put on schools, hospitals, and Red Cross warehouses.

Funny joke, but wrong country.

Since when did a gross generalization of the wrong country become insightful? Funny, maybe, but definitely not insightful.

The White House is already taking steps to make sure that these "scientists" at NASA don't say anything that might upset you:

Climate Science Manipulation Alleged

Obviously, this report didn't get properly vetted. By the end of the day it should be titled "Unday Clouds Shine Pretty! Doubleplus Good!"

Point out a glaring error in an article and you get moderated troll? Oh well, if that's "group knowledge" for you then Wikipedia is fscked! No wonder Doris Lessing and others have this to say http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2224159,00.html

It's neither new nor rare.

Absolutely, it's not *new* for parents to fight over hot Xmas gift items and that's not the point I was trying to make. The point was it's new that the level of scalping that's going on and the competition that brings. Most of the parents that fought over Tickle-Me-Elmo or Cabbage Patch Kids did so and lost to those who where going to use them.

"Product Scalping" is having all the rules of Ticket Scalping applied with little of the draw-backs. Scalpers have no worries of having a zero worth product, a Wii will retain it's retail value even after Xmas and can still be sold for little-to-no-loss. Scalpers are camping out for days to pick something up, something more parents cannot do. Scalpers and parents alike are turning to an army of the no-job, living-in-the-parents-basement type to stand outside in blistering colds to buy up any supply, just to compete.

Suffice it to say, there wasn't the availability of the internet and services like eBay to make that so easy for most products of the past. And now with all the media attention and large profits being touted about by news services, it's getting the attention of people who want make a fast buck. I admit, I considered doing it before the Wii/PS3 launched. I know a friend who helped his relative scalp PS3 (not as successfully given the lack of PS3 popularity).

The game is the same, but the rules and players have dramatically changed, and that's what makes it new. Of course, I also hate scalping (any kind). I laughed when all the scalpers got screwed when Led Zeppelin announced that you have to present the original purchasing credit card with the tickets to get into the show. Though, unlike Zeppelin tickets, which have a second stage of transaction (entry into the event), products don't have this.

It's one thing to loose out to another parent with child who wants something. It's entirely something else to loose out to someone who'll (literally) turn around and offer the item to you at 10x cost. Of course, where does it stop? I waited outside for hours in the cold to just PRE-ORDER a Wii... and I was pretty much last in line. Product cannot even get to stores before they're tagged with someone's name.

Cheers,
Fozzy

I've been dubious for years about what good a laptop is if you're starving; but see Doris Lessing's Nobel prize acceptance speech for just how hungry people can be for books even in the most dire circumstances.

wg

She does not mention the dead city,

That still have people living around it.

and the thousands of people who died from cancers in surrounding areas.

That would have happened even without the accident. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death today, Chernobyl or no Chernobyl. Cancer rates have been worse for several neighboring areas with not particularly clean chemical production facilities.

She has exactly zero credibility.

Because she isn't quoting numbers that you like? She specifically mentions in the article that the accident wouldn't have had the nasty effects if it'd had a containment structure like what's required in western nations.

She also doesn't mention the huge cost per MWh of nuke, and ignores methods (that do really exist!) for "green" replacement of baseload.

Name some. Nuclear power is estimated at $1-2 per watt today, 90% capacity factor.

Yet, why would Czar Vladimir Putin go through all this trouble to produce an impressive showing at the polls? He is already quite popular. His party, United Russia, could have easily won control of the Duma without the election rigging.

"The Economist" has finally provided an answer to this puzzling question. "The answer almost certainly lies in the ever more vicious--and open--rivalry among the Kremlin's political clans. Perhaps Mr Putin upset so many rich and powerful people that the prospect of losing control over the transition of power may simply have been too dangerous for his inner circle, and for himself. For all his talk about foreign threats and domestic enemies, what Mr Putin really fears is his entourage and a war among the clans. Winston Churchill once described the Kremlin's political tussles as being like a fight among bulldogs under a carpet: outsiders hear plenty of growling but have few clues about the victor's identity until it emerges."

Renegade political factions (run by former and current members of the FSB, successor of the KGB) operate within and outside the Kremlin. Each faction is like a gang, and the gangs kill each other. They answer to no one. So far, Putin has used his power to keep the factions under control.

Putin needed an impressive showing in the election in order to demonstrate his political power -- to the siloviki. He controls the United Russia party. Since the party won more than 66% of the seats in the Duma (due to the rigged election), the party -- and Putin -- can alter the constitution at will.

Of course, Putin is gambling that his scheme will work. He may lose the gamble. One of the renegade factions may assassinate him.

In this context, you can understand the comments by Mikhail Gorbachev. Gorbachev won the Nobel Peace Prize for releasing the Eastern Europeans from the yoke of Soviet oppression. He has criticized the steadily eroding freedoms that he initiated in Russia in the late 1980s, but he has refrained from directly criticizing Czar Vladimir Putin.

Putin is indeed a czar, but he is a far better ruler than one of the thugs in the siloviki. These thugs likely killed both Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya. Even if Putin wanted to solve their murders, he has no power to do so. If he attempted to find the killers, then he may be killed.

P.S.
"The Economist" seems to provide much better analysis of Russian politics than Washington provides. What exactly are our Russian "experts" in Washington doing?

It's not even in wargames against other countries that Americans fail in this way. They've been known to make the same mistakes internally, too. Lt. General Paul van Riper is well-known for taking the part of the terrorist forces in such simulations and winning.

When he does so, the correct response is to pretend he didn't, declare the aircraft carriers re-floated, and continue as before to prove that the US military is every bit as supreme as advertised. See here.

There is absolutley no comparison between welfare and education to the literal shipments of billions of dollars in 100 dollar bills to Iraq- to be handed out to anyone with no accountability. They literally flew pallets full of 100 dollar bills that have disappeared. People may disagree about the philosophy behind welfare, or just how we should go about fixing public education, but the monumental waste and clear cut corruption of shipping billions in cash into a warzone and then not paying attention to who is getting it is completely w/o defence, logic or decency. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2008189,00.html

On US Interrogation (sadly I cannot find the SF field manual): http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/18779prs20041207.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_interrogation_techniques http://www.americanthinker.com/2004/10/torture_as_an_interrogation_te.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1212197,00.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/16/washington/16cnd-formica.html http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305I.shtml http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=1227&id=893492006 On the US School of Americas: http://www.soaw.org/ On Secret US Prisons: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1237589,00.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4461470.stm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/19/afghan12319.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/12/19/afghan12319.htm http://www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/64/22567 Now why is this important? Since the US keeps these prisons in secret locations which are never disclosed, the international red cross is never permitted to inspect them. Therefore, any sort of interrogation and torture technique used is carte blanche.