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My suggestion, blog about avoiding war with Iran.

How about blogging on avoiding allowing psychotic terrorists to have nuclear weapons, avoiding threatening to exterminate everyone in a neighboring country, and avoiding executing people for being gay or insulting the government?

It seems that it is you who doesn't know what the Nobel Peace Prize stands for. So please read this link about the misconceptions people have. The price is there to award, and especially: raise awareness of a person (and his cause/message) who devoted time and energy into promoting a more peaceful world. They are not awarded for actually attaining peace - just have a look at the Israel-Palestinian conflict: Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin got the price in part for their efforts but in particular as an encouragement by the (neutral) panel to signify they were going in the right direction and people should follow that spirit. Unfortunately certain people didn't and the 1994 price, as of now, failed its true purpose.

So, after seeing what the price really stands for (granted, the name might be a bit misleading), it isn't really that strange that Al Gore got it this time around.

_ Myth: The prize is awarded to recognize efforts for peace, human rights and democracy only after they have proven successful.

More often, the prize is awarded to encourage those who receive it to see the effort through, sometimes at critical moments in a process.

Read the rest of this very interesting article here.

And when I think about all the recent Nobel peace prize laureates, I can see that the above holds true. No one knew the 2005 winner, the Iranian Women and Children rights activist, Shirin Ebadi, before the Nobel prize was handed out to her (and I am saying this as an Iranian), but the prize did bring months of media attention and world focus to the issue (the issue of human rights in Iran).

This example is one of the reasons why I view snopes and similar debunking sites with suspicion. They are amateur fact-finders and consequently miss a lot of things, also fail to keep updating their claims as new developments arise.

By a standard journalistic enquiry (phone calls, visit to Gore's home) snopes could have found out that Al Gore uses green energy, the house he bought in 2002 is undergoing renovation and he was fighting with the local authorities to let him install solar panels.

Besides, the whole issue what he does with his home is moot. He did more singlehandedly than possibly any other person on the planet to convince millions of people to pay attention to an important issue and live a more ecologically friendly life. Even if he would be living in a coal powerplant, it wouldn't matter for me. Science is not religion, the truth value of what Al Gore is saying does not depend on what he practices. He is not the typical, average person, so when people say "he didn't mention no carbon credits", well he wasn't talking to the audience that operates with carbon credits, but to the average person. When he was talking to an audience that could concievable use carbon credits, he did mention them to the rich people, corporate CEOs and others who own or operate companies.

Not being an eco-nazi like you who clearly thinks that Al Gore should live in a mut-hut, it is still comferting to know that most of the energy Al Gore uses is green/carbon neutral energy.

Al Gore lives as he preaches.

Indeed, but most causes presented as major (IMHO they are not major ones, they are only used in order to let the people think that Cherno was much more dangerous than Western models) derives from architectural approaches and are not subject to retrofit

> it reads like a circus of clowns, much like TMI.

Some say that humans are the sole potential direct cause of mishap, but no one came with a foolproof or entirely automatic plant, therefore far-from-perfect-humans may stay in the picture

> Production level US reactors were always safer in design than Chernobyl

The sole hard fact is: there was no major mishap in the US 'till now. But it may be just like in this story of the guy playing Russian roulette: he rolls the cylinder then (trigger-action) 'click', (trigger-action) 'click', (trigger-action) 'click', (trigger-action) 'click'... Then he thinks "hey! so far, so good! No danger, let's resume playing".

> test and research reactors weren't always, but that's because they didn't have a clue

That's an important point: when will we sure that we have a clue, that no major problem may appear? Not now, cause even the waste problem is not solved.

> One of the bigger points is that we pre-entomb the reactors in a huge pressure dome

> we're talking the model T's of nuclear reactors - can we start at least building honda civics?

Where are they?

As far as I know all concerned are instead enhancing the current ones, and it seems not efficient nor easy.

Take, for example, the EPR ("European Pressurized Reactor"), conceived by AREVA and Siemens, who are surely not amateurs on this field and which is an evolution of an existing well-known and used architecture, aiming at gaining security and efficiency. In a word: the plant will probably produce about 20% less hot waste than existing ones (that's probably its best achievement), the efficiency-related gains are low (a few percent) and risk reduction is not certain. This last one (security) is revealing: the beast was touted as very secure then sold to Finland who ran a blue-prints checking and discovered problems, the main one being pretty huge:

Reference: Nucleonics Week, Volume 45, Number 11 - March 11, 2004. The text runs as follows: "Sump clogging will be issue for EPR with Finnish regulator Framatome ANP will soon have to prove to Finnish, and likely French, nuclear safety authorities that its EPR advanced PWR will provide protection against the sump strainer clogging risk that has emerged as one of the most acute problems of today's LWRs, officials in both countries say. TVO, the Finnish utility, has ordered a 1,600-MW EPR from Framatome, a subsidiary of Areva, but it's not known today how Framatome will design the reactor to preclude sump strainer clogging."

Such technobabble implies that a sort of cradle container where the reactor, in theory, falls in case of severe problem, may become full of vapor (due to clogging) to the point of ejecting the whole hot (and heavy) stuff, which is precisely one of the scenarios which *must* be avoided.

Such clogging is a generic problem (whose effects are worsened by EPR's layout) and the only practical answer, for now, is to have the maintenance teams strictly respect the procedures. This is very difficult upon time (people get bored, accustomed to danger...).

For every late-discovered problem, how many are quietly sleeping, disasters waiting to happen?

Moreover the first EPR, even as an "updated" Model T, is currently being built in Finland ("Olkiluoto" site) and the project has major problems, is late and induces costs overruns, showing a lack of command. This recent account shows many of those problems, albeit it mainly uses pro-nuclear arguments.

> The nuclear plants are for base load. They work at night and in calm conditions.

But not in hot summers (not enough water to cool them)

"Climate change puts nuclear energy into hot water"
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/20/africa/nuke.php?page=1

Why are you surprised by this? This is Katrina inside the DHS. It's Blackwater, Halliburton, and the Coalition Provisional Authority pissing away BILLIONS OF TAX DOLLARS. Your want a specific example?

The committee calculated that the $12 billion in cash, most of it in the stacks of $100 bills, weighed 363 tons and had to been flown in on wooden pallets aboard giant C-130 military cargo planes. "Who in their right mind would send 360 tons of cash into a war zone?" Waxman said. "That's exactly what our government did."

The Unisys screw up is small change. All they did was compromise national security, not anything important like Janet Jackson showing her tit at the Superbowl and netting CBS a $550,000 fine. Nothing to see here, move along.

After events like this case of Alexander Ponosov the choice is clear. If there is no money for licensing or your licensing vendor can't be trusted, there is no third choice. It's penguins or prisons.

It is time that Russian schools recognized that prohibition doesn't work. All this what-about-the-children zero tolerance for freedom War On Penguins does is encourage crime and populate the prisons. When will US schools see the light?

I'm sorry, but all men are born with an innate right to defend themselves from others and the government. You government takes away your innate rights. People are born with the right to life, liberty and to pursue their dreams and to property, so long as they do no deprive others of their right to live, liberty and property. All people have the right to speak freely, the internet you are using to try and advocate stripping my rights is far more free than your press, all people have the right to self defense against tyranny and crime, all people have the right against search and seizure without proper warrant, all people have the right to not self incriminate, and the right against double jeopardy, all people have the right to a jury of peers and a public speedy trial, and all people have the right to a punishment that is not cruel or unusual.

I'm sorry your horrible government cant enumerate rights for you. We believe, and have shown, that free people do thrive. Your government executes more people each year than are murdered in the USA, and your government is guilty of killing tens of millions.

Lets have a list of what PROC/China is up to of late:

The PRC Chinese government has murdered countless people:
"DEATH BY GOVERNMENT: GENOCIDE AND MASS MURDER"

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.TAB1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.FIG1.GIF

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE1.HTM

China tires recalled:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/26/business/26tire.php

The organising committee of Beijing's Olympic games has promised to investigate charges that official merchandise is being manufactured using child labour.

The PRC Chinese poison dog food:
http://www.themoneytimes.com/articles/20070523/chinese_protein_export_scandal-id -104033.html

The PRC Chinese poison toothpaste:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/us/02toothpaste.html?ex=1181620800&en=d26dab8b 2bd85303&ei=5070

The PRC Chinese poison Children's Toys:
http://consumerist.com/consumer/chinese-poison-train/15-million-thomas--friends- toys-recalled-due-to-lead-paint-from-china-268658.php
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070614/thomas_recall_07061 4/20070614?hub=CTVNewsAt11
http://blogs.eastbayexpress.com/92510/2007/06/thomas_why_hath_thou_forsaken.php

Chinese Seafood Detained for Safety
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070628/D8Q239O00.html

CNN "The China Syndrome" Special on China's dire problems in keeping food clean:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/business/2007/07/04/vause.china.syndrome.cnn

- Cow milk so inundated with antibiotics you can not make Yogurt from it.

- Pigs force-fed waste water.

- Lard made from separating fats from sewage.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2118920,00.html

China Jails 2 Protestant Church Leaders

In terms of being used as a payment for cross-border transactions, the euro is trailing the dollar only slightly with 39 percent to 43 percent.

Terror rains drenchin', quenchin' tha thirst of tha power dons
[...]
What we don't know keeps tha contracts alive an movin'
They don't gotta burn tha books they just remove 'em
While arms warehouses fill as quick as tha cells
[...]
They rally round tha family! With a pocket full of shells

"Bulls on Parade" is a song released by Rage Against the Machine in 1996, and can be found on their second album Evil Empire. One of Rage's signature songs, it deals with what is commonly referred to as the "military-industrial complex", which is the tendency of industry (the arms industry in particular) to encourage military action in order to gain military contracts, and therefore increase its profits. Lines such as "Weapons; not food, not homes, not shoes, not need, just feed the war cannibal-animal," and "what we don't know keeps the contracts alive and moving / they don't gotta burn the books they just remove 'em" are just a couple of examples of the several allusions to the military-industrial complex throughout the song. With the words, "Terror rains, drenching, quenching the thirst of the power dons," the song suggests that the fear of terrorism is used to manipulate the American populace into supporting dubious military action. The phrase "terror rains" also serves as a double entendre, which suggests that "terror reigns" by way of the government terror as a tool.

Germany is soon becoming a screwed up democracy like the USA.

More like a repeat of the '20s and '30s. I'm sure some find the whole thing rather nostalgic.

Too bad the politicians slept in class.

They are beholden to weapons manufacturers and dealers. "Terrorists" are their best customers. And probably pay cash, so everything's off the books. Politicians and Wall Street hoodlums are wide awake and laughing all the way to the bank. The only thing they are fighting is a recession in the arms trade. That's why the urge to get places like Libya back on the client list.

It's difficult to answer your question, because you haven't RTFA, which talks about primarily CPU v primarily disk workloads, power consumption at idle, etc.

Overall, data center power consumption is a big deal. It's one of the main reasons that some corporations are after virtualization. It's one of the main reasons that Google is locating a datacenter in the Columbia Gorge.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/06/13/business/se arch.php

While you were 'hazarding to guess', and 'imagining' and thinking various things 'may be', you probably could have RTFA. At that point, the need to ask the question may have been obviated. If not, you would have been able to better frame the question, and possibly gotten an answer that actually *supplied you with useful information*.

Discussions are enriched when participants actually know at what's being discussed. When a participant *doesn't* know what's actually being discussed, you're mostly adding entropy.

[Tom] Robertson, [Microsoft's general manager for interoperability and standards], defended the Office Open XML format and predicted its eventual adoption by standards organizations.

"Open XML is already widely available and is being used by Apple and Novell," he said. "It is in the Palm operating system, and in the Java and Linux operating environments. Not only is it easy to work with, there are no intellectual property concerns to do so."

Hello Mr Griffin. It is a privilege to employ these exceptional engineers, not a right. If you make their lives difficult, they will leave.

Employees are not sheep to be slaughtered. They are stakeholders of your organisation and you have to take their views into account when you draw new policies.

Gosh! What do they teach in your schools??? Even I (A Brazilian, mind that!) am aware that the US is by far the largest producer of grains in the world.

China is easily the world's biggest producer and consumer of grain and its market's sheer size gives it the potential to influence the global food trade.

Total grain output in 2006 is expected to exceed 490 million metric tons, according to a forecast this month by the State Grain and Edible Oil Information Center.

Total grain output in the United States in 2006 is expected to reach 363 million metric tons, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts.

*shrug* Prehaps you can do a bit better then a strawman/ad hominen attack?

How about actually read the current news? Rather then a book written in 1776?

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/art icle600750.ece

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/21/america/wea lth.php

http://news.independent.co.uk/business/analysis_an d_features/article2891171.ece

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_38 43.shtml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/m oney/2007/08/08/cnchina108.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedb ox

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/m oney/2007/08/07/bcnchina107a.xml

Big companies like Lenovo being bought out by China, or more recently the US government blocking China from buying Unocal (US blocking on average 10% of US companies being bought up by China).

Honda exports $2 billion worth of soybeans to Japan every year, in containers which carry car parts to the U.S..

Um, Ecuador's case was against the EU, not against the US.

The U.S. banned international online gambling because of pressure (read: bribes) from the big domestic casinos. Mainly the Indian tribes and the Vegas / Atlantic City ones. Probably the state lotteries, too.

They made it into a "moral issue," but that's just bullshit that they can sell to a few Evangelical hicks. The real issue was that the casinos felt that international companies were cutting into their business, so they had Congress close it down. It was pretty straightforward protectionism; online betting with U.S.-based B&M casinos (including internet off-track betting on horses, internet purchase of lottery tickets, etc.) is OK, but international ones are not.

The WTO saw this for what it is, and is basically saying, 'either you let everyone compete, or you shut it all down.' So this puts the U.S. in the position of either letting international casinos into the U.S. market, or shutting down all internet gambling (including aforementioned web-based off-track-betting, lottery tickets, sports books, etc.). The casinos -- particularly the Vegas ones -- wouldn't like that much either.

So it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out. I have to give the Antiguans -- and most of all, their lawyer (who is from Texas) -- credit. It takes some brass ones to go eye-to-eye with the USG, even when they're doing something that's so transparently corrupt. I hope they can pull it off.

Just means bigger bonuses for the guys at the top because it makes them look good at cutting costs, while the folks at the bottom continue to slog along getting 2 - 3% raises.

It's the way the free market works. Except if you're a big Wall Street brokerage firm or hedge fund in which case when the free market means you're about to go under the Fed will step in and save your asses with a bailout. But I digress.

I know that airport security is a tough issue, and something that needs to be done right, but allowing an interpretation of a micro-expression to be used to select people for further investigation basically gives the airport staff the option of pulling over anyone, any time under this pretext.

They already have this option!

This is designed to make that option actually, you know, useful.

Even if you think it could be "abused", they can already effectively select anyone, for any reason, for secondary inspection. That's the whole point of trying to use some kind of behavioral cues, instead of just randomly doing it to anyone (or young blonde women), or only persons who appear to be of Middle Eastern descent.

Yes, as you say, it needs to be done right. But please read Schneier's article and the New York Times story on the topic.

Having spent time in North Italy (Lots of mountain roads), I can say that I saw many people out to lunch split a bottle of wine between 2 or 3 people, and drive back to work. In all my time there, I didn't see one wreck. Not one.

Who said they were necessarily eco-friendly? The Hunter/Gatherer lifestyle does not scale to todays' population sizes (at least, until we get cheap solar panels and 3D printers); that' s one of the reasons it isn't around much anymore. Still, just because it doesn't scale, it still might have been nicer for the people who lived it 50000 years ago than a standard mainstream US life centered around watching actors or animation on the tube (assuming you survived past age five).

Why don't I live that way? For much the same reason I don't move from the USA to, say, the Netherlands, even though it is rated as pretty much the number one place to live in the world for families.
    "U.S. on List of UNICEF's Worst Countries for Kids"
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story Id=7407245
    "Why Dutch women don't get depressed"
    http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/06/news/happy. php
Unless you are born and raised in a place or time or way of life, you are always an outsider. You will never have the easy fluid interactions and skills and human relationships a native to that time and place has. To live in the wilderness well also takes a village. And almost all land in the world of any value as far as wildlife or edible plants has been claimed by one militarized bureaucracy or another, and they tax it. That's what drove most hunter/gatherers off their land and out of their way of life. If the **AA groups succeed in pushing "Trusted Computing" down everyone's throat with lobbying dollars and legal firepower to their own profit, does that mean everyone will be happier?
    http://www.lafkon.net/tc/
So too, if militarized bureaucracies destroyed the hunting/gathering way of life, does that mean people living in them are happier? Might may historically make right, but it doesn't necessarily make happiness.

Read this:

Solar-hydrogen homes try to overcome doubts, International Herald Tribune.

Honest, I'm surprised you missed the news:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/korea. nuclear.test/index.html


And I'm not surprised you missed the point...


You grossly misunderestimate (hehe) our enemies. The Theocracy in charge of Iran is first a religious organization, and second a government. Perhaps you have been lucky enough to never meet anyone religious enough to actually want the apocolypse to happen. I have, and don't put the same trust in their ability to think rationally anymore. Moreover, Iran would be unlikely to attack us so long as their hatred is focused on Israel. Iran's president has said that he will wipe Israel from the map and that all it would take is one nuclear weapon.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/26/news/iran.p hp

It is well known that that quote is a mistranslation, either deliberate or not.

Iran's president has said he wants to remove the Israeli administration, not whipe out the country. Doing the later would actually directly conflict with the scripture he so strongly believes in.

I suggest you go read the various transcripts of his speech and pay close attention to how different that specific piece gets translated depending on the source of the transcript, and those around me who happen to actually understand the language he speaks say without exception that the 'we want to wipe Israel from the planet' translation is wrong.

Says who? You? Get real. Those may seem like great reasons to you. However you ignore a fourth reason: Iran denies Israel's right to exist. Let me repeat, the Iranian government would love to see every Jew in the middle east dead. Perhaps you missed this development:

http://www.iranholocaustdenial.com/


Parhaps you read too much propaganda and are absolutely completely clueless as to how the real world looks :)

Parhaps you should start realizing that whenever someone even suggests wanting to research the truth of some small detail of the holocaust story, they are instantly painted as anti semetic, and maybe this president of Iran made use of that for the serious amount of publicity it would get him? Maybe you also don't realize that Israel (which definitely has a right to exist btw) is partial cause of some major problems in the middle east, and it is easy to make use of that to increase your popularity in the region?

I'm not sure if you consider yourself intelligent, but I suppose you do. I do consider it a sign of intelligence however when you can actually realize that your opinion on something has little value if it is based on a one sided version of the story.

You arrogance belies your ignorance. From my memory:
- Iran supported Hezbollah with money and weapons and people during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict less than a year ago.
- More recently, Iran crossed into international waters and attacked British troops, taking some hostage. That was in March.
- US forces have arrested a number of Iranian military units operating illegally within Iraq. Is sending troops into a country and invasion?


USA supported various groups in southern America that did things like throw over elected governments, torture and dissapear people who didn't agree with them, kill and loot randomly and what not.
Therefore, the USA and everyone in it are a bunch of bandits who invaded the southern Americas.

The USA has sent its army into various states there as well over the years btw.

I suppose you disagree with what I just said, and might think its absured. Well, I definitely agree.
I do however apply that same standard to others, and find your reasoning about Iran as absurd.

Are you serious? Are you believing the propoganda of North Korea "mastering nuclear technology"?

Honest, I'm surprised you missed the news:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/10/08/korea. nuclear.test/index.html

Because no matter how crazy you are you realize that if you actually ever use this type of technology in a strike, then you will quickly be hit with a US arsenal with > 550 land based ICBMs (most which are in europe/asia)

You grossly misunderestimate (hehe) our enemies. The Theocracy in charge of Iran is first a religious organization, and second a government. Perhaps you have been lucky enough to never meet anyone religious enough to actually want the apocolypse to happen. I have, and don't put the same trust in their ability to think rationally anymore. Moreover, Iran would be unlikely to attack us so long as their hatred is focused on Israel. Iran's president has said that he will wipe Israel from the map and that all it would take is one nuclear weapon.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/10/26/news/iran.p hp

Do you share his anti-Semitism? Are you simply ignorant of Israel's tragic past? I would guess that you simply don't care or don't understand the situation.

So why do these countries want atomic weapons? Three reasons. First, to convey political power in your region, which is why Iran wants them. Second, to try to get communications lines established with the US. (North Korea) Third, to prevent any potential future invasion. (Iran, North Korea, India, and Pakistan)

Says who? You? Get real. Those may seem like great reasons to you. However you ignore a fourth reason: Iran denies Israel's right to exist. Let me repeat, the Iranian government would love to see every Jew in the middle east dead. Perhaps you missed this development:

http://www.iranholocaustdenial.com/

North Korea could have had normal communications with us 13 years ago when they signed and then promptly disregarded 1994 framework from nuclear disarmament. Contrary to your argument, North Korea's nuclear weapons program kept them from having normal relations. North Korea doesn't need nuclear weapons. Only its leaders do. Since 1994 millions of North Koreans have starved while its leaders squander a ridiculous 1/4 of GDP on military defense. Why? The Korean war ended long before the Vietnam war. Yet, today we do ample business with Vietnam and have almost zero relations with North Korea. Its them, not US.

Also, dont believe the argument of "they could give it to the terrorists and use a dirty bomb".

You're putting words in my mouth. I never said anything to that effect.

Name the last time Iran invaded any nation? Go ahead.. Ill wait...

You arrogance belies your ignorance. From my memory:
- Iran supported Hezbollah with money and weapons and people during the Israeli-Lebanon conflict less than a year ago.
- More recently, Iran crossed into international waters and attacked British troops, taking some hostage. That was in March.
- US forces have arrested a number of Iranian military units operating illegally within Iraq. Is sending troops into a country and invasion?

As I've said before, the Iranian president has declared his desire to wipe Israel off the map, and to bring an end to the Great White Satan (USA). We're talking about a regime that denies basic human rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The support militant groups and sow violence. Their policies have decimated the Iranian economy, reduced the standard of living for all Iranians, and caused at least one war within recent history (Israel - Lebanon 2006).

I, myself, can understand the concern when the efficiency of the government becomes paramount above all else. It is well known that without some kind of control that there will be abuse.

Nah, mod parent up. Of course, scratched video disks are still less stupid than lost pants.

I suppose most of the world is observing the Biblical demand to love who you hate, then, because pervasive anti-American sentiment doesn't seem to have so much as caused a blip in the number of folks scrambling to immigrate to the US. ("US Immigration Boom Hits Record Levels", http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10440110/, Dec 12 2005 -- 12% of population now foreign born) I had this conversation with a Chinese researcher at my university once:

*snip long rant about the Bush administration*
Me: Wow, sounds like you are less than happy with the US.
Him: I hate everything the government stands for.
Me: Maybe you could go home to protest it? Send a letter to the Congressman and tell him thats why you're taking your PhD home with you.
Him: Are you "#$"% nuts?

And yes, thats what most immigrants feel like. There are occasional frustrations with living in America -- complaining about incompetent bureacrats is a well-established tradition for everybody, regardless of place of birth. (And the INS and its successor agencies are probably among the worst in the federal government.) But would large numbers of folks give up the tremendous opportunities living in America has over those frustrations? As my Chinese-accented colleague put it, are you "#$"# nuts?

The number of citizenship applications, one easy barometer of "So, how many of you folks want to hitch the rest of your lives to the United States of America?", is up 60% in four years. That is more than double the number when Clinton left office and a Dark Shadow Fell Across The Land. http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/news/citize n.php

Also, I don't know if subtleties of domestic politics make it abroad that often, but while Dubya's Republican Party is often depicted as being anti-immigrant, and that might well be true for a large part of the party base (also true for a large portion of the Democratic base), Dubya is personally *extraordinarily* pro-immigration. He wanted comprehensive immigration reform, which would have included a mass legalization of illegal immigrants living in the US, to be his domestic legacy. It failed for a couple of reasons, including opposition from broad portions of the bases of both parties and absolutely incompetent political maneuvering. (I think that is distressingly common in the Bush administration, and I say this having voted for him twice.)

(Disclaimer: I'm actually an expat in Japan, but I feel like waving the flag a little bit this close to the Fourth of July. America should be justifiably proud of how it treats immigrants, in the main. The system has its fair share of issues, but its nothing intractable, and its so much better than Japan its not even funny.)

(P.P.S. On the general topic of the thread, to all Slashdotters who worry that the immigrants are forcing you into poverty: learn to compete. I got a degree in Japanese along with my IT skills, and now on either side of the Pacific for jobs which require a bilingual English/Japanese engineer I can compete quite favorably with folks making a tenth of my salary, because if they can't speak both languages than hiring ten of them still won't replace me. Languages are just one way you can make yourself something other than an interchangeable cog. Domain expertise, business skills, communication skills, a finance background, proficiency in obscure legacy technologies, jumping early onto new ships like the Ruby on Rails boomlet, etc, etc.)

But don't forget, the current administration really does want to stop terrorism. Yes indeedy. They make sure that all agencies, such as the NSA, that represent our front line on terrorism information gathering, are fully funded and have plenty of Arabic translators. Not.

The French should know a thing or two about spying. They've been widely reported to engage in corporate spying against U.S. corporate interests. As an American, I say this is fair game (if the U.S. chooses this route).

http://www.iht.com/articles/1991/09/14/spy_.php - an article about this from 1991.

The country that is accused of spying on AirFrance aircraft?
http://www.iht.com/articles/1991/09/14/spy_.php/

1. I didn't bring up chinese sweatshops. The person I REPLIED TO brought them up. So you've directed your ire at the wrong post, bro. Go back and re-read the thread.

2. Are you actually suggesting that it's not the official position of Bejing that Taiwan is part of China? You don't have to be Taiwaneese to understand the very clear language they've used.

A New Zealand mother who needed an electric oxygen pump to breathe died after a utility company cut the power to her home because she owed them 168.40 New Zealand dollars (US$122; euro90), her family said Wednesday.

I wonder what will we blame next Google says Big Oil.

I agree that he isn't likely to be "taking one for the team" because he thinks it's the right thing to do.

But, there's a larger issue here: The US has repeatedly lost to Antigua in the WTO, who has ruled that the US law against online gambling (while exempting other gambling within the US) is illegal under the WTO treaty.

The US has responded by saying "we will renegotiate the treaty". Needless to say, this hasn't gone over well with other members of the WTO.

Antigua has threatened to retaliate, but their options are limited. One proposal is for Antigua to sell US-copywrited material (i.e. music) online, without paying the royalties.

OK, so that wasn't really fair. :-)

Here's the executive summary: http://www.quebecoislibre.org/000902-3.htm

Some more references:
http://wiki.ffii.org/Martin041109En
http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/05/21/business/wh o.php
http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/story/0,73 69,665969,00.html
http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/again st.htm
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020805/newman200207 25
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory .cfm?story_id=5014990

"Within the past five or six years, economists in particular have started to question the USPTO's practices, finding little correlation, if any, between patent proliferation and invention. Economists have identified many situations in which patents actually retard the introduction of new products. "
http://members.forbes.com/asap/2002/0624/044.html

1. Why would a President concentrate so much power into the position of the President less than a year before he is supposed to leave office? It is clear that there is absolutely no chance of Bush regaining his presidency in a free and fair election and neither is he standing for election. So why Bonus is Bush doing this?
2. Why does he specifically bring in directives which hand over power to the Homeland Security and not to the congress in times of catastrophe? Read this: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/01/america/ NA-GEN-US-Bush-Cheney-Secrecy.php?page=1
3. Why is Bush opting to use "signed statements" as the way to subvert the bills which have been passed? When the president does not approve of a bill, he has the option of vetoing the bill and it will go back to the house for discussions. However, Bush has opted to use a "signed statement" which is just a statement appended to the bill which he signs off on. This statement can be used to completely change the meaning and purpose of the bill - and this does not come up for review. This is not an action of a stupid person - this is the action of someone who clearly understands the process by which bills will be discussed in the house; so he has opted to use a mechanism which can get around this process and allow him the leeway he wants. This is a cunning move and Bush is the *ONLY* person other than Thomas Jefferson to never veto a bill.
   
   http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04 /30/bush_challenges_hundreds_of_laws/
4. Why a private army? and why is Bush unwilling to release details on the number of people deployed from these private armies (Blackwater etc)? Why are private armies being deployed within the continental US when there are specific directives against such a deployment? Why is he preventing even the law enforcement from having any jurisdiction over these private armies? Did you know that during the Katrina relief, Blackwater was allowed to go in huge numbers with assault rifles when ordinary citizens were being disarmed by the administration? Why was Blackwater used during this crisis in the first place since civilian law enforcement and other search and rescue teams were available?
   
   http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070528/scahill
5. MOST IMPORTANTLY: Why are the Democrats not raising this issue? Why do they seem so ineffective? One hint - It is clear that it is not just the Republicans who are privy in this game, but it appears that the Democrats are equally complicit.
   
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joint_Inquiry_into_In telligence_Community_Activities_before_and_after_t he_Terrorist_Attacks_of_September_11%2C_2001
   
   Senator Bob Graham (Democrat) was one of the primary movers behind the 911 commission. and he and Porter Goss (Republican - who later on headed the CIA) were the people who cleared Bush of any prior knowledge of the 911 event. But these are the same people who sat in for a meeting with the Head of the Pakistani ISI days prior to the 911 attack and who knew that the ISI were funding the perpetrators of the attack.
   
   http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FD08Aa01.h tml
   
   And

It's hard to say... international programs like this are generally rife with corrupt (can we say "oil-for-food"?).

It's funny that you mention "oil-for-food" scandal, which involved top to bottom corruption at the UN. Now who, again, will administer a international carbon credits program?

Here's a particularly disgusting one: "carbon financing will be used to fight poverty," the wealth transfer policy is the environmental policy -- like all carbon trading schemes are, just this one is more upfront about it.

First things first: why China? (The same question applies to Venezuela, Russia, Brazil or whatever is the target of the Slashdot "fifteen minutes of hate" of the day). Of course people should be concerned about what these countries do wrt losses of privacy and basic rights, but what about U.S. and E.U.? As we talk, they are working on a new agreement to share data from passengers on trans-Atlantic flights, a much more effective way to profile people, because it contains name, address, gender, destination, credit card number, everything, without needing to make any kind of assumption, everything is plain and clear. This is why I think that not only "in China", as the summary states, but in most countries in the world, this information can and will be used to tag people indiscriminetaly, subversive or not, terrorist or not, law abiding or not. So, take care of your own backyard before to point the poison ivy in your neighbor one.

Second, it is not like if Microsoft was the only one researching and developing on this field and, more than that, it is not like if Microsoft was not researching on this field, any government interested on this kind of technology would not research itself, or fund research on its public universities. So, throwing Microsoft name on the mix only reinforces my point, this submission is nothing but a flamebait, being the flame targets the usual suspects, proprietary software and communism.

While you're at it, you could explain to us why Dell posted better than expected profits while doing what you consider to be their problem, if indeed you consider six months of poor post-RTM Vista sales to be able to have enough negative impact on a company this size for them to cut 8,000 jobs on short notice. Surely you don't expect to have it both ways, right?

Oh, and breakdown of PC sales profits/losses vs. all other products sold by CompUSA and Circuit City would also be nice. I'm sure you have proof that they're being "harmed by the collapse of non free", right? While you're doing that, something similar for BestBuy would also be nice

The "International Herald Tribune" has just published a report summarizing the state of independent journalism in Russia. The Kremlin is trying to seize the offices of the Russian Union of Journalists, which is the largest organization of independent journalists. Meanwhile, the Russian government uses its satellites to transmit "Russia Today", a government-funded pro-Kremlin program, to audiences in foreign countries like the USA and Germany. Also, Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian News Service (RNS) to broadcast pro-Kremlin news. One Russian listener of RNS commented on the new format by writing, on the RNS web site, " Down with Kremlin censorship! Yesterday elevators were discussed. Today, buckwheat. Are not there any other topics? "

Ahh yes. Someone stokes the consipiracy flames to sell a book, and that makes news. Meanwhile Vincent Bugliosi, the prosecutior of Charles Manson, writes a book explaining in excrutiating detail about how the Oswald was the lone gunman and fired the shots from the book depository, and no one says a thing.

All this talk about conspiracy theories is absurd. There's a group of people that that refuse to believe that shit happens. One guy can kill a president. A cult would willingly set themselves on fire rather than be arrested. That 19 guys from the desert can hijack airliners with boxcutters and crash them into buildings. I think it comes from that the need to place some meaning and reason on these acts. They can't fantom the power of a single commited individual, and so they find a vast and all powerful secret conspiracy is behind it all. The Knights Templar. The Illuninati. The Zeta Reticulians. The Water Fluoridation Industrial Complex. The Left Handed People of Borneo. The large underground homosexual population of Des Moines, Iowa. You name it. It's quite absurd.

Seven million Americans - one in every 32 adults - were behind bars, on probation or on parole at the end of 2005, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Of those, 2.2 million were in prison or jail, an increase of 2.7 percent over the previous year, according to a report released Wednesday. Source

I seriously wonder what these companies will do when just about everyone of legal voting age has had some kind of a run in with the law. Interestingly, in Sweden and some other Euro countries (states whatever they call themselves now), its illegal for an employer to ask these same questions... "Have you ever been convicted of..." buck stops there in Europe. Better would be to ask "Are you qualified for the job... If you've ever been convicted of anything, do you think it will hinder you from the position you are applying for..." Or something carefully worded along those lines.