Slashdot Mirror

Relatively recently China allowed the Yuan to float and it has gotten stronger since. 6.38 CNY to 1 USD from 6.82 when it was first allowed to float.. Last year they had a trade surplus with the U.S. of nearly $300 billion. We know this because we know what our deficit was.We know China owns 1.1 trillion in U.S. treasury bonds.

I admit that I may have information bias so I'm interested in the reverse idea.

When you announce you're going to buy a a huge number of shares in a company, the price of those shares usually go up. Most mergers and acquisitions usually pay a fairly hefty premium over the market price.

For example, have a look at this chart of BSkyb's share prices. Try to guess at what point News Corp announced they wanted to buy the remaining stake in the company, and guess at which point they announced they were abandoning that plan.
http://graphs.lse.co.uk/GetGraph.asp?gcode=BSY&mode=ShareCharts&r=0.8588145571342161&p=9&ma=9&t=2&comp=

On the face of it, it seems quite outlandish to suggest that having access to a multimedia resource such as the internet can awaken some latent urge to offend in potential child sex offenders.

Even if we narrow our focus to child pornography itself, evidence is at best inconclusive:

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowStory.asp?story=HF1520736Z&news_headline=no_link_between_child_porn_and_sexual_abuse

http://www.ipce.info/ipceweb/Library/01aug09f_theories.htm

http://www.ipce.info/host/howitt/6a.htm

There is a lot more information pooled on this page as well:

http://www.critest.com/cpnonoffend.htm

NASA is not a military complex (by the books anyhow), Gary McKinnon IS a British citizen and should be governed by U.K. laws, and if Gary is sent over to us via Club Gitmo as our elected officials apparently want, I want to see ALL Chinese citizens that (attempt to) break into our (U.S.) institutions sent over, also

Wow, you're just spectacularly uninformed, or trolling like mad. Either way, please get smarter and also stop lying.

Gitmo? This guy is NOT a non-uniformed combatant attacking US troops or supporting those that do. He's a simple criminal subject to extradition treaties that have been in place and well understood for many, many years. There is no similar treaty with China. Further, if someone in the US cracked into government systems in the UK (and planted backdoors, etc, as this guy did at NASA as well as in DoD systems - or weren't you paying attention to the actual FACTS here?), the UK would be perfectly in their rights to ask for extradition of the US-based cracker. It's a treaty. It's a two-way street. You don't have to Google very hard at all to find examples of other countries agreeing to extradite people to the UK when the UK requests. Likewise, are you all uptight when Italy asks for extradition from the UK? Would you feel better if China's idea of reasonable prosecutions goverend how many extradition requests the US (or the UK, for that matter) had to deal with? They imprison and execute people for reasons we would never tolerate - we're sure as hell not going to enter an extradition treaty under those circumstances. Would I like all of the Chinese crackers to get busted? Sure. But many of them work for their government, so that's not really going to happen, is it?

Simple, really. As a poster noted earlier, No2ID pointed out that this was a great way to introduce "fire and forget" activism. No need to go picketing in crap British weather, no need for civil disobedience, no need to leave the comfort of your armchair ... one click and, hey, you've protested, cup of tea, please.

I disagree that ignoring the ID-Card petition "is hardly a big deal". Ignoring a petition with 27,000 signatures or 1.5 million is a symptom of the same problem, and it is a huge deal: the UK government does not like the idea of democracy.

The reaction by a senior UK government minister to the idea that citizens can set up their own polls is indicative of their utter contempt for the notion that citizens should be able to so easily and publicly have their say: it was "unbelievable", he said, that someone in the government could have possibly come up with the idea, concluding that "The person who came up with this idea must be a prat." The Transport select committee chairman was equally dismissive, and said: "I think it (the online petition) was daft. I don't know what under-16 year-old employment scheme they have got in Number 10, but they should revise it. If you entirely represent the thing in a negative way of course people are going to say 'I don't want to do that'."

Ever since, it's been quite clear that any such petitions will be ignored, and I rather suspect that the site will no longer allow the public to create petitions in the future. The focus by the government in dealing with these petitions has been on mitigating what is seen as a PR disaster rather than a victory for democratic participation, so it's time to engineer some consent. They've made quite clear that they fully intend to go ahead with trial runs of the road tolls, and this letter about Blair arguing for ID-Cards illustrates, yet again, that the public need to be managed.

If there was ever a clearer example of just how much politicians don't like citizens meddling in their affairs, this is it.

Just in case somebody doesn't notice the irony and takes the above seriously, all of the above is irony and none of it is intended to be taken seriously. It's a completely fictitious illustration of the consequences of the parent post. I have no intentions whatsoever of threatening or hurting anyone.

Also stumbled across this which is short and intersting, and quite gross (worth a quick read).

I don't really understand why fish is supposed to be so healthy for us (though clearly there is much advise that it is).

Omega-3s evidently help raise HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and are known for anticlotting effects. (Ethnographers have remarked on an Eskimo propensity for nosebleeds.) These fatty acids are believed to protect the heart from life-threatening arrhythmias that can lead to sudden cardiac death. And like a "natural aspirin," adds Dewailly, omega-3 polyunsaturated fats help put a damper on runaway inflammatory processes, which play a part in atherosclerosis, arthritis, diabetes, and other so-called diseases of civilization.

I do know you can get serious liver problems from say eating lots of red meat, which is what I was thinking of - one of the reasons why medical practitioners often caution against things like the atkins diet (even though it has a really high success rate, it can also cause other problems and isn't sustainable, especially if you drink a fair bit, for example, as it puts huge strain on the liver).

This I find to be very interesting...a large number of the guys that I work with always seem to be on some form of bizarre "beer & meat" diet, or alternatively, regularly fast! They're all highly intelligent (in a slashdot sort of way), but I've wondered if this really makes for good common sense. Although, I have to say that the latest issue of Scientific American Reports has expounded upon the benefits of both alcohol and fasting, and the Sienna Miller liquid potato diet is amusing.

Many of the casino software manufacturers are publicly traded. Some of the online casinos are regulated.

As for who wants to play at them, most casino players stick to well-known casinos that have too much to lose to consider cheating. Personally, I only do it if they offer a bonus that can be played with a positive expected value. (You'd be surprised to learn how many casinos there are that will give you bonuses with expected values in the $100-$1,000 range. And how many of them will give you these same bonuses again and again, if they incorrectly assume you're a sucker.)

They've gotten smarter than they used to be (the internet used to be covered with legitimately available free money), but if you're good at math, there's still free money for the taking.

"Yahoo complied"

Didn't Yahoo!'s share price drop significantly in mid January when this was revealed?

Link to graph

UK News did a story on this last year.

After reading it, I just shook out my keyboard over a garbage can. I think that took care of all the germs ;)

"Police say car thieves have taken to dumping cigarette butts from bins in stolen cars before abandoning them." - TV teaching criminals about DNA evidence

Also, the recent flickr activity can be found here.