Slashdot Mirror

Look what happened to Dog - The Bounty Hunter. He got arrested due to a warrant from Mexico...

Officials told NBC News that the alleged mastermind of the plot is still in Pakistan and has yet to be captured.

Some plotters had already purchased tickets on a flight to stage a test run planned for this weekend. The test run would have determined how easily the plotters could have gotten their materials past security and on board the planes.

The actual attack would have followed within days, officials told NBC News.

The NYPD officials said investigators believe the bombers used a peroxide-based explosive called HMDT, or hexamethylene triperoxide diamine. HMDT can be made using ordinary ingredients like hydrogen peroxide (hair bleach), citric acid (a common food preservative) and heat tablets (sometimes used by the military for cooking).

(CBS News) LONDON Police found martyrdom videos and bomb-making components during the investigation of the alleged plot to blow up U.S.-bound jetliners, prosecutors said Monday in announcing 11 people had been charged with terrorism offenses.
   

In Canada it's a wee bit better, but keep in mind that most dial-up users use it because there is nothing else. I had to go to a Credit Union shareholder's meeting to get my bank to change their login page. The programmer had broadband, but a hand count of shareholders revealed that only 30 percent of us had fast access, and we were all sick of waiting for the stupid flash-encumbered page to load.

If it's a business, then it would seem to pay the budding entrepeneur to enable their website for everybody, including those who are visually impaired. So often these websites are programmed by 25 year old anti-social dweebs.

"The software can avoid abuse of discretionary power of judges as a result of corruption or insufficient training," the paper quoted Zichuan District Court chief judge, Wang Hongmei, as saying.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/art icles/2006/08/26/unusual_sentence_in_racial_attack /

The scion of a prominent North Shore family avoided jail time yesterday for beating two black teenagers with a metal baton in 2002, but a judge imposed unusual consciousness-raising conditions on the young man for what prosecutors had called a racially motivated assault.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14378978/

A judge decided two high school athletes can complete the football season this fall before they serve 60-day jail sentences for a car crash caused by a decoy deer placed in a country road. Two teens were injured.

Judges, you don't want to be replaced by golf carts^W^W computers? Then start doing your job.

so not taking threats seriously - and personally - is pretty damned stupid.

Where are the changes requested by the 9/11 committee years ago?
Richard Reid tried to set his shoe on fire, why am I allowed to bring matches on board an airplane?
One pair of british bombers allegedly planned to bring their infant along for the ride in order to smuggle explosive fluids in the baby bottle, why am I allowed to bring a baby and baby bottle?

This goes way beyond some useless eavesdropping bill, show me anything after Afghanistan that shows that the government is taking this seriously.

Or as Olbermann put it, why do we still have a gaping hole in the ground? Why did we not rebuild in order to show the terrorists that America won't put up with their shit?

When is the last time you were directly threatened by a "islamofacist"?

Um... September 11, 2006. Unless you don't consider that a direct threat to ME, although having been in NYC on THE 9/11, even without a patriotic nod towards "they attacked all of America", I was directly effected by the destruction of the WTCs.

And being that 9/11/2001 actually happened, the threats of 9/11/2006 shouldn't be taken so lightly.

That said, I'm appalled by the very foundations of this bill, and Congress's relative uselessness in the past 6 years to stand up to an administration that feels it is granted dictatorship privledges by 9/11 - which if you believe certain people was probably either organized or at least ignored by them to being with.

But yeah, al-q is real, and so were the London, India, USS Cole (sp?), etc. bombings - so not taking threats seriously - and personally - is pretty damned stupid.

"What should change is there should be a penalty where somebody is identified as sending spam--at the moment, [all we can do] is send a notice telling them to comply with the law. If they continue... they face a maximum fine of 5,000 pounds ($9,353)."

I hear you!! Amazing that people are keeping their sanity thru all of this, or at least trying to. Lately, I've been getting a little hope. Not much though!

1. Stupid arguments like "Consoles Vs PCs" can be ended with a swift kick to the nuts

4. Women are nicer, and don't carry lethal knives, heavy armour, and/or the ability to roundhouse kick the shit out of you

9. Don't have to fight huge fucking monsters when you've finished your day's tasks

Actually it's a little more than 5%. 50% of all personal bankruptcies in the U.S. ar caused by medical expences. Most of these people actually had medical insurance at the time too.

Here's some links:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0202-08.ht m
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?ne wsid=19515

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14736379/site/newsweek /print/1/displaymode/1098/

What the hell is Liza Minnelli doing in a story about HP?

'Phones are outselling dedicated MP3 players by six to one. Apple had the market for MP3, but they lost it.'

Before anyone takes this article too seriously, it's worth examining the credentials of the "expert" quoted in the article. Tomi Ahonen is a self-declared "technology strategy consultant", whose primary field of consultancy is wireless and mobile telecoms. Last year he predicted that mobile games consoles would also be crushed by mobile phone usage. The weak PSP represented an easy target, I'm not so sure that the iPod is as passé as he would have us believe.

If anyone has any doubt regarding Tomi's views, look no further than his blog. Clearly he has a vested interest in seeing the iPod fail, so take his opinions with large doses of salt.

I guess these employers wouldn't want to hire Trump then either.

Here's one.....about 9 years ago, I filed for bankruptcy...and about 6 months after the bankruptcy was discharged, I started getting credit card offers in the mail again (albeit with VERY high interest rates). I would promptly chuck them in the trash after ripping them up thinking it would help me to have as few credit cards as possible or none preferably. I was still paying on a house and that was about it. My wife and I went to buy a car a year ago, applied for credit, the dealer saw that I had been making on-time payments on my house and other bills, but due to the lack of credit cards CURRENTLY with a balance on my history, that dinged my credit score.... in other words, too many cards with a balance is bad, but also too FEW cards with a balance is bad as well.... I had read this article where even paying down some old debts can even HURT your score. Very screwed up credit scoring system we have...

it sure was nice of her not to outright fire the leak

According to Perkins, the leaker-director himself refused to resign, saying it was up to shareholders to make such a decision; that director continues to serve on the board.

Maybe some of them were completely happy that they only had to sacrifice that to find out who was leaking information? Perhaps this invasion of privacy is the norm in corporate America, you just have to accept it once you get to that point

or paying too much in shipping costs to offer the service at a reasonable price.

HP board is going to have a damage-control emergency meeting this weekend.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14734193/site/newsweek /

probably to find out who leaked the SEC filing to the wire services. but it should be to divulge the votes of all the board members and all notes and communications related to the matter on a special web site, and Katie bar the door.

otherwise, when you look up "The HP Way" in the dictionary, you are going to see booking pictures alongside the definition.

the difference is going to be how many booking pictures appear next to the entry, and how long the perpwalk lasts on national TV when it's broadcast live.

I went looking for a 117S7 bulb a little while ago, and they are all so embarassed that they are hiding. if you don't get it, look up the schematic for HP product #1.

Who Wants to Be a Billionaire? A high-school dropout employed as a busboy made headlines when he was caught in a scheme to steal millions from rich and famous people such as Steven Spielberg, Ross Perot, Oprah Winfrey and Ted Turner. Police arrested 32-year-old Abraham Abdallah, in possession of a tattered copy of Forbes Magazine's "400 Richest" article, marked up with the social security numbers, home addresses and birth dates of 200 celebs and moguls.

More here at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5800044/

Thank you for putting together this text so well. You might find this article interesting, the Pope recently held a conference with several scholars, they conclude the same thing. They will soon be releasing text describing their discussions. See this link.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14681924/

Legal experts vary in their views on the extent to which pretexting is a violation of criminal law.

I work at a bank, and we have to take yearly courses on Pre-Text calling, because it's such as issue here.

also here is printer unfriendly with the annoying javascript popup

According to an MSNBC article, this information is also accompanied with the fact that there will only be 400K launch units in the U.S., and 100K in Japan.

If you ask me, Sony is setting themselves up for a lot of hurt by short-changing Japan so much. Granted, they have a smaller population than the U.S., but the Japanese (as a culture) are far more likely to pick up the latest and greatest gadgets (which is why they've had full video cell phones for a while now, while we're just getting them). Add this to the fact that Japanese gamers apparently adore games like Final Fantasy, and I would bet that a larger number of Japanese gamers would be willing to shell out $600.

Even so, the American market may yet buy up all 400K units. The Playstation 2 had an initial shipment of 500K units, and sold out on day one. But will there really be enough demand for the PS3, considering how reversed the position is?

The R&D department is too busy finding clever ways to obtain the private home and cell phone telephone records of their board of directors in order to force them to quit - for leaking to the press details of internal disagreements within the board about future company plans:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14687677/site/newsweek /

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/homework/languagever bs.aspx

First off, I am not against change. I am against regulating change. In all of human history, no innovation has been mandated ahead of time. This is what I'm against. The insane reactionist movement that believes that if I only regulate that things should be so, they will somehow become so.

On the other hand, history teaches us time and time again, that if we remove the shackles from human ingenuity, then we will discover the solutions we need. If we simply were to allow the market economy to work, then as oil and coal become more expensive (current situation) then innovation (refining oil shale, revolutionary nuclear power plant design, super-efficient LED and compact fluorescent lighting) will take place.

For example, one need only look at the Kyoto signatories. Of all the countries that signed the treaty, only two are in compliance with it. England only squeaked down to a moderate level by switching power plants from coal to natural gas, and Germany by closing some 100 year old Soviet-Era coal plants. France is over 85% nuclear, but still their emissions increased by 8%. Only France, Italy, and the Netherlands had less than the global 16.4% increase in CO2 emissions from 1990 to 2002. Portugal rang the bell with a 59% increase in CO2 emissions. Ultra-Green partied Canada's emissions? Up by 29%.

In fact, one of the countries most compliant with the terms of the Kyoto treaty is -- The United States. Why? Because we never signed on to it. We didn't face onerous regulation that would lead to finding any way to cheat the system. We responded to market pressure to improve our CO2 emissions. All without one government regulation calling for it. http://ronhebron.com/blog/2006/06/europe-kyoto-hyp ocrites.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8403490/site/newsweek/

I'm all for change, as long as it's not towards a police state. It always amazes me that the party that decries the Patriot Act the loudest for taking away rights, is the same party that wants to regulate all industry in the country. Are you for freedom or against it?

I think once you bring your cost of launch down, this could become a sigificant revenue stream, but it's still at least 40 years away.

40 years away? People are already assembling sports leagues to compete on the weightless flights operated by the Zero Gravity Corporation. Here's an MSNBC article, Zero-gravity sports are close to reality. Of course, whether or not the business plans are economically viable remains to be seen.

The article meanders around without making much of a point, but this seems to be the gist of it:

They [Microsoft]haven't complained about what's going on, and to be honest, I think these Mac developments have been the best press that they've received in a long time. Negativity is abundant on the PC side of things because of Vista issues, but everyone seems thrilled with Microsoft's appearance on the Mac scene.

He goes on to say:

In contrast, Apple doesn't seem to be in any hurry about getting OS X to run on any other machines besides the ones that they make.

Of course Microsoft is unconcerned, because they make money by selling Windows. They are not a PC OEM. Apple has a different business model. The company makes most of its money selling hardware. The well-integrated OS and hardware are what coax consumers to buy Macs. You can't have one without the other and still call it a Mac. As us old fogies remember, Apple tried letting other companies build Macs, and it was not exactly a rousing success for Apple. Sales of clones ate into Apple's market without building overall market share.

Boot Camp and the various virtualization technologies are giving Windows users the opportunity to buy Apple hardware and compare the Mac experience with the Windows experience on the same machine, with no special technical expertise required. So far the results have been overwhelmingly positive for Apple. There's a reason Apple was confident enough to bring a x86 processor into Macintosh hardware again (it's been done before). Apple knows that if customers compare Windows to OS X head-to-head, OS X will gain users. If even a small percentage of new Mac purchasers make OS X the primary OS on their Mac, OS X will gain marketshare.

So far the strategy appears to be working. The low "green" rating for Apple is unfortunate, but it's not going to keep people from buying Macs. Dell, the company Jobs considers as Apple's biggest rival, isn't exactly kicking ass, and Microsoft's troubles with Vista are well-known.

How is it that Microsoft is beating Apple at its own game?

Ohio Creates 'Pre-Crime' Sex Offender Registry


In a scene right out of Spielberg's vision of Philip K. Dick's classic short story the state of Ohio has established a pre-crime registry for sex offenders--even if they've never been charged with a crime!

"The person's name, address, and photograph would be placed on a new Internet database and the person would be subjected to the same registration and community notification requirements and restrictions on where he could live."

I can't wait to see how this is going to affect the current trend that has divorcing women making false accusations against their husbands during the custody phase of proceedings! Then there's the way this (being that it is a civil matter) can be expanded to encompass so many other things...

Could this new registry be away for the homophobic to reverse the trends towards civil rights homosexuals have achieved in recent years? What about the affect this can have on children engaged in normal sex play for their ages? I'm reminded of Ryan Zylstra, Leah DuBuc, Laura M. Wilcox, Genarlow Wilson and other teenagers and children who have had their lives ruined by this type of hysteria and the lack of due process that comes with it. And who can forget the vigilantes who murder people they find on these lists? People like William Elliott, who was placed on the registry at age nineteen for having sex with his two weeks shy of sixteen year old girlfriend and thanks to the registry murdered.

Now they want a civil registry they can place people on without the benefit of a conviction or a jury trial? Next thing you know they'll be pushing for a pink triangle on your ID! Oh wait... Well just remember that when you give up your rights one by one, you're doing it for the children....

I'm posting the original submission because I believe anyone who follows the links here will see quite clearly how bad this is even beyond the usual Constitutional violations. This is a law that will harm the very same people it purports to protect!

--I*Love*Green*Olives

This type of fraud (a rogue purchases property from an innocent vendor, flips it to an innocent buyer, then absconds with the money, leaving the property with unclear title) has been around at least as long as there has been the law of contract. The legal doctrine is one of "Mistake". Here is a more recent case from the U.K. about Mistake in contract, invovling a similarly fraudulent transaction, but with a car instead of a house: Hudson v. Shogun [2001] EWCA Civ 1001.

A choice quote from that British case: "It may seem remarkable that the law governing the consequences of a fraud as common as this is still in doubt, but it is." This would apply to all of the jurisdictions deriving their law from British common law, including Australia, Canada and the U.S.

Here is an American viewpoint (the Law Site on MSN) on the issue of Mistake

MSNBC titles this story: Lockheed Martin to build future moonship

Just struck me as funny that the Slashdot article is so much more professionally titled that the professional news source. Might just be me.

Notwithstanding that stock price can serve as a consumer confidence barometer as well as one for expected performance:

Until 2000-ish, Radio Shack had offered a stock-based 401K. From limited options, employees had been encouraged to choose this plan. Now, they are all worth dick. Furthermore, a comparison reveals that RSH has performed as much as 83% below the S&P.

"The news in this is that we've reached that particular point in our society where a corporation doesn't even have to have the common decency to fire people in person."

You're right, and I should have clarified. Radio shack has been pulling questionable downsizing stunts for years.

Not only all the behaviours from TFA, but also those noted in your post, are exactly as they were back in the snailmail era.

Yeah, and they worked pretty well for Darwin and Einstein. At least that's what I keep telling myself when I forget or ignore colleagues' emails.

the u.s. government over the last several months has been a massive binge of re-classifying previously declassified historical documents. i think they've done maybe 50,000 of them. this administration has a culture of secrecy and limit of access to information and this move is nicely in keeping with that ideology. my source on the document reclassification is here.

Some additional points, in case you make another response:

> He has caused enormous pain and suffering and he needs to apologize.

IMHO, the activists have caused enormous pain and suffering and need to apologize. I suspect they won't be doing it anytime soon though, and just move onto the next victim.

> I often wonder how many people have suffered and died while waiting on a cure from those like Ringach who have had countless animals and money---resources--- to do research.

This part confuses me. Ringach wasn't doing medical research, but fundamental neuroscience.

> PFP is all for medical research but we want these resources to be channeled into areas that have proven track records.

Is he claiming that Ringach doesn't have a proven track record? I'm sure the hundreds of scientists who have cited his work in their papers would beg to differ.

> Not only that but the research industry is so caught up in graft, deception etc. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12749497/from/RSS/ is a story you may have heard about. Every week there's a new story where those in research have lied about their data or stolen tons of money.

This part is perplexing. Is he claiming that Ringach is involved in deception or fraud? It would be nice if he provided evidence of this.

> Don't even get me started about Dr. Graham's testimony about Vioxx and the other drugs he mentioned in his testimony to the US Senate!

Again, this has nothing to do with Ringach.

> If it was just about the money that would be understandable but people are depending on these cures and they believe the lies they are hearing and the animals are being used in experiments that the researchers know are only a way to get their federal grants renewed.

What cures is he talking about? As I mentioned before, Ringach does basic neuroscience. He studies fundamental principles, not medical conditions. And IMHO, having read much of his work, it's very good research and has done much to deepen our understanding of visual processing.

Barnes has responded:

I've asked him to write an apology. That should take 2 minutes. See, it's no biggie.

He has caused enormous pain and suffering and he needs to apologize.

Although he has not been asked to do it, (becuase I know he won't) he should apologize to all the sick people whose time and opportunities have been squandered.

I often wonder how many people have suffered and died while waiting on a cure from those like Ringach who have had countless animals and money---resources--- to do research.

PFP is all for medical research but we want these resources to be channeled into areas that have proven track records.

Did you know, (according to the World Health Organization) that Cuba has fewer infant mortalities than the US? In fact, the US ranks waaaay down the list in childhood diseases because we squander so many of our resources. Imagine how many people could be helped if the NIH invested in alternatives to animal experiments!

Not only that but the research industry is so caught up in graft, deception etc. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12749497/from/RSS/ is a story you may have heard about. Every week there's a new story where those in research have lied about their data or stolen tons of money.

I'm in Atlanta and we have Emory University here. Charles Nemeroff from Emory University resigned his position as editor of the journal Neuropsychopharmacology this week because he and others were caught hiding the fact they get kickbacks for promoting drugs that have harmed people.

Don't even get me started about Dr. Graham's testimony about Vioxx and the other drugs he mentioned in his testimony to the US Senate!

This is such a corrupt industry it rivals any banana republic you can mention. If it was just about the money that would be understandable but people are depending on these cures and they believe the lies they are hearing and the animals are being used in experiments that the researchers know are only a way to get their federal grants renewed.

It's a shame.

Here's the article I was referring to.

Kind of like this pledge for opponents of embryonic stem-cell research?

I'd argue that your odd use of the phrase "self-funded visitor" instead of "space tourist" had as much to do with your submissions being ignored as not emphasizing the "female" angle. It's like passive-agressive attack on the idea that this is just a rich person paying for a pleasure trip to space, which is in fact exactly the situation.

And I'd argue that the first "female space tourist" was actually Helen Sharman, who flew to Mir after winning a British lottery. After all, people who win a trip to Bermuda are still considered tourists. The fact that she paid for herself is really the only difference here, and that's why I emphasized it.

That is not true at all. The government does not have a ban on embryonic stem cell research. It just has a ban on using federal funding for it. In fact California is already funding such research.

From stock@stokkie.net Mon Aug 14 22:46:00 2006 +0200
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:46:00 +0200 (CEST)
From: "Robert M. Stockmann"
To: list
Subject: 911 Economics

Hi,

According to Dave Emory, the Muslim brotherhood is propagating a economic agenda which closely fits the Bush regime. Do the Bush and USA bashers inside the middle east know that themselves also?

July 18, 2006: FTR # 560: Economic 9/11
http://archive.wfmu.org:5555/archive/DX/dx060718.m p3

There seems to be a entire economic system installed throughout the middle east, where the fundamentalist Muslim stooges of the Muslim Brotherhood are put in power and apparently easily adopt the laissez-faire tradition of Western economics.

Unbelievable how bended this sounds. How bended?

Well Dave Emory, the instituted propaganda radio broadcaster starts reading, without showing any reservations or hesitations, a Newsweek article on this, like it was a Goebels lecture. Using the same methods and principles he apparently tries to fight :

"Islam in Office"
By Stephen Glain, Newsweek International, July 3-10, 2006 issue
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13529579/site/newsweek/

"July 3-10, 2006 issue - Judeo-Christian scripture offers little economic instruction. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, is loaded with edicts on how the faithful should pray, eat, bequeath, keep the holy festivals and treat slaves and spouses, but it is silent on trade and commerce. In Matthew, when Christ admonishes his followers to "give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's," he is effectively conceding fiscal and monetary authority to pagan Rome.

Islam is different. The prophet Muhammad himself a trader-preached merchant honor, the only regulation that the border-less Levantine market knew. In Muslim liturgy, the deals cut in the souk become a metaphor for the contract between God and the faithful. And the business model Muhammad prescribed, according to Muslim scholars and economists, is very much in the laissez-faire tradition later embraced by the West. Prices were to be set by God alone anticipating by more than a millennium Adam Smith's reference to the "invisible hand" of market-based pricing. Merchants were not to cut deals outside the souk, an early attempt to thwart insider trading."

Bill Gates must be delighted to hear about such juicy business deals laying ahead for him in the future. Bill Gates? Don't you know Bill Gates owns newsweek? :

[jackson:stock]:(~)$ nslookup www.newsweek.com
Server: 10.0.18.71
Address: 10.0.18.71#53

Non-authoritative answer:
www.newsweek.com canonical name = newsweek.com.
Name: newsweek.com
Address: 207.46.245.32
Name: newsweek.com
Address: 207.46.245.33
Name: newsweek.com
Address: 207.46.150.50
Name: newsweek.com
Address: 207.46.150.51

[jackson:stock]:(~)$
[jackson:stock]:(~)$ whois 207.46.245.32

OrgName: Microsoft Corp
OrgID: MSFT
Address: One Microsoft Way
City: Redmond
StateProv: WA
PostalCode: 98052
Country: US

NetRange: 207.46.0.0 - 207.46.255.255
CIDR: 207.46.0.0/16
NetName: MICROSOFT-GLOBAL-NET
NetHandle: NET-207-46-0-0-1
Parent: NET-207-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS5.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS2.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS3.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS4.MSFT.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1997-03-31
Updated: 2004-12-09

[some parts removed of whois query]

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-08-13 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS d

From stock@stokkie.net Mon Aug 14 22:46:00 2006 +0200 Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:46:00 +0200 (CEST) From: "Robert M. Stockmann" To: list Subject: 911 Economics Hi, According to Dave Emory, the Muslim brotherhood is propagating a economic agenda which closely fits the Bush regime. Do the Bush and USA bashers inside the middle east know that themselves also? July 18, 2006: FTR # 560: Economic 9/11 http://archive.wfmu.org:5555/archive/DX/dx060718.m p3 There seems to be a entire economic system installed throughout the middle east, where the fundamentalist Muslim stooges of the Muslim Brotherhood are put in power and apparently easily adopt the laissez-faire tradition of Western economics. Unbelievable how bended this sounds. How bended? Well Dave Emory, the instituted propaganda radio broadcaster starts reading, without showing any reservations or hesitations, a Newsweek article on this, like it was a Goebels lecture. Using the same methods and principles he apparently tries to fight : "Islam in Office" By Stephen Glain, Newsweek International, July 3-10, 2006 issue http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13529579/site/newsweek/ "July 3-10, 2006 issue - Judeo-Christian scripture offers little economic instruction. The Book of Deuteronomy, for example, is loaded with edicts on how the faithful should pray, eat, bequeath, keep the holy festivals and treat slaves and spouses, but it is silent on trade and commerce. In Matthew, when Christ admonishes his followers to "give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's," he is effectively conceding fiscal and monetary authority to pagan Rome. Islam is different. The prophet Muhammad himself a trader-preached merchant honor, the only regulation that the border-less Levantine market knew. In Muslim liturgy, the deals cut in the souk become a metaphor for the contract between God and the faithful. And the business model Muhammad prescribed, according to Muslim scholars and economists, is very much in the laissez-faire tradition later embraced by the West. Prices were to be set by God alone anticipating by more than a millennium Adam Smith's reference to the "invisible hand" of market-based pricing. Merchants were not to cut deals outside the souk, an early attempt to thwart insider trading." Bill Gates must be delighted to hear about such juicy business deals laying ahead for him in the future. Bill Gates? Don't you know Bill Gates owns newsweek? : [jackson:stock]:(~)$ nslookup www.newsweek.com Server: 10.0.18.71 Address: 10.0.18.71#53 Non-authoritative answer: www.newsweek.com canonical name = newsweek.com. Name: newsweek.com Address: 207.46.245.32 Name: newsweek.com Address: 207.46.245.33 Name: newsweek.com Address: 207.46.150.50 Name: newsweek.com Address: 207.46.150.51 [jackson:stock]:(~)$ [jackson:stock]:(~)$ whois 207.46.245.32 OrgName: Microsoft Corp OrgID: MSFT Address: One Microsoft Way City: Redmond StateProv: WA PostalCode: 98052 Country: US NetRange: 207.46.0.0 - 207.46.255.255 CIDR: 207.46.0.0/16 NetName: MICROSOFT-GLOBAL-NET NetHandle: NET-207-46-0-0-1 Parent: NET-207-0-0-0-0 NetType: Direct Assignment NameServer: NS1.MSFT.NET NameServer: NS5.MSFT.NET NameServer: NS2.MSFT.NET NameServer: NS3.MSFT.NET NameServer: NS4.MSFT.NET Comment: RegDate: 1997-03-31 Updated: 2004-12-09 [some parts removed of whois query] # ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-08-13 19:10 # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database. Today i heard someone was claiming that in the end the Rothschild's owned everything, and that people like Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch, are nothing more but the Kings Horses and Nobel men. Maybe, maybe not. I somehow get the feeling, the moment a Rothschild wants to withdraw cash f

Here's a definition I pulled off the web:

3. in accordance with reason and logic: presented or understandable in terms that accord with reason and logic or with scientific knowledge

It is generally accepted that the weather behaves in a logical manner. Its unpredictability is due to our lack of understanding of the mechanics.

If you extend the scope of patentable subject matter to include "everything under the sun, made by man", heedless of the warnings of economists (and others), you can damn well live with the consequences.

The good news: There is a version of Settlers of Catan for the computer!
The bad news part 1: It's for Windows only.
The bad news part 2: It requires that you use Internet Explorer to play the online version.
The bad news part 3: You need to create a MS Passport account to play (or have a hotmail account).
The bad news part 4: Playing online requires a subscription of $4.95/month or $19.99/year.

Anyway if you are interested check out at Catan Online.

hell, even mainstream economists are estimating that US Treasury Securities will be considered junk bonds in the next 20-30 years.

Can you share anything to back up that statement?

I'm totally excited to hear that Settlers of Catan (along with Carcassonne and Alhambra) is coming to Xbox Live Arcade! I absolutely love the board game, and if the XBLA version is decent, this is going to be a big, big time sink for me.

Have you seen the Microsoft implementation of Settlers of Cataan? I gave it a try, but thought it sucked bad. If you want to play a decent online version, get this. It requires Java, so you may not be able to play on your XBox, unless the MS game dev kit for XBOX lets you sneak Java in. It's pretty decent game play and a simple, easy to read and use interface.

Oh please. You sound just like Bob Dylan. As a whole, parenting hasn't really changed in the past 30 years, and kids aren't any better or worse than their parents' generation. You've just got a case of old fogeyism.

Ok: assume that this happens on a large scale some time soon, someone will then find a way of manipulating this to make a sackload of money at the expense of the bots. At this point the approach should be abandoned (although it is quite possible that the people who broke the system will be held to have done something illegal, but that is another issue).
In a sense these algorithms have been in use for decades. If you look at the way SCO has been performing over the last few years, the chart fundamentals that institutions use were showing that SCO was a good investment as recently as 3 months ago. A bot which would have invested on those chart fundamentals would have cost their owners big bucks.

Hell, the market capitalisation is supposed to reflect the overall health of a company. Chart fundamentals are widely used instead, although ignoramuses like Warren Buffett seem to mostly ignore them.

Another thing that could easily happen is: a system with trading powers (rubber stamped or not) will be on the net, someone breaks into it and makes their own decisions (probably buying up a pump and dump stock those nice people keep mailing me about).

But you are right. These are not facts. Let's keep our eyes wide shut.

One could argue that the fact that we find these disfunctions is proof positive that the nuclear safety process is working, but the truth is that there is a hudge gap between the reality of the danger and the supposed nuclear safety : it's only because of various counter powers that these disfunctions are known. The nuclear industries are closely linked to the military industries and to say the least the field lacks in transparency

I should also point that if you sticked to a scientific and factual approach of the problem, you would certainly realize that defining something as safe once and for all clearly is not a good safety procedure. Err , let's just hope you are not in charge here !

Proliferation of nuclear power will lead to chernobyl like problems, if not only statistically then in the same way that the US power grid is failing : safety brings no short term profit.

But in all your arrogance and pride for your technology i doubt that you can stand back from this nuclear fiction, untill a disaster happens. In your backyard maybe ?

Security processes have no zero default, and you know it. Nuclear safety is a myth. What is the risk ? Don't ask. What are the benefits ? Trust us. The reality is that we shall leave our fate in the hands of the nuclear goons, despite the wastes, despites the risk, despite the damage already done but most of all despite the fact that this energy is over used and wasted in mainly illogicals and ineficient ways. Only the fake sense of safe and infinite energy that the nuclear industries promess permits such a waste of energy, and this has other dramatic effects. One simple example : excessive packaging. Very expensive energy wise, very destructive (plastics, heavy metals in paints, chemical tratement of paper et al), mostly useless.

And keep the insults to yourself, nuclear monger, because be it reason or unfortunately disaster, time is on my side.

According to a study in Newsweek, the University of Alberta is the fifty-fifth best university on the planet.

"Fifty percent of the score came from equal parts of three measures used by Shanghai Jiatong: the number of highly-cited researchers in various academic fields, the number of articles published in Nature and Science, and the number of articles listed in the ISI Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities indices." To earn its rank, the University must have been doing good things for years and years. All those publications and citations don't just happen overnight.

I'd like to know how it happened. What attracts some of the best researchers in the world to Alberta? It sure isn't the balmy weather (unless you take balmy to mean nuts). It may or may not be a cultural mecca.

Part of the answer (the only one I have personal knowledge of) is that some researchers no longer feel welcome in the 'States for various reasons.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14321230/