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There is a place for comic relief - but sci-fi, fantasy, and horror almost always works best when played straight:

Very likely the world's first singing-cowboy science-fiction adventure, this 12-episode chapterplay features Gene Autry in his first starring role -- as "Gene Autry," the proprietor of Radio Ranch.
It is said that Wallace MacDonald...came up with the concept while under the influence of nitrous oxide at his dentist's office. That seems quite possible, given the screenplay's furious imaginings, which include an interesting kind of television that requires no cameras (but has an inconvenient, floor-level circular screen) and and "radium bombs" posed to destroy the entire planet.
What gives "Phantom Empire" its enduring charm is the refusal of the filmmakers to play any of its outrageousness for laughs. As extravagant as the action becomes, the picture never loses its sense of complete conviction.
Long a victim of third-rate, public-domain releases on home video, "Phantom Empire" has been nicely restored by VCI Entertainment for a new two-disc edition. New DVDs: 'The Phantom Empire' [Mascot 1935]

Read up on the "Millenium Challenge '02" war games.
Opposing Force Commander, Gen. Paul van Ripen won.
He was not invited back :-)
Cadets do not learn, they just get to press the "refloat" icon.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/12/washington/12navy.html?ex=1357794000&en=a4dbb42d5ad2a700&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
"The sheer numbers involved overloaded their ability, both mentally and electronically, to handle the attack,.. "

Yeah, wealthy people pay the most taxes here in the US...

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/01/taxes-warren-buffett-and-paying-my-fair-share/

Only those who make 20-200K really pay taxes. After that it's loophole time.

"Look at how many politicians take money from anti-abortion groups in full knowledge that they can rant and rave about abortion, but the law is unlikely to change."

I'm not sure you've looked at the makeup of SCOTUS, and their decisions, recently. They've moved in significant ways to the Right. Don't take my word for it - read for yourself:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/supreme_court/index.html?inline=nyt-org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_Court_of_the_United_States#Political_leanings
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42160
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Supreme_Court

Many people seem to think laws are immutable. Often this is not the case, and if you think the abstract concept of "abortion rights" is set in stone, you may be in store for some surprises over the next 20 years.

It is sad to think of it like that. I guess ensuring copyright laws are enforced is worth more than human lives. The current administration seems to spend more money killing people than helping them - they now think the Iraq war will cost the US $4 trillion dollars by the end of it. $3m seems like a pittance next to numbers like these.

"Western European societies are unprepared for the massive immigration of brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and maintaining different standards of hygiene...All immigrants bring exotic customs and attitudes, but Muslim customs are more troublesome than most."

You forget the main point of any realistic dystopian society: at least initially, you have to allow a few dissidents to "prove" that dissent is allowed and that the people are "free". All the while, the people in power are concentrating their power and limiting the media's right to cover dissent by uncovering dissidents and getting them canned, limiting which press have access to key government events, planting people in editorial/analyst/writer positions, bribing commentators, and outing confidential sources, undermining the credibility of the media and endangering the lives of dissenters. I could probably go on for several pages like this.

We can get away with criticism because we are relatively unimportant and unable to create a credible threat against the power structure, whether through force, through block voting, or through running for public office. Someone important criticizes the administration, though, and bad things happen....

Those figure aren't bad for electricity production really. Power plants of any type always take decades to break-even because they just cost so much to build.

Btw, the costs of building power plants of any type at the moment is rising dramatically: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/business/worldbusiness/10energy.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

It should be added that the comparative cost of onshore wind farm construction is increasingly somewhat less than more traditional power plants, e.g. (gas & coal).

It hasn't been all peaches and cream for the Wii.

Wii, though less technologically advanced than Microsoft's Xbox 360 or Sony's PlayStation 3, continues to outsell those machines and is now in more than 20 million homes.
So why are retailers having so much trouble selling Wii games?
Take Super Smash Bros. Brawl. It was one the most hotly anticipated video games of the year; it sold more than 1.4 million copies during the first week of its release.
But sales dropped more than 90 percent over the first four weeks.
A number of games that garnered critical acclaim in recent months, notably the cartoonish action-adventure game Zack & Wiki and the off-kilter action-adventure No More Heroes, have yielded disappointing sales.
Over the first three months of the year, only three other Wii titles broke the list of top 10 best-selling games.
Younger children, women and older consumers, who historically have not been sought by the video-game industry, have discovered video games through the Wii -- just not that many of them.
These new gamers are content with the games they have, often going no further than the Wii Sports game that comes with the machine. They don't buy new games with the fervor of a traditional gamer who is constantly seeking new stimulation.
The average Wii owner buys only 3.7 games a year, compared with 4.7 for Xbox 360 owners and 4.6 for PlayStation 3 owners.
"When you make a game like Zack & Wiki or Boogie, which turns the hard core off and doesn't reach the masses, then you're in trouble."
Wii Fit, an exercise game due next month, is expected to receive more marketing dollars than any game in Nintendo's history -- and the money will not be spent wooing young men. "Wii Fit is just not aimed at hard-core gamers. It's definitely aimed at the Oprah crowd. I bet they sell a million units a week for every pound that Oprah says she lost on it."

New Wii Games Find a Big (but Stingy) Audience [April 21, 2008]

The short answer is Prius Politics. From the wiki article on Toyota Prius:

In July 2007 the The New York Times published an article using data from CNW Marketing Research finding that 57% of Prius buyers said their main reason for buying was that "it makes a statement about me.", while just 36% cited fuel economy as a prime motivator,. Shortly afterwards Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson coined the term "Prius politics" to describe a situation where the driver's desire to "show off" is a stronger motivator than the desire to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/28/ST2008022803016.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000912.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/042000-01.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/29/america/29prison.php

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/22/us/20080423_PRISON_GRAPHIC.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison.html?_r=2

http://www.jbs.org/node/7846

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.prisons29feb29,0,2057053.story

LOOK HOW SHORT IT TOOK! SIX YEARS!

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaprisonpop.htm

NO! ONE!

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3321586

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/02/28/ST2008022803016.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/30/AR2006113000912.html

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/042000-01.htm

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/02/29/america/29prison.php

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/04/22/us/20080423_PRISON_GRAPHIC.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/28/us/28cnd-prison.html?_r=2

http://www.jbs.org/node/7846

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.prisons29feb29,0,2057053.story

LOOK HOW SHORT IT TOOK! SIX YEARS!

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaprisonpop.htm

NO! ONE!

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3321586

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/images/photo/2008/04/29/042908-Nuke/22938775.JPG

"This looks shopped. I can tell from some of the pixels and from seeing quite a few shops in my time."

An article a few days ago described homebrew ethanol. I'm not sure it is as efficient or high-quality as factory ethanol. Also sugar price is highly subsidized in US. A run on sugar might turn out the like current rice shortage.

It was already a law that residents had to pay sales tax on out of state items. But with no real way for the state to enforce it, most taxpayers are not going to bother.

Also, per resident this is a very small amount, which makes it almost silly to bother reporting on your state tax return. According to the first article, "The provision is meant to contribute about $50 million to the $122 billion budget" In 2006, the population of NY state was 19,306,183. By those numbers, each resident would be paying an average of $2.59. In NY, sales tax is different IN EACH COUNTY! (Statewide it varies between 7% and 9%). This means that a $24.95 book would have $1.74-$2.24 tax owed to NY state. Who would bother? Granted, some people order hundreds of dollars worth or merchandise off of Amazon, so it would be higher for some people, that's not the point. Obviously, not many people pay their share, which is why the greedy politicians passed this law.

One HIGHLY invasive option is for the state of New York to sue Amazon and force them to hand over the addresses of NY residents. Heck, they could probably even sue for the entire purchase history per year, per account. I am not sure that New York could enforce it even then, though. What are they going to do, knock on each Amazon shoppers door and threaten to take them to take them to jail if they don't pay two bucks?

(I am not saying that this is a GOOD option, but since it was already a law, I am surprised that the state of NY did not try to get their grubby mitts on taxpayers money this way. Bring on the flames...)

Hopefully Amazon will win this.

My in-laws' cattle get one scoop of corn a day in the winter, every other day in the summer. The scoop's an old Folger's coffee can, so call it two pounds. The rest of the time, they're eating grass or hay. I've never followed them around, but I'm told that a 1,200 lb cow eats 28 lbs of hay/day.

Not knowing the stats I googled for them and came across TFA "Film 'King Corn' goes to roots of food system problems". It says "80 million acres of corn are grown each year to feed cows". There's even a genetically engineered corn that's isn't approved for human consumption but is for cows, Starlink. According to an article in the "New York Times" "Most cattle feed is yellow corn, while white corn is grown almost exclusively for food."

The water that the cattle drink all comes from stream-fed ponds. Climate change might be a problem, but historically this area was forest, so the only well is for the house, not the livestock.

So they've got enough water then, but if they have a lot of cattle I wonder what all that manure does to the water quality.

Down in the flatlands, however, the rice farmers are complaining about the water table dropping, and they're sitting next to major rivers.

In the Klamath Basin of Oregon?

My in-laws' cattle get one scoop of corn a day in the winter, every other day in the summer. The scoop's an old Folger's coffee can, so call it two pounds. The rest of the time, they're eating grass or hay. I've never followed them around, but I'm told that a 1,200 lb cow eats 28 lbs of hay/day.

Not knowing the stats I googled for them and came across TFA "Film 'King Corn' goes to roots of food system problems". It says "80 million acres of corn are grown each year to feed cows". There's even a genetically engineered corn that's isn't approved for human consumption but is for cows, Starlink. According to an article in the "New York Times" "Most cattle feed is yellow corn, while white corn is grown almost exclusively for food."

The water that the cattle drink all comes from stream-fed ponds. Climate change might be a problem, but historically this area was forest, so the only well is for the house, not the livestock.

So they've got enough water then, but if they have a lot of cattle I wonder what all that manure does to the water quality.

Down in the flatlands, however, the rice farmers are complaining about the water table dropping, and they're sitting next to major rivers.

In the Klamath Basin of Oregon?

I guess you're designing way different types of chips than we are. We never leave *any* extra gates unless it's a part that needs on-die trimming during test, and even then, we have control of the tester and blow all the gates we've left open.

I agree that making chips fail under usage is comparatively easy: screw up the ESD protection structures. The US did this on purpose to the USSR during the Cold War and sent them chips that failed during use, causing massive damage, but I think that failure is different than the subject under consideration.

Looking at past rulings from the Oregon Supreme Court, it will be overturned.

http://www.mediabuyerplanner.com/2006/03/24/oregon_court_rules_billboard/
http://www.drbilllong.com/LegalEssays/OrSpeech.html
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DE5D6113DF936A25757C0A961948260

This is what you need to read then:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/business/media/25asktheeditors.html?pagewanted=all

Your point B is bollocks. Japan has consistently had a lower unemployment rate than the U.S., as have the Netherlands and Denmark. EU-wide unemployment has been falling over the last ten years, so there are 4 million fewer unemployed in the EU than there were in 1996 [src].

Sure, their overall unemployment rate is around 7%-8% (compared to our 4%-5%). But you can't just compare our apples to their oranges. There are several ways of judging "the unemployment picture." One is to say, "if I'm unemployed here, how difficult is it for me to find a job?" Another is to say, "if I'm unemployed here, how bad does it suck?" In the U.S., with its stingier unemployment benefits and its employment-based healthcare system, it's far more risky to be unemployed. A third way is to ask, "If I'm unemployed, how difficult will it be to get a job with the wages and benefits that are important to me?" If you're hoping to land a job with 6 weeks vacation, you're better off looking in Germany. If you want a job that pays a living wage, you're probably also better off looking in Europe (depending on the sort of job you're looking for). If you want a job that gives you health insurance, best to look in America. In the EU, you probably already have it.

Also not everyone thinks Europe is the economic wasteland that you do.

Everyone has an opinion on this, but the consensus seems to be that Vista is a huge dud. Part of Microsoft's decline can be attributed to an economy that has slowed, but the fact remains that consumers are rejecting Vista in large numbers. Also, while Microsoft's revenue from Windows (and I believe Office) was down significantly, Apple's revenue was up 46%. People are spending money on computers, not just on Microsoft like they once did.

Check out this entry from the New York Times tech blog, and specifically the comments people left on it. It's interesting because the comments are from a fairly wide variety of people: stay at home moms, programmers, help desk staff, retired people, etc.

If I were in marketing at Microsoft I wouldn't have been able to sleep after having read that. And it's not like this is isolated: Vista has been almost universally panned by consumers. And not just panned: people are *pissed off*.

This is why it's hard to read /. comments at times: highly moderated comments with no substance to back them up. The problems with world food distribution have far more to do with trade barriers than food production or any other issue save perhaps inflation. To the extent the U.S. is responsible, it's responsible for its food bill (explained in some detail here and its anti-trade stance.

Apparently everyone has forgotten the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff and never learned basic economic theory to begin with.

This is why it's hard to read /. comments at times: highly moderated comments with no substance to back them up. The problems with world food distribution have far more to do with trade barriers than food production or any other issue save perhaps inflation. To the extent the U.S. is responsible, it's responsible for its food bill (explained in some detail here and its anti-trade stance.

Apparently everyone has forgotten the infamous Smoot-Hawley Tariff and never learned basic economic theory to begin with.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=980DE4D81239F935A35752C0A960958260

  After nearly two years of searches and subpoenas, the White House said this evening that it had unexpectedly discovered copies of missing documents from Hillary Rodham Clinton's law firm that describe her work for a failing savings and loan association in the 1980's.

Federal and Congressional investigators have issued subpoenas for the documents since 1994, and the White House has said it did not have them. The originals disappeared from the Rose Law Firm, in which Mrs. Clinton was a partner, shortly before Mr. Clinton took office. ...
Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, Republican of New York, tonight called the discovery of the copies of the records "the second miraculous discovery within the past 24 hours."

Mr. D'Amato, who is chairman of the Senate Whitewater committee, was referring to the disclosure on Thursday of a two-year-old memorandum written by a former Presidential aide. The memorandum said that Mrs. Clinton had played a far greater role in the dismissal of employees of the White House travel office than the Administration has acknowledged.

By their sheer volume -- 115 pages -- and the variety of contacts and conferences they document, the Rose billing records raise new questions about Mrs. Clinton's account of her work that are likely to give new impetus to investigations in Congress and by Federal prosecutors.

For example, the records, which refer to Mrs. Clinton at various points as H.R.C., Hillary Clinton or H. Clinton, show she billed Madison for more than a dozen discussions with an Arkansas businessman, Seth Ward. Mr. Ward played a leading role in one of Madison's largest losses, a $4 million land deal that regulators later criticized the Rose firm for helping structure. Mr. Ward is the father-in-law of the former associate attorney general, Webster L. Hubbell, who was also a partner in the Rose firm.

The release of the records is the latest of several instances in which the Clinton White House has declared a document search to be exhaustive, only to later stumble on important material. For example, White House officials initially said that Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel, left no indication of why he committed suicide on July 20, 1993. But later, an aide found the remnants of a note describing Mr. Foster's disenchantment with Washington.

It is often the same perp:

The 19 burglaries occurred between May 2007 and January and were being investigated as a group because they followed a similar pattern. They occurred primarily in the Todt Hill and Grymes Hill neighborhoods between 6 p.m. and 2 a.m., and the thief or thieves stole mostly jewelry. Suspects, but No Arrests, in S.I. 'Ninja Burglaries'

Two Franklin men are jailed in Butler County on charges that they broke into 13 homes and stole guns, tools, electronics and jewelry over the past three months. Bradley Alcorn, 28, and Johnny Sorrell, 27, face charges of burglary and receiving stolen property involving daytime break-ins in Wayne and Madison townships when residents were away. Butler County Sheriff Rick Jones said detectives have received inquiries from police agencies in Warren, Preble and Montgomery counties, where similar burglaries were reported. Arrests made in burglaries

The cop wants to bring him down quickly.

Stories like this do not always have a happy ending:

It's wasn't jewelry, cash, or a car that took down some Central Fresno burglars, but rather a blanket. According to Deputies a caller reported three men in her Floradora Ave. home around 11 p.m. Monday night. The caller, a 16-year-old girl, said the men woke her, her brother, sister and niece up when they entered the home. She told police that she and her relatives had locked themselves into a back bedroom while the men were inside the home. 24-year-old Charles Williams, 23-year-old Jayson Sanderson, and 21-year-old Princeton Williams, were located near McKinley and Marks a short while later. One of them was found to be in possession of a blue blanket which had belonged to the victims, thus connecting the men to the crime. All three men were arrested and booked into the Fresno County Jail. Williams was also booked on parole violations. Blanket Leads To Burglary Arrests

Burglaries fall into patterns.

Thieves work in teams, buddies the same age. They will have criminal records. They will break into an occupied home. They may be running a quart low, but that won't make them any less dangerous.

Here's the link to the article....

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/25/microsofts-vista-problem/

In my mind, the amusing thing is that this has happened before... under the Clinton administration. Remember Travelgate? Remember the lost emails that the White House couldn't find? You would think someone would learn. Or should I believe that maybe Democrats and Republicans have something to gain from poor email archives?

Again, at best you've proved that Windows popularity has fallen and that Linux "could make inroads". "Could", if for example, it started selling.

Mac sales are up true, in the US mainly and this has slightly dented Vista sales.

Now, i'm not going to be disingenuous here; the OLPC and the eePC are doing well; almost in their own category, but even they run Windows now.

And what of the server end? Well, Windows seems to be gaining there too; let's be honest, if there's one area Windows could do better in, it's the server.

And you know what, I hope Linux does do better in the desktop to be honest. FireFox was one hell of a kick up the arse for Microsoft, and we all resulted in better browsing experiences for everyone because of it. Something similar in the desktop arena won't be unappreciated, but, putting it politely, progress is slow in that area right now.

When you can give me hard evidence desktop Linux is installed even at 5% market share globally, then you may be onto something.

From the article: OK, pop quiz. A local car dealership sells a car to a new customer. A week later, that same automobile is used in a terrorist car bombing. The business can't be held liable for what the customer did, right?

Now the idea that terrorist would buy a car to blow up rather than stealing one so it can't be tracked back to them seems rather ridiculous. But we here at slashdot love a car analogy so let's stick with that.

Businesses, unlike airport screeners apparently, KNOW where most modern terrorists come from. Is the government then going to protect that dealership from a lawsuit when a middle-easterner with ties to the motherland is turned down when he shows up cashier's check in hand?

Most businesses DON'T want to do business with crooks or terrorists. Makes sense because they don't want to get screwed in the deal. But it's ridiculous to expect business to do the federal government's job for them under threat of criminal charges and fines. And there's certainly been times where business didn't have that choice.

The United States has less than 5 percent of the world's population, but it has almost a quarter of the world's prisoners.

I think if I lived in a place with that rate of imprisonment, I'd be keeping my head down and avoiding controversy too.

Not so fast...

"Total spending was $2.3 TRILLION in 2007, or $7600 per person"
"Health care spending is 4.3 times the amount spent on national defense"

http://www.nchc.org/facts/cost.shtml

Cost of the war in Iraq, in total, 1.2 trillion.
$1,721 per person.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

too blinded ... to form an honest, open-minded opinion

Prejudice is the mother of all traps, sure. Here's the one I fell into:

In an essay by Ron Suskind, one of the President's advisors is quoted referring to

the way he walks and the way he points, the way he exudes confidence

I know I'm not alone: when I saw the way he walks and the way he points, every poser alarm in my system started screaming bloody fool.

As you say, right or wrong, snap judgments convince no one; but that's not the trap I fell into.

The trap I fell into was that I didn't take the trouble to really eliminate the effects of confirmation bias. Laziness, really. I let my faith in the American system lull me, without acknowledging that I'm part of that system.

The trap I fell into was to dismiss my gut reaction as implausibly extreme; to leave the job of responding to people with, as I thought, cooler heads and clearer vision. What I did was, I allowed a really important question to remain "open": I recognized my own prejudice and did not work to eliminate its effects.

But it doesn't seem to me that confirmation bias has much chance of distorting these results. Take a gander at the last paragraph of this speech . Sit quiet and look at the premises, the reasoning, the implications.

I've opened my mind, done my looking, and the conclusion I've reached is this: Bram Stoker's masterpiece is a metaphorical treatise on the desire for vengeance.

That's funny, because I've seen people protest right outside the White House, and right outside Congress all the time. They're never fenced in or any such nonsense.

Well, it certainly is comforting to have an experienced observer like you on the scene to give everyone the skinny about what's really going on in the country. However for people who prefer to have their reportage from people who don't have their heads in the sand they need only do the most basic Google searches. Here are a few of many, many examples and they don't even include all the abuses by local and state agencies, particularly those that need to justify their lucrative homeland security funding.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/04/INGPQ40MB81.DTL&type=printable http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/11419res20030923.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/washington/21protests.html

And, oh, oh, Fox News so IT MUST be true!

Next time, try again, but without the lies so much.

Don't worry, that appears to be only one of several statements you have made that have come back to bite your ass today.

Yeah - no one would be arrested for voicing their opinions. Like in NYC during the Republican convention. Or just standing next to someone who was...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/nyregion/12video.html

The FBI wouldn't spy on you for being in a peaceful anti-war group, right?
http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MIL20060127&articleId=1835

No one would be arrested because they wore an anti-Bush Tshirt, right?
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/17/3243/

And you accuse others of not seeing? Look the f*ck around.

=tkk

I'm still surprised that I haven't heard more outrage about the fundamental mormon raid in Texas now that the supposed abused teen is probably a 30 something living in CO. Further the accused guy is on parole in Arizona and wasn't picked up, or even questioned before the raid. Even scarier, the police questioned the kids without lawyers or guardians present. The state will provide them lawyers in two weeks

The parents are being forced to submit DNA to start the process of getting their kids back.

It seems like the police went in with shoddy evidence for a blanket warrant, which they got. Sure the people in the compound may very well have been breaking laws, but wouldn't that be all the more reason for the authorities to wait until stronger evidence was found? It's the over the top actions that worry me, not waiting to make a case before getting gung ho.

It's a small irony that only John McCain has actually said that he would not issue "signing statements" and that he would not allow for torture to take place in his administration.

That's the big advantage of knowingly lying; you can say anything you feel like.

To put these claims in context:

1. McCain has already voted against preventing the CIA from using torture
2. Tried to (illegally) ignore the spening limits of the public financing system after using it to secure a loan
3. Campaigned against lobbyists while taking there money and advocating their causes (same link, and many others).
4. ...and so on.

In short, his promises are worth nothing. He will break them without blinking an eye when he decides it's in his best interests to do so. If you can find anyone that seriously believes John McCain would honor a campaign promise no matter what happens tell them their shoe's untied and grab their wallet.

--MarkusQ

Microsoft has tried this before, and the industry already told them "Go away, Microsoft. We don't want HailStorm acting as the official Microsoft Big Brother of our technology lives."

The economic integration between North America and Communist China is putting us in a very dangerous position. The Chinese government has a well-documented history of utter ruthlessness, and will happily steal and duplicate every technological edge it can get.

Just like Japan 30 years ago

Does anybody believe even for a moment that the same people who have committed and facilitated cold-blooded mass murder on a scale we find difficult to imagine will draw the line at a little industrial espionage?

You mean the Crusade, too?

Corporations that are forcing us into closer and closer economic contact with China are making huge profits, and doing a good job of ensuring that our governments obediently facilitate economic integration. For the rest of us, this means stagnant wages and limited opportunities...all in return for access to cheap headphones, lead-poisoned toys and other gimcrackery.

And you think the issue is entirely on China and not the US companies such as this or this ?

The Chinese government is not our friend, and the argument that exposing them to the joy of capitalism will make their society free is exactly backwards.

No, obviously, more of a slave than a friend.

More, for these kind of trojans / backdoors, China is the late comer when compared to the US as you can see from other posts in this thread.

There are plenty of places on the web for anyone that wants to be better informed about what is happening in Iraq. Just for starters...

Multi-National Force - Iraq website.
          Today's top stories:
          Iraqis Displaced from Homes Now Returning in Droves
          Soccer Stadium Opens with Tourney
          Mahmudiyah Hatchery Receives First Egg Shipment
          Soldiers Distribute Fertilizer to Farmers

The Long War Journal
Michael Totten's web site
Michael Yon's web site (He has just published a new book: Moment of Truth in Iraq )

Some Iraqi bloggers:
Iraq Pundit
Iraq the Model

Some useful news of the war does slip through:
Al Qaeda chief slams Muslims for lack of support
Iraq: After the bombs, the tomatoes
Violence Leaves Young Iraqis Doubting Clerics

DNA baby... It's all about the DNA.

Nothing else has DNA unless it's alive or once was alive. I am not a biologist but these apparently big differences you see are really not that big. It eats, breathes, reproduces - in different ways granted but these activities are a must in order for a species to exist.

Can we then agree that if there is life out there, it probably needs DNA? If you do, then the combinations might be quite varied but still in the realm of what we have here on Earth. If you don't agree then we might be getting into the metaphysical and that's, well..., freaky stuff.

a wise history professor of mine taught that no problem is monocausative. it's true. putting blame on one single entity and piling on the shame ignores the other contributing factors to the problem, and allows them to continue unabated.

of course the media outfits share some of the blame, but to say the "real" blame lies with them does not hold the Pentagon, Bush administration, and the American people accountable. They all share the "real" blame, and the ACTUAL people who are lying (aka the generals) get the lion's share of that blame. It's their words first and foremost.

"the media" isn't one entity. The propaganda machine described in the NYTimes article is primarily for TV News. Standards and practices vary wildly between types of newsmedia. I, like many, hate the jerry-springerization of what has in the past been thought of as "tv news". Fox News is #1 on this list by a mile...it just isn't journalism in any traditional sense. But, it gets high ratings.

Notice I didn't say "alot of people watch". Ratings are a survey of a (supposedly) representative sample. Neilsen and others do a horrible job of providing information to advertisers about what people actually watch. This is an ancient problem of perception in TV that pre-dates cable, CNN, etc. Ratings in their current incarnation simply do not accurately reflect what people watch and why, and it skews the business decisions at the top of the news companies and for the advertisers.

Yes, the american people share in this blame. American government was intended to be advanced government. To work well, the electorate has to be on its toes, savvy, and not easily manipulated. Sadly, the opposite is the case (on it's ass, dumb as shit, and very easily manipulated).

Other posters on this story also say predictable /. stuff like:

1. "The NYTimes reported it but they are just as bad!!1!!1!1" That's just not the case. The NYtimes answers that criticism directly and provides links to prove it. Let's see someone step up and give equal or better counter evidence. Be sure to include links to specific NYTimes articles by generals mentioned in the report, and show how they connect directly with Pentagon propaganda campaigns about the war.

2. "How is this news, we all know the Bush administration is corrupt and manipulative beyond measure!!!1!!!1!1" The part that makes this news is that WE CAN PROVE IT. The systematic "psy-ops" manipulation of public opinion by the Pentagon is provable in court. That is news.

TV news has a long way to go. A good first step is to never, ever watch Fox News (unless to mock it), and deride anyone who does. Sure CNN isn't blameless, but Fox News was the main offender.

It's not just consumer stuff. There's a well publicized account of Chinese counterfeiters setting up a fake NEC in China which sold products that NEC never manufactured. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/01/technology/01pirate.html?pagewanted=all

How many products can only be made in the U.S. or E.U.? It really doesn't take that long to throw together a manufacturing plant. Honestly, with the huge numbers of educated engineers in China and its culture of IP theft, how long was it going to be before truly sensitive, high tech products were copied?

The FBI's fears remind me of a recent book, The Execution Channel. http://www.amazon.com/Execution-Channel-Ken-MacLeod/dp/0765313324

While it might be a lot of trouble to rewrite firmware in a legitimate product, what's to stop someone from writing malicious firmware into their own knockoff product?

The only argument that I can think of for the other side would look to the Due Process clause of the 14th Amendment. But there is a fatal flaw in that argument. A violation of copyright is not a taking of property. If you violate someone's copyright, they are still the copyright holder. A copyright violation is NOT a taking of property. Without a taking of life, liberty, or property, Due Process is not required, and the 14th Amendment is not implicated.

It's easy to argue that copyright violation IS a taking of property, and in fact, with regard to patent rights, the U.S. federal government has and does pay infringement royalties under the theory of eminent domain.

The 'property' inherent in both copyright and patent grants is not the piece of paper that you still possess after the government has infringed on the rights, but rather the underlying right to keep other people, including those in the government, from using your ideas without your consent or profit. Those rights ARE potentially being infringed, even though you still have the piece of paper that grants you the copyright/patent, and even if you can still assert those rights against other parties.

So, the government has taken away your ability to control the use of the copyright/patent, and that is the property they must pay for. You then apply established commercial criteria for valuing the infringement (FMV/reasonable rates for copyright licenses and royalties), in order to calculate damages the government would have to pay.

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While the below references apply to patent rights, the legal analysis re: copyrights would be similar, I think.

"Treating the Legal Side Effects of Cipro(R): A Reevaluation of Compensation Rules for Government Takings of Patent Rights"

The author finds that, under the current statutory scheme, unauthorized government appropriations of private patent rights should be treated as eminent domain takings, compensable at the level required by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Moreover, the author determines that Fifth Amendment compensation for patent takings is properly calculated by the same rules employed to assess non-punitive, actual damages in private infringement actions.

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NY Times article

"American law is very clear: when the United States government needs a patented product, any official authorized to make purchases can ignore the patent and license someone else to make it."

''Any employee of the United States government can authorize a compulsory license for the product without even holding a hearing,'' said James P. Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, part of Ralph Nader's organization pushing for lower drug prices. ''The company can't even sue to enjoin the government from doing it. All they can do is sue for compensation.''

"That compensation, Mr. Love said, is based on eminent domain, the principle used when the government seizes land for a highway or military base. A judge picks an amount based on lost value, but not necessarily the highest price that could have been charged. The government uses the law fairly frequently, Mr. Love said."