Slashdot Mirror

And lets not overlook the difference: Hamas deliberately targets civilians, the Israelis don't.

Best way to evaluate that claim is to look at the facts.

http://mondoweiss.net/2014/07/...
Israeli military destroyed el-Wafa hospital even though it knew there were no weapons inside
Allison Deger on July 19, 2014
“We’ve seen a lot of launches of rockets that came from exactly near the hospital, 100 meters near,” said a spokesperson for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), continuing, “Obviously the target was not the hospital.”
“My authority, my control is within my premises, it is my hospital. I cannot control what people do 100 meters from me.”

http://gaza.scoop.ps/2014/07/a...
Another Israeli attack on a hospital, another Israeli war crime
July 21, 2014
by Julie Webb-Pullman
Israeli tanks attacked Al Aqsa hospital in Deir Al Balah at 2:50 pm this afternoon, killing five patients and doctors, and injuring more than 70.
The third and fourth floors, housing the emergency department, orthopaedic department, surgical department, and the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) were destroyed. Operating theatres had to cease work because of the lack of oxygen.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07...
Middle East
Questions About Tactics and Targets as Civilian Toll Climbs in Israeli Strikes
By ANNE BARNARD
JULY 21, 2014
(Israeli attacks in Gaza have destroyed entire apartment buildings and killed entire families because 1 militant was visiting.)
When the strike leveled a four-story house in the southern Gaza Strip the night before, it also killed 25 members of four family households — including 19 children — gathered to break the daily Ramadan fast together. Relatives said it also killed a guest of the family, identified by an Israeli human rights group as a member of the Hamas military wing, ostensibly Israel’s target.
The attack was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed families in their homes, during an offensive that Israel says is meant to stop militant rocket fire that targets its civilians and destroy Hamas’s tunnel network.
(UN says 75% of Palestinian deaths are civilians.)
On July 13, 18 family members were killed in an airstrike on their home, and Tayseer al-Batsh, the Hamas police chief in Gaza, was severely wounded. Many other civilians have been killed in strikes on known Hamas offices or apartments that happened to be in their apartment buildings, and in strikes on homes with no obvious connection, Palestinian officials and residents say.
On Monday night, a strike hit an eight-story apartment building in downtown Gaza City — an area where Israeli officials had urged Gazans to take shelter. (At least 13 killed.)
All the dead were from the Abu Jameh family, according to relatives, except for a guest, whom the Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, identified as Ahmad Suliman Sahmoud, a member of Hamas’s military wing, who was visiting a member of the family.

The "fun" part is that being anti-Israel currently is less antisemitic than it is antifascist...

The "fun" part is how thin that beard is, especially when European Jews are being threatened and attacked as part of the rioting and violence in various European countries when the object of the protests is supposedly Israel.

‘Gas the Jews!’: European anti-Semitism during the Gaza crisis

"They are not screaming 'death to the Israelis' on the streets of Paris, " Roger Cuikerman, head of French Jewish political group CRIF, said. "They are screaming ‘death to the Jews.'" ....

According to the Associated Press, anti-Semitic slogans have popped up in protests inside Germany. "Gas the Jews," has been chanted at some protests, according to the Associated Press

Well, many people have a hard time "thinking straight" when it comes to Israel.

Re "Doesn't sound very constitutional to me. What have we become?"
In the past the GCHQ would do everything it could to stay out of court closed or open. No methods, no logs, no experts with no pasts to confirm documents as found, decrypted.
Any information gathered would have to be undergo parallel construction by other services or methods to remove any signal or decoding aspects.
The problem for the US is the very public talk of " all the phone records into a lockbox" to be reconstructed anytime over a persons life.
Within the US there is limited access to the top political policy setting. Other groups within the US domestic and more international law enforcement may not like a signals conversation with the public.
What the GCHQ only had to fend off every few decades in the UK with policy makers is now very public in the USA - total mastery of global telecommunications network with generational storage.
Slowly the other aspect is becoming more public too: "European Court Says CIA Ran Secret Jail in a Polish Forest" (July 24, 2014)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters...
Its the age old use of signals intelligence - never tell the public and it is perfect. The problem for the USA is so many groups are now using signals intelligence that they all want the big wins in public and closed trials.
The problem is once signals intelligence gets out in court at a city, state, federal level - the magic stops. Every court connected member of the press, legal profession, law enforcement suddenly has a story to sell, tell or whisper.
Anybody who needs to know about crime and signals intelligence can then just buy the methods and drop out.
What did the UK learn early on? Dont give political leaders raw information about the Soviet Union - ever. Dont go to court over spies - ever. Dont go to court over leaks, whistleblowers or tell all books or for peace activists.
The UK knows the stories then just drop away from the front pages and drift off into academic books with very limited print runs.
The real unknown is the US cyber industrial complex with products to sell, rent and look after in every city and state if lobbied.
The West has become one big signals intelligence marketplace and laws need to be relaxed to enjoy new sales :)

But consider this other news from the NYT just yesterday (for me anyway):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07...
(It's paywalled after ten articles per month)
Why bring this up? Well this American "Master's degree" is shocking from top to bottom:
1) a 14 page Master's thesis???? WTF, My Master's was 80 pages plus 10 pages of quant data that I made into a poster for better clarity
2) He used end notes for his thesis paper, five effin' pages of end notes? Most of which were "ibid?"
3) Who the hell was his supervisor? Looking at the sheer volume of copy and paste material and the sources (mostly googley available source stuff from gov or other reliable information providers) I can't believe even for a minute that anyone actually read that paper and didn't say "Whoa, this is word for word from... Oh, I see, he has an end note for the source, hmm, no quotation marks or other in-text tools like reporting verbs, phrases, hmmm, he'll need to make some changes.... hmmm, this paper is crap, but he has the sources to back it up and if he had done the attribution right it would be ok. Hmm, better send him an e-mail for a meeting tomorrrow!" How long did that take?
4) because of 3, the War College is also, maybe equally, to blame for this trash.

Again, what is the connection? This Masters is just like dozens, hundreds or thousands of Asian Masters degrees awarded every year. I saw many of them as a university Lecturer in Asia, and so we can consider this example, something we see as horrible plagiarism being not just not good but standard now in the Army War College as well as all over Asia. My friends, you are looking at the future of education. A world where a Master's degree will have a standardized test you have to take because you can't be trusted to do real thesis quality work because that paper exists just to get you a job. Most of my students today (but not all, thankfully not all) are in class with the goal of getting a piece of paper that gets them a job, that is their goal.
They are supported in this by the American government, and governments all over the world who see testing as a way to standardize what people know.
I'm pissed off, so I'll just shut up now....

Agree completely that people don't comprehend the ramifications of the enormous deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums in these so-called "low cost" plans. Add to that the tendency toward ultra-narrow provider networks and the resultant increase in risk of balance billing by out-of-network providers.

It's astounding to me how far people are willing to stick their heads in the sand to pretend that the current system is, in aggregate, "better" than the one that we already had.

It started when it became ok to simply "hate" GWB. You never needed a reason.

Hardly.

Robert Bork ring any bells? The treatment Clarence Thomas got and still gets?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/28/weekend-opinionator-kennedy-bork-and-the-politics-of-judicial-destruction/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

Sounds simple doesn't it? Except where do you put all that salt?
                  see:Impacts via Scientific American
And where do you get all that energy for desalination and at what cost?
                  see: Cost of Desalination
Also the quantity water for agriculture and industrial use is HUGE. The flushing of soil by natural water flow is one of the basic ways we flush salt from overused fields
                  See: Salt and Agriculture

Subsidence, as geologists call the phenomenon, is just one of the unanticipated consequences of rapid growth that have come to plague Houstonians. The city's roads, services, and even the very land beneath it, have been unable to sustain it all.

and: Moreover, downtown Houston is sinking fast, too. A recent computer simulation of the process suggested that it could sink 14 feet more by the year 2020 if nothing but ground water was used to satisfy future demand.

There's a bit of a difference in that one in every four women actually will be raped in their life, and a sizeable percent of those getting those threats already have been.

Not "raped" but "sexually assaulted". Rape laws have gone awry to the point that damn near everything is just classified as a "sex crime" now, so even a technical issue like statutory rape comes with the same stigma as being a major pedophile, and you really can't even get real statistics on the actual numbers of violent rapes.

But don't take my word for it... The same study that claims 1 in 5 women have been sexually assaulted, claims 1 in 7 MEN have been sexually assaulted, too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12...

You asked me where they said that. Their charter said they would eradicate Palestine, and they revised it.

Hamas also revised their Charter. Hamas is also open to accepting Israel and having peace with Israel, if you listen to what their spokesmen say. Israel has also assassinated Hamas leaders, like Ahmed Jabari, head of Hamas's military wing, who were preparing peace overtures.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11...
Op-Ed Contributor
Israel’s Shortsighted Assassination
By GERSHON BASKIN
Published: November 16, 2012

Passing messages between the two sides, I was able to learn firsthand that Mr. Jabari wasn’t just interested in a long-term cease-fire; he was also the person responsible for enforcing previous cease-fire understandings brokered by the Egyptian intelligence agency. Mr. Jabari enforced those cease-fires only after confirming that Israel was prepared to stop its attacks on Gaza. On the morning that he was killed, Mr. Jabari received a draft proposal for an extended cease-fire with Israel, including mechanisms that would verify intentions and ensure compliance. This draft was agreed upon by me and Hamas’s deputy foreign minister, Mr. Hamad, when we met last week in Egypt.

Gershon Baskin is a co-chairman of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post and the initiator and negotiator of the secret back channel for the release of Gilad Shalit.

A few years ago the EPA's EnergyStar program certified a gasoline powered alarm clock submitted by GAO auditors.

Mesa company bans workers from smoking, tests for nicotine
Workplaces ban not only smoking, but smokers themselves
Hospitals Shift Smoking Bans to Smoker Ban

Those are just the first three that came up in a Google search, there are many more.

story
I don't know what no sudden jump in the numbers you are expecting. Here is the story I was talking about. I guess you assume offical government numbers are the truth. Here are some other truths from them... The NSA isn't spying on you. You can keep your healthcare.

Not sure why people are taking government talking points as fact anymore. Not that I trust the NYT number, but at least I stated where I got that from so you can judge it yourself.

No, the third world is overpopulated.

"First" "second' and "third" world is mostly an indication of economic prosperity, not that what happens over there has no relation to us here. We all live in one world, doubly so in the age of globalization.

How about telling that to the people in the third world popping out kids faster than they can feed them?

A quick search told me that

Millions of women around the world do want contraceptives but can't get them

We are trying to get them to have less kids. We're sending them contraceptives as part of our aid (and certain church folk hate it)

Other religious folks are working with the rest of society in family planning (and this article was back in 1994, so the idea isn't new)

People in rich countries who think that an ever shrinking skilling workforce from low birth rates will somehow be able to support the ageing population are completely misguided when they think not having kids will have any affect on the overall picture of population and that there are no negative economic effects for remaining childless .Who is going to pay the taxes to support your services such as doctors and hospitals?

No, you are the misguided one. It appears the concept of immigration is lost on you. Or the idea of uplifting 3rd world nations so their increasing populations and labor pool can be used to support us in the future.

Besides, there is also such a thing as machines and automation. I would love to have a harem of my own sexy robot maids to tend to my every need in old age. In fact, I'd like to have them now if we had the technology.

actually, they're finding game addiction (computer & gambling) are quite similar to substance addiction
  http://www.webmd.com/mental-he...

and china & korea, i believe, have started to crack down (no pun intended;-) on online & gaming addiction
  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01...

Ending prohibition didn't kill the mob. They just switched from bootlegging to trafficking narcotics, and they reached the height of their power in the 50s and 60s, long after the prohibition ended.

Well... by this thinking, the mob continued because prohibition didn't end. They moved from one prohibited product to another, but always a product the people wanted, but couldn't get because of a prohibition, and the mob was in a particularly good position (with their organization and international reach) to supply.

In the same way, while legalizing marijuana might reduce crime here in the US, cartels in Mexico are Too Big to Fail. They won't pack up their things and head home quietly if marijuana is legalized; they'll just start peddling something new.

What might happen if the cartels' market dried up is, at best, speculation. Could be risky, change is scary. But doing nothing and maintaining the status quo is worse. The cartels continue to get better and better at smuggling (they got submarines for fuck sake) and much, much richer while turning Central and South American countries into murderous hell-holes from which children flee to the U.S. on foot, and that ain't no shit.

I don't see how decriminalizing them good possibly be a good idea. The addiction rate for these drugs is 2.5 to 3 times that of alcohol.

I'm also nervous about cocaine and meth easily getting around (like, more than it already is). But the fact is, drug addiction and mental illness is just gonna have to be something that this country has to shut up, knuckle-down and deal with. It's not going away, and prohibition doesn't help. Prohibition only has power to do one thing... throw people in jail. It doesn't cure addiction (drugs make their way into prisons all the time), and distracts everyone from the larger issue of mental illness. It's like taking out the garbage: nobody wants to do it, nobody gets credit for doing it, but it's gotta be done or shit just piles up and gets worse.

people have been getting carjacked for some time, but it would suck if all tesla cars across the nation were carjacked at 70mPH on the freeway

Don't read the news? The Internetz is a-coming to all cars, not just the evil spawn of Satan Teslas. Perhaps the Internal combustion cars will be immune?

You know, this was a way for Tesla to improve their vehicles. They have a slightly different paradigm. Find the problem, and fix it. Somewhat Different than GM's approach to their deadly ignition switch problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06...

But hey - it was an internal combustion engine, so it's just fine - right?

This isn't aimed specifically at you, but to all the asshats who get a raging boner every time Tesla gets a scratch in a paint job or has a flat tire.

Ending prohibition didn't kill the mob. They just switched from bootlegging to trafficking narcotics, and they reached the height of their power in the 50s and 60s, long after the prohibition ended. In the same way, while legalizing marijuana might reduce crime here in the US, cartels in Mexico are Too Big to Fail. They won't pack up their things and head home quietly if marijuana is legalized; they'll just start peddling something new.

As for legalizing highly addictive drugs like cocaine and heroin, I don't see how decriminalizing them good possibly be a good idea. The addiction rate for these drugs is 2.5 to 3 times that of alcohol. Heroin, etc. are dangerous and they weren't just banned because of moralizers.

They did.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07...

However, how often are black boxes not recovered?

After the AF447 crash, there was a push for real-time flight data. However, the people who argued "the flight data recorder was recovered 90+% of the time, so it is unnecessary" ultimately won the argument. I had a link to a story about this from back then, but I can't find it.

Meanwhile, I found this link to a NY Times article that was written before the post-AF447 real-time flight data discussion was settled. It seems that we keep having the same discussion over and over again.

>> you'll bet that he comes out looking stellar in his state-controlled media

Not just that. That even "our media" will pick up on Russia winning and the west losing. For example:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/... ...etc.

TSA is on right on that...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08...

Setting aside Apple for the moment, there's nothing "theoretical" about Amazon engaging in actions of this sort. They've been doing it as long as Apple has, at least.

Using most favored nation clauses and the agency model, which is exactly what got Apple in trouble: http://www.selfpublishingrevie...
Leveraging their near-monopsony to try and gouge the publishers: http://www.teleread.com/ebooks...
Making hard-to-implement immediate demands when the publishers pushed back: http://www.thepassivevoice.com...
Delisting multiple publishers during re-negotiations: http://time.com/110412/amazon-...
Jacking shipping times from a few days to 3-5 weeks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
The author's guild is outright accusing Amazon of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/...

Spend 30 seconds Googling around. You'll be shocked at what all Amazon has already done when it comes to this industry, and it's only been getting worse in recent years. It's like looking inside the door at a sausage factory: you'd have wished you never looked.

Agreed. Problem is, the deniers believe that 'Global Warming' should equate to a nice, linear rise in temperature... any deviation or, heaven forbid, a drop in average temperature is automatically assumed by these individuals as proof that the Climate Change position is invalid. Also, the media does it's share of sensationalizing by immediately blaming 'Global Warming' whenever a particularly nasty event occurs, such as a tornado outbreak, flash flood or hurricane. There are 'nice, linear effects', but you have to look for them. A good example is this article about chronic flooding in Miami Beach, FL. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05... An 8" rise in sea level since 1870 may not seem worrisome, until you take into consideration that most of Miami's real estate is at or slightly above sea level. Current estimates are that sea level will rise from one to four feet by the end of this century, displacing thousands.

Don't forget our illustrious governor, who refuses to communicate with his staff via email, favoring phone calls and Blackberry Pin-to-Pin messaging instead, so as to sidestep records laws. I'm glad he's kept up on his promise to be the most transparent administration in state history. http://www.nydailynews.com/new... http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07...

The stores you mention are failing because they sell to the middle class. They are a barometer of the health of our middle class.

It has a lot to do with government.

Over the past few decades, unions have lost much power, the tax laws have been written to favor the wealthy, business regulation has been reduced, and add in offshoring (tax breaks there) and automation, and we are seeing the middle class get eroded.

The wealth disparity in this country is destroying it and businesses - at least big business - do not care because the USA is only maybe half of their revenue. They do not care if we go broke because foreign markets are growing to compensate. That is why corp profits are at record level while we are stagnate here.

Do not let the policy makers fool you - we ARE recovered. There is NO economic recovery because this is all there is.

Miami Beach is now having to pay hundreds of millions to mitigate actual consequences of rising seas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05...

Fortunately or unfortunately, climate change will create local effects. And those living locally will have to deal with it by either paying or moving.

Miami Beach is already paying for it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05...

This New York Times article states he arrived to work at Microsoft, from Hyderabad, India in 1992. It says nothing about any initial H1b status of his. Obviously he lives in America now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02...

Re "People with a rudimentary knowledge of international economics and politics believed any of that?
Their grandparents got mil/gov/police clearance, their parents got mil mil/gov/police clearance. Some of the second or third generation might have drifted into the private sector and became a contractor/consultant?
Or with skill and great grades you where the first to pass a full life story back ground/friends/family face to face interview.
As for 'decent knowledge of network hardware and software" look at crypto in the 1950-80's and what sold to nations and banks. It passed or was fast or was sold as an international interconnect standard. Why would a person risk their job, standing, profession, pension or a huge grant, effortless edu funding? If that failed you where a communist or spy or addict or ... until you where pushed out.
You have people with the decent knowledge of network hardware and software who just want to advance and build/design an outsourced part or maintain that optical splitter behind the locked door.
Recall the "Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s"
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09...
"Those employees sit alongside Drug Enforcement Administration agents and local detectives and supply them with the phone data from as far back as 1987."
Just tell the private sector staff a good story and all is good for decades :) The same in the UK, Australia, Canada, NZ ...

The United States Imposes Steep Tariffs on Importers of Chinese Solar Panels

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06...

The real problem here is not Amazon or books or even Google, it's the French mindset that things should never change,
Fetishing bookshops doesn't have any emotional appeal to me - they're just buildings stacked with a small and limited selection of reading materials, which inefficiently deploy land and people. Given the rise of the e-book even large chain bookshops will likely disappear over the coming decades, and who will cry for them?

The geek as cultural imperialist.

What has no value for me has no value for you.

The French have all kinds of worthwhile ideas on larger matters. This occurred to me recently when I was strolling through my museum-like neighborhood in central Paris, and realized there were --- I kid you not --- seven bookstores within a 10-minute walk of my apartment. Granted, I live in a bookish area. But still: Do the French know something about the book business that we Americans don't?

For a few bucks off and the pleasure of shopping from bed, have we handed over a precious natural resource --- our nation's books --- to an ambitious billionaire with an engineering degree?

France, meanwhile, has just unanimously passed a so-called anti-Amazon law, which says online sellers can't offer free shipping on discounted books. The new measure is part of France's effort to promote "biblio-diversity" and help independent bookstores compete. Here, there's no big bookseller with the power to suddenly turn off the spigot. People in the industry estimate that Amazon has a 10 or 12 percent share of new book sales in France. Amazon reportedly handles 70 percent of the country's online book sales, but just 18 percent of books are sold online.

The French secret is deeply un-American: fixed book prices.

Fixing book prices may sound shocking to Americans, but it's common around the world, for the same reason. In Germany, retailers aren't allowed to discount most books at all. Six of the world's 10 biggest book-selling countries --- Germany, Japan, France, Italy, Spain and South Korea --- have versions of fixed book prices.

What underlies France's book laws isn't just an economic position --- it's also a worldview. Quite simply, the French treat books as special. Some 70 percent of French people said they read at least one book last year; the average among French readers was 15 books. Readers say they trust books far more than any other medium, including newspapers and TV. The French government classifies books as an "essential good," along with electricity, bread and water. A French friend of mine runs a charity, Libraries Without Borders, which brings books to survivors of natural disasters.

The French aren't being pretentious or fetishizing bookstores. They're giving voice to something we know in America, too. "When your computer dies, you throw it away," says Mr. Montagne of the publishers' association. "But you'll remember a book 20 years later. You've deeply entered into a story that's not your own. It's forged who you are. You'll only see later how much it has affected you. You don't keep all books, but it's not a market like others. The contents of a bookcase can define who you are."

The French Do Buy Books. Real Books.

People do get killed by these things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09...

http://www.nydailynews.com/new...

I lived in NYC on and off for most of a decade and I can assure you that as a pedestrian the act of stepping into the street was a game of roulette and that yellow cabs were the greatest cause of un-safe living.

This is a common sentiment, but it has been proven to be a myth. People just think cabs are disproportionately responsible for pedestrian injuries because it's easy to lump them into a group, but you're actually roughly 6 times more likely to be seriously injured or killed in New York City by private cars. (Note that NYC has well over 100 pedestrian fatalities per year.) For more details, see here:

Throughout the city, 79 percent of the serious crashes involved private passenger cars; 13 percent involved taxis or livery cabs; 4 percent involved trucks; and 3 percent involved buses.

The story notes that at certain times of day, taxis can make up almost 50% of traffic on the streets downtown, so these numbers may imply that cabs are much safer overall than passenger cars.

Did this little act of holocaust denial ...

And which "holocaust" was that? You'll have to be more explicit about which façade you are referring to.

I'd know I'd be feeling a slight sense of discomfort if I was a hypocritical psychopathic sophist on a scale that's positively Biblical.

If you were (are) psychopathic you probably wouldn't feel a sense of discomfort, hence the label. I can't say I've detected any signs of discomfort on your part for writing the nonsense you do, like this below:

.. twinges from the rabidly Zionist part of your brain, or do you just eat more racist popcorn while watching bombs fall on Gaza?

Racist popcorn? Are you perchance "rabidly anti-Zionist"? You certainly seem to have a sort of European slant to your thinking on these matters.

The NSA and GCHQ have always wanted more info on China.

Isn't turnabout is fair play?.

China's Growing Spy Threat

But according to analysts and officials, the communist-controlled People’s Republic of China operates the single largest intelligence-gathering apparatus in the world—and its growing appetite for secrets has apparently become insatiable.

From economic and military espionage to keeping tabs on exiled dissidents, China’s global spying operations are rapidly expanding. And, therefore, so is the threat. Some analysts even argue the regime—which is also gobbling up such key natural resources as farmland, energy, and minerals—has an eye on dominating the world.

Estimates on the number of spies and agents employed by the communist state vary widely. According to public statements by French author and investigative journalist Roger Faligot, who has written several books about the regime’s security services, there are around two million Chinese working directly or indirectly for China’s intelligence apparatus.

Other analysts say it would be impossible to count the exact number. ‘I doubt they know themselves,’ says Richard Fisher, a senior fellow on Asian military affairs at the Washington-based International Assessment and Strategy Center. Regardless, the number is undoubtedly extraordinary. ‘China can rightly claim to have the world’s largest, most amorphous, but also most active intelligence sector,’ he says.

Russia, China engaging in industrial espionage

Germany is full of Russian and Chinese spies working to get information about top business and technology developments, according to the country’s domestic intelligence service.

Studies show that the German economy loses around €50 billion a year as a consequence, Burkhard Even, head of the counterintelligence section of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, told the audience at a recent security forum in Bonn. . . .

There are around 80,000 Chinese people living in Germany, Even said, many of whom are commercial spies. China is also buying into, or taking over companies completely, in order to get access to new technological developments. . . . . . the Chinese were mostly active in the electronic sector. Some reports suggest the Chinese intelligence services have up to a million agents across the world collecting technical and business data to support their industries.

"It is estimated that at least 20 Foreign intelligence services are operating to some degree against UK interests. Of greatest concern are the Russians and Chinese. The number of Russian intelligence officers in London has not fallen since the Soviet times."
 

Britain Warned Businesses of Threat of Chinese Spying

Canada a target-rich environment for Chinese spies

Officials say Chinese spies have targeted every sector of the U.S. economy

You're just like Fox News now.

Sure. Because the honest and straight-shooting New York Times and MSNBC would publish — indeed, revel in — every piece of bad news...

As long a Republican can be blamed for it — justly or otherwise — of course...

Iraq, for example, was a "quagmire" in 2003 — when the enemy was defeated and on the run. And so it was in 2006, when only minor insurrections remained. But it is not a quagmire today — with the enemy having recaptured vast swaths of the country — the same sophisticated publication is advising us on how to avoid the disaster, not admitting, is has already happened — with the Nobel Peace Prize winner at the helm and a direct result of his decisions and orders.

You're just like Fox News now.

Sure. Because the honest and straight-shooting New York Times and MSNBC would publish — indeed, revel in — every piece of bad news...

As long a Republican can be blamed for it — justly or otherwise — of course...

Iraq, for example, was a "quagmire" in 2003 — when the enemy was defeated and on the run. And so it was in 2006, when only minor insurrections remained. But it is not a quagmire today — with the enemy having recaptured vast swaths of the country — the same sophisticated publication is advising us on how to avoid the disaster, not admitting, is has already happened — with the Nobel Peace Prize winner at the helm and a direct result of his decisions and orders.

You're just like Fox News now.

Sure. Because the honest and straight-shooting New York Times and MSNBC would publish — indeed, revel in — every piece of bad news...

As long a Republican can be blamed for it — justly or otherwise — of course...

Iraq, for example, was a "quagmire" in 2003 — when the enemy was defeated and on the run. And so it was in 2006, when only minor insurrections remained. But it is not a quagmire today — with the enemy having recaptured vast swaths of the country — the same sophisticated publication is advising us on how to avoid the disaster, not admitting, is has already happened — with the Nobel Peace Prize winner at the helm and a direct result of his decisions and orders.

I have serious doubts about your statement, considering how contested Franken's election victory was, and for how long, not to mention how close.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01...

Moron. If you check TFA link in the first Slashdot post about this story you'll read this:

The son of a Russian lawmaker has been arrested by the U.S. on charges of selling credit card information he stole by hacking into the computers of American retailers.

Roman Seleznev, 30, was arrested overseas by the U.S. Secret Service on July 5 and was ordered detained today during a hearing in federal court in Guam, the Justice Department said in a statement.

And there's this:

It was not yet clear how the Secret Service arrested Mr. Seleznev, and the United States attorney’s office in Washington State declined to elaborate.

and this:

The United States Justice Department has been conspicuously tight-lipped about the details of Roman Seleznev’s arrest, other than to say he was arrested in Guam on Saturday on charges that he hacked into retailers across the United States from 2009 to 2011.

So if anyone got the wrong idea about how the arrest went down, if the US's fucking fault.

Moron. If you check TFA link in the first Slashdot post about this story you'll read this:

The son of a Russian lawmaker has been arrested by the U.S. on charges of selling credit card information he stole by hacking into the computers of American retailers.

Roman Seleznev, 30, was arrested overseas by the U.S. Secret Service on July 5 and was ordered detained today during a hearing in federal court in Guam, the Justice Department said in a statement.

And there's this:

It was not yet clear how the Secret Service arrested Mr. Seleznev, and the United States attorney’s office in Washington State declined to elaborate.

and this:

The United States Justice Department has been conspicuously tight-lipped about the details of Roman Seleznev’s arrest, other than to say he was arrested in Guam on Saturday on charges that he hacked into retailers across the United States from 2009 to 2011.

So if anyone got the wrong idea about how the arrest went down, if the US's fucking fault.

I don't know what makes you think that Republicans believe in pretty much any of the things you are asserting.

Go ahead and state your claim, and we'll see. So far you've earned 0 points for argument by farting upwind.

I'm up one citation on you, here's another: those officials resigned without charge, seems all them "tough on crime" Republican AGs just couldn't be assed do to jack shit. Bush's AG couldn't be bothered with it either. 3-0, suckah, show me where Republicans gave a damn about gay prison rape of boys or men.

Trillions on war in Iraq? Afghanistan? Ring any bells? Do I have to provide links to both the budgeted and non-budgeted costs of these wars? Fine then, Iraq alone totaled $823 billion up to 2011. All in all we're going to pay 4 trillion for Bush's little expedition. Damn Obummer for cutting them short!

War on drugs? Wow, where do I start? After decades of "winning" the "war on drugs" the GOP just reversed course last convention. So yeah, any day now, we'll be getting magic brownies at the local starbucks. It'll remain to be seen if they'll stay on this course, or if they'll turn their hypocrisy drive to maximum thrust and change direction again once they are in charge and are no longer using it as a states rights plank to beat Obama for refusing to stop enforcing federal law over states' legalization efforts. (I'm sure Boehner's got federal decriminalization on the agenda... somewhere.. right? Right? ... Bueller?)

While I'm on a roll, tell me, "as a Republican", which of these sentences you believe are true:

1) Unions force companies to sign contracts they can't afford.
2) Bankers force homeowners to sign contracts they can't afford.

Question 2:

Who deported more illegal immigrants? GWB or Obama? Go ahead, take your time. While you stick some plugs in to stop the smoke leaking out your ears, peruse the various tea party talking head blogs whining about how the Republicans are lenient on immigration, that might help you guess.

Lightning Round!

Who was the Republican bitch that thinks we're doing enough to deal with wrongly imprisoned innocent people, and that we should be happy to be paying our tax dollars to feed and shelter these people and paying even more tax dollars when the Republican prosecutors fighting to keep them in jail finally run out of appeals and the innocent get a huge check cut from the government? Did you answer Republican Joan Huffman? Quote: "Texas has done a really good job to do what we can to compensate exonerees". Ka-Ching! Of course, how can handing out OUR tax money give someone back those lost years of freedom and gay rape? At least the prosecutor feels terrible. Surely between feeling sad and an appointment by Republican Rick Perry he has been punished enough for obstruction of justice in a case where holding the wrong man prisoner for years allowed the criminal to kill again?

Is this, as a Democrat, actually an issue for you?

What's that? Speak up sonny, all that "with us or against us!!!1!" shouting's got my ears ringing. You saying something about how Bush should be allowed to use executive orders to stick electrodes wherever the fuck he wants and damn Congress's Constitutional mandate to regulate the armed forces?

I don't know what makes you think that Republicans believe in pretty much any of the things you are asserting.

Go ahead and state your claim, and we'll see. So far you've earned 0 points for argument by farting upwind.

I'm up one citation on you, here's another: those officials resigned without charge, seems all them "tough on crime" Republican AGs just couldn't be assed do to jack shit. Bush's AG couldn't be bothered with it either. 3-0, suckah, show me where Republicans gave a damn about gay prison rape of boys or men.

Trillions on war in Iraq? Afghanistan? Ring any bells? Do I have to provide links to both the budgeted and non-budgeted costs of these wars? Fine then, Iraq alone totaled $823 billion up to 2011. All in all we're going to pay 4 trillion for Bush's little expedition. Damn Obummer for cutting them short!

War on drugs? Wow, where do I start? After decades of "winning" the "war on drugs" the GOP just reversed course last convention. So yeah, any day now, we'll be getting magic brownies at the local starbucks. It'll remain to be seen if they'll stay on this course, or if they'll turn their hypocrisy drive to maximum thrust and change direction again once they are in charge and are no longer using it as a states rights plank to beat Obama for refusing to stop enforcing federal law over states' legalization efforts. (I'm sure Boehner's got federal decriminalization on the agenda... somewhere.. right? Right? ... Bueller?)

While I'm on a roll, tell me, "as a Republican", which of these sentences you believe are true:

1) Unions force companies to sign contracts they can't afford.
2) Bankers force homeowners to sign contracts they can't afford.

Question 2:

Who deported more illegal immigrants? GWB or Obama? Go ahead, take your time. While you stick some plugs in to stop the smoke leaking out your ears, peruse the various tea party talking head blogs whining about how the Republicans are lenient on immigration, that might help you guess.

Lightning Round!

Who was the Republican bitch that thinks we're doing enough to deal with wrongly imprisoned innocent people, and that we should be happy to be paying our tax dollars to feed and shelter these people and paying even more tax dollars when the Republican prosecutors fighting to keep them in jail finally run out of appeals and the innocent get a huge check cut from the government? Did you answer Republican Joan Huffman? Quote: "Texas has done a really good job to do what we can to compensate exonerees". Ka-Ching! Of course, how can handing out OUR tax money give someone back those lost years of freedom and gay rape? At least the prosecutor feels terrible. Surely between feeling sad and an appointment by Republican Rick Perry he has been punished enough for obstruction of justice in a case where holding the wrong man prisoner for years allowed the criminal to kill again?

Is this, as a Democrat, actually an issue for you?

What's that? Speak up sonny, all that "with us or against us!!!1!" shouting's got my ears ringing. You saying something about how Bush should be allowed to use executive orders to stick electrodes wherever the fuck he wants and damn Congress's Constitutional mandate to regulate the armed forces?

What's often left off of these reports is amount that student aid has also grown over time. Few people pay the full sticker price.
The college board trends does have a chart of this, but unfortunately it wasn't adjusted for inflation.

See:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10...

For example, at University of California, half of the students pay no tuition at all. Of, over the years room and board is consistently more expensive than tuition and fees as the college board figures show.

New York still hasn't flooded

Are you sure about that? I mean sure not reading the article is pretty common on Slashdot but not reading your own sources is pretty lame. The article you linked says that New York will experience more flooding under storm conditions. The top category of flooding in my linked article for the flooding damager during Hurricane Sandy in New York City is 6-18 feet of water, because the top recorded flooding level was a little over 17 feet of water. There seems to be more than a few buildings in that top category. And the article says the average flooding level in New York city will rise by an estimated 4 feet of water by 2032 (20 years after the article was published). I don't see how that can be considered good evidence for your claims no matter how I look at the issue.

Didn't New York flood last year? http://www.nytimes.com/newsgra...

And yet, when Mueller was funded by kock brothers, he changed from a well-known skeptic to a believer. Why? Because the data showed him that it was the ONLY possible answer.

... For me, they've gone so far into the micromanagement that the game just isn't fun at all, it's tedious.

And that's exactly why I stopped playing Dwarf Fortress (when DF2010 came out). I did my best in my blog to give concrete examples of said micromanagement but it's very hard to articulate the annoyances 1) given the "cult" following this game has, and 2) to someone who has never played the game before.

It wasn't until earlier this year when I read a New York Times interview with Tarn and Zach Adams that I realised these fellows actually have a serious problem -- and it isn't DF, but (to me) explains why DF is the way it is. (Maybe it's because I'm also from the Pacific Northwest, I don't know...)

A Dutch colleague of mine paraphrased the situation some months ago: "Dwarf Fortress: where you need helper programs to actually play the game."

Skepticism about AGW catastrophism is rampant among the world's scientists at large (physicists, biologists, etc.), and many climate scientists have been cautiously coming out of the closet and poking sticks at the shaky foundations as well.

Cool. Please show us links to back this up.
OTOH, I can show you links that claim otherwise.
Heck, here is Richard Muller who lead the charge against AGW, who upon funding from the kock brothers, changed position.