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Link for anyone that didn't hear about this.

Judge rejects Samsung's request to lift ban on U.S. tablet sales

(Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Monday rejected a request by South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. to lift a ban on U.S. sales of its Galaxy Tab 10.1, a tablet computer that competes with Apple Inc.'s iPad.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/03/us-apple-samsung-stay-idUSBRE86201G20120703?

Judge Koh deals next blow to Samsung, denies all 12 of its summary judgment requests against Apple Sunday, July 1, 2012
“On Saturday, Judge Koh denied the entirety of a comprehensive summary judgment motion that Samsung brought in May,”

http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/07/judge-koh-deals-next-blow-to-samsung.html

Gold:
[_] Cashless
[x] High-Value
[x] Anonymous

You're really referring to fiat currency and not cash-carrying in a broad sense. Although given that the penny's metal now has intrinsically more value than its decree, anything can change. Imagine how valuable paper bills would become if some catastrophe destroyed the world's forests? (Let's assume it also destroys book scanners. ;)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krugerrand#History
http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2011/07/13/bernanke-fights-ron-paul-in-congress-golds-not-money/
http://archive.mises.org/19274/central-banks-gold-is-money/

But it can work.
http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2012/04/27/can-gold-be-used-as-a-currency/

You will note that in his Ruling, Roberts said that the conservative wing made the same argument as you did, namely, that the law was labeled incorrectly.

And as Roberts wisely stated, it's pretty silly to argue that you should strike down a law because of it being mislabeled, rather than for the effect of the law.

Roberts also stated that its ok to impose this tax because the government won't ever throw you in jail for not paying this penalty. And we all know the IRS never puts people in prison for non payment of taxes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Capone#Conviction_and_imprisonment, http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/19/us-snipes-idUSTRE6AI42J20101119, ad nausem.

This is a perfect example of a factoid and of Apple fans unability to read whatever doesn't match their preferred view.

Koh frequently remarked on the similarity between each company's tablets. At one point during the hearing, she held one black glass tablet in each hand above her head, and asked Sullivan if she could identify which company produced which.

"Not at this distance your honor," said Sullivan, who stood at a podium roughly ten feet away.

"Can any of Samsung's lawyers tell me which one is Samsung and which one is Apple?" Koh asked. A moment later, one of the lawyers supplied the right answer.

Seems the Apple reality distortion field didn't die with Jobs. What really happened is that the lawyers the judge was questioning said he couldn't tell them apart, but when the judge asked if the others could, another quickly supplied the correct answer. In other words, they could tell the difference.

Did the lawyer who guessed correctly guess? It's a 50-50 shot that could save their case, so it would have been reasonable to do so. But maybe he didn't... in which case, why was it just a simple "that one" rather than a description of the distinct features that led to the conclusion?
See, what really matters is that the judge couldn't tell them apart and thought that a reasonable person couldn't tell them apart either. That Samsung's lawyers, who had meticulously poured over details of both the iPad and the Galaxy Tab, couldn't immediately say "yes, your honor, the Tab has features x, y, z that are distinctive from the iPad" was what doomed them.

But of course what really happened is rather inconvenient for Apple fans' theory that the Galaxy Tab's design must be a ripoff of the iPad, instead of taking its design cues from another Samsung product.

Not so much.

It matters because future Samsung products will be designed to not look so identical to an iPad that their own lawyers can't even tell them apart (in court they couldn't tell the difference between their own products and an iPad).

Seems the Apple reality distortion field didn't die with Jobs. What really happened is that the lawyers the judge was questioning said he couldn't tell them apart, but when the judge asked if the others could, another quickly supplied the correct answer. In other words, they could tell the difference.

Koh frequently remarked on the similarity between each company's tablets. At one point during the hearing, she held one black glass tablet in each hand above her head, and asked Sullivan if she could identify which company produced which.

"Not at this distance your honor," said Sullivan, who stood at a podium roughly ten feet away.

"Can any of Samsung's lawyers tell me which one is Samsung and which one is Apple?" Koh asked. A moment later, one of the lawyers supplied the right answer.

But of course what really happened is rather inconvenient for Apple fans' theory that the Galaxy Tab's design must be a ripoff of the iPad, instead of taking its design cues from another Samsung product. So that last sentence gets cut out from their retelling of the story, thus creating an alternate reality which better fits their predetermined view.

As for the lawyer who couldn't tell them apart, she's in her mid 50s, so probably doesn't have the best eyesight.

Look the purpose of the stock market is to facilitate the trading of securities. The societal good of that is that it frees up and allocates money to companies that are producing more value , or doing it more efficiently. This is a way to reward smart companies and incentivize new technologies.

This shit has nothing to do with any of that. They're gaming the system for a purpose to which it was never meant to be put and further, they're endangering everyone else while they're at it. Those are just the facts.. none of that was my opinion.

This is where Citizen United matters a lot . Romney is promising to re-Bushify the stock market if he gets elected. That means Wall Street is going Romney. That means huge sums of money are being poured into his campaign and if he wins , the market stands a good chance of cratering the economy again.

Greed has located a positive feedback loop and is exploiting it in a predictably greedy fashion.

The thing is, this is obviously reckless and has nothing to do with free markets. It's as if we threw away any concept of a social good except the servicing of the impulses of richest greediest people our society can produce.

Greed is an innate flaw in human thinking under most circumstances. It's not some magic rocket fuel that impels society towards greater wealth and innovation. That's a bullshit narrative told to you by drug addicts who don't want to be separated from their drug . And nothing more.

The thing is, the fanaticism on the right is also in a positive feedback loop with the right wing noise machine. Even though their economic deregulatory policies cratered the economy, they are taught how to deny that fact by the right wing noise machine. This clears them to vote more of the same into office.

We've effectively turned our economy over to people with a a group of compulsive gamblers and risk junkies. This is a completely different thing than supporting risk taking entrepreneurs.

Look societies live, grow and die. They die because they become captive to an entrenched minority who games the social cultural political system and secures for itself some positive feedback loop that reinforces their power and permits them to write the rules of society to their personal, narrow advantage. Thenceforward, at every decision point, their local, short terms needs are serviced first and in our case, almost exclusively.

We may be living in a dying society that will catastrophically implode . Our refusal to address global warming in more of the same dynamic with the oil and coal companies finding a positive feedback loop in their campaign contributions and right wing noise machine.

Citizen's United matters more than you think. SCOTUS overturned a hundred years of hard won lessons about politics and money and democracy this week in their Montana decision , which is nothing more than en extension of their Citizen's United decision. This from a political wing which claims to abhor the ideologically driven, no-nothing meddling of Big Government into the policies of the States and of business and other boots-on-the-ground forms of hard won, real world knowledge.

Money isn't speech and corporations aren't people. These are two more -in-your-face patent absurdities that future generations, if there are any, will laugh out loud at in middle school classes and serve as the Cliff Notes on Why America Collapsed 101.

You have to understand that rational thinking and reasoning about even the basic, obvious facts of the world does NOT come naturally to people. As proof of this I offer a recent story about an ongoing cause for mass murder in Africa- Penis Shrinkage Through Sorcery.

I 'll link to the Reuters story because otherwise you might suppose I am accidentally reporting satire.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/04/23/us-witchcraft-idUSN2319603620080423

Long story short, m

There's little point at taking the claims in press release like this at face value, even those of the better-quality reuters article http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/06/21/uk-iran-cyber-nuclear-idUKBRE85K1EG20120621

About the last thing any government will do is to publicly release accurate details --or even accurate general-but-vague statements-- about an attack on a sensitive/classified program, or their response to such an attack. Going into detail about an attack risks providing useful information to one's opponent about how successful the attack was, and how they might need to modify it to improve the next one. Accurately describing your response to an attack --even if just to say that the attack was unable to defeat the "necessary security measures" you took-- will similarly divulge information about your defensive capabilities.

These kinds of releases are simply designed to shape public opinion. Any correlation to the reality of a given situation will simply be incidental. You'd be better off basing your purchases solely upon the information you glean from advertisements.

The linked site seems to easily exceed its bandwidth and the article is also quite bad.
Here's a better one from Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/05/china-austria-idUSL3E8H42VJ20120605

For those who understand German or just want to see a short video of the Chinese copy of Hallstatt:
http://www.spiegel.de/video/china-baut-oesterreichischen-ort-hallstatt-nach-video-1200461.html

In related news, Jewbags sue ConAgra because their line of Jew dogs aren't Jewish enough.

In related news, Jewbags sue ConAgra because their line of Jew dogs aren't Jewish enough.

In related news, Jewbags sue ConAgra because their line of Jew dogs aren't Jewish enough.

Because obviously, Israel's the world's biggest problem, or even Palestinian's biggest problem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_the_Palestinian_National_Authority) and not e.g. it's north neighbor Syria http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/11/us-syria-crisis-massacres-idUSBRE85A1DY20120611 or Eritrea - http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/06/18/us-eritrea-rights-idUSBRE85H0V520120618 or any other part of the world.

But of course, the neo-antisemites are now talking about "Respect for U.N. resolutions" as a way to hide their racism. Same UN they will gladly dismiss when it attempts to take a grab at the internet

I am so tired of your despicable lot...

This article from Reuters says 1,000...

Google: government requests to censor content "alarming"

Also, this all stems from Google's own blog/press release: More transparency into government requests

I was under the impression that "private contractors" had something to do with "shrinking genitalia." Which would also be somewhat effective.

Indeed.

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital
Benin alert over 'penis theft' panic
Journalist Tracks Rumors Of Penis Thievery

---
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything." -- GK Chesterton

Japanese are printing Yen like crazy, it should be much stronger than it is today and prices in Japan must be much lower than they are today and there should be restructuring.

Looking at relative values between currencies ALL of which are being debased is useless.

Here is an example of their printing plan: 4 year printing plan that started in 2001

Here is part of their plan description from 2010

Here is the result of the third time BoJ 'eased' in August 2011

Here is some more in October 2011

2012, April, the headline is: "BoJ will print as much as it takes."

May, 2012

They are constantly running 'Quantitative Easing' programs, you can even refer to wiki - fourth paragraph in that chapter.

Monsanto owns a patent on those genes and courts ruled that this is a violation of Monsanto's patents, even if the contamination is accidental.

Why, oh, why didn't you use your examples of that earlier this year?
Oh, what is that on the WP page you linked to?

He had used Roundup herbicide to clear weeds[...] and noticed that some of the canola which had been sprayed had survived. Schmeiser then performed a test by applying Roundup [...]. He found that 60% of the canola plants survived. At harvest time, Schmeiser instructed a farmhand to harvest the test field. That seed was stored separately from the rest of the harvest, and used the next year to seed approximately 1,000 acres (4 km) of canola.

So he DID know that his plants was contaminated, and made sure he planted those seeds? It's almost as if the claims in your post are not based on anything.

you can be sued by a big corporation because of something perfectly legal your neighbor did

I agree with that. However, if you look at any high profile case where a farmer was sued, the Schmeiser case, the Parr case, the Roush case, the Rinehart case, the Ralph case, ect., you find that when charges were pressed there was more than simple cross pollination occurring. I've often asked people who make that claim to direct me to a case where it actually happened but every time deeper investigation reveals it did not (though if that's not the case I'd rather have my foot in my mouth than go uncorrected). The lawsuits come from one of two sources: either someone signed a contract agreeing not to save seed, then did anyway, or someone was cross pollinated and was found to have intentionally selected for the trait. Don't do either of those and you don't get sued. So, the patent violation angle really doesn't pan out very well as an argument for keeping GE crops in a glass bubble. If you are talking about what courts should find, here's what they did find: a recent lawsuit filed against Monsanto, suing them to prevent Monsanto from suing farmers for cross pollination, was dismissed on the grounds that it does not happen. If it did happen it would be a concern, no one disagrees with that, however, whether or not it actually happens is important.

I doubt you'll see sterile crops after the uproar over the terminator gene, despite it being able to prevent cross pollination issues. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-green-tech-program-that-backed-solyndra-struggles-to-create-jobs/2011/09/07/gIQA9Zs3SK_story.html

http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2009/12/07/cost-benefit-analysis-of-jobs-stimulus/

http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/jeffreeves/2011/09/03/cbo_cost_per_job_between_$196,750_and_$562,000

http://investinginkids.net/2011/08/24/cost-effective-short-term-job-creation-policies/

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/columns/why-government-cant-create-jobs/

In other words, there is plenty of information out there that clearly shows how inefficient government is at creating jobs. Governments can't help people get jobs, it only gets in the way of people getting jobs. Want to create jobs, let businesses hire people without regulatory red tape and high costs (taxes).

"Western Cowards killing our Countrymen with Aerial Toys".

Hypocritical whinging from zealots who hide in mosques, impose themselves on the homes of non combatants or hide in and attack from a civilian population. Veiled suicide bomber kills four French soldiers in Afghanistan

Wrong. Samsung makes more money by delivering parts to Apple than by it's own handset group.
A cool 6 Billion by Apple.

6 Billion in revenue in low-margin hardware parts vs 5.2 Billion in profit in a single quarter?

You're a fucking idiot.

It had more to do with the EU forcing Microsoft to do it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/12/20/us-microsoft-samba-eu-idUSBRU00620820071220

The Commission ruled in 2004 that Microsoft (MSFT.O) must provide interconnection information letting rival server companies operate as smoothly with Microsoft Windows desktop machines as Microsoft's own server software.

The deal signed in the United States by the non-profit Protocol Freedom Information Foundation was focused on helping Samba, a non-profit maker of free, open source server software.

"The agreement allows us to keep Samba up to date with recent changes in Microsoft Windows, and also helps other Free Software projects that need to interoperate with Windows", said Andrew Tridgell, creator of Samba.

Yes, because "anti-religious bigots" are imagining things like this:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/us-usa-education-tennessee-idUSBRE83C0JR20120413

The fact of the matter is that a relatively small number of fringe religious lunatics are wielding a HUGELY disproportionate amount of influence in American politics in general (and with respect to "evolution vs creationsim" in schools in particular, to make it relevant to this thread).

Do you honestly think we're better off with public policy decisions being grounded in religious dogma?

How you got modded to 5 is beyond me. I know, it's because you're repeating the same incorrect meme's that are posted in droves to slashdot.

Wow, karma envy.

Now, on to the show. You're so full of BS it isn't funny. Let's now debunk your again tired repeated meme armchair financial analysis.

Yes, but yours very much funny, and yes I will hit you with the hard numbers to show that stiff confidence of yours its place.

Did you miss the part where the xbox and ps3 are still selling strong and are maybe what like 10 million behind.

10 Million? Where do you get your numbers? That's crazy talk. Here is the actual number as of May.

Wii 95.8 Million

360 66.9 Million

ps3 64.7 Million

I could be wrong but isn't 95.8 Million - 66.9 Million = 28.9 Million. And that's the 360 ignoring the RROD out of warranty replacements. I'd bet once those are accounted for the PS3 is even ahead of the XBox. As for the Profitability of the PS3 Sony has had a 8 or 10 years in a row at an operational loss for its gaming division. For the end of the 2012 physical year it looks like that has a 2 or 3 billion loss. That's where the "It's questionable if MS and Sony have really come out ahead of this or not given the systems cost".

As for XBox and PS3 sales being up that's just plain crazy talk. You've been drinking the MS koolaid. I believe it's laced with something nasty.
Year to date Comparisons January - May.
PS3

2009 -13.0M

2010 -13.9M

2011 - 14.1M

2012 - 4.0M

360

2009 -10.0M

2010 -13.2M

2011 - 13.8M

2012 - 3.1M

Wii

2009 -21.1M

2010 -17.3M

2011 - 11.5M

2012 - 2.1M

When you look at the actual number it looks like each and every system took a nose dive some time after April 25, 2011. I wonder what that was. Oh, I know, that was the Wii U announcement date. What moron is going to buy a Wii knowing that the Wii U will be out soon and cause the Wii to have another price drop. Ether you're saving for the Wii U launch or your waiting for a price drop.

Can't blame that on Japan. Sales were down like 73%. You don't think that has ANY part in the fact that they lost $950 MILLION

Yes I can. Try reading something relevant. I mean really, how is a supply chain disruption not supposed to kill your margin. Honestly, if the tsunami never happened Nintendo's little misstep with the 3DS price point would have been completely erased by the end of the year. They made a little mistake at launch and they corrected it properly. That'll teach them not to listen to the E3 reporters and raise their price point 100 bucks. The tsunami also stopped game development for just about every Japanese developer. That little side effect is only now trickling down since game development take over year so the 20% drop in released games can be tied to it and the Wii U announcement. Since who's going to develop for the Wii when they know the Wii U is just around the corner.

The thinking is that these people supported stupid policies that transformed California from the nation's envy to Greece with a Valley Girl accent... I've got friends there that are worried about Californians coming to Texas for the jobs, and then trying to turn Texas into California.

You and your friends need to turn off Fox News and learn a little bit about the real world. The Greece crack is obviously about the state's budget deficit.

Two points - Texas budget deficit is even larger as percentage of its economy and budget, and a close second in absolute size (i.e. Texas gets off the hook there only by not being the biggest in population): http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/04/us-usa-deficits-states-idUSTRE71314420110204

Second the primary problem for California's budget is due to the actions of the right-wing which have ham-strung the states ability to raise revenues. This began with Prop 13 in the 1970s, which though pitched as relief for home owners has had the effect of nearly zero-ing out tax revenue from commercial property which never changes hands, and is thus taxed at low rate, and at inflation-unadjusted 1970s property values. this makes the state budget very sensitive to recessions, since this stable source of revenue has disappeared. And then we have the conservative 2/3 majority requirement to raise any taxes at all, and a republican minority that holds barely enough votes (and vote lockstep) against any tax increase for any reason.

And it is right-wing policies that have essentially starved California's higher education system, which is now essentially a state-run privately funded university, with little support from state revenues. Free education for the top 10% of California students vanished more than a generation ago.

And no, California is not a high tax state. It is a moderate tax state, Its overall tax burden is in the middle third of states.

Except this is already policy in the United States. All computer programs that are "works of the United States Government" enter the public domain upon publication.

maybe that was wishful thinking but then why is the Federal Reserve Bank/ US Treasury prosecuting and convicting people and getting them to admit to "theft" of public domain stuff (some accounting program)?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/29/usa-crime-fed-idUSL1E8GTBG120120529
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-18/man-said-to-be-charged-by-u-s-in-federal-government-computer-data-theft.html

The first step of organization is disorganization...
1. Establish credibility to overcome suspicion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_Bol%C3%ADvar_2000 and "The revolution will not be televised"...
2. Bait opponents into reacting http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/17/us-venezuela-gold-idUSTRE77G53L20110817 and Ban the opposition http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/19/world/americas/19venez.html?_r=1
3. the next logical step ???
4. Profit!!!
Remember, the ends justifies the means...

The first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer.

The real, long-term prospect for anyone living in the Fukushima shadow is too horrible to contemplate.

Yeah. Maybe 0.4 extra people will statistically get cancer 30 years from now that wouldn't have gotten it anyway. Oh wait, I've contemplated it.

The new, official story - just made public - is that the initial release from TEPCO was 2.5 X higher than was admitted at the time. If this is what they are recalcitrantly admitting to, after incontrovertible evidence, how bad is it really? After all, the utility and the government both demonstrate they cannot be trusted to prefer health and safety over saving-face.

So? Buy a phone and whistle past the graveyard...

Did you even read the article you linked to? "Because radiation sensors closest to the plant were knocked out by the March 11, 2011 quake and the tsunami, the utility based its estimate on other monitoring posts and data collected by Japanese government agencies." This isn't some grand conspiracy of people trying to save face, it's about not having information because their sensors were knocked out. They were able to gather more data since.

By the way, even 2.5x the original estimate is really no big deal. Now it will approximate the yearly dose from natural potassium in the body.

This phone is a ruse, to captalise by make people think they can manage this. In other words, it is a comfort item, not an actual safety measure.

It also works as a propaganda item. "Testing radiation levels is the new normal, it's even on my phone, see!" The management of public perception is far easier than the management of spent fuel in reactor 4.

The real, long-term prospect for anyone living in the Fukushima shadow is too horrible to contemplate.

The new, official story - just made public - is that the initial release from TEPCO was 2.5 X higher than was admitted at the time. If this is what they are recalcitrantly admitting to, after incontrovertible evidence, how bad is it really? After all, the utility and the government both demonstrate they cannot be trusted to prefer health and safety over saving-face.

So? Buy a phone and whistle past the graveyard...

Thanks for the info -- very informative. Apparently FB sinking was quite profitable for Morgan Stanley. Now I'm sad :-(

Great, my html is lacking.

First article:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-sea-level-ice-idUSBRE82R13E20120329

Second article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/20/world-aquifers-rising-sea-levels

Sometimes, I make myself weep.

I understood the writeup very well. It goes directly to the heart of the debate, for me at least.

The global climate change issue has morphed from a brief global cooling 'scare', to global warming debate, and now global climate 'change'. During these changing arguments, I've become convinced of these beliefs:

1- Many parties have ulterior or hiden motives. These vary from wanting to advance their cultural or political policies to wanting to prevail in a factual or scientific debate, and others. I also have an ulterior motive in this debate, and of course I see mine as honest and true, and of course just as I assume everyone else does.

2- All parties seem prepared to use whatever eivdence supports their motives, and discredit the rest. Just as the writeup would suggest.

3- This is not new, and is (I propose) evident beyond contradiction to anyone who engages in minimal critical analysis of the issue. If it wasn't evident to you earlier, you are not paying attention, or not trying very hard at all.

4- Many parties purposefully either fabricate or embellish the evidence they present to make their case. Some do so despite knowing of contrary evidence, and some simply refuse to consider any other evidence at all.

5- Many who make their eivdence fit the argument have good intentions, and seem genuinely to not understand why others, seeing this, tend to mistrust their argument entirely.

Early on, when 'cooling' became 'warming', I started asking why this was so important. And one of the first things I learned was that many who joined the debate and believed that warming was occurring, and that it was man-caused, and could 'only' be solved by reducing our impact on the planet, was that they already wanted us to 'reduce our impact' on the planet, and this was the latest and hopefully (for them) conclusive argument . Scientists rarely like to admit mistakes (neither do I) so many climatologists are engaged in futher analysis of their data to make it fit when reality doesn't quite match with their predictions. Looking at the work done to adjust, normalize, and clean up this data to make it fit leaves me, in particular distrustful of their process.

Now we read some articles on ice melt, , and I'm left wondering how this could have occurred 14,000 years ago before industrialization, and if it could be happening now for those reasons, and nothing we can do would stop it. And the article I linked to doesn't explain much at all. And then this article blames fresh water consumption. We fix this by what, reducing population? Or just becoming more efficient users? Population growth wipes out all but the most aggressive and costly conservation, and then only if we ignore the developing world.

So this dovetails nicely into the anti-capitalist/industrial/consumer movement's goals, and the anti-population growth movement similarly will love this. Basically, they love anything bad for me. I'm just part of the 98% in America trying to get along, doing infinitely better than 90% of the rest of the world. I have a roof to sleep under, and something to keep me off the ground when I do - that makes me better off then most of the world. Add in my access to safe drinking water, and I probably do better than 95% or more of the world. My big complaint is how thick my steaks are.

So I do come to the debate with a very strong 'prove it!' attitude, and when the climate change proponents/worriers are so often aligned with the movements to take from me as much as they can, I rationally (if not logically) react with caution. Actually, skepticism, tainted with outright rejection. these groups can make no scientific argument - they are not motiviated by science.

And the scientists are largely so invested in protecting their reputations that I consider their arguments self-serving at best.

If warming is real, and we can stop it, I'm also conce

The US might even consider leaving such "features" in for their co-partners on the Joint Strike Fighter program to not know about. http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/11/24/us-lockheed-fighter-exclusive-idUSTRE5AN4JX20091124 Is that a good thing? Well, not when others have the source code too. Then it become a liability. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124027491029837401.html

And perhaps another 3 trillion dollars or more.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/29/us-usa-war-idUSTRE75S25320110629

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/25/voerde-insolvency-idUSL5E8GP8ZR20120525

That's second or third biggest aluminium producer in Germany, if I recall correctly. Remember kids, the more solar electricity Germans send to the grid, the less capacity for normal priced kinds remains ("renewables" can't be switched on and off according to demand, law assures their preferential treatment). Also, if you're from Poland or Czech Republic, kids, you're gonna pay for German ideology too, even if your government's folly wasn't that great (well, it was, German stupidity was just additional cherry on top of this shit cake).

Germany's most certainly not abandoning old gas plants (but maybe some were retired because of old age) as some good American or "Grün" tried to tell above, it's keeping them online and building new ones, same goes for coal plants on even greater scale - 14 new plants with 11 GW of installed capacity, mostly coal ones, some gas. Also it contracted reopening of already closed monsters, like Austrian mazut plant in Graz, that's right kids, mazut. But don't worry, 'tis a clean, healthy mazut, because it's backing up wind and solar, so it's okay.
Remember, it's true if Uncle Norbert says so. Oh, yeah, aunt Angie kicked his sorry ass out of gov't but we still gonna block any lowering of subsidies, as well as building of those 3600 km of high-voltage power lines, necessary for getting our grid out of state of permanent near-failure. Those Poles and Czechs will never get to installing those phase shifters nor will their grids afford to fail under overload from our sources, cause that would be BAD.

And remember: Energy Revolution is in full swing! So careful, it might hit you.

So, no, this is not about relative living standards you fucking moron, because he obviously has a far better living standard than most americans.

Based on the article and other sources I actually doubt he has a better living standard. He and his family are just more willing to "eat bitterness" than most Americans. Work long hours, earn little, spend very little, save the rest in hope for a better future. Go and see how poor people in poor countries live (or barely survive) sometime.

If all the "bleeding heart" bunch here really wanted to improve the lives of the poor exploited Chinese workers, why not let more of them leave China and move to the USA and work there? Plenty of room in the USA- you can squeeze a whole family in a typical US garage and it'll still seem spacious to them (and maybe even better furnished!).

FWIW the new generation of Chinese seem less willing to "eat bitterness": http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/06/us-china-worker-idUSBRE83504T20120406

It may be a sign that more and more workers are no longer that desperate. And with that working conditions may improve.

Or the work will go to Vietnam etc...

http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml

You think a pilot or programmer in china does not have a decent living standard? You must be oxygen starved when you were born.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/apple-foxconn-workers-idUSL3E8EU4I820120330

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/apple-economy/reporters-notebook-both-sides-gates-foxconn

Oh look - the guy, working for 3 years, can send money back to his family and support them *AND FUCKING SAVE ENOUGH TO START HIS OWN SMALL BUSINESS*.

So, no, this is not about relative living standards you fucking moron, because he obviously has a far better living standard than most americans.

Why not do some research?

http://www.worldsalaries.org/china.shtml

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/apple-foxconn-workers-idUSL3E8EU4I820120330

http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/apple-economy/reporters-notebook-both-sides-gates-foxconn

Related to this, there were rumors about a week ago that Apple had decided to place a large order for DRAM with a company other than Samsung. Samsung's market cap took a $10 billion hit that day and went down even further in the days after, while their stock price took its largest single-day plummet in the last four years.

You talk about their stock price and market cap drops as if they were two separate things.

Market cap in no way reflects a companies profitability or their balance sheet. It merely reflects what people think the company might be worth, and is VERY subject to sentiment/etc.

About the only times it really has direct relevance is if somebody wants to take over the company, or if the company wants to issue a ton of new shares.

Related to this, there were rumors about a week ago that Apple had decided to place a large order for DRAM with a company other than Samsung. Samsung's market cap took a $10 billion hit that day and went down even further in the days after, while their stock price took its largest single-day plummet in the last four years.

As far as supplies go, Samsung's are commodities that Apple can get elsewhere, with only a few exceptions. Samsung can't get business like Apple's elsewhere, however. They'd both be able to survive without the other, but I believe that Samsung would suffer more for it.

We are still not a net importer

Is that perhaps because you're extending the life of extremely polluting coal plants?

Facebook did warn underwriters of the potential lower revenues as mobiles take over, but if they didn't warn all 33, those that weren't told have a pretty strong case.

The issue is that the ban in France was even overturned by their own courts as not being scientifically based. They then tried again to get it banned throughout the entire EU and failed again.

Here is a quote;"

EuropaBio, the European biotech industry group, urged French leaders to decide "whether they want to regain their position as a leader of agricultural innovation or support an anti-science agenda that weakens Europe's competitiveness" after a judgment on Monday from Paris's highest court.

You might also want to check this out. Notice how many countries have approved the corn.

Here is an interesting piece of information from this article;

“The new ban is not justified by scientific evidence,” John Combest, a spokesman for Monsanto, said in a e-mail today. The company does not market MON810 in France because “we seek planting where we have broad farmer and government support,” Combest said.

Now why would France want to ban something not even marketed in their country? Perhaps it is that they want to protect their own seed industry at the expense of growers in other EU countries.

Take a look at this article. The EU has yet to order France to lift the ban and nothing will happen till after the election and any new government has shown its intentions. That has not happened.

To summarize, the EU reviewed the corn last year and found no issues. France banned the corn, Their own courts overturned that ban. France banned it again. France applied to get the ban applied to all EU countries. The EU declined. That is where we stand today. The French ban is still in effect but there will be no EU ban.

The scam is you will get some bullshit answer and no matter what you will not change their opinion.

This common sentiment is frustrating to hear. It always comes from people who seem to expect fast, precise responses from lumbering institutions and bureaucracies that necessarily move at a far slower pace.

Nothing big gets changed quickly. You'll never sign the one petition that finally sends things over the top, and hell while we're at it, sure your single vote doesn't really matter all that much, in the grand scheme.

Big change takes time, years, sometimes decades or even generations. Several Congresses will hold hearings, and publish reports that you and most everyone else (including those who "report" on it) will never read, material posted in the Congressional Journals or the Federal Register.

Major change requires the continuous input from multiple voices. It requires above all else persistence. If you expect that you will be able to change a federal law as easily as you can post on /., then yes you will be disappointed. That is not the useful purpose of these petitions. The purpose is to continue to increase the visibility of this issue.

Pot's been illegal for a long time. However, in the past decades we have made huge, dramatic legal changes in terms of medical marijuana. Things are changing pretty dramatically -- legal in 17 states now, a number of cities have deprioritized its enforcement, and it's getting increasingly staid and conservative people to endorse it. Only because the issue has become this visible in fact, can now even a New York Supreme Court Judge (somewhat) comfortably admit publicly to his own medical marijuana use.http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/17/us-usa-judge-marijuana-idUSBRE84G1GX20120517

Even still, it is going to take a lot more petitioning brush-offs to get there -- including ongoing efforts to petition, where the short term result effort seems to fall flat. These things do add up over time, they have been. The result you want to aim for isn't an immediate response (as great as that would be), rather it is to keep the discussion as prominent as possible.

The Suckerborg lives up to its name!

This is for suckers who want to roll boxcars, not the technical trader.

"We had some clients call and once we step them through the numbers, they sober up," he said. "The valuation is 100 times earnings in a stock market that is trading at 12."

The price has been artificially inflated through buying by Morgan Stanley - one of the underwriters.

They have been trying to sustain this since Friday, but are running out of steam.

See Cryptogon on this:
"I did watch a realtime price ticker once they finally opened it. Wow. What a show.

It came out of the gate at around $42 and people just sold the living shit out of it. These were the whale clients at firms who had access to blocks of shares before it was trading, dumping into the crowd.

We knew the issue price was $38, so I watched very carefully as it got down there for the first time. As the price dropped to exactly $38, it held there, absorbing, I don't know, millions or tens of millions of shares.

'Squid on the bid,' I actually laughed out loud.

Day traders quickly figured out that someone with infinite ammo was defending $38, so the little guys decided to party like it was 1999, taking it long for a couple of bucks, shorting it back down, where the axe would open fire again and not stop until the herd learned that there was only one way to go from $38 on the first day, and it wasn't down.

If you have tick data for FB from Friday, it would be worth replaying that on your time/sales screen to watch what happened around that $38 level. Get yourself a big bucket o' popcorn ready because the 'unseen hand of the market' put on a good one for those who knew what they were looking at."

http://cryptogon.com/?p=29242

See the video replay of High-Frequency-Trading manipulation of the 38 USD. They call it a "Tractor Beam" Ha!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrkH_WQxxEA

Looks like it actually got down to -12% within an hour of opening. From the sounds of it, NASDAQ royally screwed up this IPO and there's probably unexecuted orders lying around which is likely going to result in some very hilarious realized losses. Look, if Goldman Sachs is securing hundreds of millions of dollars in shares ahead of time and cashing out during a tech IPO, you as an individual are probably already too late the party. Of course, that's investment advice from an anonymous idiot on Slashdot but it looks like they will be one of the few parties laughing all the way to the bank (as usual).

Google and Facebook are hitting the Holy Grail of marketing. They do not advertise to generic demographics. Instead they are able to market to the individual.

Advertising is still only worth anything if the people seeing the ads actually buy stuff.

Just this week, GM pulled out of Facebook advertising, representing a loss of millions of dollars to Facebook. Here's the money quote, in every sense, from that link:

GM dropped its Facebook ads because they were less effective than other options such as Google's AdSense, the sources said. Facebook's ads garner about half the clicks per page view, a measure of effectiveness, compared with the average website.

It turns out that focussed advertising is much more valuable when it's related to something that someone is searching for or reading about right now, and people who use Facebook a lot are (shock!) not doing it because they enjoy the ads. IIRC, there was another survey reported this week, in which about half of the Facebook users questioned said they would never click a Facebook ad.

The more effective the advertising, the more money they can charge.

Exactly. And Facebook aren't doing very well on that score.

What's more, the growth in their user base so far has been based on social pressure and reaching a critical mass of users who bring their friends along with them through networking effects. There simply aren't enough people in the world for them to carry on doing that at the same rate.

Surprising, I know, but I'm in the "Are you kidding?!" camp on this one.

Personally, I wouldn't be real surprised. Realize that Israel does actively spy, and even spies on the US. http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE78645B20110907 The US actively watches for Israeli spies. I'm not sure why the rush to assume the guy's innocent. Even tyrannical dictators usually have their reasons. I doubt the arrest was terribly politically expedient and I don't know that the guy has anything Iran needs. The evidence may not be presented the way we're accustomed to in the US and the sentence might be harsh, but that doesn't mean the guy is totally clean, either. And personally, I don't trust Israel any more than I trust Iran. Both ridiculously crooked governments with crazy right-wing dictators.

Verizon cannot be facing a near-term spectrum shortage. Verizon asked the FCC for permission to sell 12 MHz of spectrum they arent using http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/18/us-verizonwireless-spectrum-idUSBRE83H16U20120418