Slashdot Mirror

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

According to Reuters, Apple surpassed Android in marketshare by the end of 2011, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. 150 Android smartphones couldn't beat the iPhone 4S. With 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market. Apple’s profits ($13 billion) exceeded Google’s entire revenue ($10.6 billion).

Who cares? Well, in January 2011, Slashdot triumphantly reported that Android surpassed iOS in marketshare. All year, Android fans cited Android's marketshare as proof that it was taking over the smartphone industry, that the lack of centralized control was superior to the "walled garden", and that Android was "winning".

So what happened when the opposite occurred and Apple reversed Android's marketshare lead by the end of the year? Despite multiple submissions from several users, and news coverage ranging from Arstechnica to CNN, Slashdot refused to publish the story. All the sudden, it wasn't considered newsworthy despite the publication of the other story a year earlier.

This is a Linux advocacy site whose initial userbase was driven by hatred of Windows marketshare. Marketshare is still highly fetishized around here. Anything negative about the marketshare of Linux, or platforms based on Linux, gets killed. Slashdot is intentionally not providing you full tech news coverage because it caters to a specific demographic of emotionally-invested users who are more likely to generate repeat page views.

It's official: iOS now has more marketshare than Android. Reuters reports that Apple completely erased Android's marketshare lead, confirming earlier reports by both Nielsen and NPD. Over 150 Android smartphones couldn't outcompete the iPhone 4S. With 37 million iPhones sold last quarter, Apple is the largest smartphone marker, and their profits exceed Google’s entire revenue, $13 billion to $10.6 billion. Finally, with 15 million iPads sold last quarter, the tablet market is now larger than the entire desktop PC market.

Remember that Slashdot triumphantly posted in January 2011 about Android surpassing iOS in marketshare. A year later when the opposite happens? Not a peep. Talk about bias.

And I bet they bring in at least ten times that due to tourism (not that I entirely trust those figures, but the point still stands).

Don't get me wrong, I don't care at all for the royals, but to say they are a waste of money is miles off the mark.

Of course, it could also inspire companies to make more efficient standard socket incandescents too - http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/29/idUS273367407320110429 is but one example of many.

It's OK, Obama will have "more flexibility" after the election to deal with Missile defense. World War III anyone?

Meanwhile, the Obama administration is arguing that requiring warrants for cellphone records "cripples" investigators. No malware needed here in the U.S. Just fearmongering.

The Euro is going down against the Pound, not vice versa.

EUR vs GBP 1992-2012. Whether it is up or down depends on the dates you measure from and to. Nobody knows what will happen in the future.

There is less justification for this price hike than there has been at pretty much any time since late 2008.

For the last few years the pounds has been down on the euro in contrast to the preceding decade. Most large corporations don't regularly change end-user prices to track currency variations, unless they are in the currency or oil/gas business. It is entirely possible that Microsoft was willing to absorb a lower profit margin in the UK relative to other countries for a few years, but now predict that the weaker pound is a long term trend for the next decade, and are resetting prices accordingly. It is also possible that the Microsoft accountants believe that the UK market is more willing to bear higher profit margins.

Grip? They couldn't grip their own asses if you gave them a diagram.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/28/us-nokia-idUSBRE83Q0W620120428

Grip? They couldn't grip their own asses if you gave them a diagram.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/28/us-nokia-idUSBRE83Q0W620120428

It's a great day for freedom in Europe too!

A court in Mannheim ruled on Wednesday that Microsoft infringed Motorola Mobility's patents and ordered Microsoft to remove its popular Xbox 360 gaming consoles and Windows 7 operating system software from the German market.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/us-microsoft-motorola-idUSBRE8410DC20120502?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FbusinessNews+(News+%2F+US+%2F+Business+News)

Yeeha!

Let's see how the slashshills respond to THAT little piece of freedom!

The United States is incredibly dependent on its space assets in support of national objectives. Directed energy weapons can not only provide offensive ASAT capabilities, but can serve as a significant defense against missile- or even space-based kinetic ASAT weapons. The advantage of a directed energy weapon is that it has the ability to travel at the speed of light and target missiles during their vulnerable boost phase within seconds. During the 1990s and 2000s, the United States pursued directed energy weapons based on megawatt-class chemical lasers. Two of systems, the Airborne Laser (ABL) and Space-Based Laser (SBL), were complementary, but never made it beyond the early testing phase.

The concept of the Airborne Laser came to fruition on a modified Boeing 747 known as the YAL-1A Airborne Laser Testbed (ABLT). In early 2010, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) announced that ABLT successfully destroyed two test missiles, saying at the time that "The revolutionary use of directed energy is very attractive for missile defense, with the potential to attack multiple targets at the speed of light, at a range of hundreds of kilometers, and at a low cost per intercept attempt compared to current technologies." Unfortunately, ABLT was $4 billion over budget and eight years behind schedule. Political and economic realities meant that the US could "no longer continue to do everything and explore every potential technology". On February 14, 2012, MDA announced that the ABLT program was terminated, transitioning into long-term storage at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis Monthan AFB — "the Boneyard".

The Space-Based Laser (SBL) concept is the notion of locating a high-powered laser in space, with a similar ability to target missiles in their boost phase. A constellation of 20 SBLs would be able to provide continuous global coverage, and target nearly any launch -- including ASAT weapons. A test firing of a Space-Based Laser Integrated Flight Experiment (SBL-IFX) was originally schedule for 2012 to demonstrate SBL's capabilities. This project became so complex and expensive that MDA suspended research and development in 2002 — another victim of economic priorities, and a desire to focus resources on existing, proven kinetic systems.

If such systems are thought to have so much potential and capability, why are they no longer pursued? The answer is primarily one of cost. Further, if the US possessed such a comprehensive anti-missile and anti-ASAT capability, it is unlikely that an adversary would use a kinetic ASAT weapon. As adversaries such as China, Russia, and Iran turn to cyber, it becomes more likely that cyber, conventional jamming, and EW capabilities would be used to target US space systems. It is reasonable that the US response should be in kind. One example: China is currently fielding the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM). Instead of using complicated missile defense systems or directed energy weapons to target it, and the current US strategy is indeed one of jam, spoof — and then shoot, if necessary, with the idea being to "break as many links as possible" in the chain, including via cyber and EW. Cyber can act as a significant force multiplier against even conventional weapons systems — which can work both for and against us. China has already demonstrated the potential effectiveness of cyber capabilities against US space systems. Resources devoted to enhancing our offensive and defensive cyber capabilities in the context of space systems and missile defense is money well spent.

It is a commonly held myth that freshwater is a renewable resource. One you start pumping it from the ground, it's more similar to a fossil fuel than a forest. Many underground aquifers are not replenished on a timescale useful to humans. Likewise, midwestern US water sources (lakes) are one-time glacial melts that won't replace themselves until the next ice age rolls through.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/12/15/us-water-california-idUSTRE5BE0FP20091215

"Take away any two Apple products, even product lines, and you still have a viable company"

Take away the iPhone product line and you cut Apple's revenue in roughly half. Source: Reuters. For the bonus, take away the iPad product line also and you get a company with a loyal but small customer base. Viable? Sure, but its not going to remain a behemoth like today only on the basis of the Mac line and iPod's.

Terrorists did it in Russia last year, or at least close enough to make the point. It killed 37 and injured 173 when it was set off in the baggage claim area. Had it been set off in the security lines, the casualties might have been greater.

Just take the train, eh? Sorry, TSA is there, too.

I know, let's take a boat! Oops, TSA is there, too.

Fuck it, let's just drive to our destination. Fuck! TSA is there, too!

Okay, fuck traveling, let's just go to a football game. Whaddaya know, TSA is there, too!

You cannot escape the TSA. Believe me, within a generation, you're going to need to submit to a TSA search every time you leave your fucking house. They already watch all your electronic communication so even being inside your home is not enough to escape the eye of TSAuron.

Whether he went on with the diary, or whether he did not go on with it, made no difference. The Thought Police would get him just the same. He had committed— would still have committed, even if he had never set pen to paper— the essential crime that contained all others in itself. Thoughtcrime, they called it. Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever. You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you.

- George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four

So, Mr. White Guy gets the right to follow around people with a gun,

First off, he is a Hispanic man with an interesting history:

The 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator comes from a deeply Catholic background and was taught in his early years to do right by those less fortunate. He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather - the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

Second, he had a concealed carry permit, so he could carry a concealed firearm, period.

Third, are you saying Zimmerman should not have called the police?

Why might Zimmerman have had an interest?

A criminal justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young African-American men.

Though civil rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Martin, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account.

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin."

harrass them and finally shoot them for the deadly threat of walking around while black and carrying skittles,

Carrying skittles? Do you think this is the bag? -> Zimmerman Injuries Seen in Exclusive Photo

"Walking around while black" . . . like Zimmermans great grandfather? And one more interesting bit -

“You will recall the incident of the beating of the black homeless man Sherman Ware on December 4, 2010 by the son of a Sanford police officer. The beating sparked outrage in the community but there were very few that stepped up to do anything about it. I would presume the inaction was because of the fact that he was homeless not because he was black. Do you know the individual who stepped up when no one else in the black community would?

while the black boy should have called the police.

Zimmerman did call the police - he spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with them. And yes, it would have been a much better idea for Martin, who had a phone with him and was chatting on it, to have called the police if he was worried, instead of apparently assaulting Zimmerman.

I get it, "standing your ground" is . .

Stand your ground doesn't have anything to do with this.

. . .only for your fellow Stormfront members, you racist fucker. You are so full of it, one day you gonna explode in a quite dramatic crapageddon.

Don't you claim to be a biochemist? Do you have any ability to engage in a rational, fact based discussion on this matter? You certainly haven't demonstrated that you do. You might want to talk to a counselor, you seem to have some issues.

So, Mr. White Guy gets the right to follow around people with a gun,

First off, he is a Hispanic man with an interesting history:

The 28-year-old insurance-fraud investigator comes from a deeply Catholic background and was taught in his early years to do right by those less fortunate. He was raised in a racially integrated household and himself has black roots through an Afro-Peruvian great-grandfather - the father of the maternal grandmother who helped raise him.

Second, he had a concealed carry permit, so he could carry a concealed firearm, period.

Third, are you saying Zimmerman should not have called the police?

Why might Zimmerman have had an interest?

A criminal justice student who aspired to become a judge, Zimmerman also concerned himself with the safety of his neighbors after a series of break-ins committed by young African-American men.

Though civil rights demonstrators have argued Zimmerman should not have prejudged Martin, one black neighbor of the Zimmermans said recent history should be taken into account.

"Let's talk about the elephant in the room. I'm black, OK?" the woman said, declining to be identified because she anticipated backlash due to her race. She leaned in to look a reporter directly in the eyes. "There were black boys robbing houses in this neighborhood," she said. "That's why George was suspicious of Trayvon Martin."

harrass them and finally shoot them for the deadly threat of walking around while black and carrying skittles,

Carrying skittles? Do you think this is the bag? -> Zimmerman Injuries Seen in Exclusive Photo

"Walking around while black" . . . like Zimmermans great grandfather? And one more interesting bit -

“You will recall the incident of the beating of the black homeless man Sherman Ware on December 4, 2010 by the son of a Sanford police officer. The beating sparked outrage in the community but there were very few that stepped up to do anything about it. I would presume the inaction was because of the fact that he was homeless not because he was black. Do you know the individual who stepped up when no one else in the black community would?

while the black boy should have called the police.

Zimmerman did call the police - he spent a considerable amount of time on the phone with them. And yes, it would have been a much better idea for Martin, who had a phone with him and was chatting on it, to have called the police if he was worried, instead of apparently assaulting Zimmerman.

I get it, "standing your ground" is . .

Stand your ground doesn't have anything to do with this.

. . .only for your fellow Stormfront members, you racist fucker. You are so full of it, one day you gonna explode in a quite dramatic crapageddon.

Don't you claim to be a biochemist? Do you have any ability to engage in a rational, fact based discussion on this matter? You certainly haven't demonstrated that you do. You might want to talk to a counselor, you seem to have some issues.

Sorry, this doesn't vindicate climate denial at all. He's just one scientist who made kooky predictions and if you think he's at all important then you need a remedial course in logic. As a matter of fact, climate change has been occurring shockingly fast, faster than even the worst case scenarios were predicting (source http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/06/us-climate-canada-idUSTRE6145KP20100206). Due to a complete political failure to address the issue, an 11 degF rise in temperature is expected.

Any attacks aiming purely for civilian targets are terrorists in my book.

Civilians living on land that was stolen from you. Civilians who, thanks to Israel's laws on compulsory military service, are either 1) active duty soldiers defending the occupation 2) future active duty soldiers defending the occupation 3) reservists who can be called back into service to defend the occupation.

And even, then, there is no comparison in the levels of civilian-killing even if you want to call it terrorism. Israelis stand a higher chance of being murdered by another Israeli than dying in a "terrorist attack". You have a higher chance of being killed by a bus colliding with your car in an accident (not car accidents overall, but accidents involving buses) than in being killed by a Quassam rocket.

Whether the Judean desert is stolen and occupied is IMHO a big grey area which I don't want to discuss

Any particular reason why? The U.N. partition plan that the Palestinians (rightfully) rejected would have given the majority of the land to a minority of the population. The vast majority of whom were not people to the area, but immigrants. Furthermore, blockades are an act of war according to Israel. Meaning that according to Israeli logic, attacks on Israel in response to the far more draconian blockade of Gaza are perfectly justified.

As for your accusation of the IDF terrorism, I'll have to go for a [Citation needed].

Sure thing. This isn't the most ironclad example as both the attacks (did shelling hit the building directly or indirectly?) and the death tolls are heavily disputed. So I'll talk more about things that are not in dispute:

What could the IDF even gain from just massacring a school with no military target as you suggest?

What would the IDF have to gain from full scale bombardment and invasion when even the IDF admits that Hamas had stopped firing rockets and that Quassam rockets are more of a psycological than military threat?

And furthermore, if terrorism is the bane of Israel's existence, then why has the current prime minister celebrated the 60th anniversary of an Irgun (Zionist terrorist group) attack on a hotel used by the British as a headquarters before Israel's "independence"? How about the nuclear scientists assassinated in Iran, undoubtedly carried out or funded by Mossad?

how long? before Iran retaliates and the whole thing escalates into WW3

You mean like seeking regional hegemony, running terrorist campaigns worldwide, threaten to close the Strait of Hormuz, threaten Europe's energy supplies to freeze people, use suicide boats to attack gulf shipping, arm Hezbollah to attack Israel with and ultimate goal of destroying Israel, attack US troops, send suicide bombers to Europe and America, aid America's enemies, threaten attacks on nearby countries and cities with missiles, kill diplomats, subvert nearby countries, unleash the suicide bomb brigades (serious), and the ninjas (you decide), perhaps adding some WMDs to the attacks?

I doubt that many people will buy it.

Slow down there, champ. Despite TFA being headlined "[FULL TEXT]", the full contents of the email doesn't appear in the article.

The link to Reuters in the article doesn't either, but contains the following statement from Aviva's spokesman: "An email which was intended for a member of staff who was leaving today was accidentally sent to all Aviva Investors staff worldwide."

In other words, the intended recipient was well aware he/she was leaving, not even necessarily fired, and a form letter is used to lay out information outgoing staff need to be aware of. Worth a giggle at how for a moment it might have looked like all the staff had received a surprise sacking, but not really an excuse to get out your pet grievance about large organisational structures.

To be fair, TFA is titled "Aviva Investors Accidentally Fires Entire Company Via Email [FULL TEXT]." But, TFA links to another article as its source. But that source isn't the origin of the story either. It came from Reuters. Honestly, if you're submitting a story to a news aggregator like Slashdot, take the time to send a link for the ORIGINAL story...

It is possible to vote in publicly traded corporations, but because one has to pay $ per vote, it can be costly to have any impact.

Its best if we just backed the fuck out of there and let nature take its course. When was the last time someone wanted to invade Switzerland?

If only it worked like that. Despite the numbers of Christian immigrants to the EU substantially outweighing the number of Muslim immigrants, Anders Behring Breivik is currently facing trial in Norway for the murders of 77 people (largely members and associates of a political party favouring multiculturalism) in an attempt to defend against a Muslim invasion of Europe. If militant xenophobes aren't actually being attacked by people who aren't like them, they will feign an offence to instigate it.

My point is an anti-NATO army of highly-trained brown people coming to steal your women and burn your churches doesn't have to exist for people to think it's attacking them.

Its best if we just backed the fuck out of there and let nature take its course. When was the last time someone wanted to invade Switzerland?

If only it worked like that. Despite the numbers of Christian immigrants to the EU substantially outweighing the number of Muslim immigrants, Anders Behring Breivik is currently facing trial in Norway for the murders of 77 people (largely members and associates of a political party favouring multiculturalism) in an attempt to defend against a Muslim invasion of Europe. If militant xenophobes aren't actually being attacked by people who aren't like them, they will feign an offence to instigate it.

My point is an anti-NATO army of highly-trained brown people coming to steal your women and burn your churches doesn't have to exist for people to think it does and expect a counter-attack.

Let's be fair here, Ellison isn't a rich out of touch moron, he just hasn't caught up on work lately because he's too busy working on his yacht racing. And it's an uphill battle. He even had to pay another team to race against him in a race that he's paying for.

HTC:

http://www.businessinsider.com/htcs-shares-tumble-cfo-change-samsung-launch-weigh-2012-4

Motorola
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-motorolamobility-idUSTRE80P23W20120126

LG:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-07-28/lg-electronics-profit-falls-33-after-company-falls-behind-in-smartphones.html

and

Sony:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/sony-ericsson-posts-surprise-loss-in-its-final-quarter/67399

The only mobile company making real money from Android is Samsung.

Depends on the resource. They've been developing wind and wave powered plants for quite some time. I don't think they have enough platforms built to replace the existing nuclear base (that's FMA though, research might reveal otherwise). Then again, I haven't heard about widespread brownouts there since shortly after the tsunami -- anyone got a closer view?

Mostly, Japan has been importing a lot of oil and natural gas for electricity generation. Wind and wave power generation is really unlikely to ever meet Japan's energy needs. I expect (and I'm just a humble observer) that they'll fire the reactors back up before long, but reinforce the hell out of them, and have more layers of redundant safety measures than you could imagine.

Please try to keep in mind, these laws are old, and not being under the reign of a monarch is new. These issues will affect every former UK colony.

It is really not much different, functionally speaking, from a telephone number, an email address or a room number. Are telephone numbers copyrighted? Don't think so. Are email addresses copyrighted? I've never heard of such a thing.

Australia and NZ are still hashing it out, actually.
http://www.baldwins.com/australian-and-new-zealand-copyright-law-for-databases-compilations-and-directories/

And who pays for postal codes to be created/used in the first place? The Canadian taxpayer. That should make postal codes a "public good", owned collectively by the taxpaying Canadian public. Creating a free listing of postal codes, where anyone can look up postal codes, is a convenience, and a service rendered to the public.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_copyright#Canada
"Permission to reproduce Government of Canada works, in part or in whole, and by any means, for personal or public non-commercial purposes, or for cost-recovery purposes, is not required, unless otherwise specified in the material you wish to reproduce."

And a good one too, since it is "free", and nobody profits from it.

The "otherwise specified" part would seem to be the $5000 Canada Post wants to charge for its directory. Which it has the right to do. Statistics Canada also charges for its data, one of the few places where government documents are not free. Why? Because information has value. The Do Not Call List has a trivial price attached to it, and has been exploited to high hell because foreign telemarketers can afford to do it and are not bound by our laws. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Do_Not_Call_List#Criticism

Besides, if search engines can index the entire f___ing Internet, without anyone crying "Oy! That's my copyrighted webpage you are indexing!",

Ok, now you're just starting to look silly and ill informed...
http://searchengineland.com/proposed-uk-law-would-immunize-search-engines-against-copyright-claims-33336
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/04/08/industry-google-afp-dc-idUSN0728115420070408
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/1457-Search-Engines-Indexing-and-Copyright-Law
http://www.blogstudiolegalefinocchiaro.com/wordpress/?p=258

how can a simple "Canadian postal code lookup function" be a breach of copyright? If the article is correct, the site in question didn't even copy the Postal Services postal code database. It built its own, from user contributions. I really don't see how "copyright" even figures into this case...

It's not the engine, it's the data. Postal codes were *authored*, there is no question about that.

Russian baby dies in sewer after pavement collapse

(Reuters) - A toddler was swept to his death down a sewage pipe in the western Russian city of Bryansk on Sunday after a pavement gave way while his mother was taking him for a walk.

Yes it's just those damn americans. Poor peaceful north korea. While their entire country literally starves to death they need to launch these very important missiles! Don't worry, the UN will ship you a couple hundred thousand tons of food, you save all your money for your missile program.

How many countries has NK invaded in the last 100 years?

One (South Korea). There was this minor scuffle called the Korean War back in the fifties. Perhaps you might have heard of it.

How many people have they killed?

Lots.

If anything, they are much more peaceful

You tell that to the people who were kidnapped from Japan to train North Korean spies.

It's a small, poor country, they are not a real threat.

A small, poor country with nuclear weapons, spends over 30% of its GDP on the military, has a history of threats to turn Seoul into a "sea of fire,", not to mention torpedoing South Korean ships and shelling South Korea (only a few miles from Incheon International Airport, mind you) Just the kind of small, poor, safe neighbor you want to have in your backyard.

If need be NK could be crushed in a few days.

If it were that easy, it'd have been done already. Even if all of their missiles fail (leaving them unable to attack Japan), they can still easily decimate Seoul, as it's within artillery range of the North Korean border. NK also happens to have an unholy relationship to China, which is fed up with NK's antics, but is still geopolitically wedded to that nation. China will most likely be forced to intervene against any Western efforts to dislodge the Dear Leader.

Last time I checked launching satellites doesn't goes against any treaty signed by NK

They broke their agreement over nuclear development. That's why no one trusts them.

no nation has the right to tell another sovereign nation it can't research rocketry or launch rockets into the ground.

When that same nation comes begging for food which it can't buy because it spent all of its lunch money on rockets, we sure as hell do have the right to tell them how not to spend their money! And that is true even if the same nation doesn't keep threatening to take military action against the very same people offering aid.

What? It's not the government's duty to force people to protect each other at the expense of perceived harm?

Yes, there is no way that the government could ever compel someone to risk their lives to save others.

Also, some towns do have mandatory gun laws. The fact that most don't is not because "it's not the government's duty" but simply because the government did not choose to make it a requirement. The fact that the government has not taken some action so far does not mean that it is forever prohibited from said action.

How would this be any different from any of the other Good Samaritan laws?

The bigger risk, however, is on the side of the funder - and that's the risk that the project will get funded, you will spend your money, and you will end up getting nothing in return. For original-concept Kickstarter projects, that's probably OK: you supported the arts by funding an artist, and you hoped to get a memento of that funding, but the reward was just a reward, and not necessarily the main reason you funded the project. For things like bars of soap and iPhone docks, however, the great majority of the funders are thinking of themselves as buying a thing. And they're not properly discounting the very real risk that they will end up with nothing at all.

No last quarter Apple made $13.06 Billon.

All of the rest of the android manufacturers are going out of business. In a year once Google starts taking massive losses from the failure of a phone company they bought, android will get the google wave treatment.

I can't provide specific examples of theory-based conflict off the top of my head

Here is a good example of a recent scientific conflict over a new theory. A scientist steps forward with physical proof (electron microscope images) of a new class of solids and is hounded as some sort of religious heretic and fired from his University for daring to point out something that goes against official scientific dogma.

An Israeli scientist who suffered years of ridicule and even lost a research post for claiming to have found an entirely new class of solid material was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry on Wednesday for his discovery of quasicrystals.

Shechtman, 70, from Israel's Technion institute in Haifa, was working in the United States in 1982 when he observed atoms in a crystal he had made form a five-sided pattern that did not repeat itself, defying received wisdom that they must create repetitious patterns, like triangles, squares or hexagons.

"People just laughed at me," Shechtman recalled in an interview this year with Israeli newspaper Haaretz, noting how Linus Pauling, a colossus of science and double Nobel laureate, mounted a frightening "crusade" against him, saying: "There is no such thing as quasicrystals, only quasi-scientists."

After telling Shechtman to go back and read the textbook, the head of his research group asked him to leave for "bringing disgrace" on the team. "I felt rejected," Shechtman remembered.

Quoted article is here.

Better hurry up, then! Looks like you've only a few more weeks. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/05/us-usa-deathpenalty-connecticut-idUSBRE83406N20120405

What Fukushima should have taught is that when the engineers spec a wall of sufficient height to block a tsunami, you flippin' build it. Or in general, when engineers say that you could kill a bunch of people or make a "forbidden zone" after an accident by not doing something, you should listen intently and take their advice seriously. TEPCO ignored their own engineers. Because "herp, too expensive."

It is also a demonstration of lack-of-oversight by the Japanese government over the decades. Because, you know, left to themselves, all industries are kittens and rainbows.

After the March 11 disaster at Fukushima, Japanese officials came under fire for their handling of the emergency and the authorities have admitted that lax standards and poor oversight contributed to the accident.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/15/nuclear-iaea-safety-idUSLDE77E0F720110815

--
BMO

He is... http://blogs.reuters.com/talesfromthetrail/2012/03/20/no-doubts-as-to-obamas-irish-ancestry-now/

Why is it that the only antitrust enforcement I hear about in the EU is against non-EU based companies?

Technically every enforcement action is against an EU based corporation - in order to legally do trade within the EU, you need an EU corporate presence. The European Commission regulates violations of trade law within the EU. The EU didn't levy fines against Microsoft US for antitrust violations within the borders of the United States, it levied fines against Microsoft Europe for antitrust violations within the EU borders.

I would guess that you haven't heard about other enforcement actions because you don't read the EU antitrust news? You chose to read US oriented news, which doesn't report on enforcement actions of foreign regulatory bodies against foreign companies? Also, the EU is made up of many nation states, each of which has its own antitrust regulatory body. The EU only gets involved in antitrust when the scale of the illegal activity exceeds the ability of the national courts to handle, or where the national courts have erred or require clarification. This is usually difficult cases, or those with international scope that involve large transnational corporations. EU-level enforcement actions are, by their nature, more likely to be against a large corporation trading internationally, which for tax and trade reasons may well be headquartered in the U.S. (although increasingly companies are choosing to be headquartered in Ireland or Luxembourg for tax purposes, see Facebook, Twitter, etc.).

Is it really that case that no corporations inside the EU are big enough to be anti-competitive?

The EU have issued over €12 billion of fines in the last 5 years against illegal cartels. How many of those cases did you read about in the U.S. press? This is not some conspiracy - it is entirely understandable, their readers (Americans) generally don't care about the EU fining a Belgian glass manufacturer, or Frankfurt Airport. They only feel an emotional connection when the target of the fine is the subsidiary of a U.S. corporation.
2011/03/03 Siemens AG fined €397 million by EU antitrust
2012/03/29 Telefonica fined €152 million.
2011/10/25 Solvay fined €23 million
2011/06/22 Telekomunikacja Polska S.A €127 million
2008/11/12 Largest every cartel fine from the EU - over €1.3 billion against a Japanese/US/English/Belgian cartel.

After all, AT&T's shoddy network encouraged huge numbers to switch to other carriers the moment Apple allowed them to. In business having a poor product might allow you to gain in the short term but is a huge detriment in the long term.

That can't possibly prove anything wrong, because it itself is wrong.

The secret has been out for over a year that AT&T did not lose any significant number of users to other iPhone carriers when exclusivity ended. They actually GAINED customers, and they GAINED more iPhone 4S customers than did Verizon or any of the other iPhone carriers.

So your premise is totally wrong.

The huge detriment you speak of, on the other hand is accruing to the carriers that gain the iPhone, but not for the reason you expect. Selling the iPhone is huge drain on a carriers bottom line.

According to CNN-Money: all carriers that carry the iPhone lose money on it over what they were making previously. If AT&T has a network problem it has been caused directly by the iPhone and iPhone users. From lame Infinion chipsets that brought the towers to their knees early, to the data sucking ways of the typical iphone user.

Between 2009 and 2010, Verizon averaged EBITDA service margin of 46.4% per quarter. In the first quarter that the iPhone went on sale, that fell to 43.7%. Last quarter, when Verizon sold a record 4.2 million iPhones, its margin plunged to 42.2%.

This is not to say I have any argument with the subject of this story, namely the suspicion that carriers are hording bandwidth and creating artificial shortage.

Not true.

The cost per month of a mortgage is typically 33% because that's the most a reasonable underwriting policy will allow.

As far as inflation, it's a given. Right now it's low, but that's typical in this point in an economic cycle. That's why home buying is generally attractive during recessions, and quite often home purchases are the first signs of economic recoveries. The current housing crash has really made a mess of things because banks got burnt, making buying a house hard.

With the national debt and actions the Fed has been taking to artificially suppress interest rates it's pretty clear that there will be increased inflation in the future.

Wages often lag inflation but ultimately they go up too. If the economy really gets booming wages can actually be the primary contributing factor to inflation.

Here is an interesting analysis of the current situation w.r.t. wages and inflation:

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/05/19/should-the-fed-be-worried-about-wage-inflation/

Over the past 100 years or so the dollar has lost 98% of it's value due to inflation. When you buy a house one of the benefits is paying it off in future dollars. With the extraordinary low interest rates it will be fewer future dollars. My first house had a mortgage payment of $343 per month. As I progressed in my career inflation plus advancement caused that payment to end up being less than 5% of my monthly salary. Now I have no mortgage, and my property taxes are twice what my original mortgage payment was.

I would sure hate to be renting now.

Renters get screwed because they have to pay on a current cost basis.

Now it may take a decade for things to normalize because the excesses were really large, but already it is already starting to look like there is a lot of pent up demand for houses, and in almost all markets the classical buy or rent calculation is firmly pointing to buy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/28/us-science-cancer-idUSBRE82R12P20120328

THAT article pretty much gives all the reasons WHY anyone with an education including applied statistics in physical chemistry understands this as part and parcel of political economy and crony capitalism.

Did it occur to anybody besides me that violent behavior is something that *should* be encouraged in a soldier? I'm not seeing how a drug with these observed effects gets anybody off the hook for that Afghan massacre -- not Bales, not his squad mates, nor his commanders. The massacre was the result of failure to manage Bales, period. He's a trained killer, and one with a history of deceiving people for monetary gain predating his enlistment in the military. It also looks like the military ignored some red flags, including his propensity for violent confrontation, about him long before he deployed to Afghanistan, if the stories about his security clearance are even close to accurate.

How does the presence of this drug, with its documented behavioral side effects that is routinely supplied to soldiers, coupled with what looks like malfeasance on the part of the military in not acting on information that was publicly available on Bales, exculpate anybody for this senseless tragedy?

When you meddle, you become the sugar daddy and the other countries will either hate you for being rich and not being able to solve all their problems, or will hate you for controlling their countries even if your intentions are good.

Another writer expressed this better than I can.

What is left for the domestic high tech industry?

Selling of its assets.

Two recent examples:

1. AT&T to sell off $100 billion in real estate?

2. AOL hires Evercore to sell patent portfolio