Slashdot Mirror

It's a bit over the top, but it's completely true.

Rape, sexual abuse, domestic violence, cancer, homelessness, those are all things for which society provides resources above and beyond what men receive. In the case of domestic violence, it's especially egregious seeing as women make up a full half of all abusers and yet are rarely targeted by public awareness campaigns.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSPAT97046720080520
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2013743521_domesticviolence26.html

What's worse is that schools are continuing to indoctrinate men with the notion that they are in some fashion inferior to women and that they are less valuable than women are.

you know hummer is owned by the Chinese now right? the same hummers that our troops are driving around in Iraq and Afghanistan while they get blown up? Why dont we put the CEO of hummer in fucking prison for corporate espionage... he didn't sell a few email lists, he sold the whole fucking company!

Um, wow, where to begin. Okay, how 'bout this... (1) Military HMMWVs ("hummers") are /not/ made by General Motors, who made the civilian Hummer and the laughable looks-vaguely-like-a-hummer-body-kit H2 (aka GM 2500) and H3 (aka Colorado). The military's M998 is, and always has been, made by AM General, which is still a U.S. company (Indiana).

(2) The (civilian, cheesy) Hummer brand was to be sold to a Chinese manufacturing company, but the deal fell through. http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/24/us-gm-hummer-idUSTRE61N5XE20100224 GM just dismantled it. The Chinese don't own it. GM still does, for whatever it's worth, in its defunct state.

I hear that release comes with a free Slurpee.

Please drink responsibly - make sure an old lady doesn't slip on it.

It's a space station.

....Oscar the Cat is still sniffing out dying people.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/02/us-cat-death-idUSTRE6115QB20100202

Sniffing out cancer in the breath of someone who has lung cancer does not surprise me.

--
BMO

That must be why Samsung is re-evaluating it's options.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE77G1HX20110817?irpc=932

They would be fools to rely on Google now, Google would be directly competing with them.

Google will always have the edge, being the makers of the OS, they control the features nd they have "first access".

For a first offense? maybe 6 years for murder, with bad behavior. second and third offenses, simultaneous? http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/10/us-execution-texas-idUSTRE7797BM20110810 That's when they get serious.

What I find particularly interesting about recent events is that Gadaffi claimed that "Irish and Scottish mercenaries helped tame the riots".

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE77A0AW20110811

Aside from the utterly laughable lunacy of such a claim, what this means is that his followers and people are so utterly disconnected from reality that they genuinely believe the rest of the world is like a bigger Libya. This is one area where the internet has a hugely positive effect - by normal Libyans sitting in internet cafes chatting with normal westerners, and coming to the realisation that in fact there's no particular reason why they shouldn't enjoy the same prosperity and freedom.

So it's just an amazing coincidence that we'll have ice-free summers in the Arctic 200 years after we started burning fossil fuels en masse?

We have excellent "undeniable" evidence of global warming. We have over 100 years of climatology that tell us that the carbon sensitivity is probably between 1.5 and 4.5 degrees Celsius, starting with Arrhenius and continuing to the latest estimations. We have agreed that we want to keep the global temperature rise under 2 degrees Celsius. The only way we can achieve this goal is to begin reducing carbon dioxide emissions immediately, given the information we presently have. To me, that says "Act now!"

If you know of a way to instantly test for actual intoxication of other drugs... 3) Profit! Ratio of aviation accidents caused by alcohol to other drugs = Large 'Following accidents, 91 employees -- averaging 18 out of every 1,000 -- tested positive for drug use. Random testing found just six out of every 1,000 employees tested positive. "This is a very, very rare occurrence," when compared to other industries such as trucking, where drug use is estimated at 20 to 30 out of every 1,000 employees, Li said.' http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/04/us-drug-use-linked-airplane-accidents-idUSTRE7235NY20110304

So, based on your logic, this piece of news must be fake.

Got so ridiculous that one MP is now asking for "suspension" of BlackBerry Messenger. - Reuters

The other two ratings agencies, Moodys and Fitch, have no plans to downgrade US debt.

I wouldn't be so sure about that...:

Ratings agency Moody's repeated a warning on Monday it could downgrade the United States before 2013 if the fiscal or economic outlook weakens significantly

Until now.

You'd be very popular in these places, all of which could produce more food on their own if government was not taxing and subsidizing and regulating food in the world:

Swaziland: HIV patients 'eat dung to make drugs work'

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/out_of_food_zimbabweans_eating_cow_dung/

Food Prices Fuel Egypt Unrest

Egypt and Tunisia usher in the new era of global food revolutions

Spike in global food prices contributes to Tunisian violence

Food price jumps protested in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco

Egypt and Tunisia: rocked by the global food crisis

Hunger in Syria, Libya and Yemen

Ukraine to control food prices

Rising food prices increase squeeze on poor - Oxfam

As Food Prices Spike, Azerbaijanis Endure Border Chaos To Shop In Iran

For dummies: The impact of the global food crisis on Azerbaijan - in pictures

Estonia Raises Inflation Forecast on Global Food and Fuel Prices

Nigeria: food price up as inflationary rate drop

High food prices 'caused Niger hunger'

Mexico: Food prices reach record high

China's food price inflation hits 14.4% in June

Lithuania and Latvia catching up with Estonia

Food prices rise, wages donâ(TM)t

China food prices spike as floods ruin farmland

Brazil: Food Prices Surge and Head Toward Dangerous Levels

Rise in food prices causing major concerns in Russia

Stockpiling as Russian food prices soar

Food prices have soared most in Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina

Thousands protest against high food prices in Delhi

India: A spike in food prices is especially painful for the poor

I bet it would get pretty personal for you if you came to these places and started spouting your socialist views on how cheap food is that your government is subsidizing farmers and then paying farmers to destroy it

Swaziland: HIV patients 'eat dung to make drugs work'

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/out_of_food_zimbabweans_eating_cow_dung/

Food Prices Fuel Egypt Unrest

Egypt and Tunisia usher in the new era of global food revolutions

Spike in global food prices contributes to Tunisian violence

Food price jumps protested in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco

Egypt and Tunisia: rocked by the global food crisis

Hunger in Syria, Libya and Yemen

Ukraine to control food prices

Rising food prices increase squeeze on poor - Oxfam

As Food Prices Spike, Azerbaijanis Endure Border Chaos To Shop In Iran

For dummies: The impact of the global food crisis on Azerbaijan - in pictures

Estonia Raises Inflation Forecast on Global Food and Fuel Prices

Nigeria: food price up as inflationary rate drop

High food prices 'caused Niger hunger'

Mexico: Food prices reach record high

China's food price inflation hits 14.4% in June

Lithuania and Latvia catching up with Estonia

Food prices rise, wages donâ(TM)t

China food prices spike as floods ruin farmland

Brazil: Food Prices Surge and Head Toward Dangerous Levels

Rise in food prices causing major concerns in Russia

Stockpiling as Russian food prices soar

Food prices have soared most in Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina

Thousands protest against high food prices in Delhi

India: A spike in food prices is especiall

You will care when interest rates rise for everyone from the local bonds building your schools to state bonds building roads and bridges because those levels of gov't are dependent on federal funds, that is taxes paid by state residents and laundered through the federal government and returned at varying ratios with strings attached. It may even effect the interest rate on your home mortgage if it's not fixed.

The ratings agencies have warned the feds for months. They wanted to see $4 trillion in cuts and only one plan offered that. It was the one called "Cut, Cap & Balance" and passed by the Republican-led House first with some Democrats joining in. The Democrat-controlled Senate voted immediately to table the bill. It never even got a debate.

The White House belittled the plan as "Duck, Dodge & Dismantle" when all the cuts talked about are reductions in automatic increases. Since the Budget Act of 1974, the federal government depends on "baseline budgeting" and today that means a guarantee that budgets will rise 7.5% over the prior year every year. We should be using "zero-based budgeting" where departments must justify every budget dollar.

We know from debt commissions and other studies, there are billions--maybe $100-200 billion according to the non-partisan GAO--in overlapping and duplicative spending but we have Democrats screaming nothing should be touched and anyone who wants spending reform is a "terrorist" (Vice Pres. Biden) or wants to "destroy" government (Minority Leader Pelosi). This is NOT helpful.

Republicans offered their long term reform ideas months ago in the form of the so-called "Ryan plan." Democrats offered criticism all year but no formal counter proposal. There was nothing in writing that could be "scored" by the CBO and Obama's budget received ZERO votes in the Senate. Senator Majority Leader Reid said it would be foolish for his congressional Democrats to offer a budget. That body hasn't passed a budget period in 829 days. Way to avoid responsibility and accountability!

Instead the president's party and its allies used the GOP proposal in divisive, misleading campaign ads. One even showed a doppelgänger of Congressman Ryan pushing an wheelchair-bound elderly woman over a cliff when the plan itself doesn't effect existing benefits for anyone 55 or older. Again, NOT helpful. (Hey, what happened to the "new tone" of "civility" after the Tuscan shooting?)

The president talks about "millionaires and billionaires" when the actual tax changes would effect, not those super rich alone, but persons making $200,000 or couples at $250,000. Small business people filing as S-corps or a cops and teachers in some high cost of living areas like NYC. Taxation needs fundamental reform not just higher rates on easy political targets who are also the most able to avoid taxation. Just as Ireland about Bono.

For anyone reading here who doesn't know and feels guilty a

Every time those agencies makes a fart, stock prices seems to drop. I am no stock market guru, but I have seen some shares increasing over 20% in one week after such a drop, so there is a lot of money to make with that kind of power/manipulation.

The problem is also that those companies are not transparent so there is always a lot of room for manipulation. And everyone knows when you have a lot or to much power, abuse is not far away. They tend to hide after the fact that their reputation is on stake, but these are the same companies that give high ratings to banks that triggered the "bank crisis"... . What reputation ? To be honest it baffles me that after that whole mess there are still people who trust these organisations. Everyone makes mistakes but one thing that was clear that the whole ordeal stank.

What I also don't understand is why - and what makes those agencies imho unreliable - is why it took so long to target the US but the same companies targeted countries that "relative" are in "better shape" then the US. Here in Europe I hear more and more people thinking that this has something to do with weakening the euro against the extremely weak dollar.

Also

"Italian prosecutors have seized documents at the offices of rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's in a probe over suspected "anomalous" fluctuations in Italian share prices, a prosecutor said on Thursday."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/04/us-italy-ratingagencies-prosecutors-idUSTRE7734FR20110804

Nope, it's 25 million registered users not just visitors. The visitor count sounds like it's quite significantly higher but I haven't seen any specific numbers.

...and the source you linked to cites Reuters, and Reuters says users in the title and visitors in the body.

Also, what reason does China have to attack the olympics? They just got an olympic event a couple years back? I don't see any reason to hold a grudge there.

Jim Lewis, a cyber expert with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it was very likely China was behind the campaign because some of the targets had information that would be of particular interest to Beijing.

The systems of the IOC and several national Olympic Committees were breached before the 2008 Beijing Games. And China views Taiwan as a renegade province, and political issues between them remain contentious even as economic ties have strengthened in recent years.

From Reuters.

If I knew the Olympics were coming to town, I would seriously love to have all the information they weren't giving me if I were hosting. Were they angry? Were they lying to my face? I'd like to know.

Also mfw the BBC picture for lulzsec. >:[

Time to smell the coffee dude. Google has a monopoly in internet search and contextual advertising and is using the FOSS community to promote Andriod and try maintain relevance in the mobile computing space. The original Andriod prototypes where Blackberry rip-offs then while Eric Schmidt was on Apple board he saw ripped off their iPhone concept and re-engineered Andriod to use a touch interface like Apple was working on. They then ignored Sun's licensing offers for Java and all other IP related issues then promptly open sourced Andriod without indemnifying users and have hung out HTC, Motorola and all the other Andriod produces out to dry.

Google have done the same thing with the WebM video codec. Release software they know violates other people IP to the FOSS community and wait until the users of the software they release get sued.

They do not have a track record for respecting other peoples IP rights. They have even sues a small independent music label so they can continue to make money selling advertising to people search for illegal music downloads! http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/05/06/us-media-google-idUSTRE6450RP20100506 . So it is clear Google doesn't give a dam about other people IP rights, all they care about it selling adverts and making money.

If you believe that people should respect the GPL and not steal open source software for closed source projects then you must believe in the principal of IP rights. The GPL only works if people respect the IP rights and choices of the original IP creators. Believing that FOSS software IP rights should be respected but everybody else's rights can be ignored is hypocrisy.

If you are looking for references, it's all over the news, at least the Chinese news. Here are a handful that I easily pulled off Google News:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/30/idINIndia-58534820110730
http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-train-crash-social-media-users-allege-cover-up-52793/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/us-china-train-censorship-idUSTRE76O1IG20110725
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-29-anger-mounts-as-families-mourn-china-train-crash-victims/
http://www.3news.co.nz/Toddler-found-alive-in-China-train-crash/tabid/417/articleID/219948/Default.aspx

If you are looking for references, it's all over the news, at least the Chinese news. Here are a handful that I easily pulled off Google News:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/30/idINIndia-58534820110730
http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-train-crash-social-media-users-allege-cover-up-52793/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/us-china-train-censorship-idUSTRE76O1IG20110725
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-29-anger-mounts-as-families-mourn-china-train-crash-victims/
http://www.3news.co.nz/Toddler-found-alive-in-China-train-crash/tabid/417/articleID/219948/Default.aspx

Dish Network picked up Blockbuster. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-blockbuster-dishnetwork-idUSTRE7351VA20110406 [reuters.com] Also note the "Subsidiary of Dish Network" part here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_Inc [wikipedia.org].

Make it look like this, please.

Dish Network picked up Blockbuster. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/04/06/us-blockbuster-dishnetwork-idUSTRE7351VA20110406 Also note the "Subsidiary of Dish Network" part here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockbuster_Inc.

WHO is selling them these new centrifuges?

Iran has manufacturing capabilities to build the centrifuges. The parts and materials are imported from Chinese, Russian and Western companies - but these are dual use parts and materials, and the Iranian government use front companies, so it is not so obvious what is going on. The U.S. does have sanctions against several Iranian and Chinese companies for supplying materials.

Here ya go... Abortion, Public Option, Environment.

The environment vs. economy numbers have slipped in the last couple of years, as the economy fell off a cliff. But before that, they were just as I said.

"Operation Fast and Furious"

(Reuters) - U.S. firearms agents told lawmakers on Wednesday they were instructed to only watch as hundreds of guns were bought, illegally resold and sent to Mexico where drug-related violence has raged for years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/15/us-usa-mexico-guns-idUSTRE75E49N20110615

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been accused of allowing guns to slip across the border and fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.

The allegations made by senior agent John Dodson came after it was discovered that the gun used to kill a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Mexico was first bought in a Dallas, Texas store.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1363293/U-S-Justice-Department-ordered-ATF-allow-guns-cross-border-Mexico-used-kill-American-agents.html

The investigation into a federal operation that allowed Mexican drug cartels to acquire U.S. weapons escalated Thursday with new revelations that an Arizona gun dealer repeatedly expressed fears that his guns were falling into the "hands of the bad guys" but was encouraged by federal agents to continue the sales.
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/15/nation/la-na-guns-20110415

The US has a special class of victim, called a 'citizen'.

The attack was on a government office, so it's still too early to say whether it was an act of terrorism or war.

Al Qaeda and the organizations allied to it in "the Resistance" are the most obvious suspects, being that they are at war with everyone else in the world and they have the talent and desire to do it.

The attack could be in response to the recent filing of charges against Mullah Krekar, leader of Ansar al-Islam which was one of the first groups to rename itself to "al-Qaeda in Iraq" after the US invaded.

The motivation could also be the Jyllands-Posten cartoons that were published in a Denmark newspaper. The Muslim Brotherhood and Hizbut Tahrir encouraged attacks on Norwegian embassies after the Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet republished the cartoons.

Norway has been active in the bombing of Libya. The attack may have come in retaliation from the Libyan government, which has pledged to strike back at its attackers any way it could, or it may have come from unaffiliated right-wing Muslims who see the attack on Libya as kaffir invading the ummah.

It could be someone else. Remember that the Oklahoma City bombing was a couple of white ultra-Christians. Everyone thought it was Hezbollah at first. The attack could have come from Jews who are pissed off about European spy agencies funding the the NIF, B'tselem, Peace Now, Human Rights Watch, and all the lies they tell about Israel. It could have been a nut from an opposing political party or a farmer with a grievance about a change in subsidies and the knowledge to make a fertilizer bomb. The only thing we truly know is that we don't know yet, so wait a day or two for the investigators to do their jobs.

Here's Reuters's speculation.

Captcha: compute. If anyone was complaining that this was not news for nerds, it is now.

And were subsequently purchased by Dish Networks.

I'm also considering a move the BlockBuster for the same reason... not only do they include games, but also BluRay. My biggest hang-up is, even though it's limited, I do like the Netflix streaming to the Wii... it has kept my daughter entertained when she wakes up in the morning quite well w/out needing cable.

Ah, I see. Mea culpa. Apparently I was being quite lazy with my language and I should certainly know better.

As for how I would claim monetization, I say this because of the risk of QE3. Nor is Bernanke the only one who favors a bit more easing (I cannot help but note the irony of the gas tank analogy in this article, given that gas is not counted in most inflation numbers). Certainly the Fed denies that it does not want to monetize debt in order to quell fears of inflation, but they are making a bad habit of using open market operations to solve political problems. As for interest rates, the first article above speaks of committing to several years of low interest rates (which, one might speculate means at the very least keeping them constant) or even lowering them.

Above all, I would point back to the political argument. To cut spending either on war or on entitlements is anathema. To raise taxes is verboten. Even to go into deeper debt is, increasingly, politically dangerous (though I expect that option in the near future). Our political class faces impossible choices not unlike those faced in Europe. Like Europe, the only politically safe option may well be to monetize the debt. The Fed will come to the rescue of the political class and, in return, we can expect the political class to be ready to stimulate the banking class yet again.

No mod points for me today, or you would have gotten a +1 Informative.

Where, exactly, does this $16 trillion figure that Sanders cites appear in this document? That's about twice the current M2 money supply figure for the entire economy. The Executive Summary of the report cites a $1 trillion figure for the total of loans disbursed at the peak in 2008. As Figure 11 on the Report's page 137 shows, most of those loans have been fully paid back.

So thanks the power of Ctrl-F, I searched for every "16" in the document. The number Sanders is citing appears on page 131, which does report a figure slightly over $16 trillion. However if you look carefully at these numbers, the big items are all from the "PDCF" facility, which provided collateralized overnight loans to big banks. As the Report notes, it's unfair to compare an overnight loan to one that has a much longer term. When the GAO adjusts these figures by length of term, the adjusted figure is more like $1.1 trillion.

No, a lie is knowingly telling something that is not true. People thought that homes were a good investment. They were wrong, not deceitful.

Oh, there was plenty of deception going on. For example, clients being hooked up with subprime loans even when they were qualified for prime loans. And there are lies still going on—the Robo-signing scandal, with banks foreclosing on homes without proper documentation (which, BTW, they're still doing).

Cell phone patent thicket. You're in research. Think of where we'd be if all the money being wasted on lawyers was instead being invested in research on better cell phone technology. And it's gonna get worse once the Apple/Microsoft/RIM consortium get all the patents they bought from the Nortel dissolution sorted. All three are renowned for spending money on lawyers rather than on innovating.

What company are they suing over Android? Are you fucking deluded?

HTC

Depending on how that Dee Looded looks like, I might be interested in at least meeting her, yes.

So when did the federal approval go through?

About a month ago: Microsoft gets antitrust approval to buy Skype

And this terrible crime is truly worth having our clearanced military personelle deciding that its time to violate his oaths and divulge whatever information he saw fit-- even that which shows no "horrible crimes"-- to the entire world.

Remember the video of the death of the Reuters journalist, which the US repeatedly withheld against the wishes of said news agency? Care to guess how it eventually came to light?

but to be honest, propaganda is everywhere. How many times have you watched a commercial where everything was true? How many people do you know who watch Fox news or listen to Rush Limbaugh? Even NPR and the BBC have their own biases. How many actual, purely objective articles can you find in the mainstream media? Certainly, we don't have the state mandated media in the U.S. like China does, but the important thing to accept is that everyone has their own propaganda, no matter where they are. It's just a matter of which ones you agree with and which ones you don't.

Yes, it's human nature that organized groups enjoy pushing their own agenda, and are willing to hide certain facts or bend the truth in order to do it. When governments do it, we call it propaganda. When companies do it, we call it advertising. It's everywhere.

The critical difference here is what a government does when you publicly disagree with its propaganda. You mentioned the Bill of Rights; consider Freedom of Speech. Yeah, it's not carte blanche to say whatever you want (you can't scream "Fire!" in a crowded theater, and recent hate crimes legislation comes to mind). But it *does* mean that the US *cannot* imprison political dissidents like the PRC. And if we tried, that shot would be heard around the world.

(Indeed, the US has other ways of silencing a political dissident, such as labeling them a terrorist, or using the media to marginalize them and/or paint them using loaded terms. That's true and worrisome, but it's not the fundamental issue here, so don't let it become a red herring)

Astounding economic growth doesn't excuse human rights abuses. Just because a system of government "works decently well" doesn't mean it shouldn't be changed.

P.S. Last Sunday I was in Beijing, and visited a certain heavenly-peace-gate square. The surveillance there puts anything else I've seen to shame. Security checks, camera installations every thirty meters, and at least 50 uniformed officers inside -- not to mention a number of under-cover ones. And for what? Not to protect property, even government property... but to ensure nobody can speak out. Tell me it isn't a sickening irony that the current period in history is called the "liberated era".

I would not be so sure.

I am sure. China just clarified our budget priorities for us yesterday. Last week China helped with our diplomatic prerogatives.

In the next few days we may have a budget deal. Where do you think Treasury will be looking for the next few hundred billion of financing? Or rather, how many hours will it take for Geithner to arrive in Beijing (for the third time) after the limit gets bumped?

We're not going to be engaging anyone in any aerospace competitions. Not merely because we can't afford it, but also because they would rather we not.

...since TFA had absolutely none whatsoever.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/24/us-japan-nuclear-jellyfish-idUSTRE75N0Z520110624

France raised the possibility for the first time on Friday of pulling out of nuclear power as one of several scenarios to be considered in a reorganisation of its energy output by 2050.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/07/08/france-nuclear-idUKLDE7670HA20110708

you are right, you will go down in flames from the 'nuclear fanboys'. You deserve it.

We have much more pressing concerns to deal with than this inane bullshit:

http://nextbigfuture.com/2011/07/un-study-says-76-trillion-needs-to-be.html

and keep this in mind when you consider your excruciatingly stupid decision:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/20/us-germany-energy-idUSTRE75J42J20110620

And in case you are a 'climate change skeptic' I'd suggest you check the statisics on coal and oil deaths, in relation to nuclear:

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2011/03/the-triumph-of-coal-marketing.html

What an unmitigated, colossal, inconceivably short-minded, pooch screw of a fuckup this flip-flopping is. It's guaranteed to cost lots of lives and billions of dollars.

And the chance of a 9.0 earthquake plus tsunami is - in case you are wondering - is pretty much next to NONEXISTANT in Germany.

If you don't like the current brand of nuclear reactors, use that reputed german engineering skill and build LFTRs and IFRs to take their place, don't cower under the utter spinelessness of this decision.

Ed

What a good thing that just today, the French government started thinking aloud about the nuclear exit.

Percentages don't mean anything. Numbers can be skewed so many ways its not even funny.

Just because some greeny stuck a hose up his ass and lit his farts to make sear his tofu doesn't make it renewable energy.

For example, this article says that coal power is cooling the earth...

Whoah, hold on a minute.

A News Corp subsidiary that happens to be a tabloid (which as we all know don't count as real journalism)

The subsidiary in question is News International. They run the biggest selling papers in the UK including The Times, which has one of the most respected newspapers here for centuries.

hired a private investigator to complete his own investigation on the murder of a girl

No they (presumably a team at the News of The World) hired a man to investigate the disappearance of a girl. This is quite an important distinction, they knew the types of technique liable to be used, it would be quite a different kettle of fish doing this once it had become a murder investigation.

The private investigator, acting as a lone agent, "hacked in" ... to her voicemail and used a message on it to add to his investigation.

They (News International) have already acknowledged they are responsible for a string of similar incidents (targetted at celebrities rather than murder victims).

I think the most reasonable explanation is that they didn't know the details, didn't want to, and didn't care what techniques were employed to get their story. News International should work hard to show they've grown enough respect for journalistic ethics to keep their house in order.

Also the investigator manipulated the messages on the phone (apparently to free space so more could come in). Meditate on how awful a thing to do that is.

Rupert Murdoch didn't personally hold anybody at gunpoint demanding a passcode. News Corp didn't send Nazi Zombies after her family demanding information. But I can already tell from the headline that some people will just go there right off the bat.

No one is seriously suggesting Rupert Murdoch is complicit here or was anywhere close to decisions being taken here. Shit goes uphill though, and you're tarred by association. It is completely correct for people who are revolted by the actions of the News of The World appoint some blame to the parent, right the way up to the top.

When you send someone out to get you something, and they come back with a bunch of cash and a stain for your reputation - you can take both or neither.

I'm all for charging the PI with obstruction of justice, but unless News Corp explicitly told him what to do, their involvement in this is tangential at best.

This is not an isolated phone hacking incident; to suggest that journalists would get information from PI's using these techniques over and over and over without knowing some shennanigans were going on is absurd to the point of lunacy or extreme naivete.

Certainly the brunt of public ire (and there is substantial outrage and shock) is where it should be with News International and not the parent News Corp, but if you want to make some radical argument like the parent does not have any responsibility for the culture of subsidiaries, or that the News of The World acted in good faith throughout this affair - spouting enough factual errors to prove you have only a tenuous grasp on events is not a good starting point.

compete against China in getting companies to move there. They will follow CHina's lead

Has it occurred to you that there is a way to deal with China and its successors in this race to the bottom? The US, and all other western nations, are sovereign. We decide who is and is not permitted to import goods and under what terms. We have the leverage necessary to alter this dynamic.

Why do we not use it? Why does this tactic not occur to people like you in these discussions? There are two reasons, one for each end of the political spectrum.

On the right, you have capital. Asian industry was built with Western capital, and it's paying off handsomely. They would rather that continue, so there is no enthusiasm for upsetting with the status quo. Aside from a few protectionist voices like Pat Buchanan no one on the right talks about trade policy. The current situation is optimal.

On the left you have at least two distinct considerations. First, and most obvious, Asia is funding a vast welfare state in the West. Hundreds of billions of deficit financing for the US every year has deferred, until very recently, any serious discussion about the rapid growth in dependency among citizens. Consider the absurdity of China promising to 'help' Greece (a Kyoto signatory) by funding yet more debt to keep that nasty little welfare state afloat. Second, the existence of an outlet for industrial activity in Asia enables an ever growing regulatory regime in the West without actually incurring the otherwise inescapable increases in cost. If voters couldn't go to Walmart/TESCO/IKEA/ASDA and buy stuff cheap they might have less enthusiasm for green statists.

Thus, there are no voices that oppose the race to the bottom, and people like you believe we're empty handed. We are not. Unfortunately it appears we must bottom out hard (sovereign debt crises, widespread economic hardship, etc.) before people like you figure it out.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/30/us-germany-hacking-idUSTRE75T2Q420110630

This year it will kick off the first Defcon Kids conference for children between eight and 16 to learn the skills of computer hackers, as well as to protect themselves against cyber attacks.

U.S. federal agents plan to use the occasion to size up tech-savvy youngsters who could form the next generation of digital crime-fighters.

Or the next group of suspects...

You got moderated +1 insightful, which is strange. Your comment isn't wrong, but I can't imagine you wrote it for any other reason than you misunderstood the GP. They didn't imply that MS doesn't pay their interns--they were clearly referring to MS's shady/unethical business practices using contractors as full-time employees, and the consequences thereof.

It seems that thanks to the economy, you'll also be competing with older workers for those internships now.

#1. I'm 6'8" 315lbs and a hockey player. Try NOT applying your stupid "typical geek" stereotype to everyone you meet.

#2. Have you really not seen/heard the stories about passengers ganging up on another passenger in flight for stupid/simple reasons? There are hundreds of people on most of these flights, and if you are doing something that they perceive as endangering all of their lives, you've given them plenty of motivation to step outside of their comfort zones.

#3. If your options are (a) Sit and wait for them to crash your plane into a building or (b) Try to overpower them, in which case either you win and the plane can be landed safely, or you lose and the plane crashes, although likely in a field somewhere and not into a major metropolitan area, then logically which would you choose?

A few references for #2:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/5258502-418/houston-to-chicago-flight-diverts-in-st.-louis
http://www.reuters.com/article/2007/02/16/idUSL16313540
Of course there's also United flight 93.