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You have spent at least the last three messages in a desperate attempt to have the last word by shamelessly trying to summarize the discussion to make your position (and you) seem sensible. Regardless of how much you twist the text, or try to put new words into my mouth, you convinced no one. The record is right here.

And here is the killer - you never knew who you were dealing with or how soon events would make you look so incredibly foolish.

Remember this in my original post: (1) Candidate X, what in the first month of taking office will you do to roll back the executive branch's power grab of the last 8 years and restore civil liberties?

To which you replied: , one month in office is way to early to undo something that another president has done without knowing exactly why it was done and how it effects your position as president.

Read it and weep for you ignorance. Vow to never shoot your mouth off without thinking again. Then be a man and apologize to me.

Obama asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office

Of course you probably won't do that. Like your buddy Bush, you won't learn from your mistakes. You will just attack Obama (and me) and generally act like a weasel. Why not just surprise everyone be take the adult road?

How much you want to bet that after the Liberatarian/Objectivist/Transhumanist crowd breaks this barrier, that the next round of "quasi-sovereign" pioneers on the high-seas will be near-kin to the FLDS or Austrian Basement Incest Rape-Slaves?

Those that think this is a great idea, have already exposed their latent socipathy.

Not quite sure why people assume all of the Africa is starving or lacks critical infrastructure. Take a look at the pictures on the wikipedia entry for Johannesburg, for comparison sake.

Would that be the "most dangerous city in the world with respect to street crime" Johannesburg? Hardly a place where international researchers would flock to live and work in.

I've also heard Internet connections are plentiful and inexpensive in Mogadishu, but I wouldn't start a research center there.

To me, these measly "over 240.000" people don't really matter. Many of them probably didn't deserve to live anyway, others might just have contributed to the solution for the over-population of our earth.

Among these people could have been the next great scientist,
or someone that could have contributed to the world in a
significant manner.

If all the ppl in the world were put in Texas, everyone would
get roughly 1,152 sq feet.

So to me the over population hysteria is just a myth.

Food growth with vertical hydroponics could took the place
of large land plots and actually be cheaper once the
engineering is fine tuned.

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS199249+13-Mar-2008+MW20080313

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydroponics#Commercial

125 million lbs on 256 acres, ie. less than .5 sq miles in one yr.

10,000 sq miles would be 2.5 trillion lbs. and that is
just 100 miles by 100 miles.

This is with just conventional hydroponics, not Vertical
Growth High Density which yields 20 times standard soil yields.

If half the area of the farmers in the US that are PAID to
grow nothing did this it would feed the world MANY times over.

It needs to be done diversely around the world in areas
that are considered non arable, because hydroponics works
on land that is not even good for farming once you get
a decent water supply and some type of nutrients.

One natural loop method is fish in the water, and insects
for their food, and the insects as food for each other as well.

Catfish in Vietnam get up to 646 lbs.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/06/photogalleries/giantcatfish/

Much like occurs in nature, but add natural stimulus factors for
each of the participant species.

I also think at some distant time we will need to move out
into space if our species is to survive at all.

More than one planet killer has struck earth and originated
from earth itself.

1) Gamma Ray Burst
2) Super volcano
3) Asteroid or Comet Impact

Population Freakazoids even have their own monument:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

What, exactly, is the oppertunity cost of the interstate hiway system? According to http://www.dot.state.mn.us/interstate50/50facts.html, it cost $114 billion over 35 years (Wikipedia lists that as $425 billion in inflation-adjusted 2006 dollars). The trucking industry (born directly as a result of that hiway system) pulled $645.6 billion in revenue in 2006 alone. That doesn't even account for other uses of the system, like increased tourisim.

I'd say the interstate hiway system was a great investment on the government's part. Libertarians are free to throw a hissy fit if they want.

Don't forget the iPod Price Index (and Swivel has the numbers). A more 'modern' version of the Big Mac Index.

Well, at you can try, anyway.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUKN0228397020080506?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews

The sad thing about that comment is that several months ago China allowed US beef back into the country after some debacle early on. Less than a month after the allowed it they turned around and banned it again because of the levels of spinal material (or some such thing) in the beef. They were afraid of BSE (mad cow disease) and their levels that they wanted were way lower than what the US or even Canada accepted, so US beef is banned again (though you can get it fairly easily through other channels). While I have no example of what you're saying being true or false, it would be very ironic if it was true with the BSE story in mind.

Do you *ever* read the news?? http://www.reuters.com/news/globalcoverage/agflation

It reminds me. I've got a Hungarian friend who's obviously not keen on things Russian given Russia's historical behaviour in Hungary.

Back when Putin was first elected my friend read that he flew his own fighter down to Chechnya. And it's true, he has flown to official visits in jet fighters.

Which, whatever you think about the guy as a politician is damn cool. He's like James Bond, or maybe a James Bond villian. Rumours about his personal life just confirms the impression.

exactly ... and remember that even mozilla thinks its ready for prime time

I'm not saying it's right, but that you're putting a highly emotive and anachronistic slant on a practice which Muhammad's contemporaries would probably never have dreamed of calling into question.

Funny how this old arab pervert's example continues quite regularly into the modern day.

Or how about this?

Or how about the fact that non-muslims still have to try to stop this in nigeria too?

Tells me a lot that the "ultimate example" of how to behave in the Muslim religion is a stinky, homicidal arab perv.

Get the tastiest breed of cow, find the tastiest cow of the breed, kill the poor thing, and grow the cloned meat in a vat.

Once the system is working, I'd imagine it'd be a lot cheaper than the current system, think of the energy cows waste (breathing, blood pumping, etc). Admittedly cows allowed to roam get that energy from grass, but it's still trading a massive waste of land for a massive amount of unwanted methane

I'm sure meat grown in a vat would be a lot easier to tinker with than meat grown by a cow, allowing things like vitamin enriched beef, long life beef, burn resistant beef, bacon flavor beef (admit it, you know you want it), possibly even replacing the cow fat with something like omega-3 fat...

As for ethics, some people may comment about not giving a damn if an animal feels pain, but I'm sure if they bothered to research it, all but the most psychopathic would feel empathy, they'd just rather not think too deeply about it. Likewise, I suspect my footwear was made by some child slaves in some faraway country, so while I avoid that brand, I'm fairly sure if I researched the brands of footwear I do buy, I'd find some pretty bad things.

Don't forget the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Not only was its being called terrorist slander to begin with, but it's now abandoned the civil war and a major player (in fact, the largest player) in the creation of a new secular, democratic republic. And it's still on the official US terrorist list.

They killed thousands of civillians in a war. Here's what Amnesty International said

Forgive me for my flippant dismissal, but they sure do say "reportedly" alot. Knowing Amnesty International, they probably rely exclusively on the "independent", respected media - probably from India. The Maoist's massive support seems to indicate otherwise. For that matter, how do you think they were so successful? It's not like they were being armed by China or something.

Now the government has basically surrendered

You demonstrate here that you have no idea what's going on in Nepal. The "government" you speak of was overthrown by a massive uprising made in alliance with the political parties in the cities and the Maoists in the countryside for the first time.

and called elections where the Maoists have had free range to intimidate, something they have a long experience in. Here's what the UN said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL140233

KATHMANDU, June 23 (Reuters) - Activists from the youth wing of Nepal's former Maoist rebels are creating a "climate of fear" by abducting and beating people, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The UN body said on Friday that Maoists, who ended a decade-long insurgency in November, were among those preventing other parties from functioning freely in rural areas ahead of an assembly election at the end of this year.

I can't respond to these claims directly, but the article is from over a year ago, whereas...

On the BBC they interviewed people who said that they were voting for them to stop them killing people!

That's some journalism, there, doing whatever you can to find and report on people upset with the chance to vote.

Seems like terrorism has got them into government

See above. This is just getting comical.

where they plan to abolish the monarchy and set up a 'strong Presidential system'

I'm terrified.

presumably with their leader Prachanda - Nepali for The Fierce One

"Presumably" with whoever *gets elected*. What's so hard to understand here?

and an admirer of Stalin and Mao

Mao's support of the name of Stalinism is a complicated thing. Many of Mao's greatest admirers in the West were Trotskyists - go figure.

Of course there's no guarantee that Nepal will stay democratic after the election. The Maoists might arrange some Reichstag fire type situation and use it as an excuse to impose a state of emergency, ban other parties and convert their strong president into a dictator.

Especially now that you've given them the idea!!

Before the election they've said that they believe in the multi party system, but maybe they're lying.

Maybe the Nepal Samajwadi Janata Dal party is, too. What's your point?

But only US politicans are dishonest, right?

I'm waiting for your argument in support of the theory that the Maoists are lying. I'm guessing it amounts to "because they're Maoists!"

Every single politician that the US doesn't like in the entire world is totally uncorrupt and only interested in working for the betterment of their countries, not in gaining godlike personal power

Are you trying to say that every single politician the US doesn't like is trying to gain godlike personal power??

Anyway, putting a check wherever the US puts a minus is indeed a sophomoric mistake. The more nuanced reality is that the US only demoni

Uhm, you and I don't care about Second Life, but out there in the real world, somehow it's a big deal. I can't imagine why, but don't say nobody cares, because that's obviously false.

Don't forget the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist). Not only was its being called terrorist slander to begin with, but it's now abandoned the civil war and a major player (in fact, the largest player) in the creation of a new secular, democratic republic. And it's still on the official US terrorist list.

They killed thousands of civillians in a war. Here's what Amnesty International said
http://archive.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA310462005?open&of=ENG-NPL

Examples of the lack of commitment to human rights by the CPN (Maoist) are plentiful. Maoist forces have staged several attacks recently on civilians and civilian objects, including political activists and schools. On 15 April, Maoists reportedly surrounded Bargadwa village, Somani VDC, Ward 7 in Nawalparasi district and rounded up all villagers. They then reportedly separated all the boys and men aged between 14 and 40 and summarily executed ten men and one boy. On 29 April, Maoist cadres reportedly abducted and killed Dan Bahadur Shreebastav, chairman of the Kapilvastu District Monitoring Committee, and on 9 May shot dead Bhagwan Das Shrestha, chairman of the Chitwan District Monitoring Committee. None of these victims were legitimate military targets.

Last month, Maoist forces also carried out a spate of attacks on schools in the context of a two-week campaign for the closure of all private schools initiated on 14 April 2005. Among the schools targeted were a school in Nepalgunj, Banke district, on 17 April and another in Kalyanpur, Chitwan district on 21 April. Three children were reportedly injured when the Maoists threw a bomb at students at a school in Khara, Rukum district, on 17 April. Hundreds of schools across the country remain closed due to threats by Maoists. Furthermore, Maoist forces have regularly abducted large numbers of students from schools for political indoctrination and propaganda campaigns. In a recent example, reports from Salyan district indicate that as many as 200 students from remote villages were abducted around 17 May. None of these targets can be described as military â" they were all civilians and civilian objects the targeting of which is prohibited under international humanitarian law.

We are also concerned that Maoist forces have abducted, tortured and killed civilians, whom they accused of "spying" and other crimes, and security force personnel whom they had captured. Among recent cases is Lila Singh, a 23-year-old karate practitioner from Mahendranagar, Kanchanpur district who was abducted from her home on 29 April allegedly on suspicion of spying. To date, her relatives have not heard anything about her fate or whereabouts. On 16 May 2005, Shanker Sarki, a soldier, who had returned home from Congo where he had served in the United Nations Peacekeeping Forces, was abducted from his home in Dhangadi, Kailali district by 12 armed Maoist cadres in civilian dress and killed. Torture and extrajudicial executions are similarly prohibited, under international law, in all circumstances.

Now the government has basically surrendered and called elections where the Maoists have had free range to intimidate, something they have a long experience in. Here's what the UN said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSDEL140233

KATHMANDU, June 23 (Reuters) - Activists from the youth wing of Nepal's former Maoist rebels are creating a "climate of fear" by abducting and beating people, the United Nations said on Saturday.

The UN body said on Friday that Maoists, who ended a decade-long insurgency in November, were among those preventing other parties from functioning freely in rural areas ahead of an assembly election at the end of this year.

On the BBC they interviewed people who said that they were voting for them to stop them killing people! Seems like te

M$ is talking but is Newscorp really listening.

It appears News Corp may want Yahoo! for itself:

"News Corp continues to talk directly with Yahoo on reaching a deal without Microsoft."

Why would News Corp burden itself with a known untrusted partner like M$. Look at what News Corp achieved with Myspace in a very short time.

That might be something to look out for, a combined Myspace/Yahoo!. Though I'd prefer Yahoo! to remain independent, I can see News Corp doing something good. My 1 concern would be making it lean conservative, however after it acquired 21st Century Movies the movie studio released some "liberal" or environmental movies such as "The Day After Tomorrow".

Don't count out another media player:

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0929033920080410?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=22&sp=true

Hard to know whether this is going to turn into a bidding war, but no matter what happens, Yahoo's days as an independant 'net player on the big stage are numbered.

The readers found Harry Potter, not the other way around.

"Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" first appeared in a hardcover edition of 500 copies, most of which went to purchases by public libraries. Early Harry Potter edition fetches $40,000

Its presentation on the retail bookshelf hobbled by one of the most god-awful cover illustrations known to man.

Actually, Novell reported huge increases quarter-over-quarter growth in their Linux business. Something like 200% year-over-year in the SUSE Linux part. Even if some other parts of their business are doing badly, it's pretty clear that their Linux business is on the rise and has been for some time. Which is great for Novell and great for free software (as they have hundreds of engineers working upstream).

Well, the market isn't reacting as you would suggest.

Or truth or science. A lie is a lie no matter how many people you pay to repeat it. Corruption has no place in any technical organization that will be litened to and respected.

Groklaw predicts more challenges

Greenland relies on a satellite for internet connection, but a submarine cable is to be deployed this summer by Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks connecting to Milton, New Foundland. According to this source Iceland has several large hydropower plants, where as Greenland only has one small one. Summer temperatures in Greenland peaks at 10-15 degrees celsius and easily goes down to minus 20-30 degrees celsius. The low temperatures in Greenland could provide cooling, and why not use the heat that is produced to warm up houses (wait a minut: don't melt those igloos away!).

Stop spewing BS, Americans are and have been for a while one of the most popular and coveted tourists to get: http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL2273073120070523
Having worked in the tourist industry in Europe I can tell you that Americans don't behave anything like you describe.

Ummmm, right. Who is it that has popularized "suicide bombings"?

Please provide links to these websites and evidence or proof of this "community support". Recall, the article you cited doesn't even mention a religion, much less the culprit or the websites and community support he received. In fact, I contend it was a Muslim or atheist that committed the abortion clinic bombing -- please prove otherwise. For evidence of Muslim community support, here is a nice article about those peace loving Muslims (article title: "Poll finds some U.S. Muslim support for suicide attacks"):

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN2244293620070522/

I guess the positive side is that only "some" support it.

You do realize that "Muslim" is not a race, right? Even if I did hate all Muslims, which I don't, how exactly does that make me a racist? I would have to be racist against my own race. In reality, I couldn't care less about the so-called moderate Muslims (to me, "moderate" means they at least do not support suicide bombings). You, on the contrary, appear to harbor some serious hate and resentment toward Christians, which is seriously counter to your signature "I never have frustrations". I think you do have frustrations.

Also note that religion doesn't have the monopoly on violence -- atheism, in the form of communism, has killed more people than all religions combined over all time. You can find your own favorite article on that subject, but below is one that adds up atheist/communist murders to over 100 million. With China, Cuba, and Venezuela around, that number will continue to increase.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/COM.ART.HTM/

Maybe next time you criticize you could get it right yourself? http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1929797920080326?sp=true

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USN1929797920080326
I wish article submitters, or the editors, would publish stuff on /. linking to the 1 page versions of articles. That whole trick of spreading an article over many pages just for ad impressions is just BS!

• Both homeowner and rental vacancy rates are at all-time highs nationwide, see here.
• We are seeing year-over-year (factoring out seasonal differences) price declines nationwide, see here.
• Even supposedly immune markets are now seeing declines, see here (two years ago CAR would never have admitted it was even possible for prices to decline).

We are now going to see at least the same amount of declines. This is just beginning.

Two years ago, virtually no one would even admit that there was a housing bubble. One year ago, some were starting to acknowledge the bubble, but at the same time insisting that it wouldn't bust (and that even if it did, prices would not go down very much). Now, few would deny that there was a bubble, or that it did burst and cause price declines, however people still insist that the resulting shit-storm is confined to the "sub-prime" market. The layers are denial are getting peeled back one-by-one. The next one to go will be this ridiculous notion of it being purely a "sub-prime" problem.

Miami's Drone

vs

the Imperial Probe Droia

you decide...

tm

Cleaning up the mess of any conceivable "dirty bomb" is a mop and bucket affair.

Mopping every square centimeter of every surface in a large area would be quite an undertaking. Then, how do you dispose of the slop?

Think clean-up from a toxic bomb would be easy? Seventy-five recovery workers from the WTC site have been diagnosed with blood cell cancers that were likely caused by their exposure to the toxic stew of Ground Zero, while the EPA said everything was honky-dory. The total number of cancer cases caused by the toxic cloud may be in the hundreds. That wasn't even at attack designed to be toxic.

We can also look to the "clean up" in New Orleans to see just how well we could expect the government to respond to such a disaster. If a dirty bomb just needs a mop and a bucket, surely some spilled water would be even easier, right? Ha, ha. It's funny because it's tragic.

Shit, a full-on nuclear weapon exploded at altitude didn't render Hiroshima uninhabitable.

No, but it killed a whole lot of people - disproportionately children, who were working outdoors clearing firebreaks at the time of the attack - in very nasty ways. Then those who survived the first few years after the bombing had about a 9% chance of dying from cancer. (This study didn't start until 1950, so probably misses the worst of it - people who survived the initial blast and radiation exposure, but got fatal cancers in the first years afterwards.)

If you took a small amount of quality radiologicals, wrapped it around some semtex, and made it go boom! in the middle of Manhattan, you'd kill a couple of people in the explosion, create several score cancer patients, and for years you'd have an area of maybe a square kilometer where few people would be willing to live or work. That's a pretty significant impact.

According to FAS, with a one-foot-long chunk (about a kilogram and a half, if I calculated right) of radioactive cobalt from a food irradiation plant, you could contaminate 1,000 square kilometers and raise the cancer risk for everyone who stayed in Manhattan to 1 in 100. Manhattan real estate would get really cheap.

Now imagine a Ryder truck full of fuel oil, fertilizer, and various other common nitrate/hydrocarbon mixes to make up an explosive sundae, and for the cherry on top, say 8 kilograms of high grade uranium. Place in a highly populated area, preferably on a breezy day, and let the good times roll.

If you jettison anyone fighting for your side (i.e. science) as soon as they are attacked, you will very soon run out of smart people like Gore and Dawkins.

Escuse me? Isn't the core of this conversation about how politics + science = bad times for science? The problem with "global warming" is that Gore, a politician, is speaking a story that climatologists, meteorologists, scientists are denying is occurring. I'm more concerned that he is profiting from involvement in venture capitalists tied to "green" alternatives, while driving the national conversation to enable "carbon credits" managed by his firms.

This guy's not a "smart person", he's an "opportunist"... I'd even go as far as a textbook "special interest", which is doing nothing but driving a weakly supported climatology theory into our nation's science classrooms, and through his political history drives it into our nightly news. Newsflash: The Polar Bear population is not decreasing, and the earth is not getting warmer over the last decade despite predictions, and there's good evidence that the rush to follow the Kyoto treaty is now damaging the ozone layer again. I'd prefer to stick to the measured facts instead of politically jumping the gun just because it's a good "story".

-- Scott

This is a big problem, and has been going on for years. Read the book, "Body Brokers: Inside America's Underground Trade in Human Remains", or this MSNBC article about the illicit trade of body parts and tissues.

Last year, several funeral homes in New York were charged with allowing these people to come in and harvest bits and pieces from their clients (the dead), sometimes replacing things like femurs with PVC pipe.

TFA refers to cadavers for medical instruction, but regardless, the problems are twofold. One, often there is no consent. Two, there is little concern if the parts contain cancer or communicable diseases, and IIRC, several people have received infected tissue "donations" who later contracted syphillis, hepatitis, and worse.

The all-stock offer from JP Morgan values Bear Stearns at about $280 million, compared to its valuation of $7.7 billion a week ago - Reuters

I doubt it. It's selling like bloody hotcakes. Newegg can't keep them on the shelves.

Why do you think we are starting to see similar devices?

I think the market was ripe for such a thing, particularly at these price points. I know I "had to have" mine, and for $379USD am loving every minute of it.

Now, Windows mobile could be a nice somewhat lean OS for the thing, and I'd find this REDFLY pretty good if it was a little sleeker and more refined then my eeePC. I would prefer the Linux though because I'm a big Linux geek and it offers very much flexibility.

Sorry to break it to you, but he's not the only major candidate running this year to have his own brand of beer. A brewery in Kenya, home of Barack Obama's father, is brewing Obama Beer [observer.com].

Obama isn't running for the Senate, he's already a Senator running for President. But ok, he's running. Steve Novick is the only candidate with his own brand of beer that doesn't have a hate filled racist preacher!

A white man voting for Obama is like a black man voting for a candidate whose preacher is in the KKK. I've been to his church's web site, its fugly and by that I'm talking about the rhetoric, not the looks. Racism is wrong no matter what your race. I don't see how his preacher can even call himself a Christian. There should not be any such thing as a "black church" or a "white church". If everyone in your church's congregation is the same color, maybe you should join a Christian church!

-mcgrew

While I agree with everything else, I don't know about the no known adverse health effects. When smoked it has been linked to an increased risk of gum disease. So maybe eating it or drinking it as tea has no adverse health effects. Plus in general it prevents and helps with glaucoma, one thing I know I'll never get.

TakeTwo already did say that.

Management rejected the hostile offer. Insiders hold 12% in TakeTwo which, is not an insignificant amount, but it is far from a majority.

EA announced this almost three weeks ago so that outside investors holding shares of TTWO would potentially sell the company to them.
Due to the rejection, one such investor has sued.
Others have sold off much of their stake, cashing in on the rise in price while (I presume that) everything else in the market is tanking.

This time, EA is just stating that they are committed to the original offer.

I've been following this since before the original announcement - super pissed at myself that I didn't set up the brokerage account a week earlier than I did (initial funding delay absolutely killed this one). +50% ... man, I hope I learned my lesson. Anyway, all I needed to know was: (1) I'm buying GTA4 when it comes out (a very unusual practice for me), and when reflecting on the Activision/Blizzard deal (2) a similar move by a software giant seemed obvious, and (3) nobody in financial news was talking about TakeTwo's highly anticipated sequel.

...super super pissed...

This is especially ironic since many of the Olympic Committees sue anyone using the word 'Olympic' or press governments for legislation protecting their precious name. For instance a few link samples:
US: http://www.dvorak.org/blog/?p=15360
CA: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/1777/125/
UK: http://blogs.reuters.com/uknews/2008/02/06/olympic-tussle-over-a-name/
Given the IOC and each local Olympic committee's approach trademark ownership, they should have no problem removing the game.
This is unlikely because, they will not treat other's work the same as they want theirs enforces. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Yeah, people are clueless about intellectual property. I dug up the original Reuters article this is referencing, assuming somewhere along the line someone copying it had managed to confuse copyright and trademarks. Sadly, it appears it was the original reporter that screwed up. He says they threatened with regard to copyrights, but all the direct quotes refer to trademarks, brands and "intellectual property." Never once does any spokesperson for Mattel reference copyright directly.

Note, trademarks are probably what are at issue since "Scrabulous" is easily confused with "Scrabble." The authors of the game should have picked something that did not reference the trademarked name.

Because telling teens to just say no to sex works so well...

Really? You've talked to Steve Jobs about it already?

Or are you basing everything on rumors that first said they'll be gatekeepers to all applications? But later, the same rumor sites say developers won't need special approval, unless they want to sell it via iTunes?

I wish people would just wait a week until until the actual SDK release is made.

If [Asus's Eee PC] starts to do well [...]

What do you mean, "if"?

bankers aren't about losing money

The current credit/mortgage crisis would suggest otherwise.

Citigroup lost almost $10 billion in just the 4th quarter. A lot of big regional and national banks lost money and 2008 will probably continue to be an ugly year for them.

Banks abandoned their usual conservative ways and got caught up in the greed of the expanding housing market.

Take a look at http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home on the cost of war.
Now, take a look at http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/earnings/2005-10-27-xom_x.htm for Exxon profits.

Then, take a look at http://www.rigzone.com/news/article.asp?a_id=56496 which states Iraq is producing 2.4 million barrels a day.
If you are still not satisfied, take a look at Exxon's filing at: http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKN0645391820080206

I understand that as a Bush supporter, you MUST attack the Enemy i.e, whoever talks the truth about Big Oil Profits and taxpayers.

I understand, but i still pity you.