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By improving education, equality, and economic opportunity the population will reduce.

A blank assertion which (without significant elaboration) is unlikely to be correct.

From the CDC:

"National Center for Health Statistics"
Mother's Educational Level Influences Birth Rate"
... "Educational attainment is a very critical factor in accounting for lifetime fertility differentials. Women with 1 or more years of college have sharply lower lifetime fertility than less educated women, regardless of race or Hispanic origin. Women with college degrees can be expected to complete their childbearing with 1.6-2.0 children each; 1.7 for non-Hispanic white, 1.6 for non-Hispanic black, and 2.0 for Hispanic women. For women with less education the total expected number of children are: 3.2 children for those with 0-8 years of education; 2.3 children for those with 9-11 years of education and 2.7 for high school graduates."

"Japan birth rate off record low as economy improves"

"Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.--Why the Difference?"
...
"In these nations, societal openness and comfort in dealing with sexuality, including teen sexuality, and pragmatic governmental policies create greater, easier access to sexual health information and services for all people, including teens. Easy access to sexual health information and services leads to better sexual health outcomes for French, German, and Dutch teens when compared to U.S. teens."

"Study urges action to raise birth rate"

FERTILITY: While most Taiwanese are married by the time they reach 40, well educated women are more likely to stay single, the latest study shows"

"California Reduces Teen Birth Rate Through Sex Education"[pdf]

Associated Press (05.10.04)
California's teen birth rate has fallen from 11th nationwide in 1991 to 21st in 2002. The drop of more than 40 percent is attributed to a state-sponsored program that provides information about abstinence and birth control. The pregnancy figures cited by California Wellness Foundation, which runs a statewide teen pregnancy initiative, were included in a brief the foundation gave California lawmakers last week in Washington. The drop exceeds the 30 percent decline in teen pregnancies nationally during the same period.

"The Chinese Economy"

Desperate for a baby boom
By Kalinga Seneviratne

SINGAPORE - Alarmed by a falling birth rate and its impact on the economy, Singapore badly wants its well-educated, career-oriented women to have more babies.

So, at 2.1-something children per female (your figure), that would class America as not being a developed nation.

The US is a special case, as I said "As the US is becoming more religious I wonder how much religion influences this as some of them call their followers to "multiply"."

Going through the rest of your reply, I see more arguments and one "table", I wish /. would allow html tables, you ran off on a spreadsheet with numbers you made up, without any real data. As I provided links to data as well as links to articles on how some governments are concerned about declining birthrates due to improvements in economic opportunities, educations, and or equality c

In most medieval tales, people have free will to choose between good and evil. Darth Vader chose evil. Han Solo also made the wrong choices, but at the end of Star Wars IV, he made the right choice to not abandon the rebels. Han Solo saved the day by protecting Luke Skywalker as his space ship ultimately delivered a blow against the Death Star -- the ultimate symbol of evil. Of course, in "Star Wars VI", even Darth Vader chose good and became reborn as a good spirit.

In the first 3 movies, people who chose good and who committed their lives to the ideals of the Jedi could acquire the powers of the Jedi. Of course, one must be open-minded and must be sensitive to the true nature of the universe. This message is a wholesome one for all the bratty kids who adored these movies and who eventually grew up to shape our society (via, for example, the many discussions on Slashdot) for the better.

Now, fast forward to the 21st century. George Lucas changed the message of the original "Star Wars". In the new "Star Wars", the powers of the Jedi belong only to the people who inherit specialized midi-chlorians in their genes. If you do not have the special genetic material, then you are a loser like the rest of the humanoids.

In the new "Star Wars", the Jedis are the highest, most privileged class in a caste system (like the one in India). People are born into their fate. Regardless of the amount of effort in abiding by the Jedi ideals, a person can never be a Jedi. Being a good person means nothing.

George Lucas transformed the Western theme of free will (to choose good and become a Jedi) to the Indian theme of a caste system. That is a terrible message to send to today's children. Though both the old "Star Wars" and the new "Star Wars" have characters (e.g., ewoks and Jar Jar Binks) specifically appealing to children, the underlying message of the old "Star Wars" is a much better inspiration for children.

Yet, we should not whine about Lucas' tragic blunder. We should create another new "Star Wars" by re-writing the stories and re-developing them into an alternative prequel, which sticks closely to the original theme in "Star Wars IV: A New Hope".

Fixing a tragic blunder is the plan for a new movie about "Star Trek". This new movie is also a prequel and attempts to return to the original spirit of "Star Trek".

"Most of the sexual maneuvers in 'Lust, Caution' are in abnormal body positions," the report quoted Yu Zao, a deputy director at a women's hospital in southern Guangdong province, as saying.

"Only women with comparatively flexible bodies that have gymnastics or yoga experience are able to perform them. For average people to blindly copy them could lead to unnecessary physical harm," Yu said.

Personally I could never be happy about a military that "accidentally" murders innocents, spits on the grave by telling them it's their own fault, and then turns around and does it over and over again.

Reference 1
Reference 2
Reference 3

Most of these massacres aren't even covered by the major news providers. These are the exceptions.

Of course, it's the money men that actually make the decision to wage offensive (not defensive) wars: your "representatives" in government, the people who profit by waging war. You know, the people who have that special, god-like ability to determine the price of human life.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

A strong military is essential to safeguarding liberty and the Republic. But a strong military doesn't have to be one of excess. The military has become a tool for delivering profits to Lockheed Martin and Boeing and other conglomerates under the auspice of national security. It's a tool congressmen use to allocate military projects to their districts, whether or not such projects benefit the mission at hand.

Some examples of the Pentagon's famed waste and corruption:

The Crusader artillery project, finally canceled in 2002 after $11 billion was spent on it. Donald Rumsfeld said it wasn't mobile enough for the 21st century. What is so wrong with the current Paladin artillery platform that this project was required in the first place?

And what about the Coast Guard's troubled modernization efforts, contracted out to Lockheed and Northrop? The project is $7 billion overbudget and nine years behind schedule, yet both of these companies still continue to work on it. And Lockheed and Northrop will continue working on projects for decades to come despite this.

The Air Force and Navy have F-15s, F-16s, and F-18s. But they're building the F-22 and some F-35 joint strike aircraft, too? At what point is enough enough? If the branches could afford dabbling in that stuff, then they should go for it. But it's a matter of prioritizing; money is not infinite, despite what the debt-ridden government believes. Maintain the systems we have, many of which are at the breaking point after years of service in Afghanistan and Iraq. Churning out more wonder weapons seems pointless when our current crop of fighters perform just fine.

There comes a point where we must see this game for what it is. The challenge is in creating a ready, able, and fearsome fighting force while not indulging the excesses of the military-industrial complex. And I know that many great things have come from Pentagon-sponsored R&D projects. But these programs can still exist without spending countless sums of money.

And this doesn't even take into account that such a fearsome military is all too often misused in wars of choice like Vietnam and Iraq. So we spend all of this money to build a huge military, then spend even more money to misuse it...without ever having declared war. Brilliant.

They've already got those. Heck, these vending machines can even run away.

which kinda makes you wish you were in the army--really?--> http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1272

And yet they don't bomb Mexico, Canada, Africa, Japan, Russia, etc even though they're all different cultures. You're fooling yourself if you think that our political actions don't put us towards the top of their shitlist.

Indeed some muslims want to kill us all. Does that warrant spending over http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSN24507537200710242 TRILLION dollars mostly borrowed from the Chinese to kill them? Our president spends money like a teenager with a credit card, without care for who's going to have to pay it back or the price of interest. That kind of short-sightedness is going to screw us over in the next 30 years.

Fishy things have been going on in Classmate PC Vs OLPC. Recently I read that Microsoft & Intel have already begun shipment to Libya of their classmate PCs. Libya had agreed to buy 1.2 million OLPCs but, of course, they aren't available yet.

What's really strange is I can't find anything on this from Microsoft or Intel. You're providing 150,000 laptops at only $200 each to a developing nation for the purposes of education and you don't have a press release outside of that country? Maybe they're just being humble? Or maybe someone was leveraging their ex-boss's many donations to African medicine & development to convince the Libyan government to take a different route?

You know, it's great that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is donating all that money to research and aide but if word gets out that they're using that to influence who those countries do business with, I don't think anyone's going to be impressed anymore. There's something fishy going on here, I'll bet you start to see many more countries make the switch to Classmate PCs over OLPCs ... and not for the technological reasons that they should be concerned with.

Er, I've seen this issue pop up somewhere else before, but the percentage of food consumed in the US that is imported is a small minority. According to Reuter's, only about 15% of the food supply was imported a year ago. This is up from bit less than 10% a decade ago, but not overwhelmingly so. Do remember there is quite a bit of protectionism over US agriculture.

Yeah, the dollar is going in the toilet, but we don't import everything.

The existence of vestigial organs is also a phenomenon explained by evolution. Indeed, it is also a phenomenon not well explained by ID, as their superfluous nature contradicts any principles of utilitarian design. The hind limbs of whales are some of the best examples of this, and it is likely the case that the human appendix is one such structure.

The appendix may not be vestigial after all. Just because it's not obvious what the funciton of something is does not mean that it does not do something. Surgeons are less likely to take supposedly vestigial things.As far as the study of embryos and evolution are concerned you should read the wikipedia entry about the embryo drawings.

There is a great deal of dogma on both sides of this debate. Religion will never be able to prove until there is the second coming. Evolutionists won't be able to provide concrete proof until they can setup an experiment that will last eons.

If scientists are able to create life, isn't that just proof of intelligent design? When they create these lifeforms, are they going to make whole new genetic sequences or pick some known good ones that they'll put together?

I think it should be all exports. The U.S. is on very shaky moral ground when it comes to Myanmar and it's well past time the U.S. stood up and said "we aren't supporting the regime in any way now and we can prove it". Otherwise, when the day of reckoning comes, all the U.S. will have to show is this: http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/legal/corporate_accountability/corporateArticle.asp?ObjID=lrRSFKnmmm&Content=45 and some pretty lies. America is far from alone in having Burmese skeletons in their closet so, please don't think I'm singling out the U.S. http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL0189406220071001

Paciolan is just as expensive as Ticketmaster. Besides, Ticketmaster owns Paciolan.

As far as evidence goes, check out http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0531-05.htm , referring to an article in Science.

I'll like to see a meta analysis of a lot of these studies because different studies make different conclusions. The study I submitted, "Organic farming yields as good or better: study" comes to a different conclusion than the one you provided.

To me, the idea that Mexicans are somehow worse off because they can buy food cheaper, and thus keep more of their own money, seems just bizarre.

Those Mexicans who work can afford food but those who work on farms can't. How's this, from the same source you used: "Mexican Farmers See Death Sentence in NAFTA".Or this one: "NAFTA Equals Death, Say Peasant Farmers". On the first page of Googling "mexican farmers" nafta all of the results are about how Mexican farmers got hammered by NAFTA. Economically the first thing that should matter the most is food security however when farmers have to leave their farms that goes out the window.

Because of a screwy tax credit for ethanol production, corn prices have gone up dramatically, on both sides of the border. (I say screwy because the amount of energy you get out of corn-based ethanol is only marginally higher than they amount you put into making it. Converting sugar, on the other hand, is much more efficient.)

Yeap, all this is is another corporate welfare scheme. As you say sugarcane is a better source for making ethanol, even better is Switchgrass.

Falcon

Christians don't kill you. Don't threaten you.

Unless you provide health care services they don't like. Or are homosexual or support the rights of people who are. Or if you belong to the wrong strain of Christianity.

It means that farmers get better yields

Do you have any evidence or proof this is true? Here's an article about one study that shows organics, which bans GE and GMOs, produces as much if not more than conventional farming: "Organic farming yields as good or better: study".

Lower prices mean fewer people starving, and more savings. It's a good thing.

Wrong. There are 3 major causes of hunger and starvation in the world: conflicts, fighting, and wars; politics; and the massive subsidies the First World ie the EU, Japan, and the US gives to agribusinesses. Conflicts, fighting, and wars make it hard for farmers to farm. Then politicians take perfectly good farm land and ruin it. It used to be that Zimbabwe was the breadbasket of southern Africa. However once president Robert Mugabe came to power he forced most of if not all of the white farmers off their farms and gave the farms to his cronies. Now Zimbabwe is a basket case and instead of exporting a lot of food, food has to be imported and still people are starving. Then there are the massive subsidies. Did you know that because of the billions of dollars the US federal government gives to massive agribusinesses in the US they are able to grow, then ship, and sell food in Mexico for cheaper than Mexican farmers can grow food? Mexican farmers are forced off their farms because US agribusinesses want their billions of dollars in corporate welfare. Where are those farmers going to go? They either go north and try to cross the border and become so called "illegal immigrants" or aliens; or they move into Mexican cities. And since those cities are already bursting at the seams, those already in the cities try to cross the border.

Actually for those people in the US who want to stop the flow of Mexicans into the US then get on your senators and representatives and tell them to stop giving large businesses like Cargill and Archer Daniel Midlands, ADM, billions of your dollars.

I also hope that someone puts the entire testimony of Stephen Colbert & John Stewart online from the youtube/viacom trial. I believe they are just as sarcastic and realistic in real life as they are in their shows.

It would be nice to watch the exxpression on the judge and juror's faces as they hear what John & Steve have to say.

Acacia Research-Acacia Technologies is a segment of Acacia Research Corporation. The Company develops, acquires, licenses and enforces patented technologies. As of December 31, 2006, the Company owned or controlled the rights to 80 portfolios. It helps patent holders protect their patented inventions from unauthorized use and generate revenue from licensing and, if necessary, enforcing their patents. Its clients are primarily individual inventors and small companies with limited resources to deal with unauthorized users but include some large companies wanting to generate revenues from their patented technologies. In August 2007, Acacia Research-Acacia Technologies and CombiMatrix Corporation announced that CombiMatrix Corporation completed the split off from Acacia Research Corporation through the redemption of all outstanding shares of Acacia Research-CombiMatrix common stock.

As for the possible forms of the cure, it would most likely come as either a signaling molecule or a RNAi treatment.

The signaling molecule will work similarly to aspirin, as it would bind to the cells, but unlike aspirin, it would cause gene regulation to change, reducing the insulin inhibiting protein's rate of production. This has the benefit to the drug companies of requiring long term dosing requirements (hopefully to be used by the customer as a risk reducer until they change their own lifestyle), which would make it a profitable path that companies are likely to pursue. The main disadvantage of this approach is that it would require the identification of receptor sites that would trigger this effect (which may not exist) and then, if they did exist, the signal molecule would have to be determined, and a synthetic pathway found before it be produced on the needed scale.

The second alternative of RNAi treatment is showing real promise as a more permanent solution, as it would be able to eliminate or severely reduce production of the inhibitor protein. In a recent advance, David Bumcrot and Daniel Anderson of MIT announced that they had found away around reported toxic effects of RNAi, a major hurdle to this emerging technique. The use of a different type of RNAi made the difference, as Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN26235373 recently explained. This would also be profitable to drug companies even thought it would consist of only one, or at most a few, treatments, as it would likely be an expensive procedure. It would likely be applicable only to the most life-threatening cases due to the cost, but it does provide another possibility for a cure.

What these well-meaning folks never seem to consider is that not all these kids are going to use their laptops for education and nice stuff like that. A third-world kid, given the internet might well decide to use it for things like scams (especially when he is exposed to the vast wealth of the first-world) and, of course, porn.

negligence does not apply.

I beg to differ. Negligence applies to loss of property as well as injury/death. It would have been very easy for Apple to check the firmware for originality before allowing the installer to run an update. They failed to do that. Phil Schiller is on record acknowledging that the update would indeed brick phones that were unlocked using two different popular unlocking programs. And of course, you can't forget the company press release. It's open and shut. Apple could have easily prevented the damage by doing a simple firmware check before updating, and they didn't do it intentionally. Worse yet, they announced to the world they were going to do it, knowing it would brick phones... They're fucked! You can't get any more clear cut. The lawyers are gonna have a field day with them.

Nope. State and Federal courts are quite clear on the fact that the manufacturer is in no way obligate to support a item if the user manipulates said item so as it is not covered under the agreed to contract or warranty.

Apple is going further than not supporting an item. They are deliberately bricking phones. It would take no effort on Apple's part to run a checksum on the firmware for originality. Not original? No update. It's that simple. That would be perfectly legal.

Instead, Apple is saying, "Our update ignores the existence of aftermarket upgrades that may be incompatible. We are aware that it will brick your phone. We are taking no steps to prevent our update from damaging your hardware. Tough shit." No, really, they are:

Schiller said that at least two unlocking programs, iUnlock and Anysim, can cause the iPhone to stop working once the software is updated.

I doubt that sort of negligence is legal.

If anyone at Apple is reading this: I've been an Apple fanatic for 10 years. I've owned nothing but Apple computers... until recently. I chose Nokia's N95 over the iPhone because of your stance on locking and a native SDK. That led to the purchase of a PC laptop to run firmware updates on my phone, since the software doesn't support the Mac. Given your current open hostility toward your customers, I am now reconsidering the future purchase of any Apple hardware. I have already let my "ADC Select" developer membership lapse. No native SDK was a real slap in the face. Continue this negligent, hostile behavior, and I will leave your platform as a customer and developer entirely.

  I am close to going to truck driving scholl. Those guys earn close to what I do per hour, and then get overtime on top. A union truck driver can earn 6 figures for over the road tractor trailer driving.

Not for long.

Mexico trucks to roll on U.S. highways

Print link for those wishing to skip the ads.

This looks like a case where a company is calling foul on a distributor. In a way, I guess Itunes is like walmart. If you want your music to sell online, you do it thru itunes. If not, you find your own way. Perhaps by not killing online radio.

To the whiners about the price drop: I see no rational reason for you to be upset. You are early adopters and you evidently decided favorably to the value proposition of the iPhone. People who complain about a price-cut being a bad thing simply amaze me: they are pinning their own impatience, foolishness, or buyers remorse on someone else. If you feel cheated, take some personal responsibility and accept that if you did not like the price, you should not have made the purchase! When prices are lowered, it is almost always a good thing (there are exceptions for undercutting and subsidized goods, but I digress), and in this case, it is likely in response to market forces. That is how capitalism is meant to work. All of that is neglecting the fact that analyses of the manufacturing costs revealed huge margins for Apple almost immediately after the release (and reported on again, and again, and again). To the people who are complaining, you should make sure you understand caveat emptor before you plunk down over half a grand for a cell phone, especially since many—if not most—of you had all the facts available up-front. And in the interest of full disclosure, I do own an iPhone and made my purchase shortly after Apple subsidized my $200 early termination fee to Sprint. In closure, thank you for the price-cut, Steve!

What's wrong with the death penalty? Ah, let's see...

1) Human error. Unfortunately, being innocent isn't a guarantee that you won't be convicted of a crime (especially if you are poor and black). So there's a chance that a person killed by the state was not guilty of the crime. With incarceration, you can set them free and compensate them somewhat for the mistake. With a death, you can't.

2) The religious angle. Many religious types believe that incarceration gives the prisoner a chance to earn redemption and avoid eternal punishment. (This works both ways - one long-held reason for execution was to allow a higher judge to determine the right sentence)

3) The economic angle. Contrary to general opinion, prisons can and do make money. That's one reason why private industry lines up to run prisons. Why kill off perfectly good slave labour? Remember - the advantage of slave labour is that the shirts made on Friday aren't worse than the shirts made on Monday!

4) Human rights factors. The US is the only western country, and one of three in the world, that will execute children and the intellectually impaired. Okay, by the time the appeals process goes through, the child is now an adult, but killing someone for a crime committed when they were 12? Seriously.

5) The scattergun approach. Look at the sort of things you can get the death sentence for in the US. Heck, if you're driving a car and a passenger decides to shoot down someone, you can get the death sentence.

6) The racist angle. The vast majority of people on death row are racial minorities - way out of proportion with the general prison population, or even the subset who committed similar crimes. Why? Because juries are more likely to give the death sentence recommendation to blacks and Hispanics. The lack of an objective and impartial set of criteria makes the use of the death sentence subject to these distortions.

7) The poverty angle. When was the last time someone who could afford their own lawyer got sentenced to death in the US? The fact of the matter is that far too many of these death sentence cases are handled by overworked public prosecutors. If you've got a competent lawyer, and a death sentence looks like a strong possibility, then you will nearly always end up doing a plea bargain, resulting in an incarceration instead (often for a lesser crime, like manslaughter).

I could go on, but... I just don't want to. :)

See Miss Teen South Carolina.

bemones to ye, me thinks today be National Talk Like a Pirate Day

so shiver me timbers ab't t' speak.

Seems to be pocket money to them. In another case, they seem to have won a bit more ..., Quote: "Judge overturns $1.5 bln ruling against Microsoft".

CC.

"Once illegal abuse has been removed and competitors are
free to compete on the merits, the logical consequence of that
would be to expect Microsoft's market share to fall," spokesman
Jonathan Todd said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUKL1720058720070917?rpc=44

I'm no big fan of Microsoft but the statements made by the EU spokes-people are more wishful thinking than reality. Even with "fair" competition Microsoft will still dominate due to the strong network effect inherent in operating systems used by the general public.

just throw crap against the walls as fast as you can...surely some of it will stick!

This always struck me as the oddest of expressions. Who needs shit stuck to a wall?

Now, shit pressed onto a round, shiny plastic disk...

The bigger problem here involves insurance, not the devices themselves. Cell phones don't kill people in hospitals, or crash airplanes, or magically blow up at gas stations. But because we have a one-in-a-million chance of something happening, which under the worst of situations could hypothetically cause a death/crash/fire, we have insulting signs all over the place warning us to turn off the phone.

Apparently you missed this.

It's not nearly as rare as "one-in-a-million" - it's more like "one-in-one-point-two" (50 out of 61 cases tested), provided the network being used is GPRS-based. That's pretty damn significant. And these were life-threatening cases of interference, including ventilators being switched off and pacemakers running at the wrong rhythm.

Even if you're not using GPRS, it's not a hospital's job to go around testing different cell phone networks to see if they interfere with their equipment. Their job is to save lives, not test cell phone equipment. And to that end, I would certainly hope that they would require that all devices potentially able to disrupt hospital equipment to be switched off, regardless of whether or not you're "insulted" by the signs. Your personal feelings are not worth a hill of beans next to somebody's life.

Actually, the local hospitals around here (Wisconsin) have increasingly been taking down the signs about cellphones. Science can, sometimes, overcome folklore.

(And sometimes, there are suprising interactions, like the iPods' touchwheel interfering with pacemakers)

I haven't read about that, can you get me a link where I can see this? Knowing what I do both about pacemakers and iPod touchwheels, I find this quite surprising.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUK L0145707520070801

And that this wouldn't undermine capitalism within any particular nation provided that it was done by force of the state rather than whim of the capitalist.

I'm wonder if you know what capitalism is. As anyone who's read Adam Smith, especially "On Wealth of Nations" , should know there is not capitalism if there's governmental interference. Capitalism requires a voluntary exchange but when government is there there is no voluntary exchange. Government puts restrictions on all sorts of things.

Also, if you are right, then wages globally should rise in proportion to productive output as capitalism becomes more competitive. That's actually not what happens. And that's why illegal aliens in the US earn lower -- not higher -- wages for doing the work that (supposedly) workers in the US aren't willing to do.

Ah, while those so called "illegal aliens" or immigrants aren't making as much as an American would make doing the same job those immigrants still make a lot more money than they made at home in Mexico. Mexicans sent hme, back to Mexico, some $23 million in 2006. That's Mexico's second biggest source of international income. The biggest is oil, after Canada Mexico is the US's biggest supplier of oil. As for why US citizens aren't doing those jobs, because they want to be paid more than the employers are willing to or can pay.

This article was copied from Reuters, here's the original page: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUS L2067072120070829

Really, the notion that the US funded bin Laden is ridiculous on the face of it, as bin Laden is fucking loaded. Seriously, the man's a billionaire.

Here, you're wrong. The bin Laden family may be worth more than a billion dollars, barely if at all, but Osama isn't worth that much. When he left Saudi Arabia Osama bin Laden was worth $250 million. As for the Taliban, shortly after taking office pres Bush in 2001 gave the Taliban $43 million of taxpayer money, ostensibly for fighting opium. However while the Taliban did fight some farmers and others dealing with opium the Taliban also militarily supported others who then paid the Taliban. As it is now the Taliban is benefiting from a Record-breaking opium crop .

Have you even read my comment? Humans do a lot of things that apes don't do other than religion. I have yet to see an ape play basketball for example.

Religion builds community and since humans are a social, how is time and energy spent on religion wasted? In fact, the continuing adaptation of religious beliefs is an evolutionary process in itself. Also evolutionary dogma is an oxymoron, because dogma means unchanging and undisputable and science, by definition, is constantly changing and open to debate.

Finally, as an atheist I most certainly have a belief system, because every human does. You should not confuse the words religion with belief system, though, because religion requires the belief in the supernatural, which atheists explicitly reject. In fact, the rejection of the existance of the supernatural is what makes atheists atheists.

Your posts reeks of ignorance. "Possibly" tool making? Why don't you go educate yourself.

Make it hurt to not take public transport.

I agree in principle, but the New York City subway and bus systems are horribly overtaxed. Train platforms get dangerously full come rush hour, and trains themselves can't usually keep up with the load. That's on a good day; on a bad day all hell breaks loose. Wasn't a fun commute, that one.

Triv

As of April 30, 2007, SCO had $19.847 million in total assets (which includes no intangibles), and $12.654 million in total liabilities, according to the Reuters data

The ruling on the Microsoft/Sun royalties owed to Novell adds roughly $25 million to the liabilities, making SCO worth roughly -18 million dollars, book value.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0 428148420070705?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true

This NY Times article came from Reuters.
Here is the original article:
http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSL10 89156420070810?pageNumber=2&sp=true
No registration required to see this.

Dyson points out that that the computer models being used to predict the effects of global warming and human involvement with it are incomplete at best. He reminds us that we are unable as yet to identify and factor in all the potential variables that can effect the climate. Many of the current "heretics" point to factors that indicate things may not be so human caused or even if they are we may not get the predicted results because "x" wasn't factored into the model either at all or in the right way.

This year was predicted to be a high tropical storm year, however that has recently been changed a bit and blamed on dust clouds from the Saharan deserts. Though it may take a few years and at least to the human factor on earth seem a bit harsh, nature does tend to regulate and defend itself.

A theory, even though popular amongst the specialists in a field doesn't make it necessarily completely correct. Saying someone is incompetent to speak on a subject just because it isn't their area of specialization ignores some of the great thinkers of all time. Today we have far too much specialization often to the detriment of a basic foundation in thinking for oneself. Climatologists may well need the input of biologists, physicists, astronomers, archaeologists, chemists,,,,expand to include scientific fields,,,, in order to cover all the factors that can effect weather and accurately include them in their models. Computer scientists should obviously be included in that list and they should play the role of heretic as well if they perceive the models are being developed incorrectly.

He doesn't even really say that global warming doesn't exist, just that the computer models are incomplete. He even gives some proposals for changes that could help global warming. Using topsoil and topsoil creation that he mentions sounds interesting and appears to have promising possibilites, but that is certainly not my area of speciality.

Global warming is far from being our only concern atm, but let's not be in a big hurry to write the world off till the dust settles a bit.

These guys have been reporting on SL numbers for months. They get their numbers from these guys, who run the game and provide raw economic numbers in handy spreadsheet format, and in periodic pretty reports.

and how was money "stolen" from the stock market

No... that $12k is worth L$3.2 million...
You're converting an extra time.

http://secondlife.reuters.com/stories/2007/07/25/w orld-stock-exchange-hit-by-l32-million-theft/

Yes, Vista was a complete failure -- it only sold 60 million copies so far this year. Microsoft will surely never recover, only having 34 billion dollars in cash.

If that's not failure, I don't know what is.