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• Genetically modified bacteria to fight tooth decay?
• Vaccine for tooth decay?

China's government is as unobtrusive and minimalist as they get. It like all governments is in the business of staying in power. Unlike the US government, the Chinese government is very direct about this. If you don't threaten their power, they don't mess with you.

The US government is different. Of course it's still in the business of maintaining its own power, but it isn't very upfront about it. As a result, it uses a vast assortment of hand-waving and various levels of bullshit along with excessive taxes to accomplish the same result.

I find the US media in absolute denial about this though. There are constant stories about this or that bad thing going on in China. If more Americans actually lived here, they wouldn't buy that load of crap. People don't have to "keep their heads down" and live in fear of the government at all times. Yes, there is capital punishment in China, but the Chinese government kills far fewer people than the US government does. Yes, there are people who have difficulties getting represented in court, but at least China doesn't openly flaunt international law by throwing people in jail indefinitely without trial and then claiming that international law doesn't apply to them. China doesn't go rampaging around the globe invading countries, or bombing embassies either.

In terms of propaganda, France, the US, China, Japan, and all the other powerful countries soak their populace in it constantly. In Japan, nationalist comics portray Koreans and Chinese and filthy barbarians; in Canada one of the most popular TV shows is dedicated to nationalistic prejudice; in China, people call Zhang Zi Yi a race traitor for starring accross from a Japanese man in a romantic role. Propagana, restriction of the truth, and disinformation are out in full force everywhere. It's just a pity that people are usually so unaware of the propaganda coming from their own countries.

It is synonymous to design or engineer a bridge.

Rubbish. There are many different ways to build a bridge, from the purely utilitarian (eg this one or these ones) to the wonderous (such as this harp bridge or this one).

Any of the standard bridges in the second link would have done just as well in place of the ones in my second pair of links; are you sure that engineering and design are the same thing when it comes to bridges?

* San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth research and "nonvolcanic" tremors.
* Earth is potentially out of new farm land.
* New insights into the rate of ozone recovery.
* Southeast Asia faces another danger of a large tsunami in the next few decades
* Cassino spots icy plumes on Saturn

Yeah, there are no current UN-only-enforced taxes (other than the dues paid 2x disproportionally by the US and Japan.) I'd consider debt-relief a tax on the citizins of the countries forgiving the debt. And the new airline ticket tax comes pretty close to being a UN tax, see below (though some governments are apparently willingly cooperating -- but doesn't that always have to be the case with the UN?) But that doesn't mean the UN doesn't want them, and wouldn't use them on the Internet if they could. I give you, the Tobin Tax:

Global Commission to Fund the United Nations, published The UN: Policy and Financing Alternatives, 1996, which includes articles promoting the Tobin Tax. Tobin Taxes are excise taxes on cross-border currency transactions. They can be enacted by national legislatures, followed by multilateral cooperation for effective enforcement. The revenue should go to global priorities: basic environmental and human needs. Such taxes will help tame currency market volatility and restore national economic sovereignty. (The name Tobin Tax and the original concept derives from James Tobin, a Ph.D. Nobel-laureate economist at Yale University.)

At the spring meeting of the IMF/World Bank in Washington, D.C., it was announced that a number of countries will be used to test a $1 tax on airline tickets. This global tax idea has been around for the last twenty years, and is now back, as a tax that would be relatively easy to put in place. Furthermore, an "International Financing Facility" for immunization will also be set up, on a test basis.

In 1994, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) called for a "New World Social Charter where the world will redistribute wealth, as it cannot survive, one-quarter rich and three-quarters poor, and where the U.N. must become the principal custodian of global human security, and help with basic education, healthcare, immunization, and family planning."

To meet these goals, they put forth the concept of global taxation. Their suggestions included: a tax on the sale of arms weapons, creating a Global Demilitarization Fund, with the savings countries would experience, if they reduced military spending by 3 percent, over a ten year period; a global tax of $1 per barrel on oil consumption; a tax on speculative international currency transactions, that has been dubbed the "Tobin tax;" and a world income tax of 0.1 percent on the richest nations' with per capita GNP of $10,000. To help reduce the debt of the poorest countries of the world, a number of debt-restructuring recommendations were made, including debt cancellation.

Moreover, the document I linked clearly advocates the creation of an International Tax Organization (ITO) to create global taxes and enforce taxation across national boundaries. For example:

p. 9: The Panel proposes that the international community should consider the potential benefits of an International Tax Organization. This could address many needs that have arisen as globalization has progressively undermined the territoriality principle on which traditional tax codes are based. Developing countries would stand to benefit especially from technical assistance in tax administration, tax information sharing that permits the taxation of flight capital, unitary taxation to thwart the misuse of transfer pricing, and taxation of emigrant income.

p. 66: Another task that might fall to an ITO would be the development, negotiation and operation of international arrangements for the taxation of emigrants. At present most emigrants pay taxes only to their host country, an arrangement that exposes source countries to the risk of economic loss when many of their most able citizens emigrate. The general introduction of arrangements analogous to those in the United States, which requires its nationals to pay United States taxes on their worldwide

Personally, I don't think that a body that can be controlled by China is an organization I want to rely on to run the net. If cute, cuddly, don't-be-evil Google can't withstand China, who the hell thinks the U.N. can?

Amtrak made the same mistake, but then corrected themselves, despite ISO 3166-1. After the matter was looked into, Amtrak sent an official letter of apology.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/20 05/09/02/2003270053

Why can't Google?

Google makes Taiwan a privince of China

They might care more about the Chinese dissidents if they knew the death vans each have quotas to fill and they turn the executed into cosmetics products... http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/200 5/09/14/2003271560/print

Slather some more dead people on your face. Enjoy it!

I challenge you to find a laptop manufacturer that hasn't had those types of problems. Dell's had it's share of exploding battery packs and fire hazard power adapters. HP's had it's share problems, including the memory problem that was recently subject to a recall (also affected Toshiba). The floppy drive issue on the Toshiba laptops involved more than just Toshiba -- a few other laptops had similar issues (including Compaq).

The whole division.

""With the current cost of goods, there's no way to make money with this generation of the console," chief financial officer John Connors said at a Microsoft investor presentation in Boston."

"Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, had a loss of US$874 million in the division that includes Xbox in the year that ended June 30, 2002, and a US$924 million loss the next year."

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/worldbiz/archives/ 2004/01/29/2003096674

(1) Repair the holes using the same compound used on the older apollo missions, like grout or cauk.

(2) Repair the holes by bolting insulation over the damage.

(3) Applying silicon-carbide to damaged tiles.

(4) Rescue mission by Space Shuttle Discovery and safe haven in ICC space station.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archive s/2005/07/11/2003263096

Interesting that this story came out today also. According to that link, software piracy has not increased in certain areas. Also, note the main people backing this. Microsoft and Adobe. I would guess that Photoshop is probably one of the most pirated pieces out there. It is arguably the best product for image work, but has a price that prevents any average user from purchasing it.

They create a situation that milks corporate users for as much money as they can get, but alienates home users to the point where they can't afford the product. The same could be said of many MS products. Look at Visual Studio.net. Corporations will shell out $500/license for their developers, but most of those developers would also like a copy at home for use. How many of those people do you honestly think purchased the software? I bet most of them either took the disc home, or downloaded it.

In other words, these guys are crying about money they lost because of piracy, but that isn't accurate. What is happening is that they are essentially breaking even. Instead of allowing more home users to purchase their software, and get volume based profits, they jacked their prices to get price based profits. The corporations that use their software are fronting the bill for home pirates. Changing the sales price of their software would almost definitely shift the weight off corporations, and potentially even create more profit for the companies by reducing piracy.

Dell is the only major computer manufacturer that promotes American Christian values, and properly enforces the order of things upon the Moor and the Hindoo. Recently Dell had to break up a ring of terrorists attempting to use their American factory jobs to plan a clitoris-chopping and building-bombing party for next weekend. I'm glad to know that Dell doesn't tolerate any unamerican activities in their factories! Go back to disposing of our used/leaking capacitors, foreign terrorists!

Muslims walk out of Dell plant in row over sunset prayers

AP , NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
Sunday, Mar 13, 2005,Page 11

Thirty Muslims walked off the job at a Dell Inc plant after alleging the company refused to let them pray at sunset -- the latest dispute over prayer between an American business and its Islamic employees.

The Muslim workers, who were packaging Dell computers through a temporary labor agency, are taking the dispute to mediation, both sides said on Friday. Most of the employees are from Somalia.

Abdirizak Hassan, executive director of the Somali Community Center of Nashville, said the workers walked out of the company's Nashville plant last month because they were not allowed time for prayers.

The question of how to integrate Islamic prayers into the US workplace is becoming far more common, with many companies using a "tag out" system to accommodate the prayers, said Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The policy allows workers to step away a few at a time for sunset prayers.

Muslims are required by their faith to pray five times a day. Most of the prayer times are flexible, but the sunset prayers must be said at dusk.

Byrne Mulrooney, a spokesman for labor agency Spherion Corp, said the company was still trying to determine what happened. He said the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based company has a good record of accommodating its Muslim workers.

Dell spokesman Mark Drury said company officials are looking into the Feb. 4 incident. He said the Round Rock, Texas-based company has a "tag out" policy, and wants to know if Spherion was following it.

The mediation will be handled by the city's Human Relations Commission. Kelvin Jones, executive director of the commission, said his staff has interviewed the workers, who are expected to file formal complaints by early next week.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2005/ 03/13/2003246101

They're about to get another card, indeed.

I think your humour is ill conceived, however you do hint at something I find even more distastefull.

Insurance companies are already trying to evade paying out to the survivors by calling this an act of god.

Nowadays we're on our way to 1 Euro equaling 1.5 dollars [...] and (no surprise) again the US stupidos are laughing

I would call you a moron straight up, but it would be sarcasm through the tears, since I myself am not happy with the situation, which I will correctly describe to you below.

The "US stupidos" might not be so stupid, unfortunately. A weak dollar (while making their Walmart-sold imported goods expensive) is making the debts cheap for the U.S. For a simple reason: because the dollar-denominated debt (government bonds mainly) nominally stays the same (plus of course interest). The debt is however a burden on the side of those who are being owed - non-US-currency-based economies. The U.S. government owes to those who hold the U.S. government bonds (the bonds are sold by the government whenever it needs to finance its activities, examples: war, budget incompetency/deficit, project, ...).

The current major holders of U.S. government bonds are foreign banks (mainly central banks like the European Central Bank or the Chinese, Japanese and other equivalents of a central bank).

The dollar being weaker and weaker, their holdings for which they paid big money at the time (let's say a bond for 100 Euro) are becoming worth less and less (75, 50, ... and less Euro). Essentially, everyone is watching the dollars in their hands become a more and more useless comodity that eventually no one will be interested in holding. The central banks are already diversifying, but the game is becoming "the later you jump out of the wagon, the more screwed you will get" and possible solutions are few.

By the way, your comment about who is paying less for oil products, Europe or the U.S. (it is the U.S. in case you didn't know) has nothing to do with this discussion.

Most people tend to forget China was a failed representative republic before the Communists prevailed in the civil war. Simply put, the communists won because they were better for the country than the old regime had been. In many ways, it still is. Just look at the state of affairs of the reminents of the defeated Nationalists as recently as nine years ago. Debacles like this has even won them a place in the Ig Nobel prizes. More recently, the sordid details of the Chu Mei Fung political sex scandal are fresh in people's mind (as well as a lot of hard drives). All things considering, the chinese communist government have done alright for such a huge nation.

Fundamentally, there is nothing wrong with a paper ballot. The problem in Florida is unrelated to the "paper-ness" of the ballot; the problem is that some voters are so incompetent that they cannot follow the simple instructions on a paper ballot. Frankly, if you are so stupid that you cannot follow simple instructions targetted for a high-school audience, then the loss of your vote is no loss to democracy.

[1] Li Thian-hok, a Taiwanese living in the USA, wrote a threatening opinion piece in the "Taipei Times". He warned that 600,000 Taiwanese holding American citizenship would vote against any politician who favors American interests over Taiwanese interests.

This would be far more informative if they used approval voting: for each candidate, do you approve or disapprove? Maybe there should be a no opinion option as well. It would be nice to see each candidate's approval rating by region independent of the other candidates who might be running.

I also wonder how many respondents in Iraq are really American military personnel or contractors (or ballot stuffers who don't really live in Iraq). It is possible that Bush is popular with a few of the less vocal non-AK47-weilding demographic of Iraq.

Here are the results of an actual (controversial) poll of iraqis. One interesting result:

Looking back, more Iraqis think the invasion was right than wrong, although 41% felt that the invasion "humiliated Iraq".

-jim

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/archives/2002/02/1 5/0000124045

The above link is to an article describing incidents of Beijing officials pestering US citizens during the SLC Winter Games two years ago over display of the Taiwanese flag on private property, as well as the incident I mentioned earlier involving some friends who were detained in Atlanta for attempting to wear T-shirts bearing the Taiwanese flag at an Olympic event. From the article:

"This business goes back to the Atlanta Summer Games [in 1986] when a few Taiwanese students went to the Games sporting shirts that bore the national flag. They were stopped and were told to remove or reverse the shirts. They refused and I believe they were arrested," [Team Taiwan spokesman Sam] Huang said.

Lee Kaiwen, Taiwan

Well, if it was a typical web page, then I'd say the innovative part is to drive up hits so that the high apparent traffic would enable the site maintainers to charge their sponsors more money.

But in this case, the GOP already has fully-functional mechanisms for getting their sponsors to contribute money; now there are Super Rangers if you round up an extra US$300K.

If you're a less wealthy Republican and can't raise that kind of money you can help out the cause by garnering signatures to help get Ralph Nader on the ballot, particularly in swing states.

Yes, I do support the troops.

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS MEANS NOT PUTTING THEM IN HARM'S WAY WITHOUT A DAMN GOOD REASON.

Reasons?

• Bush said "WMD". Nobody found any. How long have US troops been in Iraq? When did they stop bothering to look for WMD?
• Bush told us that Saddam was behind 9/11. Practically all the hijackers were from SAUDI ARABIA. Where is al-Queda funded? Very largely, out of Saudi Arabia.

So what's left? Getting rid of an evil man? America supports lots of evil men in power all over the world, sometimes for good reasons. So why aren't we invading them instead of supporting them?

Why did we invade Iraq instead of the nation that indirectly employs Bush's father via the Carlyle Group? Ask the President. (note: Salon - ad viewing or subscription required)

Bush has cut various kind of pay and military allowances to our troops. You don't care, do you?

You're probably too young to remember the old joke about "Wouldn't it be great if our schools got funded and they had to hold bake sales to build an aircraft carrier?"

The joke isn't funny anymore. A middle school held a bake sale to help pay for BULLETPROOF VESTS FOR AMERICAN TROOPS Where's all that money we're spending on the military going? Ask Bush, or maybe Cheney's buddies over at Halliburton might have something to say about this.

I'm sure you aren't surprised by the fact that Halliburton served rotting meats and vegetables to our troops in Iraq. Of course, you really don't care, do you?

A reasonable person would think that a person who supported our troops would NOT want to see them put into unnecessary danger, would be equipped adequately, and would want to see them get decent food to eat.

YOU ARE NOT THAT PERSON.

You can support our troops or You can support Bush.

You can NOT do both at the same time.

You've picked a side, and we KNOW who's side you're on. Why don't you go play with your buddies at a well known Bush campaign contributor, Microsoft instead of spreading your tired old propaganda bullshit here?

At risk of feeding a deliberate troll, you do realize, of course, that:

• "murderous" - "Military shrugs off attack on wedding party"
• "torturing" - More accounts, photos of Iraq abuse surface...
• "liar" - Bush misstated report on Iraq
• " rewarded people who attacked you"
• "spoke fondly of it" - Mission Accomplished!

You can read it here.

Right you are brother! Do not believe this propaganda!

Also:

Reports of Iraqi economic growth by Agence France Presse - LIES!

Reports of a "big rebound in business" (noting a lack of oil shipments through the north, which resumed since the article went to print) by Christian Science Monitor - LIES!

"Business is phenomenal," an Iraq in Baghdad tells Reuters - LIES!

Of course, we all know that Capitalism is evil and they should be starving under a totalitarian dictator, but alas, the world is not perfect :(

Bread and circuses, comrade!

(Now back to important things, like the Sims election! I eagerly await the next /. American Idol thread too!)

So what is the government doing up there? Setting up a bolshevik revolution, red flags waving and all? Nationalizing oil? Imprisoning anyone who has more then 10 bucks and sending them to a Gulag? You cannot be serious. I dont believe for a minute that the oil exploration would stop at the border, unless we are talking the type of oil that takes 80% of government grants and 20% of private funds to make a "profit". Then it should stop not only there but in Alberta also. Otherwise the money to be made is just too good, no matter how bad the taxes. You gotta understand that businesses are opportunistic by nature and the only things they want from a government are: grants for "business development", no taxes, no regulation, no minimum wages and use of police if the workers revolt. Thats it. Alberta is aiming in that direction and so some of the nastier types flock there. And so does China. And guess what? The supposedly communist country has got more Fortune 500 companies then you can shake a stick at. And their "communism" does not involve burdensome things like universal healthcare. But it does involve dirt cheap labour with no rights. Manitoba has NDP in charge, left as it gets in Canada and lo and behold the business dosnt flee in droves... except when its heading to China or some place like it. If there is anything that is going to do us all in, my money is on WTO.

Saddam was killing and torturing people up till the end

Please provide a credible impartial source stating that the number of people dying this way (I doubt there were many) would be greater then what the war brought on. And I dont mean sources like people who wanted to take Saddam's place at our expense, say, Chelabi and his pals. Even if you find one (which I doubt), factor in the huge increase of world-wide hate towards US because of the war, abandoning the search for Osama, rebounding of Taliban, abandoning of Afghanistan's rebuilding, abolishment of the international law dealing with aggression, $200 billion expenses, etc etc.

His gov't wasn't falling apart....

You must be kidding, his authority eroded so badly that his top level commanders were lying to him about their army's capabilities, scientists were lying about weapons. He had no longer any clue what was going on. That is the final stage of a collapse of a dicatorship.

It's personal, but not a personal attack.

You are making me laugh. You should consider running for office. "The bottle is empty, but it is not an empty bottle". Kudos, you should be able to survive in politics with no trouble.

...occurred last week!

I hope that none of the technologists / scientists and "hax0rs" are tainted by this dubious code being available.

Afterall, if there is ANYTHING questionable about the UPCOMING Nov. 2004 election, it's not which canditate was voted for - it's WHO to blame for HACKING things.

The solution will be a simple signature on some ambiguous bill (Patriot ][ anyone?) that will make ALL REVERSE ENGINEERING / DISASSEMBLY / and other potentially controversial in-the-name-of-science acts ILLEGAL without government approval.

Afterall, if the government is the entity in question, they can easily secure their position
"over" the people by knocking down any non-gov't sanctioned research activity.

I was agreeing with the first post. There are plans for tons of senarios.

If you were referring to my oil comment two things:
1) What does global warming have to do with oil?

2) CNN is a bunch of sensationally shit. They can report whatever they want either way. It all comes down to who they interview and when and blah blah blah. They could make a cat getting stuck in a tree look all political if they wanted. Wake up and see journalism for what it is, and read through the bullshit when you can. Reading / Hearing about despair, panic and worry sells, so of course they will always play that angle.

If you want to argue, do reseach. In otherwords don't look at CNN articles, but look at actual research papers.

Anyway here you go:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2004/ 01/23/2003092364
-- A nice story about how there has been an 'oil crisis' for the past 40 years, yet we still seem to have at least 80 years of oil in reserve yet. But don't forget about all that untapped oil in Alaska...

http://economics.about.com/cs/macroeconomics/a/run _out_of_oil.htm
-- Very similar information.

Oh yea...You don't know what you are talking about

So how big are penguin brains?

Alas, the maglev's official home page (I think; at least they sell tickets) is all Chinese and out of date to boot. In the meantime, the best place to go is Wangjianshuo's blog, in particular the well-illustrated Maglev in depth story.

Things that suck about the maglev:

• It only runs every half hour, which kind of defeats the point of having a superfast train.
• Tickets cost 75 RMB (~$9) a pop, this in a country where 800 RMB a month is considered a decent wage.
• It doesn't go into the city, you have to transfer to a subway and ride another 6 stops just to get on the Puxi side of the river.

Cheers,
-j.

"Japan, China and South Korea will jointly develop the next-generation Internet technology IPv6, aiming to have the global standard for the technology set in Asia, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported yesterday.

US firms now dominate the market for equipment like routers that serve as the infrastructure for the current IPv4-based Internet.

By working together, the three countries aim to take the lead in developing technologies for a world in which all equipment is connected to the Internet"

Indians live in facist country.

The parallels between contemporary India and pre-Nazi Germany are chilling, but not surprising. Many Hindu nationalists are frank about their admiration for Hitler. Luckily, we don't yet have a Hitler. Instead, we have, the hydra-headed Sangh Parivar -- the "joint family" of Hindu political/cultural organizations.

Sangh Parivar's genius is its ability to be all things to all people. While the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP or World Hindu Congress) exhorts its cadres to prepare for the Final Solution, Prime Minister Vajpayee assures the nation that all citizens, regardless of religion, are treated equally.

Anytime anybody posts a link to the washington times I completely dismiss their entire post.

Thats pretty childish, don't you think?

How about these links, then:
http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2003/12/17122003 153543.asp
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2003/s1012216.htm
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280 ,-3517412,00.html
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/200 3/12/18/2003080039
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/ 2001817106_iraqdig17.html

Those all say pretty much the same thing as the Washington Times, or do you dismiss posts that link to the taipeitimes or guardian, too?

So what happens when a tyranny is created?

We should repair our own democracy first before forcing it on the rest of the world.
And Taiwan is not really democratic

Actually, some Chinese cried like babies at the World Cyber Games a couple years ago when Taiwan's team had the audacity to actually call themselves Taiwanese

The article on Lawmeme conveniently forgets the fact that the last round of lawsuits effectively stopped web based file trading.

While this is only a number of articles on a couple of incidents, there is no question that web based file trading was effectively crushed by record industry litigation just a few years ago. With P2P, people thought they were anonymous.

However, the RIAA has consistently misrepresented the "safe harbour" clause. The intent of the "safe harbour" clause was to prevent ISPs from hosting copyrighted material on the ISPs' own servers. The identity part also had to with information hosted on the ISPs' own servers, but it appears that most judges are buying the RIAA's BS.

Welcome back to the Dark Ages.

The article on Lawmeme conveniently forgets the fact that the last round of lawsuits effectively stopped web based file trading.

While this is only a number of articles on a couple of incidents, there is no question that web based file trading was effectively crushed by record industry litigation just a few years ago. With P2P, people thought they were anonymous.

However, the RIAA has consistently misrepresented the "safe harbour" clause. The intent of the "safe harbour" clause was to prevent ISPs from hosting copyrighted material on the ISPs' own servers. The identity part also had to with information hosted on the ISPs' own servers, but it appears that most judges are buying the RIAA's BS.

Welcome back to the Dark Ages.

What next? Windows running cars?

Already been done with some unsurprising results. The BMW 7 series runs on Windows. It has already trapped the Thai finance minister inside his car. Read all about it in the Taipei Times.

Personally, while not be wealthy in the least, I'd rather pay a little more for things NOT made in China. [...] The whole thing's very sad. The public has such a short memory. Fuck Tiananman Square, eh? We simply should suck up and not do business with these people.

Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

As for a specific example, the Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai, according to "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture".

Taiwanese support for China does not merely stop there. The Taiwanese support all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China. Specifically, the Taiwanese constitution says that Tibet is an integral part of China. While the Taiwanese demand that Americans sell them weapons, the Taiwanese insist on integrating Tibet into China. This hypocrisy is disgusting.

In conclusion, boycott products made anywhere in China. Specifically, boycott products made in Taiwan. Let us in the Slashdot community petition the American government to terminate the Taiwan Relations Act (TRA) and to stop sales of all weapons to Taiwan. In exchange for the termination of the TRA, Beijing should reciprocate by granting autonomy to Tibet.

Please read "Understanding Taiwan: Security Threat to the USA".

... from the desk of the reporter

<resist could='false'>
There are no Slashdot readers GETting from www.taipeitimes.com

Their TCP packets are even now committing suicide in a router in the Bering Straits.

Faltering forces of infidels cannot just enter a country of 22 million people and lay besiege to them! They are the ones who will find themselves under siege. Therefore, in reality whatever this miserable Michael has been saying, he was talking about his own forces. Now even the Slashdot command is under siege.

The Editors, they always depend on a method what I call ... stupid, silly. All I ask is check yourself. Do not in fact repeat their lies.
</resist>
</post>

The Taiwanese have one of the highest rates of software piracy in the world. This piracy is what causes Taiwanese computers to be especially succeptible to Trojan horses, worms, etc. Pirated software is far more likely to be contaminated with viruses and the like. So, when you download pirated software, you run the risk of your computer being violated by an intruder. The Taiwanese got what they deserved; anyone who uses pirated software should be penalized.

Also, please read "Reality of Taiwan". The Taiwanese support all the geopolitical objectives of mainland China; the Taiwanese constitution explicitly states that Tibet is an integral part of China (while Chinese soldiers regularly torture and kill Tibetan nuns). In short, we should ignore all Taiwanese complaints about China.

Taiwan is a security threat to the United States of America (USA). Would we in the West be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in North Korea or Libya? No. So, we should not be concerned about Trojan horses being spread to computers in Taiwan.

The Taiwanese government reporting (to the "Taipei Times") the spread of Trojan horses to Taiwan from China is just political spin for manipulating a Western audience. This spin is intended to garner support for Taiwan. Let us not be stupid. We must see Taiwan for what it is: it is a security threat to the USA. The majority of spies arrested in the USA for stealing sensitive American military technology and giving it to Beijing were born or grew up in Taiwan. Please read "Reality of Taiwan".

Finally, when the USA and other Western countries like Japan slowed or curtailed investments in mainland China in order to punish Beijing for the Tienanmen Square incident of 1989, the Taiwanese seized this window of "opportunity" and immediately sent financial and technological investments into China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted the American economic sanctions against China. Taiwan is a strong supporter of China . Starting from 1989, Taiwanese investments into mainland China have skyrocketed; the Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion dollars into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China.

Let us ignore Taiwanese complaints about Trojan horses from China.

... from the desk of the reporter

1. IT jobs remain in the United States of America (USA). American companies and especially small companies funded by Taiwanese money demand that H-1B workers be allowed to come to the USA in droves in order to fill a supposed shortage of workers.
2. IT jobs are exported to places like India and Taiwan. The H-1B visa program is shut down.

In both scenarios, native Americans are denied jobs that they deserve; however scenario #2 is actually better than scenario #1. Scenario #1 has fostered the growth of large ethnic communities that refuse to assimilate into American society. They consist largely of people who believe that Western culture is only for "white" people and who teach their kids that they should identify with their "ethnic" culture and people. These large ethnic communities also produce most of the spies who steal Western technology to give to Beijing. The two spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" grew up in Taiwan and came to the USA.

Scenario #2 will result in a reduction of those ethnic communities. This reduction does not mean that, for example, Chinese will not want to come to the USA. On the contrary, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. will still demand to be allowed into the USA in huge numbers even though there will be plenty of IT jobs in India, China, Taiwan, etc. Why? Our Western way of life is superior to what exists in Indian, China, Taiwan, etc. Please read "Hospitals see mass resignations" and "SARS doctors' ethics put to the test" to sample the quality (or lack thereof) of life in Taiwan. Instead of treating SARS victims, the doctors prefer to hide the information about the illness or to resign.

As Slashdotters, let us work together as a community and lobby Congress to terminate the H-1B program and to reduce the combined immigration quota of China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) from 60000 to 2000. Let us encourage companies like Intel to pursue scenario #2 instead of scenario #1. Intel has frequently lied about the need for H-1Bs. In the future, if Intel needs H-1Bs, Intel should set up a plant in India.

... from the desk of the reporter

1. IT jobs remain in the United States of America (USA). American companies and especially small companies funded by Taiwanese money demand that H-1B workers be allowed to come to the USA in droves in order to fill a supposed shortage of workers.
2. IT jobs are exported to places like India and Taiwan. The H-1B visa program is shut down.

In both scenarios, native Americans are denied jobs that they deserve; however scenario #2 is actually better than scenario #1. Scenario #1 has fostered the growth of large ethnic communities that refuse to assimilate into American society. They consist largely of people who believe that Western culture is only for "white" people and who teach their kids that they should identify with their "ethnic" culture and people. These large ethnic communities also produce most of the spies who steal Western technology to give to Beijing. The two spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" grew up in Taiwan and came to the USA.

Scenario #2 will result in a reduction of those ethnic communities. This reduction does not mean that, for example, Chinese will not want to come to the USA. On the contrary, Indians, Chinese, Taiwanese, etc. will still demand to be allowed into the USA in huge numbers even though there will be plenty of IT jobs in India, China, Taiwan, etc. Why? Our Western way of life is superior to what exists in Indian, China, Taiwan, etc. Please read "Hospitals see mass resignations" and "SARS doctors' ethics put to the test" to sample the quality (or lack thereof) of life in Taiwan. Instead of treating SARS victims, the doctors prefer to hide the information about the illness or to resign.

As Slashdotters, let us work together as a community and lobby Congress to terminate the H-1B program and to reduce the combined immigration quota of China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) from 60000 to 2000. Let us encourage companies like Intel to pursue scenario #2 instead of scenario #1. Intel has frequently lied about the need for H-1Bs. In the future, if Intel needs H-1Bs, Intel should set up a plant in India.

... from the desk of the reporter

1. The Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. How did the Taiwanese achieve this state of affairs? Shortly after the Tienanmen Square incident in 1990, the American government and American businesses froze or reduced investments in China. The Taiwanese seized this window of opportunity and poured financial and technological investments into mainland China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted American attempts at using economic sanctions to force the Chinese government improve its human-rights record. Afterwards, Taiwanese investments skyrocketed to their current level.
2. The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
3. Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Military secrets on sale to China")
4. The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of American spies who steal sensitive computer and military technology (like microprocessor blueprints) to give to mainland China are actually born and raised in Taiwan. Both spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" are born and raised in Taiwan.

We Americans should not kid ourselves. The Taiwanese strongly support mainland China. The Taiwanese give to mainland China any money or technology that we Americans refuse to give.

When we apply economic sanctions against mainland China, we must also apply the same sanctions against Taiwan. In our pursuit of human rights, when we boycott products that are made in China, we must also boycott products that are made in Taiwan. Specifically, when we boycott notebook computers made in China, we must also boycott notebook computers made in Taiwan. As the article notes, computers "made in Taiwan" are really "made in China".

We must immediately stop selling weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan is a very serious security risk to the United States of America (USA). Since 2000 May, the FBI has placed Taiwan on the list of nations that are prone to steal sensitive military and commercial technology from American national laboratories and companies. Please read "Reno calls Taiwan an intelligence threat". See point #4 above.

The aforementioned facts are quite shocking since many folks in the SlashDot community are reading these facts for the first time. It is understandable. The Taiwanese government has annually paid about $2 million to lobbying firms like "Cassidy & Associates" to peddle influence in the American government. (reference: Big Business Comes to Aid of China") Indeed, do you remember Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung? They were the key figures in the financial scandal that rocked the Democratic Party and were accused of bribing American officials. Both John Huang and Johnny Chung were born or raised in Taiwan.

If all these facts and the CNet article about Chinese laptops do not convince you that the Taiwanese support mainland China, then consider this tidbit. The Taiwanese constitution

1. The Taiwanese have invested more than $50 billion into more than 50,000 businesses in mainland China. How did the Taiwanese achieve this state of affairs? Shortly after the Tienanmen Square incident in 1990, the American government and American businesses froze or reduced investments in China. The Taiwanese seized this window of opportunity and poured financial and technological investments into mainland China. The Taiwanese completely thwarted American attempts at using economic sanctions to force the Chinese government improve its human-rights record. Afterwards, Taiwanese investments skyrocketed to their current level.
2. The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
3. Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Military secrets on sale to China")
4. The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of American spies who steal sensitive computer and military technology (like microprocessor blueprints) to give to mainland China are actually born and raised in Taiwan. Both spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" are born and raised in Taiwan.

We Americans should not kid ourselves. The Taiwanese strongly support mainland China. The Taiwanese give to mainland China any money or technology that we Americans refuse to give.

When we apply economic sanctions against mainland China, we must also apply the same sanctions against Taiwan. In our pursuit of human rights, when we boycott products that are made in China, we must also boycott products that are made in Taiwan. Specifically, when we boycott notebook computers made in China, we must also boycott notebook computers made in Taiwan. As the article notes, computers "made in Taiwan" are really "made in China".

We must immediately stop selling weapons to Taiwan. Taiwan is a very serious security risk to the United States of America (USA). Since 2000 May, the FBI has placed Taiwan on the list of nations that are prone to steal sensitive military and commercial technology from American national laboratories and companies. Please read "Reno calls Taiwan an intelligence threat". See point #4 above.

The aforementioned facts are quite shocking since many folks in the SlashDot community are reading these facts for the first time. It is understandable. The Taiwanese government has annually paid about $2 million to lobbying firms like "Cassidy & Associates" to peddle influence in the American government. (reference: Big Business Comes to Aid of China") Indeed, do you remember Charlie Trie, John Huang, and Johnny Chung? They were the key figures in the financial scandal that rocked the Democratic Party and were accused of bribing American officials. Both John Huang and Johnny Chung were born or raised in Taiwan.

If all these facts and the CNet article about Chinese laptops do not convince you that the Taiwanese support mainland China, then consider this tidbit. The Taiwanese constitution

Consider the following.

1. The constitution of the Chinese living in Taiwan supports the integration of both Tibet and Mongolia into mainland China. While Tibetans suffer and die at the hands of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Chinese in Taiwan support integrating Tibet into "One China".
2. The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
3. Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Military secrets on sale to China")
4. The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of American spies who steal sensitive computer and military technology (like microprocessor blueprints) to give to mainland China are actually born and raised in Taiwan. Both spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" are born and raised in Taiwan.

In other words, we Americans should blame ourselves. Why? American companies, especially those in Silicon Valley, employ hordes of Chinese from Taiwan. When they are given lucrative opportunities in mainland China, they will seize those opportunities. Some of those opportunities involve giving sensitive American technology to Beijing. We did this to ourselves; we made it easy for the Taiwanese to give American technology to Beijing.

This hemorrhaging of technology will continue until we in the United States of America (USA) wake up. We should treat Taiwan as a province of China. When we slap punitive sanctions against China, we should also apply those sanctions against Taiwan. If we do not want to give sensitive technology to China, then we should not give sensitive technology to Taiwan. Period.

Several companies in Silicon Valley prohibit Chinese nationals from working on technologies deemed sensitive by the American government. Yet, those very same companies readily employ Taiwanese nationals to work on the same sensitive technologies. Folks, let's wake up before the fire-breathing dragon burns us Americans along with the Tibetans.

Consider the following.

1. The constitution of the Chinese living in Taiwan supports the integration of both Tibet and Mongolia into mainland China. While Tibetans suffer and die at the hands of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Chinese in Taiwan support integrating Tibet into "One China".
2. The Chinese son of the chairman of a powerful conglomerate in Taiwan has joined with the son of Jiang Zemin, the butcher of Tibet, to build an advanced silicon-wafer factory in Shanghai. (reference: "Sons of prominent Chinese team up on chip venture")
3. Senior Chinese military officials retired from the Taiwanese military have gone to mainland China and given military secrets about the American F-16 fighter jet to the Beijing government. (reference: "Military secrets on sale to China")
4. The Wall Street Journal reports that the majority of American spies who steal sensitive computer and military technology (like microprocessor blueprints) to give to mainland China are actually born and raised in Taiwan. Both spies mentioned in "Two Men Arrested for Planning to Smuggle High-Tech Encryption Devices to China" are born and raised in Taiwan.

In other words, we Americans should blame ourselves. Why? American companies, especially those in Silicon Valley, employ hordes of Chinese from Taiwan. When they are given lucrative opportunities in mainland China, they will seize those opportunities. Some of those opportunities involve giving sensitive American technology to Beijing. We did this to ourselves; we made it easy for the Taiwanese to give American technology to Beijing.

This hemorrhaging of technology will continue until we in the United States of America (USA) wake up. We should treat Taiwan as a province of China. When we slap punitive sanctions against China, we should also apply those sanctions against Taiwan. If we do not want to give sensitive technology to China, then we should not give sensitive technology to Taiwan. Period.

Several companies in Silicon Valley prohibit Chinese nationals from working on technologies deemed sensitive by the American government. Yet, those very same companies readily employ Taiwanese nationals to work on the same sensitive technologies. Folks, let's wake up before the fire-breathing dragon burns us Americans along with the Tibetans.

I agree completely. I feel bad for Daniel, but he should be sueing the RIAA for extortion. They call him a theif and start a lawsuit they know they will not win. If he defends, he is broken finantially. If he settles, he pays them for their attack. Now if we contribute money to him, we are also paying the RIAA to sue more students.

The IFPI pulled this same thing in Taiwan (Slashdot's version), and it turned out the same way. When are these highway robbers, these brigands, these privateers, these pirates, going to stop holding a legal gun to our heads to get our money?

If we are the pirates, why are they in possession of all the gold?

In my opinion, the RIAA should be sued for intimidating innocent students. Furthermore, the resulting money should be put into a legal defence fund specifically created to defend unfortunate victims of the RIAA/IFPI's reign of terror.

US residents all live behind the paper curtain. The tyranny of litigation has reached alarming levels.

I agree completely. I feel bad for Daniel, but he should be sueing the RIAA for extortion. They call him a theif and start a lawsuit they know they will not win. If he defends, he is broken finantially. If he settles, he pays them for their attack. Now if we contribute money to him, we are also paying the RIAA to sue more students.

The IFPI pulled this same thing in Taiwan (Slashdot's version), and it turned out the same way. When are these highway robbers, these brigands, these privateers, these pirates, going to stop holding a legal gun to our heads to get our money?

If we are the pirates, why are they in possession of all the gold?

In my opinion, the RIAA should be sued for intimidating innocent students. Furthermore, the resulting money should be put into a legal defence fund specifically created to defend unfortunate victims of the RIAA/IFPI's reign of terror.

US residents all live behind the paper curtain. The tyranny of litigation has reached alarming levels.