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this is a man from the most fundamentalist country in the world, putting his power and reputation on the line in the name of science

does he know what a homeobox gene is? the riemann hypothesis? punctuated equilibrium? cherenkov radiation?

probably none of that

and yet he shows incredieel devotion to science, out of simple policy and strategy, as a pure leader

fact: you don't need to know ANY science to be a leader of a country, and in fact, you can be a very pro-science leader and know very little. this man probably knows less science than bush, and bush pursues an actively anti-science agenda to court his fundamentalist base. how much science you know as a leader means ZERO

here's a president before you who realizes everything you just say, believes and enforces the words you just wrote with strong conviction

oh shit! he doesn't know what a homeobox gene is! he can't be president!

get my point?

in fact, here's your leader... how wise on the ways of science do you think this fundamentalist is?

he's in the most fundamentalist country on earth, and yet he is more pro-science than bush!

the point is to delegate scientific knowledge, and embrace EXACTLY what you wrote above

you think what you wrote disproves my point. what you wrote IS my point

According to http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/myspace-is-just-so-2006/2007/10/22/1192940966782.html facebook is " where more of the thought leaders and influentials go."

So, if you want to build a circle of "friends" with Nobel prize winners, and join the most high-brow discussions on the planet, sign up to facebook. (Microsoft got it).

It's all fun and games until someone gets a chair through the eye.

this isn't news is it? isn't this why they're growing a new Kg down under?

Not unless flying the Canadian flag is against the law. It wasn't sophisticated enough to break any Canadian laws. There was a Canadian flag on the car and a sticker with an APEC logo which read:

"This vehicle belongs to a member of The Chaser's War on Everything. This dude likes trees and poetry and certain types of carnivorous plants excite him."

Contrary to CNN's official misinformation (or should that be CNNNN?) the "motorcade" was not stopped police. They only got picked up when the fake motorcade stopped outside the Intercontinental Hotel and "Osama" hopped out of the car. If you look at the picture in the SMH Article Osama "Chas " Bin Laden isn't being pulled from the car by police but leisurely stepping out of his own accord. The doorman is not a cop but one of the Chaser's own crew.

The only crime committed here is to make the NSW Police and their political masters look like idiots.

It doesn't frighten me at all. The whole episode is a complete farce.

Tell me: Why can the CBD of the biggest Australian metropolis suffer a complete lock-down in the name of a pyjama-party for a few world leaders, while Melbourne can't even host a car-free day in part of its CBD? It strikes me that something is wrong with our priorities.

Australia has Telstra the former national government owned incumbent telephone monopoly that still thinks its part of the government .

Because it was the national incumbent Testra still own most of the infrastructure and has control over the Australian backbone that is leases to ISPs at exorbitant rates ,

Most Australian broadband plans are either metered or capped .

Mark Pesce an American that Lives in Australia (although we call him an Aussie now since hes applied for Citizenship ) who was also one of the creators of VRML did a great piece in the Meblorne Age why Aussies hate Telstra

http://www.theage.com.au/news/business/why-we-all- hate-telstra/2007/05/19/1179497337693.html?page=fu llpage

Read all comments up to here.
I'm really curious to know a tad more. Can one of those three in here, who actually run Windows, be kind enough and give it a try ? It is here:
http://netalert.gov.au/filters.html
You have to give an e-mail address, and an Australian postcode (if memory serves right, 4 digits).
And here is the honourable Mistress, eeh Ministress:
http://netalert.gov.au/news_and_events.html
She doesn't look like resisting the offer of some decent indecent products. Actually, to her looks, she could have been in this business until short time ago:
http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/10/18/19N_C OONAN_narrowweb__300x392,0.jpg
Oh, her boobs turn me on:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikinews/en/thumb/d/d1 /HelenCoonan.JPG/200px-HelenCoonan.JPG

Sorry, need my hands for something else ...

Also in the news this week is the opposite result: that life cannot exist in comets because of the radiation. So... it's not obvious (to me) that there is any scientific consensus on this topic.

Don't point it at pilots either

Makes me think what the cause of this one was...
Qantas pilot dazzled by laser

Do people really need to be that connected? Probably not.

And do those same people really need to be contactable 24 hours a day? If not, then they do not even need a mobile phone in the first place.

Seriously, this is the same argument that people use against mobile/cell phones before they actually own one. But once they get used to having one (and to leaving it turned on all the time - yes Mum, I'm talking to you) then most people get dependant on the technology. I find now that I feel terribly isolated if I ever go out without my phone - especially if I am meeting friends somewhere and have no way of letting them know if I am running late.

I started using the internet on mobile phones years ago when I was into auction sites. I find that it puts you into a different mindset to be permanently connected to the net. It seems natural to always have access to the phonebook, or street map, or to look up a movie review while browsing in the DVD shop, or read the newspaper on the train, or grab the train timetable, or fill in a spare 5 minutes by checking out slashdot. Yes, it is all stuff that you can live without; at least, until you get used to having it.

There are ways around the screen resolution issues. I have a Nokia 9300 with a screen resolution of 640x200 which, when combined with Opera's Fit to Screen mode, does a really impressive job. However, if I find a site that still doesn't fit well - or is too slow to download - then I use Skweezer to reduce the amount of clutter in the HTML source code. Have a look at the original article when skweezed. Not quite as good as the print page version as linked by _PimpDaddy7_ below, but still a great improvement. There are some sites that I skweeze when browsing them on the desktop just to clean up the crap. I imagine even MySpace pages might look almost viewable using this site.

But you really should not get too hung up on the screen size issue. They are not intended to be desktop replacements. But if you need to make a last minute bid on eBay, then you can live with the slight inconvenience of having to scroll a bit more. It is more about connecting the internet with your life away from the computer, rather than reproducing the experience of sitting at your desk.

You're kidding yourself if you think it hasn't already happened here.

Have you seen the standard of our freedoms lately?

The tank was allegedly stolen from A-One Lift Truck Services, where it was available for hire and was popular with students who used it for school formals.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/07/14/11838 33843064.html?from=top5 and a video

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/id/1439921521

OR it was because his mobile phone bills were too high, and I know I can relate to that.

The patents in this case would all expire by 2011 even if they are eventually found valid.

This is true, but I believe we still have to rethink what we let large corporations get away with, and government needs to take more action earlier, in many cases become a rival to large corporations rather than a prostitute.

The problem in this case is with cross-pollination. Farmers are growing GM crops whether they intend to or not. Courts to date have upheld the view that the farmers are infringing on Monsantos IP, rather than that Monsanto is poluting the gene stock of otherwise disinterested farmers. If the justice system was really a justice system, Monsanto would pay farmers for polluting their crops and relatively untested and potentially dangerous genetic material.

I hope for the sake of Monsantos' share holders that they are putting aside a large insurance policy in case firm evidence comes out about the dangers of some of their crops and human consumption. They'll they get sued out of existence. They could just do a James Hardy and shift to another jurisdiction, but I think the way they are pushing their wares internationally and the fact that the plaintifs are likely to be most of the human population will make it much harder to find a safe haven.

Theirs is truly a short sighted strategy.

Except that this article says that they have included friends that are separated by distance.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that the populace can demand all the change it wants, but there are many other parties who have a keen interest in maintaining the status quo."

The treatment Hamas has recieved from the EU & US clearly demonstrates what western leaders think about the spread of democracy. They don't mearly fail to recognise "the right of Hamas to exist" they actively seek to destroy it, the US has recently gone so far as to arm and train Fatah militants in order to maintain the status quo via the good ol' divide and conquer routine.

The odd thing is that Hamas has kept it's word and has not used suicide bombers for over 3 years (yes, they stopped BEFORE they were elected by ~70% of the popular vote), this self-imposed "restraint" is despite the fact many of it's elected officials have been assasinated or kidnapped by Isreal during the last 3yrs. Even more curioius is the fact that the suicide bombers during that time have come from the Fatah group, the same group that the US have recently armed and trained to fight Hamas.

Just to remain on topic you can see the same strategy in Africa, during the 70's-80's the SLA were considered an "evil" in the heart of Africa, apparently now that China has control over Sudan's oil, ...err...I mean....influence over Sudan's rulers...., the SLA are the "good guys" who require our assistance to protect their ancestral homeland.

Of course the prime example of hypocricy in our time is the fact that - 25yrs ago OBL & Saddam were both "good guys" fighting the commies with our "generous" financial and political support. I could rant forever with similar examples, $2B worth of attack choppers donated to Burma's nut-job rulers in '97 anyone? /rant

Disclaimer: None of this makes "the other side's" actions any better, but if anyone thinks I have my facts about Hamas all fucked up, read this, and double check the information for yourself.

Canada is number 1 for piracy? Funny thing is, a couple of days ago the Australian media ran a story that ranks Britian 1st, Australia 2nd and the US is 3rd in online piracy. And I personally think that none of those countries could hold a candle to some of the eastern countries - china/thailand/etc. Maybe that's a new strategy!

Step 1 : Get the local media of each country to tell the people that they are the worst pirates in the world
Step 2 : ??
Step 3 : Profit!

Try this place for the voice ;)

Here

"It was a weapon that we believe was stocked from the ex-regime time and it had been thought to be an ordinary artillery shell set up to explode like an ordinary IED and basically from the detection of that and when it exploded, it indicated that it actually had some sarin in it," Kimmitt said.

Tests conducted by the Iraqi Survey Group (search) -- a U.S. organization searching for weapons of mass destruction -- and others concluded the mustard gas was "stored improperly," which made the gas "ineffective."

Yes, Blackberries can support S/MIME...

In addition, traffic is end-to-end AES or 3DES encrypted between the device and the server on the customer's network (not RIM's and not the telcos). So the French minister concerned either:

a) Understands all this and doesn't trust AES and/or 3DES.

b) Trusts 3DES/AES but doesn't trust the device or software (both made by RIM) to leak information out by non-encypted channels back to the UK or US (the relevance of the UK here is that European BES servers route through there).

c) Understands none of the above and wants to win a few percentage points in the opinion polls by making "pro-French, anti-UK,US" statements.

d) Has a "not invented here" problem with them.

Of these, (a) is pretty unlikely, although there's been a recent allegation about AES. I guess that (b) is possible, but it'd be pretty difficult to do given that the world's security services (and not just the US UK and Canada) do audit this stuff. All the evidence since 2001 and before is that whatever interceptions the US and UK are capable of, it's either not as much as we'd feared or they're embarrassingly bad at interpretation.

There's rather more of the Associated Press story here:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/phones--pdas/blackbe rries-nipped-amid-security-fears/2007/06/20/118201 9159289.html
including the quote "... but it's economic war.".

So my vote goes for (d) and a bit of (c).

Remember - This is the same Prime Minister of Australia (John Howard) who phone spammed the continent prior to the last election, then paid his smug looking son to email spam the nation.

The reason Howard's talking about broadband (apart from the fact that he's running scared from a buoyant & surprisingly competent opposition with a better broadband plan) is because this will give him access to more Australians to spam, spam spam.

My apologies for being ontopic. I now return you to your scheduled 'why broadband is crap in the US' offtopic flamewar.

Holy cow, no it can't! Not only isn't it going nearly fast enough, but the vast majority of that delta-V came from a conventional rocket. The scramjet experiment only operated for 14 seconds.

This is an experiment. Scramjets are still in the "data-gathering" phase, not the "let's make a realistic engine" phase, nor the "let's make a scramjet-powered craft" phase.

Every Western (and quite a few Eastern) Liberal Democracies has just two parties: Both so similar that it's hard to tell the difference. Come election power the opposition often tries to get elected by trying to look like the government: "Look! If you vote for us, and you'll hardly notice the difference!"

Come election time, there may be 30 or so issues, yet we have to narrow down our vote to two parties. My local member doesn't represent me. They made have made sense a few hundred years ago, but these days (good or bad I don't know) people are (albeit through the sometimes questionable media and bloggers) well informed. We don't need to go through an ex-union offical or greased up merchant banker to put our views to the vote. The perks these guys lay on themselves is outright obscene and shows a real contempt for the people they serve. Just one example: A merchant banker cum politician worth $100M who found a way to rort an extra $175 a night by sleeping in his wife's apartment and paying her 'rent' http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/turnbull-de fends-rent-payment-to-wife/2007/02/25/117233845296 4.html )

Some posters have pointed out minority parties. Problem is Joe Average is loathe to vote for them; "that'd be throwing away my vote." Even in Australia where preferential voting allows you to cast a protest vote without losing it, most people still dismiss the minor parties. Minor parties, knowing they're mostly unelectable and at best only bit players, have a problem attracting talent. Accordingly they attract some lacklustre candidates who figure they can be a big fish in a small pond. Our so-called 'talented candidates' (those ex-union officials and greased up merchant bankers) join the majors, because they know that's the gravy train (but will have to make so many promises on the way they'll be useless if they finally get to the top).

If people voted for minor parties, then they could attract better candidates who, without having to sell their soul, might be able to remain true to what they promise. If people keep voting for the major parties, and keep getting crap, and keep voting for them, then the people have the government they deserve.

Winston's Churchill's quote "Democracy is the worst system of government, apart from all the other ones" is a huge cop out. Call it by it's real name at least: "A Corpocracy"

(Sadly) this isn't the Chinese government kissing American butt. They've got some "bad" publicity last week, so this poor sap is being made an example of.

Meanwhile the RIAA and MPAA continue to lie, cheat and steal with politicans at their bidding (that's the DMCA Congressman).

So was this guy.

Is there a precedent for this under other crimes committed from one country to another?

No but this case might be somewhat relevant.

Absolutely. We'll have a new sport on our hands, of which we already have a long-established champion.

The US did not depend on 678 - they considered 1441 the loophole they needed. Resolution 1441 did not authorize the use of force. In fact, both the U.S. ambassador to the UN, John Negroponte, and the UK ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, gave assurances that the resolution provided no "automaticity", no "hidden triggers". The US and UK ambassadors agreed that 1441 included no step to invasion without consultation of the Security Council. The US was keenly aware of this and tried desperately to get UN approval via a new resolution, but they could not. And keep in mind that both Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei had just given the UN reports that further undercut the US push for war - they had found nothing worthy of concern and wanted more time to continue the inspections. The American attack forced the weapons inspectors back out of the country. Don't get me wrong - Saddam was jerking around the international community and playing games with the system. Some of those on the Security Council refusing to authorize war were profitting from illegal deals with Iraq. However, none of that gives the US the right to launch a war of aggression against another sovereign nation.

I disagree for two reasons. First, the US and their allies certainly did rely on UNSEC #678 and UNSEC #687. Here is an op-ed by a State Department ambassador laying out the exact same case. You can find the same rational from Australia, The UK, and even the National Security Council, among others.

Second, UNSEC #1441 specifically recalled and reaffirmed UNSEC #678 and UNSEC #687 which gave authorization to use force, and deplored the fact that Iraq was in "material breach" of the requirements in UNSEC #687.

You mean the Al-Samoud 2 missiles that were declared to the UN in December of 2002 and were considered a violation because they could potentially exceed the 150 km range limit by 30 km? The same Al-Samoud 2 missiles that Iraq was in the process of destroying when the US invasion occurred?

Bingo. They declared these weapons to the UN in December of 2002, but had been banned from possessing them or developing them 12 years prior to that. The fact that it took a carrier group parked on their doorstep in the Gulf to make this declaration is hardly comforting.

I have to admit that I'm at a loss to explain your "North Korean No Dong 2000km ballistic missiles" comment. I'm not aware of any reports about No Dong missiles in Iraq and I can't find anything on Google. No Dong missiles do not even have a 2000 km range.

This information is directly pulled from the 2004 Duelfer report:
Iraq entered into negotiations with North Korean and Russian entities for more capable missile systems. Iraq and North Korea in 2000 discussed a 1,300-km-range missile, probably the No Dong, and in 2002 Iraq approached Russian entities about acquiring the Iskander-E short-range ballistic missile (SRBM).

My apologies about the mis-information on the range, however 1300km is still well above the 150km limit.

Again, I'm at a loss. The Duelfer report was considered a scathing rebuke of American rhetoric and propaganda. It indicated that Saddam wanted to restart his weapons programs as soon as the sanctions were lifted, but I don't think that was disallowed. The report demonstrated that his nuclear program was in shambles, and his chemical and biological programs nonexistent. And why do you guys love to reference David Kay's interim repor

I agree that Gitmo is a modern day "abberation" and maybe there are some inmates who should never see the light of day but as the (new) US secratary of defence says, it's reputation has sunk so low that it will never be viewed as legitamate.

As a particular example of injustice at gitmo, the handling of David Hicks has been nothing short of the US administration and the Australian government turning a hapless fool who they "puchased" from the northern aliance for $1000 into a high profile scapegoat for their "terrorists under the bed" propoganda.

"Just because you linked to some detention center site doesn't prove anything along these lines."

I agree that sites lobbying one point of view are hard to take seriously. I have tried to link to reputable sources (the SMH leans right, the Age leans left, both are major papers in Oz) I have also had the chance to compare the information to what the people involved were actually saying/doing. The issue has been (and still is) a big deal over here, just prior to the "trial" there was a live one hour debate on TV between Hicks miltary lawyer, military prosecuter, the Aussie AG, Hicks parents and other involved and interested parties in the audience.

The defence lawyer was nothing short of fucking brilliant and completely demolished both the AG and the prosecutor with their own words. That one defence lawyer's passion for justice (as we commonly understand it in the west), did more for US foriegn policy than your government has done since the Indonesian tsunami. Sadly it is quite likely he also flushed his own military career down the toilet at the same time.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not as my government would have it a "Hicks supporter". I support the basic foundations of western law and those foundations are not available to gitmo inmates unless your own government is willing to stick up for you (as the UK and every other western nation except Australia did for their citizens after the US supreme court's decision).

... it's about politics.

Figure this. The chief censor is normally chosen by a board consisting of the state censors, and appointed by the Governor-General. A few days before this latest announcement the Federal Attorney-General announced he was going to ignore the state's recommendation and appoint an as-yet unnamed person to the position - strongly suspected to be Donald McDonald, long-time personal friend of the Prime Minister and previously a politically-appointed chairman of the ABC.

What better way to justify this in an election year than to imply the States are weak on "terror" and require the strong and decisive leadership of John Winston Howard's government?

It's a complicated smokescreen and lever, and there's a whole lot more to the machinations, but that's the surface of it. Throw in the government's favourite attack dogs (Fred Nile & Alan Jones), and you can see it's a little more Machiavellian than the "OMFG, Mooslims are plotting terrah to kill innocent Aussies!" that it's being made out to be...

In Australia, there are Australians (of anglo backgrounds) and there are the rest (including aboriginals, asians, south europeans and middle eastern people who are never referred to as 'Australian' even if they're second or third generation).. and there is a huge difference in the way the law is applied to the two..

About the censorship issue, here's an excerpt from Alan Jones (who has the largest radio audience in Australia) discussing "men of middle eastern appearance" with a caller ( from mediawatch )- AJ is Alan Jones and Y is the caller:

AJ: Yep, Well Australia is for all Australians. Isn't it?
Y: Well it is Alan.
AJ: And there is standard that has to apply and if you don't meet this standard you should be rounded up.
Y: And if we don't have enough police what's wrong with getting the army in?
AJ: Uh-ha.
Y: Get these blokes a bit of a rifle butt in the face and they'll, they'll back off, they're cowards!
AJ: Well if it gets to that we might have to do that, you follow what I'm saying?

A radio host who tells millions of listeners to bash dark skinned people at a beach is simply violating the broadcasting code and gets a slap on the wrist (see this) but a Muslim who says anything similar would be in for sedition (punishable with imprisonment for 7 years). Conincidentally, the new sedition law considers it an offence if:

(a) the person urges a group or groups (whether distinguished by race, religion, nationality or political opinion) to use force or violence against another group or other groups (as so distinguished); and
(b) the use of the force or violence would threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth.

Alan Jones is not explicitly mentioned in the law.. I've looked.

It changes the situation because if one side allows the other to win a small victory then it tips the balanced scales ever so slightly in their favor...

So, Soviets take Afghanistan, then they take over the world and destroy American cilivation. I believe they call that a slippery slope.

I agree with you that the world court is meaningless.

I didn't say the World Court is meaningless. I said that "When sovereignty of nations is held up as an excuse for war criminals to hide behind," then the World Court is meaningless. So, I might also say that if you are going to argue from the position of the sovereignty of nations, then that means you respect the sovereignty of other nations - like Nicaragua.

The real position that is often behind the sovereignty of nations argument is typically only applied to U.S. sovereignty - never about the U.S. respecting the sovereignty of other nations. This is the problem - one that you are trying to brush aside.

Not to mention the "straw man" of misrepresenting what I have said. I mention this only because you complain about my "straw man" - without specifics I'll point out - while this is the second time I have pointed out specific instances where you have misrepresented what I have said because it's easier than actually addressing what I said.

What the South Africans do is entirely their own affair it really doesn't bother me in the least.

The significance of South African and Chilean mercenaries is that they have been involved in documented human right abuses. I think you simply aren't aware of this issue, but now that you do, I don't think you can maintain the position. Take a look at documents related to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. People involved now work as mercenaries worldwide.

The article that you link has no corroborating sources cited for their figures. In the news world that is the equivalent of hearsay and no respectable news outlet would print hearsay without corroboration or citing sources.

Ok, I'll do the work for you. I'll even pick out the relevant quotes so you don't even have to bother clicking on the links if you don't wish to do so.

Private corporations have penetrated western warfare so deeply that they are now the second biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq after the Pentagon, a Guardian investigation has established. While the official coalition figures list the British as the second largest contingent with around 9,900 troops, they are narrowly outnumbered by the 10,000 private military contractors now on the ground. The investigation has also discovered that the proportion of contracted security personnel in the firing line is 10 times greater than during the first Gulf war. In 1991, for every private contractor, there were about 100 servicemen and women; now there are 10.

There are serious doubts even within the occupying power about the US's choice to send Chilean mercenaries, many trained during General Augusto Pinochet's vicious dictatorship, to guard Baghdad airport.

And it's not just the foreigners - South Africans, who know they are breaking their country's laws on mercenary activity; skilled Gurkhas and Fijians who can't resist the dollars; or the Chileans who trained under General Pinochet - who are involved.

"What are the rules of engagement [for the PMCs]?" asked one coalition military official in Baghdad. "Are they civilians or are they military? I don't know who they are, and I don't

It was under rare conditions, but in Spain there was a time last month in which wind generators power generated exceeded all the other sources, including nuclear. You can read about it here.

That being said, I do agree that at this exact moment nuclear might be "the greenest tech available right now for large scale electricity generation", but is it worth it investing in it with the alternatives available which most agree will be the future? It's like going to a store tomorrow and buying a DVD player for each TV in your house (now that I think of it, I bought 2 new DVD players in the last couple of months). It's the most useful technology now, as blueray and HD-DVD are yet too expensive, but is it a good investment for the near future?

St. Steve and St. Eric.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/digital-music/apple- peels-back-protection/2007/04/03/1175366170878.htm l

Ugh. Come on, dude. Google is your friend when it comes to this kind of thing. It is not horribly difficult to find the incident that the GP was referring to. Even if the sources are biased, it serves as a launchpad to discover the truth. As for your "one isolated incident" rhetoric, that also happens to be one of the great things about the internet. You can find out things that some people don't necessarily want you to know. As for what to make of it all, you have to judge the evidence and draw your own conclusions.

It's not trolling to point out that this was news at least 10 days ago. The Age in Melbourne last updated their story on May 21, though Google indexed it there on the 20th.

Mod parent +2 Apology.

He must work for the BSA. That would explain both his LSD induced view of the facts and his counting Linux use as piracy. See
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050614-4993 .html and http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/07/20/10268 98931824.html for more info. (Note the date: this has been going on for a /very/ long time)

Looks like Impossible Mission and some of the "games" series will be coming out for more up to date platforms.
See http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//00 5443.html .

Cheers,
ZzzzSleep

An Australian company has developed an interesting new air powered engine:
http://www.engineair.com.au/

I've seen it in operation on a science tech program:
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/newinventors/txt/s1072065 .htm

It has some immediate potential:
http://www.engineair.com.au/development.htm
and:
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/08/25/10932 46620391.html

Of course there are difficulties associated with deploying a new technology:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s118353 1.htm

The dixie chicks got the bad rap because they badmouthed all Texans (and were too cowardly to say so to their faces), not because of any political issues. It would also be rather difficult to say that they didn't gain from the exposure.

I was just reading the news when I came across these:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/plea-for-ac tion-to-help-the-poor/2007/02/25/1172338469211.htm l

http://www.theage.com.au/ed_docs/Dropping_off_the_ Edge.pdf

Kinda timely to help me make my point that communities that are even slightly disadvantaged are far more likely to fall further and further behind, rather than catch up. The slightest of social ills can lead to catastrophic results for communities if left unchecked. Imagine the difficulty of trying to catch up when you're a black African or a native American freshly stripped of your culture and downtrodden since the times of your grandparents.

I was just reading the news when I came across these:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/plea-for-ac tion-to-help-the-poor/2007/02/25/1172338469211.htm l

http://www.theage.com.au/ed_docs/Dropping_off_the_ Edge.pdf

Kinda timely to help me make my point that communities that are even slightly disadvantaged are far more likely to fall further and further behind, rather than catch up. The slightest of social ills can lead to catastrophic results for communities if left unchecked. Imagine the difficulty of trying to catch up when you're a black African or a native American freshly stripped of your culture and downtrodden since the times of your grandparents.

Yeah, Good luck with that
From the linked article "INFECTION with sexually transmitted HPVs is common -- about 75 per cent of women become infected at some point."

By the way, that's an exceptionally good article on the two HPV vaccines coming to market, and if anything gives a very valid reason why Gardisil should not be a mandatory vaccine. (Although it's competitor maybe should)

I have, and I'm wondering what hat you and the parent are pulling that "research" from. Here's what I've found.

During the 1977 International Biomedical Expedition to Antarctica, a 12-man adventure lasting 72 days, bickering became such a problem that psychologists accompanying the expedition had to intervene. Antarctic literature is full of stories about teammates who stopped talking to one another or even fought - one concerns a cook with a meat cleaver facing off against an engineer brandishing a fire axe.

So psychologists will have to find new ways to select crews that will not crack in close confinement. Evidence suggests that the best crew may be female: we may be celebrating the first woman on Mars in a few decades.

They tend to be smaller than men, saving on fuel, food, water and oxygen. Most important of all, they tend to be more tolerant of their companions. Annexstad has noted the positive effects of women on long Antarctic missions. In crews with women, he notes, there seems to be less competition, and the crews seem to get along a little better. So women in space crews serve a socialising purpose, as well as their mission function.

But anyways, back to Slashdot's regularly scheduled mysogyny about women needing a man with a "stern hand" to keep them in line, and general sexual fantasies, upon hearing the word "woman".