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Besides - people already balk at the idea of having a wind farm near their residence (classic NIMBY reaction). Just 'cuz these 'mills make water instead of electricity doesn't make 'em any less of an eyesore.

In Australia, people just won't care if it produces water, particularly in the southeast. We're currently in the grips of a ten year drought - many, many farmers are completely reliant on government assistance to not go bankrupt and put food on the table, and the suicide rate amoung them is at an all time high. If this could produce enough water to irrigate and/or water livestock, it could destroy the aesthetics of the area completely and they'd still be perfectly happy to have one. Even in the suburbs there would be very little opposition - everyone knows that our water reserves are running ridiculously low, which is leading to such measures becoming common as capturing the water your shower runs through before it heats up sufficiently in a bucket to use on the garden (see here).

People only tend to balk at these things if they have the luxury of doing so, and at this stage it really is a matter of life and death.

Looks like these plans were foiled due to last minute changes in the flight plan:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/nofly-zone-s poils-googles-big-day-out/2007/01/29/1169919256978 .html?page=fullpage

March 23.
$999 AUD for 60GB
See http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//00 4857.html

One thing that's notable by its absence in the article: how long will this energy last, given current energy usage? For instance, Australia (where I live) is currently exploring nuclear power. The Age ran an article a while ago, suggesting geothermal as a solution to Australia's energy needs that would last 75 years, based upon a single site in South Australia. Add more sites, and that time frame obviously goes up.

The way I see it is, you build the power plants you need now, based on geothermal and similar technologies that are known to be clean and safe, even though you also know that they won't last forever. You then use those power sources to develop other fuel sources. Australia has an obvious solution: solar power. Grab some of those vast, empty tracts of land, and throw some mirrors, water pipes, and so forth thereon. Hey presto, power that's almost free for the taking (just maintenance and salary costs, more than anything else, to pay.)

Now, solar power doesn't work well at night, right? So build some power storage plants. Hydro plants (pump water up when there's a power surplus, let it run down and drive turbines when there's a deficit) work well for that. So does a solid flywheel. And the storage doesn't have to be close to the power plant. So in the most extreme version of this vision, you have your hundreds of towns and cities, each with enough power storage stations to hold the energy for 24 (or 48, or 72, or whatever) hours of demand; and your solar or wind or tidal plants elsewhere, feeding those stations.

All of a sudden, you don't need an ultra reliable transmission system spanning the entire continent. If it goes down for a couple of hours, it's no big deal. Fix it, get the power flowing again, and nobody will notice. Flywheels can be built pretty much anywhere - say, underneath the roads of the cities, out of the way of water, gas and other pipelines ... You also can draw your power from any source you care to name, without worrying about whether it can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. All you care about is that it can supply enough power, on average, to run the cities and towns, with a sufficient surplus that you can recharge the storage reasonably quickly. When everything's working smoothly, and you have a surplus, that energy can be applied to other things - desalination, perhaps, or maybe aluminium smelting; anything that uses a lot of energy but which doesn't need it all the time is a potential sink for when the storage systems are fully charged.

Solar might not be viable in the US, but the above is still a useful blueprint for any country, regardless of how the storage systems are recharged.

We have the technology already. All we need is the political willpower to make it happen.

Interestingly, this article http://www.theage.com.au/news/home-theatre/highdef -porn-has-stars-spooked/2007/01/15/1168709667041.h tml/ suggests that although the porn producers/directors may be happy about HD, a few of the stars aren't that sure about it all.. Also, you know if Apple are sending their Rep's to the porno convention, we should be watching this space... perhaps more so than we do now.. ; P

You could also try becoming a suspect in a UK serial killer case. His account was cancelled within hours of it becoming publicly known that it was his.

Our illustrious leader has the jump on the US. He already started muzzling scientists at the CSIRO in February or even earlier. The Man of Steel has been shoulder-to-shoulder, "fighting the good fight" with GWB on behalf of anyone who wants to sell oil or coal

Australia commits to F-35 strike fighter.

Draw your own conclusions... (Hint: What a bunch of fucking morons.)

Just combine it with this and we're there, man, we're there.

Irish biotechnology company Elan Pharmaceuticals markets the first commercial conotoxin analgesic, ziconotide (Prialt), for intractable nerve pain. It is from the omega-conotoxin family, one of five major families of conotoxins.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/creative--media/pain killer-comes-out-of-its-shell/2005/07/24/112214372 8598.html

I'm perfectly content with punishment, but come on:

Yes , rehabilitation is where its at as the triumpant success of this liberal policy over the last few decades has shown ... oh wait....

The United States has the most people in prison of any country in the world--including China, Russia, and the third-world countries we like to lambaste as having no respect for law.

The rate of people in US prisons--737 per 100,000--is the highest in the world. It is roughly seven times the average rate in other western countries of the world.

I'm fairly certain our numbers with regard to some countries (China, etc) are not wholly accurate, but there's obviously an issue here, particularly as we compare our rates to other western nations.

In the face of numbers like that, it's incredibly hard to support your contention that we've had some "liberal policy" of justice for "decades." (Article here with these facts; you can find it from any number of other sources as well. I'm pretty sure I read it on Yahoo News from the AP a few days ago.)

The US has always been conservative on the issue of justice. Punishments are getting harsher, not more lenient. We still execute people--and I'm not interested in debating whether that is right or wrong, merely pointing it out as a difference between us and most other western countries, and it's hard to deny that executions are the harshest form of justice short of torture, which isn't really justice at all.

David Kay is a REPUBLICAN who's been on the ground in Iraq for YEARS before the invasion as part of the UNSCOM weapons inspectors group. Not to mention he was on the ground right before and right after the invasion.

As far as Saddam and Al Qaeda?

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/saddam-had-no- links-to-alqaeda/2006/09/09/1157222383981.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/1013-04.ht m
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3118262.stm

"We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the 11 September attacks" - GWB.

I might be wrong on the number of Iraqi deaths but we have no credible source on how many have died. So go figure.

But the trial was a joke! When Saddam was in power, it was legal for him to do what he did. Now he's being hit with post-facto law. That's very scary. If he was being charged for crimes against humanity, he should've been locked up in a cold cell in the Hague and tried there. Don't we engage in these treaties for a reason?

Maybe you have been living under a rock ... or something. The point is that while every parent, or even a significant portion, may not be giving their life to a blackberry, it is indicative of a more disturbing trend. Too often parents simply through away their children's problems -- because they know best. Guess what? When you yap away on your phone while driving along the road (and using a hands free kit does not absolve you: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/03/10335 38725358.html), despite their protestations, what your really saying is:

"I don't care what you think, no matter how well intentioned -- or lo and behold -- reasoned it is, I want to risk your life, my life, and that hapless bystander walking along the street. Oh, and when I say I wish you were better behaved, what I really mean is that I wish you were a mindless automaton, doing everything I said."

Get a grip, and realize that your children are far smarter then you think, and they too, genuinely care for your and their own wellbeing.

Guess what I hate? Domineering parents who think that they could never go wrong, couldn't possibly be doing something reckless, but oh! How dare little Jimmy look at pictures of naked ladies on his computer. I've worked too hard at pretending to be a loving parent, so hard that I can't be a proper parent anymore.

Remember this the Australian Government research organisation that has been defending there early 802.11a/g wireless patents against some mighty companies corps who want to avoid paying there dues http://www.theage.com.au/news/wireless--broadband/ csiro-wins-landmark-legal-battle/2006/11/15/116326 6614119.html.

Heartening to know the licence fees are not just going to the lawyers (something they have received some flack for in Aus), but getting invested in more research. More power to them I say.

Couldn't you combine this with a projector to make a wall you can "paint"? Could be great fun.

Great for kids too - finger painting on the wall without making a mess.

Except that you'd be missing a key element to childhood development - the mess!

People don't think in pure abstracts. Understanding concepts like mass, volume, friction, etc come from a "gut level" understanding that stems from our experiences with these things. The more firmly these ideas are grasped, (through childhood play) the easier these advanced concepts are later on in life.

Ironically, in our push to have more "highly educated" kids by starting earlier, we're actually making it more difficult to have "highly educated" adults! Research performed in Australia backs this up - starting formalized education later improves the kid's performance later in life.

By keeping kids in the relatively sterile and regimented classroom early, they miss the real learning they would get from play. Finland, for example, doesn't begin schooling of any kind until the kids are 7 years old, and quit when the child is just 16. So why do they have one of the top-rated education systems in the world? Somehow they manage to perform significantly better, even though we spend almost 50% more time at it.

Isn't it nice to know that you spent twice as much time as you could have, in order to achieve an inferior education?

As one more example - ever watch MythBusters? It's a great show, where they challenge myths with rudimentary science. Lots of fun, and lots of education about physics, mechanics, and so on.

Ever look at their shop? It's forever a MESS! Half-constructed doo-dads all over the place! Messes aren't just not bad, they are frequently a good indicator that something real is actually taking place!

It never took off. The Australian Government (and I use the term loosely) expects Australians to rush out and spend $$$ buying settop boxes all so they can see the same thing. Yes, there are extra digital channels, but they ALL SHOW THE SAME THING. LITERALLY! The government didn't want to upset Rupert Murdoch (FOXNews) who owns the cable network, so they woudln't let TV stations multitask. Add that to the hassle of video records not working, TV reconfiguration nightmares (I have to turn on the set top box, the VCR *and* the TV) to watch anything. People have stayed away in droves.

And all for what? So, if you have a HDTV, you can watch HDTV movies full off adds, covered by a watermark and with banner commercials racing across.

Internet TV would have been a far better deal, but the Australian Government didn't want to upset Rupert on that either.

Australia is a total f##king joke. We lost it. Pathetic Nation. Yes, I am an Aussie.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/breaking/aust-slow-t o-embrace-digital-tv/2005/09/02/1125302722377.html

Funny how the government broadcaster completely respins this story:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200611/s17955 42.htm

(BTW the percentage is more like 23%)

Actually, diesel-electrics are said to be much quieter and harder to detect than nuclear submarines. I remember reading a few years ago that an Australian diesel-electric, in exercises, was took out the carrier in a carrier group.

Ah, here it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collins_class_submari ne

In a 2003 joint naval exercise, three Collins-class submarines reportedly "sank" two American Los Angeles class attack submarines and a US aircraft carrier, supporting the claims of defect resolution and combat effectiveness

Here's a description of the US/Australian exercise: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/23/10640 82993693.html

--Pat

Yeah, that does sound pretty cool. But not when we're spending a $TRILLION on the rest of the Pentagon every year, and something like 12% of Americans are starving.

I'm all for space exploration/colonization/exploitation (though not unnecessarily weaponizing space, which this program does). I'm even more for investing in Americans on Earth, to use our people power to do things that space drones cannot. Like feed each other.

There's an interesting article here.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/the-65000 -question-do-you-own-an-ipod/2006/11/20/1163871308 087.html

It seems that the senate's worried too.

This might also have something to do with the fact that sex-related topics also aren't the top in web search anymore, now only numbering 3,8% as opposed to 17% (!) in the mid-nineties.

"Hey, I thought you said Troy McClure was dead."
"No, what I said was: "He sleeps with the fishes".

I also hear of marriages to snakes and dogs.

The write-up is wrong. Now is the time to download ALL the above-mentioned documents, and share them. Let them try to arrest all of us.

I think it is safe to say you missed the essential elements of what happened, so lets recap what we know from the news:

The arrested was Samina Malik, 22, an Asian woman who allegedly was working or had worked at Heathrow airport as a shop assistant. (Could she have been an insider at a juicy target for terrorists?) She has been charged with four offences under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Malik was allegedly associated with Sohail Anjum Qureshi, previously charged as part of the same investigation. How was he nabbed? It is alleged that on 18 October he was plotting to go to Pakistan (well known as home to various terrorist organizations, training camps, and the gateway to Afghanistan)(groups in Pakistan have been tied to a number of attacks planned against the UK) taking with him, among other things:

-Camping equipment
-£9,000 cash
-A night vision scope
-The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook
-Two metal batons
-Combat manuals

It is alleged that was taking terrorist materials to Islamabad..

Investigators then followed the trail from Anjum, back to Malik. Allegedly, she had a number of publications on her computer from what look to be a narrow range of interests:

The al-Qaeda Manual,
The Terrorists Handbook
The Mujahideen Poisons Handbook
How To Win Hand-To-Hand Fighting
The Firearms and RPG Handbook
Dragunov sniper rifle manual
9mm pistol manual
Anti-tank mine manual

(Fascinating reading for a 22 year old woman, isn't it? Do you think her goal was to be the life of the party?)

She was allegedly filling a writing pad full of handwritten notes, which led to one of the charges against her. (Any bets about what those notes were about? Hmmmm... Heathrow... Pakistan... Al Qaeda....)

No doubt there are other aspects of this that we don't know about. As it is, you have to scour several news reports to get this much.

Woman charged in terror investigation
Female terror book suspect in the dock
Airport worker on terror handbook charges is remanded
Woman charged under UK terrorism act
Too many terrorist plots to name, say MI5
Woman charged under anti-terror laws

Now, I very much doubt that she is in trouble simply for having those document in and of themselves. What is likely the case is that it is the combination of what she was doing, involving herself with some sort of terrorist cell, AND having those documents. That is trouble in the same sense that having a crowbar in the garage means you have a crowbar in your garage, whereas having a crowbar in your hands at 3:00 AM in back of somebody's house in the next town over means you have a burglar tool, which will make you subject to heavy penalties.

I doubt that the authorities have much interest in trying to arrest people for simply having those publications. Everything I've seen seems to indicate that their hands are more than full simply trying to cope with the small percentage of people that both have those publications and are trying to use them in attempts to kill large numbers of people. You may also want to keep in mind that the more false signals you generate, the less effective the police will be in tracking down those who are trying to kill you for being, take your pick: an infidel, British

Asked if he was expecting Rumsfeld to stay on through the end of his presidency, Bush said: "Yes, I am."

Basically the main argument in this article seems to be something along the lines of "The Arabs and Muslims kill each other a lot, so why do people care so much about Israel killing Arabs and Muslims". I don't consider that argument to have any moral legitimacy.

Back to the America question, some recent polls have been carried out which make interesting reading:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/bush-bigger-th reat-than-kim-jongil-poll/2006/11/03/1162340050262 .html

These days, however, we have good old Johnny Howard getting up close and personal with Shrub and Blair, pi**ing everybody off and making us almost as big a target as all the other Iraq invaders. Nice one Johnny.

Do you have any ideas about what sort of thing might have caused this? Has it been going on since the 2003 Iraq Invasion? Is it an on-going problem in Australian society? Any idea what the grievance is?

Maybe New Zealand is a refuge from the trouble you see in Australia.

TV Network sues electronic program guide company.

I think the article just has the wrong date ... here's a similar article today from The Register

> (I notice Slashdot didn't report about the lack of an active hurricane season this year or the recent below-average temperatures)

So if America does not feel it then there is no problem?

Come to Australia.

Worst drought in 40 years.

4th hottest September day in history: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/09/19/11584 31712070.html?from=top5

Hottest October day on record: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/10/12/11602 46228661.html

Our water storage cachements are drying up. We have severe water restrictons in place and even more restrictions are planned.

Bush fire danger is severe already and Victoria and New South Wales have already suffered many bushfires.

Pull your heads out of your arses USA.

> (I notice Slashdot didn't report about the lack of an active hurricane season this year or the recent below-average temperatures)

So if America does not feel it then there is no problem?

Come to Australia.

Worst drought in 40 years.

4th hottest September day in history: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/09/19/11584 31712070.html?from=top5

Hottest October day on record: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/10/12/11602 46228661.html

Our water storage cachements are drying up. We have severe water restrictons in place and even more restrictions are planned.

Bush fire danger is severe already and Victoria and New South Wales have already suffered many bushfires.

Pull your heads out of your arses USA.

And this is exactly why this idea of the human race splitting due to evolution is probably crap.

Not only can we already modify our bodies with artificial devices (implants, etc.), we're already very close to being able to genetically engineer ourselves and our offspring. Unless there's an absolutely huge disparity between the rich and the poor, even lower middle-class people should be able to afford some improvements.

New rule: If your kids are old enough to know what a dyke is, and can put up an online profile of a straight woman convincing enough to say that she is one, then by golly they're not kids anymore! I disagree primarily because most 12-year-olds know all of this. They are also shown to have brains that have not completely developed, especially relative to judgment and planning. As long as their brains aren't done yet, parents should still be keeping a close watch. If I remember right, brain development caused by normal growth ends around age 20.

The leftist /lemmings do that all the time. They even got modded "+5 Insightful" or other crap like that.

Not a damn thing happens to them.

The real question is when you Limeys are going to use this standard on the jihadis in your midst. You know, the ones that openly call for killing infidels? The ones that make you remove references to Piglet? The ones that make sure Brit banks no longer offer piggy banks.

Although i never heard of RAW, i see he was the hero during the New Age era, where
he mixed rare known facts about the Illuminati, with fiction and occasionally added
some jokes. I guess in the heydays of his work he was very popular amongst people
who knew something about this cult.

However things have changed, This Illuminati, Kaballa, Mason stuff has turned out
to be not fiction or satire but the scary truth. Just remember Hugo Chavez's
recent appearance inside the U.N. What happened at the U.N. is of major importance.
Hugo Chavez steals the show at the U.N. quoting from Noam Chomsky latest book
"Hegemony or Survival" [1]. Although wearing a normal suit, he did a almost genuine act
of exorcism from behind the council speakers table:

http://www.niburu.nl/showarticle.php?articleID=143 86
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2006/9/23/213219/ 005/59#c59
http://www.axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/article_ 23036.shtml
http://www.counterpunch.org/chavez09202006.html

"The devil is right at home. The devil, the devil himself, is right
in the house.

"And the devil came here yesterday. Yesterday the devil came here.
Right here." [crosses himself] "And it smells of sulfur still today.

Yesterday, ladies and gentlemen, from this rostrum, the president
of the United States, the gentleman to whom I refer as the devil,
came here, talking as if he owned the world. Truly. As the owner of
the world."

The real media file can be found here :

"Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan Pres., at U.N. General Assembly"
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter092006_chav ez.rm

Recently Greg Palast did a exclusive interview with Hugo Chavez from
his home in Venezuela :

"Hugo Chavez: An Exclusive Interview with Greg Palast"
http://www.gregpalast.com/hugo-chavez-an-exclusive -interview-with-greg-palast

pnm:rm.bbc.net.uk/news/olmedia/1985000/video_19856 70_ven22_palast_vi.rm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/ar chive/1985670.stm

So why is this a important breakthrough? It seems the tide is turning.
If Bushes hegemony was a reality, Hugo Chavez would never been able to
make this speech. Also remember that the President of Iran recently
made his heroic appearance in New York. The crock hunter may have died,
but here's the real hero :

http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/iranian-presid ent-steals-the-show-in-new-york/2006/09/22/1158431 902380.html

As the plot is folding, the analogy with Tolkiens trilogy, The Lord of
the Rings, is certainly there. "The Evil Eye" on top of the pyramid is
evident. The analogy with the Ring to rule all others Rings may not
seem so straightforward. It seems that this Ring is commonly known as
the holy grail, but the holy grail is a hoax in itself. So what is the
holy grail in fact? Chris Everard from EnigmaTV made a serious attempt
[2] to explain things. He claims that the full knowledge and
understanding of a scripture called The Cabballah is what ordinary man
can give ultimate power with the culmination in power the capability to
kill someone with a

If you're really curious about this subject, read Don Watson's Death Sentence: the decay of public language (link to an article about the book). Watson, incase you don't know, was Paul Keating's (former Aussie PM) speech writer.

A quote from the book: "everyday we are confronted with a debased, depleted sludge: in the media, among corporations, the public service, cultural institutions, out of the mouths of our leaders, at work, and even in the locker room. It is a dead language: devoid of lyric or comic possibility, incapable of emotion, complexity or nuance."

Powerful stuff, and an interesting read. I'm not sure he has a great idea for a solution, but that's irrelevant. The point is, our language has been increasingly watered down. I wish I would remember the famous quote that said it so elegantly...something about "don't use the word beautiful where pretty will do, because when something is actually beautiful you won't have a word to use." (It may not have been pretty/beautiful, I don't recall.)

and the potential threat of global warming, which even George Bush now acknowledges, flying a large plane up and down to create small windows of zero-g to do surgery on a single individual sounds absolutely moronic.

Ya, sure, some interesting scientific insights on surgery in a no-gravity environment can be learned, but when could they actually be used on even a moderate scale? I've heard of no cheap zero-gravity breakthroughs...

Try again

http://www.theage.com.au/news/games/sony-slashes-p rice-of-ps3-games-console/2006/09/22/1158431887680 .html

http://www.theage.com.au/news/games/sony-slashes-p rice-of-ps3-games-console/2006/09/22/1158431887680 .html I'm sure this will be posted soon, but till then, heres a link.

My personal belief is that YES, global warming is a reality. But I also believe that it is more to do with the Sun, than with our burning fossil fuel. I also believe the consequences are/will be less severe than predicted.

it's estimated that we'll be at the 'tipping over' point of runaway warming when we reach 440ppm CO2 concentrations, which will take about ten years. The world can't transition off of fossil fuels, nor can the economies of the first world and India/China even slow the growth of the use without their economies collapsing. So, we're already screwed and may as well party.

Stingrays normally flee at the first sign of trouble. There are two exceptions: if they are cornered or accidentally stepped on.

Irwin's chest wound led some experts to speculate that he might have provoked the creature. "Unfortunately he may have contributed to his death because he got too close and the animal felt threatened," Dr Fry said.

Wildlife filmmaker David Ireland said if a stingray barb hit any vital organs "it's as deadly as a bayonet".

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/end-would-h ave-been-agony/2006/09/04/1157222070815.html

Tasmania Police this afternoon confirmed Mr Irwin's American-born wife Terri was travelling in Tasmania, where she is reported to be trekking on Cradle Mountain.

A spokeswoman said police had made contact with Mrs Irwin and "passed on a message relating to the death of her husband".

Steve Irwin was the real deal. He really cared about the environment he worked in. It was revealed earlier this year that he successfully lobbied the Federal Government to oppose plans for the creation of a crocodile 'game hunting' tourist industry in the Northern Territory. He did it privately and quietly - it was only reported after it came to light through freedom of information requests.

link

My hat goes off to you Steve, and my condolences to your family.

I'm not saying that we glorified you, but the USA's image was nowhere near where it's today. Anti-Americanism boiling under the surface is something different from wide-spread open distrust towards the USA.

Okay- fair enough. I still believe that there are bigger issues at play here than trying to make sure that Europe likes us.

As for Iraq: Nobody believed you when you said that Saddam paid Osama (which he didn't),

I'm not sure what you mean by "paid Osama" (Osama was already rich- why would Iraq need to pay him?), but even assuming Iraq had no relationship with al Qaeda, they had still been supporting dozens of other terrorist organizations (like Abu Nidal, the PKK, Carlos the Jackal, etc) for decades. Or do you think that Russia didn't believe us?

nobody believed you when you said he didn't comply with the weapon restrictions

That's strange. In January, 2003, just weeks before the invasion, Hans Blix himself testified that Iraq "appears not to have come to a genuine acceptance - not even today - of the disarmament, which was demanded of it" (Source). So I guess he believed it. In fact, several other governments have also publically stated that they believed this as well. And guess what? They were exactly right. The Iraqi Survey Group found dozens of illegal and hidden weapons programs in Iraq that the UN didn't know about. True, we didn't find the old decaying stockpiles of weapons we thought we would find, but instead what we found was much worse.

almost nobody wanted to help you when you attacked a country that was well under control (partially due to you already keeping them in check).

If Iraq had been well under control, they would not have been supporting international terrorist groups to commit murder, they wouldn't have been gaming the UN Oil-For-Food program to allow them to smuggle any proscribed item that they wanted in the country, and they wouldn't have been developing dozens of illegal and hidden weapons that UNMOVIC didn't know about.

In the process you destabilized the country and possibly the region.

Are you somehow under the impression that the middle east was "stable" prior to 2003?

Also, you're making yourself unpopular with the very people you claimed to have freed, as you a) are an invader, b) have plunged their entire country into conditions even worse then before and c) are effectively taking away their oil resources.

We may be unpopular, and we certainly are invaders, but how can you claim that conditions in Iraq are worse than under Saddam? And how can you claim that we are taking away their oil- "effectively" or not?

Iraq is not a fun place to be right now, and like I said, we all wish it was going better there now than it is. But at least now the Iraqis have a chance to determine their own future, rather than suffer under a brutal and tyrannical dictator. Not only did Saddam directly murder hundreds of thousands of his own innocent civilians (some estimates are as high as 2 million), but he started two bloody wars that cost millions more to die, and countless others suffered and died under his direction because of his refusal to cooperate with the UN to lift sanctions in the 1990s.

So would you rather live like that, or live in an Iraq today that is violent, dangerous, and scary, b

From TFA She's not bad.

One quote that might interest people from the interview is this:

Mohammad Saeidi is a practical man. Sidestepping the political, ideological and historical aspects of the nuclear dispute with the West, the vice-president of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation is focused on a set of problems that must be solved logically if the country and its people are to develop to their full potential. "The country's oil and gas reserves will last a maximum of another 25 or 30 years," he says. "Therefore we have to provide other resources."

If you are an American, please don't support your current administrations drive to cause yet another war by believing their propaganda about Iran. Really, you should trust your politicians as soon as they find the WMD that they told you existed in Iraq.

Please don't let Bush plunge the world into the Realm of $200 a barrel oil prices by attacking Iran.

"I don't think it's safe anymore to allow your eight year old to wander a large shopping mall alone"

Why?

Is the world a more dangerous place, or are there interests whose profit is served by making you think so?

Careful there moofie, you might fall over onto the other side where people with other interests seek profit from the "free thinkers".

Regardless of what time we live in, the World is dangerous enough to not allow an 8 year old to roam around by themselves in large shopping malls. Whether the World is more or less dangerous now than some arbitrary time in the past is completely beside the point. There is a big enough danger to warrant supervision.

In many things I try to consider this: What do I have to gain and what do I have to lose by doing one thing. And what do I have to gain and what do I have to lose doing the other thing? The loss of your eight year old child is not worth saving some time or parking fee at the local shopping mall.

BTW, ever owned a radio scanner which allows you to listen to local police? I have and I can assure you based on that and the stories of my very many friends in the police force, that not all the horror stories make it to the news. The truth is very VERY much more frightening than what the news shows. In fact, there are some TV shows where I live which are about local crimes. They are quite dramatic, however I have great insight into some of those actual crimes, through some police detective friends of mine. The dramatic TV shows leave out the really scary stuff, every single time. I'm not talking about the photo evidence or anything like that, I'm talking about the crimes as they can be described. I also sometimes get to see evidence in my line of work. The real world is scarier than TV by far.

Sure it is true that some issues are exagerated to profit share holders and advertisers, but just because that happens, does not mean that the World is safe for an alone eight year old. What you need to understand, is that not all the dramatic news on TV had to be exagerated. There really is bad shit in this World and that beautiful innocent little soul really was raped and murdered only feet from lots of normal caring people, including her family.

Maybe you are right and the World is no worse than it has ever been, or maybe others are right and it is getting worse. Whoever is right is completely beside the point. The point is, that an eight year old is not safe alone in public.

BTW, I've noticed some of your comments over a period of time. You talk a whole lot of shit dude.

Seems like a back-door to temporary ownership/licenses to me. Convince people they can burn their DVDs themselves after paying for a downloaded copy, only to have the disc fail a few years down the road.

Now you can have the fun of shopping for your favorite movies every 3 years!

> I have heard from more than a few places that since the internet became
> accessible, sales of paperbooks has increased dramatically, per capita.

Where did you hear that? I don't know about the sales of books, but there are numerous articles about the decline of reading of books.

> Particularly when much of the "low brow" music and art was considered "black".

It still is, it's just cool to be black now. It's also cool to dress like a scarecrow, speak like a jailbird, and act like a pig.

I think you missed his point. Queenslanders recently voted not to recycle their water on the grounds that it's too icky. OP was just curious as to whether we're all that stupid.

I would think another problem is that it will mean the census is no longer a snapshot of a single day in Australia.

Check out this article.