Slashdot Mirror

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney can shoot a man down.
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney can unilaterally issue orders to take down aircrafts.

Videogames can have a negative influence on our young ones, really !
In what kind of alternate reality do these guys live ?

References:

The Man Who Dick Cheney Shot
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,115 9016,00.html

On February 11, 2006, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old Texas attorney, while participating in a quail hunt on a ranch in Kenedy County, Texas. Whittington was shot in the face, neck, and upper torso with birdshot pellets from a 28-gauge Perazzi shotgun. ...

Washington Post: "Cheney Authorized Shooting Down Planes "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A507 45-2004Jun17.html

At 10:39 on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Vice President Cheney, in a bunker beneath the White House, told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in a videoconference that he had been informed earlier that morning that hijacked planes were approaching Washington. ...
Cheney, who told the commission he was operating on instructions from Bush given in a phone call, issued authority for aircraft threatening Washington to be shot down. But the commission noted that "among the sources that reflect other important events that morning there is no documentary evidence for this call, although the relevant sources are incomplete." Those sources include people nearby taking notes, such as Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Cheney's wife, Lynne.

Rockets can carry larger payloads than the Shuttle. The new Delta can carry over 50K pounds, about the same as the Space Shuttle. Compare that to the Saturn V's 106,000 pounds.

So no, the Hubble could have been launched on another platform. As for the repair, that could have been done with the original shuttle design, as they certainly didn't carry a 50K payload for repairs.

Rockets can carry larger payloads than the Shuttle. The new Delta can carry over 50K pounds, about the same as the Space Shuttle. Compare that to the Saturn V's 106,000 pounds.

So no, the Hubble could have been launched on another platform. As for the repair, that could have been done with the original shuttle design, as they certainly didn't carry a 50K payload for repairs.

Yale CS professor David Gelernter wrote an article about the match, expressing a quite different view.

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,986355,00 .html

Dennett is a brilliant philosopher, but he's also well-known for propounding a particular agenda. While his view is plausible, it is not intrinsically more plausible than Gelernter's view.

By dwelling on the functional equivalence of Deep Blue chess and Kasparov chess, Dennett skillfully lays the assumption that this is the correct way to compare all differences between humans and machines. Rhetoric like "as far as we know" quietly asserts that all right-thinking intellectuals agree with him, while argument is dismissed as "cling[ing]... to brittle visions."

However, both his view and Gelernter's are merely expressions of the consequences of certain prior assumptions, and these assumptions are unprovable ones: function vs. being, for instance, or philosophical naturalism vs. methodological naturalism.

Gelernter adequately illustrates a counter-view that many of Dennett's peers would hold:

"...the idea that Deep Blue has a mind is absurd. How can an object that wants nothing, fears nothing, enjoys nothing, needs nothing and cares about nothing have a mind? It can win at chess, but not because it wants to. It isn't happy when it wins or sad when it loses. What are its apres-match plans if it beats Kasparov? Is it hoping to take Deep Pink out for a night on the town? It doesn't care about chess or anything else. It plays the game for the same reason a calculator adds or a toaster toasts: because it is a machine designed for that purpose."

"The more powerful your computer, the more sophisticated the behavior it can imitate. In the long run I doubt if there is any kind of human behavior computers can't fake, any kind of performance they can't put on. It is conceivable that one day, computers will be better than humans at nearly everything. I can imagine that a person might someday have a computer for a best friend. That will be sad--like having a dog for your best friend but even sadder.

"Computers might one day be capable of expressing themselves in vivid prose or fluent poetry, but unfortunately they will still be computers and have nothing to say. The gap between human and surrogate is permanent and will never be closed. Machines will continue to make life easier, healthier, richer and more puzzling. And human beings will continue to care, ultimately, about the same things they always have: about themselves, about one another and, many of them, about God. On those terms, machines have never made a difference. And they never will."

Dennett might not be wrong, but he might not be right.

--
Dum de dum.

Citations of reliable, public sources documenting the actual numbers of "those" people that you refer to would be a lot more impressive.

Is 36% enough?

"A Scripps-Howard poll of 1,010 adults last month found that 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves. Thirty-six percent adds up to a lot of people. This is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/279827_cons piracy02ww.html
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 531304,00.htm
http://www.scrippsnews.com/911poll

That is extremely, extremely saddening to me.

So, what's your response to that?

Is the "expert" a native English speaker? "Botnet, Trojan, and Back Door are example of malicious codes..." Aside from the grammatical atrocities, I have never heard of my fellow software engineers referring to software programs as "codes." A back-door is not a "code" or a program, nor are botnets. Bots are, Trojan (Horses) are, and they can open back doors. Precision, please?

I don't see how not being a native English speaker would affect any of his reasoning, but I thought the declaration as a whole used excellent grammar. You appear to be focusing on this one sentence to call his native language into question for some unknown reason. I didn't notice any other "grammatical atrocities"... I believe the whole problem is simply with the 's'. All software is code. Trojans and Bots are software programs, embodied in code. Back Doors are deliberate holes in security left in place to enable access, actually usually by maintainers or administrators as the term is commonly used. Botnets, trojans (you don't have to use the full term "trojan horse"), and back doors are all examples of software code that can be used to take over the victim's machine without their knowledge or permission. While using all three terms here is a bit confusing, the terms "botnet" and "trojan horse" don't necessitate the inclusion of a "back-door" to be able to perform this packet spoofing, and "back doors" don't necessarily have to be in botnets or trojan horses. This could use some more explaining, but I think if those three terms were just left out that it would have been crystal clear to me. Maybe some proofreading paralegal "corrected" his original pluralizations and he didn't notice before he signed the declaration. All in all, a minor typo and the only one I noticed myself looking through the document. Oh, if you have never heard of your fellow software engineers referring to software programs (or portions thereof) as "code", then I doubt you have ever written code yourself.

Do look at the expert's biography page on the site shilling his book. Plenty of asserted qualifications and certifications, although I don't see any formal degrees listed anywhere. It also asserts that "One final note Jayson was chosen as one of Time's persons of the year for 2006." (hint: so were you). The grammar in the bio is even worse than in the expert brief. Do a search for his name and you'll find precious little at all.

I urge people to actually read it instead of relying on edasofhy's mischaracterization. As for "Time's person of the year for 2006", he says "on a humorous note" and the link actually gave me a chuckle when i went to it, although I think he is mistaken as I am clearly Time's person of the year for 2006. As for his qualifications, I would rather have a Cisco CCIE certified person who has undertaken training setup my network than someone who has a BS in computer science, but you hire whoever you want.

Yes, we all know this is true from a technical perspective. However, the RIAA is not as dumb as to ignore it. From the depositions in the Lindor case (posted earlier by NewYorkCountryLawyer) they are also relying on the fact that Kazaa (and workalikes) apparently include the local IP in the protocol. So if I'm behind my router, and my IP is 192.168.1.1, but my router's IP is 123.45.6.78, then the RIAA will see BOTH addresses and know whether there's some NATting going on with a pretty high degree of certainty. However, if Kazaa reports the local IP as 123.45.6.78 as well, then it's highly unlikely any more than a single computer is behind that IP.

Reading the report, the "expert" here appears to be completely ignorant of this fact.

That's funny, I'm completely ignorant of that fact too... Maybe that's because it isn't mentioned anywhere in the Linares declaration that this one is responding too. Maybe because it's not the

Harmless? Certainly in and of itself.

Nobody is as famous as you! Results 1 - 10 of about 3,090,000,000 for you. (0.05 seconds)

Even Time Magazine confirms it!

According to the codified portions of Chabot's donations on OpenSecrets, he actually did not receive much money directly from the TV/Movies/Music industry. According to Chabot's 2006 Industry Breakdown it was his 19th greatest contributor, giving $31,000.

However, a mischievous explanation of his manipulation can be found by looking to his revolving door(*). Chabot's recently departed Counsel, Etheridge Berkley, was named Vice President and Counsel of the NMPA (Nat'l Music Publishers Assoc'n) in March of 2005.

For more, see Berkley's revolving door profile and the NMPA press release of Berkley's appointment[pdf] ("I know that the U.S. music publishing industry will find her to be a terrific champion on their behalf").

(*) - "Revolving Door" in this context refers to those who go back-and-forth between working on K Street (lobbying) and Capital Hill (congressional committees). For more, see Time Magazine's The Lobbying Game: Why the Revolving Door Won't Close .

Time.com top story: Obese survive heart attacks better... Eat it and weep, skinny bones...

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,164 1555,00.html?xid=feed-cnn-topics&iref=werecommend

I wondered about that too. To make a guess about the answer, I had to find some maps showing US population density. Here's one (in PDF format) from the US government (I wish it had the year). Here's one from a .edu for 1990 levels. And here's one from Time magazine done in a unique fashion.

At first I thought this easily backed up my suspicion that, as you put it, the "spread out America" excuse doesn't work so well.

But then I checked out a global map of population distribution and now, after all this effort, I'm firmly back in the "not sure" category. Bring up the full-size map and compare Europe and Japan with the USA. Perhaps for New York, New Jersey, much of Florida and California there's not much excuse. Anywhere else in the USA and it's not so clear to me.

Because there isn't a human being up there looking at the target and pulling the trigger. Predators are proxy weapons and there is a concern that these weapons are more likely to produce civilian casualties. It's like the debate between robotic versus manned space exploration. You might be saving money, but at the expense of human judgment.

Have a look at these plans from 1969.

Moments before Apollo 11 's booster lifted off from Cape Kennedy last July, Spiro Agnew declared that the nation's next major space goal should be a manned landing on Mars by the end of the century.

Very few women Muslims become bombers, and in virtually every case, the woman is given the ultimatum of either redeeming her family's honor (after she was caught having an affair or committing some other sexual trespass) by becoming a bomber, or die by honor killing.

"What we found in talking to the [bombers'] families and people in the community--and I want to limit this to the women whose stories we looked into--all of them had very traumatic personal stories and issues. Those things, combined with the horrors of living under occupation, could have provoked them to act.

"What kind of personal problems?

"One [terrorist], for example, was the first female suicide bomber in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, Wafa Idris. She was married off at a very young age and could not have kids. In that society a woman, a wife, who can't have kids is considered worthless. The husband [divorced Wafa and] married someone else and had kids with her.

"Wafa also worked with a humanitarian organization on the West Bank where she saw a lot of carnage [from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict]. You might say that she was a very depressed person."

National Geographic: Female Suicide Bombers: Dying to Kill

"Riyashi is hailed as a courageous resistance fighter among Palestinians throughout Gaza and the West Bank, but the truth about what drove her to such a terrible act is much more complex. Palestinians in Gaza and Israeli internal-security experts who studied the background of her case say Riyashi's husband had discovered that she was having an affair with a senior Hamas commander. Among conservative Palestinians, as in other parts of the Islamic world, an adulterous woman is often punished with death. Riyashi was given a second option: she could become a martyr.

"Behind the motives of religion and rage at Israeli occupation, Palestinian women, far more than men, tend to choose self-sacrifice as an exit from personal despair, while others are pushed into it for having broken taboos in strict Palestinian society."

Time: Palestinian Moms Becoming Martyrs

what power does a state legislation have against a federal one?

In theory the State power should be at least equal within the State, we have a Federal system.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federalism In reality our States have lost alot of autonomy to the Federal Government because of abuses of the Interstate commerce clause.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interstate_com merce_clause I hope that New Hampshire sticks it out, other States follow, and States Rights gains back some ground. But it didn't work when the Fed wanted a drinking age of 21, and forced States to adopt it, even though it is supposed to be outside the realm of the Federal government. Withholding funding for highways and such is an all too powerful lever the Feds have over the States. New Hampshire might hold out because they are small enough to get away with no Fed support of their highways and they have alot of "Free Staters" who want to secede from the US completely over things like shrinking liberties, and global policing. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 555119,00.html

Not true - Microsoft was convicted of having an illegal monopoly on desktop x86 operating systems. The court realized that microsoft had anything but a monopoly on server operating systems, and crafted it such that apple's marketshare was ignored.

I don't think the issue is as simple as that. US companies get certain benefits from being incorporated in the US such as low corporate tax rates.

There is little advantage. The corporate tax rate is zero in many countries. The amount of red-tape around running a corporation is steadily rising (heard of Sarbanes-Oxley?). You may remember the uber-lefties threatening to move to Canada, should Bush win in 2004. Well, Microsoft is not threatening, it is just moving... This is still a great country, but it much worse (and less attractive to visitors, BTW) due to the post-9/11 hysteria...

... wants to become a US citizen and wins the lottery

Aren't you glad, your ancestors have won that lottery? Oh, wait, there was not any... Being healthy, non-criminal, and knowing a living-earning trade was enough to enter this country in the first half of the 20th century. And before that, there were no limits at all (other than the cost of the ticket).

If they don't want to be a citizen, they can work in their own country.

What about the millions, who do want to become a citizen, but can't win the lottery? We still have huge swathes of unsettled land. Our population density is four times less, than China's. Dying towns offer free land to people willing to move in...

But this is not a matter of Economics. This is a matter of Human Rights — as Americans learn in kindergartens, everybody's creator-given rights include Pursuit of Happiness. Being able to live anywhere they can afford, and work for anyone who would hire is certainly a legitimate pursuit.

And if you are concerned about them taking up our social programs, then don't give it to them. Don't give it to anyone undeserving, in fact... New Orleans — the city of huge "low income" housing projects — has seen its Hispanics population more than triple from 15K to 50K after Katrina. These fresh immigrants all happily come to work on the reconstruction. Meanwhile, the residents of those housing projects collect government subsidies doing little... Which of the two groups of people would you rather have as fellow citizens?

George Bush's sense of humor has always run more to frat-house gag than art-house irony, so he may not have appreciated the poetic justice any more than the legal justice on display in the Libby verdict.

Or, to be more precise, the Cheney verdict.

O'RLY?

You mean like Bill Clinton pardoning Marc Rich after his wife donated thousands of dollars to the Democratic party and his on legal defense fund?

Yah, he 'served a lot of time' in Switzerland right next to those sky bunnies...

the White House counsel in early 2001 "issued clear written policies" instructing staffers "to use only the official White House e-mail system for official communications and to retain any official e-mails they received on a nongovernmental account." Recent evidence "indicates that White House officials used their RNC e-mail accounts in a manner that circumvented these requirements," the report said.

Whoops. Looks like they not only knew they were violating the law, but that they flouted the requirement.
But....Republicans are the law and order party, right? And this is (objectively) no worse than lying about a consensual sexual affair, right?

Or are Republicans subjective? It gets so hard to keep track of what's important to these folks!

Certainly, this little white house foible is no worse than lying about the reasons to go to war - and we've got 3500 corpses and four years of backpedaling to show that progress is an abstract to the United States citizenry, right?

I mean, "right" is right, right? Or is it?

I know DOD, NSA, and CIA are not surprised.

Politicians and news folks Fox/CNN/... only want to
surprise the USA Citizens/public for rating purposes.

Yes, some GOs/FAs are great politicians with agendas.

Look up some stuff about "Titan Rain" and even that was old news for some folks.

Time Magazine:
The Invasion of the Chinese Cyberspies (And the Man Who Tried to Stop Them)
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1 098961,00.html

Remember the recent persecution and jailing of "Two" US Border Patrol folks
(by US) for doing their job and trying to stop drug smugglers?
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTI CLE_ID=52545
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhRWRbqIvtU

This type of stuff goes back many years even before
the present gang of politicians; So, "NO CHANGE"!

Don't worry, be happy, !HAVEFUN!

From the Home Office in Bangalore India!

Top Ten Uses For Your New Processor Cores:

10. Vista (Starter, Ultimate Turbo Champion, etc). If this applies to you, stop reading list here, all your new cores are belong to Microsoft.

9. Time to install Web 2.1, baby!!

8. Full-screen full-motion porn on all three of your 30-inch computer monitors while running global warming computer model in background

7. Terrorism.

6. Receiving chocolate cake over the Internet.

5. As a tool to help you personally become a more productive worker, engaged citizen and attentive spouse and parent, rather than as a weird techno-fetishistic ends unto itself. Ha ha, just kidding!! LOLzzz.

4. Dedicated core for Safari installs/updates.

3. Department Homeland Security monitoring/spyware (federal statutory requirement)

2. AT&T Broadband/RIAA monitoring/spyware (in EULA)

1. Wife's monitoring/spyware (in the vows)

http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19730813,0 0.html looks like a northern to me.

Time Magazine just ran this interesting photo essay called "what people eat." One of the interesting things to notice is how much wasteful packaging we use compared to those who still eat mainly for nutrition. Which is not to say I'd like to live like a refugee, only that it's a shame quality food can't be packaged without all that expense and waste: "Only about 9 percent of the cost of a box of cereal is for the cereal -- the other 91 percent of the cost is for the package and advertising." Unfortunately we humans are suckers for outwards appearance.

Time Magazine just ran this interesting photo essay called "what people eat." One of the interesting things to notice is how much wasteful packaging we use compared to those who still eat mainly for nutrition. Which is not to say I'd like to live like a refugee, only that it's a shame quality food can't be packaged without all that expense and waste: "Only about 9 percent of the cost of a box of cereal is for the cereal -- the other 91 percent of the cost is for the package and advertising." Unfortunately we humans are suckers for outwards appearance.

If I may interject, allow me to suggest that Finland is not a typical EU country, and that attitudes in your country are not common to other EU countries. Finland is a relatively homogenous country, with memories of the "Winter War" and WWII fighting against the USSR, and a decent economy. Other EU countries have large populations of immigrants (will they want to fight?), moribund economies, and their memories often hinder military expansion. Thinking of "EU countries' attitude towards the military", I can't help but think of the Danish politician who suggested replacing his country's armed forces which speakers shouting "we surrender". Also, I'd point out the Russia has much finer grained ways to squeeze Europe regarding energy, than to simply cut off energy supply.

(short excerpt link, but watcha want, effort? pff)

The Assault on Reason
by our fearless runner-up A1_G0r3 is also potentially apt, but I'm annoyed that he felt it necessary to publish a physical book tome.

I mean, the guy invented the interweb for crissakes...
Post the book up for free like the rest of the science mafia.
Earn flask cred. Save a tree. Meh.

And yes, he was on the daily show last week hocking it.
How else would I have remembered he still existed? (joke al)

PS: -1 offtopic, but doesn't the voting machine issue (www.diebold.com) start looking less tinfoil about now?

WHY TEH HECK ARE THEY NOT USING CONTROL OF CONGRESS TO INVESTIGATE THE UNDERMINING OF OUR "DEMOCRACY"?

Is there a more important issue in the next 18 months? I'm not so sure. Stay tuned.

Forget "who you're for", read this:

MY KINGDOM FOR MOD POINTS

http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=236259&cid =19277405

Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1622015,0 0.html

Contrary-ism and political hit-jobs by programmed imbeciles.
[you think I'm kidding?]

http://www.smokingpolitics.com/2007/05/we_guarante e_al_gore_will_be_a.html

I'm Independent, I haven't decided.

MOD UP! - ROTFLOL
So funny, so utterly and fantastically on the mark. #1 and #2 indeed.
Apathy is killing the USA.
Forget "who you're for", read this:

Book Excerpt: The Assault on Reason

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1622015,0 0.html

Contrary-ism and political hit-jobs by programmed imbeciles.
[you think I'm kidding?]

http://www.smokingpolitics.com/2007/05/we_guarante e_al_gore_will_be_a.html

I'm am Independent, I haven't decided, so I can be ambiguous.

But, my dear "Anomolous Cowturd" please feel free to apply for citizenship by crossing our northern/southern border, we'll go out every weekend, find drunk Americans [no shortage here!], and beat the crap out of them.
We also have some good museums.

With a sweet picture of his office with three Mac displays on his desktop. If he's not a techie, no one else is.

Here's a good article on The Last Temptation of Al Gore in this week's Time magazine.

Ah yes, way back in 1983. Although they had a phone call after Microsoft put some cash into Apple in 1997. I bet they go to the pub when they're both in the same town too.

Some things to read before you break open your piggy bank and invest in lead clothing ;^) ;^)

You can run, but you can't hide...

Wouldn't be surprising, given the history of his interference with history...

Just not to RIAA, they pay the writers of the songs through ASCAP, which is like the song writer's version of the RIAA. I worked for a guy who wrote a song that actually got some air time on the radio, and he eventually got some checks in the mail. Note that artists who write their own songs actually make money when they are played on the radio, too, but the ones that don't, don't make any money from radio play.

See: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,7 89776,00.html

Great is ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers). To ASCAP belong about 1,450 composers and writers and about 130 music publishing houses in the U. S. ASCAP holds the performance rights to their works. ASCAP collects royalties for its members, deducts about 20% for operating overhead, 10% more for the 20 foreign performing-rights societies with which it is affiliated. What is left is allocated, 50-50, between composers and writers and publishers. Distribution to individuals is arbitrary, based not upon number of performances but upon ASCAP's fixed ratings.

Radio, the juiciest source of ASCAP royalties, pays the society monthly on a contract basis, muttering horrible epithets. The present contracts, under which individual stations pay 5% of net receipts plus varying fees, networks pay nothing, expire next December. Last month ASCAP revealed the terms of the next contract: 3%-5% for individual stations, 7½% for the networks. Radio paid a total of $4,300,000 last year, would pay as high as $8,500,000 (its own estimate) in 1941. Last week the two major networks, CBS and NBC, gave their answer: nothing doing. For the first time they had a weapon with which to hit back.

Founded last fall, with stock owned by broadcasters, was Broadcast Music Inc., a music pool intended to rival ASCAP (TIME, Sept. 25). Last week B.M.I, issued its first catalogue: six songs, (sample: We Would Make Beautiful Music Together) which to many a broadcaster sounded sweeter than any of ASCAP's.

Expanding Iraq oil production, preferably under the influence of U.S. oil companies was certainly a motivator in the invasion. Not sure anyone real knows all the motives outside the inner circle of the Bush administration. They obviously tipped the fact it was one of their priorities by guarding the oil ministry, oil fields and oil infrastructure after Saddam fell and letting a museum full of priceless artifacts from the cradle of civilization be looted along with just about everything else.

With Iraq embargoed under Saddam it was significantly under producing. It peaked at 3.7 million barrels in 1979 and was down to 2.6 million barrel in 2003 before the invasion. The oil fields were under a mix of Russian, French and Chinese companies under Saddam as I recall which may be one reason they were cool to the idea of toppling Saddam. It certainly would have eased current oil shortages and price spikes if Iraqis had welcomed us with the roses and oil production had gone up instead of down, or barely held even.

The company that announced the big Anbar reserves is a U.S. company, Colorado based IHS, according to this article though its not clear yet which oil companies are going to get to develop the new fields. U.S. and British companies certainly have an inside track at the moment since the U.S. has the Iraqi government by the jugular. As I recall Poland's foreign minister admitted a key reason Poland joined the coalition of the willing in 2003 was to gain an inside track on some oil business.

The discovery of oil in Anbar probably is the single best shot there is for peace in Iraq. It is a seismic shift in Iraq more important than the misguided troop surge or anything else that's happened since 2003. This discovery may be why Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar have turned on Al Qaeda recently. Those tribal leaders are now realizing they are sitting on their own gold mine and its in their interest to work with the global oil establishment to develop it and cash in on it. Prior to this it appeared the Kurds and the Shia were going to keep their oil fields to themselves and the Sunnis were facing long term poverty, which was a driving force behind the Sunni insurgency. The Iraqi government could, if they are wise, let each of the three factions have control of their own oil reserves and go their own way and Iraq could suddenly become a peaceful success story. If the Shia try to screw the Sunni's out of the new oil revenues from Anbar the war in Iraq will never end. People who are poised to reap billions in oil revenue have very little motivation to wage a guerrilla war.

The whole dynamic of Saddam's Iraq is the Sunni were reaping the lion's share of the oil revenue while the Kurds and Shia were screwed, and currently that situation has been completely reversed. If all three factions have their own huge oil fields and revenues from them the whole dynamic changes.

Apparently you missed the memo about the Oil companies actually taking pains to HIDE THEIR PROFITS because companies like Exxon made BILLIONS in *profit* not sales, profit. From the linked article : "When the FEO completes its investigation, he says, a "substantial percentage" of the nation's ten or so largest oil firms likely will be socked for at least $150 million in refunds to the public--assuming, of course, that his suspicions are correct and can be proved."
  They knew the people would be pissed because they would know they'd been had, so they announced their quarterly and yearly profits quietly.
Apparently other people think there might be some issues with their profits.

A.A

I recently read an article about solar power in Wired magazine: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.07/solar.htm l

The article mentions a new design for a concentrator that only uses two motors. To quote the article -

"Then, in a weekend flash of inspiration, a young Caltech physics grad named Kevin Hickerson figured out how to reduce the number of motors needed to move 25 mirrors independently, a major cost factor. Instead of two motors for each mirror - the traditional approach - Hickerson's solution requires only two motors for any number of mirrors. The key is a mathematical curve known as the conchoid of Nicomedes (named for the ancient Greek mathematician, who discovered it). A grid of ball bearings arrayed to match the conchoid is attached to a frame inside the Sunflower. As the motors move the frame, the bearings control each mirror's position individually."

I have found this but it is not helping me much:

http://nvizx.typepad.com/nvizx_weblog/2005/08/conc hoid_of_nic.html

I have been unable to locate a more detailed explanation of the system and I'm not sure if this basic math is patentable. My advanced math skills are very rusty and I'm not quite sure where to start to understand this. I have an idea that this technique might be useful and I want to understand how to design such a frame. I did look at the concentrator page here: http://www.sandia.gov/pv/docs/PVFarraysConcentrato r_Collectors.htm but it was not much help.

These articles as well also have some implications for the benefits of a simple energy source:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/1 2/1621204&tid=126&tid=14

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816, 1101299,00.html

Also, this today triggered my interest again:

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/stor y?id=46765

I want to understand how to make a spreadsheet or something that would allow me to input number mirrors, focal length, size and it tell me shape, size a location of pivots. Can you explain it to someone who hasn't touched calculus in 18 years? I want to build a cheap one on my roof!

Contrast this with the legal situation in the US where you could probably sue me for libel (Libel is Letters, Slander is Speech) whether you pour hot grits down your pants or not.

Actually we in th UK have some of the most over the top libel laws in the world. Not only could that comment get you sued for libel but you would also have the following problems:

1) No legal aid - you would have to pay for your entire defence out of your own pocket. Lawyers are expensive and this alone would prbably force you to appologise.

2) They could also sue anyone who published your statement. In order to "publish" something you merely have to know you are distributing it, so either slashdot (or their) ISP would receive a standard take down notice and would have to either comply, or dive head on into a horrific (ie - expensive) legal quagmire.

I had a bit of a dig about and here are some links I found:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8 24902,00.html
http://digital-lifestyles.info/2006/03/23/john-bun t-and-flame-groups-legal-pitfalls-with-postings/
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_2_6 3/ai_53706056

The last is one is particularly relevant as it pertains to a printer being scared of a libel trial so shredding all the issues of something they were printing.

Here's an article about the epidemic of rape by Muslim men in France:
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/2002/1202 /crime/bellil.htm

Obviously, rapes ARE significantly higher among the Muslim demographic; unemployment, previous criminal history, etc. are not excuses, and don't make them non-Muslim.

Read the article to see how they justify their rapes.

in my opinion, king leopold didn't meekly capitulated, he did what he had to do. the belgian army was pounded by armour and air divisions. the germans had broken through the lines and king leopold had said if this were to happen they would have to surrender to both the french and british. however, the message arrived too late and the rest, as they say, is history. if he had not surrendered, his people would have been butchered into submission anyways. he had to save the lives of his people even if it would cost him his freedom. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8 51143,00.html

Pish posh. The US has plenty of manufacturing capacity. Only recently has China started to overtake the US in exports of real goods(points 4,5 and 6):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/evandavis/ 2007/04/the_state_of_trade.html

Note that the US is the largest exporter overall. Even foreign companies build many of their cars here:

http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,1004876,0 0.html
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2007-03-22-ame rican-usat_N.htm

Why are they importing instead of exporting right now? Because oil is currently dirt cheap, compared to what it will be in 20 years. Canada is just sitting back, watching the world tear itself apart over oil, all the while not sharing what they have.

Watch it, Canada will be the new superpower in a couple decades. That, or we'll just invade them.

The games industry didn't kill anyone. The music industry didn't kill anyone. The gun manufacturers didn't kill anyone.

You wanna know who killed these people? Some crazy loner named Cho. End of fucking list.

I'm so damned fucking tired of people wanting to take away my stuff because someone else is fucked in the head. Hear me, Dr. Phil? Damned Fucking tired.

Hear about that quintuple murder of kids 10 and under in Quincy, Illinois this week? With gasoline? Where's the fucking gun, facist pigs? Where's the fucking gun?

Know what yesterday was? It's the twelfth anniversary of the "Oklahoma City Bombing", which I like to refer to as the "Murrah Building Massacre". Where's the fucking gun? That's right, there's no gun. It was fertilizer mixed with either diesel or fuel oil. Where's the fucking gun? Where's Dr. Phil and the Democrats wanting to take fertilizer and motor fuels away?

Don't give me this "only criminals have use for guns" bullshit. You're more likely to die from falling than from homicide with a gun in the US. Falling. Sixty million people in the United States own guns, for a total of around 200 million units. Sixty fucking million. How about some handrail laws, dipshit press-whoring politicians? You'll save more lives with handrails, and banning rock climbing, and banning old people from walking across tiled floors. Why not take those freedoms away, too? Fucking facist pigs!

The problem is not with the choice of weapon. The problem is the mentally broken piece of shit being allowed to access large groups of unarmed people. The police stopped an early victim's boyfriend on the highway and was busy questioning him while this malfunctioning piece of meat Cho was delivering a video manifesto and figuring out where to kill more people.

Do you know how to handle a double homicide on a college campus? You lock the entire fucking campus down and send in a Tactical Unit (SWAT) to clear every building. You don't wait around for thirty more people to die then blame everyone but the killer and the authorities.

Somebody fucked up. It wasn't Valve, Microsoft, Id, Sony, Nintendo, EA, or Sega. It wasn't Judas Priest, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Motorhead, or Ice T. It was Cho, and probably the school, the cops, the counselors he saw, the mental hospital he went to that let him go, and every mental health professional and court that deemed him to be dangerous yet didn't report it to the authorities responsible for the gun control laws already in place. The guy bought his Glock 19 pistol about five weeks ago. He was determined to be mentally ill and an imminent danger to himself in 2005 and had an imaginary girlfriend. He'd been repeatedly accused of stalking by more than one alleged victim.

The killer passed a background check that's already in place, even though there are numerous reason he should not have. Why is it that games, guns, music, or anything else are to blame? How will new laws which won't be implemented properly do what current improperly implemented laws couldn't if they were implemented properly?

The only way to stop people from killing one another is to stop the people who would do it from doing it. You don't need a gun to kill a person or even to kill hundreds. All you need is, apparently, the authorities to ignore years of dangerous mental problems.

LTTE might have started as a group of freedom fighters.
But they are no longer one.

...snip... It does not follow that climatologists are wrong... snip...

Yep! Feel the Love of the Glory of all which is Slashdot...

Shoot-the-Messengers: 40% Interesting, 40% Overrated, 10% Troll High Score 3, now down to 1.

"Yes, a small number of cranks were pushing the global cooling story,..." Time Magazine, 24 June 1974

Remember how we all stopped using chlorofluorocarbons? And suddenly a 50 to 140 year lifetime pollutant has dissappeared in the 9 years since 1996.

The ice age ended and people moved: OK, that works for a few thousand cavemen. Now do it with a billion. Pity. Venice has been sinking into the sea for 300 years, and now when it rains, thousands of bodies clog the canals.

Warmer == more plant growth == more CO2 vs Plants absorbing CO2. Yep, you got me there -- I stated that very poorly. My Bad. Should have said:
Warmer == more life growth (even in the Sahara until the rains stop) == more CO2.

C02 vs CO2 --- Style note: Always include a trivial typo in potentially emotional arguments so the emo grammarians can take the bait. Nobody complained about "Therer", but it took dozens of posts to catch the Plants-Produce-CO2 mismatch. Be careful the next time you jump on the trivial and miss the fundamental.

The temperature and CO2 traces match! OK, they're similar. That doesn't mean one caused the other. I also don't see any comparisons to other influences, such as Oxygen levels or Solar activity.

The TV Show -- Funny, I didn't see any counter arguments for the political side of things, much less the other climate correlations displayed. I mentioned the show last because it supported my existing claims, not that I make claims based on it.

Oh, is it a good thing that professional politicians can expound on climate without an Atmospheric Science degree but critics are dismissed because -- oh, never mind...

Or, my cynical, university-employed, side says, allows administrators to indulge their Edifice complexes with a pot of money lacking strings, while still demanding the science/engineering departments bring in more grant money so they can skim it for overhead. Stanford is not the only university that's been using "overhead" to panel and decorate the administrators' offices.

(disclaimer: TIME chosen because more authoritative publications are behind subscription firewalls; disclaimer 2: sour grapes due to working in facilities deemed "unsafe by modern standards for both teaching and research")

Mercury has a double sunset - with the same sun setting twice without going over the sky: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,8 36746,00.html.

This was discovered sometime in 1967.

And that's not even getting into the whole business of the difference between 'my' friend and 'our' friend. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,9 60357,00.html