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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
theodp writes to mention a C|Net article about Chinese President Hu Jintao's historic first visit to the U.S.. The catch is that his first dinner won't be at the White House. It will be at Bill Gates' manse. From the article: "The approximately 100-person guest list is a who's who of the U.S. Pacific Northwest power elite, including Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz and Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire, said event organizers. The guests will undergo strict security checks before entering Gates' lodge-style, 66,000-square-foot home overlooking Lake Washington with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout. Gates and Gregoire are expected to introduce and welcome Hu, who will then offer a toast in front of the gathering."
Rather than reference the classic movie starring Sydney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, I imagine this would be a more appropriate dialogue.
Rove: "Sir, Hu is going to be attending a dinner at one of your biggest campaign contributors houses, Mr. Bill Gates."
Bush: "Who?"
Rove: "Yessir, Hu."
Bush: "No, I'm asking you..... Who's coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Rove: "That's right sir, Hu."
Bush: "...............Daggummit Turd Blossom! I'm asking you who is coming to the US to have dinner with Geeky Gates?"
Ad nauseum
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
Given what they're probably going to discuss (opening markets, etc.), Gates and the NPE (Northwest Power Elite) are probably more relevant than the President, since they've got all the money.
"My God...it's full of trolls!"
with a reported seven bedrooms, six kitchens, 24 bathrooms, a domed library, a reception hall and an artificial estuary stocked with salmon and trout.
I bet the 1:3.4 ratio of sleeping to dumping at Gates' place has to be the highest in the nation.
China's system of statist capitalism is neatly breaking new ground in erasing the dividing line between what it means to rule a country and what it means to own a country. Someone like Bill Gates or Rupert Murdoch probably more correctly approximates the role of the Chinese President at this point than George W. Bush does.
Doesn't anyone have values anymore? I'm not against all consumption, or even against all conspicuous consumption, but when it gets to the point where there's no longer even any pretext I think it shows a lack of character.
The Chinese government issued a decree two weeks ago that all PCs will need to have a licensed operating system software installed before leaving the factory gates in an effort to crack down on piracy.
Spotting the pirated copies of Windows will be easy.
Instead of "Start," the button will say "Very Much Go."
The coolest voice ever.
Hu Jintao's was going to visit about a few months ago, but Hurricane Katrina delayed his visit until now.
He cancelled it on the last day, and the time before, they were also going to dine at Gate's mansion where they had already prepared the salmon, which were airlifted from Alaska on the same day.
Dunno what happend to them.
If you want to drop in, here's Bill's house on google maps [via Sightseeing with Google Maps]:
Bill Gates's House
I will admit, this scares the -hell- out of me. The US government runs MS products almost exclusively. Now China's President and Gates are clinging glasses. Keep Ballmer away... wouldn't want China to get any ideas about "fucking burying" us.
What happens when that security check reveals that one of the people walking through the door is a tyrant with billions subjects, harboring the biggest piracy, spammer and phishing rings it the world, with nuclear weapons?
And that another is the slightly less powerful guest of that tyrant, the president of China?
--
make install -not war
Hu: President Gates, I..
Gates: Please, I'm not the president, I have more power
Hu: I am still pleased to present you with the Chinese version of Windows
Gates: Hey, that's a pirated copy!
Hu: Yes, we made it just for you, need a key?
Gates: No, you go and post in on YOUR internet, be sure not to censor it. BTW, you do know that RED Hat isn't a communist version of Linux. It actually promotes human rights.
Hu: Oh yes, we know, and based on what I am allowed to read about your decline in human rights, it appears that the US isn't using it either.
Gates: Cheers
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
Hu: Yes, the view of Lake Washington is magnificent.
Gates: Hee hee, that's not what I'm talking about...
"The Tank Man".
Guess Who.
Guest Hu.
It's a joke."Gentlemen," concluded Napoleon, "I will give you the same toast as before, but in a different form. Fill your glasses to the brim. Gentlemen, here is my toast: To the prosperity of The Manor Farm! "
There was the same hearty cheering as before, and the mugs were emptied to the dregs. But as the animals outside gazed at the scene, it seemed to them that some strange thing was happening. What was it that had altered in the faces of the pigs? Clover's old dim eyes flitted from one face to another. Some of them had five chins, some had four, some had three. But what was it that seemed to be melting and changing? Then, the applause having come to an end, the company took up their cards and continued the game that had been interrupted, and the animals crept silently away.
But they had not gone twenty yards when they stopped short. An uproar of voices was coming from the farmhouse. They rushed back and looked through the window again. Yes, a violent quarrel was in progress. There were shoutings, bangings on the table, sharp suspicious glances, furious denials. The source of the trouble appeared to be that Napoleon and Mr. Pilkington had each played an ace of spades simultaneously.
Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Forty years ago, Nixon invented the policy of engagement to balance the dangerous Soviet Union against an equal dangerous but hungry Communist China.
Ten years ago, with the Soviet menace defeated, Bill Clinton invented the complete sell out. Slave made goods have flowed into out country, jobs and money have flowed out. Parallel to this was born the myth of the "information economy" where the US would own ideas and the rest of the world would do our bidding because of it. Of course, for this ownership to be complete, it must apply to our own citizens. To enslave others, we must first prove our dedication to ruling by enslaving ourselves.
You can draw a straight line to today, with the DMCA, Patriot act and rampant domestic spying from a tremendously expanded federal government. As the rich and powerful gateher in Redmond, ask yourself where the rhetoric of freedom has gone and why your boss is dining with a Communist. What in the hell are we doing?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I live near there. I think I might take my friends boat up to Lake Washington and see if I can moon the president of China.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
... flock together. They're both controll freaks, they both hate freedom and individual liberty, they both lie about free markets (China's while getting freer is not truely free, nor is MS which relies strictly on license monopolies and not competition), they both think they're smart and have large number of resources, they're both more interested in power and prestige than making a mark. Bill wants a billion people in his market, China wants total information controll over their citizens. In all truth, I wouldn't be suprosed if they slept together.
And 24 bathrooms? Why? Possibly it could be useful for situations such as this, but it seems a bit odd.
The pigs are walking upright.
Aren't visiting foreign leaders guarded by the Secret Service?
I wonder how security is going to be handles here. It seems that if some terrorist like the one wanting to get the WTO, knew about all these power players in one area, could think it might be an attractive target for them. It might have as much umph in the finacial world as the 9/11 attacks.
This has got to be the stupidest post I've read in a long time.
A James Bond movie?
Just...strikes me as odd is all.
I don't get it.
If you'll look, after the mess in Tiananmen in 1989 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiananmen_Square_prot ests_of_1989 the Chinese government basically said something to the effect of "ok, you know we'll kill you if you embarass us again like that" and that they were going to turn the country capitalist in the sense that foreign companies could do whatever they want and they decided to invest heavily in technology and modernization. Their bread and circuses decision has lead China to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world if not the fastest. There were sweeping reforms economically that took place while the political landscape remained as barren as before. True communists they are not in any sense.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
Four legs good, two legs better.
My patience is infinite, my time is not.
Wow, 24 bathrooms ! It would almost take me a month to take a dump in each one ! Wow, take a dump in a different bathroom each day and not revisit the same one for almost a month. Cool beans !!!!!!
Did you know Hu Jintao got his degree in hydraulic engineering? Why can't we have an engineer presient?
bug.gd: error search engine. Humanity working together to solve all errors.
I'll bet those trout are ill tempered and have lasers on their heads. Hey, the work for Microsoft so they have to be in a bad mood. Everyday is a bad day, then they serve you for dinner when they "fucking kill" you as they've done before and will do again.
It's nice to see the head of Evil Industry's Starbuck's division getting some publicity and credit. Number two's idea there was quite profitable.
Gates, stroking a bald cat: "Do you like my quasi futuristic clothing, Chairman Hu? I designed them myself."
Chairman Hu: "Ah yes, they are much like Chairman Mao's favorites, but he liked drab blue."
Master Gates: "A toast then, to $400,000,000 and the drab."
-clink-clink-
Chairman Hu: "I have a thing for Red."
Flunky S. Baller: "Tell me you are not talking about Red Flag Linux!" Perspiration half moons show under his arms.
Chairman Hu: "I am."
Baller, raising chair "I'm going to fucking kill Linus. I've done it before and -"
Master Gates slaps Baller on the back of the head: "Down boy!" Turns and smiles. "He's a little fired up tonight."
Baller: "I love this company! I work in the swamp. Though I do not fall in the trenches of coding, I am yet a soldier! Developers, Developers, Developers!"
Master Gates laughs and pats Baller on the head. Yes, this is my favorite number two.
Everyone laughs.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
"Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?"
oo oo oo! Now say wessel!
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Nowadays the government calls it "socialism with Chinese characteristics," not because they think they're fooling anyone, but as a pretense to legitimacy. Socialism is being redefined as something roughly along the lines of Nordic-style welfare capitalism. It's not even clear that the burgeoning urban bourgeoisie would care if the Party apparatus were to repudiate socialism once and for all.
Certainly we should petition for greater freedoms in mainland China and in particular for the rights of imprisoned journalists, political opponents, and religious leaders. Still, considering how terribly China's citizens suffered under previous incarnations (Mao) of the present post-Tiananmen regime, I'm optimistic for the future. I believe the Party will continue on its path of liberalization as a younger, more cosmopolitan generation of Oxford- and Columbia-educated Chinese accedes to power. Who needs revolution, after all, when you can build democracy from within?
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
"This is disrespectful to Sidney Poitier's character John Prentice in "Guess who's coming to dinner". It's also a poor analogy. Zonk, are you stoned?"
It was a Star Trek reference, double dumb ass.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, it shows that the author's writer subscribes to one or more 'word (of the/a) day' collections, and the word "manse" was in fact a recent word of the day.
Really.
Maybe I missed the memo - is 'manse' a word now?
License? Like in GPL?
Circumcision is child abuse.
If it works like most Windoze "security" a little report is generated, a few files are wiped out, stability suffers and they all contract bird flu anyway.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Eegad... hire a maid before the stench gets too rank.
So many inaccuracies, it's hard to know where to start...
The word is MANSION
Actually, mansion is a totally different word, I suspect they really did mean "manse".
However, I'll admit to *almost* emailing the editor to correct it, the difference being, I decided to check my facts first...
Manse (noun): A large and imposing residence.
Mansion (noun): A large stately house, a manor house.
Given the description of the house and the person we generally believe Bill Gates to be, "large and imposing" works a little better than "stately" and the old-fashioned images generally associated with "a manor house" don't gel well with the lifestyle and tastes of a software billionaire.
The summary at this time uses the phrase "Bill Gates' manse." This is clearly a subversive attempt to evoke "goatse," a web site formerly located at goatse.cx which features explicit sexual acts involving goats.
Since we've cleared up the meaning of the word 'manse' and we can assume it was used deliberately, in so far as it is a valid choice, why is this an attempt to subvert the meaning of the article?
In fact, why would you believe that having the same two letters at the end of a word automatically links the two concepts in some way? How many other words ending in 'se' also make you think of goatse??
"sexual acts involving goats" ??? I think not...
Perhaps you should read this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse.cx
Actually, save yourself some time and click this.
WARNING TO EVERYONE ELSE - DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK!
Optimist: The thumb drive is half empty! Pessimist: The thumb drive is half full...
This should not just be a business move on China's part, but rather the start of changing China's culture of condoning piracy. Unless piracy is curbed, I see little motivation for Chinese software designers to create things they can't make money off of. Innovation will stagnate if piracy continues.
I wonder where you've been for the past 20 years, because China's been liberalizing in fits and starts for pretty much that whole time. As bad as government repression is now, it's nothing compared to the Cultural Revolution or even the years immediately following Mao. Nowadays you can pick up all the major foreign dailies at any newsstand and flip to almost any channel on satellite TV. To be sure, random pages get ripped out of Newsweek, and CNN cuts to black every now and then. But for the government to permit even this limited degree of openness would have been unthinkable not too long ago.
The more China opens up, the more hope there is for the rule of law to replace the rule of guanxi (what we in the West would perceive as corruption), so long as people on both sides of the border keep pushing for free speech and open politics.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
That's small time next to Bill's $40 billion, dollars skimmed in part from companies like Exxon. Exxon at least makes gasoline and other petrochemicals.
Also, when is the last time you heard Exxon flaunting it like this? The press release contained details about the freaking meal, smoked foul salad and all that. It's like reading some kind or sycophantic Roman historian's accounts of the big, noble beams in Nero's new palace. Have a nice meal, fine who cares? Blowing your own horn about it and your palatial 24 bathroom house in a press release is tasteless.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=manse
Reference.com defines "manse" as "A large stately residence." I think it's just a matter of which dictionary you're looking at, but the term doesn't seem to be out of line.
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
Except this time it might possibly have a positive effect. By just now saying that, I think I just thought of something very, very wrong... Since when was killing a good thing... Damn you America and your desensitization propaganda campaign!
Slashdot, the only place where intellectuals can act like idiots... and still sound intellectual.
"I suppress ideas", "oh, so do i"
Yeah, the house arrest must be for their own protection. Is Steve Baller so careful with his? Will Bill keep his own safe from Ipod and Google?
Inside the Baller residence, Steve is fishing around under his son's bed. His son fidgets helplessly.
Steve finds a CD, pulls it out and thrust it in his son's face. "What's this, son?!"
Steve Jr: "It's ... it's my homework."
Steve: "No it's not. I can tell you are lying to me. What is it?"
Steve Jr: "It's porn. I'm sorry, and I won't do it again. Let's just throw it away and forget about it."
Steve, now spitting: "What kind of moron do you think I am? Do I have to boot it? You though you were using an anonymizer to download this filth, but it was my proxy. Now tell me what it is!"
Steve Jr, now crying and crushed: "It's Linux."
Steve falls on the floor, clutching his chest.
Steve Jr, hysterical: "Dad! no!
Steve, weakly: "I thought it was Firefox, I saw the signatures. Oh. my. God. How long has this been going on?"
Jr: "Not long. I swear, I only booted it once. A developer told me -"
Steve grasps his son by the shirt, regaining strength: "That's it. I'm going to give you all the tools you will ever need. Developers are what is going to save this family. I love this family! Developers, Developers, Developers!" Rising now with his fist in the air, "With God as my Witness, you will never be hungry again!"
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
...I give you the future. It used to be that heads of state met openly, whilst businessmen made deals behind the scenes. Today, we see a head of state openly meeting with arguably the most powerful businessman in the United States. In a few years, the business men will simple meet, having done away with the facade of "heads of state." We live in interesting times.
P.P.S. I'm doing Science and I'm still alive.
Like many rich men, Gates has a hobby.
He just likes to collect China.
I am anarch of all I survey.
"Manse" is also used in Philip K Dick's "The Penultimate Truth", which is ironically (or perhaps Zonk is even more with it than anyone imagined) about the collusion of the Communist States with the West to the economic benefit of the elite on both sides, at the expense of freedom of the general populace.
It is time for a good political rant. Big business is too powerful and interfering in international relations to a frightening extent.
Most innovation and growth comes from small and medium companies. Large companies exaggerate the power of economies of scale because being nimble is more important in a fast changing world. Big biz survives by bullying smaller companies, not by doing the job better or being more efficient. Anybody who has worked for a big company knows that they are inharently disfunctional.
American car companies didn't grow bloated and slow because of lack of foreign competition, but because of a lack of domestic competition, ei. smaller but more car companies. Japan's auto makers grew competitive because Japan had about 12 car companies before going overseas.
Big businesses should be split, or at least mergers above a certain size should curtailed. Most mergers result in a net loss of profits. The only reason they still happen is because of a select few who make big bucks off such deals and the ego power of being big.
Table-ized A.I.
the China(R) Corporation.
How fitting...
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
When I was growing up, My family built a house on a lake. We had 7500 ^ ft, with 4 bedrooms, several fireplaces, karastan wool carpeting/tile throughout, etc. First, I can not begin to imagine the size of that monster. Second, I seriously doubt that a house of 66000 ^ft has only 7 bedrooms. 9 of our house could fit in it. that would mean 36 bedrooms. Even assuming that they did only 3x, that would mean 27 bedrooms. I am guessing that some folks either are BSing, or are totally clueless.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Wanting to attack an organization that destroys sovereignty is terrorism? Sounds like you have things backwards.
Honestly, I'm really not sure how many times since Western style diplomacy became the Gold standard internationally that something like this has happened. For a foreign head of state to visit a country and not visit at least someone in the government first is highly, highly irregular. This isn't so much a tech story, I think, as a political one.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
I'm surprised that no one here sees what really happened - U.S. government has REQUIRED the Chinese government to require that every machine that goes out of a factory door in China to have a licensed operating system installed. Things are still the same - pigs walk on four legs. http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_ 1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2006/04/0125.xml
that was aMAZingly random :-)
Slashdot needs a "-1, Wrong" moderation option.
The Urban Hippie
The more China opens up, the more hope there is for the rule of law to replace the rule of guanxi (what we in the West would perceive as corruption), so long as people on both sides of the border keep pushing for free speech and open politics.
It seems to me there's already a country out there that (ostensibly) centers its core values on such things as freedom of speech, which makes me think that it's not going to do so well in weeding out corruption.
It seems strange that the person to talk with Chinese officials about why there should be more focus on making sure IP is paid for would be a multi-billionaire, who made his vast fortunes with his IP, in his massive mansion. It sure wouldn't encourage me to make sure he gets more money.
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
haaaaah?
I am rather amused that your version of the good involves everything western. True, your freedom is much better than ours. But you built that up on war, famine, and slavery, not some high minded ideal you now come to respect. Your media is free, but where did you learn that, from the media of course. Even now I see slashdoters using either outdated facts or flat out lies to prover their nation's moral superiority. And who is to say the rule of law is better than our systems of inter personal relationships. Your laws have created a specific class of interpreters, the so called lawers who function much like priests in days of your civilization's infency.
We have our hopes and dreams for the futures much like you have yours. Some may be the same while others may be different. Respect our views as we have respected yours.
You only have to look at the difference between america's threathment of Cuba (a couple of million consumers) vs China (over a billion consumers) t0 know what the US is about when it comes to world politics.
But what about China's motivation for this? China has been doing very well for itself following its own unique style of goverment.
While it ain't exactly communism it sure as hell isn't capatalism either. Neither has it given in on any subject to the west except a few trade disputes. It still claims taiwan as part of china, there is no religous freedom or freedom of the press (no broadcasting cnn china in China is NOT freedom of the press and only a tool would think so) and tibet is still occupied and its citizens repressed and prosecuted.
Only on trade disputes does it give in slightly agreeing to limit its exports from time to time in the full knowledge that the west has little choice but to allow the increase in time because our economic systems know totally depend on china's cheap goods. The recent trade dispute over clothes in the EU showed that. EU goverment wanted to limit the import from china to give its own manufacturers a chance when in reality this meant that stores could not get stock (or rather could not get stock wich they could sell at a profit).
So back to China's motivation. We have been getting stories about China going with Linux instead of windows. Was this all a bluff to get a better deal from Microsoft?
Possible but does China need to do that? It can just use the rampant piracy as a bargaining chip. Either you sell us windows really cheap or we just pirate it. What is Gates going to do? Boycott china? Good luck, I am sure the US would love a real tradewar with China. Especially considering how much of its hardware for a real war comes from that area (no not china, taiwan, one nuke away)
China has done very well ignoring the whole copyright and intellectual property and patent crap (just check the story behind leaking capacitators on cheap chinese motherboards) so why should it chance now?
Is China seeing more opportunity for itself by changing? The recent move to require a licensed OS on each PC could be a sign that the Chinese goverment has decided a different approach is need to achieve its goals. What ever they might be I very much doubt they have anything to do with Bill Gates concerns or wishes.
I think that China is coming to visit with its own agenda and unless the american leader, and George Bush, are very carefull they are going to be taken for a ride.
Why do I think so?
Well China has only got to look west (no not the US you idiot, russia is to china's west, the US is to the east) to see what choice it has.
The soviet union did what the US wanted and tried to become a western capatlist democracy and that worked out well didn't it?
So China got a clear choice, follow the western path of "democracy and capatalism" and follow the USSR into economic ruin and war OR continue on its own path wich so far has been making it a very large fortune and in ever tighter control off the western economies.
Any negiotator knows you need to check why the other party doesn't want to do what you want them to do. That is obvious. Yet a really smart negiotator knows that you should be even more wary of the other parties motivations of doing exactly what you want them to do.
If China clamps down on piracy and installs windows on every machine you can be very sure it is not because it makes Bill Gates happy.
I find it very hard to believe that China would willingly hand over its entire IT future to an american company. The only possible reason I can see is that MS software could be more easily used to spy on its citizens (open source linux makes this far harder)
Mmm, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps Chinese and American intrest are the same after all.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I'm just trying to speak in terms comprehensible to Westerners. Try pointing out that submission to concepts like privacy are not and need not be universally applicable, and you'll be modded down for excessive postmodernity. This occurs in topics related to privacy, sexuality, guanxi, etc.
Assuming you're more familiar with China than me, can you tell me if I'm more or less on the spot otherwise? All I know about China comes from my friends and the worldwide media, basically. I'd appreciate any corrections.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
So now you speak for the Dalai Lama?
No, he's complained on his own.
Shit dude, hook me up with some of that mojo -[mindless insults]
It's not funny. See here for a start: Hu was responsible for a political crackdown in early 1989 that lead to the deaths of several Tibetan activists. He also worked towards some liberalisation of cultural activities. Hu's harsh stance towards in Tibet led him to be reputed as a leader of conviction, and further attracted attention from the Central Government in Beijing.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Trying to defuse trade deficit tensions with China.
h nology/2002916176_chinatrade07.html
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstec
I thought the Chinese were interested in Linux ? I am guessing Uncle Sam forced Windows onto them.
Kind of a shame.
I wish I had a mod point. Funniest post I've read on /. in a long while.
The Indian prez (Dr. Abdul Kalam) is a rocket scientist while the prime minister (Dr Manmohan Singh) is a PhD in economics from Oxford.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
.. stick your fingers in your ears, go "La la la la", and don't read up on the Bilderberg Group. The guy who runs the site is a little too "Alex Jones" for my tastes, but dig deep and you'll find some interesting tidbits. It makes sense though, if you think about it - having a conference where you can say exactly what you think, without worrying about how it will affect you politically.
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
Administering a nation of 300 million people is not a job for morons, although some morons have got it anyway. Historically, we've had some extremely bright people running the country.
From wikipedia:
In addition to his political career, Jefferson was also an agriculturalist, horticulturist, architect, etymologist, archaeologist, mathematician, cryptographer, surveyor, paleontologist, author, lawyer, inventor, violinist, and the founder of the University of Virginia.
Jefferson wasn't alone either.
There was a period of time when smart people pretty much took over the world, called the Enlightenment. You really don't know anything meaningful about American history unless you know what and why the Enlightenment was... which is sad, because few do. The very existence of our country and modern ideas about democracy are owed to the intellectual revolution of those days.
In recent years, we've had Bill Clinton, who was a rhode scholar. Anyone know who was the smartest president of the 20th century?
Here's a nice article on the relative intelligence and stupidity of various presidents.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/010622.html
I am thinking of "View to a Kill".
Except in that film all the bad guys met on a blimp or something.
and it will get translated as "you are more popular than the bugs!"
Never answer an anonymous letter. - Yogi Berra
Have you seen his "house"? It's actually more of a compound with a large part of it hidden underground, with under ground tunnels connecting all the various buildings.h tm
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/billgate/gates.
Seriously, it looks to me like it was designed as a fortress more than a house.
The U.S. really needs an English to Wisdom dictionary.
It's not a sleepover.
And if it was, they'd just build a fort in front of the tv anyway.
When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl
China has not been communist for years - why people call them communist I don't know; China is a straightforward dictatorship.
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
"Nordic-style welfare capitalism"? I thought that Scandinavian countries were usually politically described as social democracies? Any Scandinavians care to comment on how they prefer to describe their own systems (politely ;-) ) ? Apologies if I've got it wrong, I've just never heard the phrase "Nordic-style welfare capitalism" before. Maybe it's just two different spins on the same system, claims from the right and the left to 'owning' the same model?
Actually, the political spectrum in Taiwan is more extreme. In traditional Chinese society, which is preserved better in Taiwan, most people believe that "well educated man should rule the country". Apart from the notably exception of current president Chen Shui-Bian, all the major current and past party leaders (former president Lee Teng-hui, major oppression leaders Lien Chan, James Soong, Ma Ying Jeou) all have PhD (actually all from major universities in US).
In fact, I ran into a guy from Taiwan in my postgrad class. He was doing his PhD in electrical engineering at the time. I wondered why he made the decision because I knew he did not really enjoy engineering even for his masters. He told me that he had a strong interest in politics and had helped out the election campaign in the last Taiwan president election. His mentor suggested that the shortcut to enter politics was to get a PhD (any PhD preferrably in USA). This still gives crediblity to many people.
In the past (pre 20 century), educated man in China means proficient in literature, history and poetry. But, after the shock from interacting with the West, people started to worship "technology" (esp in mainland China). It is not a surprise to see engineer president, even if there is a real election in China today.
I didn't say that. But you did so I guess I should answer.
First i'm going to asume your listening to those ultra wacko professors who think the inocent civilians who dies in 9/11 are worse then the nazi's who tried to extermintate a religios organization while attempting to take over the world. I'm also goign to asume your talking about 9/11 and the WTO and the attackers are not terrorist. Now corect me if any of that is wrong.
Next, i'm goign to just remark on the WTO meeting those qualifications is a reletive term. You confusing the being beholden with losing sovereignty. Althoug losing sovereignty could be a reaction to being beholden it isn't the same thing. For one, both poarties need to be involved in making the deals to be beholden. If some country like isreal makes a deal with the WTO and becomes beholden to them. It is because Isreal asked for it to be that way.
Now if Isreal doesn't follow thier contractual obligations, nothign happens except very few other countries or businesses will do business with them. SO what happens? A few concesions are made and Isreal is now still up with thier obligations. Maybe parts of those deals would say that Isreal do somethign that you don't agree with, You see it as them being forced to give up thier sovereignty. In reality, Isreal struck the deal, agreed to do whatever to gain a benefit in another area. It is Isreal that gave it decisions or right in certain areas up.
Does the WTO encourage this? Well i havn't examined all the deals they have made but it isn't uncommon to have limitation made when entering contracts. Some people sighn noncompete contract when they get a job and are somewhat forced to change carears if they lose that job. Some people rent homes or apartments that don't allow pets or smoking inside the buildings. Some apartments only allow you to have two vehicles per apartment. Some people take loasn out that can only be used for a specific thing or place. People go on welfare or collect food assistance and aren't allowed to spend that money on tobaco or alcohol. Some people get in store rebates that specificaly exclude those also. Governments give grants and student loans that can only be used at specific universities and schools. There is a push for the US government to not give money to any other country that is not considered friendly. Also there is a push not to give money if it would/could be used to fund abortions.
So, we see that governments and people give and recieve money with specifc conditions. They also agree to specific condition to live certain places or use certain services. Why would we not expect that sometime conditions are place of what the WTO does? Why would this make it bad if the country wanting the service/goods agrees to it?
Now for someone attacking a group that supposedly destroys sovereignty. Well. it didn't destroy sovereignty, it entered into an agreement. Ans it isn't neccesarily the attack on those that encourage the destruction of sovereignty rahter the attack and specific targeting of individuals that have nothign to do with it. They didn't attack the WTO on 9/11 they attack on office building that housed many offices that have nothign to do with teh WTO. They targeted and attacked inocent civilions in london that had nothing to do with the WTO and as we can see from the mass protest, are opesed to the actions in Iraq. They targeted inocent women and children and businessmen in spain who were doing nothign but comming home from work at a job that hoas nothgin to do with either. (i know the spain attacks were made by some political activist that cannot get elected but still gisagree with the government).
You see, even if the WTO is evil and destroys sovereignty, they are still targeting and attacking inocent civilians that have nothing to do with it and thats terrorism. They are terrorist. BTW, this isn't colateral d
But why am I bothering? This was apparently a 'joke'.
> China has not been communist for years
China has never been communist. It has always been a dictatorship.
You know how China is 'communist'? Hu going for dinner with Bill reminds me very much of that bit at the end where the pigs are playing cards with the humans and drinking...
Americans already knew it, now the rest of the world starts to see it as well. Just as some countries have kings or queens, while the real power is with the politicians.
In the US, you have a president, while the real power is with Corporate USA.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
First i'm going to asume your listening to those ultra wacko professors who think the inocent civilians who dies in 9/11 are worse then the nazi's
Those professors were actually just one professor, his name is Ward Churchill, and his statement, even when taken out of context, was not nearly so severe as you make it out to be.
Churchill's original statement likened the implicit approval Americans give our government's foriegn policy to the "good German" stereotype of WWII: middle-class people going about their business, making no trouble, enjoying their lives, and being hideously self-deluded about what their government was doing (killing Jews, invading foreign lands). (I vaguely recall the stereotype coming from a middle-aged man who had suvived somewhat comfortably through the war saying something like, "I'm no Nazi, I didn't support any of that! I'm a good German!" and the protagonist being shocked that the man would try to exonerate himself in that way.)
It is possible that few germans actualy knew what was going on with the jews outside they were being rounded up and relocated. Relocating someone seen as being the problem (part of hitler comming to power)isn't anyhitng near as bad as what really happened. But even if they did know that the jews were being exterminated, There was nothign they could do for fear of becoming exterminated themsleves.
Now in his essay that is in question, churchill refered to the 9/11 victoms as little Eichmanns in refernce to Otto Adolf Eichmann who was an SS commander responcible for the logistic and ordering of the extermination of the jews. He even goes as far as saying that the victoms were totally unaware of what he claims to be a valid reason for the attacks and uses that as justification to compare those victoms with Otto Adolf Eichmann.
Even at best, this is no comparison because Otto Adolf Eichmann knew exactly what he was doing when he ordered the extermination/genocide of the jews. This isn't close to a comparison of some citizens oblivious of what hitler was actualy doing. The 9/11 victoms were just goign about regular life were Eichmenn performed his duties with incredible zeal, often bragging that he had personally sent over five million Jews to their deaths by way of his trains.
I have one of those but it's become unusful due to my desuetude. :)
Ok, so when do we get to see this? If he wins it will prove once and for all that you can buy a position.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I don't know, Hu?
We had an engineer president once, a certified nuclear engineer. Ill let you guess who which one that was, and how ineffective he was in playing the national political game. Remember that the president has to deal with both sides of congress, and play that silly game to get anything done.
We also could have had an IT engineer once, but the public rejected him, once again due to his lack of 'political savvy'. Lets hope they 'revolt' when Bill runs... ( its coming, anyone can see it )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Kudos, you wrote the most useful, relevant, important post in this whole thread.
;) ...should read Myths of Free Trade and learn something real about our relationship with China and the rest of the world.
Related to that, everyone, and I mean everyone - liberal & conservative alike (including libertarians
If less than five hundred corporations are responsible for the production, delivery, and requisite supplies for your little toy, I would be incredibly surprised.
Um... I think that was what the grand parent was advocating. To have many small companies produce everything.
If only one large company was responsible for producing everything in our computer we'd still be using 286s.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
See, the beauty is that under free markets businesses that can't turn a profit, or corrupt the market, will collapse under their own weight eventually.
Legislation and governmental action is not needed unless that specific entity has been playing unfairly by being anti-competitive or predatorial.
I agree that smaller companies tend to be more innovative, but larger companies have their place as well. Large companies allow for mass production, thus lower costs and more savings to the end consumer. This means they are (usually) a more efficient producer in the marketplace.
American car companies grew bloated and slow for two reasons. The first was due to union stagnation. The second was because the US DOT heavily regulates the auto industry thus creating a higher barrier to entry and effectively limiting competition.
And about regulation, big business LIKES big government. Think about it. When the government has the power to regulate the market, it creates regulations, red tape, legislation, and other obstacles that smaller and medium sized businesses cannot afford to participate in. Think drug companies. It takes over $1 BILLION (USD) to release a new drug, most of which is due to FDA regs. Thus, the only people who can participate are larger companies with deeper pockets; smaller firms are excluded.
And you are wrong about how big business survives. Some survive on their own free-market merits. Others however, and this is unfortunately becoming more and more common, survive to due influence in legislation and a bloated far-reaching government.
If the US government were limited and allowed the free-market to naturally self-regulate, like the US Constitution originally set forth, we would all be in a better situation now.
Libertas in infinitum
Google Search for: Hu visit to US
result:
Your search - Hu visit to US - did not match any documents.
IP Logged.
Huh?
Well... I would hesitate to call for an end to guanxi before China completely opens up- it helps with little things like full access to Wikipedia, the BBC, and multiple other sources on a fiber connection at school.
OSx86 FTW
You might want to advise the wait staff that he takes no sugar tonight in his coffee, no sugar tonight in his tea.
Well look at the two choices. Gates is an intellectual,
Gates, Harvard undergraduate dropout. GDub, Yale BA, Harvard MBA. Who is the intellectual?
one of the biggest philanthropists in history, and is spending billions of dollars helping to improve education around the world (especially in the US with his new project) and helping to cure real killer diseases like Malaria.
Like Andrew Carnegie before him, Gates will disgorge some of his ill-gotten wealth to whitewash his image for posterity. However, Andrew Carnegie is reviled by history in his brutal suppression of the Homestead strike, no matter how many buildings bear his name. Gates will be similarly hated for his 25+ years of distorting and terrorising the software industry.
Bush is the crowning achievement of the anti-intellectualism movement in America, couldn't imagine doing something good for another human being,
If you call opposing the creation of a race of subhumans bread only for their stem cells to be anti-intellectual then I hope we have more of it. You are intellectually dishonest.
Fault Gates as you will for his business practices (although they're tame compared to Balmer and nearly every other CEO or ex CEO in business), but I know which of the two I'd rather spend time with.
By all accounts President Bush is a genial fellow and Gates is an arrogant, abrasive, narcissist. After reading your post you choice makes perfect sense to me.
an ill wind that blows no good
How do you see the US Gov getting this done?
Notable: In March, Hu introduced "Ba Rong, Ba Chi" ("Eight Honors and Disgraces"), described as a new concept of socialist morality by the official Xinhua news agency. The list urges Chinese to:
* Love the country; do it no harm.
* Serve the people; never betray them.
* Follow science; discard superstition.
* Be diligent; not indolent.
* Be united, help each other; make no gains at other's expense.
* Be honest and trustworthy; do not spend ethics for profits.
* Be disciplined and law-abiding; not chaotic and lawless.
* Live plainly, work hard; do not wallow in luxuries and pleasures.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Zillow claims it has 50,000 sqft, 8 bedrooms and 1???? bathroom. If you put put the parcel ID 9208900079 into the King County Tax Assessor's page, they claim it has two buildings, one with 48160 sqft, 7 bedrooms, and 18.75 bathroms, and the other with 1890 sqft, 1 br, 1 bath. Choose whomever you with to believe.
The most important thing to get out of this state visit is concessions on Chinese imports of American goods. They have an alarming double standard of providing Wal-Mart with everything under the sun yet keeping our products out. No wonder we have a multi-trillion dollar trade deficit.
Six bedrooms... yet 24 bathrooms?
Sounds like someone has a severe bladder control problem.
The fuck are you talking about? I'd reply, save for the fact that you failed to produce any coherent argument, choosing to instead ramble on about whatever you happen to hate at the moment.
zillow has a lot of things WAY wrong. I have checked a number of houses that I know the specs on. My old house which is on the market at this time has 4 bedrooms/2.5 baths/2200 ff but is listed at 4/1/2Kff. Likewise, when I look at the mapping of it, it shows my house over several blocks, and does assesment comparing it to a another neighborhood that was cheaply built (Richmonds vs. my park(now engle) ).
Basically, zillow is interesting, but they have a LONG ways to go. At best, they are a MS alpha.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Why would dividing a mega-corp into a bunch of little corps make anything any better?
Or that a politician like Gates takes precident over our official representatives in D.C.
Or that the US didn't learn its lesson when the 'Big Three' where allowed to set policy in the 60's, 70's and 80's. Letting a politician like Gates meddle with US international trade and foreign policy, will likely have the same effect on US technology as the "Big Three" had on the once-great US automotive industry. Gates has already taken a thriving, diverse and economically productive market and killed it, largely through a mixture of illegal business practices. Do we want that same effect to spread to all computer-using industries in the US ?
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I don't think you can say that Tiananmen had no effect on policy at all. The stuff that happened in Beijing before Tiananmen and during Tiananmen had a distinct chilling effect on the ability and want of the citizens to challenge the government.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
I'm currently visiting my father who is a Presbyterian Minister. The name of his dwelling is a "Manse" which is similar to a Catholic Presbytery or a Church of England (aka Anglican or Episcopalian) Rectory or Vicarage.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Did anybody else notice that this is tagged as "Fascist", last I checked China was on the other side of the spectrum...
I'm surprised you're surprised. Have you ever used his company's products?
Ok, let's check this.
Linux vs Windows. Linux is better in a lot of ways, but, the edge still goes to Windows. Windows has always had better font handling, Direct X has way more features than OpenGL implementations, and drivers, to boot. Windows has native kernel queues, Linux doesn't. Windows has a native 16 bit unicode implementation, and Linux doesn't. Finally, Windows has a single desktop, with a single clipboard, and on Linux you have stupid politics such that my Gnome apps such as Evolution don't mind the KDE desktop settings and vice versa. Or, cut and paste randomly works on either. One huge advantage for Linux is that it is a better 64 bit platform, but, with Linux people telling everyone that they don't need 64 bits, the one advantage that they have, they piss away. But, then we have to talk about how Windows has a single COM object model that is pervasive, which Linux doesn't have (oh we got two of those, and get this, one of those is based on a ripoff "Mono", of C#. And where's Linux's own native protocol for file and print sharing? The one that Linux uses, Samba, is a ripoff of Windows Networking.
Office vs ???. MS Office is better than Open Office. It just is. In fact, Open Office hasn't even really caught up to Office 2000, and, its 2006.
IE vs ???. Firefox is better than IE, although I think the tabs are overrated. Haven't tried Opera in a while, but the ads annoy me.
Exchange vs ???
SQL Server vs MySQL. Hands down, SQL Server.
SQL Server vs *Gress. Hands down, SQL Server.
Visual Studio vs KDevelop. For C++, I think KDevelop is -almost- as good, but, I do like Visual Studio's debugger a lot better. And, there is NOT a Java, Python, or any other alternative language product that has an environment as good as that for Visual C# or a GUI as a good as Winforms 2.0. Back in the C++ realm yet, do they even have grid controls on Linux yet? Data binding?
Age of Empires vs ????. Better RTG than Rise of Nations?
XBox 360 vs Sony ???, oh wait, Playstation 3 isn't even out yet. Someday.. Sigh.
On the other hand, there are areas where MS continues to trail or lose:
iPod vs ??? what MS thing?
Natural Keyboard vs Logitech? Logitech is still better.
Oracle vs SQL Server? Oracle, hands down.
OS/X vs Windows XP... I gotta say OS/X.
This is my sig.
Well, I'm a first-generation Japanese raised in America, so I'm certainly under no illusions that Western concepts are suitable or even welcome everywhere. I didn't mean to imply China's recasting itself as a clone of the West, but rather that it's introducing greater accountability (perhaps through democracy) and greater openness in government, which everyone seems to want. I'm under the impression--correct me if I'm wrong--this is already starting to happen, even, indeed, through democracy, at the local level and also within the Party. This is where things are headed, aren't they?
:-)
A friend of mine just got back (to HK) from a trip to Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. He says it's a chaotic place.
Bonsai Kitten: TNG
Tiananmen is what the western world shouts about. Look up tiananmen myth" and see why that is so. The real deal went on at the same time elsewhere in Beijing, but no one was actually killed at Tiananmen.
Umm, nice tinfoil hat you've got there, and tons of people were killed on the roads leading into Tiananmen, but there is actually video tape of wave after wave of people running into Tiananmen then being shot down and being carried back out. That's just from the day after when the parents were trying to come in and get the bodies of their children who had been shot the night before. The night video is pretty chaotic, but you can distinctly hear and see the people being shot because they had the lights to the square on for a while and then after shutting those off, they turn on the giant floodlights that cover the front of the Great Hall of the People. That of course provided a fairly eery situation when perhaps thousands of troops began marching into the square from the Great Hall, then the shooting began and all hell broke loose.
*The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.*
Plenty was said. You just don't understand.
Maybe thats why you made the post you did. Maybe that why you think the way you do?
If Linux did have more features than Windows, you would be bragging about it, no? I would.
This is my sig.
Two or three is enough, according to basic game theory. In most markets, it there are far more serious competitors.
I call opposing the ability to get the stem-cells of babies at all blocking our way to get cures for diseases anti-intellectual
The discussion is not about the utility of stem cells for the possible treatment of disease. It is whether it is ethical to harvest them from a proto human who has no say in the matter. It is a human rights discussion, which is highly intellectual. Also, I would hesitate to call crude experimentation with stem cells highly intellectual. It is more like tinkering. Biologists have very poor theoretical understanding of life's machinery.
I call putting pseudoscience(Intelligent Design) on the same level of science(Evolution) to be anti-intellectual(and yes, I have quotes from Bush saying he wants ID put on the same level as Evolution in science courses.
Evolution is a stale collection of 19th century principles that stiffle the biological sciences as much as they do advance it. The ideas of evolution are reasonably self evident, but they have no predictive power. The lack of a mathematical foundation is a severe limitation. It is puzzling that it has really become the rallying cry of the left and a sacred cow. The same used to be true of Newtonian mechanics. Mathematicians and physicists revered the results to such an extent that it took 100's of years until Einstein could advance the field again. Evolution needs to be similarly formulated to put biology on similar footing with other physical sciences.
Mr. Bush is not a proponent of ID. Neither am I.
an ill wind that blows no good
Why do you conservatives think testing on animals(which have fully developed nervous systems and ergo can feel pain) is okay but doing absolutely anything with a human fetus(which has no nervous system, cannot feel pain, and is as human as a tumor) is a moral abomination?
This attitude is not unique to conservatives. Moral relativism doesn't sit well with a lot of people. I could just as easily ask you what your ghoulish fascination is with vivisecting infants.
Genetics is a perfectly fine mathematical foundation. The theory of evolution has undergone quite a few minor changes since Darwin's original work. The biggest one is genetics--that traits are not a continuum but discrete.
If you could point me to formulas governing these ideas I would be greatful. My complaint about Darwinian evolution is that their seems to be governing action principles that describe how and why generations of organisms respond to selective events. Genetics is an ok discipline, but it really doesn't explain the machinery of life
Most of Newton's equations only required minor changes(mostly multiplication or division of some quantities by a square root) to the formulae with Einstein's relativity.
The conceptual leap was large. The failure of the Galilian transformation of Newtons laws in moving coordinates was long known. The acceptance of the constancy of the speed was a pretty deep insight, especially for the time.
Evolution has been demonstrated many times already(why doesn't penicillin work as well anymore? Certainly the formula hasn't magically changed).
That is like saying, "when I throw a rock up in the air it always hits the ground." The observation is not very satisfying. I find that kind of intellectual laziness to be common in the debate of evolution. Perhaps the theory would be under less attack if it got a better defense.
Although GWB's response is nice and vague(and hard to combat), his intent was clear--get ID, which is pseudoscience
You are trying to demonize my buddy Dub for something he never said. What don't you pick on Jerry Falwell instead?
an ill wind that blows no good