i'm an immigrant to canada, my ultimate destination was the US until i saw how ape-shit crazy and nationalistic americans became after 9/11, so i stayed in canada. later i had to pass the border to get my passport stamped for the landed immigrant visa, i swear when i passed the border even the sun lost it's sparkle, everything was gray, the buildings were gray, the cars and people were gray, the only thing that was bright and pink were the grossly overweight G.I. Joe border patrol guards and their black/blue uniforms, guns were present EVERYWHERE! it was like dirty harry had become a place and was asking me if i was feeling lucky. i got my picture and fingerprints taken like a common criminal (under the kindly grimace of a framed picture of dick cheney hanging on the wall) and then had my papers stamped and got the hell out of there back to canada, back to freedom, somewhat. this DNA collection won't make things worse, they're already at rock bottom, i purposely missed my cousins wedding because it entailed doing a stop-over in new york and you know what? fuck america, i'm never spending a dime on an american comapny if i can avoid it and i'm not playing the little fascist game they have going on there.
sorry i had to rant but it's sad to see what once was a vibrant and relatively open society that trumpeted it's freedom turn into a fear mongering, polarized and confontrational society. maybe it was always like that and it's just my illusions that got brought down to reality but i like to think that there was something special about the US before the '00's.
no, YOU miss the point, in the 1970's japan had an infrastructure light years ahead of india TODAY!
india has nothing, bumpkiss, it has mostly dirt roads that turn to mud during monsoon, it has power grids that do not cover whole areas, it has a grinding poverty and is lacking plumbing, education, communications, transportation and respect for the law and society. india is MOST distinct in lacking ALL of these attributes in comparison to japan, comparing the two is a joke and frankly it is an insult to japan and all it has accomplished.
this is not to say that india will not advance one iota in 10-20 years, but to expect it to be on par with japan, singapore or taiwan in 10-20 years, even as they were in the 70's, shows a deep lack of understanding in what requirements a society has in order to achieve those levels of modernization.
This is, of course, The Register. Still interesting to look back at the news from another point of view.
submitter makes it seem almost wistful that he and a bunch of other tards were taken in hook line and sinker when all they had to do was read and see what was really going on. it also makes me wonder how many posters here are paid shills of a misinformation campaign although as they say, "don't attribute to malice what is perfectably explainable by stupidity."
the cultural differences between asian countries that are modernized and those that aren't is enormous, consider south korea, singapore, japan, taiwan, hong kong Vs the phillipines, thailand, vietnam, nepal, bangladesh. one side is completely different on a economical, cultural and sociological scale to the other side, lumping india with japan is unrealistic to say the least, i won't begin to list indias' shortcomings Vs modernised asia but i will say the most glaring defect is the lack of layered infrastrucure servicing the people. india doesn't have the right stuff to make it on her own in the modern world yet, when vast swathes of the country don't live the same way people lived in the middle ages then you can consider india to be on the road to being a serious player on the worlds markets.
i'd expect better of slashdot, this bill was specifically designed to kill astro turfing, you know, those blogs/websites of dubious repute which shill shit like microsoft/oil industry "studies" / anti global warming "studies" etc.. in exchange for monetary compensation, those sites(which promote massive amounts of mis-information) would have had to register as lobbysits, hardly something i'd cry about since it'd make identifying the bought mouthpieces easier.
i'm not suprised that republicans voted against this bill, after all, mis-informing and pushing false information as true is an essential tool in their trade, it's sad to see the sheeple over here braying as if this is something strange when all they have to do is fucking READ.
wouldn't the best PR be that they actually accomplish things and then trumpet them? i find that publishing fantastic pictures of the hubble telescope is better PR than paying some marketing droid multi millions to come up with some predictably lame advertising campaign. i hope they don't go for useless PR like that sad debacle where bush paid lip service to sending people to mars and NASA jumped up and down trying to get people excited for what was obviously a pipe dream, that actually helped to highlight how impotent and backwards our space programs are when all the limitations were outlined.
what's next are you going to charge all chemistry teachers because the course involves materials which when mixed toghether can make a bomb? how about charging all libraries for carrying said books or how about suing cities for providing roads which facilitate driving which in turn killed a relative of yours, or charging all martial arts instructors because they facilitated some hoodlums to bully your kid. this law makes so many assumptions it's ridiculous, everyone can be guilty of something, the fact that it's "restricted" to copyright does not make it any less scary.
i think it's gone beyond that point senator kennedy got flagged by the no fly list, but the list is still around, he's just one of the lucky few that managed to get off it. at this point i think america needs a good old fashioned revolution to get rid of the rot, the only question is what the breaking point would be.
science goes wherever the government sees a critical priority, unfortunately nowadays many governments are controlled by money interests, this is what's really interfering in the relationship between science/politics.
What's keeping MS products installed on many machines is gaming, i HAVE to keep a windows PC if i want to be assured that i can play any game that comes out in the market. so far vista and especially DX10 is failing to impress me, the biggest weakness being that there is no backwards compatiblity, an astoundingly stupid move that assures that coders will focus on DX9 for the next few years unless they want a segment their market even more. depending on how DX10 pans out and whether hardware makers and more importantly software makers support it vista could be a flop even for gamers, that windows 2000/XP CD may be usefull for the next 5-10 years.
iraq is finished, with a fork already stuck in it, america is merely left with the choice of what defeat is acceptable for her to take. based on this the expedition IS a boondoggle, the final bill is expected to reach 1 trillion dollars, when the dust is settled you will ask yourself if the bill in resources and human lives destroyed/incapacitated was worth it, i'm sure that your answer will be no, unless you believe vietnam was worth it as well, then discussing this with you is a moot point.
face it, if 300 billion for the advancement of mankind (even if it means advancements with the potential to kill) is a boondoggle then 1 trillion spent to destroy a country and leave it worse off than it was previously is a catastophic event, once you add the amount of lives lost and incapacitated as well the cost becomes unnacceptable.
Or make them wear burkas. Might as well. That's where the EU will be in 10 years time anyway. The lovely streetwalkers of Paris will become a thing of the past.:-(
that's just an ignorant statement, in order for any religion in europe to ever get to the point where they control people's daily lives they'd have to survive multiple bloodbaths. europe isn't all peace and flowers you know, the past 70 years of peace are an anomaly and there have been longer peaces in europe which have degenerated into bloody darkness, america is as likely as europe to becoming islamist.
the real danger is fundamentalism prevalent in mainstream religion, europe has fought many bloody wars to reach a point where religion is almost completely excluded from the body politic, in this sense america is more likely to turn into a christian theocracy than europe.
personally i think this is a roundabout way for the IRS management to get a phat hookup into MMORPG's. imagine, if they were paid in virtual currency they'd be the de-facto power anywhere.
Slashdot Mirror
i'm an immigrant to canada, my ultimate destination was the US until i saw how ape-shit crazy and nationalistic americans became after 9/11, so i stayed in canada. later i had to pass the border to get my passport stamped for the landed immigrant visa, i swear when i passed the border even the sun lost it's sparkle, everything was gray, the buildings were gray, the cars and people were gray, the only thing that was bright and pink were the grossly overweight G.I. Joe border patrol guards and their black/blue uniforms, guns were present EVERYWHERE! it was like dirty harry had become a place and was asking me if i was feeling lucky. i got my picture and fingerprints taken like a common criminal (under the kindly grimace of a framed picture of dick cheney hanging on the wall) and then had my papers stamped and got the hell out of there back to canada, back to freedom, somewhat. this DNA collection won't make things worse, they're already at rock bottom, i purposely missed my cousins wedding because it entailed doing a stop-over in new york and you know what? fuck america, i'm never spending a dime on an american comapny if i can avoid it and i'm not playing the little fascist game they have going on there. sorry i had to rant but it's sad to see what once was a vibrant and relatively open society that trumpeted it's freedom turn into a fear mongering, polarized and confontrational society. maybe it was always like that and it's just my illusions that got brought down to reality but i like to think that there was something special about the US before the '00's.
no, YOU miss the point, in the 1970's japan had an infrastructure light years ahead of india TODAY! india has nothing, bumpkiss, it has mostly dirt roads that turn to mud during monsoon, it has power grids that do not cover whole areas, it has a grinding poverty and is lacking plumbing, education, communications, transportation and respect for the law and society. india is MOST distinct in lacking ALL of these attributes in comparison to japan, comparing the two is a joke and frankly it is an insult to japan and all it has accomplished. this is not to say that india will not advance one iota in 10-20 years, but to expect it to be on par with japan, singapore or taiwan in 10-20 years, even as they were in the 70's, shows a deep lack of understanding in what requirements a society has in order to achieve those levels of modernization.
This is, of course, The Register. Still interesting to look back at the news from another point of view. submitter makes it seem almost wistful that he and a bunch of other tards were taken in hook line and sinker when all they had to do was read and see what was really going on. it also makes me wonder how many posters here are paid shills of a misinformation campaign although as they say, "don't attribute to malice what is perfectably explainable by stupidity."
the cultural differences between asian countries that are modernized and those that aren't is enormous, consider south korea, singapore, japan, taiwan, hong kong Vs the phillipines, thailand, vietnam, nepal, bangladesh. one side is completely different on a economical, cultural and sociological scale to the other side, lumping india with japan is unrealistic to say the least, i won't begin to list indias' shortcomings Vs modernised asia but i will say the most glaring defect is the lack of layered infrastrucure servicing the people. india doesn't have the right stuff to make it on her own in the modern world yet, when vast swathes of the country don't live the same way people lived in the middle ages then you can consider india to be on the road to being a serious player on the worlds markets.
i'd expect better of slashdot, this bill was specifically designed to kill astro turfing, you know, those blogs/websites of dubious repute which shill shit like microsoft/oil industry "studies" / anti global warming "studies" etc.. in exchange for monetary compensation, those sites(which promote massive amounts of mis-information) would have had to register as lobbysits, hardly something i'd cry about since it'd make identifying the bought mouthpieces easier. i'm not suprised that republicans voted against this bill, after all, mis-informing and pushing false information as true is an essential tool in their trade, it's sad to see the sheeple over here braying as if this is something strange when all they have to do is fucking READ.
wouldn't the best PR be that they actually accomplish things and then trumpet them? i find that publishing fantastic pictures of the hubble telescope is better PR than paying some marketing droid multi millions to come up with some predictably lame advertising campaign. i hope they don't go for useless PR like that sad debacle where bush paid lip service to sending people to mars and NASA jumped up and down trying to get people excited for what was obviously a pipe dream, that actually helped to highlight how impotent and backwards our space programs are when all the limitations were outlined.
what's next are you going to charge all chemistry teachers because the course involves materials which when mixed toghether can make a bomb? how about charging all libraries for carrying said books or how about suing cities for providing roads which facilitate driving which in turn killed a relative of yours, or charging all martial arts instructors because they facilitated some hoodlums to bully your kid. this law makes so many assumptions it's ridiculous, everyone can be guilty of something, the fact that it's "restricted" to copyright does not make it any less scary.
i think it's gone beyond that point senator kennedy got flagged by the no fly list, but the list is still around, he's just one of the lucky few that managed to get off it. at this point i think america needs a good old fashioned revolution to get rid of the rot, the only question is what the breaking point would be.
science goes wherever the government sees a critical priority, unfortunately nowadays many governments are controlled by money interests, this is what's really interfering in the relationship between science/politics.
What's keeping MS products installed on many machines is gaming, i HAVE to keep a windows PC if i want to be assured that i can play any game that comes out in the market. so far vista and especially DX10 is failing to impress me, the biggest weakness being that there is no backwards compatiblity, an astoundingly stupid move that assures that coders will focus on DX9 for the next few years unless they want a segment their market even more. depending on how DX10 pans out and whether hardware makers and more importantly software makers support it vista could be a flop even for gamers, that windows 2000/XP CD may be usefull for the next 5-10 years.
iraq is finished, with a fork already stuck in it, america is merely left with the choice of what defeat is acceptable for her to take. based on this the expedition IS a boondoggle, the final bill is expected to reach 1 trillion dollars, when the dust is settled you will ask yourself if the bill in resources and human lives destroyed/incapacitated was worth it, i'm sure that your answer will be no, unless you believe vietnam was worth it as well, then discussing this with you is a moot point. face it, if 300 billion for the advancement of mankind (even if it means advancements with the potential to kill) is a boondoggle then 1 trillion spent to destroy a country and leave it worse off than it was previously is a catastophic event, once you add the amount of lives lost and incapacitated as well the cost becomes unnacceptable.
Or make them wear burkas. Might as well. That's where the EU will be in 10 years time anyway. The lovely streetwalkers of Paris will become a thing of the past. :-(
that's just an ignorant statement, in order for any religion in europe to ever get to the point where they control people's daily lives they'd have to survive multiple bloodbaths. europe isn't all peace and flowers you know, the past 70 years of peace are an anomaly and there have been longer peaces in europe which have degenerated into bloody darkness, america is as likely as europe to becoming islamist.
the real danger is fundamentalism prevalent in mainstream religion, europe has fought many bloody wars to reach a point where religion is almost completely excluded from the body politic, in this sense america is more likely to turn into a christian theocracy than europe.
personally i think this is a roundabout way for the IRS management to get a phat hookup into MMORPG's. imagine, if they were paid in virtual currency they'd be the de-facto power anywhere.