The following letter appears in this week's edition of The Economist (it's online, but at a charge):
SIR - You correctly identify one of the key challenges for governments in dealing with the threat of terrorism--how to respond to the terrible crime against humanity committed on September 11th without undermining the very freedoms and liberties that the terrorists sought to destroy ("Liberty v security", September 29th). The attack was against more than just buildings and people. It was an attack against fundamental values that now, more than ever, need to be protected and reinforced.
However, in asserting that civil libertarians need to accept a balance between security and liberty, you underestimate the true balance already built into the human-rights system. The drafters of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and similar provisions in other documents such as the European Convention on Human Rights, may not have anticipated the horrific events of September 11th but they did provide for them. Existing human-rights law addresses the issue of competing values and allows some limitation of certain rights to respond to pressing public or social needs, but not so as to jeopardise the essence of the rights concerned.
In the past, the need to oppose terrorism has sometimes been used to justify unacceptable actions by states. I endorse Colin Powell's reported comments to the effect that global action against terrorism does not constitute a licence to violate human rights. Not only can the eradication of terrorism and the defence of our most cherished values be pursued simultaneously, indeed they must.
--Mary Robinson, UN high commissioner for human rights, Geneva
The following letter to the editor appears in this weeks edition of The Economist (it's online, but there is a charge):
SIR - You correctly identify one of the key challenges for governments in dealing with the threat of terrorism--how to respond to the terrible crime against humanity committed on September 11th without undermining the very freedoms and liberties that the terrorists sought to destroy ("Liberty v security", September 29th). The attack was against more than just buildings and people. It was an attack against fundamental values that now, more than ever, need to be protected and reinforced.
However, in asserting that civil libertarians need to accept a balance between security and liberty, you underestimate the true balance already built into the human-rights system. The drafters of the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and similar provisions in other documents such as the European Convention on Human Rights, may not have anticipated the horrific events of September 11th but they did provide for them. Existing human-rights law addresses the issue of competing values and allows some limitation of certain rights to respond to pressing public or social needs, but not so as to jeopardise the essence of the rights concerned.
If all you did was browse the relevant Slashdot stories at +5, I think you would end up having a better understanding of terrorist events than if you followed any of the mainstream media (and ignored Slashdot). The American media has been very biased, and has even been told by the government to "exercise judgement" in their reporting. Following is a nice quote from a BBC story:
The United States has found itself on the back foot, complaining to the Emir of Qatar that the television station [al-Jazeera] was becoming a platform for Bin Laden but being told that media freedom was an essential part of democratic life. In the past things have usually been the other way round. Autocratic leaders complained to the West about media criticism but were told that western governments had no control over journalists.
My view is that the level of analysis given, for example, in this Slashdot comment does not exist in the Western mass media. I sent a copy of this comment to some non-technical people--who don't read Slashdot--their view was the same: nothing else they had seen was better than Slashdot.
Bad News: your joke turned out partly true
on
Bert Is Evil
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· Score: 3, Interesting
According to a recent BBC story, the US government has just got US television executives to agree to "exercise judgement" in broadcasting statements by Bin Laden and his associates. The Government warned that those statements may include coded incitements to violence.
This shows how clueless the government is: such actions can do nothing. Such cluelessness about the internet is worrying for other reasons too.
And it makes me wonder about something. After the Sep11 attacks, bin Laden gave a video interview. Would you like to know what he said? I found transcripts available from BBC, CBC, and CNN. The CNN version is really different from the other two. Someone else posted a comment on this, and the replies suggested that it might have just been due to rushing things. Maybe not: maybe listing the inaccurate transcript was deliberate.
Who moderated this as flamebait?? It is well-argued and based on facts. Just because the conclusion doesn't fit with a moderator's preconceptions, they claim that it is flamebait?
I agree that we cannot know whether bin Laden is being honest when he speaks. But, I believe that his words help to motivate the terrorists. And this is true regardless of whether he is being honest.
This was one of the good points made in the comment that I cited. Also, that anti-American demonstrators everywhere seem to cite the same two reasons.
As for Iraq, see the same comment. Half a million Iraqi children killed, and the report by the UN HCHR (link at bottom) seems to blame American-dictated sanctions. No one questions the need to restrain dear sweet Saddam--just that the current sanctions aren't the way to do it.
Yeah, I remember reading a definition of an "honest politician" from a document in classical times: n. a politician who, when bribed, does what he has been bribed to do. (So maybe we've progressed a little after all?)
You've accepted a lot of the propagandistic lies put out by the Western media. Bin Laden et al. have explicitly stated their reasons for the attacks. You do not seem to have read (or understood) those statements. See this post for details.
Moreover, there have been many demonstrations in support of bin Laden in Arab countries. And the demonstraters consistently give the same two reasons: America's sanctions against Iraqi civilians and America's support for Israel's actions against Palestinians. These reasons are given by bin Laden et al. in their written statement.
Hence the first part of your post is based on misunderstanding. I agree with the second half though.
Iraq's government is busy threatening its neighbors, developing (more) NBC weapons, and trying to exterminate an ethnic minority in its own borders. The US government is squeamish about giving aid to such a regime, especially when its doubtful such aid would actually reach those that need it ("The Republican Guard needs that food more than you do."), but is willing to send such aid if Iraq demonstrates that it neither owns nor is developing weapons of mass destruction. Because Iraq considers its own weapons stockpile more important than the health and well-being of its people, the US is responsible for all deaths in Iraq due to starvation
Actually, I thought that the UN estimates 95% of all food aid gets distributed to those for whom it was intended (sorry I don't have a link for this). And according to this post, US-dictated sanctions have led to the death of half a million Iraqi children.
The following is from the Letters section of this week's edition of The Economist (you can view it online, but at a charge):
Those about to invest in iris-scanning security technology will be disappointed to learn of recent developments in the treatment of glaucoma.... Prostaglandin analogues are rapidly gaining popularity in the treatment of this blinding eye condition that affects 1% of the population. An innocuous side-effect of this drug is to cause a change in both iris colour (a darkening) and morphology. This change in susceptible people, usually Europeans, occurs over one to two years. Apart from rendering iris scanning potentially useless for these people, unscrupulous types without glaucoma may be tempted to use the drugs to "change" identity.
The Sunday Times (of London) has a report of what it is like to fight in Afghanistan by a member of Britain's SAS (special forces). This guy trained the mujaheddin and taught them how to fight the Russians in the 1980s. It's an incredible story. Perhaps the most important thing is that, in his view, fighting once the snow comes--in October--is likely to have one main effect: loss of Western troops.
It seems to me that the concept of jihad has been completely twisted by extremists to serve their ends. The only conflict that truely fits the description of jahad is the Afghan war against the Soviet invasion.
This is very insightful. In fact, as I understand it, the concent of jihad lay dormant for many many centuries, and was only revived in the 1980s. The revival was for the reason that you state: for the Afghans to fight the Soviets.
What is almost incredible is that this revival was brought about by the CIA. The CIA wanted to find a way to motivate the Afghans to fight the Soviets (this was during the cold war, remember). So the CIA pondered how to do this, and eventually came up with the idea of reviving the (largely-forgotten) notion of jihad. More details are available here.
In May, Wickramasinghe published an article in The Daily Mail (a British newspaper). Someone I know sent him (wickramasinghe@cardiff.ac.uk) the following.
Dear Dr. Wickramasinghe,
I just saw your article in the Daily Mail, which includes the following.
> engineer and amateur Egyptologist, Robert Bauval, first pointed out that
> overhead photographs of the three Giza pyramids show an astounding
> similarity to the disposition of the three brightest stars in Orion's belt.
>
> This includes the distances between the pyramids and their size in relation
> to the brightness of the stars. It even includes the minute detail of a kink
> in the lines connecting the pyramids that matches a similar kink in the
> lines joining the stars in the sky.
The distances are not even close. The brightest star in Orion's belt is the middle star, but the largest Giza pyramid is on the end. The kink's angle is off by over 20%. Bauval made up most of this. As a scientist, you might check such things.
> This theory is also supported by a pioneering new science, dendrochronology,
> the study of the thickness of tree rings at different times in the past. The
> thinning of tree rings has been discovered in oaks across the entire period
> 2354 to 2345BC which comes close to the final decades of the Old Kingdom.
>
> The most simple explanation is due to the frequent arrival of cometary
> missiles, that would have dusted the atmosphere and dimmed the light from
> the sun, depriving trees of much needed energy. Here is yet further evidence
> that the Egyptians were under a regular torrent of missiles from above.
The Old Kingdom ended long after the Irish tree trauma--c. 2200 BC. The likely cause was extremely low Nile flood levels. And there is no evidence from ice cores to support your claim of high dust levels. You just made up most of this.
Wickramasinghe apparently did not reply. It seems clear that the Daily Mail article Wickramasinghe wrote was fraudulent.
For me, once someone has done something fraudulent, I become suspicious of all their other work. If you consider the prestige that Wickramasinghe might garner from his panspermia claims, there is all the more reason to be suspicious.
I agree with your p.s. I've had the same thing, even worse a couple of times, and it is extremely frustrating. I've sent a message about it to malda@slashdot.org. Maybe if enough folks do the same, things will change....
There's another big advantage of working with IBM. That is an easy transition to Linux-on-the-mainframe.
Having a rendering farm containing 1000 PCs is not the best idea. There are problems with reliability. Once you have that many PCs in the farm, you are better off replacing them all with a single mainframe. Each copy of Linux then runs as a virtual OS (under VM): see the recent Slashdot story for other examples and here for technical details.
This is clearly IBMs strategy. They will make a lot of money from it. Such installations are very good for customers too: customers save energy, floor space, and staff--and, best of all, get mainframe-level reliability.
It's interesting that Korean Air is running Linux on an IBM mainframe. According to this story from The Economist, IBM has been setting up more and more such installations. For instance, Winnebago Industries (a large maker of motor-homes) recently threw out its distributed e-mail system and replaced it with a Linux-on-mainframe version. The story also mentions Korean Air.
Such installations are very good for customers who already have a mainframe: they save energy, floor space, and staff--and get mainframe-level reliability.
This is about the freedom to know. The idea is that people everywhere should have easy access to free sources of information. I, and many others, believe that this is one of the most important rights that a person can have. It is probably even reasonable to argue that if you've lost that right, you don't have--or at least won't have, someday--any others.
Sure, some of the information will be bit-mapped images of Playboy centerfolds. So what? Some of that information might also be on how your government is actually treating you.
When the despotic Romanian government was being overthrown a few years ago, it was information from the BBC World Service (IIRC) that helped people know what was going on. Such information was crucial to success. There are countless other examples. The internet is the best thing to happen to freedom of information in the history of humanity. We need to fight to keep it that way.
How do I read the.gz file? I tried using Winzip 8.0, but got the message
Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive.
Then I found www.gzip.org and downloaded the Win98 executables. But I can't seem to get them working on my computer. Moreover, the documenation says explicitly that Winzip handles all.gz files: well, not the fasc2a.ps.gz file.
Then I downloaded win-gz and ran it. Win-gz claimed that the file (fasc2a.ps.gz) was not gzipped and refused to unzip it.
Thinking that the file might have somehow become corrupted on download, I downloaded the file a second time. The results were the same.
Does another Win98 user have constructive suggestions for gunzipping?
I live in England. For the last day or so, it has not been possible to get telephone-directory inquiries for Europe or Asia. Asking for numbers in Canada/USA works fine. But when I've tried to get a number in Eurasia, I've been told that there are no lines to directory inquiries in those countries. The cause is claimed to be CodeRed, but I haven't been able to find out the details.
(Note: calls work fine; it's just directory information that you cannot get.)
Real damage done to Britain's telephone inquiries
on
Code Redux
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· Score: 2
I live in England. For the last day or so, it has not been possible to get telephone-directory inquiries for Europe or Asia. Asking for numbers in Canada/USA works fine. But when I've tried to get a number in Eurasia, I've been told that there are no lines to directory inquiries in those countries. The cause is claimed to be CodeRed, but I haven't been able to find out the details.
(Note: calls work fine; it's just directory information that you cannot get.)
As for HDs, IBM is apparently now shipping ultra-quiet ones that incorporate a "noise suppression system, replacing the ball bearing design with fluid dynamic bearing spindle motor technology and voice coil motor dampening enhancements". You can read about it at http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/28/IBM.mobil e.hardrive.idg/index.html
Slashdot Mirror
I'm glad to see some support like this.
My view is that the level of analysis given, for example, in this Slashdot comment does not exist in the Western mass media. I sent a copy of this comment to some non-technical people--who don't read Slashdot--their view was the same: nothing else they had seen was better than Slashdot.
This shows how clueless the government is: such actions can do nothing. Such cluelessness about the internet is worrying for other reasons too.
And it makes me wonder about something. After the Sep11 attacks, bin Laden gave a video interview. Would you like to know what he said? I found transcripts available from BBC, CBC, and CNN. The CNN version is really different from the other two. Someone else posted a comment on this, and the replies suggested that it might have just been due to rushing things. Maybe not: maybe listing the inaccurate transcript was deliberate.
Take some pride is Slashdot. Moderate honestly.
I agree that we cannot know whether bin Laden is being honest when he speaks. But, I believe that his words help to motivate the terrorists. And this is true regardless of whether he is being honest.
This was one of the good points made in the comment that I cited. Also, that anti-American demonstrators everywhere seem to cite the same two reasons.
As for Iraq, see the same comment. Half a million Iraqi children killed, and the report by the UN HCHR (link at bottom) seems to blame American-dictated sanctions. No one questions the need to restrain dear sweet Saddam--just that the current sanctions aren't the way to do it.
Yeah, I remember reading a definition of an "honest politician" from a document in classical times: n. a politician who, when bribed, does what he has been bribed to do. (So maybe we've progressed a little after all?)
Sara
Hey, thanks! Do you have some references, etc.?
Moreover, there have been many demonstrations in support of bin Laden in Arab countries. And the demonstraters consistently give the same two reasons: America's sanctions against Iraqi civilians and America's support for Israel's actions against Palestinians. These reasons are given by bin Laden et al. in their written statement.
Hence the first part of your post is based on misunderstanding. I agree with the second half though.
Actually, I thought that the UN estimates 95% of all food aid gets distributed to those for whom it was intended (sorry I don't have a link for this). And according to this post, US-dictated sanctions have led to the death of half a million Iraqi children.
Thanks for this. One question: how quiet is the Acer? Is there a fan, and if so, how much is it on?
The Sunday Times (of London) has a report of what it is like to fight in Afghanistan by a member of Britain's SAS (special forces). This guy trained the mujaheddin and taught them how to fight the Russians in the 1980s. It's an incredible story. Perhaps the most important thing is that, in his view, fighting once the snow comes--in October--is likely to have one main effect: loss of Western troops.
This is very insightful. In fact, as I understand it, the concent of jihad lay dormant for many many centuries, and was only revived in the 1980s. The revival was for the reason that you state: for the Afghans to fight the Soviets.
What is almost incredible is that this revival was brought about by the CIA. The CIA wanted to find a way to motivate the Afghans to fight the Soviets (this was during the cold war, remember). So the CIA pondered how to do this, and eventually came up with the idea of reviving the (largely-forgotten) notion of jihad. More details are available here.
I, and I'm sure others, would like to know a bit of the history, and why the two groups have not gotten together.
And I worry about the old saw "united we stand, divided we fall".
Dear Dr. Wickramasinghe,
I just saw your article in the Daily Mail, which includes the following.
> engineer and amateur Egyptologist, Robert Bauval, first pointed out that
> overhead photographs of the three Giza pyramids show an astounding
> similarity to the disposition of the three brightest stars in Orion's belt.
>
> This includes the distances between the pyramids and their size in relation
> to the brightness of the stars. It even includes the minute detail of a kink
> in the lines connecting the pyramids that matches a similar kink in the
> lines joining the stars in the sky.
The distances are not even close. The brightest star in Orion's belt is the middle star, but the largest Giza pyramid is on the end. The kink's angle is off by over 20%. Bauval made up most of this. As a scientist, you might check such things.
> This theory is also supported by a pioneering new science, dendrochronology,
> the study of the thickness of tree rings at different times in the past. The
> thinning of tree rings has been discovered in oaks across the entire period
> 2354 to 2345BC which comes close to the final decades of the Old Kingdom.
>
> The most simple explanation is due to the frequent arrival of cometary
> missiles, that would have dusted the atmosphere and dimmed the light from
> the sun, depriving trees of much needed energy. Here is yet further evidence
> that the Egyptians were under a regular torrent of missiles from above.
The Old Kingdom ended long after the Irish tree trauma--c. 2200 BC. The likely cause was extremely low Nile flood levels. And there is no evidence from ice cores to support your claim of high dust levels. You just made up most of this.
Wickramasinghe apparently did not reply. It seems clear that the Daily Mail article Wickramasinghe wrote was fraudulent.
For me, once someone has done something fraudulent, I become suspicious of all their other work. If you consider the prestige that Wickramasinghe might garner from his panspermia claims, there is all the more reason to be suspicious.
I agree with your p.s. I've had the same thing, even worse a couple of times, and it is extremely frustrating. I've sent a message about it to malda@slashdot.org. Maybe if enough folks do the same, things will change....
This is clearly IBMs strategy. They will make a lot of money from it. Such installations are very good for customers too: customers save energy, floor space, and staff--and, best of all, get mainframe-level reliability.
Such installations are very good for customers who already have a mainframe: they save energy, floor space, and staff--and get mainframe-level reliability.
Sure, some of the information will be bit-mapped images of Playboy centerfolds. So what? Some of that information might also be on how your government is actually treating you.
When the despotic Romanian government was being overthrown a few years ago, it was information from the BBC World Service (IIRC) that helped people know what was going on. Such information was crucial to success. There are countless other examples. The internet is the best thing to happen to freedom of information in the history of humanity. We need to fight to keep it that way.
thank you--that works!
Thanks! That worked.
How do I read the .gz file? I tried using Winzip 8.0, but got the message
Then I found www.gzip.org and downloaded the Win98 executables. But I can't seem to get them working on my computer. Moreover, the documenation says explicitly that Winzip handles allThen I downloaded win-gz and ran it. Win-gz claimed that the file (fasc2a.ps.gz) was not gzipped and refused to unzip it.
Thinking that the file might have somehow become corrupted on download, I downloaded the file a second time. The results were the same.
Does another Win98 user have constructive suggestions for gunzipping?
(Note: calls work fine; it's just directory information that you cannot get.)
[reposted from here]
(Note: calls work fine; it's just directory information that you cannot get.)
As for HDs, IBM is apparently now shipping ultra-quiet ones that incorporate a "noise suppression system, replacing the ball bearing design with fluid dynamic bearing spindle motor technology and voice coil motor dampening enhancements". You can read about it atl e.hardrive.idg/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/28/IBM.mobi