So long as the majority of broadband is offered by corporations that have 'content generation' as a part of their business model, there will never be a real chance for net neutrality. The conflict of interest there is just too strong a force.
That's why here in Israel the law mandates that service is split 3 ways, one company provides physical infrastructure ( the bit pipe ), another company acts as an ISP ( basically reselling bandwidth ) and a third company provides content ( basically tv ).
They don't charge the battery packs in 2 minutes, they swap out the depleted battery with a fully charged one. It's like swapping the gas canister for you grill.
See this demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHvjsFm_88
How about this fix?
Require a mandatory 2 week "cooling off" period for all legislation, plus one additional week for each 100 pages of the bill prior to any vote on the bill.
During this period the bill must be published on the front page of the Congressional and / or House websites.
France, Russia and Japan have been running "commercial" FBR's for decades. In fact, the USA has been shipping used fuel to France for years to be reprocessed. FBR's pose no more of a security risk than regular nuke plants, as long as they're in the hands of democratic or semi-democratic secular nations. In the hands of fundamentalist religious wack-jobs like the Iranians that's a different matter, but that's the same regardless of the type of nuclear plant.
Agreeing that WWII may not fit the mold, however I think point #2 you make fits perfectly in the mold.
You're making the typical assumption that many make which is that rich people keep their wealth stuffed in their mattress and out of circulation.
To put this in the context of an example, the mansion owner has $100k in the local bank earning him 3% interest. Joe Banker can then lend out $80k of that to local businesses. So Joe baker and 3 or 4 other local small business people borrow that money to expand their businesses. Or that money is in a VC fund being invested in the next Tesla? But then some psyco comes and breaks all the windows and causes Tesla's funding to dry up.
The parable describes a shopkeeper whose window is broken by a little boy. Everyone sympathizes with the man whose window was broken, but pretty soon they start to suggest that the broken window makes work for the glazier, who will then buy bread, benefiting the baker, who will then buy shoes, benefiting the cobbler, etc. Finally, the onlookers conclude that the little boy was not guilty of vandalism; instead he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town.
Bastiat's original parable of the broken window went like this:
Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact, that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation - "It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"
Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.
Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier's trade - that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs - I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.
But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, "Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen."
It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.
The fallacy of the onlookers' argument is that they considered only the benefits of purchasing a new window, but they ignored the cost to the shopkeeper. As the shopkeeper was forced to spend his money on a new window, he could not spend it on something else. For example, the shopkeeper might have preferred to spend the money on bread and shoes for himself, but now cannot so enrich the baker and cobbler because he must fix his window.
Thus, the child did not bring any net benefit to the town. Instead, he made the town poorer by at least the value of one window, if not more. His actions benefited the glazier, but at the expense not only of the shopkeeper, but the baker and cobbler as well.
Taking into account breeder reactor technology, we have enough nuclear fuel and "waste" to power the entire planet for the next 10,000 years without mining another gram worth of uranium.
France, Russia and Japan all have breeder reactors. The USA had a breeder reactor program in advanced stages of development, but it was killed by executive order from Bill Clinton.
The McClintock effect, also known as menstrual synchrony or the dormitory effect, is a theory that proposes that the menstrual cycles of women who live together (such as in prisons, convents, bordellos, or dormitories) tend to become synchronized over time.
It is thought to be analogous to the Whitten effect, which is the synchronization of the estrous cycle and has been noted in small animals such as mice and guinea pigs. In contrast to the Whitten effect, which is driven by male pheromones, the McClintock effect is postulated to have only female pheromonal involvement.
Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.
But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.
I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.
Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.
Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.
What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a "product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before." Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle. That's what was briefed (according to one of my former weapons inspectors at the United Nations Special Commission) by the FBI to the German Foreign Ministry at the time.
Another FBI leak indicated that each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in the air, and increased their retention in the lungs.
In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as "according to the Russian recipes" -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge.
The latest line of speculation asserts that the anthrax's DNA, obtained from some of the victims, initially led investigators to the laboratory where Ivins worked. But the FBI stated a few years ago that a complete DNA analysis was not helpful in identifying what laboratory might have made the product.
Furthermore, the anthrax in this case, the "Ames strain," is one of the most common strains in the world. Early in the investigations, the FBI said it was similar to strains found in Haiti and Sri Lanka. The strain at the institute was isolated originally from an animal in west Texas and can be found from Texas to Montana following the old cattle trails. Samples of the strain were also supplied to at least eight laboratories including three foreign laboratories. Four French government laboratories reported on studies with the Ames strain, citing the Pasteur Institute in Paris as the source of the strain they used. Organism DNA is not a very reliable way to make a case against a scientist.
The FBI has not officially released information on why it focused on I
Brother, I think you need to step back and take a second look at Israeli society. You seem to have a skewed view of the attitudes of Israeli Jews.
Answer me one question: if Israeli Jews really see Arabs as "sub-human" then why does something like 80 - 85% of Israeli Jews reject as immoral the forced transfer of Arabs from the country? They don't reject it because they think it's not practical - they reject it because they believe it to be immoral. And even out of that 15 - 20% who don't reject it as immoral can you honestly tell me you think there is anything other than a tiny and insignificant minority that would support the random murder of Arabs?
There may be a tiny minority of extremists among us, but don't project that on the entire society.
Cut the crap, the PA is a state in everything but name. The only reason the Arabs in Judea and Samaria don't have a state officially is because they've been more concerned with trying to destroy Israel than with getting on with their lives. It's public knowledge that Barak offered them full sovereignty on 97.5% of Gaza, Judea and Samaria with their capital in eastern Jerusalem and instead they chose to start war.
This is publicly verified by Bill Clinton and every other senior diplomat involved in the Tabah negotiations. The fact is that the Palestinian Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
They have no one to blame for their current situation except themselves - and of course their fellow countrymen in the surrounding Arab countries.
Excuse me? All the Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza, Judea & Samaria vote . They vote in the Palestinian Authority elections and just last year elected Hamas ( an international terrorist orginization with links to Iran, as opposed to the previous terrorist orginization which headed their government - the PLO ) to lead their government. So I don't know what you're talking about.
Actually, the Jews paid premium prices for that land. You'd have to look it up, but I remember that Jews were paying the equivalent of the price of fertile farm land in Ohio for swamp and arid desert plots in the Holy Land as it was called by most people back then. Something like $1000 an acre in 1910 dollars!
You seem to loose perspective my friend. Saying that the Israeli army is the most moral army in the world is a relative statement. It's also a statement I think is true. That doesn't mean individual soldiers don't make mistakes or even that the army doesn't make mistakes, just that in comparison to other armies in the world the Israeli army upholds high standards considering the day to day environment we operate and live in.
Just look at the battle for Jenin a few years ago as proof.
Full disclosure - I'm Israeli too and give me an example of your bull-shit atrocities.
This will end up being by used by the Israeli Left wing fascists to jail anyone who opposes the forced expulsion of Jews from their homes in areas the government wants to turn over to the Arabs.
You seem to forget the thousands of teenagers who were jailed without trial for demonstrating against the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza.
And don't give me any BS about them being violent. All they did was peacefully block roads.
When the labor unions strike and block roads, or shut down essential services like the telephone system or electricity or block the ports and shut down the airports - no one is ever arrested - no one is ever prosecuted.
If you don't count all the money we spend protecting Saudi Arabia, or all the money spent rebuilding Iraq, which totals hundreds of billions of dollars.
Your terms are wrong. If you knew your history, you would know that the Jews are the Palestinians, and the Arabs are - Arabs. If you walked up to an Arab in 1920's Jerusalem and called him a Palestinian to his face he'd probably slap you silly.
Up until the late 40's early 50's it was self-evident that when you said "Palestinian" you were talking about a Jew.
The entire concept of an Arab Palestinian Nation is pure historical revisionism.
Or to make it simple:
What dates did the independent nation of Palestine exist? What was it's Capital? What was it's currency? What was it's language? What was it's Flag? Etc..
You can't answer those questions because no such country ever existed.
No, Iran is trying to enrich uranium to build nuclear weapons so that they can force their interpretation of Islam on the Arabs. Countries like Kuwait , Saudi Arabia and Egypt are pissing their pants at the thought of a wack job like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
with nukes. Remember the Iran - Iraq war? More than 1 million people killed and the Ayatollahs were sending children to clear mine fields. This is a guy who said he would be willing to sacrifice half Irans population in a reprisal nuclear attack if it meant he could kill all the Jews in Israel.
Everything possible (including pre-emptive military strikes and all - out war)should be done to prevent non-democratic countries from aquiring nuclear technology, especially ones led by apocalyptic religious fanatics.
What prohibition are you referring to? FYI, according to Orthodox Jewish law, human life always takes precedence such that if medicine found that eating ham and cheese sandwiches ( or eating mouse blood or whatever you're referring to ) would cure a certain life threatening disease, then the person with the disease would be required by Orthodox Jewish religious law to take that treatment. For example, when insulin was only available from pigs, Orthodox Jews with diabetes were required to take that pig insulin, even though normally we are forbidden from consuming pig based products.
Preservation of human life (any human life, not just our fellow Jews) is Orthodox Judaism's highest value.
20-pin PIC16F690 Midrange microcontroller
Note: Requires the AC162061 ICD Header and AC164110 adapter to debug.
A series of 12 Lessons on assembly programming that cover I/O, A/D converters, timers, interrupts, and data tables (All source code files are provided)
FREE! Microchipâ(TM)s MPLAB IDE software for a complete code development environment
FREE! HI-TECH PICCâ LITE C Compiler (contained on the MPLAB CD)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. expert on Friday called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity, saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry.
Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt what he called a growing "catastrophe for the poor.
Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, ''and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops.
Using biofuel instead of gasoline in cars is generally considered to cut carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, although some scientists say greenhouse gases released during the production of biofuel could offset those gains.
The use of crops for biofuel has being pursued especially in Brazil and the United States.
Last March, President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an agreement committing their countries to boosting ethanol production. They said increasing use of alternative fuels would lead to more jobs, a cleaner environment and greater independence from the whims of the oil market.
Ziegler called their motives legitimate, but said that ''the effect of transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tons of maize, of wheat, of beans, of palm oil, into agricultural fuel is absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people.
The world price of wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people, he said. And poor people in those countries are unable to pay the soaring prices for the food that does come in, he added.
''So its a crime against humanity to devote agricultural land to biofuel production, Ziegler said a news conference. ''What has to be stopped is... the growing catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world, he said.
As an example, he said, it takes 510 pounds of corn to produce 13 gallons of ethanol. That much corn could feed a child in Zambia or Mexico for a year, he said.
Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said the Bush administration didnt consider biofuel development a threat to the poor.
''Its clear we have a commitment to the development of biofuels, he said. ''Its also clear that we are committed to combatting poverty and supporting economic development around the world as the leading contributor of overseas development assistance in the world.
Ziegler, a sociology professor at the University of Geneva and the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, presented a report Thursday to the U.N. General Assemblys human rights committee saying a five-year moratorium on biofuel production would allow time for new technologies for using agricultural byproducts instead of food itself.
Researchers are looking at crop residues such as corn cobs, rice husks and banana leaves, he said. ''The cultivation of Jatropha Curcas, a shrub that produces large oil-bearing seeds, appears to offer a good solution as it can be grown in arid lands that are not normally suitable for food crops, he said.
Slashdot Mirror
So long as the majority of broadband is offered by corporations that have 'content generation' as a part of their business model, there will never be a real chance for net neutrality. The conflict of interest there is just too strong a force.
That's why here in Israel the law mandates that service is split 3 ways, one company provides physical infrastructure ( the bit pipe ), another company acts as an ISP ( basically reselling bandwidth ) and a third company provides content ( basically tv ).
They don't charge the battery packs in 2 minutes, they swap out the depleted battery with a fully charged one. It's like swapping the gas canister for you grill. See this demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHHvjsFm_88
So does that mean Obama eats p***k?
How about this fix? Require a mandatory 2 week "cooling off" period for all legislation, plus one additional week for each 100 pages of the bill prior to any vote on the bill. During this period the bill must be published on the front page of the Congressional and / or House websites.
France, Russia and Japan have been running "commercial" FBR's for decades. In fact, the USA has been shipping used fuel to France for years to be reprocessed. FBR's pose no more of a security risk than regular nuke plants, as long as they're in the hands of democratic or semi-democratic secular nations. In the hands of fundamentalist religious wack-jobs like the Iranians that's a different matter, but that's the same regardless of the type of nuclear plant.
Am I the only one who read that as FPGA the first time around?
Agreeing that WWII may not fit the mold, however I think point #2 you make fits perfectly in the mold.
You're making the typical assumption that many make which is that rich people keep their wealth stuffed in their mattress and out of circulation.
To put this in the context of an example, the mansion owner has $100k in the local bank earning him 3% interest. Joe Banker can then lend out $80k of that to local businesses. So Joe baker and 3 or 4 other local small business people borrow that money to expand their businesses. Or that money is in a VC fund being invested in the next Tesla? But then some psyco comes and breaks all the windows and causes Tesla's funding to dry up.
Parable of the Broken Window
The parable describes a shopkeeper whose window is broken by a little boy. Everyone sympathizes with the man whose window was broken, but pretty soon they start to suggest that the broken window makes work for the glazier, who will then buy bread, benefiting the baker, who will then buy shoes, benefiting the cobbler, etc. Finally, the onlookers conclude that the little boy was not guilty of vandalism; instead he was a public benefactor, creating economic benefits for everyone in town.
Bastiat's original parable of the broken window went like this:
The fallacy of the onlookers' argument is that they considered only the benefits of purchasing a new window, but they ignored the cost to the shopkeeper. As the shopkeeper was forced to spend his money on a new window, he could not spend it on something else. For example, the shopkeeper might have preferred to spend the money on bread and shoes for himself, but now cannot so enrich the baker and cobbler because he must fix his window.
Thus, the child did not bring any net benefit to the town. Instead, he made the town poorer by at least the value of one window, if not more. His actions benefited the glazier, but at the expense not only of the shopkeeper, but the baker and cobbler as well.
Taking into account breeder reactor technology, we have enough nuclear fuel and "waste" to power the entire planet for the next 10,000 years without mining another gram worth of uranium.
France, Russia and Japan all have breeder reactors. The USA had a breeder reactor program in advanced stages of development, but it was killed by executive order from Bill Clinton.
Remember, you're going to have four women who are all menstruating at the same time - I think that would have some negative effect ;-)
McClintock effect
The McClintock effect, also known as menstrual synchrony or the dormitory effect, is a theory that proposes that the menstrual cycles of women who live together (such as in prisons, convents, bordellos, or dormitories) tend to become synchronized over time.
It is thought to be analogous to the Whitten effect, which is the synchronization of the estrous cycle and has been noted in small animals such as mice and guinea pigs. In contrast to the Whitten effect, which is driven by male pheromones, the McClintock effect is postulated to have only female pheromonal involvement.
URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121789293570011775.html
Bruce Ivins Wasn't the Anthrax Culprit
By RICHARD SPERTZEL
August 5, 2008
PageA17
Over the past week the media was gripped by the news that the FBI was about to charge Bruce Ivins, a leading anthrax expert, as the man responsible for the anthrax letter attacks in September/October 2001.
But despite the seemingly powerful narrative that Ivins committed suicide because investigators were closing in, this is still far from a shut case. The FBI needs to explain why it zeroed in on Ivins, how he could have made the anthrax mailed to lawmakers and the media, and how he (or anyone else) could have pulled off the attacks, acting alone.
I believe this is another mistake in the investigation.
Let's start with the anthrax in the letters to Sens. Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The spores could not have been produced at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, where Ivins worked, without many other people being aware of it. Furthermore, the equipment to make such a product does not exist at the institute.
Information released by the FBI over the past seven years indicates a product of exceptional quality. The product contained essentially pure spores. The particle size was 1.5 to 3 microns in diameter. There are several methods used to produce anthrax that small. But most of them require milling the spores to a size small enough that it can be inhaled into the lower reaches of the lungs. In this case, however, the anthrax spores were not milled.
What's more, they were also tailored to make them potentially more dangerous. According to a FBI news release from November 2001, the particles were coated by a "product not seen previously to be used in this fashion before." Apparently, the spores were coated with a polyglass which tightly bound hydrophilic silica to each particle. That's what was briefed (according to one of my former weapons inspectors at the United Nations Special Commission) by the FBI to the German Foreign Ministry at the time.
Another FBI leak indicated that each particle was given a weak electric charge, thereby causing the particles to repel each other at the molecular level. This made it easier for the spores to float in the air, and increased their retention in the lungs.
In short, the potential lethality of anthrax in this case far exceeds that of any powdered product found in the now extinct U.S. Biological Warfare Program. In meetings held on the cleanup of the anthrax spores in Washington, the product was described by an official at the Department of Homeland Security as "according to the Russian recipes" -- apparently referring to the use of the weak electric charge.
The latest line of speculation asserts that the anthrax's DNA, obtained from some of the victims, initially led investigators to the laboratory where Ivins worked. But the FBI stated a few years ago that a complete DNA analysis was not helpful in identifying what laboratory might have made the product.
Furthermore, the anthrax in this case, the "Ames strain," is one of the most common strains in the world. Early in the investigations, the FBI said it was similar to strains found in Haiti and Sri Lanka. The strain at the institute was isolated originally from an animal in west Texas and can be found from Texas to Montana following the old cattle trails. Samples of the strain were also supplied to at least eight laboratories including three foreign laboratories. Four French government laboratories reported on studies with the Ames strain, citing the Pasteur Institute in Paris as the source of the strain they used. Organism DNA is not a very reliable way to make a case against a scientist.
The FBI has not officially released information on why it focused on I
Btselem has no credibility.
Brother, I think you need to step back and take a second look at Israeli society. You seem to have a skewed view of the attitudes of Israeli Jews.
Answer me one question: if Israeli Jews really see Arabs as "sub-human" then why does something like 80 - 85% of Israeli Jews reject as immoral the forced transfer of Arabs from the country? They don't reject it because they think it's not practical - they reject it because they believe it to be immoral. And even out of that 15 - 20% who don't reject it as immoral can you honestly tell me you think there is anything other than a tiny and insignificant minority that would support the random murder of Arabs?
There may be a tiny minority of extremists among us, but don't project that on the entire society.
Cut the crap, the PA is a state in everything but name. The only reason the Arabs in Judea and Samaria don't have a state officially is because they've been more concerned with trying to destroy Israel than with getting on with their lives. It's public knowledge that Barak offered them full sovereignty on 97.5% of Gaza, Judea and Samaria with their capital in eastern Jerusalem and instead they chose to start war.
This is publicly verified by Bill Clinton and every other senior diplomat involved in the Tabah negotiations. The fact is that the Palestinian Arabs never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
They have no one to blame for their current situation except themselves - and of course their fellow countrymen in the surrounding Arab countries.
Excuse me? All the Palestinian Arabs living in Gaza, Judea & Samaria vote . They vote in the Palestinian Authority elections and just last year elected Hamas ( an international terrorist orginization with links to Iran, as opposed to the previous terrorist orginization which headed their government - the PLO ) to lead their government. So I don't know what you're talking about.
Actually, the Jews paid premium prices for that land. You'd have to look it up, but I remember that Jews were paying the equivalent of the price of fertile farm land in Ohio for swamp and arid desert plots in the Holy Land as it was called by most people back then. Something like $1000 an acre in 1910 dollars!
What are you smoking? Israel has one of the highest voter turn-outs in the Western World. Typical voter turn out is around 80%.
Just look at the battle for Jenin a few years ago as proof.
Full disclosure - I'm Israeli too and give me an example of your bull-shit atrocities.
This will end up being by used by the Israeli Left wing fascists to jail anyone who opposes the forced expulsion of Jews from their homes in areas the government wants to turn over to the Arabs.
You seem to forget the thousands of teenagers who were jailed without trial for demonstrating against the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza.
And don't give me any BS about them being violent. All they did was peacefully block roads.
When the labor unions strike and block roads, or shut down essential services like the telephone system or electricity or block the ports and shut down the airports - no one is ever arrested - no one is ever prosecuted.
And don't forget the hundreds of people who were hospitalized after being beaten by police at Amona - including members of Knesset.
If you don't count all the money we spend protecting Saudi Arabia, or all the money spent rebuilding Iraq, which totals hundreds of billions of dollars.
Up until the late 40's early 50's it was self-evident that when you said "Palestinian" you were talking about a Jew.
The entire concept of an Arab Palestinian Nation is pure historical revisionism.
Or to make it simple:
What dates did the independent nation of Palestine exist? What was it's Capital? What was it's currency? What was it's language? What was it's Flag? Etc..
You can't answer those questions because no such country ever existed.
The Jews are the indigenous population.
Everything possible (including pre-emptive military strikes and all - out war)should be done to prevent non-democratic countries from aquiring nuclear technology, especially ones led by apocalyptic religious fanatics.
Preservation of human life (any human life, not just our fellow Jews) is Orthodox Judaism's highest value.
It's reasons like this why people should support Israel and be very afraid of imperialist orthodox Islam. As Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah said, "We [ the Muslims ] are going to win, because they [ the Jews / Westerners ] love life and we [the Muslims ] love death"
Features of PICkit 2 Starter Kit
Note: Requires the AC162061 ICD Header and AC164110 adapter to debug.
wget -c http://mozilla.ftp.iij.ad.jp/pub/mozilla/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.0/win32/en-US/Firefox%20Setup%203.0.exe
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- A U.N. expert on Friday called the growing practice of converting food crops into biofuel "a crime against humanity, saying it is creating food shortages and price jumps that cause millions of poor people to go hungry.
Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations independent expert on the right to food since the position was established in 2000, called for a five-year moratorium on biofuel production to halt what he called a growing "catastrophe for the poor.
Scientific research is progressing very quickly, he said, ''and in five years it will be possible to make biofuel and biodiesel from agricultural waste rather than wheat, corn, sugar cane and other food crops.
Using biofuel instead of gasoline in cars is generally considered to cut carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to global warming, although some scientists say greenhouse gases released during the production of biofuel could offset those gains.
The use of crops for biofuel has being pursued especially in Brazil and the United States.
Last March, President Bush and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva signed an agreement committing their countries to boosting ethanol production. They said increasing use of alternative fuels would lead to more jobs, a cleaner environment and greater independence from the whims of the oil market.
Ziegler called their motives legitimate, but said that ''the effect of transforming hundreds and hundreds of thousands of tons of maize, of wheat, of beans, of palm oil, into agricultural fuel is absolutely catastrophic for the hungry people.
The world price of wheat doubled in one year and the price of corn quadrupled, leaving poor countries, especially in Africa, unable to pay for the imported food needed to feed their people, he said. And poor people in those countries are unable to pay the soaring prices for the food that does come in, he added.
''So its a crime against humanity to devote agricultural land to biofuel production, Ziegler said a news conference. ''What has to be stopped is ... the growing catastrophe of the massacre (by) hunger in the world, he said.
As an example, he said, it takes 510 pounds of corn to produce 13 gallons of ethanol. That much corn could feed a child in Zambia or Mexico for a year, he said.
Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, said the Bush administration didnt consider biofuel development a threat to the poor.
''Its clear we have a commitment to the development of biofuels, he said. ''Its also clear that we are committed to combatting poverty and supporting economic development around the world as the leading contributor of overseas development assistance in the world.
Ziegler, a sociology professor at the University of Geneva and the University of the Sorbonne in Paris, presented a report Thursday to the U.N. General Assemblys human rights committee saying a five-year moratorium on biofuel production would allow time for new technologies for using agricultural byproducts instead of food itself.
Researchers are looking at crop residues such as corn cobs, rice husks and banana leaves, he said. ''The cultivation of Jatropha Curcas, a shrub that produces large oil-bearing seeds, appears to offer a good solution as it can be grown in arid lands that are not normally suitable for food crops, he said.