Population growth in poor and developing nations (and the word "developing" is unfortunately only used out of political correctness) is out of control and is at a dangerous tipping point where we could conceivably see mass famines (as in 'millions dead') any year where drought, blight or oppression get ugly.
Fortunately, this is wrong.
First, population growth is slowing almost everywhere, and world population looks set to peak during this century at nine to ten billion. Crowded, yes, but not disastrous.
Second, there is more than enough food for everyone. Famine in the modern world is invariably political. People don't die from crop failure, they die when their governments (or rebels/bandits/warlords/whatever) prevent aid from reaching them.
Literacy is improving, and poverty is in decline in most countries. Much of Africa is still a festering shithole, but most of the rest of the world is doing okay.
Yes, the author of the article is wrong, but this isn't why.
Soooo what you're saying is that we don't have to do anything in Sudan? Because that's the UN's problem? And the UN is bad, so we don't have to do anything in Sudan?
No. What he's saying is that we should be doing something in Sudan, but the UN's response proves that the UN is worse than useless and we might as well close it down.
You say we have to fix the Middle East. Why not Saudia Arabia?
The Saudis are completely corrupt and oppressive, but not as brutal as Saddam. So they'll have to wait their turn.
North Korea also can't be ignored. Oh, and Putin in Russia sure isn't an upstanding member of the democratic club. Hell, China isn't either (look at what they are doing to Tibet). Ok, how about Cuba? Taking out those countries is a bit too complicated, huh?
Yes, let's invade Russia and China! What a wonderful idea!
Cuba, though, Cuba we could do.
Oh, and the actual number of US soldiers dead is more like 5000, not 1700 (if you are on a plane out of Iraq to a hospital in Germany and you die, then you didn't die in Iraq).
Nope. That is entirely false.
The WMDs was war story 1.0, and now war story 2.0 is democracy for Iraq. The Iraq war is completely, and totally, an unjustified war for some of America's interests.
Entirely false again. Democracy for Iraq was always one of the key reasons for the invasion. That you weren't paying attention is nobody's fault but your own.
But you appear to be speaking for "our lives", which must mean you are including me -- so, tell me how the fact that I have been sickly all my life and that my parents never purchased insurance and that now I am an adult I am ineligible for appropriate insurance means that I should be praising Rand and Smith rather than Marx and Bevan.
You have a sucky life. That's beside the point.
Marx is still wrong. Communism still murdered a hundred million people. Socialism still sends countries into spirals of bankruptcy.
Look, this is how it works:
Socialism tries to take the pie (the economy) and spread it around as evenly as possible. Communism is just the same, except it shoots anyone who disagrees.
Capitalism concentrates on making more pie. Capitalism isn't fair. It's not about fairness. It's about pie.
Under Capitalism, almost everyone ends up with more pie every year. Some people lose out; that's why every capitalist country has some sort of welfare program.
Under Socialism, almost everyone ends up with less pie every year, and eventually the country collapses.
And that happens every time, in every nation that Socialism has been implemented. The only difference is how long it takes.
I have sympathy for your disability, and respect your efforts to overcome it. But economically, Socialism is pure poison.
You pathetic clown, Communism was Marx's idea in the first place. The 20th century proved that Marxism leads inevitably to "that inhuman disregard for human rights". 100 million people died to prove Marx wrong.
Capitalism, on the other hand, has done more to improve our lives than any other idea since the discovery of fire.
Why are all the major chip makers in Taiwan, Japan and America ALL concentrated in areas with high tectonic activity? Is there something in the fault line they use in the production line?
Hellmouth.
Chips run on magic smoke, and you need demons to get the smoke.
I get tired of the constant liberal hysteria. "Hey - they criticised something I like! Censorship! Fascists! Religion! Church and state! Separation of powers! Ack! Pfft!"
The American government hasn't collapsed in total disorder twelve times in the past two hundred years either. France is on its fifth republic now, ignoring the various monarchies, empires, dictatorships, occupation governments and anarchies that have intervened.
The process deposits carbon on a surface, so the thickness grows at 100 micrometres per hours. The area of the surface is presumably limited by some other factors, but it clearly allows for a diameter of at least half an inch.
Oh, and a carat is 0.2 grams. It's okay, you were only out by three orders of magnitude... I work out a half-inch sphere at about 15 carats if your density figure is right. (Checks.) Or about 18 carats based on a figure of 3.5, which is what Google coughed up.
Just an addendum to that: In another post I described Sgrena as "unreliable", which is more charitable. Lying implies intent to deceive; it is quite possible that she was just confused about the situation, which is understandable.
Having said that, she is clearly unreliable as a witness.
That was reported by CBS - apparently the car was travelling at 60MPH. Has anyone seen details confirming this? I mean, far be it from me to question the accuracy of CBS (cough, cough), but raw data is always nice.
I don't know. But she is lying, about at least some of the details.
The car was not fired upon by a tank. The car was not hit by several hundred rounds of machine-gun fire. In either case she would not be around to make statements of any kind.
What would the killers gain by lying, knowing that a huge amount of people will believe them simply because it's the "US"?
Cough. Isn't that, like, backwards?
I don't know the whole truth of the matter, obviously. But we know for certain that Sgrena has lied about it, and we have no evidence that the U.S. military has lied. Calipari could have given us the full story; unfortunately, he's dead.
Has the driver actually made a statement? Sgrena herself is clearly unreliable, having made numerous claims that are provably false (that the car was fired upon by a tank, for example).
The US government has for a long time, and this adiminstration in particular, classified things reflexively, whether secrecy was actually required or not.
I don't think the present administration is any worse than prior ones. In fact, recent administrations have been rather better than those of, say, the 50's through the 70's.
But you're right that the first response is all too often to stamp everything "Destroy Before Reading".
Well, according to Sgrena, the car was fired upon by a tank. Or possibly several hundred rounds of machine-gun fire. She's made both claims.
Calipari was, apparently, experienced in this sort of thing, making it strange that this happened. It's clear that the U.S. forces weren't properly informed of the Italian actions, but even so, he should have known how to deal with a roadblock.
Sgrena doesn't help matters by changing her story every ten minutes.
The RIAA has no standing in the Netherlands. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. This is entirely Dutch-generated idiocy. What, you thought only America had idiots? Well, surprise! All the world has idiots, and with plenty to spare!
By the way, the last A stands for Arseholes. The first A, maybe Avaricious.
Slashdot Mirror
Right. London got through the Blitz with its spirit intact, and that was far worse than this, day after day.
But know that America and Australia are with you, allies and friends, no matter how tough it gets.
Population growth in poor and developing nations (and the word "developing" is unfortunately only used out of political correctness) is out of control and is at a dangerous tipping point where we could conceivably see mass famines (as in 'millions dead') any year where drought, blight or oppression get ugly.
Fortunately, this is wrong.
First, population growth is slowing almost everywhere, and world population looks set to peak during this century at nine to ten billion. Crowded, yes, but not disastrous.
Second, there is more than enough food for everyone. Famine in the modern world is invariably political. People don't die from crop failure, they die when their governments (or rebels/bandits/warlords/whatever) prevent aid from reaching them.
Literacy is improving, and poverty is in decline in most countries. Much of Africa is still a festering shithole, but most of the rest of the world is doing okay.
Yes, the author of the article is wrong, but this isn't why.
Iraq's nuclear program was pretty much stalled already. Libya's was moving ahead until Gadaffi voluntarily dismanted it. Iran's still is.
Soooo what you're saying is that we don't have to do anything in Sudan? Because that's the UN's problem? And the UN is bad, so we don't have to do anything in Sudan?
No. What he's saying is that we should be doing something in Sudan, but the UN's response proves that the UN is worse than useless and we might as well close it down.
You say we have to fix the Middle East. Why not Saudia Arabia?
The Saudis are completely corrupt and oppressive, but not as brutal as Saddam. So they'll have to wait their turn.
North Korea also can't be ignored. Oh, and Putin in Russia sure isn't an upstanding member of the democratic club. Hell, China isn't either (look at what they are doing to Tibet). Ok, how about Cuba?
Taking out those countries is a bit too complicated, huh?
Yes, let's invade Russia and China! What a wonderful idea!
Cuba, though, Cuba we could do.
Oh, and the actual number of US soldiers dead is more like 5000, not 1700 (if you are on a plane out of Iraq to a hospital in Germany and you die, then you didn't die in Iraq).
Nope. That is entirely false.
The WMDs was war story 1.0, and now war story 2.0 is democracy for Iraq. The Iraq war is completely, and totally, an unjustified war for some of America's interests.
Entirely false again. Democracy for Iraq was always one of the key reasons for the invasion. That you weren't paying attention is nobody's fault but your own.
But you appear to be speaking for "our lives", which must mean you are including me -- so, tell me how the fact that I have been sickly all my life and that my parents never purchased insurance and that now I am an adult I am ineligible for appropriate insurance means that I should be praising Rand and Smith rather than Marx and Bevan.
You have a sucky life. That's beside the point.
Marx is still wrong. Communism still murdered a hundred million people. Socialism still sends countries into spirals of bankruptcy.
Look, this is how it works:
Socialism tries to take the pie (the economy) and spread it around as evenly as possible. Communism is just the same, except it shoots anyone who disagrees.
Capitalism concentrates on making more pie. Capitalism isn't fair. It's not about fairness. It's about pie.
Under Capitalism, almost everyone ends up with more pie every year. Some people lose out; that's why every capitalist country has some sort of welfare program.
Under Socialism, almost everyone ends up with less pie every year, and eventually the country collapses.
And that happens every time, in every nation that Socialism has been implemented. The only difference is how long it takes.
I have sympathy for your disability, and respect your efforts to overcome it. But economically, Socialism is pure poison.
You pathetic clown, Communism was Marx's idea in the first place. The 20th century proved that Marxism leads inevitably to "that inhuman disregard for human rights". 100 million people died to prove Marx wrong.
Capitalism, on the other hand, has done more to improve our lives than any other idea since the discovery of fire.
Why are all the major chip makers in Taiwan, Japan and America ALL concentrated in areas with high tectonic activity? Is there something in the fault line they use in the production line?
Hellmouth.
Chips run on magic smoke, and you need demons to get the smoke.
Or am attributing to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity?
That's Hanlon's Razor.
Hanlon's Law is: Never underestimate the damage that can be caused by malicious idiots.
Thank you.
I get tired of the constant liberal hysteria. "Hey - they criticised something I like! Censorship! Fascists! Religion! Church and state! Separation of powers! Ack! Pfft!"
The American government hasn't collapsed in total disorder twelve times in the past two hundred years either. France is on its fifth republic now, ignoring the various monarchies, empires, dictatorships, occupation governments and anarchies that have intervened.
"Beware of bugs in the above code. I have only proven it correct, not tested it" -- Knuth
Americans didn't invent the freedom, the French did.
Oh sure, on paper.
But in the real world, the French version shipped 16 years late, was full of bugs, and support had to be outsorced to Corsica.
A dozen platform changes later, the French are running Freedom 5.0 and it still doesn't work properly.
Meanwhile, America gets by on Freedom 1.0.27. Admittedly, the last patch took two hundred years to roll out...
The process deposits carbon on a surface, so the thickness grows at 100 micrometres per hours. The area of the surface is presumably limited by some other factors, but it clearly allows for a diameter of at least half an inch.
Oh, and a carat is 0.2 grams. It's okay, you were only out by three orders of magnitude... I work out a half-inch sphere at about 15 carats if your density figure is right. (Checks.) Or about 18 carats based on a figure of 3.5, which is what Google coughed up.
China has come a long way toward democracy lately. You sure can't compare them to North Korea.
While this is true, "not as bad as North Korea" isn't much of an endorsement. North Korea is the most benighted country on Earth. Literally.
Tanks being fired, several hundred rounds, and "the kidnapers said the Americans would try to kill me" goes a bit beyond being "confused".
;)
Well, okay. She could be lying, or she could be crazy.
Just an addendum to that: In another post I described Sgrena as "unreliable", which is more charitable. Lying implies intent to deceive; it is quite possible that she was just confused about the situation, which is understandable.
Having said that, she is clearly unreliable as a witness.
That was reported by CBS - apparently the car was travelling at 60MPH. Has anyone seen details confirming this? I mean, far be it from me to question the accuracy of CBS (cough, cough), but raw data is always nice.
And what could she be gaining by lying?
I don't know. But she is lying, about at least some of the details.
The car was not fired upon by a tank. The car was not hit by several hundred rounds of machine-gun fire. In either case she would not be around to make statements of any kind.
What would the killers gain by lying, knowing that a huge amount of people will believe them simply because it's the "US"?
Cough. Isn't that, like, backwards?
I don't know the whole truth of the matter, obviously. But we know for certain that Sgrena has lied about it, and we have no evidence that the U.S. military has lied. Calipari could have given us the full story; unfortunately, he's dead.
I wonder if people can really be this stupid.
As someone older (probably) and wiser (debatable), let me put your worries to rest.
Yes, people can really be that stupid. That much, and more.
Has the driver actually made a statement? Sgrena herself is clearly unreliable, having made numerous claims that are provably false (that the car was fired upon by a tank, for example).
The US government has for a long time, and this adiminstration in particular, classified things reflexively, whether secrecy was actually required or not.
I don't think the present administration is any worse than prior ones. In fact, recent administrations have been rather better than those of, say, the 50's through the 70's.
But you're right that the first response is all too often to stamp everything "Destroy Before Reading".
Well, according to Sgrena, the car was fired upon by a tank. Or possibly several hundred rounds of machine-gun fire. She's made both claims.
Calipari was, apparently, experienced in this sort of thing, making it strange that this happened. It's clear that the U.S. forces weren't properly informed of the Italian actions, but even so, he should have known how to deal with a roadblock.
Sgrena doesn't help matters by changing her story every ten minutes.
Which point? The blame-America point or the blame-the-corporations point?
The RIAA has no standing in the Netherlands. None. Zero. Zip. Zilch. This is entirely Dutch-generated idiocy. What, you thought only America had idiots? Well, surprise! All the world has idiots, and with plenty to spare!
By the way, the last A stands for Arseholes. The first A, maybe Avaricious.
I wondered how long it would take for someone to blame America.
One minute. Pretty good, but not championship level.