Child pornography in the US defined as anyone under the age of 18. Though most of the sick fucks who get off on child porn tend to concentrate of kids much younger than that.
"Paranoid bullshit" No it is not. While there might be algorithms and methods that are near to impossible of being compromised the average user does not have access to it. I think it's time for people to realize that the military, NSA,CIA, and even the FBI IT departments are staffed by some of the most talented IT specialist in the world with access to some of the most advanced technology on the planet.
A judge in the US was tasked to define pornography and he couldn't come up with a definition other than "I'll know it when I see it". The only thing people do universally agree on is child pornography.
My response was over the top but I am just frustrated when I hear people complaining about losing thier rights. Political and societal rights do not include software rights. I have yet to see any supporting evidence that that the rights specified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being ed. Freedom of speech is intact, justice system rights are still in force, and even the right to bare arms is still in place. The one argument I always here concerning freedom of speech revolves around the government defining "free speech zones" in certain situations. Those protesting for Freedom of Speech never seem to acknowledge the very real security concerns when allowing large groups of protesters to get close to the President and other high placed politicians in public. Protest permits also exist so the civil authorities can plan ahead for protests that have the capability to disrupt civil behavior. In addition the Freedom of Speech has never been absolute. Software choices are not civil rights. I have never seen a public demonstration about the proper uses of C++, run time engines, or OS platforms.
"I don't agree. I know many people who don't feel they have any choice in office software - it's Microsoft Office."
This is the most moronic statement I have seen on this site in a while and that really takes some doing. Don't like Office? Use Open Office? Don't like that write your own fucking software. Software enslaves no one. There is nothing stopping you form developing your own software. No government raids or corporate security officers are going to be raiding your house because you are writing you own word processor. People carping about their "human rights" today are just saying I want to do anything I want to which usually results in anarchy which is OK with me. I take full advantage of my 2nd amendment rights so when the time comes I can offer a counter point to your bullshit and then crow about my "rights". And unlike software rights my 2nd amendment rights are actually defined quite clearly in the Bill of Rights with little room for misunderstanding.
Laser targeting tech has been available for a while but it's use was limited because the aircraft and missile guidance tech capable of taking advantage of this was limited. Even in the first Iraq War the US guided munitions only represented about 10% of total expended air deployed munitions because the missiles and bombs were in relatively short supply. Guided missiles made for good TV but they were not the dominating factor. As far as being old enough to render an opinion I was alive when the Liberty attack occurred. Granted I was only 2 years old but I have seen a lot of what has occurred over my lifetime. The US Liberty was collecting intelligence in an active war zone and that comes with risk. They should have made more of an effort to inform the Israelis that they were there. Also it was not uncommon for militarises to identify themselves falsely and that was also a factor in the attack. If you were alive or have studied the Liberty incident you must know that at the time the US and Israel did not have the level of military and govermental cooperation that exist today. You cannot judge the actions during that time period using the viewpoints based on today's situational environment. The dynamics of international relationships were very different from what we see today.
Today all of the advanced militarises of the world kill people during combat and accept friendly fire incidents as a wartime risk and that description can also apply to the Liberty attack. Israel dropped the ball in the intelligence department and were caught by surprise in 73, They were fighting for their survival. They had no room to retreat, no allies, and disengagement at any level was impossible. Defeat would have seen the mass murder of the entire Israeli population and a lot of people in the world wouldn't have given a damn just like today. It was not an environment where Israel had time to analyze and fret over every decision before pulling the trigger. Had Egypt or Syria captured 30,000 Israeli soldiers in the Sinai I doubt anyone would have walked out of that desert alive. In comparison Israel supplied the captured soldiers with food and water until their government negotiated their release. Israel absorbed a large amount of casualties in the Golan and Egyptian attacks to buy time to mobilize and deploy their forces. They were taken by surprise by the SAM systems the USSR had supplied to Egypt and lost a lot of aircraft. They were also surprised by the Sanger guided wire anti-tank missile system and the night vision tech installed in both the tanks and distributed amongst the Arab infantry. At the time the Israelies only had might vision binoculars and they were not integrated in any of their weapon systems. By all rights Israel should have been defeated but the Arab military leaders couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Their level of incompetence was staggering and even today they have shown that they continue to carry on the same tradition when it comes to large force military engagements. The Syrians halted their Golan advance prematurely when they had over a 50 to 1 advantage in tank forces which allowed Israel reinforcements to arrive. The Egyptians didn't re-position their SAM batteries to cover their advancing infantry and suffered the consequences when their forces left the coverage area. US support arrived after the war had already been raging for almost 2 weeks and all they did is re-supply Israel with aircraft and ammunition but the US did not volunteer for this re-supply effort until Israel asked. There was no assumption that the US would automatically re-supply Israel in war and one of the main reasons the US did offer the re-supply was to counter the USSR involvement on the Arab side. However, not one American soldier or military asset engaged in the battle to protect the Israelis.
Today's animosity between Israel and the Arab world is not about land or Palestinians, it is about Arab pride and their non-ending attempt to rectify the situation. The Arabs were humiliated in 48,67, and 73 and it has left a gigantic
China's policies on rare earth elements have also caused the US to re-open their own mines which were closed due to environmental concerns and because it became cheaper to import the materials. The Australian discovery also limits China's attempts to use these elements to hold other countries hostage like they did when they temporarily stopped exporting these elements to Japan for political reasons. With China's increasing labor costs due to inflation and the emergence of other countries capable of providing low labor costs the Chinese are facing some problems.
No, The problem is that software is not in the same league as human rights and freedoms. Software choices don't kill or enslave people. Individuals developers have always had the right to publish their work any way they want regardless of any licensing. Stallman has been consistent but the problem is he has been a consistent asshole who thinks he is saving the world with his software development model. Of course he already has the financial resources that enable him to totally ignore how his theories effect those actually working for a living.
Not to the extent it was used in later conflicts. Operational laser targeting at the time required someone on the ground to tag the target for the attacking aircraft and this is still used today depending the type of aircraft involved in the attack. There is no way the US would intentionally and openly attack a Chinese embassy. There is nothing to gain by attacking a foreign embassy and the US refrains from this course of action because their embassies would then become fair game rendering the laws regarding neutrality of embassies meaningless. The Egyptian government refused to even take calls from Israel regarding the ongoing embassy attack until Obama got involved and made the call. The Syrians provided no security for the US embassy when it came under attack by the howling mobs and when confronted with the lack of security they had the temerity to say it was the US ambassadors fault that it happened. They eventually got around to providing security knowing that if they didn't the US would most likely have taken matters into their own hands. If the Iranian embassy attack and hostage situation in 1979 had happened today I assure you the situation would have been resolved in 24 hours even if it put the hostages at risk. The feckless Iranians today know the US would kill 100+ Iranians for every hostage killed and would also use the incident to undertake more extensive attacks. Just like Saddam Hussein they actually believe their military has the capability to engage the US in any meaningful way. The leaders in that region of the world are experts at spouting outright lies, ridiculous threats, and relentless bullshit even when they know the US could destroy them any time they wanted and I seriously doubt there would be any JAG officers issuing advice on the legality of the actions.
"the majority of people in this country actually have jobs where they earn livings."
Well Put! If a developer of any speciality can't get a job it is not caused by either the government or state of the economy. The National unemployment rate is fluctuating around 8-9% but the unemployment rate for developers sits around 3-4%. This small group of unemployed is usually caused by people unwilling to re-locate. Re-location is certainly a valid reason for turning down a job but never the less it does contribute to the 3-4% rate of unemployment.
The Chinese accidental incident was partly because at the time the Chinese embassy was generating more EM traffic than NASA puts out during the launch and operations of the Space Shuttle. In this era GPS or laser guided targeting didn't exist. This same type of incident also played a part in the Israeli targeting the US Liberty reconnaissance ship. The US did not explain why they were there in the first place. Israel did provide compensation for this incident but the US government at the time did not to make a big deal of it because they would would have had to revel why they there.
Even with all of Detroit's faults they did do a remarkable job making changes in their management style and engineering efforts back in the 80's when the Japanese auto industry was out performing them in both quality and innovations. When I was looking to buy my first car back then I did not even consider any US cars because they were blatantly inferior to what what Japan was offering at the time. Japan also manufactured their products in the US which also influenced my decision.
That's why I particularly said if we can't obtain it elsewhere (ie. Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos ) we could produce it domestically. None of these countries produce anything the US can not acquire domestically. The real game changer will be when the US can rid their dependence on foreign energy resources. When that happens most of the countries who produce nothing but oil better learn how to convert it into food if they want to survive. The countries you mentioned are also becoming China's competitors. Their trade surpluses have turned into trade deficits because of these new competitors. They are no longer the only ones who can produce cheap products due to low labor costs. Everyone is always saying that China is going to surpass the US economically but no one ever mentions that China has growing competition more than able to compete on labor cost. That is the one area that the US cannot compete in. And just for fun I want to mention that the US still has the largest world economy at 14+ trillion dollars a year and maintains a 4 trillion dollar lead on the country in 2nd place. And for those constantly complaining about the US manufacturing output should be reminded that the US is also still sitting at the top spot in that category as well. Will others eventually catch up in the future? Possibly. but there are a lot of factors involved. Those cheerleaders for China to surpass the US have always used best case scenarios when predicting future performance which usually produces less than accurate results. The US economy has it's own problems to deal with but the amount of pessimism directed at the US is unwarranted when compared against others.
China already ignores patents but if they actually did come out and say "go to hell" the very next day the US would slap tariffs and import fees on anything China imports and then go to other countries to buy the same crap China exports. People are fond of saying that China "owns" the US but in reality they only account for 6% of all outstanding bonds and certificates. And even in the worse case scenario of the US defaulting on their investments what are they going to do, send dunning notices and debt collectors? China does not invest in the US to be friendly they do it because it is a safe and reliable. China produces nothing the US can not obtain elsewhere or produce domestically if necessary and besides China's reliance on food imports from the US has increased by a factor of 5 over the past 6 years and shows no sign of decreasing. This is one factor that has already effected their trade balance. They have went from large surpluses to posting trade deficits in the past year.
I tend to get sloppy using my phone to make comments. I'm one of those who shuns text messaging on the premise that if I need to talk to someone I already have a phone in my hand that does not require typing. My miniature keyboard skills suck. The best I can hope for is that I can get my point across even with atrocious grammar and misspellings.
I don't know about the help desk situation but I have worked on a lot of development projects that had Indian nationals on the teams and they were not lacking neither intelligence or skill. I could be an anomaly because most of the Indians that come to the US have most probably demonstrated their abilities at home and go to the US for better paying jobs. This is especially noticeable when they are sponsored by the companies that end up working for. I have also been in situations where the sponsoring company actually facilitates green card process for those wanting to stay. This is not a cheap process and all the sponsoring companies require is that the developer agree to work with for the company for a set length of time to prevent paying for green card processing and then having the recipient bail whens it's complete. I have also surprisingly encountered this with Canadians. I once worked for a Canadian based consulting company that worked exclusively with US based companies and I was the only American on the payroll. And over 80% of those I worked with received their green cards. I remember the people I was working worrying about their work visa's and green cards and thinking to my self that "your Canadians what the hell do you need visa's for?". Intelligence is not dependent on geography. Intelligence is distributed equally across regions and races. The problem is that some of those intelligent people reside in countries where they do not have access to the necessary resources or resources to nurture their intelligence.
Those countries you mentioned might not allow religion to flourish in their countries but in the march towards globalization they do have to interact with other countries that do use religion to control their states which can cause conflicts. The USSR, China, North Korea, and Cambodia have indeed killed millions to subdue their citizens but I think it is important to realize that the "international community" have been willing to disregard these actions so their country relations are not effected. The world community has shown little interest in condemning these actions as long as they don't interfere with their foreign policies. IN current events this lack of criticism and the precedents it creates has opened the door for Israel to forcibly rid their country of Palestinians using extreme measures without any fear of real consequences and any military retaliation is limited due to Israels nuclear deterrence. After all it's always easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission and the world can scream bloody murder but the chance violent reprisals from others is minimal.
Religion might not be particularly evil if you tend to ignore things like the Spanish Inquisition or the Muslim practitioners who justify their actions using religion. And I am not talking about Muslims in general just the tiny percentage who have successfully put all of the other Muslims in danger. The Holy Wars in Europe might also be described a evil, and this includes both the Christians and Muslims of that era. Using religion as the basis in administrating entire countries is debilitating and dangerous. Combining Church and State to rule countries is debilitating in the extreme when it comes to relationships between different states. Globalization and International relations are handicapped and put at risk when this happens.
Just like a criminal trial any civil rights lawsuit can also be decided by a jury. A jury that can be vetted by the defense lawyers. These people are so over the top you could never find a jury willing to decide for the plaintive. It might be what's referred to as jury nullification but there are plenty of precedents for this type of action.
Killing and burning churches are a little extreme. Instead a good non-fatal, weaponless ass kicking would be a much better approach. Sure you will get arrested and probably detained for processing a few hours but then you can contest the charge in front of a jury. Remember your lawyer gets a hand in choosing the jury so objecting to people with similar religious beliefs would be a valid and legally supportable action. The chance of being convicted would be practically nil. Especially in those cases where they protest at military funerals.
And here you have exposed the true conundrum about religion in the modern world. The rituals, superstitions, rules, edicts, and admonishments are all 100% human creations. True religious belief is about faith and true faith can only exist within the individual. Acquiring true faith is not a group or team activity. If there is really a God, and I am keeping an open mind, I believe he, she, or it would not be very happy with the things perpetrated in his name. And another thing that puzzels me is when people claim to be God's warrior. If there is a all knowing God I seriously doubt he would need any help from humans to take care of the problem.
Software can exist under the "open source ethos" because people have figured out how to make a profit that doesn't rely on maintaining tight control over their proprietary source code. Of course individuals are free to participate in the open source arena for their own reasons that don't necessarily involve profiting monetarily but the main players in the real world tend to look at things a little differently. New energy platforms, pharmaceuticals, or other advances that require creating new or modifying existing physical components are in a different category. Anyone with access to the means to create new software can do so with relatively small upfront costs when compared against the type of investment needed to design, create, and test anything new that requires creating or purchasing the necessary physical components required to advance their new ideas. Advances in software systems and computer science in general can require creating new CPUs, circuit boards, or other related hardware items that the average man on the street can not realistically produce. In these instances the creator of the new idea usually needs to market their idea to others who do have the ability to provide the non-software related components. Even independent researchers usually depend on outside financial support whether it be from the private sector or the government. However, those who provide this financial support usually like to at least recoup their investment even if profits are not feasible. Too many failures tend to make it harder to get outside research financial support in the future except for governments who have made wasting money a virtual art form.
Slashdot Mirror
Child pornography in the US defined as anyone under the age of 18. Though most of the sick fucks who get off on child porn tend to concentrate of kids much younger than that.
"Paranoid bullshit" No it is not. While there might be algorithms and methods that are near to impossible of being compromised the average user does not have access to it. I think it's time for people to realize that the military, NSA,CIA, and even the FBI IT departments are staffed by some of the most talented IT specialist in the world with access to some of the most advanced technology on the planet.
"9/11 hijackers " How in the hell did they find his hand to do this test?
A judge in the US was tasked to define pornography and he couldn't come up with a definition other than "I'll know it when I see it". The only thing people do universally agree on is child pornography.
My response was over the top but I am just frustrated when I hear people complaining about losing thier rights. Political and societal rights do not include software rights. I have yet to see any supporting evidence that that the rights specified in the Constitution and Bill of Rights are being ed. Freedom of speech is intact, justice system rights are still in force, and even the right to bare arms is still in place. The one argument I always here concerning freedom of speech revolves around the government defining "free speech zones" in certain situations. Those protesting for Freedom of Speech never seem to acknowledge the very real security concerns when allowing large groups of protesters to get close to the President and other high placed politicians in public. Protest permits also exist so the civil authorities can plan ahead for protests that have the capability to disrupt civil behavior. In addition the Freedom of Speech has never been absolute. Software choices are not civil rights. I have never seen a public demonstration about the proper uses of C++, run time engines, or OS platforms.
"I don't agree. I know many people who don't feel they have any choice in office software - it's Microsoft Office." This is the most moronic statement I have seen on this site in a while and that really takes some doing. Don't like Office? Use Open Office? Don't like that write your own fucking software. Software enslaves no one. There is nothing stopping you form developing your own software. No government raids or corporate security officers are going to be raiding your house because you are writing you own word processor. People carping about their "human rights" today are just saying I want to do anything I want to which usually results in anarchy which is OK with me. I take full advantage of my 2nd amendment rights so when the time comes I can offer a counter point to your bullshit and then crow about my "rights". And unlike software rights my 2nd amendment rights are actually defined quite clearly in the Bill of Rights with little room for misunderstanding.
Laser targeting tech has been available for a while but it's use was limited because the aircraft and missile guidance tech capable of taking advantage of this was limited. Even in the first Iraq War the US guided munitions only represented about 10% of total expended air deployed munitions because the missiles and bombs were in relatively short supply. Guided missiles made for good TV but they were not the dominating factor. As far as being old enough to render an opinion I was alive when the Liberty attack occurred. Granted I was only 2 years old but I have seen a lot of what has occurred over my lifetime. The US Liberty was collecting intelligence in an active war zone and that comes with risk. They should have made more of an effort to inform the Israelis that they were there. Also it was not uncommon for militarises to identify themselves falsely and that was also a factor in the attack. If you were alive or have studied the Liberty incident you must know that at the time the US and Israel did not have the level of military and govermental cooperation that exist today. You cannot judge the actions during that time period using the viewpoints based on today's situational environment. The dynamics of international relationships were very different from what we see today. Today all of the advanced militarises of the world kill people during combat and accept friendly fire incidents as a wartime risk and that description can also apply to the Liberty attack. Israel dropped the ball in the intelligence department and were caught by surprise in 73, They were fighting for their survival. They had no room to retreat, no allies, and disengagement at any level was impossible. Defeat would have seen the mass murder of the entire Israeli population and a lot of people in the world wouldn't have given a damn just like today. It was not an environment where Israel had time to analyze and fret over every decision before pulling the trigger. Had Egypt or Syria captured 30,000 Israeli soldiers in the Sinai I doubt anyone would have walked out of that desert alive. In comparison Israel supplied the captured soldiers with food and water until their government negotiated their release. Israel absorbed a large amount of casualties in the Golan and Egyptian attacks to buy time to mobilize and deploy their forces. They were taken by surprise by the SAM systems the USSR had supplied to Egypt and lost a lot of aircraft. They were also surprised by the Sanger guided wire anti-tank missile system and the night vision tech installed in both the tanks and distributed amongst the Arab infantry. At the time the Israelies only had might vision binoculars and they were not integrated in any of their weapon systems. By all rights Israel should have been defeated but the Arab military leaders couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag. Their level of incompetence was staggering and even today they have shown that they continue to carry on the same tradition when it comes to large force military engagements. The Syrians halted their Golan advance prematurely when they had over a 50 to 1 advantage in tank forces which allowed Israel reinforcements to arrive. The Egyptians didn't re-position their SAM batteries to cover their advancing infantry and suffered the consequences when their forces left the coverage area. US support arrived after the war had already been raging for almost 2 weeks and all they did is re-supply Israel with aircraft and ammunition but the US did not volunteer for this re-supply effort until Israel asked. There was no assumption that the US would automatically re-supply Israel in war and one of the main reasons the US did offer the re-supply was to counter the USSR involvement on the Arab side. However, not one American soldier or military asset engaged in the battle to protect the Israelis. Today's animosity between Israel and the Arab world is not about land or Palestinians, it is about Arab pride and their non-ending attempt to rectify the situation. The Arabs were humiliated in 48,67, and 73 and it has left a gigantic
China's policies on rare earth elements have also caused the US to re-open their own mines which were closed due to environmental concerns and because it became cheaper to import the materials. The Australian discovery also limits China's attempts to use these elements to hold other countries hostage like they did when they temporarily stopped exporting these elements to Japan for political reasons. With China's increasing labor costs due to inflation and the emergence of other countries capable of providing low labor costs the Chinese are facing some problems.
No, The problem is that software is not in the same league as human rights and freedoms. Software choices don't kill or enslave people. Individuals developers have always had the right to publish their work any way they want regardless of any licensing. Stallman has been consistent but the problem is he has been a consistent asshole who thinks he is saving the world with his software development model. Of course he already has the financial resources that enable him to totally ignore how his theories effect those actually working for a living.
Not to the extent it was used in later conflicts. Operational laser targeting at the time required someone on the ground to tag the target for the attacking aircraft and this is still used today depending the type of aircraft involved in the attack. There is no way the US would intentionally and openly attack a Chinese embassy. There is nothing to gain by attacking a foreign embassy and the US refrains from this course of action because their embassies would then become fair game rendering the laws regarding neutrality of embassies meaningless. The Egyptian government refused to even take calls from Israel regarding the ongoing embassy attack until Obama got involved and made the call. The Syrians provided no security for the US embassy when it came under attack by the howling mobs and when confronted with the lack of security they had the temerity to say it was the US ambassadors fault that it happened. They eventually got around to providing security knowing that if they didn't the US would most likely have taken matters into their own hands. If the Iranian embassy attack and hostage situation in 1979 had happened today I assure you the situation would have been resolved in 24 hours even if it put the hostages at risk. The feckless Iranians today know the US would kill 100+ Iranians for every hostage killed and would also use the incident to undertake more extensive attacks. Just like Saddam Hussein they actually believe their military has the capability to engage the US in any meaningful way. The leaders in that region of the world are experts at spouting outright lies, ridiculous threats, and relentless bullshit even when they know the US could destroy them any time they wanted and I seriously doubt there would be any JAG officers issuing advice on the legality of the actions.
"the majority of people in this country actually have jobs where they earn livings." Well Put! If a developer of any speciality can't get a job it is not caused by either the government or state of the economy. The National unemployment rate is fluctuating around 8-9% but the unemployment rate for developers sits around 3-4%. This small group of unemployed is usually caused by people unwilling to re-locate. Re-location is certainly a valid reason for turning down a job but never the less it does contribute to the 3-4% rate of unemployment.
The Chinese accidental incident was partly because at the time the Chinese embassy was generating more EM traffic than NASA puts out during the launch and operations of the Space Shuttle. In this era GPS or laser guided targeting didn't exist. This same type of incident also played a part in the Israeli targeting the US Liberty reconnaissance ship. The US did not explain why they were there in the first place. Israel did provide compensation for this incident but the US government at the time did not to make a big deal of it because they would would have had to revel why they there.
Even with all of Detroit's faults they did do a remarkable job making changes in their management style and engineering efforts back in the 80's when the Japanese auto industry was out performing them in both quality and innovations. When I was looking to buy my first car back then I did not even consider any US cars because they were blatantly inferior to what what Japan was offering at the time. Japan also manufactured their products in the US which also influenced my decision.
If nobody has ever thought about it before how could there be a patent.
That's why I particularly said if we can't obtain it elsewhere (ie. Vietnam, Cambodia, or Laos ) we could produce it domestically. None of these countries produce anything the US can not acquire domestically. The real game changer will be when the US can rid their dependence on foreign energy resources. When that happens most of the countries who produce nothing but oil better learn how to convert it into food if they want to survive. The countries you mentioned are also becoming China's competitors. Their trade surpluses have turned into trade deficits because of these new competitors. They are no longer the only ones who can produce cheap products due to low labor costs. Everyone is always saying that China is going to surpass the US economically but no one ever mentions that China has growing competition more than able to compete on labor cost. That is the one area that the US cannot compete in. And just for fun I want to mention that the US still has the largest world economy at 14+ trillion dollars a year and maintains a 4 trillion dollar lead on the country in 2nd place. And for those constantly complaining about the US manufacturing output should be reminded that the US is also still sitting at the top spot in that category as well. Will others eventually catch up in the future? Possibly. but there are a lot of factors involved. Those cheerleaders for China to surpass the US have always used best case scenarios when predicting future performance which usually produces less than accurate results. The US economy has it's own problems to deal with but the amount of pessimism directed at the US is unwarranted when compared against others.
China already ignores patents but if they actually did come out and say "go to hell" the very next day the US would slap tariffs and import fees on anything China imports and then go to other countries to buy the same crap China exports. People are fond of saying that China "owns" the US but in reality they only account for 6% of all outstanding bonds and certificates. And even in the worse case scenario of the US defaulting on their investments what are they going to do, send dunning notices and debt collectors? China does not invest in the US to be friendly they do it because it is a safe and reliable. China produces nothing the US can not obtain elsewhere or produce domestically if necessary and besides China's reliance on food imports from the US has increased by a factor of 5 over the past 6 years and shows no sign of decreasing. This is one factor that has already effected their trade balance. They have went from large surpluses to posting trade deficits in the past year.
I tend to get sloppy using my phone to make comments. I'm one of those who shuns text messaging on the premise that if I need to talk to someone I already have a phone in my hand that does not require typing. My miniature keyboard skills suck. The best I can hope for is that I can get my point across even with atrocious grammar and misspellings.
I don't know about the help desk situation but I have worked on a lot of development projects that had Indian nationals on the teams and they were not lacking neither intelligence or skill. I could be an anomaly because most of the Indians that come to the US have most probably demonstrated their abilities at home and go to the US for better paying jobs. This is especially noticeable when they are sponsored by the companies that end up working for. I have also been in situations where the sponsoring company actually facilitates green card process for those wanting to stay. This is not a cheap process and all the sponsoring companies require is that the developer agree to work with for the company for a set length of time to prevent paying for green card processing and then having the recipient bail whens it's complete. I have also surprisingly encountered this with Canadians. I once worked for a Canadian based consulting company that worked exclusively with US based companies and I was the only American on the payroll. And over 80% of those I worked with received their green cards. I remember the people I was working worrying about their work visa's and green cards and thinking to my self that "your Canadians what the hell do you need visa's for?". Intelligence is not dependent on geography. Intelligence is distributed equally across regions and races. The problem is that some of those intelligent people reside in countries where they do not have access to the necessary resources or resources to nurture their intelligence.
Those countries you mentioned might not allow religion to flourish in their countries but in the march towards globalization they do have to interact with other countries that do use religion to control their states which can cause conflicts. The USSR, China, North Korea, and Cambodia have indeed killed millions to subdue their citizens but I think it is important to realize that the "international community" have been willing to disregard these actions so their country relations are not effected. The world community has shown little interest in condemning these actions as long as they don't interfere with their foreign policies. IN current events this lack of criticism and the precedents it creates has opened the door for Israel to forcibly rid their country of Palestinians using extreme measures without any fear of real consequences and any military retaliation is limited due to Israels nuclear deterrence. After all it's always easier to ask for forgiveness instead of permission and the world can scream bloody murder but the chance violent reprisals from others is minimal.
Religion might not be particularly evil if you tend to ignore things like the Spanish Inquisition or the Muslim practitioners who justify their actions using religion. And I am not talking about Muslims in general just the tiny percentage who have successfully put all of the other Muslims in danger. The Holy Wars in Europe might also be described a evil, and this includes both the Christians and Muslims of that era. Using religion as the basis in administrating entire countries is debilitating and dangerous. Combining Church and State to rule countries is debilitating in the extreme when it comes to relationships between different states. Globalization and International relations are handicapped and put at risk when this happens.
Just like a criminal trial any civil rights lawsuit can also be decided by a jury. A jury that can be vetted by the defense lawyers. These people are so over the top you could never find a jury willing to decide for the plaintive. It might be what's referred to as jury nullification but there are plenty of precedents for this type of action.
Killing and burning churches are a little extreme. Instead a good non-fatal, weaponless ass kicking would be a much better approach. Sure you will get arrested and probably detained for processing a few hours but then you can contest the charge in front of a jury. Remember your lawyer gets a hand in choosing the jury so objecting to people with similar religious beliefs would be a valid and legally supportable action. The chance of being convicted would be practically nil. Especially in those cases where they protest at military funerals.
And here you have exposed the true conundrum about religion in the modern world. The rituals, superstitions, rules, edicts, and admonishments are all 100% human creations. True religious belief is about faith and true faith can only exist within the individual. Acquiring true faith is not a group or team activity. If there is really a God, and I am keeping an open mind, I believe he, she, or it would not be very happy with the things perpetrated in his name. And another thing that puzzels me is when people claim to be God's warrior. If there is a all knowing God I seriously doubt he would need any help from humans to take care of the problem.
Th one redeeming factor is that you can go to confession and admit your sins and then everything is A-OK with god. That's a gigantic loophole.
Software can exist under the "open source ethos" because people have figured out how to make a profit that doesn't rely on maintaining tight control over their proprietary source code. Of course individuals are free to participate in the open source arena for their own reasons that don't necessarily involve profiting monetarily but the main players in the real world tend to look at things a little differently. New energy platforms, pharmaceuticals, or other advances that require creating new or modifying existing physical components are in a different category. Anyone with access to the means to create new software can do so with relatively small upfront costs when compared against the type of investment needed to design, create, and test anything new that requires creating or purchasing the necessary physical components required to advance their new ideas. Advances in software systems and computer science in general can require creating new CPUs, circuit boards, or other related hardware items that the average man on the street can not realistically produce. In these instances the creator of the new idea usually needs to market their idea to others who do have the ability to provide the non-software related components. Even independent researchers usually depend on outside financial support whether it be from the private sector or the government. However, those who provide this financial support usually like to at least recoup their investment even if profits are not feasible. Too many failures tend to make it harder to get outside research financial support in the future except for governments who have made wasting money a virtual art form.