It's time the US quit getting suckered into cleaning up world messes. We can spend the money and human capital better here at home. We have poverty here that needs to be dealt with.
I applaud this sentiment. Do yourself a favor and focus your energy at home.
The EU (mainly France and Germany) wants to be a world power so let it pick up the burdens of that same ungrateful world. It can start with the recent tsunami victims. It is unlikely to outspend, in monetary and material support, the US. If it does, then bravo. The EU can move on to the next world mess. It never ends.
The EU countries' contribution combined exceeds $165 M with Spain and Denmark (highest contribution per capita) being especially forthcoming. Germany and Italy are also calling to grant debt relief to the affected countries and Italy was quick to suggest an extraordinary G8 summit to put this into action quickly.
The leadership vacuum that the US leaves will be filled. America really doesn't have to try to clean up everything by itself.
A grand aunt of mine lived in London at the time and it was very intriguing to listen to her recollections.
She told me that indeed the V1 was not that feared because you actually heard them coming. It was the V2 that truly terrorized the people, because they could kill you before you heard anything. In fact as soon as you heard the V2 you knew that you wouldn't be hit by it.
The ability of the V2 to kill without any warning sign and the fact that they were unstoppable made them most terrifying terror weapons.
So paying $50,000 to produce an inflicted cat is OK because everybody likes their steak? Who is hypocritical here?
The company who pioneered this technology obviously intends to grow the market. And these animals will suffer for no other reason then to make their owners feel better about their loss. When eating a steak I am at least still part of the food chain. Nevertheless, by all means, I encourage everybody to shop local at a farmers market or turn vegan. But that is completely off subject.
My point is: Do you really want the first commercially viable cloning venture to spawn yet another animal cruelty industry? As you pointed out we already have enough of those.
Very dubious ethics
on
Re-Pet a Reality
·
· Score: 1, Insightful
I am not all opposed to researching cloning, but I find the ethics of the lady who paid to get her tomcat cloned rather appalling.
The cloned pet will probably suffer from health problems like infamous Dolly did.
On the other hand how many animals could have been saved if this lady would have gotten another cat at her local pound and donated the $50000 to it?
It is hard for me to think of anything else more egoistical than subjecting your next pet to physical suffering just because you are too immature to handle the loss.
Thank you for this link. I already signed the Thank you Poland letter and I think it makes also a lot of sense to complaint to Brinkhorst for the sneaky and undemocratic way he wanted to get this through the Council.
Just a random thought, but if Europe would have been Islamic there probably would have never been a Holocaust. Islamic societies back then were fairly tolerant of jews.
The Polish politicians are most certainly ahead of Germany in more then one regard if they actually bother to listen to their electorate. The Green party only got my vote because they were the most enlightened party in regard of software patents and then their members of government just caved in. Pretty depressing and appalling performance. Thank god for Poland! Now there is another chance to stop the tide.
Per country I was less thinking of a national metric like
(country population) / (country land area)
rather than % of population living in urban areas. Were an urban area would be defined as cities were per city the measure
(city population) / (city land area)
is above a certain threshold (for sake of comparison we should chose this threshold so that all major US urban areas - NY, DC, Bay Area etc. - qualify).
It's not like I can produce a study that applies these metrics of the cuff, but I'd be surprised if it wouldn't show that in all major Asian countries a larger percentage of the population lives in densely populated city areas. Regarding Australia I wouldn't be surprised if this percentage is also higher than in the US.
I think you are overlooking one key factor that shapes human culture in surprisingly similar fashion: The level of urbanization. By and large the US is by its sheer size not a very urban society.
Tokyo and all the other Asian mega-cities on the other hand are as urban as you can get.
I think you misunderestimated me. I didn't mean to say that it couldn't be true. My unscientific logic goes like this:
It is true, ergo America is nuts (for letting it happen).
It is not true, ergo America is nuts (since enough people belive it to be true). In most other established democracies the sheer possibility that something like this could be true is pretty much ludicrous, ergo the rest of the civilized world is mostly sane but boring.
Not so the US of A. America is far more exciting. Call me a boring person, but sometimes I really prefer boring.
Like all good conspiracy stories it will be almost impossible to prove. It's the magic bullet all over again. I expect this to become American lore just like JFK's assassination conspiracies.
It is astounding to me that this country always manages to produce stuff like this. In my unscientific way it only leaves me to conclude that America is nuts - one way or another.
The benefit that nuclear energy brings in terms of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is not prohibited by the Kyoto Protocol. The construction of new nuclear power plants will contribute to meeting the targets of those countries that choose to continue with the nuclear option as a domestic energy supply source.
The Kyoto Protocol does, however, incorporate conditions that effectively exclude nuclear energy as an option for implementation under two of the three "flexibility mechanisms" that can be used, in addition to domestic action, by Annex I Parties2 to the UNFCCC to meet their commitments. The three mechanisms are: projects implemented jointly (Article 6), the clean development mechanism (CDM, Article 12), and trading of emission reduction units (Article 17). Restrictions on nuclear energy do not apply to emission trading.
This is not a valid reason for the US not to join this treaty. France for instance relies heavily on nuclear energy to meet the Kyoto requirements. The US could very well do the same if it choses to do so.
Well, spotted:) I post most of my stuff from my work Laptop. Unfortunately Windows still rules at work. Not being a native speaker I spell-check everything in Word (on my own machine I spell check with Star Office).
Nuclear energy is a viable option to meet the Kyoto criteria. So why again didn't the USA sign on? Kyoto would be one more lever to brow-beat the opposition to accept new reactors. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Disclaimer: I am not a huge fan of current nuclear reactor design, but the CO2 emission is more pressing than the nuclear waste disposal problem.
I strongly disagree. I understand that the audience for/. Has changed. But this is supposed to be news for nerds. If I would have to read through redundant information like this every time a story came up I'd think I'd abandon/. for technological news altogether.
A three second search for zope on Google will give you all the answers you need or a helpful poster will karmawhore for you if you are to lazy or inept to do it yourself. But don't have the editors waste the time of all the real nerds who actually have a clue.
In a two party system I really don't see how this could enter into the mainstream discourse - especially while a war is going on.
It even isn't much of an issue in German politics although there at least the Green party has a clue and the correct position as well as the advantage of being part of the governing coalition.
It seems that this issue is still considered too technical for most people to understand what it is actually about. I know I tried to explain this to my parents several times and - they are very intelligent people but they just don't care all that much. Hopefully now that my mother gets more computer literate she will get it eventually.
Just imagine trying to explain this issue in the debates for instance. Your audience is clueless and you have 5 minutes to explain why it matters. How would you go about it?
... is that he is truly a nerd. Small wonder that Michael has a problem with him. I felt the same way about it. Nevertheless, the best Pixar flick I've ever seen.
I had cigarette smoke and my pet peeve about Germany is that you have hardly any non-smoking areas in restaurants. If this catches on it is going to make my life much more pleasant.
There are many democracies out there that a far less corrupted and special interest driven then the US. There is no reason to accept the current state of affaires. It can most certainly be improved big time.
Slashdot Mirror
It's time the US quit getting suckered into cleaning up world messes. We can spend the money and human capital better here at home. We have poverty here that needs to be dealt with.
I applaud this sentiment. Do yourself a favor and focus your energy at home.
The EU (mainly France and Germany) wants to be a world power so let it pick up the burdens of that same ungrateful world. It can start with the recent tsunami victims. It is unlikely to outspend, in monetary and material support, the US. If it does, then bravo. The EU can move on to the next world mess. It never ends.
The EU will easily outspend the US in immediate disaster relief if the $35M is all that your government will muster. Germany and France alone already pledged $47.5 M
The EU countries' contribution combined exceeds $165 M with Spain and Denmark (highest contribution per capita) being especially forthcoming. Germany and Italy are also calling to grant debt relief to the affected countries and Italy was quick to suggest an extraordinary G8 summit to put this into action quickly.
The leadership vacuum that the US leaves will be filled. America really doesn't have to try to clean up everything by itself.
A grand aunt of mine lived in London at the time and it was very intriguing to listen to her recollections.
She told me that indeed the V1 was not that feared because you actually heard them coming. It was the V2 that truly terrorized the people, because they could kill you before you heard anything. In fact as soon as you heard the V2 you knew that you wouldn't be hit by it.
The ability of the V2 to kill without any warning sign and the fact that they were unstoppable made them most terrifying terror weapons.
So paying $50,000 to produce an inflicted cat is OK because everybody likes their steak? Who is hypocritical here?
The company who pioneered this technology obviously intends to grow the market. And these animals will suffer for no other reason then to make their owners feel better about their loss. When eating a steak I am at least still part of the food chain. Nevertheless, by all means, I encourage everybody to shop local at a farmers market or turn vegan. But that is completely off subject.
My point is: Do you really want the first commercially viable cloning venture to spawn yet another animal cruelty industry? As you pointed out we already have enough of those.
I am not all opposed to researching cloning, but I find the ethics of the lady who paid to get her tomcat cloned rather appalling.
The cloned pet will probably suffer from health problems like infamous Dolly did.
On the other hand how many animals could have been saved if this lady would have gotten another cat at her local pound and donated the $50000 to it?
It is hard for me to think of anything else more egoistical than subjecting your next pet to physical suffering just because you are too immature to handle the loss.
Thank you for this link. I already signed the Thank you Poland letter and I think it makes also a lot of sense to complaint to Brinkhorst for the sneaky and undemocratic way he wanted to get this through the Council.
Just a random thought, but if Europe would have been Islamic there probably would have never been a Holocaust. Islamic societies back then were fairly tolerant of jews.
The Polish politicians are most certainly ahead of Germany in more then one regard if they actually bother to listen to their electorate. The Green party only got my vote because they were the most enlightened party in regard of software patents and then their members of government just caved in. Pretty depressing and appalling performance. Thank god for Poland! Now there is another chance to stop the tide.
I was always happy to have Poland in the EU, but it's the 1st time that I am just ecstatic to have your country in the union :)
Yep, because China matters. Big time. Better get used to it.
Per country I was less thinking of a national metric like
(country population) / (country land area)
rather than % of population living in urban areas. Were an urban area would be defined as cities were per city the measure
(city population) / (city land area)
is above a certain threshold (for sake of comparison we should chose this threshold so that all major US urban areas - NY, DC, Bay Area etc. - qualify).
It's not like I can produce a study that applies these metrics of the cuff, but I'd be surprised if it wouldn't show that in all major Asian countries a larger percentage of the population lives in densely populated city areas. Regarding Australia I wouldn't be surprised if this percentage is also higher than in the US.
I think you are overlooking one key factor that shapes human culture in surprisingly similar fashion: The level of urbanization. By and large the US is by its sheer size not a very urban society.
Tokyo and all the other Asian mega-cities on the other hand are as urban as you can get.
It is true, ergo America is nuts (for letting it happen).
It is not true, ergo America is nuts (since enough people belive it to be true).
In most other established democracies the sheer possibility that something like this could be true is pretty much ludicrous, ergo the rest of the civilized world is mostly sane but boring.
Not so the US of A. America is far more exciting. Call me a boring person, but sometimes I really prefer boring.
Nicely written up here.
Like all good conspiracy stories it will be almost impossible to prove. It's the magic bullet all over again. I expect this to become American lore just like JFK's assassination conspiracies.
It is astounding to me that this country always manages to produce stuff like this. In my unscientific way it only leaves me to conclude that America is nuts - one way or another.
This is BS to quote from "Nuclear Energy and the Kyoto Protocol".
The benefit that nuclear energy brings in terms of reducing carbon dioxide emissions is not prohibited by the Kyoto Protocol. The construction of new nuclear power plants will contribute to meeting the targets of those countries that choose to continue with the nuclear option as a domestic energy supply source.
The Kyoto Protocol does, however, incorporate conditions that effectively exclude nuclear energy as an option for implementation under two of the three "flexibility mechanisms" that can be used, in addition to domestic action, by Annex I Parties2 to the UNFCCC to meet their commitments. The three mechanisms are: projects implemented jointly (Article 6), the clean development mechanism (CDM, Article 12), and trading of emission reduction units (Article 17). Restrictions on nuclear energy do not apply to emission trading.
This is not a valid reason for the US not to join this treaty. France for instance relies heavily on nuclear energy to meet the Kyoto requirements. The US could very well do the same if it choses to do so.
Well, spotted :) I post most of my stuff from my work Laptop. Unfortunately Windows still rules at work. Not being a native speaker I spell-check everything in Word (on my own machine I spell check with Star Office).
Nuclear energy is a viable option to meet the Kyoto criteria. So why again didn't the USA sign on? Kyoto would be one more lever to brow-beat the opposition to accept new reactors. Seems like a no-brainer to me.
Disclaimer: I am not a huge fan of current nuclear reactor design, but the CO2 emission is more pressing than the nuclear waste disposal problem.
I strongly disagree. I understand that the audience for /. Has changed. But this is supposed to be news for nerds. If I would have to read through redundant information like this every time a story came up I'd think I'd abandon /. for technological news altogether.
A three second search for zope on Google will give you all the answers you need or a helpful poster will karmawhore for you if you are to lazy or inept to do it yourself. But don't have the editors waste the time of all the real nerds who actually have a clue.
In a two party system I really don't see how this could enter into the mainstream discourse - especially while a war is going on.
It even isn't much of an issue in German politics although there at least the Green party has a clue and the correct position as well as the advantage of being part of the governing coalition.
It seems that this issue is still considered too technical for most people to understand what it is actually about. I know I tried to explain this to my parents several times and - they are very intelligent people but they just don't care all that much. Hopefully now that my mother gets more computer literate she will get it eventually.
Just imagine trying to explain this issue in the debates for instance. Your audience is clueless and you have 5 minutes to explain why it matters. How would you go about it?
... is that he is truly a nerd. Small wonder that Michael has a problem with him. I felt the same way about it. Nevertheless, the best Pixar flick I've ever seen.
... two years ago they just had to give me a call on their cell phone because they thought it was so cool that they could.
I was less thrilled just taking a shower. I guess it could have been worse i.e. in the middle of the night.
I had cigarette smoke and my pet peeve about Germany is that you have hardly any non-smoking areas in restaurants. If this catches on it is going to make my life much more pleasant.
I can accept this version:
Age: Your the early adopter and never updated and got stuck with Democracy 1.0
Size: The larger the installation the harder to switch to something new.
Still just sound like a bunch of excuses to me in order to stay complacent. And complacency can turn the spike into something much nastier.
Frankly, I fail to see how the age or size of the US democracy justifies being complacent about its current sorry state.
So if you are a comedian you have to be one 24/7? You never get any time off to just be a concerned citizen?
/. these days.
It is amazing what passes as insightfull on
There are many democracies out there that a far less corrupted and special interest driven then the US. There is no reason to accept the current state of affaires. It can most certainly be improved big time.