Yeah, because governments never did that type of stuff until the inception of the US and no other governments have done that stuff or do that stuff now.
If you're going to be anti-US, at least have the good sense to slam us for the things we do that every other government on earth doesn't do.
I'm not being anti-US, it's just that examining a lot of american history in detail reveals unflattering behaviour at the root of conflict.
One thing I don't believe any other government, or people, have done throughout history is to insist other governments should be more like their own and encouraging change with a very large military. Ironic the US gets along very well with Pakistan where the leader was installed by a coup, yet applauds the overthrow of democratically elected President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Clearly there are things said behind closed doors which would make such things appear logical, but the rest of the world notices and eyes the US warily.
Agreed. Didn't we help overthrow Guatemala or one of the Central American countries for bananas (literally) in the '50's. At lease we didn't threaten to invade. I wonder what that would cost. Exxon, Bechtel, Haliburton, any comments?
IIRC Guatemalan government was overthrown because the leadership was going to seize the land held by american fruit interests. I think it is closely associated with the phrase 'banana republic' as in a central american government favourable to United Fruit, Dole, etc.
The war in the Pacific, half of World War II, can be traced back to US meddling in relations between Britain and Japan during WW I. US businesses sought to colonise Japan in much the same way europe (though chiefly Britain) were carving up China.
Since the days of the Yankee Traders the US government has meddled in the politics of other nations to ensure access
to favourable trade for its merchants. It is said the American Revolution was more about expanding trade for businessmen
in the colonies which the crown sought to prevent. These days there are innumerable reports and accusations conflicts the US
finds itself embroiled in have at their very foundation the interests of american business interests. What next? Admiral Perry sailing
sailing into the North Sea, firing off a cannon and proclaiming he expects better treatment when he returns?
American politics and business still haven't got it that much of the rest of the world is more circumspect in it's dealings
where americans enter like barbarians and don't get why everyone is so upset.
Microsoft declined to comment on Kroes's claims, but an insider insisted that the company had not tried to influence discussions between the US government and the EC.
I don't expect Microsoft was directly behind this, but they sure have changed their stripes in the past ten years, from a
company which didn't believe in campaign contributions and lobbying in Washington DC. Though it does seem a stretch that with so
many corporations attempting to bend the ear of the US government they would take it upon themselves to do this independently.
I can't exactly picture joining a service entitled "Wallop", no matter how many friends I have on there...it sounds pretty painful!
Someone probably mumbled 'Wallet', which with the sale of extras could still wallop you painfully.
aigh! my credit card bill! i've been walloped!
I remember when many were willing, back in the day, to pay up to $12 an hour to be on Compuserve & GEnie, nattering away using their crude message boards. Perhapds some think that market still exists.
Personnaly I expect it to be paid for by lots of annoying ads, which is why I shun these communities anyway.
Don't you see? It's exclusive and you are on the outside.
You want to be on the inside, don't you? Lotsa fun in there. Bet it's better than whatever's going on behind the green door. Wow! Too bad you don't have an invite! Gosh, what you're missing out on.
they don't want millions of spambots creating accounts. (And if spambots DO create accounts, you have handy chains that you can use to ban them en masse.)
Still, you can guess there are people sitting in rooms, willing to defeat this scheme so they can include their pharma ads, pump & dumps and other schlock.
This is retarded. How many people are really going to pay for things that they can do for free on other sites that are well established.
You dummy! Can't you see it's exclusive! That's one of the world's best moustraps. Say something is exclusive and people will fall all over themselves (some more casually than others) to get at it.
Of course, this strategy only works a few times in brighter people. But I'm sure there's enough people in the world who would fall for the 'exclusive' bit to keep Wallop in the black.
Wallop brands itself as 'the exclusive social experience', and is technically a separate company,
a startup that's based on technologies developed by Microsoft Research. As far as revenues,
Wallop 'plans to sell graphics and other features people can use to decorate their personal profile pages'
Exclusive? I suppose the
old invite a friend to join thing is the barrier to keeping seedier people (like most slashdotters and OSS & Linux evangelists) out.
'Sell graphics and other features...' Hey, I've got an idea. Why not just build your own website and run a blog on it. Sounds cheaper and more exclusive.
'technologies developed by Microsoft Research' Does this mean there will be an endless parade of vulnerabilities and patches? That's what I associate
with their technologies, based upon a very well established track record. I see it features Flash on the home page. What happened to
Microsoft's alternative to that?
Late to yet another dance, Microsoft attempts once again to show they brought the best date. Not a bad looker, but just don't
ask about the white streaks in her hair and the bolt in her neck...
It's a computer, working under the Linux OS. It's a router. It's a DSL modem. It's also a telephone. All in one. Easy Gate will be available from November, the actual 'box' consists of: an Intel 852 GM, 6 ports USB 2.0, 512 Mb of RAM and 512 Mb of Flash memory."
I hope it's secure. I don't need SPAM from 500K new sources.
A win for Linux? Maybe encourage more mainstream plugin and webapp development? It's France and EU turf so it looks like a good thing on the surface.
I just ordered a new car stereo, after a couple idiots smashed my window and took off with my cruddy old one. One of the features is USB, another is iPod integration. I don't know if I'll get an iPod some day (when the prices drop considerably I might), but I picked out the model just in case I might.
This is about as welcome as buying a car and then getting home to see it feature prominently on the evening news for an urgent recall.
I have this urge to share my favorite (or, at least top 3) Slashdot post of all times:
Cor! I remember reading it the first time.
I dunno which is funnier, the post or me actually having met the kind of personality which would have been the user. A few times. One now owns and runs his father's chain of pharmacies. That was 25 years ago. Come to think of it... I wonder if he's behind any of the spam I get these days.
I AM SCUDER. I WANT PRIVILEDGE ACESS
Why do you need a privileged account?
BECAUSE I AM SCUDER AND I WILL WALE ON YOU IF YOU DON'T
You're crazy, who are you?
I'M THE BEST PROGRAMER ON THE SYSTEM
right...
I AM AND I'LL PROVE IT I'LL CRASH SYSTEM!!!
The sad thing is he was pretty good at writing spoof login programs and had several student account numbers and passwords. We eventually had to have the campus police escort him out of the building and ban him from the computer labs.
Before the advent of the BBS there were the precursors in the way of Message Systems back where I once lived. In the late 70's and early 80's, at the college there was Message System and at a local school district was something called NOOZ. Different styles, but ultimately the same result. Places users signed up for accounts, posted and read notices. Flamewars errupted, on such meaningful topics as Gun Control, what bands constituted Heavy Metal proper and whether music was better during republican or democratic administrations. Posters tended to be people taking a programming class, so it was similar in respect to USENET where the orignal posters tended to be other than mainstream.
There were no shortage of characters, from Tonto, the comic personality of a fellow to Justin Case a bit of an ultra-patriot. We devoted a nice little chunk of 1.5% of the system drive to these people and as a sys admin I made sure it was never threatened in the quest for space. (There was always space to be had somewhere, you just had to look hard enough.)
25 years later, I still have stacks of printouts in a box somewhere in a closet, messages from people I knew and didn't know. Some stuff I can still recall the context of, other bits are now arcane. Still, it was a good era and I miss it. Now any idiot can get on a blog/USENET/etc. and totally disrupt things.
Think of the students who pass out these linux friendly schools.
Yes. How many will actually have any kind of impact on develpment or purchasing?
Before you answer that, consider the same rule for the schools in your own community. How many students will actually have an impact on purchasing or development trends. All you need is one dumbshit who becomes an MBA who didn't do squat with computers in school making decisions because "Everyone Else Is Going This Way" and/or "A Free Admin Magazine, heavily advertised in by Microsoft/Oracle/Sybase, etc, recommends something closed source"
The reality is decisions rarely go the right way, and I've been spending the past three years fighting the stpid bastard who made some of these decisions, because this is what they used where he came from. Damn damn damn!
This is not to say India or any of the places these students land will behave the same, but the odds are they very well might. We should be cautiously optimistic, but wary.
Ah, such a beautiful troll. It accuses Zonk of racism and implicitly calls Linux second rate. Best of all, it's completely wrong. Oh, but there's more, a defense of the Mighty Morphing M$ Monopoly. It could only be better by invoking religion, BSD and abortion.
I've learned never to underestimate slashdot posters ability to get things completely wrong. Troll? Racism? Come on, dude, put your biases aside when you're visiting here, you'll find things are always as they seem to you.
When the government of India suggested a major push into open source to help the country support its own IT a few years ago Bill Gates immedately made a special trip to India to meet with officials. Microsoft is definitely afraid a small shift in such a large country will turn into a major loss.
IIRC Mr. Gates also, about that time, made a $300 M donation to fighting some malady in India. No connection to the decision, I'm certain!:o)
Hey, Zonk, what's strange about Linux in education and government? Or is it India you find strange? New to the adoption of
Linux by India topic are you?
The education ministries in most states, and in Delhi the federal ministries of defense, transport, communication, and health, are all using the software on server computers"
Also worth pointing out that this statement says "are all using the software on server computers", but doesn't say "all servers are using the software."
So it's like, "I see a tip of an ice berg, but I don't know how big it really is."
With 4,000 students and just 21 computers, the Cotton Hill Girls High School... The school is one of 2,600 in the state of Kerala making the shift. That means each of the state's 1.5 million high school students will grow accustomed to working not in the Windows environment familiar to computer users worldwide, but in Linux.
So that's, what? (21/4100) * 1,500,000 ~= 7,682 computers?
Not like it's going to make Microsoft sweat, but the comment from a student "Windows, never heard of it" might.
It sounds good, but it's not like Microsoft is going to suffer a lot for this.
..every banner I clicked on, I might have made may be a nickel. But the PTR thing gives a new meaning to that old phrase.
I'd probably have less. I don't click on banners, but that's probably because most of those I see are advertising something I (a) view as shoddy OR (b) have no use for anyway. I'm never going to click on one of those Mortgage ads, why would I ever even think of doing business over a large financial matter with point and click ad vendor? I want to see a face and know where to find someone when I'm dealing in tens or hundreds of thousands. Those graduate things, also aren't evey going to get a click, though mostly because (a) Anyone who was a friend from back then is still a friend AND (b) a friend paid to join the site and found it didn't work at all in the way he expected, in a way that made me question what the heck kind of business runs like that anyway (besides someone selling you knives that can cut through cans, but dull in the dishwasher.)
The few times I do click on ads is those promoted on Google which point to sites I want to see something on. Tough luck for one of the advertisers, last night, that their prices were much higher than I could find elsewhere, but I used their site for research.
Given the bandwidth of a cable (or any other broadband) connection I don't see why this should be surprising. Since a standard phone line needs to be upgraded for ADSL anyway, clearly the throughput with VoIP should be better than POTS.
The analog bandwidth of a landline is sufficient for decent quality anyway. The most limiting factor is the poor microphone and speaker used in most of these. I've had some great phone calls over VoIP where I couldn't understand what the blazes the other party was saying and it was mostly chalked up to them using some awful little wireless job which picks up interference from everywhere and vox clipping.
VoIP on Cable I fully expect to come in 5.1 audio at some point, why the heck not? You've got the bandwidth and then some. The question: does anyone ever really need this will be buried in the relentless pursuit of More Toys.
"Hello, this is sylvia" "mrs. blechman, this is the gas board. you are 3 months behind in your gas payments when can we expect a payment?"
(ulp) "HELLO? HELLO? Is there anyone there? HELLO?"
Looks like an easy way to get the phone itself. But what about a cell-phone service plan and provider or carrier or whatever they're called (like verizon, att, bellsouth, etc)? Do you get to choose that too? Or are you stuck with one you might not like by default?
Ah. That would probably be like the Disembowling one mentioned above.
Insert Arm Into Machine
Insert Leg Into Machine
You now have agreed to pay in advance for a standar 2 year service agreement
You will receive your arm and leg back at the end of 2 years
I mean really, is there any formal requirements for someone to hold office in most free countries? If so..what are they?
Sadly, there's no required intelligence component. If there were a test the major parties would insist upon making it "fair" which means the major parties would collude to ensure a turnip could pass.
Imagine a test which required some basic knowledge of a country or locality and some knowledge of current events, relevent leaders, etc. and having potential politicians having to take it and their scores and responses made public. Nope. Just like campaign reform, they'd fight it and put in loopholes all the way.
This guarantees even the least fit to govern who have charisma can get in high office.
One thing I do love about the British Parliament, a leader has to be able to think on his feet before his peers. Faulty reasoning can be exposed quickly, without the protection of an ivory tower and a bunch of speech writers.
A comedy that becomes less funny with repeated viewings?! I'm shocked. -_-'
I've found quite a few comedies are much funnier on later viewings as I pick up more humour than I did the first time. Spaceballs is full of great lines, but some of the comedy actors used I never really thought of as terribly funny to begin with.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, because governments never did that type of stuff until the inception of the US and no other governments have done that stuff or do that stuff now.
If you're going to be anti-US, at least have the good sense to slam us for the things we do that every other government on earth doesn't do.
I'm not being anti-US, it's just that examining a lot of american history in detail reveals unflattering behaviour at the root of conflict.
One thing I don't believe any other government, or people, have done throughout history is to insist other governments should be more like their own and encouraging change with a very large military. Ironic the US gets along very well with Pakistan where the leader was installed by a coup, yet applauds the overthrow of democratically elected President Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Clearly there are things said behind closed doors which would make such things appear logical, but the rest of the world notices and eyes the US warily.
Agreed. Didn't we help overthrow Guatemala or one of the Central American countries for bananas (literally) in the '50's. At lease we didn't threaten to invade. I wonder what that would cost. Exxon, Bechtel, Haliburton, any comments?
IIRC Guatemalan government was overthrown because the leadership was going to seize the land held by american fruit interests. I think it is closely associated with the phrase 'banana republic' as in a central american government favourable to United Fruit, Dole, etc.
The war in the Pacific, half of World War II, can be traced back to US meddling in relations between Britain and Japan during WW I. US businesses sought to colonise Japan in much the same way europe (though chiefly Britain) were carving up China.
Since the days of the Yankee Traders the US government has meddled in the politics of other nations to ensure access to favourable trade for its merchants. It is said the American Revolution was more about expanding trade for businessmen in the colonies which the crown sought to prevent. These days there are innumerable reports and accusations conflicts the US finds itself embroiled in have at their very foundation the interests of american business interests. What next? Admiral Perry sailing sailing into the North Sea, firing off a cannon and proclaiming he expects better treatment when he returns?
American politics and business still haven't got it that much of the rest of the world is more circumspect in it's dealings where americans enter like barbarians and don't get why everyone is so upset.
I don't expect Microsoft was directly behind this, but they sure have changed their stripes in the past ten years, from a company which didn't believe in campaign contributions and lobbying in Washington DC. Though it does seem a stretch that with so many corporations attempting to bend the ear of the US government they would take it upon themselves to do this independently.
I can't exactly picture joining a service entitled "Wallop", no matter how many friends I have on there...it sounds pretty painful!
Someone probably mumbled 'Wallet', which with the sale of extras could still wallop you painfully.
aigh! my credit card bill! i've been walloped!
I remember when many were willing, back in the day, to pay up to $12 an hour to be on Compuserve & GEnie, nattering away using their crude message boards. Perhapds some think that market still exists.
Personnaly I expect it to be paid for by lots of annoying ads, which is why I shun these communities anyway.
Nothing for you to see here. Please move along.
Don't you see? It's exclusive and you are on the outside.
You want to be on the inside, don't you? Lotsa fun in there. Bet it's better than whatever's going on behind the green door. Wow! Too bad you don't have an invite! Gosh, what you're missing out on.
they don't want millions of spambots creating accounts. (And if spambots DO create accounts, you have handy chains that you can use to ban them en masse.)
Still, you can guess there are people sitting in rooms, willing to defeat this scheme so they can include their pharma ads, pump & dumps and other schlock.
This is retarded. How many people are really going to pay for things that they can do for free on other sites that are well established.
You dummy! Can't you see it's exclusive! That's one of the world's best moustraps. Say something is exclusive and people will fall all over themselves (some more casually than others) to get at it.
Of course, this strategy only works a few times in brighter people. But I'm sure there's enough people in the world who would fall for the 'exclusive' bit to keep Wallop in the black.
Wallop brands itself as 'the exclusive social experience', and is technically a separate company, a startup that's based on technologies developed by Microsoft Research. As far as revenues, Wallop 'plans to sell graphics and other features people can use to decorate their personal profile pages'
Exclusive? I suppose the old invite a friend to join thing is the barrier to keeping seedier people (like most slashdotters and OSS & Linux evangelists) out.
'Sell graphics and other features ...' Hey, I've got an idea. Why not just build your own website and run a blog on it. Sounds cheaper and more exclusive.
'technologies developed by Microsoft Research' Does this mean there will be an endless parade of vulnerabilities and patches? That's what I associate with their technologies, based upon a very well established track record. I see it features Flash on the home page. What happened to Microsoft's alternative to that?
Late to yet another dance, Microsoft attempts once again to show they brought the best date. Not a bad looker, but just don't ask about the white streaks in her hair and the bolt in her neck...
in soviet russia invite wallops YOU!
It's a computer, working under the Linux OS. It's a router. It's a DSL modem. It's also a telephone. All in one. Easy Gate will be available from November, the actual 'box' consists of: an Intel 852 GM, 6 ports USB 2.0, 512 Mb of RAM and 512 Mb of Flash memory."
I hope it's secure. I don't need SPAM from 500K new sources.
A win for Linux? Maybe encourage more mainstream plugin and webapp development? It's France and EU turf so it looks like a good thing on the surface.
I just ordered a new car stereo, after a couple idiots smashed my window and took off with my cruddy old one. One of the features is USB, another is iPod integration. I don't know if I'll get an iPod some day (when the prices drop considerably I might), but I picked out the model just in case I might.
This is about as welcome as buying a car and then getting home to see it feature prominently on the evening news for an urgent recall.
I have this urge to share my favorite (or, at least top 3) Slashdot post of all times:
Cor! I remember reading it the first time.
I dunno which is funnier, the post or me actually having met the kind of personality which would have been the user. A few times. One now owns and runs his father's chain of pharmacies. That was 25 years ago. Come to think of it... I wonder if he's behind any of the spam I get these days.
I AM SCUDER. I WANT PRIVILEDGE ACESS
Why do you need a privileged account?
BECAUSE I AM SCUDER AND I WILL WALE ON YOU IF YOU DON'T
You're crazy, who are you?
I'M THE BEST PROGRAMER ON THE SYSTEM
right...
I AM AND I'LL PROVE IT I'LL CRASH SYSTEM!!!
The sad thing is he was pretty good at writing spoof login programs and had several student account numbers and passwords. We eventually had to have the campus police escort him out of the building and ban him from the computer labs.
Before the advent of the BBS there were the precursors in the way of Message Systems back where I once lived. In the late 70's and early 80's, at the college there was Message System and at a local school district was something called NOOZ. Different styles, but ultimately the same result. Places users signed up for accounts, posted and read notices. Flamewars errupted, on such meaningful topics as Gun Control, what bands constituted Heavy Metal proper and whether music was better during republican or democratic administrations. Posters tended to be people taking a programming class, so it was similar in respect to USENET where the orignal posters tended to be other than mainstream.
There were no shortage of characters, from Tonto, the comic personality of a fellow to Justin Case a bit of an ultra-patriot. We devoted a nice little chunk of 1.5% of the system drive to these people and as a sys admin I made sure it was never threatened in the quest for space. (There was always space to be had somewhere, you just had to look hard enough.)
25 years later, I still have stacks of printouts in a box somewhere in a closet, messages from people I knew and didn't know. Some stuff I can still recall the context of, other bits are now arcane. Still, it was a good era and I miss it. Now any idiot can get on a blog/USENET/etc. and totally disrupt things.
Everyone knows that Apple gained what power it had from its influence in education.
Then blew it because they didn't get Business on the bandwagon.
Great analogy until that point.
Think of the students who pass out these linux friendly schools.
Yes. How many will actually have any kind of impact on develpment or purchasing?
Before you answer that, consider the same rule for the schools in your own community. How many students will actually have an impact on purchasing or development trends. All you need is one dumbshit who becomes an MBA who didn't do squat with computers in school making decisions because "Everyone Else Is Going This Way" and/or "A Free Admin Magazine, heavily advertised in by Microsoft/Oracle/Sybase, etc, recommends something closed source"
The reality is decisions rarely go the right way, and I've been spending the past three years fighting the stpid bastard who made some of these decisions, because this is what they used where he came from. Damn damn damn!
This is not to say India or any of the places these students land will behave the same, but the odds are they very well might. We should be cautiously optimistic, but wary.
"New Robot Glides Through Intestines" Lucky robot :(
Must be high in fibre... fibre optics that is.
Isn't this story a dupe?>
Ah, such a beautiful troll. It accuses Zonk of racism and implicitly calls Linux second rate. Best of all, it's completely wrong. Oh, but there's more, a defense of the Mighty Morphing M$ Monopoly. It could only be better by invoking religion, BSD and abortion.
I've learned never to underestimate slashdot posters ability to get things completely wrong. Troll? Racism? Come on, dude, put your biases aside when you're visiting here, you'll find things are always as they seem to you.
When the government of India suggested a major push into open source to help the country support its own IT a few years ago Bill Gates immedately made a special trip to India to meet with officials. Microsoft is definitely afraid a small shift in such a large country will turn into a major loss.
IIRC Mr. Gates also, about that time, made a $300 M donation to fighting some malady in India. No connection to the decision, I'm certain! :o)
It also warms soup, and is great for reheating food.
Yep. "To the moon, Alice, and don't spare the popcorn!"
from the penguins-in-strange-places dept.
Hey, Zonk, what's strange about Linux in education and government? Or is it India you find strange? New to the adoption of Linux by India topic are you?
The education ministries in most states, and in Delhi the federal ministries of defense, transport, communication, and health, are all using the software on server computers"
Also worth pointing out that this statement says "are all using the software on server computers", but doesn't say "all servers are using the software."
So it's like, "I see a tip of an ice berg, but I don't know how big it really is."
So that's, what? (21/4100) * 1,500,000 ~= 7,682 computers?
Not like it's going to make Microsoft sweat, but the comment from a student "Windows, never heard of it" might.
It sounds good, but it's not like Microsoft is going to suffer a lot for this.
I'd probably have less. I don't click on banners, but that's probably because most of those I see are advertising something I (a) view as shoddy OR (b) have no use for anyway. I'm never going to click on one of those Mortgage ads, why would I ever even think of doing business over a large financial matter with point and click ad vendor? I want to see a face and know where to find someone when I'm dealing in tens or hundreds of thousands. Those graduate things, also aren't evey going to get a click, though mostly because (a) Anyone who was a friend from back then is still a friend AND (b) a friend paid to join the site and found it didn't work at all in the way he expected, in a way that made me question what the heck kind of business runs like that anyway (besides someone selling you knives that can cut through cans, but dull in the dishwasher.)
The few times I do click on ads is those promoted on Google which point to sites I want to see something on. Tough luck for one of the advertisers, last night, that their prices were much higher than I could find elsewhere, but I used their site for research.
Given the bandwidth of a cable (or any other broadband) connection I don't see why this should be surprising. Since a standard phone line needs to be upgraded for ADSL anyway, clearly the throughput with VoIP should be better than POTS.
The analog bandwidth of a landline is sufficient for decent quality anyway. The most limiting factor is the poor microphone and speaker used in most of these. I've had some great phone calls over VoIP where I couldn't understand what the blazes the other party was saying and it was mostly chalked up to them using some awful little wireless job which picks up interference from everywhere and vox clipping.VoIP on Cable I fully expect to come in 5.1 audio at some point, why the heck not? You've got the bandwidth and then some. The question: does anyone ever really need this will be buried in the relentless pursuit of More Toys.
"Hello, this is sylvia"
"mrs. blechman, this is the gas board. you are 3 months behind in your gas payments when can we expect a payment?"
(ulp) "HELLO? HELLO? Is there anyone there? HELLO?"
Looks like an easy way to get the phone itself. But what about a cell-phone service plan and provider or carrier or whatever they're called (like verizon, att, bellsouth, etc)? Do you get to choose that too? Or are you stuck with one you might not like by default?
Ah. That would probably be like the Disembowling one mentioned above.
That's much better than the prototype I saw, where the robot arm disembowels the customer and spills their entrails all over the linoleum.
That was the RIAA/MPAA sanctioned Entertainment Media Dispenser, with Genuine Lawyer Personality, wasn't it?
we swear it was only meant to extract a pound of flesh, the drm was written with our approval by microsoft...
I mean really, is there any formal requirements for someone to hold office in most free countries? If so..what are they?
Sadly, there's no required intelligence component. If there were a test the major parties would insist upon making it "fair" which means the major parties would collude to ensure a turnip could pass.
Imagine a test which required some basic knowledge of a country or locality and some knowledge of current events, relevent leaders, etc. and having potential politicians having to take it and their scores and responses made public. Nope. Just like campaign reform, they'd fight it and put in loopholes all the way.
This guarantees even the least fit to govern who have charisma can get in high office.
One thing I do love about the British Parliament, a leader has to be able to think on his feet before his peers. Faulty reasoning can be exposed quickly, without the protection of an ivory tower and a bunch of speech writers.
A comedy that becomes less funny with repeated viewings?! I'm shocked. -_-'
I've found quite a few comedies are much funnier on later viewings as I pick up more humour than I did the first time. Spaceballs is full of great lines, but some of the comedy actors used I never really thought of as terribly funny to begin with.