As a few others have commented, the biggest "bang for your buck" is probably to support outfits who help people in the developing world. Bootstrapping poverty-stricken but eager folk into the productive economy enables them to send their children to school. See Seeds for Development as an example of this type of organisation.
Cook was an enlightened captain, *generally* treating both is crew and the natives extremely well by the standards of the day. He extended our knowledge of several Pacific islands, especially New Zealand, charting them in great detail. However, their existence was generally already known about from the voyages of Ferdinand Magellan & Abel Tasman, so it's grossly unfair to blame Cook for any subsequent poor outcomes for natives in Australia & the Pacific.
Dumping didn't scupper US steel production; excess of supply over demand did. (When there's evidence that dumping is occurring, a countervailing duty is imposed.) US steel producers, with high overheads, can't cope with low prices. Suppliers in low wage economies can.
Yes, free trade enabled that, but it also lowered the cost of pretty much everything we buy. If the US closed itself off from free-trade, the ICs and electronics would still be made elsewhere in the world, and sold cheaply almost everywhere, but to buy those goods in the US would be expensive, and condemn the rest of the economy to uncompetitiveness. Look to the closed economies of the Soviet bloc to see how well *that* idea worked...
Adherents of any given religion generally want the freedom to practice *their* religion. Far fewer really care about freedom of religious choice for other people...
Nope. It's not capitalism that produces abundance, it's technology. First the low-skill professions were replaced, now technology is moving up the food chain...
When I've been working on an in-house application, *the* most effective way of understanding the bug is for the developer (me) to go and sit with the user while they demonstrate the problem. This helps with developer/user education too: "You're doing *what*? I never thought of that! It's much easier if you do this way..." Obviously, this only works if you're in roughly the same place, but spending a couple of minutes to go over there can save many times that in trying to decipher an unclear testcase, or weird enhancement request. Your users will appreciate the attention too...
The population density of the New World was incredibly low compared to Europe.
While the density was lower, the total population of the Americas might actually have been higher than Europe. Diseases introduced by early explorers and colonisers wiped out 95-98% of the native population [1]. If there was any intent in the introduction of disease, then "genocide" clearly applies.
By contrast, the Romans conquered and ruled Gaul; they didn't kill off 95% of the population.
Of course you're feeding a troll, with a further troll (as I am, I guess).
extradited for trial by a court run by the UN? Yes. If the US is so confident that its citizens' actions are justifiable, then let them be judged by international law. Refusal is just cowardice.
Oil for Food scandal? ... was the result of inadequately policed sanctions and corruption (allegedly involving US citizens among others). Sure the UN is responsible, in the same way a CEO is. But it is not an "organisation that brought us the... scandal".
put Libya on the human rights board? This, alas, was the democratic vote of the countries involved. Democracy doesn't always deliver the result you/I want. Consider (depending on your POV) a) Bill Clinton; and b) George W Bush.
stuck with a judge from the other side? So you don't believe judges try to be impartial then?
If a patent had been granted on the Command Line paradigm, it would have expired by now. Computing history would look rather different, but we'd be free of toggles & blinken lights.
Edison was stuck on the DC plan which doesn't transmit over distance very well.
At a given voltage, DC is more efficient for long distance than AC (lower transmission losses). However, Edison's DC, using low voltage and massive current, is less efficient than Tesla's high voltage AC.
AC is the best for delivery to the end user (because of transformers) -- which is why it appears at a socket near you:-)
On points 2-6 you're on reasonable ground. Such a shame that you precede it with bigotry. Most of my dozen eBay transactions have been trans-Atlantic, and none are the worse for it.
I snipe because I'm a cheap bastard and I hate getting into last-minute bid/counterbid wars over rare import games. I know it's a cheesy tactic, but it's not my fault if the current high bidder didn't set an appropriate max bid and I snipe, preventing him from re-bidding.
So in other words, you aren't willing to publicly set an appropriate max-bid either!
Communication difficulties aren't just one-way. I'm UK based, and I sometimes find exactly the same issues dealing with the US:
"I can fully explain something, but when I come back in the morning, I get e-mails of, "I don't understand", and "Please explain again", or they ask me a question that I already answered."
It's a lot easier when we're in the same office...
We had a similar thing happen to us in the pre-Regionals round (a model solution was wrong!). However, the judges subsequently recognised the problem and allowed us into the regionals (in the days before the South Pacific had its own region) -- which we won (end of 1990). Ahhh, the good old days...
The government has a long history of imposing tariffs on foreign sources of raw materials when they threaten the health of our domestic industries.
The government has a long history of imposing tariffs on foreign sources of raw materials when they threaten the interests of contributors to our campaign.
I have one, vintage 1995, with the separate backlit LCD settings display, not the later "onscreen" display. Until a couple of months ago, it was my first choice monitor. It got replaced by a NEC1760 TFT that cost almost exactly half what the CRT did.
Get out your crystal ball, and look forward to a time when the US is no longer the only significant power on this planet. Or perhaps to a time when the US is not even a significant power. It will come. Probably not this century, but history says it will come.
Do you want to have issues involving the US decided by who has the most power? In a manner that ignores the wishes of the US?
Or would you rather that there was a world body that could ensure that the US wasn't unreasonably treated? If so, let's start building a strong body now.
Slashdot Mirror
Looks to me as though the security guards have committed assault: http://yourlaws.ca/criminal-code-canada/265-assault
As a few others have commented, the biggest "bang for your buck" is probably to support outfits who help people in the developing world. Bootstrapping poverty-stricken but eager folk into the productive economy enables them to send their children to school. See Seeds for Development as an example of this type of organisation.
Disclaimer: I've met some of the founders of SFD.
Cook was an enlightened captain, *generally* treating both is crew and the natives extremely well by the standards of the day. He extended our knowledge of several Pacific islands, especially New Zealand, charting them in great detail. However, their existence was generally already known about from the voyages of Ferdinand Magellan & Abel Tasman, so it's grossly unfair to blame Cook for any subsequent poor outcomes for natives in Australia & the Pacific.
We already know what happens when you do that.
Dumping didn't scupper US steel production; excess of supply over demand did. (When there's evidence that dumping is occurring, a countervailing duty is imposed.) US steel producers, with high overheads, can't cope with low prices. Suppliers in low wage economies can.
Yes, free trade enabled that, but it also lowered the cost of pretty much everything we buy. If the US closed itself off from free-trade, the ICs and electronics would still be made elsewhere in the world, and sold cheaply almost everywhere, but to buy those goods in the US would be expensive, and condemn the rest of the economy to uncompetitiveness. Look to the closed economies of the Soviet bloc to see how well *that* idea worked...
An excellent explanation of how markets drive prices, and why a functioning market achieves better results than the imposition of price controls.
(Why is it that I never have mod points when they'd be useful?)
Adherents of any given religion generally want the freedom to practice *their* religion. Far fewer really care about freedom of religious choice for other people...
Even better, a crowd-sourced Google Bomb...
Nope. It's not capitalism that produces abundance, it's technology. First the low-skill professions were replaced, now technology is moving up the food chain...
When I've been working on an in-house application, *the* most effective way of understanding the bug is for the developer (me) to go and sit with the user while they demonstrate the problem. This helps with developer/user education too: "You're doing *what*? I never thought of that! It's much easier if you do this way..." Obviously, this only works if you're in roughly the same place, but spending a couple of minutes to go over there can save many times that in trying to decipher an unclear testcase, or weird enhancement request. Your users will appreciate the attention too...
While the density was lower, the total population of the Americas might actually have been higher than Europe. Diseases introduced by early explorers and colonisers wiped out 95-98% of the native population [1]. If there was any intent in the introduction of disease, then "genocide" clearly applies.
By contrast, the Romans conquered and ruled Gaul; they didn't kill off 95% of the population.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_colonization _of_the_Americas, 3rd paragraph.
Looks like they could learn from John Nash.
extradited for trial by a court run by the UN? Yes. If the US is so confident that its citizens' actions are justifiable, then let them be judged by international law. Refusal is just cowardice.
Oil for Food scandal? ... was the result of inadequately policed sanctions and corruption (allegedly involving US citizens among others). Sure the UN is responsible, in the same way a CEO is. But it is not an "organisation that brought us the ... scandal".
put Libya on the human rights board? This, alas, was the democratic vote of the countries involved. Democracy doesn't always deliver the result you/I want. Consider (depending on your POV) a) Bill Clinton; and b) George W Bush.
stuck with a judge from the other side? So you don't believe judges try to be impartial then?
Edmund.
(Mark me as troll/off-topic if you must.)
Did anyone else read this as PolicePhalus?
If a patent had been granted on the Command Line paradigm, it would have expired by now. Computing history would look rather different, but we'd be free of toggles & blinken lights.
AC is the best for delivery to the end user (because of transformers) -- which is why it appears at a socket near you :-)
Following the Some online newspapers link from the story to Google, I note that top of the list is this Slashdot story itself. Deja vu or what?
On points 2-6 you're on reasonable ground. Such a shame that you precede it with bigotry. Most of my dozen eBay transactions have been trans-Atlantic, and none are the worse for it.
I empathise with your predicament.
We had a similar thing happen to us in the pre-Regionals round (a model solution was wrong!). However, the judges subsequently recognised the problem and allowed us into the regionals (in the days before the South Pacific had its own region) -- which we won (end of 1990). Ahhh, the good old days...
The government has a long history of imposing tariffs on foreign sources of raw materials when they threaten the interests of contributors to our campaign.
I have one, vintage 1995, with the separate backlit LCD settings display, not the later "onscreen" display. Until a couple of months ago, it was my first choice monitor. It got replaced by a NEC1760 TFT that cost almost exactly half what the CRT did.
*sigh*
They were smart enough to auction off the rights to their TLD for a handsome sum.
Get out your crystal ball, and look forward to a time when the US is no longer the only significant power on this planet. Or perhaps to a time when the US is not even a significant power. It will come. Probably not this century, but history says it will come.
Do you want to have issues involving the US decided by who has the most power? In a manner that ignores the wishes of the US?
Or would you rather that there was a world body that could ensure that the US wasn't unreasonably treated? If so, let's start building a strong body now.