One of the central points made by the research professor in his analysis was not all or none on austerity measures - but that the taxpayers were very correct in not agreeing to foot the total losses of the private banking sector - to the extent that Iceland would never be able to repay the private sector losses+interest, and so avoid entering national level "debt slavery" that they can never escape from. Besides the overwhelming evidence presented to support his analysis (including the "Brady bonds that resolved Latin American and Third World debts in the 1980s" and the resulting social and unfortunate economic impact those "austerity" measures have had on the region) - this particular professor of economics is not alone in his analysis. Increasingly economists who are worth their salt and not mere shills for the financial industry (a short list) are coming the the same or similar conclusions - including a nobel prize in economics winner or two.
When I discuss this kind of analysis with some well educated Economist colleagues of mine, the knee-jerk reaction appears to be similar to "rolfwind" above "full of shit" - however once we begin to dig into the issue a little it becomes apparent that the intellectual dishonesty/deception (as discussed in the first linked article) has worked way to persuade people who really should know better and be capable of much better critical thinking about this most important issue that affects us all.
I would LOVE to have a simple 1 hour TV buffer. No record, no storage, just a 1 hour TV buffer to pause, FF, rewind. It cannot be that hard to make a simple inline buffer like that. But the likelyhood of seeing it in the next decade is slim partly because of patents and partly because there is no ongoing revenue stream from it.
It is here now. We use open source Team-MediaPortal as the main family TV - buffer limited only by the HD space you allow it to use. There is no going back to "primitive" TV's once you have used something like this - very annoying on a primitive TV where I can't pause a channel for an hour or two while we finish dinner, to continue to the show after - or watch one channel and record another (if you have a duel channel card installed). Also the "online videos" menu choice is getting more and more use each year, it will not be long before the free to air TV will hardly be used at this house - which is great IMO. Only thing really missing if for some smart cookies to bundle software like this into the TV hardware - and no, the most advanced TV's on the market with their HD buffer and crappy youtube surfing interface do not come even close (A friend bought some ~$5K "advanced" Sony TV - and was blown away by our Team-MediaPortal + ~$500 TV setup which left it in the dust for features and interface.
The US has not been perusing "an isolationist policy", but an imperialist/for profit one. It certainly has never been keeping to itself militarily, if that is what you were implying. Don't take my word for it, one of the most highly decorated Marines (Major General) of his day spelled it out pretty clearly:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
On WW2:
The book is also interesting historically as Butler points out in 1935 that the US is engaging in military war games in the Pacific that are bound to provoke the Japanese.
"The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles."
"Butler's particular contribution was his recantation, denouncing war on moral grounds after having been a warrior hero and spending most of his life as a military insider. The theme remained vigorously patriotic and nationalistic, decrying imperialism as a disgrace rooted in the greed of a privileged few."
I've yet to see strong evidence that the U.S. government is going after whistler-blowers, in general.
Not sure if your trolling with that statement... In case not and it is just a case of mainstream news not keeping you the least bit informed, here goes (complete with plenty of references):
Mark Klein, the former A.T. & T. employee who exposed the telecom-company wiretaps, is also dismayed by the Drake case. “I think it’s outrageous,” he says. “The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.
Spain, as I type, is in the midst of a full scale citizens (peaceful) uprising. Protests across the country, 10,000+ people just in one of the main squares, many sleeping there overnight only to have 10K+ more people there the next day (now going on two to three days like this) - all of this has eclipsed the polished marketing election campaigns of the two main political parties (PSOE and PP). The message is simple: Vote for who you like in elections this Sunday, but NOT for the two dominating parties - with chants like "they do not represent us" and "Real Democracy - NOW!". Unlike the US, Spain does have an electoral system that allows meaningful third party choice. This follows hot on the heels of a big (but almost unreported in international media) protest by Spanish journalists over the politicians election campaigns. In particular the press conference/rallies where they are not allowed to do their job and ask questions, or even have access to the political leaders - who rely on delivering a precise polished marketing campaign and do not want to deal with pesky citizen questions, debates and the like.
Lets hope that they have some success, and this kind of citizen involvement spreads to other "democracies" - it looks like there is a lot to learn from the Spanish.
"Turkey's prime minister is threatening to sue over the recently released diplomatic cables on the website WikiLeaks. A cable written by former U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman that alleged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had eight Swiss bank accounts, struck a deep nerve."
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today declared illegal any digital canon which is being imposed indiscriminately on all equipment and materials used for reproduction and not only that which presumably can only be used for private copying , as applied in Spain. Spain imposes a "canón digital", a small tax on all digital media (CD's, tapes, DVD's and associated equipment) which is given to the General Society of Authors for copyright payment in case the media is used to copy work.
The Sweden "court system" for this issue is almost a regular medieval political circus. Look at what Sweden has all but promised Assange in his "fair" trial: Solitary confinement before trial without access to his lawyers. Closed door secret court - no one will hear let alone be able to refute any testimonies. Three of the four judges to be (or appointed by) politicians! Not to forget that the case was closed before being reopened by, you guessed it, a politician - apparently because they say the girls did not know they were being raped at the time and it is up-to their court of laypersons to decide (I kid you not, crazy system Sweden has, huh). The rabbit hole of deceit by Swedish authorities goes way deeper than most would like to see however - in this case starting with the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, lawyer Mr Claes Borgström and their relationship with the Swedish Democrat party which stands to gain from this circus.
Who in the right mind would not try to fight for a fairer trial than this? I don't care if it is Assange or anyone else, Sweden should be ashamed of these "courts", if you can even call them that.
The only good thing coming out of this abuse is the increased scrutiny on the very broken European extradition laws - and perhaps some Swedish rethinking their leaders (although the last election shows this to be unlikely).
Nobody RTFPDF before stuffing the/. submission system with this crap because (A) Wikileaks just won a prestigious, rarely awarded Australian peace prize (see video here full of stuff to rile up the establishment) and (B) A US Grand jury into busting up transparency supporters, whistleblowers and Wikileaks is just warming up and calling people in to testify in secret. To negate these big-news headlines (on the world stage that is - not so much in the US it seems), the anti-whistleblower spin machine has had to invent extra negative stuff about WIkileaks today - hence this £12M "gag on it" spin. (BTW - Notice how the two factual stores on Wikileaks never made it even close to getting onto Slashdot submission. I agree with Nemyst post below - the Slashdot submission system appears to be all but owned).
Freedomhouse, the creators of this imaginary list are a propaganda front for the US Gov. As with most propaganda, their "list" is completely bogus - to any impartial observer there is just no way the US could make it to third place of world stage based on the facts.. However propaganda is not effective unless you get everyone repeating it without thinking - which raises the question - how is this organization they gaming the slashdot story posting system?? Are we to have this propaganda tripe plastered across the headlines every other week?
Communist apologist Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, George Field, Dorothy Thompson, Herbert Bayard Swope, and prominent journalists, academics, trade unionists, theologians, and public officials founded Freedom House, a CFR front, in October 1941. FDR encouraged the group’s covert propaganda activities as he hoped it would persuade U.S. citizens to accept entry into World War II. Freedom House was also instrumental in facilitating and supporting post-war policies like the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the UN.
In 1982, President Reagan created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in order to acceptably manage CIA activities. Freedom House, the group created in 1941, became a part of this network. NED helped to finance Freedom House. Paul Wolfowitz, in the early 1980s, along with his neoconservative allies, collaborated with numerous Trotskyites. With the hidden funding and under the cover of conservative think tanks, the U.S. government can influence the public and conceal its interventions in foreign politics.
Recall that Freedom House was organized in 1941 to promote World War II. They are still propagandizing. William Howard Taft IV (S&B, PNAC[69]) is its current chairman. It is an international non-governmental organization that endorses a one-world government and opposes all nationalist governments. It has offices in offices in Algeria, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. Taft supports the Law of the Sea which places all of the oceans under the jurisdiction of the UN. Since 1941, the group has developed ties to the CIA, the Brookings Institution, the U.S. Institute of Peace and other institutions and government agencies. Freedom House, a propaganda vehicle, is also a front group for the CFR, the British counterpart of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 2005 Freedom House was receiving U.S. government funds “for clandestine activities inside Iran.”
The organization receives about 66% of its budget from the U.S. government. [70] See the list of their board members here. Other financing comes from the Scaife Family Foundation which finances many groups and individuals, especially those associated with the CFR, including, Newt Gingrich’s (CFR) GOPAC, the Federalist Society, the Media Research Center and Joseph Farah’s World Net Daily – all of which selectively dispense “conservative views.” The National Endowment for Democracy, a proponent for one world governance also finances Freedom House, &c. [71]
...but Microsoft is trying to fool us twice... yeah, shame on us.
Choice quote below, the parallel with this http "bug" is impressive::
When I originally wrote about this issue [bing Chinese search censorship] back in June, Microsoft protested. “From what you described, that’s not the way Bing is supposed to work,” wrote Kevin Kutz, a company spokesman. He said that Chinese speakers at Microsoft could not replicate my results and did not detect this kind of skewed result. I sent screen shots, and then Microsoft acknowledged the issue but said that it was simply a temporary mistake. “It’s a bug,” Kutz told me. Later, he added: “What’s important is it’s getting fixed.” Soon, he said, Bing searches would be the same for Tiananmen and other sensitive subjects, whatever the language.
(Thanks to pushing-robot for originally posting the link on/. here.
Perhaps you missed this information: "former director of the Soviet Spetsatom agency handling the Chernobyl case". That is, he was the director in charge of the Chernobyl cleanup at the time - the information is coming right from the horses mouth, and not some "don't worry feel-good" press release. In light of the other information he gives, the fact that this information "is also totally unconfirmed by [authorities trying to cover their mistakes]" does not hold much weight.
Slashdot Mirror
One of the central points made by the research professor in his analysis was not all or none on austerity measures - but that the taxpayers were very correct in not agreeing to foot the total losses of the private banking sector - to the extent that Iceland would never be able to repay the private sector losses+interest, and so avoid entering national level "debt slavery" that they can never escape from. Besides the overwhelming evidence presented to support his analysis (including the "Brady bonds that resolved Latin American and Third World debts in the 1980s" and the resulting social and unfortunate economic impact those "austerity" measures have had on the region) - this particular professor of economics is not alone in his analysis. Increasingly economists who are worth their salt and not mere shills for the financial industry (a short list) are coming the the same or similar conclusions - including a nobel prize in economics winner or two.
When I discuss this kind of analysis with some well educated Economist colleagues of mine, the knee-jerk reaction appears to be similar to "rolfwind" above "full of shit" - however once we begin to dig into the issue a little it becomes apparent that the intellectual dishonesty/deception (as discussed in the first linked article) has worked way to persuade people who really should know better and be capable of much better critical thinking about this most important issue that affects us all.
Iceland has set a shining example to the rest of the world on how NOT to be subjected to never-ending corporate control. An example that other countries citizens are fighting in the streets (literally) to try and follow.
I would LOVE to have a simple 1 hour TV buffer. No record, no storage, just a 1 hour TV buffer to pause, FF, rewind. It cannot be that hard to make a simple inline buffer like that. But the likelyhood of seeing it in the next decade is slim partly because of patents and partly because there is no ongoing revenue stream from it.
It is here now. We use open source Team-MediaPortal as the main family TV - buffer limited only by the HD space you allow it to use. There is no going back to "primitive" TV's once you have used something like this - very annoying on a primitive TV where I can't pause a channel for an hour or two while we finish dinner, to continue to the show after - or watch one channel and record another (if you have a duel channel card installed). Also the "online videos" menu choice is getting more and more use each year, it will not be long before the free to air TV will hardly be used at this house - which is great IMO. Only thing really missing if for some smart cookies to bundle software like this into the TV hardware - and no, the most advanced TV's on the market with their HD buffer and crappy youtube surfing interface do not come even close (A friend bought some ~$5K "advanced" Sony TV - and was blown away by our Team-MediaPortal + ~$500 TV setup which left it in the dust for features and interface.
The US has not been perusing "an isolationist policy", but an imperialist/for profit one. It certainly has never been keeping to itself militarily, if that is what you were implying. Don't take my word for it, one of the most highly decorated Marines (Major General) of his day spelled it out pretty clearly:
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."
On WW2:
The book is also interesting historically as Butler points out in 1935 that the US is engaging in military war games in the Pacific that are bound to provoke the Japanese.
"The Japanese, a proud people, of course will be pleased beyond expression to see the United States fleet so close to Nippon's shores. Even as pleased as would be the residents of California were they to dimly discern through the morning mist, the Japanese fleet playing at war games off Los Angeles."
"Butler's particular contribution was his recantation, denouncing war on moral grounds after having been a warrior hero and spending most of his life as a military insider. The theme remained vigorously patriotic and nationalistic, decrying imperialism as a disgrace rooted in the greed of a privileged few."
Fortunately investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald prolifically cites and links to his sources - hence the "plenty of references" claim.
I've yet to see strong evidence that the U.S. government is going after whistler-blowers, in general.
Not sure if your trolling with that statement... In case not and it is just a case of mainstream news not keeping you the least bit informed, here goes (complete with plenty of references):
Obama has made it his mission to prosecute whisteblowers, no matter how morally correct and beneficial for society their actions were. The crackdown, far exceeding any previous presidents attempt - has not been called "Obama's war on whistle-blowers" for nothing.
Mark Klein, the former A.T. & T. employee who exposed the telecom-company wiretaps, is also dismayed by the Drake case. “I think it’s outrageous,” he says. “The Bush people have been let off. The telecom companies got immunity. The only people Obama has prosecuted are the whistle-blowers.
Is there an "Optimize Gerrymandering" button on that service?
Spain, as I type, is in the midst of a full scale citizens (peaceful) uprising. Protests across the country, 10,000+ people just in one of the main squares, many sleeping there overnight only to have 10K+ more people there the next day (now going on two to three days like this) - all of this has eclipsed the polished marketing election campaigns of the two main political parties (PSOE and PP). The message is simple: Vote for who you like in elections this Sunday, but NOT for the two dominating parties - with chants like "they do not represent us" and "Real Democracy - NOW!". Unlike the US, Spain does have an electoral system that allows meaningful third party choice. This follows hot on the heels of a big (but almost unreported in international media) protest by Spanish journalists over the politicians election campaigns. In particular the press conference/rallies where they are not allowed to do their job and ask questions, or even have access to the political leaders - who rely on delivering a precise polished marketing campaign and do not want to deal with pesky citizen questions, debates and the like.
Manifesto: http://democraciarealya.es/?page_id=814 and Wikipedia entry.
Lets hope that they have some success, and this kind of citizen involvement spreads to other "democracies" - it looks like there is a lot to learn from the Spanish.
"Turkey's prime minister is threatening to sue over the recently released diplomatic cables on the website WikiLeaks. A cable written by former U.S. Ambassador Eric Edelman that alleged Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had eight Swiss bank accounts, struck a deep nerve."
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Turkish-PM-Threatens-to-Sue-Over-Wikileaks-Claims-111388889.html
How many politicians and CEO's will be put on trial?... None you say?! I thought so... Ok, carry on...
Canon is not illegal - extending it "indiscriminately on all equipment and materials used for reproduction" is illegal. See my post below: http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2154928&cid=36127664
Euhm Yes! See the part of the ruling you overlooked here in post below: http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2154928&cid=36127664
Yes really, see here in post below: http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2154928&cid=36127664
See the part of the ruling you overlooked here in post below: http://politics.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2154928&cid=36127664
TO ALL in this thread replying that it is not illegal: You missing the crucial word of the ruling: indiscriminately
"declared illegal any digital canon which is being imposed indiscriminately on all equipment and materials used for reproduction"
Bottom line: extending and applying the canon to all memory cards indiscriminately - is illegal in Europe
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) today declared illegal any digital canon which is being imposed indiscriminately on all equipment and materials used for reproduction and not only that which presumably can only be used for private copying , as applied in Spain. Spain imposes a "canón digital", a small tax on all digital media (CD's, tapes, DVD's and associated equipment) which is given to the General Society of Authors for copyright payment in case the media is used to copy work.
The Sweden "court system" for this issue is almost a regular medieval political circus. Look at what Sweden has all but promised Assange in his "fair" trial: Solitary confinement before trial without access to his lawyers. Closed door secret court - no one will hear let alone be able to refute any testimonies. Three of the four judges to be (or appointed by) politicians! Not to forget that the case was closed before being reopened by, you guessed it, a politician - apparently because they say the girls did not know they were being raped at the time and it is up-to their court of laypersons to decide (I kid you not, crazy system Sweden has, huh). The rabbit hole of deceit by Swedish authorities goes way deeper than most would like to see however - in this case starting with the Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny, lawyer Mr Claes Borgström and their relationship with the Swedish Democrat party which stands to gain from this circus.
Who in the right mind would not try to fight for a fairer trial than this? I don't care if it is Assange or anyone else, Sweden should be ashamed of these "courts", if you can even call them that.
The only good thing coming out of this abuse is the increased scrutiny on the very broken European extradition laws - and perhaps some Swedish rethinking their leaders (although the last election shows this to be unlikely).
Nobody RTFPDF before stuffing the /. submission system with this crap because (A) Wikileaks just won a prestigious, rarely awarded Australian peace prize (see video here full of stuff to rile up the establishment) and (B) A US Grand jury into busting up transparency supporters, whistleblowers and Wikileaks is just warming up and calling people in to testify in secret. To negate these big-news headlines (on the world stage that is - not so much in the US it seems), the anti-whistleblower spin machine has had to invent extra negative stuff about WIkileaks today - hence this £12M "gag on it" spin. (BTW - Notice how the two factual stores on Wikileaks never made it even close to getting onto Slashdot submission. I agree with Nemyst post below - the Slashdot submission system appears to be all but owned).
True, the FBI appear to be doing their Cybecrime fighting well, keeping the government safe against whistlblowers. They usually get their man too.
Freedomhouse, the creators of this imaginary list are a propaganda front for the US Gov. As with most propaganda, their "list" is completely bogus - to any impartial observer there is just no way the US could make it to third place of world stage based on the facts.. However propaganda is not effective unless you get everyone repeating it without thinking - which raises the question - how is this organization they gaming the slashdot story posting system ?? Are we to have this propaganda tripe plastered across the headlines every other week?
From above link:
Freedom House
-1301 Connecticut Ave. NW, Floor 6; Washington D.C. 20036 Tel. (202) 296 5101 Fax: (202) 293 2840
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=2
From: “By Way of Deception, We Shall do War” | by Deanna Spingola | September 16, 2010
* http://www.spingola.com/By_Way_of_Deception.html
Communist apologist Eleanor Roosevelt, Wendell Willkie, George Field, Dorothy Thompson, Herbert Bayard Swope, and prominent journalists, academics, trade unionists, theologians, and public officials founded Freedom House, a CFR front, in October 1941. FDR encouraged the group’s covert propaganda activities as he hoped it would persuade U.S. citizens to accept entry into World War II. Freedom House was also instrumental in facilitating and supporting post-war policies like the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the UN.
In 1982, President Reagan created the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in order to acceptably manage CIA activities. Freedom House, the group created in 1941, became a part of this network. NED helped to finance Freedom House. Paul Wolfowitz, in the early 1980s, along with his neoconservative allies, collaborated with numerous Trotskyites. With the hidden funding and under the cover of conservative think tanks, the U.S. government can influence the public and conceal its interventions in foreign politics.
Recall that Freedom House was organized in 1941 to promote World War II. They are still propagandizing. William Howard Taft IV (S&B, PNAC[69]) is its current chairman. It is an international non-governmental organization that endorses a one-world government and opposes all nationalist governments. It has offices in offices in Algeria, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mexico, Uzbekistan, Poland, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. Taft supports the Law of the Sea which places all of the oceans under the jurisdiction of the UN. Since 1941, the group has developed ties to the CIA, the Brookings Institution, the U.S. Institute of Peace and other institutions and government agencies. Freedom House, a propaganda vehicle, is also a front group for the CFR, the British counterpart of the Royal Institute of International Affairs. In 2005 Freedom House was receiving U.S. government funds “for clandestine activities inside Iran.” The organization receives about 66% of its budget from the U.S. government. [70] See the list of their board members here. Other financing comes from the Scaife Family Foundation which finances many groups and individuals, especially those associated with the CFR, including, Newt Gingrich’s (CFR) GOPAC, the Federalist Society, the Media Research Center and Joseph Farah’s World Net Daily – all of which selectively dispense “conservative views.” The National Endowment for Democracy, a proponent for one world governance also finances Freedom House, &c. [71]
but what is the alert useful for other than having a scared, paranoid population?
That is exactly what it is useful for.
...but Microsoft is trying to fool us twice... yeah, shame on us.
Choice quote below, the parallel with this http "bug" is impressive::
When I originally wrote about this issue [bing Chinese search censorship] back in June, Microsoft protested. “From what you described, that’s not the way Bing is supposed to work,” wrote Kevin Kutz, a company spokesman. He said that Chinese speakers at Microsoft could not replicate my results and did not detect this kind of skewed result. I sent screen shots, and then Microsoft acknowledged the issue but said that it was simply a temporary mistake. “It’s a bug,” Kutz told me. Later, he added: “What’s important is it’s getting fixed.” Soon, he said, Bing searches would be the same for Tiananmen and other sensitive subjects, whatever the language.
(Thanks to pushing-robot for originally posting the link on /. here.
Suppress and intimidate political distention. Tick that box.
You deserve a mod point for that link. MS "bugs" indeed.
Perhaps you missed this information: "former director of the Soviet Spetsatom agency handling the Chernobyl case". That is, he was the director in charge of the Chernobyl cleanup at the time - the information is coming right from the horses mouth, and not some "don't worry feel-good" press release. In light of the other information he gives, the fact that this information "is also totally unconfirmed by [authorities trying to cover their mistakes]" does not hold much weight.