Europe could change the situation in Africa and the Middle East, but in order to do that Europe would need to spend the wealth that was gained by exploiting those countries. Belgium could pour back in the wealth stolen by King Leopold from the Congo; Britain could pour money into the Middle East and South Asia.
Wait - that money's gone already? What happened to it? Gone in internal fighting (WWI & II) and social programs to keep their citizens content. That doesn't even account for the massive support Europe got from the US post WWII - direct aid and a continuing subsidy of European defense. Europe could do lots more to help their historic victims, but until it gets over its patriarchal views and xenophobia (How many generations of Turks are living in Germany yet not considered Germans) it never will.
You view the US as this pathetically underdeveloped, emotionally stunted child who would do so much better if it just listened to and copied it's elders. Well, Dad, you better listen to more Harry Chapin - we really have grown up just like you.
"Believe it or not, I don't believe those played a factor in the DOJ dropping the case. Apparently, Holder felt it more important to punish the prosecution on this one than nail Senator Tubes. Some of the factors claimed to play into his decision were the facts that Stevens is 85 (unlikely to be able to serve much jail time), no longer a sitting Senator, and that any movement forward on this case would be tainted."
Only one of those factors really matters - he's "no longer a sitting Senator". The goal of the Justice department was to get him out of office; having accomplished that goal, why spend the resources on trying to do it again.
Oh, Stevens is corrupt; so are many of the rest. But why doesn't Justice go after the rest? For instance, why haven't they gone after Tom Daschle for breaking the law on not lobbying after leaving office? Sure, one could argue that, even though he was paid by a lobbying firm to do NOTHING until the ban was up, he wasn't *actually* lobbying. But that's right up there with "they were loans" as a lame excuse.
Personally I believe that Justice was out to get revenge on the Republicans for the firing of the prosecutors. There is this myth that Justice was free of political taint before Bush started replacing prosecutors. That's a fairy tale propagated by the Justice department themselves to gloss over how political they really are. Prosecutors are appointed by the President - of course they are political animals. What they haven't been is overtly partisan, but I think the Stevens prosecution may help to remove that fig leaf, and Eric Holder is in the process of snatching it right off.
"but there was definitely manufactured evidence that tainted things enough to get him off."
No there wasn't. There was mishandled evidence; no one seriously alleged in court that evidence was "manufactured" (and what his lawyers said out of court is wholly irrelevant.)
That, combined with an incompetent prosecution, a judge hell bent on not having the case appealed, and a cop who once used the word "nigger" got him off.
"Hate is a wrong word. Disgust is more like it. Your whiny, dishonest attempts to evade responsibility are truly pathetic, and are unlikely to change any of your victims' opinion of you."
You know, it's funny, but I think the exact same thing in regards to Europeans. The vast majority of today's international and civil problems are a direct result of 19th century European imperialism, in which the US played almost no part. The only 2 instances I can really think of are Liberia and the Panama Canal - Liberia was established as a place for African slaves to go, and we didn't stick around for that long. As for the Panama Canal, we weren't the first ones to try to build it - we were just the first to succeed. How many times did the French try?
The entire map of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Americas was drawn by Europeans for their own greed. And now they get to wash their hands of it because there's someone else to blame? Right.
I'm not happy with what my country did and is doing - it's a poor reaction to the political situation in that area of the world. Who created that situation? Look in a mirror.
The only problem with that ranking is that it is self reported by journalists within that country. So the J-school grad crying "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed" counts as a restriction on reporters, when it's really that he wasn't given the expense account he thinks he needs to get the big story.
It is the First Amendment itself that causes this lower ranking; because of it's broad scope and few caveats, journalists in the US believe that they are free from any stricture whatsoever, including immunity from other, unrelated laws. Therefore, ANY perceived stricture on the press is loudly denounced as an infringement on freedom of the press. And as irritating as those jumped up would be Woodwards and Bernsteins are, I still wouldn't put a muzzle on them. And neither does or many layers of government, in the whole.
Jesse Jackson ate lunch off of that tactic for years. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would issue a press release stating there were concerns that Company X was discriminating, and that the Coalition was looking at it. JJ or his henchman would show up there and explain that, although there was strong evidence the company was discriminating, they could show their good intentions by making a significant "donation" to a well respected minority empowerment organization. Such as Rainbow/PUSH. Money would be deposited, and the next press release would be full of praise for Company X's significant commitment to minority development.
It's my understanding that's how his son got his first job, and we almost got him as Senator from Chicago.
"M-4s fire.233 rifle ammo. Carbines fire pistol ammo. Thanks for contributing, anonymous coward moron."
Sorry, but you are the moron. "Carbine" is a name for a short rifle; "submachinegun is the name of a fully automatic weapon that fires pistol ammunition.
The M4 Carbine is the 4th carbine the US military has issues since WWII - the M1 Carbine was first (NOT the M1 Rifle or Garand)and fired a modified rifle cartridge. The M2 was a full automatic version of the M1, and the M3 was an M2 with a special night sight (I think). The Army did not issue a carbine again until recently, because we were planning for a different war where a rifle's range, not maneuverability, would be important.
"Hell, even shooting rampages have been rarely need ended because of an armed populace. A quick search on Google and all of them seem to have been ended by suicide or police action."
Your conclusion that citizen ownership of guns doesn't prevent "shooting rampages" is neither logically nor factually correct. Almost all mass shooting occur in places where there is little likelihood of armed defense - "gun free zones" such as schools, malls, restaurants. You cannot draw the conclusion that guns were ineffective for defense because it assumes the victims had guns and didn't use them.
In fact, a recent case proves the opposite. At the New Life Church shootings, an off duty security guard, with a concealed weapons permit, stopped an massacre. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14817480/detail.html Note that this wasn't under the color of law or authority: she, and other volunteers, were acting as private citizens and not sanctioned by the state, except insofar as she had a concealed weapons permit.
You need to improve your google-fu if you missed that one.
Don't install any solitaire program. Mount users' home directories noexec, don't give users root access. They won't be playing solitaire. This also prevents them from downloading solitaire off the web... blocking winsol.exe in Windows group policy doesn't stop any of this, and doesn't stop users from copying winsol.exe to some innocuous filename like C:\excel.exe
Heh. That's exactly what we did in 1995 when Management got a bug up their ass about playing Solitaire. One day we came in and it was gone from our Win 3.11 desktops. I poked around a bit and found 2 files in the root of the shared directory. First was a script deleting sol.exe from machines (run daily). Second was a log of all who HAD played it over the last month.
I did 2 things: 1) Found the executable somewhere (not the internet), renamed it sol1.exe, and told the rest of the peons in my department and gave them the file on those newfangled 3.5" floppies. 2) Asked our boss, Frank, if he was aware that someone using his login was playing solitaire last Thursday sometime after lunch.
That was only done at the end of the load - the wall is necessary to prevent the packages from shifting to the back, and it's the point in the shift where you are only getting boxes in ones and twos, so if you wait to long to build the wall you're screwed.
Or another way - It's a 28' tandem trailer. They'd need serios arms if they were throwing THAT far.
When I worked for UPS in school, they used manual labor to load the trailers they used to send packages to the next facility. Loaders used their eyes, brains, and some basic tips to pack the trailer as tight as possible while using totally random sized packages. If you did well, you were rewarded; if you didn't, you were...not.
These guys would be well advised to watch how those trailers are loaded to figure out what algorithm the loader is using internally - we could get those trailers packed pretty damned tight.
I can understand your frustration. I have a 13 year old daughter who is excellent at math and science, but gets those same signals. I try to support her as best I can (she got an A on her science fair project with my help).
I was more referring to the teaching methods the GPP suggested. While I agree that both boys and girls can excel at math and sciences, the generally learn differently. I can't imagine the "start with the basics" program would work with my son, though it might have worked with my daughter.. Generally, boys and girls learn differently, and not acknowledging that hurts them both.
Lighten up, Francis - using spelling and sentence structure to reflect the way a certain person speaks is an old, old literary technique. As for speaking like that, it's called a dialect, and if you believe you speak without using a dialect you are probably wrong.
You have it backwards - kids learn about "electric motors, circuits that light up LEDs, gears, pulleys and levers" by building things that use them. Then, While they are building something cool, you teach them the principles behind it.
I don't think you quite understand the mind of some young boys. R3.0 has been trying to build Transformers and other devices out of sticks and soda cans, and he's been doing that since he was 4 or 5.
In some kids, the desire to control is far less insistent than the drive to create. (And dismantle/destroy, but that's a topic for another post.
I'd agree but for the fact that "wholesale price" is only really related to actual goods, not IP. The wholesale price would be appropriate if she physically took CD singles from the Record company warehouse. But the price that the companies charge Apple is almost ALL licensing fees, except for bandwidth and the computers to send the data to Apple. So in this case, damages would be the lost profits. One could argue for the cost to the record company for royalties paid to the artist, but that money is a pittance and the individual artists aren't a party to the lawsuit anyway.
Slashdot Mirror
"(and its side-kick Israel)"
DINGDINGDING! We Have A Winner!
Invoking Israel to bash the US certainly tells me a lot more about you.
And that I don't want to get any of what you are on me.
Sorry - still trying to dodge culpability.
Europe could change the situation in Africa and the Middle East, but in order to do that Europe would need to spend the wealth that was gained by exploiting those countries. Belgium could pour back in the wealth stolen by King Leopold from the Congo; Britain could pour money into the Middle East and South Asia.
Wait - that money's gone already? What happened to it? Gone in internal fighting (WWI & II) and social programs to keep their citizens content. That doesn't even account for the massive support Europe got from the US post WWII - direct aid and a continuing subsidy of European defense. Europe could do lots more to help their historic victims, but until it gets over its patriarchal views and xenophobia (How many generations of Turks are living in Germany yet not considered Germans) it never will.
You view the US as this pathetically underdeveloped, emotionally stunted child who would do so much better if it just listened to and copied it's elders. Well, Dad, you better listen to more Harry Chapin - we really have grown up just like you.
"Believe it or not, I don't believe those played a factor in the DOJ dropping the case. Apparently, Holder felt it more important to punish the prosecution on this one than nail Senator Tubes. Some of the factors claimed to play into his decision were the facts that Stevens is 85 (unlikely to be able to serve much jail time), no longer a sitting Senator, and that any movement forward on this case would be tainted."
Only one of those factors really matters - he's "no longer a sitting Senator". The goal of the Justice department was to get him out of office; having accomplished that goal, why spend the resources on trying to do it again.
Oh, Stevens is corrupt; so are many of the rest. But why doesn't Justice go after the rest? For instance, why haven't they gone after Tom Daschle for breaking the law on not lobbying after leaving office? Sure, one could argue that, even though he was paid by a lobbying firm to do NOTHING until the ban was up, he wasn't *actually* lobbying. But that's right up there with "they were loans" as a lame excuse.
Personally I believe that Justice was out to get revenge on the Republicans for the firing of the prosecutors. There is this myth that Justice was free of political taint before Bush started replacing prosecutors. That's a fairy tale propagated by the Justice department themselves to gloss over how political they really are. Prosecutors are appointed by the President - of course they are political animals. What they haven't been is overtly partisan, but I think the Stevens prosecution may help to remove that fig leaf, and Eric Holder is in the process of snatching it right off.
"but there was definitely manufactured evidence that tainted things enough to get him off."
No there wasn't. There was mishandled evidence; no one seriously alleged in court that evidence was "manufactured" (and what his lawyers said out of court is wholly irrelevant.)
That, combined with an incompetent prosecution, a judge hell bent on not having the case appealed, and a cop who once used the word "nigger" got him off.
"Hate is a wrong word. Disgust is more like it. Your whiny, dishonest attempts to evade responsibility are truly pathetic, and are unlikely to change any of your victims' opinion of you."
You know, it's funny, but I think the exact same thing in regards to Europeans. The vast majority of today's international and civil problems are a direct result of 19th century European imperialism, in which the US played almost no part. The only 2 instances I can really think of are Liberia and the Panama Canal - Liberia was established as a place for African slaves to go, and we didn't stick around for that long. As for the Panama Canal, we weren't the first ones to try to build it - we were just the first to succeed. How many times did the French try?
The entire map of Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Americas was drawn by Europeans for their own greed. And now they get to wash their hands of it because there's someone else to blame? Right.
I'm not happy with what my country did and is doing - it's a poor reaction to the political situation in that area of the world. Who created that situation? Look in a mirror.
IIRC, most of IBM's patents are for devices and physical processes, just like patent were supposed to be for.
"I suggest you find a religious site."
Like, lets say, Slashdot?
The only problem with that ranking is that it is self reported by journalists within that country. So the J-school grad crying "Help! Help! I'm being oppressed" counts as a restriction on reporters, when it's really that he wasn't given the expense account he thinks he needs to get the big story.
It is the First Amendment itself that causes this lower ranking; because of it's broad scope and few caveats, journalists in the US believe that they are free from any stricture whatsoever, including immunity from other, unrelated laws. Therefore, ANY perceived stricture on the press is loudly denounced as an infringement on freedom of the press. And as irritating as those jumped up would be Woodwards and Bernsteins are, I still wouldn't put a muzzle on them. And neither does or many layers of government, in the whole.
Jesse Jackson ate lunch off of that tactic for years. The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition would issue a press release stating there were concerns that Company X was discriminating, and that the Coalition was looking at it. JJ or his henchman would show up there and explain that, although there was strong evidence the company was discriminating, they could show their good intentions by making a significant "donation" to a well respected minority empowerment organization. Such as Rainbow/PUSH. Money would be deposited, and the next press release would be full of praise for Company X's significant commitment to minority development.
It's my understanding that's how his son got his first job, and we almost got him as Senator from Chicago.
No genetic engineering?
What a let down...
"M-4s fire .233 rifle ammo. Carbines fire pistol ammo. Thanks for contributing, anonymous coward moron."
Sorry, but you are the moron. "Carbine" is a name for a short rifle; "submachinegun is the name of a fully automatic weapon that fires pistol ammunition.
The M4 Carbine is the 4th carbine the US military has issues since WWII - the M1 Carbine was first (NOT the M1 Rifle or Garand)and fired a modified rifle cartridge. The M2 was a full automatic version of the M1, and the M3 was an M2 with a special night sight (I think). The Army did not issue a carbine again until recently, because we were planning for a different war where a rifle's range, not maneuverability, would be important.
"When the government rolls a tank into your town, cf Tiananmen Square, and you're there with your rifle, what do you think is going to happen?"
Hide and wait until the tank's occupants get out to take a piss?
"The anti-social behaviour of people wanting to be able to 'defend themselves', at great cost to society at large, is despicable."
That statement is simply breathtaking.
"On the other hand, if all guns are outlawed the police could just go around popping anyone with a firearm."
Fixed that for you.
"Hell, even shooting rampages have been rarely need ended because of an armed populace. A quick search on Google and all of them seem to have been ended by suicide or police action."
Your conclusion that citizen ownership of guns doesn't prevent "shooting rampages" is neither logically nor factually correct. Almost all mass shooting occur in places where there is little likelihood of armed defense - "gun free zones" such as schools, malls, restaurants. You cannot draw the conclusion that guns were ineffective for defense because it assumes the victims had guns and didn't use them.
In fact, a recent case proves the opposite. At the New Life Church shootings, an off duty security guard, with a concealed weapons permit, stopped an massacre. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/14817480/detail.html Note that this wasn't under the color of law or authority: she, and other volunteers, were acting as private citizens and not sanctioned by the state, except insofar as she had a concealed weapons permit.
You need to improve your google-fu if you missed that one.
Heh. That's exactly what we did in 1995 when Management got a bug up their ass about playing Solitaire. One day we came in and it was gone from our Win 3.11 desktops. I poked around a bit and found 2 files in the root of the shared directory. First was a script deleting sol.exe from machines (run daily). Second was a log of all who HAD played it over the last month.
I did 2 things:
1) Found the executable somewhere (not the internet), renamed it sol1.exe, and told the rest of the peons in my department and gave them the file on those newfangled 3.5" floppies.
2) Asked our boss, Frank, if he was aware that someone using his login was playing solitaire last Thursday sometime after lunch.
That was only done at the end of the load - the wall is necessary to prevent the packages from shifting to the back, and it's the point in the shift where you are only getting boxes in ones and twos, so if you wait to long to build the wall you're screwed.
Or another way - It's a 28' tandem trailer. They'd need serios arms if they were throwing THAT far.
When I worked for UPS in school, they used manual labor to load the trailers they used to send packages to the next facility. Loaders used their eyes, brains, and some basic tips to pack the trailer as tight as possible while using totally random sized packages. If you did well, you were rewarded; if you didn't, you were...not.
These guys would be well advised to watch how those trailers are loaded to figure out what algorithm the loader is using internally - we could get those trailers packed pretty damned tight.
I can understand your frustration. I have a 13 year old daughter who is excellent at math and science, but gets those same signals. I try to support her as best I can (she got an A on her science fair project with my help).
I was more referring to the teaching methods the GPP suggested. While I agree that both boys and girls can excel at math and sciences, the generally learn differently. I can't imagine the "start with the basics" program would work with my son, though it might have worked with my daughter.. Generally, boys and girls learn differently, and not acknowledging that hurts them both.
Lighten up, Francis - using spelling and sentence structure to reflect the way a certain person speaks is an old, old literary technique. As for speaking like that, it's called a dialect, and if you believe you speak without using a dialect you are probably wrong.
You have it backwards - kids learn about "electric motors, circuits that light up LEDs, gears, pulleys and levers" by building things that use them. Then, While they are building something cool, you teach them the principles behind it.
I don't think you quite understand the mind of some young boys. R3.0 has been trying to build Transformers and other devices out of sticks and soda cans, and he's been doing that since he was 4 or 5.
In some kids, the desire to control is far less insistent than the drive to create. (And dismantle/destroy, but that's a topic for another post.
10 year old kids weren't even born when that movie was released.
Now, Transformers on the other hand has had a lot of influence.
I'd agree but for the fact that "wholesale price" is only really related to actual goods, not IP. The wholesale price would be appropriate if she physically took CD singles from the Record company warehouse. But the price that the companies charge Apple is almost ALL licensing fees, except for bandwidth and the computers to send the data to Apple. So in this case, damages would be the lost profits. One could argue for the cost to the record company for royalties paid to the artist, but that money is a pittance and the individual artists aren't a party to the lawsuit anyway.
Hari Seldon will disagree.