Just for the record, in case your knowledge of geography is sub par (is that common among Americans?), Waterloo University is in Canada and this report is from Toronto. Not that this doesn't apply South of the border. Canada and the US are intimately linked in culture and sometimes stupidity. The educator in the article however said this has been going on for decades. So it can't entirely be blamed on myspace and sexting. It's really because of the lack of grammar classes in primary school. I learned grammar from reading a lot of books when I was a kid. I'm still a reader, but most of the people I know never read anything except email and a few articles online. Perhaps the decline of reading can be squarely blamed on changes in popular culture. Between the lack of parenting and the idolization of idiots on tv (eg. shows like Jersey Shore, any daytime talk show and all of Fox News) kids these days don't stand a chance unless they decide early on to become nerds. And that decision can have serious repercussions.
The BBC is a trusted news source and is certainly better than almost anything in the US. But that doesn't mean it's without bias. If you really believe that then you're just naive. I and several others I know have noticed a more pronounced conservative bias in BBC reporting in recent years. Especially since the fallout of the Hutton Inquiry. This may not be noticeable in comparison to the worthless right wing drivel that Fox News puts out, but if you consider Fox News a worthwhile news source, then you've already got problems. But even with a bias, left or right, BBC's reporting is still very good. If you have the ability to, dare I say it, think for yourself then you should be able to form your own opinions based on the amount of information you can get from sources like the BBC.
In terms of foreign aid, the USA is quite far down the list.
What ODA does that include? The USA may be even lower because about half of what the US gov't claims it gives in aid is actually military aid. Which, considering it ends up in the hands of Northrup Grumman or Lockheed Martin and the like, I would hardly consider real development aid.
Sure, you make that sound like a bad thing. But for all the people that *live* on the side of the mountain it'd be pretty darn convenient.... Uhh... Don't mind the burning fuselage, it's a feature!
I wouldn't say there's little market for it, but there's certainly incentives for media companies to go along with those big corporate sources. Especially since those media companies are one in the same with the big corporate sources. And the line between big corporations and the government continues to become blurred, especially with the current US administration.
While there are imbeciles for the most part here too, the Slashdot crowd tends to be in the industry and/or college and seems a tad experienced in the ways of the world.
Sorry, just clarifying the sentence for you. And comparing/.ers with diggers? That's like comparing six year olds with two year olds. Or six year olds with Fark-ers. Or six year olds with Fox News. Clearly the six year olds are more intelligent, but they're still six years old...
South Korea and Vietnam don't count as it's really a stretch to call those "invasions".
Uhh... yeah, so nearly 60,000 US dead and 150,000 wounded... hardly an invasion. More of a police action wouldn't you say? Those 4 million killed in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were resisting arrest.
There's also the invasions of Serbia and Afghanistan, though those were under the NATO banner to stop a genocide (which was instigated by the invasion, as predicted by US military leaders) and overthrow a repressive government (that was given financial and military support by the US) respectively. Hmm... where else did that happen? In Iraq... yeah, but I was thinking of... oh that's right! Panama! Only 30,000 troops went to Panama (of course it's just a tiny little country) to overthrow a US trained former CIA operative.
And as you mentioned Grenada. But that's not counting all the CIA incited/assisted coups like in Chile, Congo, Indonesia, Iran, Brazil, Haiti, etc. etc. And most recently Venezuela with the US releasing documents that prove they knew of and tacitly supported the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez.
I think I'd call that a little more interventionist than China (which no doubt has its own abysmal human rights record). It's just comparing bad with worse... you can decide which is which.
Erm... Actually, no. In general scientists are far less prone to intellectual whoredom than regular people.
Hahahahaahahahahaha [catches breath] Hahahahaahaha What exactly are you basing this on? I suppose the scientists working for Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Altria, and the ones making Cialis, Viagra and in general worried more about making cocks hard than curing HIV, not to mention the ones brewing chemical and biological weapons, are all totally in it for the betterment of mankind. I'm not saying scientists tend more towards whoredom than regular people... scientists *are* regular people.
This Web 3.0 article asserts that the marraige of artificial intelligence to the infrastructure of Web 3.0 will dramatically accelerate our capacity for distributed problem solving.
Plus it will allow Major Kusanagi to join with the Puppet Master and kick some terrorist ass!
you need the electricity and the networking infrestructure to get on the internet - something quite difficult in places these laptops are intended to go.
Not necessarily. Since the laptops are apparently crank powered the electricity can take care of itself. Networking is also possible in some of the more remote places. I've spent a little time in villages and some remote parts of Africa and one thing you'll notice is how much signal you get on your cell phone. In villages that have no electricity and no running water you can still use your cell phone to send text messages to friends back home (cuz making calls is bloody expensive). It's conceivable that internet access could be provided too.
But how much do those connections cost there? My impression has been that connections seem to be more expensive in Europe and other parts of the world than in North America.
Tracking actual sales of Linux servers is a legitimate statistic because it shows corporate acceptance of Linux which is key to further expansion, acceptance and world domination, etc etc... What I'd like to know is whether these stats include support contracts from companies that use Linux since that would be a more accurate representation of the amount of money (and thus faith) businesses are putting into it.
To save a TV show? A Star Trek tv show? How about raising money for HIV/AIDS, tsunami victims, curing cancer? *Anything* useful? But a freaking tv show?
Awesome? I don't think this will actually affect that many people. I hardly know anyone that bothers going to Windows Update site or has their computer set for automatic updates. They also have spyware problems and such, but that's the state of the lay computer user today. The only ones I know that go to Windows Update are the people that already have Linux installed on some partition.
Slashdot Mirror
Just for the record, in case your knowledge of geography is sub par (is that common among Americans?), Waterloo University is in Canada and this report is from Toronto. Not that this doesn't apply South of the border. Canada and the US are intimately linked in culture and sometimes stupidity.
The educator in the article however said this has been going on for decades. So it can't entirely be blamed on myspace and sexting. It's really because of the lack of grammar classes in primary school. I learned grammar from reading a lot of books when I was a kid. I'm still a reader, but most of the people I know never read anything except email and a few articles online. Perhaps the decline of reading can be squarely blamed on changes in popular culture. Between the lack of parenting and the idolization of idiots on tv (eg. shows like Jersey Shore, any daytime talk show and all of Fox News) kids these days don't stand a chance unless they decide early on to become nerds. And that decision can have serious repercussions.
The BBC is a trusted news source and is certainly better than almost anything in the US. But that doesn't mean it's without bias. If you really believe that then you're just naive. I and several others I know have noticed a more pronounced conservative bias in BBC reporting in recent years. Especially since the fallout of the Hutton Inquiry. This may not be noticeable in comparison to the worthless right wing drivel that Fox News puts out, but if you consider Fox News a worthwhile news source, then you've already got problems.
But even with a bias, left or right, BBC's reporting is still very good. If you have the ability to, dare I say it, think for yourself then you should be able to form your own opinions based on the amount of information you can get from sources like the BBC.
In terms of foreign aid, the USA is quite far down the list.
What ODA does that include? The USA may be even lower because about half of what the US gov't claims it gives in aid is actually military aid. Which, considering it ends up in the hands of Northrup Grumman or Lockheed Martin and the like, I would hardly consider real development aid.
Sure, you make that sound like a bad thing. But for all the people that *live* on the side of the mountain it'd be pretty darn convenient. ...
Uhh... Don't mind the burning fuselage, it's a feature!
Woohoo! Free shirt!
This alarm will sound every three seconds as long as everything is ok...
Hey, it stopped.
Umm, did you forget no hard drive? That's basically what your iPod is, and OLPC machines don't have one.
I wouldn't say there's little market for it, but there's certainly incentives for media companies to go along with those big corporate sources. Especially since those media companies are one in the same with the big corporate sources. And the line between big corporations and the government continues to become blurred, especially with the current US administration.
While there are imbeciles for the most part here too, the Slashdot crowd tends to be in the industry and/or college and seems a tad experienced in the ways of the world.
/.ers with diggers? That's like comparing six year olds with two year olds. Or six year olds with Fark-ers. Or six year olds with Fox News.
Sorry, just clarifying the sentence for you.
And comparing
Clearly the six year olds are more intelligent, but they're still six years old...
I think any reasonable person could understand
You're obviously new to both slashdot and lawsuits. Welcome!
South Korea and Vietnam don't count as it's really a stretch to call those "invasions".
Uhh... yeah, so nearly 60,000 US dead and 150,000 wounded... hardly an invasion. More of a police action wouldn't you say? Those 4 million killed in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were resisting arrest.
There's also the invasions of Serbia and Afghanistan, though those were under the NATO banner to stop a genocide (which was instigated by the invasion, as predicted by US military leaders) and overthrow a repressive government (that was given financial and military support by the US) respectively.
Hmm... where else did that happen? In Iraq... yeah, but I was thinking of... oh that's right! Panama! Only 30,000 troops went to Panama (of course it's just a tiny little country) to overthrow a US trained former CIA operative.
And as you mentioned Grenada. But that's not counting all the CIA incited/assisted coups like in Chile, Congo, Indonesia, Iran, Brazil, Haiti, etc. etc. And most recently Venezuela with the US releasing documents that prove they knew of and tacitly supported the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez.
I think I'd call that a little more interventionist than China (which no doubt has its own abysmal human rights record). It's just comparing bad with worse... you can decide which is which.
Erm... Actually, no. In general scientists are far less prone to intellectual whoredom than regular people.
Hahahahaahahahahaha [catches breath] Hahahahaahaha
What exactly are you basing this on? I suppose the scientists working for Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Altria, and the ones making Cialis, Viagra and in general worried more about making cocks hard than curing HIV, not to mention the ones brewing chemical and biological weapons, are all totally in it for the betterment of mankind.
I'm not saying scientists tend more towards whoredom than regular people... scientists *are* regular people.
Why try to imagine it, can't we just remember it?
Maybe you can. Some of us aren't that old... or have ingested massive amounts of memory modifying substances.
This Web 3.0 article asserts that the marraige of artificial intelligence to the infrastructure of Web 3.0 will dramatically accelerate our capacity for distributed problem solving.
Plus it will allow Major Kusanagi to join with the Puppet Master and kick some terrorist ass!
you need the electricity and the networking infrestructure to get on the internet - something quite difficult in places these laptops are intended to go.
Not necessarily. Since the laptops are apparently crank powered the electricity can take care of itself. Networking is also possible in some of the more remote places. I've spent a little time in villages and some remote parts of Africa and one thing you'll notice is how much signal you get on your cell phone. In villages that have no electricity and no running water you can still use your cell phone to send text messages to friends back home (cuz making calls is bloody expensive).
It's conceivable that internet access could be provided too.
But how much do those connections cost there? My impression has been that connections seem to be more expensive in Europe and other parts of the world than in North America.
Tracking actual sales of Linux servers is a legitimate statistic because it shows corporate acceptance of Linux which is key to further expansion, acceptance and world domination, etc etc...
What I'd like to know is whether these stats include support contracts from companies that use Linux since that would be a more accurate representation of the amount of money (and thus faith) businesses are putting into it.
Can Microsoft not come up with useful new technologies on their own? Are they brain-dead followers blantanly copying everybody else's ideas?
Uhhh... yeah. You must be new here...
This will lead to people buying "the wrong" Windows,
;)
I wasn't aware there was a "right" version of Windows...
Cheaper!? Faster?!
You obviously don't understand Microsoft at all!
Hmm... this sounds better than their current method... that is, throwing animal feces at a dart board and interpreting the result into a script.
Hmm... no... I'm pretty sure if a /.er won we'd see the SS Breasts...
what they are best at: staving off impending doom.
/. didn't post articles about them every so often, I'd scarcely be aware of their impending existence.
impending doom? Why if
To save a TV show? A Star Trek tv show? How about raising money for HIV/AIDS, tsunami victims, curing cancer? *Anything* useful? But a freaking tv show?
Awesome? I don't think this will actually affect that many people. I hardly know anyone that bothers going to Windows Update site or has their computer set for automatic updates. They also have spyware problems and such, but that's the state of the lay computer user today. The only ones I know that go to Windows Update are the people that already have Linux installed on some partition.