IANAB either, but I'm sitting on a University computer right now with a subscription to masive amounts of journals. And after a quick and dirty glance through some papers at Neurochemistry International and some of the pdf's at Toxicological Sciences(search for Brominated in the text|abstract|title box) I would say that there are probably negative health effects from PBDE's.
Selective quoting from some papers:
-In a recent study, we have seen that neonatal exposure to some brominated flame retardants can cause permanent aberrations in spontaneous motor behavior that seem to worsen with age.[..]Thus, the behavioral disturbances observed in adult mice following neonatal exposure to 2,2`,4,4`,5-pentaBDE are induced during a defined critical period of neonatal brain development.
-These results indicate that brominated flame retardants, especially the brominated phenols and tetrabromobisphenol A, are very potent competitors for T4 binding to human transthyretin in vitro and may have effects on thyroid hormone homeostasis in vivo comparable to the thyroid-disrupting effects of PCBs.
-The objective of the current study was to characterize the effects of DE-71 (a commercial polybrominated diphenyl ether mixture containing mostly tetra- and penta-bromodiphenyl ethers) on thyroid hormones and hepatic enzyme activity in offspring, following perinatal maternal exposure[..] There was no significant effect of DE 71 on T3 concentrations at any time in the dams or the offspring. Increased liver to body weight ratios in offspring were consistent with induction of EROD (maximal 95-fold), PROD (maximal 26-fold) or UDPGT (maximal 4.7-fold). Induction of PROD was similar in both dams and offspring; however, EROD and UDPGT induction were much greater in offspring compared to dams (EROD = 3.8-fold; UDPGT = 0.5-fold). These data support the conclusion that DE-71 is an endocrine disrupter in rats during development.
Allthough most, if not all, of this research includes rats, I would still think that you can assume that most of the negative effect would affect humas too. IIRC from my bio class humans and rats share most of the DNA and neurons reacts in the same ways.
I see know that while I wrote my comment and did some chatting with a friend of mine about the topic another poster wrote a comment with the same message; the California NOx restrictions were drawn exactly where some automakers wanted them.
Remember that, again, certain automakers lobbied for thight NOx restrictions while they also lobbied for less stricter CO2 restrictions in California. Accidentaly they benefited on this, and will continue to do so, as these automakers does not sell diesel cars but instead other cars that produce higer quantities of CO2.
So the result is that California has stricter environmental standards on NOx than needed because of lobbying and more "busssiness friendly"* CO2 limits. The EU 2006 (EU4) limit on NOx is 0.25 gram/km. while the California limit (LEV II) is (IIRC) around 0.15 gram/km.
But the Japanese automakers will soon start to produce diesel engines for the new EU 2008/9, these engines will probably be within the California limits too.
*Bussiness friendly here means friendly to some certain automakers.
there have never been more SUVs on the road as there are now.
In US the truck and SUV segment make up almost 30% of the market. The SUV distribution in UK is much lower (10%?).
And "high" gas prices have already caused a fall in SUV sales.
From this article:
Last month, sales of the largest and least fuel-efficient SUVs dropped, according to auto sales tracker Autodata. The largest SUVs, including the Ford Expedition, were off 33.6 percent and Chevrolet Suburban sales were down 20.7 percent. It was the first time that gasoline prices have hurt SUV sales. Automakers are now rushing to build more fuel-efficient SUVs -- hybrid, gas-electric vehicles.
But even more interesting;
According to the EPA the average miles per gallon is now just over 20, down from a high of 22.1 in the late 1980s.
Unfortunately for us in the UK, the "environmentalists" coupled with weak-willed and short-sighted politicians have squandered away our nuclear exeprtise and brought about the decline of the civillian nuclear industry,[..]
The "environmentalist" did not destroy the nuclear industry in UK, neither did the politicans, all the short-sighted thinking did it. How can you defend a nuclear policy that takes care of the waste by simply dumping it out in the Irish sea? Yeah, that is right, up until two weeks ago Sellafield was still dumping technetium-99 into the Irish sea. This has been going on for many years.
Check out this article.
When you give the extremists in Greenpeace such a gem, you can't claim that the politicans or environmentalist destroyed the nuclear industry as it seems to me that the industy is pefectly capable of doing it it self.
In Alexis de Toqueville Institutions perfect world you can *own* an idea, design or philosophy just like you can own property.
They are big fans of intellectual property. So for them it's perfectly logical that Linus isn't "the father of Linux". Because he, in their view not mine, "stole" the idea, design and philosophy from UNIX.
A very interesting article indeed, I read something similar on USENET but this one is more extensive. As somone said; it's all about two things:
1. The NIH, Not Invented Here-syndrome and
2. Money.
In addition to his work for BLM, Lamun heads the Interagency Airtanker Board that represents air tanker contractors and federal firefighting agencies. It is responsible for setting criteria for air tankers and overseeing the certification process.
Am I the only one that can see a clear conflict of interest situation in this case? The same guy in both a "criteria role" and as representative for contractors (both private and federal)...
Ten bucks that The Forest Service will abandon it's "too much water" policy when a US-company comes up with a US-built plane doing the exact same thing as these Ilyushins. And that despite the advantages of the Ilyushins like better maneuverability, reduced cost and shorter takeoff.
But the S65 AMG got some class. It's stylish, brutal and extremley expensive.
To get the equivalent computer you need to merge a 8 CPU Opteron 246 with a Onyx4.
A fabric-modded Compaq is more like a Civic-mod gone bad.
2. Allthough they are made to withstand a train crash or a plane crashlanding, I don't think they can take a Challenger style explosion and then a free fall from 5000+ meters. I remember reading something about them beeing vulnerable to certain angles of impact.
Strange, the article doesn't touch upon some jounalistic dilemmas here. Why why haven't journalists/photograhers been taking more critical/newsworthy/live/dramatic pictures themselves?
Could it be because they are in fucking Dubai enjoying all the nice official pictures on those plasma screens?
Or could it be because they are busy sipping drinks at some Hotel in Baghdad?
Or *gasp* could it be becasue they are [in]embedded with coalition forces?
Of course, then we can expect the government to make it illegal to own non-DRM'd computing equipment.
I don't think they will make it illegal, that would be "to drastic".
A much more likely scenario is one where ISP (and content providers) requires DRM enabled "Secure equipement" to connect to "their" network.
I can allready imagine their argumentation; "This will save you from spam, viruses, pedophiles and evil hackers. This will save USA from bancruptcy and terrorists! Help us save the country and think of the children!"
their punishment should be magically higher than the normal middle-class guy.
As someone pointed out above the punishment is not magically higher than in other cases.
In order for the punishment to have any effect there need to be some kind of (struggling to find the correct word in English) deterrence (sp?).
I guess I just believe in the law being equal for everyone. Crazy me.
The law is the same for everyone.
The punishment is different.
That might sound odd, but if you think about it that's not so stupid after all in cases like this.
For those of you that don't think this is a problem check out this article about the problem. Best quote:
The contributions of foreign students have been crucial to U.S. science in recent decades. Nearly one-third of all American Nobel Prize winners have been foreign-born and immigrants make up nearly 40 percent of the engineering faculty members in the United States.
And this is despite the fact that only about 15% (IIRC)
of the students are foreign-born.
I don't think this is because they are "smarter", but more because they have more to loose, you either "make it, or break it".
And I can perfectly understand why some foreign students are going elsewhere, if you are coming from a (often poor and underdeveloped) country with a history of oppression, going to USA just so they can treat you as a criminal by taking fingerprints looks less attractive.
Isn't that what has been happening with all the latest worms?
True. But many of the crackers/script kiddies that control large amounts of infected computers have not found a way to earn money on it yet. Some of them are not in it for money but more for the "look dude I controll xxx # of computerz, I roxxor" or for the joy of DDoS. But it's cash and people sometimes do even more stupid things to get some of it.
Earning money on DDoS is hard unless you have mafia connections. With this scheme it's possible to earn a buck for some wannabe spamking's. If the spammer pay up off course.
Earn money fast!
on
Paid To Spam
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I wonder how long it will take before someone finds out that they can use captured, trojan infected, computers to relay spam and earn money through this scheme.
I guess it's tempting to think that "ahh, I have 500 "clients" and could earn thousands each day!".
When RIAA and IFPI whine about "falling CD sales" they use numbers from 2000-2003 and say that sales dropped almost 20%.
For example from here:
Total U.S. music shipments, including to direct and special markets, dropped 7.2 percent from 859.7 million units in 2002 to 798.4 million units in 2003. In dollar value, this represents a six percent decrease. The three year decline (2000-2003) of music unit shipments is 26 percent and the value of those units declined 17.2 percent since 2000.
They never mention that sales increased 80% in the 1992-2000 period though.
So sales is still over 60% higher now than in 1992.
IIRC from some press release last week or so, sales of singles (pressed not iTunes) increased some 50% or so in 2003. Can't find a link but strange that CNN fail to mention this.
You know, I have been looking for that independant, unbiased, non-RIAA supported research study that proves that there is a link between P2P and shrinking record sales but no luck so far.
I can point to many "industry supported" (companies that work for the RIAA-companies) studies but not one research study from a reputable university or scientist.
So please link to those studies, or shut the fuck up AC.
Slashdot Mirror
From Monster.com;
"Ph.D. a plus" returned: Jobs 1 to 50 of 399
"MCSE a plus" returned: Jobs 1 to 50 of 503
Selective quoting from some papers:
Allthough most, if not all, of this research includes rats, I would still think that you can assume that most of the negative effect would affect humas too. IIRC from my bio class humans and rats share most of the DNA and neurons reacts in the same ways.
I see know that while I wrote my comment and did some chatting with a friend of mine about the topic another poster wrote a comment with the same message; the California NOx restrictions were drawn exactly where some automakers wanted them.
So the result is that California has stricter environmental standards on NOx than needed because of lobbying and more "busssiness friendly"* CO2 limits. The EU 2006 (EU4) limit on NOx is 0.25 gram/km. while the California limit (LEV II) is (IIRC) around 0.15 gram/km.
But the Japanese automakers will soon start to produce diesel engines for the new EU 2008/9, these engines will probably be within the California limits too.
*Bussiness friendly here means friendly to some certain automakers.
Flying over a hill with a B52 with only 30 feet clearance is some crazy stuff indeed.
In the American USA the Gulag comes to you!
And "high" gas prices have already caused a fall in SUV sales.
From this article:
But even more interesting;
So much for the "fuel efficient" cars...Check out this article.
When you give the extremists in Greenpeace such a gem, you can't claim that the politicans or environmentalist destroyed the nuclear industry as it seems to me that the industy is pefectly capable of doing it it self.
Definitely, I like the FUD fresh and straight from the press.
They are big fans of intellectual property. So for them it's perfectly logical that Linus isn't "the father of Linux". Because he, in their view not mine, "stole" the idea, design and philosophy from UNIX.
1. The NIH, Not Invented Here-syndrome and
2. Money.
Am I the only one that can see a clear conflict of interest situation in this case? The same guy in both a "criteria role" and as representative for contractors (both private and federal)...
Ten bucks that The Forest Service will abandon it's "too much water" policy when a US-company comes up with a US-built plane doing the exact same thing as these Ilyushins. And that despite the advantages of the Ilyushins like better maneuverability, reduced cost and shorter takeoff.
But the S65 AMG got some class. It's stylish, brutal and extremley expensive.
To get the equivalent computer you need to merge a 8 CPU Opteron 246 with a Onyx4.
A fabric-modded Compaq is more like a Civic-mod gone bad.
2. Allthough they are made to withstand a train crash or a plane crashlanding, I don't think they can take a Challenger style explosion and then a free fall from 5000+ meters. I remember reading something about them beeing vulnerable to certain angles of impact.
Could it be because they are in fucking Dubai enjoying all the nice official pictures on those plasma screens?
Or could it be because they are busy sipping drinks at some Hotel in Baghdad?
Or *gasp* could it be becasue they are [in]embedded with coalition forces?
A much more likely scenario is one where ISP (and content providers) requires DRM enabled "Secure equipement" to connect to "their" network.
I can allready imagine their argumentation;
"This will save you from spam, viruses, pedophiles and evil hackers. This will save USA from bancruptcy and terrorists! Help us save the country and think of the children!"
In order for the punishment to have any effect there need to be some kind of (struggling to find the correct word in English) deterrence (sp?). The law is the same for everyone.
The punishment is different.
That might sound odd, but if you think about it that's not so stupid after all in cases like this.
I don't think this is because they are "smarter", but more because they have more to loose, you either "make it, or break it".
And I can perfectly understand why some foreign students are going elsewhere, if you are coming from a (often poor and underdeveloped) country with a history of oppression, going to USA just so they can treat you as a criminal by taking fingerprints looks less attractive.
Earning money on DDoS is hard unless you have mafia connections. With this scheme it's possible to earn a buck for some wannabe spamking's. If the spammer pay up off course.
I wonder how long it will take before someone finds out that they can use captured, trojan infected, computers to relay spam and earn money through this scheme.
I guess it's tempting to think that "ahh, I have 500 "clients" and could earn thousands each day!".
For example: You are driving a Ford; display GM ads.
Maybe not possible yet but as long as it's possible to make money on it it soon will be.
For example from here:
They never mention that sales increased 80% in the 1992-2000 period though.
So sales is still over 60% higher now than in 1992.
Many people don't want the album anymore.
--so had IBM in the sixties and Microsoft in the early eighties.
...so had IBM in the sixties and IBM in the early eighties.
You know, I have been looking for that independant, unbiased, non-RIAA supported research study that proves that there is a link between P2P and shrinking record sales but no luck so far.
I can point to many "industry supported" (companies that work for the RIAA-companies) studies but not one research study from a reputable university or scientist.
So please link to those studies, or shut the fuck up AC.