..but what happened to the space shuttle isn't. Remember when some photographer got a shot or two of the shuttle as it was breaking up over california heading east, and his camera caught this long purple flash that allegedly looked like it was hitting the shuttle? From what I remember, they flew the camera back to texas, they hemmed and hawed about it, the actual photos were never released to the public (AFAIK) then the story evaporated. I WONDER what that was, because the way they described it it wasn't just ablation or burning stuff on the shuttle, but something else, like a "beam" of some sort.
I'll ask him what region it is in and tell him what you told me. I don't think he'd be amused if he found out he no longer had control, but then again I have no idea what he's got there, for all I know he might have leased it out or something.
Oh, forgot to tell you, the world's males thanks brazil for providing such a wonderful natural resource of human females!
...browsers that display JPEG, and graphics apps, like the gimp? The patent seems pretty cut and dried-they own it, this isn't a SCO vague case here, and I'm surprised the companies are attempting a defense, because chances are they are going to lose unless there's something here that isn't evident, like this company gave it away, opened it up gratis, or something in the past I am not aware of..
Sucks too, just viewing websites now with images turned on is a hassle with this old machine and slow dialup, I usually leave them off unless I REALLY need to see the image for navigation purposes or it's a news item I want to see, etc. And that's with low k JPEGs. If they were BMPs or PNGs it would be much worse.. hmm..
Would it also mean that all the millions of websites out there that are using JPEGs are in potential violation if they haven't paid a license fee of some sort?
This is nutz, but there ya go on software patents, we either live with them as the cyberworld gets more complicated, or scrap the whole notion of patenting intangibles and use a different business model with "computing", something I am greatly in favor of.
really, what's overplayed? the various cop shops want to be able to intercept any net trafic, they are on the record of desiring everyone's private keys. The FCC violates it's own laws on little guys, yet lets the fatcats skate most of the time and rip billions from the public. It's just data. The discussion evolved to "using encryption" and to me, starting with the one verified example I brought up, it's not far fetched to assume that sometime in the not so distant future it will be illegal, or highly regulated. They already made copyright infringement be a felony punishable by jail time and fines if the feel like it. Anyone see that one coming even 3 years ago?
If anything, I think more people need to get more upset over it, because a too-casual outlook towards this whole... creeping big brotherism and being a serf in your own nation afraid to enjoy life won't be stopped by ignoring it.
I don'thave a dog in the file sharing fight, don't do mp3's or movies, but I can smell a conjob when I see one, and the record and movie ghouls been pulling a rip of massive proportions for decades now. There's laws on the books and then there's laws that beg to be broken. Prohibition was one that went on way too long until it was a national embarassment. They started another stupid buncha laws, and not enough people spoke up and fought to stop it,so now we have the war on some drugs, that got us 1/2 way to a full-bore police state.
Sometimes ya just got to say no to stupid stuff. I walked with people who got refused service in restaurants because of their skin color,and it was "legal" for that to happen to them at the time. I took the gas when we tried to stop a stupid war that wasn't legal and was a scam based on a whopper lie, yet they called it "legal" and killed millions of people over it, both "our guys" and some other people, and they didn't care. And on and on, stupid things big AND little, but they all add up, and they all apply to everyone sooner or later. Even when you think this latest stupidity don't apply to you, eventually it will, because their job is to think of stupid things to make life more complicated and to make it harder to avoid "offending" them so they can "crack down" on you for..whatever. Just think of all the things they are gonna "crack down" on. Believe me, they won't run out of nouns to target. Eventually they'll get to something really important to you, "general you' I mean.
Now we got all sorts of stuff like that going on, PLUS we got this cyber world to deal with, and some things are just as stupid as the others. I say it's righteous to say NO to obviously stupid things. And the deal is, with government and their corporate pimps, it's the death of a thousand cuts with those people,they just keep coming and they ain't got no pity, you got to say "NO! quit cutting me" everytime they try it,no matter how small the cut is, and be quick with the bandaids and iodine.
If you keep taking the little cuts, because "oh well, it's just one little cut", pretty soon it adds up to be the equivalent of a meat cleaver in it's effects. It's like, what's the line, how far do you eat it when they are trying to make you eat it constantly?
In short, it's not tin foil hat if it's real,and if you can step back and look at the bigger picture and not get hung up on minutiae, and realise that they WILL cut you as often as they can think of a new way to do it.
.. and that's the HAM bands. Encryption is verbotten. Of course, the government doesn't follow it's own laws, witness, it's "legal" to broadcast without their "speech license" if we are in a state of emergency. *But*, we are *always* under several overlapping "states of emergency"(one of the main reasons we do not have constitutional government-side isue), YET they still bust microbroadcasters whenever they feel like it for not having their license or paying their fees. In short, liars.
See, their laws mean nothing, they are there for THEIR convenience and THEIR profit, to be used ON you when they see fit..whether it's their own little idea or some lobbying force bribes them into it.. so don't be surprised if encryption on the net is made illegal, or to sort of slide into it first, they might make you register, pay a fee, get yet again another government "license" permission, and make you hand over your private key first before you use it. They already have gone on record saying they want that, various alphabet goon agencies, and eventually they get what they want. All they need to do is drop the buzzword "terrorism" now.
Oh well, he wasn't the globalist fatcats pick, so maybe there's hope for ya'all yet. Brazil is a pretty big and well off nation from what I understand, lots of natural resources and a good labor pool, you'll do OK in the future if you can keep out of the clutches of the world bank/IMF guys...and go for a gold backed currency, like the muslim countries are doing now. Just a piece of advice there that might make some sense, seeing as how you guys have great gold reserves.. I have some amethyst and quartz from your country, BTW...
hmm, the guy I work for a long time ago bought a few hundred acres (hectares? whatever ya got, he has a few hundred of them) down there, but I think it is still all forest. He runs some big farms, so maybe in the future that might be what he wants to do with it, but I don't know, just guessing..
Here, we have choice of multimillionaire skull and bones secret society candidate A or B. I always vote independent or third party, knowing full well they won't win, but my hope is every year I see the numbers rising slightly with people who vote similar.
There's been no fatherly welfare I am aware of, his philsophy as related to me was while they were at home they got free room and board but did chores, no maid action or anything like that, hit 18 it was adios, go make something of yourself. Shes a retired stewardess, two years of college before she went flying,college paid for via athletic scholarship, nationally ranked swimmer. Her sisters are married and each runs a small business they started, one of her brothers is an architect, And the other I forget, but just some normal job in IT, but I honestly don't remember what it is. Her dad is a hoot, he was a B-24 pilot in ww2 and still flies his own plane, a cessna 210 I believe. He's just always been a lawyer since he got out of the war, mostly criminal cases, and always thrifty, saved his nickles. cheap but not mean, he DID offer the 10 grand bill if they knew who was on it. (sam chase, BTW) He does goofy stuff all the time, I've heard dozens of these sorts of stories. And, if there was any family welfare, I sure don't see it. We do caretaking now, make an absurdly small salary for hot nasty outdoor labor, and get a three room cabin of around 600 square feet. Not exactly the lap of luxury around here. Combined we make less a day than what most people here make per hour. My new whizzbang surfin machine is a 1996 ibm @ 200 mghz. She owns a 1980 jeep that needs a new cylinder head and rings and a carb, and I have a 1975 van with well over 300 thou on it. If there's tons of cash or platinum cards kickin around here, I'd sure like to go on a spree, like, buy some parts I need and maybe go eat in a restaurant someplace that had actual china plates on a table.
I got one reply to an earlier voting post, the poster related voting is required by law in Brazil. a good idea, IMO. Now I hear you are guaranteed the time to vote in canada. Another good idea. Here in the US, we are guaranteed to have the choice of blackbox voting for the one party with two names candidate of their choice, and our helpful "news" is extraordinarily careful to not clutter our simple little minds with any irrelevant "third party" nonsense..
Frankly I think it's been over for awhile. I vote out of inertia mostly. I considered the JFK whack to be a clear cut coup d'etat, and it's been seriously downhill ever since. Every suceeding administration or session of congress has gotten more crooked, farther away from the constitution, more insulated from the "real" US people, and more in the hands of international technofeudalists.
We as a society aren't even close to being what we were designed as. Sucks.
... IS sort of put-offish what with security concerns, etc. I got as far as the huge sign in questionnaire, that and having to run script told me to not follow through with an account there.
I'd like to try google's, especially if they had created a huge wall of spam-be-not around their service. Coolguys and non spammers inside, everyone else outside. Google is big enough to pull off a system like that, and has the smarts to make it work.
whew, sounds complicated! I tell you what though, I REALLY like the idea of requiring voting,making it the law. I just cannot understand people who voluntarily do not vote,and it's a huge number in this country. Is it a bad sentence if you are caught and convicted for not voting?
I just don't know. When we have used simple paper ballots, it worked. We switched to machines with cars, it started not working. Now we have computerised and I would BET serious folding money some elections have been hijacked allready.
Anyway, to each their own, sounds like your nation has it more under control. Tell me, how do you like Silva so far?
CAN they build 100 year CDs, and what would they cost then? A dime more a disk, a quarter, what? Or is it too late, because DVDs are so common now, and other storage media coming soon?
me/ don't even have a burner yet....rats, I still use floppies.....
I am of the opinion that machine voting IS the problem. Voting is too critical to not have on the spot, verifiable with your eyeballs 1- an empty ballot box on poll opening (easily checked by anyone there), and 2-a count that anyone who can add can perform and check at the end of the period. And we have an archaic short voting time period, it needs to be 24 to 48 hours. I have seen and heard of too many examples of people who simply can't make the polls, typically blue collars who are required to be at work from much earlier than "business hours" until let go in the evening. I once had to QUIT a job and walk off to go vote, they would not "allow" me to come in late, nor leave early, and that day we had overtime I wasn't expecting. And lastly, instant runoffs, no more "voting for the lesser of evil" styled voting, people will have a lot more incentive to vote their REAL first choice in elections.
I love computers, but with voting, nope, I want to be able to verify it with a paper ballot, not even punch cards,a mark in the bubble ballot is quite sufficient. And I don't mean a receipt from some black box voting machine, either, this is just thousands of dollars a precinct busy work with electronic voting. More government waste (and kickbacks),easier fraud potential and inefficiency. Selling the smell and the sizzle, not the steak, typical advertising crap.
If it is not readable by any human who chooses to poll watch or if there's a dispute immediately and a human can't read it, then it is not secure, and I don't care what "guarantees" they give. "They" ALREADY swore up and down that "it was secure and worked properly", and they have been proven to FAIL IT in not a very long time.
Government and government connected contractors have a long history of being liars and crooks, and with something like voting, using computers??? WAY too much temptation there to ignore, after all, what is it woreth in potential dollars and power over other humans to "adjust" who wins?
This is just another way for that to happen,a much easier way, and as you can see it has happened, exactly like it was predicted by folks like me several years ago when it was being discussed, and I remember the arguments then that it "would just work and be better". Phooie. I was right, they were wrong.
"Computerised Voting" came pre-broken and crooked right out of the box. And with a real voting period and not this half a day deal we got now,and some sort of instant runoff deal,and third parties being covered in the news, we might see more people voting. the way it is now is 50% voting roughly, that is not any sort of success figure. It would reduce lines and the wait,the longer period, and not discrimnate against workers who can't make it to the polls, or people who have emergencies come up they have to go deal with, etc. and "counting" is a normal human thing, I doubt there's any precinct out there that lacks people who can count. Yes, there's trouble with that too, but stricter enforcement of the laws on the books with severe penalties could knock that down considerable.
And then MAYBE if the paid off FCC can see fit to REQUIRE the networks to cover third parties and candidates in their day to day so-called "news" reports and in the so-called "official national debates" we might not only get more votes, we might get more voting enthusiasm and some constructive change in this nation, instead of this "new and improved and it's so shiny!" scheme which will only go to elect the same tired old parties and candidates who have caused all the mess in the first place. And FUNNY it was *their idea* to switch to "computerised" voting. I certainly don't recall seeing any private citizens approaching me with some petition to beg the government to please switch us to computers, because it didn't happen. It was shoved down our throats and sold to us just like beer or cornflakes on the TV. The "controllers" wanted computerised voting because it's more hackable than the old original system.
Hard tech is great, I love it, for SOME things, but in other circumstances, you can't replace normal human actions.
it's real, and it's both naturally occurring cyclical, and also man made. Both, not one or the other or not happening at all. Plenty of science behind both ideas. No one disputes naturally occuring cycles, and frankly it strains credulity to think putting millions of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere year after year after year, plus the extra heat of buring "stuff" all over the planet, that wouldn't normally be there has "no effect". Of course it has effects, and they are large. Some substances are burnt on purpose to provide all the goods and services we require, releasing the gasses and heat, and some is accidental, such as huge forest fires that have been set by humans. It ads up. We can't take the chance on ignoring it. We need a transition plan, a backup plan, or we are risking our human "data" we all care about. If we can care enough about relatively trivial things like some bean counters figures to have backup plans and pre-catastrophe planning and remediation, we can do it with other systems as well, like OUR LIVES.
All that is irrelevant of course, we need alternatives to fossil fuels because they are a FINITE resource, and we need to use what finite resources we have to build the infrastructure leading to some sort of sustainable energy products. We have to use what we have, we can't keep holding out for some pie in the sky magical backyard fusion reactor that isn't here and has a slim chance of arriving anytime soon. Unless one cares not a whit for suceeding generations of course, then it wouldn't matter as long as "they got their's so screw everyone else". I have heard that numerous times, and it appears to be a large part of the anti science luddites rationale, that somehow magicvally "the future will take care of itself". We have actual verifiable science that extreme and long lasting weather changes can happen in very short time periods. Numerous examples of ice age maalls fouind intact, never rotted much, with summer grasses and flowers in their mouths and stomachs. that's an example of an immediate and long last cold snap, it can NOT be anything else. Not over "millenia" or "hundreds of years" but like in one day, something just changed, and changed dramatically, and lasted thousands of years. Cold (literally) hard anecdotal evidence. And we don't know when it would hit a tipping over point, all we can do is guess at it. No one's science is that good, but the evidence that it has happened is right there to stare at.
I just checked on google, lotsa linkages to places that can show how the ice has melted more, you can get anecdotal from people who actually have LIVED in the arctic regions for all their lives (unlike rush limbeau and similar) and have first hand accounts, etc..they all say it's melting when it shouldn't be. that's a short time historically, it's not millenia or hundreds of years or anything, just one persons lifespan. That's the bottom line data.
And the weird thing is, as it melts, it exposes open terrain which is darker than ultra white snow and ice, which in turn means more heat is absorbed instead of being reflected (albedo effect it's called), which further accelerates the process. And then you can get into the gulf stream elevator effect with too much freshwater mixing into the salt, which would lead to a slowing of the gulf stream, which would REALLY suck worse than just over all average temp drop or a scosh of a few feet of flooding, because most of north america and europe rely on the gulf stream and japanese currents to moderate the weather, to moderate the cold in other words. Less ocean currents moving, less "warm" gets transformed northward, then it gets bad. Not just a little coastal flooding, but sucky OMG cold bad and THEN where does the energy come from? We, as a society are supposed to WAIT until something like that happens, or should we take what we know now and deal with it?
We don't have much of any control over the macro weather systems (we have some they admit to and some they don't admit to because of treaties, etc), but
form of capitalism, eventually you'll have just a few global mega corporations calling the shots, and you will see a massive "company town and store" scenario where you basically have serfs and masters.
This is because in the real world, not the theoretical world, people are greedy,and even greedy beyond money where they strive for actual physical control and power over other humans, and the corporations will all keep their prices high and wages low from collusion, once they achieve near monopoly status and once there is little difference between the corporate bosses and the government bosses.
You can NOT separate economics, politics, and the human social condition and psyche into little stand alone niches, they have always been completely intertwined, none of them exist in a pure vacuum isolated from the other.
Theory does not always equate practice
It's already bad enough now the way it is with SOME controls in place, left unfettered, well, we have historical examples to indicate the progression most likely to occur.
And this also negates the real world reality that we have, and is often ignored by the arguers on the other side, the "anti union and no controls" disciples, is that *corporations already have very powerful unions themselves*, they have industry groups who chip in and use lobbying, etc, along with buckets of cash, to "get their way" in society and government. They run their own form of highly effective and profitable for them form of "collective bargaining", except it's called lobbying and campaign contributions, and well...let's be frank here, they also use bribery and blackmail in various manners to a huge extent. Who is not familiar with the terms kickbacks, or payola, for example?
And they also have an edge that the individual doesn't have, they get all the benefits of getting their hands on profits, but they have an extra legal layer of protection against malfeasance, hiding behind a corporate front man with their legally defined artifical personhood, which insulates them from liability in many diverse ways.
The single individual worker has no means to level the playing field, hence, unions came about, just an extension of the old guild idea.
In the US, historically, we had our best example of a robust and healthy and successful middle class when we had the highest levels of union membership combined with national protectionist policies. This is what government is for, to protect the people, to do the peoples business, not exactly to do the artificial person's0the corporations-business. This time period would have been the late 50's through the 60's roughly speaking. We also had a much more diversified economy, that had a lot more internal trading than external trading(we took advantage of ou5r size, common language, good labor pool and natural resources,etc), we kept a lot more money inside the borders and trading around than what we exported.
And speaking of borders, that was back when we really had a better handle on immigration, we still had it of course, as we have always had it, it was controlled and legal (I am in favor of that) and illegal border jumpers were much less common and the government regulated it much better as a matter of common sense policy and following the laws. It existed, but not to the degree we have now, where it is totally out of control and ignored by the government in most practical aspects, harm to the economy and reducing national security are the two biggest issues there.
Proof is easy, in the 50'sand 60's, a single middle-wage level blue collar job was more than adequate to have a large family with many children, one spouse could stay home and do one of the most important jobs there are in human existence, raising children, you could have decent home ownership with mortgages half the time limit average that you commonly see now, downpayments were much lower, decent pay that allowed for good savings, full benefits, pensions, new normal appliances of the era, decent car, etc.
.. you get is this is a brand new technology, but I had this memory of reading about it many years ago concerning rabbits. That's why I asked if anyone had better info, etc, to correct me if I was remembering erroneously. It's no biggee really.
seems to me this has occurred in rabbits already. Any biologists here correct me if I am wrong. I also think that pregnant rabbits, in some instances, when highly stressed, will literally reabsorb their foetuses.
... to wait until it gets that bad. Of course, you can't really poll the 100 million plus people who could back that up, those 100 million who were killed by their own governments in the 20th century, because they are dead. Not killed by foreigners in wars, but by their own governments.
My guess is though, they might recommend that if in the future you can see clear signs that it's on the way to total totalitariansim, that it's better to nip it in the bud then to wait.
What's the saying the holocaust survivors have? Oh ya, "never again!". That means, you learn from history, you learn to put a critical eye to the clues, and you don't put up with it, especially when you see it starting. If you wait until the cattle car doors slam shut on the trains, you've waited too long. If you see the laws put on the books, but only applied "so far" to "some other guys", and you don't speak out, if you don't resist it then when it's still relativelyeasy to resist, you've waited too long.
If your home catches fire, just a tiny little flame, you put it out as soon as you can see it, failing that, if you need help, you waste no time calling for it, and you do it as loudly and as effectively as you can.. You don't wait until it's big conflagration before doing anything about it, thinking "oh well, it's not that bad yet, I'll just wait until it's a righteous blaze, then it will cross over into being serious and important".
I won't presume to know your age or anything, I can really only relate from my position and age and this sort of thing being a major interest for me for over 40 years now, but this I will staste as fact: It's a lot worse than it was when I first started looking. The laws on the books now effectively strip freedoms based on a bureaucrats whim. The government has gotten caught telling some massive lies to push forward some weird afgendas, even if it took in some cases decades to find out the truth conclusively. They have a track record for this, it's SOP for them. They have a track record of not caring about "collateral damage", to foreigners or to US citizens. they have a track record of lying to and screwing over their own Vets, right into killing them by lack of medical care. They have a track record of putting in dictators, then later on saying it's a crisis and then stating the "need" to go "do something" about the problem they created.
and if you follow up on the links I provided, and spend some evenings in research, and open your eyes you'll see the US now is in a similar position to how germany was in the early 30's. It's really that clear cut and basic.
If it wasn't like that, I wouldn't state it. None of the pieces of evidence out there is created by me, it'sall just researchable data, something the net is good for, and something I wish we had had way back when, when all this stuff really started happening. We had one president who saw it, he would not play ball with those creatures, so they offed him, and since then, they have all been puppets of one form or another. the goivernment is not run "by the people", it's run now by the actual people involved or the progeny of the coup plotters who took over back then, and it goes across party lines. they are not all allied with each other, nor do they have exact aims, but they DO share a conviction that their will is paramount, and they have enough clout to call the shots on what really is going on, and what they want is nothing less than a modern feudalistic society, two classes, one of the ultra elite and powerful, and everyone else. there's a *reason* why the constant attacks on the middle class keep occurring, there's reasons that the major media do not cover all the data, there's reasons why society is being manipulated into meek obedience. None of them good.
My point is,my POV and what I do, is to tell people if we wait, chances are it will be too late. If we fail to speak out when it's still possible, we won't get another chance. If we refuse to notice reality around us, we will still be affected by it. Lea
It's always good to step back and look at all the sides in a purchase or decision. throw out the highs and lows (or positives or negatives, etc) and concentrate on the middle, that's probably where the truth and practicality (mostly) is.
This situation though IS embarrassing to SuSe though. You have to wonder why they chose the guy in the first place, seems like they might have found someone who honestly believed in his product enough from data nalaysis to serve as their salesman, not someone who can just act and follow some sort of sales spiel script. but, oh well. I've had a few sales jobs before (long time ago), and I turned down more, because on inspection, what they wanted me to sell wasn't a good deal for the consumer.
.. and killing all sorts of people in the process? Ya, I guess that was a "smooth tricky move" on their part. And to help get the totalitarian patriot act and homeland security acts passed, so the US people can be further introduced to the benefits of being second class serfs in perpetuity in their own nation, ya, it was nice of them to be so "smart".
sorry if you think a diatribe isn't worth it to stop despotism. We've replaced a saddam in one nation with the US taking his place, and quite obviously going ahead with all their plans, not just grabbing the oil, but instituting some rather drastic social changes inside the US, and making us more reviled around the world, and having a lot of really big nations look at us with increasing suspicion.
Guess I'll buy stock in black boot polish manufacturers, you and your guys will be buying it by the tanker car soon.
Just remember, a lot of us out here are hip to your guys totalitarian designs, and we are neither "peace and love" hippies, nor lack serious "skills and hardware", so anytime you want to bring it on, go for it, fascist goon, let's rock.
is fair market value, used or new. That leaves it pretty open there, and you take your chances on claiming a deduction-of course I am referring to personal filing not as a corporation. What it is there I have no idea. I do know the tax extortionists don't take kindly to abusing it, like claiming your old 286 box is worth 500$ or anything like that. It would seem to me if the distro is on official CD, it would be worth what the distro makers ask for it, if it's a clone copy what they would charge, and etc. No more, no less. If it's downloaded, not much. MS is just using the system's rules when they can do it "legally", and dodging them when they can get away with it. Nothing new there with either individuals or corporations. It is more common than uncommon I think.
both netscape and walmart (and probably some others) have AOL linked/styled/ whatever you want to call it dial-up service for 10 clams a month. I was going to get it, instead of the 20$/month I have now from a mom and pop local ISP, but upon inspection you HAD to use their crappy interface and browser to get an account and surf through them, at least near as I could figure out. If anyone knows a way around that I would be interested. 10 bucks is ten bucks. 120 a year savings would buy me some more RAM for instance. I'm in a rural area that has few local number dial in options (2 actually, the walmart number and the local mom and pop), and forget broadband. You take what you can get. I'd love to get like-say- speakeasy dsl, or T mobile wireless unlimited data, but neither is in my locale, and any sort of new extended covereage wi-fi is still a ways off. Until then, dial up is a lot better than nuthin....
saddam had extensive business ties with the Bush 1 regime among others, and was well supplied with weapons and expertise from our own various alabet soup agencies. Prior to gulf war one, kuwait, an artificially created nation by british oil interests that was previously part of iraq, had been using a technique called "slant drilling" to remove-steal actually-oil from under the border and into iraq turf. Iraq tried for two years to get that stopped. Went to the UN and everything. Tried to negotiate with kuwait, tried to get the US to help. Nothing happened. He was trying to recover from a decade long war with iran, a war in which the US quite openly sided with iraq, encouraged and supplied him and used him to fight the mullahs who had a few yearsprevious kicked out the remants of our crony regime we installed in iran, the "shah". We used iraq as a sort of huge mercenary force, and saddam was our bosom buddy there. Nothing that happened in iraq, including using poison gas, was any sort of secret or anything, and the US knew about it and went along with it and actually helped him with those efforts. The US also turned a blind eye to his treatment of the kurds (and the "marsh arabs"), exactly like they still turn a blind eye to turkeys treatment of the kurds to this day, and exactly how they turned a blind eye to the marsh arabs revolt, encouraged them, then failed to follow through with strategic support. Anyway, I'm sliding off to the side here. Our amabassador to kuwait at the time, April Glaspie, had a meeting with saddam just days before the invasion. She indicated to saddam (you can google for the complete transcript of the meeting), that basically it was an arab to arab dispute, none of the US's business. As in "wink wink, nod nod, do what ya want". Saddam had already massed troops on the border by that time, and had given kuwait 2 days to resolve the problem or a pretty obvious "or else". It was obvious to anyone who was paying attention. The US told him "none of our business". Saddam goes, "OK, I reconstruct the entire nation of iraq like it used to be then". Paraphrasing but that was the gist of it. Saddam invaded, no surprise to anyone, well, except the kuwaiti royals who thought the US would automagically protect them.. Bush one and cronies "acted surprised" and there was "international outrage" and so on and so forth. We had to "do something" about it then.
problem, reaction, solution
Anyway, I never said anything about the pentagon, they are order-followers. The orders come from the neocon cabal that surrounds bush 2 now, many of themholdovers from bush1. A lot of them are in the org/think tank that calls itself "The Project for a New American Century", there, well before they were in office, they most clearly outlined *what their plans were*, what they fully intended to do as soon as they had control over the US governmental apparatus..
All those plans are being implemented now. They did in fact indicate the *need* for a pearl harbor-like event to give them the excuse they needed to fulfill their goals of total occupation and control of the mideast oil producing areas, starting with iraq. they also said that even if iraq (saddam) was not a threat to the US, he needed to be removed and iraq invaded anyway, again, primarily for the oil and to give the US a permanent huge centralised base of operations inside the mideast for the next steps in invading and occupying the nations there. One at a time is the plan.. They also include some pretty radical zionist expansionist proposals. It's there, you can read the guys who are calling the shots now own words.
It's all there, you can read it, follow around the links from the google page I indidicated.
Slashdot Mirror
..but what happened to the space shuttle isn't. Remember when some photographer got a shot or two of the shuttle as it was breaking up over california heading east, and his camera caught this long purple flash that allegedly looked like it was hitting the shuttle? From what I remember, they flew the camera back to texas, they hemmed and hawed about it, the actual photos were never released to the public (AFAIK) then the story evaporated. I WONDER what that was, because the way they described it it wasn't just ablation or burning stuff on the shuttle, but something else, like a "beam" of some sort.
hmmm, just one of hundreds of lost stories
I'll ask him what region it is in and tell him what you told me. I don't think he'd be amused if he found out he no longer had control, but then again I have no idea what he's got there, for all I know he might have leased it out or something.
Oh, forgot to tell you, the world's males thanks brazil for providing such a wonderful natural resource of human females!
...browsers that display JPEG, and graphics apps, like the gimp? The patent seems pretty cut and dried-they own it, this isn't a SCO vague case here, and I'm surprised the companies are attempting a defense, because chances are they are going to lose unless there's something here that isn't evident, like this company gave it away, opened it up gratis, or something in the past I am not aware of..
Sucks too, just viewing websites now with images turned on is a hassle with this old machine and slow dialup, I usually leave them off unless I REALLY need to see the image for navigation purposes or it's a news item I want to see, etc. And that's with low k JPEGs. If they were BMPs or PNGs it would be much worse.. hmm..
Would it also mean that all the millions of websites out there that are using JPEGs are in potential violation if they haven't paid a license fee of some sort?
This is nutz, but there ya go on software patents, we either live with them as the cyberworld gets more complicated, or scrap the whole notion of patenting intangibles and use a different business model with "computing", something I am greatly in favor of.
really, what's overplayed? the various cop shops want to be able to intercept any net trafic, they are on the record of desiring everyone's private keys. The FCC violates it's own laws on little guys, yet lets the fatcats skate most of the time and rip billions from the public. It's just data. The discussion evolved to "using encryption" and to me, starting with the one verified example I brought up, it's not far fetched to assume that sometime in the not so distant future it will be illegal, or highly regulated. They already made copyright infringement be a felony punishable by jail time and fines if the feel like it. Anyone see that one coming even 3 years ago?
If anything, I think more people need to get more upset over it, because a too-casual outlook towards this whole... creeping big brotherism and being a serf in your own nation afraid to enjoy life won't be stopped by ignoring it.
I don'thave a dog in the file sharing fight, don't do mp3's or movies, but I can smell a conjob when I see one, and the record and movie ghouls been pulling a rip of massive proportions for decades now. There's laws on the books and then there's laws that beg to be broken. Prohibition was one that went on way too long until it was a national embarassment. They started another stupid buncha laws, and not enough people spoke up and fought to stop it,so now we have the war on some drugs, that got us 1/2 way to a full-bore police state.
Sometimes ya just got to say no to stupid stuff. I walked with people who got refused service in restaurants because of their skin color,and it was "legal" for that to happen to them at the time. I took the gas when we tried to stop a stupid war that wasn't legal and was a scam based on a whopper lie, yet they called it "legal" and killed millions of people over it, both "our guys" and some other people, and they didn't care. And on and on, stupid things big AND little, but they all add up, and they all apply to everyone sooner or later. Even when you think this latest stupidity don't apply to you, eventually it will, because their job is to think of stupid things to make life more complicated and to make it harder to avoid "offending" them so they can "crack down" on you for..whatever. Just think of all the things they are gonna "crack down" on. Believe me, they won't run out of nouns to target. Eventually they'll get to something really important to you, "general you' I mean.
Now we got all sorts of stuff like that going on, PLUS we got this cyber world to deal with, and some things are just as stupid as the others. I say it's righteous to say NO to obviously stupid things. And the deal is, with government and their corporate pimps, it's the death of a thousand cuts with those people,they just keep coming and they ain't got no pity, you got to say "NO! quit cutting me" everytime they try it,no matter how small the cut is, and be quick with the bandaids and iodine.
If you keep taking the little cuts, because "oh well, it's just one little cut", pretty soon it adds up to be the equivalent of a meat cleaver in it's effects. It's like, what's the line, how far do you eat it when they are trying to make you eat it constantly?
In short, it's not tin foil hat if it's real,and if you can step back and look at the bigger picture and not get hung up on minutiae, and realise that they WILL cut you as often as they can think of a new way to do it.
.. and that's the HAM bands. Encryption is verbotten. Of course, the government doesn't follow it's own laws, witness, it's "legal" to broadcast without their "speech license" if we are in a state of emergency.
*But*, we are *always* under several overlapping "states of emergency"(one of the main reasons we do not have constitutional government-side isue), YET they still bust microbroadcasters whenever they feel like it for not having their license or paying their fees. In short, liars.
See, their laws mean nothing, they are there for THEIR convenience and THEIR profit, to be used ON you when they see fit..whether it's their own little idea or some lobbying force bribes them into it.. so don't be surprised if encryption on the net is made illegal, or to sort of slide into it first, they might make you register, pay a fee, get yet again another government "license" permission, and make you hand over your private key first before you use it. They already have gone on record saying they want that, various alphabet goon agencies, and eventually they get what they want. All they need to do is drop the buzzword "terrorism" now.
Oh well, he wasn't the globalist fatcats pick, so maybe there's hope for ya'all yet. Brazil is a pretty big and well off nation from what I understand, lots of natural resources and a good labor pool, you'll do OK in the future if you can keep out of the clutches of the world bank/IMF guys...and go for a gold backed currency, like the muslim countries are doing now. Just a piece of advice there that might make some sense, seeing as how you guys have great gold reserves.. I have some amethyst and quartz from your country, BTW...
hmm, the guy I work for a long time ago bought a few hundred acres (hectares? whatever ya got, he has a few hundred of them) down there, but I think it is still all forest. He runs some big farms, so maybe in the future that might be what he wants to do with it, but I don't know, just guessing..
Here, we have choice of multimillionaire skull and bones secret society candidate A or B. I always vote independent or third party, knowing full well they won't win, but my hope is every year I see the numbers rising slightly with people who vote similar.
There's been no fatherly welfare I am aware of, his philsophy as related to me was while they were at home they got free room and board but did chores, no maid action or anything like that, hit 18 it was adios, go make something of yourself. Shes a retired stewardess, two years of college before she went flying,college paid for via athletic scholarship, nationally ranked swimmer. Her sisters are married and each runs a small business they started, one of her brothers is an architect, And the other I forget, but just some normal job in IT, but I honestly don't remember what it is. Her dad is a hoot, he was a B-24 pilot in ww2 and still flies his own plane, a cessna 210 I believe. He's just always been a lawyer since he got out of the war, mostly criminal cases, and always thrifty, saved his nickles. cheap but not mean, he DID offer the 10 grand bill if they knew who was on it. (sam chase, BTW) He does goofy stuff all the time, I've heard dozens of these sorts of stories. And, if there was any family welfare, I sure don't see it. We do caretaking now, make an absurdly small salary for hot nasty outdoor labor, and get a three room cabin of around 600 square feet. Not exactly the lap of luxury around here. Combined we make less a day than what most people here make per hour. My new whizzbang surfin machine is a 1996 ibm @ 200 mghz. She owns a 1980 jeep that needs a new cylinder head and rings and a carb, and I have a 1975 van with well over 300 thou on it. If there's tons of cash or platinum cards kickin around here, I'd sure like to go on a spree, like, buy some parts I need and maybe go eat in a restaurant someplace that had actual china plates on a table.
I got one reply to an earlier voting post, the poster related voting is required by law in Brazil. a good idea, IMO. Now I hear you are guaranteed the time to vote in canada. Another good idea. Here in the US, we are guaranteed to have the choice of blackbox voting for the one party with two names candidate of their choice, and our helpful "news" is extraordinarily careful to not clutter our simple little minds with any irrelevant "third party" nonsense..
Frankly I think it's been over for awhile. I vote out of inertia mostly. I considered the JFK whack to be a clear cut coup d'etat, and it's been seriously downhill ever since. Every suceeding administration or session of congress has gotten more crooked, farther away from the constitution, more insulated from the "real" US people, and more in the hands of international technofeudalists.
We as a society aren't even close to being what we were designed as. Sucks.
... IS sort of put-offish what with security concerns, etc. I got as far as the huge sign in questionnaire, that and having to run script told me to not follow through with an account there.
I'd like to try google's, especially if they had created a huge wall of spam-be-not around their service. Coolguys and non spammers inside, everyone else outside. Google is big enough to pull off a system like that, and has the smarts to make it work.
whew, sounds complicated! I tell you what though, I REALLY like the idea of requiring voting,making it the law. I just cannot understand people who voluntarily do not vote,and it's a huge number in this country. Is it a bad sentence if you are caught and convicted for not voting?
I just don't know. When we have used simple paper ballots, it worked. We switched to machines with cars, it started not working. Now we have computerised and I would BET serious folding money some elections have been hijacked allready.
Anyway, to each their own, sounds like your nation has it more under control. Tell me, how do you like Silva so far?
CAN they build 100 year CDs, and what would they cost then? A dime more a disk, a quarter, what? Or is it too late, because DVDs are so common now, and other storage media coming soon?
me/ don't even have a burner yet....rats, I still use floppies.....
I am of the opinion that machine voting IS the problem. Voting is too critical to not have on the spot, verifiable with your eyeballs 1- an empty ballot box on poll opening (easily checked by anyone there), and 2-a count that anyone who can add can perform and check at the end of the period. And we have an archaic short voting time period, it needs to be 24 to 48 hours. I have seen and heard of too many examples of people who simply can't make the polls, typically blue collars who are required to be at work from much earlier than "business hours" until let go in the evening. I once had to QUIT a job and walk off to go vote, they would not "allow" me to come in late, nor leave early, and that day we had overtime I wasn't expecting. And lastly, instant runoffs, no more "voting for the lesser of evil" styled voting, people will have a lot more incentive to vote their REAL first choice in elections.
I love computers, but with voting, nope, I want to be able to verify it with a paper ballot, not even punch cards,a mark in the bubble ballot is quite sufficient. And I don't mean a receipt from some black box voting machine, either, this is just thousands of dollars a precinct busy work with electronic voting. More government waste (and kickbacks),easier fraud potential and inefficiency. Selling the smell and the sizzle, not the steak, typical advertising crap.
If it is not readable by any human who chooses to poll watch or if there's a dispute immediately and a human can't read it, then it is not secure, and I don't care what "guarantees" they give. "They" ALREADY swore up and down that "it was secure and worked properly", and they have been proven to FAIL IT in not a very long time.
Government and government connected contractors have a long history of being liars and crooks, and with something like voting, using computers??? WAY too much temptation there to ignore, after all, what is it woreth in potential dollars and power over other humans to "adjust" who wins?
This is just another way for that to happen,a much easier way, and as you can see it has happened, exactly like it was predicted by folks like me several years ago when it was being discussed, and I remember the arguments then that it "would just work and be better". Phooie. I was right, they were wrong.
"Computerised Voting" came pre-broken and crooked right out of the box. And with a real voting period and not this half a day deal we got now,and some sort of instant runoff deal,and third parties being covered in the news, we might see more people voting. the way it is now is 50% voting roughly, that is not any sort of success figure. It would reduce lines and the wait,the longer period, and not discrimnate against workers who can't make it to the polls, or people who have emergencies come up they have to go deal with, etc. and "counting" is a normal human thing, I doubt there's any precinct out there that lacks people who can count. Yes, there's trouble with that too, but stricter enforcement of the laws on the books with severe penalties could knock that down considerable.
And then MAYBE if the paid off FCC can see fit to REQUIRE the networks to cover third parties and candidates in their day to day so-called "news" reports and in the so-called "official national debates" we might not only get more votes, we might get more voting enthusiasm and some constructive change in this nation, instead of this "new and improved and it's so shiny!" scheme which will only go to elect the same tired old parties and candidates who have caused all the mess in the first place. And FUNNY it was *their idea* to switch to "computerised" voting. I certainly don't recall seeing any private citizens approaching me with some petition to beg the government to please switch us to computers, because it didn't happen. It was shoved down our throats and sold to us just like beer or cornflakes on the TV. The "controllers" wanted computerised voting because it's more hackable than the old original system.
Hard tech is great, I love it, for SOME things, but in other circumstances, you can't replace normal human actions.
potential riches to rags, one step removed as my girlfriend tells it.
Long time ago, her dad (very well off lawyer) at Christmas offered all the kids a challenge.
On the spot, he asked all of them who's picture was on the 10 very large bill, whoever guessed right, they got it!
He held it up, his hand over the face, she says they could all see the zeros hanging out and about shit.
NONE of them guessed correct.
Dad puts the bill away back in his pocket.
I guess that was his lesson to the kids on "know your stuff" in the business/economic world.
it's real, and it's both naturally occurring cyclical, and also man made. Both, not one or the other or not happening at all. Plenty of science behind both ideas. No one disputes naturally occuring cycles, and frankly it strains credulity to think putting millions of tons of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere year after year after year, plus the extra heat of buring "stuff" all over the planet, that wouldn't normally be there has "no effect". Of course it has effects, and they are large. Some substances are burnt on purpose to provide all the goods and services we require, releasing the gasses and heat, and some is accidental, such as huge forest fires that have been set by humans. It ads up. We can't take the chance on ignoring it. We need a transition plan, a backup plan, or we are risking our human "data" we all care about. If we can care enough about relatively trivial things like some bean counters figures to have backup plans and pre-catastrophe planning and remediation, we can do it with other systems as well, like OUR LIVES.
All that is irrelevant of course, we need alternatives to fossil fuels because they are a FINITE resource, and we need to use what finite resources we have to build the infrastructure leading to some sort of sustainable energy products. We have to use what we have, we can't keep holding out for some pie in the sky magical backyard fusion reactor that isn't here and has a slim chance of arriving anytime soon. Unless one cares not a whit for suceeding generations of course, then it wouldn't matter as long as "they got their's so screw everyone else". I have heard that numerous times, and it appears to be a large part of the anti science luddites rationale, that somehow magicvally "the future will take care of itself". We have actual verifiable science that extreme and long lasting weather changes can happen in very short time periods. Numerous examples of ice age maalls fouind intact, never rotted much, with summer grasses and flowers in their mouths and stomachs. that's an example of an immediate and long last cold snap, it can NOT be anything else. Not over "millenia" or "hundreds of years" but like in one day, something just changed, and changed dramatically, and lasted thousands of years. Cold (literally) hard anecdotal evidence. And we don't know when it would hit a tipping over point, all we can do is guess at it. No one's science is that good, but the evidence that it has happened is right there to stare at.
I just checked on google, lotsa linkages to places that can show how the ice has melted more, you can get anecdotal from people who actually have LIVED in the arctic regions for all their lives (unlike rush limbeau and similar) and have first hand accounts, etc..they all say it's melting when it shouldn't be. that's a short time historically, it's not millenia or hundreds of years or anything, just one persons lifespan. That's the bottom line data.
And the weird thing is, as it melts, it exposes open terrain which is darker than ultra white snow and ice, which in turn means more heat is absorbed instead of being reflected (albedo effect it's called), which further accelerates the process. And then you can get into the gulf stream elevator effect with too much freshwater mixing into the salt, which would lead to a slowing of the gulf stream, which would REALLY suck worse than just over all average temp drop or a scosh of a few feet of flooding, because most of north america and europe rely on the gulf stream and japanese currents to moderate the weather, to moderate the cold in other words. Less ocean currents moving, less "warm" gets transformed northward, then it gets bad. Not just a little coastal flooding, but sucky OMG cold bad and THEN where does the energy come from? We, as a society are supposed to WAIT until something like that happens, or should we take what we know now and deal with it?
We don't have much of any control over the macro weather systems (we have some they admit to and some they don't admit to because of treaties, etc), but
form of capitalism, eventually you'll have just a few global mega corporations calling the shots, and you will see a massive "company town and store" scenario where you basically have serfs and masters.
This is because in the real world, not the theoretical world, people are greedy,and even greedy beyond money where they strive for actual physical control and power over other humans, and the corporations will all keep their prices high and wages low from collusion, once they achieve near monopoly status and once there is little difference between the corporate bosses and the government bosses.
You can NOT separate economics, politics, and the human social condition and psyche into little stand alone niches, they have always been completely intertwined, none of them exist in a pure vacuum isolated from the other.
Theory does not always equate practice
It's already bad enough now the way it is with SOME controls in place, left unfettered, well, we have historical examples to indicate the progression most likely to occur.
And this also negates the real world reality that we have, and is often ignored by the arguers on the other side, the "anti union and no controls" disciples, is that *corporations already have very powerful unions themselves*, they have industry groups who chip in and use lobbying, etc, along with buckets of cash, to "get their way" in society and government. They run their own form of highly effective and profitable for them form of "collective bargaining", except it's called lobbying and campaign contributions, and well...let's be frank here, they also use bribery and blackmail in various manners to a huge extent. Who is not familiar with the terms kickbacks, or payola, for example?
And they also have an edge that the individual doesn't have, they get all the benefits of getting their hands on profits, but they have an extra legal layer of protection against malfeasance, hiding behind a corporate front man with their legally defined artifical personhood, which insulates them from liability in many diverse ways.
The single individual worker has no means to level the playing field, hence, unions came about, just an extension of the old guild idea.
In the US, historically, we had our best example of a robust and healthy and successful middle class when we had the highest levels of union membership combined with national protectionist policies. This is what government is for, to protect the people, to do the peoples business, not exactly to do the artificial person's0the corporations-business. This time period would have been the late 50's through the 60's roughly speaking. We also had a much more diversified economy, that had a lot more internal trading than external trading(we took advantage of ou5r size, common language, good labor pool and natural resources,etc), we kept a lot more money inside the borders and trading around than what we exported.
And speaking of borders, that was back when we really had a better handle on immigration, we still had it of course, as we have always had it, it was controlled and legal (I am in favor of that) and illegal border jumpers were much less common and the government regulated it much better as a matter of common sense policy and following the laws. It existed, but not to the degree we have now, where it is totally out of control and ignored by the government in most practical aspects, harm to the economy and reducing national security are the two biggest issues there.
Proof is easy, in the 50'sand 60's, a single middle-wage level blue collar job was more than adequate to have a large family with many children, one spouse could stay home and do one of the most important jobs there are in human existence, raising children, you could have decent home ownership with mortgages half the time limit average that you commonly see now, downpayments were much lower, decent pay that allowed for good savings, full benefits, pensions, new normal appliances of the era, decent car, etc.
.. you get is this is a brand new technology, but I had this memory of reading about it many years ago concerning rabbits. That's why I asked if anyone had better info, etc, to correct me if I was remembering erroneously. It's no biggee really.
seems to me this has occurred in rabbits already. Any biologists here correct me if I am wrong. I also think that pregnant rabbits, in some instances, when highly stressed, will literally reabsorb their foetuses.
... and everyone is keeling over from martianthrax, we can sue the guy?
that's cool, I guess... ya,that should work....
... to wait until it gets that bad. Of course, you can't really poll the 100 million plus people who could back that up, those 100 million who were killed by their own governments in the 20th century, because they are dead. Not killed by foreigners in wars, but by their own governments.
My guess is though, they might recommend that if in the future you can see clear signs that it's on the way to total totalitariansim, that it's better to nip it in the bud then to wait.
What's the saying the holocaust survivors have? Oh ya, "never again!". That means, you learn from history, you learn to put a critical eye to the clues, and you don't put up with it, especially when you see it starting. If you wait until the cattle car doors slam shut on the trains, you've waited too long. If you see the laws put on the books, but only applied "so far" to "some other guys", and you don't speak out, if you don't resist it then when it's still relativelyeasy to resist, you've waited too long.
If your home catches fire, just a tiny little flame, you put it out as soon as you can see it, failing that, if you need help, you waste no time calling for it, and you do it as loudly and as effectively as you can.. You don't wait until it's big conflagration before doing anything about it, thinking "oh well, it's not that bad yet, I'll just wait until it's a righteous blaze, then it will cross over into being serious and important".
I won't presume to know your age or anything, I can really only relate from my position and age and this sort of thing being a major interest for me for over 40 years now, but this I will staste as fact: It's a lot worse than it was when I first started looking. The laws on the books now effectively strip freedoms based on a bureaucrats whim. The government has gotten caught telling some massive lies to push forward some weird afgendas, even if it took in some cases decades to find out the truth conclusively. They have a track record for this, it's SOP for them. They have a track record of not caring about "collateral damage", to foreigners or to US citizens. they have a track record of lying to and screwing over their own Vets, right into killing them by lack of medical care. They have a track record of putting in dictators, then later on saying it's a crisis and then stating the "need" to go "do something" about the problem they created.
and if you follow up on the links I provided, and spend some evenings in research, and open your eyes you'll see the US now is in a similar position to how germany was in the early 30's. It's really that clear cut and basic.
If it wasn't like that, I wouldn't state it. None of the pieces of evidence out there is created by me, it'sall just researchable data, something the net is good for, and something I wish we had had way back when, when all this stuff really started happening. We had one president who saw it, he would not play ball with those creatures, so they offed him, and since then, they have all been puppets of one form or another. the goivernment is not run "by the people", it's run now by the actual people involved or the progeny of the coup plotters who took over back then, and it goes across party lines. they are not all allied with each other, nor do they have exact aims, but they DO share a conviction that their will is paramount, and they have enough clout to call the shots on what really is going on, and what they want is nothing less than a modern feudalistic society, two classes, one of the ultra elite and powerful, and everyone else. there's a *reason* why the constant attacks on the middle class keep occurring, there's reasons that the major media do not cover all the data, there's reasons why society is being manipulated into meek obedience. None of them good.
My point is,my POV and what I do, is to tell people if we wait, chances are it will be too late. If we fail to speak out when it's still possible, we won't get another chance. If we refuse to notice reality around us, we will still be affected by it. Lea
It's always good to step back and look at all the sides in a purchase or decision. throw out the highs and lows (or positives or negatives, etc) and concentrate on the middle, that's probably where the truth and practicality (mostly) is.
This situation though IS embarrassing to SuSe though. You have to wonder why they chose the guy in the first place, seems like they might have found someone who honestly believed in his product enough from data nalaysis to serve as their salesman, not someone who can just act and follow some sort of sales spiel script. but, oh well. I've had a few sales jobs before (long time ago), and I turned down more, because on inspection, what they wanted me to sell wasn't a good deal for the consumer.
.. and killing all sorts of people in the process? Ya, I guess that was a "smooth tricky move" on their part. And to help get the totalitarian patriot act and homeland security acts passed, so the US people can be further introduced to the benefits of being second class serfs in perpetuity in their own nation, ya, it was nice of them to be so "smart".
sorry if you think a diatribe isn't worth it to stop despotism. We've replaced a saddam in one nation with the US taking his place, and quite obviously going ahead with all their plans, not just grabbing the oil, but instituting some rather drastic social changes inside the US, and making us more reviled around the world, and having a lot of really big nations look at us with increasing suspicion.
Guess I'll buy stock in black boot polish manufacturers, you and your guys will be buying it by the tanker car soon.
Just remember, a lot of us out here are hip to your guys totalitarian designs, and we are neither "peace and love" hippies, nor lack serious "skills and hardware", so anytime you want to bring it on, go for it, fascist goon, let's rock.
...tips. I might reconsider using their service, or at least keep it in mind as a backup ISP, got several of the freebie disks here to use.
is fair market value, used or new. That leaves it pretty open there, and you take your chances on claiming a deduction-of course I am referring to personal filing not as a corporation. What it is there I have no idea. I do know the tax extortionists don't take kindly to abusing it, like claiming your old 286 box is worth 500$ or anything like that. It would seem to me if the distro is on official CD, it would be worth what the distro makers ask for it, if it's a clone copy what they would charge, and etc. No more, no less. If it's downloaded, not much. MS is just using the system's rules when they can do it "legally", and dodging them when they can get away with it. Nothing new there with either individuals or corporations. It is more common than uncommon I think.
both netscape and walmart (and probably some others) have AOL linked/styled/ whatever you want to call it dial-up service for 10 clams a month. I was going to get it, instead of the 20$/month I have now from a mom and pop local ISP, but upon inspection you HAD to use their crappy interface and browser to get an account and surf through them, at least near as I could figure out. If anyone knows a way around that I would be interested. 10 bucks is ten bucks. 120 a year savings would buy me some more RAM for instance. I'm in a rural area that has few local number dial in options (2 actually, the walmart number and the local mom and pop), and forget broadband. You take what you can get. I'd love to get like-say- speakeasy dsl, or T mobile wireless unlimited data, but neither is in my locale, and any sort of new extended covereage wi-fi is still a ways off. Until then, dial up is a lot better than nuthin....
problem, reaction, solution
Anyway, I never said anything about the pentagon, they are order-followers. The orders come from the neocon cabal that surrounds bush 2 now, many of themholdovers from bush1. A lot of them are in the org/think tank that calls itself "The Project for a New American Century", there, well before they were in office, they most clearly outlined *what their plans were*, what they fully intended to do as soon as they had control over the US governmental apparatus..
All those plans are being implemented now. They did in fact indicate the *need* for a pearl harbor-like event to give them the excuse they needed to fulfill their goals of total occupation and control of the mideast oil producing areas, starting with iraq. they also said that even if iraq (saddam) was not a threat to the US, he needed to be removed and iraq invaded anyway, again, primarily for the oil and to give the US a permanent huge centralised base of operations inside the mideast for the next steps in invading and occupying the nations there. One at a time is the plan.. They also include some pretty radical zionist expansionist proposals. It's there, you can read the guys who are calling the shots now own words.
It's all there, you can read it, follow around the links from the google page I indidicated.
When you get done with that, you can peruse in depth the 9-11 government prior knowledge evidence.
9-11 was a reichstagg fire-like event, it's the "problem" that lead to the "reaction" that provid