Or you can pick volunteers among the voters to count the ballots as soon as the election closes, right in the polling station. With tables of four volunteers working together and checking each other's work (in addition to the usual party representatives), you get the results within 2 hours and have a really fraud-proof system. It also scales nicely with both the number of polling stations and the population, and needs only 1% to volunteer.
This is how France does it and always has. One of the few places where I won't complain about archaism : it just works, and the 2000 US presidential election fiasco for entire days seemed utterly insane to us.
The simple answer is : difference in taxes and level of social protection.
For example here in France (and this particular European country is a prime illustration of that difference, to the point that the system's almost unsustainable), the 3000/month your 30 year old IT guy makes (which sounds realistic), costs about 6000 total/month to their employer with all the various taxes.
At this level of salary, I would expect a single person with no particular tax breaks to be paying in addition to that, around 15-20% income tax. So that's about 2500/month of disposable income, out of the original 6000.
So what do all these taxes get you in comparison to the US guy ? - Virtually free, unlimited and high quality healthcare for you and your spouse+children (typically for up to 5 years or so after you stop working, if you've worked for long enough before.) - Unemployment benefits that are typically 70-80% of your previous salary, for up to 2 years if you've worked long enough. - State-run retirement system. Not subject to "Enron-like" failures like pension funds, but is it sustainable in the long run in this age of retiring baby-boomers ? We'll soon find out.. - Monthly housing allowance for low income/students households. - Monthly allowance for families with 2+ children (irregardless of income) - and much more, really
Whether this is better or worse than the US system is left to the reader, but I'd say that this huge safety net accounts for most of the salary differences you've noticed. Our system is widely regarded as too expensive and somewhat inefficient (if generous ). The "best" social system as seen from here seems to be Denmark, and Nordic countries in general. Take cost of living into account, too. Housing in Paris or Berlin is extremely cheap compared to NYC or Silicon Valley, or even London.
Well, not only. Any music performed or broadcast in France gets their share. SACEM redistributes those royalties to their counterparts abroad (like BMI/ASCAP)
It is the equivalent of the US-based BMI and ASCAP, and that makes a big difference : SACEM manages the rights of songwriters / composers / publishers, NOT the rights on actual recordings.
This means that what Deezer.com did is a first, necessary but not sufficient step, and at this point they would merely have the right to have someone perform those songs again and re-record them, then stream the result!
What they have yet to do, is to get a deal for the actual rights to the recordings, with the real french equivalent of the RIAA : the SCPP (major labels) and SPPF (independent labels). Not the IFPI (as I've read in another comment) which is just an international club of the RIA*'s.
And that's where it becomes tricky : the Deezer.com announcement comes 2 days after Universal Music France teamed up with France's 3rd largest ISP (neuf.fr, with whom they share the same parent company, Vivendi) to launch a heavily marketed, Windows DRM-based, unlimited music offering.
France's 2nd ISP, Free, probably the most innovative, net-savvy, and the last independent one, immediately decided to promote Deezer.com to steal Neuf's thunder.
Now, Universal is saying Deezer.com is illegal, and they're threatening to sue them and any entity that would overtly promote it. They are technically right, but obviously you have to read between the lines to understand the real motive behind that potential lawsuit...
Very roughly speaking, this works by encapsulating GSM over IP+Wi-Fi. This is why handover between the GSM cell network and the Wi-Fi connection is possible at all : AFAIK, the phone still uses all the higher layers of GSM and the operator's usual servers on their GSM network. Your Wi-Fi access point is just another cell tower.
I personally see this technology as the "evil telecom world's" preferred way to add VoIP on a GSM phone (as opposed to the Internet world's plain old good SIP).
I'd much rather use a real GSM + SIP/Wi-Fi phone like my Nokia E65.
VoIP and GSM calls are perfectly integrated together, and using the SIP account associated with my landline (this is with the "Free" ISP in France), I can call and answer my home calls anywhere in the world exactly as if I were sitting in my sofa, and at the same rates, i.e. free for national calls and to around 30 countries
The TGV has an equivalent impact to 1.2 gas liter/100km/passenger , which translates to 196 MPG. It's by far the cleanest widespread transportation means around. (yes, widespread around here, I live in France and my hometown is now 1 hour away from Paris, down from 2, which is pretty cool )
They are also aware that govenment is by far the biggest business at all, and that government's (ANY government's) claim of "optimize the public good, insure fairness and serve society members' interests." is nothing more than an example of the creation of a very good slogan.
Granted, reality may not be as shiny as the stated goal, but at least there IS this stated goal. A business' stated goal is to maximize their owner's profit, period.
And, well, how can you possibly compare your constitution to a "slogan" ??
You know, the guys who wrote it really had ideals, somehow believed they could, well, shape a better society that maximizes happiness for all its members. Really.
Big business is out to make a buck, period. And that's ok. But that's why they shouldn't be in charge of running society, because they have that particular interest.
Why free market societies work at all is because, a lot of the time, those particular interests match the public good, but a lot of the time, and for the most important things in the world (global warming?) they just don't.
Government is what keeps members of society protected from other members' (including businesses) abuse, by way of the law, and law enforcement.
Letting the strongest members of society (businesses) tailor the law to their own interest, at odds with the public good (I repeat : they are rarely compatible), is effectively removing that protection and letting the wolf into the henhouse.
They are controlled by the much more democratic and responsive control of the channel-change dial.
Ain't theory beautiful ?:)
If that's not obvious enough that the world is not the neat mathematical model hardcore free-market advocates want it to be : How many people have stopped watching Fox News even after it's been proven this media outlet repeatedly lied and misled them ?
In western countries, the biggest threat for freedom of speech and citizens' ability to be well informed (both prerequisites for democracy) is currently not so much government control, as it is business interests conflicting with the common good.
Media conglomerates are NOT democracies and will adopt whatever conduct maximises their profits. This is their primary goal as businesses, and more often than not this is at odds with the necessity of informing citizens objectively so that democracy can work.
Many American people seem wary of their government for historical reasons (and well, given the current administration, I can also understand that:) ) and insist on strong protection from it, but they remain astonishingly blind to the much, much, greater power of big business in a capitalist society.
The fundamental difference being : - government is an elected body, with rules (constitution) explicited designed to optimize the public good, insure fairness and serve society members' interests. - businesses serve their shareholders' sole interest. When that happens to serve the public good also, well great, if not : tough luck!
Call me socialist (I live in France), but all that seems pretty obvious to me, and I don't know why anyone would find it hard to understand that Finns are better informed with stable publicly founded media, than Americans with Rupert Murdoch's Fox News....
The author talks about "access to culture" when what he's really talking about is the ability to freely violate copyright law.
No, "access to culture" in the article context means the ability to use something like VLC to access DRM'ed content such as DVDs. That would be made illegal in the bill.
The proposed prohibition is specifically against open source software that allows you to defeat drm, not open source software in general.
No, it's worse than that. It makes DRM mandatory in all software that enables P2P file transmission (that includes IM), and multimedia streaming. Open Source software is out of the game de facto
The original poster is extremely confused, at best.
What the story really is:
- Content industry pressures Europe into having their own version of the american DMCA, the EUCD. It passes. - The EUCD, as a European directive, needs to be transcribed into every EU member state law. - France is late transcribing the EUCD into national law and gets fined several times about it. - The French government starts transcribing EUCD requirements into national law, and gets "friendly advice" about how to do it from (basically) Vivendi Universal and the (influential) french movie & arts industry, and none from the (non vocal and lower influence ) french tech & net industry. - The EUCD has mostly the same provisions as the DMCA (don't break DRMs, etc) , but the French content industry (backed by US DRM solutions vendors) wants to go further : make DRM support mandatory for basically all software that enables peer-to-peer file swapping, including audio streaming software (to plug the Stationripper hole)
It is that step further (making DRM mandatory) which is inherently incompatible with Open Source software, and threatens to make things like Icecast illegal, that has brought up a stir.
The bill is scheduled for parliament vote on December 22th. More info at http://eucd.info/
I have the right to own property and to work and to spend my my money how I choose because I exist. Not because the goverment says that I can. The goverment has the right to tax me only because the citizens of the United States of America have given it the power to do so. That power is being abused, and we the people, have the right to correc that should we choose to do so, not the other way around.
The origin of the government's power is the people in every democracy, this is the very definition of democracy and it's not US specific thank you very much (and BTW, the US constitution is a superb and pioneering piece of work, you should realize when your current administration starts perverting its principles...)
Once again, in order to get where you are and be able to earn your cherished private property, you have received support from the community of people called the US citizens, in the form of commodities, security, a stable country, education, etc.
It's not like you *really* started from scratch and owe your personal success to nobody but yourself.
You have property because you are part of the American nation, and you *morally and legally OWE* all of your fellow citizens some of that property, so that the whole system can keep on working and provide to others the same opportunities that you've enjoyed.
The government has been elected by the people to take care of that money on their behalf. So it's not an "us vs them" issue.
I will never understand why Americans always fear their government (IOW, themselves since the government stems from the people) and OTOH blindly trust corporations who *obviously* are not working towards the good of citizens : they're working towards their own good and their shareholders' good, it's their very purpose.
Maybe because democracy has been sick in the US for 5 years and government stopped defending the interests of the people ?
The government is supposed to defend the citizens as a whole against external (foreign) threats, and internal ones (powerful citizens or entities abusing the power money gives them, that is to say : corporations). Where is the evil in that ?
Letting the champion of corporate interests inside the White House was letting the fox inside the hens house. This is why America is bleeding today.
I'll stop there, it painfully feels like stating the obvious. Hope many Americans here share my view (the ones I know face to face certainly do...)
Nobody is entitled to anyone elses hard earned property or earnings under any circumstances, period.
Your being able to earn any property at all is the consequence of an organized society being around and providing you with infrastructure, education, security, contract law... etc and the general organization that makes life in common possible and makes a country worth more than the sum of its parts, period.
So from my European perspective, the kind of short-sighted individualistic crap you display here belongs to the middle-ages, and should a tax-free world exist like you or Bush seem to want, your job or this website probably wouldn't exist in the first place.
And thus you have no business complaining, unless you happen to be writing from a desert island that you turned into a modern living place with your own hands, with no interaction whatsoever with the outside world.
It is difficult to envision from across the pond that ahem, stereotypical a******s like you are for real. But hey, I guess Bush is in office for a reason...
Parent is wrong, as is the/. write-up (which he wrote too), *THE EU*, not France decided they would go "alone" if Japan wouldn't follow. Comments in the previous/. story that discussed ITER explain this very well, but I won't bother looking them up.
I know most french bashers in the US suck at geography (and most other things, for that matter), but please, that's not the same...
And... using that expression "coalition of the willing".... as if a scientific project of this scale somehow could be compared to buying up powerless countries' governments (against their peoples will), so they'll provide a few dozen soldiers and a good conscience. Bah...
Yeah, right... If I were counting, that would be more like 99% than 42%, sadly.
More precisely, I'd say that 42% of the spam being relayed from computers in the US sounds about right. But when it comes to the target audience, or the companies/individuals behind the spamvertised goods/services/scams, it suddenly looks like a 99% american problem in my (and most people's) view.
I'm relieved that our cinemas are going to be quieter at last (even though the amount of annoyance really depends on the kind of movie and audience), but there are unintended benefits for some greedy people, too:
I'm sure tour promoters and record companies are very pleased with this, now at last they can require concert halls to block off those pesky cell phones sending unauthorized pictures and recordings of live acts...
Why not 30% while you're at it ? Sources ? You sound like Le Pen who routinely slips that there are 5 million unemployed in France (where it's officially 2)
If you're gonna argue over figures, then 6% unemployment in the US ? Fine, now please add the working poor who live below the poverty line. Or talk about the retired having to flip burgers, or the single mums with 2 jobs.
All that hardly exists in France. Living on minimum wage is no fun but it certainly doesn't leave you below the poverty line in all but the most extreme and rare cases.
Don't even start comparing how the working class is treated between US and Europe. Or the billionnaires, for that matter.
Not saying it isn't, but just because spam is talking about "mortgages/debt consolidation, shopping around for drugs, doctors, dentists, or a degree, even being fond of sports" doesn't mean that it came from the US.
Well, from where else would you provide that kind of services to US customers? And where else would you find someone able to use the kind of consumerist phrasing you find in spam ?:)
The spammers may be mainly _targeting_ people in the US bc that is where they have found they get the most respondents from.
Which is even more a godsend for american bashers of all kinds...You've just stated the average american falls for spam more easily than others. The large number of US internet users may be a factor, but it can't account for the nearly 100% of spam being targeted to americans.
Ok, I live in France. The legit email I get is roughly 80% in French, 20% in English.
However, here is a short sample of the daily 2000 spams I get:
963 O Aug 13 WOW! Shocking! (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** "Sex Spy provides some of the best adult entertainment on the web. 964 O Aug 13 Jerold Gray (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** No more doctors visits. - cloakroom 969 O Aug 14 closed@blox.se (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT ***:re cheap pharmacy prices ..viagra,paracodin vioxx levitra ciali 975 O Aug 14 Susan Slaughter (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** The ultimate online Can.adian Gen.eric Ph.arm.acy 980 O Aug 14 Rolex Watch (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Rolex is not for all.Is it for you - academia centenary 936 O Aug 13 Citibank Identi (2.6K) *** PROBABLY SPAM *** Urgent Fraud Information From Citibank 916 O Aug 13 Meg Shanel (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** AD0BE PH0TOSH0P $8O; XP PR0 $5O, NORT0N 2004 $15; 0FFICE XP $100; 917 O Aug 13 Dakota Ula (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** All Popular Softwares at Deep Discouunt, Download Here program edu 794 O Aug 13 Katherine Holma (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Whats going on . Are pre.scriptions costing you too much ??. Then 673 O Aug 13 Willard Ewing (3.1K) *** PROBABLY SPAM *** exclusive offer doctors American directoty, 7,000 hospitals,25, 580 O Aug 13 Bonita Clifton (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** dental directory 7,000 hospitals,25,000 nursing homes and 400,000 535 O Aug 13 Rod Thompson (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Submit your nomination forDegree 459 O Aug 13 Bridgette Beatt (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** stephens@renaudguerin.net -Even CEOs consult us. 427 O Aug 13 Elnora Compton (1.1K) *** PROBABLY SPAM *** BYPASS YOUR CABLE BOX Get movies sports and mature channels for 395 O Aug 13 of the The Gro (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Are You A Penny Stock Player? 202 O Aug 13 Dennis Faulkner (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Mortgage Application, Client #38 121 O Aug 13 Reyes Schultz (0.1K) *** SPAM ALERT *** Your order of a Degree
Ok, so now what do you think the average layperson in Europe (or anywhere for that matter) is going to think, when you tell them the usual Slashdot party line that most of the spam comes from Asia, and those damn Korean a) can't lock up their servers b) can't be bothered to target their victims effectively and stick to people speaking their language ?
That's right, they'll tell you that very obviously 99% of all spam is from the US. No one you'd ask would ever question that for a nanosecond.
Not because of the English language (that could be UK, Australia, whatever...), but simply because issues such as mortgages/debt consolidation, shopping around for drugs, doctors, dentists, or a degree, even being fond of sports, is something incredibly alien to most of Europeans.
I won't insult your intelligence explaining why...
Unfortunately, you can't imagine how bad all this makes America look in the eyes of the layperson/mummy/granny/average joe in front of their AOL/Wanadoo/Hotmail/whatever email.
For most, this is the only direct contact they get from across the atlantic, and it's from a bunch of annoying salespeople that expect the reader to be impotent, in incredible debt, or so gullible as to fall for a nigerian scam.
Draw your own conclusions as to how this affects someone's perception of a country and its culture... Granted this may be a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but it's still a daily annoyance coming from the US, and the dumbest people won't look further to make up their mind about americans.
Slashdot Mirror
Or you can pick volunteers among the voters to count the ballots as soon as the election closes, right in the polling station. With tables of four volunteers working together and checking each other's work (in addition to the usual party representatives), you get the results within 2 hours and have a really fraud-proof system. It also scales nicely with both the number of polling stations and the population, and needs only 1% to volunteer.
This is how France does it and always has. One of the few places where I won't complain about archaism : it just works, and the 2000 US presidential election fiasco for entire days seemed utterly insane to us.
The simple answer is : difference in taxes and level of social protection.
For example here in France (and this particular European country is a prime illustration of that difference, to the point that the system's almost unsustainable), the 3000/month your 30 year old IT guy makes (which sounds realistic), costs about 6000 total/month to their employer with all the various taxes.
At this level of salary, I would expect a single person with no particular tax breaks to be paying in addition to that, around 15-20% income tax.
So that's about 2500/month of disposable income, out of the original 6000.
So what do all these taxes get you in comparison to the US guy ?
- Virtually free, unlimited and high quality healthcare for you and your spouse+children (typically for up to 5 years or so after you stop working, if you've worked for long enough before.)
- Unemployment benefits that are typically 70-80% of your previous salary, for up to 2 years if you've worked long enough.
- State-run retirement system. Not subject to "Enron-like" failures like pension funds, but is it sustainable in the long run in this age of retiring baby-boomers ? We'll soon find out..
- Monthly housing allowance for low income/students households.
- Monthly allowance for families with 2+ children (irregardless of income)
- and much more, really
Whether this is better or worse than the US system is left to the reader, but I'd say that this huge safety net accounts for most of the salary differences you've noticed.
Our system is widely regarded as too expensive and somewhat inefficient (if generous ).
The "best" social system as seen from here seems to be Denmark, and Nordic countries in general.
Take cost of living into account, too. Housing in Paris or Berlin is extremely cheap compared to NYC or Silicon Valley, or even London.
on behalf of French musicians.
Well, not only. Any music performed or broadcast in France gets their share. SACEM redistributes those royalties to their counterparts abroad (like BMI/ASCAP)
SACEM is NOT the french equivalent to the RIAA !
It is the equivalent of the US-based BMI and ASCAP, and that makes a big difference : SACEM manages the rights of songwriters / composers / publishers, NOT the rights on actual recordings.
This means that what Deezer.com did is a first, necessary but not sufficient step, and at this point they would merely have the right to have someone perform those songs again and re-record them, then stream the result!
What they have yet to do, is to get a deal for the actual rights to the recordings, with the real french equivalent of the RIAA : the SCPP (major labels) and SPPF (independent labels). Not the IFPI (as I've read in another comment) which is just an international club of the RIA*'s.
And that's where it becomes tricky : the Deezer.com announcement comes 2 days after Universal Music France teamed up with France's 3rd largest ISP (neuf.fr, with whom they share the same parent company, Vivendi) to launch a heavily marketed, Windows DRM-based, unlimited music offering.
France's 2nd ISP, Free, probably the most innovative, net-savvy, and the last independent one, immediately decided to promote Deezer.com to steal Neuf's thunder.
Now, Universal is saying Deezer.com is illegal, and they're threatening to sue them and any entity that would overtly promote it.
They are technically right, but obviously you have to read between the lines to understand the real motive behind that potential lawsuit...
The underlying technology is most likely UMA : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unlicensed_Mobile_Acc ess/
We've had offers based on this in Europe for over a year.
Very roughly speaking, this works by encapsulating GSM over IP+Wi-Fi. This is why handover between the GSM cell network and the Wi-Fi connection is possible at all : AFAIK, the phone still uses all the higher layers of GSM and the operator's usual servers on their GSM network. Your Wi-Fi access point is just another cell tower.
I personally see this technology as the "evil telecom world's" preferred way to add VoIP on a GSM phone (as opposed to the Internet world's plain old good SIP).
I'd much rather use a real GSM + SIP/Wi-Fi phone like my Nokia E65.
VoIP and GSM calls are perfectly integrated together, and using the SIP account associated with my landline (this is with the "Free" ISP in France), I can call and answer my home calls anywhere in the world exactly as if I were sitting in my sofa, and at the same rates, i.e. free for national calls and to around 30 countries
The TGV has an equivalent impact to 1.2 gas liter/100km/passenger , which translates to 196 MPG.
It's by far the cleanest widespread transportation means around. (yes, widespread around here, I live in France and my hometown is now 1 hour away from Paris, down from 2, which is pretty cool )
They are also aware that govenment is by far the biggest business at all, and that government's (ANY government's) claim of "optimize the public good, insure fairness and serve society members' interests." is nothing more than an example of the creation of a very good slogan. Granted, reality may not be as shiny as the stated goal, but at least there IS this stated goal. A business' stated goal is to maximize their owner's profit, period. And, well, how can you possibly compare your constitution to a "slogan" ?? You know, the guys who wrote it really had ideals, somehow believed they could, well, shape a better society that maximizes happiness for all its members. Really. Big business is out to make a buck, period. And that's ok. But that's why they shouldn't be in charge of running society, because they have that particular interest. Why free market societies work at all is because, a lot of the time, those particular interests match the public good, but a lot of the time, and for the most important things in the world (global warming?) they just don't. Government is what keeps members of society protected from other members' (including businesses) abuse, by way of the law, and law enforcement. Letting the strongest members of society (businesses) tailor the law to their own interest, at odds with the public good (I repeat : they are rarely compatible), is effectively removing that protection and letting the wolf into the henhouse. They are controlled by the much more democratic and responsive control of the channel-change dial. Ain't theory beautiful ? :)
If that's not obvious enough that the world is not the neat mathematical model hardcore free-market advocates want it to be : How many people have stopped watching Fox News even after it's been proven this media outlet repeatedly lied and misled them ?
Well, easy :
:) ) and insist on strong protection from it, but they remain astonishingly blind to the much, much, greater power of big business in a capitalist society.
In western countries, the biggest threat for freedom of speech and citizens' ability to be well informed (both prerequisites for democracy) is currently not so much government control, as it is business interests conflicting with the common good.
Media conglomerates are NOT democracies and will adopt whatever conduct maximises their profits. This is their primary goal as businesses, and more often than not this is at odds with the necessity of informing citizens objectively so that democracy can work.
Many American people seem wary of their government for historical reasons (and well, given the current administration, I can also understand that
The fundamental difference being :
- government is an elected body, with rules (constitution) explicited designed to optimize the public good, insure fairness and serve society members' interests.
- businesses serve their shareholders' sole interest. When that happens to serve the public good also, well great, if not : tough luck!
Call me socialist (I live in France), but all that seems pretty obvious to me, and I don't know why anyone would find it hard to understand that Finns are better informed with stable publicly founded media, than Americans with Rupert Murdoch's Fox News....
Killing and imprisoning dissenters is a Bad Thing. There is no discussion needed.
This why governments usually call them "terrorists" instead.
The author talks about "access to culture" when what he's really talking about is the ability to freely violate copyright law.
No, "access to culture" in the article context means the ability to use something like VLC to access DRM'ed content such as DVDs.
That would be made illegal in the bill.
The proposed prohibition is specifically against open source software that allows you to defeat drm, not open source software in general.
No, it's worse than that.
It makes DRM mandatory in all software that enables P2P file transmission (that includes IM), and multimedia streaming.
Open Source software is out of the game de facto
The original poster is extremely confused, at best.
What the story really is:
- Content industry pressures Europe into having their own version of the american DMCA, the EUCD. It passes.
- The EUCD, as a European directive, needs to be transcribed into every EU member state law.
- France is late transcribing the EUCD into national law and gets fined several times about it.
- The French government starts transcribing EUCD requirements into national law, and gets "friendly advice" about how to do it from (basically) Vivendi Universal and the (influential) french movie & arts industry, and none from the (non vocal and lower influence ) french tech & net industry.
- The EUCD has mostly the same provisions as the DMCA (don't break DRMs, etc) , but the French content industry (backed by US DRM solutions vendors) wants to go further : make DRM support mandatory for basically all software that enables peer-to-peer file swapping, including audio streaming software (to plug the Stationripper hole)
It is that step further (making DRM mandatory) which is inherently incompatible with Open Source software, and threatens to make things like Icecast illegal, that has brought up a stir.
The bill is scheduled for parliament vote on December 22th. More info at http://eucd.info/
Well, if as a 303 owner you were fooled by Rebirth, be prepared to drop your jaw as you hear Audiorealism Bassline
It's taken a long time, but this is finally one that steals Rebirth's crown and gets you the real 303 guts (no I'm not related to the author)
I have the right to own property and to work and to spend my my money how I choose because I exist. Not because the goverment says that I can. The goverment has the right to tax me only because the citizens of the United States of America have given it the power to do so. That power is being abused, and we the people, have the right to correc that should we choose to do so, not the other way around.
The origin of the government's power is the people in every democracy, this is the very definition of democracy and it's not US specific thank you very much (and BTW, the US constitution is a superb and pioneering piece of work, you should realize when your current administration starts perverting its principles...)
Once again, in order to get where you are and be able to earn your cherished private property, you have received support from the community of people called the US citizens, in the form of commodities, security, a stable country, education, etc.
It's not like you *really* started from scratch and owe your personal success to nobody but yourself.
You have property because you are part of the American nation, and you *morally and legally OWE* all of your fellow citizens some of that property, so that the whole system can keep on working and provide to others the same opportunities that you've enjoyed.
The government has been elected by the people to take care of that money on their behalf. So it's not an "us vs them" issue.
I will never understand why Americans always fear their government (IOW, themselves since the government stems from the people) and OTOH blindly trust corporations who *obviously* are not working towards the good of citizens : they're working towards their own good and their shareholders' good, it's their very purpose.
Maybe because democracy has been sick in the US for 5 years and government stopped defending the interests of the people ?
The government is supposed to defend the citizens as a whole against external (foreign) threats, and internal ones (powerful citizens or entities abusing the power money gives them, that is to say : corporations). Where is the evil in that ?
Letting the champion of corporate interests inside the White House was letting the fox inside the hens house.
This is why America is bleeding today.
I'll stop there, it painfully feels like stating the obvious. Hope many Americans here share my view (the ones I know face to face certainly do...)
Your being able to earn any property at all is the consequence of an organized society being around and providing you with infrastructure, education, security, contract law... etc and the general organization that makes life in common possible and makes a country worth more than the sum of its parts, period.
So from my European perspective, the kind of short-sighted individualistic crap you display here belongs to the middle-ages, and should a tax-free world exist like you or Bush seem to want, your job or this website probably wouldn't exist in the first place.
And thus you have no business complaining, unless you happen to be writing from a desert island that you turned into a modern living place with your own hands, with no interaction whatsoever with the outside world.
It is difficult to envision from across the pond that ahem, stereotypical a******s like you are for real. But hey, I guess Bush is in office for a reason...
Once and for all :
/. write-up (which he wrote too), *THE EU*, not France decided they would go "alone" if Japan wouldn't follow. /. story that discussed ITER explain this very well, but I won't bother looking them up.
.... as if a scientific project of this scale somehow could be compared to buying up powerless countries' governments (against their peoples will), so they'll provide a few dozen soldiers and a good conscience.
Parent is wrong, as is the
Comments in the previous
I know most french bashers in the US suck at geography (and most other things, for that matter), but please, that's not the same...
And... using that expression "coalition of the willing"
Bah...
In fact, I will likely be ordering a new G5 to replace my dual 2.0 G5 if they are in fact announced,
Wow, I'm curious to know what kind of needs you have that would justify this...
Sheer gear lust ?
... it doesn't, yet.
All depends who's counting, I guess.
Yeah, right...
If I were counting, that would be more like 99% than 42%, sadly.
More precisely, I'd say that 42% of the spam being relayed from computers in the US sounds about right. But when it comes to the target audience, or the companies/individuals behind the spamvertised goods/services/scams, it suddenly looks like a 99% american problem in my (and most people's) view.
I had already commented on this
Sad, but certainly not Slashdot headline-worthy.
The prime candidate for a Symbian port would be Minimo, rather than Mozilla.
I'm relieved that our cinemas are going to be quieter at last (even though the amount of annoyance really depends on the kind of movie and audience), but there are unintended benefits for some greedy people, too:
I'm sure tour promoters and record companies are very pleased with this, now at last they can require concert halls to block off those pesky cell phones sending unauthorized pictures and recordings of live acts...
Oh please.
Why not 30% while you're at it ? Sources ?
You sound like Le Pen who routinely slips that there are 5 million unemployed in France (where it's officially 2)
If you're gonna argue over figures, then 6% unemployment in the US ? Fine, now please add the working poor who live below the poverty line. Or talk about the retired having to flip burgers, or the single mums with 2 jobs.
All that hardly exists in France. Living on minimum wage is no fun but it certainly doesn't leave you below the poverty line in all but the most extreme and rare cases.
Don't even start comparing how the working class is treated between US and Europe. Or the billionnaires, for that matter.
Which is even more a godsend for american bashers of all kinds...You've just stated the average american falls for spam more easily than others. The large number of US internet users may be a factor, but it can't account for the nearly 100% of spam being targeted to americans.
Ok, so now what do you think the average layperson in Europe (or anywhere for that matter) is going to think, when you tell them the usual Slashdot party line that most of the spam comes from Asia, and those damn Korean a) can't lock up their servers b) can't be bothered to target their victims effectively and stick to people speaking their language ?
That's right, they'll tell you that very obviously 99% of all spam is from the US. No one you'd ask would ever question that for a nanosecond.
Not because of the English language (that could be UK, Australia, whatever...), but simply because issues such as mortgages/debt consolidation, shopping around for drugs, doctors, dentists, or a degree, even being fond of sports, is something incredibly alien to most of Europeans. I won't insult your intelligence explaining why...
Unfortunately, you can't imagine how bad all this makes America look in the eyes of the layperson/mummy/granny/average joe in front of their AOL/Wanadoo/Hotmail/whatever email.
For most, this is the only direct contact they get from across the atlantic, and it's from a bunch of annoying salespeople that expect the reader to be impotent, in incredible debt, or so gullible as to fall for a nigerian scam.
Draw your own conclusions as to how this affects someone's perception of a country and its culture... Granted this may be a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but it's still a daily annoyance coming from the US, and the dumbest people won't look further to make up their mind about americans.
Which is a pity, but must not be underestimated.
The other services were basically non-existent, not advertised, not used. A bit like Napster 2 in the US.