I dunno... it kinda annoys me the way that these 'developing nation' systems are never available in developed nations. I mean, we have poor people too, you know.
But, hey. The US doesn't matter. We're just a bunch of imperialist assholes out to make a buck, you know.
Actually, considering the personality I've seen of most of the women I see on Slashdot, I would assume they'd think, "*snort* Thank god this is an april fool's joke. I would hate for the priss element to start showing up."
Na, really. Stop taking yourself so seriously. If you don't think it's funny, that's fine. If you're offended by it, let me offend you proper by telling you that you've been brainwashed by your college professors. You're one of a dying race, as most women I've run into of late can take a freaking joke.
Seriously, men don't get offended when you call us lumbering sweaty fur-covered oafs with an obsession with sports and an aversion to anything involving pink, girliness, gayness or anything else that could be in some way construed with being unmanly - even the ones of us who are pretty much not of that breed.
This is because we know we're either a) laughing at ourselves; very healthy, b) laughing at behaviors we've overcome; also very healthy, or c) laughing at what we've never been, but seen other behave like, if not healthy, very satisfying.
Meanwhile, I didn't see anything about PMS, pregnancy, blondeness. Sure, the site motif at the moment is making fun of stupid catty 15 year old girls. Meet one and admit to me that they don't deserve your ridicule. Then and only then are you permitted to hold off limits an entire 51% of the population from satire.
Which is really what it's all about. A 'sexist' joke is not necessarily mean-spirited, which is what matters. Still, a small, loud, obnoxious portion of the female human population is under the impression that specifying the hilarity of the difference between sexes - or even segments of a population that happen to include gender as part of the behavioral model (in this case, 'teenage', 'female', 'shallow', and 'catty' come to mind as specific identifiers) - is morally wrong and should be outlawed and litigated against.
These people need shot. Or at least, need to be drugged, 24/7, with a 20-80 nitrous oxide-pure oxygen mix.
No, seroiusly. Laugh. Getting angry only proves that you lack the one vital personality component that keeps most humans sane and likable: a sense of humor.
Oh, don't worry; you won't have to install it. In Vista, it'll be included so deeply that you'll have to rip it out by the short hairs just to USE thunderbird.
But don't worry. I hear the EU has plans to file a preemptive antitrust suit.
So, just to be clear, are you brainwashed by Microsoft or some christian cult or other?
No, seriously. Using that book for anything other than object lessons in social behavior is folly. In fact, using much of it for object lessons in social behavior is often folly.
Still, it's your choice to believe in it. Just don't go trying to foist it on other people. 'Help' is in the eye of the person you 'helped', not the person who's 'helping'.
For example, if I was stuck in a hole, and you think it would be helpful to drop a tuna sandwich in the hole so I may survive another day, I'd have a problem with that; I'm allergic to tuna and the smell of it makes me vomit. As such, you'd not be helping.
In other words, do ASK before you start rattling off your quotes, yeah?
I think it's just the new higher 'resolution' technology that's presently limited to 20MB/s.
The older stuff that got something like 200G/in^2 had a much faster transfer rate, but lower density.
It's all due to the electronic end, really. The laser picks up the data at 1G/s, but the electronics take much longer to send it out to whatever bus reads it.
The whole article is spin, written by some journalist who doesn't know a *char from a *int.
For one thing, legacy system support only slows the system down if you're running 16 bit apps. And then, it only slows down the 16 bit app - cos it's running through a 16 bit compatibility layer.
For another, legacy driver support only slows down your system if you have legacy hardware - and if you're using any hardware that requires a 16 bit or NT driver, chances are your machine is too slow to actually be running Windows XP.
I have a lot of praises for Mac's architecture, and a lot of complaints about Windows', but I have to say, if you're going to bitch about something, at least know your shit.
Like this, see: Wintel machines are, in general, slower than the new Macs because the new Macs come with Dual core processors, while most new PCs are still on commodity one-core machines.
Or because the Mac Mach Microkernel and its support daemons are compiled for optimum performance on their target processors, while Win32 is still compiled for i486.
Or because the Mac architecture is based on a microkernel/daemon structure, while Windows is still based on a monolithic kernel with binary-pluggable drivers.
Or because the stupid fucker who wrote this article can't do system maintinance on his PC, and feels he knows all the answers because the Mac in the cubicle next to his rarely gets bogged down by viruses and spyware (mostly because Macs have small enough market share that people rarely write malware for macs - yeah, go. increase Apple's market share. Ruin it for the rest of us.)
The Win16 stuff are just 16 bit DLLs that make calls to their 32 bit equivalents; you can call both that and classic 'virtualization', in theory, but in practice it's like comparing wine to qemu. One runs native code with an API layer sandwiched on, the other trys to emulate an entire computer.
And if you don't know the difference, or don't know which of the above simile applies to what, then shut up; you're talking loudly from your ass.
So, tell me... why aren't we blaming the opposition from vested interests? These are types that will intentionally misquote the facts just to keep their software in the hands of big buyers.
And, of course, the US Commercial and Government establishments - being what they are - fall for the 'vested interests' shit.
Meh. You know, Blizzard would be an OK game developer if it weren't for their legal department. Unfortunately, they make such good games that people won't boycott them for being unholy pricks.
Actually, I'm just curious as to why ubuntu's one of the big three OSes.
I mean, Slax is much better in terms of ease-of-use and installation. Not to mention it's a chunk smaller, highly modular and uses a WM that's simply better (bitch at me all you want about Gnome V. KDE. I've used both. My girlfriend (who is nongeek) has used both. We kinda agree which is superior).
I'm just really shocked that KDE gets no representation just 'cos ubuntu's the hot linux flavor of the week.
Unfortunately, there is a general disease in the US called the 'dollar'.
See, it's based on faith - specifically, the faith that the US can back up each dollar with something of equal value. What the US has of most value is 'intellectual property'.
Now, this IP is a bit tricky; there is no intrinsic physical property of it that prevents it from being copied. It's an item of real value that can be had for no value. Further, it costs money to create.
This is not lost on trade governance; it's what the four tiers of IP law are based on: Patents, Copyright, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks.
The primary goal of these laws is to provide compensation to authors while allowing for the creation of a large and robust public domain.
Of these, two are highly contested. Patents - granted monopoly rights for business use of an idea - and Copyright - granted monopoly rights for use, copying and distribution of a complete work.
Copyrights are contested primarily because of the length of time rights are granted: it has migrated from about 7 years to approximately 95 years or more, depending on the character of the copyright. Almost anyone except Disney corporation would agree that this is excessive, but no one seems to want to cross major rights holders (the RIAA and MPAA) and fix the problem.
Patents, on the other hand, have a twofold problem: First, you can patent almost anything that's not already in the patent system, even things that have actually been around for years, like hyperlinks. Second, for certain patents, they too are starting to exceed their original time limits (eg: medical patents can be renewed).
On the first point, there is a prior art clause that can be shown to invalidate a patent, however patent law is slowly inching from the current 'first to market' system to a 'first to file' system, in which these patents would be gospel.
Now that you know the issues on patents and copyrights, please write your congressmen to repeal these laws. They, uh, kill babies and maim pregnant women. They're all bad and stuff.
No, seriously, write them and ask them to change the laws to something a little more, you know, sensible.
Attention. I hold the patent on "Humorous threat of legal action in refernce to patent infringement". I will require royalties post haste, or you shall be hearing from my lawyer.
I'm certain there are other possible explanations. I don't have all the facts, so there is a very good possibility that I am incorrect. It doesn't really matter, as it wasn't the point of my post to defend afghanistan; just to dismiss it as an irrelevant case in my explanation of the oil v. currency => conflict connection I've been seeing (ie: they produce little oil). Meanwhile if you want to discuss 9/11, I'd be glad to - my intel on it is somewhat lacking, due to the nonadvertising version of the spam effect (so much crap getting in the way of actual data).
I've seen a goodly number of theories for the 9/11 attack on this here intarweb, however, too many seem like either bad movie plots or conspiracy theories. Additionally, none of them seem to hold water under scruitiny.
Still, if you have a better theory for the motivations behind the 9/11 attack (and a reference or two to back it up), I'd be pleased - or perhaps displeased, depending on the information brought to the table - to hear it.
Like said, I'm a realist. I WANT to know what's going on.
Well, from US politics, I can generally take both terms at their literal meaning, ie: that a liberal spreads it on thick while a conservative is a bit tight-assed.
No, seriously. I mean, aren't YOU tired of the lip-serivce political tripe that comes out of washington? My rules of politics:
1) Never believe any social research that has been explicitly paid for by the government; it will tend to be biased toward whichever party pushed for the research funding. Stick to research initiated as part of a university's academic department, and take even that with a grain of salt: the personal biases are easier to suss out; academics tend to have a pride issue about not letting their politics get in the way of getting the right answers; and the funding is easier to track.
2) If a main-party politician is speaking, chances are that someone has their hand up his/her ass. Find out who funds them and compare it to their politics. If you don't like what you see, chances are you don't want to vote for them.
3) If a politician makes any decision that is more beneficial to a business than to consumers, don't vote for them. This becomes especially difficult in presidential elections, as by that rule you can't vote for anyone. In cases like this either don't vote as a matter of protest, or vote for the lesser of two evils.
4) If the government does something you dislike, don't bother yelling; in the intarweb, noone can hear you bitch. Vote with your dollar instead. This becomes tricky at times, but it's all about figuring out clever ways to make it count. For example, when we went to war in iraq, I sold my gasoline car, bought a diesel motorcycle, and started making my own biodiesel (actually quite easy) using a continuous flow system. My dollars no longer get put into gas taxes and tariffs.
Follow my political tips, and you too can be modded flamebait!
Actually, that's exactly the intended effect. I'm not condoning war at all. Just saying that we've gotten better at it in the good way (as opposed to the bad way, like we did when we figured out how to wipe out a city or crack the planet's crust.)
I don't know. From what I read, it looks like it's Intel keeping their nose out of IP management all together; he's right, or moreover, he alludes to the fact that Intel is not exactly in a position to deal with 'rights management' (ie: theft of services), as that would be difficult to do without false positives at the circuit level.
Far as I can tell, this article deals less with DRM, and more with what appears to be an arbitrary standard of what is Media Capable - something that I'm sure Intel's marketing department decided on, rather than their engineers.
Overall, this article is basically semi-interesting fluff. For example, it's nice to know that Intel considers a PC without a TV out to be a sufficient media center device - especially when they demand instant on tech.
Anybody want to form an independant Media Center PC (MCPC) qualifying group? You can even order foil stickers to sell to OEM manufacturers that meet with your stringent demands!
Actually, far as I can tell, the war on terror is the US's excuse to enforce the acceptance of the US dollar for oil. Each time a country with oil resources has threatened to accept only, for example, euros for oil, they've gone on the terrorist watchlist.
Personally, I find this a bit despicable; the 9/11 attack was from afghani citizens that were disgruntled about our actions in the 1970's; we put a bunch of dicks in power, gave 'em weapons, told them to fight the russians, and kinda didn't want to know them afterward.
That's bad enough, but using this as an excuse to support your currency is really horrible.
That said, it's the most life-efficient war in world history, if you don't count bloodless coups.
Additionally, it has done some good; getting Hussein out of power WAS a good thing for the citizenry of Iraq. It's just a shame that it took selfishness to execute the liberation.
For example, it's appalling that our dependance on the stable influx of natural diamonds has prevented every nation on the planet from doing something about the shit DeBeers is pulling off in South Africa.
Unfortunately, such is the way of the world; if you want something done, you either have to make it profitable to do or make it threatening to not do. Even if that something is morally right.
For example, if DeBeers decided they wouldn't sell diamonds for US Dollars or Euros, and stay with only Kugerands (South African one-ounce gold coins) and their like, the UN wouldn't hesitate to have security forces move in to stop the 'sudden' atrocities.
I am not a liberal or a conservative (in fact, I think you're both idiots). I am a realist.
Yeah. The US War machine is a tad corrupt. That's why they spend billions of dollars figuring out how to win wars with a minimal loss of life.
I don't know if anyone actually realizes this, but the Vietnam debacle lost about twice as many lives in the opening weeks of combat that afghanistan and iraq combined. Whatever the motivations behind our incursions on other countries (mostly it has to do with what currency they want to trade for oil), we're getting better at getting the job done without killing too many people.
And yes, civillians die. As nobody's perfect, war is like that. If you wanna be bitchy and insulting, be bitchy and insulting to Bush, Cheney and their puppeteers, not the marines. They're trained with a purpose. And, like a health inspector, they're doing what they're paid - and legally required - to do.
Meanwhile, MARINES stands for "My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment, Sir!"
(I'm an ex-navy nuke. I can make jokes like that. Just not in front of a marine. Those fuckers are like Extreme Sports punks, only less stupid and more muscley.)
Slashdot Mirror
So you missed the joke about them being comically out-of-touch with the female gender. Very good, I think your humorless training is almost complete.
Twits.
I for one welcome our - hey, wait now. It's not funny if its topical is it?
I dunno... it kinda annoys me the way that these 'developing nation' systems are never available in developed nations. I mean, we have poor people too, you know.
But, hey. The US doesn't matter. We're just a bunch of imperialist assholes out to make a buck, you know.
Actually, considering the personality I've seen of most of the women I see on Slashdot, I would assume they'd think, "*snort* Thank god this is an april fool's joke. I would hate for the priss element to start showing up."
Na, really. Stop taking yourself so seriously. If you don't think it's funny, that's fine. If you're offended by it, let me offend you proper by telling you that you've been brainwashed by your college professors. You're one of a dying race, as most women I've run into of late can take a freaking joke.
Seriously, men don't get offended when you call us lumbering sweaty fur-covered oafs with an obsession with sports and an aversion to anything involving pink, girliness, gayness or anything else that could be in some way construed with being unmanly - even the ones of us who are pretty much not of that breed.
This is because we know we're either a) laughing at ourselves; very healthy, b) laughing at behaviors we've overcome; also very healthy, or c) laughing at what we've never been, but seen other behave like, if not healthy, very satisfying.
Meanwhile, I didn't see anything about PMS, pregnancy, blondeness. Sure, the site motif at the moment is making fun of stupid catty 15 year old girls. Meet one and admit to me that they don't deserve your ridicule. Then and only then are you permitted to hold off limits an entire 51% of the population from satire.
Which is really what it's all about. A 'sexist' joke is not necessarily mean-spirited, which is what matters. Still, a small, loud, obnoxious portion of the female human population is under the impression that specifying the hilarity of the difference between sexes - or even segments of a population that happen to include gender as part of the behavioral model (in this case, 'teenage', 'female', 'shallow', and 'catty' come to mind as specific identifiers) - is morally wrong and should be outlawed and litigated against.
These people need shot. Or at least, need to be drugged, 24/7, with a 20-80 nitrous oxide-pure oxygen mix.
No, seroiusly. Laugh. Getting angry only proves that you lack the one vital personality component that keeps most humans sane and likable: a sense of humor.
Oh, don't worry; you won't have to install it. In Vista, it'll be included so deeply that you'll have to rip it out by the short hairs just to USE thunderbird.
But don't worry. I hear the EU has plans to file a preemptive antitrust suit.
So, just to be clear, are you brainwashed by Microsoft or some christian cult or other?
No, seriously. Using that book for anything other than object lessons in social behavior is folly. In fact, using much of it for object lessons in social behavior is often folly.
Still, it's your choice to believe in it. Just don't go trying to foist it on other people. 'Help' is in the eye of the person you 'helped', not the person who's 'helping'.
For example, if I was stuck in a hole, and you think it would be helpful to drop a tuna sandwich in the hole so I may survive another day, I'd have a problem with that; I'm allergic to tuna and the smell of it makes me vomit. As such, you'd not be helping.
In other words, do ASK before you start rattling off your quotes, yeah?
I think it's just the new higher 'resolution' technology that's presently limited to 20MB/s.
The older stuff that got something like 200G/in^2 had a much faster transfer rate, but lower density.
It's all due to the electronic end, really. The laser picks up the data at 1G/s, but the electronics take much longer to send it out to whatever bus reads it.
Hm.
Actually, being that it's hologrammatic data, if one bit fails, will they all fail?
4.2 hours to dupe a drive (the article is wrong; it's 20MByte/sec)
The whole article is spin, written by some journalist who doesn't know a *char from a *int.
For one thing, legacy system support only slows the system down if you're running 16 bit apps. And then, it only slows down the 16 bit app - cos it's running through a 16 bit compatibility layer.
For another, legacy driver support only slows down your system if you have legacy hardware - and if you're using any hardware that requires a 16 bit or NT driver, chances are your machine is too slow to actually be running Windows XP.
I have a lot of praises for Mac's architecture, and a lot of complaints about Windows', but I have to say, if you're going to bitch about something, at least know your shit.
Like this, see:
Wintel machines are, in general, slower than the new Macs because the new Macs come with Dual core processors, while most new PCs are still on commodity one-core machines.
Or because the Mac Mach Microkernel and its support daemons are compiled for optimum performance on their target processors, while Win32 is still compiled for i486.
Or because the Mac architecture is based on a microkernel/daemon structure, while Windows is still based on a monolithic kernel with binary-pluggable drivers.
Or because the stupid fucker who wrote this article can't do system maintinance on his PC, and feels he knows all the answers because the Mac in the cubicle next to his rarely gets bogged down by viruses and spyware (mostly because Macs have small enough market share that people rarely write malware for macs - yeah, go. increase Apple's market share. Ruin it for the rest of us.)
Wow.
Dude, just have a look at the Win32 API.
The Win16 stuff are just 16 bit DLLs that make calls to their 32 bit equivalents; you can call both that and classic 'virtualization', in theory, but in practice it's like comparing wine to qemu. One runs native code with an API layer sandwiched on, the other trys to emulate an entire computer.
And if you don't know the difference, or don't know which of the above simile applies to what, then shut up; you're talking loudly from your ass.
So, tell me... why aren't we blaming the opposition from vested interests? These are types that will intentionally misquote the facts just to keep their software in the hands of big buyers.
And, of course, the US Commercial and Government establishments - being what they are - fall for the 'vested interests' shit.
Meh. You know, Blizzard would be an OK game developer if it weren't for their legal department. Unfortunately, they make such good games that people won't boycott them for being unholy pricks.
That's true enough; in fact, I've seen the toaster (hunt around on http://www.mini-itx.com for it).
I just figured I'd place the 'does the new device for which slashdot is generating hype run linux' in the comment thread it belongs, ie: 'obligatory'.
Actually, I'm just curious as to why ubuntu's one of the big three OSes.
I mean, Slax is much better in terms of ease-of-use and installation. Not to mention it's a chunk smaller, highly modular and uses a WM that's simply better (bitch at me all you want about Gnome V. KDE. I've used both. My girlfriend (who is nongeek) has used both. We kinda agree which is superior).
I'm just really shocked that KDE gets no representation just 'cos ubuntu's the hot linux flavor of the week.
Right, except the article says it's gonna run a transmeta chip.
Which begs the question: but will it run Linux?
Mechwarrior? These things are fueled by ethanol.
Think more on the Futurama side of things.
Unfortunately, there is a general disease in the US called the 'dollar'.
See, it's based on faith - specifically, the faith that the US can back up each dollar with something of equal value. What the US has of most value is 'intellectual property'.
Now, this IP is a bit tricky; there is no intrinsic physical property of it that prevents it from being copied. It's an item of real value that can be had for no value. Further, it costs money to create.
This is not lost on trade governance; it's what the four tiers of IP law are based on: Patents, Copyright, Trade Secrets, and Trademarks.
The primary goal of these laws is to provide compensation to authors while allowing for the creation of a large and robust public domain.
Of these, two are highly contested. Patents - granted monopoly rights for business use of an idea - and Copyright - granted monopoly rights for use, copying and distribution of a complete work.
Copyrights are contested primarily because of the length of time rights are granted: it has migrated from about 7 years to approximately 95 years or more, depending on the character of the copyright. Almost anyone except Disney corporation would agree that this is excessive, but no one seems to want to cross major rights holders (the RIAA and MPAA) and fix the problem.
Patents, on the other hand, have a twofold problem: First, you can patent almost anything that's not already in the patent system, even things that have actually been around for years, like hyperlinks. Second, for certain patents, they too are starting to exceed their original time limits (eg: medical patents can be renewed).
On the first point, there is a prior art clause that can be shown to invalidate a patent, however patent law is slowly inching from the current 'first to market' system to a 'first to file' system, in which these patents would be gospel.
Now that you know the issues on patents and copyrights, please write your congressmen to repeal these laws. They, uh, kill babies and maim pregnant women. They're all bad and stuff.
No, seriously, write them and ask them to change the laws to something a little more, you know, sensible.
Attention. I hold the patent on "Humorous threat of legal action in refernce to patent infringement". I will require royalties post haste, or you shall be hearing from my lawyer.
*tries desperately to hold straight face*
I'm certain there are other possible explanations. I don't have all the facts, so there is a very good possibility that I am incorrect. It doesn't really matter, as it wasn't the point of my post to defend afghanistan; just to dismiss it as an irrelevant case in my explanation of the oil v. currency => conflict connection I've been seeing (ie: they produce little oil). Meanwhile if you want to discuss 9/11, I'd be glad to - my intel on it is somewhat lacking, due to the nonadvertising version of the spam effect (so much crap getting in the way of actual data).
I've seen a goodly number of theories for the 9/11 attack on this here intarweb, however, too many seem like either bad movie plots or conspiracy theories. Additionally, none of them seem to hold water under scruitiny.
Still, if you have a better theory for the motivations behind the 9/11 attack (and a reference or two to back it up), I'd be pleased - or perhaps displeased, depending on the information brought to the table - to hear it.
Like said, I'm a realist. I WANT to know what's going on.
Well, from US politics, I can generally take both terms at their literal meaning, ie: that a liberal spreads it on thick while a conservative is a bit tight-assed.
No, seriously. I mean, aren't YOU tired of the lip-serivce political tripe that comes out of washington? My rules of politics:
1) Never believe any social research that has been explicitly paid for by the government; it will tend to be biased toward whichever party pushed for the research funding. Stick to research initiated as part of a university's academic department, and take even that with a grain of salt: the personal biases are easier to suss out; academics tend to have a pride issue about not letting their politics get in the way of getting the right answers; and the funding is easier to track.
2) If a main-party politician is speaking, chances are that someone has their hand up his/her ass. Find out who funds them and compare it to their politics. If you don't like what you see, chances are you don't want to vote for them.
3) If a politician makes any decision that is more beneficial to a business than to consumers, don't vote for them. This becomes especially difficult in presidential elections, as by that rule you can't vote for anyone. In cases like this either don't vote as a matter of protest, or vote for the lesser of two evils.
4) If the government does something you dislike, don't bother yelling; in the intarweb, noone can hear you bitch. Vote with your dollar instead. This becomes tricky at times, but it's all about figuring out clever ways to make it count. For example, when we went to war in iraq, I sold my gasoline car, bought a diesel motorcycle, and started making my own biodiesel (actually quite easy) using a continuous flow system. My dollars no longer get put into gas taxes and tariffs.
Follow my political tips, and you too can be modded flamebait!
Actually, that's exactly the intended effect. I'm not condoning war at all. Just saying that we've gotten better at it in the good way (as opposed to the bad way, like we did when we figured out how to wipe out a city or crack the planet's crust.)
I don't know. From what I read, it looks like it's Intel keeping their nose out of IP management all together; he's right, or moreover, he alludes to the fact that Intel is not exactly in a position to deal with 'rights management' (ie: theft of services), as that would be difficult to do without false positives at the circuit level.
Far as I can tell, this article deals less with DRM, and more with what appears to be an arbitrary standard of what is Media Capable - something that I'm sure Intel's marketing department decided on, rather than their engineers.
Overall, this article is basically semi-interesting fluff. For example, it's nice to know that Intel considers a PC without a TV out to be a sufficient media center device - especially when they demand instant on tech.
Anybody want to form an independant Media Center PC (MCPC) qualifying group? You can even order foil stickers to sell to OEM manufacturers that meet with your stringent demands!
Actually, far as I can tell, the war on terror is the US's excuse to enforce the acceptance of the US dollar for oil. Each time a country with oil resources has threatened to accept only, for example, euros for oil, they've gone on the terrorist watchlist.
Personally, I find this a bit despicable; the 9/11 attack was from afghani citizens that were disgruntled about our actions in the 1970's; we put a bunch of dicks in power, gave 'em weapons, told them to fight the russians, and kinda didn't want to know them afterward.
That's bad enough, but using this as an excuse to support your currency is really horrible.
That said, it's the most life-efficient war in world history, if you don't count bloodless coups.
Additionally, it has done some good; getting Hussein out of power WAS a good thing for the citizenry of Iraq. It's just a shame that it took selfishness to execute the liberation.
For example, it's appalling that our dependance on the stable influx of natural diamonds has prevented every nation on the planet from doing something about the shit DeBeers is pulling off in South Africa.
Unfortunately, such is the way of the world; if you want something done, you either have to make it profitable to do or make it threatening to not do. Even if that something is morally right.
For example, if DeBeers decided they wouldn't sell diamonds for US Dollars or Euros, and stay with only Kugerands (South African one-ounce gold coins) and their like, the UN wouldn't hesitate to have security forces move in to stop the 'sudden' atrocities.
I am not a liberal or a conservative (in fact, I think you're both idiots). I am a realist.
Yeah. The US War machine is a tad corrupt. That's why they spend billions of dollars figuring out how to win wars with a minimal loss of life.
I don't know if anyone actually realizes this, but the Vietnam debacle lost about twice as many lives in the opening weeks of combat that afghanistan and iraq combined. Whatever the motivations behind our incursions on other countries (mostly it has to do with what currency they want to trade for oil), we're getting better at getting the job done without killing too many people.
And yes, civillians die. As nobody's perfect, war is like that. If you wanna be bitchy and insulting, be bitchy and insulting to Bush, Cheney and their puppeteers, not the marines. They're trained with a purpose. And, like a health inspector, they're doing what they're paid - and legally required - to do.
Meanwhile, MARINES stands for "My Ass Rides In Navy Equipment, Sir!"
(I'm an ex-navy nuke. I can make jokes like that. Just not in front of a marine. Those fuckers are like Extreme Sports punks, only less stupid and more muscley.)