Be careful when you mention branches of pure mathematics as an example of something that will never have any practical application
Well I should point out that I said nor is ever likely to have as it the case with more than a few branches of science currently being researched. Never say never...
You have some interesting points there, but the manhattan project is a case in point. Science drives the media, not the other way around. I have no figures on how many research projects ultimately reach the press, but I'd put it in the single percentages, if that. This goes for modern, well-funded institutions as well.
As I pointed out to another poster, trying to pander to the media is a dangerous road to go down. Public opinion is a fickle thing. And as for informing people that they have modern appliances etcetera only through the efforts of scientists on a regular basis, that might lead to a situation whereby only research with immediate or near-immediate "consumer" value would get funding, also to be avoided. Not to mention going against the idea of science as a whole; science is not something to kowtow to every morning, and say thanks for the toaster. You'd be as well off genuflecting to the mirror.
As a general rule in terms of publicly funded research, politicians don't make a great deal of decisions at that level in any case, a bit like the military. Budgets are assigned to universities, and academic leaders assign those budgets as they see fit. If a researcher has a good idea, and the university thinks its a good idea, he or she will get the funding to at least begin to investigate. Should it continue to prove interesting, more funding is assigned, and then one day we have a headline. However the academic leaders might be influenced by the media, they are more likely to be influenced by the researcher with the idea, which might have nothing to do with anything anyone in the general public has even heard of. Again, I offer the example of certain branches of pure maths. I'm sure I could come up with a great many more if I thought about it.
Science has been around long before there was a media, and if the media and public relations industries dried up and died tomorrow, science would still be chugging away merrily. There are not a great deal of human endeavours that can say the same. Science drives media, not the other way around, which is my point.
I'd even go further and say that it would be a very dangerous road to go down. Live by the media, die by the media, and public opinion is a very fickle beast.
Private funding and corporate funding do not imply any involvment by the media (and when I say media, I mean popular media, not by any group that happens to call itself "marketing" or an iteration thereof) and so are not really relevant to this discussion, except to underline my earlier point about science not needing to pander to the media.
If that were truly the case, the only kind of research that would ever get any money would be high profile shiny laser guns and wannabe cures for cancer, which is obviously not the case. There are many sources of funding for research, both the immediately useful kind and research which has no particular application nor is ever likely to have (various branches of pure maths?). Unlike just about everything else, science has the privelege that by its very nature, it is not dependant on public opinion as massaged by the spin doctors. You can't run a quantum physics experiment based on the popular vote.
I'd disagree that science needs better, or any, media relations. After all, there wouldn't be a media without science. Or, for that matter, a civilisation.
Thats fair and reasonable, and I should only respond in a likewise fashion. Just to get things back on track, this is about the american attitude towards france, not about my attitude towards america. Its easy to paint people with a broad brush, and spout fire and brimstone based on that, but more difficult to challenge direct manufactured biases, as I have attempted to do here.
On a personal level, I have no problem with individual americans, with you or your family. I might have a problem with your opinions, but thats just a matter for healthy debate. If you're right, I'll change my views. Nothing I have said was less than factual, nor did I say "the american people" or "americans" anywhere, and unless you feel your government represents you personally, you shouldn't feel that my comments are an indictment of your friends and family.
I don't presume to know what you think. I do presume to respond to the points raised by other posters.
The culture of people who live in huts rarely venture to other places nor do they participate in geopolitics.
Oh so filipinos are shut-ins who never travel abroad? Interesting. And thats not to say I haven't lived in other jungles than the vegetative types. But your sneering disdain for and mind boggling ignorance about those that live halfway up mountains pretty much invalidates anything else you have to say on the matter.
Tell me, have you travled so much as to be able to render these valid opinions?
Yup, more and wider too. Additionally I speak a half dozen languages, two of which are asian, and a smattering of a dozen more. You see I like to immerse myself in different cultures, to try to completely understand them. Thats why you won't catch me staying in a hotel; I'm the guy living in a hut halfway up a mountain in the triple canopy jungle.
have you spent time in the US
No, I choose to avoid countries that treat me like a criminal by fingerprinting me before I set foot inside their borders. And I do believe I am a member of a very large and growing club on that one.
still didn't treat me like dog dung for simply being American
Two words, "freedom fries". Oh and by the way you are aware that the term french in french fries is describing the method of cutting them, not country of origin? I mean that by itself says it all. As far as I can see, no one made the US invade Iraq. So remind me, who started looking down on who first again?
Did the French sell them chemical weapons? Is that why Dubyaw was so sure he would find WMD in Iraq, he still had the receipts?
campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising
What do you care, I thought you were american, not english...
France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs
I think you'll find that people everywhere are less than pleasant when you start acting as though you have some natural advantage purely by dint of being american. Now I realise I'm making an assumption here, but based on your previous diatribes, I'd feel fairly confident putting money on it.
responsible for their own reputation
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, buddy.
The US doesn't spend any money on making us dislike France.
Hahahahah, ohh, ah thanks man, that made my day...
France has got making us dislike them pretty much covered.
And how did they do that, denouncing the illegal invasion of Iraq, which lead to the current ongoing train wreck in said country? How dare they, the gall, the nerve, the brass of the beggars! Don't they know they owe their very existence to the Yooo Esss? Why its not like they ever
helped the US in any way... Heheh...
Good man yourself... are you sure your government will let you do that? I mean they spent a lot of cash on brainwashing you to dislike France because they wouldn't join your half cocked crusade, they might be upset at the waste of their money!
Whooo, where to start. How crap like this gets modded insightful I will never understand, unless the fascination with Jackie Chan films are to blame, and wildly inaccurate propaganda pieces like "hero" (which ended with a lengthy quote from the prince by machiavelli, originally written to flatter a political figure in Italy at the time and make hime feel better about being an asshole)
But whatever your position is, as a CS person, you are socially classified as a geek.
Thats because Americans worship ares, as per the book the Cryptonmicon, by Neal Stephenson.
It's just the way Western societies have been largely static for centuries now--people idolize artists, entertainers, businessmen....and the Western mind hasn't really adjusted to that yet as far as I can tell
At least the west has a society that has lasted centuries, and changed drastically during those centuries (static my ringpiece, talk about propaganda in action, lets ask Marie Antoinette what she thinks about that, or possibly Martin Luther King). Whatever was left of Chinese culture after the revolution was systematically wiped out by Chairman mao, and whats there now is whatever tune the current political leaders are whistling. Speaking of chairman mao, wasn't he the loon that executed like 95% of the educated population of china and left his mark forever on chinese society? See the problem was, he was an uneducated peasant, and feared anyone with an education. Very forward looking and embracing of technology. His body is still preserved and raised for the worship of the chinese masses every year, by the way. And as for static societies, China of all people cannot afford to throw bricks.
Chinese people are very much in tune with what is practical for getting ahead, both as a country and individually.
See above for the tune the Chinese people are dancing to.
There is a combination of old Confucian elements
Confucius ha. You are alone when you are born, and you're alone when you die. Better get used to the idea my bucko. Thats all I have to say on confucius.
In China, it's in fact the 'arts' majors who are looked down on.
You are somehow toting that as a good thing...
Chinese girls are in fact much more inclined to study science and tech
Well its a good thing they are no longer required to have their feet bound from birth then isn't it? Or no wait, that practise still happens all over China. Honestly if I had a choice between being a woman in Chnia and being a woman in Iran, I'd have to think long and hard about it.
A society which respects litigation and playing the stock market more than science and technology won't stay ahead too long.
Why does everyone assume western society starts at florida and ends in seattle? The old world is still very much alive and well, thank you very much. In fact most projections indicate the EU will be the next superpower, and if you think thats stagnant, baby you have a whole other think coming. With half the population of China and a vastly more advanced infrastructure, industry and educational system, unified Europe is the number one economic power on earth. All China is right now is a source of cheap labour with fixed currency rates to keep that labour permanently cheap, and it will be playing catch up for a long, long time.
The institute employs a team of experts in science and technology to review proposals. Successful proposals are highly imaginative but grounded in reality
Is NASA administration such a desert of inspiration, so devoid of innovation, that they need to appeal to the general public for ideas? I mean this is a thinly veiled atempt to pick the brains of the many highly intelligent and imaginative sci fi fans out there, and probably have a good laugh in the process. One thing is for sure, if I had any practical ideas about space exploration and its direction (and I'm not saying I don't), I surely wouldn't be passing it on to NASA on the nebulous chance of a "grant".
Beh. Tell 'em to go read a book, and not one of their MBA manuals either...
Just take a page from the corporations' books and buy a politician. Then you can make them do whatever you like. Hmmm, weren't the Saudi Royal family thick as thieves with the Bushes?
I do believe Hitler verifiably said something similar however, upon which that false quote is probably based... Can't find it now though. Meh, I dunno why they don't just use the Hitler quote... Here's another applicable one...
In relation to the political decontamination of our public life, the government will embark upon a systematic campaign to restore the nation's moral and material health. The whole educational system, theater, film, literature, the press and broadcasting - all these will be used as a means to this end.
And one for the road...
Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.
What is absolutely untrue is the reference in The Da Vinci Code to Leonardo's reputation as a "flamboyant homosexual". He was not known as such. Historical evidence is sketchy about the latter, and the only thing Leonardo was "flamboyant" about was his inability to finish projects he started.
Part of application fee (say 1/2) will go as a bounty to anybody who can disprove it - in other words show prior art, etcetera.
Argh, you were doing well until that. You just doubled or tripled the cost of applying for a patent. In many cases there will be extremely fine differences between an actual patentable device, and a prior existing device. This will inevitably lead to court, since what is at stake isn't your five or ten grand, its the patent and the business that could grow from it. Also this could be used by large companies to nail smaller companies by bogging them down with complex disputes for years (more than enough to drive them out of business) as well as frivolous time wasters by the bucket load who are chancing their arm in the hopes they might score it lucky. It would only take four or five patent denials a year to make a pretty decent living out of that.
China has over 18000km of coast and a similar length of border, stretching from India to Mongolia and Siberia... you start the blockade, I'll break out the popcorn...
You sir have just exposed why wikipedia will never ever supplant the Encyclopedia Brittanica... Take a look at this gem here...
Of course the European assembly is concerned about these women. Mail order brides expose European men for what they are; abusive, unemployed alcoholics. Therefore, they resort to lying about the conditions these women face. It is a well known fact that American men are more faithful and make better husbands than European men. The mail order bride business is actually proof of this. No one forces a woman to become a mail order bride; they freely choose the opportunity to get away from their abusive European men. At a typical matrriage agency social, there are 20 women for every man.
And an American man is always able to meet women in bars, clubs and even on the street who is more than happy jump at the chance to date him. An American man can walk up to a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia and ask for a date and almost every time she will accept. It is no wonder that European men are so afraid of the American man and makes up lies about "consumer husbands". Regardless of these lies, more women than ever are becoming mail order brides because they know the truth from their friends.
Assuming you exclude the nuclear capabilities of the respective governments, (although you can pit China's 20 odd ICBMs against god knows how many thousands of American ones if you like), the American military would nail China to the wall in short order. I'm not an American, and in general have a fairly contemptuous attitude towards the "America uber alles" brainwashing endemic to that society, but I am a realist.
You are assuming that sheer force of numbers would be any impediment to an American invading force. I believe that particular argument was settled in world war one, in such disputes as the battle of the Somme, where we saw the entry of machine guns to the arsenals of the nations involved.
China has no navy worth speaking of, and no means to return fire on America. Thats why they have mumbled and grumbled about Taiwan rather than invading it outright, political concerns notwithstanding. The British showed that the nation that controls the seas controls it all. And on top of that, in terms of military technology, they are far, far behind America, and thats the factor that counts most in any hypothetical conflict.
It doesn't matter how many soldiers you have, if one army doesn't know what the other is doing, to paraphrase Genghis Khan, who knew what he was talking about. All America needs to do is cut communication lines via stealth bombers, cruise missiles, or using any of the many other means at their disposal, and it will swiftly become clear just how useless having a million men blindly blundering around the countryside is.
The invasion of Iraq it wouldn't be, but believe me China wouldn't last four months against an invading American force. All this is academic, however, since you can't really discount the nukes on either side. Unless GWB manages to finally get his missile defence shield up and running. Then christ help the lot of them.
Lastly, we cannot say Napoleon didn't warn us/the west: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, the world will tremble."
Other words of wisdom from that worthy...
"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, about his steamship.
How you know you're talking to a basement-lurking slashdot nerd; they use the opinion of random strangers, expressed via moderation, as justification for their incorrect argument.
"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, about his steamship.
Nah the only way to be sure is to turn google into an affiliate program. No money for google until someone makes a purchase from the site in question, or otherwise reaches a "successful hit" of some kind. Might cut into google's profits a tad, but its the only way to ensure customers are not being defrauded. And to those who say, why should our favourite megacorp have to depend on the quality of others' sites, who cares. Fraud is a criminal offence, having a crap site is not.
What the fuck does AOL proxy have to do with Google's terms of service, you turkey? If you are offering a one customer per click service, you better make damn sure thats what you provide. Whether or not AOL offers a proxy is not the customers' concern; if google can't work around it they had better make all hits from that proxy free, since they can't tell who is an actual customer and who is trying to defraud a company. You had better be careful around this time of year, a turkey as big as you stands a good chance of ending up in someone's oven! And to the google fanboi who modded that flamebait, work away my good son. I have karma to burn and burn and burn.
Slashdot Mirror
Be careful when you mention branches of pure mathematics as an example of something that will never have any practical application
Well I should point out that I said nor is ever likely to have as it the case with more than a few branches of science currently being researched. Never say never...
You have some interesting points there, but the manhattan project is a case in point. Science drives the media, not the other way around. I have no figures on how many research projects ultimately reach the press, but I'd put it in the single percentages, if that. This goes for modern, well-funded institutions as well.
As I pointed out to another poster, trying to pander to the media is a dangerous road to go down. Public opinion is a fickle thing. And as for informing people that they have modern appliances etcetera only through the efforts of scientists on a regular basis, that might lead to a situation whereby only research with immediate or near-immediate "consumer" value would get funding, also to be avoided. Not to mention going against the idea of science as a whole; science is not something to kowtow to every morning, and say thanks for the toaster. You'd be as well off genuflecting to the mirror.
As a general rule in terms of publicly funded research, politicians don't make a great deal of decisions at that level in any case, a bit like the military. Budgets are assigned to universities, and academic leaders assign those budgets as they see fit. If a researcher has a good idea, and the university thinks its a good idea, he or she will get the funding to at least begin to investigate. Should it continue to prove interesting, more funding is assigned, and then one day we have a headline. However the academic leaders might be influenced by the media, they are more likely to be influenced by the researcher with the idea, which might have nothing to do with anything anyone in the general public has even heard of. Again, I offer the example of certain branches of pure maths. I'm sure I could come up with a great many more if I thought about it.
Science has been around long before there was a media, and if the media and public relations industries dried up and died tomorrow, science would still be chugging away merrily. There are not a great deal of human endeavours that can say the same. Science drives media, not the other way around, which is my point.
I'd even go further and say that it would be a very dangerous road to go down. Live by the media, die by the media, and public opinion is a very fickle beast.
Private funding and corporate funding do not imply any involvment by the media (and when I say media, I mean popular media, not by any group that happens to call itself "marketing" or an iteration thereof) and so are not really relevant to this discussion, except to underline my earlier point about science not needing to pander to the media.
If that were truly the case, the only kind of research that would ever get any money would be high profile shiny laser guns and wannabe cures for cancer, which is obviously not the case. There are many sources of funding for research, both the immediately useful kind and research which has no particular application nor is ever likely to have (various branches of pure maths?). Unlike just about everything else, science has the privelege that by its very nature, it is not dependant on public opinion as massaged by the spin doctors. You can't run a quantum physics experiment based on the popular vote.
What science requires are better media relations
I'd disagree that science needs better, or any, media relations. After all, there wouldn't be a media without science. Or, for that matter, a civilisation.
Thats fair and reasonable, and I should only respond in a likewise fashion. Just to get things back on track, this is about the american attitude towards france, not about my attitude towards america. Its easy to paint people with a broad brush, and spout fire and brimstone based on that, but more difficult to challenge direct manufactured biases, as I have attempted to do here.
On a personal level, I have no problem with individual americans, with you or your family. I might have a problem with your opinions, but thats just a matter for healthy debate. If you're right, I'll change my views. Nothing I have said was less than factual, nor did I say "the american people" or "americans" anywhere, and unless you feel your government represents you personally, you shouldn't feel that my comments are an indictment of your friends and family.
I don't presume to know what you think. I do presume to respond to the points raised by other posters.
The culture of people who live in huts rarely venture to other places nor do they participate in geopolitics.
Oh so filipinos are shut-ins who never travel abroad? Interesting. And thats not to say I haven't lived in other jungles than the vegetative types. But your sneering disdain for and mind boggling ignorance about those that live halfway up mountains pretty much invalidates anything else you have to say on the matter.
Tell me, have you travled so much as to be able to render these valid opinions?
Yup, more and wider too. Additionally I speak a half dozen languages, two of which are asian, and a smattering of a dozen more. You see I like to immerse myself in different cultures, to try to completely understand them. Thats why you won't catch me staying in a hotel; I'm the guy living in a hut halfway up a mountain in the triple canopy jungle.
have you spent time in the US
No, I choose to avoid countries that treat me like a criminal by fingerprinting me before I set foot inside their borders. And I do believe I am a member of a very large and growing club on that one.
still didn't treat me like dog dung for simply being American
Two words, "freedom fries". Oh and by the way you are aware that the term french in french fries is describing the method of cutting them, not country of origin? I mean that by itself says it all. As far as I can see, no one made the US invade Iraq. So remind me, who started looking down on who first again?
Sorry.
Apology accepted.
Did the French sell them chemical weapons? Is that why Dubyaw was so sure he would find WMD in Iraq, he still had the receipts?
campaign to outlaw the use of English words in french advertising
What do you care, I thought you were american, not english...
France and the french (yeah, I've been there several times on business) are a bunch of snobs
I think you'll find that people everywhere are less than pleasant when you start acting as though you have some natural advantage purely by dint of being american. Now I realise I'm making an assumption here, but based on your previous diatribes, I'd feel fairly confident putting money on it.
responsible for their own reputation
People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, buddy.
The US doesn't spend any money on making us dislike France.
Hahahahah, ohh, ah thanks man, that made my day...
France has got making us dislike them pretty much covered.
And how did they do that, denouncing the illegal invasion of Iraq, which lead to the current ongoing train wreck in said country? How dare they, the gall, the nerve, the brass of the beggars! Don't they know they owe their very existence to the Yooo Esss? Why its not like they ever helped the US in any way... Heheh...
I hereby suspend my France-Bashing for 24 hours!
Good man yourself... are you sure your government will let you do that? I mean they spent a lot of cash on brainwashing you to dislike France because they wouldn't join your half cocked crusade, they might be upset at the waste of their money!
Whooo, where to start. How crap like this gets modded insightful I will never understand, unless the fascination with Jackie Chan films are to blame, and wildly inaccurate propaganda pieces like "hero" (which ended with a lengthy quote from the prince by machiavelli, originally written to flatter a political figure in Italy at the time and make hime feel better about being an asshole)
But whatever your position is, as a CS person, you are socially classified as a geek.
Thats because Americans worship ares, as per the book the Cryptonmicon, by Neal Stephenson.
It's just the way Western societies have been largely static for centuries now--people idolize artists, entertainers, businessmen....and the Western mind hasn't really adjusted to that yet as far as I can tell
At least the west has a society that has lasted centuries, and changed drastically during those centuries (static my ringpiece, talk about propaganda in action, lets ask Marie Antoinette what she thinks about that, or possibly Martin Luther King). Whatever was left of Chinese culture after the revolution was systematically wiped out by Chairman mao, and whats there now is whatever tune the current political leaders are whistling. Speaking of chairman mao, wasn't he the loon that executed like 95% of the educated population of china and left his mark forever on chinese society? See the problem was, he was an uneducated peasant, and feared anyone with an education. Very forward looking and embracing of technology. His body is still preserved and raised for the worship of the chinese masses every year, by the way. And as for static societies, China of all people cannot afford to throw bricks.
Chinese people are very much in tune with what is practical for getting ahead, both as a country and individually.
See above for the tune the Chinese people are dancing to.
There is a combination of old Confucian elements
Confucius ha. You are alone when you are born, and you're alone when you die. Better get used to the idea my bucko. Thats all I have to say on confucius.
In China, it's in fact the 'arts' majors who are looked down on.
You are somehow toting that as a good thing...
Chinese girls are in fact much more inclined to study science and tech
Well its a good thing they are no longer required to have their feet bound from birth then isn't it? Or no wait, that practise still happens all over China. Honestly if I had a choice between being a woman in Chnia and being a woman in Iran, I'd have to think long and hard about it.
A society which respects litigation and playing the stock market more than science and technology won't stay ahead too long.
Why does everyone assume western society starts at florida and ends in seattle? The old world is still very much alive and well, thank you very much. In fact most projections indicate the EU will be the next superpower, and if you think thats stagnant, baby you have a whole other think coming. With half the population of China and a vastly more advanced infrastructure, industry and educational system, unified Europe is the number one economic power on earth. All China is right now is a source of cheap labour with fixed currency rates to keep that labour permanently cheap, and it will be playing catch up for a long, long time.
The institute employs a team of experts in science and technology to review proposals. Successful proposals are highly imaginative but grounded in reality
Is NASA administration such a desert of inspiration, so devoid of innovation, that they need to appeal to the general public for ideas? I mean this is a thinly veiled atempt to pick the brains of the many highly intelligent and imaginative sci fi fans out there, and probably have a good laugh in the process. One thing is for sure, if I had any practical ideas about space exploration and its direction (and I'm not saying I don't), I surely wouldn't be passing it on to NASA on the nebulous chance of a "grant".
Beh. Tell 'em to go read a book, and not one of their MBA manuals either...
Just take a page from the corporations' books and buy a politician. Then you can make them do whatever you like. Hmmm, weren't the Saudi Royal family thick as thieves with the Bushes?
I do believe Hitler verifiably said something similar however, upon which that false quote is probably based... Can't find it now though. Meh, I dunno why they don't just use the Hitler quote... Here's another applicable one...
In relation to the political decontamination of our public life, the government will embark upon a systematic campaign to restore the nation's moral and material health. The whole educational system, theater, film, literature, the press and broadcasting - all these will be used as a means to this end.
And one for the road...
Through clever and constant application of propaganda people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.
Here is an expansion on that...
What is absolutely untrue is the reference in The Da Vinci Code to Leonardo's reputation as a "flamboyant homosexual". He was not known as such. Historical evidence is sketchy about the latter, and the only thing Leonardo was "flamboyant" about was his inability to finish projects he started.
Part of application fee (say 1/2) will go as a bounty to anybody who can disprove it - in other words show prior art, etcetera.
Argh, you were doing well until that. You just doubled or tripled the cost of applying for a patent. In many cases there will be extremely fine differences between an actual patentable device, and a prior existing device. This will inevitably lead to court, since what is at stake isn't your five or ten grand, its the patent and the business that could grow from it. Also this could be used by large companies to nail smaller companies by bogging them down with complex disputes for years (more than enough to drive them out of business) as well as frivolous time wasters by the bucket load who are chancing their arm in the hopes they might score it lucky. It would only take four or five patent denials a year to make a pretty decent living out of that.
China has over 18000km of coast and a similar length of border, stretching from India to Mongolia and Siberia... you start the blockade, I'll break out the popcorn...
You sir have just exposed why wikipedia will never ever supplant the Encyclopedia Brittanica... Take a look at this gem here...
Of course the European assembly is concerned about these women. Mail order brides expose European men for what they are; abusive, unemployed alcoholics. Therefore, they resort to lying about the conditions these women face. It is a well known fact that American men are more faithful and make better husbands than European men. The mail order bride business is actually proof of this. No one forces a woman to become a mail order bride; they freely choose the opportunity to get away from their abusive European men. At a typical matrriage agency social, there are 20 women for every man.
And an American man is always able to meet women in bars, clubs and even on the street who is more than happy jump at the chance to date him. An American man can walk up to a woman in St. Petersburg, Russia and ask for a date and almost every time she will accept. It is no wonder that European men are so afraid of the American man and makes up lies about "consumer husbands". Regardless of these lies, more women than ever are becoming mail order brides because they know the truth from their friends.
lollers...
The US cannot - cannot - fight China militarily.
wut
Assuming you exclude the nuclear capabilities of the respective governments, (although you can pit China's 20 odd ICBMs against god knows how many thousands of American ones if you like), the American military would nail China to the wall in short order. I'm not an American, and in general have a fairly contemptuous attitude towards the "America uber alles" brainwashing endemic to that society, but I am a realist.
You are assuming that sheer force of numbers would be any impediment to an American invading force. I believe that particular argument was settled in world war one, in such disputes as the battle of the Somme, where we saw the entry of machine guns to the arsenals of the nations involved.
China has no navy worth speaking of, and no means to return fire on America. Thats why they have mumbled and grumbled about Taiwan rather than invading it outright, political concerns notwithstanding. The British showed that the nation that controls the seas controls it all. And on top of that, in terms of military technology, they are far, far behind America, and thats the factor that counts most in any hypothetical conflict.
It doesn't matter how many soldiers you have, if one army doesn't know what the other is doing, to paraphrase Genghis Khan, who knew what he was talking about. All America needs to do is cut communication lines via stealth bombers, cruise missiles, or using any of the many other means at their disposal, and it will swiftly become clear just how useless having a million men blindly blundering around the countryside is.
The invasion of Iraq it wouldn't be, but believe me China wouldn't last four months against an invading American force. All this is academic, however, since you can't really discount the nukes on either side. Unless GWB manages to finally get his missile defence shield up and running. Then christ help the lot of them.
Holding it now, that would be a different story.
Lastly, we cannot say Napoleon didn't warn us/the west: "Let China sleep, for when she awakes, the world will tremble."
Other words of wisdom from that worthy...
"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, about his steamship.
How you know you're talking to a basement-lurking slashdot nerd; they use the opinion of random strangers, expressed via moderation, as justification for their incorrect argument.
And you're still a turkey.
"You would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? Excuse me, I have no time to listen to such nonsense." Napoleon Bonaparte to Robert Fulton, about his steamship.
Nah the only way to be sure is to turn google into an affiliate program. No money for google until someone makes a purchase from the site in question, or otherwise reaches a "successful hit" of some kind. Might cut into google's profits a tad, but its the only way to ensure customers are not being defrauded. And to those who say, why should our favourite megacorp have to depend on the quality of others' sites, who cares. Fraud is a criminal offence, having a crap site is not.
What the fuck does AOL proxy have to do with Google's terms of service, you turkey? If you are offering a one customer per click service, you better make damn sure thats what you provide. Whether or not AOL offers a proxy is not the customers' concern; if google can't work around it they had better make all hits from that proxy free, since they can't tell who is an actual customer and who is trying to defraud a company. You had better be careful around this time of year, a turkey as big as you stands a good chance of ending up in someone's oven! And to the google fanboi who modded that flamebait, work away my good son. I have karma to burn and burn and burn.