That kinda reminds me of the simpsons episode where they showed a clip from the first atomic bomb tests, this soldier giving a gung-ho thumbs up as his teeth fall out... heheh... eh no seriously I hope he doesn't die.
I for one am well and truly sick of the shenanigans being pulled by these media conglomerates. They need to be replaced, and rapid. So lets look at the root causes of the problem.
1. People like music.
2. Musicians make music.
3. People will never hear the music unless its advertised to them; they just won't know it exists. Enter your friendly neighbourhood media conglomerate, with all the fun that entails.
Solutions:
1. Music is just information, a stream of bits and bytes. And here we have a whole industry called information technology.
2. The production of music can be done relatively cheaply, especially by applying modern technology.
3. Distribution and advertising, well well, looky here, an internet. Who put that there? And no I'm not talking about itunes.
4. Profit, and the vanishing of the media conglomerates and their tired, wretched little business model.
I mean come on, with all the big brains around here, surely it is possible to come up with a decent technological response to these vermin... the only thing lacking at this point is a concerted effort at marketing the stuff, and poof, no more MTV. Whatever restrictive contracts current artists have signed with said media groups is there own problem; there are always more artists. If ever there was a place google could shine, its right here.
I found this lovely old notebook from the 1920's, tall, wide and deep, with yellowed pages, embossed wood-backed smoky leather finish, and ruled. I was looking for something great to do with it, something really special, and then it hit me: use it as a hardcopy for all of my usernames and passwords. Losing this would be sacrelige, and thats even without the content. So wherever you store your passwords, make it somewhere that you would hate to lose even if you didn't store valuable information in it.
First of all, Google's stock is overvalued. Second of all, their ubiquitous control of the search engine market is not a good thing. Why?
Okay, here's how it goes, the majority of searches on the internet are done via google, therefore there is a massive incentive to comply with whatever google comes up with next, for anyone that ever wants their site to be seen. This is called leveraging a strong market position, and could border on a monopoly style abuse.
And just like MS, there will never be any public outcry, because the viewing public neither knows nor cares. All any web designer can do is dance to whatever tune google plays, just like they still have to dance to the tunes that IE plays. Mmmkay?
Also the quality of their search results seems to be reduced lately. Whether thats because of the massive effort by webmasters to "game the system" or because they are losing focus on their core strength remains to be seen. I dunno, Google is like a clown, many coloured and jolly, but it still gives me the creeps.
Funny, I just got this very story in a newsletter from webpronews... you've been dropping this anywhere you could, haven't you? Nyeh whatever, for what its worth, google for me is like a clown, many coloured and jolly, but it gives me the creeps...
So long as everyone can freely and voluntarily use internet explorer without having to pay anything, how is this a bad thing?
Okay, here's how it goes, the majority of searches on the internet are done via google, therefore there is a massive incentive to comply with whatever google comes up with next, for anyone that ever wants their site to be seen. This is called leveraging a strong market position, and could border on a monopoly style abuse. And just like MS, there will never be any public outcry, because the viewing public neither knows nor cares. All any web designer can do is dance to whatever tune google plays, just like they still have to dance to the tunes that IE plays. Mmmkay?
For what its worth, I don't see how this system is effectively any better than what already exists; I mean, google already uses pagerank algorithms within sites, the number of links to and from a page define its importance, and the revisit-after tag does similar, although it is deprecated.
Whew, thats a relief... I guess we'd better show the judge the manual so, he can tell Apple to keep their money, and he should apologise for having made such a blindingly obvious error in judgement.
There's ridiculous amounts of money to be made in space
Indeed there is, from the wealth of scientific benefits and knowledge, to mineral and energy resources, essentially limited only by our imagination, to new frontiers and worlds to colonise and grow food crops in.
The question is, have we got the technology to take advantage of whats out there? Many people are waving the space flag and repeating the moon and mars like a mantra, but honestly, we need to really develop the supporting industries before we go building the rocketships to get us up there.
For example, robots are going to be essential to expanding and capitalising on space for the forseeable future. They are able to function in environments which are extremely hostile to people, do not require food, water, or a comfortable gravity index or environmental support, and with the nuclear batteries mentioned some time ago on slashdot, can function for years or decades without resupply, except for parts. Also they can be mass produced, where the economics of scale come into play.
So what we do is we build remotes or semi autonomous drones to go forth and prospect, scout far off locations, dig, refine, and process ores, and build the habitats we need to survive, even setting up full manufacturing plants there, drawing power from readily available sources such as the sun or naturally occuring radioactives, all on a very manageable budget.
Robotics are only one industry that needs to be developed further before we step off this rock, so lets focus on getting them up to speed before we launch ourselves into the great unknown... Also these technologies will have significant knock-on effects here on earth in the interim. Space isn't profitable yet? If you want private groups to go to space, make the supporting industries profitable first!
The reason mobile phones will never overtake or even come close replacing computers is pretty simple... my eyesight is damaged enough from 21" CRT displays, I don't need to be peering myopically at a little 3" screen. And carpal tunnel syndrome will be the least of your worries if you have to type out most of your everyday work on a thumb pad...
Argh, do I even need to talk about the futility of publicly posting the authors of DDOS attacks on a website? This calls for good ol' vigilante justice. When the law doesn't suffice to cover your needs, or hasn't gotten that far in terms of enforcement, you need to take it into your own hands. Yes yes, I know all the arguments against that, but they all fall flat; the law is unwilling or unable to help where you have a legitimate greivance, therefore you become the law.
There should be an agency or group to mess these people up, not cause actual physical harm, but play with their tiny minds. Hire a private detective to ferret out their most personal details and bring them to the attention of local law enforcement and media. Hire a male escort to get their girlfriends drunk and give them syphillis. Disconnect their phones, steal their identities and use them to open bank accounts, then post these up on warez sites. Get creative, people, think like Sherriff Lucas Buck in American Gothic. When the law fails, you may not have the right to take it upon yourself to take revenge, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
This massive campaign towards securing and extending the definition of intellectual property in the US appears to be, ironically, the nation's response to globalisation and the China price (a term used to describe the price of goods and services in China, usually meaning the lowest possible price). By creating extremely powerful IP laws and then
extending that to the third world countries producing lower cost products, tying it in with other
treaties (no aid unless you accept our IP laws and enforce them, we'll also loosen up our immigration policies towards you too:D).
This way those in "control" of ideas and concepts can continue to milk them while maintaining control over these third world countries, who can afford low cost mass production, but will not then be allowed to build on the knowledge they have, due to it being restricted by IP laws. And so, the USA manages to effortlessly keep its technological lead over these countries, who might otherwise swiftly overtake it in technical ability and production capacity.
Not to be alarmist, but these marketing drones and legal eagles are leading us into a new dark age, where knowledge itself is restricted to a select few, a tyranny of DRM. That the concept is difficult to grasp by the masses is not going to make the penalties for infringement any less harsh. Sadly this problem is not self correcting, nor do I see any immediate method to stop or slow it, short of a massive reduction in the influence of the USA in international relations or a complete reversal of policy by the adminisration there.
Actually this is justice. The essence of the law is that its a system of taking revenge for wrongs done to you, but revenge taken in a controlled, organised fashion, and not excessive based on the crime. This is how the concept of law was originally formed, way back in Babylon; it was intended to stop feuds and duels in the streets. If the law and its enforcement fails in a given situation, it is only natural for people to revert back to how it was originally, taking revenge for themselves. Also, if you are running a legitimate site, and you get hacked, you have the full weight of the law to call upon. Phishers do not.
While we're at it, we can rename this service to "Vitual America", not "Virtual Earth"! Just think of all the hassle and trouble that will be saved for Americans trying to find out which state China is in!
I think our focus now should be on ancillary or supporting industries which are currently profitable rather than on just leaping headlong back to the moon. For example robotics, which could make good use of the tritium power nuclear batteries recently mentioned on slashdot, could make space expansion and exploration far cheaper and easier, or rather the utilisation of resources available there to pave the way for actual people to start colonisation.
Lets work on sub orbital jet flights to cut down flight times from 24 hours from Europe to Australia to 3 hours; I know plenty of people that would happily pay extra for that convenience. As a side effect, we will be enhancing rocket technology and our understanding of the dynamics of objects in that medium. We need to lay down a lot of groundwork in a focused effort before we can seriously look at colonising space.
Focus, focus, try not to lose sight of what was said in a fit of self righteousness. Although I hold out little hope at this stage. Still here goes, to sum it up: Arabs and so on don't give a rats ass about the facts, they SEE the US as being responsible. And these days (since the days of the creation of Israel are long gone, focus, focus), the US is largely responsible. And tell me, if the land was legitimately acquired, whats all the fuss about the gaza strip, and the forced relocation of Palestinians? And why is the UN routinely condemning Israeli actions? Perhaps you should write to them outlining your points, rather than trolling slashdot. Since you are so completely correct, I am sure they will immediately reverse all their comdemnations and embrace the state of Israel in its entirety.
And who is trying to appease arabs? Last time I checked, the dust still hasn't settled after the invasion of Iraq. Ah forget it, I really have to break this habit of feeding trolls...
Oooh, good, I bet that went down well at the playground. You must have been the baddest, toughest boy there. Mummy will be sooo proud! Not to stoop to ad-hominens here mush, but I mean seriously.
But when we said "this shall not stand, we're going to root out these nests of terrorists so they can't threaten us or anyone else," everyone cried out in dismay
Especially the Iraqis who had nothing to do with the attack! Oh my, what a cry of dismay was heard from them. Luckily the sound of the bombs drowned it out.
Face it, those who hate our current foreign policy hate it because either blah blah bush is god blah blah i will have his love child blah blah Chamberlain.
Enough said...
It's all the fault of the Jews! You'd make old uncle Adolf so proud
Actually as far as the Arabs are concerned, it is about the Jews. You have an uncle called Adolf?
So why aren't you whining about the injustice of this?
Because I couldn't give a rats arse what the Japanese think of me or my culture. The difference here, you see, is that the Japanese aren't going around invading sovereign states that they had earlier set up.
Bzzzt! Wrong! blah blah blah my country is the best drilled into my head since birth blah blah I take the bits of history I like and leave the rest blah blah blah Don't you have an atheism conference to attend somewhere?
Sigh... why do I bother? I mean seriously, the writing isn't just on the wall any more, baby, its tatooed on your low sloping forehead. The religious fundamentalists will not be allowed to creep any further into the politics of a nuclear power, and they will be scourged from the bodies social and politic.
And precisely how would everyone else "step in and stop it"?
Oh we'd (or will) set up a corporation and buy your politicians. All of them. Eh try and stop us. Oh and no war is required, just all the money that has been saved by not going around invading people. Funny how it all adds up ha? I think I'll buy Kansas today. I mean, when in Rome...
Hope you kept the receipt.
Eh yes, the ones I got from all of the politicians.
Is someone going to come and knock us off our pedestal?
Yes.
If there's going to be a challenge to our superpower supremacy
Who would want to challenge your supremacy in military matters? We'll just buy your leaders instead. That way we can use your military to our heart's content, and have teh amerrikun taxpayar pay for it. I mean, thats the American way, isn't it? In fact I'm surprised it hasn't already happened... Nyeh anyway, you ghastly little man, I'll wrap this up with a paraphrase from another poster in this thread: Never argue with an idiot, they'll try to drag you down to their level and beat you there. And I know I shouldn't be feeding the trolls, but you looked so thin and hungry... Ah well I'll be tougher next time, it'll be the newspaper on the nose, and no din-dins for you!
Hahaha, ah this is sad. I just got mod points, and if I hadn't commented I would now be modding you up. Nyeh however, you miss the point. Its not the amount of assistance being given to Israel by the US (which by the way has increased dramatically since it started), its that the Israeli state is seen to be propped up by the US. And its not the amount of land either; if my country decided to seize 10 square miles of yours, that would be a perfectly reasonable excuse to declare war on my country. And to get back on topic, the US has done a great deal more to earn the hatred of Arabs than just supporting Israel; that was just the most obvious example. How obvious? Take a look at your map again...
I mean seriously. First off, Europe is not a country, its a collection of sovereign states, with very different attitudes towards different aspects of their policy. It is worth noting that after 9/11, the US had more support, sympathy, and respect from Europe and most other countries in the world than ever before. The current leadership systematically squandered that in a breathtaking display of arrogance (which, by the way, is inextricably linked to ignorance) and militarism. I mean to take that much goodwill and turn it into the barely veiled contempt largely prevalent today takes some doing.
The Europeans hate us because we had the nerve to get up and leave the oppressive regimes running the joint.
France is in Europe, genius, and that was one of the nations that actively helped the United States of America against the British, sending armies and weapons to assist.
The Arabs hate us because they believe they're supposed to be running the world
The arabs hate you, slick, because you took a large part of their land and turned it into a refuge for Israel. This was largely sponsored by the religious right in US politics who actually want to bring about the apocalypse, and that can't happen until the jews are back in zion.
The Africans hate us because of slavery
Most Africans (thats a continent by the way, not a country, we call it gee-ogg-raffy) couldn't care less about America. They have enough troubles of their own.
The Japanese hate us because they thought they were supposed to be running the world by now.
The Japanese hate everyone, don't feel particularily special in that. Why do you think they spend so much time and money working on robotics? They want to replace all the migrant workers currently doing menial work in Japan with robots. Not that I'm saying thats wrong or right, thats just how their culture works.
So fine, let's just go ahead and do it.
Two points for you here, Einstein, invading a country and holding a country are two entirely different things, as you are slowly working out in Iraq. And the second point makes the first point moot, which is of course that other mations besides America have nucular weapons. Work with me here. Even assuming that a country has 10 nukes capable of hitting the US, which 10 cities would you like to permanently kiss goodbye to? And they will not launch unless they have been launched at first, so there would be an immediate exchange of nuclear weapons from everyone who has them. And then the sun goes down on the states for the last time... getting the picture?
In a century or so, the Chinese might be calling the shots worldwide
The Chinese are too terrified of having their own country fly apart at the seams to ever think about worldwide conquests.
It seems the world loves to call us when something dangerous or dirty needs to be done
Okay lets just deal with this whole rabid tirade. First of all, if the US hadn't gotten involved in WWII, they would have faced either a cosy little alliance between Hitler, Stalin and the Japanese stretching from Cornwall to Australia, or they would have been facing just Stalin. So, rather than face that kind of power (against which the US would ultimately lose), they got involved to save their own hides. Do us a favour and don't come over all altruistic now, the martyred heroes. The EU already exceeds the US in industrial power, wealth, and population. Imagine that under a dictator like Hitler...
but we're a damned sight better than anything else that's come into being on this blue and green ball.
Correction, you were better. Now you are shaping up to be worse. If the infiltration of the religious right into US politics is not stopped by the American people, you had better believe other countries will step in and stop it. What was the price for a congressman again?
Remind me again why I'm supposed to give a damn whether or not the world likes us?
You can give a damn or not as it suits you. The American people as a whole, however, had better start giving a damn.
Are you suggesting that the US can just not pay it back and not have it affect the US economy?
Actually thats exactly what I am saying. Not only have certain Chinese products been under trade restrictions for the last thirty years (like clothing for example), but the yuan is artificially fixed at one single price by the Chinese government. Not paying it back is equivalent to the re-introduction of those trade restrictions, which will probably happen anyway.
The US is not immune to the kind credit problems that causes mass economic and currency flux to bounce around between Asia, Russia, Mexico, etc
The US may not be immune, but it is very much more resistant to such economic ripple efects than any of the third world countries you mentioned, in particular because the yuan is fixed. And how much do you think China is dependant upon the US repaying these loans? Remember, if the loans aren't repaid, thats money they don't have anymore.
Slashdot Mirror
That kinda reminds me of the simpsons episode where they showed a clip from the first atomic bomb tests, this soldier giving a gung-ho thumbs up as his teeth fall out... heheh... eh no seriously I hope he doesn't die.
I for one am well and truly sick of the shenanigans being pulled by these media conglomerates. They need to be replaced, and rapid. So lets look at the root causes of the problem.
1. People like music.
2. Musicians make music.
3. People will never hear the music unless its advertised to them; they just won't know it exists. Enter your friendly neighbourhood media conglomerate, with all the fun that entails.
Solutions:
1. Music is just information, a stream of bits and bytes. And here we have a whole industry called information technology.
2. The production of music can be done relatively cheaply, especially by applying modern technology.
3. Distribution and advertising, well well, looky here, an internet. Who put that there? And no I'm not talking about itunes.
4. Profit, and the vanishing of the media conglomerates and their tired, wretched little business model.
I mean come on, with all the big brains around here, surely it is possible to come up with a decent technological response to these vermin... the only thing lacking at this point is a concerted effort at marketing the stuff, and poof, no more MTV. Whatever restrictive contracts current artists have signed with said media groups is there own problem; there are always more artists. If ever there was a place google could shine, its right here.
George Bush and the reps scream freedom from the tops of their lungs while at the same time strip more and more freedoms away from their own people.
The best place to hide a knife is behind a smile... or to put is another way, we have never been at war with Eurasia...
We have always been at war with Eurasia.
I found this lovely old notebook from the 1920's, tall, wide and deep, with yellowed pages, embossed wood-backed smoky leather finish, and ruled. I was looking for something great to do with it, something really special, and then it hit me: use it as a hardcopy for all of my usernames and passwords. Losing this would be sacrelige, and thats even without the content. So wherever you store your passwords, make it somewhere that you would hate to lose even if you didn't store valuable information in it.
First of all, Google's stock is overvalued. Second of all, their ubiquitous control of the search engine market is not a good thing. Why?
Okay, here's how it goes, the majority of searches on the internet are done via google, therefore there is a massive incentive to comply with whatever google comes up with next, for anyone that ever wants their site to be seen. This is called leveraging a strong market position, and could border on a monopoly style abuse.
And just like MS, there will never be any public outcry, because the viewing public neither knows nor cares. All any web designer can do is dance to whatever tune google plays, just like they still have to dance to the tunes that IE plays. Mmmkay?
Also the quality of their search results seems to be reduced lately. Whether thats because of the massive effort by webmasters to "game the system" or because they are losing focus on their core strength remains to be seen. I dunno, Google is like a clown, many coloured and jolly, but it still gives me the creeps.
Blah blah blah...
Funny, I just got this very story in a newsletter from webpronews... you've been dropping this anywhere you could, haven't you? Nyeh whatever, for what its worth, google for me is like a clown, many coloured and jolly, but it gives me the creeps...
The point being that web site admins won't have any choice but to implement this system. This is not a good thing.
So long as everyone can freely and voluntarily use internet explorer without having to pay anything, how is this a bad thing?
Okay, here's how it goes, the majority of searches on the internet are done via google, therefore there is a massive incentive to comply with whatever google comes up with next, for anyone that ever wants their site to be seen. This is called leveraging a strong market position, and could border on a monopoly style abuse. And just like MS, there will never be any public outcry, because the viewing public neither knows nor cares. All any web designer can do is dance to whatever tune google plays, just like they still have to dance to the tunes that IE plays. Mmmkay?
For what its worth, I don't see how this system is effectively any better than what already exists; I mean, google already uses pagerank algorithms within sites, the number of links to and from a page define its importance, and the revisit-after tag does similar, although it is deprecated.
Whew, thats a relief... I guess we'd better show the judge the manual so, he can tell Apple to keep their money, and he should apologise for having made such a blindingly obvious error in judgement.
Heheheh.
Hey maybe you could apply to be legal counsel for apple next time, I'm sure you could convince the judge in a court of law you are right.
Heheh.
There's ridiculous amounts of money to be made in space
Indeed there is, from the wealth of scientific benefits and knowledge, to mineral and energy resources, essentially limited only by our imagination, to new frontiers and worlds to colonise and grow food crops in.
The question is, have we got the technology to take advantage of whats out there? Many people are waving the space flag and repeating the moon and mars like a mantra, but honestly, we need to really develop the supporting industries before we go building the rocketships to get us up there.
For example, robots are going to be essential to expanding and capitalising on space for the forseeable future. They are able to function in environments which are extremely hostile to people, do not require food, water, or a comfortable gravity index or environmental support, and with the nuclear batteries mentioned some time ago on slashdot, can function for years or decades without resupply, except for parts. Also they can be mass produced, where the economics of scale come into play.
So what we do is we build remotes or semi autonomous drones to go forth and prospect, scout far off locations, dig, refine, and process ores, and build the habitats we need to survive, even setting up full manufacturing plants there, drawing power from readily available sources such as the sun or naturally occuring radioactives, all on a very manageable budget.
Robotics are only one industry that needs to be developed further before we step off this rock, so lets focus on getting them up to speed before we launch ourselves into the great unknown... Also these technologies will have significant knock-on effects here on earth in the interim. Space isn't profitable yet? If you want private groups to go to space, make the supporting industries profitable first!
The reason mobile phones will never overtake or even come close replacing computers is pretty simple... my eyesight is damaged enough from 21" CRT displays, I don't need to be peering myopically at a little 3" screen. And carpal tunnel syndrome will be the least of your worries if you have to type out most of your everyday work on a thumb pad...
it was quite vaulable because it was so hard to purify
I believe the queen of England has various pieces of aluminium jewelery in the crown jewels...
Argh, do I even need to talk about the futility of publicly posting the authors of DDOS attacks on a website? This calls for good ol' vigilante justice. When the law doesn't suffice to cover your needs, or hasn't gotten that far in terms of enforcement, you need to take it into your own hands. Yes yes, I know all the arguments against that, but they all fall flat; the law is unwilling or unable to help where you have a legitimate greivance, therefore you become the law.
There should be an agency or group to mess these people up, not cause actual physical harm, but play with their tiny minds. Hire a private detective to ferret out their most personal details and bring them to the attention of local law enforcement and media. Hire a male escort to get their girlfriends drunk and give them syphillis. Disconnect their phones, steal their identities and use them to open bank accounts, then post these up on warez sites. Get creative, people, think like Sherriff Lucas Buck in American Gothic. When the law fails, you may not have the right to take it upon yourself to take revenge, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't.
This massive campaign towards securing and extending the definition of intellectual property in the US appears to be, ironically, the nation's response to globalisation and the China price (a term used to describe the price of goods and services in China, usually meaning the lowest possible price). By creating extremely powerful IP laws and then extending that to the third world countries producing lower cost products, tying it in with other treaties (no aid unless you accept our IP laws and enforce them, we'll also loosen up our immigration policies towards you too :D).
This way those in "control" of ideas and concepts can continue to milk them while maintaining control over these third world countries, who can afford low cost mass production, but will not then be allowed to build on the knowledge they have, due to it being restricted by IP laws. And so, the USA manages to effortlessly keep its technological lead over these countries, who might otherwise swiftly overtake it in technical ability and production capacity.
Not to be alarmist, but these marketing drones and legal eagles are leading us into a new dark age, where knowledge itself is restricted to a select few, a tyranny of DRM. That the concept is difficult to grasp by the masses is not going to make the penalties for infringement any less harsh. Sadly this problem is not self correcting, nor do I see any immediate method to stop or slow it, short of a massive reduction in the influence of the USA in international relations or a complete reversal of policy by the adminisration there.
Actually this is justice. The essence of the law is that its a system of taking revenge for wrongs done to you, but revenge taken in a controlled, organised fashion, and not excessive based on the crime. This is how the concept of law was originally formed, way back in Babylon; it was intended to stop feuds and duels in the streets. If the law and its enforcement fails in a given situation, it is only natural for people to revert back to how it was originally, taking revenge for themselves. Also, if you are running a legitimate site, and you get hacked, you have the full weight of the law to call upon. Phishers do not.
I am wholly in support of these people.
While we're at it, we can rename this service to "Vitual America", not "Virtual Earth"! Just think of all the hassle and trouble that will be saved for Americans trying to find out which state China is in!
I think our focus now should be on ancillary or supporting industries which are currently profitable rather than on just leaping headlong back to the moon. For example robotics, which could make good use of the tritium power nuclear batteries recently mentioned on slashdot, could make space expansion and exploration far cheaper and easier, or rather the utilisation of resources available there to pave the way for actual people to start colonisation.
Lets work on sub orbital jet flights to cut down flight times from 24 hours from Europe to Australia to 3 hours; I know plenty of people that would happily pay extra for that convenience. As a side effect, we will be enhancing rocket technology and our understanding of the dynamics of objects in that medium. We need to lay down a lot of groundwork in a focused effort before we can seriously look at colonising space.
Focus, focus, try not to lose sight of what was said in a fit of self righteousness. Although I hold out little hope at this stage. Still here goes, to sum it up: Arabs and so on don't give a rats ass about the facts, they SEE the US as being responsible. And these days (since the days of the creation of Israel are long gone, focus, focus), the US is largely responsible. And tell me, if the land was legitimately acquired, whats all the fuss about the gaza strip, and the forced relocation of Palestinians? And why is the UN routinely condemning Israeli actions? Perhaps you should write to them outlining your points, rather than trolling slashdot. Since you are so completely correct, I am sure they will immediately reverse all their comdemnations and embrace the state of Israel in its entirety.
And who is trying to appease arabs? Last time I checked, the dust still hasn't settled after the invasion of Iraq. Ah forget it, I really have to break this habit of feeding trolls...
I agree, and I propose a further acronym to cover a multitude... a Certain Unnamed Monolithic SOftware Corporation, Or CUMSOCk.
Just a thought.
No shit, Mr. Obvious
Oooh, good, I bet that went down well at the playground. You must have been the baddest, toughest boy there. Mummy will be sooo proud! Not to stoop to ad-hominens here mush, but I mean seriously.
But when we said "this shall not stand, we're going to root out these nests of terrorists so they can't threaten us or anyone else," everyone cried out in dismay
Especially the Iraqis who had nothing to do with the attack! Oh my, what a cry of dismay was heard from them. Luckily the sound of the bombs drowned it out.
Face it, those who hate our current foreign policy hate it because either blah blah bush is god blah blah i will have his love child blah blah Chamberlain.
Enough said...
It's all the fault of the Jews! You'd make old uncle Adolf so proud
Actually as far as the Arabs are concerned, it is about the Jews. You have an uncle called Adolf?
So why aren't you whining about the injustice of this?
Because I couldn't give a rats arse what the Japanese think of me or my culture. The difference here, you see, is that the Japanese aren't going around invading sovereign states that they had earlier set up.
Bzzzt! Wrong! blah blah blah my country is the best drilled into my head since birth blah blah I take the bits of history I like and leave the rest blah blah blah Don't you have an atheism conference to attend somewhere?
Sigh... why do I bother? I mean seriously, the writing isn't just on the wall any more, baby, its tatooed on your low sloping forehead. The religious fundamentalists will not be allowed to creep any further into the politics of a nuclear power, and they will be scourged from the bodies social and politic.
And precisely how would everyone else "step in and stop it"?
Oh we'd (or will) set up a corporation and buy your politicians. All of them. Eh try and stop us. Oh and no war is required, just all the money that has been saved by not going around invading people. Funny how it all adds up ha? I think I'll buy Kansas today. I mean, when in Rome...
Hope you kept the receipt.
Eh yes, the ones I got from all of the politicians.
Is someone going to come and knock us off our pedestal?
Yes.
If there's going to be a challenge to our superpower supremacy
Who would want to challenge your supremacy in military matters? We'll just buy your leaders instead. That way we can use your military to our heart's content, and have teh amerrikun taxpayar pay for it. I mean, thats the American way, isn't it? In fact I'm surprised it hasn't already happened... Nyeh anyway, you ghastly little man, I'll wrap this up with a paraphrase from another poster in this thread: Never argue with an idiot, they'll try to drag you down to their level and beat you there. And I know I shouldn't be feeding the trolls, but you looked so thin and hungry... Ah well I'll be tougher next time, it'll be the newspaper on the nose, and no din-dins for you!
Hahaha, ah this is sad. I just got mod points, and if I hadn't commented I would now be modding you up. Nyeh however, you miss the point. Its not the amount of assistance being given to Israel by the US (which by the way has increased dramatically since it started), its that the Israeli state is seen to be propped up by the US. And its not the amount of land either; if my country decided to seize 10 square miles of yours, that would be a perfectly reasonable excuse to declare war on my country. And to get back on topic, the US has done a great deal more to earn the hatred of Arabs than just supporting Israel; that was just the most obvious example. How obvious? Take a look at your map again...
I mean seriously. First off, Europe is not a country, its a collection of sovereign states, with very different attitudes towards different aspects of their policy. It is worth noting that after 9/11, the US had more support, sympathy, and respect from Europe and most other countries in the world than ever before. The current leadership systematically squandered that in a breathtaking display of arrogance (which, by the way, is inextricably linked to ignorance) and militarism. I mean to take that much goodwill and turn it into the barely veiled contempt largely prevalent today takes some doing.
The Europeans hate us because we had the nerve to get up and leave the oppressive regimes running the joint.
France is in Europe, genius, and that was one of the nations that actively helped the United States of America against the British, sending armies and weapons to assist.
The Arabs hate us because they believe they're supposed to be running the world
The arabs hate you, slick, because you took a large part of their land and turned it into a refuge for Israel. This was largely sponsored by the religious right in US politics who actually want to bring about the apocalypse, and that can't happen until the jews are back in zion.
The Africans hate us because of slavery
Most Africans (thats a continent by the way, not a country, we call it gee-ogg-raffy) couldn't care less about America. They have enough troubles of their own.
The Japanese hate us because they thought they were supposed to be running the world by now.
The Japanese hate everyone, don't feel particularily special in that. Why do you think they spend so much time and money working on robotics? They want to replace all the migrant workers currently doing menial work in Japan with robots. Not that I'm saying thats wrong or right, thats just how their culture works.
So fine, let's just go ahead and do it.
Two points for you here, Einstein, invading a country and holding a country are two entirely different things, as you are slowly working out in Iraq. And the second point makes the first point moot, which is of course that other mations besides America have nucular weapons. Work with me here. Even assuming that a country has 10 nukes capable of hitting the US, which 10 cities would you like to permanently kiss goodbye to? And they will not launch unless they have been launched at first, so there would be an immediate exchange of nuclear weapons from everyone who has them. And then the sun goes down on the states for the last time... getting the picture?
In a century or so, the Chinese might be calling the shots worldwide
The Chinese are too terrified of having their own country fly apart at the seams to ever think about worldwide conquests.
It seems the world loves to call us when something dangerous or dirty needs to be done
Okay lets just deal with this whole rabid tirade. First of all, if the US hadn't gotten involved in WWII, they would have faced either a cosy little alliance between Hitler, Stalin and the Japanese stretching from Cornwall to Australia, or they would have been facing just Stalin. So, rather than face that kind of power (against which the US would ultimately lose), they got involved to save their own hides. Do us a favour and don't come over all altruistic now, the martyred heroes. The EU already exceeds the US in industrial power, wealth, and population. Imagine that under a dictator like Hitler...
but we're a damned sight better than anything else that's come into being on this blue and green ball.
Correction, you were better. Now you are shaping up to be worse. If the infiltration of the religious right into US politics is not stopped by the American people, you had better believe other countries will step in and stop it. What was the price for a congressman again?
Remind me again why I'm supposed to give a damn whether or not the world likes us?
You can give a damn or not as it suits you. The American people as a whole, however, had better start giving a damn.
Are you suggesting that the US can just not pay it back and not have it affect the US economy?
Actually thats exactly what I am saying. Not only have certain Chinese products been under trade restrictions for the last thirty years (like clothing for example), but the yuan is artificially fixed at one single price by the Chinese government. Not paying it back is equivalent to the re-introduction of those trade restrictions, which will probably happen anyway.
The US is not immune to the kind credit problems that causes mass economic and currency flux to bounce around between Asia, Russia, Mexico, etc
The US may not be immune, but it is very much more resistant to such economic ripple efects than any of the third world countries you mentioned, in particular because the yuan is fixed. And how much do you think China is dependant upon the US repaying these loans? Remember, if the loans aren't repaid, thats money they don't have anymore.