As Israeli lawmaking goes, even if this passes all three votes necessary for it to become law, the Israeli Supreme Court can annull it retroactively if it is deemed to conflict with one of the "Foundation Laws" (Israel's substitute for a constitution). Given the aforementioned weakness of the current government, this isn't very likely to even pass the second vote('kriah').
As for the rest of the complexities of life here, the brunt of the workforce/people in the army are indeed an educated middle class that strive for a better, more peaceful future. I myself work on SQL development in a financial BI/OLAP setting while donating my yearly due to the armed forces. We do have our fair share of fundies and religious cooks (Just as Americans and Europeans have their own right wing fanatics) and they certainly have not made it easy for us to come to a settlement with our friendly neighborhood Palestinians.
Bear in mind that the aforementioned neighbors haven't exactly made it easy for us either - go and have a look at the complexities of the historic situation on Wikipedia. If on top of that you want to bring the National-Socialists, Antisemitism, Nietzsche and Judean/Christian history into the mix, go ahead, we won't hold it against you:).
I amicably disagree - do you imagine the kind of resources required to sustain 2000 people on the moon? I doubt that there will ever be enough for these kind of enterprises -
Myself, I see the following -
1. The space elevator can and will become a reality circa 2030 upwards. It will allow us to start harvesting space in a commercially meaningful matter.
2. Now that we have a space elevator, we will be able to ship into space a huge interferometer made up of a hundred or more telescopes, each about 10X the power of Hubble (2060). This will allow us to collect what amounts to single photons and provide more information than a thousand randomly launched deep-space probes ever will.
3. At this point I believe AI will be advanced enough to be sent on solo missions withour human interference - If we manage to construct a self - replicating probe able to travel at 0.1c (nuclear?) and launch about 100 of these into space, we could map out and explore a 5000 light year radius within about 500 years.
Of course unless some kind of ftl mechanism gets discovered...
I tend to disagree - the flu numbers you talk about are in all probability mostly composed of elderly citizens / chidren who are too frail to withstand flu, and it is only the trigger for a series of bodily systems shutting down, eventually resulting in death.
In fact, I think you are pooh-pooing this without properly looking at the significance of the attacks.
First, please remember that 3000 casualties is about the same as Pearl Harbor, and we all know the consequences of that event.
Second, even one were to agree that the casualty count is somehow digestible, the significance of these attacks is not in the number of people killed but in the significance of a massive successful attack on the worlds' top financial and military power center.
If you haven't realized it yet, the images of the planes crashing into WTC 1&2 will probably be remembered as the pivotal event of the 21st century. The attacks convey, at least to me, an image of a weak America, a lost America that is also losing its say in international politics, science, culture, etc.
The fact of the matter is that a few dozen crazies with turbans managed to do what Soviet Russia with all its might could only hope to achieve. The fact of the matter is that your highly touted security services failed miserably at basic risk assessment and intelligence gathering, your airforce failed miserably at mounting any kind of response and your president made a cowardly run to Airforce 1 and could not be seen or heard days after the attack.
Also one must not forget that people like to express their individuality with stuff (ipod toting masses notwithstanding) and an "all in one" really limits that.
Part of the cool factor of the component audio system is that you create your own sound with selection of components. So too you create a "style" with the selection of small dedicated gadgets you assemble.
This is what big media fails to see - the key issue is high bandwidth, high quality content.
Give us DRM free, DVD quality downloads which stream consistently at 350 KB per second and we'll be happy to pay 1-4$ per movie.
Oh you want more? Sorry chump, times have changed and your product has devaluated. You need to give me something which is easier and better than searching for a torrent, waiting for the download, taking the risk of a defective / low quality file etc.
It ain't rocket science.
You know, you could move to the first world, make 150,000$ a year and finance 5 idealistic self-made holier-than-thou econinjas such as yourself! But wait, then all of them could move to the first world and finance...
"You see the whole idea started with palestine and how american sponsored buldozing of palestinian neighborhoods came to light. But CNN, CBS etc don't cover it from that point of view. Instead of resolving conflict in israeli/palestinian conflict, we have escalated it, into entire region. Palestinians want their own houses not to be bulldozed, do you want your house to be buldozed by israeli? The original bombing of the twin towers, was executed by palestinian, that had an axe to grind with north american miliary industry supplying latest and greatest to grind up houses, people. People who have rocks and ak-47s to arm themselves."
So by this logic if my house is bulldozed by the municipal authorities I can go to the Caterpillar factory and blow it up, killing 300 people, because they were the evil guys supplying those coward civil servants with weapons. Not to mention the fact that none of the WTC bombers were Palestinians in the proper sense of the word.
Yes, the US supports Israel, and for very good reason. We are the only democratic country in the middle east, the only one with a GNP comparable to western countries, the only one which officially tolerates minorities such as homosexuals etc., and we actually have quite a developed weapons industry of our own, thank you (Remember the Uzi submachine gun?).
You think all this was built by us evil Israeli's exploiting the poor Arabs? Think again. The Arabs within Israel who were conquered before the 1967 war receive full health and social benefits, are free to go to any Israeli university they want to, work in any field, buy any piece of property and VOTE in the elections. They are free to go to Palestine/Arab countries and live out their lives there "freely" but somehow almost all of them find our that in comparison to the dictatorial/extremist regimes over there Israel isn't such a bad deal after all.
You ask what about the poor Palestinians in the occupied territories? Well they were offered very generous peace accords numerous times during the past 12 years (the first one only 6 years after the initial intifada) and proceeded to turn them down one after the other and send suicide bombers into our cities.
Quite frankly, after 16 years of this nonsense, many Israelis' counldn't give a fuck about some asshole's house being torn down, and so would you if that asshole was responsible for sending people out killing some of your friends and relatives.
We haven't exactly seen any Ghandi's coming out of the occupied territories and rallying for a stop to violence and a peaceful accord. Instead what we are getting is "kill all Jews; no mercy; Jihad to the very end" etc.
Nevertheless, Israel has pulled out of the Gaza strip, leaving about 70% of Palestinians free to do as they will and set up government in their elected fashion. Instead of the utopian dream that some neo-marxist intellectual wannabe's were foreseeing, they proceeded to elect a racist, patriarchichal, Islamist, dictatorial Hamas government, which FYI has a few pages from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as its founding principals.
From TFA - he has 'plegded' to donate several stock packages over a quite lengthy period of time, so 37 bil. is just an assessment based on current value. Now what this donation entails is not specified directly - does it mean that the entirety of the funds will be transferred or just the interest/profit made on them? unclear from TFA. Now Buffet is 75 right? IIRC there is quite a large tax on inheritance estates in the US, so why not set up these trust funds with the base fund itself leased for 20 years, refundable to Buffet or his heirs once the set time expires? Add to that the tax exemptions, prestige and political clout he gains by this and this starts looking a bit different than at first sight.
This however has puzzled scientists all over the world since global warming does not seem to be declining, despite all of these phonebooks upon phonebooks of pirates appearing everywhere.
1. This is basically "shutting off" the Internet. You Americans will be locked in one huge pay-per-view pen the day after this passes.
2. The second day after this passes and e.g. China will announce that they will uphold net neutrality no matter what, NYSE will drop 20%. Internet traffic starts flowing around the US.
3. After China sells off its huge stockpile of US currency it's sitting on, dollar collapses to 40% of its current value.
OK now imagine around 300 million (or more) of these little babies distributed around the globe, all happily playing, and most importantly sharing Mp3 files and movies which can be conveniently stored on any thumbdrive attached to them.
Where does that leave Vista and OSX initiatives to lock down media with DRM? In shambles.
Not to mention the fact that if these can create a network between them and the range is long enough, we could each buy one and network 'da hood'...no ISP's, no subpoenas, yep
So I guess this is how Bin Laden made all his money, selling burned dvd's of "rush hour 2" at the Kuwaiti main bazaar...
This is a low-brow, ignorant argument made by an ignoramus for an audience of compliant sheep. Quite frankly it taints the credibility of the American legislative system. Could you please tell me what is exactly going on in Congress? Too much Viagra? Too little connection with reality?
I understand your misgivings in this situation, but the fact remains that these restrictions (less than X recipients per e-mail sent) are already in place in most HTML based e-mail solutions as well as in traditional POP3 based ones (e.g the major ISP's over here have implemented a 'less than 50 policy' for customers).
So yes, it requires an additional software layer IF you have a POP3 account or something similar. However, HTML based e-mail solutions can implement this transparently to the users. Think of the opposite situation where individuals who installed this on their computers and happen to be on your distribution list will ask YOU to join in. We all know whitelisting sucks, but the twist here is that a single legit message will always get through.
"How would Israel feel if Taiwan were selling advanced weapons to Syria, Iran, or the Palestinians?)"
The same way we feel about Russia selling nuclear materials and equipment to the Iranians, i.e. pretty shitty, but there's not a lot we can do about it. BTW there was real public outcry against the army's attempt to pass this deal 'under the radar'. The USA is our closest ally and risking that relationship for a quick buch is unwise.
However, I might like to remind you that armor peircing rocket launchers sold to the UAE by Switzerland mysteriously found their way to warzones in the occupied territories and lebanon, not to mention massive funding of certain groups whose agenda makes Jonathan Polard look pretty harmless.
Sorry, I'm not buying this "Mohammed is a father figure and offending him is like offending my father" argument. I can recall a same kind of argument made 2500 years ago, against a guy called Socrates, for "making fun of the Gods". He got sentenced to death but thankfully some nations have since been established on the principles he fought for and others followed.
This is no different than the Catholic church putting Galileo, a devout believer, on trial for claiming the Earth orbited the sun, because it went against the scriptures.
The 'offense' you are talking about is purely in your mind. Yes, it upsets you to hear bad things said about your prophet, but hey, there are such things as other people, which hold *gasp* other opinions, and it is entirely not acceptable to damage their persons or belongings because of this. I think it was John Stewart Mill who first formed the argument that the damage done to you by allowing the voicing of all manner of opinions is infinitely smaller than the damage done by the silencing of these.If you are unable to accept this then you hold a radical dogmatic view, and the only dialogue that can be done with you is through the barrel of a gun, no exceptions whatsoever.
The concept of a secular framework for the building of political and social life has taken hundreds of years to develop in the west, and by no means am I saying that it is perfect, but it is much much better than any of the alternatives, and you can bet your behind that a majority of the citizens in countries such as these will, when pressed, stand up and fight against the disruption of this framework.
The predominantly Islamic countries are free to go on a 300 year hiatus if they need another twenty bloody revolutions for understanding this, but talk about a waste of life and time. Come join the party, annoy us with your religious crap and meet us all later at the pub for a drink. Oh I forgot, for a cappucino and cream.
Goes to show you that these guys are still stuck in the 19th century. Why is a book the paradigm for a 21st cen. information center? Just so that someone can stick a huge chunk of DRM hardware in a plastic box and call it content delivery?
I want my computers to never, ever again have to encounter removable media, with nearline terabyte sized storage and online content delivery. And yes, I'm willing to pay for it, just that once it's downloaded it should be registered under my name, like a car, and belong to me FOREVER so I can download it again whenever I want, at FULL Hi-Res quality, and play it where I want and to whomever I want.
was when Thun explained how the vehicle was taught to drive by following a human driver and adapting its algorithms according to his behavior, gaining much better results than "force feeding" massive amounts of data artificially.
This has immediate implications not only for robotic cars - what if we took a human and strapped some positional sensors, voice recording, etc. and made a humanoid robot follow him throughout the day?
I mean how varied are our lives after all? Given the right processing power and sensors, the results could be interesting...
Again, a great achievement for a 'bottom up' approach to artificial intelligence
Basically these new technologies are great tools, but the best results are often achieved from a combination of factors:
A. Humint (Human Intelligence) - enlisting agents from within suspected communities / social circles which report regularly to an operator. Cross examine reports to find similar leads. B Sigint - (Signal Intelligence) - preferrably start snooping around your humint source's leads. All IP's to and from the suspect, his family, friends internet cafe's in the area, internet searches, phone calls made from home and surrounding pay phones, mail dispatches made and delivered, local police reports, etc.
Terribly boring work which yields results for 1 out of 100.
Life expectancy in india seems to hover between 58-60 years. Only 4% of the population are over 60. Contrast with 77-84 years in the West or Japan.
In these kinds of conditions (trust me they are apalling in some places), it's really hard to decide what's better - Shitty conditions with experimental drugs or shitty conditions without.
You have to understand that this is not like some kind of peaceful community in Bavaria where people get to live till 90. People are dying there from Dyzentheria, Hepatitis B, Malaria, Leoprosy, and what have you not.
As India gets economically more powerful, It is likely that there will be a demand for regulating experimental drug testing and the Indians themselves will kick out the pharmaceuticals. Right now they're still having trouble setting up working sewer systems, a problem that the Romans had figured out about 2000 odd years ago..
Please bear in mind that any DRM-free gifts and paraphernalia will be reported to the authorities in accordance to the DMCA. This would be also be a good time for upgrading to Microsoft Office XP2008 Pro with new and improved text scanning and reporting to NSA (A subsidiary of Microsoft). Also, why not spend some time with the family this year and sort out all your Microsoft licensing conflicts? We hear little Timmy has been a naughty little boy and not read and agreed to all of his EULA's.
From your good pals at Santa C. Enterprises (A subsidiary of Microsoft), N.pole.
Slashdot Mirror
Mod parent up.
As Israeli lawmaking goes, even if this passes all three votes necessary for it to become law, the Israeli Supreme Court can annull it retroactively if it is deemed to conflict with one of the "Foundation Laws" (Israel's substitute for a constitution). Given the aforementioned weakness of the current government, this isn't very likely to even pass the second vote('kriah').
As for the rest of the complexities of life here, the brunt of the workforce/people in the army are indeed an educated middle class that strive for a better, more peaceful future. I myself work on SQL development in a financial BI/OLAP setting while donating my yearly due to the armed forces. We do have our fair share of fundies and religious cooks (Just as Americans and Europeans have their own right wing fanatics) and they certainly have not made it easy for us to come to a settlement with our friendly neighborhood Palestinians.
Bear in mind that the aforementioned neighbors haven't exactly made it easy for us either - go and have a look at the complexities of the historic situation on Wikipedia. If on top of that you want to bring the National-Socialists, Antisemitism, Nietzsche and Judean/Christian history into the mix, go ahead, we won't hold it against you :).
I amicably disagree - do you imagine the kind of resources required to sustain 2000 people on the moon? I doubt that there will ever be enough for these kind of enterprises -
Myself, I see the following -
1. The space elevator can and will become a reality circa 2030 upwards. It will allow us to start harvesting space in a commercially meaningful matter.
2. Now that we have a space elevator, we will be able to ship into space a huge interferometer made up of a hundred or more telescopes, each about 10X the power of Hubble (2060). This will allow us to collect what amounts to single photons and provide more information than a thousand randomly launched deep-space probes ever will.
3. At this point I believe AI will be advanced enough to be sent on solo missions withour human interference - If we manage to construct a self - replicating probe able to travel at 0.1c (nuclear?) and launch about 100 of these into space, we could map out and explore a 5000 light year radius within about 500 years.
Of course unless some kind of ftl mechanism gets discovered...
I tend to disagree - the flu numbers you talk about are in all probability mostly composed of elderly citizens / chidren who are too frail to withstand flu, and it is only the trigger for a series of bodily systems shutting down, eventually resulting in death.
In fact, I think you are pooh-pooing this without properly looking at the significance of the attacks.
First, please remember that 3000 casualties is about the same as Pearl Harbor, and we all know the consequences of that event.
Second, even one were to agree that the casualty count is somehow digestible, the significance of these attacks is not in the number of people killed but in the significance of a massive successful attack on the worlds' top financial and military power center.
If you haven't realized it yet, the images of the planes crashing into WTC 1&2 will probably be remembered as the pivotal event of the 21st century. The attacks convey, at least to me, an image of a weak America, a lost America that is also losing its say in international politics, science, culture, etc.
The fact of the matter is that a few dozen crazies with turbans managed to do what Soviet Russia with all its might could only hope to achieve. The fact of the matter is that your highly touted security services failed miserably at basic risk assessment and intelligence gathering, your airforce failed miserably at mounting any kind of response and your president made a cowardly run to Airforce 1 and could not be seen or heard days after the attack.
Also one must not forget that people like to express their individuality with stuff (ipod toting masses notwithstanding) and an "all in one" really limits that.
Part of the cool factor of the component audio system is that you create your own sound with selection of components. So too you create a "style" with the selection of small dedicated gadgets you assemble.
This is what big media fails to see - the key issue is high bandwidth, high quality content. Give us DRM free, DVD quality downloads which stream consistently at 350 KB per second and we'll be happy to pay 1-4$ per movie. Oh you want more? Sorry chump, times have changed and your product has devaluated. You need to give me something which is easier and better than searching for a torrent, waiting for the download, taking the risk of a defective / low quality file etc. It ain't rocket science.
You know, you could move to the first world, make 150,000$ a year and finance 5 idealistic self-made holier-than-thou econinjas such as yourself! But wait, then all of them could move to the first world and finance...
It never ends, does it?
"You see the whole idea started with palestine and how american sponsored buldozing of palestinian neighborhoods came to light. But CNN, CBS etc don't cover it from that point of view. Instead of resolving conflict in israeli/palestinian conflict, we have escalated it, into entire region. Palestinians want their own houses not to be bulldozed, do you want your house to be buldozed by israeli? The original bombing of the twin towers, was executed by palestinian, that had an axe to grind with north american miliary industry supplying latest and greatest to grind up houses, people. People who have rocks and ak-47s to arm themselves."
So by this logic if my house is bulldozed by the municipal authorities I can go to the Caterpillar factory and blow it up, killing 300 people, because they were the evil guys supplying those coward civil servants with weapons. Not to mention the fact that none of the WTC bombers were Palestinians in the proper sense of the word.
Yes, the US supports Israel, and for very good reason. We are the only democratic country in the middle east, the only one with a GNP comparable to western countries, the only one which officially tolerates minorities such as homosexuals etc., and we actually have quite a developed weapons industry of our own, thank you (Remember the Uzi submachine gun?).
You think all this was built by us evil Israeli's exploiting the poor Arabs? Think again. The Arabs within Israel who were conquered before the 1967 war receive full health and social benefits, are free to go to any Israeli university they want to, work in any field, buy any piece of property and VOTE in the elections. They are free to go to Palestine/Arab countries and live out their lives there "freely" but somehow almost all of them find our that in comparison to the dictatorial/extremist regimes over there Israel isn't such a bad deal after all.
You ask what about the poor Palestinians in the occupied territories? Well they were offered very generous peace accords numerous times during the past 12 years (the first one only 6 years after the initial intifada) and proceeded to turn them down one after the other and send suicide bombers into our cities.
Quite frankly, after 16 years of this nonsense, many Israelis' counldn't give a fuck about some asshole's house being torn down, and so would you if that asshole was responsible for sending people out killing some of your friends and relatives.
We haven't exactly seen any Ghandi's coming out of the occupied territories and rallying for a stop to violence and a peaceful accord. Instead what we are getting is "kill all Jews; no mercy; Jihad to the very end" etc.
Nevertheless, Israel has pulled out of the Gaza strip, leaving about 70% of Palestinians free to do as they will and set up government in their elected fashion. Instead of the utopian dream that some neo-marxist intellectual wannabe's were foreseeing, they proceeded to elect a racist, patriarchichal, Islamist, dictatorial Hamas government, which FYI has a few pages from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion as its founding principals.
From TFA - he has 'plegded' to donate several stock packages over a quite lengthy period of time, so 37 bil. is just an assessment based on current value.
Now what this donation entails is not specified directly - does it mean that the entirety of the funds will be transferred or just the interest/profit made on them? unclear from TFA.
Now Buffet is 75 right? IIRC there is quite a large tax on inheritance estates in the US, so why not set up these trust funds with the base fund itself leased for 20 years, refundable to Buffet or his heirs once the set time expires?
Add to that the tax exemptions, prestige and political clout he gains by this and this starts looking a bit different than at first sight.
This however has puzzled scientists all over the world since global warming does not seem to be declining, despite all of these phonebooks upon phonebooks of pirates appearing everywhere.
1. This is basically "shutting off" the Internet. You Americans will be locked in one huge pay-per-view pen the day after this passes.
2. The second day after this passes and e.g. China will announce that they will uphold net neutrality no matter what, NYSE will drop 20%. Internet traffic starts flowing around the US.
3. After China sells off its huge stockpile of US currency it's sitting on, dollar collapses to 40% of its current value.
4. Profit!? Dont think so.
OK now imagine around 300 million (or more) of these little babies distributed around the globe, all happily playing, and most importantly sharing Mp3 files and movies which can be conveniently stored on any thumbdrive attached to them.
Where does that leave Vista and OSX initiatives to lock down media with DRM? In shambles.
Not to mention the fact that if these can create a network between them and the range is long enough, we could each buy one and network 'da hood'...no ISP's, no subpoenas, yep
So I guess this is how Bin Laden made all his money, selling burned dvd's of "rush hour 2" at the Kuwaiti main bazaar...
This is a low-brow, ignorant argument made by an ignoramus for an audience of compliant sheep. Quite frankly it taints the credibility of the American legislative system. Could you please tell me what is exactly going on in Congress? Too much Viagra? Too little connection with reality?
I understand your misgivings in this situation, but the fact remains that these restrictions (less than X recipients per e-mail sent) are already in place in most HTML based e-mail solutions as well as in traditional POP3 based ones (e.g the major ISP's over here have implemented a 'less than 50 policy' for customers).
So yes, it requires an additional software layer IF you have a POP3 account or something similar. However, HTML based e-mail solutions can implement this transparently to the users. Think of the opposite situation where individuals who installed this on their computers and happen to be on your distribution list will ask YOU to join in. We all know whitelisting sucks, but the twist here is that a single legit message will always get through.
"How would Israel feel if Taiwan were selling advanced weapons to Syria, Iran, or the Palestinians?)"
The same way we feel about Russia selling nuclear materials and equipment to the Iranians, i.e. pretty shitty, but there's not a lot we can do about it.
BTW there was real public outcry against the army's attempt to pass this deal 'under the radar'. The USA is our closest ally and risking that relationship for a quick buch is unwise.
However, I might like to remind you that armor peircing rocket launchers sold to the UAE by Switzerland mysteriously found their way to warzones in the occupied territories and lebanon, not to mention massive funding of certain groups whose agenda makes Jonathan Polard look pretty harmless.
Sorry I meant to reply to the parent...
Sorry, I'm not buying this "Mohammed is a father figure and offending him is like offending my father" argument.
I can recall a same kind of argument made 2500 years ago, against a guy called Socrates, for "making fun of the Gods". He got sentenced to death but thankfully some nations have since been established on the principles he fought for and others followed.
This is no different than the Catholic church putting Galileo, a devout believer, on trial for claiming the Earth orbited the sun, because it went against the scriptures.
The 'offense' you are talking about is purely in your mind. Yes, it upsets you to hear bad things said about your prophet, but hey, there are such things as other people, which hold *gasp* other opinions, and it is entirely not acceptable to damage their persons or belongings because of this. I think it was John Stewart Mill who first formed the argument that the damage done to you by allowing the voicing of all manner of opinions is infinitely smaller than the damage done by the silencing of these.If you are unable to accept this then you hold a radical dogmatic view, and the only dialogue that can be done with you is through the barrel of a gun, no exceptions whatsoever.
The concept of a secular framework for the building of political and social life has taken hundreds of years to develop in the west, and by no means am I saying that it is perfect, but it is much much better than any of the alternatives, and you can bet your behind that a majority of the citizens in countries such as these will, when pressed, stand up and fight against the disruption of this framework.
The predominantly Islamic countries are free to go on a 300 year hiatus if they need another twenty bloody revolutions for understanding this, but talk about a waste of life and time. Come join the party, annoy us with your religious crap and meet us all later at the pub for a drink. Oh I forgot, for a cappucino and cream.
I see you have received some bad corporate news..
Would you like to throw a piece of furniture?
1. Chair
2. Sofa
3. 18th Century French Armoir
You assume that this sort of thing hasn't been going on for many years now.
This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "talk to the hand"
Goes to show you that these guys are still stuck in the 19th century.
Why is a book the paradigm for a 21st cen. information center?
Just so that someone can stick a huge chunk of DRM hardware in a plastic box and call it content delivery?
I want my computers to never, ever again have to encounter removable media, with nearline terabyte sized storage and online content delivery. And yes, I'm willing to pay for it, just that once it's downloaded
it should be registered under my name, like a car, and belong to me FOREVER so I can download it again whenever I want, at FULL Hi-Res quality, and play it where I want and to whomever I want.
was when Thun explained how the vehicle was taught to drive by following a human driver and adapting its algorithms according to his behavior, gaining much better results than "force feeding" massive amounts of data artificially.
This has immediate implications not only for robotic cars - what if we took a human and strapped some positional sensors, voice recording, etc. and made a humanoid robot follow him throughout the day?
I mean how varied are our lives after all? Given the right processing power and sensors, the results could be interesting...
Again, a great achievement for a 'bottom up' approach to artificial intelligence
Basically these new technologies are great tools, but the best results are often achieved from a combination of factors:
A. Humint (Human Intelligence) - enlisting agents from within suspected communities / social circles which report regularly to an operator. Cross examine reports to find similar leads.
B Sigint - (Signal Intelligence) - preferrably start snooping around your humint source's leads. All IP's to and from the suspect, his family, friends internet cafe's in the area, internet searches, phone calls made from home and surrounding pay phones, mail dispatches made and delivered, local police reports, etc.
Terribly boring work which yields results for 1 out of 100.
Life expectancy in india seems to hover between 58-60 years. Only 4% of the population are over 60.
Contrast with 77-84 years in the West or Japan.
In these kinds of conditions (trust me they are apalling in some places), it's really hard to decide what's better - Shitty conditions with experimental drugs or shitty conditions without.
You have to understand that this is not like some kind of peaceful community in Bavaria where people get to live till 90. People are dying there from Dyzentheria, Hepatitis B, Malaria, Leoprosy, and what have you not.
As India gets economically more powerful, It is likely that there will be a demand for regulating experimental drug testing and the Indians themselves will kick out the pharmaceuticals. Right now they're still having trouble setting up working sewer systems, a problem that the Romans had figured out about 2000 odd years ago..
You appear to be decorating a christmas tree,
Please bear in mind that any DRM-free gifts and paraphernalia will be reported to the authorities in accordance to the DMCA.
This would be also be a good time for upgrading to Microsoft Office XP2008 Pro with new and improved text scanning and reporting to NSA (A subsidiary of Microsoft).
Also, why not spend some time with the family this year and sort out all your Microsoft licensing conflicts? We hear little Timmy has been a naughty little boy and not read and agreed to all of his EULA's.
From your good pals at Santa C. Enterprises (A subsidiary of Microsoft), N.pole.
Well I guess it suks to be Dr.Whang right now.