Diabetes is something you're never cured from. No matter what such and such a diet might say, it may greatly improve things, but the diabetes is still there. Fasting blood sugar over 126 is a sign that something is up. Starting lifestyle changes and/or beginning treatment early on helps slow down the progression, and avoids later complications. In this case it actually reduces the number of patients with severe complications...
It's not a case of declaring people diabetic who aren't really. It's a case of getting it under control before it progresses too much. Because if you hit 130, without at least diet changes, the diabetes is most definitely going to get worse.
Obviously you've never actually used Avast. You've always had to register for the free version, and renew the regsitration once a year. They're giving it away for free, I honestly don't see registering as a big deal.
And the new version is actually a lot better, it finally detects rootkits... If you're looking for something that actually does its job and yet doesn't take up any space or processing power, I doubt you'll find anything...
If you're gonna pay for your operating system, and then complain about free antiviruses, you might want to consider changing to linux...
Okay, they compare them by how much land/energy it takes to produce the food/fuel. I would be interested how they came upon their figures for fossil fuels. But my main concern is that they never mention emissions. The main concern with cars isn't so much how much fuel they use, but how much pollution they put out... Also, it seems they didn't factor in producing the vehicles, which also uses a lot of energy and puts out a lot of pollution. Factor those in and I'm sure pets will turn out much cleaner by orders of magnitude... Oh, and did I mention pets are "biodegradable", unlike cars ?
Actually, you're wrong. DSL in the USA is apparently crappy, but it's the ISPs that are at fault, not the technology. In France, with a 20Mbps/1Mbps (down/up) triple play access for 30/month, I have at very most 40ms ping time to any server in the country, more often around 20ms. However, over here, it's the cable access that's crappy.
DSL is a perfectly decent technology. Not always reliable as it depends on the line length, and quality of the wiring, but the ISPs here have made serious progress on those issues, and I've seen people with 6-7km long lines still able to get several Mbps - enough for IPTV (ie: the equivalent to cable TV). So it's actually very few people who have major problems due to the technology itself (of course, there are the usual mess ups like with any other technology).
I just thought I'd point out that.com,.org and.net are far from being US specific. In fact it's very common for non-english speaking websites to use those tlds.That and a lot of the top sites are multinationals that use their main tld to also host all their websites for the different countries they do business in.
Factor in microsoft's pc domination and suddenly it becomes obvious that MS products and services are bound to appear at the top. Oh, and of course english being the main language for international exchanges, that just screws things a bit more.
Unless the.us becomes pretty much mandatory for american sites and.com is reserved for multinationals that aren't counted in any particular country, the figures given don't mean squat...
No, not outlawing filming violence. It's a specific type of crime that you can't film, it's physical attacks on a person, basically beating someone up. And it's perfectly legal to film and publish if you're a journalist or if it's for legal evidence. So basically it's just illegal to film someone beating someone else up if your only going to ridicule them on YouTube.
Whereas I agree specific cases can be open to interpretation, the law is *very* different from what the english speaking web is making of it. Try reading it (look at my previous comments for a translation of the law itself...)
Oh, I never denied any of those facts. But legally speaking, Sarkozy doesn't have the power to do that, and a cop can't do anything about you filming him beating the crap out of someone. Legally speaking. Of course, political and/or psychological pressure can make things happen otherwise, but basically it's not *legal*. Actually, I got to deal with media censorship in 2004 when my university started off an (almost) national movement and we couldn't get the media to talk about it... France 3 journalists even admitted to us that they were being pressured by Raffarin (prime minister at the time), because it looked bad for him, as the university leading the movement (that is to say us) was his home town...
Most people (at least around here) are perfectly aware of Sarkozy's censorship and abuse of power, I have to ask myself if he isn't also controling the poll surveys too...
Wow, I hadn't seen so much BS in a while. Read the law, this has nothing to do with riots. It specifically states personal attacks, not riots, and certainly not just the broad term "violence".
I also love how you seem to only see pure communism or pure capitalism. You sound like a true patriot. (I find it amazing how the american "patriotism" reminds me of communism actually...) You can be left wing, without being communist (who are the *extreme* left wing). There's a reason why socialism and communism have two different names...
How is this comment insightful? Read the law, I posted it a bit further down, translated into english. It specifically states that you can film violence to serve as evidence...
Art. 222-43-2. - Est constitutif d'un acte de complicité des atteintes volontaires à l'intégrité de la personne prévues par les articles 222-1 à 222-14-1 et 222-23 à 222-31 et est puni des peines prévues par ces articles le fait d'enregistrer sciemment par quelque moyen que ce soit, sur tout support que ce soit, des images relatives à la commission de ces infractions.
Le fait de diffuser l'enregistrement de telles images est puni de cinq ans d'emprisonnement et 75 000 d'amende.
Le présent article n'est pas applicable lorsque l'enregistrement ou la diffusion résulte de l'exercice normal d'une profession ayant pour objet d'informer le public ou est réalisé afin de servir de preuve en justice. ""
This translates to (there are no doubt a few approximations in the terms, I'm no lawyer, but the translation is otherwise valid): " Is considered an accomplice act to voluntary assault of a person's integrity as specified in articles 222-1 to 222-14-1 and 222-23 to 222-31, and is punished with the sentences specified in these articles, the act of knowingly recording, using any means, under any format, images relating to comitting these offenses.
The act of publishing recordings of such images is punished by five years imprisonment and a 75,000 fine.
The present article does not apply when the recording or publishing is a result of the normal activity of a profession which invovles informing the public or is done to serve as proof in court."
So filming your local police officers beating people up remains legal, as it can be used as proof in court. Filming any scene of violence where you're not an accomplice remains legal, as it can always be used in court... I'm not saying this law is good. It's just far from what the english web seems to be making it out to be.
Oh, and for all the WWII comments before... Why don't you find a real reason for hating the french? Even better yet, why don't you make your OWN opinion on the french? Generally, if you have a bad time with the french, you probably only have yourself to blame (or a run of bad luck, like any nation, the french have morons too...). French bashing just for the sake of it is *so* last season;o)
May I point out that until very recently, the French Front National had an office in SL... It may not be something the French are proud of, but well, Le Pen was there first...
As a cognitive psychology student (I'm doing my thesis, I'm not in first year;-), I can certify that this is complete and utter fud.
We're able to predict (with a 5% chance of error, as everyone who's studied statistics knows), a whole range of things, from your reaction times, to the opinions you're likely to give, and all sorts of things. And now we're making a do about a single person with a brain tumour? Yes, a lot of things you don't choose, you do them because you're human, or because you're ill, or whatever. But that doesn't change free will. It's like saying you've no free will because you can't quack...
will give you a basic description of the main problems: it acts as a trigger for various ailments, it reduces your general resistance to a) illness and b) temperature, it's brought about various new diseases. And for a lot of migraine sufferers (and I'm one of them), it acts as a trigger for migraine. Quite honestly, anything that can trigger people's arthritis, sinus problems or migraine should be used as little as possible, because it's obviously doing something other than just cooling the air...
Erm, if you're going to talk about a country, try learning the name of the country, it's France, not Paris... Most of the old poeple who died didn't live in Paris... The only reason this happened in France and not anywhere near as much in other countries is because either the heatwave didn't hit them as hard (take England or any of the northern-ish European countries as an example), or because the others are used to extremely hot summers (take Spain for example) and are used to handling extreme heat. Add to that the fact that France is still going through its rural exodus phase, the younger generations are still massively leaving the countryside, so there's nobody left to care for the old people left behind. Now, as to why the government didn't react straight away ? They did, as soon as people realised what was happening, but by then it was too late, as this also showed a communications problem within our healthcare system. But the government has since given quite a bit of money to retirement homes and the like to get them equipped with air conditioning (even if we're usually against the idea of air conditioning, as it wastes electricity and is pretty unhealthy).
However, after saying all that, I just thought I also ought to point out that the mortality rate for the entire year wasn't any higher than it should have been without the heatwave. This means that the old people who died were all at the end of their life and thus extremely fragile anyway. As ghastly as that might sound, it simply means that the heatwave didn't go around killing off all the healthy old people, these people were already very ill...
Erm, but could you tell me what the two tiered healthcare system is? It certainly isn't anything that exists in France... I guess you're referring to Britain... Not only it Britain the most "americaniZed" country in Europe, but it's still a damn sight better than the US system...
Now lets talk about the "Mulsims" burning cars... I doubt that many of them were actually muslims, and quite a few of them were white, and a lot of them were underage... This is really no different from all your american gangs, except for the fact that this was something that happened all over the country at the same time, and it had mainly to do with the fact that part of the french population can't find its place in society. And it certainly wasn't anywhere near as bad, or had anything to do with most of the reasons the foreign media were making out...
So if you're going to make political statements (and by all means, don't let me stop you), at least try to use facts you know something about...
Yes, what is the world coming to when people don't step in when their friends are in need..?
Quite honestly, I think people with WoW addictions are just replacing other addictions. If they didn't have WoW, they'd probably be addicted to something else. Why don't you (and his other so called friends) do something about it? And why talk about "12 step programmes" when his problems are pretty obviously unrelated to the game which is just an escape? He needs professional help, and by that I mean a psych to talk to. And no, "psych" is not an insult or a swear word. People would have a much easier time if they overcame their prejudice towards psychs and just went to them to get things off their chest instead of keeping them bottled up.
Uhhh, GE might have been around for 30 years, but most of the currently used crops certainly haven't. Each new variation of genes should be extensively tested, and they're not.
Oh, and since when are GE crops used to feed starving populations? You'll find most of them are used in developed countries that already have overproduction. I mean most of this debate is about opinions in developed areas, like Europe and Japan. Saying that we don't want to touch the damned stuff, you equate that with genocide? You have a very sick mind. Starving countries may well profit from GE crops, but that's their decision entirely. Most of the time they can't afford it though, as with anything, it's all about profit. Most of the GE strains brought out weren't done with any humanitarian concerns in mind, it's all about getting in more profit. Why else would the grain sellers sign a contract preventing farmers from keeping seed from their crop for planting the next year, including in starving countries...
Oh, and as a side note, don't believe everything you see on TV...
extensively tested???? Can you give me some links to those extensive tests of yours??
How long have we been able to produce GM crops? And how long have they been tested on humans? Most of the varieties haven't even had more than the most basic testing on humans. These crops should get years of testing before being put on to the market. In fact, considering the fact that unlike medecine that goes through years of testing for drugs that will only be taken for a short period of time, here we're talking about food that is going to be eaten all your life. Who's to say what kind of build up they could cause over a lifetime of consumption. They don't even know what eating it on a regular basis for a year would do to people.
I would find american stance on everything to do with ecology and nature almost funny if it wasn't so dangerous for the rest of the planet. You are the only country on Earth to seriously believe that global warming is some sort of conspiracy and not reality. Naturally, it goes without saying that you're one of the only countries on Earth that doesn't care what's in its plate as long as it tastes good. Actually, no, as long as it's in huge quantities. I don't think American slashdotters realise that most "foreign" slashdotters find the mainly American comments pretty incredulous. I mean honestly, comments like this one: But mostly it's just a bunch of asshole science-fearing luddites
We're talking about decisions taken by Japan and the leaders of the EU. I would hardly term them "asshole science-fearing luddites"
NB: The article fails to mention that it's not just Japan that's boycotting American long grain rice, but also the EU.
Erm, you seem to be a bit behind the times, Free.fr is now providing 28Mbps down;o)
And the TV directly onto the computer? Only Free.fr does that, not a single other ISP has developed that...
Pretty amazing that the only place on Earth where you see a continuing big fight about global warming is America. All the other countries accepted the fact a long time ago. America, well, things like the Kyoto protocol go against America's economic interests, and in the land of savage capitalism and powerful lobbies, that just doesn't go down too well...
Erm, actually, I don't know where you got that comment about Chirac from. The govt is currently trying to increase students' proficiency in different domains, including english...
Erm, I have to disagree here. Right now there are quite a few countries in Europe that have a good coverage and very good speed for pretty low prices. In the US, well, you have to be lucky enough to live in a place that the telco companies consider important enough to deliver a semi decent service, and you usually have to pay a fortune anyway. And no, NYC does not count as the entire USA...
France is usually the first country cited by Americans when talking about anything govt controlled in Europe. Yet France, for such a rural country has an extremely good coverage. By the end of the year, 98% of the population should have access to adsl. France Telecom offers aren't exactly expensive either. Triple play starts at 30 euros (1Mbps/VoIP with unlimited calls/IPTV) or you can get, for example, 40 euros for 18Mbps + IPTV. That is the govt owned internet company. And if it has one advantage over other ISPs, it's reliability. The main reason people choose to go with France Telecom is because they'd rather pay a bit more and be sure it works. I personally have a different ISP, it's cheaper and there are more services, but it's also more of a risk...
So I'm sorry, but govt owned ISPs are just fine, however a little competition from the private market does make it even better.
Oh, and if you still think France Telecom's 18Mbps is slow, rest assured, France Telecom is currently planning on laying down FTTH.
So sure, the only example I can give is France, but it certainly is a damned good example, especially when we see the Americans, who a few years back were ahead of the rest with their cable connections, now currently debating over what possible use people could make of 5Mbps... (oh wow how fast...). I mean your market hasn't really changed much in years...
And one last thing, you compare govt connections and wifi in a city... Erm, the whole thing is about bringing broadband to rural areas, where wifi won't be an option... In cities, there is already a lot of competition...
Re:US still lagging behind...
on
A Look at IPTV
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As I said in my reply to the post just before yours, size is not as big a problem as that, it all depends on how the country is set up.
Nobody expects a single ISP to give 20Mbps and IPTV to every single nook and cranny of the US. I somehow don't think the cows need IPTV...
The US has a lot of big cities, like New York which is the 5th biggest city in the world with 16,626,000 inhabitants and alone would represent over 1/4 of the french population. Why isn't New York and other major US cities offering highly advanced networks with services like we have over here?
I mean here, Pau (80,000 inhabitants lost in the rural south near the pyrenees) is offering 100Mbps FFTH! So don't use population density as an excuse:-)
Re:US still lagging behind...
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A Look at IPTV
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Well, according to the CIA website (and a quick division), the population density of France is 110 people/km, compared to USA which is 30 people/km. Sure, that gives France a good advantage, but compared to Japan which has a population density of 337 people/km, France has a great disadvantage. Even the UK, which has a population density of 246 people/km, is only just starting to catch up with France (though they still have some way to go...). Actually, for England alone, and not the entire UK, the population density is 383 people/km, which is even higher than Japan, it's one of the most densly populated countries in the world. England should be light years ahead of the rest of Europe, but is lagging behind rural France...
Actually, France being quite a big and rural country compared to other European countries, it was long seen as an impossible task.
I never said that the USA is way behind because not everyone has 20Mbps and IPTV, but simply that barely anyone has it. The USA has a massive advantage over France for small high speed internet networks. You have quite a lot of big cities that high speed internet can quickly develop in, and yet even there you're lagging behind.
Not everyone in France has 20Mbps or IPTV. For that your line has to be unbundled by your ISP, which only happens in towns (or the very close countryside). In fact, there are still quite big areas that don't have any kind of high speed connection. But over here great effort is put into reducing the digital divide.
I would have agreed with the population density differences if people lived uniformly spread out, but they don't. That's no excuse for the USA to be so behind, there are plenty of big cities for high speed internet and new services.
US still lagging behind...
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A Look at IPTV
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I must admit, I'm always amazed by the slashdot articles talking about new and revolutionary internet technology that everybody else in the western world has been using for years...
Here in France, we've had IPTV over DSL lines for quite some time now. Free (ISP) started upgrading its network to ADSL2+ with 20Mbps access nearly 2 years ago. And in Paris and Pau, you can subscribe to FTTH with 100Mbps symetrical.
Interactive TV is nothing new to us, as we can tap directly into the tiple play modem and a) retreive the TV via the ethernet/wifi/usb connexion and display it on the computer (so no tv card, no analogical conversion, no loss of quality), or connect the modem to the computer, and browse our files, watch divx, listen to our music collection, display photo albums, listen to web radios or watch web tv streams, and with a few mods to the software (based on the FOSS VLC player) have basic web browsing, directly on the TV.
OK, your computer has to be on, but it can be anywhere in the house.
So yeah, IPTV is great, but damn, I can't believe you're only just beginning to talk about it on "next gen networks" that everyone else already has...
Slashdot Mirror
Diabetes is something you're never cured from. No matter what such and such a diet might say, it may greatly improve things, but the diabetes is still there. Fasting blood sugar over 126 is a sign that something is up. Starting lifestyle changes and/or beginning treatment early on helps slow down the progression, and avoids later complications. In this case it actually reduces the number of patients with severe complications... It's not a case of declaring people diabetic who aren't really. It's a case of getting it under control before it progresses too much. Because if you hit 130, without at least diet changes, the diabetes is most definitely going to get worse.
Obviously you've never actually used Avast. You've always had to register for the free version, and renew the regsitration once a year. They're giving it away for free, I honestly don't see registering as a big deal.
And the new version is actually a lot better, it finally detects rootkits... If you're looking for something that actually does its job and yet doesn't take up any space or processing power, I doubt you'll find anything...
If you're gonna pay for your operating system, and then complain about free antiviruses, you might want to consider changing to linux...
Okay, they compare them by how much land/energy it takes to produce the food/fuel. I would be interested how they came upon their figures for fossil fuels. But my main concern is that they never mention emissions. The main concern with cars isn't so much how much fuel they use, but how much pollution they put out...
Also, it seems they didn't factor in producing the vehicles, which also uses a lot of energy and puts out a lot of pollution. Factor those in and I'm sure pets will turn out much cleaner by orders of magnitude...
Oh, and did I mention pets are "biodegradable", unlike cars ?
Actually, you're wrong. DSL in the USA is apparently crappy, but it's the ISPs that are at fault, not the technology. In France, with a 20Mbps/1Mbps (down/up) triple play access for 30/month, I have at very most 40ms ping time to any server in the country, more often around 20ms. However, over here, it's the cable access that's crappy.
DSL is a perfectly decent technology. Not always reliable as it depends on the line length, and quality of the wiring, but the ISPs here have made serious progress on those issues, and I've seen people with 6-7km long lines still able to get several Mbps - enough for IPTV (ie: the equivalent to cable TV). So it's actually very few people who have major problems due to the technology itself (of course, there are the usual mess ups like with any other technology).
I just thought I'd point out that .com, .org and .net are far from being US specific. In fact it's very common for non-english speaking websites to use those tlds.That and a lot of the top sites are multinationals that use their main tld to also host all their websites for the different countries they do business in.
.us becomes pretty much mandatory for american sites and .com is reserved for multinationals that aren't counted in any particular country, the figures given don't mean squat...
Factor in microsoft's pc domination and suddenly it becomes obvious that MS products and services are bound to appear at the top. Oh, and of course english being the main language for international exchanges, that just screws things a bit more.
Unless the
No, not outlawing filming violence. It's a specific type of crime that you can't film, it's physical attacks on a person, basically beating someone up. And it's perfectly legal to film and publish if you're a journalist or if it's for legal evidence. So basically it's just illegal to film someone beating someone else up if your only going to ridicule them on YouTube.
Whereas I agree specific cases can be open to interpretation, the law is *very* different from what the english speaking web is making of it. Try reading it (look at my previous comments for a translation of the law itself...)
Oh, I never denied any of those facts. But legally speaking, Sarkozy doesn't have the power to do that, and a cop can't do anything about you filming him beating the crap out of someone. Legally speaking. Of course, political and/or psychological pressure can make things happen otherwise, but basically it's not *legal*.
Actually, I got to deal with media censorship in 2004 when my university started off an (almost) national movement and we couldn't get the media to talk about it... France 3 journalists even admitted to us that they were being pressured by Raffarin (prime minister at the time), because it looked bad for him, as the university leading the movement (that is to say us) was his home town...
Most people (at least around here) are perfectly aware of Sarkozy's censorship and abuse of power, I have to ask myself if he isn't also controling the poll surveys too...
Wow, I hadn't seen so much BS in a while. Read the law, this has nothing to do with riots. It specifically states personal attacks, not riots, and certainly not just the broad term "violence".
I also love how you seem to only see pure communism or pure capitalism. You sound like a true patriot. (I find it amazing how the american "patriotism" reminds me of communism actually...) You can be left wing, without being communist (who are the *extreme* left wing). There's a reason why socialism and communism have two different names...
How is this comment insightful? Read the law, I posted it a bit further down, translated into english. It specifically states that you can film violence to serve as evidence...
Here is the actual text:
;o)
" Section 4 bis
Dispositions générales
Art. 222-43-2. - Est constitutif d'un acte de complicité des atteintes volontaires à l'intégrité de la personne prévues par les articles 222-1 à 222-14-1 et 222-23 à 222-31 et est puni des peines prévues par ces articles le fait d'enregistrer sciemment par quelque moyen que ce soit, sur tout support que ce soit, des images relatives à la commission de ces infractions.
Le fait de diffuser l'enregistrement de telles images est puni de cinq ans d'emprisonnement et 75 000 d'amende.
Le présent article n'est pas applicable lorsque l'enregistrement ou la diffusion résulte de l'exercice normal d'une profession ayant pour objet d'informer le public ou est réalisé afin de servir de preuve en justice. ""
This translates to (there are no doubt a few approximations in the terms, I'm no lawyer, but the translation is otherwise valid):
" Is considered an accomplice act to voluntary assault of a person's integrity as specified in articles 222-1 to 222-14-1 and 222-23 to 222-31, and is punished with the sentences specified in these articles, the act of knowingly recording, using any means, under any format, images relating to comitting these offenses.
The act of publishing recordings of such images is punished by five years imprisonment and a 75,000 fine.
The present article does not apply when the recording or publishing is a result of the normal activity of a profession which invovles informing the public or is done to serve as proof in court."
So filming your local police officers beating people up remains legal, as it can be used as proof in court. Filming any scene of violence where you're not an accomplice remains legal, as it can always be used in court... I'm not saying this law is good. It's just far from what the english web seems to be making it out to be.
Oh, and for all the WWII comments before... Why don't you find a real reason for hating the french? Even better yet, why don't you make your OWN opinion on the french? Generally, if you have a bad time with the french, you probably only have yourself to blame (or a run of bad luck, like any nation, the french have morons too...). French bashing just for the sake of it is *so* last season
May I point out that until very recently, the French Front National had an office in SL... It may not be something the French are proud of, but well, Le Pen was there first...
Erm, why is this modded troll? This actually happened...u mble-dryer-man-charged/2006/05/30/1148754978203.ht ml
/. mod system ;-)
Article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/wet-baby-in-t
We need better warning labels on the
As a cognitive psychology student (I'm doing my thesis, I'm not in first year ;-), I can certify that this is complete and utter fud.
We're able to predict (with a 5% chance of error, as everyone who's studied statistics knows), a whole range of things, from your reaction times, to the opinions you're likely to give, and all sorts of things. And now we're making a do about a single person with a brain tumour? Yes, a lot of things you don't choose, you do them because you're human, or because you're ill, or whatever. But that doesn't change free will. It's like saying you've no free will because you can't quack...
http://nj.essortment.com/airconditioning_rvht.htm
will give you a basic description of the main problems: it acts as a trigger for various ailments, it reduces your general resistance to a) illness and b) temperature, it's brought about various new diseases. And for a lot of migraine sufferers (and I'm one of them), it acts as a trigger for migraine. Quite honestly, anything that can trigger people's arthritis, sinus problems or migraine should be used as little as possible, because it's obviously doing something other than just cooling the air...
Erm, if you're going to talk about a country, try learning the name of the country, it's France, not Paris... Most of the old poeple who died didn't live in Paris... The only reason this happened in France and not anywhere near as much in other countries is because either the heatwave didn't hit them as hard (take England or any of the northern-ish European countries as an example), or because the others are used to extremely hot summers (take Spain for example) and are used to handling extreme heat. Add to that the fact that France is still going through its rural exodus phase, the younger generations are still massively leaving the countryside, so there's nobody left to care for the old people left behind.
Now, as to why the government didn't react straight away ? They did, as soon as people realised what was happening, but by then it was too late, as this also showed a communications problem within our healthcare system. But the government has since given quite a bit of money to retirement homes and the like to get them equipped with air conditioning (even if we're usually against the idea of air conditioning, as it wastes electricity and is pretty unhealthy).
However, after saying all that, I just thought I also ought to point out that the mortality rate for the entire year wasn't any higher than it should have been without the heatwave. This means that the old people who died were all at the end of their life and thus extremely fragile anyway. As ghastly as that might sound, it simply means that the heatwave didn't go around killing off all the healthy old people, these people were already very ill...
Erm, but could you tell me what the two tiered healthcare system is? It certainly isn't anything that exists in France... I guess you're referring to Britain... Not only it Britain the most "americaniZed" country in Europe, but it's still a damn sight better than the US system...
Now lets talk about the "Mulsims" burning cars... I doubt that many of them were actually muslims, and quite a few of them were white, and a lot of them were underage... This is really no different from all your american gangs, except for the fact that this was something that happened all over the country at the same time, and it had mainly to do with the fact that part of the french population can't find its place in society. And it certainly wasn't anywhere near as bad, or had anything to do with most of the reasons the foreign media were making out...
So if you're going to make political statements (and by all means, don't let me stop you), at least try to use facts you know something about...
Yes, what is the world coming to when people don't step in when their friends are in need..?
Quite honestly, I think people with WoW addictions are just replacing other addictions. If they didn't have WoW, they'd probably be addicted to something else. Why don't you (and his other so called friends) do something about it? And why talk about "12 step programmes" when his problems are pretty obviously unrelated to the game which is just an escape? He needs professional help, and by that I mean a psych to talk to. And no, "psych" is not an insult or a swear word. People would have a much easier time if they overcame their prejudice towards psychs and just went to them to get things off their chest instead of keeping them bottled up.
Uhhh, GE might have been around for 30 years, but most of the currently used crops certainly haven't. Each new variation of genes should be extensively tested, and they're not.
Oh, and since when are GE crops used to feed starving populations? You'll find most of them are used in developed countries that already have overproduction. I mean most of this debate is about opinions in developed areas, like Europe and Japan. Saying that we don't want to touch the damned stuff, you equate that with genocide? You have a very sick mind. Starving countries may well profit from GE crops, but that's their decision entirely. Most of the time they can't afford it though, as with anything, it's all about profit. Most of the GE strains brought out weren't done with any humanitarian concerns in mind, it's all about getting in more profit. Why else would the grain sellers sign a contract preventing farmers from keeping seed from their crop for planting the next year, including in starving countries...
Oh, and as a side note, don't believe everything you see on TV...
extensively tested???? Can you give me some links to those extensive tests of yours??
How long have we been able to produce GM crops? And how long have they been tested on humans? Most of the varieties haven't even had more than the most basic testing on humans. These crops should get years of testing before being put on to the market. In fact, considering the fact that unlike medecine that goes through years of testing for drugs that will only be taken for a short period of time, here we're talking about food that is going to be eaten all your life. Who's to say what kind of build up they could cause over a lifetime of consumption. They don't even know what eating it on a regular basis for a year would do to people.
I would find american stance on everything to do with ecology and nature almost funny if it wasn't so dangerous for the rest of the planet. You are the only country on Earth to seriously believe that global warming is some sort of conspiracy and not reality. Naturally, it goes without saying that you're one of the only countries on Earth that doesn't care what's in its plate as long as it tastes good. Actually, no, as long as it's in huge quantities. I don't think American slashdotters realise that most "foreign" slashdotters find the mainly American comments pretty incredulous. I mean honestly, comments like this one:
But mostly it's just a bunch of asshole science-fearing luddites
We're talking about decisions taken by Japan and the leaders of the EU. I would hardly term them "asshole science-fearing luddites"
NB: The article fails to mention that it's not just Japan that's boycotting American long grain rice, but also the EU.
Erm, you seem to be a bit behind the times, Free.fr is now providing 28Mbps down ;o)
And the TV directly onto the computer? Only Free.fr does that, not a single other ISP has developed that...
Pretty amazing that the only place on Earth where you see a continuing big fight about global warming is America. All the other countries accepted the fact a long time ago. America, well, things like the Kyoto protocol go against America's economic interests, and in the land of savage capitalism and powerful lobbies, that just doesn't go down too well...
Erm, actually, I don't know where you got that comment about Chirac from. The govt is currently trying to increase students' proficiency in different domains, including english...
Erm, I have to disagree here. Right now there are quite a few countries in Europe that have a good coverage and very good speed for pretty low prices. In the US, well, you have to be lucky enough to live in a place that the telco companies consider important enough to deliver a semi decent service, and you usually have to pay a fortune anyway. And no, NYC does not count as the entire USA...
France is usually the first country cited by Americans when talking about anything govt controlled in Europe. Yet France, for such a rural country has an extremely good coverage. By the end of the year, 98% of the population should have access to adsl. France Telecom offers aren't exactly expensive either. Triple play starts at 30 euros (1Mbps/VoIP with unlimited calls/IPTV) or you can get, for example, 40 euros for 18Mbps + IPTV. That is the govt owned internet company. And if it has one advantage over other ISPs, it's reliability. The main reason people choose to go with France Telecom is because they'd rather pay a bit more and be sure it works. I personally have a different ISP, it's cheaper and there are more services, but it's also more of a risk...
So I'm sorry, but govt owned ISPs are just fine, however a little competition from the private market does make it even better.
Oh, and if you still think France Telecom's 18Mbps is slow, rest assured, France Telecom is currently planning on laying down FTTH.
So sure, the only example I can give is France, but it certainly is a damned good example, especially when we see the Americans, who a few years back were ahead of the rest with their cable connections, now currently debating over what possible use people could make of 5Mbps... (oh wow how fast...). I mean your market hasn't really changed much in years...
And one last thing, you compare govt connections and wifi in a city... Erm, the whole thing is about bringing broadband to rural areas, where wifi won't be an option... In cities, there is already a lot of competition...
As I said in my reply to the post just before yours, size is not as big a problem as that, it all depends on how the country is set up. :-)
Nobody expects a single ISP to give 20Mbps and IPTV to every single nook and cranny of the US. I somehow don't think the cows need IPTV...
The US has a lot of big cities, like New York which is the 5th biggest city in the world with 16,626,000 inhabitants and alone would represent over 1/4 of the french population. Why isn't New York and other major US cities offering highly advanced networks with services like we have over here?
I mean here, Pau (80,000 inhabitants lost in the rural south near the pyrenees) is offering 100Mbps FFTH! So don't use population density as an excuse
Well, according to the CIA website (and a quick division), the population density of France is 110 people/km, compared to USA which is 30 people/km. Sure, that gives France a good advantage, but compared to Japan which has a population density of 337 people/km, France has a great disadvantage. Even the UK, which has a population density of 246 people/km, is only just starting to catch up with France (though they still have some way to go...). Actually, for England alone, and not the entire UK, the population density is 383 people/km, which is even higher than Japan, it's one of the most densly populated countries in the world. England should be light years ahead of the rest of Europe, but is lagging behind rural France...
Actually, France being quite a big and rural country compared to other European countries, it was long seen as an impossible task.
I never said that the USA is way behind because not everyone has 20Mbps and IPTV, but simply that barely anyone has it. The USA has a massive advantage over France for small high speed internet networks. You have quite a lot of big cities that high speed internet can quickly develop in, and yet even there you're lagging behind.
Not everyone in France has 20Mbps or IPTV. For that your line has to be unbundled by your ISP, which only happens in towns (or the very close countryside). In fact, there are still quite big areas that don't have any kind of high speed connection. But over here great effort is put into reducing the digital divide.
I would have agreed with the population density differences if people lived uniformly spread out, but they don't. That's no excuse for the USA to be so behind, there are plenty of big cities for high speed internet and new services.
I must admit, I'm always amazed by the slashdot articles talking about new and revolutionary internet technology that everybody else in the western world has been using for years...
Here in France, we've had IPTV over DSL lines for quite some time now. Free (ISP) started upgrading its network to ADSL2+ with 20Mbps access nearly 2 years ago. And in Paris and Pau, you can subscribe to FTTH with 100Mbps symetrical.
Interactive TV is nothing new to us, as we can tap directly into the tiple play modem and a) retreive the TV via the ethernet/wifi/usb connexion and display it on the computer (so no tv card, no analogical conversion, no loss of quality), or connect the modem to the computer, and browse our files, watch divx, listen to our music collection, display photo albums, listen to web radios or watch web tv streams, and with a few mods to the software (based on the FOSS VLC player) have basic web browsing, directly on the TV.
OK, your computer has to be on, but it can be anywhere in the house.
So yeah, IPTV is great, but damn, I can't believe you're only just beginning to talk about it on "next gen networks" that everyone else already has...