Instead of funding the development of in-country production facilities to make AIDS medicines for local distribution, they fund the purchase of western manufactured medicines.
Perhaps, but easier said than done. One of the minor points made in the PBS documentary The Age of AIDS (you can watch the whole 3-hour documentary online) is that lots of humanitarian aid from the West is based on Western conceptions.
That is, we get all warm and fuzzy when we donate to an organization that will go in and build an hospital/institution. But when that infrastructure starts to wear down, the locals don't have the skills or resources to fix it, and the organization that built it has moved on to get warm and fuzzy elsewhere. It's simply not sustainable develompent. Case in point, although Dubya got congress to fund $17B over five years towards AIDS, the education portion restricts promotion of condoms, and requires the futile promotion of abstinence. Existing programs that are desperate for funding must either drop their successful components, or die out and be replaced by Billy Graham's son's "charities." Some countries, like Brazil, flat out refused this money because of it.
BMGF doesn't (from what I have seen) do this kind of bullshit.
(Same thing goes for organizations that pay tons of money to take US "donated" goods--like shoes--to poor countries. Poorer africans wear sandals, not shoes! Not only was money wasted shipping that shit out there, but poor people in the West could have used it.) Of course, the complementary problem is that if you give money to the local government, there's the real risk that it won't get to where it's needed.
Also, while I'm posting here, a link to the Global Rich List. Enter your annual income, and see how you compare to the other 6 billion.
Futurama makes a lot of cultural references which, for whatever reason, you simply don't recognize. I had a friend--one of the coolest guys on campus (you know, that one)-- and when I sat next to him at Family Guy Club airings in the biggest hall on campus, my side would be splitting, when he'd be like, "what? I don't get it." He simply didn't grow up with the same cultural references--the "zeitgeist", if you will--that this type of show brought us back to.
One advantage of the medium of cartoons is that things can *both* change *and* be the same. For example, none of the characters on the Simpsons gets any older, but Maude Flanders dies, and the show goes on. Hell, Phil Hartman died, and the show went on. Despite these losses, the show is no less "Simpson"-y than it was before.
Compare with a show like Home Improvement. The *only* thing it can do is change. The kids get older, and eventually Jonathan Taylor Thomas starts his movie career (short lived, I guess. Anybody heard from him lately?), and they have to come up with some ruse for his character being away for whole seasons. Because it's a show that centres on family values, it went downhill at this point; because it's a show that is very much grounded in reality, they don't have the option of the horrendous deaths that befell South Park's Chef or the Simpsons' Maude.
This is nothing more than a couple of no-names who decided to set up a web page and call themselves a political party because they thought it was cool.
One of the primary advantages of laser surgery is that the laser doesn't make any physical contact with the eye.
I know a couple of people who had the "blade"-eye surgery, and have had serious, contant, long-and-short-term complications. The short term risk for laser surgery is very clearly much better, but the long term (i.e. decades) effects are still not entirely clear.
So OEMs want to distribute computers with lower specs than that, would they still be able to use XP, or is MS trying to unilaterally bully the hardware industry? Will be me seeing more OS-less computers on the market?
I think requiring OEM support of aero is a good idea from a customer-relations standpoint: MS can control the requirements for logos, but can't control how it is marketed. If OEMs were allowed to sell Vista with sub-aero specs, there are a lot of (admittedly clueless) consumers who would be angry at both the OEM and MS for selling them this product that doesn't do "that fancy thing I heard about."
Another question (exposing my cluelessness to this process): Does an OEM need MS's permission (via a contract or purchase order) to distribute logoed computers with Vista, or does meeting the requirements imply permission of this sort?
I find it both amusing and fascinating that when they were just coming out, lasers were depicted in sci-fi as being the solution to everything. We laugh, yet they're used for so many things, like laser eye surgery. Maybe LEDs will in time prove to be similarly useful?/still waiting for the death ray.
While I understand that this only applies to government programs, the fact of the matter is that in 1981, a heck of a lot of educated, elected white men had to agree on it for it to be included. So as I see it, either you agree with the judgement of rich white men, or you disagree with them (in which case you're probably not one, and would ironically be better represented through equal opportunity).
Kudos to Google for noticing that there were no women applicants, and acting on it. In my job and where I volunteer I often find that the best positions are usually held by straight white men (myself included) and at every opportunity, I try to improve representation.
This msdn article's formatting is really annoying. But really it is a piece of a bigger problem that faces the younger generation. I say they should scrap it. Otherwise, people will only read the bold text!
That show must have the weakest writing I've ever seen (and I've seen Teletubbies). I suppose you also found the Jar Jar Binks one-man variety hour to be "surprisingly good"?
In all seriousness many democratic countries are effectively ruled by the rich already.
I remember one state (I think it was NH) touted recently that the annual salary of their senators is but $100. Now that guarantees that only the rich will get in.
Amusingly, I scrolled up to see how your post was moderated so that I could see it (whether it was rated "funny" or something else). As I looked to the right of the bar, I see that they've finally moved the damn mod rating back to where it belongs--on the left!
Slashdot Mirror
Perhaps, but easier said than done. One of the minor points made in the PBS documentary The Age of AIDS (you can watch the whole 3-hour documentary online) is that lots of humanitarian aid from the West is based on Western conceptions.
That is, we get all warm and fuzzy when we donate to an organization that will go in and build an hospital/institution. But when that infrastructure starts to wear down, the locals don't have the skills or resources to fix it, and the organization that built it has moved on to get warm and fuzzy elsewhere. It's simply not sustainable develompent. Case in point, although Dubya got congress to fund $17B over five years towards AIDS, the education portion restricts promotion of condoms, and requires the futile promotion of abstinence. Existing programs that are desperate for funding must either drop their successful components, or die out and be replaced by Billy Graham's son's "charities." Some countries, like Brazil, flat out refused this money because of it.
BMGF doesn't (from what I have seen) do this kind of bullshit.
(Same thing goes for organizations that pay tons of money to take US "donated" goods--like shoes--to poor countries. Poorer africans wear sandals, not shoes! Not only was money wasted shipping that shit out there, but poor people in the West could have used it.) Of course, the complementary problem is that if you give money to the local government, there's the real risk that it won't get to where it's needed.
Also, while I'm posting here, a link to the Global Rich List. Enter your annual income, and see how you compare to the other 6 billion.
- RG>
Actually, I have a cell phone, which isn't listed in the phone book.
I get all my mail at a PO box, so even if my phone number *were* listed, my address probably wouldn't be.
And yet, my employers still send my previous year's tax forms to my previous-year's home address.
I'd still be fairly easy to find with Google, though.
- RG>
Futurama makes a lot of cultural references which, for whatever reason, you simply don't recognize. I had a friend--one of the coolest guys on campus (you know, that one)-- and when I sat next to him at Family Guy Club airings in the biggest hall on campus, my side would be splitting, when he'd be like, "what? I don't get it." He simply didn't grow up with the same cultural references--the "zeitgeist", if you will--that this type of show brought us back to.
One advantage of the medium of cartoons is that things can *both* change *and* be the same. For example, none of the characters on the Simpsons gets any older, but Maude Flanders dies, and the show goes on. Hell, Phil Hartman died, and the show went on. Despite these losses, the show is no less "Simpson"-y than it was before.
Compare with a show like Home Improvement. The *only* thing it can do is change. The kids get older, and eventually Jonathan Taylor Thomas starts his movie career (short lived, I guess. Anybody heard from him lately?), and they have to come up with some ruse for his character being away for whole seasons. Because it's a show that centres on family values, it went downhill at this point; because it's a show that is very much grounded in reality, they don't have the option of the horrendous deaths that befell South Park's Chef or the Simpsons' Maude.
Ironically, I don't watch TV any more.
- RG>
They *were* planning on attacking spammers with a nuclear missile, but *somebody* got into a bit of a tizzie about it.
- RG>
I can't wait to be able to use the Wii controller with my PC, so it will know when I'm bashing the shit out of it in frustration.
Or maybe it will know when I decide to delete Windows.
- RG>
Dude, if he were a vampire, there wouldn't *be* a picture of him.
Clearly, he is a zombie.
- RG>
You're right. This type of tongue-in-cheek organizing has never gotten anywhere.
- RG>
One of the primary advantages of laser surgery is that the laser doesn't make any physical contact with the eye.
I know a couple of people who had the "blade"-eye surgery, and have had serious, contant, long-and-short-term complications. The short term risk for laser surgery is very clearly much better, but the long term (i.e. decades) effects are still not entirely clear.
- RG>
Don't you mean "in the blink of an eye"?
- RG>
The point of doing this is this would be so the "enemy" can't find out what you know about them.
But if you erase all your data, then they'll know how much data you have: nothing.
It's like a catch-22.
(:P)
- RG>
So OEMs want to distribute computers with lower specs than that, would they still be able to use XP, or is MS trying to unilaterally bully the hardware industry? Will be me seeing more OS-less computers on the market?
I think requiring OEM support of aero is a good idea from a customer-relations standpoint: MS can control the requirements for logos, but can't control how it is marketed. If OEMs were allowed to sell Vista with sub-aero specs, there are a lot of (admittedly clueless) consumers who would be angry at both the OEM and MS for selling them this product that doesn't do "that fancy thing I heard about."
Another question (exposing my cluelessness to this process): Does an OEM need MS's permission (via a contract or purchase order) to distribute logoed computers with Vista, or does meeting the requirements imply permission of this sort?
- RG>
I find it both amusing and fascinating that when they were just coming out, lasers were depicted in sci-fi as being the solution to everything. We laugh, yet they're used for so many things, like laser eye surgery. Maybe LEDs will in time prove to be similarly useful? /still waiting for the death ray.
- RG>
In Canada, equal-opportunity programs are specifically mentioned in section 15 (2) of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as being a justified exception to section 15(1), which prohibits discrimination.
While I understand that this only applies to government programs, the fact of the matter is that in 1981, a heck of a lot of educated, elected white men had to agree on it for it to be included. So as I see it, either you agree with the judgement of rich white men, or you disagree with them (in which case you're probably not one, and would ironically be better represented through equal opportunity).
Kudos to Google for noticing that there were no women applicants, and acting on it. In my job and where I volunteer I often find that the best positions are usually held by straight white men (myself included) and at every opportunity, I try to improve representation.
- RG>
This msdn article's formatting is really annoying. But really it is a piece of a bigger problem that faces the younger generation. I say they should scrap it. Otherwise, people will only read the bold text!
- RG>
Lenovo?
- RG>
And yet somehow their tagging system is out of beta...
- RG>
That show must have the weakest writing I've ever seen (and I've seen Teletubbies). I suppose you also found the Jar Jar Binks one-man variety hour to be "surprisingly good"?
- RG>
Microsoft.
- RG>
Sorry, but we don't need you. Our Prime Minister is doing a quick job of it on his own, thank you very much!
- RG>
I remember one state (I think it was NH) touted recently that the annual salary of their senators is but $100. Now that guarantees that only the rich will get in.
- RG>
These microcups may mean the end of teetotalling as we know it.
"C'mon, really. How much alcohol can be in one microcup of beer? Or a thousand of them?"
- RG>
Okay, fine then, I'll read up on this Net Neutrality thing later, if it means we'll start seeing articles on other things.
- RG>
It honestly doesn't matter. The astronomers have purposefully tasked non-astronomers with agreeing on a definition of "planet".
This way, astronomers can continue to deny and decry that definition, because it wasn't done by them.
Science, meet Mr. Politics.
- RG>
I would expect google to want to datamine both of those things
Why would they? Google's business model is based around exposing you to ads as you view things.
They would not need to datamine your bookmarks/passwords etc. any more than they "datamine" every single e-mail you read in your G-mail account.
This, of course, is notwithstanding your concern about whether all or only some content is encrypted, which has been responded to already.
- RG>
Amusingly, I scrolled up to see how your post was moderated so that I could see it (whether it was rated "funny" or something else). As I looked to the right of the bar, I see that they've finally moved the damn mod rating back to where it belongs--on the left!
- RG>