I'd encourage you to read his Wikipedia entry - quite enlightening about what a true environmentalist - one who believes in it so strongly he founded Greenpeace and Greenpeace International - thinks about the modern Greenpeace and other "environmental" organizations.
Excellent points. And there's another factor often overlooked: a LARGE amount of those exports from China are from companies partially or fully owned by American companies. I work with them all the time (spending 18-20 weeks of the year in China). A MASSIVE amount of the exports from China are from factories owned by US companies, and are exports to the US and EU.
Of course, in the simplistic reporting, those exports show up as Chinese exports and count as a "trade deficit", even though the dollars are flowing to American companies...
Any rational person or government should reject them for now, because the whole Anthropogenic Global Warming thing is far from a fact; from what I can see it's more of a myth.
Rather than write it here, I'll just link my Slashdot journal with some very easy, hard-fact based calculations showing it's the Sun, not man that's driving the situation.
Repaid only after heavy reductions in the amount of the loans, mind you...
France was wonderful in helping the US Revolution. I'd love to thank that government for its assistance, but seeing as it was overthrown and the monarch beheaded just a few years after our founding, it's a bit difficult to do so.
And of course, French hate it if you point out the last war they won was when they had a king, supporting a renegade group on another continent...
What if I ask for that information up-front, and the right to take a picture of you, and to use that information as I see fit? Because that's what is happening here with Google... They don't get your e-mail address unless you give it to them. They don't get ANY personal information unless you give it to them.
So if I ask you how to get to Grand Central Station, you do not have the right to remember that I asked you that?
See, you kind of ASK Google to find information FOR YOU. You're requesting a service of them. They keep that request. You VOLUNTARILY GAVE THE REQUEST to them. How you can expect to keep that "private" from them, after you willingly gave it to them, is a bit incomprehensible to me.
We're hated for not continuing support of the Afghanistan government after the threat of the USSR went away, letting a civil war erupt.
We're hated because we're still in Iraq at the behest of their government to try to avoid a civil war.
We're hated for letting Saddam invade Kuwait and threaten Saudi Arabia.
We're hated for staying in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after the first Gulf War to protect from Saddam repeating his invasion of Kuwait.
We're hated for having an official policy of regime change in Iraq.
We're hated for not helping the locals change the regime in Iraq.
We're hated for finally executing regime change in Iraq.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Seems to me that no matter what we do we're hated. That's the central thread we're dealing with - irrational hatred of anything "Western" or "non-Arabic Muslim". And when we abide by the customs of their country - women covered up, no alcohol, stop work 5 times a day, no images of people, even leaving Bibles at home - we're still hated as infidels and invaders.
As far as the whole Israel/Palestine conflict goes, why isn't the hatred directed at the UN? They set up Israel, and didn't follow through on setting up an Arab state of Palestine. Israel would NOT EVEN EXIST if it wasn't for the UN's resolutions. So why not direct their hatred at the UN, rather than Israel, or the US?
For example, when Ehud Barak offered as a STARTING POINT a full 95% of what the Palestinian appologists demanded, the PLO, Hamas, and most Arab states STILL REFUSED to even ACKNOWLEDGE the existence of Israel. One side is talking about leaving most of the disputed territories immediately, and complete withdrawals over a short time, going back to the pre-1967 borders, and the other side doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the first.
I think the wishful thinking that "if the US would just leave the Middle East all would be good!" is seriously flawed. We're hated for interfering by protecting mulsims in Bosnia and Somalia, and hated for not protecting muslims in Iraq or Kuwait.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Essentially, we're hated for not what we've done, but for what we are - we're not muslim. We have different values and a different culture. We have tolerance. We allow individual freedoms. We believe ALL men AND women - of every race and creed - are created equal. We represent what they despise. It's not our actions, it's our very NATURE that is the source of their hatred. The very freedoms that we take for granted - and are used every day by those protesting the US' current involvement in the Middle East - are the source of the hatred against the US.
Here we have parades celebrating the gay lifestyle. They stone not just gays, but if you're even raped by a gay man you're sentenced to that grisly death.
We allow people to live together ourside of marriage. They will stone a woman for simply talking to a man.
We have women heading up some of our largest corporations, leading countries. They forbid women from even opening a book.
We encourage families to share their values and go to church together - they force families apart, even in worship.
We allow you to choose your own path to spiritual enlightenment, even if that means no path. They will behead you if you do not submit to every written word of Mohammed.
We will let you make a movie criticizing religions, governments, companies, cultural values, even the legal system. They will kill you for simply drawing an image of Mohammed.
We protect and honor religious and cultural shrines, artwork, and buildings because of the history and knowledge they provide. They blow up anything from a different culture or religion.
We allow political dissent, free speech, and provide the right to a trial by a jury of your peers. They summarily execute any who speak against the leader
Israelis will tell you that it's all right if they took the land from Palestinian people after WW2, because it "belonged" to them, somehow. I doubt they would return the land to some previous inhabitants of it, if the situation ever came up.
Israel exists because the UN decided it should exist. It's the only nation created by the UN - sure, Jews wanted a homeland but until 1947 when the UN wished it into being, a homeland was a pipe dream. It's not about Israelis taking the land, it's about the UN giving the land, and the rest of the world dealing with that decision ever since.
Yes they are. First off, "torture" - which has yet to be shown - is extremely targeted and specific. Suicide bombs are nice and random.
Carpet bombing of Fallujah never happened - a bit of hyperbole you've thrown in. Suicide bombs happen daily.
Cluster bombs aren't dropped randomly on active markets and business districts; IF they are used, they're used on locations with heavy fighting already going on, where the civilian population is pretty minimal.
Suicide bombs are DIRECTLY AIMED at civilians - non-combatants; the US and its allies have gone to extraordinary lengths to AVOID deaths of civilians.
If you can't see the difference, I'd suggest your political leaning is heavily shading reality.
Great - so if Israel pulls out of the West Bank - it's already out of Gaza - then the PLO and Hamas will stop the attacks? If Israel goes back to the pre-1967 borders - set up by the Left's favorite institution, the UN - then Iran will make peace with Israel? Jews will be allowed to travel inside Saudi Arabia?
Having been over there - on BOTH sides - a few times, I damn well feel a lot more free and welcomed in Israel than I do in SA or Jordan.
I thought the new standard - especially for the political Left - was it's not the accuracy of the statement, but the seriousness of the charge. Facts be damned and all...
OK, so how were those movies in the public domain? You know that phrase - PUBLIC DOMAIN - has a SPECIFIC legal meaning. And your attempt to make up your own definition doesn't cut it.
Wonderful! So what's the URL for EVERY SINGLE THING you've EVER written? All of it - it's public domain, right?
Oh, and just because an employer PAID you for that work, under the presumption it was for them alone, I still expect you to provide that work for everyone else...
Ummm, they sold a license so I don't see how that impacts this news? License sold, even though not used.
I downloaded FF for my 3 machines about 12 months ago, but no longer use it. Does that mean FF no longer can claim my downloads?
Bottom line: they sold a LOT of licenses, and made a LOT of money off of Vista in a relatively short time. Fanboi as you want against it, but Vista is definitely a major income-making product right now, and 40 million licenses is quite an accomplishment.
I don't own a credit card, because I don't like taking on debt any more than need be. Credit cards pose too much of a temptation, IMHO. I do have a combined debit/ATM card (my credit union offers them through Visa), though I mostly use it on-line, as I prefer to write cheques or (better yet) to use cash.
My job takes me around the world for weeks at a time (about 5 months out of each year). In every country I've been, I've always experienced one problem or another with ATM cards, credit cards and the like.
The only true universal payment option that has NEVER been turned down is the American twenty dollar bill. EVERYONE takes it.
The larger the commitment from the customer, the less chance they'll jump. If you bought 20 million licenses from a vendor, you'll a LOT less likely to jump than if you bought just 1. Customers bind themselves to suppliers when they buy in big bulk. Both sides become dependent on each other...
I'll tell you what... If I had $4 BILLION in revenue, I wouldn't really care if it came from 40 million independent purchasers, or 2 big OEMs. They sold 40 million licenses, at probably $80-$100 each. That's a lot of licenses, and a lot of cash...
I'd rather make $1 million from one customer than $100,000 from 10,000 customers. Somehow I think I'd be more successful.
Up until the late 80s I'd bet very VERY few schools had computers even in the office for basic bookkeeping.. We're quickly becoming a society that thinks all education problems - administrative OR classroom - need to be solved with technology rather than fundamentals.
Computers at each school's offices are fine; having so many that you need a full IT staff shows misplaced spending priorities.
Slashdot Mirror
Note that Patrick Moore left Greenpeace because it's no longer dealing with the environment: "See, I don't even like to call it the environmental movement any more, because really it is a political activist movement, and they have become hugely influential at a global level". Greenpeace isn't about the environment, it's about a social movement aimed at establishing a particular political view.
I'd encourage you to read his Wikipedia entry - quite enlightening about what a true environmentalist - one who believes in it so strongly he founded Greenpeace and Greenpeace International - thinks about the modern Greenpeace and other "environmental" organizations.
How you can dismiss that is pretty amazing...
Of course, in the simplistic reporting, those exports show up as Chinese exports and count as a "trade deficit", even though the dollars are flowing to American companies...
Rather than write it here, I'll just link my Slashdot journal with some very easy, hard-fact based calculations showing it's the Sun, not man that's driving the situation.
"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery."
Sir Winston Churchill
France was wonderful in helping the US Revolution. I'd love to thank that government for its assistance, but seeing as it was overthrown and the monarch beheaded just a few years after our founding, it's a bit difficult to do so.
And of course, French hate it if you point out the last war they won was when they had a king, supporting a renegade group on another continent...
What if I ask for that information up-front, and the right to take a picture of you, and to use that information as I see fit? Because that's what is happening here with Google... They don't get your e-mail address unless you give it to them. They don't get ANY personal information unless you give it to them.
See, you kind of ASK Google to find information FOR YOU. You're requesting a service of them. They keep that request. You VOLUNTARILY GAVE THE REQUEST to them. How you can expect to keep that "private" from them, after you willingly gave it to them, is a bit incomprehensible to me.
We're damned if we do, we're damned if we don't.
We're hated for not continuing support of the Afghanistan government after the threat of the USSR went away, letting a civil war erupt.
We're hated because we're still in Iraq at the behest of their government to try to avoid a civil war.
We're hated for letting Saddam invade Kuwait and threaten Saudi Arabia.
We're hated for staying in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait after the first Gulf War to protect from Saddam repeating his invasion of Kuwait.
We're hated for having an official policy of regime change in Iraq.
We're hated for not helping the locals change the regime in Iraq.
We're hated for finally executing regime change in Iraq.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Seems to me that no matter what we do we're hated. That's the central thread we're dealing with - irrational hatred of anything "Western" or "non-Arabic Muslim". And when we abide by the customs of their country - women covered up, no alcohol, stop work 5 times a day, no images of people, even leaving Bibles at home - we're still hated as infidels and invaders.
As far as the whole Israel/Palestine conflict goes, why isn't the hatred directed at the UN? They set up Israel, and didn't follow through on setting up an Arab state of Palestine. Israel would NOT EVEN EXIST if it wasn't for the UN's resolutions. So why not direct their hatred at the UN, rather than Israel, or the US?
For example, when Ehud Barak offered as a STARTING POINT a full 95% of what the Palestinian appologists demanded, the PLO, Hamas, and most Arab states STILL REFUSED to even ACKNOWLEDGE the existence of Israel. One side is talking about leaving most of the disputed territories immediately, and complete withdrawals over a short time, going back to the pre-1967 borders, and the other side doesn't even acknowledge the existence of the first.
I think the wishful thinking that "if the US would just leave the Middle East all would be good!" is seriously flawed. We're hated for interfering by protecting mulsims in Bosnia and Somalia, and hated for not protecting muslims in Iraq or Kuwait.
Damned if we do, damned if we don't.
Essentially, we're hated for not what we've done, but for what we are - we're not muslim. We have different values and a different culture. We have tolerance. We allow individual freedoms. We believe ALL men AND women - of every race and creed - are created equal. We represent what they despise. It's not our actions, it's our very NATURE that is the source of their hatred. The very freedoms that we take for granted - and are used every day by those protesting the US' current involvement in the Middle East - are the source of the hatred against the US.
Here we have parades celebrating the gay lifestyle. They stone not just gays, but if you're even raped by a gay man you're sentenced to that grisly death.
We allow people to live together ourside of marriage. They will stone a woman for simply talking to a man.
We have women heading up some of our largest corporations, leading countries. They forbid women from even opening a book.
We encourage families to share their values and go to church together - they force families apart, even in worship.
We allow you to choose your own path to spiritual enlightenment, even if that means no path. They will behead you if you do not submit to every written word of Mohammed.
We will let you make a movie criticizing religions, governments, companies, cultural values, even the legal system. They will kill you for simply drawing an image of Mohammed.
We protect and honor religious and cultural shrines, artwork, and buildings because of the history and knowledge they provide. They blow up anything from a different culture or religion.
We allow political dissent, free speech, and provide the right to a trial by a jury of your peers. They summarily execute any who speak against the leader
Israel exists because the UN decided it should exist. It's the only nation created by the UN - sure, Jews wanted a homeland but until 1947 when the UN wished it into being, a homeland was a pipe dream. It's not about Israelis taking the land, it's about the UN giving the land, and the rest of the world dealing with that decision ever since.
Carpet bombing of Fallujah never happened - a bit of hyperbole you've thrown in. Suicide bombs happen daily.
Cluster bombs aren't dropped randomly on active markets and business districts; IF they are used, they're used on locations with heavy fighting already going on, where the civilian population is pretty minimal.
Suicide bombs are DIRECTLY AIMED at civilians - non-combatants; the US and its allies have gone to extraordinary lengths to AVOID deaths of civilians.
If you can't see the difference, I'd suggest your political leaning is heavily shading reality.
Why thank you... I don't think many people actually get it...:D
Having been over there - on BOTH sides - a few times, I damn well feel a lot more free and welcomed in Israel than I do in SA or Jordan.
I thought the new standard - especially for the political Left - was it's not the accuracy of the statement, but the seriousness of the charge. Facts be damned and all...
As it's creator, Al Gore has first dibs...
We're generally narcissistic and convinced that stuff, power, or sex will satisfy us
Sex? This is Slashdot - how can we be satisfied with somethint that no one here knows what it is...
OK, so how were those movies in the public domain? You know that phrase - PUBLIC DOMAIN - has a SPECIFIC legal meaning. And your attempt to make up your own definition doesn't cut it.
Oh, and just because an employer PAID you for that work, under the presumption it was for them alone, I still expect you to provide that work for everyone else...
I downloaded FF for my 3 machines about 12 months ago, but no longer use it. Does that mean FF no longer can claim my downloads?
Bottom line: they sold a LOT of licenses, and made a LOT of money off of Vista in a relatively short time. Fanboi as you want against it, but Vista is definitely a major income-making product right now, and 40 million licenses is quite an accomplishment.
My job takes me around the world for weeks at a time (about 5 months out of each year). In every country I've been, I've always experienced one problem or another with ATM cards, credit cards and the like.
The only true universal payment option that has NEVER been turned down is the American twenty dollar bill. EVERYONE takes it.
Cash is still the ultimate way to pay...
When I mount, I prefer to yell "Hi Ho Silver", have it whinny, rear back, then gallop off in a cloud of dust...
The larger the commitment from the customer, the less chance they'll jump. If you bought 20 million licenses from a vendor, you'll a LOT less likely to jump than if you bought just 1. Customers bind themselves to suppliers when they buy in big bulk. Both sides become dependent on each other...
I'll tell you what... If I had $4 BILLION in revenue, I wouldn't really care if it came from 40 million independent purchasers, or 2 big OEMs. They sold 40 million licenses, at probably $80-$100 each. That's a lot of licenses, and a lot of cash... I'd rather make $1 million from one customer than $100,000 from 10,000 customers. Somehow I think I'd be more successful.
"Excuse me while I whip this out..."
Up until the late 80s I'd bet very VERY few schools had computers even in the office for basic bookkeeping.. We're quickly becoming a society that thinks all education problems - administrative OR classroom - need to be solved with technology rather than fundamentals.
Computers at each school's offices are fine; having so many that you need a full IT staff shows misplaced spending priorities.