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| 2005/10/4-6 [Politics/Foreign/MiddleEast/Iraq] UID:39970 Activity:nil |
10/4 I asked this question a month ago:
8/25 ... if two-thirds of the voters in any three of Iraq's 18 provinces
vote against it, the charter will be defeated [in the Oct 15
referendum]"
hey, is that two-thirds of people who actually vote, two-thirds
of registered voters, or two-thirds of estimated legal voters?
Here's the interim constitution:
http://www.cpa-iraq.org/government/TAL.html
Shiites and Kurds just voted on Sunday to change the rules from people
who actually vote to "two-thirds of registered voters".
"Given that fewer than 60 percent of registered Iraqis voted in the
January elections, the chances that two-thirds will both show up at the
polls and vote against the document in three provinces would appear to
be close to nil."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/international/middleeast/04iraq.html
\_ I think I said that and I'll repeat it one more time. This
entire 'constitution' thing is for American and American only. It
is no more than dubya's exit strategy. Iraqis under half century
of dictator rule has no concept of law, seperation of power,
even basic right of citizens. In the absent of an independent
judicial branch and impartial law enforcer, this paper doesn't
mean anything. So, who cares if the constitution gets rejected
or not? it is not consequential.
entire 'constitution' thing is for America and America only. It
is no more than dubya's exit strategy. Iraqis under a half century
of dictator rule have no concept of law, seperation of powers,
even the basic rights of citizens. In the absence of an independent
judicial branch and impartial law enforcement, this piece of paper
doesn't mean anything. So, who cares if the constitution gets
rejected or not? it is not consequential. [engrish corrected]
\_ thanks
\_ what do you think is the realistic best-case scenario?
\_ (not pp) In the words of Dogbert "I think I can delay
cannibalism"
\_ The 'best case scenario' I envision is having another
brutal dictator end up ruling Iraq. Oppressive to its
people, but nevertheless be able to put down all insurgency
within Iraq border. At the same time, this dictator
is friendly to USA/Europe and happily supply its oil to
Western powers... much like Saddam Hussin in the 1980s.
I am a left wing liberal and all, but I do have to point
out that there is one thing that is going our way which
we often overlooked. That is, the disarray of Saudi
Kingdom right now is actually a benefit to our cause.
Traditionally, Saudi would never allow Shiite gain this
much influence this close to its border; and the way Saudi
counter Shiite influence was simply supply money and arms
to the Sunnis. Can you imagine what kind of insurgent
we would encounter if Saudi pump money into this?
-- happy Ramadan
\_ Gold plated AK-47s, the horror!
\_ Mind control lasers finally kick in and the Iraqis all become
benevolant followers of Western-Style Democracy. Realistic
best case scenario is a slow withdrawl of US troops, with
Iraq split into three "states" controlled by the Kurds in the
north, Shiites in the south and a mixture in the center. The
oil-rich states will put in just enough money to keep the
center from falling into complete chaos. It'll be an ongoing
civil war, akin to parts of Afghanistan, with "neutalized"
sections in the central state cities. Extremist Islamists
will control some pockets within all three states, but not
enough to truly threaten the state governments.
\_ nice try. you reall think Turkey is going to allow
Kurds in the north became a free state? As soon as Kurds
declear independence, Turks would intervene...r
If I am the Turk leader, I will use this opportunity
to crush Kurds outside my border and sieze control of
northern Iraq's oil field at the same time.
\_ Who said free state? It'll still be Iraq. It'll be the
same as right before the invasion, but they will have
more money and control of the oil. They know they can't
get cocky with the Turks.
get cocky with the Turks and the Turks know they can't
get into the EU if they invade Iraq/Kurdistan.
\_ Just watch, Kurds in Iraq are going to help their
brothers across the border. And who said that
Europe *WANTS* Turkey to join? American would
love to use joining EU as leverage, but would
Europe happily accept Turkey per America's request
when American needs Europe more than other way
around? |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Finance/Banking, Computer/HW/Drives] UID:39971 Activity:nil |
10/4 Can anyone recommend a "nature sounds" cd? I'm particularly interested
in water sounds (rivers or oceans) with no instrumentals or vocals.
Just background noise. Thanks!
\_ Check Living On Earth, the NPR program
http://www.loe.org
\_ Fry's used to sell nature sounds cds for around $3/ea. I have
the ocean sounds, lake sounds and jungle sounds cds. They are
not bad.
\_ Can you please convert it to MP3 and put it in /csua/tmp?
\_ Can you do my laundry for me? Thx!
\_ Have you heard of the copyright act? |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Computer/SW/Security] UID:39972 Activity:nil |
10/4 New AC Transit Transbay Service Begins December 5th
http://www.actransit.org/news/articledetail.wu?articleid=35e17163 |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Politics/Foreign, Politics/Foreign/Europe] UID:39973 Activity:nil |
10/4 Apparently for real. Pig images banned in British workplace:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005450600,00.html
\_ While in the USA, we are promoting pig images: http://www.energyhog.org
It's like Smokey Bear or McGruff the Crime Dog, if bears were
setting fires and dogs were selling crack and pimping hos.
\_ Are they going to ban veils also, because it represents oppressions
on females which offends feminism?
\_ Are they going to ban veils also, because it represents oppression
on females which offends feminists?
\_ So muslims think that *images and symbols* of pigs are unclean? I
can understand them not wanting pigs running around in the office,
or any kind of farm animal in general. I wouldn't want that either.
\_ I suspect there is more to the story than written.
\_ Jews don't like pigs either, right?
\_ But Chinese people love pigs.
\_ All minorities are equal, but some minorities are more
equal than others.
\_ http://dutchreport.blogspot.com/2005/02/dutch-flag-prohibited.html
\_ ack, wtf?
\- i think an interesting show down would be over the
hindu swastika vs. say jewish sentiments. the swastika
is a really important hindu symbol, not a marginal one.
it's used in the design for lots and lots of things and
you'll even see it incorportated into say a sari design.
\_ Yeah, it certainly shows up in a lot of Buddhist
stuff. It's all over Korea because of that. I
remember when I came back my brother had a cartoon
on his wall making fun of Nazis, who were
represented as a swastika. My first thought was,
"Geez, what 'cha got against Buddhists?" -jrleek
\_ The Nazi's usually use the right-facing swastika while
the left-facing one is used in Buddhism. |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:39974 Activity:nil |
10/4 jrleek, you graduated already. You have a career and a family.
You have a life. Why are you getting involved with csua again?
\_ it must be part of the master plan to introduce the right
religion to evil leftist institutions such as Cal.
\_ Oh no. We gave up on Cal a long time ago. ;) -emarkp
\_ Why don't you at least post your name when asking personal
questions? Maybe you could even email me! -jrleek
\_ Can you at least tell us when you stopped beating your
wife? |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Academia/Berkeley/CSUA] UID:39975 Activity:nil |
10/4 Request from the politburo:
Edlaic gave a stirring "Video Gaming" proposal at mondays meeting, but
he wanted to buy a Dreamcast. We were wondering if anyone had an old
one that they would want to donate to the office. If so, please
email politburo. Any comments here will be appreciated but not as
effective as an email. Thanks. -mrauser
ps We realize this will likely only cost <25 bux but we were wondering
if anyone had one they didn't want.
\_ Ok, we have recieved 2 offers, so assuming one or the other
works out. Thanks in advance to bz && phale. -mrauser
\_ Damn you, Bob! I should have given you chicken pox when I had
the chance. -phale
\_ Your pathetic attempt to infect me by spending 5 hours
a day next to me in 184 lab was... well... I don't know
why it didn't work actually... -bz
\_ He gave a stirring proposal to buy a Dreamcast? Where are the
minutes? (Bem took his home I guess?)
\_ someone was giving one away in Vallejo on craigslist --oj
minutes? |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Computer/Networking] UID:39976 Activity:nil |
10/4 WiFi a basic human right in SF:
http://tinyurl.com/cfc34 (news.yahoo.com)
\_ Can you tell me why the city shouldn't offer WiFi to residents?
\_ This is not an area where government should be involved. Are
they going to offer cell phone service and cable tv, too?
Who is going to pay for this?
\_ Commercial ventures who will profit through advertising.
\_ The question is, why should government be involved in this?
\_ Why do we have public schools and libraries? (I'm
almost certain your response will be "Yes, why do we?")
\_ Education is a basic right that everyone should
have. Wireless Internet access across an entire
city is not. I would support free WiFi in, say,
libraries.
\_ Your line is arbitrary. As is Newsom's. It's
a proposal. How would you feel if he kept his
goal of "no taxpayer money used"? Also, as a
commercial venture, there is no guarantee of its
status as a publicly available product. If you
agree with Newsom that internet access should be
available to everyone for free, then a public
works project is the only way to go.
\_ It is not arbitrary. Libraries currently
provide Internet connections already. We
can debate whether this should be revoked
or not, but it is already a reality. There
is a difference between that and offering
free wireless to everyone in a city for
whatever purpose.
\_ I find your racist insinuations offensive.
\_ And that difference is...? It would suck
less? You argue that the government has
no place offering this service. Then you
say "oh, even though they do offer this
service, offering it to more people in more
locations at the same expenditure level is
... different." Do you have a point?
\_ Have you ever heard of a compromise?
If I *had* to choose one or the
other I would eliminate all free
Internet access. However, I can see
the value in being able to use it
at a library. There is quite a
difference in cost and scale between
offering a kiosk somewhere and
offering unlimited access to
everyone for free. It won't be the
same expenditure level or else
industry would have already provided
it. Look at it this way: providing
free electricity for street lights
is probably a good thing for
government to do. It keeps citizens
safe. Providing free electricity to
everyone is not.
\_ So you reject Newsom's framing of
it as a right. Do you live in the
city?
\_ I don't and I would oppose it
if my city proposed it.
\_ Fine. Then shut up about SF.
\_ Why? I can't have an
opinion? Other cities
are going to want to
mimic this.
goal of "no taxpayer money used"?
less?
\_ Given the level of suckitude from wireless phone providers
of late, who seem more interested in offering gadgets and
adding customers than providing me with a decent signal
or an outgoing connection, I think I'm willing to give
socialism a shot on this one.
\_ If this is the case, then why does the government need
to be involved at all? Shouldn't the commercial ventures
setup everything?
\_ A bit misleading, that headline. The quote, from the article:
"This is inevitable -- Wi-Fi. It is long overdue," Newsom
told a news conference at San Francisco's City Hall. "It
is to me a fundamental right to have access universally
to information," he said.
-geordan
\_ In the context of discussing wifi citywide to say something like
that it is hard to see him meaning anything other than what the
OP headline reads.
\_ That's why he's a politician. He can make his words mean one
thing now, and make the same words mean a different thing when
people dig it up years later.
\_ By basic right, did he mean "No one should be disallowed to have
Wi-Fi access" or "The governments in the world should provide Wi-Fi
access to everyone in the world who cannot afford it"?
\_ "My intent is to have the taxpayers pay little or nothing,"
then who's paying for it?
\_ Why is Wifi a more basic human right than say, phone service?
\_ It's not so much that it's a basic human right, it's that it
can be provided pretty inexpensively to everyone. It's also
place-tied rather than person-tied, which makes a difference
in terms of being able to provide the service universally.
Don't look at it in terms of moral rights, look at it in terms
of increasing quality of life for a good chunk of residents
for not much money. -tom
\_ I actually have no problem with the city providing this
service, although we'll see if the end up biting off more
than they can chew. I just think casting it as a "civil
rights issue" is a little over the top. -pp
\_ I agree, although there is some extent to which you could
argue social justice, since the poor are less likely to
be able to afford internet service, and thus are
disadvantaged in terms of access to governmental
resources as well as things like craigslist. (Of course,
they'd still need a computer, and Newsome isn't trying
to address that issue). -tom
\_ Just for the record, you can argue ANYTHING with
"social justice." Social Justice != Civil Rights.
\_ So you would cast it along the same lines as recreation
in the form of parks? Something not necessary but that
improves quality of life? I think the problem here is
that there is little incentive for industry to provide
parks, but there is a lot of incentive to provide
Internet access. Many hotels and other businesses are
offering it already. It seems government intervention
here is not really necessary and it *will* cost money
to administer, oversee, look over contracts and so on.
It will probably also cost industry money. I know I'd
cancel my DSL if I had it for free. What is the real
driver here if it's not a basic right - especially in
these uncertain economic times?
\_ The driver is that people want it, and it's cheaper and
more effective to do in bulk than individually. That's
why Berkeley has AirBears, for example. -tom
\- i think "enterprise wifi" may scale super-linearly
rather than sub-linearly because you cant just
use these super cheep WAPs. i think the enterprise
approach is more so you have a rational system
and enforse policy. rather than simple economies
of scale. does berkeley disallow people from doing
their own wireless? at lbl we do.
\_ The WAPs are more expensive, but you save more
in bandwidth; it's very inefficient to send
a full DSL line to every house in a neighberhood,
when the aggregate bandwidth required is, what,
the equivalent of two or three DSL lines?
Berkeley does not currently ban people from
using their own wireless, but it requires them
to be able to identify individuals using their
WAPs, and reserves the right to ban it later.
The campus doesn't have ubiquitous AirBears
yet, though there is some initiative in that
direction. -tom
\_ People want a lot of things. That shouldn't matter
unless people want to pay for it. As for 'doing in
bulk' - cheaper for who and who loses out?
\_ The idea that government should only do things if
people want to pay for them is absurd. I guess
we should just toss the whole road network.
It is cheaper to do, as in the total expense is
smaller, therefore no one has to lose out. -tom
\_ People want roads and are willing to pay for
them in the form of taxes. If people want
WiFi then there needs to be a WiFi tax.
Selling it as 'free' is dangerous. Also, if WiFi
providers are put out of business by having
to compete with the US Government then someone
will lose out.
\_ The vast majority of road funding comes from
general funds, not from specific road taxes.
WiFi will probably not cost enough to warrant
its own tax. -tom
\_ Re: roads, it doesn't matter which funds
they come out of. They are coming out
of taxes and people are fine with this.
Gas tax, income tax, or whatever. How
much will WiFi cost? Whatever it costs,
something else will have to be cut or taxes
will have to be raised. Won't there have
to be a massive pipe for all the users?
Also, what about the business this
hurts?
\_ I am not at all fine with the idea of
taxes coming out of the general fund
to pay for roads, but I don't get any
choice in the matter. Government is
not a business and it's ridiculous to
suggest that it should operate like
one. Also, government exists to serve
the people, not the businesses. -tom
\_ Whoa there cowboy! Are you trying to
say that since roads aren't directly
self funding via gas taxes/tolls/etc
that we should only them to the
extent that they can self fund? And
would you apply that same concept to
other things such as education?
\_ No, I'm saying the exact opposite.
Government doesn't exist to
connect "buyers" (taxpayers) with
"sellers" (services) based on
how willing the buyers are to pay
taxes for a particular service.
If that were the case, the
government wouldn't need to be
involved, because businesses would
be doing it on their own. The
government exists to provide
services to the public which
would not be equitably,
efficiently, or sufficiently
provided by a business model. It
is not hard to argue that WiFi
can be considered such a service.
-tom
\_ Why is this different than e.g.
cell phone service?
\_ There are cities which
provide cell phone service
as a public utility,
but it's not free because
it costs a lot more to
provide cell phone service
than WiFi. Also, cell phone
service isn't tied to a
location; it wouldn't make
much sense to provide cell
phones which only work
within the city limits. -tom
\_ Wow. This last statement is
controversial since people
benefit from business. I'll leave
that one alone for now. You might
oppose roads coming out of the
general fund, but the reality
is that there are transportation
taxes to pay for roads outside of
the general fund. Take them out
of the general fund and there
would still be roads and people
would likely vote to fund more.
Will people vote to fund WiFi?
Possibly, but this is TBD. It
will not be free, no matter what
the politicans say. Some other
service will have to be cut.
Fundamentally, I think WiFi is a
luxury and should be one of the
first things cut.
\- i sure hope they do better job
of it than the SF pub lib WEEB
site. that WEEB site is so bad
there had to be some kind of
bureacratic or corrupt explanation.
\- i suppose framing this as a
"right" does dillute the notion
of "rights" but not as much
as BUSHCO has done by say
torturing people and not giving
them their day in court. it
will be interesting to see if
somebody insists the govt filter
homosexuals accessing ass porn
via the publicly subsidized
net access. it does seem like
this could potentially be a
very broad semi-anon way on to
the internet, which has many
implications.
net access. |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Reference/RealEstate] UID:39977 Activity:nil |
10/4 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/04/realestate/04reals.html Housing bubble bursting in New York. \_ OTOH, one of my buddies just lost a bidding war on a Rockridge house. \_ I walked around and checked out the other units in my townhouse complex this weekend. The 2 bedroom units are listing for about 10K less this week than last week. Housing definitley cooled off and possibly in a down turn. \_ One townhouse in my development just went for $100K over asking price, which was already way over what they were going for last year. But there are very few units up sale. \_ I've seen people getting really bad advice and offering way too much for homes when they are the sole bidder. Last year it was normal to get 10-15 offers on a house. These days you get one maybe two so best to see how many offers were sent for that townhouse... |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Transportation/Car/Hybrid] UID:39978 Activity:nil |
10/4 Hybrid Trucks use 40-60% less fuel:
http://www.greencarcongress.com/2005/09/initial_testing.html |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Uncategorized] UID:39979 Activity:nil |
10/4 I have two files that seem to only differ only in the number of
blank lines in between some of the text. Any easy way to confirm this
with diff or maybe to pipe it through something to remove blank lines?
\_ Well, a quick "man diff" says: diff -B file1 file2 --dbushong
\_ I tried that but thought I was doing somethign wrong.
Thanks, I see the difference in the files now!
\- you can use an appropriate incantation of "tr" to squeeze
whitespace. different trs support different options so
i cant give you an optimal command line. |
| 2005/10/4-6 [Politics/Domestic/Abortion, Politics/Domestic/California, ERROR, uid:39980, category id '18005#3.2025' has no name! , ] UID:39980 Activity:nil |
10/4 Good TPMCafe post pointing out the logical fallacies in that "study"
which attempted to link high levels of religiosity with high levels
of social dysfunction:
http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/10/4/17430/4632
\_ You mean that the moron ignored his own statement that
correlation does not imply causation? |
| 2005/10/4 [Uncategorized] UID:40142 Activity:nil |
10/4 Can someone recommend a MetLife network dentist in the silicon
valley area (around Sunnyvale)? Thanks. |
| 5/24 |