Palestine Monitor: "Horowitz is keen to bang the square peg of the Lebanon story into the round hole of his claims that the 'Jews' are facing an imminent genocide in the Middle East. And to help him, he and the massed ranks of US apologists for Israel -- regulars, I suspect, of shows like Laura's -- are promoting at least four myths regarding Hizbullah's current rockets strikes on Israel. Unless they are challenged at every turn, the danger is that they will win the ground war against common sense in the USThe first myth is that Israel was forced to pound Lebanon with its military hardware because Hizbullah began 'raining down' rockets on the Galilee. Anyone with a short memory can probably recall that was not the first justification we were offered: that had to do with the two soldiers captured by Hizbullah on a border post on July 12."
A good counter argument which seems very reasonable.
Friday, July 28, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
India rejects One Laptop Per Child | The Register
India rejects One Laptop Per Child | The Register: "India has decided against getting involved in Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child scheme - which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.
The success of the project depends on support, and big orders, from governments. The loss of such a potentially huge, and relatively technically sophisticated market, will be a serious blow."
Is this a smart thing to do ? Maybe this kind of effort has to be spearheaded by the industry in India.
The success of the project depends on support, and big orders, from governments. The loss of such a potentially huge, and relatively technically sophisticated market, will be a serious blow."
Is this a smart thing to do ? Maybe this kind of effort has to be spearheaded by the industry in India.
India's new lobbyists use American methods - Business - International Herald Tribune
India's new lobbyists use American methods - Business - International Herald Tribune: "Lobbyists say one secret of their craft is to invoke the public good in support of their clients' interest.
When TetraPak, a European packaging company, wanted duties cut on a raw material, it hired Dilip Cherian, a Delhi lobbyist who charges clients $100,000 a year.
The company came out with a statement criticizing the duties. But Cherian also attempted to create a groundswell of support for a duty cut from milk farmers too destitute to buy the cartons at present prices. TetraPak declined to comment for this article.
Cherian's team traveled to villages to persuade farmers' cooperatives to lobby their members of Parliament, who in turn lobbied the finance minister. 'What happens here is that actually policy- making is much more democratic than it seems,' Cherian said, when asked about lobbying's influence on democracy."
When TetraPak, a European packaging company, wanted duties cut on a raw material, it hired Dilip Cherian, a Delhi lobbyist who charges clients $100,000 a year.
The company came out with a statement criticizing the duties. But Cherian also attempted to create a groundswell of support for a duty cut from milk farmers too destitute to buy the cartons at present prices. TetraPak declined to comment for this article.
Cherian's team traveled to villages to persuade farmers' cooperatives to lobby their members of Parliament, who in turn lobbied the finance minister. 'What happens here is that actually policy- making is much more democratic than it seems,' Cherian said, when asked about lobbying's influence on democracy."
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Homosexuality | Brothers in arms | Economist.com
Homosexuality | Brothers in arms | Economist.com: "Like many of the best pieces of research, this one raises questions, as well as answering them. One is, how does the mother's body keep count of how many sons she has conceived? A second is, how does that change the environment in the womb? A third is, how does that change affect sexual orientation? And a fourth is, is this an accidental effect, or has it evolved for some reason?
To these questions, Dr Bogaert has no answers, though in some cases he has his suspicions. He speculates that, for reasons as yet unknown, a mother's immune system takes note of the number of male offspring and that each succeeding male fetus is subjected to increased levels of antibodies. These somehow affect its development. Clearly, something strange is going on, because things other than sexual orientation are also affected by birth order. Boys with elder brothers are also likely to have larger-than-normal placentas while in the womb. And despite that apparent nutritional advantage (for a larger placenta should be able to draw more food from the mother's bloodstream), they are also likely to have lower birth-weights than would otherwise be expected.
Dr Blanchard, meanwhile, calculates that about one gay man in seven can chalk his orientation up to having elder brothers. But to the question of whether there is some evolutionary advantage for a mother who has many sons to include a gay one among them, neither he nor Dr Bogaert has an answer.
"
To these questions, Dr Bogaert has no answers, though in some cases he has his suspicions. He speculates that, for reasons as yet unknown, a mother's immune system takes note of the number of male offspring and that each succeeding male fetus is subjected to increased levels of antibodies. These somehow affect its development. Clearly, something strange is going on, because things other than sexual orientation are also affected by birth order. Boys with elder brothers are also likely to have larger-than-normal placentas while in the womb. And despite that apparent nutritional advantage (for a larger placenta should be able to draw more food from the mother's bloodstream), they are also likely to have lower birth-weights than would otherwise be expected.
Dr Blanchard, meanwhile, calculates that about one gay man in seven can chalk his orientation up to having elder brothers. But to the question of whether there is some evolutionary advantage for a mother who has many sons to include a gay one among them, neither he nor Dr Bogaert has an answer.
"
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
A town of foreign marriages : CSI
"Taiwanese women are too difficult," he says. "They won't take care of my parents when they get old. In Vietnam, it's more like Taiwan was in the 1960s - the traditions are still strong."
In recent decades, Taiwan's expanding economy has absorbed a female workforce that is increasingly educated and assertive, particularly when it comes to relationships. Women are delaying getting married - the average bride is 29 - and having fewer children. Taiwan's birthrate is among the world's lowest: 1.2 births per woman.
As a result, fewer women want to marry into traditional families in rural towns like Shihding. Childless men are instead traveling overseas to find a bride who will keep house and bear children without complaint. "Taiwanese women are well educated and have good jobs," says Tsai Chao-lan, a marriage broker in Taipei. "They have high demands and criteria for husbands, and I think it's difficult for men to keep up."This is an interesting phenomenon and a similar trend is seen in multiple places all over the world. Women in democratic equalitarian societies, seem to become undesirable for men still steeped in the older chauvinistic traditions.
It would be interesting to hear, if any of this translates into all of us being genetically related more closely in years to come.
Culturally this will definitely make us more diverse and maybe in the long term cause us to forget older traditions and have only the commercially acceptable dominant societie's traditions.
Monday, July 17, 2006
EETimes.com - HP develops grain-size wireless chip
EETimes.com - HP develops grain-size wireless chip: "'We are actively exploring a range of exciting new applications for Memory Spot chips and believe the technology could have a significant impact on our consumer businesses, from printing to imaging, as well as providing solutions in a number of vertical markets,' Howard Taub, HP vice president and associate director, HP Labs, said in a statement."
Intel Xeon 7100 16MB L3 model launch
According to the latest roadmap for
Intel server platform, new multi-processor Xeon 7100 family (Tulsa)
plans to launch on Aug 27, replacing Xeon 7000 (Paxville MP) to against
Opteron 8 family.
Xeon 7100 is an x86 type containing the largest number of transistor in
total of 1228M. Even with 65nm process, its size is as larger as 435 mm
sq., approximately 9 times larger then Yonah. Tulsa is a dual-core with
build-in 16MB L3 cache. With Smart Cache enabled, each core spares
independent L1 and L2 cache, and share L3 cache through Caching
Front-Side Bus Controller. Although it’s similar in the cache design to
Core architecture, Tulsa also keeps high Pipeline Stage similar to
Netburst and support Hyper-Threading.
Intel server platform, new multi-processor Xeon 7100 family (Tulsa)
plans to launch on Aug 27, replacing Xeon 7000 (Paxville MP) to against
Opteron 8 family.
Xeon 7100 is an x86 type containing the largest number of transistor in
total of 1228M. Even with 65nm process, its size is as larger as 435 mm
sq., approximately 9 times larger then Yonah. Tulsa is a dual-core with
build-in 16MB L3 cache. With Smart Cache enabled, each core spares
independent L1 and L2 cache, and share L3 cache through Caching
Front-Side Bus Controller. Although it’s similar in the cache design to
Core architecture, Tulsa also keeps high Pipeline Stage similar to
Netburst and support Hyper-Threading.
Fox news the new Com Central
I saw this reporter, reporting on the the middle east crisis and he literally dodgin Katyusha rockets as if he was dodging gum balls chucked at him by his friend. What a buffooon !!!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Truthiness - Colbert is the father of truthiness
Truthiness - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Truthiness is the quality by which a person purports to know something emotionally or instinctively, without regard to evidence or to what the person might conclude from intellectual examination. Stephen Colbert created this definition of the word during the first episode (October 17, 2005) of his satirical television program The Colbert Report, as the subject of a segment called "The Wørd."
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Day to Mourn
I mourn as my home burns,
communal vengence, they say might be what motivated the vandals,
greed, others say made them so ruthless.
Hundreds sacrificed to achieve a clique's ambitions,
will such injustice ever be stopped
Avenging these deaths will not heal our wounds,
ridding our society of inequalities should be our goal
I mourn as my home burns !!
communal vengence, they say might be what motivated the vandals,
greed, others say made them so ruthless.
Hundreds sacrificed to achieve a clique's ambitions,
will such injustice ever be stopped
Avenging these deaths will not heal our wounds,
ridding our society of inequalities should be our goal
I mourn as my home burns !!
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