: : : You guys are priceless; I figured you'd go into overdrive about the ballsy way that Reagan told the World Court to kiss his ass when he was mining Managua Bay. : : Nah. Everyone *knows* that Reagan was a fruitcake. The man who famously stated that trees caused more pollution than cars was never likely to be Mr. Rational, after all.
: I'm all for mowing down old growth Redwoods, just to play it safe. Pave 'em over and install K-Marts and McDonalds.
That's because you're scientifically uninformed and don't realise where things like breatheable atmospheres come from. Or that they can be destroyed.
: : : But instead you squawk about two unarmed cessnas flying in broad day, having already notified Cuban officials of their plans, being legitimatly being shot down by supersonic Migs. M'Gawd.
: : Well, at least it was a pair of Cessnas filled with right-wing nutters breaking every international law in the book; and not a defenceless airliner shot down without warning...
: With it's reputation I suppose it would be churlish of anyone to second guess the terror the Cuban military structure must have felt when these machines of death and destruction appeared on their radar...m'Gawd! The terror!!...
Uh-huh. Like I said, it's less than 30 years since US-made bioweapons were dropped on Cuba which severely damaged their agriculture. The US has the largest stock of bioweapons and chemical weapons in the world; and it would take 80 milligrams of refined Botulinus toxin (produced by the triform spore-bearing rod bacteria Clostridium Botulinum) to wipe out 80 million people; a country the size of France.
I'm not kidding. Less than a teaspoonful of this stuff could wipe out all life on Cuba; the spores would disperse in the air and ingestion would lead to death; I quote...
"A toxin produced by the bacteria, Clostridium botulinum, can result in a disease called botulism. This toxin is called a neurotoxin because it affects the nervous system. Symptoms appear 12 to 48 hours after eating a food which contains the toxin. The symptoms include double vision, droopy eyelids, trouble with speaking and swallowing and difficulty with breathing. Without treatment death may result from suffocation because the nerves can no longer stimulate breathing. Antitoxins have been used to reduce the fatality rate of the disease but persons may recover slowly and suffer from nerve damage."
No prizes for guessing which country has the largest stock of the stuff around, even though usage of it would constitute a war crime and would be universally condemned.
I don't think even the US authorities would be stupid enough to do such a thing; but it's just the sort of thing a few Cuban exiles in a Cessna could do.
In an era of bioweapons and chemical weapons, mass destruction doesn't depend on firepower; a light aircraft; heck, even a rogue RPV could result in the deaths of millions of civilians; and they are thus a security risk; a country which enforces international law by shooting them down when they refuse to turn back is acting legally.
: : Being baton-charged and having your head kicked in does separate the men from the boys...any of you armchair free-marketeers prepared to take to the streets to demoonstrate in support of the free market?
: Don't want to pop your bubble or anything, but you guys up there in Seattle are getting the royal treatment, with kid gloves. Until you warriors go up against T-34/56's and BMD's et al like the students got in Tian'an Men, taking a baton rap is just healthy All-American fun and games.
Thanks, I'll protest in favour of democracy here and leave the Chinese to protest for democracy there. If either country actually achieves democracy I'll be damn surprised.
Free Tibet and so forth...something the West is only too happy to forget if it might damage trade with China.
: With so much work to do how do you support yourself? Independantly wealthy? Royalties? Zero coupon bonds? Inheretance? C'mon, spill the beans.
I work full time in computing (to pay off student debts); and then I spend evenings and weekends trying to save the world. I know I'm not going to, but I'm damned if I'm going to let the Earth be destroyed in the name of capital.
: By the way, they were talking about Linux/Red Hat on the radio the other day. I had no idea, but Microsoft (Mr. William Gates to you) controls 95% of the market and somebody else controls 4.95% of the balance. Linux controls the other .05%.
On the other hand, the Apache Web server, written for Linux, has 55% of the Web server market and the number of Web pages constructed by Linux users is larger than the number of Web pages written by all the various types of Windows put together.
The 'net is Unix and Linux, desipte Bill Gates' best efforts; and it's becoming more so. Growth in Linux usage is predicted to outstrip the combined growth of all other operating systems put together by 300% over the next three years.
Linux users make the net; whereas Windows users are mainly spectators. And if a Linux user decides to embed a harmful Javascript or ActiveX applet in his website, any Windows user who visits it without protection could end up with a very large and expensive paperweight where his computer used to be.
: Come to find out from some people who seemed pretty knowledgeable that Linux might eventually become accepted by the general public in 10 years, IF they can figure a way to make their product easier to use.
Linux has an estimated 11 million users; it is widely reckoned that Linux running KDE is easier to use than Windows. Linux is also the first OS to work on 64-bit chips like Itanium and the 64-bit Alpha; and Linux will be the first OS to use FMD-ROMs properly.
Feel free to continue using an insecure and creaky OS if you like; those of us with the wit to know better will be running 64-bit chips, 140GB FMD-ROMs and Linux.
: I ain't gonna read 'Das Kapital' and I ain't gonna teach myself computer programming. Ain't gonna happen.
And because you won't, you'll end up doing what I tell you, if I choose to, because I can. I'm not saying it's "right", but you're going to be in the same position as an illiterate in today's society - second-class.
Farinata.
