Self-determination sounds nice but unfortunately that's not how reality works.

The-empty-string's explanation that Western countries copy each other's bad laws is right on the money. Politicians reach across borders all the time to look for justifications for their bad policies.

While I certainly wouldn't pose as an Australian and try to get in a vote donating to an org which works to educate the Austrlian public about the situation and encourage their voters to get out there is just working to help us all.

What, Again?!

It's not like trendy, expensive, proprietary computers haven't made a comeback before.

I hope you're joking. No, the author didn't even make any claim that Linux is piracy. IANAL but i know there was no libel. I was only commenting that with the so much FUD and ignorance going around it would be much better if the author didn't use those two words so close together in the same sentences so much. It kind of seemed to be asking for it.

please read "dbs" in the comment above as standing for "human beings". Apparently ignorant people are still people.

http://linuxlock.blogspot.com/2008/12/character-assasinations-aint-us.html

No, I'm not accusing the author of equating Linux with piracy but did anyone else notice how much the two showed up side by side in the same sentence?

I wonder if any uninformed dbs like that teacher who confiscated all his student's Linux CDs claiming they were piracy will skim over this article and leap to the wrong conclusion.

So that the next, more charismatic president could use the crisis to secure legions of blind followers while serving the same corporate interests of course!

I think that was mod_Obama_supporters_with_modpoints

or something like that

There is roaming and then there is international. Can you disable international roaming while still being able to roam within the US? I know my phone is in roaming half the places I go but I have a nationwide plan so I don't care. Also, I wonder what part of the US/Canadian border you are near. I know there is an area of Canada near SE Michigan where most carriers let you roam for free (if you already have nationwide anyway). It's definitely not all of Canada though and I never checked to see if it applied to data or just voice.

Well, to lower prices first you need competition.

We do have competition, there are multiple carriers.

But when they all charge so much competition doesn't work.

So.. we need someone to start a new company which specializes in selling data at reasonable prices.

To start such a company you need an FCC license.

If you have that kind of money you are probably already part of the good o'l boys club which controls things now and will just charge similar rates

Until things like FCC policies become a part of mainstream politics with the public aware plus demanding change there will be none. This will probably never happen.

Hmm... It's still US territory till you leave the continental shelf isn't it? There's soil under that water no doubt.

If the guy's cell was connected to the proper cellsite his data would have probably gone over some form of landline or microwave link back to the backbone. Instead because the ship turned on their equipment early it went out over their ocean-serving satellite which is a much more limited resource. Seems to me that the higher bill is PARTIALLY justified, but that it should go to the company responsible for the employee who turned on the equipment. Still, I don't think the prices they charge for data roaming are ever really justified, at that price they could send someone out in a helicopter with the game on DVD.

War is not a necessity, we do not need war. War is inevitable. Whether it be a president, a dictator or a tribal chieftan any sizable group of people will put someone in control. Then, when groups meet the leaders will send their pawns to go fight. This is human nature.

War is too powerful of a tool for governments to ever let go. War is a means of obtaining what one wants without making it themselves. War is a means of instilling fear in your people, or hatred of the enemy thus keeping the people looking to the leader for protection and keeping their attention off of the leaders' own evils.

People banding together has not and will not eliminate war. Just look at the 60s. How popular was it to protest the Vietnam war? We didn't get an end to war out of that, just some good music, a lot of pot and the hippies who later turned in their ideals and became the yuppies.

The serfs did not wake up one day and throw off their monarchies. The monarchs became to secure in their positions. They allowed some families to become richer and more powerful then they were. These families along with some free minded "serfs" (there are always a few rare ones) stirred up the people and eliminated the monarch threat to their own position. Now they exist today in the form of the corporations and political parties which are slowly chipping away those freedoms returning the "Free World" to our more natural less free state.

Democracy is not a new idea which is suddenly sweeping the world. Democracy has existed at various times and places such as Ancient Greece and Rome. Yes, some parts of the world are currently becoming more free but surely by the time that the current dictatorships, monarchies, etc... are all replaced with democracies many of the existing democracies will be replaced with dictatorships and monarchies.

I only hope that mankind starts colonizing frontiers on other worlds before society on this one becomes so tightly controlled that natural selection starts taking away our brainpower and makes our descendants collective like ants. That I'm convinced is the future on this world. Only in open spaces where we can expand too thin for central control does human nature tend towards freedom.

That depends... how were the workers evaluated. Her recent performance was probably affected by her situation but this would not have lasted. If they did take this into consideration, and her pre-miscarriage performance was below the others then it certainly makes sense to chose her to go. Timing certainly sucks though... Was it so urgent that they get rid of someone that they couldn't just wait a month or so then get rid of her?

They aren't asking to see your bookmarks are they? Why do you expect them to show you theirs?

Poverty and War, boring, snore snore

These two issues are old news and have plagued mankind since civilization began. What issue doesn't get thrown on the back burner to wait for solutions to never come.

We will always have poverty, we will always have war we cannot lose those as much as we would like to.

If we don't hold our politicians accountable while we still have a democracy that allows us to do so we will lose that.