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Comment Re:Protests (Score 1) 374

The statement was inteded as a commentary on the ignorance of the west as well as separately referencing a christian Jehovah, often referred to as God, as well as the judaic Adonai, in comparison with the Muslim Allah, singled out specifically.

Rather than say may Jehovah, Adonai and Allah all see eye to eye on this issue, I preferred my wording.

But thanks. :)

Comment Protests (Score 3, Interesting) 374

Unfortunately, given the current socio-economic state that the US and it's allies are in, Iranian leaders -- very possibly not being the caricatures many americans would assume them to be -- may be making a large bluff in this and other moves it has made. The US can ill-afford a continued string of wars in smaller powers that do not offer a consumer incentive; i.e. any war that doesn't have us retooling our auto companies to make tanks, telling our people that if they ride alone they ride with the ayatollah. If we're to go to war, it needs to be a manufacturer's war, not a war of attrition fought by a people that have sufficient stores of it's most important tactical resource (people) to not care about when it "wins".

Iranian leaders, if they have any semblance of intelligence, knows that we cannot call their bluff unless a larger ally steps in and makes the war "interesting". For now, despite the horrible situation in Iran, the best thing that we can do is encourate the Iranian people, and let them know that their voices are being heard, that they have the power to revolt and change their own destinies. Most of all, that if they take the initiative, we will respect any free government they impliment in the aftermath.

But we cannot help them with guns. We cannot help them with bullets. We cannot help them with manpower. Any fight we make on their behalf, is fighting their cause. Every bullet we fire at an oppressive Iranian government, we fire at Democracy. If we have learned anything from Iraq-ganistan, it is that a policy of policing the world leads to later generations of peoples turned from ally to staunch enemy with the memory of american guns killing their people outweighing the memory of american guns killing their enemies.

May God and Allah see eye to eye in this conflict.

Comment Public Domain (Score 5, Insightful) 100

By banning new public domain books from the Kindle, they are making an implicit decision as to which books people should read. You can argue that "you can get these texts anywhere," but by excluding high-quality Kindle books from the nascent Kindle marketplace, Amazon is implicitly deciding what is a valid part of our culture and what isn't. This trend does not bode well for the future of e-books.

Actually they're really making a decision on which books they wish to deliver on their service, paid or unpaid. Honestly I can get behind Amazon on this as the appropriate policy to have in this situation is broad-based denial to avoid exactly what they're stating; multiple copies of public domain works, whose redundancy will create a negative user experience, and to which the public (not an individual) holds the copyright. And in this situation, if the work isn't being provided for free (as a public domain work), the potential for abuse is extraordinary. I would chide Amazon for not providing a dispute process based on the quality of the supplied work, or an alternate pricing scheme for businesses such as the OP's, but I do not fault them for this policy in general.

Games

Submission + - Major MMO Publishers Sued for Patent Infringement (maximumpc.com) 1

GameboyRMH writes: Maximum PC reports that major MMO publishers (Blizzard, Turbine, SOE, NCSoft, and Jagex) are being sued by Paltalk, which holds a patent on "sharing data among many connected computers so that all users see the same digital environment" — a patent that would seem to apply to any multiplayer game played between multiple systems, at the very least. Paltalk has already received an out-of-court settlement from Microsoft earlier this year in relation to a lawsuit over the Halo games.

If Microsoft can't fend off Paltalk's legal attacks, the odds don't look good for their latest group of targets.

Submission + - Wikimedia Italia sued for 20,000,000 Euros (wikipedia.org)

Sbisolo writes: Wikimedia Italia, the Italian chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, has been sued for 20,000,000 â together with its former president, Frieda Brioschi by Antonio and Giampaolo Angelucci (a father and son), allegedly because of some edits made to the Italian Wikipedia's Antonio Angelucci article, which they claim were defamatory to the reputation of both men.

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Gianfranco/Wikimedia_Italia_sued_for_20,000,000_%E2%82%AC
In italian: http://punto-informatico.it/2708336/PI/News/wikimedia-italia-accusa-20-milioni-euro.aspx

Submission + - Lawyer demands jury stops Googling (itwire.com) 1

coomaria writes: So lawyers want to get juries to sign, on threat of prison, that they won't Google the case they are hearing. Apparently it could influence their decision, and only lawyers are allowed to do that, right?
The Military

Submission + - SOCOM wants psywar websites targeted at U.K. (725.be) 1

Agent725 writes: "The secretive US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has offered arms globocorp General Dynamics a contract of $10m to set up a network of psychological-warfare "influence websites". The websites should support the Global War On Terror. France and Britain are specifically included as "targeted regions".

A psychological operation (PSYOP) is the dissemination of information to foreign audiences. According to SOCOM: ...the dissemination of truthful information to foreign audiences in support of US policy. The activities are not forms of force, but are force multipliers that use nonviolent means in often violent environments. They rely on logic, fear, desire or other mental factors. The ultimate objective of US military psychological operations is to convince enemy, neutral, and friendly nations and forces to take action favorable to the United States.

So, who will spot these websites first? Give a hoot!"

Submission + - British film 'Creation' banned in USA (digitaljournal.com) 8

thesappho writes: "From the story : "British film 'Creation' will not be coming to the United States because of its controversial theme. While the film opened the Toronto Film Festival to rave reviews, the religious undertones surrounding this Darwin biopic appear to be to much for the U.S. ". It seems that the film could not find even one distributor to be aired. Is this a kind of banning? negligence? censorship? or business decision?"

Submission + - GeoCities closing October 26, 2009 (yahoo.com)

angkor writes: "End of an era: On October 26, 2009, your GeoCities site will no longer appear on the Web, and you will no longer be able to access your GeoCities account and files..."

Comment Haven't I seen this one before? (Score 1) 138

Already, subscribers are talking about a controversial military maneuver whereby a small unit or individual, outgunned and trapped may use an otherwise abandoned motor vehicle and a makeshift ramp to disable or destroy a rotory aerial vehicle.

At least one may in fact currently be viewing this via "the old satcomms".

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