is it still a godwin if its on-topic?

Just like Google thinks that business is war too, then. They weren't going anywhere in China and decided it was too much trouble staying there. Remember that Google pretty much stopped gaining market share from Baidu. They did the next best thing - make it a PR campaign and try to gain love in western countries. Why do you think they're only bitching at China in English blogs and are now blaming Bing for staying in China? It's all PR.

That would depend on whether you are prepared to recognize the sovereignty of totalitiarian dictatorships that torture and murder their own people. Dictators (and their cronies) have no right to say what may happen in their own country, let alone anyone else's. They lose those rights the moment they seize power. All Microsoft is doing is helping the Chinse dictatorship to oppress their own people. For the religious amongst us, think Judas and the money.

Problems with the NHS are hyped-up way over what they are in reality. I have lived and been treated in 5 countries including the UK, the US and Canada. In the UK you get prioritised by need. If you have a life-threatening problem, you get operated on immediately, no questions asked. If you want a knee-replacement that's not urgent, you need to wait (and it's getting shorter). If you don't want to wait that long, you can choose from a variety of options including paying for the procedure privately or by having health insurance. Frontline care is usually delivered by the NHS even if you have private health insurance. There's nothing *poor* about the NHS, and compared with the Canadian system, you also have a choice to go private if you wish. When you consider that the Canadian system costs 20% more and the American one 100% more, that's a pretty good.

I think you will find that, in fact, the de jure leaders on the right are Michael Steele, Mitch McConnell, and John Boehner, and that Limbaugh and Beck are as about as integrated in Republican policy-making as the Simpsons are in the Democrats'.

You seem to be under a false impression. I'm neither a Republican nor a Democrat. In fact, I'm not even American. I don't support Republican policies any more than I support Democrat ones. My objection was to the (evidently not uncommon) position that Ann Coulter is some sort of Republican mastermind who can be taken as representative of the American right, when she's got as much political clout as Colbert. Which is to say, probably some, but seriously, I'm not even a Republican and I find the assertion offensively weak. If you're going to point and wail at how immature the Republicans are, point and wail at serving politicians, not people with radio shows.

Adopting a humble lifestyle does money must be rejected, it simply means its use should tend be avoided in want of expensive or unnecessary things. While I cannot expect us to eliminate our worldly possessions, we can take steps to minimize the amount of physical things we own such that we cannot be easily controlled with threats against them (direct or otherwise). If you are unsatisfied with your job and have a few vehicles and a large house to maintain, expenses for these things makes saving money difficult, and in turn make exiting that job difficult, which makes it more likely for you to accept frustrating management decisions at work for fear of not being able to afford the upkeep for your investments in physical products. Variations of this scenario may be adapted to fit the idea expressed here, however the general argument remains the same.

Yeah, I program for fun too.
But if someone wanted to give me an award and a million dollars for it, I'd take it.

This is one of those times where I really like wikipedia:
Supranational European Bodies

Norway is the red, white and blue flag that is part of EEA, EFTA and the Schengen area. It's our participation in the EEA which means that we must implement EU directives, to be part of the "inner market" there must be equal market conditions in all countries - a clause interpreted at least as wide as "interstate commerce" in the US constitution. Technically we have a reservation right, but we've never used it. As you can see, there's only two countries left in our bubble, and the other is Iceland that is tiny to begin with, has mostly financially collapsed and is now applying for EU membership. The initial agreement (1994) was good but since the renegotiation in 2004 we gain nothing by standing on the outside. The EU decides, and Norway follows willingly or unwillingly and there's no economic incentive either, we pay the same as if we were EU members.

1. Don't link to Fox News. Ever. Murdoch peddles an insidious mix of propaganda and fluff that's intended to neuter our ability to think. The less attention you pay to it, the better.
2. Silver poisoning doesn't just turn your skin blue: it also causes brain damage.
3. The story you mention is a cautionary tale about quack medicine in general. "Alternative medicine" that works is just called "medicine". What remains is ineffective, unsafe, or in the case of this poor man, both.

In the universe we are talking about, the legal system in question is an alien one, and not every legal case has to be argued that way (with the losing lawyer dying in the end at the hands of its victor), only the most important ones: in other less important cases, honor can be restored with some kind of settlement ...

You're mostly right up to this point: in the book (which is actually not Whipping Star, but The Dosadi Experiment, the second book in the series), a powerful alien faction commits massive (planet-scale, multi-generation) human and alien rights violations...

... except Jorj X. McKie, agent extraordinaire of the Bureau of Sabotage (a government agency outgrown of the need of curbing bureaucratc efficiency, if you can imagine that!), finds out...

... and takes on the hopeless endeavour of fighting the case on enemy ground (the byzantine alien legal system, of which he is the only registered non-native lawyer), knowing full well that he must win (for the sake of all what's good, but also love and revenge), and that if he wins, he'd have to kill his opponent (a female from the alien faction) and by doing this he'd be committing murder / stellar casus belli / trespassing jurisdiction / being rude or some other gross and terrible thing, I can't remember. How will he get out of this quagmire? ;)

Sorry to disapoint! :)

From my summary, you can see clearly all the pulp elements in the book (Rightful Retribution, yeah!), but they make for an enjoyable read, and really there is a lot more to it than that: in true Frank Herberts's style, the book has very typical themes that every reader of the Dune series should be familiar with (individual behaviour and adaptation under pressure, immortality, mind games, etc.) And of course it's also a book that makes you think, so I highly recommend it.

Hope this helps

Xavier

No.. I like itunes. I enjoy it as a player/library. It has a resume feature so I can listen to all my 4 hour long Opie and Anthony shows and Ron and Fez of course... horse.

I like when he beats me... I enjoy it.

Seriously, I do think itunes is pretty good at how it manages/organizes tunes etc. I'm not a fan of the format dictatorship but... I can live with apple lossless if i cant have flac.

XnView is being ported. Beta versions:

http://www.xnview.com/en/downloadunix.html

globally this decade has been warmer
http://www.giss.nasa.gov/research/news/20100121/ ( I know, this link is used bloody everywhere in this discussion - but noone seems to care to read it)

possible amnesty on its $1.27 billion Nevada tax maneuverings.

So, Washington is proposing that Microsoft get amnesty on a completely legal activity (yes, the Nevada activities are completely legal)? And here I thought we usually gave amnesties for criminal acts, not legal acts.

Note, by the way, that NOT giving them amnesty on their perfectly legal past activities amounts to an ex post facto law - which is perfectly unconstitutional....

Only fundamental research into particle physics. There are plenty of equally fundamental research areas (genetics if you are practically-minded, math if you're not) which don't require billion dollar budgets.

Personally, I see the whole "physics is the ultimate science" as a con to graft in more grad students.