Firstly, I am curious where you would have obtained these numbers. Can you cite this?

Secondly, given the global context, shouldn't it be more a question of whether there are more people who use Latin keyboards as opposed to non-Latin, rather than one of whether China or the US has more people online? That reasoning seems to suffer from a US-centric (or China-centric) perspective. While the novelty of using a native language has its merits, it seems to me that there should be a discussion of whether the potential harm of non-Latin TLDs is outweighed by this appeal. IMHO, a good argument could be made that this move reinforces the "Great Firewall" (a Bad Thing TM), since it adds an additional barrier to international co-mingling.

Isn't ICANN an international non-profit organization? This seems more like catering to special interests than "preserving the operational stability of the internet".

Awesome. Do you mind if I quote this?

Luckily, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Texas (in the USA) have already taken this "inappropriate and dangerous" leap, enabling doctors (in varying capacities) to perform euthanasia. In the case of Oregon, this law has been in effect for 15+ years, which is hardly "immediate". Controversial, yes, but "inappropriate and dangerous" is a bit of a stretch, seeing as the precedent has been set.

Whether or not they could be persuaded, your point is made more significant when one considers that fact that we are going to be relying on the Russians for all manned spaceflight missions for the next 10-15(+?) years. Because of the lapse between the de-commissioning of the shuttle and the production of the Orion CEV, we are completely reliant on international hand-holding in order to get any astronauts into space in the foreseeable future.

Russian kabosh = grounded astronauts

The new Palm Pre will dynamically synergize your social network with it's organic and creative Web 2.0 cloud-computing vibe, helping you leverage your open source collaboration.

Can SOMEONE PLEASE mod parent up! I can't believe that the GP got 5:Informative for such drivel.
2007?! This should have been shot down immediately. It is such blatant cherry-picking.

Yes! ROFL.
It reminds me of reading Jon Stewart's "America-The Book".
At a certain point, I found myself thinking, "Wait a minute, that's a totally false statement!" Then I remembered I was reading a book that was complete satire. Debating the existence of ET life in this galaxy or any other one is akin to debating whether or not Chuck Norris could beat up Muhammad Ali.

What did you say your sources were for this?
The United States is the 3rd Largest Exporter in the World. The Top 10 Exports from the United States are:

• Transportation Equipment
• Chemicals
• Computer & Electronic Products
• Machinery, Except Electrical
• Petroleum & Coal Products
• Miscellaneous Manufactured Commodities
• Electrical Equipment, Appliances & Components
• Food & Kindred Products
• Plastics & Rubber Products
• Fabricated Metal Products

While it is true that the United States has a trade deficit, it is not for lack of exports. Which is to say, there is no excuse at all for the media companies to push for stronger Imaginary Property laws, except that they want a larger piece of the, relatively very large, exports pie. This is pure greed. To frame it as a survival response lends credibility to their arguments that they do not have.

I wasn't saying that everyone takes it as religion. I used an analogy to Religion to illustrate the elements which I found strikingly analogous. I did so in the form of an anecdote relating a personal experience that lent me insight into a perspective that I had not considered; the idea that a person might buy into Global Climate Change for the simple fact that it gave them a sense of community. Much in the same way that a person might adhere to a certain faith because it gives them that same sense of community. In the course of this insight, it occurred to me that this might be applicable to groups of people. Further, since groups of people might do it for this reason, and politicians' make a living tapping into such movements of people, it made sense that this would be leveraged for political gain.

I did imply that a more positive-minded demographic was more susceptible to this type of leveraging, but it was not my intention to lump "everyone" into this category. By "They" I was specifically referring to the guy who made the statement, and the demographic that he represented in my mind. The same "They" who are susceptible to being harvested by anyone offering them a sense of belonging to a larger whole.

I am sure that there are many people who genuinely believe in Global Climate Change for what they consider perfectly valid reasons. My post was meant as a remark upon the phenomenon that many people believed it for entirely social reasons. That's not cherry picking, that's just my personal observation.

You totally summed up what I took away from this article. The picture of the OMG Polar Bear on the tiny little iceberg was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the photos.
The self inflicted poverty thing, though, that blew my mind. I had never thought of that before.
My first response to this article got modded 'flamebait' so fast I was honestly totally surprised. I am glad to know that I am not the only one who has noticed a recent change in tone around here.

Last year, I had the opportunity to sit in on a lecture from one of my chemistry profs where he talked about some of the misinformation surrounding Global Climate Change. What struck me was when he started taking questions at the end and a kid stood up and said, "Global Warming is the only thing that everyone in the world can rally behind. It's a cause that unites everyone! Why would you want to take that away from us?!".

It was in this moment that I realized why Global Climate Change is so high on so many politicians' agendas: Global Climate Change is the new Religion. It's the one thing that you can get a whole new generation of positive-minded, well-intentioned people to get behind, if you can just convince them that they are all burdened under the Original Sin committed by their predecessors. The new agenda is to convince them that it is their responsibility to Redeem themselves through personal sacrifice.

Because that kid totally nailed it: They need this. They want this. They are dying for something to rally behind and GCC fits the bill, and what right do YOU have to take it from them?

It's the same old game with new players.

From TFA:

Yoink! Or should I say, Oink!
Closing the gaps in climate modeling != economic recovery.

Oh, Snap! More taxpayer money in the drink. Well, perhaps the money that the government dumped into the ocean... err... economy created jobs... for starving... NASA scientists? Salvage crews?
Somebody help me out here.

Maybe we can find him there.