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Comment Re:Why not just move to Somalia? (Score 1) 692

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#37117976) Attached to: Paypal Founder Helping Build Artificial Island Nations
200 years ago, Somalia would have been fair game. Now, international law backed by major powers guarantees the sanctity of Somalia's national borders -- essentially props it up no matter how dysfunctional. So though the Somalians might benefit from being invaded by a neighbor who imposed governance, that can't happen under the current system.
Image

Genghis Khan, History's Greenest Conqueror 279

Posted by samzenpus from the taking-the-good-with-the-bad dept.
New research suggests that in addition to being one of history's cruelest conquerors, Genghis Khan may have been the greenest. It is estimated that the Mongol leader's invasions unintentionally scrubbed almost 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere. From the article: "Over the course of the century and a half run of the Mongol Empire, about 22 percent of the world's total land area had been conquered and an estimated 40 million people were slaughtered by the horse-driven, bow-wielding hordes. Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests. In other words, one effect of Genghis Khan's unrelenting invasion was widespread reforestation, and the re-growth of those forests meant that more carbon could be absorbed from the atmosphere." I guess everyone has their good points.
PlayStation (Games)

Split Screen Co-op Is Dying 362

Posted by Soulskill from the just-like-lan-parties dept.
kube00 writes "Split-screen co-op and local multiplayer are becoming things of the past. What happened to cramming a bunch of gamers into a room with two TVs and doing a system link match in Halo? Where have the all-night GoldenEye matches gone? Like the arcades of gamers' youth, the local multiplayer and co-op bonding experience has been replaced with individual gamers and a network."
The Courts

Man Sues Rockstar Saying GTA:SA Is Based On His Life 124

Posted by samzenpus from the a-life-full-of-missions dept.
dotarray writes "From the article: 'Rockstar Games are no strangers to legal action, but it doesn't come stranger than this. An American model, Michael Washington (known as "Shagg") is suing the publisher — as well as parent company Take Two Interactive — because they based Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on his life.'" It's a good thing Washington never learned the infinite ammo cheat.
Government

China's Influence Widens Nobel Peace Prize Boycott 360

Posted by timothy from the friends-of-un-friends dept.
c0lo writes "Not only did China decline to attend the upcoming Nobel peace prize ceremony, but urged diplomats in Oslo to stay away from the event warning of 'consequences' if they go. Possibly as a result of this (or on their own decisions), 18 other countries turned down the invitation: Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Iraq, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Venezuela, the Philippines, Egypt, Ukraine, Cuba and Morocco. Reuters seems to think the 'consequences' are of an economic nature, pointing out that half of the countries with economies that gained global influence during recent times are boycotting the ceremony (with Brazil and India still attending)."
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Denver Bomb Squad Takes Out Toy Robot 225

Posted by samzenpus from the I-feel-safer-already dept.
An anonymous reader writes "A robot met its end near Coors Field tonight when the Denver Police Department Bomb Squad detonated the 'suspicious object,' bringing to an end the hours-long standoff between police and the approximately eight-inch tall toy. From the article: "'Are you serious?' asked Denver resident Justin Kent, 26, when police stopped him from proceeding down 20th Street. Kent said that he lived just past the closed area, but was told he would have to go around via Park Avenue.'"
Hardware Hacking

Combining Two Kinects To Make Better 3D Video 106

Posted by Soulskill from the this-is-what-happens-when-yo dept.
suraj.sun sends this quote from Engadget about improving the Kinect 3D video recordings we discussed recently: "[Oliver Kreylos is] blowing minds and demonstrating that two Kinects can be paired and their output meshed — one basically filling in the gaps of the other. He found that the two do create some interference, the dotted IR pattern of one causing some holes and blotches in the other, but when the two are combined they basically help each other out and the results are quite impressive."

Comment Individual Insured bank deposits a big part (Score 2, Informative) 809

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34364418) Attached to: The Luck of the Irish Runs Out
A big part of the private debts were individual's insured bank deposits. Foreigners (like the British) deposited money in Irish banks and considered it safe because those deposits were insured by the Irish state.

In retrospect it is obvious that the state should not be insuring bank deposits when the amounts become so large relative to GDP, and maybe the Irish state should not have honored that pledge, but it's not stupid or corrupt of them to do so.

Also you can't blame this on free markets, insured deposits are extremely mainstream but have nothing to do with free markets. The problem with the regulators was that they were asleep or caught up in the exhilaration of the housing bubble.

Comment Re:Ivy League schools... (Score 1) 436

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34305368) Attached to: How the 'Tech Worker Visa' Is Remaking IT In America
If you want to cut an immigration program how about the immigration lottery? Right, there are 50K or permanent visas awarded annually to random applicants. How can that be better than giving visas to college graduates?

http://travel.state.gov/visa/immigrants/types/types_1322.html

The Congressionally mandated Diversity Immigrant Visa Program makes available 50,000 diversity visas (DV) annually, drawn from random selection among all entries to persons who meet strict eligibility requirements from countries with low rates of immigration to the United States.

Comment Re:Wrong (Score 2, Insightful) 542

by Punctuated_Equilibri (#34298084) Attached to: Google Warns Irish Government Against Tax Increase
So who has the right to express their views about policies? University presidents? Union leaders? The Pope? Why shouldn't corporations have the same right to expression?

Actually the problem of what government policies are best for the economy is complex to unsolvable, nobody knows the answers. You have the right to express what your position is, "tax the hell out of the corporations." Why shouldn't Google be able to say, "tax the hell out of us and we'll move somewhere else?"
Image

Australian Visitors Must Declare Illegal Porn To Customs Officers 361

Posted by samzenpus from the don't-blunder-down-under dept.
Australian Justice Minister Brendan O'Connor has advised visitors to take a better safe than sorry policy when it comes to their porn stashes, and declare all porn that they think might be illegal with customs officers. From the article: "The government said it changed the wording on passenger arrival cards after becoming aware of confusion among travellers about what pornography to declare. 'People have a right to privacy and while some pornography is legal and does not need to be disclosed, all travellers should be aware that certain types of pornography are illegal and must be declared to customs,' Mr O'Connor said."
Image

Cooking With Your USB Ports 188

Posted by samzenpus from the sorry-your-dinner-crashed dept.
tekgoblin writes "Wow, I would never have thought to try and cook food with the power that a standard USB port provides, but someone did. A standard port provides 5V of power, give or take a little. I am not even sure what it takes to heat a small hotplate, but I am sure it is more than 5V. It looks like the guy tied together around 30 USB cables powered by his PC to power this small hotplate. But believe it or not, it seems to have cooked the meat perfectly."
Image

Firefighters Let House Burn Because Owner Didn't Pay Fee 2058

Posted by samzenpus from the deadly-serious-homeowner's-association dept.
Dthief writes "From MSNBC: 'Firefighters in rural Tennessee let a home burn to the ground last week because the homeowner hadn't paid a $75 fee. Gene Cranick of Obion County and his family lost all of their possessions in the Sept. 29 fire, along with three dogs and a cat. "They could have been saved if they had put water on it, but they didn't do it," Cranick told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. The fire started when the Cranicks' grandson was burning trash near the family home. As it grew out of control, the Cranicks called 911, but the fire department from the nearby city of South Fulton would not respond.'"

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