Except that it didn't. What the science is showing us is that it was the Bonobo chimps tendancy for co-operation allowed them to rear and protect more young and develop the problem solving abilities that led to tool making and the evolutionary advantage of a larger brain.

It's a shame that you think that way because I always though Americans were at their best when they work with others for mutual benefit. Perhaps you think you are a rock-star technologist and have forgotten that it takes teamwork to create something worthwhile, i.e. co-operation.

Or maybe you are just the asshole at work that everybody cannot stand being around, the one who makes it a misery for everyone else at work and doesn't poses the social skills to be able to interact with people in a civil manner, i.e. The bully.

I've got news for you, your way of thinking, interacting and generally getting by in a generally sociopathic way is obselete. The kind man is invincible because he has no enemies and it's the same in business. If this wasn't the case you wouldn't have seen such a radical shift in that attitude of Microsoft as it does business. They know people hate them and only worked with them because they had to.

If you think that that kind of viciousness is a strength then it is little wonder there are so many people living in America below the poverty line. I doubt you feel any empathy for them as your belief system probably make you feel entitled to a job. You'll feel entitled to empathy when you and the company you work for are shown no mercy, torn limb from limb and spat back onto the gutter where you belong because you made so many people hate you.

Viciousness is the advantage of a fool.

SUCK MY BALLS MICROSOFT, but I'm really tired and it could have said something about Youtube as well.

I was reading somewhere about gas giants exerting so much pressure on hydrogen that it turns into a metal and was wondering if there was some other state to iron if it is under so much pressure and heat that it doesn't melt but ends up in some sort of "super-state". So from what you are explaining Iron is already in a state that is similar to diamond. Now I start to think about the states of the material, wondering if diamond can melt or if Iron can be a gas, it might be a little much for a sunday afternoon with a hangover.

One of my siblings has a Physics degree, so I'll ask next time I see him. Thanks for putting me in the right direction.

why do people ruin it by polishing away it's surface and cutting it into unnatural shapes?

Women. They love shiney. Diamond is ++shiney++, the shiniest of the shiney. I looked up the octahedron, a fascinating shape and, what builds on it - amazing.

I appreciate the explanation, I suppose the area I'm delving into is the subject of some pretty intense research that sounds completely fascinating enough to want to understand more. Thank you.

Just out of curiosity, what is your country?

Australia.

the justice system can't be perfect because it exists to resolve disputes between imperfect people.

Indeed.

There are a few examples of "perfect" systems that fail miserably, communism is idealistically perfect and yet the now defunct Soviet Union's implementation was riddled with corruption and inequity. Native american Indians lived in a very harmonious society, along came the europeans and took up a plan to wipe them out. Human beings are born completely vulnerable, harmless and innocent but the christian church has declared that everyone is born a sinner.

I think our "modern" notions of idealologies that describe a society, Communism and Capitalism, are both riddled with imperfection that manifests as the corruption that has destroyed them both. Corruption in our society is the thing that makes our idealologies imperfect and as a race we are too niave to accept that we are not as smart as we think we are, that our biggest enemy is human nature. That human nature is born harmless and innocent, but we soon grow out of that and I think that the expression "sinner" just means that we are imperfect. It is that imperfection that causes the corruption in our societies.

If some force has caused the status quo be altered than the justice system is there to examine whether the forces involved are lawful or not and what "punishment" or reparations are required to re-establish that status quo.

Agree. I think what is at issue is what is the status quo? What is required to make it more fair to normal, everyday people whilst powerful people weild such influence.

With more laws being passed with secret or classified clauses we can be sure the status quo is changing into something that is less equal, less fair and more fascist. But how those changes will effect lives of Americans is still too subjective an issue to say anything definitive except that we continue to depend on the good judgement of our public servants and citizenry to take those issues and smooth them over by continuing to work for the good of the people.

Those changes are happening everywhere. I'm dismayed to say that whilst some of the provisions of the patriot act will eventually sunset in the US, they will not inside of Australia. I seems we have quite an active intelligence apparatus here and whilst they probably do a good job in general (though I have no idea what that might be) it doesn't mean I have to like the constant intrusion by the government into my affairs.

Free should mean free and as answerable to our imperfections as a society as we are to the justice system for illegal activity. Undermining freedom in a democracy just means we are undermining democracy. Undermining democracy anywhere means we are undermining it everywhere and I feel that democracies are the minority in the world. No matter how much I try to write and talk to people there are never enough people protecting the fragility of democracy and another imperfection, apathy, will eventually be our undoing.

Personally, I can't share any sympathy for either of the two brothers; their methods have caused more damage to the cause for freedom and the persistance of those values in the Bill of Rights than they can imagine. Their actions make everyone think that a war on terror is a good idea. Besides that, they have left only suffering and grief in their wake and their legacy will stand as that of a public villan.

Absolutely. I have little doubt that this will be used as a staging post by the domestic bad guys to take a few more freedoms away. Personally, I'd rather live with the risk. Governments should be answerable for their lack of ability to act on the information they receive, yet nowadays it seems that incompetance is an excuse to take away the very freedoms that our societies are supposed to represent. Terrorism is a desperate and unimaginative act caused by governments who do not listen.

The falacy of "We do not negotiate with terrorists" has to be challenged because the reality is it is promoting more terrorism. Unless it is a random act of violence, terrorists have a motivation and I want to know what it is that has made them violent so that maybe we can remove that motivation to commit terroist acts in the first place.

After all, we used to listen.

There is a way to restore freedom. But it isn't easy and most everyone needs to want such a restoration and be willing to pay a price. People need to see the value in seeking more perfection in themselves before that perfection can have an effect on the freedom issue.

I think this is the difference between a Civillian and a Citizen. A Civilian will sit around, watching their sport, and take pot shots a people defending democracy as "political" or "whiners" or some other term. I beleive a Citizen is someone who participates in a democracy, not just by voting, but by writing letters to politicians and trying to change things for everyone in a peaceful way through the legislative process. They are the partners of democracy.

It's these Citizens who are the truest enemy of the terrorist. They defend themselves with pens and intellect whilst being the potential victim of the terrorist (facist or militia). They serve a community who often criticises and misunderstands their efforts to correct the many imperfections in society.

I'm still formulating my ideas on this. Possible.

I started by participating, and not being afraid of government. Surprisingly politicians listened and wrote back to me. I think if you are respectfull and intelligent they will respond, after all they are no different from you or me. It doesn't mean you have to be a politician, just be aware of the issues that affect you. I started by simply pointing out that what the house thought was a good idea, was a dumb idea and, politely, pointed out why.

Even this forum is a good place to start as a healthy exchange of ideas is the life of a healthy democracy. John F Kennedy said two pertinant things Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable and The time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.

I fear we are heading towards the depotism Franklin warned the US constitution would not protect against and that violence is the storm clouds gathering.

Yes, because it is transient memory, not a digital recording. If the government had done it's job in the first place there wouldn't even have been a bombing. They were warned by Russian intelligence but chose not to follow up on the lead. Since when does incompetence and the government not doing their job protecting the population give them the right to undermine the freedom of the population. If you're telling me that two ameteur bomb makers can travel overseas, get training, buy material, assemble a bomb, plant it and then detonate it with all of the intelligence apparatus we've already got then we all may as well admit that democratic society is a failed experiment.

It's about personal freedom, try to keep that in mind. I'd rather live with the risk of being blown to peices because I don't want to live in a police state where I am watched randomly and all it means is the prison no longer has bars and walls.

I'm a long way off being a geologist but is it possible that the pressure on the solid core is so great that it becomes some state anagolous to a carbon diamond - but for Iron, hence an Iron Diamond. It's strange to think of the molten Iron around the solid core as a lubricant for the rest of the crust above and the core below it but maybe that's what it takes to apply that pressure and create that state of Iron Diamond.

I don't know - I'm just putting it out there and it's probably already been thought of, so maybe there are some geologists out there that can clue me in.

Thank you for such an insightful response. Most of your points are reasonable and agreeable - so I will start with the one that I don't quite understand;

Justice is never denied, it's just misunderstood from time to time.

I say justice is denied because apart from the justice system being imperfect by design, there are those powerful enough to deny their opponents justice. This may take the form of a corporate entity versus a person or a community or a set of vested interests that are being maintained. America does do justice well in an individual way but systemically it could better on a day to day basis.

Having had a few days to see how things pan out I suspect the visibility of this case will now ensure that it is done by the book and my position on the scapegoat has changed. I think the radicalisation of the older brother made him have a 'you won't take me alive attitude' that the younger sibling doesn't share.

Personally I am a great admirer of the Bill of Rights American citizens have established and think it should be used in my own country.

I'm certainly grateful for your rationality.

A scape goat does not know they are guilty until they are told that they are guilty. This way any justification to support whatever laws are required to comfort and protect the population from the bad people can be made without some pesky excuse like "innocent until proven guilty". Consequently the best way to prevent a "suspect" from "proving" their "innocence" is to kill them as to avoid and such inconveniences.

Only the outcome will point to the source motivation as, like the slow boiled frog, your freedom and democracy is progressively turned into a parody of itself while the bulk of the population are herded and corralled into body scanners everytime they leave or enter a building. We have to face it that we will never know the truth of these things whether they are a ill-prepared government or an adgenda being executed.

It's probably incompetance, but that's a good reason to get rid of some more freedom. Meanwhile access to guns and explosives to cause such devestation goes on and the original meaning behind having those guns, to have a government fearful of its population in case of despotism, is lost.

If you want to have freedom and democracy then there is some risk that you will die from someone using a weapon. Yet there are those who will complain and not accept the cost of their complacency that addresses the source of motivation for terrorism.

Yet again, the people are denied Justice.

Probably, it's just unlikely that you can hear it.

Coincidentally I have been comparing the two over the last week and have found the Xen project to have fewer barriers to installing and using than the RH KVM. Much of the subscription model of RH makes installing and using KVM quite painful. I'm sure it's great for what it does but it seem the barriers for entry to use it are also quite high.

I'm looking forward to applying SOA tools to Xen as it seem to be quite a good fit.

Maybe chicken tastes like dinosaur

This is how America treats it's patriots, those who swore to protect the nation against domestic threats. The corruption that eats away at America is almost complete. The fear of the government in America has turned most of the population in to unquestioning slaves that beleive whatever they are told.

Greed and the desire for material gains has turned that beacon of democracy into a parody of it's aspirations. Anyone who tries to fight this corruption and greed will have their unalienable rights trampled.

How long will the average American citizen tolerate this bastardisation of ideals that the rest of the world looked up to and once America sinks into despotism (as Benjiman Franklin said of the constitution) which world power will take it's place?

I don't really like the alternatives.

So true. I think, if the legal construct is the same as the one used in Australia anyway, this activity required an interception warrant - which was harder to get than a normal warrant.

I'm wondering if the phone was locked, as this guys phone obviously wasn't, would the cops require a normal warrant to unlock and search the phone - just as they would require a warrant to search a car or house.

Of course there is the tantalising possibility of requiring the officers fingerprint or face recognition photograph to temporarily unlock the phone...

I don't think that is very fair. I'm a geek and I've been explaining the dangers of Nuclear power from an engineering and science perspective for many years now.

I understand the dogmatic type of person you are talking about but I think it has more to do with social proof and the beliefs a person holds about Nuclear Power than being a geek. It's pretty easy to get lulled into complacency by the nuclear industries propaganda and the long term nature of the industry.

There are a lot of aspects to the issues of the nuclear industry and stereotyping this group or that group won't really help us deal with the issues that will remain no matter who is to 'blame'. Over the next decade as more and more Nuclear plants move into old age we are going to need the geeks talent to solve problems as much as we need the socially adept person to negotiate political solution, the legal person to navigate and construct new laws.

The retirement of the Nuclear industry and how to do it so that it doesn't impose a hidden tax on future generations will need many talents focused on solutions.

If we don't, history will judge our entire generation as those who failed to deal with the issue, not just geeks.

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