Sounds like economic warfare to me.

Read my reply under this and think about it when eating salmon caught, processed and sold right here in the U.S., (Trident Seafoods, Peter Pan Seafoods, Icicle, Unisea to name a few), and exploitation hits home.

And the money probably stays within their economy. There is a similar situation in Alaska. The seafood industry hires workers for minimum wage. Those employees work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week for four months straight. The majority of these employees are from the Philippines, Ethiopia, Somalia, and the Ukraine. They are charged for room and board and airfare. The majority of the money they make goes back with them. They work through the most brutal aches and pains while ankle deep in fish guts with no heat because the money is worth it to them. They all go home for a month, most blow all their money and come back broke - year after year. In another light, a deck hand on a fishing vessel averages 0.018 cents a pound for salmon (due to different types of salmon and assuming a standard 10% share of the catch). The cannery sells it for around $3.85 a pound and they process 10,000 pounds or greater per hour. Now, how that turns into around $12.00 a pound at the grocery store is insane since transportation and frozen storage only count for a fraction of that price. It's like a big slap in the face - especially to the deck hand who takes the greatest risks and works for 18 hours a day. Anyway, that's the closest thing to a sweat shop I've seen in the U.S.. I'm interested to know more about the worst working conditions that you've seen in China - things like that don't seem to make it into the news. As for the main article, it seems like the author tried to jab China and Microsoft in a single blow. I am no fan of Microsoft either, but I am grateful for your contribution of clarity.

I'll bet you could taze them for a hit - a little more ethical than bestiality (I've heard stories of what crack heads will do with dogs for a fix).

Army recruits are good for testing too!

Spun out like a research monkey!

Eventually a lot more than the countries that buy those mice who produce none of their own.

Damn, there goes my hopes for glow in the dark marshmallows!

I'm not sure with humans, but I know that cattle get their beneficial bacteria mostly through the first milk of the mother. Then it develops from what you eat. If you eat certain things over and over, your beneficial bacteria will adapt to those things - though I do not know to what extent that adaptation goes. I took microbiology, but hopefully someone with more experience will chime in and explain it further. Something fascinating is the anaerobic digester ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaerobic_digestion ). It is basically a mechanical stomach and is used to reduce organic waste and produce methane. I heard about a leak from one of these once that had been fed with cow manure on a farm. The microbes got into the water supply and ate the scales off of fish. I'm sure that story is somewhere on the internet or in the EPA archives.

Some with weaker constitutions would flinch, but I'd give you a mod point if I had any at the moment. As an Alaska'n fisherman, let me tell you that North Pacific bull kelp will rip you up pretty good, but I mix mine with jelly fish for that extra zing! Prepare your bull kelp and brown snot looking jelly fish with vinegar and high voltage, about 30kV or so should do the trick - just enough to evaporate it within a minute. Any longer than that and it starts to get a funny after taste.. Once it has cooled, sprinkle it on smoked tuna or sockeye salmon. Wash it down with orange Jolt and Bacardi 151 - of course, you should only do this on shore at the local tavern. Feel free to experiment with other beverages suitable to your taste if you want to whimp out.

Enough said.

"It has to start somewhere, it has to start sometime. What better place than here? What better time than now? - RATM.

Ok, maybe I imply too much, that's a habit I have. Open source has definitely made its mark and affected the economy of software. Well, I think a good next step is to actually alter the infrastructure and overcome the so called evils of proprietary business practices. I'm saying rip it up by the roots and make it seem like a distant fading bad dream. Saying something is terribly wrong is in vain unless some extra effort is made to take it to the next level. It's standing up for what you believe in so strong and centered in your heart that it makes you overcome all obstacles to make it happen. I implied, why not learn to give and teach others the same? Enter the hardware market with that concept and all you have to show is that you are there! Let word of mouth keep flowing and watch it all change before your eyes! Let the movement eradicate the greed! I started using Linux because a friend showed me what was actually on a cd. From that moment on, I strove to find out what else had been hidden right in front of my face all along in every aspect imaginable! It woke me up and I felt right at home. I was quickly humbled by seeing all the things I had to learn if I wanted to see something work that wasn't there yet. I mean humbled! Instead of being greedy I became active and sometimes I still feel overwhelmed by all there is available and all the reading I need to do. Well, I'm still here and so are many others who have hung in there through all the bugs. I got two kids who bug me to let them use Fedora after they do their homework. They also have access to XP and a bunch of games - that are collecting dust! They hate it when a piece of hardware doesn't work, but they happily work with what they've got until they find a solution. It just makes sense to me to make a bigger move forward. Demolish the mindset of greedy rip-offs by replacing it with something that builds you up at the same time. Put it in their faces - the consumers faces.

Ya know, say what you will about Microsoft, Apple, Google etc... they are doing what businesses do and people are willing to pay or sacrifice freedom and/or privacy for what they offer. They got there because of marketing. I don't understand people who gripe about someone or something more successful or powerful than they are and/or what they support. If you're have the energy and insight to gripe, use that energy to find a solution - here's mine! Why not push for hardware manufacturers to not only provide open source drivers, but also put Tux right on the box as Linux compatible? Hell, why not build hardware specifically for Linux that can be used with other operating systems? Maybe I'm too much of a "noob" to really know what I'm talking about here, but it makes sense to me. You build it, they will come.

What about for saber toothed crotch crickets? I can see the advantages and it is a step forward, but it needs more development. That kind of research would make all other dirty jobs seem like nothing!

I don't know about you, but that little comment just made my fUc&!^g day! Thanks!

...... allow you to time travel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Repo_Man_%281984_film%29)! But the most sophisticated electronics in the Chevy Malibu were in its radio. Anyway, to stay on topic - Scientists need not to just point to cosmic radiation, they need to test this. What about pointing to the manufacturing process also!