I don't think you have to be a hero-worshipper of Assange to believe that there's a difference between facing criminal charges in Sweden, and being rendered off to Gitmo to face a US kangaroo court. Personally, I don't like Assange, I think his strategy re: wikileaks has been misguided and harmful, and he handled the revelation of the US cables badly. I have no opinion on his guilt or innocence with regard to the rape accusations, and under normal circumstances I'd agree that he should have to appear and answer those charges. But you only have to look as far as Bradley Manning and what's being done to him to see that there's a real risk that Assange is going to end up in US hands and receive the exact opposite of justice if he comes out of his hidey-hole. Nobody - and I do mean nobody - deserves that.

Except server machines are a class of their own, not desktops. Oops. Okay, I'm going to go have some more coffee.

By 2014 the desktop will be a special-purpose device only, with a market consisting mostly of development and server machines (which linux already has a health share of now). No victory there.

Illegally obtained evidence can be ruled still admissible in Canadian courts. It's not automatic, the trial judge would have to rule on the admissibility on a case by case basis, depending on
1) the seriousness of the Charter-infringing conduct of the State
2) Impact of the Charter-Protected Interests of the Accused
3) Society's Interest in an Adjudication on the Merits

Basically, if the charge is serious and the cop can come up with a good reason for the breach, the evidence will probably go in. If the officer in charge basically just didn't care about your rights and dumped all over them, well then the Crown would have some trouble.

"briefly" in this case means, I believe, several months. We looked into retrieving them as customers for use (long story, not getting into it), and I think we had 6 months or more to make the request for the text messages.

Psst. They're our signals coming back to us from Voyager. Source of the signal is human technology and thus (ostensibly, but I'm starting to wonder) intelligent.

tl;dr:
Whoosh.

Of course you're right, that'll be a factor, but it may not be the determinative factor for the US or China, even if it is one for South Korea. Also, a lot will depend on how confident the US feels about its ability to pre-emptively take out most of NK's artillery. There are a lot of unknowns here, of course.

That made me laugh out loud. And then, depressed. Well played, Impy, well played.

I wish. If every world leader did that, we could eliminate war overnight.

I don't think that's quite what I suggested in my post; no question that North Korea's army is no joke, but I do think that South Korea with the US backing them would be able to take North Korea, if China decides to sit out hostilities.

Indeed. But I think there have been signs of a shift in Chinese support for NK. The UN vote today on sanctions is one of those signs; the news was reporting that some of the terms were negotiated between the US and China. There have been other hints in the last few months. I think either two things are happening; either China is getting nervous and starting to cut NK loose, or NK is sabre-rattling in public and working like hell for a de-escalation of tensions in the back room, and they're trying to do it in such a way that everyone saves face. I'm hoping for the latter, but suspect it's more likely the former.

If China can line up its army in the Himalayas and wash India out to sea in a tidal wave of piss, they can keep a flood of refugees from crossing into their territory. If things get bad enough, you might even see the North Koreans caught between the hammer of the US forces on one side and the anvil of the Chinese forces on the other. Not likely, but possible.

Well I think my reference to purchasing power indicates pretty clearly which version of "need" I was thinking of. As Slick Willy says, "It's the economy, stupid." Wen Jiabo's (sp?) parting speech made it pretty clear that internal economics is a priority in China. As to your other two points, I think that you have a point, but there have been signs lately that Beijing is getting tired of North Korea and their shit. The resolution that is going through the UN today is I think probably going to be unopposed by China, which is a first. Part of the reason North Korea is doing so much sabre rattling is that in recent months the Chinese have been sending signals that they may not be willing to support a nuclear-capable North Korea any more than the US or Japan or any other of the local players. The scales are tilting, quietly, which is what has North Korea's knickers in a knot. I'd be very surprised if, underneath all the bluster from Pyongyang, North Korean diplomats aren't working around the clock to find a face-saving way of de-escalating tensions with the US.

That would be an atrocity and a war crime. The US doesn't do bad things like that, does it? Does it?

Actually, they are at war. There's a cease-fire in place, there's no fighting to speak of, but the Korean war hasn't actually ended.