It seems that Microsoft isn't the only US company guilty of antitrust issues, according to an 8 year probe that has just wrapped up by the European Union's Competition Commission.

In a statement to Intel, Commissioner Neelie Kroes said the record $1.45 Billion (US) fine should come as "no surprise" given Intel had been deliberately acting to keep competitors out of the market for years. "Intel did not compete fairly, frustrating innovation and reducing consumer welfare in the process."

The EU's Competition Commission further announced that Intel cease illegal sales tactics in Europe that shut out their main competitor AMD.

AMD has for years claimed that Intel has been practicing high volume discounts, rebates, financial incentives plus intimidation of computer retailers, effectively shut AMD out of any chance at a market share.

Agreeing with AMD, regulators accused Intel of deals with computer manufacturers to buy all or most of their chips from Intel and gave them rebates or paid them to delay or stop their release of computers with AMD chips or limit their purchase of AMD chips entirely. Regulators also said Intel "went to great lengths" to hide this information, not including it in contracts, evidence of these anticompetitive practices were found in clandestine emails and statements from businesses, occasionally through surprise raids.

The Commission calculated the sum based on 4 percent of Intel's 2008 $37.6 billion in sales worldwide, and on the value of Intel's chip sales in the EU during the time it was breaking the EU's antitrust laws: 5 years and 3 months.

-According to the EU's anti-trust laws, the Commission could of pressed for a higher fine, up to 10 % of Intel's yearly sales for each year it was breaking the law.

- Intel should thank them for getting off easy.-

GMO/chemical giant Monsanto is taking a break from suing seed savers and attempting to charge money to organic farmers who have had the unfortunate opportunity to sample their GMO wares due to wind blown pollen contamination of their organic crops.

Yes, our favourite third world bully of small time farmers is seeming to take an altruistic look at the bigger picture. They claim they are undertaking a "commitment to help increase global food production in the face of growing demand, limited resources and a changing climate." Monsanto doesn't have profit on their minds this time it seems, according to their news release,

But how altruistic is it? Probing deeper, one of the 'not-for-profit' foundations it lists in its news release happens to be a lobby group whose purpose as cited by sourcewatch encyclopedia is "to work with governments, companies, non-governmental organizations, and research centres to negotiate the sales rights of genetically modified crops and bring new agricultural technologies to the African market" and is apparantly, funded in part by a number of biotech corporations, including, no surprise, Monsanto. Sourcewatch itself quotes Oryza.org for these facts and I encourage those who can read kanji to go to this original source.

It seems that Monsanto is interested in nothing more than making a profit off of the coming food shortages, and is attempting to set up an infrastructure to put this plan into place with intellectual property patents and hybridized GMO seeds that cannot be harvested and replanted, so the farmers have to keep coming back to the company to buy new seeds every growing season, at Monsanto's premium price.

People who do not think this is possible should look to the 3rd world, where the smallholder is already struggling to keep his own seedstock diversity, as giant biotech companies, Monsanto included, are attempting even now to put laws through the government that would make it illegal for the farmer to choose which seeds he or she is allowed to plant or save.

We really should not hold this poor multi-billion dollar company to blame. They have grown a hell of a lot from the company it was when it opened so many years ago selling saccarin in the US. Then again, it stole the formula from the original producer/patent holder in Europe. if you start with dishonesty, it is easy to continue on in the same path, and soon the rut you have carved is so deep you cannot climb out of it.

Either that or they *are* just profit scrounging dogs willing to sell out their mothers for bit change.

-m

Personally,
I think he used himself as the model for the guy on the original Advanced DnD 2 Players Manual Looting the Stone out of the Evil Demon Idol's Head Chachra, and the Demon finally caught him without his +133 bedsheets against demons in a hastily drawn chalk circle of protection.

Hastur, Duke of Hell: "YOU! I've been looking for YOU!"
Mr Gygax: (from his hospital bed) YIKES!... (then nonchalontly) Hi Hastur!, Long time no see.

          ---Hastur starts toward E.GaryGygax and pauses midstride as he notices the chalk. He pulls back his foot and surveys the floor around the bed carefully. EGaryGygax face breaks into a grin as he notices the demon's concernation. ---

Mr Gygax: heh heh... always gotta be careful you know!

      ---Looking up from his crouch, Hastur squints at the EGaryGygaX, the flames of the 9th level of hell burning back at his erstwile prey. After this long, it seemed that his quest of infernal revenge might not come to pass?---

                              ---Not this time, the day was HIS.----

Hastur Duke of Hell:(his mouth slits open like a knife cut throat, in an ear to ear evil grinchity grin) THAT'S NOT A CIRCLE, THATS NOT EVEN A BAD OVIOD!

          ---all at once and nothing first, Hastur swarms over the chalk and up onto the bed, a howl, like a million mothers sorrows screams in an instant turns to the EGaryGygax Death rattle then a thunderclap then silence.
          when the nurse comes rushing from her station, all that remains is a wisp of smoke, the faint smell of brimstone, and a scattering of oddly shaped coloured dice. ---

at least that is how I see it,

M

Kirkuk Iraq. Cholera: V. cholera Original Outbreak 08/17/07

• has spread to 9 out of 18 provinces across Iraq
• it is estimated that greater than 30 000 people have fallen ill
• 3 315 were identified as positive for Vibrio cholerae
• 14 dead so far

The disease continues to spread across Iraq. Epidemiological curves are still rising in the provinces from which the majority of laboratory-confirmed cases have originated:

The disease is continuing to spread across Iraq and dissemination to as yet unaffected areas remains highly possible. Epidemiological curves are still rising in the provinces from which the majority of laboratory-confirmed cases have originated, Kirkuk (2309) and Sulaymaniah (870). An increasing number of cases of acute watery diarrhoea has also been reported in Diala, a province neighbouring Baghdad. Although V. cholerae has not yet been laboratory confirmed, the clinical symptoms indicate the presence of cholera. The numbers of cases are remaining stable in Basra, Baghdad, Dahuk, Mosul and Tikrit. However, a case has now been confirmed in Wasit, a province that has previously been unaffected by the outbreak.

The only coverage you will find on this is with the World Health Organisation.

In the west, there has been absolutely no coverage of this event. As of this posting, It has not been listed on the CDC travel advisory website. Is it a case of 'too much news'? or is it the US' 'dirty little secret'?

Very savvy, one disabled insurgent takes 2 others to carry, and you can bet the US troops are up to date on their Cholera Vaccines.

Old school tech: according to legend, the Turks and Christians took turns lobbing disease riddled corpses at each other over walls of besieged cities in the middle ages. The US wouldn't do that would they? They got out of THAT business in 1969...

Right?

-Magdalene

I find it comforting to reflect on the fact that amnesty international letter writing campaigns actually work.

historic reference link
extra historic reference link

On the other hand, it's rather revealing, if not slightly frightening to think that extremest groups like the Army of Islam are more temperate, and willing to listen to public appeals for justice than the current US governing body.

According to National Geographic, the The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, came to a decision on June 2 to sell 60 tonnes of African Elephant ivory in a 'one time only' sale to Japan. The ivory coming from elephants in South Africa that had died of natural causes or had been culled legally. 30 tonnes from South Africa, 20 from Botswana and 10 from Namibia, with the profits going back to the conservation efforts in the 3 countries.

Kenya, other African countries and several conservation groups have opposed the sale citing that it would allow opportunity to launder large quantities of illegal ivory. There has been a global ivory trade ban in effect since 1989.

Trade in legal ivory, these countries argued, "provides an opportunity for laundering large quantities of illegal ivory."
The current black market price for ivory in Japan is $850.00 US a Kilogram.

The World Wildlife Fund is in support of the sale. Joanna Benn of the WWF Global Species Programme is quoted as saying there is no evidence that sales like this increase black market demand of ivory.

"This is probably going to be the most monitored controlled sale in the history of conservation, all the revenue from the stockpile has been pledged to go straight back to elephants and conservation," she said.

Recent research seems to point a finger at West and Central African countries as centres for black market ivory, while the 3 countries participating in the sale "have the strongest elephant management regimes anywhere in the world at the moment," Benn said. "This is why they've been so successful with their elephant populations."

The elephants were unavailable for comment.

So Im here at 436 having not been able to sleep. Tried to go to bed at 10, 11, and 12 respectively and then got up to watch a couple episodes of the HouseMD season 2 box set that has recently landed in my home. went back to bed at 2, still no luck watching the clock at 3 and 4 and now here I am at 4.36 posting to /. yay. . Sleeping pills aside. (go away and come back with some of your little friends!!! quaaludes perhaps! HAHAHAHAhahahahahahahahahahahaha!) My active frontal cortex chuckled gleefully at 10 pm.

Even now the old standards arent working. I even tried my old standby ' the anatomy of the eye'

"the frontal cilliary bodies attach to the supracilliary bodies..."

usually has me out like a light before i finish the second paragraph...

But here I am. pondering if it is worth tryiing to get any sleep now that it is closing in on dawn. I have early morning work to do.aieeeee. ah well... if only there were a pocket bible in the house, a couple of chapters of numbers would have me out like a light. the only one I have thought is i giant 18th century family bible complete with gold plated clasps in quattro format with full leather binding.. not a book to read in bed... sigh. If you see me tomorrow I may be having an out of body experience... asleep at the keyboard.

night night (hopefully).....(now where did I put Volume one of the pocket britannica set A to Asleep)

-m

"That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die."
-H.P.L.

My Cat died this week. His mom has been howling for him .. pining i guess.

He was not the sharpest tool in the shed in some accounts, but he was a good cat. In the 12 years since he came out of her rear end I hand raised him and he was my first 'baby'...Like most siamese he was kinda neurotic about being left alone and was either on my shoulder/lap/stomach or under my arm or leg when i was home.

I am still greiving for him but I have to keep it inside and 'be strong' most of the time for my son, how do you explain death to a 3 year old? In the end it was:

'he went to the cat doctor and the cat doctor said he had to go to where the really sick kitties go and they are better there... but to stay better he has to stay there, so he wont be coming home with us anymore. but he is in a good safe place now and is very happy there because he is feeling better'

at that point i was starting to cry and had to quickly tell him 'i was sad because i was going to be missing Spidey..and it was okay for him to be sad and miss spidey too because he couldnt come home again.' He just said 'NO!' and lightly smacked my hand and changed the subject 'read THIS Mummy!' pointing to a book... his way of coping I guess...

my son's first word was his name, he slept in his crib since he came home from the hospital.

  (lame i know, but a 3 year old just wont understand death, at least that is what the kids help line told me when i called after the vets office and before I got home)

it is truely exausting...

-im not even interested in fifa im that bummed about it.

-Magdalene
it sucks sometimes being the adult

We dance 'round the broken eggshells strewn carelessly; then we try locked doors and labyrinths as we attempt 'light talk',then: a walk 'round inside our minds through Spartan corridors ..

We ride; 'round, beneath his chariot Helois blinds me; confagration,chaos, flames and fury all lick up from the depths below seeming infinate....don't look to long into chaos... i must remind myself.. or it will draw you in and you will not be able to find your way back...

my hand instinctively goes up to protect my long dimmed eyes .

against this infinite brightness i wander the through unfamiliar territory of his mind, this 'chariot' one slight miss-step and i will fall, lost in the depths of HELIOS' depts of chaos, their conflagration of fury and flame. for a moment, i forget where i am and close my eyes, caught up in the beauty of it all, and smiling i wonder if this is what it was like for Aten's Wife...then i stumble.

My beloved, so much more divine, sees my misstep before I do,
reaching but a finger out stops my misstep from becoming my souls end in the chaos below.

to myself mistaken steps unplanned and out of nowhere as I stagger barely able to see the flooring

To my beloved, my misstep seems..,planned?...

My beloved forgets,... I possess not his map..nor his insights

but on his word would freely sutti and dance with chaos through eternity.

so its a minority government.

now. im scared.

this means there are enough uneducated people in canada to really mess things up but like canadians we had to do it just to see what it would be like to do.

"im not going to lick it.. YOU lick it..."
"are you ****ing nuts? its minus 20 out here..!"
"chickin shit. come on.. the bus isn't coming for another 45 minutes you ginch!"
"I am not a ginch you arsehole! YOU lick it!"
"lameass!"
"ginch!"
"fine!"
"i'll give you on of my beer!"
"hey you said your dad didn't have any! FAG!"
"lick the bus post and i'll give you ALL my beer!"
"okay"

*lick*

"AAAHTHHOLE! IM STHUCHK!"

*insert loud laughter much falling down and pissing of pants here*

yes folks.. these are canadians

these are the people who voted in Steven Harper.

but it is a minority government ... we have our nice safe beer foamy liberal cusion to fall back on just in case. that is of course if the beer is still there once the skin on our tongue grows back.

-magdalene

"...im not touch*type*ing im touch*Talk*ing. so no, my punctuation isnt good nor do i capitalise much of anything .. and my brain blithlely offers up the first fonation it has for every word it has. so its not perfekt."
'irc trained and certified'.

-magdalene

techgoddess monday thorugh thurday, temptress of the ensorcelled saturday evenings by appointment.

Wierdness

Loud

I could feel/see the cross section as it passed through my head

they said that it wasnt possible but i guess my brain just felt the heat and coalated the data in my visual cortex.
they went over and around my pituitary a couple of times, back and forth, up and down and side to side, went over my 'migraine spot' a lot. and concentrated on my right side more than my left. put some 'contrast media into my arm, and mostly went over my migraine spot again and above my right eye and sinus. there is something there that seems roughly garlic clove shaped but i am not sure how big. they went through it and around it then up and down over it twice. it kind of heated up my head like the old cell phones used to do when you talked on them for any length of time.

Gave me a killer migraine afterwords... I took a sleep med and slept for 16 hours afterwords. I get to find out what they saw on friday. yippee.
I still have a migraine.
im going back to bed now.

its wierd tho. my boyfriend is talking in his sleep...

im not sure what is geekier. the fact that he is talking in hexidecimal or the fact that I recognise it as such. //

"...im not touch*type*ing im touch*Talk*ing. so no, my punctuation isnt good nor do i capitalise much of anything .. and my brain blithlely offers up the first fonation it has for every word it has. so its not perfekt."

'irc trained and certified'.

-magdalene
techgoddess monday thorugh thurday, temptress of the ensorcelled saturday evenings by appointment.

the thing is, ive been sick for a long while.
its amusing how a day can change how you veiw things.
or a sleepless night
or a few nights without good sleep
or a few days without meds
one thing i am not here for is a pity party
sickness is like anything you pick at.
it bleeds
focus a microscope on anything and it will find something
my problem isnt being sick
my problem it seems is noncomplacency
i really dont care about whether or not im going to die
or how or when or even if my body is breaking down organ by organ or whatever.
i just want to know why?

WHY?

That is the question that most doctors wont answer.
they give you all the
"well its too soon to tell"s
and the
"we have another test booked on the *insert date here*"s
why is it that person A can walk up a set of stairs and not fall over and person B cant?
why is it person A s body works fine when person Bs body randomly shuts things off like some kid set loose at the master control switch?
i am content with my days
i am content with what i have been given
i am even content with being sick.
I just want someone to answer my answers:

What. Why. and When.

Even if the answer is I don't know, inshaaAllah and tommorow.

-m

As proposed here

The rules:

For the writers in the circle:

This should be a fun and quick exercise. What follows below are ten words randomly generated, you must them all in your work, though not necessarily in the order in which they are listed (though you do get bonus points if you do;-). The limits on the writing is simple:

* For prose, no more than 5 paragraphs.

* For poetry, no more than 20 lines.

* For a play, TV script, or screenplay, no more than a single brief scene

I will post my submission tomorrow in a new JE, and I would encourage you to post yours in a JE as well. On to the words!

1. Spacecraft
2. Parasite
3. Refugee
4. Volcano
5. Boiler
6. Generator
7. Jam
8. Photograph
9. Boxer
10. Onion

Some say of it as it passes into the inner space
"a spacecraft into the unknown"

Some say it is
"a parasite into the host, a virus, it feeds on till the time comes for it to feed outside the host as a refugee of the body"

Still others, being more technical, call it "the ultimate product, a volcano, an outburst, boiler and generator in one"

Artistic musical types might talk of it:
Its an exploion! A heat of the moment symphony brought forth in an ultimate musical jam, no score to follow, no preperation, no liner notes!"

Photographers might say:
"its like catching a moment of fury on film.. stillness in action. pugelism. a boxer's knockout in a black and white photograph with 800 speed film. ya know?"

Shrek would say "its like an onion, onions have layers"

What would I say?..hmm. "It is 1 and 1 makes 1. flesh begets flesh." and if you don't like it, use a condom.

---
--
-Magdalene Techgoddess Monday through Thursday, Temptress of Ensorcelled Saturdays by appointment.

I am unsure about where this solstice is going. It is already the 20th and i have no recollection of December even beginning. My last real collected thought about date and time was mid October. Since then i've had another breakdown and nearly lost it again at least 2 times i can count. Reality is way too random at the moment and my time continuum seems to move at a different rate than other peoples.

Mind you, I have had more than a few prescription drug induced 'thread the needle' of insanity's razor edge, experiences and unparalleled moments of unmitigated ecstasy-states where epiphany upon epiphany fell on me as rain; Often both at the same time.
Sanity can be fleeting sometimes, but I would not trade the last few months (seconds? days?) for anything.

I have been to Fey.

7 days for 7 months isn't it? I have eaten at the table of the dead. Consumed whole pomegranates in their underworld indiscreetly, juice spilling down my cheek as I consume bite after bite of information from my new best friends' data and information, so far removed yet so close to my own inner being. Downloading their very existence as fast as my sloppy human interface device can process their expanding universe of information. How can a month pass so quickly outside when inside this reality we trade sine and cosine as time stands still? What price will they ask when i leave? Will i care? Nothing will be too much, this is far too intense. My eyes have been opened. the first rays of unreflected light hit my retinas. Plato was right. My universe expands exponentially.

i feel i've stolen away so few days of freedom. yet here is solstice waking my dream, stealing me back, kicking. screaming...
not yet,
not yet...
NOT YET.

-magdalene

where i will write my stuff sometimes, those of you who dont like it can choose to not read. *GRIN*

thanks to rob for everything and its nice to be back.
-m