Excerpt: " The deal, signed at Iran's Bushehr atomic plant in the south of the country, calls for Russia to supply uranium fuel and for Iran to ship back spent nuclear materials. Observers say the agreement will facilitate the activation of Iran's first atomic power station perhaps in a matter of months."

So they'll just have FedEx pick it up and deliver it back. No problem. -Pk

International Reaction to Iran-Russia Nuclear Pact Varies

This really got my blood boiling the other night. How the bloody sin can RIM, with it's customer base, not have better HA/DR solutions in place? Grr. -Pk

Major Blackberry Outage

Excerpt: "Aside from reliance on feelings, how else can one explain a person who believes, let alone proudly announces on a bumper sticker, that "War is not the answer"? I know of no comparable conservative bumper sticker that is so demonstrably false and morally ignorant. Almost every great evil has been solved by war -- from slavery in America to the Holocaust in Europe."

I found myself laughing, cringing, and cursing at various points in this article. He chooses examples that touch nearly every hot-button issue in today's political environment and I almost find that unfortunate.

One example I can't, under any circumstance, get my head around is "For liberals, the entire worth of the human fetus is determined by the mother's feelings. If she feels the nascent human life she is carrying is worth nothing, it is worth nothing. If she feels it is infinitely precious, it is infinitely precious."... and Conservatives do what exactly?

At the end of the article he hits on this veryyy lightly with "To be fair, feelings also play a major role in many conservatives' beliefs. Patriotism is largely a feeling; religious faith is filled with emotion, and religion has too often been dictated by emotion. But far more conservative positions are based on "What is right?" rather than on "How do I feel?""

I wish somebody would write something about right/feelings/_REALITY_...

I have no other way to explain this selection other than to say it elicits reaction. ;-) Cheers, -Pk

Liberal feeling vs. Judeo-Christian values: Part VI

Excerpt: "It’s ironic that some of the same people who deride the narrow moralism of the “values voters”—Jane Smiley in her now-infamous rant in Slate, for instance—also deplore the “greed” driving Bush’s re-election. Greed is to the moralists of the left what sex is to the moralists of the right."

There are other choice sections in that article, including the bit about Bush voter demographics, Ah-nuld, etc.

Worth a few minutes of your time. Cheers, -Pk

The “Values” Panic

Excerpt: "According to Reuters, India's state-run aerospace industry "aims to take a page out of the IT sector's book by promoting itself as a potential offshoring base for foreign companies." State-owned Hindustan Aeronautics already makes aircraft doors for Airbus, part of Europe's EADS, and has signed a technical agreement with Lockheed Martin to share data on Lockheed's P-3 Orion surveillance aircraft, the story said. India is considering buying F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, according to Reuters."

I know a whole company full of people that'd be interested in this. -Pk

Of aerospace offshoring and 'free' trade

Excerpt: "Putin also made it clear to these countries that UN has lost its backbone and EU nations may stand pat."

I convieniently left out the intro to the article which concentrates on American interests. -Pk

Putin makes Russia and BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) alliance ready for military confrontation

Excerpt: "In all of the commentary about the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, not much attention has focused on the act's creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). This entity has some truly unique and troubling features. Although it was established by congressional legislation, it is a District of Columbia not-for-profit corporation, not a government agency. It is supposed to be a self-regulatory organization for the auditing activities of the accounting industry, but it is not supported by the industry it regulates; instead, it was authorized by Congress to fund itself by levying fees on all public companies--essentially a tax on the economy as a whole."

SOX in my experience has gotten way out of hand and I'm only seeing the tip of it in my work. It's not bad in concept but the current implementation, and the people doing the enforcement, are all out of whack. This article covers a major component of it. Cheers, -Pk

Rein in the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

Excerpt: "Since the team's findings show that very similar chemical compounds are made by humans and naturally by many plants and animals, Teuten and Reddy say many more questions need to be answered, among them whether these natural compounds are affecting the health of whales or other animals that accumulate them."

*gasp* You mean we're not the only ones causing harm to nature? You mean nature might actually be somewhat responsible too? Not that we're doing a good job.. but people forget these sorts of things. -Pk

Chemical compounds found in whale blubber are from natural sources, not industrial contamination

No excerpt needed... it's just funny and interesting. So we really do look like blubbering idiots to our babies? ;-) -Pk

Babies Brainier than Thought

Excerpt: "There are also plans to invest a further US$8 million for development of a solar tower in China."

I wish they'd spend that money to help people retrofit local buildings and homes as opposed to having to waste with tranmission issues. Cheers, -Pk

Site Agreed for Australian Solar Tower, Plans for Solar Tower in China