jerome scuggs weekly 3:03 am "wtf" lsd thread

[Jerome Scuggs]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7484969.stm

The US has agreed to scrap immunity for foreign security guards in Iraq, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari says.

The US embassy in Baghdad has not confirmed the announcement, which comes as the US and Iraq are negotiating a controversial security pact.

Foreign firms employing thousands of guards won huge contracts in Iraq after the 2003 US-led invasion, but were not subject to Iraqi or US military law.

Not even Blackwater is "immune" (from what? government?) - but the telecom industry is! "Immunity" is going to be a buzzword the US can now grant and take away as it sees fit - can anyone not on drugs please make this make sense?

[Jerome Scuggs]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9401E2DC123FF937A25753C1A9679C8B63

from 2001

''If bin Laden takes over and becomes king of Saudi Arabia, he'd turn off the tap,'' said Roger Diwan, a managing director of the Petroleum Finance Company, a consulting firm in Washington. ''He said at one point that he wants oil to be $144 a barrel'' -- about six times what it sells for now.

[Izor]

because supply and demand has NOTHING to do with oil prices being the way they are..its all bin laden! and the govt!!!!

[Epinephrine]

I think Jerome's point is that it's comments like the one by that oil guy which helped prompt Iraq and the taking away of so many civil liberties (in the name of fighting terror) in the first place, and really it's ironic because oil is $144 anyway.

[D1st0rt]

I work with a guy who does stuff related to oil all day every day and he says most of what we're paying is speculation. Then he mutters something under his breath.

[Kolar]

Even if we're paying out of the ass for those speculating on future supply I don't think it will go below 130$ ever again. They would have to justify trading at 140-144$ somehow.

Edit: Interesting bit about the Subprime Crisis;
"Matthew Tannin and Ralph R. Cioffi, both former managers of hedge funds at Bear Stearns Companies, were arrested June 19, 2008. They are facing criminal charges and are suspected of misleading investors about the risks involved in the subprime market."

[D1st0rt]

here's a wtf for you:

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/07/judge-orders-yo.html

[milosh]

here's a wtf for you:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...orders-yo.html

wtf

[Kolar]

That's fucked up. Up here they're trying to push through a Canadian DMCA bill. 500-20,000$ for removing digital locks on content and other infringements. As always they claim it will only target for profit operations and not individuals but I have a feeling once the doors open a lot of people will be targeted for downloading nothing more then a TV show. It limits the ability to do time shifting and PVR records must self-destruct within a few days. Almost all Canadian ISPs implement network throttling to curb such habbits under the guise of network congestion.

"Although Google argued that turning over the data would invade its users' privacy, the judge's ruling (.pdf) described that argument as "speculative" and ordered Google to turn over the logs on a set of four tera-byte hard drives."

Speculative?

"Viacom also requested YouTube's source code, the code for identifying repeat copyright infringement uploads, copies of all videos marked private, and Google's advertising database schema."

Now that's fucking insane.

Btw, I didn't post that hoping to cause another public-private debate thread. I thought it was important to current economic difficulties since the subprime crisis pushed everything over the edge.

[D1st0rt]

Apparently the judge who made that ruling is 81. Why do we let people decide on things they don't understand?

[Jeenyuss]

do you honestly do lsd once a week?

[Zerzera]

I work with a guy who does stuff related to oil all day every day and he says most of what we're paying is speculation. Then he mutters something under his breath.

yeah, same with one of my friends. He is Arab and his family is faring pretty well by the insane increase of oil prices. It's one of the smartest moves of the 'rich'. Next scientists will claim that we are running out of oxygen and you have to pay extra to breathe.

[Squeezer]

here's a wtf for you:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/200...orders-yo.html

Google's already working on an appeal.

I don't understand how you enforce this. What if somebody unknowingly clicked on a bit of copywritten information and then closed it immediately? Wont they be just as guilty as say...Me (INTERNATS PIRATE EXTRAORDINARE!)?

[D1st0rt]

I saw somebody on the internet suggested that Google print it all out and physically hand it to them

[DoTheFandango]

and now that i've found cheap hashj
i will never never go back.