News Stories

[Slice of Life]

Could you explain that for a layman? I'm not convinced that the drop of the dollar is over. Quite the contrary. A cheap dollar will help the US economy in the long run (meaning: not before Obama's Clinton's McCain's second term) but whatever the US stocks do in terms of US$ they would first have to compensate for the loss in terms of € (or Singapore Dollar or whatever).

[4Tran]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Hmm, I might seriously consider a holiday in the US after all. Perhaps late spring, time and budget allowing.

You might want to go pretty soon. Fuel prices are much more likely to rise than to fall, so any savings might be offset by higher travel costs.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Speculators, particularly forex traders, will find a way to profit from short-selling. It's a long overdue correction, and I'm not particularly worried about the impact of the subprime crisis on East Asia, for the better part of 2008. The semiconductor industry will be the first to feel the pain though, now that the US is heading towards recession.

Asia is partially insulated by the American financial problems, but many Asian (and European for that matter) countries and companies have invested heavily in American securities - China's $1 trillion comes to mind. And then there's the possibility of a decline in exports to the U.S.

Originally Posted by Slice of Life

Could you explain that for a layman? I'm not convinced that the drop of the dollar is over. Quite the contrary. A cheap dollar will help the US economy in the long run (meaning: not before Obama's Clinton's McCain's second term) but whatever the US stocks do in terms of US$ they would first have to compensate for the loss in terms of € (or Singapore Dollar or whatever).

I'm a layman as well, and a cheap dollar is often good for reviving a domestic economy. However, the problem seems to be that the cheap dollar isn't happening in isolation. Instead, commodity and energy prices are probably going to increase even if the American economy declines. And of course, the subprime fallout still has a long way to go.

[Aoie_Emesai]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Forget gold. It's too late that now. At a time of crazy commodity prices, cash is king. If you've got sufficient liquidity to spare, now is the time to watch out for bargains in the US stock market.

Isn't gold what all countries based their money on? Without a bunch of gold to make your nations worth, isn't currency worthless?

[TinyRedLeaf]

The world has abandoned the gold standard since the 1970s. All the major trading currencies have since been free-floating, that is, they are no longer pegged to the value of gold. As for what influences the "value" of a currency, it's a combination of economics, fiscal policy and currency speculation.

Nonetheless, gold is traditionally viewed as a "safe haven" for value, especially during recessions. However, this time round, gold has already risen to astronomical prices, so in terms of value-for-money, it's not worthwhile to buy gold.

Basically, it's a gloomy time for many investors and speculators in Singapore. There is not much to buy, because everything has gone up to ridiculous prices, including real estate and property. Some guys are getting creative however. I've heard they started investing in wine. In any case, none of it matters to me, because I'm too poor to invest in anything in the first place.

[Kamui4356]

I really wish I had some money to buy gold when it was about $725 an ounce back in september... It's still expected to go up quite a bit more from what I hear.

Even better would have been when it was about $300 an ounce a few years ago. But who could expect gold would hit $1000 an ounce in a few short years when it had been fairly stable prior?

[aka Providence]

Wealth, Pollution now deadly sins

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...-23109,00.html

THE seven deadly sins have grown to at least 14 after the Vatican updated its 1400-year-old list of the worst moral failures to reflect the modern world.

The new deadly sins that may lead to eternal damnation are polluting, genetic engineering, being obscenely rich, drug dealing, abortion, pedophilia and causing social injustice, The Times newspaper has reported.

Quoting from Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, The Times reported that certain actions were so unholy that they needed to be deemed as “mortal sins” – not the less serious “venial sins”.

The man in charge of examining confessions and indulgences for the Vatican, Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti, told the Vatican newspaper that priests should be aware of the “new” sins.

“New sins have appeared on the horizon of humanity as a corollary of the unstoppable process of globalisation,” Monsignor Girotti said.

“You offend God not only by stealing, blaspheming or coveting your neighbour’s wife – but also by ruining the environment, carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos.”

The other “new” mortal sins included taking or dealing drugs and causing poverty or the “excessive accumulation of wealth by a few”, Monsignor Girotti said.

According to the Catholic Church, “immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into Hell.”

well, this is kinda odd.

[escimo]

"carrying out morally debatable scientific experiments, or allowing genetic manipulations which alter DNA or compromise embryos."

I feel a bit of a conflict brewing between scientific and religious communities.
I see genetics as a field of science that's going to grow the most in the quite near future.

Guess it comes down to a hot potato that is evolution vs. creationism.
As the Catholic church has pretty much dropped creationism I find listing genetic manipulation as a mortal sin a bit odd. If we're not God's creations what is there actually to protect.
Well can't say that's the only thing in catholic teachings that eludes me.

[teachopvutru]

I'm more wondering whether or not it's for them to decide what's mortally sinful...

Also I agree that that news is pretty odd...

[Pendevous]

I think that belongs more to the silly news. I just don't get it why they would consider it sinful for something as mundane as pollution. I mean, in this modern world, it's quite inevitable yet ("yet" since we are currently looking for alternatives)

[aka Providence]

^i guess so, plus i think there are far worse things than dealing drugs and abortion.

[Pendevous]

Btw, the Catholic Church didn't quite clarify what they mean by "pollution." If they consider natural pollutions like volcanic eruptions and twisters, then the heck that's just wrong.

Have they considered what Pope John Paul II might have thought of this rule if he is still alive?

[Slice of Life]

Originally Posted by Pendevous

Btw, the Catholic Church didn't quite clarify what they mean by "pollution." If they consider natural pollutions like volcanic eruptions and twisters, then the heck that's just wrong.

[Irony]I'm sure that's exactly what they meant. But volcanoes kill people, that means they go to hell in any case. And that's why it's so hot in hell. It all makes sense now.[/Irony]

Looks as if this hit home at some people. How dare somebody claiming the moral authority to say that polluting the environment is a bad thing to do. This is terribly offending, because y'know I might feel bad next time I dump my trash into the woods.

Originally Posted by Pendevous

Have they considered what Pope John Paul II might have thought of this rule if he is still alive?

Why should they and why do you think this would have changed anything. I can't remember the last pope being a vocal advocate of ruining the planet. Well, I actually do remember him being that but that has more to do with ideas about contraception.

[WanderingKnight]

The new deadly sins that may lead to eternal damnation are [...] being obscenely rich [...]

Umm... so I guess owning a city ornamented with a fuckton of gold doesn't qualify as being "obscenely rich", does it?

[aka Providence]

not to bash the church or anything, but i think it's a pretty stupid idea to add more sins and say that doing that damns you. i mean, what next? would there be another update several years into the future, like adding stuff like filesharing and loli hentai by any chance?

[feRfe]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3689881.ece
THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

[xris]

I must admit, I see nothing in the article that backs any of this as "new" technology. As the comments to the article say, all they have done is apply existing technology to obtain faster possible speeds in theory. None of it will matter to the most of us since we do not have optic cable running to our houses and into the back of our PC.

Anyway, merged with the existing News Stories thread until something is released that would warrant a thread of its own

[Kyuusai]

Originally Posted by feRfe

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle3689881.ece
THE internet could soon be made obsolete. The scientists who pioneered it have now built a lightning-fast replacement capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds.

At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, “the grid” will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds.

As xris said, this is not really anything new, just a new application of existing technology. Well, parts of it are new, and that's the dynamic switching they're referring to. It's not really anything technologically revolutionary, though, just different ways of managing what we have.

I have a friend (a former co-worker) who's actually getting to work on this stuff at his new job at the local university. Think of it like being able to dynamically reserve lanes on the highway from one end to the other. Only instead of lanes on a highway we're talking about light wavelengths over a fiber.

Fiber or no fiber, you'll probably never have the ability to do this from home since networking across different layers of networking infrastructure just doesn't work in a way that accommodates this and likely won't in the future--especially when it gets down to the last mile. As well, arranging it requires a LOT of co-operation between equipment and management (which is part of what the people developing this stuff are working on at the moment) and between organizations (which is highly unlikely to get down to the home level). Of course, home users likely won't have the need for something like this, either, so there's no need to fret.

[feRfe]

calm down kids it'll be availabe to the public in < 10 years

[Xellos-_^]

Originally Posted by feRfe

calm down kids it'll be availabe to the public in < 10 years

Al Gore will invent it

[Pendevous]

Animals skinned alive for fur

When undercover investigators made their way onto Chinese fur farms recently, they found that many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut.

When the fur is finally peeled off over the animals' heads, their naked, bloody bodies are thrown onto a pile of those who have gone before them. Some are still alive, breathing in ragged gasps and blinking slowly. Some of the animals' hearts are still beating five to 10 minutes after they are skinned. One investigator recorded a skinned raccoon dog on the heap of carcasses who had enough strength to lift his bloodied head and stare into the camera.