Mission Accomplished: World’s second largest oil reserve opened to the imperialists

It is fitting that today’s deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq’s cities coincides with a meeting in Baghdad to auction off some of the country’s largest oil fields to companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and British Petroleum.

It is a reminder of the real motives for the 2003 invasion and in whose interests over one million Iraqis and 4,634 American and other Western troops have been killed. The Iraq war was, and continues to be, an imperialist war waged by the American ruling elite for control of oil and geo-strategic advantage. [Oil and Iraq Withdrawal- WSWS]

Some interesting comments from Reddit entry

What seldom gets mentioned in discussions like this is no conspiracy or planning is necessary. This sort of thing has happened in dozens of countries all over the world starting most famously in the Hawaiian Islands. It’s called American Economic Imperialism and it’s a well-documented and studied subject, especially outside of the US and by the likes of Noam Chomsky, Naomi Klein, etc.

It goes something like this:

1. US companies (or in the case of Iraq, western multinationals) have some problem doing business in a country. That is, they’re having trouble enslaving the locals and paying effective bribes to the national leadership. (In Iraq, Saddam kicked the multinationals out in 1975. That wasn’t enough because he was still politically useful, no one had the strength or political will to do anything, and there was the specter of Iran. Before Iraq War II, Saddam famously started trading oil in Euros. The first country to do so, if I remember correctly. They were invaded within months – an invasion so hastily thrown together that for years later the US was still fighting "insurgents".
2. Companies complain to their respective governments, "Call a WAAAAMMMMMM-bulance! X is an evil dictator! He won’t let us enslave the locals and take all their natural resources for the price of a bribe!" These same companies might try to plant stories in the media as well in order to sway popular opinion.
3. National governments – most likely democracies which make decisions based on popular opinion – decide that X is an evil dictator. Pretty soon shit is all God wined. An attack is all but inevitable at this point.
4. X is Hitler! No, X is worse than Hitler! We must kill X! X’s country is invaded. X is deposed. The US (in modern times the US always leads the invasion) installs a puppet government that lets multinationals enslave the locals and take whatever resources they want for the price of a bribe. Now everyone is happy.

Of course, it’s hard to reduce this sort of thing. There were multiple financial incentives for the US to invade Iraq – not just oil.

The US, and the entire western world (see "colonialism") have a hundreds-year-old history of using their military might to force trade on other nations and to maintain economic superiority. Basic history, folks. What you’re seeing in Iraq is no different than anything European powers did during the colonial era. To not be able to see something this obvious makes me wonder if someone is completely ignorant of the basics of history, politics or economics.

For the most blatant example of US economic Imperialism, look up Admiral Perry and Japan.

With that all said, if the US wanted to stay rich, this was the best move. With Iraq selling their plentiful and cheap oil in dollars only the dollar’s reserve currency status is improved drastically. Opening up Iraq to US and international commerce is just a nice bonus. Unless you want the US to be as poor as Mexico, invading Iraq was a smart move. But please no illusions – like almost every other war ever fought, Iraq was about money. [interrogative]

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No links were present in their original articles and was added by me. Picture copied from:http://www.thewe.cc

Running Windows malware programmes in Linux in Wine

Wine is program that you can use to run some Windows applications under Uinux like OSs.  Many GNU/Linux users it run unavoidable Windows software.

McAfee Avert Labs’ Lokesh Kumar did an interesting research, finding out whether it is possible to run viruses that was originally written for running in Windows in Wine windows emulator.

Although running Windows applications in Wine has its advantages, it also comes at a price: bringing Windows malware into Linux. I’m aware that it isn’t Wine’s responsibility to distinguish between a malicious and a nonmalicious file, and that Wine shouldn’t have any problem running a malicious file; however, I had this morbid curiosity to see how well today’s malware would fare running on Wine, and so began an experiment ……

McAfee Avert Labs

My intial thought was that it won’t rune perfectly. I based my assumption that Wine is not good for running all Windows softwares, we can run only minimal ones there.

But, how wrong I was.

Three times the malware ran, as it should, under native Windows. At one time it failed also.

He also gives some tips that you can use to prevent anything like this happening to you, but I believe the chances are minimal..

Never run Wine applications as root.

Wine maps the root directory, the user’s home directory, CD ROMs and removable devices found, and these mappings are listed in “~/.wine/dosdevices/”. Consider deleting these except the link to your drive_c.

Do not set the file association for Windows executables with Wine. This would enable the running of Windows executables in Wine by simply double-clicking them.

Administrators should think twice before installing Wine on a Linux server. These machines are seldom turned off, and so the problem that a malware faces in Wine with respect to autostarting its code when the machine boots up, I mentioned this earlier, would become void.

Weather and History

Here it started the monsoon on 29th of the last month. I’ve completed my school education, but the memories are still with me. Especially the effect weather have on us, children that go to school, extra tuition classes etc. So the weather conditions have effect over even simple life of me. So, I was not really surprised to think about its effects on the course of history, but it surely was very interesting.

A number of ways come to mind. The drought that affected the Middle East brought the Akkadian Empire of Sargon and Naram Sin to an end 2250 BCE. Carpenter has shown that the Bronze Age civilisations collapsed as a result of weather perturbations and that this seems to be associated with the stories of Joseph and Moses – pretty significant.

The Medieval Warming Period saw yields in Western Europe peak – with the surplus going into Cathedral building at that period. Alternatively the Little Ice Age, begriming with the Mongol Invasions, saw plague returning to Western Europe and killing 1/2 to 1/3rd of the population.      [Amazon Discussions]

That’s just for starters. Wait to we see the coming climate change that may kill 6 + billion  people, then we will know the answer to the question. Food riots are already prevalent in 34 nations. Unless something drastic is done to stop this, the we are cranking the gears just too fast, to hell.

Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag in Three Months

Non-degradable nature of plastic is causing a lot of environmental problems around the world. But, it is nearly impossible to ban plastic, as it have so many uses. If plastic can be decomposed it will be a great invention for a big problem. A 16 year old innovative school goer in the U.S has derived a way to do that. His find will help us to reduce the decomposition time of plastic from millions of years to just 3 months. That is initial results, I believe it can be reduced further under industrial production if further R&D is invested.

How is plastic decomposed? The factor that is responsible for the decomposition of bacteria is bacteria.

The Waterloo, Ontario high school junior figured that something must make plastic degrade, even if it does take millennia, and that something was probably bacteria.

(Hey, at between one-half and 90 percent of Earth’s biomass, bacteria’s a pretty safe bet for any biological mystery.)

The Record reports that Burd mixed landfill dirt with yeast and tap water, then added ground plastic and let it stew. The plastic indeed decomposed more quickly than it would in nature; after experimenting with different temperatures and configurations, Burd isolated the microbial munchers. One came from the bacterial genus Pseudomonas, and the other from the genus Sphingomonas.

Burd says this should be easy on an industrial scale: all that’s needed is a fermenter, a growth medium and plastic, and the bacteria themselves provide most of the energy by producing heat as they eat. The only waste is water and a bit of carbon dioxide.

Amazing stuff. I’ll try to get an interview with this young man who may have managed to solve one of the most intractable environmental dilemmas of our time. And I can’t help but wonder whether his high school already had its prom. If he doesn’t get to be king, there’s no justice in this world. [1]

1. Teen Decomposes Plastic Bag in Three Months, Brandon Keim

Why Smith can’t get good Jobs in America

 Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6 AM. While his coffeepot (Made In CHINA ) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (Made In HONG KONG ). He put on a dress shirt ( MADE IN SRI LANKA ), designer jeans ( Made In SINGAPORE ) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA ). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet
(Made In INDIA ) he sat down with his
calculator ( Made In MEXICO ) TO SEE HOW MUCH
HE COULD SPEND TODAY.  AFTER SETTING HIS WATCH
(Made In TAIWAN)
to the radio ( Made In INDIA ) he got in
his car ( Made In GERMANY ) filled it with GAS from Saudi Arabia and continued his search
for a good paying AMERICAN JOB.   At the
end of yet another discouraging and
fruitless day checking his Computer 
(Made In Malaysia ), Joe decided to relax for a while! He put on his sandals (Made In BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine ( Made In FRANCE.! ) and turned on his TV (Made In INDONESIA ), and then wondered why he can’t find a good paying job in … America!!

From [Jobs in America]

Free open distance education courses from Yale

There are a lot of Open Course Wares (OCW) on the Internet. But, it would be nice if you can get direct online courses from Ivy league institutions, that only a few can study. Yale seems to make that dream come true by making their courses truly open. What does that mean. Well, you will have access to the same high-quality education and world-renown professors. The following seven free courses :

• Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics – Instructed by Professor Charles Bailyn, this fascinating class discusses areas of astronomy that are changing rapidly. This includes Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes and Dark Energy.
• Modern Poetry – Instructed by Professor Langdon Hammer, this course covers the characteristics and major influences in modern poetry. Hammer’s work is frequently published in The New York Times and he is currently the poetry editor of The American Scholar.
• Death – Professor Shelly Kagan discusses the philosophical aspect of death and dying in this course. Kagan is Clark Professor of Philosophy at Yale.
• Fundamentals of Physics – Professor Ramamurti Shankar introduces students to the fundamentals of physics, though the course is designed for those with a solid background in mathematics.
• Introduction to Political Philosophy – Instructed by Professor Steven B. Smith, this course examines political philosophy as seen through popular texts and influential thinkers. Smith is the Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and Master of Branford College at Yale.
• Introduction to Psychology – This course, taught by Professor Paul Bloom, provides a comprehensive overview of thought and behavior. Bloom is Professor of Psychology at Yale University and did his doctoral work at MIT.
• Introduction to the Old Testament – Professor Christine Hayes examines both the religious significance and historical documentation of the Old Testament in this course. Hayes is the Robert F. and Patricia Ross Weis Professor of Religious Studies in Classical Judaica at Yale.

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