] His research shows that not only are suicide terrorists
] significantly more educated than their peers, they are
] also significantly better off. According to Krueger,
] although one-third of Palestinians live in poverty, only
] 13 percent of Palestinian suicide bombers do; 57 percent
] of bombers have education beyond high school versus 15
] percent of the population of comparable age.
]
] The Defense Intelligence Agency also gave me profiles
] of all these people they were interrogating at Guantánamo
] Bay in Cuba. They divide them into Yemenis and Saudis.
] The Yemenis are sort of the foot soldiers. And they found
] that the Saudis, their leaders especially, are from
] high-status families. A surprising number have graduate
] degrees. And they are willing to give up everything. They
] give up well-paying jobs, they give up their families,
] whom they really adore, to sacrifice themselves because
] they really believe that it's the only way they're going
] to change the world.

These people are not stupid, nor poor, nor desperate. While there are reasons to focus on education and poverty in places like West Bank/Gaza, the idea that its going to prevent people from deciding to become suicide terrorists is apparently wrongheaded.

An interested oped on Religion in this article too...

Everything you know about terrorists is wrong.

] Letters from hometown soldiers describing their successes
] rebuilding Iraq have been appearing in newspapers in
] Montana and across the country as U.S. public opinion on
] the mission sours.
]
] And all the letters are the same.

I am recommending this version of the story because it is more complete. The Army ran an astroturf campaign. They somehow managed to not get everyone's permission before submitting letters to the editors of their hometown papers on their behalf.

Form letter signed by U.S. troops a mystery - greatfallstribune.com

Jeremy wrote:
] There is a certain naïveté in the notion that this phenomenon
] is somehow unique to the "IT profession" (whatever that is).
] That he still believes there exist jobs that are both worth
] having and amenable to being "held on to" is clear
] evidence of his denial.

The hard part is the transitional phase. We still have an established system that is based on corporate careerism, industrialized secondary education, HR Management that hires for skills rather then abilities... I prefer a dynamic life to the mind numbing boredom of being stuck in the same fucking cube for 40 years, but by all means lets get cut over to the "new order" as fast as possible because the middle ground is not much fun.

We're sorry, but we could not find any Telecom Engineering Jobs in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Jeremy wrote:
] Quentin Tarantino and Neal Stephenson are birds of a feather.
]
] Each of these works is so large, so grand, so packed with
] detail, that the marketplace is unable to accommodate it all
] at one time. And so a story is broken into pieces, with the
] releases spaced apart in time, that the audience might take
] advantage of the intermission to savor the tasty bits of the
] first course while waiting in eager anticipation of the next.

So you recommend Stephenson's book?

I just saw Kill Bill. Two thumbs up. WAY better then I thought it was going to be. For those of you who haven't seen it, expect an anime made into a video game made into a movie.

On an unrelated note, I also saw school of rock recently and I was pleasantly surprised. Something I'll keep in the file for later in life when I need to corrupt my kids.

RE: Channeling Propellerheads on Kill Bill and Quicksilver

] The First Ten Amendments to the constitution of the
] United States printed on sturdy, pocket-sized, pieces of
] metal.
]
] The next time you travel by air, take the Security
] Edition of the Bill of Rights along with you. When asked
] to empty your pockets, proudly toss the Bill of Rights in
] the plastic bin.

Wow...

Bill of Rights - Security Edition

] For the past seven months, I have been fighting for the
] right of all Americans to travel freely in our own
] country. CAPPS II, the Soviet-style internal border
] control system being pushed by the Department of Homeland
] Security, will strip us of that right, and make air
] travel a 'privilege' granted by government.

One cause probably worth donating to.

DontSpyOnUs :: What You Can Do To Stop CAPPS II

] "I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of
] chilling effect on research," Jacobs said.

SunnComm CEO realizes that mean people suck.

The Daily Princetonian - Threat of lawsuit passes for student

] There may be a new kind of Internet emerging--one more
] about connecting people to people than people to
] websites. The blog phenomenon, where blogs link to blogs,
] is another aspect of this same trend. Mark Pincus, an
] investor in Friendster and founder of Tribe.net, calls
] this the early phases of the "peopleweb"--a
] user-controlled network of identities and relationships
] that transcends any one site or company. How that web
] will take shape remains murky, but in the explosive
] growth of social networking we are surely seeing the
] future, using the Net to connect people with bonds of
] trust and friendship--and maybe sex.

This is making me sick. I don't know if its because I'm worried about watching a lot of my good ideas get someone else paid, or if its because of how much this reminds me of all the investment in "P2P" technology, which really never went anywhere. A bunch of VC are dropping tons of cash on friendster, tribes, and similar sites.... I'm worried that all of this activity will serve to create IP barriers to innovation moreso then useful tools or real economic movement.

Fortune.com - Fast Forward - I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends of Friends of Friends

] Intel Corp. Chairman Andy Grove, a pioneer in the American
] high-tech industry, warned that the U.S. could lose the bulk of its
] information technology jobs to overseas competitors in the next
] decade, largely to India and China.

[IP] IT job exportation heats up.

] No -- future TV will may be unrecognisable from today,
] defined not just by linear TV channels, packaged and
] scheduled by television executives, but instead will
] resemble more of a kaleidoscope, thousands of streams of
] content, some indistinguishable as actual channels. These
] streams will mix together broadcasters' content and
] programmes, and our viewers' contributions. At the
] simplest level -- audiences will want to organize and
] re-order content the way they want it. They'll add
] comments to our programmes,programmes, vote on them and
] generally mess about with them. But at another level,
] audiences will want to create these streams of video
] themselves from scratch, with or without our help. At
] this end of the spectrum, the traditional "monologue
] broadcaster" to "grateful viewer" relationship will break
] down, and traditional advertising and subscription models
] will no longer be viable.

The director of BBC New Media on why MemeStreams is the future of Television. :)

TV's Tipping Point: Why The Digital Revolution Is Only Just Beginning: PaidContent.org