Mercredi 13 avril 2011

Why Libya's Rebels Don't Trust the African Union

gucci outletAn African delegation on a mission to end the seven-week conflict in Libya received a hostile welcome in the rebel capital of Benghazi Monday. "No Gaddafi, no sons!" hundreds of protesters shouted as they swarmed the vehicles of the Presidents of Congo, Mali, Mauritania and Uganda. Inside the Tibesti hotel, the opposition Transitional National Council (T.N.C.) was just as unreceptive to the African Union's (A.U.) ceasefire plan. There had been some hope of diplomatic progress on Sunday, after Libya's leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi accepted the plan presented by the African presidents. However, the TNC rejected the plan because it did not stipulate that Gaddafi relinquish power and leave Libya. Among the plan's key points were an end to airstrikes by NATO, a cease fire, and a starting point for negotiations between the two sides. But the TNC was in no mood to confer with Gaddafi about a ceasefire, and on Monday they rejected the proposals offered by the African presidents. "It's very simple, and this is the Libyan people's opinion. cheap gucci outlet storeIf it does not include his departure, resigning his job, it won't be accepted by the street," T.N.C. spokesman Mustafa Gheriani declared. On the streets of Benghazi, residents were just as defiant. "We want him to leave and leave now. That is the only thing we are willing to discuss," said Husam al-Jawhari, 31, a few hours after the AU delegation ended talks with T.N.C. leaders. (See pictures of the battle for Libya.) The T.N.C. fears Gaddafi would use the ceasefire to consolidate his position and tighten his grip on the besieged Western city of Misratah, which is under rebel control. His past "truces" have been followed by further pushes towards Benghazi, leaving the rebels with little faith in his promises. "The world has seen these offers of ceasefires before and within 15 minutes [Gaddafi] starts shooting again," Nike outletremarked rebel spokesman Shamsiddin Abdulmolah. Though Washington and the European Union supported the initiative, they reiterated their call that Gaddafi step down. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared, "there needs to be a transition that reflects the will of the Libyan people and the departure of Gaddafi from power and from Libya." (See pictures of workers lost in Libya's turmoil.) With the international community demanding his immediate resignation, Gaddafi was happy to welcome an A.U. delegation that did not insist on his departure. Gucci 2010 New ArrivalsAfrican nations have long provided a diplomatic shield for the erratic Libyan leader who has showered their destitute countries with billions of dollars. In the 1990s, African countries flouted a United Nations flight ban imposed on Libya for downing an American airliner over Scotland. In 2003 they rebuffed Washington's protests and helped Libya secure the presidency of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. In the current conflict, they have proved just as obliging.Gucci Abbey Bags While the E.U. and U.N. imposed sanctions against Gaddafi,, and his fellow Arab leaders denounced him and suspended his membership in the Arab League, A.U. members have refrained from condemning him. Instead, they denounced NATO's airstrikes against his forces.
Par zizihuang - 1 commentaire(s)le 13 avril 2011
Mardi 12 avril 2011

Bernie Madoff Confesses...to Reading Danielle Steel Novels in Jail

古奇低价直销店随着后面的六五○○○○○○○○○○○○美元庞氏骗局的酒吧150年徒刑,麦道夫不会有太多的期待。在采访中目标的一年,金融时报,财政丢脸终于透露了他的真实故事和,他的秘密监狱中生存:抗抑郁药和浪漫小说。 “'我花了我大部分时间在我的房间,阅读,”麦道夫说。 “而且 - 这是我的秘密 - 丹妮尔钢是,丹妮尔钢。。” (于TIME.com更多:见麦道夫认罪视频) 而谁又能责怪转向了热气腾腾的恋情,意图逃避位后丢失欺骗数以千计的受害者家族病史,财富和自由的严酷现实,他?当记者问他为什么以及如何设计诈骗阴谋的历史,马多夫告诉金融时报,“你必须明白我的历史。 折扣Gucci包我开始与500美元的资本。我看着我的父亲破产。我很驱动。目标后,我一直在俱乐部外,俱乐部作为纽约证券交易所和白鞋的公司。他们战斗的每一步我。“ Gucci的皮包更令人惊讶的是,许多大学都已经与他联系,对企业伦理教育。目标之前,他在一家大碰壁商学院教学演出,他可能要投资于一个丑角小说轮班在批次之间的监狱小卖部历史的房子。 (于TIME.com更多:看,在麦道夫禅让附图)
Par zizihuang - 1 commentaire(s)le 12 avril 2011
Lundi 11 avril 2011

2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal

discount gucci bagsOn Feb. 15, 1965, a diffident but self-possessed high school student named Raymond Kurzweil appeared as a guest on a game show called I've Got a Secret. He was introduced by the host, Steve Allen, then he played a short musical composition on a piano. The idea was that Kurzweil was hiding an unusual fact and the panelists — they included a comedian and a former Miss America — had to guess what it was. On the show (see the clip on YouTube), the beauty queen did a good job of grilling Kurzweil, but the comedian got the win: the music was composed by a computer. Kurzweil got $200. (See TIME's photo-essay "Cyberdyne's Real Robot.") Kurzweil then demonstrated the computer, which he built himself — a desk-size affair with loudly clacking relays, hooked up to a typewriter. The panelists were pretty blasé about it; they were more impressed by Kurzweil's age than by anything he'd actually done. gucci handbags on saleThey were ready to move on to Mrs. Chester Loney of Rough and Ready, Calif., whose secret was that she'd been President Lyndon Johnson's first-grade teacher. But Kurzweil would spend much of the rest of his career working out what his demonstration meant. Creating a work of art is one of those activities we reserve for humans and humans only. It's an act of self-expression; you're not supposed to be able to do it if you don't have a self. To see creativity, the exclusive domain of humans, usurped by a computer built by a 17-year-old is to watch a line blur that cannot be unblurred, the line between organic intelligence and artificial intelligence. That was Kurzweil's real secret, and back in 1965 nobody guessed it. Maybe not even him, not yet. But now, 46 years later, Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. nike dunk shoesHe believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away. (See the best inventions of 2010.) Computers are getting faster. Everybody knows that. Also, computers are getting faster faster — that is, the rate at which they're getting faster is increasing. True? True. So if computers are getting so much faster, so incredibly fast, there might conceivably come a moment when they are capable of something comparable to human intelligence. Artificial intelligence. All that horsepower could be put in the service of emulating whatever it is our brains are doing when they create consciousness — not just doing arithmetic very quickly or composing piano music but also driving cars, writing books, making ethical decisions, appreciating fancy paintings, making witty observations at cocktail parties. If you can swallow that idea, and Kurzweil and a lot of other very smart people can, then all bets are off. From that point on, there's no reason to think computers would stop getting more powerful. They would keep on developing until they were far more intelligent than we are. Their rate of development would also continue to increase, because they would take over their own development from their slower-thinking human creators. Imagine a computer scientist that was itself a super-intelligent computer. Gucci WalletsIt would work incredibly quickly. It could draw on huge amounts of data effortlessly. It wouldn't even take breaks to play Farmville. Probably. It's impossible to predict the behavior of these smarter-than-human intelligences with which (with whom?) we might one day share the planet, because if you could, you'd be as smart as they would be. But there are a lot of theories about it. Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely. Maybe we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. Gucci Travel Business BagsThe one thing all these theories have in common is the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011. This transformation has a name: the Singularity.
Par zizihuang - 0 commentaire(s)le 11 avril 2011
Vendredi 01 avril 2011

The Morality of Mealtime

Nike outlet storeIn the March 2011 edition of the Atlantic, the writer B.R. Myers — North Korea expert, hater of books a lot of people like, vegan — launched a broadside against foodie-ism and food writing. Myers took aim at chef-authors like Anthony Bourdain, who celebrates an unabashedly hedonistic approach to eating, and Gabrielle Hamilton, the author of the appropriately titled memoir Blood, Bones and Butter. To Myers, what's missing in the new foodie literature — and in the growing pop-cultural obsession with food, seen in the success of reality shows like Top Chef — is any sense of morality. Gluttony used to be one of the seven deadly sins, but now guilt has been expunged from good eating as long as food is prepared sustainably. Those in the food movement justly scorn the factory farms that make fast-food hamburgers, Myers notes, so "the contemporary gourmet reacts by voicing an ever-stronger preference for free-range meats from small local farms. Cheap Nike outletHe even claims to believe that well-treated animals taste better, though his heart isn't really in it." Myers is being a bit unfair, painting the entire food movement with a broad, bloody brush. Bourdain's highly successful shtick may involve traveling to foreign countries and scarfing down massive quantities of exotically prepared meat, but Myers ignores the growing body of food writers like Mark Bittman and Tom Philpott who spend more time analyzing the failures of U.S. agricultural subsidies than they do describing the perfect fried chicken. Nike Dunk HighStill, Myers scores a hit: Just how sustainable can the food movement be if it still celebrates meat eating, however humanely and carefully farm animals are treated? (See a TIME special report that asks, Who needs organic food?) If anyone can answer that question, it's Gene Baur, the head of Farm Sanctuary, the country's leading farm-animal organization, dedicated to lobbying for tougher animal-protection standards and exposing the cruelty in meat production that makes such reforms necessary. Baur started Farm Sanctuary in 1986 and initially funded it by selling veggie hot dogs from the back of a Volkswagen van at Grateful Dead concerts. But from that humble (if slightly clichéd) beginning, Baur has helped get landmark farm-animal-protection laws passed in a number of states, including California and Michigan. Nike Dunk LowThe group's shelters in Watkins Glen, N.Y., and Orland, Calif., offer protection for abused sheep, pigs, cows and other farm animals. Baur, a vegan, is the conscience of the food movement. "I think our relationship with farm animals is fundamentally one of exploitation," Baur says. "It's about whether we respect them or not."
Par zizihuang - 1 commentaire(s)le 01 avril 2011
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