Finally after being delayed for several years, a agreement to build ITER (the International Termonuclear Experimental Reactor) has been reached. ITER will be placed in the European Union. There has been intense discussions on where to host the project with two sites, one in the EU (more specifically Cadarache, south of France) and one in the Japans.
The partners in the projects are the European Union, the United States, the Russian Federation, the Japans, China and South Korea. In order to get the Japans to yield their site they were offered 20% of the research posts while only paying for 10% of the project, the Japans will also host a material research facility.
It was important to host this in the Union over the Japans due to a number of reasons, firstly the EU has made the most progress in the area of controlled fusion research and secondly hosting such an important project in an earthquake threatened area is not an alternative as I see it.
The project is one of the most important scientific projects ever undertaken, it will in the end give us cheap, clean and safe energy. When comparing to the currently used fission reactors, fusion reactors do not produce any low active nuclear waste and fusion reactors cannot cause any major accidents.
Bibliography:
BBC
2005-06-28
2005-06-24
2005-06-16
The Anthem of Europe
One of the great obstacles that we must overcome together is that Europeans do not feel European. Peter Roland and Peter Diem wrote new lyrics for the Union anthem two years ago, in hope to promote European identity and unity.
The anthem is to be sung in latin, though there are translations into all the official languages of the Union (so that we can understand the text being sung). Using latin is smart, since no one can object about one language being favoured over the other.
The lyrics are available here!
Sing this, learn it by heart and spread the use of the song, for Europe!
The anthem is to be sung in latin, though there are translations into all the official languages of the Union (so that we can understand the text being sung). Using latin is smart, since no one can object about one language being favoured over the other.
The lyrics are available here!
Sing this, learn it by heart and spread the use of the song, for Europe!
Rippling Effect of the Referendums
It is very interesting to see how the referendums have changed the opinion in for example Denmark. Why do each state have the referendums on different dates? It is clear that the outcome of one referendum will effect the outcome in another, especially when the result is so exposed in the media as it have been. What happened when the Spanish voters said yes with a crushing majority? Well, nothing, except a small note in the newspaper.
I have previously written about how wrong it is with national referendums. This is another reason; at least the politicians could have the courtesy of having all the referendums on the same date in order to avoid this rippling effect.
There were complaints from the commission when the Dutch authorities released the results of the last EP elections one day in advance, fearing that it would effect the elections in the other states. Why is no one reacting now?
Bibliography:
Dagens Nyheter
I have previously written about how wrong it is with national referendums. This is another reason; at least the politicians could have the courtesy of having all the referendums on the same date in order to avoid this rippling effect.
There were complaints from the commission when the Dutch authorities released the results of the last EP elections one day in advance, fearing that it would effect the elections in the other states. Why is no one reacting now?
Bibliography:
Dagens Nyheter
2005-06-12
Sane ABI for Mac OS X86
I was a bit worried when Apple decided to switch to the IA32 architecture. Three reasons I had for this:
Item 1 will be addressed in the EMT64 extensions. Item 2 is a lost cause. Item 3 was addressed by Apple when they defined their own ABI, differing from the Sys V ABI that GNU/Linux use.
Important here is that Apple mandates that the stack pointer is 16 byte aligned at call site boundaries, this implies that the base pointer will also be 16 byte aligned. So, for all 8 (or less) byte variables, the compiler can guarantee that they are aligned properly by the natural alignment.
Further more, in order to ensure minimal performance loss due to miss-aligned access, the ABI enforces a strict 4 byte stack element size, everything including chars are 4 byte aligned on the stack.
This also mean that you will put elements on the stack in the same way as on the PowerPC, i.e. modify stack pointer, place elements with offset from the stack pointer.
Thank you Apple, some hope in the darkness. Now, I only hope that you don't let the new machines be BIOS based, I grieve Open Firmware.
- To few visible registers
- No Open Firmware
- Brain dead calling conventions in System V ABI
Item 1 will be addressed in the EMT64 extensions. Item 2 is a lost cause. Item 3 was addressed by Apple when they defined their own ABI, differing from the Sys V ABI that GNU/Linux use.
Important here is that Apple mandates that the stack pointer is 16 byte aligned at call site boundaries, this implies that the base pointer will also be 16 byte aligned. So, for all 8 (or less) byte variables, the compiler can guarantee that they are aligned properly by the natural alignment.
Further more, in order to ensure minimal performance loss due to miss-aligned access, the ABI enforces a strict 4 byte stack element size, everything including chars are 4 byte aligned on the stack.
This also mean that you will put elements on the stack in the same way as on the PowerPC, i.e. modify stack pointer, place elements with offset from the stack pointer.
Thank you Apple, some hope in the darkness. Now, I only hope that you don't let the new machines be BIOS based, I grieve Open Firmware.
2005-06-11
Microsoft bans Democracy
Microsoft just launched their blogging service MSN Spaces in China. In a move to appease the communistic government in China, users of the service was banned from labelling blogs with words such as democracy, freedom, demonstration, democratic movement and Taiwan independence. Entering these words as keywords resulted in a message saying: This item contains forbidden speech. Please delete the forbidden speech from this item.
On the positive side, users were still permitted to write about these subjects in their blogs. But just wait... that will probably be banned as well in a short while.
Bibliography:
Financial Times
Full article at MSNBC, ironic isn't it?
On the positive side, users were still permitted to write about these subjects in their blogs. But just wait... that will probably be banned as well in a short while.
Bibliography:
Financial Times
Full article at MSNBC, ironic isn't it?
2005-05-29
A Dark Day for Europe
The referendum did not turn out well in France, the axis of evil (Fabius, Wilders and Buffet) prevailed. We can't give up in our quest to unify the people of Europe, and build a federal union of the European people.
Now is not the time perhaps, but the vital elements in the constitutional treaty: more power to the EP, mutual defence guarantees, the Unions foreign minister and the stop of the rotating presidency in the Council; must be implemented as soon as possible; perhaps 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania joins.
We seem to have taken the idea of Europe for granted, today we know we can never do that. We must work together and spread the idea of Europe, on the streets, in the coffee rooms, at work and all other places.
There will come a day when all borders in Europe have been torn down, when we stand together as one people united in diversity. It is not this day, but the day will come.
Now is not the time perhaps, but the vital elements in the constitutional treaty: more power to the EP, mutual defence guarantees, the Unions foreign minister and the stop of the rotating presidency in the Council; must be implemented as soon as possible; perhaps 2007 when Bulgaria and Romania joins.
We seem to have taken the idea of Europe for granted, today we know we can never do that. We must work together and spread the idea of Europe, on the streets, in the coffee rooms, at work and all other places.
There will come a day when all borders in Europe have been torn down, when we stand together as one people united in diversity. It is not this day, but the day will come.
2005-05-28
Undemocratic Referendums
The best description of the Union is that it is a sui generis entity. The Union has several exclusive areas in which the Union works on a federal level, other areas are treated on a confederal level and other on a state level. So, the Union do have the appearance of a single country in some areas; in defence and foreign policy each state still have veto power and the Union seems to be a union of independent states.
This is of course a problem, even in the new constitution, but at least the constitution moves in the right way (e.g. mutual defence guarantees, more power to the European Parliament and so forth). Especially the move of power to the directly elected EP from the Council is most welcome since this will enhance democracy on the Union level. It is not perfect however, especially since the EP will still not be able to propose new law, but al least it is a step in the right direction.
The goal of every true European should be to transform the Union into a true federal republic.
Tomorrow, the state of France will hold a referendum on the Unions constitution. Several newspapers have pointed on the fact that a lot of French citizens will vote no in order to object against the current government. Can the referendum really be seen as valid if the peoples vote isn't about the constitution, but about the current government?
The ratification of the constitutional treaty will be done by referendums in some states and in other states there will be parliamentary votes. Neither one of there options have any legitimacy as I see it, although the complexity of the question certainly favours the parliamentary ratification. National referendums are inherently undemocratic in this specific question, the only valid and legitimate ratification procedure as I see it would be a joint European referendum and parliamentary ratification.
Having a referendum in each state is just plain wrong since this means that one Swede would be worth 7 Frenchmen, 2 Dutch or 0.5 Finns. Having individuals being valued with different levels of importance like this is counter to the idea of equality.
Non the less, tomorrow there is a referendum in France and on the first of June there is a referendum in the Netherlands.
I plead to you my fellow Europeans, vote oui or ja. Not for the sake of France or the Netherlands, but for the sake of the Union.
This is of course a problem, even in the new constitution, but at least the constitution moves in the right way (e.g. mutual defence guarantees, more power to the European Parliament and so forth). Especially the move of power to the directly elected EP from the Council is most welcome since this will enhance democracy on the Union level. It is not perfect however, especially since the EP will still not be able to propose new law, but al least it is a step in the right direction.
The goal of every true European should be to transform the Union into a true federal republic.
Tomorrow, the state of France will hold a referendum on the Unions constitution. Several newspapers have pointed on the fact that a lot of French citizens will vote no in order to object against the current government. Can the referendum really be seen as valid if the peoples vote isn't about the constitution, but about the current government?
The ratification of the constitutional treaty will be done by referendums in some states and in other states there will be parliamentary votes. Neither one of there options have any legitimacy as I see it, although the complexity of the question certainly favours the parliamentary ratification. National referendums are inherently undemocratic in this specific question, the only valid and legitimate ratification procedure as I see it would be a joint European referendum and parliamentary ratification.
Having a referendum in each state is just plain wrong since this means that one Swede would be worth 7 Frenchmen, 2 Dutch or 0.5 Finns. Having individuals being valued with different levels of importance like this is counter to the idea of equality.
Non the less, tomorrow there is a referendum in France and on the first of June there is a referendum in the Netherlands.
I plead to you my fellow Europeans, vote oui or ja. Not for the sake of France or the Netherlands, but for the sake of the Union.
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