Thanks for your thoughts and observations Brian, I appreciate them. It is  
great that life is full of small luxuries such as walking the dog.  :-)  As I 
said, it is all a matter of personal taste and I realize  that there is a 
"trickle down" effect from such events and of course, economics  is predicated on 
the notion that wants will always exceed needs and of  course, art of every sort 
and good food can all lift the spirit.  And yes, there is no sharp line just 
a wide fuzzy one based in the  individual but some things (such as this highly 
publicized event)  seem a bit much (once again IMO).
 
Since it is their money, I suppose they could have decided to simply  burn 
the cash in  public square somewhere... but then no one will be  able to see 
that from space... ;-) 
 
 Also please forgive me I probably should have cast a  broader net to include 
politicians from around the  globe. They never seem to be too far away from 
such events especially  when the very rich are in attendance in big numbers but 
then I suppose that too  comes with the territory. Now back to the joy of 
work... :-)  

Very best, 
Joe     
 
 
In a message dated 9/15/2008 12:00:50 A.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:

While  walking the dog (wasteful luxury?), I was mulling over your 
message and  particularly about the EU politicians. This comment implied 
that the EU  was responsible for bad restrictive legislation, if I 
inferred correctly.  This is not entirely true:

1. Sweden (much more radical than the EU)  introduced legislation to ban 
deca-BDE. A 10-year risk assessment of the  EU deemed the substance to be 
acceptable and forced Sweden to drop its  ban.

2. Some large companies, such as Sony and Dell etc., tried to  impose 
halogen-free laminates in their products and by their combined  weight 
(possibly >50% of world electronics assemblies) to force the  industry to 
go hal-free. As their proposed laminate was ~twice the price  of FR-4 and 
was made only in Japan, this move was viewed badly by the EU  and 
possibly by the WTO as breaching competitiveness rules. The EU did an  
"exhaustive" series of tests on TBBPA for environmental and human health  
risks and have stated that its use as a monomer for epoxy resins for  
laminate manufacture is safe. Ordinary FR-4 is thus potentially saved by  
the EU.

OTOH, don't get me started on RoHS or  REACH!!!!

Brian

Joe Fjelstad wrote:
> Not on topic, but an  example of what is arguably waste of a  different 
sort. 
> (IMHO)  
>  
> The link provides an example of what might be  considered "conspicuous  
> consumption" as defined in "Theory of  the  Leisure Class". 
>  
> People can spend their money  as they please and no doubt some  jobs are 
> provided in the  process but it seems a pity they can't find better  uses 
for it 
>  (again IMO).
>  
> I wonder how many EU parliamentarians will  attend... ;-)  
>  
>  
_http://www.luxist.com/2008/09/11/worlds-most-extravagant-party-in-dubai-will-
>  be-visible-from-spa/?icid=200100397x1209104387x1200535689_ 
>  
(http://www.luxist.com/2008/09/11/worlds-most-extravagant-party-in-dubai-will-be-visible-from-spa
>  /?icid=200100397x1209104387x1200535689) 
> 
> 
> 
>  **************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion 
blog,  
> plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com.   
>  (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)
>  





**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, 
plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com.      
(http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)