Delegates launch dawn spitball raid in battle for INTERNET DOMINATION

As night turned into morning, events took a turn for the strange at the ITU conference, with a vote which wasn't a vote, a resolution which wasn't resolved and an indecent proposal from Russia wielded as a threat. The non-vote came as 2am approached, with the conference centre being held open while delegates continued …

[frank ly]

"... throwing spitballs ..."

The only honourable way to resolve this outrage is by peashooters at dawn.

[Anonymous Coward]

Marble problem solved

Just add glue. And maybe a couple more props under the tray.

No idea how that might translate to improving the ITU process though...

[TeeCee]

Re: Marble problem solved

No idea how that might translate to improving the ITU process though...

Boil the delegates down to make the glue?

[Trollslayer]

Re: Marble problem solved

Bricks - sacks - canal at this stage.

Just saying.

[Ben Liddicott]

WT??? "such a hard time achieving anything"

"The ITU works entirely by consensus - which is why it has such a hard time achieving anything."

You mean that's why when it does things they are generally sensible?

If there is no consensus on what action should be taken, or on what that action should be, doing nothing makes more sense than enacting something under an entirely artificial and manufactured sense of urgency.

If they don't decide anything, what bad thing will happen? Nothing. So don't decide anything.

When you look at the sort of "achievements" many bodies have - our governments for example - it makes you long for gridlock.

[James Micallef]

Re: WT??? "such a hard time achieving anything"

"The ITU works entirely by consensus "

Yes, but how does one know when consensus has been achieved? Does it need unanymous agreement on every decision? Or is 'consensus' defined as X% of members and/or delegates being in favour?

[Jon Press]

Re: WT??? "such a hard time achieving anything"

And they seem to manage consensus beyond the ITU too. H.264, for example, is ISO/IEC 14496-1 (MPEG-4 Part 10). JPEG is a joint group between ITU and ISO.

Generally, the experts will gather somewhere they think they can make progress on standards, they're not too bothered about which organisation it is. The political level of the ITU is irrelevant - if it screws up, they'll just continue meeting and put a different logo on the final documents.

[Anonymous Coward]

Childish bickering, 'Hold-your-breath-until-you-get-what-you-want", and swearing. Official representatives of almost every nation on earth behaving like high school kids. So when you look at the state of the global economy, wonder no more as to why.

[retiredandouttolunch]

two more solutions...

1) (current approach) Wad up sheets of paper and pile it around the marbles on the tray until they can't roll anymore. After that's done, balancing the tray is just an engineering problem.

2) (political approach) Have two marbles jump off the tray and join the other "foundation marble" in a tripod formation. That way the tray will balance no matter what the rest of the marbles do...