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this is despite the many cynical posts ive seen so far excellent progress. the civil war in Syria is complex, with numerous parties standing to profit from the downfall of the government (including the United States.)

not going to war was good. Once again America had no credible, publically audited evidence to support its war. that the government used chemical weapons at all was suspicious at best, and unresearched in the UN report.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-24130181
the analysis includes relevant information about rebel captured syrian weapons depots as well, which would in fact arm rebels with nerve agent.

Instead of putting the brakes on the war machine, the california senator Barbara Boxer simply insisted she'd seen the evidence and declared it very very bad. Russia presented its evidence to the UN.
but perhaps the most damning hypocrisy is that the united states routinely uses chemical weapons in its warfare. in vietnam, and both iraq wars, white phosphorous was used liberally and without regard for the Hague conventions.

That ice age permafrost is in danger of pronounced melting too.

I think you're confusing (near) surface permafrost in the arctic, due to the average annual temperature being below freezing, and ice age permafrost 300 ft below the surface that's there because the average conditions there over the Quaternary period has been 'covered with an ice sheet' - even if that hasn't been the case in 10,000 years. In most places, I imagine (no data available that I'm aware of), what's buried that deep will probably stay there whether it's frozen or not.

In a way it's connected with the climate change. The cold meltwater streams allow warmer seawater under the ice sheet when they meet the sea. Because the seas are warming up the calving underneath is pronounced.

Greenland has similar kind of meltwater streams, and at least some of them actually begin on the surface of the ice. Extreme Ice Survey has great material. That ice age permafrost is in danger of pronounced melting too.

This report is probably the most accurate one you're going to get: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24420767

Uh, that's a DOD press release, and it confirms everything that Al-Shaabab said.

Yeah, US news sources are totally full of shit but news from Al Shabaab is totally trustworthy. I don't trust US news sources either but you're a fucking idiot if you believe anything that Al Shabaab says. This report is probably the most accurate one you're going to get: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24420767. On a final note, any news that comes out immediately after an event is usually total bullshit no matter who it comes from. It takes a while before enough information is developed from multiple sources to piece together something that resembles the truth.

Nothing can beat the NSA in the surveillance event competition!

I don't know man, the Jamaicans are always tough and the Russians are not to be dismissed. Not sure how China's team is this year.... but I hear they are big.

it's the libyan government who is claiming they had no indication of the raid, not somali. somali government couldn't really give a crap about it anyways since they were not in control of the area where the raid happened.

the libyan raid on the other hand in any normal case should have been done by libyan government - libyan police could have arrested the guy - but then there would have been all kinds of nasty paperwork to do for an extradition, need for proof and all that jazz.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24420767

as it stands technically USA kidnapped the guy(they had no authority to detain him). the guy was living openly with his family in libya - yet US government officials say it's the superb work of their intelligence offices that caught him. currently usa also says that he is being held under "law of war" - no quotation what that is(we all know it certainly doesn't mean prisoner of war status!).

That's the BBC is reporting it too. I first heard about it on BBC radio where the report was that unknown forces, either US or French, got their asses kicked and had to flee after Al Shaabab got wind of the attack and prepared for it. Equipment and blood found on the beeches.

It's hard to see how the US claim that Anas al-Liby is "lawfully detained" can be true either, since clearly they didn't have authorization to kidnap him from Libya and they won't reveal where he is. He would be either in a POW camp or civilian prison, but they won't say where he is which seems to be code for "we took him somewhere to be tortured", going by past activities.

And sometimes in the EU the bottled water actually even is tap water...

That he'll be charged as a terrorist and sequested in a room somewhere to be beaten with a metal pipe or waterboarded until he gives up the password. Has anyone heard from him lately?

Ulbricht appeared in court on Friday, and after a request from his legal team has a bail hearing scheduled for October 9th.

Did you see the video? For starters, those are uniformed police. Other than that ... she's a loon.

Fucking gongs. The Brits beg for these baubles, too - like puppies, on their hindmost.

Not all: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16736495

Depends who you believe, I guess. This says the FBI was able to identify the first "ad" for the site, and build from there, both by other posts made by a user with the same name, and a gmail address they were able to subpoena.

To the shareholders - be careful about what you wish for.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1423642.stm

There are plenty of stories of "New blood" turning solid businesses into manure.

More waste would probably only encourage them, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14556755

You could get an amphibious vehicle.

They don't always catch fire.

More here including the promise of video later this week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24331860

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24326413

1. "120 decibels" is meaningless. Sound waves vary with the type of medium, and attenuates with distance. dB are always measured with respect to a certain pressure and distance, usually 1 uPa and 1 meter from the sound source. Further than that, the dB will be lower (-40 dB at 100 meters).

2. A typical sonar will be about 180-200 dB re 1 uPa 1 m, with the powerful one the US Navy was using being about 226 dB. That isn't because the sound is louder (measured as how much your eardrum moves). It's because water is a denser medium than air, and thus requires more energy to create a wave of the same pressure as in air. The sonar the whales themselves emit is about 170-190 dB re 1 uPa 1 m, with peaks exceeding 220 dB .

3. Dead whales float. The same bacteria which decompose human bodies and make them float do the same in whales. In a body as large as a whale, the buildup of these gases can be so great it causes the corpse to explode. It will eventually sink, but usually only after scavengers like sharks have stripped away most of the low-density tissue, leaving mostly high-density bones.

Not the first by at least 10 years.

There was a BT phone box with WiFi near my school in 2003 (in a city in England). Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3110726.stm -- which says they aimed to have 200 by the end of 2003.

Given that their behaviour is grossly inconsistent with their other political views, one is forced to the conclusion that the NSA has got some means of coercion to get them to propose this.

There is another possibility you are overlooking. That is that their views may be informed by facts of various sorts, and they aren't totally forgetful.

"For the first time in recorded history there existed an open-water path between the Atlantic and the Pacific."

Are you 13 years behind, or 69 years behind the times?

There are also reports of pre-western history passages from the orient.

Oh, I dunno...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-24282649

CIA Head: We Will Spy On Americans Through Electrical Appliances

Global information surveillance grid being constructed; willing Americans embrace gadgets used to spy on them

Steve Watson | Prisonplanet.com | March 16, 2012

http://www.prisonplanet.com/cia-head-we-will-spy-on-americans-through-electrical-appliances.html

"CIA director David Petraeus has said that the rise of new "smart" gadgets means that Americans are effectively bugging their own homes, saving US spy agencies a job when it identifies any "persons of interest".

Speaking at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA's technology investment operation, Petraeus made the comments when discussing new technologies which aim to add processors and web connections to previously 'dumb' home appliances such as fridges, ovens and lighting systems.

Wired reports the details via its Danger Room Blog[1]:

"'Transformational' is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies," Petraeus enthused, "particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft."

"Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters - all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing," Petraeus said.

"the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing." the CIA head added.

Petraeus also stated that such devices within the home "change our notions of secrecy".

Petraeus' comments come in the same week that one of the biggest microchip companies in the world, ARM, unveiled new processors that are designed to give practically every household appliance an internet connection[2], in order that they can be remote controlled and operate in tandem with applications.

ARM describes the concept as an "internet of things".

Where will all the information from such devices be sent and analyzed? It can be no coincidence that the NSA is currently building a monolithic heavily fortified $2 billion facility[3] deep in the Utah desert and surrounded by mountains. The facility is set to go fully live in September 2013.

"The Utah data center is the centerpiece of the Global Information Grid, a military project that will handle yottabytes of data, an amount so huge that there is no other data unit after it." reports Gizmodo.

"This center-with every listening post, spy satellite and NSA datacenter connected to it, will make the NSA the most powerful spy agency in the world."

Wired reports[4] that the incoming data is being mined by plugging into telecommunications companies' switches, essentially the same method the NSA infamously uses for warrantless wiretapping of domestic communications[5], as exposed six years ago.

Former intelligence analyst turned best selling author James Bamford, has penned a lengthy piece[6] on the NSA facility and warns "It is, in some measure, the realization of the 'total information awareness' program created during the first term of the Bush administration-an effort that was killed by Congress in 2003 after it caused an outcry over its potential for invading Americans' privacy."

[+]

Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones' Infowars.net[7], and Prisonplanet.com[8]. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

(C) 2012 PrisonPlanet.com is a Free Speech Systems, LLC company. All rights reserved.

[1] http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/petraeus-tv-remote/
[2] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17345934
[3]

Absolutely true. Whenever they accidentally allow comments they get massively called out on their fanatical love for Apple and need to shoehorn them into every vaguely related tech story (scroll down to comments and sort by best rated), but this doesn't lead to them correcting this huge bias. Maybe apple bribed them with a truckload of free ipads, which you routinely see their newscasters and presenters using.

To counterbalance the geopolitical bias I've taken to watching RT pretty frequently, obviously it may as well be Russian state controlled and takes any opportunity to portray the US negatively but I figure the only way to have an informed opinion is to watch both side's propaganda. It's notable that they report on important stories that the BBC ignores entirely.

As for domestic political coverage Newsnight is still okay but Question Time is now a joke, for any remotely controversial subject it's set up as a 10 Minutes Hate session for hard left social justice warriors to screech RACIST and BIGOT, with hopelessly biased panels / audience selection / moderation. Long gone are the days when they would thoughtfully interview domain experts in a calm and rational manner and you would actually learn something.

Yep. The BBC isn't supposed to be chasing ratings, it was created to inform/educate* the public so this is exactly the sort of program the they're supposed to be producing. The low on budget, high on imagination approach has brought some truly great TV to the world. It also attracts people like Patrick Moore and David Attenborough who are in it for the passion, not the paycheck.

[*] Yes, those are the exact words used in the BBC charter: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/about/how_we_govern/charter.pdf

(nb. For the Americans: there's no adverts on the BBC so audience figures don't translate into profits).

When I look at iplayer there is nothing on that i want to watch. I'm done with TV for the most part.

The BBC is WAS .. It is far from that now. Even the NEWS has sunk down to a tabloid level.

The BBC shows plenty of crap, but there's also a lot of science if that's what you're looking for. In the past year off the top of my head there has been Science Britannica (general scientific method background and history with a UK slant), Bill Bailley's Jungle Hero (about the life and discoveries of Alfred Russell Wallace), How It Works which covered the materials science of metals, ceramics and plastics and how they're essential for modern day technologies and hell, even The Secret Life of Rockpools about the ecology of what is a pretty unloved niche. That's before you even go for the more "infotainment" slanted shows like Dara O Briain's Science Club which are still worth watching.

Most of these have been started in the 8-9pm slots even if they weren't shown on the flagship channel. There isn't another broadcaster in the UK who would have touched most of these shows, let alone given them a high profile slot on their secondary channel.

When I look at iplayer there is nothing on that i want to watch. I'm done with TV for the most part.

The BBC is WAS .. It is far from that now. Even the NEWS has sunk down to a tabloid level.

The BBC shows plenty of crap, but there's also a lot of science if that's what you're looking for. In the past year off the top of my head there has been Science Britannica (general scientific method background and history with a UK slant), Bill Bailley's Jungle Hero (about the life and discoveries of Alfred Russell Wallace), How It Works which covered the materials science of metals, ceramics and plastics and how they're essential for modern day technologies and hell, even The Secret Life of Rockpools about the ecology of what is a pretty unloved niche. That's before you even go for the more "infotainment" slanted shows like Dara O Briain's Science Club which are still worth watching.

Most of these have been started in the 8-9pm slots even if they weren't shown on the flagship channel. There isn't another broadcaster in the UK who would have touched most of these shows, let alone given them a high profile slot on their secondary channel.

When I look at iplayer there is nothing on that i want to watch. I'm done with TV for the most part.

The BBC is WAS .. It is far from that now. Even the NEWS has sunk down to a tabloid level.

The BBC shows plenty of crap, but there's also a lot of science if that's what you're looking for. In the past year off the top of my head there has been Science Britannica (general scientific method background and history with a UK slant), Bill Bailley's Jungle Hero (about the life and discoveries of Alfred Russell Wallace), How It Works which covered the materials science of metals, ceramics and plastics and how they're essential for modern day technologies and hell, even The Secret Life of Rockpools about the ecology of what is a pretty unloved niche. That's before you even go for the more "infotainment" slanted shows like Dara O Briain's Science Club which are still worth watching.

Most of these have been started in the 8-9pm slots even if they weren't shown on the flagship channel. There isn't another broadcaster in the UK who would have touched most of these shows, let alone given them a high profile slot on their secondary channel.

When I look at iplayer there is nothing on that i want to watch. I'm done with TV for the most part.

The BBC is WAS .. It is far from that now. Even the NEWS has sunk down to a tabloid level.

The BBC shows plenty of crap, but there's also a lot of science if that's what you're looking for. In the past year off the top of my head there has been Science Britannica (general scientific method background and history with a UK slant), Bill Bailley's Jungle Hero (about the life and discoveries of Alfred Russell Wallace), How It Works which covered the materials science of metals, ceramics and plastics and how they're essential for modern day technologies and hell, even The Secret Life of Rockpools about the ecology of what is a pretty unloved niche. That's before you even go for the more "infotainment" slanted shows like Dara O Briain's Science Club which are still worth watching.

Most of these have been started in the 8-9pm slots even if they weren't shown on the flagship channel. There isn't another broadcaster in the UK who would have touched most of these shows, let alone given them a high profile slot on their secondary channel.

When I look at iplayer there is nothing on that i want to watch. I'm done with TV for the most part.

The BBC is WAS .. It is far from that now. Even the NEWS has sunk down to a tabloid level.

The BBC shows plenty of crap, but there's also a lot of science if that's what you're looking for. In the past year off the top of my head there has been Science Britannica (general scientific method background and history with a UK slant), Bill Bailley's Jungle Hero (about the life and discoveries of Alfred Russell Wallace), How It Works which covered the materials science of metals, ceramics and plastics and how they're essential for modern day technologies and hell, even The Secret Life of Rockpools about the ecology of what is a pretty unloved niche. That's before you even go for the more "infotainment" slanted shows like Dara O Briain's Science Club which are still worth watching.

Most of these have been started in the 8-9pm slots even if they weren't shown on the flagship channel. There isn't another broadcaster in the UK who would have touched most of these shows, let alone given them a high profile slot on their secondary channel.

And it's Apple's fault that this route is open to drivers? Apple's data comes from third parties - a lot of it is aggregated by the likes of TomTom etc, from local authorities.

Yes, but it is 100% Apples responsibility to QA this data and make sure it's use is accurate.

Secondly, it appears that you no SFA about GIS (Geographic Information Systems). Whilst the mapping data is provided by third party sources, the use, the navigation algorithms are provided by Apple (or whomever Apple bought and slapped their logo on). The whole point of a GIS application like Apple or Google maps is to take layers of disparate data and overlay them accurately. If you fail at this, you fail at GIS in it's entirety.

And it's Apple's fault that this route is open to drivers?

No, but its Apple's fault drivers were being directed down there. FTA http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24246646

The airport said it had first complained to the phone-maker three weeks ago via the local attorney general's office.

Apple had known about the issue for weeks.

The driver has to shoulder some of the blame for not taking notice of what they are doing (this really says a lot about Apple users) but Apple has to shoulder a lot of the blame for ignoring a known error until it becomes international news.

Remember the bullshit about people getting lost in Victoria (australia) looking for a town called Mildura?

It wasn't Bullshit. You're obviously not an Australian. In Australia its easy to get lost, you can be hundreds of kilometers from the nearest town and there is no mobile coverage. People fucking die out there from exposure, snake bites, minor injuries, every year.

Once again it's Apple's responsibility to QA the data. They didn't know the difference between a town called Mildura and a region called Mildura. The application either didn't know about the town called Mildura or didn't care, in either case it's a serious fuck up.

The driver has a reasonable expectation that the device will not lead them 100's of KM's in the wrong direction, doubly so in a nation that hosts 10 out of the 10 most dangerous animals on the planet (11 if we count humans).

250 dead now. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-24222760

Sad. But if you let every sad thing affect you badly then you would be a quivering wreck all of the time.

Just don't become a total sociopath.

audits aren't actually revealing

And you know this... how? Who controls that? Who verifies that?

you're talking about one of the most confidential processes in the world

I.e.., you have no idea what they are doing.

You're also talking about a part of the world with some of the best privacy laws

No, I'm talking about a part of the world where governments record intimate details of their citizens' lives as part of routine government activities, and can intrude into their private data with impunity, and where they have done so for decades (and actually centuries). Read the news sometimes, even European newspapers report on it every few years, e.g., http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-23178284

Nice troll for ayatollah, but the fact remains they appointed as president of the University of Tehran a man who has no academic qualifications but he does believe really hard in an imaginary man in the sky and a child rapist who claims to have spoken for the imaginary man in the sky.

I guess when your country does things like create stuxnet, you could probably expect a repercussion or two, huh?

Correction: Stuxnet was the repercussion, it was Iran's nuclear program that was the provocation.

Iran nuclear report: IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead
Q&A: Iran nuclear issue

The idea of a physical cable is that it is simple, robust and as long as the connectors fit, it should (given sane engineering) do what is expected. It is fascinating how they violate that simple and powerful idea in a complex way, just to make a few bucks more. It is also utterly repulsive to any principled engineer.

This was my initial reaction as well... And then I remembered the recent cases of people getting killed, or ending up in a coma due to what is likely to be the use of clone power supplies and cables

Apple has gone to great lengths to mitigate its legal exposure... going as far as offering a discount on an Apple replacement for your third party power supply. For Apple to suddenly ignore the risks of being sued (and to your health and safety) after it can be shown that they could have done something to prevent the use of unauthorised chargers and cables would be stupid of them.

who knows why or who it benefits, but it certainly isn't the people of the UK.

Is that your evaluation based on many years of experience with the intelligence agencies? Or is it the snark of a passing minute on the internet?

NSA helped foil terror plot in Belgium, documents, officials say
Police arrest 10 over Belgian 'Islamist terror plot'
Belgian police raid homes in connection with Syrian terror groups recruits
Two Belgian "terrorism" suspects detained in Yemen
Fearing terror attack, Belgium arrests 14

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24127999

A man was hit with a brick and stabbed before being robbed of the much awaited Grand Theft Auto V video game in north London.

Interesting you raise the point about the "mandate to spy on as much as possible on the off chance that it may prevent some terrorist act".

There is a very interesting article on the BBC blogs indicating just how useless MI5 has been at any sort of intelligence gathering, even the sort that's been painfully obvious over it's entire existence. It's opening gambit: "Maybe the real state secret is that spies aren't very good at their jobs and don't know very much about the world".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/posts/BUGGER

The only "civil liberty" it attacks is the ability to fraudulently sign in for someone else.

This, good sir, is actually complete and utter bullshit.

Two counterexamples: Brazilian doctors faked fingers and Australian kids need only gummi bears, but reallly, these weaknesses have been known for a long time.

I could go on, but biometrics just aren't very suitable for use outside of criminal investigation. What happens if someone gets a paper cut? While on shift? And so on. It's really not their fault they haven't figured every last objection yet, it's that the company is being a jerkass with other people's biometrics. Just like how an abusive boss has no expectation of loyal subordinates, any and all fraud incurred is their just desserts.

This is how unions get a bad name. Bio-metrics are used for time card validation on many places and it is neither "draconian" nor "an attack on civil liberties".

You are blaming the complainer, and you claim that because "everybody is doing it" it must therefore be just and righteous.

Well, in a word, no. You are wrong, they are wrong, you could've figured it out if you'd really thought about it for a short minute --I did--, and you simply don't want to admit the glaring obvious. Neither do they, because there's good money to be swindled out of the gullible, or they are the gullible. What's your angle?

Converting Afghanistan into a modern, tolerant, inclusive society by giving them the technology? Yeah, that'll work.

Another Livestream is here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24104741

There was a neat BBC series called Electric Dreams that took the home in to account as well.

It well worth a watch.

Ah, I remember that show. I caught it while working the night shift at a supply depot on Camp Bastion a few years back. Oddly enough, my family still had quite a few of the things from the 70s at home at the time. Things that were around as I grew up (I was born in '89).

Household appliances lasting for 35-40 years is pretty good going by any standard. Sadly, many of the things that replaced the old 70's stuff simply hasn't lasted. The washing machine we bought to replace the 40 old twin tub? That lasted 1 year and 1 day to the day. 1 day out of warranty and *pop* it died.

3 weeks have passed and we're still trying to get the damn thing sorted! Apparently, the manufacturer (Hoover) doesn't even make the parts anymore! In the meantime, we've had to cope with handwashing everything. I'm sure the old man deliberately puts skid marks in his underwear whenever it's my turn to do the laundry.... :/

Back in 2005 some car thieves in Malaysia tried to steal a Merc S Class with some kind of biometric immobilizer. When they realized they couldn't get the darn thing running without a finger print, they merely chopped the owner's finger off with a machete (I swear it's true: BBC Article).

I wonder who will be the first to lose an iPhone along with a finger.

If the phone goes long enough without being unlocked it reverts back to a passcode. So a chopped off finger won't get you in. Neither will law enforcement forcing you to touch the home button.

I'm also pretty sure the type of sensor in the 5S won't work with a "dead" finger anyway.

There was a neat BBC series called Electric Dreams that took the home in to account as well.

It well worth a watch.

Back in 2005 some car thieves in Malaysia tried to steal a Merc S Class with some kind of biometric immobilizer. When they realized they couldn't get the darn thing running without a finger print, they merely chopped the owner's finger off with a machete (I swear it's true: BBC Article).

I wonder who will be the first to lose an iPhone along with a finger.

'The Metropolitan Police said its "time-critical, dynamic response" had thwarted a "very significant and audacious cyber-enabled offence". '

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-24077094

I think there should be a general rule: Anyone who uses the word 'cyber' in a non-sarcastic manner should be ignored.

The article looks like it wasn't written by a tech journalist too, as it contains such obvious errors as 'The device, if operational, would have allowed data and contents of the desktop to be downloaded over the network.' News organizations so often make mistakes in their rush to be the first to break a story - even the BBC.

I wanted to say pretty much this, his autobiography is a great read. What a character. There's also a really worthwhile BBC-produced dramatization of his involvement in the Challenger investigation. William Hurt does a really good job portraying the great man, IMHO.

You are confusing propulsion with power (i.e. we can talk to it).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24026153

Plutonium power on board, expected to last a few years at best.

Otherwise, yes, it's an object in space moving and will continue to move until something stops it. Not much use when it stops talking back, though.