Slashdot Mirror

http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/guide/languages.shtml I trust BBC more than those last random ones. Chinese again. But again most likely mute point at this point.

link to bbc article, for good measure

Why does it matter if someone is a "us person"? Fuck off spying on me America.

I doubt "they" are spying on you so much as spying on the people around you that HM government are watching, concerned about, and which emerge from the population segment that will constitute a rapidly growing percentage of the population unless native Britons begin having children again.

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser
7 July 2005 London bombings
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - A few years old, but I doubt it has changed much.
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?
Muslim Gangs Enforce Sharia Law in London
2066: White Britons will be in the minority in UK
The British women converting to Islam
David Cameron studies plans for multi-faith Lords - ... where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.

I suspect that the future Troubles will leave people pining for the old Troubles unless these portents change. Of course if you like goat, and prefer your women veiled, it may not be all bad. Of course singing Jerusalem will likely be considered "offensive" at some point.

Nixon got the troops out. I've always felt he didn't get the credit for that he deserved.

Credit?! What the fuck are you talking about?

I'm not defending the actions of the murderers, and I'm not defending the inaction of the bystanders who observe the crimes and do nothing. But, these reports might give you some understanding of their perspective and why they are mad. The UN has an absolutely terrible track record in Africa. They've been accused of widespread sexual abuse of children across multiple African countries by thousands of victims, across a number of years with virtually no action taken to stop the abuse. There are also numerous accusations of corruption and collusion with warlords. The UN as an organization has noble intentions, but the people on the ground are subject to some very human flaws when given too much power over the weak.

2002: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2002/05/06/Refugee-sex-scandal-triggers-UN-reforms/UPI-89771020662474/ - UN troops raped children in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6195830.stm - Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found

2007: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1538476/UN-staff-accused-of-raping-children-in-Sudan.html - The UN said today that it would launch an investigation after the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that UN personnel have abused children in southern Sudan.

2011: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146874 - An AP investigation found that food meant for starving Somalis is being stolen and sold in markets. UN's World Food Program unfazed.

If the New World Order is trying to keep sub-Saharan Africa down, they're doing it wrong.

This is the real damage the NSA has done in spying on the American people. Now every other country feels like they need it, because the US does.

Ah, cultural chauvinism.... how on earth could those other people find the way if they didn't have an example to follow? I'll break it to you gently: Neither the terrorism by al Qaida nor the alleged surveillance by the Indian government has much of anything to do with the US. They each have their own independent values, ideals, goals, and work to achieve them. Spying by government and terrorism existed long before the United States, and it wasn't psychic powers anticipating the United States that induced people to engage in those practices then any more than it does today.

Al Qida wants to restore what they believe to be the lost glory of Islamic civilization of a 1,000 years ago, recreate the Islamic Caliphate that was dissolved in 1923 after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, conquer the world for Islam, and convert the world's peoples to Islam. They want to overthrow pretty much all of the existing governments in Muslim nations for not following their strict interpretation of Islam. You may think it is unrealistic, but that is their goal, even if it takes 1,000 years. The existence of nonexistence of the United States has little to do with it. If you want to blame anyone, blame Europe for repelling the Muslim invasion at the gates of Vienna in 1683.

And when it comes to India, the largest democracy in the world, as a rapidly modernizing country that is supplier of IT talent to the world, why should they be left out of the surveillance sweepstakes? They might have a reasonable concern or two at home, given they have an active Maoist communist insurgency, which conducted 351 attacks in 2011, and a bit of a terrorism problem arising from both their neighbor Pakistan and a small fraction of the native 100,000,000 Indian citizens that are Muslim. Maybe you've heard of the Mumbai attack? As it happened: Mumbai attacks 29 Nov - 195 people dead and hundreds more injured.

The Indian people and government will have to find their own way, and strike their own balance to match their own conditions, traditions, and laws.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8598159.stm
Around 4/2010 I believe..

India is launching a new census in which every person aged over 15 will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database.

And from the comments..

I think it is good that we are creating the national database of all our citizens. This will help maintain law and order, minimise crimes and help in locating people responsible for crimes. This will also ensure government benefits reach everybody and we will know who is left out. It will help individuals in getting house or land registrations, opening bank accounts and getting employment easier. These things usually take a lot of time because of background checks and the numerous documents required. I think this is a great job that the government is doing. Sandeep Singh, Bangalore, India

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]

This is actually not a new idea. In East Germany, the STASI is alleged to have done that:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/352461.stm

Pretty scary and brutal stuff.

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]

So, a thief who steals as much as an HFT corporation is also fine? Without the metric of social value, there is little or no point to many of the laws we have, especially the ones we think of as 'good'. I'd posit that if the social value of HFT is on par with grand theft, it should be outlawed, and for the same reason.

Well, my point is that markets (and in particular capital markets) are fundamentally about profit and nothing else. If you want to impose some additional system of values, be it social, ethical, religious (yes, there is such a thing in capital markets) ones, it has to be done from outside the 'free market' mentality. Because of that it amounts to extra regulation, so whether it is good or bad becomes a hot button issue in the US in general and on /. in particular and I chose to refrain from expressing a preference in a post that was more about facts.

Well, I can't honestly say I'm worried about hot button issues, and I wouldn't say I strayed from facts, either.

You are correct, little things like ethics, and 'doing the right thing' often have a financial cost, however small it might be. Just as not 'doing the right thing' will have a social cost, which can be surprisingly large at times. This, coupled with the irrational belief that a free market is any better than communism, does lead to some ridiculous discussions. See, communism and the free market do have at least one thing in common: they're both models which look good on paper, but do not take human flaws into consideration. And if you don't take those flaws into consideration, they will show themselves, usually in the most horrible ways.

For a look at the failings of the free (or unregulated) market, take a moment to read about a little thing called phossy jaw. And in response to the comment "Ah, but that wasn't truly a free market - the consumers didn't have enough information or influence." First, the problem was known (and solved!) for at least 5 decades, with employees dying on a regular basis before changes were made to improve employee health. Second, when the problem was first addressed, the companies in question were making about 20% dividends, and the industry is still around a century after they stopped poisoning their employees (mainly due to regulation). Third, please find me a free market today that works the way the model predicts, and isn't literally destroying people in the process, merely to maximize profits.

Models are wonderful things, even bad (or incomplete) models. But using models with known flaws doesn't lead to happy endings.

UK internet providers reject default porn filters

To be fair to the judge, he was the victim of a focused smear campaingn by MS. MS was fighting for its life and did not scruple at using every dirty trick it could.

MS complained about several interviews that Judge Jackson gave with journalists, in which the judge uttered some blunt and unflattering comments about Microsoft and its icon, Bill Gates. The judge said that Gates had a Napoleon complex, that Gates's "testimony is inherently without credibility," and he likened Microsoft's behavior to that of street gangs and drug dealers.

However, the judge's interviews and comments were made after he had heard all the evidence and the cases were closed. He decided that MS was not telling the truth, and that was his job. His only mistake was in granting the interviews before he issued his final judgment.

The judge was careless, certainly, but his decision should have been allowed to stand.
 

The 'Special Relationship' points in one direction - as the world saw demonstrated clearly with Tony Blair's increasingly bizarre and desperate kowtowing to Bush in the runup to Iraq in 2003.

The United Kingdom is the only country to which the United States sells nuclear weapons.

If push came to shove in the Falklands, the US government was ready to provide an aircraft carrier to the British government if need be.

American loans to the UK for WW2 expenses were only paid off by 2006 [wikipedia.org], by the way.

What's a little debt between friends?

"In a nutshell, everything we got from America in World War II was free," says economic historian Professor Mark Harrison, of Warwick University.

"The loan was really to help Britain through the consequences of post-war adjustment, rather than the war itself. This position was different from World War I, where money was lent for the war effort itself."

Britain had spent a great deal of money at the beginning of the war, under the US cash-and-carry scheme, which saw straight payments for materiel. There was also trading of territory for equipment on terms that have attracted much criticism in the years since. By 1941, Britain was in a parlous financial state and Lend-Lease was eventually introduced.

The post-war loan was part-driven by the Americans' termination of the scheme. Under the programme, the US had effectively donated equipment for the war effort, but anything left over in Britain at the end of hostilities and still needed would have to be paid for.

But the price would please a bargain hunter - the US only wanted one-tenth of the production cost of the equipment and would lend the money to pay for it. . .

Also, look at the Destroyers for Bases Agreement. The US gave the UK 50 warships, destroyers, in return for basing rights. What do you think that was worth, especially at the time?

Interesting contrast to today:

Lord West 'horrified' at size of navy - 19 March 2012

"I am horrified our naval flotilla now comprises only 19 frigates and destroyers," said Lord West. "In the Falklands, in the first month of fighting, we had four sunk and 14 damaged. That makes you think. We seem to have forgotten that when you fight you lose things.

"Here we are with 19 frigates and destroyers. Are they bonkers? Are they mad? How have they allowed this to happen?"

--------

So while I'm sure GCHQ remains nominally British, it's not the case the British interests are as separate from American ones as they were in 1939.

I have little doubt the Her Majesty's GCHQ intelligence service remains completely and unreservedly British, and that British interests, though often in common, are separate from American interests.

It used to be we'd read about the Russians pulling stunts like this in their embassy and we'd be all, 'oh, those wacky Soviets, we know they bug everything, they're so barbarous and uncivilised. In a proper country we're much more law-abiding.'

Hmm, because it's not like the west has been widely known to do this for the last decade or so.

I seem to recall that while Kofi Annan expressed the expected anger in public, in private he commented that he'd be more worried if they weren't spying on him because that'd mean they didn't care what he said.

There is simply no way that could have happened...

http://news.cnet.com/2100-1029-6140191.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/3522137.stm

That is from 2006 and 2004. My paranoia is well justified.

Supposedly this is more than made up for by the fact they can live the rest of their life how they feel they should be.

Maybe. There are people that do regret it. If you do, there's no magic reset available. On this earth you will never fully be again what you once were.

Are sex change operations justified?

Sex changes are not effective, say researchers

'I will never be able to have sex again. Ever'

But what worries other psychiatrists is the mounting evidence that surgery may not actually improve the lives of those who feel they were born with the wrong body. A review of more than 100 international studies of post-operative transsexuals by the University of Birmingham found there was no scientific evidence that surgery was effective and, in many cases, patients were left feeling more distressed. Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University — which housed one of the pioneer gender clinics — no longer performs sex-change surgery due to such concerns.

A recent British review found suicide rates of up to 18 per cent among people who had undergone gender reassignment surgery. Doctors from London's Portman Clinic say they see many patients who feel trapped in "no-man's land" after surgery, finding themselves with a body which is no longer recognisable as male or female. Psychotherapy, the experts believe, may have saved them from such a fate but few gender clinics offer it. -- more

Long-term follow-up of transsexual persons undergoing sex reassignment surgery

It's a difficult issue for all concerned.

Each balloon is 15m (49.2ft) in diameter - the length of a small plane - and filled with lifting gases. Electronic equipment hangs underneath including radio antennas, a flight computer, an altitude control system and solar panels to power the gear. Google aims to fly the balloons in the stratosphere, 20km (12 miles) or more above the ground, which is about double the altitude used by commercial aircraft and above controlled airspace. Each should stay aloft for about 100 days and provide connectivity to an area stretching 40km in diameter below as they travel in a west-to-east direction. [1]

Can normal 802.11 b/g/ac devices talk to a base station 20,000 meters away?

Each balloon is 15m (49.2ft) in diameter - the length of a small plane - and filled with lifting gases. Electronic equipment hangs underneath including radio antennas, a flight computer, an altitude control system and solar panels to power the gear. Google aims to fly the balloons in the stratosphere, 20km (12 miles) or more above the ground, which is about double the altitude used by commercial aircraft and above controlled airspace. Each should stay aloft for about 100 days and provide connectivity to an area stretching 40km in diameter below as they travel in a west-to-east direction. (Citation)

I wish that guy would get an account, I would have never seen his comment if it wasn't that there were only two comments (in the last half hour!) higher than -1. Far better FA than the one linked in TFS.

Each balloon is 15m (49.2ft) in diameter - the length of a small plane - and filled with lifting gases. Electronic equipment hangs underneath including radio antennas, a flight computer, an altitude control system and solar panels to power the gear. Google aims to fly the balloons in the stratosphere, 20km (12 miles) or more above the ground, which is about double the altitude used by commercial aircraft and above controlled airspace. Each should stay aloft for about 100 days and provide connectivity to an area stretching 40km in diameter below as they travel in a west-to-east direction. [1]

Great headline, mediocre summary. Typical Slashdot.

Follow the journalistic practice of the inverted pyramid. It's a widespread tradition among news reporters for a reason.

The headline should tell the whole story. If I wanted, I could read all the headlines in a newspaper and know all the stories. Just not the details.
The first sentence, the lead, should tell the story, a little bit more, perhaps, than the headline, or at least in fully grammatical instead of clipped English. If I wanted, I could read all the headlines and leads in a newspaper and know all the stories. Just not the details.
The first paragraph should tell the whole story, beginning, middle, and end. If I wanted, I could read all the first paragraphs in a newspaper and know all the stories. Just not every detail.
The following paragraphs should present details, the most important first, the smallest, least meaningful details in the last sentence of the last paragraph, so that at any moment I could stop reading and still have the complete story. Just not every tedious last detail.

Again, the poster did it beautifully in the headline, but the summary paragraph left out the juiciest part. Why did Airbus not want to build this plane? It didn't have to go into all the details. That's the job of the linked article. But one sentence, or even half a sentence, would suffice. For example:

The BBC reports that the Airbus A350XWB (extra wide body) has made its first flight. Like the Boeing 787, the A350 offers airlines the chance to combine long-range services with improved fuel efficiency. But at first Airbus did not want to build it, because it was already overbudget and late on another airplane, the A380. But Airbus needed an answer to Boeing's new Dreamliner. The A350's fuselage is made of carbon fibre reinforced plastic, while many other parts of the aircraft use titanium and advanced alloys to save weight. It also has state-of-the-art aerodynamics, and engine manufacturer Rolls Royce has produced a new custom-designed power unit.

Something like that.

what is better is that 4 days ago at E3 EA president said he wanted EA to stop being hated .

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22801311

EA took a working piece of software and FUBAR'd it so badly that it is essentially non functional. And they did it with a simple game like scrabble.

5 days ago the BBC had this article
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22801311

i think this situation with Scrabble explains why EA will never stop being hated.

Just how poorly must your company be run if you fuck up scrabble, that you bought. EA Purchased scrabble from Mattel, Mattel ran it successively for many many years. Just moving it over to EA's servers completely destroyed everything.

EA will always be hated. And Scrabble shows us why

Hate to repeat this, AC, but IMEI changing is easy.
Even if it wasn't, the phone still has value off-network.

Since you bring up Europe...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1749215.stm

==
A spokeswoman said: "IMEI barring does not solve the problem and is a red herring."

The method only stops calls being made on the network that barred it, the spokeswoman went on, and the handset itself is completely usable if a Sim card is put in from another network.

New IMEIs can be programmed into stolen handsets and 10% of IMEIs are not unique. ...

The firm has not adopted IMEI technology because it is "unreliable", a spokeswoman said, and could lead to innocent phone users being disconnected.

"Duplicate numbers are coming out of the factories now and you can have two or three handsets with the same number," she said.

"You might be blocking several other people who have done nothing wrong. ...

"In any case, there is software you can download from the internet to change IMEI numbers when a handset is stolen."
==

There was a recent news items article for Lithium-Sulfur batteries with 4 times the capacity of todays. There is also evidence suggesting batteries with 10 times current capacities may be viable.

Battery tech appears poised for a breakthrough that could be game changing for lots of transportation use. Given the rules of chemistry, this would be the last possible break-through for batteries (only so-much energy in chemical bonds).

I like supercaps too, especially if you can built them from carbon instead of lithium -- though the voltage drop-off issue is a significant limitation.

Adding rails to all of our roads seems like an expensive refit, though potentially adding to interstates and other high-volume roads might be economically justifiable -- I guess LENR cars would be even better.

I suspect that as a result, the rest of the world is going to be deeply suspicious of the US in the future, and it is going to be much more difficult to maintain control of the Internet's key systems and keep them inside US borders as much as is possible. I

That's definitely true. A UK political programme on TV last night that was focussed on the thorny issue of Scottish independence ended up talking about the US and their spying intentions. Even the politically mixed audience, who had been arguing from different positions all through the programme, joined in condemnation of the US for unwarranted spying on personal communications.

Which is ironic, because UK law explicitly allows the sort of interception programme that is so 'shocking' when the US does it. See RIPA section 8 ss 4-6 - the Secretary of State (not a judge) can issue a blanket warrant for all 'external communications' (eg those with locations outside the British Isles), without specifying a particular target person or location, on the grounds of National Security (section 5 ss 3(a)). Communications data can be obtained on similar grounds under section 22, except that here it only has to be authorised by a Chief Constable.

I suspect that as a result, the rest of the world is going to be deeply suspicious of the US in the future, and it is going to be much more difficult to maintain control of the Internet's key systems and keep them inside US borders as much as is possible. I

That's definitely true. A UK political programme on TV last night that was focussed on the thorny issue of Scottish independence ended up talking about the US and their spying intentions. Even the politically mixed audience, who had been arguing from different positions all through the programme, joined in condemnation of the US for unwarranted spying on personal communications.

Instead of partially-undersea, eventually it will be totally undersea.

The first part of Rapture perhaps?

You seem to be forgetting that the tsunami was a disaster in its own right http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17219008. I think it is weird how people decouple Fucushima from the larger picture at the moment, as if it is an expected part of any reactor's lifetime.

why does'nt our moon have life?

It may, there could still be dormant microbes leftover in the garbage we've left behind.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/bacteria-survive-nearly-three-years-on-the-moon/9931.html

Those emissions are going to be concentrated around airports, not distributed evenly amongst the population. Also, a tiny amount of lead can lead to drops in IQ and long-term problems.

The question you need to answer is whether the amount of lead being released is safe or not; the proportions don't matter:

According to one 2003 estimate, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, blood lead levels below the supposedly âoesafeâ limit of 10 micrograms per deciliter still produced a reduction in IQ of around 7 points. (Approximately 1 in 50 American children has lead levels above that threshold.)

(Wired)

Others are saying the same thing:

After taking account of factors likely to influence the results, they found that blood lead levels at 30 months showed significant associations with educational achievement, antisocial behaviour and hyperactivity scores five years later.
With lead levels up to five microgrammes per decilitre, there was no obvious effect.
But lead levels between five and 10 microgrammes per decilitre were associated with significantly poorer scores for reading ( 49% lower) and writing (51% lower). A doubling in lead blood levels to 10 microgrammes per decilitre was associated with a drop of a third of a grade in their Scholastic Assessment Tests (SATs).

(BBC)

5 mcg/dl is 50 ppb, if I'm not mistaken. Intuitively, do you think that the people working around airports who are exposed to aircraft exhaust would get levels above that? Remember, too, that lead persists in the environment, collects in dirt, is kicked up in dust, etc.

And the effects are truly felt throughout life. Indeed, there is convincing evidence that the crime wave of the 80s was due to lead in cars:

We now have studies at the international level, the national level, the state level, the city level, and even the individual level. Groups of children have been followed from the womb to adulthood, and higher childhood blood lead levels are consistently associated with higher adult arrest rates for violent crimes [19]. All of these studies tell the same story: Gasoline lead is responsible for a good share of the rise and fall of violent crime over the past half century.

(Mother Jones)

High:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22813893

I love the BBC; I love its funding model. But I love it least when it's doing programming for minorities, and least when it's trying to compete with commercial broadcasters.

A commercial broadcaster could bankroll Strictly Come Dancing, or even Doctor Who so the BBC should step aside and let that happen.

A commercial broadcaster is unlikely to produce something like Precision: the Measure of all Things. I would rather have a state mandated licence fee, and have that kind of thing made, than not.

Without the BBC there would be no source of quality British content. You could argue that in the absence of the BBC, someone else would fill that demand -- but I'd be pretty pessimistic about that happening.

Honk Kong has an extradition treaty with the US,

Yes. With political exemptions.

And no, I don't know whether those exemptions will apply. His options are limited - while Russia and China (as distinct from HK) might grant him protection it'd probably be dependant upon him providing information as part of his commitment to the arrangement. I suspect his laptop is clean, brain not so much.

Ecuador is out as joining Assange is putting all your eggs in an unstable basket (Ecuador has the third largest oil reserves in SA - how long before they are "liberated"?). And Iceland while willing would prove difficult to access and the security is debatable as:- it's run by a right-wing government; the economy is weak; while not members of NATO they do have a joint military treaty with the US and the continuing ability to gain access to Iceland and it's communications; Iceland would welcome the US back; Snowden ain't Fisher (and leaking NSA secrets ain't breaking a (minor) economic sanction).

Was just going to say that. 1 CCTV per 14 subjects in the UK, in 2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6108496.stm And the the fuckers can't even elect their head of state. Greetings from another medieval society, the one with the most wiretaps in the world: http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2686/Binnenland/article/detail/766686/2006/02/11/Nederland-is-kampioen-afluisteren.dhtml I guess we all have our cross to bear.

House warming, certainly.

Global? Maybe.
What happened to global warming?
Curry: less warming than predicted. Models seem wrong

I'd rather take a ultrasound blast to the gonads.

Might be.

What happened to global warming?
Curry: less warming than predicted. Models seem wrong

hey maybe India could use this tech to deploy toilets... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-17377895

It worked well for McAfee and Gary Glitter didn't it? Eventually they will catch up with you and you'll have to face the music. Unfortunately now with bigger and bigger "fishing nets" that the governments have, you'll get caught eventually.

Shit, even Whitey Bulger was caught and nobody ever thought they'd catch him.

Just a small sample:
London terror bomb plot: the four terrorists
Fertiliser bomb plot: The story
Rucksack Bomb Plot Terror Suspects Nasser, Khalid and Ali Accused of Planning Attack ‘Deadlier than 7/7’

There have been regular arrests in the US besides actual attacks. Here is a sample.

I found V for Vendetta to be largely nonsense. And the purpose of police states generally isn't to prevent street crime, but to ensure the survival of an oppressive regime through oppression of the political opposition.

There's a bigger list of people detained and jailed in the UK who turned out to be innocent. Since the 9-11 the surveillance has increase by a large factor and the reduction in crime is not even measurable - but of course really there's been a huge reduction in terror attacks, but we can't know about it 'cause it's secret (sigh).

Because they were so incredibly effective at preventing 9/11 in the US, and so effective at stopping the London, UK subway bombings, and so effective at preventing the train bombing in Madrid, Spain, right? I'm feeling less imperiled already.

As I understand it, the surveillance was started some time after the 9/11 attacks, so it couldn't have stopped that. But as to attacks in the UK, there has been a steady stream of arrests and trials over the years. A number of those plots were aimed at mass casualties by attacking stadiums, that sort of thing. I'm surprised you apparently haven't heard of them.

Just a small sample:
London terror bomb plot: the four terrorists
Fertiliser bomb plot: The story
Rucksack Bomb Plot Terror Suspects Nasser, Khalid and Ali Accused of Planning Attack ‘Deadlier than 7/7’

There have been regular arrests in the US besides actual attacks. Here is a sample.

I found V for Vendetta to be largely nonsense. And the purpose of police states generally isn't to prevent street crime, but to ensure the survival of an oppressive regime through oppression of the political opposition.

Turning white wine into red wine:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11044090

The limited revelations so far have focused on the technical scheme and said little about the regulatory scheme, how it was used operationally. Leaving out that sort of data is like noting that almost everybody has in their house or on their person a device which has a microphone and transmits all it hears to remote listeners, that is a telephone, but leaving out the fact that it is off until you pick it up or turn it on. The existence of this technology and program says very little about if it is legal and if it has been used appropriately.

Turning off telephone service is inconvenient. Turning off the intelligence services ability to gather timely intelligence can perilous.

Bali death toll set at 202
London 7/7 terrorist attacks
Madrid train attacks
9-11 attacks

What has MI-5 had to say?

U.K. tracking 30 terror plots, 1,600 suspects - updated 11/10/2006

British authorities are tracking almost 30 high-priority terrorist plots involving 200 networks and 1,600 suspects, the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency said, adding that many of those under surveillance are homegrown terrorists plotting suicide attacks and other mass-casualty bombings.

What did the next head of MI-5 say a year later?

New MI5 chief says terror suspects in Britain have doubled in the last year - November 6, 2007

The new chief of Britain's intelligence service MI5 painted a troubling picture of growing terrorist threat in Britain, saying the number of suspects in the country has more than doubled in the past year – and that many of the new recruits are teenagers....

and more:

At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - November 6, 2007

LONDON, Nov. 5 -- British security officials suspect that at least 4,000 people are involved in terrorism-related activities in Britain and that al-Qaeda's "deliberate campaign" against Britain poses the "most immediate and acute peacetime threat" to the nation in a century, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said Monday.

And in 2012?

MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring

You cripple the security services at your peril. Unlike the IRA, al Qaida doesn't tend to phone in warnings before a blast.

Cheers

The limited revelations so far have focused on the technical scheme and said little about the regulatory scheme, how it was used operationally. Leaving out that sort of data is like noting that almost everybody has in their house or on their person a device which has a microphone and transmits all it hears to remote listeners, that is a telephone, but leaving out the fact that it is off until you pick it up or turn it on. The existence of this technology and program says very little about if it is legal and if it has been used appropriately.

Turning off telephone service is inconvenient. Turning off the intelligence services ability to gather timely intelligence can perilous.

Bali death toll set at 202
London 7/7 terrorist attacks
Madrid train attacks
9-11 attacks

What has MI-5 had to say?

U.K. tracking 30 terror plots, 1,600 suspects - updated 11/10/2006

British authorities are tracking almost 30 high-priority terrorist plots involving 200 networks and 1,600 suspects, the head of Britain’s domestic spy agency said, adding that many of those under surveillance are homegrown terrorists plotting suicide attacks and other mass-casualty bombings.

What did the next head of MI-5 say a year later?

New MI5 chief says terror suspects in Britain have doubled in the last year - November 6, 2007

The new chief of Britain's intelligence service MI5 painted a troubling picture of growing terrorist threat in Britain, saying the number of suspects in the country has more than doubled in the past year – and that many of the new recruits are teenagers....

and more:

At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - November 6, 2007

LONDON, Nov. 5 -- British security officials suspect that at least 4,000 people are involved in terrorism-related activities in Britain and that al-Qaeda's "deliberate campaign" against Britain poses the "most immediate and acute peacetime threat" to the nation in a century, the head of Britain's domestic spy agency said Monday.

And in 2012?

MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring

You cripple the security services at your peril. Unlike the IRA, al Qaida doesn't tend to phone in warnings before a blast.

Cheers

Maybe.

Curry: less warming than predicted. Models seem wrong
What happened to global warming?

Wrong.

"You do not need a television licence to catch-up on television programmes in BBC iPlayer"

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/help/playing_tv_progs/tvlicence

If the BBC clock always showed London time, it would have more value than no clock.

If that's London time (including daylight saving when applicable) that's fine; the 10 O'clock news will be on when the website says it's 10 O'clock, even if I'm in Budapest.

The line on the schedules page to show "now" seems to work like that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/guide/bbc/london