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The BBC reports that the agency head concurs.

Mr Maiani, a physicist, said the Serious Risks Commission could not work "in such difficult conditions".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20039769

With loving and caring companies such as British Gas the UK economy will surge into oblivion and beyond.

"The 1980's are calling for their foreign policy back" -- Barack Obama :)

That wouldn't be fair to the Russians. After all, they are still spinning up the old Soviet practices, aping the Cold War, and they apparently aren't done with them yet. It certainly appears that the Russians would rather be the enemy than be ignored.

Russia restarts Cold War patrols
Report: Russia may base bombers in Cuba
More Russian bombers flying off Alaska coast
Report: Russian Nuclear Attack Sub Patrolled Waters Off Gulf for a MonthUndetected
Canada does not like Russian nuclear bombers patrolling Arctic territory
Japanese, South Korean jets trail Russian bombers over Pacific
UK jets greet Russian bombers
New Russian Anti-Missile Facility Opens in Kaliningrad
Russia claims new missile can overcome missile defenses

Sounds like you're well on the way to developing some hardcore Nostradamosity. :) But really, it has nothing to do with science; Italy is just systematically corrupt. Whether it's nuclear waste disposal or child prostitution by the president, there's pretty much a 100% chance that someone is shirking the rules. The American media circus is nothing compared to the mess in Italy (and France and Greece, but that's a story for another time.)

And the actual BBC link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19760006

Or one line ASCII arts like http://i.imgur.com/3Y1VW.png from http://www.reddit.com/r/futurama/comments/11fy4o/our_neighbors_wifi_name/ ... I will have to do that for my future SSIDs. ;)

You views tend to run contrary to what the facts and common sense suggest.

It would if their neighbour who they are currently at war with didn't already have nuclear weapons.

Whose fault is it that they are at war? Israel and Iran had good relations into the 70's, until the Islamic revolution. Iran didn't go to war along with the Arab countries in Arab-Israeli Wars of 1948. 1956, 1967, 1973, and so on. Iran declared themselves an enemy of Israel after the Islamic revolution of 1979 - it is a matter of religious hatred. Iran wouldn't be threatened if it didn't threaten Israel and train, fund, and equip terrorists attacking Israel with thousands of rockets and other weapons. Even now, Iran is sending assassination teams all over the world to try to kill Israeli diplomats.

Iran doesn't want nuclear weapons to defend itself from Israel, it wants them to throw its weight around in the nations along the Arabian Gulf, and to help provide either means or cover for destroying Israel.

Aren't you against "wars of choice"? Shouldn't you oppose genocides of choice? Why do you not oppose Iran's naked hatred?

Again and again Israel has shown its willingness to attack Iran and other neighbouring states with conventional weapons.

You have it backwards. What are all these attacks on Iran by Israel that you speak of - when did the Israeli army cross into Iran? Iran played no part in the Arab-Israeli wars. Iran and Israel were on friendly terms until Iran declared Israel its enemy after the Islamic revolution of 1979. In fact it is Iran that is the aggressor, training and arming terrorists and guerillas to attack israel with rockets and suicde bombers. Shouldn't you be opposing hatred and the wars and terrorism of choice of Iran?

Of course Israel has had to defend itself against Arab armies in this century - since the Arabs have tried to destroy Israel time after time. The Arab nations invaded Palestine within hours of Israel's existence. When Israel was the attacker it was only after the actions and intent of the Arab nations was made clear, such as in 1967:

The attack follows a build-up of Arab military forces along the Israeli border.

The Arab states had been preparing to go to war against Israel with Egypt, Jordan and Syria being aided by Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Algeria.

On 27 May the President of Egypt, Abdel Nasser, declared: "Our basic objective will be the destruction of Israel. The Arab people want to fight." - - 1967: Israel launches attack on Egypt

The Arab leaders made their intent known. Do you not oppose genocide, especially when it is open announced?

Apparently the fault you find with the Israelis is that they do not wait meekly for execution by those who have made their hatred and intent clear.

Since they are backed by the US the only realistic defence is mutually assured nuclear annihilation.

The US has never fought alongside Israeli troops, so that is nonsense. Furthermore, Iran could do what Egypt and Jordan did - sign a peace treaty with Israel. You would think that it would be easier for Iran that Egypt and Jordan since Iran wasn't part of the Arab-Israeli wars, and used to have good relations with Israel until the revolution and the self-declared war against Israel and, in fact, the Jews. Israel would have no interest in hostilities with Iran if Iran left Israel alone.

Why do you not urge Iran to seek peace instead of nuclear weapons?

North Korea is in the same boat. The US doesn't like them, . .

Is it? That's $100,000/rider, which sounds like a lot, but that's also including a lot of capital investment. In the UK, commuter rail tickets can cost over £5000 ($8000), so that's about 8% of the cost, but that cost only has to cover maintenance, not construction. For an infrastructure project on this scale, break even is typically meant to be somewhere in the 10-25 year mark. If they're still constructing infrastructure, then that's quite plausible.

For comparison, the channel tunnel cost £9.5bn to build, and finished in 1994. Eurostar made its first operating profit in 2007 and the only reason it is nominally in the black is that they effectively sold most of the company to the banks that loaned them the money. They're making something like £150m/year in operating profit (most of which goes towards financing their debt), and so it will take them a very long time to make back the initial investment. The banks are making around a 2.5-3% annual return on investment in terms of interest on the debt, but they also own the majority of a profitable company with a very valuable asset, so they have a very good long-term investment.

More importantly, a large piece of infrastructure was built and is getting regular use. Last year, around 17 million people used the channel tunnel (plus a load of freight), and that has a huge economic impact on Britain and France. It's now feasible for someone who works in London to go to Paris or Brussels for a meeting and be back the same day, for example. But if you'd done the same sums that you just did for its 1994 then you'd have seen a £9.5bn investment for 0.3 million passengers. That's £31,500/passenger, or around $50,000/passenger. In other words, about half the per-passenger cost of the Chinese high speed rail network. Clearly a waste of money...

...the guy who designed the battery now used in hybrid cars has died. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20004190

I am not an Apple fan, but since the judge himsef said at that Samsung's devices were not as "cool" because they lacked Apple's "extreme simplicity" I think Apple can come up with an apology that will not hurt. I imagine they will apologise for "overestimating the Samsung device but now rightly see that it lacks the superiour design aspects of the iPad".

So Apple are so dumb they cannot tell their cool product from a product that lacks extreme simplicity.

The company had been running an internship program that put 14- to 16-year-old children on the factory floor

And the link they reference in that quote (to anther article on their OWN site) says it was vocational interns (16+) and college students (18+). So more accurate would be "16 to 22".

I don't want to defend the authors, but Foxconn did recently admit that some of it vocational interns were 14 - 16 years old. It was on the BBC, among others.

Funny thing: Samsung still denies that their Chinese subcontractors employ underage workers (not interns), even after several reports. http://gizmodo.com/5940903/report-worker-abuse-and-underage-employment-at-six-more-samsung-factories

Some say, one of the major things that makes us differetn from animals is our knowlede of the fact that we are mere mortals...
Now, life is pretty hard and cruel for many...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17299084
I will then ask You this question: I will torture you, and give you the same treatment as teenage prostitutes get in rebel camps, and generelly prisoners of war... (will not name nations)
Are you willing to bet that you will keep your sanity and not become religious of the pain?

I am not an Apple fan, but since the judge himsef said at that Samsung's devices were not as "cool" because they lacked Apple's "extreme simplicity" I think Apple can come up with an apology that will not hurt. I imagine they will apologise for "overestimating the Samsung device but now rightly see that it lacks the superiour design aspects of the iPad".

The company had been running an internship program that put 14- to 16-year-old children on the factory floor

And the link they reference in that quote (to anther article on their OWN site) says it was vocational interns (16+) and college students (18+). So more accurate would be "16 to 22".

I don't want to defend the authors, but Foxconn did recently admit that some of it vocational interns were 14 - 16 years old. It was on the BBC, among others.

Sorry, shouldn't have had the trailing slash
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17553860

Yup. Another shithole country to add to my list of places to never visit, not even to change flights.

Oh, wait, it's already been added for this.

I'm pretty sure the US does not extradite it's own citizens for crimes done in the US

It's certainly a little lopsided. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17553860/

I think you accidentally ended up in an adult forum; BBC kids site is here; or try the daily mail.

And more recently, a 14 year old girl is shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to campaign for women's rights (where else, but in Pakistan).

Dear self proclaimed 'peaceful' Muslims, where the fuck were you during these episodes orchestrated by your co-religionists in the name of your wonderful religion? Where were the masses of allegedly moderate Muslims protesting at the gates of the embassies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for aiding and funding these terror groups?

What? The ENTIRE NATION OF PAKISTAN took a day of prayers in response to this episode. There were protests against it across Pakistan. Prayer leaders condemned the attacks. Schools were closed. Rallies against the attacks were held in all the major cities. I don't know how you missed that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19913201

He probably did miss it because he watches Faux News and reads conservative blogs to find out his 'facts". And especially Faux News think it more "Fair and Balanced" to report on a protest by a small fringe group of people that report to the 'wrong' religion than to report on the vast majority of said group that would be thought of as reasonable. If they reported the other way round, then they would have trouble maintaining the delusion that the other side is evil and therefore we are good.

Try asking that if you live in an Islamic country.

Hence my initial comment "what's the bet he believe in invisible friends".

lets count the number marching on the streets in protest [over the shooting of Malala Yousafzai]

Protests have been held in a number of cities in Pakistan. Tens of thousands took to the streets of Karachi.

What more needs to be said

That you're an idiot?

Yea, like this story for example - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19944078 , Pakistani teen girl shot in head because she spoke out, and we are supposed to curtail our free speech for these Bigots!

And more recently, a 14 year old girl is shot in the head by the Taliban for daring to campaign for women's rights (where else, but in Pakistan).

Dear self proclaimed 'peaceful' Muslims, where the fuck were you during these episodes orchestrated by your co-religionists in the name of your wonderful religion? Where were the masses of allegedly moderate Muslims protesting at the gates of the embassies of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia for aiding and funding these terror groups?

What? The ENTIRE NATION OF PAKISTAN took a day of prayers in response to this episode. There were protests against it across Pakistan. Prayer leaders condemned the attacks. Schools were closed. Rallies against the attacks were held in all the major cities. I don't know how you missed that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19913201

It already is manufactured on a greater scale than trying to farm spiders: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16554357 (warning: potential goat pr0n)

How it'll really pan out in electronics for fibre optics remains to be seen though ;-)

How is a sexual preference at all comparable to a felony crime? Or any crime for that matter?

Try asking that if you live in an Islamic country.

And the trans-Atlantic equivalent, CBeebies.

After watching the fall, putting cocaine in Red Bull seems more practical than ever, even if the Germans beg to differ.

The standard Red Bull found in most US stores doesn't contain coca leaves, but the Swiss cola variety does, and it's mighty tasty -- very herbal and spicy.

A friend just noted something as I typed the above: This was literally a small step for man, but a rather giant leap for ...a man. Buzz would be proud anyway.

BBC reported the same number. If so, it's incredible. And even if it's 733.9, 'tis nothing to complain about.

It was news to me too, and here's the news item:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19676639

But John Lee, the association's chairman insisted that the helium its members put into balloons, was not depriving the medical profession of the gas.

"The helium we use is not pure," he said. "It's recycled from the gas which is used in the medical industry, and mixed with air. We call it balloon gas rather than helium for that reason.

"There is no way the balloon and party industry would even consider taking badly-needed helium from the medical profession. That is important - people have to come first.

"If I thought this industry was taking helium away from the medical profession, I would be looking at doing things differently."

See, as a European (and even moreso as a French), I can't stop being puzzled by US food habits, and marketing strategies like you describe, which are despicable, and worth denouncing, I agree with you on that.

What's the situation in French schools? Schools in Britain aren't allowed to sell fizzy drinks or unhealthy snacks.

I don't think we have anything after food advertisements (but I don't have a TV). The best thing to have happened is a semi-voluntary action by the main supermarkets to clearly label unhealthy food. Soon after this was introduced, many things with a "red" icon were reformulated. Obviously unhealthy stuff wasn't affected so much, but lots of hidden salt, fat and sugar has been removed (e.g. bread, yoghurt, cereal).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18767425 (Since then, Tesco has implemented the labelling.)
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Goodfood/Pages/food-labelling.aspx#Tr

I think there are proposals to force all packaged food to have these labels, but I suspect the current government won't do it. The supermarkets presumably did it to make their own-brand products appeal to health-conscious people as well as those on a tight budget.

The January 19, 2010 BBC article, UN Afghanistan survey points to huge scale of bribery says, "According to the UN survey, bribes averaged $160 (£98) in contrast to an average Afghan annual income of $425."

After bribes are paid, the income is $265. But that is misleading, because people who take the bribes are included in the overall average. So the average income for those who don't get bribes is apparently much less than $265.

Using $265 as the figure, U.S. taxpayers paid the equivalent of 61 years income for average people (16,268 per person, as mentioned above) to the rich people in Afghanistan who take bribes and participate in corruption. Numerous articles say the lives have average people haven't improved much.

So there I was, reading the BBC, catching up on the day's news, and I came across this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-19921055

I believe this might actually be the strongest demonstration yet of what is wrong with our country. These people will have voted in the way they were told to vote by the media, because they're that fucking dumb. I think this really highlights everything that's wrong with the UK's electorate, these people need the vote taken away from them.

How does this even end up on the news? Did they think "Hey, you know how we've spent thousands on labour and completely wrecked our house because we were too stupid to look in a drawer, well why don't we now go and tell the world all about this by reporting it to the BBC?".

Really, I think this does demonstrate my point well, and I sincerely believe the UK has an awful lot of people just like this, who are actually this dumb and like to even advertise the fact to the world.

Because facebook 'likes' any page you visit, automatically:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19832043

Fuck facebook.

19,000 people? What difference is that going to make? The government of the day ignored at least 750,000 (+/- some) people who appeared in person to protest. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/2765041.stm

China - The first economy based of stealing other people's ideas and manufacturing it for less.

Samuel Slater anyone? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-15002318

Of course the British couldn't help themselves either...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178330/Royal-Worcester-porcelain-Remarkable-diary-porcelain-maker-1791-details-stole-trade-secrets.html
http://www.amazon.com/For-All-Tea-China-Favorite/dp/B003D0ZUOK

Let us know when you successfully [sic] run the largest software company on the planet.

MS has lost mindshare, marketshare, and profits under Ballmer. What has it gained? Zune, PlaysForSure, Courrier, Kin, Windows Phone 7, Bing, aQuantive, Surface tablets - a string of might-have-been products hamstrung by weak execution and weaker leadership. The stock price eloquently expresses what the market thinks of Ballmer's performance:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/chart-microsofts-performance-under-gates-vs-ballmer/35415

In June this year they announced their first quarterly loss:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18917906

I don't think you can say that Ballmer has run Microsoft successfully in any way, unless you feel he has successfully squandered the legacy of Bill Gates.

Felix Salmon on high-frequency trading and its part in the current financial crisis.
Listen to this 13 min BBC programme/essay at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n1thw available for the next 12 months

This thing is HARD CODED. Just look at pictures at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19884218
every gesture is "recognized", but 3D model doesnt fit real hand.
Finger movements are not recreated, there is no 3D model recreation. This is M$ so Im guessing learned NN recognizing few patterns and pretending to be magic.
  Just like Kinect games that promise movement tracking, but end up recognizing 2 hard coded gestures (or dont use cameras at all and you feel scammed for buying $200 Mass Effect microphone).

Why yes, yes, it is. Confusing two abbreviated 3 digit patent numbers is much easier than confusing company names. But, hey, zealots and common sense don't mix, eh?

Here, have a quote from different interview where he "clarifies" the point:

When we had to determine the validity of Apple's patent against the charges of Samsung's with the prior art examples, what we had to do - to make it clear - is that not only did we have to validate, if you will, the Apple patent, but in looking at the prior art we had stipulations in the law that tested both sides and if the test wasn't passed then it was clear either the patent was valid or it wasn't.

Prior art didn't mean that the prior art wasn't valid. It was valid. But the stipulation under the law is for the prior art to be sufficient to negate or invalidate the Apple patents in this case, it had to be sufficiently similar or, more importantly, it had to be interchangeable.

And in example after example, when we put it to the test, the older prior art was just that. Not that there's anything [wrong] with older prior art - but the key was that the hardware was different, the software was an entirely different methodology, and the more modern software could not be loaded onto the older example and be run without error.

Stupidest bits bolded for your (in)convenience. That's not how prior art works.

Actually, crossbow deaths still happen - there are a fair number of crossbow hunters in the US, and they're just as likely as mistakenly shoot a person as hunters using guns. One happened last month, in fact: http://www.local12.com/mostpopular/story/Owen-County-Woman-Dies-in-Crossbow-Accident/UzDm7-_IV0Wh7jV5dy_Ydw.cspx

Murder by crossbow happens as well, though it's less common: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-10801054 and http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/900745--man-shot-dead-with-crossbow-inside-main-st-library are two murders-by-crossbow from 2010.

He's been sent down for 12 weeks. Some joke, do these people not read sickipedia.org or what ?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710

I note that Matthew Woods (who made the original facebook "joke") has now been jailed for 3 months.

Yes. He took the cowardly (but perhaps pragmatic) choice of pleading guilty.

No winners in this one, I reckon.

I suppose technically it could be slander, given that he's not been found guilty by a jury of his peers.

He hasn't even been accused of rape. Just abduction, murder, and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

In the court of public opinion he's already been tried and sentenced. His life is over, even if they find her alive and well and staying with a friend.

I note that Matthew Woods (who made the original facebook "joke") has now been jailed for 3 months.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-19869710

12 weeks in jail for his comments, which he pled guilty to...

Interestingly, he was arrested for his "own protection", after "About 50 people went to his home address".

Regardless of what or where he posted his joke, the BBC reports that 50 angry people turned up outside his house and he was arrested at a different address for his own safety.

Sick, but that would be civil case.

For those who don't know why the joke is sick, below link will provide you some background ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19867915

Still don't get it. It's not really sick or mean...... it's just kind of lame. If it's offensive somehow (which I don't believe), it would be offensive to the killer.

Sick, but that would be civil case.

For those who don't know why the joke is sick, below link will provide you some background ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-19867915

The first commercially contracted re-supply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) has lifted off. A Falcon rocket carrying a Dragon cargo capsule lifted clear of Cape Canaveral in Florida at 20:35 (00:35 GMT). The robotic Dragon ship will deliver 400kg of food, clothing, experiments and spares to the orbiting platform's six astronauts. It is the maiden flight in a sequence of 12 missions that California's SpaceX company is performing for Nasa. The US space agency is looking to the private sector to assume routine transport duties to and from low-Earth orbit. It has given SpaceX a $1.6bn contract to keep the ISS stocked up with essentials, restoring a re-supply capability that the US lost when it retired the shuttles last year.h

There also are photos from a local newspaper (if you use noscript, allow www.lalsace.fr, there are 12 photos, not only one).

Google Image in French has a few others.
I like the green one.

Also, this is not innocuous, as the queen bees have stopped to lay eggs due to the unusual food (source in French).

Finally, clickable link for the BBC video, for the lazy :)

(Aside note : Slashdot also removes UTF-8 in URLs, I had to use %E9 instead of é.)

From the BBC:

They said that during the study period, adding an extra portion of unprocessed red meat to someone's daily diet would increase the risk of death by 13%, of fatal cardiovascular disease by 18% and of cancer mortality by 10%. The figures for processed meat were higher, 20% for overall mortality, 21% for death from heart problems and 16% for cancer mortality.

Still, even if the harm from smoking was orders of magnitude worse than all other pleasures combined, it doesn't change the fact that it is every individual's choice to weigh how much they are concerned with health when it comes to their pleasure. It doesn't matter if it's dietary choices, smoking, skateboarding, sexual practices, video gaming...

Health may not rank high on your list of priorities, so "what is bad for you" and "what is bad for your health" are not necessarily the same thing. The post I replied to implied that they are.