Slashdot Mirror

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-15611160

I'd rather watch these short ones than be stood out in the rain (England) for hours.

It looks like Julian Assange is seeking to endear himself with the US government in joining the Western-led anti-Syrian bashing train. But somehow, I doubt this will help him redeem himself in the eyes of the Empire. And no, don't get me started about how evil the Assad regime is, considering that the only realistic alternative could be a lot worse. Quo vadis, Wikileaks?

Twelve seconds in google produced these: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12006421
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-08-18/world/venezuela.radio_1_venezuelan-president-hugo-chavez-venezuelan-law-press-freedom?_s=PM:WORLD
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/02/venezuela_prohibits_sales_of_guns_ammunition/

Of those twelve seconds, I spent three picking out sources from the "liberal media". Just for you.

It has been one of the wettest ever Junes here in the UK and it is still raining heavily. When it is not raining it's heavy cloud. Although that's stereotypical weather here, it's more like what you'd expect in the winter.

Even in Scotland, where it's not been quite as badly affected as some other parts of the UK, (*) it's still been pretty poor by our standards (even though the past few years have dragged expectations down). It's been quite easy to forget that it's even meant to be summer at all. And this was following a surprisingly mild winter and a pretty good spring (again, by our standards!)

And this isn't really offtopic, because it's all related to the heatwave in the US. Yeah, I'm blaming the Yanks for our shitty weather. ;-)

(*) Though the west coast of Scotland in particular has very high rainfall on average to start off with. Fortunately, I'm in the east, where the average rainfall is much lower :-)

There are two ways of making artificial diamonds.

High pressure and temperature using a very large press. This is the method that is probably more expensive. Here the carbon is squeezed into the crystal structure.

Chemical vapor deposition. This is really easy and cheap to do. All the Mach5 razors are coated in a thin layer of diamond. Here the crystal structure is grown. All it requires is the correct ratios of gases.

Whats more they will now get more distracting calls from accidents that are resolved by participants or cops (no serious injuries - sensors cant tell about this) or even completely bogus from defective cars, so the ambulances will move around needlessly at some times (likely failing to help some extra people due to extra distance).

There's a fair amount of information you can get from sensors that can be used to predict the severity of injuries - the number occupants and in which seats, the crash severity and direction, which airbags deployed, the seat belt status, if the car rolled over, etc. A lot of this is already monitored anyway, so you don't even need new sensors.

One documentary I watched about reasearch into this subject (probably Horizon's Surviving a Car Crash) said they were getting surprisingly accurate predictions of the injuries.

On the other hand Fermilab did announce their latest results today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18677808

. Second, their "brilliant new OS, solid top-of-the-line hardware" combination isn't slated to come out for another year

This fall isn't "another year" away.

Dang, didn't even have to wait until this fall for the delay announcement. Try Q1 2013

America Online wasn't based in and focused on America?

Indeed not. They were a reasonably significant broadband ISP in the UK too, though their decline here has paralelled that in the USA.

Yes I remember their famous "faux pas", like telling the residents of Scunthorpe that they should rename their town Sconthorpe to register, thinking people from Penistone were taking the piss - there couldn't be a town called that could there?, and telling the Welsh that they has to use English in the Welsh language forum. They even blocked emails in Welsh. Needless to say they were not the biggest ISP in the UK!

The ordnance disposal teams know their work. They know exactly how far they have to be and how well protected. They leave very little to chance. They also evacuate the areas at risk before defusing, securing and transporting the unexploded ordnance. Not too long ago, they found a 4000 lbs bomb from WW2 in the Rhine in Koblenz. They evacuate about half the city...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16018659

But even if they know what they are doing, I wouldn't want to do their jobs...

Doesn't seem like that solid of an agreement, at least if you like taking them young

you fat bastard

You'll be hearing from my lawyer who specializes in UK libel law.

There's no such thing as "UK law"; there's different (but similar) systems in England and Wales and Northern Ireland (both common law jurisdictions). Scotland has a mixed civil/common law system and its own institutions and methods.

Forget information tech, start a dairy farm!

More seriously, have you seen the $104.99 CAD case of bottled water and the $28.54 head of cabbage? Such extortion exists already in a certain part of the world.

More and more companies are being found to have behaved badly and are fined, just today Barclays is fined £290m. The company pays it and probably keeps going on other scams for which individuals earn large bonuses or commissions, nobody really suffers, the company just makes a little less profit that year.

The only way of altering behaviour is to fine the individuals who are behind the scams. Only when these crooks start loosing their houses and pensions will they stop thieving. Their primary interest is themselves, not the company. Hit them where it matters to them - then, and only then, might the regulators truly find their teeth.

Wow, that is a chunk of change - the EU could really use the money right now too (conspiracy ???). This could pay for the bailouts being debated right now throughout the EU.

The fine is 860 million euros. The Spanish banks are getting up to 100 billion euros. The Irish got some 60 billion euros, Greece has gotten several hundred billions so far. These 860 million euros are chump change in comparison.

...what was the role of Afghanistan and why did the US bombed them ?

The Taliban created an opium embargo.

I can't believe the submitter missed out the worse bit!

From the BBC News:

Suspected internet pirates will have 20 working days to appeal against allegations of copyright infringement and must pay £20 to do so, according to revised plans to enforce the UK's Digital Economy Act.

So now you're automatically assumed guilty .. and can only prove you're innocent after you've paid for the "privilege" to do so!

No. After the three warnings, if you don't appeal to any of the warnings, your details are passed to the copyright owners who may choose to take legal action through the courts. The £20 (refundable if you win) is for if you want to avoid having to bother with due process; it isn't part of the due process which is still there. This looks to me to be a big improvement over the existing system where the first you might hear of copyright infringement accusations is a court summons.

I can't believe the submitter missed out the worse bit!

From the BBC News:

Suspected internet pirates will have 20 working days to appeal against allegations of copyright infringement and must pay £20 to do so, according to revised plans to enforce the UK's Digital Economy Act.

So now you're automatically assumed guilty .. and can only prove you're innocent after you've paid for the "privilege" to do so!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18595347

from the BBC's article:

Users wishing to undo the change can do so by clicking on the "about" link in their profile and then clicking the "edit" button next to their contact information.

They then need to click make their Facebook email address "hidden from timeline" and then - if they wish - make one or more of their other preferred addresses visible.

I think that's pretty obvious... by facebook standards.

Even penguins can get in on the act: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-17960490

However, sex changes are legal in Iran (and paid for!) -- so Iranians should be allowed to buy iPads, as long as they're jail-broken & running Android.

The beeb has an article that addresses the apple thing--he often ate an apple before bedtime, so the fact that a half-eaten apple was found on his night stand wasn't unusual at all, and the apple was never tested for cyanide.

Please note that most seem to be construing this news as a cue to believe that Turing may have been murdered (by the British government, naturally), when in reality, Prof Jack Copeland, the foremost Turing scholar, and Turing's own mother thought it to be a careless accident rather than a suicide, with Copeland saying "the evidence should be taken at face value - that an accidental death is certainly consistent with all the currently known circumstances." The truth is that the initial inquest was so sloppy we will never know for certain, so those who are apt to believe in government conspiracies will no doubt believe he was assassinated (after he was already subject to humiliating chemical castration), even as the premier Turing expert believes it was more likely an accident.

As a customer, I'm annoyed that a) A major high street bank doesn't have enough failsafes/testing to prevent this and b) That there is so little communication as to the cause and expected time to fix the problem.
Thankfully I don't live week to week off my wage like some people do, but if I did I'd be having major problems as evidenced by some of the BBC stories.

Okay we know that Google, Facebook and other companies have a tracking system in place. But who's really watching? Is it possible that Larry Page or Mark Zuckerberg is reading this post right now and will click his iAmWatchingU app to find out who typed these words? Or is some other sentient entity looking over me like the deity of some theistic religion.

Maybe the greater danger isn't that we are being watched, but that algorithms are now in control of our lives, processing, analyzing, bankrupting us in a way where sometimes the only human intervention is someone clicking OK.

It is not unreasonable to want to prevent your children from being exposed to hardcore pornography at the age of 7.

Why? Not only will they likely discover it anyway, but it is highly unlikely they'll be hurt by it. In fact, I've seen no evidence to reach such a conclusion.

At the age of 7, perhaps, but at 13+ hardcore porn can have an effect on what teenagers see as "normal".

Here's one bad example: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18282560 and here ""Certain behaviours that I only used to have bored 40-year-olds asking me about goes now right down to the under-16s asking me about it."".

This report might include some research, I don't have time to read it right now.

It is not unreasonable to want to prevent your children from being exposed to hardcore pornography at the age of 7.

Why? Not only will they likely discover it anyway, but it is highly unlikely they'll be hurt by it. In fact, I've seen no evidence to reach such a conclusion.

At the age of 7, perhaps, but at 13+ hardcore porn can have an effect on what teenagers see as "normal".

Here's one bad example: http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-18282560 and here ""Certain behaviours that I only used to have bored 40-year-olds asking me about goes now right down to the under-16s asking me about it."".

This report might include some research, I don't have time to read it right now.

And if you mention the ongoing project of genocide directed at white people, you can expect a million downvotes from white anti-white cultural marxists.

EU should 'undermine national homogeneity' says UN migration chief

“You’re (white people) on the endangered list. And unlike, say, the bald eagle or some exotic species of muskrat, you are not worth saving. In forty years or so, maybe fewer, there won’t be any more white people around.” – Tim Wise, “anti-racist activist”

“The key to solving the social problems of our age is to abolish the White race.” – Noel Ignatiev, Harvard Professor

“Is it the duty of every good revolutionary to kill every newborn White baby?” – A member of the Weather Underground

UNACCEPTABLE: “Affirmative action and racial quotas are special treatment for minorities.”
ACCEPTABLE: “Affirmative action and racial quotas are necessary to overcome the legacy of slavery which is still keeping any non-Asian minority from succeeding in Post-Racial America. Besides, white people are all rich, connected, and racially privileged, so the very notion of treating them unfairly is racist and stupid, and you are racist and stupid for saying it.”

UNACCEPTABLE: “There’s black people out there, rioting, looting, and setting fire to grocery stores!”
ACCEPTABLE: “Although partially blinded by my white privilege, I think I see some oppressed minorities fighting back against institutional racism, seeking social justice through involuntary reparations, and opening a combustion-based dialogue with the Korean community.”

UNACCEPTABLE: “Black men just keep raping white women at a ridiculously high rate.”
ACCEPTABLE: “Today’s race-conscious African-American male seeks to overcome historical barriers to inter-racial unions, as well as discriminatory female consent practices.”

just watch me...

Kensington and Logitech for not supporting trackballs in *nix

NVIDIA as per Linus's remarks

Since for the most part, my computer - to me- is my screen and my input devices , I'd say there is basically a deliberate and con$scious effort to starve *nix of a decent user experience and that such concerted effort is probably not coincidental or driven even by market forces, seeing as the implied beneficiary of such a "starve the beast" approach is clearly micro$soft who has been caught, tried and convicted in a court of law of just exactly the tactic of wielding it monopoly power in order to effect "starve the competition from access to users":

For those too young for the events to have been contemporary and in personal memory, the BBC tells it like it is:

From Judge Jackson's Finds of Fact regarding micro$oft's coercive practices:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/business/2000/microsoft/700702.stm

. The OEM Channel

With respect to OEMs, Microsoft's campaign proceeded on three fronts.

First, Microsoft bound Internet Explorer to Windows with contractual and, later, technological shackles in order to ensure the prominent (and ultimately permanent) presence of Internet Explorer on every Windows user's PC system, and to increase the costs attendant to installing and using Navigator on any PCs running Windows.

Second, Microsoft imposed stringent limits on the freedom of OEMs to reconfigure or modify Windows 95 and Windows 98 in ways that might enable OEMs to generate usage for Navigator in spite of the contractual and technological devices that Microsoft had employed to bind Internet Explorer to Windows.

Finally, Microsoft used incentives and threats to induce especially important OEMs to design their distributional, promotional and technical efforts to favor Internet Explorer to the exclusion of Navigator.

Microsoft's actions increased the likelihood that pre-installation of Navigator onto Windows would cause user confusion and system degradation, and therefore lead to higher support costs and reduced sales for the OEMs.

Internet Explorer is not demonstrably the current "best of breed" Web browser, nor is it likely to be so at any time in the immediate future

Not willing to take actions that would jeopardize their already slender profit margins, OEMs felt compelled by Microsoft's actions to reduce drastically their distribution and promotion of Navigator.

The substantial inducements that Microsoft held out to the largest OEMs only further reduced the distribution and promotion of Navigator in the OEM channel

The response of OEMs to Microsoft's efforts had a dramatic, negative impact on Navigator's usage share.

The drop in usage share, in turn, has prevented Navigator from being the vehicle to open the relevant market to competition on the merits.

2. Maintenance of Monopoly Power by Anticompetitive Means

...

Microsoft early on recognized middleware as the Trojan horse that, once having, in effect, infiltrated the applications barrier, could enable rival operating systems to enter the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems unimpeded.

Middleware [like Netscape's browser] threatened to demolish Microsoft's coveted monopoly power

Simply put, middleware threatened to demolish Microsoft's coveted monopoly power. Alerted to the threat, Microsoft strove over a period of approximately four years to prevent middleware technologies from fostering the development of enough full-featured, cross-platform applications to erode the applications barrier.

Microsoft's campaign succeeded in preventing - for several years, and perhaps permanently - Navigator and Java from fulfilling their potential to open the market for Intel-compatible PC operating systems to competition on the m

This interview with Sir Patrick Stewart sheds some light on point 2...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/hardtalk/9682711.stm

Al Jazeera is a state owned news organization from Qatar, incidently Qatar was also the first to support NATO in Libya and they also called for the arab countries to send troops to syria. I'd say there goes your independent news source.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18529739

only 98% of the island of Lanai thou , the plan was for Google to pay for the other 2% but things didn't quite work out...

check Google Maps.... the island Is crawling with Street View... and in high definition.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18529739

only 98% of the island of Lanai thou , the plan was for Google to pay for the other 2% but things didn't quite work out...

Sorry, but I had to laugh a bit.

You've never played any PC games have you?

If you have, I bet you've never tried playing a game at 30fps, then again at 60fps, then 120fps (what most CRTs could handle). The difference really is night and day.

You can see this yourself here (zipped AVI file). Original page here, but of course YouTube can't do more than 30fps yet.

Also, are you seriously trying to tell me that traditional film content (filmed at 24fps no matter how it's presented later) looks no less smooth to you than broadcast television (effective 50fps or 60fps depending on where you live)? Perhaps you're now limiting your argument to 48 vs higher frame rates which is slightly less outrageous.

But if you're wanting a study on why even vurrent TV frame rates are not sufficient, here's one by the BBC.

He was a big name, and he broke the law to the point he used his influence to do things that would get other men arrested too. And then instead of answering the charges, he fled the country. Over something that might get him $1000 in fines and told not to come back to the country.

You appear to have some crucial facts wrong.

Sweden dropped the charges on 21 August 2010 as "baseless". He had sex with both women, and neither had a problem until they found out about each other. They then wanted Assange to take an STD test. He refused, and they then went to the police. They reopened the case early in September, but told him he was free to leave the country.

In November, Sweden signaled that it wished to detain him for questioning, despite the fact that he had already been thoroughly questioned and had offered to be further questioned via video link from the UK. No formal charges were/have been pressed.

Interpol approved a Red Notice on Assange on 20 November. Red Notices tend to be used for manhunts of dangerous criminals or notorious fraudsters (A Red Notice was issued for Osama Bin Laden, for example). Assange then turned himself in to the Police in England, and was held in solitary confinement for 10 days (several sources have indicated that this was not standard procedure).

To summarize: It's the inconsistency of the whole affair that looks odd. They seriously reopened a case that was previously said to be baseless, initiated an international manhunt for one of the mildest possible sex crimes defined anywhere in the civilized world, and then put the guy in solitary?

Disclaimer: I don't think there's any conspiracy to actually grab Assange from Sweden and ship him to the US, but I do think this is something the US would do to incapacitate a troublesome individual. The US has certainly done worse. I guess I should also mention that the US has used Sweden for extraordinary rendition in the past. Although I don't think that will happen to Assange, it is indicate of the US's influence over Swedish policy.

Sources:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/08/report-assange-rape-case-sparked-std-fears/

http://thestandard.org.nz/marianne-ny-making-an-arse-of-swedish-law/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11949341

benefit by being situated in a country where (I presume is like the average European country) where good education and healthcare is quite accessible.

I don't know about healthcare in particular (although this being a Nordic Economic Model country, it's most likely good) but Finland's education is the best, even beating Fellow Nordics.[1]

It's level[2] is frequently top three, if not the first. And that's a country with NO private schools, and with system that does *not* urge absolute competition between students.

Got to admit, despite their other possible faults, Finns got this education shit covered.

Links:
[1]: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8601207.stm

Well, I think our public health care is quite excellent, though there are flaws (nothing is perfect). The link above, 1st you listed, is something everyone should read and watch the videos, especially those opposing public tax funded free education - hey, it works, but if you're one of the greedy bastards who can basically say with clear conscience that his money should not be used for others education and poor peoples children education is their parents problem (boo-hoo if they can't get proper education) then it's probably pointeless anyway - but the fact is our system works and is one in the best education systems in world!

the quintessential disrupted producer, complaining about how the world is not conforming to the way they want it to be, or worse yet, the way the world "should" be.

I'm sure the exact same essay was written somewhere upon the development of the phonograph. "but how will we get paid if they can play back our music a thousand times once it has been recorded?" probably the same argument, too, by playhouse actors when recording movies came along.

the artists/actors might not like it, but the development of technology drives down the price, massively opens the market up, and, if they're smart, allows them to make more money than their predecessors could ever have dreamed of.

writing letters complaining about how people are not paying enough to you is just so 1842.

Facebook buys a facial recognition system.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18506255

I was under the impression that "private contractors" had something to do with "shrinking genitalia." Which would also be somewhat effective.

Indeed.

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital
Benin alert over 'penis theft' panic
Journalist Tracks Rumors Of Penis Thievery

---
As an atheist, I truly believe Africa needs God
"When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing -- they believe in anything." -- GK Chesterton

The plans for monitoring communications (and they are just plans) have been reported extensively in the national and international media - which presumably is how you found out - and there's a very good chance that public pressure (stirred up by the same media) will render them unworkable. Consider for instance the withdrawal of ID cards, and (a good time ago now) the poll tax riots.

But it doesn't really matter, read up about Echelon. While the UK government can't monitor UK citizen's net activity (yet...) there's nothing stopping the USA from doing so. (Or the UK reading USA data of course.)

Regarding the CCTV meme, they're mostly useless - we had a break-in recently and the recovered footage from a nearby (private) camera appeared to have been recorded on a twenty-year old video-tape loop.

Not sure who you're referring to wrt extradition for IP infringement, McKinnon and O'Dwyer are both still in the UK.

It's amusing that an influential person like (Sir) Tim Berners-Lee can make a statements such as this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17753971 in the national press and the population don't even blink...

Mr Jing, 46, is making his second spaceflight after participating in the Shenzhou-7 outing in 2008 - the mission that included China's first spacewalk.

His flight engineers are both first-timers, however.

Liu Wang, 42, a People's Liberation Army fighter pilot, has got his chance after spending 14 years in the China National Space Administration's astronaut corps.

Thirty-three-year-old Liu Yang, also a fighter pilot, has on the other hand emerged as China's first woman astronaut after just two years of training.

The implication is that Yang is there because of some sort of affirmative action. Astronauts from the astronaut pool are likely to be similarly qualified. After all, if one of them gets sick, another is going in his or her stead.

Joe Cornish was also one of the 2 screenwriters on Adventures of Tintin (meh). But better known in the UK as half of 'Adam & Joe' of TV long past and radio (but not recently). Podcasts here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/adamandjoe

I enjoy the podcasts, and would (selfishly) rather that he returned to radio than futz about in Hollywood. They probably pay better than the BBC, though.

Jamie Oliver has had a campaign [jamieoliver.com] running for some time in the UK to boost his own profile.

FTFY. The man's a publicity seeking arse.

What you said about budgets is true though. IIRC it's half that of a hospital patient[1] which in turn is about a fiftieth of what they spend on a prisoner.

[1] The subject of a much better, if lower profile, campaign by James Martin http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014grz5

Now overturned.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-dinner-blogger-martha-payne-photo-ban-overturned-7854487.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

Saw this article on the BBC's website this morning.

Heard this as well on the World Service.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

Yup been reversed http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

This may be helpful:

The blog: http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk/

BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800

Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/school-dinner-blogger-martha-payne-photo-ban-overturned-7854487.html

Council rebuttal: http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/news/2012/jun/statement-school-meals-argyll-and-bute-council