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You needn't go so far as lions. Our near relatives, the chimpanzees, often kill other chimps. http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...
But I'd say humans are arguably unique in caring about suffering of other species (not counting our domesticated dogs.)

Yeah, those are totally safe. :-)

http://www.reuters.com/article...
http://www.bbc.com/news/259075...
http://www.cnet.com/news/snowd...

If you can't be assed to google for 5 minutes, I cannot be assed to provide proper links.

"A hundred billion gallons of water per year is being exported in the form of alfalfa from California," Robert Glennon, a professor at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona, told the BBC, which claims it's now cheaper to send alfalfa from Los Angeles to Beijing via ship than to truck it from the Imperial Valley to the Central Valley."

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

Must be nice being a multinational corporation, getting to chose how much taxes you pay and where you pay them...

On a related note:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

Seriously, in my opinion if an entity can declare in the USA (for example) earnings and other stuff as its own, borrow money using it as collateral, and decide how that $$$$ or stuff is used, then that entity actually owns the stuff and should pay the relevant taxes.

So many corporations are saying to shareholders and everyone else that the huge profits are theirs and yet turn to the tax dept and say no they didn't make any profit - the profits belong to some company in Ireland or wherever else. In my opinion that's fraudulent from an ethical point of view.

Say you tried to do the same thing - declare some $$$$$$ income in official public announcements/filings to everyone, borrow money using that income, order "unrelated people (who somehow have similar names as yours)" to use that income to buy stuff. Do you think you'd get away with telling the Tax Dept that the income isn't yours and you don't have to pay taxes on it?

Maybe this would cause some companies to fully move out from the USA to other countries. But at least they would no longer benefit from what the USA provides without paying their fair share.

80% of accidents are pilot error. I think the further we move toward automation, the better. Getting the pilot physically out of the plane is a major hurdle that one has to step over in that regard.

If you remove the pilot 100% of plane crashes will be from automation error.

80% of accidents are pilot error. I think the further we move toward automation, the better. Getting the pilot physically out of the plane is a major hurdle that one has to step over in that regard.

If you're loading from the same place you could do it with a static robot/smart crane. These have been in use in warehouses for decades.

For loading/unloading where the layout isn't standardised, perhaps a smaller version of this would work. http://www.bbc.com/news/techno...

Hope at last that the same rules will be applied to hacking from the US. Time to seize the assets of google and others American business.

...what is very little recognized worldwide, is that nuclear energy gets a free lunch at the expense of the taxpayers, as regards risk insurance.

How many other industries have more than $12B in insurance before the government will step in?

I mean, there's no other industry that could cause that much damage in a single incident, is there?

It is the most damned uninsured thing in developed countries and when one of these plants goes bust, you know what happens, ref. Fukusima.

Yeah, we're up to 2 busted nuclear plants in the whole world. All of them were old as hell plants, newer plants survived just fine, and realistically speaking we're being paranoid about the radiation.

If nuclear industry wishes to operate on-par terms with other forms of green technologies, please, bring the actuarial scientists in, to do all the math!

They have. It has even fewer deaths per TWh, including Chernobyl and Fukushima, than solar & wind

As a Scotsman, it is my duty to say "England" is not interchangeable with "UK". Even in the published piece from Educational Testing Services the term *actually* used is "England / Northern Ireland". While Nothern Ireland is a part of the UK, calling it out alongside England only adds to the slight. The possibly non-existent / mythical Scotland and Wales are many times larger than Northern Ireland but clearly down't merit a mention.

You chose to be part of the UK, you can live with being referred to as a citizen thereof. If you don't like it, you can try another referendum.

Where do you get this crap about Iran being "crazy"? Fox News? Israeli and U.S. government propaganda?

General knowledge.

To be fair, upon going back over my collection of news reports I was surprised how few of them were about Iran as opposed to other Islamic nations. On the other hand I specifically claimed that Iran has a reputation for being batshit crazy rather than that it actually is batshit crazy. Scott Adams once pointed out that if you analyzed Iran's actions rather than their words they didn't seem nearly as insane.

Even so, there were some relevant items about Iran - and none about Jordon, though a more thorough search might turn up more.

Rafsanjani and Mashaei barred from Iran presidency poll - Only eight of the 686 people who registered as potential candidates were reportedly cleared to stand.

Ashton visit to Iran sparks co-operation and controversy - "Do you think our country has no order that you can go anywhere you want and see anyone you want to see?" the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, demanded on Tuesday night.

Iran sentences British-Iranian activist Ghoncheh Ghavami 'over volleyball game' - speaks for itself

Wikipedia, Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Freedom and equality of religion - Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion (apostasy), is prohibited and may be punishable by death.

There's also Iran's own constitution. The first five articles are all about how Islamic Iran is. In other words, they're a theocracy and don't even try to hide it. The preamble even says "... with the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others."

The Supreme Leader has considerable power and is chosen entirely on religious grounds. In other words, he's chosen precisely because he's batshit crazy.

Can you really be so sure that one day the Supreme Leader won't decide to nuke Israel, counting on God to protect Iran from Israel's counterstrike?

Where do you get this crap about Iran being "crazy"? Fox News? Israeli and U.S. government propaganda?

General knowledge.

To be fair, upon going back over my collection of news reports I was surprised how few of them were about Iran as opposed to other Islamic nations. On the other hand I specifically claimed that Iran has a reputation for being batshit crazy rather than that it actually is batshit crazy. Scott Adams once pointed out that if you analyzed Iran's actions rather than their words they didn't seem nearly as insane.

Even so, there were some relevant items about Iran - and none about Jordon, though a more thorough search might turn up more.

Rafsanjani and Mashaei barred from Iran presidency poll - Only eight of the 686 people who registered as potential candidates were reportedly cleared to stand.

Ashton visit to Iran sparks co-operation and controversy - "Do you think our country has no order that you can go anywhere you want and see anyone you want to see?" the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, demanded on Tuesday night.

Iran sentences British-Iranian activist Ghoncheh Ghavami 'over volleyball game' - speaks for itself

Wikipedia, Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Freedom and equality of religion - Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion (apostasy), is prohibited and may be punishable by death.

There's also Iran's own constitution. The first five articles are all about how Islamic Iran is. In other words, they're a theocracy and don't even try to hide it. The preamble even says "... with the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others."

The Supreme Leader has considerable power and is chosen entirely on religious grounds. In other words, he's chosen precisely because he's batshit crazy.

Can you really be so sure that one day the Supreme Leader won't decide to nuke Israel, counting on God to protect Iran from Israel's counterstrike?

Where do you get this crap about Iran being "crazy"? Fox News? Israeli and U.S. government propaganda?

General knowledge.

To be fair, upon going back over my collection of news reports I was surprised how few of them were about Iran as opposed to other Islamic nations. On the other hand I specifically claimed that Iran has a reputation for being batshit crazy rather than that it actually is batshit crazy. Scott Adams once pointed out that if you analyzed Iran's actions rather than their words they didn't seem nearly as insane.

Even so, there were some relevant items about Iran - and none about Jordon, though a more thorough search might turn up more.

Rafsanjani and Mashaei barred from Iran presidency poll - Only eight of the 686 people who registered as potential candidates were reportedly cleared to stand.

Ashton visit to Iran sparks co-operation and controversy - "Do you think our country has no order that you can go anywhere you want and see anyone you want to see?" the head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, demanded on Tuesday night.

Iran sentences British-Iranian activist Ghoncheh Ghavami 'over volleyball game' - speaks for itself

Wikipedia, Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Freedom and equality of religion - Freedom to convert from Islam to another religion (apostasy), is prohibited and may be punishable by death.

There's also Iran's own constitution. The first five articles are all about how Islamic Iran is. In other words, they're a theocracy and don't even try to hide it. The preamble even says "... with the hope that this century will witness the establishment of a universal holy government and the downfall of all others."

The Supreme Leader has considerable power and is chosen entirely on religious grounds. In other words, he's chosen precisely because he's batshit crazy.

Can you really be so sure that one day the Supreme Leader won't decide to nuke Israel, counting on God to protect Iran from Israel's counterstrike?

Occupation and annexation of Crimea already a staggering success, Russia must be looking into organizing a referendum in Alaska.

Peace-loving Americans will not be objecting — a referendum conducted under occupation going in favor of the occupying power? What "conflict of interest"?

The knuckle-dragging haters will be neutralized by polite men with Russian accents wearing indiscernible uniforms...

Hendrik Svensmark, one of the original members of IPCC, is just one of several original well-respected scientists who left IPCC in disgust a number of years ago after their results were doctored in the official report, eliminating all mention of any results that contradicted the official message - this is just bad science. IIRC some of the results were left in the largely-unread-by-politicians complete science publication. It's also plain from his own statements that Rajendra Pachauri who ran the IPCC from the beginning until recently not only has a religious belief in Global Warming regardless of any evidence, but is also somewhat of a sociopathic personality, who won't let anyone or anything stand in his way to get what he wants - the most recent scandal had to do with sexual misconduct in India, which finally has caused him to resign from IPCC. Perhaps now IPCC will be allowed to become a true scientific effort.

Predictable response when it comes to India and China. Check out the following article.. Hint: cheating, or at least the temptation, is something universal in human nature.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

On an unrelated note, Chinese students dominate the prestigious International Science Olympiad competitions. You can't cheat in those.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I...

No, CHEATING is a cultural thing there. Many feel they have the RIGHT to cheat.

Cheating on university exams produces inferior quality graduates, that only make the system cumbersome and unpleasant.

However, there are whole industries that capitalize on this phenomenon. H1B visa mills are just one such industry.

Crackdowns on Indian cheating will directly affect their financial bottom lines. Expect hard pushback.

Imagine for a minute what it would take to make a world wide commitment to shut down 100% of all fossil fuel power within 30 years. A few small measures aren't going to do it, it will have to become priority one, and not just in the US or Europe, but worldwide.

European climate package of 2008 dictate that by 2020, 30% of all energy use must come from renewable sources.
Denmark's current climate policy target 100% renewable energi by 2050 (35 years from now).
Both goals are considered fully possible.
It isn't exactly a 100% global commitment, nor exactly 30 years, but it is doable, and there are people (and governments) with the will to do this - simply leaning back and saying, "it's hopeless" will get us nowhere.

Before you say, "ah, but DK is a small country", consider that several individual states in the US are smaller/denser, and could pursue the same goal since, you know, "America #1!!!".

9 US states are smaller by area (43k sqkm, Maryland = 32k sqm)
30 US states are smaller by population (5m6, Minnesota = 5m4)
42 US states have lower population density (333/sqmi, Pennsylvania = 286/sqmi)

Finally, if you need a different reason than "perhaps climate change is caused by humans", then I think we have several of these. Example:
http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

Defense from who, exactly?

From Russia, you Putinista asshole.

Seven Year Old San Francisco Girl Struck and Killed By Uber Driver; Uber Denies Responsibility http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/...

Boston Uber Driver Charged with indecent Assault and Battery http://www.bostonglobe.com/met...

Off-Duty LA Uber Driver Accused of Sexual Assault http://www.bizjournals.com/los...

Chicago Uber Driver With Felony Conviction Charged With Battery For Allegedly Hitting Passenger http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Writer and Activist Reports Being Choked in DC; Uber Denies The Event and Responsibility http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Assaults Customer for Burping http://www.washingtoncitypaper...

San Francisco Uber Customer Claims Abuse and Assault by Uber Driver (Pando) http://pando.com/2013/11/25/ub...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver Pulls Gun on Valet in Atlanta http://pando.com/2014/09/08/at...

Uber Driver Punches Passenger in Oklahoma http://newsok.com/oklahoma-cit...

Lyft Driver Attacks Pedestrian in San Francisco http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news...

Lyft Driver Brandishes Knife in Los Angeles http://www.laweekly.com/2013-0...

Uber Customer Sues for $2M over Alleged Driver Stabbing in DC http://dcinno.streetwise.co/20...

DC Uber Driver Allegedly Rapes Customer http://betabeat.com/2013/03/ub...

Uber Driver Charged with Fondling Passenger in Chicago http://valleywag.gawker.com/ub...

DC Uber Driver Arrested for Alleged Rape But Not Charged Despite Strong Evidence http://www.washingtonpost.com/...

Another DC Uber Driver Accused of Molesting Uber Rider http://valleywag.gawker.com/an...

Passenger Struck In Head With Hammer by UberX Driver http://www.forbes.com/sites/el...

Uber Driver in India Accused of Rape http://www.bbc.c

Summary says: "Syrian military allegedly launched sarin gas rockets".

It is not that obvious who used chemical weapons. We have evidence rebells used sarin

GCHQ staff teach 'future spies' in schools (9 March 2011)
http://www.bbc.com/news/educat...
"It is this decline which prompted GCHQ to start visiting schools to promote languages and also science and technology."
The option to use a chipset that was gaining traction in the media for eduction would have been a consideration.
Good optics and branding with a happy all UK message.

But what I wouldn't do is go somewhere to blow up random civilians.

And that is why I think (historically) the democracy hasn't yet matured. Or probably even doesn't make any sense.

The big question about democracy is: who is responsible? those who were voted in the office? or those who voted them in?

The current "balance" is that nobody is responsible for anything. On the scale of the world, that is volatile and simply unsustainable.

And I certainly wouldn't pretend that God wanted me to do it.

"God" or "freedom" - there is really no difference between these imaginary entities. They are secondary anyway.

First people kill. Only then they look for a justification of their actions. Whatever makes people feel better about themselves or bear the guilt.

And let's be clear *skip*

That's a pretty senseless rant. Replace "Iran" with "Israel" and imaginary actions with real actions - and you are actually onto something.

And if there is going to be a war, I want the US to win it, because in the end, we'll at least try to do the right thing, and failing that, we'll leave.

Just like you did in Iraq. Very peaceful country. What they have? 10K civilian casualties per year? Very peaceful. Very freedom-y. And the best part: they owe you load of money for "freeing" them.

At this point I think you need to provide us with an example where it failed with paired links so we have a better idea of what you're looking for.

I am not a particularly involved student of this field, so my links would be of the popular kind, for which I apologize in advance. But here it is:

1. In 2000 Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, predicted that "Children just aren't going to know what snow is". It is now 2015 and there has not been a snow-free winter in the UK since. Some were particularly snowy: 2014-15, 20122010-11.
2. In 2004 there was a prediction, that "Scottish ski industry will cease to exist within 20 years". We are now half-way through that prediction, so it might still come to pass. But in 2014 Scotland had its snowiest winter in 69 years and the skiing industry is striving.
3. In 2007 BBC published a prediction of ice-free Arctic on or before 2013 by an American climate scientist stating (repeated by Al Gore in 2008). 2013 came and went, but there has not been a single ice-free summer in the Arctic ocean.

Now, I'm not prepared to argue the validity of the above claims — all you asked for were samples of what I'm looking for.

Of course, your samples would have to be valid — because you want me (and the rest of humanity) to change our way of life. The burden of proof is thus on you.

At this point I think you need to provide us with an example where it failed with paired links so we have a better idea of what you're looking for.

I am not a particularly involved student of this field, so my links would be of the popular kind, for which I apologize in advance. But here it is:

1. In 2000 Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, predicted that "Children just aren't going to know what snow is". It is now 2015 and there has not been a snow-free winter in the UK since. Some were particularly snowy: 2014-15, 20122010-11.
2. In 2004 there was a prediction, that "Scottish ski industry will cease to exist within 20 years". We are now half-way through that prediction, so it might still come to pass. But in 2014 Scotland had its snowiest winter in 69 years and the skiing industry is striving.
3. In 2007 BBC published a prediction of ice-free Arctic on or before 2013 by an American climate scientist stating (repeated by Al Gore in 2008). 2013 came and went, but there has not been a single ice-free summer in the Arctic ocean.

Now, I'm not prepared to argue the validity of the above claims — all you asked for were samples of what I'm looking for.

Of course, your samples would have to be valid — because you want me (and the rest of humanity) to change our way of life. The burden of proof is thus on you.

six ISPs in the UK are now blocking sites that simply link to proxies for The Pirate Bay

Should not net-neutrality — accepted by European Parliament nearly a year ago — have prevented such (mis)treatment of certain IPs?

Did not violate any rules regarding email retention

Yes, she did. It may not have been against the law just yet, but it was certainly against the State Department's own rules already.

The stupid arrangement left communications of the top American diplomat vulnerable — something Russia and other enemies would be happy to exploit on any day, but fine, a President is not supposed to be proficient in communication security.

But we should discard public servants at the first sign of hypocrisy — and that's exactly, what's on display here. And here...

Did what every other Secretary of State did in regards to email.

Citations needed.

Hillary is not a bad choice.

Lovers gonna love.

no it was hacked
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

Wrigley says that the pilot can always turn off autopilot if the plane starts making unexpected course changes. If someone did hack into the aircraft and take over the plane using the flight management computer, they would have had no means of keeping that control. "If an aircraft flight management system could be hacked by remote control, it would cause a lot of confusion on the flight deck, but I can't imagine that any pilot would just sit back and watch while the aircraft changed course." In that event surely they would find some way of communicating the problem.

Sounds like the AirAsia crash reports of issues with the flight management computer and the talk of the pilot trying to reset it.

http://www.theguardian.com/wor...

"It sounds very similar to me."

Except in one case you'll die within minutes, and in the other you can survive for weeks*.

Attempting to equate the two does nobody any favors.

A.

* http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

I vehemently disagree. I highly recommend taking the 16 minutes and 39 seconds to actually watch the most compelling part of the documentary before trying to wave it away as "gloomy documentaries." For you to say such a thing shows that, contrary to your statement, you are denying the presence of pollution--or at least the social responsibility we all have to improve our health, life spans, and quality of life by regulating pollution.

I live in Washington DC and spend a great deal of time worrying about my health and the health of my children because our air quality here can get so bad that we have Red Ozone Days where we are told to keep our children inside, especially if they have any respiratory conditions, which they are more likely to have thanks to the poor air quality. I think it a blessing that NASA and the EPA monitor our air quality and that the local papers light a fire of panic under everyone's feet about the need to improve it because childhood leukemia and other cancers aren't something we should just shrug at.

Awareness of pollution is why we have Catalytic converters in our cars to dramatically reduce the toxic nature of the exhaust coming out of them. It's why we banned Lead Gasoline and ended the crime wave having that chemical in our brains unleashed on our culture. It's why air quality has improved over the last 10 years as new technologies, improved MPG, and other environmental regulations, but we still have much more to do.

It's also a moral issue for us, because our Made-In-China marketplace is why they have so much pollution. We want cheap goods and they turn a blind eye to the pollution to keep the products cheap. But that pollution is making it's way back to us over the Pacific Ocean. I want to keep buying cheap stuff from China, but I am also willing to pay a little more if it allows the Chinese people to improve their health.

The Chinese government should let people understand the science and choose for themselves.

http://m.bbc.com/news/world-as...

..if all the satellites would unexpected turn off. The BBC did A day without satellites

Things would go downhill globally pretty fast.

Like this fine man did.
Then enjoy not hearing whatever they try to sell you over the sound of billing them 10p a minute.

Except that just today Scalia said that he doesn't have to consider congresses intent. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

He's wrong. Well, maybe, maybe not. Before anybody jumps on me for saying that: this is a legal principle that has been around for hundreds of years, and it's big part of what our whole legal system is based on.

Having said that, there IS one way, and only one, he could get around that: if the language of the law is clear and unambiguous, but Congress' intent was really something else, he probably has to rule on the language, not intent. The whole thing about "intent" is really for when the language of the law is ambiguous. Otherwise, why would you need to decide at all?

Except that just today Scalia said that he doesn't have to consider congresses intent. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

I read this story on the BBC site yesterday, and the title of the story was 'Spocking' not illegal, Canada Says at the time. It even still appears on Google search with that title. But now the headline has been changed to Bank spokesman says writing on bills "inappropriate".

Some shiny-shoed people getting a bit upset and influencing the media?

Build a good life in Russia, and keep speaking out.

Until we start providing asylum to Russian dissidents, who build a good life in the US ... at which point, we participate in a brand-new dissident exchange program and everything's back to normal. Just in time for whatever the show is after the Simpsons.

In the life sciences, "Pharming" is using genetically engineered animals, like goats, to produce proteins or other substances, (especially those with pharmaceutical applications).

Example: Genetically engineered goats that produce spider silk proteins in their milk that can then be extracted from it.

see: http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

(Warning, possible auto-play)

That's not how it would work. It's cloth. It has ripples and shades.
There would be patterned ripples across the dress where "real" colors would show in shades or highlights.

IF the photo itself wasn't messed up by the camera/software, effectively replacing the color palette in the entire photo.

William Gibson foresaw this in his "Bigend cycle" books.
Hubertus Bigend wears International Klein Blue suits just to fuck with everyone else, as it can't be represented correctly on monitors or in print - note two different whites in the color corrected photo in order to get both the skin tones and the dress right.

Gibson just didn't thought of adding shitty CCDs to the list of technology with issues with reproduction of the color.
Or, illiterate "designers".
She calls it "Royal Blue" in the video.

Sure... If one could get people to wear a computer screen, calibrated to show the web palette of colors.
There will be little difference. THERE. On the screen.
Especially if one's screen is not even close to calibrated.

On the other hand.... Trying to mix those "equivalent" values listed in RGB and CMYK.
In Web-RGB they WILL look exactly the same. And so will the blacks.
http://i.imgur.com/QdL00rr.jpg

Ask the same industry standard company to do it using their other, more professional tool, with full RGB and CMYK gamut...
http://i.imgur.com/46B6H55.jpg

And just try using the RGB and CMYK values for Ultramarine (essentially IKB).
http://i.imgur.com/Idc2pr7.jpg

The color she envisioned on her screen is NOT the color of cloth chosen for the dress, based on the color on the screen.
She wanted "royal blue" but picked ultramarine - because Web-RGB royal blue is closer to aquamarine IRL.
The person designing the dress DOES NOT KNOW WHAT COLOR IT IS.

It's not about "rods and cones" and "everyone seeing colors a little differently".
It's about people using wrong names for colors, often calling many different colors by the same name and the same color by different names.
Then it is about faulty capture technology and badly written color conversion and calibration algorithms.
Then it is about faulty display technology, which can't show the same image under different viewing angles.
THEN, and only then, MAYBE, color perception and ambient lighting might fool the untrained eye.

But it is most likely that in most cases it is again different people calling a shade of red pink and orange.
While trying to GUESS the "correct" color from a crappy photo on a crappy screen.

that would be nice but first we have to get conservative religious countries to agree to the UN universal declaration of human rights

http://www.un.org/en/documents...

what happens if you go to a conservative, religious country and say you don't believe in god or are from another religion?

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

so conservative religious belief supports moral behavior like not hacking someone to death just for believing different that you, right?

If we are questioning Soon because in the PAST he had funding from sources disliked by the left, why shouldn't we question all the original IPCC reports since the head of the IPCC (Rajendra Pachauri) was using his position of power as a sexual predator?

I mean, it could well be he didn't care about the environment, he was just there to gather power and hypnotize potential prey with his positions (a pretty well known technique to get laid in college is to proclaim you are an environmentalist regardless of your actual leanings).

You go ahead and listen to the people that tell you what to do. They told you to avoid peanuts when young so you won't die from an allergic reaction. Well it turns out they created a bunch of allergic people who now have to worry for the rest of their life about dying if they touch a peanut. They certainly know what's best, don't they.

You can avoid every germ out there and we'll see who ends up healthier. I will take the germs, because that makes your immune system stronger.

It'd be pretty great if they could get those writings out intact and scan them.
From what I've seen Buddhism is a waning religion, and is probably the only one that most people can't really speak against, since, you know, what has a Buddhist ever done to you?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

I can call myself anything I want (like these folks), but claims won't change reality.

Monks, even if bandits were to carve you up savagely, limb by limb, with a two-handled saw, he among you who let his heart get angered even at that would not be doing my bidding...

It'd be pretty great if they could get those writings out intact and scan them. From what I've seen Buddhism is a waning religion, and is probably the only one that most people can't really speak against, since, you know, what has a Buddhist ever done to you?

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazi...

That song, "Peter Paul and Mary: Because All Men Are Brothers", reminds me of the new movie "Senn" which we watched last night. Specifically, the PPM lyrics of: "My brother's fears are my fears, yellow white and brown. My brother's tears are my tears the whole wide world around."

"Senn" is an impressive movie, especially considering it was produced supposedly for only US$15000. That goes to show what modern technology and an internet-connected gift economy can do nowadays.
http://sennition.com/

This is a bit of a spoiler, but the connection is because of a key aspect of the movie's plot relates to humans' feeling each others emotions and how that changes how they behave, especially in a corporate context.

Which also reminds me of:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M...
"In addition, Iacoboni has argued that mirror neurons are the neural basis of the human capacity for emotions such as empathy."

And some people labelled sociopaths or psychopaths may not have much of these feelings or may feel them more selectively.
"Psychopathic criminals have empathy switch"
http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...

Yet many of our corporate and political leaders at these point may fit that description...

And what do you do with various criminals who often engage in psychopathic behavior? And by whose definitions? Put your "brother" in jail?

And in a big city, given out current economic paradigm, people may also need to learn to switch off or decrease empathy in some way just to survive thousands of interpersonal encounters an hour when walking down the street...

On this plane of existence, there seems to be a complexity of human (and other) life existing in practice at a middle ground between chaos and stasis, competition and cooperation, fire and ice, meshwork and hierarchy, and so on.
http://www.t0.or.at/delanda/me...

The Lathe of Heaven (as another spoiler) has a section where the protagonist wishes for "world peace", and it is accomplished by the appearance of an alien invasion of the moon, which unites all humanity in opposition...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

So, while we should be careful what we wish for, and things are complex, still, there are so many possible environmental menaces that more cooperation is in order, IMHO. But it is never quite so simple as "all men are brothers". After all, sadly, even "brothers" sometimes fight each other like in the US Civil War.

Still, our culture may shape how competition or aggression is expressed or channeled into more positive directions. Like Mr. Fred Rogers' sings: "What do you do with the mad that you feel?" As with Haber, a chemist can figure out a way to feed billions of people with nitrogenous fertilizer, or they can figure out how to kill large numbers of people with poison gas, or, in Haber's case, a chemist can even do both. The irony is that Haber's doing the first (to feed people) made doing the second (to kill people) unnecessary -- except that politics has taken a century to catch up with the potential of his (and others') inventions.

Likewise, even now, imagine what we could have had if the USA had invested three trillion US dollars on fusion energy research and better batteries and solar panels and energy efficiency -- instead of incurring that much and more on the Iraq war. Carter had the right idea, but he was not re-elected, even though (or perhaps because) he said:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americ...
"We are at a turning point in our history. There are two paths to choose. One is a path I've warned about tonight, the path that leads to fragmentation and self-interest. Down that road lies a mistaken idea of f

legitimate terrorist attacks have no source, no warnings, are unpredictable and incur large-scale casualties.

There are few things which irritate me more than the geek who thinks he has won his argument by quoting from a dictionary of his own invention or an etiquette guide like Emily Post.

That is what makes "legitimate" the key word here.

In real life, terrorists often telegraph their attacks, make a point of being easily identifiable by their victims. and choose targets both great and small.

Malala: The girl who was shot for going to school

a terrorist event could be considered a "success" just from emptying an AK magazine into a crowd at a mall, even if the attacker(s) were killed immediately after opening fire.

Denmark:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...

Such fucking stupidity it's allowed into Europe.

In the case of France as I've understood it there was no escape plan. Of course there will be others with similar ideas who will still think it was a success and good.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...

Don't understand why we have to destroy our countries. Guess the good part which can come from it is that more of them actually like the freedom and rather than the agenda they want to pull that "west is struggling to uphold its values" or whatever it will be the Islamic majority countries which will lose their fundamentalistic ways and go secular and humane or whatever.

Who knows.

Crap.

Lenovo is dual-headquartered in China and North Carolina. Which branch was responsible for planting spyware in the English language version of the OS is debatable.

In China they actually do execute corrupt corporate executives and government officials (the overlap between the two job descriptions can be extensive). See the examples of Liu Han, Zeng Chengjie, Zhang Yujun and Geng Jinping, and Zheng Xiaoyu. So, yeah, heads could actually roll, if the Chinese felt that the offense was of detriment to China, but planting spyware on English-language computers probably doesn't fall into that category. In fact, someone in China is probably getting a round of free drinks.

Re "If he was sitting on this information, then why wait so long to release it? "
All the material is now in the hands of the press. The press can release the material in any way it wants or needs to.
Re "Could someone explain where Edward Snowden is getting these kind of leaks and infos from, so long after he fled the NSA?"
The material released by the press is long term generational projects staff get read into as they need to work on the same projects or with staff who do.
Re the how http://www.bbc.com/news/world-... "Edward Snowden: I was a high-tech spy for the CIA and NSA" (28 May 2014)
"...he said he had worked for the CIA and NSA undercover, overseas, and lectured at the Defense Intelligence Agency."