Slashdot Mirror

Government seriously proposes monitoring people in their own homes (the motivation/excuse doesn't really matter).

The article also mentions "violent girl gangs". What? A little googling got me an article at another online UK newspaper . I can't believe it. A Clockwork Orange, anyone?

Maybe it's just another british tabloid weaving elaborate lies and exaggerations, like some posts pointed as the explanation for the "family monitoring" news?

Please, let it all be lies and exaggerations, because I can't believe that Goode Olde England has degraded that much...

Looks a lot like:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-447317/The-flying-saucer-snapped-US-army.html;jsessionid=646AE8D297BA42F4A5BDDD6223D5FA58
from the slashdot story back in 2007:
http://science.slashdot.org/story/07/04/09/1723218/Combined-Hovercraft-and-Helicopter?art_pos=4
In fact, the 'first' prototype looks like the prototype from 2007 (even the same yellow body!!)

Except when US soldiers are guilty of murdering British journalists, they're not allowed to be punished under British law. Can't have it both ways mate.

Frankly, yours and your countrymen's attitude toward other sovereign nations -- namely that the US is allowed to stomp around the world, murdering and pillaging with no reperecussions -- but if some idiot guesses that your Windows systems have default Administrator accounts with no passwords, then they should be made an example of, possibly facing death by electrocution or 70 years in jail, is disgusting.

You wonder why the rest of the world hates your country? Re-read your own post, the reason's right there.

Since your entire post is but an insult let me just pick out one part

"The selection criterium of 'real life' is the efficiency of use of the available resources (amongst which, first and foremost, the energy source). That's of course being very general..."

That's needlessly complex and unhelpful. If one mouse can run faster than the other so the second gets eaten and doen't have children, you want to say "the first mouse used available resources more efficiently"? For gods sake why? How does that help you understand anything?

Really ? Is that needlessly complex ?

Suppose we take your criterium "putting genes in the next generation". Then the only thing we can say about genes found to survive is that ... they survived. Great ... Of course this exposes your criterium for what it is : a circular reference. It is not a selection criterium at all.

In the words of someone a lot smarter than me "you should make things as simple as possible but no simpler"

Obviously the first mouse used the resources she had very inefficiently : she lost control of the resources she was given at birth (by getting eaten), and failed to acquire more (again ... by getting eaten).

Now that's something you can program ... whereas a circular reference is obviously useless. Worse : circular selection criteria cause positive feedback loops in the program, meaning they merely amplify preset ideas that were present before the program started.

(much like your argument is in defense of preset ideas, without considering the usefulness of the argument itself)

Really?!? This is fascinating; I never heard about that! Other than humans, I know of no species that has had access to any energy source other than the Sun (for photo-synthesizers), Food (for eaters) or Geothermal heat (for those weird worm things along the Atlantic vents). Please do tell, what species are you referring to that has refused to eat and starved itself into extinction on ideological grounds? (I'm assuming it's an eater we're talking, as photo-synthesizers aren't much for ideological anything, but I guess you never know about the worm-things...)

Funny how you state several blatant untruths :
That humans have access to energy sources plants, fungi, ... do not. Yet there are plants that process energy from wind, sun, geothermal, radiation, food, hell, even oil has live bacteria in it that, very slowly, use the oil ... exactly which energy source do we have that plants don't (note that plants DO use nuclear power, if that's what you meant).

Plants and fungi, in fact, have access to several energy sources that we do not have meaningful access to : sub-ocean geothermal, lots of types of nuclear power that we do not know how to use, some bacteria are known to extract power from cosmic radiation (not the background radiation, that's too weak, the rest of it) (which is a big problem, since this is a skill that's not very useful within the athmosphere, indicating that those bacteria partially completed their evolution in space).

But one easy example is the cuckoo : the cuckoo is born in a nest that is not his mother's (or father's) but the nest of a member of another species. The way this animal collects energy is by throwing the original eggs of his "foster-parents" out of the nest, and then getting fed by his foster parents (cute picture heh ? Belies how horribly, I don't know another word, evil the situation of that bird really is).

But any book about cuckoo's will tell you there are cuckoo birds that refuse to throw other eggs from the nest. They die (they generally starve).

Now this is an extreme example, a bird that lowers his food intake by oh, somewhere between 50 and 80% as a genetic decision, and they get killed.

In practice

There seem to be boatloads of women running around with fashion model builds. As far as I know, that has always been the female definition of beauty, not the male.

Most of the guys I know want to see well defined hips and butt and the curve that goes with it along with plump firm breasts, preferably the naturally plump and firm breasts that can only exist on a girl between 17 and 23. However, the ideal we are looking for has that shapely figure but has it without the slightest hint of fat or cellulite.

The girls coming out of the younger generation seem to have the no fat or cellulite concept but they have no curves at all. Some are flat chested, some are not. More are than aren't although they usually fix that later with breast implants. Basically they have the build of a ten year old boy. They do seem to have nice skin though.

Lets look at Sarah Jessica Parker. A good example because we can see both in the same woman:

She has a hot body here (also referred to as a paper bag fuck because you'd stick a paper bag over the ugly face)

http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/051028/13457__la_l.jpg

And yet by this she has totally lost her shape (although plastic surgery has made her less of a paper bag fuck)

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/06/14/article-0-01C744D3000004B0-600_468x611.jpg

Why would she do this to herself? Well in her case its probably because she is older now and most women can't have a ripe hot body like that at her age, to keep hips that size and shape on someone over 35 means nasty cellulite in my experience. But 16 and 17 year old girls are imitating the same shapeless look and it is a waste.

I've heard of this before, and I've always been skeptical of it. Not because that I think it's impossible for people to absorb electromagnetic radiation, but because the first people to expose me to this sensitivity believed pyramid shaped crystals could fix them. I really blame them for killing all of the credibility this condition may have had with me, but it's their own fault. This always struck me as a powerful example of the placebo effect. People want to feel sick when electromagnetic waves are around them, so they do. I've had a few friends deeply wrapped up in holistic medicine, and you could pick any random ingredient on your soda (anything man made) and they give you a story of how they feel sick when they are in the room with that ingredient.

I'm not going to sit here and bash the people who think they have this symptom. You're going to get 50 posters who have done that thoroughly by now. Instead I'm going to offer them a suggestion. Find a person who exhibits a visible symptom when they're exposed to the types of radiation you object to. If we can take a person and reliably give them a rash with a wifi router, then we're in business. Until then you're...well this lady who had her house covered in tin foil.

"But beneath the coats of magnolia paint, she points out, the walls are lined with a special paper that contains a layer of tin-foil; and upstairs, the windows are hung with a fine, silvery gauze."
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-450995/The-woman-needs-veil-protection-modern-life.html

Keeping in mind that Apple doesn't make the batteries, they have to have some degree of trust in their suppliers. I doubt anyone can picture Apple stupid enough to bait PR nightmares and lawsuits when their image is very important to their business model. Apple's typical reaction is the industry best-case product-problem-coverup-job - do everything reasonable to stick a lollypop in the mouth of anyone that screams, and quietly correct the problem so it doesn't happen again. They're unlikely to admit fault, that would just fan the flames. (pun?)

Batteries lately though do seem to be a serious problem all around for everyone. DSLAM phone boxes blowing up down the street, laptops and ipods catching fire, liio batteries puffing up like balloons. Inadequate testing if you ask me. New technology trying to get rushed into a highly competitive new market, skip the tests it's good enough, just ship it. Then stuff blows up catches fire, or generally misbehaves. But right now rechargeable batteries are making a shambles out of Moore's Law.

This isn't really news any more than the 5 o-clock rush hour. Blame Apple, blame Sony, whatever, it's going to happen. It's not anywhere outside the bell curve yet.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200310/Police-raid-30th-birthday-barbecue-man-used-Facebook-invite-friends.html http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1686735360/nm0000246
Rather than busting a rave, did they just stumble upon the secret shooting of Die Hard 5 ?

Yeah, the girl in question asked for a swat on the butt, but Bush decided one in the small of the back was more appropriate.

Clearly Bush (who got to play some volleyball) had the better of it, if you read the whole article.

,,, it would look like this:

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/08/09/article-0-0237E35600000578-961_468x541.jpg

Woooooooooooosh!:-)

Actually, freedom of speech is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, 1689. However, keeping a freedom requires the populace to care about it. In Britain's case everyone's too busy hating Europeans (then going on holiday there), being paranoid about jails full of paedophiles and being scared of terrorists and KnifeCrime(tm) to worry about the finer points of freedom of speech. Obviously these two are a pair of scum bags, so no-one cares to defend them, for what it's worth I believe their freedom of speech should be guaranteed, but try telling that to the populace.

Here are a few ideas of w h o, and wh at, might be responsible for this situation. :)

The 1285 Statute of Westminster even gave the English people the right (actually it was a requirement) to bear arms, it was due to this -- and technologically 'advanced' longbows -- that we managed to trounce those ghaslty frogs at Agincourt, but that's another story.

As fun as it might be to disparage the USA (and it's perfectly alright when it leads to improvements). I find it hardly believable to equate China's government to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption

We can argue about their research methods all day, but at least it's up for discussion. Unless you're looking over your shoulder and checking the window for the Chinese Death Van.
For added fun, I'll include this link because it's from across the pond, and Godwins the thread in one fell stroke.

That is, if you are a 13 year old "virgin".

Is that normal brains or shrub brains?

But that seems even more mystical and less likely than the initial problem of RF signals interfering with the electrical signals in the human body.

admittedly extreme example.

Ron Ball, a former BA (British Airways) pilot with more than 30 years' experience, said: "The job has changed dramatically. You are more of a systems operator than a pilot." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-510486/After-Heathrow-crash-How-safe-IS-planes-computer.html

Chalk another one up to The Religion of Pieces:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196009/Im-better-dead-Im-How-Michael-Jackson-predicted-death-months-ago.html

Vote for Cameron and hope that he follows through on his promises. If he does, problem solved.

Amateurs can take photos from small telescopes... slightly more professional methods are not inaccessible either.

Thanks for clarifying that. Turns out I understood a few concepts wrong. When I heard about it, it was over a cancer patient who after paying out of pocket for a drug that was supposedly 3 times as effective, was booted from the system and had to find a way to pay 11000 ero for two or three months treatment before he died.

The worse part about this is that the people paid into the system all of their lives thinking they were getting proper coverage just to find out that someone is making penny pinching decisions concerning their lives and if the patient attempts to make up the difference, they are booted from the system and in one case charged for treatment to date. Cancer survival rates in Europe itself is dismal but it seems that with universal government health care, you a die more often from cancer then a country without it.

Back in the 1970's after President Carter screwed up the US economy with his failed foreign and domestic policies, inflation was rampant and seniors who were living from Social security and pensions were running out of money. It took the US government almost 6 years and Reagan's deficit spending in order to start compensating for the amount of inflation we saw. To the date, the purchasing power of SS retirement payments aren't what they were in 1972 or 1975. Now you have the UK NHS threatening to withhold treatment from people who are over weight, who smoke, or do anything else they don't like in order to pinch more pennies. I just don't see how this is good.

At least with private coverage, I can attempt to find another provider and sue the current one if they pull that crap at the last minute.

It's not the summery, it's actually TFA that makes this mistake. I've never heard of examiner.com, is it a reputable source? More informative, earlier and not-calling-it-a-market link

But there are pissed off Gypsies who don't like police helicopters flying over their camps:

Gypsies smash 5 million pound police helicopter

Now the police could just tether a blimp from the nearest car showroom and nobody would know.

This other photo has much better colors:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1192503/Close-encounter-rock-kind-Schoolboy-survives-direct-hit-meteorite-travelling-30-000mph.html

(Different photo taken at the same place in similar position. And with a sensationalistic headline to boot. Also includes a closeup of the hands.)

I don't want to tear into the kid, but the close up of his hand in this article really looks like the eraser burns that kids occasionally give themselves in middle school.

My guess is that he saw the meteor hit and thought it would be really cool to say it bounced off him. Then, using a trick he learned from his friends, presto - instant burn mark.

Much better; http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1192503/Close-encounter-rock-kind-Schoolboy-survives-direct-hit-meteorite-travelling-30-000mph.html/

I will never understand brittish food. Fish & chips? yes. Anything else, Heck no. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1191606/Beanz-meanz-microwaves-Heinz-create-gadget-heat-snack-60-seconds.html

You might even get some missile secrets on the drives. Our secret of course..

"Computer hard drive sold on eBay 'had details of top secret U.S. missile defence system"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1178239/Computer-hard-drive-sold-eBay-details-secret-U-S-missile-defence-system.html

"Good thing the FCC isn't in the UK"

The direct equivalent of the FCC in the UK is Ofcom.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

That securedhome.co.uk article has nothing to do with the scope of Ofcom or FCC as both are about enforcing adherence to legal broadcasting. (I seem to remember there is something in the broadcasting act to allow entry into homes to check equipment, (e.g. to stop pirate radio stations), but even if they cannot there are many other organisations in the UK that can enter the home for many reasons).

As for organisations who have the right to enter UK homes, the number of them is growing all the time...

e.g.
Parking bailiffs may win right to enter homes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1548145/Parking-bailiffs-may-win-right-to-enter-homes.html

Bailiffs may get extra powers to enter homes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bailiffs-may-get-extra-powers-to-enter-homes-1206531.html

Official snoopers get extra powers to enter homes as 13 new laws 'boost Big Brother state'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-513973/Official-snoopers-extra-powers-enter-homes-13-new-laws-boost-Big-Brother-state.html

That's just a few examples in the UK. Just look up anything Jacqui Smith is behind, because she is at the centre of the growing Police State in the UK.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1061808/Speeding-drivers-cause-3-car-accidents-figures-reveal.html another though it says 3% and is more recent.

Tell that to this guy.

Private schools are refusing to provide information on their pupils for use in a controversial Government database.

The £224million system, called ContactPoint, aims to hold the details of every school-aged child in England, including GP and parents' mobile-phone numbers, as well as a log of what services they use, such as a school nurse.

It is estimated that this information could be used by more than one million people, from police officers to school administrators.

Now, in the latest blow to the widely criticised database, the Independent Schools Council, which represents the private education sector, has joined critics who fear that data will not be secure and could be used improperly.

ISC chief executive David Lyscom said: 'The only effective way to safeguard our children's data is to scrap the whole ContactPoint system.'

The others where speaking Urdu and the the assignment was "discuss."

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-410150/Schoolgirl-arrested-refusing-study-non-English-pupils.html

I'd like to see the database entry for the arrested girl.

How do you mean revert back?

If this is legal for the police, I presume it is legal for anyone else who wishes to track someone. So, with that thought, here is something great for valentine's day: lingerie equipped with GPS tracking. The "boyfriend" version is bound to be more popular because of the strategically placed bulge.

Maybe I think Apple and Twitter are a perfect fit because they both use exciting new technologies that have captured the imaginations of cutting-edge tastemakers. Both have growing user bases; both are hip.

Twitter is no more hip than myspace or hotmail. And, unlike apple, where the majority of people who make the switch "once you go mac, you never go back", Twitter is losing more than half of new users each month.

Those who Twitter are usually quitters according to a company that measures internet traffic.

But research company Nielsen Online revealed that 60 per cent of users stop using the free website just a month after joining it.

'There simply aren't enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point,' Nielsen's David Martin said.

Also, when you write:

I think you're being a little defensive

...

You have to relax, son, and stop thinking that everybody is making fun of you, and that any criticism of Apple is automatically some reference to your own perceived shortcomings.

I'm Apple-free. Always have been. I may buy one one day, but for now, linux does all I need.

"The article is from the Daily Mail, hardly a good source."

Why aren't they a good source? They're the second best selling mainstream newspaper in Britain. You're going to have to elaborate on this one.

The best-selling daily newspaper in Britain is The Sun. Here (NWS) is a "story" linked from their front page. They will have printed those pictures on Page 3. At least half of the stories on the (web) front page are about women (preferably topless), sport, celebrities (especially the Royal Family), and sex. A story about a topless sporting celebrity having sex with a member of the Royal Family is guaranteed front-page material for a week.

That's what sells in the UK, not accurate, in-depth news.

The Daily Mail doesn't have topless models but does have celebrities and royals (and more sport than the more serious papers).

Is that why they're not "a good source"? You don't like their editorial stance?

No. The Daily Telegraph has a similar political stance (UK right-wing), but I'll trust their reporting a lot more than the Daily Mail.

I would call the style of Daily Mail reporting inflammatory.

Compare the current front page headline articles (first few sentences):
Mail: "Six children at same school hit by deadly swine flu virus as British toll hits 27
Britain's toll from the deadly swine flu virus has hit 27 as nine new cases were confirmed by the Health Protection Agency. Seven children, five at the same school, were among the latest sufferers diagnosed with the killer disease."
Hit! deadly! hits! deadly! hit! sufferers! killer!

Telegraph: "Nine new cases of swine flu in Britain with five at one leading school
Nine new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Britain with five of them at one of Britain's leading independent [private] schools. The outbreak happened among Year 7 pupils at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, south east London, which became the fourth UK school to be closed down because of the H1N1 virus. There are now 27 confirmed cases in the UK. Of the nine confirmed today seven were spread by person-to-person contact among people who had not travelled to Mexico or the US."
Cases, confirmed, outbreak.

Mail: "Despite fears a second 'wave' of the killer virus could erupt later this year, Hilary Benn admitted the disease looks less serious than first thought."
Ouch, criticising the politician for being cautious! The Telegraph's article on this isn't critical of anyone -- in fact, it seems to support the caution.

The second part is just nonsense though, the kind of tripe put out by the Daily Mail.

Presumably you are referring to this Mail article which is in fact referring to a Daily Telegraph interview with Lord Ashdown the former leader of the Liberal Democrats? This has also been reported by the Times and the Independent, making your comment somewhat disingenuous.

The Labour Party won't split into two, no one (except Daily Mail writers) is even suggesting that.

According to the Telegraph article Lord Ashdown is suggesting just that. Of course no one knows just yet how many Labour MP's have discussed this yet, but a huge election defeat may make this happen.

The UK does not have massive debt, it's actually still a lot lower than most other developed counties (including France, Germany and Japan). It's big by our standards but put in perspective it's not particularly unusual, in fact our previous low levels of government borrowing were unusual.

The Labour government has been spending like a drunken sailor in port. This has been widely reported both in the UK and abroad. While the UK may have less government debt than other nations the next UK government is going to have to cut back on spending on a large scale.

At the moment a poll of polls suggests that the Labour party would remain in power were an election called tomorrow

Please provide a link to the poll you refer to.

I'm no fan of labour, and Jacqui Smith is a particularly nasty, authoritarian powermonger, but I try not to delude myself by believing everything I read in the right wing press.

I go further and view all press reports with scepticism.

I'm really surprised the postings here are all debating whether or not the methods of communication claimed to be used this guy and his colleagues are secure or not, and debates about NSA.

How about questioning if this is what was actually used? Maybe he's just making it up because he's had enough of the conditions he was kept in and will say anything to get away from Guantanamo Bay. I'm not saying he was tortured, but if you put me in a military prison for five years, flew me out to Morocco for some "hard questioning", repeatedly made me feel like you were going to drown me ("waterboarding"[1]), smacked my head against a wall multiple times ("headbanging"[2]) and locked me in a small cage with insects I had a phobia about and told me they might bite me [3] I might well just say anything I thought you wanted me to.

[1]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/5185835/CIA-waterboarded-Khalid-Sheikh-Mohammed-183-times.html
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB123975168816518691-lMyQjAxMDI5MzE5NDcxNTQxWj.html
[3] http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1170857/Obama-wont-prosecute-CIA-agents-used-insects-waterboarding-sleep-deprivation-terror-suspects.html

When the Daily Mail, a right wing newspaper, suggests the US military are echoing interrogation techniques used in Orwell's "1984" then I think we have to be a little bit critical about believing the credibility of the information gathered in this manner.

Edgar Hernandez is the 5 year old boy who is the earliest confirmed victim of the flu.

I guess you didn't live there long enough:

Number of tooth extractions soars by 30% in four years

Man pulls out 13 of his own teeth with pliers 'because he couldn't find an NHS dentist'

The posts on this site will give you an idea of the effects of socialized medicine.

I guess you didn't live there long enough:

Number of tooth extractions soars by 30% in four years

Man pulls out 13 of his own teeth with pliers 'because he couldn't find an NHS dentist'

The posts on this site will give you an idea of the effects of socialized medicine.

Grats?

Also, please don't tell me you actually believe the drop was purely fabricated through the media. If so I believe I have a tin foil hat just your size.

Oh, and I found those "other" folks you were referring to: BBC Article

Now they'll just have to go back to hanging off cliffsides to pass the time instead.

Same thing happened in the UK - the BBCs business editor was hauled into parliament to explain his writings, and just like in South Korea the MPs wanted to blame him for causing the trouble in the UK economy.

OK he hasn't been threatened with prison, but its clear from incidents like this the world over that those that run the economy and especially the stock market traders actually have no idea what they are doing. For example the same man can apparently cause bank shares to fall just with his morning report on BBC news.

This wouldn't have happened under Cameron's government.... right? The only thing that clown can find to complain about are "scandalous" e-mails and demand resignations and apologies

Here's a link about "scandalous" e-mails for Slashdot readers to peruse if they're so inclined.

Apparently "scandalous" means "getting caught sending emails about using false allegations to damage the reputations of political opponents."

It's also interesting to note the advances in discovering the practical use of red led's (850nm) for re-oxidising (essential for cell regeneration and ant cancer treatment) and ultra violet for growth stimulation.

You don't only care about the u-boats you want to destroy. You also care about the ones that pop up into the middle of a carrier group to say "Hi! Naval superiority? Yeah, you're OUR bitch now." China has the superiority. It'd be real nice if we could take it back, seeing as how likely a shooting war on that side of the world is.

Maybe not Terrorists, but our Naval Superiority, , does play a lot into our relationship with China.

Our Military superiority, (or inferiority,) dictates how much economic pressure we can apply.

no no no -- austrians come from australia and thus must speak australian -- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-480494/Bush-confuses-Austria-Australia-latest-gaffe.html