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Statistical analysis shows that the amount of terrorist incidents is actually quite small, but the governments around the world like to exaggerate how many there actually are, to deprive decent hard working people of their freedom and democracy, and pee a lot of money up a wall in the process.

Your sig is, "Take Nobody's Word For It." Very fitting. You don't know what you are talking about.

The list of terrorist attacks in just 2008 isn't short, and doesn't include the many arrests and foiled plots. Wikipedia notes that it is incomplete.

Remember Mumbai? 166 killed, and 370 or so wounded? Al Qaeda would like to do the same in Europe. Why hasn't it happened? Active security measures and intelligence.

Remember 9/11? Why hasn't that occurred? Al Qaeda hasn't lost interest in using aircraft to attack buildings or stadiums. Active security measures and intelligence.

Without proper measures, Iraq's recent history of terrorism could be our future.

Civil Rights Theater seems to be at least as popular as Security Theater.

Because it's a moral and logical certainty that all the interests of the USA are precisely the same as those of the entire world, and that any "opposing faction" using intelligence against the USA is, by definition, evil?

The "entire world" includes the Taliban and Al Qaeda. When Wikileaks released the names of Afghans who were working with the US against the Taliban, it made them targets. The Taliban formed groups to scour the documents for names and places. When the informants are killed or moved, they can no longer help in the battle against the terrorists of Al Qaeda and the Taliban. That isn't a good thing, especially as the Taliban are extending their reach to attacks in the US, India, possibly Europe, and other places. Now, if you have a plan to inform everybody in the world except the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and their associates, about the names of informants against them, critical sensitive targets, etc., I'm sure a lot of people would love to hear it.

WikiLeaks Reportedly Outs 100s of Afghan Informants

Hundreds of Afghan civilians who worked as informants for the U.S. military have been put at risk by WikiLeaks' publication of more than 90,000 classified intelligence reports which name and in many cases locate the individuals, The Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

The article says, in spite of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's claim that sensitive information had been removed from the leaked documents, that reporters scanning the reports for just a couple hours found hundreds of Afghan names mentioned as aiding the U.S.-led war effort.

One specific example cited by the paper is a report on an interview conducted by military officers of a potential Taliban defector. The militant is named, along with his father and the village in which they live.

"The leaks certainly have put in real risk and danger the lives and integrity of many Afghans," a senior official at the Afghan foreign ministry told The Times on condition of anonymity. "The U.S. is both morally and legally responsible for any harm that the leaks might cause to the individuals, particularly those who have been named. It will further limit the U.S./international access to the uncensored views of Afghans."

One former intelligence official told the paper that the Taliban could launch revenge attacks on "traitors" in the coming days.

Suspect in Times Square bombing attempt was paid by Pakistani Taliban, indictment says

KUNG-FU TERRORISTS TO TARGET WEMBLEY

Now, if you don't think terrorists planning to crash an airplane into a stadium full of people is evil, I think there is something wrong with you.

Free speech is causing harm!

Just like yelling "Fire!" in a crowded theater, or releasing the names and addresses of informants against Mafia hit men, or the names and locations of informants against Al Qaeda & Taliban cut-throats & beheaders like Wikileaks is doing.

Dead informants mean fewer people to pass on information on scum like Shahzad, who tried to bomb Times Square with a bomb like this.

Calling himself a Muslim soldier, Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to 10 terrorism and weapons counts. He said the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training late last year and early this year, months after he became a U.S. citizen.

Would even a Wembley stadium type attack convince even most people many on Slashdot that terrorism is a serious problem? I wonder.

Bin Laden's demand to the United States (The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.) is that we all convert to his brand Islam, change our governments to observe Sharia, or he and his minions will continue to try to kill us. Their ultimate goal is to conquer the world for Islam, not simply get the US out of anywhere, destroy Israel, or anything else. Al Qaeda believes it is justified in killing 4,000,000 Americans in pursuit of its goal. As it is, Al Qaeda's world wide body count must be easily in the tens of thousands by now.

Meanwhile, planning continues for the next Al Qaeda assault in Europe, following up on the successful mass attacks in London and Madrid, various assassinations, and the failed attacks in Germany, France, and other places. (Hopefully there is a well placed informant or two that will survive the Wikileaks releases.)

I wonder how many on Slashdot are members of the Internet Jihad, or are otherwise radicalized and trying to influence opinion?

“I imagine how the great jihad will take place, how the Muslims will win, God willing, and rule the whole world, and establish the greatest empire once again!!!” reads another Internet posting from Mr. Abdulmutallab.

This is not the secular, political language of resistance against foreign occupation. It is the language of apocalyptic salvation. It has nothing to do with Iraq, Afghanistan or the Palestinians, although countless young Muslims identify passionately with stories of perceived injustice. Radical Islam claims that martyrdom is the ultimate act of faith – the highest duty of a believer, next to the worship of Allah itself.

“

As I've explained above, this law does not criminalise the possession of information.

From your own post: - "a person is guilty of an offence if he:" [...] "collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or [...] possesses a document or record containing information of that kind."

Yes, that criminalizes the possession of information. Even if there is an affirmative defense to it.

Your knife example doesn't help, seeing how that law is commonly abused:
Like this

That was not a made up story, though I wish it had been):

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/08/britain-to-put-cctv-cameras-inside-private-homes/

http://current.com/items/90587783_uk-plans-to-monitor-20-000-families-homes-via-cctv.htm

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/115736/Sin-bins-for-worst-families

It's not paranoia when they really are out to get you.

No, you didn't misread that: they really do plan to install 24-hour surveillance in thousands of people's homes, under the guise of "thinking of the children". The joke about thinking 1984 was a reference manual is becoming less funny by the day.

Especially after the news of June 28 2009: NASA finds missing moon-landing-tapes. and all conspiracy theorist cringled... "oh no, what will I do now?"

A month ago, NASA announces "We've found them!", now they say "oh, they were erased (and it took us a month). But we restored a the thing you've already seen for you!"

Conspiracy theorist have something to do with their time once again.

I for one am waiting for the next headline: "the real moontapes leaked, torrent here", with yeti's UFO's and chuck norris, in spectacular 3D, with Bob from accounting.

Unfortunately you are right and I was being naive thinking that the Police would act in a reasonable manner. Without legal checks on what they can do, they can be abusive (even when there are good intentions). This has been demonstrated many many times by Police and Military in most countries.

However when you see something like this, http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/99899/Mum-warned-police-of-stalker-hours-later-she-was-dead would GPS tracking of her stalker have resulted in her still being alive today? When you compare and contrast the American case with this one, its pretty obvious that the American Police response to the stalker got the right result a dangerous man was locked up and the woman is alive, in the UK the woman is dead.

I guess whats right and what the law says is legal don't always match up too well. I believe the article said that the police asked for a warrant and got one to allow the GPS device to be put in place. It wasn't put in place without some justification. It's unfortunate that inalienable rights can be a two edged sword and there will always be challenges to legal proceedings based on them and unfortunately upholding those rights means accepting that some people will get released on a technicality.

>some weird correlation between two factors that are obviously not directly related. What's a researcher these days, someone who gathers a whole bunch of data, looks for all the statistical correlation they can find and publish a paper as soon as they find "something"

But here's the thing: they did find "something", that is statistically significant. That means there *is* a direct relationship. That's the whole point of statistics. They're establishing that there's something going on, and then they go looking for what. The relationship may be direct (causation) or symptomatic of something else (correlation) but they are, indeed, showing that there *is* a relationship.
There are a lot of books out there that discuss precisely this: what happens if you just go digging through data randomly and find statistically significant correlations, and then try and figure out why. "Freakonomics" discusses how there's a direct linear relationship between a mother's educational level and how she alters the spelling of her children's names. That's a *weird* correlation, but it is demonstrable. A more famous example -- from 1920, so it's not like weird correlation is a modern phenomenon -- is George Taylor's hemline index where he showed that the length of skirt hemlines was strongly correlated with the economy. And there are explanations for why that was/is happening.
Sometimes weird things are interrelated. When people find them, it's a good place to go looking for underlying mechanisms. You can do good theoretical science by formulating a hypothesis and then testing it, but you can also do good empirical science by finding demonstrably interrelated systems and then figuring out how they are interrelated.

Both these cases have been in the national media (actually, not sure it was a florist in the media, possibly someone who sold needlework stuff).

I can only be bothered to repost the link which someone else posted in another thread: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/80084/Garage-is-told-to-pay-to-listen-to-the-radio

The PRS is guilty of long-standing idiocy. In one celebrated incident a few months back, they attempted to fine a garage owner £2,000 unless his customers turned off their car radios before driving onto his premises.

This thing is absolutely fine with me. I've never watched music videos on Youtube, but I don't for a moment imagine that the kids who did will be queuing up to stuff fistfuls of fivers in the PRS's pockets in some other way. Instead they'll turn to piracy or give up on music and play with Facebook.

In due course, big media will realise that their so-called guardians are actually their enemies and they'll fire them. But, by then, there might not be a music industry that's worthy of the name. It'll be a well-deserved outcome.

Actually the UK is NOT at the verge of banning kitchen knives. A group of Doctors suggested the ban of POINTED kitchen knives. By the way very few people in the UK actually wants fire arms to become legal. http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/46266/Ban-kitchen-knives-to-save-lives-says-doctor

Assuming they have power for the computers and terminals.

Make fallacious, hero-worshipping appeals to the memes of USENET legends all you like.

• I was there in comp.org.eff.talk when Mike Godwin came up with his rule. You're no Mike Godwin.
• The critics of Scientology are a vast herd of ornery cats. How do I lead them?
• Why doesn't the Church of Scientology let members of the breakaway Free Zone practice their voluntarily chosen beliefs as they wish?
• In spite of Scientolgy's efforts to equate themselves with the Jewish Holocaust, the state of Israel thinks that Scientology is a commercial enterprise rather than a religion. (As do a lot of other countries.)
• Why do the at cause "Homo Novus" Dukes of the Auditor Elite ubermen of Scientology play the victim card all the time?
• Why do all the other leaders of Scientology around David Miscavige keep disappearing?

1. Skiffle king Lonnie Donegan's widow can get a job or claim a state pension like everyone else
   
2. The motorhead guitarist can collect a state pension like every other irresponsible dick head that pissed all their money up the wall.
   

WHO CARES?

Ok so it's censorship and we should all care as we are "free." However, that wasn't really my point. This is hardly news. What do you expect from countries like this. For a place like Thailand banning YouTube is hardly their worst crime. Let's take an example from a week ago that was in the news. Main Jailed for 10 Years for Insulting King -- ok and we care about them blocking YouTube? I think there's a tons of worse things they do. Blocking YouTube is probably making them more productive if anything. Not saying it's not wrong or outrageous.. but in comparison to other things that go on there.. it most certainly is.

• The current population of the US,
• The base of the Taliban and al-Qa'ida,
• A question about the Euro (I can't believe ANY Europeans could've possibly got this wrong),
• A question about Kashmir,
• The location of the US on a world map (the Russians, Japanese, Mexicans, Italians, and Swedish all did better at locating their own countries),

I wouldn't expect the average person to know the answer to some of the questions (for example, the question on El Nino), but the ones above are real howlers. I think part of the problem is the 'tabloid culture' that exists (on this side of the Atlantic, anyway). People need to stop reading toilet paper and start reading real newspapers.

And just for the record, I got 18 out of 20. I guessed the religion question wrong and incorrectly stated that China and Russia both have populations of over a billion.

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