Slashdot Mirror

It's possible to locate raders without using registration. Many sites use reverse DNS, and there are also companies offering proprietary databases that match geography to IP address. Sure, that's not 100% accurate, but it does help target advertising. For example, when I read British newspaper The Guardian from an ISP in the Bay Area, it displays a banner ad for flights from San Francisco to London. (Or at least, it used to before I installed an up-to-date Hosts file.)

OTOH, registration has other uses besides spamming and geographically-targeted ads. Even if you give fake info, the site can learn a lot from knowing when and what an anonymous individual chooses to read. They can do the same thing with cookies, of course, but that's less accurate, especially as even IE now makes it easy to block cookies.

Oops. Link for the above story

Wake me up when Betamax emerges victorious.

Do some research; a Slashdotter should know better. The "superiority" of betamax is an urban myth. While betamax may have had a superior video quality if you looked at it with an oscilliscope, it looked the same side-by-side in the showroom and Betamax had the enormous deficit that it could only record one hour of programming on a cassette, whereas VHS could record two. You couldn't record a movie off TV unattended with Betamax. This is why VHS was superior and won the war, even though Betamax had 100% of the market in the early days.

We look at the dozens of different media and formats from the past and notice that only two have been successful: the upgrade from wax cylinders to circular records and the subsequent upgrade from vinyl records to CDs: and there are STILL some who think LPs are better.

Make that three, please. You are omitting cassette tapes, which were a big hit worldwide (except in Europe where they were only used for copying, not for selling music), and that are still very much in use in non-western countries.
I do not know what the exact situation is today (I haven't left Europe in five years) but cassette tapes used to be the prevalent form of audio distribution in the Middle East and Africa, because they were cheap and easy to reproduce (no copyright payments - no censorship). Of course audio quality was horrible.

And, as a little chauvisnitic note, two of those three successfull format were developed by Phillips.

okay, I'll rise to the bait. I work at a Veteran's Affairs Clinic and have seen in patient charts "Vet has been exposed to high levels of depleted uranium from [combat in some location]." Doctors then go on to suggest that it may play a part in the following symptoms that the Vet is experiencing, and they have a long list...

This is just another example of environmentalist propaganda that isn't based on fact.

Uh huh. There is a lot of research to the contrary.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

Anyway, I noticed that replicant108 didn't actually give links to BBC, CNN, AFP, Reuters. I don't really read CNN while AFP and Reuters are syndicated so that I don't notice them, but here's some BBC and Guardian:

Murder 1
Murder 2

Sodomy 1
Sodomy 2
Sodomy 3
Sodomy 4
Sodomy 5

Rape 1
Rape 2
Rape 3
Rape 4

It is also interesting that the military has successfully censored/surpressed the significantly worse images that Senator Ron Wyden described.

I personally have lost confidence in the military as a whole, hopefully the few decent souls who are brave enough to speak out will prevail, but if I was a soldier, I'd have to think seriously before leaking any material. I couldn't get a Reuters link, but here is a BBC report by Reuters staff stating that they were tortured, even though it is denied by the military. In my not so humble opinion, the institution of the military needs a overhaul. It is fundamentally undemocratic. It restricts the free flow of information (need to know basis), personal liberty (chain of command) and is unjust (military justice - ha). Is the best way to tackle terrorism with the military or would we be better to take a policing approach?

Finally, from the horse's mouth, reports of Sodomy and Rape, the Taguba report itself.

All this reminds me of the quote attributed to Gandhi. When asked what he thought of Western Civilisation, he reply that he thought it was a good idea. Sigh, happy reading.

No sources cited. Don't you just love "FACTS" being presented without any back up.

FACT: Christians torture and kill their prisoners - this torture is extreme and cruel.

Islam has at least as diverse and wide ranging views as any other religion. Islam had their Renaissance centuries before the "West" got in on the act.

Why not try researching your topic - better still - moderators, why not try thinking before your moderate?

Now before people will scream "safety" and "the law", I'd like to remind people this road could take 80km/h with ease, there are NO sidewalks adjacent to the road and no building for kids or disabled people.

Well, I know it was a joke, but the Bush administration actually officially supports (totalitarian, communist) China over (the democracy) Taiwan. Communist China are becoming friends of the US, de facto making democratic Taiwan an enemy, I guess the US only supports democracies when it happens to align with their own interests.

I find this somewhat funny that the link would be to Nature, which is part of the academic publishing "evil empire". For a good opinion on what is wrong with academic publishing in its current form see this

Also, if you're a scientist and would like to publish in an open format or you're interested in scientific papers, go to the Public Library of Science

but removing this content is the right way. Every single state on this planet has laws against child pornography.

Most illegal pictures the Britons found were on webservers in the USA. You can find data here. In USA are laws against child porn. You can remove the content.

Some scientists think the Earth's magnetic field is preparing to flip again, which it does every so often. Apparently when this occurs, it is preceded by a period of local variations - mini-poles showing up all over the planet. This system could be invaluable in tracking this process.

Also, according to this article and others, the field has decreased 10% over the last 150 years. This has left some satellites vulnerable to damaging radiation.

Other links:
Sun's rays to roast Earth as poles flip"
The Sun Does a Flip
Quick flip of Earth's magnetic field revealed

You must be kidding. With all those ships moving around, do you think oceans are nice and clean? The bottom is full of muck, dead animals, plants and lots of junk. Check this Guardian article about what's happening to Titanic because of all the rubbish.

Steve Bell, Alan Rusbridger, Polly Toynbee, George Monbiot - I choose you!

What? Not that Guardian? Bah, I'm seriously disappointed. Time for another bowl of muesli, I suppose...

Agreed this is dangerous. We've done even more than ban softare on similar grounds.

The story is here.

ten points if you can name another company that does what halliburton does

Government work has half the margins of private sector work, its slum and the companies that take it suck.

Courtesy of The Guardian

Enjoy.

As always,
Kilgore

Email shows Cheney 'link' to oil contract

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Tuesday June 1, 2004
The Guardian

The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, helped to steer through a huge contract for the reconstruction of Iraq's oil industry on behalf of his old firm, Halliburton, Time magazine reported yesterday.

The report, based on an internal Pentagon email, joins a steady stream of allegations of cronyism involving Halliburton. Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Houston company has won $17bn (9bn) in contracts to rebuild Iraq, far outstripping its competitors.

Mr Cheney, who ran Halliburton for five years before he became George Bush's vice-president in 2000, has maintained that he severed all links to the company when he entered public life.

However, Time said it had obtained an internal email from a Pentagon official indicating that Mr Cheney's office had been intimately involved in awarding a multibillion-dollar contract for the restoration of Iraqi oil.

The email, dated March 5 last year, said that Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defence for policy and an avid promoter of the war, had approved a contract with Halliburton "contingent on informing WH [the White House] tomorrow".

The email says that Mr Feith received authorisation for the Rio (Restore Iraqi Oil) contract from the deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz. The email, from an unidentified official with the Army Corps of Engineers, says: "We anticipate no issues, since action has been coordinated with the VP's office."

No other bids were sought, and Halliburton was awarded the contract.

A spokesman for Mr Cheney's office denied any connection to the contract. "The vice-president and his office have played no role in government contracting since he left private business to campaign for vice-president," in 1999, Kevin Kellems said.

But Mr Cheney has not severed his links with Halliburton. Last year, he received $178,437 in deferred compensation from the company.

Reports suggest that the process of awarding contracts has changed under the Bush administration. A report to the House of Representatives committee on government reform last week noted that $107bn in contracts had been awarded without open competition. Nearly three-quarters of those exclusive arrangements - worth about $88bn - involved work in Iraq, the report said. Halliburton has won a sizeable share of them.

There's no reason why you can't combine the two. For instance the 3-Michelin-starred Heston Blumenthal does this. See his weekly Guardian columns for more info. BAcon and Egg ice cream, anyone ?

Heston Blumenthal, the improbably named chef of the two-Michelin-star rated Fat Duck restaurant in Bray, England. He has a show on the Discovery Channel in the UK called Kitchen Chemistry where he discusses "the science behind cooking and how it affects the way that we perceive taste and flavour."

I've only eaten at his brasserie, but the food was superb. This chap knows what he's doing.

Again: invading a country for regime change is NOT ALLOWED in international law.

Wow! That shows just how effective continuous FUD can be. I'd forgotten that and I wrote a piece on this very issue a couple of months ago.

Yes, this is an even greater reason for the mendacity. Just to add to your point, the same applies to Blair. In fact, he si being charged with with war crimes. It's had little attention in the British press however. I'm not aware of anyone proesecuting Bush though.

interesting link
link
link

On the first point you are absolutly correct.

However...

On the second, bush wanted the war, and was willing to ignore his own promises to get it. read here

And on the third point, I was refuting the statment that the Iraqi people want our troops in Iraq; they don't...

OTOH, nice troll.

This documentary put me off processed food for life. The scary thing is that it was hospital food they were producing.

Have a look at this one instead, slashdot rejected me for some unfathomable rason.

Boy plots own murder on Internet chatroom

He convinced another young guy to stab him to death on the pretense he was undergoing a Secret Service initiation.

Not even Chalabi?

Unfortunately for us in the UK, the "environmentalists" coupled with weak-willed and short-sighted politicians have squandered away our nuclear exeprtise and brought about the decline of the civillian nuclear industry,[..]

When you give the extremists in Greenpeace such a gem, you can't claim that the politicans or environmentalist destroyed the nuclear industry as it seems to me that the industy is pefectly capable of doing it it self.

Lovelock has been advocating nuclear energy for a while now.

From a September 2000 article in the Guardian:

"And then they say: what shall we do with nuclear waste?" Lovelock has an answer for that, too. Stick it in some precious wilderness, he says. If you wanted to preserve the biodiversity of rainforest, drop pockets of nuclear waste into it to keep the developers out. The lifespans of the wild things might be shortened a bit, but the animals wouldn't know, or care. Natural selection would take care of the mutations. Life would go on."

Guardian article here

The Grauniad has an interesting interview which seems to capture Moore as a person.

From my (admittedly outside) point of view, the states seem to be quite well stocked with conservative commentators; Moore makes a different viewpoint more visible.

While I wouldn't go to Michael Moore for good journalism, hopefully his presence opens people to considering different points of view. I hold out hope that people who are engaged in this way can seek out more accurate analyses, and at least acknowledge other opinions.

When my spam mailbox is full of things offering me credit cards, mortgages and such that are only available or sellable in the US. Same for most of the viagra and diet pills, if I follow the links I usually end up at an American company. A small percentage aren't, of course, mainly Nigerian scams and some local stuff, but 95% is.

This isn't just my opinion. See this in The Guardian: "There are really only 150 spammers doing 90% of all the spam we get in the US and Europe... at least 40 of them are in Boca Raton."

Getting information from as far a political spectrum as possible is a very good idea. Yet, I found that only paying attention to American media will still be very limiting. In order to understand what information influence the opinion of European leftists you also may want to sample sources such as the Guardian. I also find it rather instructive to monitor the infamous Al Jazeera in order to understand what kind of reporting influences the public opinion in Iraq and other Arab countries.

A news organisation can be completely factual in its reporting and still be biased. You need to work out which facts or stories get emphasised and which ones get downplayed or left out completely. You also need to have a look at what sort of language is being used to characterise the subjects of a story. For instance, the term "controversial" seems to get repeated like a mantra by some journalists when they write about Michael Moore, in such a way that it's like they're saying "we don't like this person and don't think you should either".

And if you really think that CNN is biased towards the left, you really need to broaden your selection of publications a bit. I recommend The Guardian. Read that for a while and you won't think that CNN is left-wing anymore.

-FL

There was a great book a couple years ago called "Cradle to Cradle", by William McDonough and Michael Braungart (Slashdot review). It's worth looking into if you're interested in some of the more solid thinking behind "green" design and manufacturing. It's a fun read, and the book is made entirely of recyclable plastic. =)

There aren't very many companies yet embracing the idea of closing off the loop (ie, waste as energy, 100%), but a few are going a long way.

No article on Nanobacteria would be complete without a reference to Philla Uwins. A geologist who in 1999 was inspecting (deep, hot and old) drilling samples from the Western Australian coastline with a scanning electron microscope discovered unusual possible life forms from 20nm to 150nm, christening them nanobes. Well below the accepted 200nm miniumum thought possible for life. (it is thought that no living thing can contain the necessary machinary in containers below 200nm).

What followed is probably more interesting than this reported story (the discovery of nanobes in blood and their possible link to disease predates this article). Things started to hot up in the nanobe world when some research money came forward to see if these nanobes contained the necessary DNA to disprove the many *non life advocates*. Even physicist Paul Davies (Australian centre for Astrobiology) pondered the possibility that nanobes could be a possible link between life and non-life.

Armed with some results the Unwin team sent off a paper to every *major* reputable scientific journal only to have them turned down. The most common reason.... too controversial.

So I read this story and think of *mayo* clinic and the *ohhh must be reputable* tag that goes with it and thinking why hasn't Nature or some other journal taken so long to publish these ideas?. Science publishing appears to be more about convincing publishers (and peers) less about looking at the data.

The postscript to the story: The dot com crash in 2000 killed off more research into the DNA tests, the possible application of the nanobes into eating plastic (nanobes had a voracious appetite for petri dishes) and a potential commercial spin off. Phillipa still works at UQ.

• 
  assorted links
  
  http://www.uq.edu.au/nanoworld/uwins.html
  
  http://aca.mq.edu.au/PaulDavies/pdavies.html
  
  http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s2015 6. htm
  
  http://www.abc.net.au/rn/science/ss/stories/s132 23 5.htm
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273 ,3 840998,00.html
  
  

tortured to death

You wanted a news report, well there you have it.

you overlooked the fact that the FBI's subpoenas (even the secret ones) have to be reviewed by a judge and often a grand jury.

But what if they don't need a subpoena?

and perhaps most significantly, you seem unaware that the activities of the FBI are overseen by Senators and Representatives that you and I vote for

Oh sure, I trust the other branches of the Gov't to oversee the FBI.

The problem is that Congressional and Court oversight usually waits until things have gotten so far out of control that they can't duck their responsibility. By which time many innocent people have been hurt. I call the current stupidity in Iraq (ICRC pdf - sorry) as my first witness and Frank Church as my second.

Your significantly more paranoid friend (who has worked for two out of three branches of the Federal Gov't).

I'd like to point out to whoever modded parent "insightful," that he's actually a troll.

Well, first of all, no, that hasn't been shown, by anybody. And secondly, the leftover stockpiles from Iran-Iraq are precisely what Saddam was accused of hiding.

Which, with Iraq's shelf-life problem of the time would have been mostly harmless goo by the end of the 80's, let alone by 2003.

The truth is Pres. Bush said Saddam had tried to buy uraniam from Niger.. AFTER being told it was NOT true

Except it was true. Again with the googling.

Again, you're a troll.

Your so-called Czech connection consists of one of the hijackers maybe metting ONCE with an Iraqi Miliary Intelligence officer in April 2001 according to an unverified Czech report by a resturant entrepreneur.

The Ansar al-Islam - Al Qaida connection may or may not be real, but it doesn't matter as links between the ultra religious sect and the militantly athiest Saddam Hussein remain circumstancial and second hand.

As for the documentary evidence... What documentary evidence? Do you mean this?

Google it. We ain't your momma.

You know, I've got a ton of information which is all true and totally proves my point. Saddam was actually working with Bush to cement Bush's presidency and get Saddam out of the country before the rebellion. The fact that you can't find any of my sources just proves that you're ugly.

We seem to be developing a resonably large Asian community here, in Dublin at least - except that Asian in this context means Chinese rather than Pakistani as is the case in Britain.

We also seem to be welcoming them rather better than north of the border...

It seems they already do:

Quoted from the link below:
Declining respect for American cultural values exacerbated by the crisis in Iraq is having a potentially disastrous effect on the image of US brands such as McDonald's, Coca- Cola, Nike and Microsoft, a new worldwide study of consumer attitudes has found.

Link

The Daily Mirror (now just The Mirror) is a left-wing tabloid newspaper in the UK. Last month, the paper (which was until yesterday edited by Piers Morgan) published pictures of alleged abuse in Iraq which are now widely believed to be fake. Morgan quit last night and has not apologised, while his paper has.

I used to have some respect for the guy, but fuck him now-he's dragged his paper's reputation through the mud and he's making a bad name for everybody who was every against this war. If you're in the UK and want a decent anti-war left-wing newspaper, try here, here or maybe even (for the insanely left wing) here.

Well it's not like The Guardian has the best track record as far as numbers are concerned. Read this article, and be amazed with the new Fahrenheit-Celsius conversion rules. (And yes, they corrected one error, but the other one is still there!)

In Britain, people are tired of hearing this excuse when the US blast British tanks and planes instead of the enemy.

What excuse are they not tired of when they have their ownfriendly fire incedents?

See here or here.

Which reminds me of my new money-spinning idea ( © Me on Slashdot) - a cross between fight club and Gaydar. People sign a disclaimer, and can then contact people who match their profile but instead of doing something rude with them they get to fight each other. As it's all among consenting adults, I'm sure it would be legal.... :-)