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Here in the UK we have both satellite digital and "terrestrial broadcast" digital, the latter being digital that you can receive through an ordinary antenna with a set-top box on your plain old analogue TV. The terrestrial broadcast network, ITV Digital, tried to squeeze 48 channels into the available bandwidth, and the result was famously shite quality.

It wasn't even the tolerable sort of poor quality that you get on analogue: fuzz, crackle, etc. Instead, it's blocks of non-motion on your screen, or even the entire screen freezing up, while the video buffer struggles to refill.
Just what you want when you're watching a crucial sports match.
No thank you.

ITV Digital have recently gone bust, and a consortium including the BBC and Murdoch have stepped in to take it over. They are planning to reduce the channel count to 24, and to introduce other improvements in the transmitter network, so maybe the quality will improve. But they are no longer asking people to pay a monthly subscription: it will be for free-to-air channels only. Seems sensible to me: why pay for what we can already get it for free?

I also expected that my new digital cordless phone's quality would be better than my old analogue cordless. No, just like the digital TV, the intereference is no longer crackle-and-fuzz, it's random cut-outs when I get more than 20 yards from the base station. A friend of mine has had similar problems with his new digital cordless in the US.

So I don't expect that TV reception quality will improve simply because "It's digital!" You can implement bad quality transmission in any medium.

I don't think that we have to worry about being a silent planet if these guys keep it up.

The Guardian had this to say about the coming weeks news stories. The BBC always trot this one out when there's nothing else much to say.

80N

80N

A UK chef called Heston Blumenthal has been similarly engaged on the quest to find the science behind cooking.

Recently voted "Chef's Chef of the Year", Blumenthal is proprieter of the Fat Duck restaurant and writes a regular cooking column in the Saturday edition of the Guardian newspaper.

In these articles he takes tenets of cooking law ("The water in which green vegetables are cooked *must* be salted", "High-temperature sealing of meat keeps in the juices") and either justifies them or blows them apart. He tests, tastes, tests, tastes, and consults food scientists until he understands more of the principles behind the cooking. (Both of those tenets, in case you're interested, turn out to be completely false.)

He has also enthused about cooking meat at very low-temperatures - I can recommend without reservation that you try it yourselves and see.

Read his Guardian articles here, and there are some others on his site.

A UK chef called Heston Blumenthal has been similarly engaged on the quest to find the science behind cooking.

Recently voted "Chef's Chef of the Year", Blumenthal is proprieter of the Fat Duck restaurant and writes a regular cooking column in the Saturday edition of the Guardian newspaper.

In these articles he takes tenets of cooking law ("The water in which green vegetables are cooked *must* be salted", "High-temperature sealing of meat keeps in the juices") and either justifies them or blows them apart. He tests, tastes, tests, tastes, and consults food scientists until he understands more of the principles behind the cooking. (Both of those tenets, in case you're interested, turn out to be completely false.)

He has also enthused about cooking meat at very low-temperatures - I can recommend without reservation that you try it yourselves and see.

Read his Guardian articles here, and there are some others on his site.

No it wouldn't. Trains crashing into the buffers happens fairly frequently. You end up with 45 people or 2 people, or even 0 people killed. The worst train crashes tend to be when two trains collide, but even in the non-western countries, the death toll is counted in the hundreds.

George W. Bush's Amerika

I can return faulty goods

I can keep my job if i'm pregnant

"that most stores will be closed, by law, on a sunday" this is a GOOD thing, employment rights!!!

that licensing laws make it so you can't buy alcohol between 11:30pm and noon, without a special extension
here's a story about proposed changes

But the truly pathetic problem with this is that, while it might offer a significant deterrent against DoS and other malicious attacks, the fact that Congress is even considering a bill like this, and still haven't introduced something along the same lines for huge Corporate thieving and shananagans, is utterly asenine.

Look at it this way, hacking usually is malicious toward large corporate entities, unless it has to do with stealing personal info such as credit cards, S/N's and the like (which falls under identity theft, and should be getting its own life sentence IMHO soon). These big corporations can easily absorb most attacks (i.e. write off fictitious losses to capital losses, and have the hit go to the stock holders).

But on the other hand, the recent rash (or at least the sudden disclosure) of many corporate scandals basically leaves the stock holders and employees feeling the loss. The actual perpetrators never feel the same loss as someone who no longer has a retirement fund to speak of. So the worst punishment these thieves can receive is some vacation at a minimum security country club. But they have ruined MANY peoples whole lives, yet they have never faced the threat of true consequences.

Now to keep from being completely off topic: So congress has a bill pushed through that will enable hackers to receive a life sentence for their malicious acts. But all that we've heard about cracking down on corporate crime is some fluff regarding the SEC and accounting procedures, and much of the same from George W's podium. (But wait, what was that Harken Energy thingy?)

Seems quite ironic to me considering that the "great economic expansion" of the 90's was just a load of crap ontop of inflated profits. So let's go after those real criminals, Mr. Ashcroft! You just point your finger and we'll tap their phones and ISP to see what kind of mischief they're really getting into.

After all, they never do anything good, do they Yahoo?

This is completely contradictory to what the UDRP has done for Hong Kong-based company "Ultimate Search, Inc."

Case 1: Poetry site.
Case 2: PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Case 3: WBW
Case 4: Home of the Underdogs.

And you'd better believe there are lots more cases in which these cybersquatters have taken over sites without retribution.

Maybe he can get the money from Adidas. He directed that wildly successful World Cup video where the top players play 3 on 3 in an abandoned oil tanker. The butchered Elvis song he picked for it is even the "Top of the Pops" FWIW.

You can see it here in RM format
http://stream.guardian.co.uk:7080/ramgen/sys-video /Media/video/2002/04/04/nike.rm

U.S. Accuses BP Of Accounting Scandal

"In all likelihood" (to borrow a phrase from
the President-Vice), Cheney will claim everybody is doing it.

and their competency with money, written by a minor popstar, appeared in The Guardian this weekend.

For the Atikins dieter who loves chicken nuggets...

Fowl play

I like this one:

...mechanically recovered meat (MRM), which is obtained by pushing the carcass through a giant teabag-like screen to produce a slurry of protein, then bound back together with polyphosphates and gums. Nor does he use other additives.

Simple mathematics tell me that if the average family has more than two children the world population will increact. China realised this and came up with their one-child politics to prevent overpopulation.

Quite right. And look at what that policy has achieved.

Simple logics tell me that the land for agriculture will not increase exponentially and neither will the production of food.

You're right, the land for agriculture will not increase exponentially, but the water will.

What happens when gun laws aren't "draconian" enough? Kids kill their school mates and teachers. Seem familiar?

Good thing those thing don't happen anywhere else.

...by an Italian, as recently recognized by the U.S. House of Representatives.

And what about another wireless communication inventor

Open your mind and you'll see that the triumph of VHS was the triumph of freedom versus the corporate vision of Betamax, a decision the consumers wisely made. The consumers made the right decision.

Moral media isn't dead. You just have to look harder for it.

Now that the Sept 11th jingoism has died down and it's starting to be a non-terminal offence to express discontent versus the powers that be, you're starting to see the creepings of independent thought show up even in CNN. Up here in Canada, CTV's been doing it for a while. But even then there's a huge under-reporting of stories that would knock the comfort zone of the average person.

The basic problem is this -- any media outlet is a slave to the mandate of its publisher. This isn't really new, it's as old as newspapers themselves (it used to be that if you wanted to be a politician it was a shrewd move to found your own newspaper). So, if you've got nothing but biased media out there, the only way to really inform yourself is to (a) check up on all the biases and try to develop your own conclusions from them, and (b) realize that there's no substitute for actually being at the scene of the event, or at the very least talking to someone who is.

People who critique the media as having a bias often make the mistake of trying to sound like it's forced upon them, when really, you can choose to go out and find different information from a different source. Some options include:

ZNet

The Guardian

The Independent

Le Monde Diplomatique (English version here)

Tom Tommorow

It also helps in times of conflict to go to the media outlets or websites of your political enemies to see what they're saying. It's amazing how they often take as gospel a premise that is completely different from your own. It's also amazing how often the exact same coercive techniques are used by both sides. Makes you wonder if there are average citizens over there are pissed off at their media as much as some of us are at ours.

By the way, I know I went off on a bit of a tangent, but if you click on any of the links above you'll see minimal coverage of the Elizabeth Smart case. There might be a story in there at some point to tell everyone how it all turns out, but nothing like the usual CNN sensationalism. The point is, if you don't like your media, don't go back to it -- go elsewhere. It's not like we have battered wife syndrome or something.

(or maybe we do???)

It would almost definitely end up sounding really bad, like the ones in this article on bad porn awards but it would be worth it to make something that was unblockable by any type of systematic filter.

Would you trust a company whose CEO is a professional gambler:

Charlie Ergen is not a name that slips readily from medialand lips. Outside America his name is unknown. But today he has earned his place in TV history - the 48-year-old former professional gambler has torpedoed one of Rupert Murdoch's most ambitious plans - to set up a global TV network straddling America, Europe, Asia and Australia.

And although 22 years his junior, the deal to buy DirecTV in the US is a personal triumph for Mr Ergen, who fought Murdoch once before and won.

As Mr Murdoch seethes over his defeat, he will be reflecting on a personal feud that goes back five years.

The pair first clashed in 1996 when Mr Ergen bid against Mr Murdoch in an effort to force up the price of the last remaining satellite licence in the US. He succeeded, forcing Mr Murdoch to pay almost £281m over the odds for the licence.

After paying so much, the media tycoon's telecoms partner, MCI, pulled out of a proposed joint venture, forcing him to go cap in hand to EchoStar. The two rivals agreed to a merger deal that would have seen them sew up the satellite market between them.

However, Mr Murdoch subsequently pulled out in the face of opposition from the cable giants and a furious Mr Ergen filed a £5bn lawsuit against him.

The saga was eventually settled when Murdoch - left with two satellite operations and a satellite licence he couldn't fund alone, - was forced into a humiliating settlement with EchoStar. Mr Ergen ended up with the satellite business and Mr Murdoch was left with just an 8% stake in EchoStar.

Mr Ergen, who abandoned his blackjack card games in Las Vegas when one of the casinos accused him of "counting cards" (a practice sharp-eyed gamblers use to work out where cards are in the pack as they are dealt), has now gambled again and apparently won.

A workaholic, the Echostar boss knows the value of the money he has just borrowed to secure the deal. According to reports he watches every penny affecting the bottom line - he makes bearded linux hippies take night flights to save money and apparently requires them to double up on hotel rooms.

Barring a late return of Mr Murdoch to the negotiating table or a rejection by competition authorities, the DirecTV deal will be crowning glory of an illustrious career for Mr Ergen.

One of the sadder things, is that NATO, like any organization that has to bridge the technology and standards gaps of some 15 different militaries and languages, doesn't really have better security. Witness a recent article.

"Hundreds of people with dangerous, incurable personality disorders could be locked up indefinitely in secure mental hospitals, without the need for evidence that they committed a crime, under far-reaching mental health legislation published yesterday by the government."

That's a more clear story as to what really happened, but as always the media's ignorance and bad choices of words distort everything. To make the link work remove the space or click here

The Guardian has an article about this one too, it was propably chasing sunbeams to eliminate the sun. [Guardian] Evil, I say, Evil!

and it looks a lot meaner than I first thought: pic 1 and pic 2.

Courtesy of the The Guardian

George Bush has phoned to congratulate the US
team after its unlikely 2-0 victory over Mexico, the Washington Post reports - on its front page, at that. His heart-stirring message: 'A lot of people who didn't even know anything about soccer, like me, are all excited and pulling for you.' According to the report, he also phoned the Mexican president from his ranch in Texas - the state which the US annexed from Mexico in 1845.

W should have said "A lot of people who didn't even know anything about soccer, like I,"

Thanks in advance,
Woot

Why would anything related to the British and teeth make me worried? Oh, yeah, now I remember...

One can reasonably ask why the cafes were all illegal. Surely not all 2200 of them were death traps.

70 years ago, the United States tried clamping down on booze and speakeasys were the market's response to an absurd prohibition. Looks like China is going to have to learn the same lesson - clamp down on something people want and they'll find another way to get it, sometimes with disastrous results.

Speaking of 70 years ago, that's about the same time as the Reichstag Fire. Seems the Nazis wanted something to hang a cause on and so they set fire to the German Reichstag and blamed the Communists. I mention the Reichstag connection because of this odd quote from The Guardian

``It was around 3 a.m. when I smelled gasoline and saw thick smoke coming up from the bottom of the stairs,'' said Li, who went to the cafe with about 10 other students from Beijing Technology University.

Odd thing that - smelling gasoline in an Internet Cafe.

This seems to be based off the story at The Guardian. Also, the US Congress has some links on the issue.

As an aside, it would perhaps be more accurate to call the Guardian an English and Welsh (rather than a UK) publication. I mention this because there have been a few cases recently of English papers being gagged and prevented from disclosing details on certain released criminals. The idiocy of this is highlighted in the last line of this Guardian article; publishing in England would be illegal, but take one step over the open Scottish border, and it becomes legal.

In that respect, the English courts appear to have little idea how to deal with the complexities of international jurisdiction. It's going to be very interesting when a Scottish newpaper finally does nail its colours to the mast and defy one of these English bans.

This website contains material of a newslike nature. If you are in a country where viewing such material is not legal, please LEAVE NOW.

ENTER HERE. By clicking here, you agree not to link to any page of this website in such a way as to allow any party to bypass this disclaimer.

The Guardian carried this story. It began with the astonishing statement: "The internet in Europe is facing its first major test today..." -- so evidently, we've somehow survived over here since 1970 without any kind of a "major test".

Maybe next time you should check google before asking.

Now showing on satellite TV: secret American spy photos

So I guess you don't consider mash ups valid art/mustic.

This would not be new.

• No other major media outlet that I know of has bothered to give people the starting point to actually find out how and why bin Laden came to be.

The following well-written articles address the question of comparing Israel with the Nazi state:

Final Solution in the Occupied Territories by Edward Herman
Apartheid in the Holy Land by Desmond Tutu
Open Letter to General Ariel Sharon by Breyten Breytenbach

I my opinion, while comparing the treatment received by the Palestinians under the Israeli state to the Holocaust remains a futile exaggeration, comparing this state with the Nazism of the 30's or with the South African apartheid regime is perfect valid.

Anybody else read this article about viral marketing? Deja vu.

This is a debate which has been raging in Europe, and especially in the UK for a number of months. Here in the UK, On Digital, later ITV digital, were in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch's SKY satellite services. Yet the suspicion was that millions were being lost by ITV digital by the sale of pirate smart cards, which by the end of the service could be picked up at most car boot sales for about ten pounds, yet would unlock all the premium rate channels for the service. Normally these guys sell dodgy 3rd generation videos, so how did they mange to crack technology which was equivelant in security to the triple DES algorithm?. The following articles from The Guardian offer more information.

How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card and Murdoch security chief linked to TV piracy site.

The Guardian is a left leading broadsheet in the UK which carries influence beyond its half million (UK) circulation figure. Yet it even devoted an editorial to this subject whcih can be read here;

Breaking the code - Piracy on the digital airwaves.

This is a debate which has been raging in Europe, and especially in the UK for a number of months. Here in the UK, On Digital, later ITV digital, were in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch's SKY satellite services. Yet the suspicion was that millions were being lost by ITV digital by the sale of pirate smart cards, which by the end of the service could be picked up at most car boot sales for about ten pounds, yet would unlock all the premium rate channels for the service. Normally these guys sell dodgy 3rd generation videos, so how did they mange to crack technology which was equivelant in security to the triple DES algorithm?. The following articles from The Guardian offer more information.

How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card and Murdoch security chief linked to TV piracy site.

The Guardian is a left leading broadsheet in the UK which carries influence beyond its half million (UK) circulation figure. Yet it even devoted an editorial to this subject whcih can be read here;

Breaking the code - Piracy on the digital airwaves.

This is a debate which has been raging in Europe, and especially in the UK for a number of months. Here in the UK, On Digital, later ITV digital, were in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch's SKY satellite services. Yet the suspicion was that millions were being lost by ITV digital by the sale of pirate smart cards, which by the end of the service could be picked up at most car boot sales for about ten pounds, yet would unlock all the premium rate channels for the service. Normally these guys sell dodgy 3rd generation videos, so how did they mange to crack technology which was equivelant in security to the triple DES algorithm?. The following articles from The Guardian offer more information.

How codebreakers cracked the secrets of the smart card and Murdoch security chief linked to TV piracy site.

The Guardian is a left leading broadsheet in the UK which carries influence beyond its half million (UK) circulation figure. Yet it even devoted an editorial to this subject whcih can be read here;

Breaking the code - Piracy on the digital airwaves.

Why, yes, I do have some solid facts about who supports the terrorists. But it's not CD pirates.

It's smokers.

Read this Guardian article to see just how REAL money is made. Hint: they don't waste time on warez.

You are in error. The only reason you believe that the only casualties for these two conflicts were friendly fire is because:

1. You're a moron.
2. The media gives greater coverage to friendly fire incidents.

Actually, friendly fire accounted for a large percentage (but by no means all) of the battle casualties during the Gulf War. The Allies lost many more than those 9 British soldiers that were mistakenly bombed. However, there were actually more non-battle deaths in the Gulf War than battle deaths. Furthermore, the U.S. military suffered more casualties outside the Persian Gulf than in it during the Gulf War (training accidents, etc) [DIOR Casualty Statistics]. Bet you never would have thought that more people died as a result of normal activities than battle. That's because non-battle casualties don't get the coverage and attention of battle casualties.

In Afghanistan friendly fire again seems to be to blame (finally figures are not yet available) for a large percentage of casualties.

Friendly fire accidents are horrible and they do need to be addressed (they are). I think we're seeing a general increase in the number of friendly fire deaths (percentage-wise) because we've gotten so much better at killing than our enemies. We've drastically reduced the casualty figures in recent conflicts. I've no doubts that our government is working to reduce casualties even further. And you can bet that they are giving friendly-fire and the bad coverage it gives them more than it's fair share of attention.

• American casualties in Afghanistan
• First British casualties in Afghanistan
• Canadian casualties in Afghanistan

Will the X-45 have an impact on casualties? Who knows ... it has yet to be tested.

It is kind of frightening, but most people will gladly hand over their freedom to some anonymous government agency "because they know best". These people do not read Slashdot or Risks and certainly not extreme left-wing journals like The Guardian. They know that strong government is good government, etc., and examples like this are needed to show that even if an organisation isn't corrupt, it is composed of individuals who may be.

"To say 'I have a degree, I'm guaranteed a job' is bullshit, I know, but to cast it off completely and say a degree just says you know how to pass the exam, is also bullshit."

man u have to get a job. I had no luck as yet... well I have exams anyway. can't belive ma studying for 5 years now... thas 0.5 of a decade ... and still without a job. though ur case is also unique... apply for BT.. they are still recruiting. so is BAE ..

As for the IQ, I'm surprised at your accuracy -- my IQ is 121, apparently :)

All in all there are a lot of good people out here on our asses, just the way it goes at the moment.

There is a nice angle on it in this Guardian article. By the way, does anybody know the name of the pilot who flew to the rescue?

Here.
...and here.
(Off topic but on target :-)