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Some of the replies are quite interesting (most aren't!). I liked that "The Philospher's Stone" has at least 3 different titles:

As many of you implied it really has to do with the countries' values. For instance here in The Netherlands it is 'HP and the stone of the Wise' Being a wise person is a bigger value then being a philosopher here.
Dorine, Amsterdam the Netherlands

I trust that not all American ex-servicemen still believe:

"After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 brought the US into World War II,
(...)"

or rather, if they do, then I hope that other Americans can look beyond this myth. You have to go back another hundred years to find the first angry shot fired between the two nations, but more about that later.

The recent release of "'Pearl Harbour' as approved by the US Military" alienated non-US audiences (the Limeys hated it!), and media outlets reported on the relationship between Hollywood and the military.

Even John Wayne knew Uncle Sam had played a few hands before December - or have you forgotten his performance in Flying Tigers?

The following is from p. 93 of "Higher than Heaven, Japan, war, and everything", by Barrel & Tanaka (1995 Private Guy International):

-----
Up the Tigers
The Flying Tigers started arriving in China in mid-1938 and took part in the battle of Hankow. They were strictly mercenaries paid by results: a monthly wage of $US600 and a bonus of $US500 every time they downed a Japanese plane. Even though the USA wasn't fighting Japan yet, in April 1941 President Roosevelt signed an order which allowed regular US servicemen to resign and join the Tigers. The P-40 Tomahawks were dubbed 'Tigers' by the media, because they each had a double row of shark's teeth painted on their nose.
(Former aerial circus star Lt.Col. Claire) Chennault's first serious deployment was in the battle for Burma where he devised a special 'tag' technique to allow the somewhat obsolete planes to fly in pairs and protect each other while dealing with the faster Japanese aircraft. In 1942 the Tigers grew to become the USAAF's Fourteenth Air Force.
-----

SVG veterans themselves proudly declare their involvement, and ten years ago the US Government recognised them as having been on "active duty" from December 1941 to July 1942, and as a result were eligible for veterans' benefits.

Now go back a hundred years to July 1853 to find the US Navy and Commodore Perry, with full 'discretionary powers' from President Fillmore, anchoring his 'black ships' (or 'Kuro fune', a term coined for fear of any threat from outside) for a few days in Tokyo Bay, then marching 300 armed sailors ashore to drive the point home.

What did the US want? To open shipping routes, and for whalers and other merchant vessels to stop and refuel. Ironically, it was American whale hunters who developed the local Japanese appetite for whales into a national taste - now defended as an ancient cultural rite that can't be disturbed.

-----
Perry's Pacific ideas and adventures were savoured with enthusiasm by American admirals and generals. The Japanese also remembered Perry's offensive attitude. Admiral Yamamoto Isoroku described his attach on Hawaii's Pearl Harbour in December 1941 as the 'return of Perry's visit'. When the Japanese signed the surrender on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945, the US flag that was displayed was the one that flapped on the stern of Perry's steam frigate the USS Mississippi.
-----
(viz., p37)

Some good examples here of the adage 'you reap what you sow'. I wonder what the two seeds that were sown in August 1945 could grow into, with the proper attention.

(Australian Coward)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,425 344,00.html

"Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) arrived in the UK in 1997, when the City of London police installed cameras that scan the plates of every vehicle entering and leaving the Square Mile - a concept dubbed the ring of steel. "The cameras are very overt. It's all very open," says a police spokesperson. "We're not interested in monitoring people's movements, we just want to provide them with a safe environment."

"Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) arrived in the UK in 1997, when the City of London police installed cameras that scan the plates of every vehicle entering and leaving the Square Mile - a concept dubbed the ring of steel. "The cameras are very overt. It's all very open," says a police spokesperson. "We're not interested in monitoring people's movements, we just want to provide them with a safe environment."

I recall a number of stories (quick Google search returned this Guardian link) about modifying viruses IRL to cure real diseases. What you're talking about is a digital equivalent. Of course the real world viruses don't spread from body to body through the air (far too dangerous), so to maintain the analogy, you have to choose which digital doctor you'll allow to inject you with a computer virus. Can you imagine a Mad Doc McGates? *shudder* Hold on, this is just like downloading a virus update file... oh well.

So if very little money was being made, then the family shouldn't be compensated, but if a lot of money is being made, then the family should be compensated? I guess your philosophy is all about the money. If the pot gets big enough, you want a cut.

Did the patient or her family give permission for her remains to be used? No, they didn't learn about this for several decades after. That is unethical. It is deeply, deeply unethical.

What if the patient, or her family, had religious beliefs that conflicted with her body parts living on after her death, and being harvested?

Look at the turmoil stirred up about a year ago, over the case of Dr Dick van Velzen. Van Velzen was the senior pathologist at a children's hospital in the UK. And it appears he ordered the surreptious bottling and preservation of the organs of every baby who underwent a postmortem at his hospital. The press reports say this amount to something like 15,000 individual's organs.

Hospital rejects Van Velzen's claims
Van Velzen pleads guilty to improperly storing children's organs
UK Doctor Organ Harvest Outrage

You've got to get permission for stuff like this.

The Guardian, a left-leaning British newspaper, has had just two stories on Sklyarov (as far as I can see). One of them is here. This will probably tell Slashdot readers nothing new, but the journalist's own page has various interesting Sklyarov links, including to the Powerpoint file of his Defcon presentation.

Adobe has net martyr e-booked by the Feds

Hackers plan to bite back as FBI detains Russian

It appears some newspapers can write good articles. If yours doesn't mention it, write to their editor.

Adobe has net martyr e-booked by the Feds

Hackers plan to bite back as FBI detains Russian

It appears some newspapers can write good articles. If yours doesn't mention it, write to their editor.

What do I owe Africa?

Really?

"Fruits of the 21st Century?"

How about if Africa gets itself out of the 6th century by producing something the world wants?

And this time, try not to make it slaves, terrorists, virus es, endangered species, or diamonds to raise money to hack people to death.

--Blair
"You are only as free, happy, smart, and rich as you think you are."

Lets face it, Radioactive material, when not handled properly, is very dangerous. I work with some radioactive compounds (biological research), and I have a healthy respect for it.

However, some notable people do not. I dont know what the situation is in the states, but BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd) have been involved in numerous scandals over the last few years. This has not just affected the UK either. And that scares the shit out of me. And some anti-nuclear campagners.

Lets face it, Radioactive material, when not handled properly, is very dangerous. I work with some radioactive compounds (biological research), and I have a healthy respect for it.

However, some notable people do not. I dont know what the situation is in the states, but BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels Ltd) have been involved in numerous scandals over the last few years. This has not just affected the UK either. And that scares the shit out of me. And some anti-nuclear campagners.

Wow, that's quite the statement!! A quick search on the Guardian turns up quite a few corruption cases, including Scotland Yard and one (an editorial piece) about screwing around with election districts...(here or here) There seem to be many more on the search page as well....As far as school shooting goes, you're right, for now it does seem to be an American problem but it's a matter of time until it happens over there.

Wow, that's quite the statement!! A quick search on the Guardian turns up quite a few corruption cases, including Scotland Yard and one (an editorial piece) about screwing around with election districts...(here or here) There seem to be many more on the search page as well....As far as school shooting goes, you're right, for now it does seem to be an American problem but it's a matter of time until it happens over there.

A search on Google for Tierney Gearon will reveal the fuss in the UK recently about some innocent holiday-type snaps of kids being (temporarily) deemed as indecent. Gearon is an artist, and these photos were included in an exhibition at the Saatchi gallery.

Although the charges were dropped, it did temporarily open the possibility of almost everyone having indecent photos in their possession.

The best part of it all, was The Guardian publishing the photo in question in full colour on the front page on the first day of the fuss, when this photo was still being called indecent by the authorities. I was impressed they were willing to so dramatically state their position and hold firm.

The London Underground CANNOT trade in New York, unless someone builds a particularly long extension to the district line. Is ANYONE going to go into a restaunt in New York and think they can get off at Oxford Circus?

Some chemicals are demonstrably more dangerous than others, so addictive that they'll drive people to committ crimes to pay for their next fix. Some drugs can cause violent activity. I think it is pretty reasonable to restrict access to them because they aren't always "victimless crimes."

I suggest you read this

--
Forget Napster. Why not really break the law?

On April 3 1924, a group of American congressmen held an official hearing to consider the future of heroin. They took sworn evidence from experts, including the US surgeon general, Rupert Blue, who appeared in person to tell their committee that heroin was poisonous and caused insanity and that it was particularly likely to kill since its toxic dose was only slightly greater than its therapeutic dose.

They heard, too, from specialist doctors, such as Alexander Lambert of New York's Bellevue hospital, who explained that "the herd instinct is obliterated by heroin, and the herd instincts are the ones which control the moral sense ... Heroin makes much quicker the muscular reaction and therefore is used by criminals to inflate them, because they are not only more daring, but their muscular reflexes are quicker." Senior police, a prison governor and health officials all added their voices. Dr S Dana Hubbard, of the New York City health department, captured the heart of the evidence: "Heroin addicts spring from sin and crime ... Society in general must protect itself from the influence of evil, and there is no greater peril than heroin."

The congressmen had heard much of this before and now they acted decisively. They resolved to stop the manufacture and use of heroin for any purpose in the United States and to launch a worldwide campaign of prohibition to try to prevent its manufacture or use anywhere in the world. Within two months, their proposal had been passed into law with the unanimous backing of both houses of the US Congress. The war against drugs was born.

To understand this war and to understand the problems of heroin in particular, you need to grasp one core fact. In the words of Professor Arnold Trebach, the veteran specialist in the study of illicit drugs: "Virtually every 'fact' testified to under oath by the medical and criminological experts in 1924 ... was unsupported by any sound evidence." Indeed, nearly all of it is now directly and entirely contradicted by plentiful research from all over the world. The first casualty of this war was truth and yet, 77 years later, the war continues, more vigorous than ever, arguably the longest-running conflict on earth.

"Nato deliberately bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade during the war in Kosovo after discovering it was being used to transmit Yugoslav army communications. [...]Why the Chinese were prepared to help Milosevic is a more murky question. One possible explanation is that the Chinese lack Stealth technology, and the Yugoslavs, having shot down a Stealth fighter in the early days of the air campaign, were in a good position to trade."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4 195290,00.html

Quote of note:

Earlier this week the Copenhagen newspaper Politiken printed extracts of the letter which alleges, among other things, that Lego is trying to obtain legal rights to Polynesian words. Lego says this is wrong: only the name Bionicle - taken from biology and chronicle - has been registered as a trademark.

Ridiculous? You bet. But it's just one example of the kind of thing the Hague Convention could make possible.

I can think of many people who would be pissed if all of a sudden Lego started making Jesus Legos and games, horribly botched the story, and then claimed their product was "made up in Denmark without reference to any particular culture."

These people are fighting the "monetizing" of their entire lifestyle. When people stand up to Microsoft, its heroicism (or insanity), but when somebody fights the gross overgeneralization of their religion, thats ludicrous.

On another note, the CNN story also features the classic "hole in the satellite picture:" the Maori believe that Lego is allready taking steps to trademark their own culture. This story covers the other side pretty well, but its a shame that neither story was written by a good journalist, who would be objective enough to cover both side's concerns.

Along the same lines, there was this commentary article ("We get CJD and bile duct cancer so others get rich") yesterday in the Guardian online. (It's by Felicity Lawrence, the Guardian's consumer affairs correspondent.) One of the particularly good points in this piece was

Moreover, technology is not neutral: its advances reflect the economic systems that create them. And it is legitimate to ask, for whose benefit are these advances?

It may be informative to keep this kind of argument in mind when reading JonKatz's statements that

In fact, technology and fast food, profoundly intertwined, serve as useful metaphors for the unintended consequences that accompany scientific advances.

or that fast food is "the stepchild of post-war progress in farming, slaughtering and packing, refrigeration and transportation."

JonKatz stresses the "unintended ways in which technology shapes the new world," but -- more than this -- the technology itself can be the outgrowth of powerful pre-existing economic (and political) conditions. In the case of fast food, the "post-war progress" in agriculture, et cetera may in fact have a lot to do with the war-time economic order. Again, from the Guardian piece,

Nitrate-processing chemical works proliferated during the war to make explosives. By 1945 a huge industry was producing nitrates that were no longer required. They were switched to agricultural use as part of the drive to make us self-sufficient in food.

(Yes, the article is a bit specific to the UK, but, generally, its observations also apply to development in plenty of other places.)

Along the same lines, there was this commentary article ("We get CJD and bile duct cancer so others get rich") yesterday in the Guardian online. (It's by Felicity Lawrence, the Guardian's consumer affairs correspondent.) One of the particularly good points in this piece was

Moreover, technology is not neutral: its advances reflect the economic systems that create them. And it is legitimate to ask, for whose benefit are these advances?

It may be informative to keep this kind of argument in mind when reading JonKatz's statements that

In fact, technology and fast food, profoundly intertwined, serve as useful metaphors for the unintended consequences that accompany scientific advances.

or that fast food is "the stepchild of post-war progress in farming, slaughtering and packing, refrigeration and transportation."

JonKatz stresses the "unintended ways in which technology shapes the new world," but -- more than this -- the technology itself can be the outgrowth of powerful pre-existing economic (and political) conditions. In the case of fast food, the "post-war progress" in agriculture, et cetera may in fact have a lot to do with the war-time economic order. Again, from the Guardian piece,

Nitrate-processing chemical works proliferated during the war to make explosives. By 1945 a huge industry was producing nitrates that were no longer required. They were switched to agricultural use as part of the drive to make us self-sufficient in food.

(Yes, the article is a bit specific to the UK, but, generally, its observations also apply to development in plenty of other places.)

The FBI has a unit that already does this. Additionally, a company called Advanced Solutions LLC provides such services. The technology was also used in 1991 to convict Jim Mitchell of killing Artie Mitchell of voluntary manslaughter. (The Mitchell brothers revolutionized the pr0n world by creating the movie Behind the Green Door :-D )

The Guardian ran a similar story recently

The actual Guardian article is on-line and has some of today's submissions, plus the official rules and some hints.

The reason for not vaccinating is because then you can't tell if the animal has the disease (and is contagious) or merely has anti-bodies from the vaccine (and is not contagious)

Incidently, hoof/foot and mouth is often not fatal by itself, but causes animals to lose weight and generally become unsalable/unproductive. Also, in animals that have recovered, you have the same antibodies/contagion problem you have with vaccines. The virus is very very contagious -- a human can pass it on simply by walking through a field where an infected animal has been, and then walking through another field where a non-infected animal will be soon.

Some useful links:

The Gaurdian's Information on Foot and Mouth Disease

An Editorial, with information about when humans catch foot and mouth Foot and mouth disease: the human consequences (yes, it can happen, it's very rare and not really dangerous)

BTW, Foot and mouth is not yet found in the U.S.

Yet may be the key word here, however. If it gets here, it could not only affect domestic animals, but also deer and other hooved wild life.

If a mainstream newspaper has this policy why can't slashdot, censoring words is lame.

swearwords

We are more liberal than any other newspaper, using words such as cunt and fuck that most of our competitors would not use, even in direct quotes

The editor's guidelines are straightforward:

First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend

Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes

Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it
Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a copout

If a mainstream newspaper has this policy why can't slashdot, censoring words is lame.

swearwords

We are more liberal than any other newspaper, using words such as cunt and fuck that most of our competitors would not use, even in direct quotes

The editor's guidelines are straightforward:

First, remember the reader, and respect demands that we should not casually use words that are likely to offend

Second, use such words only when absolutely necessary to the facts of a piece, or to portray a character in an article; there is almost never a case in which we need to use a swearword outside direct quotes

Third, the stronger the swearword, the harder we ought to think about using it
Finally, never use asterisks, which are just a copout

The UN seems to agree with you according to this report from the Guardian. Not that I agree with everything the UN or the guardian have to say, but I feel they have a point.

a penguin that looks like Fat Bastard

Need a cute fat penguin ? Go and read UK broadsheet newspaper The Guardian . Steve Bell's overweight penguins have been a regular cartoon strip for nearly twenty years (since the Falklands conflict).

The Guardian article is quite revealing..

Given his evident history of sucessful suits, around the world, against internet entities, I would imagine the incentive for him to arrange for a slur (easily forged) and then find and pick a big target in a country with friendly libel laws, is very high indeed.

The means, the method, the motive... the crime. In my book, it is very probably he is trying a scam against demon.

The mere fact that it is obviously possible and easy, with a good lawyer, to arrange all this and come out in the clear with a pile of cash, means the law is an ass (in the UK at least). They have carried over the legislation designed to stop public prosecutions held in the tabloid press into the internet. Outside the net, it would be impossible to fake a public slur. Thats how it should be. I believe the value of the slur is in proportion to the identity of the person making it. Anonymous libel on the net is worthless. If the IBM website calls him a pedophile, then he has a case. If an anonymous poster calls him a pedophile, forget it. I hope the court finds for him, and awards him 5 pennies in damages and he has to split the costs, that might put a damper on ideas other scam artists might be having right now.

It would seem that Dr. Godrey is somewhat litigious.