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I would disagree. It's nice to think that royaly has some for of power in the country, but in reality they do not (at least, not in the UK). The Queen's speech will have been written for her by Parliament, so in instances like this, her opinions are not really her own. Many Brits will agree (though not all), that having a monarchy does a great deal of good for our nation and the commenwelth, strengthening reltationships, and providing a massive tourist industry. Worth every penny in my books.

you having a laugh?? this is the 21st century! why the hell should an accident of birth dictate your station in life or the influence you have over affairs of state???
As it happens the queen and prince Charles DO have a fair bit of say and have actually VERY much influenced things and can VETO bills and acts of parliament and have done so on various occasions
check these :-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jan/14/secret-papers-royals-veto-bills
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2262613/Queen-Prince-Charles-given-39-chances-veto-legislation-dont-want-law.html
and to be quite frank FUCK THAT.
they also cost the tax payer a fortune but the main point being... why the fuck should some unelected bunch have the right to veto democratically proposed and approved acts and bills just because of an accident of birth.???
value for money my aching ass , it's an affront to democracy and this idiocy has no place in the 21st century... not at all

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/28/facebook-loses-users-biggest-markets
http://www.geek.com/news/millions-are-leaving-facebook-every-month-due-to-boredom-1553510/
http://technorati.com/social-media/article/facebook-deserted-by-millions-of-users/

Summary, their oldest markets, i.e. US/Canada/Europe have reached "peak Facebook", and numbers are going down in those older markets. E.g. in the Technorati article...

> Data released by analytics firm SocialBakers suggests that people are
> leaving Facebook in their millions.
>
> It reveals that the social network has shed 6 million US visitors in the
> last month, which represents a 4% fall. The UK fares no better having
> lost 1.4 million users last month, a drop of 4.5%.

> Worryingly for Facebook this is far from a blip. In the last six months the site
> has lost 9 million users in America and 2 million in the UK. There's a similar
> picture across the developed world, with usage falling in Canada, Spain,
> France, Germany and Japan.

Yes, the numbers of well-off North Americans and Europeans leaving will be more than offset by the influx of third-worlders. But that guy or gal in the call centre in Mumbai, or the peasant in Asia, is not worth as much to advertisers as the westerners that they replace.

I did actually have Scandinavia in mind when I made that comment, but I think your analysis is too focused on financial concerns. Many countries have recovered from financial disasters through economic intervention and incentivisation. High economic "performance" relative to other countries is usually an indicator that a country is a bad place to live.

More important indicators are harder to quantify without some subjectivity factored in: average quality of life, degree to which elected politicians and government bureaucrats care about serving the good/will of the people, poverty rates, corruption, willingness to admit wrongdoing by government officials. Finance factors in when considering the sustainability of current living conditions, but that also has to consider the availability of resources.

I think the real challenge with getting a progressive government to work comes down to the culture of the people trying to implement it. There's nothing inherent in the Norwegian legal system that makes this more viable than elsewhere. There's no geopolitical phenomenon that explains why any part in Sweden with more than 5% of the total vote gets representation in parliament.

Being called a terrorist or avoiding that label all comes down to who and what you are.

Glenn Greenwald has been commenting on this issue for a while with respect to the disparate law enforcement treatment Muslims receive in general, and specifically most recently in the way the Boston bombers have been labeled terrorists before there is any real knowledge of motive.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/boston-marathon-terrorism-aurora-sandy-hook

Can acts of violence be deemed "terrorism" without knowing the motive?

This is far more than a semantic question. Whether something is or is not "terrorism" has very substantial political implications, and very significant legal consequences as well. The word "terrorism" is, at this point, one of the most potent in our political lexicon: it single-handedly ends debates, ratchets up fear levels, and justifies almost anything the government wants to do in its name. It's hard not to suspect that the only thing distinguishing the Boston attack from Tucson, Aurora, Sandy Hook and Columbine (to say nothing of the US "shock and awe" attack on Baghdad and the mass killings in Fallujah) is that the accused Boston attackers are Muslim and the other perpetrators are not. As usual, what terrorism really means in American discourse - its operational meaning - is: violence by Muslims against Americans and their allies. For the manipulative use of the word "terrorism", see the scholarship of NYU's Remi Brulin and the second-to-last section here.

Y'know, you might just be right about WTC even though I suspect you don't know it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/11/fbi-wu-tang-clan-ol-dirty-bastard

According to these papers, Ol' Dirty Bastard was arrested more than 15 times on charges that ranged from resisting arrest to injuring a child, as well as assault, the attempted murder of a police officer, refusing to pay child support and the illegal possession of body armour. It connects him with the Bloods gang and at least two murders, but also describes occasions that ODB was robbed at gunpoint in his own home. "There was an indication that the [thieves] were current or former [music] industry insiders who had banded together to commit the robberies," an officer explained.

The same people http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Perl who sold us on the idea that we had to attack Iraq, because otherwise Saddam Hussein would attack us with chemical weapons, always wanted us to attack Syria next.

The Iraq story turned out to be a lie, and we are now worse off in Iraq, with Islamist and secular militias carving up the country and giving a big slice to al Qaeda and its successors. (Not to mention the 3,000 Americans killed, and forget about the 300,000 or so Iraqis who were killed.)

Assad is running a stable, secular dictatorship that violates human rights. The anti-government forces are sectarian Islamists who will violate human rights even worse, massacre people in the other sects, destroy Syria as a functioning country and turn it into feuding fiefdoms like Iraq.

We ignored the same human rights violations when Assad was our puppet and we wanted to send prisoners to Syria for him to torture. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/19/syria-us-ally-human-rights

Hey retard, honey bees raised by bee keepers aren't the only things that pollinate our food crops. In fact they're not even the best at it. Commercial honey bees can't do it alone Any excuse to suck the corporate cock, eh? Jeezuz, give it a rest!

My kid will be five soon, and I thought it would be a great present!!!

I don't what to think when a post like this gets modded up funny.

A young boy in Kentucky has accidentally shot his two-year-old sister in the chest, killing her. He was playing with a rifle he got for his birthday. The shooting happened in Burkesville, Kentucky as the boy was playing with the 22-calibre 'youth model' gun when it was not realised that the gun was loaded. The children's uncle, David Mann, described the accident as 'something you can't prepare for'

Five-year-old shoots and kills toddler sister with birthday present rifle --- video [May 3]

Here's How the Rifle That Just Killed a 2-Year-Old Girl Is Marketed for Kids

The Crickett website is down.

The war on drugs targets and prosecutes non-whites more harshly for the same action.

Which statute are you referring to, specifically?

In the UK the law is fair, and judges are fair (as far as I know), but in some areas the police -- on average -- aren't: http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/apr/22/ethnic-minority-britons-stop-search-white

There's clearly potential for laws to be made that the lawmakers know will be selectively enforced, but I don't know the situation in the US.

Eric Schmidt just 10 days ago said that Google pays everything it owes in UK. Of-course there shouldn't be any income taxes in the first place, UK or US or any other country, all of these income tax schemes must be demolished, but hey, that would be real austerity IF the government also was cut in process, not just putting the difference on its credit card or printing it.

Real austerity is cutting all unprofitable spending, all government spending and then allowing the private sector to keep their taxes, because the government spending is reduced to almost nothing. THAT would be austerity.

Instead all these nonsensical countries raise taxes and grow government spending and call that 'austerity' and then complain that austerity doesn't work. Of-course it doesn't work when you don't do it.

Back to Google, they should just bribe a few politicians to get them off their case.

Even in the case where they collected a bunch of Wifi data with their street cars there's a) No evidence they did anything with it, and b) It was them who approached the various government agencies responsible for protecting privacy around the globe admitting they fucked up rather than simply deleting it and trying to cover it up.

Not claiming Microsoft isn't worse than Google, but you might be interested to know that point b is not entirely correct. It is the version often being repeated on sites like Slashdot, for some reason, but the actual sequence of events as extensively covered in European press as it happened:

Google actually first guaranteed the German authorities that they were not collecting anything. And first after the German authorities despite this assurance still demanded a full audit of the data anyway, did Google do their disclosure. In a situation where they would have been found out anyway. (trying to delete data after being requested for auditing would be a major crime)

I'm not saying this is making it more or less of an innocent screw-up from Google, your point a still stands, I'm just saying what the sequence of events in this story actually were.

But, I am fortunate enough to be a white male.

And Jennifer Pawluck, the photographer, was a light-skinned student living in Montreal, who hardly looks like the type the Canadian police would go rounding up just for kicks, even assuming the Canadian police would do that to somebody of color (which I highly doubt anyways).

It seems obvious that you will think only the best of the cops no matter how much evidence to the contrary there might be.

No, what's obvious is I don't accept your strawmen characterizations as facts. I never disputed the accounts of the two protests you linked to, for example.

Colored people in New York were being arrested for no reason and then held for a day or two while they try to come up with charges. This was the policy as handed down from the top. I'm not going to do any more research for you, you can use Google as easily as I can.

What makes it my research? You claim the point, you provide the evidence. I do the same when asked of me, and often I do it in advance.

However, I'm actually familiar with this story, and it was a quota system. And this is why I'm insistent on you providing the evidence for your claims, because this story identifies the problem as "stop-and-frisk", and says they actually let go nearly 9 out of 10 people. It's also in New York City, not Montreal, Canada. It's still an appalling story, but the details matter.

How about Waco, people won't come out of their building they just kill them all.

Again, an extreme example, and again, missing several details, such as the nature of the compound (heavily armed religious cult with an End of Times complex), the length of the standoff that occurred before the building was finally assaulted with heavy equipment (51 days), or dispute about who started the fire (there's even evidence from witnesses inside the building that it was the Branch Davidians).

Or that cop that went on the killing spree.

Are you talking about Dorner, the fired cop with a grudge who went after other cops? I don't know. See, you can list a bunch of examples from the top of your head, that doesn't make them true or easy to know what exactly you are referencing so I can verify it.

While there's police abuse that occurs far too often, that doesn't mean some random student from Montreal just happened to have been rounded up and had nothing to do with student protests or didn't have a political reason for photographing and sharing online some graffiti that depicted the assassination of a hated police commander.

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2013/mar/17/aid-trade-reduce-acute-poverty

> So, does that officially make Evangelicals evil cultists? I mean, trying to get an end-of-the-world
> prophecy started is usually the domain of villains...

well, is it ALL evangelicals who think this way? Probably not. On the other hand, I saw some scary statistics about the Christian book market: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/may/20/christian-rapture-fiction-sf-apocalypse
and
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/2689-jesus-and-the-bestseller-list.html

Both of which indicate that Christian fiction and specifically apocalypse fiction is BIG business. "There's close to, if not more than, $1 billion in retail sales of Christian books unaccounted for by these lists."

That is a lot of books, and kind of frightening.

at least googles eric schmidt will be able to ditch his old blackberry for a new one.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/mar/21/eric-schmidt-blackberry-user

the basic idea is that military spending is way overboard compared to things-that-trully-help-people).

I'd give more credence to that view if it weren't for the fact that the US, which is one of the bigger defense spenders, didn't spend more than three times as much on health care as on defense. Britain spends less on health care as a percentage of GDP and still spends more than three times as much on health care as on defense.

Health care (15.2%): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States
Defense (4.7%): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
Britain health care (9.6%): http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/jun/30/healthcare-spending-world-country
Britain defense (2.5%): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

If robbers know people have guns, they will bring guns. They'll have less compunction about shooting you.
Guns don't protect people:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-protection-national-rifle-association

And they would know this why? Most gun owners do not have NRA stickers and the like on their doors.

Going through some old website bookmarks, I found this comment about private groups instead of govt going to Mars from imipak (edited below to show key point) and I have agreement with this. It seems setting up infrastructure to mine asteroids by governments seems logical but others think private industry should lead the way. Maybe there are holes in this comment but it does raise discussion regarding who will send a person to Mars, of if current NASA plans to retrieve an asteroid are squelched by budget cutters. Link of original posting below.

"The added twist in the tale that was missed is that Werner von Braun quit NASA because of the direction it was going. "

"The Russian space shuttle... died from funding starvation due to idiotic arms races."

"This is not the way to run a space program and really does demonstrate that neither side has any real interest in such a program except as it furthers their military objectives. Us British are no better - the rocket program and the HOTOL program were both scrapped by hostile governments."

"I have thought for some time that if there were to be a manned mission to Mars, it would be by a mix of enthusiasts and academia, not by governments or corporations. At this point, I'm more certain than ever that my prognosis is correct."

from http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/mar/13/yuri-gagarin-first-space-korolev#start-of-comments

... coming from a man who only has to be a part of this "society" when it suits him. He's not subject to the surveillance culture since he can hang out in his private office or home.

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Captcha: Infringe

... coming from a man who only has to be a part of this "society" when it suits him. He's not subject to the surveillance culture since he can hang out in his private office or home.

Oh, by the way, people who are afraid of drones being used by the public are just afraid of change. You should totally try to adapt.

Captcha: Infringe

... coming from a man who only has to be a part of this "society" when it suits him. He's not subject to the surveillance culture since he can hang out in his private office or home.

Oh, by the way, people who are afraid of drones being used by the public are just afraid of change. You should totally try to adapt.

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If robbers know people have guns, they will bring guns. They'll have less compunction about shooting you. Guns don't protect people: http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2013/mar/25/guns-protection-national-rifle-association

Actually Bell didn't invent the telephone.
In 2002 the US Congress recognized an Italian immigrant named
Antonio Meucci as the inventor, 16 years prior to Bell.
He demonstrated his 'teletrofono' in NYC in 1860.
Bell had access to his research materials and took out a patent on them.

You can read about Meucci and the story of it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jun/17/humanities.internationaleducationnews

Fortunately, Reichkanzler, civilization does not agree with you.

"backed" is a bit strong and he didn't 'sign a pledge', it was in their Manifesto which may be splitting hairs, but let's not forget that was if his party got in sole power.

I'm sure this is how lib dem supporters prefer to remember it, but he (and 500 other candidates from his party, including every elected MP) did indeed sign the pledge:

http://web.archive.org/web/20101215160749/http://www.nus.org.uk/Campaigns/Funding-Our-Future/Lib-Dem-MPs-sign-the-pledge/

The wording was: "I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative", a personal promise which does not assume the lib dems would hold sole (or any) power.

Here's a photo of Nick holding up his signed copy of the pledge for the cameras, and some quotations from confidential documents in which senior party members were planning to betray this promise in the event of a hung parliament (which is, of course, exactly what they did):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/nov/12/lib-dems-tuition-fees-clegg

'Clear yellow water' indeed.

"backed" is a bit strong and he didn't 'sign a pledge'

Actually, he did. If you look you can see it says "I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative", and you can just about see his scrawled signature below it. In his apology "It was stressed that Clegg was apologising for making the pledge...not to raise tuition fees, but not for the eventual decision by the coalition to lift the cap on fees to £9,000." So, he pledged not to, then at the very minimum didn't object to it happening and then apologises for the pledge itself but not the decision which contradicted the pledge.

As for the "LibDems are better than the others" comments, I'm not convinced by any of them. You've outlined the problems with the Conservatives and Labour pretty well, and summed up the LibDems with "they don't have anything (more) to lose".

At any rate, I wouldn't take his word on this issue until it actually comes to the crunch, because it's not the first time he has said X and then allowed Y to happen anyway.

"backed" is a bit strong and he didn't 'sign a pledge'

Actually, he did. If you look you can see it says "I pledge to vote against any increase in fees in the next parliament and to pressure the government to introduce a fairer alternative", and you can just about see his scrawled signature below it. In his apology "It was stressed that Clegg was apologising for making the pledge...not to raise tuition fees, but not for the eventual decision by the coalition to lift the cap on fees to £9,000." So, he pledged not to, then at the very minimum didn't object to it happening and then apologises for the pledge itself but not the decision which contradicted the pledge.

As for the "LibDems are better than the others" comments, I'm not convinced by any of them. You've outlined the problems with the Conservatives and Labour pretty well, and summed up the LibDems with "they don't have anything (more) to lose".

At any rate, I wouldn't take his word on this issue until it actually comes to the crunch, because it's not the first time he has said X and then allowed Y to happen anyway.

Wipe this off the map: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2006/jun/14/post155

Thanks to lobbying, even in the US, Israel's interests are often placed above that of Americans. For a recent example, see this.

Fred Hoyle's 'The Black Cloud' is one of a select group of novels that manage to combine convincing science and a classic SF situation (intelligence is discovered in a dust cloud that envelopes the earth). I read it at about that age, and learnt a few things about how science is done, like the importance of testing theories by prediction. Dawkins is a fan, and wrote the Afterword to the current edition:

"But the real virtue of The Black Cloud is this - without ever preaching at us, Hoyle manages, as the story races along, to teach us some fascinating science along the way: not just scientific facts, but important scientific principles. We get to see how scientists work and how they think. We are even uplifted and inspired."

It dates from the late 50s, and was a period piece even when I read it (punch-tape computer programs, etc.) but should retain enough geek appeal to make it interesting today.

Recent review here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/23/black-cloud-fred-hoyle-review

Re: "control surveillance state is bollocks...."
The problem for the UK is the long term slide from a real judicial warrant to a bureaucratic warrant to a self signed police letter to your local council all "just having a look".
Recall:
Private watch lists:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/blacklist-thousands-of-construction-workers-denied-1469233
Less public review/press when caught legal vision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
The "wish" lists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/police-software-maps-digital-movements
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/government-may-sanction-chemical-incapacitant-use-on-rioters-scientists-fear-6612084.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/09/riot-control-chemicals-plastic-bullets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114601/Water-cannons-streets-months-Tear-gas-Tasers-police-wish-list-combat-riots.html
Going private:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation
Going "undercover" for a good few years :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

Re: "control surveillance state is bollocks...."
The problem for the UK is the long term slide from a real judicial warrant to a bureaucratic warrant to a self signed police letter to your local council all "just having a look".
Recall:
Private watch lists:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/blacklist-thousands-of-construction-workers-denied-1469233
Less public review/press when caught legal vision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
The "wish" lists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/police-software-maps-digital-movements
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/government-may-sanction-chemical-incapacitant-use-on-rioters-scientists-fear-6612084.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/09/riot-control-chemicals-plastic-bullets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114601/Water-cannons-streets-months-Tear-gas-Tasers-police-wish-list-combat-riots.html
Going private:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation
Going "undercover" for a good few years :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

Re: "control surveillance state is bollocks...."
The problem for the UK is the long term slide from a real judicial warrant to a bureaucratic warrant to a self signed police letter to your local council all "just having a look".
Recall:
Private watch lists:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/blacklist-thousands-of-construction-workers-denied-1469233
Less public review/press when caught legal vision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
The "wish" lists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/police-software-maps-digital-movements
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/government-may-sanction-chemical-incapacitant-use-on-rioters-scientists-fear-6612084.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/09/riot-control-chemicals-plastic-bullets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114601/Water-cannons-streets-months-Tear-gas-Tasers-police-wish-list-combat-riots.html
Going private:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation
Going "undercover" for a good few years :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

Re: "control surveillance state is bollocks...."
The problem for the UK is the long term slide from a real judicial warrant to a bureaucratic warrant to a self signed police letter to your local council all "just having a look".
Recall:
Private watch lists:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/blacklist-thousands-of-construction-workers-denied-1469233
Less public review/press when caught legal vision
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
The "wish" lists:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/may/11/police-software-maps-digital-movements
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/government-may-sanction-chemical-incapacitant-use-on-rioters-scientists-fear-6612084.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9046668/UK-riots-paratroopers-are-trained-in-riot-control.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/09/riot-control-chemicals-plastic-bullets
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2114601/Water-cannons-streets-months-Tear-gas-Tasers-police-wish-list-combat-riots.html
Going private:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/20/g4s-chief-mass-police-privatisation
Going "undercover" for a good few years :)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jan/20/undercover-police-children-activists

That could have happened, It seems awfully silly to pass out at an ATM machine with your laptop in tow, though. I don't see much evidence either way, so I choose to believe him. Besides, I guess using roofies to rob someone is a common occurrence in the UK:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/dec/19/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation

Google came out themselves about the issue. If anything, these years of fighting over the issue should make companies not want to disclose voluntarily.

This is not correct, and I don't know why this re-written history keeps getting repeated on geek sites like Slashdot.

Google actually first guaranteed the German authorities that they were not collecting anything. And first after the German authorities despite this assurance still demanded a full audit of the data anyway, did Google do their disclosure (source: see link below).

This sequence of events was covered extensively in European press (one of many sources), and I don't know how mostly US geek sites ended up with and keep repeating an alternative version.

> A recent letter signed by 15 companies and trade groups — including TechAmerica, which represents Google, LOL. Google with the same Eric Schmidt who wants Drones banned because he's worried about the invasion of privacy when they fly over your mansion estate? ""You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he hypothesised. "How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their back yard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?" Gee I don't know Eric. About the same way I feel when you run your fingers through my hair. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/21/drones-google-eric-schmidt

That's different though. The drones issue is about _his_ privacy, not yours.

And I stand by my previous statement concerning drones. I'm happy for it to be legal for my neighbor or government to fly a drone over my property, if it's also legal for me to disable it and then take possession of it when it crashes onto my property, and for my neighbor/government to be responsible for anything it breaks when it crashes.

> A recent letter signed by 15 companies and trade groups — including TechAmerica, which represents Google,

LOL. Google with the same Eric Schmidt who wants Drones banned because he's worried about the invasion of privacy when they fly over your mansion estate?

""You're having a dispute with your neighbour," he hypothesised. "How would you feel if your neighbour went over and bought a commercial observation drone that they can launch from their back yard. It just flies over your house all day. How would you feel about it?"

Gee I don't know Eric. About the same way I feel when you run your fingers through my hair. http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/apr/21/drones-google-eric-schmidt

The number of Muslims in the World is between 1.2 and 1.5 billion. Of that number only around 5% are prepared to engage in direct jihadi activity, many of the rest support the jihad financially. Depending on the survey and the region around 40% of youths in Pakistan and 37% of British Muslim youths would like to live under Sharia:
reference http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jan/29/thinktanks.religion
That's an *awful lot of people* who would like a legal system that gives you the choice of converting to Islam, being discriminated against as a second-class dhimmi or being killed. Those are the facts.

Meanwhile there are several hundred million who don't go around blowing things up. I think they count as typical a bit more than the handful who do, but that is what is known as seeing things in perspective and you appear to be having a great deal of trouble with that.

Ok, you have a comprehension problem so I'll say it again for you. The problem is not Muslims (who are *people*, who may be good or evil as all people can be). The problem is the political ideology called Islam. It is Islam that can take an otherwise moral person and convince them that supporting or doing evil is a good idea (eg. all those hundreds of millions that agree with the racist, discriminatory, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-scientific, and generally oppressive draconian set of laws called Sharia).

Do you get it now????

9/11 gave you a bloody-nose, and the TSA is what you take away as your 'problem' You (we) went into Iraq - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/18/panorama-iraq-fresh-wmd-claims I'm not even aware of any allegations on Afghan involvement - but hey, see what we did there - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-21547542 And even before all of that kicked off, the US had managed to bugger up most of South/Central America - and defended funding of organizations like NORAID. Still, having to show papers to get on a plane, and not being allowed to fap with your gun must have been really hard for you.

Excellent points.

Unlike the 70's or 80's terrorist, the modern one is expecting to die or spend the entirety of their life in prison as escaping the law simply won't happen. So one would expect them to be looking for simple plans with a high chance of success to avoid their 'sacrifice' being in vain.

Instead, there does seem to be a succession of broken-up terrorist cells, who devise bizarre, baroque plots that take so long to plan and set up that they invariably show up on various intelligence services' radars, long before they're even close to executing their plan. I assume they're then carefully watched, and allowed to proceed just long enough to thoroughly incriminate themselves. In fact, one such bunch has just been sentenced in the UK - http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/apr/18/luton-terror-plot-four-jailed

I suppose the odd thing about the Boston two (assuming it was just them) is that they deviate from this pattern.

Actually that seems to be the case here. Basedo on this Guardian article, where she says "He said that I was damaging his reputation and that it was all done maliciously" (while nowhere in the article does it say that the company disputes the truth of her claims)

TAX CHURCHES
(Posting as Anonymous Coward)

I wondered if churches are taxed in the U.S. and asked Google.
Here are the top 3 hits.

According to the first link below, Taxing churches would bring in $71 billion.
$71 is enough to send an Opportunity rover to Mars once every 2 weeks forever, to put that in perspective.
It could buy a lot of science and space. Could buy a good deal of longetivity and anti-cancer research too.
If you are 25 to 35 years old now, it might very well make the difference whether you live an extra 10 years or not.

$16 billion of the tax should be spent on charity if we want to replicate what the churches are doing.
(Though I would guess it could be done at least 40% more efficiently by buying in bulk, using the army organization, and not having to do proselytizing. Well, the army might proselytize at that.)

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/08/22/should-uncle-sam-tax-churches/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/nov/20/us-churches-tax-exemption-faithbased-politics
http://churchesandtaxes.procon.org/

$71bn is nothing compared to the trillions destroyed through financial manipulations. Probably it is small compared to what could be gained by taxing financial transactions or gains that are as a matter of business stored outside the U.S., like hiding it in the Caymans, or apparently by doing business in Singapore or Luxembourg. But aside from Christmas and the Christian concept of charity which I like a lot (no I happen to be Jewish, though not practicing hardly at all), I haven't seen much good from religion.

Assorted name calling when I was little, my temple refusing to marry my sister in a mixed marriage, those are personal things. Muslim extremists and the President or TV preachers blessing troops, these are pretty sick. I figure religion is a personal thing and am very uncomfortable about when huge amounts of money and special treatment get tied to it. And fundamentalist religion is extremely scary, no matter what the religion.

So [personal opinion] these are just my anonymous (I hope.. hey this is a good reason for encryption which it would be nice if this site was SSL...) two cents, but it seems to me that Americans particularly tend to enslave themselves to pseudo-religious tricksters such as TV evangelists, and that this is a cancer on society, clearly so in the case of state legislatures attempting to legislate fundamentalist religion into the biology classroom when America needs to step up to becoming strong once again at biology and engineering in order to have a real future. Where churches are a spiritual force that is wonderful. But where they enforce ignorance, prejudice and insularity they are utterly evil. There is some connection between the apparent ascendancy of fundamentalist religion in America and the malaise of America.

[More personal opinion] I believe individuals who are brought up to make their own decisions based on the heart, logic, and common sense would probably believe in evolution and the scientific method, and the matter of religion they can also decide for themselves (though they probably will not be as extreme as their parents, being able to see the world through the Internet not just the local church and say Fox News). The point being that if you want to have a successful country, you cannot afford to maintain a parallel government that enforces ignorance, and you should not tax reasonable (non-extremist, non-ignorant) people to support evangelists and their zombie armies. So tax them, please. Thank you.

There you go:

Al-Jazeera journalist imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay to sue George Bush
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/17/guantanamo-bay-al-jazeera

The thing is, that with every government you can find cases like this, where they try to get rid or punish uncomfortable people/institutions.

The US Fed. said to Interpol "Get him for us please, find anything on him."
Interpol said to the Swedish Polisen "Ok, the US wants him, find something"
The Polisen found a broad with an axe to grind on Assange. End of story.

Massive ammounts of contracts are written for pre-determined ammounts of dollars, euros, pounds etc. That makes the value of those currencies somewhat "sticky", yes it does change over time but usually fairly slowly. If it changes too rapidly governments will sometimes step in to halt the shift.(e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/06/switzerland-pegs-swiss-franc-euro )

Bitcoin has none of that, it just floats to whereever supply and demand take it. Speculators consistute some of that supply and demand but not all of it. Depending on their strategy they may either increase or decrease volatility

That's good news for us bitcoiners, since Open Transactions should eventually bring smart contracts within the reach of a normal person.

Massive ammounts of contracts are written for pre-determined ammounts of dollars, euros, pounds etc. That makes the value of those currencies somewhat "sticky", yes it does change over time but usually fairly slowly. If it changes too rapidly governments will sometimes step in to halt the shift.(e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/sep/06/switzerland-pegs-swiss-franc-euro )

Bitcoin has none of that, it just floats to whereever supply and demand take it. Speculators consistute some of that supply and demand but not all of it. Depending on their strategy they may either increase or decrease volatility

I don't know what tablet/phone you have, but Kobo has both Android and iPhone apps.
Of course the greatest selling point they have is that they are not Amazon. That whole employing Neo-Nazis to police their slave labour / fucking over third party sellers / software patents thing makes me want to spend as little money as possible in their store.

Delete your account, stop worrying, and get some sleep.

Its off topic (but a more interesting topic) Although having read about it you have to *delete* the account which allegedly will remove it, but deactivate your account and messages you sent, may still be visible to others. they also save your timeline information (ex: friends, photos, interests, etc.)

But even then you have companies like http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/10/software-tracks-social-media-defence like this one who mine data...and create links. Not sure how you delete their data, or even find out who has it.

...now this stuff is so cool, you can track people who are not on facebook, by the content of others on facebook,, by your family, friends, hell your work/school probably has a few pages, more than enough to create a full profile of you, an estimated one anyway.

Deleting you account is the tip of the iceberg...an illusion of privacy at best.