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But still, isn't it odd that surveillance technology is being giving to other countries?
 
Especially as the future's apparently so grim:
 
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2053020 ,00.html
 
perhaps they're gonna wait till they make one that can shout at people ;-)

• Mass Surveillance
  
• Police state
  
• Criminalized society
  
• Centraliztion and resale of citizens personal data - without their permission
  
• Fortunately, the inner-party elite that did this to us are about to be expelled
  

Apart from Switzerland there was a recent law proposal (don't really know if it passed or not, a google search should bring it out) in France that criminalized the denial of the Armenian genocide. Simillary also denying the holocaust is a major offence in many countries. (which doesn't feel like freedom of speech to me, while i totally agree that denying holocaust is freedom of being dumb)

Is this freedom of speech? (don't get me wrong I'm not expressing my opinion on this two facts, just I feel like freedom of speech here is missing since some people that think it that way can't express it)

As for the french law here comes the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,,1920624, 00.html

According to this site: http://technology.guardian.co.uk/weekly/story/0,,2 044599,00.html

Partway down the page, the quote that's relevant:

"The USB drive was simply a mechanism of leaking the music and data we wanted out there," he explained. "The medium of the CD is outdated and irrelevant. It's really painfully obvious what people want - DRM-free music they can do what they want with. If the greedy record industry would embrace that concept I truly think people would pay for music and consume more of it."

This according to Trent Reznor.

Do with what they want. WHAT THEY WANT. Trent seems to want to embrace his fans.
Heck, he "leaked" a Torrent of the Closure DVDs that have been in limbo for years, he leaked a Torrent of the Broken movie, and he's offered up elements of his songs for remixing so far 3 times, and he said he'd do it for the entirety of the new album Year Zero. THAT is a band that likes its fans!

Brazilian judicial system is similar to the U.S. one, each judge has the final say over his jurisdiction. Despite of that, Brazil is ruled by civil law, not common law, so the decision of that judge is completely irrelevant for jurisprudence. There are a lot of judicial activism there too, so it is not rare (but it still weird) that a judge bias can affect the decision, on this case, an animal right defensor judge accepting an animal as a litigant, back in the seventies, a judge acquitted a man that was on trial for murder accepting a witness statement from the dead friend which he had communicated telepathically with a medium.

Despite of those aberrations, judicial system in Brazil is not that ridiculous. It is massively slow and a lot of times unjust, but we are not near to give animals (or companies, for all that matters) full rights of a natural person.

Meanwhile, in Germany you have to get permission from the government before you name your baby. In the US, the government doesn't own you.

Dude, the Swiss invaded Liechtenstein just a couple weeks back. They are a rouge nation, and need to be controlled!

'The Americans have a secret spaceship? I ask'

'I guess so," says Gary'

'What were the ship names'

'I can't remember, says Gary'

'I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect'

They should let him light up a spliff in the dock, that way his memory should return.

>[prisons in the UK have] Sat TV, collage courses, gyms, all the comoforts of home.

Except, that is, for the prisoners who'll live in cargo containers.

"I found a list of officers' names," he claims, "under the heading 'Non-Terrestrial Officers'."

"Non-Terrestrial Officers?" I say.

"Yeah, I looked it up," says Gary, "and it's nowhere. It doesn't mean little green men. What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of 'fleet-to-fleet transfers', and a list of ship names. I looked them up. They weren't US navy ships. What I saw made me believe they have some kind of spaceship, off-planet."

"The Americans have a secret spaceship?" I ask.

"That's what this trickle of evidence has led me to believe."

"Some kind of other Mir that nobody knows about?"

"I guess so," says Gary.

"What were the ship names?"

"I can't remember," says Gary. "I was smoking a lot of dope at the time. Not good for the intellect."

I agree! The current events overtones with the Homeland Security and illegal immigrant killings/deportations were only for the benefit of attracting those in the reviewer community that hate the US' current administration. Their plan worked and it got rave reviews.

I agree! The current events overtones with the Homeland Security and illegal immigrant killings/deportations were only for the benefit of attracting those in the reviewer community that hate the US' current administration. Their plan worked and it got rave reviews.

I agree! The current events overtones with the Homeland Security and illegal immigrant killings/deportations were only for the benefit of attracting those in the reviewer community that hate the US' current administration. Their plan worked and it got rave reviews.

...from last year. Includes more on the San Serriffe thing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,,174 4581,00.html

Name one executive detained, barred, fined, or otherwise inconvenienced by this law.

With pleasure. You can read the whole embroglio here. The relevant snippet follow:

But Toronto-based Sherritt International was among the first non-US companies to be named by a special investigative team set up in the American Cuban Office. Pennant-Rea, Sheehy and eight other Sherritt directors - including Daniel Owen, who holds UK and Canadian passports, and the chief executive, who is Swiss - were sent letters giving them 45-days to 'cease to traffic'.(...)

(...) Pennant-Rea, the brother-in-law of BBC economics editor Peter Jay, a former British ambassador to Washington, suffered another blow. Helms-Burton barred him, his wife Helen, and his two children from entering America.

Enough? What do I need to show for you people to believe that there is a worldwide embargo? I'm not judging merit or anything, I'm just pointing out a fact.

I disagree. A British punk group named Koopa has made top 40 and is going to release a cd without being signed. Them doing it shows that mass production of CDs isn't the only way of releasing an album. I'd argue that a download/burn at home method is less expensive (and easier on the environment- no fuel spent shipping) anyway.

There are a number of articles being released today (for example) that suggest Vista has sold 20 million copies in its first month of release. That doesn't sound bad. To put that in perspective, there are around 22 million Mac OS X users total . And *NIX+BSD+Linux has an even smaller desktop share, though it's quite hard to know the exact number (I've heard 10-15 million).

I'm a Mac user, and a Windows user, and a Linux user (since 0.99). I enjoy a good poke at Microsoft's missteps, and the media certainly has jumped on the supposed yawnfest surrounding the Vista launch... but sometimes we need a bit of perspective about how huge they really are, and how successful Vista likely is going to be, despite its warts.

Until 1937, consumption and sale of cannabis was legal in most U.S. states. In some areas it could be openly purchased in bulk from grocers or in cigarette form at newsstands, though an increasing number of states had begun to outlaw it. In that year, federal law made possession or transfer of cannabis without the purchase of a by-then-incriminating tax stamp illegal throughout the United States by passing the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act. This was contrary to the advice of the American Medical Association at the time.[2] Legal opinions of the time held that the federal government could not outlaw it entirely. The tax was $100 per pound of hemp, even for clothes or rope. The expense, extremely high for the time, was such that people stopped openly buying and making it. The decision of the United States Congress was based in part on testimony derived from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint.

The act did not itself criminalize the possession or usage of cannabis, but levied a tax equalling roughly one dollar on anyone who dealt commercially in marijuana. It did, however, include penalty provisions. Violations of proper procedure could result in a fine of up to $2000 and five years' imprisonment. The net effect was to make it too risky for anyone to deal in the substance.

The bill was passed on the grounds that cannabis caused "murder, insanity and death". Today, it is generally accepted that these reasons were fictitious; in 1951, Anslinger himself claimed that he had no evidence to support such a thesis. However, new reasons had emerged by then, which pushed through a bill that superseded the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937.

In 1969 in Leary v. United States, this act was found to be unconstitutional since it violated the Fifth Amendment, since a person seeking the tax stamp would have to incriminate him/herself.

Especially not the kind of dorks who don't understand why people would rather use Macs than fuck around endlessly with AUTOEXEC.BAT.

I don't understand why anyone would fuck around with AUTOEXEC.BAT at all, to be honest, considering it hasn't been in much use since Windows 2000. ;)

Anyway, back on topic; no parodies as such but this article is a hoot, even though I personally don't agree with it (I'll be picking up an iMac for myself in a few hours, wish me luck :D)

"the difference being MS never advertised full compatibility whereas Sony did so unless this list improves fast, full backwards compatibility as promised feels like a big fat lie from Sony - at least with the European console."

-- not quite... --

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2005/05 /20/rumours_of_xbox_360_nonbackwards_compatibility _explained.html
http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2005/05/19/no-y ou-do-not-need-to-recompile-your-xbox-games.aspx

"Our goal is to have every Xbox game work on Xbox 360. You will NOT need to purchase a new 'version' -- your original games will work on Xbox 360."

http://www.joystiq.com/2006/06/01/xbox-bc-not-a-pr iority-says-moore/
here they claim that they underpromised and overdelivered and are going to slow down their BC push.

-credit: jackson98

since my xbox broke, i would really like to finally finish my copies of mercenaries, jet set radio future, xmen legends, TES: morrowwind, and mechassualt. not to mention the fact that unless i buy a new xbox, i'll never be able to play "top" games i always "wanted to get around to playing" like panzer dragoon orta, otogi and chronicles of riddick. [they DEFINITELY promised that the "top" games would work]. i own a xbox360 and my original xbox no longer works, so outside of buying an used xbox, what options do i have left?

the xbox360's 10-20% BC is really not cutting it for a gamer like me. i dont mind playing the older titles. 72% BC out of the gate, with room for much improvement is not a "shame", as you put it; it actually looks like sony may be better at keeping the BC promise than MS.

Link

And Monbiot on the maker. I'm no big fan of Monbiot, but the factual base here rather goes to the credibility of the film maker. He has, as we say over here, "form"...

The latest vile deed to surface is in Wales. Monsanto is just unbelievable. From their glory days of Chemistry to their explosive growth into a biopirate Life Sciences behemoth, to the *IAA-like abuse of the intellectual property system, they've always leveraged their close relationship with US Federal agencies, especially the FDA. Executives and bureaucrats have often worked for both, and maintain ties. That's why they won't kill that company until there's a consumer revolt of enormous proportions.

They've been snapping up seed companies around the world. They know, to paraphrase a Cargill newsletter, that if you control the seed you control the farmer, and if you control the farmers, you control the nation. Look at their mad rush of a patenting campaign over the last two decades: they would patent you, if they could. They're hollywood evil.

> Obviously it's not in their interest to produce toxic food.

Their interest is to increase market share, increase profit, and increase shareholder value.

It turns out one of their tactics is to lock farmers into exclusive dependence on specific combinations of their seeds, pesticides, and herbicides. Once a farm gets locked into Monstanto's program it is very hard to get out.

They seek to replace what has traditionally been free (the genetic code for specific seeds) with something that they can own. It is the exact opposite of 'open source'.

        http://www.guardian.co.uk/gmdebate/Story/0,2763,11 35902,00.html

Obviously I don't know your particular body and I'm not trying to explain your set of experiences. I just thought your comment was suitable to attach that fat lives inside the torso as well as outside, so called "organ fat".

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,19 68749,00.html

See the Guardian for the numbers in a poll done in the UK. Among 16 to 24 year old muslims living in the UK, 37% said they would prefer to live under Sharia law, as opposed to 60% who wanted to live under UK law. I would suggest 60/40 does not constitute a vast majority. "Nearly a third of 16 to 24-year-olds believed that those converting to another religion should be executed". WTF???? The numbers do go down quite a bit for the older people polled, but double digit percentages still would prefer Sharia law even at 55 years old.

Just curious - would the US govt be interested in message boards where ppl are discussing how to bomb a building?

Then why shouldn't the India govt be interested in boards where people are planning/ inciting the next riots

. Of course, having observed how the riots always occur at convenient times for the local politicos, I don't believe for one minute that this has anything to do with public safety. But I do question the holier than thou attitude adopted by many Americans over free speech when their military has willingly killed journalists many many times.

They all come out looking like this

Apparently the guy from MIT in this documentary is suing Channel 4 (the English station who broadcast this program) because he says he was misrepresented and quoted completely out of context:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,20 31455,00.html

There was a program on channel 4 in the UK called "The Great Global Warming Scandal" a few days again which questioned the prevalent theory of CO2 emissions in regard to global warming, I thought it was quite good, as to whether it is correct I have no idea, I think I am as confused as many other people regarding this issue. This issue of global warming seems to me to have become a 'if you are not with us, you are against us', here are two links to articles regarding the program, one for, one against. take your pick. against seems to be a little less anti

I thought that the british helped the ira, and even heard stories that they forced some irish
to bomb their own or be shot.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,,1 869019,00.html

If you UKers really cared about it, you'd go into the streets and protest.

Of course, remember to ask for permission first.

Breaking news today, Britons will be denied a passport if they don't submit to the world's most intrusive mass-surveillance system

People who refuse to give up their bank records, tax records & details of any benefits they've claimed and the records of their car movements for the last year, or refuse to submit to an interrogation on whether they are the same person that this mountain of data belongs to will be denied passports from March 26th.

The Blair Govt has already admitted that this and other data will be cross-linked so that the Home Office and other officials can spy on the everyday lives of innocent Britons.

Britons were already the most spied upon nation in Western Europe. Data-mining through this unprecedented level of mass-surveillance allows any future British govt to leapfrog even countries like China and North Korea.

Now ads are obviously out of place in certain genres or settings. If I was playing Counterstrike and saw an ad for Axe, I wouldn't care, but if I was playing Thief and saw an a similar ad, I'd probably be pissed off. If I was playing a futuristic RPG and some ad agency wanted to be creative and display an ad for Coca-Cola in the year 2500, I'd probably appreciate the fact that their ad was tailored towards my gaming experience and they went out of their to "enhance" the ad. However, if I was playing Final Fantasy 13 and saw an ad for Coke, I'd probably be able to read a rant on some message board complaining about how someone's gaming experience was tainted, and I would generally agree.

Anyways, my point is that ads do have their place, whether they're welcome or not. If they blend into the game well, then more power to them, let them advertise. If they stick out like a sore thumb, then I don't want to see them and feel I have the right to complain then. But as always, we have can vote with our dollars, and if you don't like in-game ads, then don't buy games that have them.

Warning: Explicit Material in links

Military
Sexual
Harassment
Prevention
Program

I get tired of adding this reference to where I showed you wrong

I get tired of adding this reference to where I showed you wrong

Summary: UK Passports vulnerable to brute force attack
CVE: None
Date: Mar 07 2007 10:25PM
Credit: Adam Laurie is credited with discovering this issue
Vulnerable: UK Passport >= 2006
Not vulnerable: UK Passport < 2006

Lack of security checking or strong passwords allows an attacker to gain access
to personal details stored on the passport by launching a brute force or
dictionary attack. An attacker would need access to a region of a few
centimeters around the passport, but would not need to the passport itself.

References
  * http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1950226 ,00.html
  * http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/new s/news.html?in_article_id=440069&in_page_id=1770

I think Charlie Booker said it best in this hilarious piece from the guardian.

The burglar in question was running away from the scene when the farmer, Tony Martin, shot him in the back. He didn't sue, being too dead to do so; this was a criminal case. Tony Martin served three years for manslaughter and is now free.

Here's an old list of Bush's resume: http://www.laughparty.com/view/id/945/

As for the specific Bush/Nazi connection:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,131254 0,00.html

http://ecosyn.us/Bush-Hitler/

The CIA's experiments in radio control of the brain are based on the development of the EEG in the 1920's. In 1934, doctor's Chaffee and Light published a pivotal monograph, "A Method for Remote Control of Electrical Stimulation of the Nervous System". Work along the same lines allowed Dr. Jose Delgado of Cordoba, Spain to climb into bull-ring and, with the push of a button, trigger an electrode in the head of a charging bull and stop the beast in it's tracks.

Further groundbreaking advances were made by L.L. Vasiliev, the famed Russian Physiologist and doyan of parapsychology, in "Critical Evaluation of the Hypnogenic Method". The article detailed the experiments of Dr. I.F. Tomashevsky in remote radio control of the brain "at a distance of one or more rooms and under conditions that the participant would not know or suspect that she would be experimented with...One such experiment was carried out in a park at a distance," Vasiliev reported, and "a post-hypnotic mental suggestion to go to sleep was complied with within a minute."

-FL

In fact, some of these "schools" get around things like licensing and inspections by locating themselves out of the county. One interesting example is Tranquility Bay (http://www.tranquilitybay.org/) located in Jamaica. They also offer a handy kidnapping service that will shanghai your child in the middle of the night. It sounds absolutely horrendous (http://observer.guardian.co.uk/magazine/story/0,1 1913,987172,00.html). Bizarre forms of stress position torture, brain washing, different types of deprivation. Glad I'm not a minor anymore.

Honey, our bees are vanishing (Guardian Online)

Desperate race to save honey bee (BBC News)

Can you quote a source where a US Government official has said "we don't give a shit about international treaties"? I'd like to see it, because it doesn't exist. See, some treaties would deny the US its sovereign powers, and give more power to the fine leaders of Iran, like President Ahmadinejad who says Israel should be wiped off the map. Can you offer a link to a quote where Bush, Cheney or any government official ever said "we don't give a shit...?" If the US refuses to be part of any treaty preventing the "militarization" of space, it's in our best interest because it must mean Iran or other non-democratic states will have more power.

So, the hardware with the Iranian manufacturer's markings all over it is just an elaborate ruse? Fine. The actual Iranian operatives romping around in the country? Ah... they're part of the clever plan we have that includes actually running the Iranian government in secret, right? These aren't allegations, it's long history.

Exactly. Because Iran was then, and still is busy funding and arming some of the worst terrorist groups in the world.

Just because the US says the same thing, that makes it all a US-based issue? Why?

So, accommodating that same radical, crazy regime, and sending them the message that indeed, arming up with nukes, stoking a religious civil war in Iraq, wiping Israel off the map - these are all good, reasonable things... that serves the reformers how?

How does ceasing to expand an existing weapons program as a precurser to negotiations equal "giving up" on it?

The government fails at maintaining OUR social security. The government fails at keeping track of all OUR money. The government fails at securing OUR borders. The government fails at managing OUR tax dollars responsibly and builds bridges to nowhere. What in the WORLD makes you think that the government would do a good job running a national Internet Service Provider? Frankly, they don't have the track record.

You mean like this? Yea, damn Muslims are the cause of all things evil in this world.