Slashdot Mirror

The Telegraph and several other news outlets are reporting on the international deal to build the world's most advanced nuclear fusion reactor that was signed in today. Representatives of the EU, the US, Japan, India, Russia, South Korea and China signed the ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) agreement in Paris, finalising the project which aims to develop nuclear fusion as a viable energy source to fossil fuels. According to the ITER consortium, fusion power offers the potential of "environmentally benign, widely applicable and essentially inexhaustible" electricity, properties that they believe will be needed as world energy demands increase while simultaneously greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced,justifying the expensive research project.

for paying lobbyists to spread disinfo about climate science. http://environment.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/st ory/0,,1876538,00.html

It happened recently. When I was a lad, the BBC and UK schools composed a "domesday book", which was supposed to be a parallel to the original Domesday book, which was a bit more than a cencus from the UK made in 1086.The modern one used the popular home PC the BBC Micro (made by Acorn). It was made on laserdisk, and distributed around the UK to the schools that had compiled the information.

Well, 15 years on, it was useless. The then-proprietary format was not readable on anything modern, and there was not much of the old hardware around either. You can google for it ("UK domesday bbc data" should do it), the first link I saw was on the Guardian Online.

I've still got stuff on floppies, but no-one builds PCs with them anymore. I've got two old laptops with floppy drives, the other three computers have none. (OK, I also have two corpses with floppy drives, and the controllers on two of the new PCs will accept floppy drives, but, please take my point - they're going out of fashion.)

In 20 years time, there will probably be no CD/DVD drives, we'll all be using a new more portable, more backupable, lighter, faster, probably online-only storage medium. Kids won't recognize laserdisks, floppies, or USB ports. They might not recognise keyboards either - who knows?

Hollywood is known for borderline illegal accounting practices, NO move has ever made a profit, so if you get net points on a film you are royally "fubared"

While it may well have been the case in this particular occurence, and while I enjoy a good conspiracy theory as much as the next /.er, it's worth pointing out that quite often hugely successful movies will indeed turn out a net loss for the studios, especially in the short term. That's why huge hits like Terminator 2 and Silence of the Lambs actually caused their studios to go bankrupt !

.. or that's what it feels like. I didn't actually see the Newton's cradle one, just the other ones that were on telly. I hope it's not all faked, but the guy who plays Dr Bunhead on Braniac has admitted the bathtub thing was staged.. http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0, ,1821144,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1950258 ,00.html

"At Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in California, scientists monitor all "potentially hazardous asteroids" that might one day end up on a collision course with Earth. So far they number 831. The next close-ish shave - at a mere 17 times the distance from the Sun to the Earth - will be asteroid 2004QD14 on November 29."

Oakay

This Guardian (UK) article states that Technology imported from Ukraine was used to decode the tones from the transactions and turn them into [computer] information:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1948026 ,00.html

If my passport gets stolen, I report it. It gets cloned, I've no idea somebody is impersonating me, screwing up my life (and others).

The whole RFID in passports seems to me to be a combination of a bunch of bureaucrats wanting to "do something" about security and a bunch of salesmen with "the answer". I do not mind a little security theater but I would like to get the feeling that there is someone out there who is doing some actual security.

Great post on oil drilling but your economics is flawed. [SNIP] We give them dollars and they give us stuff.

The tender [for mid-war Iraqi oil; the war isn't over and has probably only just begun], for which bids are due by June 10, switches the transaction back to dollars -- the international currency of oil sales - despite the greenback's recent fall in value. Saddam Hussein in 2000 insisted Iraq's oil be sold for euros, a political move, but one that improved Iraq's recent earnings thanks to the rise in the value of the euro against the dollar.
in
See also Carol Hoyos and Kevin Morrison, "Iraq returns to the international oil market," Financial Times, June 5, 2003 and
Faisal Islam, "Iraq nets handsome profit by dumping dollar for euro," Guardian, February 16, 2003

What makes the IOB [IRAN OIL BOURSE] the subject of such interest by the American government? According to rumors, which first vaulted the issue into the spotlight, the financial exchange in the aforementioned bourse will trade for oil in euros instead of the U.S. dollar.
Iran's Oil Bourse: A Threat to the U.S. Economy?

In 2005-2006, The Tehran government has a developed a plan to begin competing with New York's NYMEX and London's IPE with respect to international oil trades - using a euro-denominated international oil-trading mechanism. This means that without some form of US intervention, the euro is going to establish a firm foothold in the international oil trade. Given U.S. debt levels and the stated neoconservative project for U.S. global domination, Tehran's objective constitutes an obvious encroachment on U.S. dollar supremacy in the international oil market.
The Real Reasons Why Iran is the Next Target: The Emerging Euro-denominated International Oil Marker

One of the Dutch articles is quoting from the guardian.

Urgh. this article in English in the guardian

quick translation:

New Ultimatum for Microsoft bu the EU

LONDON - The Eurpean Union has issues a new ultimatum against the American software giant Microsoft: before next Thursday the company has to turn over all (bdb: information about the) secret protocols in its Windows-OS to its competitors.

If Microsoft does not comply with the demands, the company risks more fines, threatened EC Neelie Kroes in Wednesday's edition of the British newspaper the Guardian. "I do not live forever" Kroes said about the tightened pressure.

Accoriding to her Microsoft has not given all relevant information yet. She compared it to a puzzle from which certain pieces are missing.

In March 2004 the European Commission already fined Microsoft by an amount of 497 million euros in alledged abuse of market power. In July an additional fine was set which can go up to 280,5 million euros.

original story in the guardian: http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1947759,00 .html

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,194 8086,00.html

You don't know how right you are (response from debunkee to debunker). Of course, whether he has the credibility to debunk his debunker is another issue entirely.

Take a look at this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1 935562,00.html

His basic attitude, it seems to me, is that most people are children who have to be ordered about by an all-knowing government. Just the sort of thing one expects from a European intellectual. Give him half a chance and it's be greenshirts at Nuremburg.

(I think this may be a Godwin's Law record for /.)

The government has also passed legislation that will allow anyone on the system to release confidential information about a patient when it is seen to be in 'the public interest' (a deliberately vague term). Previously personal information could only be released under specific circumstances with the consent of a patient's GP or specialist. You can imagine how insecure this will be and what a tempting target for blackmailers and scum-sucking journalists looking for dirt.

Despite these concerns the government is proceeding to upload personal information on to the Spine using a system of 'implied consent' - that is, if you don't opt out, your data will be put on to this privacy nightmare. Once the information is on the Spine you cannot ask for it to be removed, nor amend it where it is found to be incorrect. The Guardian has produced the most readable to this meltdown and has also published a guide to ensuring your personal data is not put on to the spine.

The government has also passed legislation that will allow anyone on the system to release confidential information about a patient when it is seen to be in 'the public interest' (a deliberately vague term). Previously personal information could only be released under specific circumstances with the consent of a patient's GP or specialist. You can imagine how insecure this will be and what a tempting target for blackmailers and scum-sucking journalists looking for dirt.

Despite these concerns the government is proceeding to upload personal information on to the Spine using a system of 'implied consent' - that is, if you don't opt out, your data will be put on to this privacy nightmare. Once the information is on the Spine you cannot ask for it to be removed, nor amend it where it is found to be incorrect. The Guardian has produced the most readable to this meltdown and has also published a guide to ensuring your personal data is not put on to the spine.

The government has also passed legislation that will allow anyone on the system to release confidential information about a patient when it is seen to be in 'the public interest' (a deliberately vague term). Previously personal information could only be released under specific circumstances with the consent of a patient's GP or specialist. You can imagine how insecure this will be and what a tempting target for blackmailers and scum-sucking journalists looking for dirt.

Despite these concerns the government is proceeding to upload personal information on to the Spine using a system of 'implied consent' - that is, if you don't opt out, your data will be put on to this privacy nightmare. Once the information is on the Spine you cannot ask for it to be removed, nor amend it where it is found to be incorrect. The Guardian has produced the most readable to this meltdown and has also published a guide to ensuring your personal data is not put on to the spine.

"The front page lead in [November 1st] Guardian explains how personal medical data (including details of mental illness, abortions, pregnancy, drug taking, alcohol abuse, fitting of colostomy bags etc etc) are to be uploaded to a central NHS database regardless of patients' wishes.

The Government claims that especially sensitive data can be put into a "sealed envelope" which would not ordinarily be available... except that NHS staff will be able to "break the seal" under some circumstances; the police and Government agencies will be able to look at the whole record -- and besides, this part of the database software doesn't even exist yet, and so the system will be running without it for some time."

Security Research, Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge

degenerated into the Crazy Olympics

Degenerated? "Crazy Olympics?"

It isn't even a contest. South Korea is left setting on the bench, consoled by its modern economy and democracy. The field is North Korea all the way.

North Korea has the:
Gold
Silver
Bronze
Runner Up
and "Miss Congeniality"

With the recently added events, they could be in an even better medal position next year.

I think that North Korea's official motto must be the inverse of Google's.

The junior Kim has vowed 'complete liberation of the peninsula', a task left 'half-done' by Kim Il-sung. He is apparently determined to become 'the president of a unified Korea' through armed force.-- Hwang Jang-yop (former Worker's Party Secretary) Speaks

May I perhaps draw Basil Bernstein to your attention? Excuse me if you already knew.

CC.

I suggest a multi-thousand dollar prize for the first hacker who can open up their servers so the N.K. citizens can see the whole web.

I can't say there is much to recommend it. It is likely that there would be no meaningful payoff that would last more than minutes. Even if you were successful in creating temporary access to a wider range of internet sites, it is likely that the few North Koreas who use the web would be too terrified to make use of it, assuming they even knew about it. Given the nature of the regime, you can assume that their secret police record, monitor, review, and act on the traffic in ways that far exceed the most lurid fantasies about the NSA. Surfing unauthorized web sites would likely constitute a punishable act, especially if an unauthorized site was visited that contained unvetted political, economic, or religious information. If you've stepped over the line in North Korea, you could easily fall prey to the "heredity rule", developed the Dear Leader's father. Under that rule, the North Korean secret police arrest and imprison three generations of a family for the misdeeds of one of them, often for life, which can be short in a North Korean "prison camp" AKA death camp.

Besides, the international incident with the paranoid, now nuclear armed, barbaric regime which is starving its people wouldn't be worth it.

If anyone still insists on it, I suggest you stay away from at least the Koreas and Japan as North Korea has a long history of kidnapping people from those countries for various reasons. Given their ties to organized crime, due to their many criminal enterprises, they could reach even further. Life there is tough even when you are useful to them.

The first charge alleges that she possessed information on her computer hard drive likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism... Possession of items such as these is an offence under Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The second charge claims Malik possessed "miscellaneous jottings" which may have been held for a purpose connected with terrorism, contrary to Section 57 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The third charge alleges that Malik selected the information, manuals and handbooks and they would be useful to a terrorist contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The fourth charge alleges that Malik possessed "miscellaneous jottings" likely to be useful to a terrorist, contrary to Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

i dunno. we earthlings don't seem to mind being spied on. especially the brits.

On the contrary, cement production adds more CO2 to the atmosphere than the airline industry. (Source) The production of 1 tonne of cement clinker results in the generation of: ~535 kg "process" CO2 from the calcination of limestone; 375 kg CO2 from fuel used in the kiln; and 70kg CO2 "indirect" emissions from the electricity used. (Source)

For reference:

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/18/rumsfeld/ (April 18th of this year)
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/01/washington/01cnd -rumsfeld.html?ei=5070&en=2148bb81cafef9d0&ex=1163 221200&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1163076529-g9kIMjR0v6pCeRK B7CId4A (November 1st of this year)

Source?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboa rd.php?az=view_oet&address=358x1293 (multiple comments liking Saddam to Al Qaeda who was resonsible for the attacks)
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/20/9-11-and-sadda m/

Actually, we didn't lie. Believing something to be true that later turns out to be false is not lying.

While your statement is true, it is not true in this case. It has been well established that this administration had already planned to invade Iraq before the September 11th attacks and that any information which did not fit the plan was thrown out.

See this link: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/politics/story/0,69 03,1185407,00.html

Further, it is well known that what limited intelligence we had was twisted to fit the goal. For instance, when the White House was told by Defense Department analysts that aluminum tubes found in Iraq were actually to be used for rockets, the administration found others who thought the the tubes could be used in a nuclear program. Even then Secretary of State Powell, after looking at the intelligence, said the tubes were for rockets. Guess which opinion the White House used.

Then we lied that Iraq was tied to Al Qaeda.

See the link from Democratic Underground I previously listed. There are several quotes in which Bush specifically says that Iraq was tied to Al Qaeda. However, if you want other sources you can try these:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/attack/140133_bushir aq18.html (Fourth paragraph)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3119676.stm
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0803/080803nj2.htm (3/4 of the way down the page)
http://www.newscloud.com/read/73666/ (Rice making the comment for the administration)

I could go on if you like but I'm sure you can find other sources, including Bush's own comments on the White House web site (if they haven't removed the evidence) which shows Bush linking Iraq and Al Qaeda even though it was well known that Saddam hated Al Qaeda and had given specific orders to his minions not to cooperate in anyway with Al Qaeda.

Today's victims, the lame excuse and the predictable response. Collective punishment is an abhorent war crime, it does not matter if the punishment was delivered via suicide belts or hellfire missles. No single group started this conflict but at this moment in time Israel has by far the best opportunity to stop it, they have chosen to escalate it instead.

I can't find the old 2002/3 newspaper articles, however.

e.g.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_norton taylor/2006/11/no_tears_for_donald_rumsfeld.html

This the same friend forecasting a 50 per cent fall in CD sales in the UK in three years time? If so, he seems to have more to say on the subject now. http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,1940513, 00.html

....everyone knows you can't get a fair trial in your homeland when the people and families you are accused of committing acts against are the ones charged with carrying out your trial! He should have been brought to the ICC. This verdict carries no weight with me whatsoever. His execution will be a travesty... think of the treasure trove of information we could get from him about our own crooks and their past crimes!

Oh the humanity! Saddam being tried and hung by the survivors of the atrocities he ordered, and it doesn't meet your approval! Where is the justice!? Why!? Why do those peasants put their 20 year thirst for justice for the mass murder, mutilation, and rape ahead of your political axe? Why does your approval matter so little to them!!?? That is so unfair!

I know what you mean about spending too. After all, spending $419.3 billion on defense out of a budget of $2.57 trillion seems so "reckless", especially since defense is a federal responsibility under the Constitution, as opposed to education and social security.

Well, at least your body count is, well..... founded.... or somthing.....

A little variety reading for you...

One, Two, Three, Four

Cheers

All eight were tried on charges stemming from a massacre of Shiites from the town of Dujail. When Saddam visited there in 1982 gunmen attempted to assassinate him. In response thousands of men, women, and children were sent to detention camps, huge swathes of farms and groves were destroyed, and 148 men and boys were sentenced to death by Bandar's Revolutionary Court. 46 of those sentenced were tortured to death before they ever reached a courtroom. Some of those sentenced were as young as 11, they were held until they turned 18 and then killed.

Saddam Hussein personally signed documents ordering the killing of 148 Shia villagers in Dujail, handwriting experts have concluded.....

At earlier hearings, Saddam Hussein acknowledged signing execution orders, saying it was his duty as president of Iraq. But he later appeared to dispute their authenticity.

Saddam is due to appear for a routine hearing on Tuesday of his second trial, for genocide against ethnic Kurds in 1988. In the meantime, he is held by the U.S. military at Camp Cropper, part of the U.S. base at Baghdad airport. The five judges in the Dujail case are expected also to publish the detailed, unanimous ruling, running to some 200 to 300 pages. It is eagerly awaited by international jurists keen to judge how the court performed.

Funny you should say that, when a lot of the global warming alarmists (especially in Europe) are calling for strict limits on air travel as a way to decrease emissions.

If I'm only allotted one flight every three years by a government carbon commissar, I sure as hell am not going to waste it on a trip to some shit-hole Eskimo village.

-ccm

Are you on Crack? USA largest polluter in the world? Yeah when you look at numbers like per person polution. When you look at total polution out put china and India both top the US by a large margin May I suggest you at least google pollution. (or visit mexico city)

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID =9509
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/display.article?id=5058
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environment_of_China
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/esthag-w/20 06/jun/science/tw_chineseair.html

but maybe this one is the most recent.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,16051 46,00.html

Yes it has been a farce but there was more than one trial. One of the trials was specifically to address genocide against the Kurds, it included eye witnesses accounts from the gas attack as primary evidence.

OTOH: A "fair trial" for attrocities against Iranians during the Iran/Iraq war would raise some akward questions for the west, particularly the US, UK & France.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10 691.htm

  "What's more, the judges were not elected but appointed by the occupying powers. They flew in a nephew of Mr Chalabi [Salem Chalabi's uncle Ahmed led the foremost Iraqi opposition movement, the US-backed Iraqi National Congress]. He was a lawyer in London specialising in commercial law. Later he was appointed president of the Iraqi special tribunal."

That is... until he was accused of murder and fled the country

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1279076,00 .html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,129869 9,00.html

What a corrupt show trial. They will then say "justice" was served...

PLEASE VOTE ON NOVEMBER 17TH.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10 691.htm

  "What's more, the judges were not elected but appointed by the occupying powers. They flew in a nephew of Mr Chalabi [Salem Chalabi's uncle Ahmed led the foremost Iraqi opposition movement, the US-backed Iraqi National Congress]. He was a lawyer in London specialising in commercial law. Later he was appointed president of the Iraqi special tribunal."

That is... until he was accused of murder and fled the country

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1279076,00 .html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,129869 9,00.html

What a corrupt show trial. They will then say "justice" was served...

PLEASE VOTE ON NOVEMBER 17TH.

You can only fill up Oyster cards for travel periods of up to a week without registering the card with your name, I believe. They tell you this is because longer period travelcards will have large amounts on them (say £100 for a monthly 1&2 zone pass), and it's therefore for your own good. However, with a registered card, "they" can obviously monitor your travel patterns. Presuming "they" would want to.

Anyway, I don't take the risk. I fill up my Oyster weekly, and pay in cash. Even if they could correlate my card number with me (say, through visual observation as I pass through a ticket barrier), I guess I've done as much as I can to make it hard for them.

Believe it or not, there ARE people in Britain who are concerned about the Surveillance Society, and are doing little bits and bobs to undermine it. See e.g today's Observer.

Anyone read V For Vendetta recently? :-)

While most Muslim and Arab capitals have remained silent on the president's remarks, a few have spoken out - including Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat.

"Palestinians recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and I reject his comments," he told the BBC News website.

"What we need to be talking about is adding the state of Palestine to the map and not wiping Israel from the map," he said.

Egypt, which has signed a peace treaty with Israel, also rejected the Iranian line.

"In principle, we are way beyond this type of political rhetoric that shows the weakness of the Iranian government," said an official at the Egyptian embassy in London.

Turkey's prime minister called on the Iranian president "to display political moderation".

"Israel Should Be Wiped Off the Map" was the slogan draped on a Shahab-3 ballistic missile during a military parade in Tehran a month ago. World L eaders Condemn Iranian's Call to Wipe Israel 'Off the Map'

Harking back to language used by of the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel, the hard-line president also called Israel a "fabricated" entity......

On Wednesday Ahmadinejad said "there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will soon wipe off this disgraceful blot (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world. As the Imam (Khomeini) said, Israel must be wiped off the map."

I worked in an NHS IT department. Patient data was handled over non-encrypted browser sessions to backend systems written in ASP VB with gaping sql injection mechanisms. We also had a wireless lan with no WEP on it. I brought these to the IT head's attention. I don't work there any more. The network manager who put in the wireless does, as does the guy who coded the web applications. Go figure.

I worked in an NHS IT department. Patient data was handled over non-encrypted browser sessions to backend systems written in ASP VB with gaping sql injection mechanisms. We also had a wireless lan with no WEP on it. I brought these to the IT head's attention. I don't work there any more. The network manager who put in the wireless does, as does the guy who coded the web applications. Go figure.

Linking medical, email, phone, bank & credit card records will be as simple as putting your new National Identity Registration number on those existing databases and allowing the Govt to query them.

Furthermore, you will be denied a new passport unless you give up this information, according to the ID Cards Act.

This comes two months after Gordon Brown was reported to be "planning a massive expansion of the ID cards project that would widen surveillance of everyday life by allowing high-street businesses to share confidential information with police databases."
He described how "police could be alerted as soon as a wanted person used a biometric-enabled cash card or even entered a building via an iris-scan door."

More details of how the National Identity Register will be the hub of Britain's Surveillance State.

NO2ID is an increasingly successful campaign, which has helped mastermind the recent publicity. We are highly respected in both Parliament and the media. Join the monthly mailing list so that you can keep one step ahead of the Govt's attempts to snoop on you.

Unfortunately, this threat is very real. Stealth data collection through passport interviews is planned to start within 6 months - although there is still time to renew. Please forward this information on to anyone you think might like to keep Britain a free country.

it must be fairly difficult to venture out in public without being "ON CAMERA".
I'm really not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand it might prevent some crime

You are gravely mistaken if you think that people will shy away from criminal activity if they know they are on camera.

Saddam Hussein was not targeted by Israel personally. Their attack was far away from Baghdad. They targeted Iraq -- an aggressor in the war since 1948.

True enough. Saddam was not targeted personally (I wish they did though!). It's just a bit hard to justify bombing a country because it had attacked you 33 years earlier. The Israeli state was a few weeks old at the time of the 1948 war.
The idea that the existence of Israel is in danger or ever was after 1970 is pure myth. But let's not get started Israel...

Wrong. "US bully strategy" has little to do with the sorry state of those, who hate our freedoms (including the economical ones). The oppressed are suffering from their own regimes' tyranny and/or misgovernment. The meaning of my post could not possibly have been construed in the manner you have -- I suspect, you are not arguing in good faith -- I'm unlikely to respond to you again.

Believe it or not, I'm much more interested in learning something new and getting an insight into your logic than tricking you into conceiding any ground.
Anyway, I couldn't have possibly knew that you were refering to the people under oppressive regime; My original question was "Out of curiosity, did you ever start thinking why the world's crushing majority doesn't share your opinion? Do they all "hate you for your freedoms"?" To which you replied by saying that the "oppressed" were acting out of envy. Not only does it imply that the world's crushing majority is oppressed, but also that they all would trade their lives for yours. Around where I live - Scandinavia - people are interchanging the words "greedy", "arrogant", "wasteful" and "materialist" with "American". Now, you can't claim that the Swedes are oppressed or that they lack your freedoms. If anything, we actually have more freedoms than you. The same logic applies to the Germans, French, Indians ... and on all over the political spectrum.
Even among allies of Washington (Italy, Spain, UK...), the population's overwhelmingly opposes the war. But that you already probably concluded by yourself, from the elections.

Unfortunately, that is not true -- not even among the educated people, of whom, BTW, there is severe shortage world-wide.

Right. I shouldn't have used "educated" since it could be interpreted in numerous ways. I should have said, people who don't resort to violence and who know better than blame their problems on others.
If your theory was true, I'd get kicked in the street when flashing my new iPod by people who don't own one. Or, get my shiny sport coupe vandalised by the envious. That's a behaviour that (hopefully) stops around teen years. Of course, it's no secret that it's more pronounced in the US because of the immense social fracture.

Back to the subject of "illegal war" -- sorry, in our imperfect world UN Security Council is the only body, that can call a war illegal... I do agree on the "irrelevance" bit, though -- the body should've called on all to destroy Saddam long ago.

Do you have any idea how much influence the US has over the UNSC? The whole thing is a scam, but hey, it's an imperfect world as you say. Now, when even a poodle like Kofi Annan says it was illegal, there must be some basis to his claim. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3661134.stm
Confirming the doubts, is PNAC hawk Richard Perle who admits it wasn't legal http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,108 9042,00.html
What difference does it make either ways? Not much for the kids who are dying. It just would stop those endless (and let's face it, sterile) discussions.
Take also a peek at this well compiled account of the issue; http

'What [the research] showed is that Saddam's procurement network is alive and well and has been working steadily despite the sanctions,' said Milhollin. 'There are a lot of companies out there willing to break the embargo.'

Motz said: 'We are seeing everything from just some basic negotiations that probably didn't go anywhere once the firms figured out what was trying to be purchased to contracts that were actually implemented and goods that were found in Iraq by the inspectors. We have contracts for missile engine components, for guidance components for missiles. We actually found some high-end machine tools that are useful for making nuclear weapons, military goods such as [conventional] helicopters and aircraft which were clearly embargoed.'

Was Iraq a potential threat to the United States and the world? Threat is always a matter of perception, but our nuclear program could have been reinstituted at the snap of Saddam Hussein's fingers. The sanctions and the lucrative oil-for-food program had served as powerful deterrents, but world events - like Iran's current efforts to step up its nuclear ambitions - might well have changed the situation.

Iraqi scientists had the knowledge and the designs needed to jumpstart the program if necessary. And there is no question that we could have done so very quickly. In the late 1980's, we put together the most efficient covert nuclear program the world has ever seen. In about three years, we gained the ability to enrich uranium and nearly become a nuclear threat; we built an effective centrifuge from scratch, even though we started with no knowledge of centrifuge technology. Had Saddam Hussein ordered it and the world looked the other way, we might have shaved months if not years off our previous efforts. Saddam, the Bomb and Me

Moreover, Iraq put itself in a state of war with the United States by violating the cease-fire that ended the 1991 Gulf War. Iraqi forces shot at American and British warplanes assigned to enforce the U.N.-imposed "no-fly zones" over Iraq on a daily basis long before the 2003 war. Kofi Annan's Iraq Blunder

started slapping people in the face at random...

Unfortunately, slapping people at random was burned into the brains of the infants and small children of the time, so now we get happy slapping teenagers.

Tony Blair has called for all innocent citizens to be forcibly DNA swabbed. Since the Govt stated they would link the police databases to the National Identity Register (pg 5), this would mean our DNA, our tax/benefits records and detailed tracking of our car movements via ANPR will be cross-indexed into a single surveillance dossier.

Furthermore, you will be denied a new passport unless you give up this information, according to the ID Cards Act.

This comes two months after Gordon Brown was reported to be "planning a massive expansion of the ID cards project that would widen surveillance of everyday life by allowing high-street businesses to share confidential information with police databases."
He described how "police could be alerted as soon as a wanted person used a biometric-enabled cash card or even entered a building via an iris-scan door."

More details of how the National Identity Register will be the hub of Britain's Surveillance State

BBC Radio 4 newscaster and reporter John Humphrys has been in Basra, Iraq very recently. Read his essay and his diary.

For all it's faults, at least we have some press freedom left in the UK.

I hope someone somewhere is archiving this stuff on dead tree.