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By the way here is a screenshot of Netscape Navigator 3.04 still running fine on the computer, but barely crawling around on the Internet in 2014. http://imgur.com/i9WtAK2

PS. By luck I happened to capture Winamp at 108 and 42.

108 = 1^1 * 2^2 * 3^3 and it's a magical number used as the number of beans on a Buddhist rosary for Om Mane Padme Hum. That beats the Catholic rosary of 5*10 Hail Mary's + 5 * Our Father's + 4 * Intro ~ 60 Items.

And for 42 (101010 in binary) see http://www.independent.co.uk/l... I first learned about it in a linux MOTD. See customizing MOTD's with BOFH excuses, such as shown at http://www.linux.com/learn/tut... and http://bofh.ntk.net/BOFH/ .

PS.PS. I wish XP had a similar option, that instead of a graphical logon, you could log in to pure DOS, like in the Win95 days, and type Win to get into the GUI, but when you exit to console, it would remove the GUI processing overhead and leave you with something very minimum and text like, that would work well for things like a cashier machine. But that's what linux is for. Or used to be until they got it too complicated. In any case, I still can't find a selection of speedy and user friendly apps for linux (or even newer versions of Windows) comparable to what's available for XP. Security is an issue, but with Zonalarm killing everything including ctfmon and whatnot. it's halfway manageable. It's still a busy process with frequent XP reinstalls for any Internet connected devices. If you can afford not to connect something to the Internet, like a workstation made to create music or CAD or read offline pdf files off a portable disk, you don't have to constantly reinstall. But that's what my reinstall computer looks like, and I can't really replace it with anything Linux has to offer for now, on the app and feature part. I mean Konqueror 3.5.10 had features better than Windows Explorer. but it plain sucks in copy speed, and qt4 and 5 based stuff is even worse, and it has weird features I don't like. And I got Super Flexible File Synchronizer for the deficiencies that Windows Explorer or Windows Backup lacks for backing up the data like an emusic mp3 or downloaded ebook pdf to a portable disk, right before a wipe and reinstall. Now wait til Microsoft buys Super Flexible, and messes it up too. But they do have. or used to have some really good software. Like I'd put MS Office 97 with sp1+sp2 on this computer if I did not constantly wipe and reinstall it. as Office Excel is better than the Works Spreadsheet that does not allow you to bang up some VBA macros to massage your data. But I find that I don't need macros most of the time, so it's not worth the bother.

And the article gets a pass on citations because ... why?

Anyhow - check out the following:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-s...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-s...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-s...

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-...

http://www.theguardian.com/pol...

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Perhaps his lamp put out mostly UV-A (which tans and burns) instead of UV-B which produces vitamin D? See my other posts in this thread on the difference. But too much of almost anything can be a bad thing.

As you say, it sounds like, short of being smuggled to another country in a diplomatic courier bag, Assange can't avoid facing charges if he leaves the embassy. I don't see what leverage by Ecuador could cause the UK to relent.

Of course, in "real life", people also may just make up stuff for various reasons:
http://www.detainedbyus.org/th...
"In an effort to capture enemy combatants during the War on Terror the United States implemented a bounty program offering monetary rewards for information on, or the surrender of, possible enemy combatants. The bounty system has been beneficial in bringing forward actionable information against enemy combatants because it has functioned as a strong motivator, but that may also have led to the detention of innocent civilians at both Guantanamo Bay and Bagram Airbase. Turning over individuals to U.S. troops was a lucrative business venture for bounty hunters, the Pakistani and Afghan governments, and civilian reward seekers who could convince the U.S. that the person they had captured or were making accusations against, was connected to Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or another terrorist group."

Here is another article that mentions Vitamin D and Assange:
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
"It had been reported earlier that he is suffering from arrhythmia (abnormal heart beats), high blood pressure and other health problems associated with a lack of Vitamin D, after his not being exposed to sunlight for that length of time, and that he would need to leave the embassy to go to hospital."

Granted, it might be a "BS" excuse, as you suggest. Nonetheless, I still think it is possible he is not supplementing adequately given a too low RDA and also, perhaps, using the wrong UV sunlamps? There is so much misinformation out there about Vitamin D.

The good news is, more and more people in the UK are coming to understand the connection between Vitamin D deficiency and illness. Could it even contribute to some Middle Eastern (or US/UK) extremism?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/hea...
"A deficiency in this crucial vitamin, thanks to our increasingly indoor lifestyles, is already blamed for the reappearance of rickets, the painful and deforming bone disease in children, in the UK. But gradually, evidence is emerging that links low vitamin D levels to a rise in a whole host of "modern" diseases, some of which were virtually unheard of in the pre-industrial era. ... Dr John McGrath, international expert in schizophrenia based at the University of Queensland, Australia, says the evidence suggests that sun exposure in pregnancy and early life protects against schizophrenia and "raises the tantalising prospect that optimising vitamin D status during pregnancy may lead to the primary prevention of the disease". ...
Could lack of vitamin D in pregnancy also explain autism? The latest evidence suggests that a low vitamin D level in the mother's body during pregnancy may induce her immune system to make antibodies which can damage the baby's brain, as well as causing certain genes to malfunction. Last month, Rhonda Patrick and Bruce Ames from the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, in California, published research findings that these genes normally make the chemical serotonin. Too little of this neurotransmitter is associated with abnormal social behaviour while too much in the digestive tract causes sensitivity to foods which may explain some autistic children's difficult eating habits.

Yes, that "thousands of people" doesn't even appear in the referenced articles. In the referenced article it's only speculated that IF the strain would escape from the lab there would be serious consequences. That article is about the justification of doing the said research in the first place, but also quotes the original researchers and their findings.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

http://thebulletin.org/making-...

Madness...as if Ebola was not enough.

Alright, why don't you tell us what actually happened? The linked article said he did. Furthermore, that article linked this one, that actually included a screenshot of the Siri query. That in turn linked this one, which also collaborates the story. So tell us, in all your wisdom, what really happened?

Indeed. http://www.bbc.com/news/102355... http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Yes, safely slow to a halt. Then get fatally rear-ended by the vehicle behind you because its driver was (a) following too closely and/or (b) not paying attention and/or (c) didn't get his brakes repaired.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/canadian-woman-who-stopped-to-save-ducks-on-highway-faces-jail-over-crash-9554721.html

These people are also "involved". I suppose you support those convictions too?

You act as if that is a problem. In the well-off countries, people generally would not want to trade their better infrastructure for slightly more money.

It's not "slightly more money". It's the majority of the population in many European countries living below the US poverty line. It's half of the under 25 being unemployed in some countries. It's economic stagnation and lack of innovation. The damage isn't primarily the higher taxes, it's the opportunity costs and corruption, the lack of any control of people over their own destinies.

As a member of an intellectual urban elite with an escape hatch to the US, none of that will likely ever touch you. But don't kid yourself: you argue for the European model out of naked self interest, because your social class and profession is valued much more in Europe than in the US. And, of course, for someone who believes in the crap that Orthodox Christianity and Swinburne teach, it's clearly not hard to rationalize their own venal self interest as humanitarianism with economic fairy tales.

But, hey, at least the planes run on time:

In 1936 the American journalist George Seldes complained that when his fellow-countrymen returned home from holidays in Italy they seemed to cry in unison: 'Great is the Duce; the trains now run on time]' And no matter how often they were told about Fascist oppression, injustice and cruelty, they always said the same thing: 'But the trains run on time.' 'It is true,' wrote Seldes, 'that the majority of big expresses, those carrying eye-witnessing tourists, are usually put through to time, but on the smaller lines rail and road-bed conditions frequently cause delays.'

You have the right to make the analogy less realistic, but I don't see how that's helpful. The reality is not a mere suspicion of rockets in a school, it's actual rockets in at least three actual schools:

(Reuters) - UNRWA said it found a rocket cache in one of its central Gaza schools on Tuesday, the third such incident.

http://www.france24.com/en/201...
Here Israel shelled a school because, they claim, they were returning fire on Hamas mortar positions, which may or may not be true. The problem with this, generally speaking, is that the warzone is so small and densely packed with civilians that there is nowhere that Hamas can attack from that isn't near, more or less, civilian installations and if Israel attacks or returns fire and isn't very exact with it then they will kill civilians.

There are also attacks where no valid military excuse has been given.

This is a bit dated, but worth a look:
http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/0...

Israel calls ceasefires and then doesn't honor them, which is disturbing to say the least.
"At least 17 people were killed in an Israeli air strike on a packed Gaza market on Wednesday that followed soon after Israel said it would observe a four-hour humanitarian ceasefire beginning at 12pm (GMT)"
http://www.france24.com/en/201...

Here's another one during a supposed truce:
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

If Israel cared about Palestinian civilian casualties they would use ground forces to attack specific targets rather than shelling approximate locations.

Israel attacks anything, anytime, anywhere and doesn't care about the civilian casualties caused. They do what they want and they get away with it.

1. Israel can prevent civilian deaths.

During the course of the past twelve days, Israeli air strikeshave killedover 1000Palestinians—mostly civilians.

Israelsaysthe deaths are a result of Hamas using ordinary Palestinians as human shields, and the gruesome toll has been met with a shrug.

It’s an issue thathas come upduring past operations in Gaza.

Back in 2009, during Operation Cast Lead, the president of the United Nations General Assembly Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann,condemnedIsrael for violating international law in Gaza by targeting civilians.

Brockmanncalledthe offensive “a war against a helpless defenceless and imprisoned people.”

“Theviolationsof international law inherent in the Gaza assault have been well documented,” he added, listing collective punishment, disproportionate military force [and]attacks on civilian targets, including homes, mosques, universities, schools.”

Israel doesn’t have to fire at the civilian targets, it’s a choice that they make. Hamas rockets are broadlyineffectiveanyway—given Israel’s comprehensive network of bomb shelters. Just three civilians in Israel have been killed so far.

Noting the Israeli military’s “long record of unlawful airstrikes with high civilian casualties”, Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitsoncommentedthat Israel “would never accept an argument that any Israeli home of an Israel Defense Force member would be a valid military target.”

IDF spokesperson Peter Lerner also couldn’t provide any evidence of houses being used to command in control rocket attacks, when directlyqueriedby reporters.

2. The three Israeli teenswere killed immediately after being kidnapped.

Investigative journalist Max Blumenthal recently revealed that the Israeli governmentknewthatthe three missing Israeli teens, whowere abductedin June from Hebron in the West Bank, were murdered almost as soon as they were kidnapped. However, this was not revealed to the public, and insteadthe search forthe missing teenagers unleashed to a brutal crackdown on the West Bank.

Blumenthal says that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used outrage around the kidnapping to whip up enough support to justify the aggressive military campaign that has ensued.

3. Gaza is basically an open-air prison.

The economic blockade of Gaz

That mandate is false and debunked since two weeks already, it never existed.
Hint: genital mutilation is not an islamic thing but an africans natural religions/tribal thing.

Well, that's a relief. After all, if you can't trust Islamist extremists, who can you trust? Now we only need to worry about crucifixtions, massacres, and depopulating the country of Christians under threat of death.

Is Female Genital Mutilation an Islamic Problem?

... at the village level, those who commit the practice believe it to be religiously mandated. Religion is not only theology but also practice. And the practice is widespread throughout the Middle East. Many diplomats, international organization workers, and Arabists argue that the problem is localized to North Africa or sub-Saharan Africa,[4] but they are wrong. The problem is pervasive throughout the Levant, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula, and among many immigrants to the West from these countries. Silence on the issue is less reflective of the absence of the problem than insufficient freedom for feminists and independent civil society to raise the issue.

Iraq crisis: End 'very near' for Christianity after Isis takeover, says Bishop

For those Christians who did not comply with the decree by 19 July, Isis warned that "there is nothing to give them but the sword.” Many have since fled their homes and Rev. Andrew-White told BBC Radio 4 Today desperate Christians were trapped in the desert or on the streets with nowhere to go.

"Things are so desperate, our people are disappearing," he said. "We have had people massacred, their heads chopped off.

-----

I don't know many 'arabs' got killed in this YEAR in Syria, but I know the death toll in Palestine was over 1000 in the last two weeks, perhaps you can enlighten us how that will scale for the rest of the year?

Most likely until Hamas decides to declare another phyrric "victory" and stop firing rockets. And lets not overlook the difference: Hamas deliberately targets civilians, the Israelis don't.

As to trolls being sadists, are you living under a rock?
http://www.independent.co.uk/l...

As to your obvious trolling, go away. A 15 second Google search on systemd and 2 minutes of reading are enough to find out.

Every time it snows, deniers claim "see, there's no global warming"

Probably because alarmists say things like "Children just aren't going to know what snow is" and " winter snowfall will become a very rare and exciting event".
(David Viner, senior research scientist, Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,2000)

http://www.independent.co.uk/e...

Before Snowden academic people could still spin the lines about:
Universities and gov standards ensure good encryption globally.
Courts and political leaders ensure checks and balances at a national level.
Lawyers at a corporation level would never allow their brand to be tainted with extra-judicial collaboration.
The press would find out, the data collected is massive and could never be kept, sorted.
Shared intelligence sites are only looking at other nations.
The post-Snowden revelations fill in the history book gaps from the mid 1990's.
Re extreme manner to which computing advances have been driven by the needs of various secret security agencies around the world?
Sock puppets still try and spin file sizes vs global digital storage numbers, that its just metadata. A lot of talking points are been shaped for academic people.
Code reviews, better encryption, court cases, new political leaders - anything to restore the faith in junk global networking :)
During the cold war all this was compartmentalized and staff where happy to do their duty. Years later its all been turned inwards.
As the internet move beyond web 2.0 the role of classics like Operation Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is just as fun with votes and trending.
Modern art was CIA 'weapon' (22 October 1995)
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
". The centrepiece of the CIA campaign became the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a vast jamboree of intellectuals, writers, historians, poets, and artists which was set up with CIA funds in 1950 and run by a CIA agent." Note the fun cash flow for artists, critics and tours :)
Follow the cash as always. Free massive web 2.0 sites fully funded by votes and ads?

As you might know, although in the racist sectors of israel's society this view is present...

And currently running the government.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is someone who has benefited from and promoted death his entire career. And not just beginning with leading a parade which carried a mock coffin of Yitzhak Rabin, who was murdered by one of Netanyahu's followers shortly thereafter.

When Netanyahu called for generalized violence against Hamas in response to the crimes of the few who were involved in the death of those three teens, he knew exactly what he was starting. It's his goal to "cleanse" Gaza, once and for all, and he's been itching for this opportunity. It's as if the United States had responded to the assassination of President Kennedy by bombing and invading Texas.

Just go read Netanyahu's series of statements and tweets following the discovery of the deaths of the teens. Look at the timeline of his incitement of violence against Palestinians, the subsequent murder of the 15 year old Palestinian, the severe beatings of others and the burning death of a Palestinian child. And finally, his use of so-called "DIME weapons" against Palestinian civilians. Committing war crimes to stay in political power is pretty despicable.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

re 'It's like going into every house in the country and passively photographing and recording everything there, but as long as nobody looks at that vast database unless there's some token cause, it's not a "search"."
It's not "like", thats what the UK did. "A province that is full of spies and their gadgets" (09 December 1999)
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
"In the last 20 years British intelligence has designed computer programs that keep huge amounts of personal data on a large section of Northern Ireland's population. These systems are said to store everything from their subjects' political and paramilitary associations to the colour of their wallpaper and the frequency of their car journeys."
So yes govs do like the "passively photographing and recording everything " aspect :)

Anyone with knowledge of the automotive industry knows that basically every large OEM is onto the same thing:
http://www.independent.co.uk/l...
http://www.greenfleeteurope.co...
(etc.)

Indeed, they're a swivel-eyed loon.

Recall how well the wig was used
"The name is Blond... James Blond: Russia set to expel US 'spy' caught wearing a shaggy wig as he offered millions to agent to switch sides" (15 May 2013)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new...
"Red-handed? Russia ‘catches CIA spy on Moscow recruitment mission’" (14 May 2013)
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
Giving your spies even more complex equipment might just make for even more photogenic press reports.
Keep the spying face to face with simple items any local tourist, student or academic might have.
The more complex the spy kit the more it will be used, then detected and shared with the worlds press.
Anybody of real importance will not let any foreigner near them.
Anybody else will let any foreigner or tourist near them.
The only win in this is the sale of the product, support and maintenance contracts to the US gov.
Launder ex mil staff as aid workers is always a good front. Use faith based groups to hide ex mil staff. Multinational telco workers contracting for a private sector upgrade are good cover too.

It may nor be socialist, but one of the biggest problems is Obamacare.

Yup, a lot of the ideas came from that big socialist left-wing think tank the Heritage Foundation.

It absolutely kills small businesses.

So maybe MOAR SOCIALISM would help here.

AC you seem to be missing the news that results from "chances regarding employer surveillance policies" are now shared at a nation level.
The results of been watched do not stop when you exit a workplace or seek new work.
"Thousands of workers 'blacklisted' over political views" (07 August 2012)
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
"construction workers punished by employers for raising health and safety issues" (10 September 2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/pol...
Construction workers' blacklist (Nov 18, 2013)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/u...

All the people saying "don't open your router because then the gov't will hold you responsible for things other people use it for" are missing the point. This is exactly why this is a freedom of speech issue and why the EFF is involved in the first place.
The gov't would like every act online to be traceable to an individual who can then be held responsible for it.
Freedom of speech means freedom from punishment because of your speech. The Soviets used to have a joke "everybody in Russia is free to say what they like - they're just not free to stay out of prison afterwards."
The only way to guarantee FoS is anonymity. The gov't can't punish you if they can't find you. Which is why dictatorships hate online anonymity.
Even if it was true that you could be held responsible for things others do using your router, you'd still have a duty to let them do it.
IANAL but AFAIK there is no legal basis in either the UK or US to punish someone for enabling someone else to commit a crime, unless it was part of a deliberate conspiracy, or 'common purpose'. So, (if its true at all that this is 'dangerous') the authorities are trying to illegally blackmail people into supporting their unconstitutional attempt to destroy anonymous Internet access.
Submitting to this blackmail is treason. Keep your country free, Keep your WiFi free.

What has been conducted precisely matches Turing's proposed immitation game.

While they may have matched the letter of it, they subverted the spirit of the test. This quote from the programme maker in particular is highly suggestive that they lowered the standards :-

The computer programme claims to be a 13-year-old boy from Odessa in Ukraine.

"Our main idea was that he can claim that he knows anything, but his age also makes it perfectly reasonable that he doesn't know everything," said Vladimir Veselov, one of the creators of the programme. "We spent a lot of time developing a character with a believable personality."

To illustrate what I mean by lowered standards, imagine if I set up the same test, with 10 entries, and I tell the judges some of them are 2 year old babies playing on the keyboard. Armed with this information, some of the judges are likely to interpret even gibberish as typed by a human and it is not too farfetched to get more than 30% of them to agree.

This "result" is bollocks and a pure publicity stunt conveniently on falling on the 60th anniversary of Turing's death.

I want to see the actual transcripts which do not appear to have been released so far, which in itself is highly suspicious.

It depends on who is requesting no press.
eg "Exclusive: US blocks publication of Chilcot’s report on how Britain went to war with Iraq" (14 November 2013)
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...
Re "So what's to stop the defendants or their family going to the media to say they're the defendants to get the case against them dropped? It doesn't make any sense."
They might be invited in for a chat and told if they talk or the cleared legal team talk they all get bundled in on long term charges, risk deportation, loss of work. That can be very chilling.
The laws where set up facing WW1 Germany, the Soviet Union, Ireland (as in recording all calls, data in and out). Later laws where updated to contain/track the people released after the Irish peace talks. A lot of telco, cleared lawyer only changes over the past years.
Layers of powerful laws over generations not really intended for use on everyday people with an extended family.

What if the publisher is wrong? What if a publisher tells an author a book is shit and it's never ever published? How is that better than self-publishing after paying an editor and letting the actual intended audience decide?

It's ironic that you mention JK Rowling as an example of an ultra-successful author who doesn't have to do much work to shift books as she was a victim of exactly this. She was rejected by 12 publishers over Harry Potter until she found one. Post Harry Potter she wrote under a pseudonym and was rejected once more by a number of publishers:

http://www.independent.co.uk/a...

So frankly, there's every argument publishers are actually stifling great literature. It seems perfectly plausible we'd actually get more great stories without them.

The guy is defending publishers not because they're his friend, but because he doesn't know any better. Because all his working life he's become dependent on them and just doesn't know anything else. That doesn't mean it's good for him, nor does it mean it's good for the industry.

I'm not keen on Amazon either, god only knows do I hate the fact they're an unaccountable monstrosity in the UK who flout consumer protection laws left and right, as well as being responsible for putting other companies out of business, not because they out-competed them by offering a better service to customers, but simply because they committed tax avoidance (and possibly even evasion) which the competitor couldn't compete against because they didn't similarly have the resource to do the same. But none of this makes publishers a good thing, they're still ultimately just parasites that introduce nothing other than inefficiency.

The City of London Police are abusing their power to enforce civil matters and shut down legitimate search engines.

And what's really odd is that this domain is blocked in the UK by the big ISPs anyway. It was blocked along with a bunch of others back in October 2013.

If I try to access it on my current ISP, I get redirected here: http://assets.virginmedia.com/site-blocked.html.

So the City Police are trying to take down a domain that you can't even access directly in the UK.

I Googled Trifigura and nothing relevant came up. Perhaps you can let me know what you're talking about there.

If you're in Europe, thats not terribly surprising: There was a superinjunction gag order issued to keep the whole thing under wraps, but the general fuzzy details were reported by the Guardian. Famously, a member of parliament tried to sidestep the superinjunction with parliamentary privilege, but IIRC that somehow got shut down.

Basically, Trifigura has been dumping some fairly toxic stuff illegally in Africa, and severely understating the risks to the locals there who they are paying for the privilege. All of that is generally a matter of fact, and isnt really disputed (perhaps Trifigura would?). The kicker is that Trifigura is claiming defamation (or slander or libel-- not clear which), and they won their case; so because reporting real world facts could cause "damage", it is illegal.

This isnt isolated, either; it is (AFAIK) not legal to host a default router passwords site in germany because that, too, could be damaging, so a fairly famous default passwords sites a number of years ago had to relocate. There was even a case recently where a judge ruled that, the mere fact that a statement is true does not defend against a defamation claim. As I recall there was a fairly major court case a number of years ago as well regarding a full disclosure of security issues in the underground of one of the EU countries.

So, speaking truth is now illegal in parts of Europe if it happens to be uncomfortable to various parties. That is what

which is a far cry from "a man can be imprisoned for saying anything on twitter that offends someone else".

2012, UK Teens Arrested, jailed
2013, 2 arrested for "suspicion of inciting racial or religious hatred"
2014, Teens arrested, placed on bail for "racist" tweets

Im afraid I am not as hopeful as you regarding European free speech. The push to "PC" seems just too strong.

Cost of nuclear station subsidy £96-£97 per megawatt hour
http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Cost of wind
£100 per megawatt hour
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ear...

Cost wise they are about the same.

  Currently in countries such as South Korea and China, typical construction times range from 4 to 6 years
https://www.oecd-nea.org/press...

Construction time is usually very short – a 10 MW wind farm can easily be built in two months. A larger 50 MW wind farm can be built in six months.
http://www.ewea.org/wind-energ...

Add in the time for planing etc and wind is faster.

"A study led by King’s College London found that the combination of olive oil and salad holds the key to keeping the risk of high blood pressure down. A large salad with a simple dressing combines the necessary unsaturated fats with nitrate-rich vegetables".

http://www.independent.co.uk/l...

You're a complete moron, in no country will the police not shoot someone who has raised a gun at them.

They don't have to shoot to kill. Here's a concrete example from England - a soldier had been beheaded in the street (my emphasis):

"The two men made no attempt to escape and charged a police car carrying an armed response team when it arrived at the scene about 15 minutes after the killing, according to a witness.

"'The black guy ran at them with a meat cleaver before it stopped and he was right by the car when they shot him,' said Julia Wilders, 51, who lives close by. The second man, who had a gun, was also shot, she said.

"The men were taken to separate hospitals by air ambulance and they were expected to survive despite their injuries, according to police last night."

There is a structural disconnection between Presidents and people with a clue

There is clueless and then there is Obama-clueless — in a class all his own. Even Sarah Palin was able to foresee Putin's attack on Ukraine as next after his invasion into Georgia.

It may not be as hard as picking a side in Syria but it's not a black and white choice either.

It is "black-and-white". The only possible negative is angering Russia. That's all.

Backing Saddam against Iran was a pretty stupid mistake

Saddam Hussein has always been considered a "lesser evil". Ukraine's new government — contrary to Putin-TV's allegations — is not evil in the slightest. Their case is as clear-cut as that of Czechoslovakia and Poland of the late 1930-ies — and Obama does seem to agree with that. He just can't do anything about it for some reason.

You can try to paper over Venezuela's self-inflicted problems, but it won't be with toilet paper.

How socialism has destroyed Venezuela
" Somehow, toilet paper is now more valuable than paper money."

Venezuela Imploding Like the Soviet Union

The left has a blind spot on Venezuela.

Her answer, "God always was", did not sound at all convincing to me.

Her answer was problematic, to be sure, but the alternative -- "the universe just created itself, and the sublimely elegant laws of physics just wrote themselves" -- is even less convincing.

religion has caused so much more suffering in the world than it has ever managed to prevent

Now you've become intellectually dishonest, by covering up these facts: Stalin, atheist, caused 43 millions deaths, and Mao, atheist, caused 45 million deaths. (For good measure, it should also be noted that "In adulthood, [Hitler] became disdainful of Christianity... It is generally believed by historians that Hitler's long term aim was the eradication of Christianity in Germany... Hitler repeatedly stated that Nazism was a secular ideology founded on science.")

If you truly want to minimize suffering, and had to choose between an occasional Sept-11-style attack with 3000 deaths perpetrated by religious fanatics, and a Mao-style genocide with 45 million deaths perpetrated by atheists, you'd choose the religious fanatics every time.

One wonders how history would be different if Mao, Stalin, or Hitler had believed there to be a whit of genuine authority behind the commandment, "You shall not murder."

Oh dear, oh dear. Yes, I have to agree here; that is horrible. Terrible. Possibly even Terrorism. Ranting and raving against the US! Having her photo taken with Fidel!! Because no US politician would ever rant or rave against neighbouring counties. Or have their photo taken with dubious world leaders.

Well, that is the Slashdot rule, isn't it? Whenever the subject of Iraq comes up you can bet that someone will point out that decades ago pictures were taken of Donald Rumsfeld meeting Saddam so that "totally proves" that Saddam was put in power by the US, and was a US puppet, and .. and ... and. Or is this one of the many rules that is only operative when it is to the disadvantage of the US?

Certainly. If a politician says some mean things about the US, that TOTALLY justifies US meddling in that politician's country. There is lots of jurisprudence here, because it is exactly the time-honoured schoolyard argument that teachers like so much: "But teach, THEY started it!". (And in the same time-honoured schoolyard tradition, the original offence is of course microscopic compared to the retaliation.)

You may notice that individual nations deal with each other, there is no "teacher." But you wouldn't suggest that anyone speak out of turn, right? Not even for human rights, for those that have no voice?

Oblivious to 1st April

I thought all these were pretty good but I'm staggered people are taking this seriouysly

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

"pointing to a future stalked by floods, drought, conflict and economic damage if carbon emissions go untamed."

This has been asserted since 1985.

Meanwhile:
Freeman Dyson speaks out about climate science, and fudge
Climatologists Are No Einsteins, Says His Successor

"in the late 1970s, he got involved with early research on climate change at the Institute for Energy Analysis in Oak Ridge, Tenn."

"That research, which involved scientists from many disciplines, was based on experimentation. The scientists studied such questions as how atmospheric carbon dioxide interacts with plant life and the role of clouds in warming.

But that approach lost out to the computer-modeling approach favored by climate scientists. And that approach was flawed from the beginning, Dyson said.

“I just think they don’t understand the climate,” he said of climatologists. “Their computer models are full of fudge factors.”

A major fudge factor concerns the role of clouds. The greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide on its own is limited. To get to the apocalyptic projections trumpeted by Al Gore and company, the models have to include assumptions that CO-2 will cause clouds to form in a way that produces more warming.

“The models are extremely oversimplified,” he said. “They don’t represent the clouds in detail at all. They simply use a fudge factor to represent the clouds.”

Dyson said his skepticism about those computer models was borne out by recent reports of a study by Ed Hawkins of the University of Reading in Great Britain that showed global temperatures were flat between 2000 and 2010 — even though we humans poured record amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere during that decade.

http://www.economist.com/news/...

"Atmospheric CO2 may actually be improving the environment.

“It’s certainly true that carbon dioxide is good for vegetation,” Dyson said. “About 15 percent of agricultural yields are due to CO2 we put in the atmosphere. From that point of view, it’s a real plus to burn coal and oil.”

In fact, there’s more solid evidence for the beneficial effects of CO2 than the negative effects, he said. So why does the public hear only one side of this debate? Because the media do an awful job of reporting it.

“They’re absolutely lousy,” he said of American journalists. “That’s true also in Europe. I don’t know why they’ve been brainwashed.”

I know why: They're lazy. Instead of digging into the details, most journalists are content to repeat that mantra about “consensus” among climate scientists.

The problem, said Dyson, is that the consensus is based on those computer models. Computers are great for analyzing what happened in the past, he said, but not so good at figuring out what will happen in the future. But a lot of scientists have built their careers on them. Hence the hatred for dissenters."

Lovelock: who predicted disaster -
http://www.independent.co.uk/o...

Now says:

The problem is we don't know what the climate is doing. We thought we knew 20 years ago. That led to some alarmist books — mine included — because it looked clear-cut, but it hasn't happened," Lovelock said. "The climate is doing its usual tricks. There's nothing much really happening yet. We were supposed to be halfway toward a frying world now," he said. "The world has not warmed up very much since the millennium. Twelve years is a reasonable time it (the temperature) has stayed almost constant, whereas it should have been rising — carbon dioxide is rising, no question

Even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Romney wasn't the only Republican to predict this.

Some people see the world as it is instead of how their ideology might wish it to be. Putin is an aggressive expansionist and his subjects love him for it. They will reward him for his aggression and we risk a great conflict.

Bush's Ballistic Missile Defense is looking better every day. Another easily foreseen reality.

No, there is massive perceived support for it, ask real people on the street, they're more likely to hate the idea of the government censoring what people do on the internet without some sort of court injunction against said individual(s). Blocking child porn is one thing, arbitrarily blocking anything the government feels like won't likely win them many friends at the next election. Especially if it blocks something the vast majority is likely to notice like everyday pornography.

There is also massive support for UKIP right now, it has even taken 3rd place in opinion poles and kicked libdems into 4th. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/new-poll-puts-ukip-in-third-place-above-the-lib-dems-8622281.html

http://www.independent.co.uk/l...

A better (worse) example is needed.

Stay tuned, Animats. Stay tuned. One donor hired a new PR firm to puff up their Wikipedia article with thousands of bytes of content, because their previous PR firm was Bell Pottinger, and they felt compelled to get rid of them. (You may recall the highly-publicized interaction between Jimmy Wales and Bell Pottinger -- http://www.independent.co.uk/n... )

The vast majority of passports are stolen for mundane criminal purposes not terrorism.

http://www.independent.co.uk/v...

I wonder how much oil and/or coal it takes to create the electricity to charge this bus everyday?

And yes, I know that CA just opened the worlds largest solar farm, but we all know most power on the grid is still carbon-burning.

Comparing genocide with doing business? Only on the Internet!

Not at all, here's a billionaire comparing the treatment of the 1% to the Holocaust. Written in a letter, published in the WSJ. Internet not required.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Completely undermining?!? You should really look up how standards are made, how many of those there are and why OOXML isn't worse than anything. Really, why is that a problem for you unless you are a rabid MS-hater?

On the contrary, everyone around at the time of MS's corruption of the standards bodies is well aware of the corruption. You didn't need to be a hater, it was everywhere in the tech news.

Now are you denying it because you are too young to remember, or because you're an apologist?

Arguing with idiots is like wrestling with a pig. If you don't understand what that means, look it.

And there isn't much to be gained by arguing with an AC.

But I'll give you one for free - http://www.independent.co.uk/e...

Read that all the way through and find out what Viner actually said and on what timeframe.

Case in point, GB had to offer investors garantueed energy prices 2x the current market price to get them to invest in a nuclear power plant.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

Actually nevermind UK isn't any better than the US since UK does not respect free speech

I haven't walked the seashore. I haven't examined the sediments (and never will now, apparently). I'm certainly not the bearer of an archeology sheepskin from some exalted university.

But ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

http://www.independent.co.uk/i...

Does anyone see more than two prints in any sort of logical and likely walking pattern? You know, one in front of the other, left foot, right foot? No, I didn't think so.

"Of the 50 or so examples recorded, only around a dozen were reasonably complete - and only two showed the toes in detail. Tragically, although a full photogrammetric and photographic record has been made, all but one of the prints were rapidly destroyed by incoming tides before they could be physically lifted."

That's odd: EVERY bare foot print I've ever seen clearly showed the toes (even Bigfoot's!). And how curious, that "footprints" cast in rock-hard sediment that has survived for a million years beside a seaside that's repeatedly changed depth over the milleniums .. suddenly are totally and almost completely destroyed by the very next incoming tide? How .. unfortunate.

The Happisburgh geology (readily available with the most trivial search) also does not support this. The beach surfaces and their underlying sedimentary structure are NOT a million years old.

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/landslid...
http://books.google.com/books?...

No, I'm sorry, I'm not buying this. Someone was seeing what they wanted to see.

I haven't walked the seashore. I haven't examined the sediments (and never will now, apparently). I'm certainly not the bearer of an archeology sheepskin from some exalted university.

But ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

http://www.independent.co.uk/i...

Does anyone see more than two prints in any sort of logical and likely walking pattern? You know, one in front of the other, left foot, right foot? No, I didn't think so.

"Of the 50 or so examples recorded, only around a dozen were reasonably complete - and only two showed the toes in detail. Tragically, although a full photogrammetric and photographic record has been made, all but one of the prints were rapidly destroyed by incoming tides before they could be physically lifted."

That's odd: EVERY bare foot print I've ever seen clearly showed the toes (even Bigfoot's!). And how curious, that "footprints" cast in rock-hard sediment that has survived for a million years beside a seaside that's repeatedly changed depth over the milleniums .. suddenly are totally and almost completely destroyed by the very next incoming tide? How .. unfortunate.

The Happisburgh geology (readily available with the most trivial search) also does not support this. The beach surfaces and their underlying sedimentary structure are NOT a million years old.

https://www.bgs.ac.uk/landslid...
http://books.google.com/books?...

No, I'm sorry, I'm not buying this. Someone was seeing what they wanted to see.