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...one of our customers was one of the biggest porn companies...

What, was the Catholic church muscling in on the e-book business and expanding into vids?

I still haven't seen many apart from under dusty glass in a shop so think the "all" bit is hype and suspect it's not doing well anywhere.

You need to get out more, apparently

Why is this crap getting posted when I linked a story about a massive censorship law being debated next week in the UK and it gets buried. Many of the 'campaigns' are by ordinary citizens, it is us who would lose our voice in the 12 month lead-up to any election.

new government plans to gag charities and campaigners

There is nothing pleasant about the regime in Damascus. Nor do these comments let the regime off the hook when it comes to mass gassing. But I am old enough to remember that when Iraq â" then Americaâ(TM)s ally â" used gas against the Kurds of Hallabjah in 1988, we did not assault Baghdad. Indeed, that attack would have to wait until 2003, when Saddam no longer had any gas or any of the other weapons we had nightmares over.

And I also happen to remember that the CIA put it about in 1988 that Iran was responsible for the Hallabjah gassings, a palpable lie that focused on Americaâ(TM)s enemy whom Saddam was then fighting on our behalf. And thousands â" not hundreds â" died in Hallabjah. But there you go. Different days, different standards.

Iran, not Syria, is the West's real target - Robert Fisk, The Independent

Follow the money is the elephant in the room? Absolutely agree. *cough*-big-oil-*cough*.

Better look at what side big oil is on then. They're getting rich off of things like biofuels and renewable energy.

That is a minuscule side-business compared to fossil fuel operations, as evidenced by their actions:

Oil firms fund climate change 'denial'
Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks
Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
Audit trail reveals that donors linked to fossil fuel industry are backing global warming sceptics

Follow the money is the elephant in the room? Absolutely agree. *cough*-big-oil-*cough*.

Better look at what side big oil is on then. They're getting rich off of things like biofuels and renewable energy.

That is a minuscule side-business compared to fossil fuel operations, as evidenced by their actions:

Oil firms fund climate change 'denial'
Secret funding helped build vast network of climate denial thinktanks
Think-tanks take oil money and use it to fund climate deniers
Audit trail reveals that donors linked to fossil fuel industry are backing global warming sceptics

I'd like to colour code the UK in the same way using the "well-being" data found from this XLS file (look for "Average rating").

Is there any way I can go about this efficiently? The software would need to recognize the locations (Aberdeenshire, Hampshire, Surrey etc.), ask me what column and range for the colour coding I want to use, and colour a map of the UK automatically. Does anyone know if any site (maybe an app from Google?) could do this?

Here's another dataset on UK nationwide happiness. It would be interesting to compare how close these two studies get.

But,...journalists are the new terrorists -right! Also they also put their family to risk by publishing material that the government doesn't approve. And think about their potential children, which they endanger by not obeying the rules. If all the journalists could be regularly waterboarded, maybe they would then reveal the evil secrets they know? Journalists are also often following funerals and weddings, maybe those unmanned drones could double tap some of those know gatherings of terrorist-journalists?

Reporters without borders sure sounds like a global network of these terrorist-journalists - "douple tap" that too!

Seven mistakes that cost De Menezes his life

There have been quite a bit of effort to do population-control in many countries but there are quite a few idiots working against it.

Christianity:
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2012/12/the-catholic-church-condoms-and-hiv-aids-in-africa/
Islam:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/islamethics/contraception.shtml - Leaders talking against any.

Generic regarding contraception and religion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_and_birth_control

Here you have a pope claiming that condoms are infected with aids:
http://www.irinnews.org/report/75412/mozambique-condom-mythology

Then you have all that crap in regards to abortion, in both Islam and Christianity....

On top of this you have this thing where people just have to have a male offspring and they will continue until they have.....

Some reasons for big families in Africa:
http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.se/2009/12/reason-for-desire-for-big-families-in.html
Summary "Historically families where big to be able to take care of the farm. When people moved to cities the urge to have many children still remained"

Another thing that can cause families in developing countries to have big families is that they don't have any care for the elderly there so they have many children so someone can take car of them when they get to old.

If religion could stop interfering with sex-education for people (both kids and adults anywhere in the world) and also stop spreading lies. (no. I'm not gonna start a flame-war here, i was just referring to the example with the pope that said that condoms can give you aids)

3 things are needed for population-control:
- Sex education. This should start before puberty.
- Provide affordable or free contraception. (condoms, pills etc)
- I know this is really bad, but if someone wants a male or female offspring allow them a free check and abortion if it's not a match. (It sounds cruel, but look at how many abandoned female children there are, how many that are actually killed after birth etc.)
http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2012/01/16/it%E2%80%99s-a-girl-the-three-deadliest-words-in-the-world/

Although there are stronger laws in Europe, I would not bet any money on that. Compare this story on the web (published in 2010) with this story (published in 2012).

For those who don't want to read both articles: Basically, in 2010, Europol was to oversee (secretly) the financial information that was going to be given to the U.S. and the law makers were promised bulk information wouldn't be passed to the U.S. As of 2012, it has been discovered that bulk information is being passed to the U.S. My logic is this: if we can't trust financial data to be passed properly, how can we expect any other information to be passed (or not passed) properly? Frankly, I'm surprised how unhappy Europeans are about how the U.S. is handling Snowden while being strangely quiet over the whole debacle with Morales' plane. That does not pass the sniff test with me.

Disclaimer: I'm an American living in Germany. I cannot read German yet so I don't know specifically what the news is saying concerning this. I do know Snowden is in the German Google headlines more often than in the U.S. Google headlines.

- Great Firewall of the UK, China, Iran and Russia
- Undersea cables cut in the Mediterranean knocking entire continents off the network
- Copyright collection agencies deciding what is allowed on the internet and what isn't with no public input or control whatsoever (HADOPI, GEMA, the list goes on for quite a while)
- Several nations' network speeds are so slow as to make the internet unusable for doing anything more than reading text
- Several nations don't have internet connectivity whatsoever (largely island nations, Southeast Asia and Africa)
- ICANN's support of non-English URIs and country-specific TLDs
- US laws like COPPA, CFAA, and the planned CISPA/SOPA, and a USTR hostile to internet freedom
- And this one has been important since the dawn of the internet: ICANN and IANA have always been based in the US and controlled by its government
- The top three biggest TLDs in the entire world (.com, .net, .org) are all administered in the US, and this has been used to establish jurisdiction over servers physically located in foreign countries. (See Megaupload, Rojadirecta, TVShack, and the Pirate Bay) -- frequently at the behest of private industry without due process of law

I think lab-grown meat is the future. For quite a lot of people, meat is just too tasty to be given up completely. At the same time, it is an environmental disaster, with the United Nations estimating that animal farming has a greater effect on climate change than ALL of the worlds transportation (that is, cars, trucks, trains, ships and airplanes) combined. Some even say it's responsible for 51% of greenhouse gases emissions. Additionally, factory farming causes billions of animals to suffer, which is highly unethical. Lab-grown meat avoids both problems.

Until we can buy lab-grown meat, we should still go Veg, but once lab-grown meat is available, the abolishment of the mass factory farming is much more realistic.

Australia has an expression for this erratic behaviour in increasing temperatures, they call it: "going troppo"

Though I think the heat is just an excuse to explain that they are drinking too much alcohol instead of water, it is the alcohol that is making them bat-shit crazy.

Different cultures handle excessive alcohol differently; some like to beat the shit out of each other; some like to get darwin awards.
Russians like to drown in heatwaves cooled by vodka.

How about we get Linus to bury some code in there so we can spy on the NSA? See how they like it?

The Chinese, Russians, and no doubt other countries are way ahead of you. They love spying on the NSA. They seem to be getting volunteer help these days too. What do you think Linus will bring to the game?

Do you think Linus will be interested in doing anything about people trying to set off car bombs at public ceremonies? Or will we still be stuck with the FBI and NSA? If Linus isn't interested in doing anything, do you think the NSA should be crippled?

FBI: alleged Christmas tree bomber thought 9/11 'was awesome'
Report: Canadian Terrorists Planned Truck Bomb Attack
Suicide truck bomb kills 14 in Russia
3 sought after 2nd car bomb found in London

I know, you're frustrated. There is plenty to be frustrated about from just about every perspective on this. The sad part is that the only people likely to really benefit are the people that want to set of the bombs to kill innocents.

And Samsung still wouldn't care, evidenced by past behavior (otherwise known as the best predictor of future behavior):

Samsung could face 15B Euro fine
Samsung, LG fined for LCD price fixing
Tax evasion, bribery, and price fixing: how Samsung became the giant that ate Korea
Samsung agrees to plead guilty to DRAM price fixing, pay $300M fine
6 Samsung executives headed to jail for price fixing
Samsung, LG fined for mobile price fixing scheme

Everyone is holding these guys up to be some kind of saints in their battle against the evil Apple Empire, when they are thrice-convicted price fixers that screw their customers over at every opportunity, legal or otherwise; and try to screw the competition by suing over standards-essential patents that they don't license for FRAND terms (allegedly).

Samsung is not a friendly company, but I'll likely be modded down for saying so. Whatever, I've got the karma to burn.

"The criminals move in criminal circles and could get a gun [unlicenced] in a few hours, I expect."

CITATION NEEDED.

Provide some evidence of claims like this, because it sounds like something that would be convenient for your argument, but is totally unsupported by statistics (gun crimes in the UK are LOW) http://www.politics.co.uk/reference/gun-crime and have been declining since the middle of the last decade.

Typical uniformed idiot posting rubbish instead of checking the actual numbers - gun crimes has fallen over 40% in the last decade: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-winning-battle-against-inner-city-gun-crime-8463957.html

All the nice sentences just to talk around full compliance with CALEA?
Its not like it was just some fax with a time, ip and port number from some city police department.. with an amazing letterhead.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_Assistance_for_Law_Enforcement_Act
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/edward-snowden-claims-microsoft-collaborated-with-nsa-and-fbi-to-allow-access-to-user-data-8705755.html
http://www.salon.com/2013/07/11/snowden_docs_detail_collaboration_between_nsa_and_microsoft/
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/07/nsa-taps-skype-chats-newly-published-snowden-leaks-confirm/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/11/microsoft-nsa-collaboration-user-data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems
US Adult Computer and Adult Internet Users
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s1158.pdf
The tiny % number wrt to big US computer use number and US MS marketshare seem to add up :)
Interesting http://cryptome.org/2013-info/06/whistleblowing/whistleblowing.htm lists gov works, bankers, military, a call-centre-employee, health insurance PR, a few former NSA, CIA, FBI employees, people in sports and education, press, lawyers...
In this broad mix, how/why did so many within the US computer/CS/networking elite stay so silent? Did they feel it was just a domestic link to the FBI in continuous use?
Was the psychological profiling and testing of contractors near perfect Cash was great?
So few staff over so many product ranges over many years?

Not really, I mean a TLD is just for categorizing a domain right? So we've overused .com till it's useless and now we have .co because people didn't want to type in an extra m. Then you have the government TLDs.. ala .co.uk that everbody was supposed to really use but only a few ISPs in few countries now use. Tuvalu hoped that selling .TV DNS entries would generate revenue but that looks like that hasn't transpired.

A TLD really doesn't mean much unless you're blocking .sex or .porn or .xxx from your country, company, school, house what have you.

With more and more mobile devices, I think you'll see more QCRs and auto bookmarking facilities that will lock folks into one or more subset of domains that they use. Hell if you look at browsers, even Firefox, Chrome and IE will assume your entry based on past entries.. I just have to type go and www.google.com shows up now www.go.com...

I'm still pissed at ICANN for turning my .masterofspacetimeanddimension TLD because I couldn't prove it.
Stupid ICANN, don't they know I don't need to prove it?

Of course they're at war. This is one of the most incompetent and scientifically illiterate governments in living memory. It's packed full of lunatic ideologues like Ian Duncan Smith and Teresa May who sideline professional academic advice time and time again in favour of their own prejudices stupidity and ignorance. I just wish their misguided, harmful and plain unworkable policies wouldn't wreck this countries social and political fabric for generations to come. It would be funny if the human cost wasn't so high

And you know what? In spite of this, the main opposition is still unable to differentiate itself as a better alternative than this shower of charlatans, bigots and liars.

I despair at this country. I really do.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Thomas Jefferson was an American revolutionary. While you seem very keen on spilling the blood of patriots and tyrants, you aren't really addressing the real issue. In fact, as far as I recall you just completely ignore or try to assume it away every time it comes up. The problem involves this lot, and their brethren:

At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says
Muslim Gangs Enforce Sharia Law in London

They have been actively plotting attacks, and used other means as well, to try to force their way of life on ordinary Britons. There have been many arrests and convictions in the UK as a result. A sample:

Bomb plot: Life sentence for Irfan Naseer, ringleader of Birmingham men planning wave of UK suicide attacks
London terror bomb plot: the four terrorists
7/7 London Attacks

Some of those cretins are quite willing to spill not just the blood of patriots and tyrants, but the blood of innocents as well. This has been amply demonstrated in Russia, Afghanistan, and other places.

Russia school siege toll tops 350
Acid attacks, poison: What Afghan girls risk by going to school

Although you may think it wrong, the surveillance by GCHQ is a meaningful part of the security services efforts to protect ordinary Britons. You don't offer anything to replace it.

Waving your hands and saying no system is perfect isn't helpful. Polemics against the monarchy in a story on the UK are misplaced, and overthrowing the monarchy does nothing to protect Britons. What would you do to replace the surveillance to keep British subjects from harm? If your answer is something along the lines of, "Don't cause offense to the rest of the world. Pull back into a shell." then you have just demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the problem. The ideology of the extremists is an aggressive one; they mean to take over the world even if it takes 1,000 years. So we come to the question again: what would you do to prevent British schools and football stadiums from being drenched in blood, besides advocating the overthrow of the monarchy, which is in no way helpful at all?

They are surely not concerned about what he has revealed, but more about what he might yet reveal (or confirm) in the future...

Hopefully many of the mosques in America that encounter radical and/or terrorism sympathetic persons will rise to the occasion and do the same when they hear something actionable,

Yeah, they never do that!

The FBI wasn't spying on mosques to eavesdrop on people agonizing over temptation to eat bacon

Yeah, that's totally why american muslims distrust the FBI.
Man, they sure are dummies to think the FBI was spying on them because of pork!

It somehow reminds me of the Soviet Union, which was so out of touch and terrified of its populace that it used to jail poets and painters. Now the US government is so afraid of its populace that its mining people's fucking Facebook logs and mobile phone conversations.

I totally disagree. Artists represented an idealogical threat to the soviet union - artists are non-conformists and the USSR was all about conformity. The even CIA recognized it and heavily promoted the arts.

The reason the US government is spying on everyone is not because they feel threatened - at least not in the way the USSR did - but because it is super easy to do. They are willing to spend some minor portion of tax revenues on the threat of terrorism and it just so happens that the internet is such an enormous power multiplier that the same amount of money that would have spied on a couple of thousand russians in the 80s can now spy on nearly everybody. Since it is "cheap" they do it.

The CIA and the rest aren't interested in protecting american values, they are interested in stuff that is easily quantifiable - deaths due to terrorism, people killed by drones, money spent on budgets, etc. This sort of systemic weakness happens with organizations (government and private) all the time - look at the "No child left behind" program - focus on test scores because those are easy to quantify but neglect for the important but more ephemeral things like critical thinking, synergistic thinking and broader perspectives.

That these sorts of systems are easily abused is not an issue for the people implementing them because no one ever believes that they are a bad guy. Even guys like Hitler and Pol Pot had their own narratives which painted their actions as good and righteous.

Which, ultimately, is why the secrecy around these programs is toxic - without truly independent oversight from the public these programs will just grow as much as their budgets will allow.

With the Apple deal, it is simply not possible for anyone to beat Apple on the price the consumer pays. Not 'difficult' or 'painful' to beat Apple, impossible.

Only because *IF* the book is sold at a lower price at another retailer, Apple is allowed to lower their price to match. Nothing wrong with that, it's standard practice. Anything other would be denying Apple the right to compete.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jobs-encouraged-apple-to-work-with-publishers-on-ebook-price-hike-court-hears-8642931.html

And under the deal with Apple, the publisher can not set a lower retail price for any other retailer than they do for Apple.

It's actually the other way around. If the publisher sets the price lower at another retailer, Apple is allowed to match that price.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/jobs-encouraged-apple-to-work-with-publishers-on-ebook-price-hike-court-hears-8642931.html

Oh really?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/two-dead-after-police-car-chase-8554266.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2012/sep/04/azelle-rodney-shooting-police-chase-video

As usual some British asshole uses the word "yank" and "Cowboy" to describe something that's happening in his own backyard. This isn't a US problem, it's a police problem. If anything, UK police have an even bigger sense of "We're your mommy and daddy, do what we say" than they do in the US.

After some considerable delay, while the terrorists milled about chatting, yes.

If a law abiding person at the scene had been armed, instead of just the terrorists, it might have ended before the terrorists were able to decapitate Drummer Rigby. Personally, I would have found that quite agreeable.

When seconds count, the police are only minutes away.

Murder is already very, very illegal. No new laws are needed.
Planning murder is already very illegal. No new laws are needed.
Soliciting murder is already very illegal. No new laws are needed.

I believe that level of perfection in the law was reached by 1613. Are you suggesting that in the last 400 years that all subsequent new laws were unneeded? There was no need to ban guns, since killing people was already illegal? No need for any of the anti-terrorism laws, since killing people was already illegal? There was no opportunity to improve matters that are governed by law? No possibilities to improve evidence gathering? No possibilities to improve cooperation between different ministries and agencies? No limits on extremist activity that might inhibit the already far too many people in HM realm that are disposed to commit acts of terror. Also note, by your reasoning there should have been no reason to effectively ban self-defense, since murder is already illegal so no further laws are necessary. I don't think I can agree with that.

Starting from July 7/7/2005, an average of 7 people are killed per year due to terrorist attacks. That's on the same level as eye-wateringly obscure medical diseases.

I am unaware of any obscure medical diseases that might cause one to burst into thousands of pieces of steel shrapnel to kill dozens of people standing nearby. That is a constant threat of terrorism of the sort already seen in Britain. The absence of regular incidents of such is a result of convictions, not luck or magic stones.

Basically, any money put into preventing those is a complete waste: the money would be vastly better spent elsewhere, such as improving road safety.

Those numbers can change rather quickly if just one plot gets through.

No, I'll try and shoot them, just like the police shot at these murderers. And see, no new laws were needed.

That would be use of an offensive weapon. There are severe penalties for violating the Queens peace like that.

I never said corporate income tax was not meant to be collected, nor did I say it wasn't collected. I said corporations didn't "pay much" in income tax. I grant that is rather subjective, but it is still non-zero.

You said that it was by design. I'm saying otherwise :-)

I challenge you to find a corporation that is paying ZERO in taxes, which is the phrase the article used.

"Despite reporting net income of $30 billion over the four-year period 2009 to 2012, Apple Operations International paid no corporate income taxes to any national government during that period,"
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

In 2011, another Ireland-based Apple unit, Apple Sales International, which sells iPhones, iPads MacBooks and other products to overseas distributors, recorded $22 billion in pretax earnings but paid just $10 million in taxes, investigators found. That works out to a rate of about .05%.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324787004578495250424727708.html

"In April, Amazon was revealed to be routing its UK sales through its European headquarters in low-tax Luxembourg, meaning that last year its UK corporation tax bill was nil, despite revenue of £3bn from the sale of books, DVDs and other goods."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/good-bean-counters-starbucks-has-paid-no-tax-in-uk-since-2009-8212579.html

"Most of Google’s revenues in Europe are booked in Dublin, then shifted via royalty payments to a Dutch subsidiary, before whatever is left is recognised as profits by a subsidiary in Bermuda, which levies no income tax."
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21568432-starbuckss-tax-troubles-are-sign-things-come-multinationals-wake-up-and-smell

Regardless of localized sweetheart deals or incentive abatements or whatever, they are still paying fees, sales or VAT tax, and many more. Hence my retort that claiming a corporation pays "zero in taxes" is a gross distortion. Whether or not they should be paying more, or be allowed to structure in such a way to avoid paying certain taxes, is a different discussion.

Shrug. So close to zero as to be zero for all intents and purposes.

Individuals pay 'fees, sales or VAT tax and many more' as well and so what? This is not a valid reason to not pay income taxes.

With regard to these...companies don't pay VAT - they collect it from their customers and for what they do pay they have the right to claim it back from the government. Sales tax in the US on what they buy for themselves, yes. Not sure what fees you're talking about.

End result is that individuals are carrying the tax burden at all levels, not corporations.

It isn't thought crime that is the concern, but rather "ball bearing" crime.

This is what happens when you catch them before they attack.

Bomb plot: Life sentence for Irfan Naseer, ringleader of Birmingham men planning wave of UK suicide attacks

This is what happens when you don't.

Madrid Train Station Blasts Kill 190
Bali bombing remembered 10 years on
London Attacks
Investigation of Boston Marathon bombings continues

I would think this is easy to understand.

Then you should feel much better since that isn't what happened. But don't worry, anytime the country gets tired of taking proper security measures, there will be fellows like this bunch that come along to give incentive to correct the problem.

I'm afraid you've misaddressed that complaint. You should be sending it to this lot. If they have their way, it won't just be a "chilling effect" you feel on your neck. On the other hand, they like to give people a "hot time" when they can. If it makes you feel any better, I think the restrictions on that sort of thing aren't as rigid as they were in WW 2.

When terrorists become more of a threat than ladders, maybe then I'll consider thinking about giving the government new powers to stop them.

I hate to break it to you, but government at all levels in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, Europe, and indeed, pretty much the entire world save various tribes in the Amazon, New Guinea, certain parts of Africa, have been using phones for some time. They have also used TIPs lines for a very long time. No new power needed to do this.

It looks to me that the 9/11 attacks killed about 7.5x the number of people that died from ladders in 2001. The fact that it hasn't been repeated isn't an accident, but rather hard work, and actively taken measures.

In the UK, the 7/7 attacks appear to have equalled it. Her Majesty's government continues to fight the problem. Example: "Bomb plot : Life sentence for Irfan Naseer, ringleader of Birmingham men planning wave of UK suicide attacks"

Until them, fuck off you dictator wannabee.

I would say your civility and insight have converged on this matter.

No, it doesn't because it is irrelevant. The US lost more than 100x the number of people that died at Pearl Harbor in WW2, but it still went to war against Japan, Germany, and Italy. The problem they presented wasn't going to go away by doing nothing. I expect that far more people at the time died of accidents of various sorts than were killed in the attack. Not relevant. The problem of Al Qaida is the same - it won't go away by itself. but will only get worse if ignored. It has to be addressed to turn it around. The point about suicide versus battlefield casualties doesn't negate that and is irrelevant. Although I will take a moment to recognize the considerable improvements in battlefield medicine and personal protection through various means which have resulted in a much lower death rate than previous conflicts - fabulous work.

On a tangential note, you might want to find out what Al Qaida's goals are. They are ultimately independent of US actions.

The Future of Terrorism: What al-Qaida Really Wants
The short version: Restore the Islamic Caliphate dissolved in 1923, take over the work, and convert the world to Islam. It is a long term goal. You may not think that is realistic, but that is what they fight and kill for.

Including this lot: Bomb plot: Life sentence for Irfan Naseer, ringleader of Birmingham men planning wave of UK suicide attacks
 

Well its not a good time for pyramids, with the Muzzies threatening to destroy the Egyptian ones.

The Identity Cards Act 2006 mandated national ID cards. In October 2006, the Government declared it would cost £5.4bn to run the ID cards scheme for the next 10 years, and by November 2007 this estimate was revised to £5.612bn. The Identity Documents Act 2010 cancelled this with at least £256 million already spent.

It is generally acknowledged that this scheme would not have delivered any increased security, as applications would be verified against passport and driving license databases that were already known to be inaccurate.

It is a fairly accurate analogy, they are very similar emotions biologically:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/scientists-prove-it-really-is-a-thin-line-between-love-and-hate-976901.html

Think about it, who are the people you hate the most, they are the ones that you loved and have hurt you. People you who you don't care about and never did are rarely people you end up hating.

In particular sense indifference can be thought of as the opposite of both. I.e. strong emotion vs weak emotion. You can of course think of it as positive vs negative emotion, its a matter of perspective.

On a side point I think it is best to let hate go, it tends to hurt you much more than the person you hate, you end up using your emotional energy on someone that should not be important at all.

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

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

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

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

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

How does that translate into DPI???

According to this report, the movie depicts an area of 45 x 25 nanometers. I use the body of the stickman to approximate pixels, which gives me about 30 pixels in height. Which translates to 3 * 10^7 DPI. Which will be in your iPhone 71's über-retina display (assuming dpi grows exponentially). Although it's really debatable if your eye is capable of making use of such a high resolution.

So this guy says we need to make more food? Is this so it can just be thrown away like we do currently? http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/green-living/half-of-the-worlds-food-is-just-thrown-away-8445261.html

Maybe if we did a better job of using what we make, this would be a total non problem (not that it is anyway, unless your a Monsanto salesman)

...they'd be safe, right?

The National Rifle Association in America will be preparing its statement. Each time a nutcase goes berserk with a gun, the NRA insists that this proves everyone should have a gun, so in a couple of days it'll announce that the only way to respond to events in Boston is for every citizen to have a nail bomb. In particular, marathon runners, instead of taking a bottle of water and a sponge at each stage of the race, which are useless in the fight against international terrorism, should be handed a grenade and a flamethrower.

The logic of the lobby that last week defeated the attempt to introduce gun controls must be that this is the only way to keep marathons safe. It might be trickier with sprint races, as the starting gun would go off and every runner would instinctively shoot at the poor sod who fired it, which might make race-starting a difficult post to fill. But the right to carry a nail bomb is surely a constitutional right of every US citizen.

People such as the pro-gun campaigners exhibit a special sort of genius. At a time such as last weekend, when you wouldn't think you could feel anything but sympathy for Americans, they manage to make you think: "Mind you, quite a few of them are bloody creepy." For example, on the night that the surviving bomber was captured, you might expect a mood of sombre relief. But CNN showed cheering crowds, and the reporter described the atmosphere as " elated, excited and jubilant". Then we saw them chanting "U-S-A, U-S-A", and some of them let off fireworks.

Maybe the anxiety had disturbed them and caused them to get the capture of a lunatic mixed up with New Year's Eve. Perhaps the same thing happened here, so that when Raoul Moat was shot the local community held hands and sang "Auld Lang Syne" and snogged their next door neighbour. "We got 'em, we GOT 'EM," roared a series of men, waving flags into cameras as if they'd won an Olympic medal. And once the story wasn't so much a human tragedy as a triumph for the USA, I couldn't help thinking "Oh, you ARE masterful aren't you, managing with no more resources than the army, SWAT teams, marines, an assortment of helicopters, the FBI and the entire population of Boston to track down a lunatic covered in blood who'd been shot through the neck and was wriggling about in a boat in someone's garden. I wonder who you'll meet in the SECOND round of the World Hide and Seek championships."

The strangest part is that this excitement doesn't usually happen on the occasions that a madman in America gets captured after going on the rampage in a school or shopping centre with the machine-guns he's constitutionally entitled to carry. For example, there were no joyous celebrations when James Holmes was captured after blasting 12 people dead in a cinema in Denver. I suppose that, unlike in Boston, the people of Denver just aren't party-going types. Or it could be that there's a rule that the capture of a dangerous criminal is only a victory for America if the criminal can be portrayed as not American. Because if you're going to go on a killing spree in America, you should at least have the decency to be American. There must be some people saying: "It's a disgrace. These Chechen lunatics are coming over here taking our lunatics' jobs."

When it was known the bombers were nice and foreign, the fun could start. Bob Beckel, a reporter on Fox News, informed viewers this was the time to "cut off Muslim students from coming into the country". The New America Foundation in Washington, which influences the government, declared that the problem was whether Muslims see themselves as "Americans first or Muslims first". New York Senator Steve King was one of many who concluded: "We must increase surveillance amongst Muslims."

But Adam Lanza, who went nuts in December with a gun in a school in Connecticut, was said to be from a "good Christian family".

You lost your credibility in the second line:

Perhaps the decade long dearth of any good television is nearing its end!

In chronological order, an abbreviated list:

• Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)
• The Shield (2002)
• The Wire (2002)
• Arrested Development (2003)
• Deadwood (2004)
• Battlestar Galactica (2004)
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005)
• Lost (2006)
• 30 Rock (2006)
• Friday Night Lights (2006)
• Dexter (2006)
• Big Love (2006)
• Mad Men (2007)
• Breaking Bad (2008)
• Parks and Recreation (2009)
• Party Down (2009)
• Community (2009)
• Louie (2010)
• Downton Abbey (2010)
• Homeland (2011)

Yeah, it's been a pretty crappy decade. (Any show listed before 2003 had a significant number of episodes in 2003 and beyond.) There are a lot of people out there that feel that this is the new golden age of television.

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

Seven mistakes that cost De Menezes his life

He was executed on suspicion of being a terrorist but was back in 2005. These days it's enough to be within a 20-300 meters of the suspected location of a terrorist (the blast radius of a Hellfire missile and a 250lb Paveway) when his/her suspected location gets zapped by a drone... nuff said.

Seven mistakes that cost De Menezes his life

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

Got anything that wasn't written 13 years ago?

http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".
"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7139797.stm

"Our projection of 2013 for the removal of ice in summer is not accounting for the last two minima, in 2005 and 2007," the researcher from the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California, explained to the BBC.

"So given that fact, you can argue that may be our projection of 2013 is already too conservative."

Part of the blame must be laid with the article writers, part with the sources quoted. The sources didn't put any effort to correct the news articles if they were misquoted.

From the very mouth of CRU, the holy gatekeepers of the Church of Climate Scientology. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/snowfalls-are-now-just-a-thing-of-the-past-724017.html

Year 2000: According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become "a very rare and exciting event".

"Children just aren't going to know what snow is," he said.

Year 2013: No mention is made of the weather in England, with the presence of heavy snow and ice completely ignored. However, "ALL ARCTIC ICE WILL DISAPPEAR VERY SOON"

NO, and I mean ZERO, security breeches that I have been aware of in the last two decades can be traced to password guessing.

I really hope you don't work for any company I'm affiliated with.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/07/twitter_hack_explained/
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/twitter-hacked-again--with-a-guessed-password-1748730.html

Guessed passwords are used every day to get a foothold into servers and applications.

Weak passwords are very problematic. One of the first things that an attacker is going to do if they can get access to the password hashes is run them through JtR or the like. You do know that password hasehs under a certain length in non-AD Windows aren't salted and can more or less instantly be cracked using rainbow tables, right?

But users do have problems with long and complex passwords which is part of why two factor authentication is increasingly important.