Slashdot Mirror

Sure, why not Russia. It's not as if Putin has ever shut down newspapers, radio, tv stations or other independent media because they didn't sing the tune Putin wanted them to.

I don't think you could find a better place to store a repository of internet web pages, some of which might contain information Putin finds objectionable because they show the facts of his corruption and abuse of power. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh come on, men who actually plead guilty get away with a slap on the wrist.
Take this guy for example - pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting and attempting to rape a 15 year old girl (he was more than 10 years older) and got away with a fine... a fucking fine, and he still has a high paying job - which includes being the public spokesman for his company !
http://mg.co.za/article/2007-1...

Considering how mild the punishments are for people who are guilty (and even admitted it in court by pleading guilty)... all the bullshit about the horror of false accusations simply don't hold water.

Fix the problems of victim-blaming, figure out better ways to determine whether there was true consent - solve the problems that allow rapists to consistently get away with it and be defended by society and when you've done all that... THEN you will have a valid case to treat false accusations as a problem.

Nobody thinks they never happen - but frankly every other problem related to sexual assault, consent and rape is so massively bigger that they are simply not worthy of concern. Hell men GET RAPED more often than they are falsely accused of it.

There are a million jokes about prison rape... men are petrified of going to prison and being in an area where there is a constant risk of being raped. Most prisoners are not rapists - but it only takes a few to make all the others victims. That image men have of what it's like to be in prison where you can't escape from those few and are likely to be a victim... that's the whole world for women. The vast majority of men are not rapist, but the few that are face so little punishment, so little risk of even being caught let alone convicted and such high odds of being protected - that the whole world is a constant threat of rape to women anyway because the few bastards who do are not put away. And every man who defends that status quo is complicit in it.

I'm a male feminist because I have a 2 year old girl and I want her to grow up in a world where that's not true anymore.

>The example you used of suffering from reporting a rape is extreme
No, it's really not - it's what happens in the vast majority of cases. It's incredibly rare that people do NOT ask questions like "what was she wearing" or "was she drinking". Such questions are extremely wrong. It doesn't matter what SHE did - it's NEVER part of the issue. The ONLY valid questions are what HE did and whether she WANTED him to and said so while sober and of sound mind (a person who is drunk cannot consent to sex - it's not legally possible anywhere in the free world and it's about time we enforce that law). Blaming the victim starts with questions like that, and if people don't like the answers it INVARIABLY leads to blaming her for ruining the man's life - with no regard for her own.

> is not a situation a false accuser is going to get in in the first place.
Of course she is ! Why would you possibly imagine that victim blamers will only blame the victim when she's real ?

>However, you seem to have your mind completely made up, without the need for facts.
I'm the one who is STATING facts. The MRA's paranoia is NOT based on facts - it's a story made up to demonize women and convince people that equal rights is a bad idea and that raping is their birth-rate. The man more than anybody responsible for telling everybody that false rapes are this big a concern - is the SAME man who wrote publicly that raping somebody in a private residence should be legal.

But if you don't mind the extra space for the equipment, solar thermal is the way to go.

Apparently so. There's a reference here to KaXu Solar One, 1km square made up of 120 parabolic troughs "delivering up to 100MW". And it seems that storage after sunset is baked in, with the promise that rocks will do it cheaper than molten salt.

More detail at the (South African) Mail & Guardian, published a couple of days before that Guardian piece, which confirms the intelligence is built into each unit.

"The heliostats are effectively smart robots that 'know the angle between the sun and the tower, depending on the time of day, and know where the sun is with respect to the tower. They each know this independently'".

Sorry, I don't believe it just because a couple of researchers, presumably with an agenda or a desire for further funding of their anthropological tintinnabulations, have written about it.

WTF is wrong with you? I live here, I've suffered under white rule and my entire family was a struggle family so I've got no agenda. The fact is that this is a belief that is shared by many of the locals here :-( Why don't you believe what newspapers, researchers and people on the ground are telling you - these folk are still stuck in the stone age in many respects. Grab any local newspaper you want and see for yourself the pathetic beliefs these people have:

Virgin cure belief

Another one of many

Here's official african government admitting to the baby-rape problem

How about bullet-proof vaseline and other stupidities?

Results of the official inquiry into the massacre

Strikers use body parts from security gaurd for their muti

Cutting up a 6 year old girl for body parts for their muti before they even killed her.

In fact, there are too many stories in the courts to even list. You no longer have the assertions of a couple of anthropologist's, you have the statement of a born-and-bred african who is living here, you have official reports of cases in courts and you also have independent newspapers all verifying the same facts.

Maintaining your skepticism in the face of all this will just make you look foolish. These thugs from the above stories aren't ignorant; they've all completed high-school (equivalent to a US HS diploma) and many of them even have tertiary education. It has become abundantly clear that the problem cannot be solved by relieving these idiots of their ignorance with education; the problem is not ignorance, it's stupidity.

You are really in the dark ages, you coward you! The US has a lot to learn from South Africa!

• 1. South Africa has won the Student Cluster Competition at the International Supercomputing Conference twice in a row in 2013 and 2014!
• 2. Amazon EC2 was developed mostly by a team in Cape Town, South Africa led by Chris Pinkham.
• 3. South African's, by virtue of the way they grow up, are much better equiped to deal with the challenges today, it seems, than their US counterparts.
• 4. Even in the old dark days of apartheid, South Africa led the world in nuclear reactor research on a shoestring budget, pioneering the whole pebble-bed reactor concept, and building 7 atomic bombs right under the noses of the world, which gives you a good indication of the South African mentality: "Don't tell us something cannot be done".

There are a great deal more items that can be added to this list, but I doubt it will help you much...

But maybe Mr Coward wasn't born yet at the time and he's still not able to find South Africa on a world map. (Hint: It's somewhere south of Mexico)

South Africa's Mail & Guardian is worth a read - local perspective.

Interesting name — mash-up of UK's worst & best papers, respectively (IMO).

Mandela paved the way for future greats like Julius Malema (may Allah exalt him beyond the status of a syphilitic camel someday) and the advancement of SA into the paradise it was always meant to be. Modern tribalism brings the community of South Africa together - in celebration of casting off the shadow of apartheid, and in non-consensual sexual activity all across the nation.
 
  Proof is abundant that black leaders can turn a formerly thriving but unfair country into a far more equitable ghetto.

South Africa's Mail & Guardian is worth a read - local perspective.

With all due respect to the victims and their families and friends - this isn't world news. In quite a few parts of the world, not just Iraq and Afghanistan, that's a small note somewhere on page 5 of the local newspaper.

It seems the world disagrees with you. This are all page one stories at sites that span the world.

Germany - USA: Explosionen beim Boston-Marathon - drei Tote, hundert Verletzte
Russia , (Act of terrorism committed in the U.S., numerous victims reported
Australia - US on alert after blasts shatter Boston Marathon killing 3, wounding 140
India - Boston Marathon bombing kills 3, injures over 130
Argentina - Bombs kill 3 people, wound more than 100 at Boston Marathon
United Arab Emirates - Boston Marathon: 3 killed, more than 140 injured as 2 bombs explode near finish line
South Africa - Boston terror attack: Three killed, 100 injured
Japan - 3 dead, more than 110 hurt after two bombs explode near Boston Marathon finish line

So it's not news-worthy for the body count and not for the fact that there was a bomb or two.

Actually it is newsworthy, for both reasons. Mass casualty events tend to be that way. Last I heard the number of bombs was 5-7.

And, most importantly and most disgustingly, we are still thinking in tribal norms. Our own dead and wounded are more important than the foreign ones.

Every family looks after its own first, as does every country. But as to tribes - there aren't really any tribes in the West anymore, none that function anyway. (Were the last the Scotts?) You might try that line of thinking on people from parts of the world that actually do have functioning tribes, such as the Middle East, or Africa. Your disgust will probably be taken as evidence of being crazy. It wouldn't even be a question to them - of course you look after the tribe first, it is a matter of survival. If you can convince the Arabs that making peace with the Jews is preferable to killing them, you might have a chance a reducing tribalism, but I doubt you can eliminate it.

The fact that a video game company was voted worst company in America is ridiculous and would be laughable if it was not so frightening. Come on! Is there nothing more serious on the planet than botching a game release? Aren't companies that fight like crazy to deprive cancer patients from inexpensive treatments a little worse? Or companies who lie to be free to play with your health in the name of profit? Or companies using child labor to lower the price of smartphones? Or simply profitable companies planning massive layoffs? Or media associations with an agenda built on layers of lies?

Apparently, for the majority of Slashdot readers, getting a perspective chip would be a good idea.

"UN Treaty on the Rights of the Child ---
We unequivocally oppose the United States Senate’s ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child."
Even Iran implements it.

Mildly related, you probably read this a few days ago: http://mg.co.za/article/2012-06-28-germanys-muslim-jewish-leaders-team-up-to-fight-circumcision-ruling

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-06-07-mugabe-hijacks-tourism-title

It's a United Nation of THUGS!

"Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stoked a volatile debate about refugees and migrant workers from Africa, warning that “illegal infiltrators flooding the country” were threatening the security and identity of the Jewish state. “If we don’t stop their entry, the problem that currently stands at 60 000 could grow to 600 000, and that threatens our existence as a Jewish and democratic state,” Netanyahu said at Sunday’s Cabinet meeting. “This phenomenon is very grave and threatens the social fabric of society, our national security and our national identity.”"

http://mg.co.za/article/2012-05-21-israel-on-african-immigrants

Try to say that in New York...

Nice a-factual rant, you've got there.

As an EU citizen, I find US practices completely unacceptable.
Oh, ok. I find some European practices unacceptable. For example, I don't think european countries should ban religious symbols or headscarves. I also don't think Europe should be allowing piracy. I know everyone likes to get stuff for free, but pirates don't have a sustainable economic model for the creation of digital media - except for the cheapest kinds, like TV shows (paid for by commercials) and YouTube videos. I hate to see what the world will become if piracy were the norm. I think europeans are being jerks by allowing groups like the PirateBay to continue operating. (Which is not to say that I agree with SOPA, but I do agree that things need to change.)

Even China doesn't try to restrict other countries.
That's good. Oh wait, wasn't there a recent story about Chinese hackers trying to take down a Fulun Gong website that was located outside China?
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/238655/china_hacking_video_shows_glimpse_of_falun_gong_attack_tool.html

Say, wasn't it China that put pressure on the US and other countries to shut-out the Dali Lama?
China Warns U.S. on Dalai Lama Trip, October 16, 2007 - http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/world/asia/16cnd-china.html
China: Obama visit with Dalai Lama has 'harmed Sino-U.S. relations' - Jul 16, 2011 - http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/07/16/dalai.lama.white.house/index.html
China pushes Mongolia to cut short Dalai Lama lecture, Nov 08 2011 - http://mg.co.za/article/2011-11-08-china-pushes-mongolia-to-cut-short-dalai-lama-lecture/

They do what they have to do inside their country, but they have never tried to block or manipulate other countries to do the same.
See above.

Yet US has the balls and hypocrisy to accuse China about its censorship practices, as do most US citizens here on Slashdot.
Stoping piracy is not censorship and you will lose this argument if you claim that it is. And cracking down on political and religious dissent is not the same thing as enforcing copyright. If you're going to make that comparison, you might as well compare one country's jailing of political dissidents with the US' jailing of criminals. There are political dissidents in Chinese jails for the crime of speaking out against the Chinese government.

US is much worse than China.
This should be interesting. By the way, as much as I dislike some of the things going on in the US, I do not like the way you're providing political cover for Chinese policies.

They try to force their views and laws globally.
When you say "views" and "laws" - those are very broad terms, as if all US views and laws must be enforced globally, which obviously is not the case. Let's talk specifics.

They install their own law enforcement agents inside other countries in the name of "providing training" to manipulate.
Not even clear on what you're talking about here.

They revoke IP addresses and domains used by non-US people.
As much as I'd like to agree with you, the problem stems from the fact that the internet is global. What this means is that, either the world enforces copyright or there will be some country which doesn't and everyone in the world will be able to side-step all the copyright laws. What we're talking about here is that one of the two extremes will win-out. It doesn't help at all that the PirateBay was operating for years, serving up pirated material to the whole world while sendi

If you are looking for references, it's all over the news, at least the Chinese news. Here are a handful that I easily pulled off Google News:

http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/07/30/idINIndia-58534820110730
http://www.christianpost.com/news/china-train-crash-social-media-users-allege-cover-up-52793/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/25/us-china-train-censorship-idUSTRE76O1IG20110725
http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-29-anger-mounts-as-families-mourn-china-train-crash-victims/
http://www.3news.co.nz/Toddler-found-alive-in-China-train-crash/tabid/417/articleID/219948/Default.aspx

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2005-05-27-laugh-it-off-wins-case-against-sab

"T-shirt maker Laugh It Off has won its fight against South African Breweries (SAB) over its right to mock the Carling Black Label brand."

This was quite a widely publicized law suite at the time and set a legal precident.

In the US however you don't have legal precidents. *sigh*

-paul

Not really, http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-03-09-americans-buying-majority-of-soccer-world-cup-tickets

Robert J. Ekas is obviously the American representative of what will become a worldwide movement.

In South Africa, a university student who may or may not have flipped off the police in a presidential cavalcade was summarily arrested, had a bag put over his head and was detained while his home was searched. Nice.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-02-19-no-middle-finger-to-prez

Fortunately the media kicked up a big fuss about it. It's not illegal to be rude.

Back at ya, : http://forum.mg.co.za/showflat.php?Cat=&Number=1802091422&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=7&vc=1

I would like to point out that the BBC, Boingboing, South Africa's Mail & Guardian, the UK's Daily Mirror, the bloody Katmandu, Nepal based Republica, and 632 news sources managed to report the announcement of Google Chrome OS before it was a glimmer in Slashdot's eye.

A very poor show for Slashdot, which is supposed to be news for nerds, stuff that matters.

You may have done PLENTY of studying of Islam, but you know nothing of it except what you want to see, a religion which dictates war and hate. See, you have a serious problem, you're reading the Koran, and you're taking it literally, unlike the majority of Muslims, who just want to live a simple life of peace. This still makes you an uneducated moron. Go LIVE in a Muslim country, then come back to us and let us know what you experience. And when I say go live in a Muslim country, I mean really live there. Not visit some tourist town.

I wish it weren't so. I wish your relatives the best, I really do. But there's a long road ahead and they are, sadly, VERY much in the minority concerning their interpretation of the Muslim faith.

And who the FUCK do you think you are telling people that they are a minority in their views? Excuse me, but the majority of Muslims are moderate and don't actually follow the book word for word. They are in the majority. They've gotten over the fundamentalist bullshit. You haven't. You really need to get a life. Yes, there are suicide bombings. Those are from minority fundamentalist factions. Guess what Einstein, if you play the news of a minority faction over and over again, people will believe that they are part of the majority.

In all seriousness, though... "worrying" that your religion is "hijacked", and actually standing up en masse and saying so, are two different things. And by and large, Muslims seem just fine letting people "hijack" their religion all day long.

So if a tree falls in the forest and nobody is there to listen, does it make a sound? Just because you're ONLY hearing about the bad, doesn't mean that nobody is actually speaking up. Take 9/11 for example. While asshats like yourself were busy whining about there not being a response, there actually was.

So why don't we ever hear about these things? Because sex, violence, and hate sells. Why should they focus their reports on people who preach peace when they can focus on those that preach violence? Get this in your fucking skull. If you were to read slashdot, and NOTHING but slashdot, you would believe that all computer users were smart and only used Linux, hated the RIAA, and knew everything there was to know about technology.

If you ONLY hear about suicide bombers, you'll believe that they are the only ones that exist.

I've visited Muslim countries on three different occasions, living with the locals, and I've felt nothing but warmth and kindness. There were no death threats, no "death to america" chants, and certainly no mistreatment of women in everyday life. It existed, and I talked to the locals about the problems and they all agreed that things are slowly changing for the better.

Islamic countries have a long way to go, and rather than focusing on specific verses that preached violence, why don't you focus on the big picture? Why don't you put as much time and energy looking for some signs of progress?

No, that's not enough, but over time things will change for the better, and blithering idiots like yourself will still be around spewing out propaganda bullshit that would make Karl Rove blush.

Nuclear isn't an option by itself.

Estimates for how much coal and uranium the planet would need to sustain itself do not successfully go passed the end of the century. The more conservative exercises place global uranium depletion between the years 2040 and 2050.

(Sources)
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/secondpage.html
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=340148&area=/insight/insight__economy__business/
http://www.amazon.com/End-Oil-Edge-Perilous-World/dp/0618562117/ref=sr_11_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1213899543&sr=11-1

In my opinion, nothing less than a major, unified effort between several historically autonomous government departments (Department of Energy, Department Of Interior, Department of Agriculture) would be successful in mitigating any damage inflicted by Peak Oil. In the US, we've grown to rely on cheap oil, and merely replacing/offsetting that dependence with another limited resource won't solve the problem.

Call me jaded, but when McCain says he wants to do this with public money, I just see another Neocon Republican initiative to pat themselves and their friends on the back of their bank accounts. I don't see in him the ability to help solve the problem, I just see another reactionary who will blame Iran or Saudi Arabia or whoever for increased oil prices and wield the increasingly imperialistic US Military against it.

-ds

Allow me to point out, as example, the corruption fighting unit of South Africa, called the "Scorpions". Or should I say, the ex-corruption-fighting unit of South Africa...

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=330180&referrer=RSS

In November 2007 there was a shootout at my local shopping center during an attempted jewelery heist. The center management decided to post security guards at all entrances, ostensibly to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.

What's wrong with this picture?

• The security guards are not law enforcement officers and cannot physically interfere with you or detain you. They get upset when you just walk/push past them, but they can't actually stop you.
• The guards are only present 8:30AM to 12PM, offering ample opportunity to enter the center and plant your weapons inside.
• The guards search your body if you are male (using a metal detector wand) or your handbag if you are female (visual inspection). Women and children can carry weapons on them without trouble. If you want to bring in a lot of weapons at once put them in a box (say a TV box "for return"), or in a shopping cart.
• Some entrances only have one guard, who is entitled by law to lunch and rest breaks ...
• Some service entrances were - so far as I am aware - unguarded.
• If you are carrying a firearm - even with a permit/license - you will not be allowed to enter the center (unless you are a law enforcement officer). This may prevent future shootouts but makes further heists less risky as there will be no armed civilians.
• Oh wait: private cash-in-transit security are permitted in to pick up cash ... with automatic weapons ... even in peak hours ... despite recommendations that they should be restricted to service entrances and corridors.

Did it work? Perhaps. There have been no further heists. Much like in the years preceding this incident. The werewolf deterrent in my fridge also appears to be working...

But where's the Brain-Computer interface? Heck, I would even go for real-time voice recognition!

Then again, if you take a hand every time he steals something, he won't be able to do it more than twice. It works in Saudi Arabia. A mate of mine forgot his cell phone on a table in a restaurant, and only realised it the next morning. In a flat panic, he asked the staff if anyone had seen it. One of them pointed to the table where he'd been sitting. The phone was still sitting there. Untouched. Exactly where he'd left it.

Contrast that with the brutal home invasions by armed robbers here in South Africa, where they will torture the families (children included) by pouring boiling water on them, or dripping melted plastic on them. This just to get hold of a cellphone or two, some cash and maybe a laptop if they're lucky. And then they'll probably shoot at least one of the family members, and rape another, just because they can. Then they'll go and rob the house next door, because it'll take the cops hours to arrive, if they ever do.

You think I'm joking?

http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2184926,00.html/ (Pensioner killed at home)
http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2157731,00.html/ 3 women repeatedly gang raped while robbers cook and eat the food they were preparing. Then robbers moved on to another house and repeat the process.
Usually the crime is black on white (gangs of 4 or 5 blacks, usually armed with guns and knives will force their way into a home).

South Africa has the highest rate of murder in the world. Over 50 people a day are murdered in this country. Approximately 18,000 women are raped every year. At least those are the ones being reported. You cannot open a newspaper without being bombarded with news about a baby being raped (certain superstitious sectors of our society believe that raping a 9-month old baby will cure them of HIV/AIDS, or they do it for revenge e.g.(http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=304811&area=/insight/insight__national//)). They have no scruples. No shame. They take what they want, when they want it, and fuck you if you even look like you'll get in their way.

My point (after all that) is that prison doesn't work in terms of rehabilitating these people. Most of the people who do the kinds of atrocities mentioned above are people that have already been in prison, and have been let out or escaped (our prisons are well over 100% full). Prison is no deterrent. The only way to stop these guys from doing exactly the same thing 24 hours out of prison is to make them incapable of doing so. I'll leave those methods out of here, but I am pro-death penalty (I'm sure there's nothing like having your mom tortured, raped and then shot in the face, right in front of you, to make you radically change any liberal views you may have on something like that).

Most people (especially those who have never even been to Africa) are quick to point the finger, play the race card, and blame it all on the previous (White) government, forgetting that the regime changed nigh on 14 years ago (in 1994). That's a whole generation of school kids. With time to spare. And things have not improved. In fact they've deteriorated. Grinding poverty, failing infrastructure, crushing governmental incompetence and a lot of rage and hate are the primary contributors (particularly with regards to the gratuitous brutality of the crimes). We have (on average) a 2% conviction rate for violent crimes. 2%. And that's for the guys who get caught. Most don't get caught. They make a living off robbing people like this. Taking a life, even that of a child, means nothing to them.

And if you're coming here for the soccer world cup in 2010, please, for FFS be careful, because they WILL target foreigne

It also helps to point to evidence, such as the Kenyan museum that creationists are campaining to have exhibits removed. A more moderate tone will gain you mod points, cause you to be read, and generate intelligent replies.

Just my 2 cents.

Funny enough you can find similar hateful arcane living rules for Christians.

One of the better illustrations (humour) of this can be found here http://www.mg.co.za/zapiro/imagePage.aspx?YearId=2 006%7CMonthId=11%7CDayId=23, where Zapiro ask a biblical authority (Rev. Kenneth Meshoe) for clarification to some of the rules laid out too long ago to have any meaning.

Looks pretty much like the citations used to frame Islam and the Muslims, only from the bible (Leviticus and Exodus).

Among the issues are the legal sale of daughters, keeping of slaves from neighbouring countries, death penalty for working on the Sabbath, cutting your hair and wearing cloth made from more than one type of material. All serious issues!

I do not think that any religion has much to say over any other when it comes to finding embarrassing and discriminating statements. What matters most is who and how it is practised today, and in this respect stupidity can be found everywhere.

Well that just reminded me about this http://www.mg.co.za/zapiro/imagePage.aspx?YearId=2 006%7CMonthId=11%7CDayId=23 comic strip by Zapiro. Very much to the point.
I find it a quite telling illustration of the stupidity of any sort of fanatism based on outdated sources.

The messages are already here, some for around over 300 million years almost without changes. Theres hundreds of regions in the human genome, more than 200 bases long, which have remained virtually identical with the chicken genome. http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breakin g_news/breaking_news__international_news&articleid =134442 Maybe they are on their way now to come and get their data back?

Heathrow terror suspect set to be extradited Pakistan today cleared the way for the handover of Rashid Rauf, the Briton alleged to have masterminded the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger planes, after a surprise move by a judge to drop terror charges against him.

British officials have been trying to extradite the 25-year-old from Birmingham for five months.

The dramatic ruling by a court in Rawalpindi is being seen as part of an agreement to speed up his return to the UK where Scotland Yard detectives want to question Mr Rauf about the Heathrow plot and his possible links to the 7/7 suicide bombers in London. ......

The official also said they have been asked by Britain to reveal no more details about their investigations into Mr Rauf.

I thought it was now common knowledge that the whole thing was a sham.

What you refer to as "common knowledge" is more commonly referred to as disinformation.

Dry run was planned: U.S LONDON - The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities today was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on transatlantic flights and plotters had hoped to stage a dry run within the next two days, U.S. intelligence officials said.

The actual attack would have followed within days. Early reports allege the involvement of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT.

How Britain prevented another 9/11 A British government source said an intercepted message from Pakistan telling the bombers to "go now" had triggered the arrests. Security sources said they had been planning to break up the cells in the next few days, but were forced to move earlier to prevent huge loss of life; they believed the attacks were to take place in the next two days.......

The American news network NBC quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official as saying that more than one of the plotters had prepared a martyrdom video tape, while at least one had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Police hunt 'two dozen' terror cells in UK The full extent of the terror threat facing Britain became apparent on Saturday night as security sources revealed that 'up to two dozen' terror investigations were operating across the country and that a number of suspects associated with last week's plot to bring down 10 airliners remained at large.

Pakistani intelligence sources alleged that one of the men arrested in connection with the bomb plot had been held following the London terror attack on 7 July last year.

British security sources also linked the present investigation to that atrocity, saying the operation that led to Thursday's arrests began days after the 7 July attack. There are also claims that voicemails discovered after the first attack link the two events.

Terror detectives 'find bomb kit' Police probing an alleged plot to bring down flights have found a suitcase containing items which could be used to construct a bomb, the BBC has learned......

A police source told the BBC the case contained "everything you would need to make an improvised device".

Heathrow terror suspect set to be extradited Pakistan today cleared the way for the handover of Rashid Rauf, the Briton alleged to have masterminded the plot to blow up trans-Atlantic passenger planes, after a surprise move by a judge to drop terror charges against him.

British officials have been trying to extradite the 25-year-old from Birmingham for five months.

The dramatic ruling by a court in Rawalpindi is being seen as part of an agreement to speed up his return to the UK where Scotland Yard detectives want to question Mr Rauf about the Heathrow plot and his possible links to the 7/7 suicide bombers in London. ......

The official also said they have been asked by Britain to reveal no more details about their investigations into Mr Rauf.

I thought it was now common knowledge that the whole thing was a sham.

What you refer to as "common knowledge" is more commonly referred to as disinformation.

Dry run was planned: U.S LONDON - The terrorist attack foiled by British authorities today was aimed at blowing up as many as 10 airplanes on transatlantic flights and plotters had hoped to stage a dry run within the next two days, U.S. intelligence officials said.

The actual attack would have followed within days. Early reports allege the involvement of the Pakistan-based group Lashkar-e-Taiba, or LeT.

How Britain prevented another 9/11 A British government source said an intercepted message from Pakistan telling the bombers to "go now" had triggered the arrests. Security sources said they had been planning to break up the cells in the next few days, but were forced to move earlier to prevent huge loss of life; they believed the attacks were to take place in the next two days.......

The American news network NBC quoted an unnamed counterterrorism official as saying that more than one of the plotters had prepared a martyrdom video tape, while at least one had attended a terrorist training camp in Pakistan.

Police hunt 'two dozen' terror cells in UK The full extent of the terror threat facing Britain became apparent on Saturday night as security sources revealed that 'up to two dozen' terror investigations were operating across the country and that a number of suspects associated with last week's plot to bring down 10 airliners remained at large.

Pakistani intelligence sources alleged that one of the men arrested in connection with the bomb plot had been held following the London terror attack on 7 July last year.

British security sources also linked the present investigation to that atrocity, saying the operation that led to Thursday's arrests began days after the 7 July attack. There are also claims that voicemails discovered after the first attack link the two events.

Terror detectives 'find bomb kit' Police probing an alleged plot to bring down flights have found a suitcase containing items which could be used to construct a bomb, the BBC has learned......

A police source told the BBC the case contained "everything you would need to make an improvised device".

http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breakin g_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articlei d=288975

Kuwait is very happy.

Israel is quiet.

Iran supports it, but blames the US for supporting Saddam.

Most of the other countries view it as more US interference. And worse. Bush and Co could not risk the chance that Saddam would go free.

bread and circuses junkies. The bulk of them can rattle off a list of some popular tatooed and pierced or cowboy hatted "entertainers", or all their sports gods stats, yet have no clue and can't even name their senators and house rep, let alone know how they stand on issues. I mean, shee-it, most people in the USA stil think we invaded iraq as payback for saddam attacking NYC. I mean, ignornat stupid mouth breathers.. They have no idea what is going on in real life other than they need to be entertained.

Americans aren't as stupid as you make them out to be. Recent polls show that the American people have stopped buying into the crap and utter nonsense floated by the Bush Administration:

However, just 37% of respondents in the poll agreed that Saddam was connected to the attacks and that the Iraq War was justified as retribution for his involvement, while 48% believed that there is no connection between Saddam and 9/11 and the Iraq War has diverted America's attention from the War on Terror.

Given all of the bogus information put out there by the Bush Administraton and given the way the media lapped it up prior to and after our invasion of Iraq, I'm not at all surprised that 37% of the American people believe there was some kind of connection between Saddam and 9/11. Hell according to other polls 36% of Americans believe that the federal goverment either had a hand in 9/11 or knew about it and did nothing to stop it so we could go to war in the Middle East.

Proof positive that those to the far left are just as ignorant and uninformed as those on the far right.

Use the "printable" version of stories when it's available! That link from the slashdot summary made my eyes burn because I didn't have that site adblocked.

FYI: http://www.mg.co.za/printPage.aspx?area=/insight/i nsight_tech/&articleId=275381

It's not that difficult to do!

Which is the most simple explanation? That a bunch of people who don't have passports, plane tickets or (if the Register article is to be believed) the remotest understanding of explosives presented a genuine threat? Or that someone didn't really care what kind of threat they represented wanted to present themselves as the good guys by having "saved" us from this threat?

I am often amazed that even so sharp a tool as Occam's razor is unable to cut through the nonesense that gets posted on Slashdot.

Lets try this: It was a genuine plot, under invenstigation for a long period of time, (one of many) that was stopped when they decided to try a dry run. Cash, guns, and a bomb making kit have apparently been found. No word yet on if they are related to the suspected terrorist training going on in various places in the UK. This was as much about "saving Joe Lieberman" as the terrorist activity against Australia... which is to say, not related at all. (Maybe you've heard of the Bali bombing? It is just one of many attacks against Australians and the West in general.) There are many more like it in: Phillipines, India, Russia, Saudi Arabia, etc, none of which are designed to prop up a US president who can't be reelected any way..

Take a look at this skinworm infecting people in Mafikeng. FTFA:

"People come to clinics complaining that their body is itching. Within three days small sores develop. A yellow spot then develops from each sore as it gets ripe. Once the sore is expressed a worm comes out of it."

Ripe sores. Now thats entertainment.

Hard to believe right? I am from the coastal city of Bosaso on the horn of Africa, and some of my relatives took pride in their high-seas piracy. I have always heard of illegal Japanese and Norwegian ships illegaly fishing in our shores, while Somalis, with not central government and coast guard, sat around in anger and frustration.

This piracy started as a way to defend our coast-lines from illegal international fishing. Somalia hasn't had a government since 1990, and our fish resources became the loot of international fishing conglomerates. Others have used our coast to dump their waste, even nuclear waste.

After the fall of the Somali government, our coast guard's ships and vessels were looted by tribes. Some of our ships and boats were sold to illegal fishing companies, which didn't go far but stayed to fish in our waters! While other boats stayed in the hands of tribal leaders and warlords who used them for piracy and people smuggling to the middle east, although more often as a vehicle for products and trade with Yemen, our neighbor to the North.

It's funny how companies registered in Democratic developed nations, and pay their taxes there, are the ones looting our natural resources and using our sea and land to dump their waste.

http://gurukul.ucc.american.edu/ted/somalia.htm

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=249 733&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/

http://somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/1063

I wish the international community would deploy high-tech sonic weapons to defend us against real theives, not just pirates, blinded and deafended by greed.

- Mahammad Darwish

I think EB has started to get beyond their dismissiveness stage concerning Wikipedia and are starting to come to the realization that Wikipedia, not Encarta, is their number 1 long term threat.

That said, it would be wonderful to compare the oldest version of EB's article on Alexandar Hamilton available to the Wikipedia version. Ideally their 3 year old version would be best to compare since that is the age of the Wikipedia version but let's look at their 11th edition version at http://14.1911encyclopedia.org/H/HA/HAMILTON_ALEXA NDER.htm (EB should have had an article on Hamilton for over a hundred years by that time).

Well, for one thing is has extaclty the same birth date issue (his major criticism)!

Or when the current editor-in-chief of EB said in a recent Guardian article at http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?cg=Leisure-Onli ne&o=140475&sa=106;

"People write on things they're interested in, and so many subjects don't get covered; and news events get covered in great detail. The entry on Hurricane Frances is five times the length of that on Chinese art, and the entry on the UK TV soap opera Coronation Street is twice as long as the article on Tony Blair."

Which is an odd comparison since EB does not have an article on Hurricane Frances or Coronation Street, and the Wikipedia article on Tony Blair has been longer than the EB version for well over a year. Oh, and the Coronation Street article on Wikipedia is not twice the size of the Tony Blair article (in fact, they are about the same size).

Oh, and the German Wikipedia won hands down in breadth, depth, and comprehensibility of content, in a head-to-head comparison between Brockhaus and Microsoft's Encarta (German version) conducted by the German nation-wide newspaper Die Zeit. See http://www.zeit.de/2004/43/C-Enzyklop_8adien-Test

I'm sure a similar study conducted on the English Wikipedia except against EB and Encarta, would have the same results.

Wikipedia has been around for less than 4 years. These other encyclopedias have been around for much, much longer.

For those who think RTFA means just looking at the words on the screen briefly, please note that Fischer is quoted, but never introduced.

A better article link might be something like this.

It is widely reported that more than 3 billion people in the world have no access to a telephone at all. In fact, according to the Center for Media Education, 18% of Americans lack telephone service.

This makes the number of people online something like 15 to 16 percent of the population with telephone access.

You can find some more interesting information about telephone and Internet access around the world here and here.

Farooq

Yassir El-Sirri

Liberia

Take a look, especially the Liberia one. If you need any more proof, go to Google and search for "plots to rig elections". You'll get a whole lot more reading material. :) It happens.. all the time. No power goes without its abuses.

Several South African newspapers, such as Independant Online ( http://www.iol.co.za ) and the Mail and Guardian ( http://www.mg.co.za ) often cover the divisions between Government and the health sector. Also, please consult the webpages of the South African Medical Research Council ( http://www.mrc.ac.za ). The MRC recently published a report on HIV and AIDS who's release the Government tried to prevent.

The Belgians got into it too.

For what it's worth, the needless injection was around before star trek, used in the smallpox-irradication mass vaccinations of the 60's and 70's. However groups have steadily dropped the use of liquid "hyposprays" because blood can backwash onto the jet head, potentially infecting people in line. In fact all of the military branches have dropped their use since 1997.

The technology is starting to make a comeback, however. Powder-based systems which opperate much more quickly don't have the risk of backwash, and have disposable heads (as do new designs for liquid media).

Do you have any example of anyone saying that?

Not to hand - that's going back a long time, back before most windows/dos people were leaving tracks on the net (remember, they were latecomers to the net, not like Amiga/UNIX heads like me :-) ). However, in an article from 1996 (five years ago, now!), I found a quote from late in the transitional period

And DOS-only computers? Well, of course they only do DOS games. And watch out - there are old DOS games that will run on a real old banger, and there are new DOS games that need the same amount of power as Windows - in other words they need a new PC but the old DOS operating system.

So, clearly, even then, there were quite a proportion of developers targetting DOS. I'm afraid all I have before then is anecdotal evidence of my memories of the time.

Linux is dominated by people who refuses to pay for software. It even have quite a number of people who tells people it's unethical to charge for software.

And you'll find that even Richard Stallman makes an exception to that for games, which he (and most others) regard as a special case, since the important bit is the game data (storyline, gfx, etc) that make the one-off game experience, not the engine. In fact, this is quite a common view - witness the DOOM, Quake, Descent, Heretic etc. engines, which have all been open-sourced, with restrictive copyright retained on on the datasets that are the meat of the game.

An army - no. A big issue is education - it requires a basic level of education to become a hacker, and much of the African population falls below that level. But there are African hackers, I know a couple. South Africa has produced quite a few, since it has a somewhat first-world education system, at least for its wealthier citizens (used to be whites only, but that's changed a bit now).

The digitial certificate company Thawte is South African, for example (see this article. Of course, Thawte has since been acquired by the U.S. certificate monopoly, Verisign - can't have any foreign competition, wouldn't be good for business.

For your amusement, here are a few links (found on Google):

• Zambian hacker replaces president's picture on web site
• South African hacker 0wnz government telecomm network
• Hacking in South Africa

But some of the best African hackers leave for other countries, where they can earn more money and leave the various problems of Africa behind.

The founder of X.com, Elon Musk, is a South African. X.com now owns Paypal. Musk founded X.com with the $305 million in cash he made from selling the Internet directory company he founded, Zip2.

You may argue whether some of the above are truly hackers, but the point is, the skills are there, just not in the numbers that you get in countries with better-educated populations.

What do I owe Africa?

Really?

"Fruits of the 21st Century?"

How about if Africa gets itself out of the 6th century by producing something the world wants?

And this time, try not to make it slaves, terrorists, virus es, endangered species, or diamonds to raise money to hack people to death.

--Blair
"You are only as free, happy, smart, and rich as you think you are."