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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And allow me to speak freely when I say that anyone wishing (albeit minor) financial support for a coup of my state or federal government, I'd be overjoyed to contribute. I'm positively sure that this is inciting violence under some reading of your laws, but under mine the only exception to the first amendment is falsely presenting a clear and imminent danger in order to severely disturb the peace.

Under his laws? How about under our laws too? Providing material support to an organization that is engaged in hostilities against the United States earns you the designation of enemy combatant. Have fun in Gitmo!
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/o pinion/15702856.htm
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1451512006

After the verdict, Anthony's mother, Gee Walker, said she was satisfied by the sentence and did not accept a written apology Martin had sent her.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1469562006
Several Amish interviewed by Reuters said they were sad but not angry and emphasized the need for forgiveness of gunman Charles Carl Roberts, who as a non-Amish person was what the locals refer to as "English."
"It's just not the way we think. There is no sense in getting angry," said Henry Fisher, 62, a retired farmer with five grown children and 33 grandchildren who has lived all his life in the town some 60 miles (100 km) west of Philadelphia.

"A cure for allergies that affects millions including asthma and hayfever will be available within the next few years" so we don't need hyperallogenic cats. Let's make them glow instead.

When asked about U.S. accusations of his "collusion" in the attacks in New York and Washington, bin Laden responded, "America has made many accusations against us and many other Muslims around the world. Its charge that we are carrying out acts of terrorism is unwarranted."

(Q2) As for the second question that we want to answer: What are we calling you to, and what do we want from you?

(1) The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

(a) The religion of the Unification of God; of freedom from associating partners with Him, and rejection of this; of complete love of Him, the Exalted; of complete submission to His Laws; and of the discarding of all the opinions, orders, theories and religions which contradict with the religion He sent down to His Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). Islam is the religion of all the prophets, and makes no distinction between them - peace be upon them all.

(2) The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

(a) We call you to be a people of manners, principles, honour, and purity; to reject the immoral acts of fornication, homosexuality, intoxicants, gambling's, and trading with interest.....

(i) You are the nation who, rather than ruling by the Shariah of Allah in its Constitution and Laws, choose to invent your own laws as you will and desire. You separate religion from your policies, contradicting the pure nature which affirms Absolute Authority to the Lord and your Creator. You flee from the embarrassing question posed to you: How is it possible for Allah the Almighty to create His creation, grant them power over all the creatures and land, grant them all the amenities of life, and then deny them that which they are most in need of: knowledge of the laws which govern their lives?

If you fail to respond to all these conditions, then prepare for fight with the Islamic Nation. The Nation of Monotheism, that puts complete trust on Allah and fears none other than Him. The Nation which is addressed by its Quran with the words: "Do you fear them? Allah has more right that you should fear Him if you are believers. Fight against them so that Allah will punish them by your hands and disgrace them and give you victory over them and heal the breasts of believing people.

Who can forget your President Clinton's immoral acts committed in the official Oval office? After that you did not even bring him to account, other than that he 'made a mistake', after which everything passed with no punishment. Is there a worse kind of event for which your name will go down in history and remembered by nations?

Still, I found some more.

Although there is a motion to pass this is Scotland, this won't be until another 9 months, and the situation is unlikely to end up with a different law in Scotland, however, like many others I See this as a purely kneejerk headline grabbing law and feel Scotland would be better off without this kind of 'pish' http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1284332006

Sure, no problem. I understand how hard it is to have no long term memory. Here's a book. Here's a news article.

I am constantly in awe at the failure of implementating of IT within (the) public sector (services). Governments/states spend millions on the lowest bidder, with costs often spiralling to beyond that quoted by the highest bidder initially, and it increasingly seems as if you get what you pay for.

At least in this case lives were not at risksee here, here and here.

It could be argued that selection of companies such as Diebold comes from a lack of awareness of IT by governments, and is simply a cost/saving excercise, but even so- sensible questions should be raised about all contractors- have they got a track record, how are they trialling the product, are their guarantees more than verbal...do we have a backup?

Sure DIebold cannot make excuses...but can the government either?

I'm also interested in a source on the vote of no confidence. While again I would not be particularly opposed to it I do feel my spidey sense tingling

Source: The Scotsman, 9 Aug 2006 - MP quits government over Blair's policy on Middle East

Key quote:
"His resignation came as ministers furious at Mr Blair's handling of the crisis said they would push for an emergency recall of parliament in a manoeuvre they hoped would trigger the Prime Minister's downfall.

More than 150 MPs have urged Jack Straw, the Commons leader, to ask the Speaker to summon politicians back from their 76-day break as diplomatic calls at the United Nations stalled and Israel stepped up its offensive in Lebanon."

Excuse me Denial93... can you provide any links to this purported vote of no confidence? Whilst I personally have no confidence at all in the current British premier, I have been unable to find any references to this "same day" vote. Certainly, there are fairly widespread press articles suggesting that Blair is due to face such a vote of no confidence (and in my opinion, the sooner the better), this accusation currently appears to be unjustified - so I am most intrigued!
(disclaimer - my entire response to this "alleged" plot has been that it is a massive over-reaction by the UK government as a means to keep the population scared - my tinfoil hat is a big as yours.)

"Those who cultivate, manufacture, and smuggle illegal drugs can leverage vast sums of cash, generated by constant demand."

You mean the people in America's 51.5th state, Afghanistan? Maybe you're referring to their Iran/Contra sponsors, the CIA that also created Osama bin Laden?

Funny how interconnected are these neverending wars that consume endless money and American and foreign lives, all run by the same people centered on the Bush family. Funny if you're stoned, that is.

"Those who cultivate, manufacture, and smuggle illegal drugs can leverage vast sums of cash, generated by constant demand."

You mean the people in America's 51.5th state, Afghanistan? Maybe you're referring to their Iran/Contra sponsors, the CIA that also created Osama bin Laden?

Funny how interconnected are these neverending wars that consume endless money and American and foreign lives, all run by the same people centered on the Bush family. Funny if you're stoned, that is.

If you really remember, you will recall certain facts you left out, such as the man was fleeing from police. He created the dangerous situation. If you do such things, especially in a security-critical transportation environment, don't be surprised if you get shot.

No, He wasn't fleeing from the police.

You should really try and get your facts right before you accuse other people.

I'm just waiting until US authorities start arresting people who run sites in foreign countries because they accepted logins from Americans

oh that is soo last month
get with the program citizen, your neigbour could be next, make sure you find out if its him and report the findings to the bureau you will be rewarded for your loyalty citizen

"What? It's precisely because it can't be codified globally that it's pointless to do anything about it here. Do you honestly think that anyone outside the US is going to voluntarily conform to this law? Do you think anyone inside the US can't get around it by moving their content outside the US?"

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/business.cfm? id=1067592006

David Carruthers (a scot probably a british citizen) was arrested in florida for breaking american laws. in costa rica and the uk he wasn't guilty of breaking these countrys laws.

looks like travelling through american territory can get you held and arrested.

Extradited gary mckinnon broke usa laws by 'hacking' us military computers. There are british laws against this sort of thing however I am not convinced that britain for example would not hand over anyone to the american legal system even if it wasn't the case. If the death penalty is involved I believe britain has/had problems with that (rotting in a jail cell isn't a problem).

however just to show you how law doesnt matter anymore in the uk check this out
http://skegnesstoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?Secti onID=809&ArticleID=1652470
Skegness a uk seaside resort has been given an ASBO.

The order gives police the power to disperse two or more people from the designated area.
It also allows the police to take home unaccompanied youngsters under the age of 16 found in the area after 9pm.

"If they fail to comply they are likely to be arrested and could face six months' imprisonment and/or a fine of up to £5,000."

so now being in a public area and a police officer or a community police officer (not a police officer just somebody allowed to dress in a police uniform and act unpaid as if they are a police officer) can subject someone not guilty of any crime to a fine or prison sentence! for any reason, no reason, what so ever!

-FL

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1072642006 There actually is research that right now is proving to be quite usefull against Alzheimer's. An australian team of scientists have located the protein that seems to cause Alzheimer's and are developing a medicine to combat the onset of Alz. Let's hope this leads to the discovery of a preventative treatment.

Glad to see that we could find some common ground here. In all actuality, I think that both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray are really trying too hard. While those people with neophilia are rushing out to buy both the players and the movies, I don't see the average person finding anything so 'wow' about them. Their DVD players will work just fine. In the current state of the technology, they won't really see that much of a difference. Heck, I am always one to jump on the new technology bandwagon, have a HDTV with HDMI, and have no inclination to buy either player.

While I do own an Xbox360 (along with a PS2 (on my 3rd due to failed drives) and xbox) due to the blunders of $ony lately, I refuse to give them anymore of my money. I use to be a firm supporter, from digital cameras to laptops all the way to cdr's. But in the last 5 years, the quality has gone to shit, and the price keeps climbing. While not really a fan of Nintendo the last couple of systems, I think that the rest of my family will enjoy the Wii, and will be buying that as my second system.

The law is also very flexible about allowing a company to determine what "shareholder interest" is. A large number of shareholders are interested in stock price and dividends but there are people who determine their investments beyond stock earning power.

Nope. That was a Swiss air controller who gave instructions counter to the in-cockpit collision avoidance system.

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=455&id=738 632002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2082331.st m

On the other hand, I've worked with Aerospatiale software engineers, and I wouldn't trust them to organise a piss-up in a brewery. Comp.risks is rife with their fuckups, so I expect Great Things from this proposal.

What?? You have a Scottish Leprechaun??

I'm only familiar with the Irish type, silly me... Does he ride a haggis or what?

m-

Well that explains why Rupert Murdoch, the richest & most influential media owner in the world (owner of Fox and myspace.) has ended years of Clinton hating and started cosying up to Hilary Clinton.

Utterly fascinating - he's a powerful, ruthless, pragmatic man, normally the kind of person who gets along perfectly with the current republican administration - but it looks like the christian right's prediliction for censorship is starting to ruffle his feathers.

Anyway, for anyone unlucky enough to be using internet access in a library, I'm sure the circumvention techniques good for the great firewall of china will work inside the US as well. Maybe the BoingBoing guide to evading censorware will be useful too.

Oh - on a side note, check out the spoof Rupert Murdoch Myspace Profiles

[MSPs] are particularly angry that the US has the power to demand the extradition of British citizens to face trial in America but that the US government has not signed a reciprocal deal allowing the British government similar extradition rights.

Hang on a minute, I thought what's going in Guantanamo wasn't torture ? Or how about these parents who sued to force feed their daughter?

(Not that I'd ever eat foie gras anyways, it is cruel, but it's not torture nor is it any worse than factory farming especially WRT poultry)

No, he/she is not a nutjob. Even the BBC's internal investigations have acknowledged that there is some left wing bias mostly in the form of anti-ameican and anti-semetic bias at the BBC. Read this article if you want to see an example of one such investigation.

if you dont feel like clicking the link, here is he meat:
  THE BBC Governors have upheld a complaint against a radio reporter who wept as dying Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat departed the West Bank.
The corporation's head of editorial complaints initially cleared From Our Own Correspondent journalist Barbara Plett of bias.But a listener appealed and yesterday the Governors' Programme Complaints Committee overturned that ruling
 

http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=591&id=246 2712005

Does this sound to you like Europe is meeting its Kyoto targets ?

So to disprove my position that French prisons are some of the worst in the civilized world, you point to a BBC article about abuses at a US prison? What's your next trick; disprove that guns are deadly weapons by giving me the statictics for knife related deaths?

As for prozac, you may want to look into getting yourself a prescription, you seem to need it much more than anyone else that in this thread so far.

I believe this old article may also help you to face reality. And for that matter, even though you don't appear to be an American, the results from these two studies may also help you deal with your anger issues. You know, the first step towards getting better is admitting you have a problem.

And just FYI, I'm not American nor do I believe that American prisons are necessarily the greatest places on Earth to serve one's incarceration, but I'm sure neither of those points will really mean much to you (see links above).

Introducing grammer/spelling to an argument is generally a sign of a very weak case, even when it is done by the original author as a strawman to try and draw the attention away from his complete lack of debating skills.

As to your P.S. I wouldn't have to be Derren Brown to have figured that out.

Stranger things have happened!

PRIVATE American citizens donated almost 15 times more to the developing world than their European counterparts, research reveals this weekend ahead of the G8 summit. Private US donors also handed over far more aid than the federal government in Washington, revealing that America is much more generous to Africa and poor countries than is claimed by the Make Poverty History and Live 8 campaigns.

Church collections, philanthropists and company-giving amounted to $22bn a year, according to a study by the Hudson Institute think-tank, easily more than the $16.3bn in overseas development sent by the US government. American churches, synagogues and mosques alone gave $7.5bn in 2003 - a figure which exceeds the government totals for France ($7.2bn) and Britain ($6.3bn) - according to numbers from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development which deal a blow to those who claim moral superiority over the US on aid.

http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=7306 52005

Since you can't *give* the Canadians weapons

Right. And when Canada buys weapons from another country we get used pieces of crap that nobody else wants. We don't buy new - we take the mothballed junk.

Apparently the pay is less than £60k a year, too, so the pilots are leaving!

link

Perhaps with the additional funding they'll finally be able to confirm the extra-dimensional physics described here, and we can finally make the FTL drive a reality. That's what I thought of when I read about the Z Machine.

Raise your hand if you're:

• Tired of the location Olympic games being picked based on a bribe-fest (with your tax dollars as the ante money)
• Tired of your tax dollars going towards facilities that most often are never used again
• Tired of being shown only the most 'marketable' events or not seeing them at all, because only one news source is granted "rights"
• Tired of the drama
• Tired of people who happen to be good at a particular sport getting acts of congress to instantly give them citizenship while hard-working, tax-paying greencarders have to wait years and pass exams
• Tired of the olympic committee getting special legislation to protect its interests and giving it the ability to shut down businesses simply because they contain the word "olympic" in their title
• Tired of the drug scandals and an IOC obviously looking the other way, like virtually every other major sports sanctioning body
• Tired of "for the sport" or "for the joy of competition" having turned into "for the money", right down to the recent decision by the IOC to allow athletes to be paid endorsements and more

The list goes on...and don't get me started about the sex-fests that go on in the olympic "village"; ever wonder why the media isn't allowed in? It's for "privacy" all right...

Used to be that when the olympics came on in the winter, we'd fire up the TV, make popcorn, and watch. We stopped watching right around the same time they started doing 10 minute long fluff pieces about athletes, instead of just showing us the damn competitions.

"61 per cent of people favour ID cards but 28 per cent are opposed. Around 16 per cent said they would participate in "civil disobedience" and six per cent said they would go to jail rather than carry one."

"The problem comes when they claim it will stop terrorism."

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=227442006

...ok. Let's say some future administration thinks that Bush is a dink (which he likely is) and decides to turn over any decisions Bush already has or will make regarding the waste produced by nuclear power plants. We do have the technology to make such waste safe. So with all the technology advancements that we've made since the 80s, I'm failing to see any kind of significant down side.

"You don't believe, despite their own claims to be doing so, that Iran is developing nuclear weapons"

Try getting your news from more than one source otherwise you might as well be living in China.

Have you ever thought this might be about oil. Did you know Iran is opening an international oil exchange in March. It is backed by OPEC and will trade exclusively in EUROS, we all know how pissed the US was at Saddam....did you know he switched to selling oil in EUROS in 2000? Did you know that pentagon war games show a shitty outcome for the west if the US (or their proxy Isreal) attacks Iran. Why did Putin scare the shit out of Europe by turning down the gas in the middle of winter? Why was Rice in such a rush to declare there was a "consensus" amongst the UNSC permenant mebers when it is now obvious this was not the case?

The world did not change with 9/11, the 5 permenant members of the UNSC are still using smaller countries to fight proxy wars with each other. The US would be stupid to use overt force against Iran in the present circumstances but that does not rule out covert options. Anyhow, welcome to the start of the oil wars my friend, we are about to flush civilization down the toilet fighting over the worlds shrinking oil deposits.

As for nukes, instead of spending time attacking your straw man I will simply point out that it is strategically more logical to focus on the "have's" rather than the "might have's" and "have not's".

The big problem with nuclear reactors is they throw off neutrons. That's where all the energy is. The plant absorbs the neutrons, turning a large part of that energy into heat that turns turbines. What isn't heat though is transmuting the elements of the reactor. After about 25 years, the whole reactor has changed enough of the material into hot, fragile radioisotopes that the plant has to be shut down and abandoned. And then you go build another one somewhere else. The land the original plant stood on is off limits - too dangerous to reuse for some other purpose.

This is a technical problem with viable solutions. For one, modern (4th and 5th generation plant designs) do not expose the plant itself to much radiation. The moderating fluid absorbs the neutrons now, and its MUCh easier to handle storage for it than for the reactor materials. There's still the metal cladding to the fuel rods, however that's generally stored with the spent fuel itself.

As far as I know, the dangerous levels of radioactivity associated with reactor parts tends to not be such a problem after 20-50 years; that's a much more manageable problem then the fuel itself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor#Assoc iated_reactor_types

IFRs may also be a solution; thought they've never been tested.

Either way, its entirely a technological problem, and the solution is more research on disposal technologies.

Also, it does seem that there may be technological solutions to radiation. I'm more than a little bit suspicious of this: http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=849072003 , however, the idea looks pretty interesting.

Taking a more educated approach you have to look at the modern scientific research
that has been done in regards to the Casimir Effect .

http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/15/9/6

Merely one of the modern day brilliant scientists looking into this efect is Puthoff .

http://www.keelynet.com/gravity/putnasa.htm

Please read the references at bottom of the page, discredit one doubtful, all ludicrously so .

Excerpt of nasa study:

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/research/warp/po ssible.html#vac

Zero Point Energy (ZPE), or vacuum fluctuation energy are terms used to describe the random electromagnetic oscillations that are left in a vacuum after all other energy has been removed. If you remove all the energy from a space, take out all the matter, all the heat, all the light... everything -- you will find that there is still some energy left. One way to explain this is from the uncertainty principle from quantum physics that implies that it is impossible to have an absolutely zero energy condition.

Add up the energy for all those different frequencies of light and the amount of energy in a given space is enormous, even mind boggling, ranging from 10^36 to 10^70 Joules/m3.

If you choose to call the research scientists at NASA quacks, that is your prerogative.

Zero Point energy absolutley sounds like fairy tale science, but every once in a blue moon
something comes along that truly stuns the world .

Like Warp Drive research being funded with this concept at the root of it .

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=16902006

At times like this, Technology does approach being indistinguishable from what some call magic, hehe .

Ex-MislTech

...the report predicts that Europe's Muslim population is set to increase from around 13% today to between 22% and 37% of the population by 2025, potentially triggering tensions.The Scotsman

The Salafist Preaching and Combat Group is an offshoot of the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which has been responsible for many killings in Algeria. It is led by Hassan Hattab, formerly the "emir" (commander) of the GIA's second region. An intelligence document seen by the Guardian asserts that Hattab was a member of the leadership group that authorised the GIA's bloody terrorists attacks on Paris in 1995. The Guardian

Guido Steinberg, a terrorism expert working in the office of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, summed up the situation with these words: "Terrorism is coming home." And it's coming home to those countries whose governments may have believed they were immune from terror because for years they have provided safe haven to notorious Islamic extremists. Der Spiegel

PARIS, France (CNN) -- Two senior al Qaeda figures helped train the people now suspected of planning chemical and biological attacks in France and the United Kingdom, European intelligence and judicial sources tell CNN.

One of those figures is Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the man singled out by President Bush as a link between the terrorist group and Iraq.

The other is Abu Khabab whose voice has been identified by intelligence sources as the man on a videotape showing al Qaeda operatives performing chemical weapons experiments on dogs.

The information comes after a recent wave of arrests in France, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain that investigators say helped uncover several cells of Islamic terrorists who had the material to make chemical and biological weapons. And, investigators say, the terrorists were apparently ready to use them. (France, Italy, Spain)CNN, Feb 15, 2003

Jihadist networks span Europe from Poland to Portugal, thanks to the spread of radical Islam among the descendants of guest workers once recruited to shore up Europe's postwar economic miracle. In smoky coffeehouses in Rotterdam and Copenhagen, makeshift prayer halls in Hamburg and Brussels, Islamic bookstalls in Birmingham and "Londonistan," and the prisons of Madrid, Milan, and Marseilles, immigrants or their descendants are volunteering for jihad against the West. It was a Dutch Muslim of Moroccan descent, born and socialized in Europe, who murdered the filmmaker Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam last November. A Nixon Center study of 373 mujahideen in western Europe and North America between 1993 and 2004 found more

A few weeks ago Poland revealed (to the dismay of Russia) the nuclear war plans from the days of the warsaw pact. The map was a truly scary prospect. Much of Poland would be annihilated in that nuclear war. Here's one article covering that story. You can find lots more. One interesting disclosure was the war games map with all the nuclear strike sites marked on it.

Apparently the main outrage comes from ICAAN reassigning control of the little used .iq Iraq domain from two Palestinian immiagrants living in the US, currently in jail after being convicted on a variety of charges resulting from their supporting terrorists organizations, and giving control to the Iraqi government (which just had an electionwith unexpected support). This seemed to have fairly strong support on Slashdot just a few months ago. It was viewed as a positive thing in Iraq.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about this.

Printer-friendly mode sometimes has ads. The Scotsman has them, as does Mapquest.

You could always search for a hosts file that will block a good portion of ads, and use it in conjunction with Firefox's image block.

Gas attack on DIY stores hits dozens of shoppers
Tue 27 Dec 2005

DOZENS of Russian shoppers collapsed when a mysterious gas was released in an apparent attack by criminal gangs on four DIY stores in St Petersburg yesterday...

The attacks revived concerns about the city's mafia connections. In the 1990s, St Petersburg was known as the "gangster capital" of Russia because gangland murders eclipsed those of any other city, including Moscow. Back then, a "hostile takeover" often meant what it said, with business rivals killing each other and taking control of their markets...

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/print.cfm?id=24625 12005

This particular search is a well known google bomb that is said to have been instigated by Wbush et friends, when trying to sell his Holy Crusade to Irak (from Wikipedia)....

It is elsewhere attributed to a Mr Cox.

Another example of his (Mr Cox) successfull Google Bombing are "weapons of mass destruction" that was sending to a nicely crafted 404 page.(http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=7312 72003)

Also of note are "miserable failure", that sent you directly to W Bush latest Biography, and "litigious bastards" , that directed you to SCO...

After this small precision, I would like to be the first to welcome our French Neighbours, 52nd state of the USA, by the will of our Overlords Microsoft and Vivendi Universal....

It's gonna be much harder to have fun at the french, now that we have so much in common....

I'm going to need to see data on that.
here
more here
One nice quote:
Every day sometimes several times a day the protesters were stopped and searched under section 44.(12) The police, according to a parliamentary answer, used the act 995 times, though they knew that no one at the camp was a terrorist.
Another:
Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely (Lord Acton, a historian)

-FL

I am simply pointing out that the poster of the article has used several 'loaded' words in a situation where they do not actually apply.

The original poster (me) merely used words quoted from one of the articles he linked in his submission in order to help summarise it. My first reaction therefore was to just reply "RTFA". Unfortunately, the article link in question has been trimmed by the /. editor before posting the story so "TFA" in question wasn't there to "R".

The article I refer to is here at The Scotsman.

If their claim of Sony being "one of up to five leading companies" doing this than "cartel" may indeed be correct. Of course that would imply some collusion taking place. The other companies they claim are involved are Panasonic, Sharp, Phillips and Hitachi.

Hope this clears up the language in the original submission.
--
I'm not politically incorrect, I'm just differently articulate

Adding to the list of stupid Sony things --
THE electrical giant Sony has been accused of price-fixing in an attempt to curb internet bargains and send online prices soaring, it emerged yesterday.

The firm is among up to five leading manufacturers which demand higher prices from internet retailers than they do from high street stores.

from:
http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=2241992005

Ugh. Bad, bad Sony!