Slashdot Mirror

It's not fiction when it's actually happening: https://www.scotsman.com/news/...

http://www.edinburghnews.scots...

She (Nahid) wanted to change the property use from a guest house to a bail hostel, the neighbors (Woolleys) opposed it, so the city agreed not to change property usage.
It seems the cameras were a fuck you to the Woolleys.

Two of the audio boxes were situated immediately below the Woolleysâ(TM) front bedroom âwindows and they feared conversations inside their home were also being recorded.

Sheriff Ross said Nahid Akramâ(TM)s husband Sohail, who was manager of the Murrayfield Park Guest House, taunted the Woolleys about his ability to listen to them by âoeputting his hand to his ear to mime listening to their conversationâ,

..Security was lax, but people (everywhere) made the Internet a much friendlier and trusting place than it is in today's secure-by-default, impossible-to-share-anything mentality (which isn't really any better).

This is a thing that a lot of the younger audience won't understand, there were known security holes in a lot of the systems but we didn't really care as no-one abused them.

As an example, from around mid-late '93 to Dec 1997 I allowed anyone who could drive a ftp client to upload pages anonymously to a 'public' section of my web server here in the UK, there were all sorts of things there from early Java programmers, Texan Bands, Digital artists, Fan clubs, people just playing with html..the only rule I had in place was 'no pornography' and, for all the years it ran, there wasn't any uploaded. Considering that all accesses were anonymous, and that they could overwrite all the stuff that other people uploaded, there was no vandalism..I allowed cgi scripts to be run, there were no attempts to 'hack' my server..the people using the service were, without prompting, taking the great man at his word and not 'pishing in the water supply'.

There was a 'community' spirit back in the early days, I think partially because for a lot of the people involved it was the same sort of spirit which used to exist all over society when they were younger, back where you didn't have to lock your doors when you weren't in and it wasn't a strange thing for neighbours to come into your house 'unannounced' (some of us lived in such societies up 'till the late '70s, then the rot set in).

Here is two examples from Scotland, the first from seven years ago where in the first year usage was three times the predicated volume

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The second is the newly reopened Borders railway which while a bit early to be sure looks to be following a similar pattern

http://www.scotsman.com/news/t...

Unfortunately this reopening was botched with the 16 miles of double track being knocked back to 9 by the SNP. Also the track was laid in the middle of the formation, making re-instatement of double track difficult and disruptive. Also stupid penny pinching cost-cutting meant new bridges were built for single line with no future proofing for success.

Are the pulsars and quasars distributed in any useful way? Maybe in a sparse but heavily-trafficked area you might want add a beacon or two? Second, the quasars are red-shifted - does that not mean their light gets preferentially absorbed by dust/gas etc, which makes them useful only at quite short ranges? (Short is of course a relative term for a starship navigator).

Then, of course, there are those captains that can't bothered follow the rules or even keep a lookout. http://www.scotsman.com/news/u...

Fine, here's another: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.u...

He was egged by in irate local resident not a yes campaigner. Jim Sillars got egged, he suggested that he hand it in to a food bank next time and carried on.

Fucking Google the other 400 references yourself you lazy bigoted blinkered twat.

Ok, i tried Google and I got

Here's a No campaigner arrested for kicking a woman in the stomach

80 year old Yes campaigner had his arm broken

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.u...

What was that you were saying about personal attacks. You epitomise the No campaign, playing the victim when it is you who are the aggressor.

As an Englishman observing this from outside Scotland (but from within the UK), I find the geographical breakdown interesting. The overall result was 55.30% No and 44.70 % Yes, but looking at the results from the 32 councils only four had majorities for the Yes vote. 28 had a majority for No (albeit very slim in one instance).

The councils where the Yes vote was in the majority were all urban. In all the rural (and some urban) councils the No vote had the majority. OK, some of these are a lot smaller (in population) than the councils where the Yes vote had the majority, but they were a lot larger geographically.

What was very interesting was that some areas which voted No are SNP strongholds, including Alex Salmon's own constituency.

I think there is enough here to keep the pundits going for months!

"'they'll try and use their current position of being British to just seamlessly slot into NATO and the EU' This is because we are part of these unions and there's no reason to think we'd be kicked out" - the EU has already told them that they cannot do this. once out of the UK, they are out of the EU. Its even in teh scottish papers http://www.scotsman.com/news/p...

"Scotland has only been invaded by, erm, one country, many times as it happens, in the last 1000 years".

Nice try, and I agree with the spirit of your post. But have you forgotten Norway?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B...

Although the Scots gave back as good as they got:

http://www.scotsman.com/lifest...

Blacks are inferior as a group.

Look at the way all of the blacks just go apeshit so to speak over a bunch of fucking sneakers of all things!

Then ask yourself why white people don't riot over the latest Apple gadget even though they gather in large crowds waiting for them. I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh does anyone remember when the blacks rioted like crazy after Hurricane Katrina? Isn't it JUST A LITTLE STRANGE the way white people in Colorado banded together and helped each other when they were hit with a natural disaster instead of rioting and looting like the blacks did? I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh and blacks are responsible for nearly all the murders in Marion County! That is what you would expect from a violent tribal uncivilized race.

Interesting when a black man admits blacks are to blame for the hellhole that is (86% black) Jackson Mississippi? Quote: "Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished,” Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Blacks went on a crime spree.""

It goes on and on. Probably no point in posting this since people who are objective already understand the destruction and violence and cost blacks bring anytime they are abundant. It is not just USA. All over the world black-governed nations are hellholes. But objective people knew this. It is the people indoctrinated to believe that acknowledging FACTS is somehow "racist" who just can't admit it. None are so blind as those who will not see.

Blacks are inferior as a group.

Look at the way all of the blacks just go apeshit so to speak over a bunch of fucking sneakers of all things!

Then ask yourself why white people don't riot over the latest Apple gadget even though they gather in large crowds waiting for them. I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh does anyone remember when the blacks rioted like crazy after Hurricane Katrina? Isn't it JUST A LITTLE STRANGE the way white people in Colorado banded together and helped each other when they were hit with a natural disaster instead of rioting and looting like the blacks did? I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh and blacks are responsible for nearly all the murders in Marion County! That is what you would expect from a violent tribal uncivilized race.

Interesting when a black man admits blacks are to blame for the hellhole that is (86% black) Jackson Mississippi? Quote: "Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished,” Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Blacks went on a crime spree.""

It goes on and on. Probably no point in posting this since people who are objective already understand the destruction and violence and cost blacks bring anytime they are abundant. It is not just USA. All over the world black-governed nations are hellholes. But objective people knew this. It is the people indoctrinated to believe that acknowledging FACTS is somehow "racist" who just can't admit it. None are so blind as those who will not see.

There is ample reason for concern about Russia, China, and even Pakistan.

Number of Russian spies in the UK back to Cold War levels, say security services
Chinese Espionage: Britain's MI5 reports epidemic in spying
China's spies come out from the cold
Pakistani spies 'operating in Britain'

I very much doubt that the US has ever aimed nuclear weapons at the United Kingdom. The Soviets / Russians certainly have. They still come for visits.

RAF catches Russian bombers in UK airspace
Yes, yes, I know, but still. Scramble! Scramble! Russian nuclear bandits at 12 o'clock!': The Kremlin's taunting Britain with Blackjack bombers

Blacks are inferior as a group.

Look at the way all of the blacks just go apeshit so to speak over a bunch of fucking sneakers of all things!

Then ask yourself why white people don't riot over the latest Apple gadget even though they gather in large crowds waiting for them. I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh does anyone remember when the blacks rioted like crazy after Hurricane Katrina? Isn't it JUST A LITTLE STRANGE the way white people in Colorado banded together and helped each other when they were hit with a natural disaster instead of rioting and looting like the blacks did? I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh and blacks are responsible for nearly all the murders in Marion County! That is what you would expect from a violent tribal uncivilized race.

Interesting when a black man admits blacks are to blame for the hellhole that is (86% black) Jackson Mississippi? Quote: "Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished,” Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Blacks went on a crime spree.""

It goes on and on. Probably no point in posting this since people who are objective already understand the destruction and violence and cost blacks bring anytime they are abundant. It is not just USA. All over the world black-governed nations are hellholes. But objective people knew this. It is the people indoctrinated to believe that acknowledging FACTS is somehow "racist" who just can't admit it. None are so blind as those who will not see.

Blacks are inferior as a group.

Look at the way all of the blacks just go apeshit so to speak over a bunch of fucking sneakers of all things!

Then ask yourself why white people don't riot over the latest Apple gadget even though they gather in large crowds waiting for them. I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh does anyone remember when the blacks rioted like crazy after Hurricane Katrina? Isn't it JUST A LITTLE STRANGE the way white people in Colorado banded together and helped each other when they were hit with a natural disaster instead of rioting and looting like the blacks did? I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh and blacks are responsible for nearly all the murders in Marion County! That is what you would expect from a violent tribal uncivilized race.

Interesting when a black man admits blacks are to blame for the hellhole that is (86% black) Jackson Mississippi? Quote: "Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished,” Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Blacks went on a crime spree.""

It goes on and on. Probably no point in posting this since people who are objective already understand the destruction and violence and cost blacks bring anytime they are abundant. It is not just USA. All over the world black-governed nations are hellholes. But objective people knew this. It is the people indoctrinated to believe that acknowledging FACTS is somehow "racist" who just can't admit it. None are so blind as those who will not see.

Blacks are inferior as a group.

Look at the way all of the blacks just go apeshit so to speak over a bunch of fucking sneakers of all things!

Then ask yourself why white people don't riot over the latest Apple gadget even though they gather in large crowds waiting for them. I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh does anyone remember when the blacks rioted like crazy after Hurricane Katrina? Isn't it JUST A LITTLE STRANGE the way white people in Colorado banded together and helped each other when they were hit with a natural disaster instead of rioting and looting like the blacks did? I mean an objective person might think whites are more civilized!

Oh and blacks are responsible for nearly all the murders in Marion County! That is what you would expect from a violent tribal uncivilized race.

Interesting when a black man admits blacks are to blame for the hellhole that is (86% black) Jackson Mississippi? Quote: "Look at recent history, like in South Africa, when apartheid was abolished,” Lambus said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. “Blacks went on a crime spree.""

It goes on and on. Probably no point in posting this since people who are objective already understand the destruction and violence and cost blacks bring anytime they are abundant. It is not just USA. All over the world black-governed nations are hellholes. But objective people knew this. It is the people indoctrinated to believe that acknowledging FACTS is somehow "racist" who just can't admit it. None are so blind as those who will not see.

NHS has clearly been under pressure for quite some time. Strange that it rarely comes up in discussion.

Complaints about doctors 'double in five years'

Crackdown on migrants rights to NHS and council homes
Patients facing eight-hour waits in ambulances outside A&E departments
Watchdog issues NHS with financial health warning
Why do the UK's cancer survival rates still lag behind the rest of Europe?
Thousands of NHS operations cancelled because of blunders as complaints about standard of treatment rise
The frightening truth: NHS-managers are incentivized to ignore problems
Hungry, thirsty, unwashed: NHS treatment of the elderly condemned
Dying for a drink: Over 12,000 killed by dehydration in hospitals every year

Labour must bear the blame for the shameful decline of the NHS

Well, he's had his passport revoked, is being hunted around the world, and is being vilified in almost all public media.

Snowden isn't being hunted around the world because his passport is revoked. He is in Russia. Snowden isn't being vilified in "almost all public media." It is quite the reverse - he is being hailed as a hero by Chinese, Russians, many Europeans, and others across the world.

Well, at least he took refuge in Russia. What use do they have for four laptops full of NSA secrets?

Russia warns Ireland it will retaliate in spy row
Ireland Is Training Base for Russian Spies
As many Russian spies in UK today as in Cold War: Soviet defector
Canadian navy officer sentenced to 20 years for being Russian spy
10 in US held as spies for Russia
Russian spies in Australia at 'near Cold War level'
Germany jails Russian spy couple
Belgian diplomat suspected of being Russian spy
Finnish academic charged of aiding Russian spies
Spies in Sweden mostly from China, Russia, Iran
Estonia shaken by new Russian spy scandal
Georgia: Russian Spy Ring Smashed in Tbilisi -- Officials
Spain-Russia spy row leads to diplomats' expulsion

Russian warplanes breach NATO airspace - British and Norwegian jets intercepted Russian military aircraft ... close to the U.K. and Finland
Russian spy plane flies by Swedish military drill

This report comes after the newspaper wrote on 22 April, 2013 that Russian fighters had made dummy attacks close to Swedish territory during the Easter weekend.

RAF catches Russian bombers in UK airspace
UK jets shadow Russian bombers
Russian bombers’ secret UK missions ‘not a friendly act’
Russian subs stalk Trident in echo of Cold War - ... hunting down British Vanguard boats in a return to Cold War tactics
Russian around - A DESPERATE hunt was on last night for a Russian nuclear submarine lurking off the coast of Britain.

You're joking, right?

Concussion in Rugby is hidden epidemic

Concerns rise over rugby concussion risk

Concern at lack of rugby head injury reporting

Rugby players urged to donate their brains to help head-injury research

The saddest part is your bullshit got modded as interesting and insightful.

>But "free speech" is only applicable to the published speech. A person who can't pay to distribute his speech to the public has no protection for his right to do so.

As if this hasn't been the case since Gutenberg made his movable-type press.

"Freedom of the press belongs to those who own the presses"

What the Internet has done is make "printing presses" really cheap, cheap enough that a 9 year old blogger can have one and use it to criticise school lunches. http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/pictures/banned-school-meal-blogger-s-father-in-talks-with-council-1-2369015

While you seem to be mourning the death of free speech, I've been watching it spread far and wide, wider than it ever was in the past history of the human race.
--
BMO

This disagreement is really just a quibble. What is usually meant by "creationism" is the belief in the historical truth of Genesis. By that definition the Catholic is certainly not creationist. I once knew a guy at MIT who joined the Jesuits and became the head of the Vatican observatory. I've followed his career over the years and he's often invited by the press and media to comment on a variety of science questions, and creationism. He regards creationism essentially as crypto-paganism.

Now if you choose to re-define "creationism" as believing that the universe was created by God, then the Catholic Church's beliefs would certainly qualify. However that is an intrinsically untestable hypothesis (a positivist would claim is is meaningless), and therefore neither contradicts nor agrees with science. Creationism in its usual sense disagrees with science.

nope - Gordon Brown tried to do that deal with the US, he was rebuffed.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/wikileaks_us_no_deal_to_gordon_brown_s_plea_to_keep_scots_hacker_in_uk_1_836400

Yeah even the FAA checks the approved software iaw standards set forth in 8110.49, 8110.105 and 8110.110. Something about whether something could kill people if it doesn't work right seems to get even politicians to check this stuff out. The European union have their various laws as well. If you think this is an unfortunate example look up the certification guide lines for elevators, trains (on board at least) control systems.

I would also like to point out that in cases where their has not been at least a certification process that at least recently we have seen signs of failure. Search for that Polish boy who controlled a train because he wanted an after school project (it was not that hard or him to do.)
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Dozens-injured-as-boy-wreaks.3662874.jp.

Going back to medical units though if you look at people suffering from radiation poisoning from the Therac 25 units in the 1980s. Where due to a software glitch some people received over 100 times the normal amount of radiation.

Somehow I think she doesn't want to die just because some kid tries to connect to her heart via wifi (which many units now have for "convenience" sake) or something.

According to some, the covert war has already started:

* $400 million funding for CIA Iran covert ops program

* Assassinations of Iranian scientists (the ones we know about: Majid Shahriari, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Fereidoun Abbasi-Davani (survived), Darioush Rezaeinejad)

* Cyber attacks (Stuxnet etc.)

* Sabotage of military/industrial sites (bombing of Isfahan uranium plant)

* Assassinations of military personnel (the head of the Revolutionary Guards missile program)

* And now: 12 CIA operatives arrested in Iran

It's almost as if someone is trying to provoke a full on war...

citations for the chappie who called BS. These are quite isolated communities and so when the comms went down it caused chaos.

1. BBC, Jamming suspended
2: The Scotsman, mentions telecoms + internet problems

sorry, haven't found anything remotely tech from the comms companies.

The BBC cannot make a profit, due to the not-for-profit charter of the organisation it can only make periodic surpluses or deficits - over the long term they can only net off to nil. Any surplus generated on popular programmes is used to subsidise either/both the licence fee and/or unpopular but "culturally significant" or whatever programmes.

I'm not really sure you have a solid grasp of the way media or any other duplicable asset is sold. Making a sale in many different ways is not the same as "being paid at least twice". Let's say a commercially successful programme like Planet Earth costs £10m to produce, maybe it makes £3m from DVD sales, £1m from BBC America and £3m from deals with other broadcasters. The remaining £3m then comes from the licence fee pot. Maybe another series is so widely successful that it made £20m from those other sources: £10m would go into the licence fee pot, subsidising the licence fee and/or other programmes.

"They can get paid at least twice" just doesn't have any meaning. I watched Inception at the cinema with 5 friends. Did Warner get paid 6 times? Another friend bought the DVD, still another bought the Bluray. Are Warner getting paid 8 times over just between my social circle? Or is it 3? What if myself and 2 of my cinema-going friends also bought the Bluray? What if the BBC then pays to broadcast the movie? Does it matter that all of us pay the licence fee, but some of us live in shared housing and split the bill? Is it relevant that Warner arguably financed the movie from the proceeds of The Dark Knight? Many of my circle bought that in various ways too. Pretty sure the sum total of all our expenditure never covers the $160m cost, though admittedly one friend is quite well off and might have bought a special edition.

To clarify, the BBC did not have their budget cut by government as some sort of punishment for making international sales, or any reason connected with international sales. They were not allowed to increase the licence fee (allowing for inflation this is a cut) in order to cut costs for the licence-paying public. This is set out in the BBC's proposal Delivering Quality First, and many BBC and government announcements widely covered by various media. Some people argue the Tory government not liking the BBC played it's part, or the lobbying from competitors such as Murdoch, but that's conjecture and regardless still has nothing to do with international sales. Cutting the licence fee serves to increase the motivation to make international sales, in order to offset the reduction in the licence fee pot.

The 2,000 staff cut is out of a total of 18,000. Although "a very small percentage" is subjective, 11% can be in your very small opinion, but personally I'm not convinced it is an appropriate turn of phrase when describing people losing their jobs. For the avoidance of doubt I note that the 18,000 figure excludes contractors, which is appropriate because the 2,000 also excludes people losing their contracts.

You are not required to pay the TV licence to own a TV, only to watch broadcast TV (which does include recorded TV on VCR or computer, more info if required).

Shame that you have to go AC to state something that's that obvious. Looking at Christians about 600 years ago, they're pretty much a carbon copy of modern islam, with witch hunts and having women basically as home slaves on one end (compare woman headdress from 600 years ago in catholic heartland of Italy and modern islamic woman headdress), and killing off scientists and seeking political control on other.

Speaking as a Christian, I wish I could disagree with you, but I'd just be trying to fool myself. Some of the most arrogant, judgemental and hypocritical people I've met are Christians. And the sad thing is, I can't even say that we've ultimately improved - the various molestation charges, the extremely loud stereotypical evangelists that scream at you if you question their logic, and so on.

The Vatican really just needs to learn it's doing nothing more than making us all look bad

Tim Minchin's 'Pope Song' ought to sum this up

It was all over the news and is a known controversy with the show about the continual racist comments.

Here is a news article about the show slamming Mexicans: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/mexico/110201/BBC-racist-mexican-stereotypes-top-gear and http://www.nowpublic.com/world/bbc-apologies-top-gear-racist-comments-about-mexico

Germans: http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Germans-up-in-arms-over.2686710.jp and http://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/text/apps_aprjun2006_text.html

Gays: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6189163.stm

If you watch it all the time you must have known about the ongoing racist issues with that show. I'm guessing you don't actually watch the show at all.

I've backed up my statements and stand by every one of them as the truth.

'Telepathy' of child used as evidence in abuse case in Scotland: http://www.scotsman.com/news/39Telepathy39-of-child-used-as.6707586.jp?articlepage=1

We haven't had a major terrorist incident in the US for a while. Why?

A: There hasn't been any credible ability to do so by the bad guys
B: Nobody wants to harm the US any more
C: The counterterrorism efforts have prevented such an attack
For ANY of the above choices, how do you know? I mean, REALLY know, not just guessing or trying to shout louder than the guy next to you whose opinion is different than yours?

Survey says....C!

Al Qaeda Video Asks Detroit-Area Muslims to Act
US warned of mail bomb terror tactic last month
Explosive found in Dubai, part of US terror probe
'US terrorist tried to bring slaughter to subway in Washington'
US man pleads guilty in 'South Park' terror threat
'US thrice shared non-specific inputs on Mumbai attack'
Terrorist in failed LAX attack violated prison release with gun purchase
14 Charged with Aiding Terror Group Al-Shabab
Former Staten Island Resident Nabbed in Attempt to Join Taliban
Feds: NYC Subway Plotters Targeted London, Too (From July)

And in other news....

Osama bin Laden threatens French troops, criticizes France burqa ban
Canadian sentenced for leading terrorism plot
Hotels need EU help to defend against attack
MI6 chief Sir John Sawers says secrecy is vital to keep UK safe
Eight Britons 'trained in Pakistan for European terror strikes'
New security threat at Commonwealth Games, police, army seize explosives
British bobbies get SAS training, new weapons in wake of Mumbai-style terror threats
Gunmen storm Parliament in Chechnya, 6 dead
Bomb on bus in Philippines kills 10, wounds 9
Saudis warn Europe of terr

They forced you to move there???

Sometimes, yes.
http://business.scotsman.com/natwestthree/British-bankers-are-told-that.2794259.jp

Of course, that's unusual. Far more common are political refugees, people attempting to better themselves or people providing valuable assistance to the US Economy by filling a skills gap.

Some of those are forced to live there, some are forced by circumstances to stay and some are free to leave when they want. What they aren't free to do is withhold taxes, even though they have no say in how that money is then spent (e.g. on immigration officials that then harass them despite their legal residence. Or maybe I know too many expats..)

- People who 'distrust banks' would certainly not trust Apple, who asks (read:requires) quite a bit more personal information.
- Figuring the exact price including tax is not easy. Maybe you could do it... There are State sales taxes, municipal taxes, luxury taxes and even (sometimes) 'special' taxes for certain malls. All this would have to be researched and calculated, which is not something most people would do. I suppose they could have called ahead and asked for the exact cost. But when I try to do that for any big ticket, chain store item, I'm told the store cannot do that without entering the sale in the register.
- ATMs do indeed give uncirculated bills (though old cash does not 'get destroyed' for many years). But most (all?) only give 20's. Again, these folks had exact change.
- You may be right about fanboi vernacular. But I was told their speech was very similar, like this kind of similar.
- Why would they do it? Because it looks great on TV when some 'random' person speaks about the iPhone with near-orgasmic delight. Because it's a hell of lot easier to keep it on quiet than limiting supply (which would involve large warehouses for storage and 100's low-wage workers to 'keep a secret'). And there really are no logistical issues here at all. There are companies that specialize in doing this exact type of thing. Apples pays them in cash, they send a few hundred actors to various major cities, and POW! Instant hype. What do you think the $150K was for? Best Buy wants a line to start forming at their Seattle stores at 11PM the night before release? Sure, here's $30K in cash Apple. Make it happen.

I agree, it's probably nothing. Just an interesting bit of observational hearsay. But this type of behavior is not uncommon at all. It's called various different things around the world. In England it's called 'rent-a-crowd', in the US it's called 'astroturfing', in France 'claqueing'. It's not a conspiracy. It's been used in marketing and politics for hundreds of years.

Ireland might be one option Microsoft and Apple seem to see an advantage. Artists do pretty well too and theres no need to learn a second language.

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Taxbreak-loss-may-push-video.6377787.jp

"Games makers warned they might be forced to leave Scotland as a result of the move.

Manufacturers in Dundee have led the world when it comes to making hi-tech games. The previous Labour government had offered them tax relief they felt would increase spending on research and development in the UK by £457 million and create 3,000 jobs.

The industry is estimated to contribute £1 billion to the UK's GDP each year.

Colin MacDonald, from Realtime Worlds, which created the Grand Theft Auto series, said he was "hugely, hugely frustrated and disappointed".

He added: "We would hate to move away, but we're a business. When Canada is 40 per cent cheaper and France has built-in tax credits, you're looking at saving millions a year. We have to take that seriously."

Mr MacDonald said without the tax incentive many gaming companies would not be able to experiment and innovate, which would leave them falling behind in a global industry worth billions."

"Years of heavy use of the broad spectrum herbicide Roundup has led to the rapid growth of superweeds".

Quick..someone mix this "Superweed" with normal weed! They wont be able to make that illegal! We can't be stopped!

It's already happening. Albeit with coca plants.
And the kicker? The new plants have 4x the potency of non-resistant strains.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.11/columbia_pr.html
http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/New-super-strain-of-coca.2559109.jp

Let me see, now...

"Armed Robot Drones to Join UK Police Force"

Since most of the current ones seem to be mindless automatons who shoot to kill innocent civilians, I fail to see how this will be a change to the current situation... With the possible exception that, of course, it would be ludicrous to put a machine in the dock before declaring that there was no case to answer...

What do you mean by "check"? Certainly not a veto - the moment she vetoed any legislation, would be the end of her power to veto. And even if she happened to veto a law I also didn't want, I would be very wary of one person having that power. What happens when she vetos a law I do want?

We already have a much better veto system, as I said here - the House of Lords serves as an unelected house that provides a check. Improvements could be made, sure, but focusing the veto system on a single person chosen through birth is not one of them.

If you don't mean a veto, then what check do you mean?

She's neutral -- she's, ironically, the real voice of the people in gov't

So because she doesn't say anything, that makes her the real voice? That's a lot of use!

I don't see she's anymore neutral than many citizens who also either have no views or keep their views to themselves.

Also note that just because she might not endorse one political party doesn't mean she is neutral in her views (e.g., she gets primetime opportunity to give her views on political and other issues, particularly on religion, in the Christmas speech). And other members of the royal family also use their position to give opinions on political matters (e.g., http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/hunting/Prince--Ill-leave-Britain.2363203.jp ).

Please don't tell me the Queen is neutral when she's sitting on primetime national TV on Christmas Day telling us of the virtues of faith - including people of all faiths, whilst ignoring agnostics and atheists (and this is also a political issue in the UK right now, when you consider issues of things like "Faith schools").

I agree

Some people like to think that sending jobs to China is a great thing (in a very narrow view it is) the marketing departments have done a great job. "globalization" its a great buzzword like synergy... lol Share the wealth? who is saying this? People who have wealth hmm probably the people who own a factory about to be shut down in favor of one opening in China lol.

Competition is great but outsourcing is not competition thats just a competition of who can get to the bottom of the cheap labor barrel first.

Besides its hard to compete with slave labor.... I bet those collage students from the Tienanmen square thing make a nice iPod or Nike shoe, or is it the 12 year old kids who make the shoe's and collage student prisoners who make the iPod's I get confused sometimes... I sometimes wonder how people can sleep at night doing the things they do to each other then I remember that most of these people would sell there own mother into slavery for an extra stock option.

I guess they make bricks too...

http://chinaview.wordpress.com/2007/06/17/modern-slavery-in-china-status-of-chinese-worker/

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1938288.ece

Of course China says they have had no slavery since 1959 !!!

http://news.scotsman.com/world/We-freed-slaves--just.5821498.jp

I guess "competition in the workplace" is marketing for "We need free labor our profit margins could be much higher if it was free to make this stuff"

So what you're saying is that we should have genuine concern (fair enough) over anything that's new (eek!) to people. That's a recipe for trouble, if nothing else.

Flu, especially swine flu, isn't *all* that serious in terms of pretty much any measure you want to put out there. It really isn't. Let's say that this one particular strain (which has, inevitably, grown from the usual strains with a slight mutation and which we expect to happen VERY quickly to ALL such viruses, every single day) will *kill* your "couple of hundred thousand" in, say, the next year and pick some completely random passages from Wikipedia on death rates (I leave actually verifying those data to other people... never trust another person's data). Hell, compare it to a MILLION swine flu deaths within the year, if you want.

"Of the roughly 150,000 people who die each *day* across the globe, about two thirds 100,000 per *day* die of age-related causes." (that's 36.5m a year, and those people might have swine flu and will thus be included in swineflu statistics for no reason other than they "had" it near the time of their death).
"One such disease is tuberculosis, a bacterial disease which killed 1.7 million people in 2004." (Note the year - TB killed MORE people in a very recent year despite being around for decades - did you panic about that at the time?)
"Malaria causes ... approximately one to three *million* deaths annually." (see above)
"AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 90-100 million by 2025."
"Tobacco smoking killed 100 million people worldwide in the 20th century and could kill 1 billion people around the world in the 21st century, the WHO Report warned." (One billion in a century - that's 10m a year and we're talking about THIS century, when everyone is "giving up" smoking for health reasons).

So let's say that the above are "true" and that your hypothetical scenario where hundreds of thousands of people across the globe start dying within the YEAR of swine flu (an increase of several orders of magnitude over the current scenario). That's absolutely NEGLIGIBLE (don't try for the "human" aspect - of course any single death is devastating, but you have to put these things in context) in the grand scheme of things, even against diseases that we have perfectly good existing medicine for and also those conditions that are currently incurable.

Swine flu is, statistically speaking, an interesting little blip on the low end of the radar - the rest of the signal is almost 99.9% diseases that are much more scary, prevelant, existing and that we know *lots* more about - some are even man-made problems like tobacco smoking. You've fallen for statistical propoganda with zero understanding of statistics. It's nothing to be ashamed of, so has *everyone* else I've heard mention swine flu in the last few months.

Just for fun:

http://news.scotsman.com/ViewArticle.aspx?articleid=2500903

67,000 people are injured each year trying to peel the cellophane off a packet of sandwiches, open a ready meal or open a ring-pull can.
More than 150 people a day - have accidentally stabbed themselves when trying to prise the top off a jar or opening a ready meal with a knife
A total of 379,000 injuries caused by trainers, high heels, sandals, platforms and countless other types of footwear.

I'll leave you to read through the rest of the statistics in that article and I'm fairly sure a lot of them are UK-only statistics.

FFS... THIRTY SEVEN PEOPLE were injured by tea cosies in 1999, so seriously that they were admitted to hospital. Do you know what a tea cosy is? It's a woolen warmer for a teapot. More people were injured by tea cosies in the UK than have died from swine flu here so far. Does that put it into perspective for you?

Wasn't the rest of the world supposed to love us if we voted for the Affirmative Action candidate?

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE56302A20090705?sp=true

http://news.scotsman.com/world/Obama-assured-of-a-chilly.5429112.jp

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aR7yfqUwTb4M

Sorry but that's bullshit.

It has been demonstrated in the UK quite successfully that speed limits and cameras do increase safety so saying it's about revenue generation is simply ignorant. I'm not even convinced they make more money sitting an officer on a road that is quite clearly signed that speed cameras may be in operation really nets them enough money to make up for the cost of paying that officer to sit there all day and paying for the costs of running the camera etc. anyway. If it was really about revenue you a) wouldn't get points for speeding so that you could be banned, they'd want you to keep getting caught and paying fines indefinitely and b) they wouldn't have to legally have signs up pointing out that speed cameras are in operation on a specific stretch of road. See here:

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/news/Cameras-help-slash-Notts-road-deaths-injuriesarticle-900689-details/article.html

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/lawandorder/Speed-cameras-lose-money-save.5230243.jp

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/speed-cameras--have-cut-road-carnage-by-over-40-psni-13409612.html

http://slower-speeds.org.uk/cameras_reduce_speeding

Yes, correlation is not causation, but it's pretty strong evidence, particularly when road deaths decrease at a greater proportion in areas where speed cameras exist than where they don't even if road conditions are effectively identical. Furthermore, when a fatal accident does occur, accident investigators have to report the speed the car was travelling at as calculated by evidence such as the skid marks which tell the breaking distance and so on. In a high proportion of these cases (iirc about 50%) the vehicle in question was speeding. The remaining cases were real accidents such as lorries getting blown over and that sort of thing. Of course, there are plenty of sites countering that speed cameras improve safety but I've yet to see any that are more than just an opinion peice, or making a mountain out of a single anomally. Statistics relating to improved safety through speed cameras exist for large data sets and repeatedly show that cameras, and hence forcing most people to stick to speed limits does increase safety.

You state the safest way to drive is in a manner safe for the road conditions presented to you, but are you telling me you know the road conditions of every single road you might travel down? Say you travel down a road at 5:30pm every day from work as I do, there is a road that is 30mph which you can easily go safely down at 60mph at that time. Try doing it at 3:30pm though and I gurantee you'll again plow into a bunch of kids that come out of a school that is set back just behind the houses lining that road. The fact is, speed limits are there because they have been created with the hidden dangers on that road you do not know about in mind. What about the one day of the year that that corner you go round at 50mph is known to be prone to black ice formation that you weren't aware of? What you think is a safe speed to drive might not necessarily be correct, and different people have different opinions on what is safe, that's why it's better to have a sign for everyone to adhere to that has been tested to be the best balance between speed and safety.

Now, that's not to say I agree with this measure. The issue I have with speed limits are not that they exist, but that the dangerous people are those that ignore them anyway. Safe drivers follow them, if you remove them, safe drivers no longer know how fast is safe unless they truly know that specific road and it's hazard

http://news.scotsman.com/scitech/Finally-unearthing-the-secrets-of.5228844.jp

Ooh! where are the outlets that serve this? Sounds yummy!

Edinburgh, Scotland.

While of course I was being humorous, come on, the best you can do to back up your case is an article by a comedian? Other sources say different.

"A quarter of the workforce - around 7million people - put in more than 48 hours a week.

That puts us way ahead of the rest of Europe and even the hard-grafting Americans, says the International Labour Organisation, a UN agency. "

Why yes I think they can.

Sounds like super awesome fun.
Wonder why no-one has thought of that before?

and the past ski season in Scotland (Jan-Apr 2008) - saw our western resorts, Glencoe and Aonach Mor with some of the best snow seen for 10 years.

If I want to watch people running, I can go to my local park and do so for free.

Out of curiosity, does this kind of fallacy have a name yet?

Try this: Why would anyone pay for WoW? If I want to play a game, I can fire up GnuChess for free.

Although, it would still be more interesting to watch what the athletes do in their time off...

.. The UK Government. 600 lost laptops over the last ten years! Including two from the MOD with very sensitive data on them. And that's just electronic data. Despite the public being told how important shredding documents is, some commercial enterprises seem to be just chucking sensitive data out in the bin, unshredded.

The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas,

Are you kidding? So far Europe has had truck drivers go on strike against fuel tax, fuel delivery drivers go on strike for a 14% pay increase, annual electricity/gas bills rising at 40%/year threatening to push a quarter of all households (5 million families) into fuel poverty, councils raising the cost of school meals due to the expense of transportation. Even the police are having to cut back on front line staff due to the additional expense. Food bills have risen by 20% since the start of the year.

The advertisements on the sides of public transport buses read "Fed up of paying fuel duty to go nowhere, take the bus instead and stop your wallet from going empty". Otherwise many people are choosing to cycle in to work, especially university staff.

All of this is predicted to send house prices down by at least 10%, and then one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.

(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.

Convert to Islam, or die. So much for freedom of religion.

(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.

We call you to all of this that you may be freed from that which you have become caught up in; that you may be freed from the deceptive lies that you are a great nation, that your leaders spread amongst you to conceal from you the despicable state to which you have reached.

(b) It is saddening to tell you that you are the worst civilization witnessed by the history of mankind:

(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?

Eliminate the separation of church and state, and implement Islamic Sharia law, or die.

To comply we will have to completely revamp our banking laws, completely change the relationship between the sexes, force women into "modest" clothes, kill homosexuals by either crushing them under walls or pushing them off buildings, kill blasphemers, chop off body parts of thieves, severely punish people who drink alcohol, take drugs, publish cartoons featuring Mohammad, and a very long list of other things. They probably won't be happy unless we also oppress Jews, kill pagans and pantheists. We will need to institute dietary laws for ceremonial purity of food, ban some types of food, pray 5 times a day, and visit Mecca at least once. Our marriage laws will need to change to allow men to marry multiple women, and divorce them by saying "I divorce you!" three times. The sex habits of Americans deeply offend them, as do pornography and much of our literature. The Taliban banned kite flying as unIslamic. We'll have to start separating men and women in many activities... at least when we allow women out of the house. The 'Burqini' (not a joke) will be the hot new swimwear.... for those wanting to avoid a whipping for immodesty. Forget concerns about if lethal injection is too harsh under the Constitution because stoning, beheading, and crucifiction will be making a comeback. Democracy is unIslamic.

Sense a pattern there? They don't like our freedoms to worship, dress, eat, marry, work, pray, read, play, and just about anything else, the way to do now, including the way we govern ourselves. If it isn't getting through to you that, yes, they (Al Qaeda) really do hate our freedoms (to live as we do now), it isn't because the evidence isn't there, and it isn't because they don't tell us. Why aren't you listening to what they say?

By the way, New Y

I honestly hate the fact that actors feel like they deserve more for doing less.

Personally I don't think this guy should get more than what he initially agreed to, and I also think he's sounding a bit more arrogant for wanting more. The fact is that his employer could hire someone else and get virtually the same result, because (as many people have already said) people don't buy games for the actors.

But I certainly don't have a problem with actors getting paid a lot if it's just a case of market forces. A really good example of this is the Simpsons' voice cast, who are now earning on the order of millions of dollars per season. That's a huge amount of money for the amount of time it takes and compared with other people on the staff (such as writers and producers and animators, presumably), especially considering it doesn't even prevent them from doing other work. The difference is that they're nowhere near as replacable. Fox can (and did) replace most of the original writers of the show to the extent that the plots and quality have changed hugely (imho), but it still makes money because the show's primary pulling point these days is the voice acting.

The reason they get this much isn't because they're arrogant, it's because that's what the studio thinks they're worth. The actors have been doing voices on this show for something on the order of 20 years! Nearly anyone would rather be spending their time doing something else by that time, and it's not as if the actors owe it to the show's fans to keep working at low rates for the rest of their lives. They've named a price that'll convince them to stay, and Fox thinks they're worth it. At some point it won't be worth it for Fox to keep paying the amount that the actors want, the show will end or they'll find someone else, and the actors will still be happy because they'll finally have time to spend on other projects they've wanted to to for ages. Meanwhile it's market-decided compensation for whatever else they're giving up which they'd much rather be doing.

If this GTA4 guy (whom I never heard of) reckons he's worth more than $100k then more power to him, but he needs to convince someone to pay him what he thinks he's worth. If a studio pays him more they'll probably be subsidising it by dropping alternative actors or talent somewhere else, which he'd be expected to replace. If he can't convince them to do that, he's worth less.