Slashdot Mirror

They will never block homeopathy due to our health secretary believing in homeopathy: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100179258/jeremy-hunt-health-secretary-thinks-homeopathy-works/. Yes the man put in charge of the National Health Service, once the greatest health care system in the world, believes in magical healing. Hunt isn't only a criminal (see his dealings with Rupert Murdoch) he is also a nut job.

People don't want to sign up for the armed services knowing that they're just going to be shipped off immediately to one of these middle-eastern hell holes to fight some undeclared war over some bullshit "terror" campaign to "keep us safe" from that big, evil Constitution that is making government's job so difficult.

Your entire comment is stupendously wrong.

Pilots love to fly, and most of them like their missions. Unfortunately the sequestration budget cuts mean that they are losing a lot of light time with some units being grounded completely. On top of that the Air Force in particular, and the military in general, has been ratcheting up the stifling level of political correctness and engaging in a growing number of witch hunts due to policies instituted by the current administration. In short, they are whittling away at the reason pilots are there - to fly - and filling them full of politically correct BS. Who could possibly imagine that might cause a retention problem?

Sequester Has Air Force Clipping Its Wings

The Pentagon says the automatic budget cuts known as sequestration could leave the U.S. with a military that is simply unprepared for the most challenging combat missions. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told Congress in April that the military is eating its seed corn. "The cuts will fall heavily on maintenance and training, which further erodes the readiness of the force and will be costly to regain in the future," he said. "As the service chiefs have said, we are consuming our readiness." The Air Force says it's in a special bind. Cuts in flying hours mean that pilots can't do the thing they need to practice most: flying. . . . "We were told to cut our flying budget roughly in half," Lt. Col. James Howard says. Because of that order, Howard says, he had to ground the 336th Fighter Squadron so that the other units on this base could keep flying. The tricky thing for Howard is that the longer his pilots remain idle, the longer it will take for them to get ready to fly again. Fighter pilots must fly and drill their skills on a regular basis, from dogfighting to helping ground troops under fire. Otherwise, they lose their certification. "All those skills are extremely perishable," Howard says. Most pilots, he says, are required to do eight to nine flights per month to maintain readiness status.

Who wouldn’t want to be a US Air Force fighter pilot?

The war against al Qaida is authorized by this law passed by Congress. It is legally equivalent to a declaration of war.
SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR USE OF UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES.

"Bullshit "terror" campaigns" don't leave thousands of Americas dead. Al Qaida has managed to do that, and they keep trying to find new ways. Maybe you've heard of 9/11?

So you're troubled that they ""keep us safe" from that big, evil Constitution"? Could you be more specific? Did somebody quarter troops in your house in violation of the 3rd Amendment? Or is that just empty emoting?

He would be glad to know there is a country, where women wear the burka (and babies should: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/saudiarabia/9848469/Saudi-Arabian-cleric-declares-babies-should-wear-burkas.html), not only, but the hideous crime of kissing in public is punishable with one 1 month in jail, it is called Saudi Arabia, he is most welcome to take his ultra conservative views with him, leaving those who are less up tight about sex in peace. All in the name of protecting Children (forgetting for a minute that possibly most teens gain their knowledge of Sex these days from the Internet).

I expect most Europeans don't want to be left out of the fun.

Putin in nuclear threat against Europe

No Longer Unthinkable: Should US Ready For ‘Limited’ Nuclear War?

Outside the US, both established and emerging nuclear powers increasingly see nuclear weapons as weapons that can be used in a controlled, limited, and strategically useful fashion, said Barry Watts, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, arguably the Pentagon’s favorite thinktank. The Cold War “firebreaks” between conventional and nuclear conflict are breaking down, he wrote in a recent report. Russia has not only developed new, relatively low-yield tactical nukes but also routinely wargamed their use to stop both NATO and Chinese conventional forces should they overrun Moscow’s feeble post-Soviet military, Watts said this morning at the headquarters of the Air Force Association. Pakistan is likewise developing tactical nukes to stop India’s much larger military. Iran seeks nuclear weapons not only to offset Israel’s but to deter and, in the last resort, fend off an American attempt to perform “regime change” in Tehran the way we did in Baghdad. The US Air Force and Navy concept of “AirSea Battle” in the Western Pacific could entail strikes on the Chinese mainland that might provoke a nuclear response.

You can't think of another reason?

Why Theo Van Gogh Was Murdered
Dutch pledge Islamist crackdown
SPIEGEL Interview with Hirsi Ali: "We Must Declare War on Islamist Propaganda"
Violence in Holland: Jihad Behind the Dikes
Dutch anxiety over ‘Sharia triangle’ police no-go area in The Hague
Netherlands, Germany alarmed over Islamist extremists
Muslim Europe: the demographic time bomb transforming our continent

A call to action? A great deal of modern advertising is about brand name recognition; that's why sponsorship deals exist, and why television is full of advertisements that merely strive to be funny and have little if anything to do with their product. Certainly there are a lot of campaigns that will depend on exploiting synthetic desires and insecurities for the rest of time (particularly beauty products) but the more aggressive they get the more transparent they get, and marketers aren't quite that stupid. Spam, "lose weight instantly" banner ads, the Shopping Channel, and other blatant predators don't represent the majority of marketing efforts either in dollar value, products covered, or marketers thus engaged.

A well-done advertisement doesn't need to risk triggering disgust; it's simply a frank presentation of services and features offered, given in a format that emphasises the audience and (if appropriate) lifestyle most likely to benefit from it, and how they might benefit from it. No one is going to find this or this manipulative, even though they both try to sell a message about why their services are superior (and the latter ad uses a fallacy to make a point.)

There's little question that the original poster was a troll; Slashdot has a rich tradition of such antics. It does fit a template, however; it's been euphemistically called "low-quality content" by Google and others, and basically consists of astroturfing by dedicated bloggers and reviewers. There was a really prominent case of this last year when Google discovered it had accidentally funded a crap-posting campaign for Chrome as part of a larger marketing deal. The same applies to the recent Amazon Vine reviews—not all of them actually instruct the reader to buy the book, which may come across as too transparent or be redundant since the user is obviously already considering it.

You really think that after all this country has been though, we're going to fall (or even worse: "...the citizens [die]") because of a few incompetent fools with explosive underwear and pressure cookers?

It is often asserted that there are no stupid questions. Here we see that assertion falsified - the proof is completed by contradiction. QED

Nobody thinks the 300 million person United States of America is going to fall because of a pressure cooker bomb here or there. Frankly it amazes me that you would even broach the subject. You've demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the subject. On the other hand, it is conceivable that thousands of people could be killed per individual attack if the chemical weapons being used in Syria are stolen by al Qaida and smuggled into the US for use at carefully planned targets. Al Qaida is also seeking nuclear and biological weapons. The US wouldn't fall, but would experience considerable difficulties if a major city were attacked with nuclear weapons, or possibly biological weapons. 9/11 caused about 100,000,000,000 in damages to the US economy, and that was only 1 building complex destroyed, 1 building damaged, and 4 airlines destroyed. (Admittedly the buildings were unusually important.) What do you think would happen if all of downtown Manhattan were destroyed by a nuke, or became ground zero for use of a highly infectious and lethal biological agent?

Black Death 'kills al-Qaeda operatives in Algeria'

I can't believe 9/11 turned us into such a bunch of pussies.

You seem to have no useful insights to offer on this matter.

“We found that six degrees actually overstates the number of links between typical pairs of users: While 99.6% of all pairs of users are connected by paths with 5 degrees (6 hops), 92% are connected by only four degrees (5 hops),” the Facebook Data team said.
...
The average distance between all people on the site in 2008 was 5.28 degrees, while now [Nov 2012] it is 4.74.

Twitter

Our optimal algorithm finds an average degree of separation of 3.43 between two random Twitter users,

There are far more serious inequalities for women we can focus our attention on...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23347425
[...]
Malala - who is considered a contender for the Nobel Peace Prize - is credited with bringing the education issue to global attention.

Speaking at UN headquarters in New York last Friday, she said that books and pens scared extremists. She also urged education for all, including "for the sons and daughters of the Taliban and all the terrorists".
[...]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/10122549/Gunmen-in-Pakistan-bomb-female-students-bus-then-attack-hospital.html
[...]
Gunmen in Pakistan bomb female students' bus then attack hospital

Militants in Pakistan have bombed a bus carrying female students before attacking the hospital where survivors and relatives of the victims had gathered.
[...]

Well, what's wrong with actually having anything to hide?

As a general matter maybe nothing, at least as far as simple privacy goes. The problem comes in when what is being hidden results in something like this or that . Those show the rights of American citizens being violated. Sadly, few people on Slashdot seem to think there is anything wrong with that, but some are at least willing to bid them to die well.

Another lost piece of wisdom from the Revolution:

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. -- Benjamin Franklin

If you like the idea of natural Darwinian selection, then you may have a treat coming. Europe isn't producing anywhere close to enough children to maintain its native population. As a result many European countries are importing foreigners with cultures hostile to European values. Those immigrants are not assimilating, and they constitute a rapidly growing proportion of various countries. In 30-50 years many European countries are likely to be on the edge of, if not in, a civil war. You'll see who the fittest is then.

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser

Plenty of countries in Europe are effectively doing the same thing.

"level it may not be too bad."
What would the UK gov like to memory hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole ?
Some past stories that would be so tempting to just filter down just a bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Gun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeknife
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/30/iraq-torture-allegations-uk-military-investigations-reopened
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/24/undercover-officers-police-chief-met
http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/123457043/ee-and-ipsos-mori-face-privacy-backlash-over-mobile-data-analysis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9750403/MI6-codebreaker-Gareth-Williams-probably-locked-himself-into-sports-bag.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9337175/Soldiers-sacked-days-before-pension-date.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127453/M16-1m-bribe-silence-torture-victim-Spies-gave-dissident-Gaddafi-thugs.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/11/gchq-staff-war-crimes-drones
With some "filter controls" for a few days after publication and pay walls long term, an individual in the UK could have their news just reshaped a bit long term.
Ideas like the http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/14/what-are-secret-courts will shut the press out from some UK court reporting.
This mass filter idea might be the next step.
Australia shows the mission creep eg just for a few suspected fraud sites.
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/05/16/global-eyes-are-watching-eff-condemns-australias-new-internet-filter/

"level it may not be too bad."
What would the UK gov like to memory hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole ?
Some past stories that would be so tempting to just filter down just a bit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Gun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeknife
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/30/iraq-torture-allegations-uk-military-investigations-reopened
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2163799/UK-soldiers-beat-innocent-Iraqi-men-black-ops-jails-new-secret-justice-law-means-torture-hidden-forever.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2013/jun/24/undercover-officers-police-chief-met
http://www.information-age.com/technology/mobile-and-networking/123457043/ee-and-ipsos-mori-face-privacy-backlash-over-mobile-data-analysis
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9750403/MI6-codebreaker-Gareth-Williams-probably-locked-himself-into-sports-bag.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/9337175/Soldiers-sacked-days-before-pension-date.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127453/M16-1m-bribe-silence-torture-victim-Spies-gave-dissident-Gaddafi-thugs.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/mar/11/gchq-staff-war-crimes-drones
With some "filter controls" for a few days after publication and pay walls long term, an individual in the UK could have their news just reshaped a bit long term.
Ideas like the http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2013/jun/14/what-are-secret-courts will shut the press out from some UK court reporting.
This mass filter idea might be the next step.
Australia shows the mission creep eg just for a few suspected fraud sites.
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/05/16/global-eyes-are-watching-eff-condemns-australias-new-internet-filter/

Tell me about the uproar that must have erupted from North of the Huai River when it was announced that the lack of environmental compliance has reduced life expectancy on average by five years in the northern half of China. Show me the state sponsored news source that ran that story.

Here's the official xinhua news story: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2013-07/11/c_132533452.htm

And the same in chinese for comparison: http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-07/12/c_124997416.htm

Go ahead, compare that article with with this one. The latter makes it sound like it was second hand smoke as the primary source of limited life spans. It's like reading two completely different health reports!

You sure got that right, the xinhua story you linked is based on a different report, different researchers and all...

Solve your censorship problem and you will solve a lot of your other problems. Just be prepared to see high turnover in your leadership -- something that has been needed for a very long time in China.

Never pass up a chance to bash China, spoken like a true sockpuppet...

I knew I'd read somewhere about Spain's age of consent being 12.

It turns out they raised it to 16 just a few weeks ago: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/spain/10089339/Spain-to-raise-age-of-consent-from-13-to-16.html

Hopefully they'll be more careful about the law than is the case in the UK -- where the age of consent is 16, but the official guidance to the police is not to worry about consensual relationships between similarly-aged teenagers below that. It's better to have that in the law, like in Germany (where, AIUI, lower ages are permitted so long as there's not too much age difference).

Age of consent in Spain is 13 though they plan to raise it. Seems like a 14 year old is an odd choice to emulate for that reason.

That said, an AI capable of simulating a 14 year old girl? Hard to imagine they could even simulate a 5 year old successfully. This doesn't seem like a good use of a universities resources.

What are your list of the other three most embarrassing departments in our world?

Surely the Environmental Ministry cannot be as harmful as the Chinese Ministry preventing this quote from being carried in Xinhua, China Daily or any major news source in China?

Tell me about the uproar that must have erupted from North of the Huai River when it was announced that the lack of environmental compliance has reduced life expectancy on average by five years in the northern half of China. Show me the state sponsored news source that ran that story. Go ahead, compare that article with with this one. The latter makes it sound like it was second hand smoke as the primary source of limited life spans. It's like reading two completely different health reports!

Solve your censorship problem and you will solve a lot of your other problems. Just be prepared to see high turnover in your leadership -- something that has been needed for a very long time in China.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9359763/Bee-stings-killed-as-many-in-UK-as-terrorists-says-watchdog.html

Also we need to set up cameras and secret courts to watch bees.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worse than this, the biggest _actual_ security story to come out of the Olympics was that the company that was actually hired to provide security, G4S, didn't actually provide enough people and they had to bring in the military to cover at the last minute, thus proving the things you actually could plan for were screwed up:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/10070425/Timeline-how-G4Ss-bungled-Olympics-security-contract-unfolded.html

OK, I think they made another appearance in July 2011. This was around two weeks after a report of a NATO missile killing children in Libya. The British public were not keen on another war in the middle east. Then this appeared in the Telegraph. The strange thing is that this village is neither on the Heathrow nor Gatwick flight paths. I know the area quite well and there are no low flying aircraft there, no wonder the villagers were amazed, it was all arranged for the national press. Here is a good analysis of the story.

Yet, when the government started wiretapping citizens years ago due to "national security" reasons, there was no such uproar. Sure, there were a few people that wanted the president impeached, but there was no real support for it.

Yes, and there is a reason for that. The Federal government keeps arresting people like this:

With Nidal Hasan bombshell, time to call Fort Hood shooting a terror attack?
Maryland man sentenced to 25 years for plot to bomb military recruiting center
Feds Arrest Somali Teen in Oregon Bomb Plot
Times Square car bomb: Pakistani Taliban 'claims responsibility'

They aren't arresting political dissidents, they're arresting would-be or actual terrorists. They've arrested and convicted hundreds of them. For some reason many people on Slashdot keep waving their hands and speaking the incantations to banish them from discussion. "There are no terrorists. There is no reason for that sort of investigation."

What makes this even more ridiculous is that there appears to be no small overlap in the people objecting to the US government engaging in anti-terrorism investigations by saying the US government can't be trusted while also condemning the US for not having government run healthcare. Apparently you're not supposed to trust the government to keep you alive by preventing you from being blown up or poisoned by terrorists, but you can trust the government with all your medical records, and to keep you alive by cutting open your body to move things around and take things out, or saw off limbs, or pump you full of chemicals and irradiate you, all subject to this years healthcare budget, all the while having access to your financial records through the tax system, and inspecting the food supply to keep you from being poisoned. Anyone that thinks that the medical system can't be used as a tool of oppression clearly has no idea about what various communist regimes have done.

Whether Snowden simply pulled their chain or they are so bumbling incompetent that with their $50B/year budget the NSA can't figure out if a guy has boarded a plane in the Moscow airport - it sure makes them look massively incompetent.

Wait a minute, are you suggesting that intelligence agencies could be incompetent? That they could actually make a mistake? That goes against 10 years of reveled wisdom on Slashdot. You know, "Bush lied..." Are you sure you want to open that can of worms? If intelligence agencies could possibly be wrong, and people understand that, that might result in a lot more nuance in discussions on Slashdot. We might have to revisit some of the arguments on Iraq sometime.

I to have to wonder if Snowden pulled a counter-intel move, knowing that the NSA was listening in on some conversations and deliberately fed them misinformation to provoke a reaction.

Maybe he did. If that is what happened it is very possible that he had help. After all, the country he is in has more than one first rate intelligence agency (with a history) well schooled and highly capable in implementing maskirovka, i.e. deception. It is kind of their calling card.

If he did deceive the US, he wouldn't be the first.

Saddam Hussein 'lied about WMDs to protect Iraq from Iran'

Few people would call Japan overpopulated. It's dense in Tokyo, and living spaces are traditionally small, but people aren't scrounging for food or trampling each other. The population is shrinking as well.

Much simpler explanation: it's parents codling their sons. Says as much right in the summary: they live in their parent's house. You can't stay holed up in a single room unless you're being supported or have taken serious preparations. The parents are supporting the hermits and have been over sheltering of them to get them to that point. It's hardly a mystery. "Why are they refusing to leave their rooms?" Because they're weak and are being allowed to. Stop feeding them. They will find the strength within themselves to put on clothing and walk outside of their room.

There is more than one way to pay for some things. NHS does well in many respects, and overall Britons seem to be reasonably happy with it, but there are problems there, as there are in Canada, and other government run programs.

Don't leave patients in ambulances to hit A&E targets, hospitals told
NHS starves 1,165 to death
NHS waiting times getting longer due to cuts, health chiefs warn
Surgeons raise alarm over waiting
NHS waiting times 'rise by 6 per cent for routine operations'
NHS Accident And Emergency Waiting Times Reach Nine-Year High
The frightening truth: NHS managers are incentivised to ignore problems

There is more than one way to pay for some things. NHS does well in many respects, and overall Britons seem to be reasonably happy with it, but there are problems there, as there are in Canada, and other government run programs.

Don't leave patients in ambulances to hit A&E targets, hospitals told
NHS starves 1,165 to death
NHS waiting times getting longer due to cuts, health chiefs warn
Surgeons raise alarm over waiting
NHS waiting times 'rise by 6 per cent for routine operations'
NHS Accident And Emergency Waiting Times Reach Nine-Year High
The frightening truth: NHS managers are incentivised to ignore problems

There is more than one way to pay for some things. NHS does well in many respects, and overall Britons seem to be reasonably happy with it, but there are problems there, as there are in Canada, and other government run programs.

Don't leave patients in ambulances to hit A&E targets, hospitals told
NHS starves 1,165 to death
NHS waiting times getting longer due to cuts, health chiefs warn
Surgeons raise alarm over waiting
NHS waiting times 'rise by 6 per cent for routine operations'
NHS Accident And Emergency Waiting Times Reach Nine-Year High
The frightening truth: NHS managers are incentivised to ignore problems

The problem is that the people wanted socialized medicine and we got an insurance scam.

No, "the people" didn't want socialized medicine. That is why the bill didn't come close to that, in the first place.

The real problem is that healthcare costs too much in the first place. You can't just insurance that away. What we really need is for the federal government to tell the whole crooked industry, "Just one more $2 ahh stick or $8 tylenol and we nationalize the whole damned thing!".

Using price controls to set the price below economic costs has a predicable outcome. You aren't just paying for the $.01 or less of wood in the stick, or the pill. You are also paying for facilities cost, utilities, staff, and likely part of the time of the nurse that might fetch it, as well as the doctor. And don't leave out the cost to treat people in the emergency room that don't pay.

Socialized medicine isn't a panacea. The total healthcare budget is then in government hands, competing for money along with welfare and roads, defense and deforestation. Just a couple of stories, plenty more to see if you look.

NHS starves 1,165 to death
Don't leave patients in ambulances to hit A&E targets, hospitals told

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.

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.

Movie execs are capitalists. They'll make whatever people will open up their wallets for.

Which would be good, except that they have no idea what people will pay to watch.

So being mindful of the bottom line, they chose to keep pumping out movies they perceive as carrying lesser risk of failure, i.e. remakesof old previously successful movies (eg Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), sequel after sequel of tired franchises (Scary Movie 2 anyone?), and any movie with excessive violence, explosions, gore, profanity or sex, preferably all of the above.

Which is not to say such movies cannot be fun, mindless entertainment on occasion but watching this steady unending stream of clone movies is the equivalent of living on a diet of popcorn and soda exclusively.

Sorry, that's England. This story's about Germany. Also, pub glass :) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/10083843/Scottish-outrage-at-nanny-state-plan-to-ban-pint-glass-in-Highlands-pubs.html

timothy

There have been other attacks of course, but this has been the deadliest, and most famous against the United States.

2001 9/11 attacks - 2,973 dead. Two skyscraper towers destroyed, heavy damage to Pentagon.
Estimated damage to US economy: ~ $100,000,000,000.

Attacks against the US embassies in Africa is another example.

1998 Bombing of US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - 224 dead, est. 4,000 injured, both embassies heavily damaged

It's true that more than a thousand U.S. citizens have died in Afghanistan, but that's the result of a misguided and disproportionate "action against terrorists" rather than of doing nothing.

The campaign by the US, NATO, and other allies in Afghanistan is neither misguided nor disproportionate.

I'm curious, what would it take for you to acknowledge that Snowden might have betrayed his country? A parade through Red Square? Pictures of him wearing a FRS (nee' KGB) colonel's uniform like Philby?

Kim Philby hailed as 'great spy' in Russia

I'm curious, what would it take for you to completely miss the fucking point of the parent, and somehow try and divert the limelight to Snowden?

No wonder apathy is destroying America with this kind of pathetic response. You must work for the government.

I'm curious, what would it take for you to acknowledge that Snowden might have betrayed his country? A parade through Red Square? Pictures of him wearing a FRS (nee' KGB) colonel's uniform like Philby?

Kim Philby hailed as 'great spy' in Russia

It's fairly simple actually, double agents don't advertise themselves in the media. You may not agree that his Whistleblowing was in the national interest, but to compare him to Kim Philby, probably the worlds most famous/notorious double agent is disingenuous at best, and government propaganda at worst.

I'm curious, what would it take for you to acknowledge that Snowden might have betrayed his country? A parade through Red Square? Pictures of him wearing a FRS (nee' KGB) colonel's uniform like Philby?

Kim Philby hailed as 'great spy' in Russia

The most innovative theater going these days is not "security theater,' but "civil rights theater." As demonstrated above, the dialog is ever more scintillating and persuasive. The plots ever more colorful. The fiction ever more developed. The distraction from the real world ever more enticing. But every once in a while, ugly reality blows up in your face, with the threat to do so again.

7 July 2005 London bombings
Major terror attack on scale of 7/7 foiled every year in UK, police reveal
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?

These results are from a poll of Muslim students:
– 33% claim that killing is justified if done to protect religion.
– 40 percent support the introduction of sharia for British Muslims.
– 33 percent support a worldwide Islamic caliphate based on sharia.

Well, enjoy the show. Don't worry if you miss today's performance, it will have a long run.

The most innovative theater going these days is not "security theater,' but "civil rights theater." As demonstrated above, the dialog is ever more scintillating and persuasive. The plots ever more colorful. The fiction ever more developed. The distraction from the real world ever more enticing. But every once in a while, ugly reality blows up in your face, with the threat to do so again.

7 July 2005 London bombings
Major terror attack on scale of 7/7 foiled every year in UK, police reveal
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?

These results are from a poll of Muslim students:
– 33% claim that killing is justified if done to protect religion.
– 40 percent support the introduction of sharia for British Muslims.
– 33 percent support a worldwide Islamic caliphate based on sharia.

Well, enjoy the show. Don't worry if you miss today's performance, it will have a long run.

Ladies and gentlemen, history will title this period "1983".

History can be a tricky thing, especially when you are projecting into the future to determine what "the history" will be.

For all we know the current period could in fact be not "1983," but rather "1938." Will one of the many crisis or conflicts be the Sudetenland? Will one of them turn out to be the invasion of Poland? There are plenty of candidates.

Let us hope a shooting war between the major powers doesn't start any time soon.

Lord West: cut foreign aid to defend the Falklands

He said: “I am horrified our naval flotilla now comprises only 19 frigates and destroyers.

"In the Falklands, in the first month of fighting, we had four sunk and 14 damaged. That makes you think. We seem to have forgotten that when you fight you lose things.

"Here we are with 19 frigates and destroyers. Are they bonkers? Are they mad? How have they allowed this to happen?”

Sometimes people just don't realize the full implications of their own analogies...

Ceasar's Palace exists for one reason and one reason only - to extract as much of money out of their customers^h^h^h^h^h^h suckers as possible. They (and all of the other modern casino/resorts) pioneered "Big Data" techniques to figure out just how much they could squeeze out of every person that comes into contact with them. They've got official policies on paper to deny it. but they are happy to manipulate and exploit addiction to get all of the money.

It is to protect intelligence programs that guard against terrorist attacks on innocent people, Americans as well as people in other nations.

Al Qaida and its associates have repeated demonstrated the willingness and ability to attack innocent civilians around the world. Terrorism is not a trivial problem, but is being kept in check by active measures. There is a long list of arrests and convictions for terrorism and related offenses that can help one differentiate between successful anti-terrorism measures and "magic anti-terrorism rocks."

Major terror attack on scale of 7/7 foiled every year in UK, police reveal NSA director: Surveillance foiled 50 terror plots National Counterterrorism Center: Annex of Statistical Information

Replying because there's no "-1: BAAAAAAAAAAAA" option...

It is to protect intelligence programs that guard against terrorist attacks on innocent people, Americans as well as people in other nations.

Al Qaida and its associates have repeated demonstrated the willingness and ability to attack innocent civilians around the world. Terrorism is not a trivial problem, but is being kept in check by active measures. There is a long list of arrests and convictions for terrorism and related offenses that can help one differentiate between successful anti-terrorism measures and "magic anti-terrorism rocks."

Major terror attack on scale of 7/7 foiled every year in UK, police reveal
NSA director: Surveillance foiled 50 terror plots
National Counterterrorism Center: Annex of Statistical Information

Why does it matter if someone is a "us person"? Fuck off spying on me America.

I doubt "they" are spying on you so much as spying on the people around you that HM government are watching, concerned about, and which emerge from the population segment that will constitute a rapidly growing percentage of the population unless native Britons begin having children again.

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser
7 July 2005 London bombings
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - A few years old, but I doubt it has changed much.
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?
Muslim Gangs Enforce Sharia Law in London
2066: White Britons will be in the minority in UK
The British women converting to Islam
David Cameron studies plans for multi-faith Lords - ... where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.

I suspect that the future Troubles will leave people pining for the old Troubles unless these portents change. Of course if you like goat, and prefer your women veiled, it may not be all bad. Of course singing Jerusalem will likely be considered "offensive" at some point.

Why does it matter if someone is a "us person"? Fuck off spying on me America.

I doubt "they" are spying on you so much as spying on the people around you that HM government are watching, concerned about, and which emerge from the population segment that will constitute a rapidly growing percentage of the population unless native Britons begin having children again.

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser
7 July 2005 London bombings
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - A few years old, but I doubt it has changed much.
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?
Muslim Gangs Enforce Sharia Law in London
2066: White Britons will be in the minority in UK
The British women converting to Islam
David Cameron studies plans for multi-faith Lords - ... where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.

I suspect that the future Troubles will leave people pining for the old Troubles unless these portents change. Of course if you like goat, and prefer your women veiled, it may not be all bad. Of course singing Jerusalem will likely be considered "offensive" at some point.

Why does it matter if someone is a "us person"? Fuck off spying on me America.

I doubt "they" are spying on you so much as spying on the people around you that HM government are watching, concerned about, and which emerge from the population segment that will constitute a rapidly growing percentage of the population unless native Britons begin having children again.

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser
7 July 2005 London bombings
At Least 4,000 Suspected of Terrorism-Related Activity in Britain, MI5 Director Says - A few years old, but I doubt it has changed much.
MI5 warns al-Qaida regaining UK toehold after Arab spring
What do British Muslims think of the UK?
Muslim Gangs Enforce Sharia Law in London
2066: White Britons will be in the minority in UK
The British women converting to Islam
David Cameron studies plans for multi-faith Lords - ... where Muslim imams could sit alongside Anglican and Catholic bishops.

I suspect that the future Troubles will leave people pining for the old Troubles unless these portents change. Of course if you like goat, and prefer your women veiled, it may not be all bad. Of course singing Jerusalem will likely be considered "offensive" at some point.

I'm not defending the actions of the murderers, and I'm not defending the inaction of the bystanders who observe the crimes and do nothing. But, these reports might give you some understanding of their perspective and why they are mad. The UN has an absolutely terrible track record in Africa. They've been accused of widespread sexual abuse of children across multiple African countries by thousands of victims, across a number of years with virtually no action taken to stop the abuse. There are also numerous accusations of corruption and collusion with warlords. The UN as an organization has noble intentions, but the people on the ground are subject to some very human flaws when given too much power over the weak.

2002: http://www.upi.com/Business_News/Security-Industry/2002/05/06/Refugee-sex-scandal-triggers-UN-reforms/UPI-89771020662474/ - UN troops raped children in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea.

2006: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6195830.stm - Children have been subjected to rape and prostitution by United Nations peacekeepers in Haiti and Liberia, a BBC investigation has found

2007: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1538476/UN-staff-accused-of-raping-children-in-Sudan.html - The UN said today that it would launch an investigation after the Daily Telegraph reported allegations that UN personnel have abused children in southern Sudan.

2011: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/146874 - An AP investigation found that food meant for starving Somalis is being stolen and sold in markets. UN's World Food Program unfazed.

Misery for 10 million households as BT raises prices.
BT's 6% landline price rise.

What is the point of automatically removing child porn so it's not searchable. That's not the problem with child porn.

The problem with child porn is real children are being really abused to make it.

Making it "not searchable" doesn't stop that. Arresting the people who are making it does.

The Telegraph's reporting on this issue outlines the intense political pressure the UK government has placed on these companies. One of the big problems was interoperability. With this database, local law enforcement and small ISP's can use the biggest repository of signatures for these images instead of building one from scratch.

The ... program helped the NSA stop a 2009 al-Qaida plot to blow up New York City subways.

That is at best an extreme exaggeration of the value of the cell phone records. I'm sure his data was in the database, and was probably accessed after he was discovered, but his plot was discovered as a result of monitoring that was (or easily would have been) warranted.

Wikipedia: Operation Pathway:

On November 9 2009 The Telegraph reported that the operation produced the tip that lead American security officials to place Najibullah Zazi under investigation. British security officials were reported to have intercepted an email from a Pakistani planner to Najibullah Zazi containing instructions on how to conduct his attack.

The Telegraph: British Spies / Zazi:

The alleged plot was unmasked after an email address that was being monitored as part of the abortive Operation Pathway was suddenly reactivated.

Operation Pathway was investigating an alleged UK terrorist cell but went awry after the then Met Police counter-terrorism head Bob Quick was pictured walking into Downing Street displaying top secret documents.

Eleven Pakistani suspects were arrested immediately after the gaffe but later released without charge.

However, security staff continued to monitor the email address which eventually yielded results.

The UK already operates 85 Sharia courts. They have limited power, for now. .

I found this hard to believe, so looked. It's true...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/tv-and-radio-reviews/10011260/Panorama-Inside-Britains-Sharia-Courts-BBC-One-review.html
(One of many references)

A depressing extract from the undercover researcher/journalist who went to get advice on a (fictional) abusive husband:

“He hits me,” she maintained. Should she leave her home? Should she go to the police?

“The police, that is the very last resort,” said Dr Hasan. Instead, apparently, she should ask her husband: “Is it because of my cooking? Is it because I see my friends? So I can correct myself.”

Right. "Correct yourself"

Rather than continuing to undermine the hard-won universal values and freedoms on which our western democracies are (supposed to be) based, with crap like this porn-filtering and spying on our data, how about working to ensure that people who need help actually get it?
People like the Boston Bombers were not stopped by the NSA; they might not have acted if we all, individually and collectively, had manged to convince them that the 'western way' is better. Or failing that, just invited them not leave if they don't like our society.

We're failing on both fronts...the people who need help don't get it, and the ones who fight our values from within don't get stopped and/or thrown out.
so yeah, just filter the porn...much easier