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Re:Just another day. by isorox · 2013-01-18 05:39 · Score: 1 · on TSA Terminates Its Contract With Maker of Full-Body Scanner

everywhere in the UK now (except Manchester unless they've finally scrapped the X-Ray ones, I don't know personally.)

They replaced them a few months ago with MMW scanners, at least in T3 - there aren't any scanners at all at fast track.

At the very least the millimetre wave ones don't generate nude images, for Gods sake.

I couldn't care less. At the very least they don't bombard you with ionizing radiation.

Manchester had the X-Ray ones and they were optional

They were optional in the sense you could choose not to go through, and you wouldn't be allowed to fly, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/8608337/Doctor-barred-from-flying-after-refusing-body-scan-on-health-grounds.html et. al

So it's safe to say our friend the GGP is not a British resident and doesn't know what he's talking about there

Not only am I a British resident, I last flew out of the UK on Wednesday, passing through MAN t£, and LHR T1 on my 7th and 8th flights of the year.

but I guess the police state reputation of the UK has to be reinforced somehow.

I have had to use the X-Ray scanners on arrival to the USA, sorry but it's true. I wonder if you or the GGP actually do any transatlantic flying and know this or are just parroting what you've heard (as I suspect) because I was flying through Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport, and they damn well have full security on arrival, even for connections, although millimetre wave ones.

I travel all over the world, although I haven't flown TATL since November. Obviously you'll have scanners on connections. That's not arrivals. Admittedly I tend to fly into JFK/EWR/BWI/IAD, and on from Washington/NY a few days later. I've never heard of any of my colleagues being scanned on arrival, only on connections (which is to be expected)

My fiancee flew to America once landing in Memphis, and they scanned with the X-Ray scanners for all landing people to boot. So that's two places where the assumption that you don't get scanned on arrival is outright crap.

X-Ray'd/millimetre scanned, an interview, all fingerprints taken... it's not an inviting country to fly to.

So the scanners are before immigration? For my last entry (day before Sandy hit), into EWR, I wasn't even asked if I was there for business or leisure.

As an aside I find it hard to believe that the TSA doesn't deliberately ensure that international arrivals from airports including Amsterdam require that the gates used are the ones armed with millimetre wave scanners. After all, they have their guys at the gate asking you dumb questions. Airport security, especially transatlantic, is an end-to-end affair and usually your destination country has their guys running security in the host airport. Even inside the EU my flight back from Amsterdam to the UK had G4s employees setting up the gate and running security.

Hmm, do you fly TATL on American carriers (or worse, El Al)? I've heard they have silly extra rules that you don't get on VS/BA etc, but if you route via AMS I'm guessing you're a KLM flyer. Your experiences do not sound normal. I arrived into America 4 times last year, 3 times the year before. I've never seen any security present for people getting off the planes. Add the other 60 flights last year, and the only country where I have seen security on arrival is Israel, where they occasionally ask a few questions (the Erez border being the non-flight exception)

Re:Reminds me of a cartoon by Svartalf · 2013-01-17 02:00 · Score: 1 · on Soot Is Warming the World — a Lot

The alternatives are actually cheaper

Really?

Windmills cause climate change

That's just ONE example. Electric vehicles require Lithium or NiMH batteries in large quantites which cause worse pollution than the internal combustion engines that you're replacing them with- and hybrids tend to be the worst of both worlds. In the case of EV's you have the pollution of the POWER PLANT charging the things- which at this time is a coal or gas fired plant in most cases, or a problematic just post-WWII era nuclear reactor design, none of which are "clean" or "cheap" in the sense you seem to be using. Wind power doing it? Look at the link and weep. Solar power? Right now, it's the most expensive in terms of net power consumption to get to power production and it's the least efficient- not to mention that the cheapest designs combust in sunlight if you have a failure of the encapsulation of the cells (Look up "Abound Solar" and "burning"... We won't do liquid salt Thorium reactors or Pebble Bed reactors so nuclear power's currently more dangerous and potentially polluting than the other options. (Now, if you'd say we do that for electricity, you'd be starting in the right direction...a bit...)

Saying that they're actually cheaper is being ignorant of everything and listening to the feel-good arguments that're full of appeals to emotion and devoid of the reality of things. This isn't to say that we shouldn't be working on things in that direction- but to claim it's cheaper or actually better right at the moment...you're lying to everyone about it...including yourself.

Re:Reminds me of a cartoon by hairyfeet · 2013-01-16 10:17 · Score: 2, Insightful · on Soot Is Warming the World — a Lot

The problem is NOT a case of "creating a better world for nothing" as many of us that are currently against AGW would think that would be great, wonderful, all for it. the problem that many of us have against AGW is the current "solutions" are a scam set up by the same groups that gave us credit default swaps and all the other lovely scams in the real estate bubble which We, The People, are still being handed bills for.

Take Mr "inconvenient truth" Rev Al Gore, not only has he not said a word about tariffs on China who has said they won't play the carbon game (hint, he makes crazy money there), not only has he set himself up to make billions on the carbon scam but he has the diamond plated balls to say puttering around in his Lear Jet and driving his SUV makes him "carbon neutral" because he pays HIMSELF carbon credits from his OWN COMPANY which then hands him the money back as capital gains which he doesn't have to pay taxes on! It would be like moving money from your left pocket to your right and getting a tax break for doing it!

So you want to make the world cleaner? All for it, add huge tariffs to Chinese goods, we can pick up their fricking pollution on the west coast so if you want cleaner air there is a good start, tell the NIMBYs to fuck off and start building new nuclear reactors, tell the DoD to fuck off and allow reprocessing to deal with the waste, and invest in a people's car that runs on diesel, gets at least 40MPG and costs less than 20K. Give tax breaks and a huge "cash for clunkers" to the poor to get rid of all the old used cars on the road...tada! Wow I just solved a good portion of the problems right there, aren't I a genius? Why isn't this being done? Answer is obvious, its because the scammers can't leech more money with a sensible system that actually makes things better which is why the ONLY "solution" you'll hear from the AGW is carbon credits.

Oh and FYI but what EXACTLY do you think will happen to what few American factories are left if they have zero penalty for moving to China? Duh, they'll just move where they don't pay for carbon crap and make more money! Of course Rev Al won't say shit about that, he and his buddies make mad monies on cheap Chinese labor don't cha know? What a fucking scam, and what saddens me is how many "greenies" are buying the bullshit. This will do about as much to clean up the place as throwing all your garbage in the closet. Sure you won't see it but its still there and it will get worse until it spills out all over the place.

(ENF) Electrical Network Frequency analysis by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-12 12:36 · Score: -1 · on Australian Spy Agency Seeks Permission To Hack Third-Party Computers

Archived @:
http://slexy.org/view/s21UWKzafS
http://hpaste.org/79175
https://paste.debian.net/plain/216145
==
The hum that helps to fight crime (ENF) Electrical Network Frequency analysis

"For the last seven years, at the Metropolitan Police forensic lab in south London, audio specialists have been continuously recording the sound of mains electricity.

It is an all pervasive hum that we normally cannot hear. But boost it a little, and a metallic and not very pleasant buzz fills the air. ...

"The power is sent out over the national grid to factories, shops and of course our homes. Normally this frequency, known as the mains frequency, is about 50Hz," explains Dr Alan Cooper, a senior digital forensic practitioner at the Met Police.

Any digital recording made anywhere near an electrical power source, be it plug socket, light or pylon, will pick up this noise and it will be embedded throughout the audio.

This buzz is an annoyance for sound engineers trying to make the highest quality recordings. But for forensic experts, it has turned out to be an invaluable tool in the fight against crime.

While the frequency of the electricity supplied by the national grid is about 50Hz, if you look at it over time, you can see minute fluctuations. ...

Comparing the unique pattern of the frequencies on an audio recording with a database that has been logging these changes for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year provides a digital watermark: a date and time stamp on the recording.

Philip Harrison, from JP French Associates, another forensic audio laboratory that has been logging the hum for several years, says: "Even if [the hum] is picked up at a very low level that you cannot hear, we can extract this information."

It is a technique known as Electric Network Frequency (ENF) analysis, and it is helping forensic scientists to separate genuine, unedited recordings from those that have been tampered with."

- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20629671
- http://cryptogon.com/?p=32789

#

Met lab claims 'biggest breakthrough since Watergate'
Power lines act as police informers

- http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/01/enf_met_police/

#

Noisy, muffled, incoherent recordings are an audio engineerâ(TM)s worst nightmare, but all too often they contain vital evidence in criminal trials. Itâ(TM)s the job of the forensic audio specialist to extract that evidence.

- http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan10/articles/forensics.htm

#

(discussion forum) Electrical network frequency analysis, Mains frequency variations detectable in digital audio recordings?

- http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=81346

#

Met Police use electrical 'hum' to solve crimes

The Metropolitan Police is using the "hum" of background noise produced by mains electricity to help solve crimes, it has been disclosed.

- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9739037/Met-Police-use-electrical-hum-to-solve-crimes.html

#

Related Research
- http://www.ece.umd.edu/~ravig/Research.html

#

Engineers Use Electrical Hum To Fight Crime

- http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/12/12/1331243/engineers-

Easy by Chrisq · 2013-01-06 21:25 · Score: 1 · on Petition For Metric In US Halfway To Requiring Response From the White House

They should schedule it for implementation immediately after completion of the death-star

Re:Good luck with that by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-06 16:30 · Score: 0 · on Petition For Metric In US Halfway To Requiring Response From the White House

Because space probe calculations done in metric never fail.

The mars probe failed because people didn't label their units.

Re:Al Jazeerah is BBC by cold+fjord · 2013-01-05 23:29 · Score: 0 · on Al Jazeera Gets a US Voice

Al Jazeerah is BBC . . . It was formed when BBC closed it Arabic division. Those folks went and started Al Jazeerah.

That makes perfect sense.

Electing a New People: The Leftist - Islamic Alliance
Islamist-Left Alliance A Growing Force

(BBC Director General) Mark Thompson: “There was massive left-wing bias at the BBC”
The BBC's Left-wing bias isn't in its news coverage; it's in everything else that it does
BBC bias - The BBC has managed to flabbergast even those Israelis who hadn’t expected minimal fairness from it.
More absurd anti-Israel bias from BBC MidEast editor
For once, there is no ambiguity: the Today programme's report on Gaza this morning was totally and utterly biased

Re:Al Jazeerah is BBC by cold+fjord · 2013-01-05 23:29 · Score: 0 · on Al Jazeera Gets a US Voice

Al Jazeerah is BBC . . . It was formed when BBC closed it Arabic division. Those folks went and started Al Jazeerah.

That makes perfect sense.

Electing a New People: The Leftist - Islamic Alliance
Islamist-Left Alliance A Growing Force

(BBC Director General) Mark Thompson: “There was massive left-wing bias at the BBC”
The BBC's Left-wing bias isn't in its news coverage; it's in everything else that it does
BBC bias - The BBC has managed to flabbergast even those Israelis who hadn’t expected minimal fairness from it.
More absurd anti-Israel bias from BBC MidEast editor
For once, there is no ambiguity: the Today programme's report on Gaza this morning was totally and utterly biased

Re:Billions of Fricken Dollars by krotkruton · 2013-01-04 14:39 · Score: 1 · on Scary Toothbrush Prompts Shutdown of World's Busiest Airport

Yeah, private firms have worked great for securing our Nuclear Facilities: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9451100/G4S-under-fire-after-nun-breaks-into-US-nuclear-facility.html

Re:Thanks for the concern by RalphWigum · 2013-01-04 12:45 · Score: 3, Informative · on Adrian Lamo Explains His Decision To Expose Bradley Manning

Here you go:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1358063/I-was-one-of-the-Talibans-torturers-I-crucified-people.html

"Basically any form of pleasure was outlawed," Mr Hassani said, "and if we found people doing any of these things we would beat them with staves soaked in water - like a knife cutting through meat - until the room ran with their blood or their spines snapped. Then we would leave them with no food or water in rooms filled with insects until they died.

"We always tried to do different things: we would put some of them standing on their heads to sleep, hang others upside down with their legs tied together. We would stretch the arms out of others and nail them to posts like crucifixions.

sjobs@apple = Executive Relations by Anonymous Coward · 2013-01-03 06:25 · Score: 0 · on What's In Steve Ballmer's Inbox?

It was an open secret that mail sent to sjobs@apple.com would be read by Apple Executive Relations, a sort of last-resort customer feedback team.

Sometimes, if they thought you had a legitimate issue, they'd actually get to Steve Jobs, and sometimes, he'd actually reply. (Often, quite bluntly.) Somewhat more often, they'd escalate a case with AppleCare or the Genius Bar for you. The rest of the time, you'd just be directed back to the normal channel.

I have no idea if the practice continues under Apple's current Great Leader.

Say what you will about Apple being a freedom-hating customer-hostile totalitarian cult, they at least have no shortage of actual, US-English-speaking humans for you to rant and rave at. Try getting a hold one of those at Google or Microsoft sometime.

Re: Seriously, America? by xaxa · 2013-01-02 05:11 · Score: 1 · on 2012 Set Record For Most Expensive Gas In US

The UK is supposed to increase the fixed amount (the duty) every year, but in the last few years the government has "put off" the increase. Driving in the UK is cheaper (accounting for inflation) than it's been for a long while.

You're right that they haven't raised the duty in the last couple of budgets. But you appear to be wrong about that meaning inflation adjusted fuel is cheaper than it's been for a long while. On the contrary, it's quite a bit more expensive.

http://www.speedlimit.org.uk/petrolprices.html

I probably got that from here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/9493041/War-on-motorist-a-myth-says-left-of-centre-think-tank.html but can't quickly find the original report. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/war-motorists-myth has more quoted numbers from it.

I wrote (and remember reading) that driving was cheaper, not fuel alone. Accounting for better cars (using less fuel, needing less maintenance) might be what makes that true.

Re:Its like gun controlq by SternisheFan · 2013-01-01 10:24 · Score: 1 · on Why Do You Want To Kill My Pet? Zynga Shuts Down PetVille, 10 Others

That's pretty insane behavior by an alleged adult. In England a kid was stabbed to death over his brothers cellphone... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9774057/Police-hunt-schoolboy-in-connection-with-mobile- phone-stabbing.html

Are UK and US wind turbines the same? by Vinegar+Joe · 2012-12-31 05:55 · Score: 1 · on US Firms Race Fiscal Cliff To Install Wind Turbines

Could be a problem........

From The Telegraph:

"Wind farm turbines wear sooner than expected, says study

The analysis of almost 3,000 onshore wind turbines — the biggest study of its kind —warns that they will continue to generate electricity effectively for just 12 to 15 years.
The wind energy industry and the Government base all their calculations on turbines enjoying a lifespan of 20 to 25 years.
The study estimates that routine wear and tear will more than double the cost of electricity being produced by wind farms in the next decade."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/energy/windpower/9770837/Wind-farm-turbines-wear-sooner-than-expected-says-study.html

Re:Lost a Friend Yesterday by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-30 15:30 · Score: 0 · on China's Controversial Brain Surgery To Cure Drug Addiction

There is a grey area here Mr Black'n'White, and that's when your bad decisions hurt and kill other people.

Woah, you came so close to an actual example.

Re:Peter Parker killed off by Gaygirlie · 2012-12-29 22:13 · Score: 2 · on Stan Lee Celebrates 90th Birthday

This is pretty messed up... where is the creative control now? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9767988/Peter-Parker-the-alter-ego-of-Spider-Man-killed-off.html

Huh. Well, I've gotten the impression that these Marvel superheroes die all the god damn time only to be resurrected by some mystical power or similar, or to be revealed later that it only looked like they died. As such I have a hard time caring. I do quite like the idea of Dr. Octopussy going through some really major identity crisis as a Spiderman, though, it'll make for some interesting story.

Peter Parker killed off by andrewa · 2012-12-29 21:33 · Score: 1 · on Stan Lee Celebrates 90th Birthday

This is pretty messed up... where is the creative control now? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9767988/Peter-Parker-the-alter-ego-of-Spider-Man-killed-off.html

Re:Very well done to them! by Xugumad · 2012-12-28 06:57 · Score: 4, Informative · on Ouya Dev Consoles Ship, SDK Released

Delivering some hardware, I'll concede as not that tricky. Delivering a fairly advanced piece of kit at a very low price is another matter. Doing it on the relatively limited scale we are talking here (Kickstarter's statisics would suggest not too many over 800 kits going out: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ouya/ouya-a-new-kind-of-video-game-console?ref=live - add up the numbers for the $699 and above pledges) is particularly tricky.

I can't find any off the shelf Tegra 3 boards; the nearest option is the KTT30 ( http://emea.kontron.com/products/boards+and+mezzanines/embedded+motherboards/miniitx+motherboards/ktt30mitx.html ) which is unpriced and "Coming Soon!", despite a number of articles expecting it to come out in Q4 2012. The devkit board retails for 529 Euros ( http://shop.seco.com/carma-devkit.html?___store=eu_en&___from_store=eu_en ) by itself, for comparison.

It's worth saying that the Nexus 7 hadn't been announced when I said this, and even if it had you have to wonder whether removing the touchscreen is enough to save 50% of the price, especially with Google's ability to use economies of scale to mitigate R&D costs. I would point out that the Nexus 7 is predicted to be selling around a million a month ( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/9645052/Google-Nexus-7-tablet-sales-approaching-1m-a-month.html ), or over 20 times the pre-orders for the Ouya. Even then the Nexus 7 is generally presumed not to be making a profit on hardware (which the Ouya will have to do).

From a Personal Point of View by Frightened_Turtle · 2012-12-26 16:50 · Score: 1 · on Amazon: Authors Can't Review Books

I'm reading a lot of comments above where people are saying that the average consumer's opinion isn't worth shit. I beg to differ. When I wrote my book, I didn't write it for the critics, the reviewers, the professionals--I wrote it for people to read and enjoy the story I made up. When someone has read my book and liked it enough that they wanted to say to the world, "Hey! I really enjoyed reading this book!" That means a lot to me! It tells me that the effort I put into writing that story was worth it.

The occasional negative review is going to happen. Often these are self-important people that feel the need to let everyone else know how important they are, and they are going to snipe at any flaw they can find: "The author used 'palatable' instead of 'palpable' in the fourth chapter. Clearly he doesn't know how to write! Don't buy this book!" Such comments are so ridiculously petty, they can be ignored. Now, if someone made the comment, "I felt that Character-A wasn't very well thought through and his development was kind of weak," and then went on to explain their position, you can be sure that I will pay attention to something like that and look into it. Good constructive criticism is good to act upon. It might be too late for one book, but you can be assured I'll try not to make a similar mistake on the next book. There are also going to be those who don't like a book because it just isn't to their taste. To that, I can only say, "Thank you for your patronage. You'll probably not want to buy the next book, but thanks for at least giving me a try." As an author, I do consider what a negative reviewer has to say. It doesn't feel as nice as when I get a great review, but it may help me improve what I'm doing.

As far as peer reviews are concerned, if Walter Hunt, Spider Robinson, Neal Stephenson or Ursula LeGuin read my story and said they liked it, I would be absolutely thrilled to receive such an endorsement from such established authors! On another level, If Oprah Winfrey piped up and said she liked my book, I would probably be doing handsprings in my front yard. What? You think Winfrey's opinion is worthless? Consider this: When Oprah says she likes a particular book, she has over 30 million fans that will immediately go out and buy that book to read it for themselves. To an author, that is the equivalent of getting a $1 million dollar check in the mail--because that is exactly what happens! You wake up the next morning to discover that you went from 2,000 copies sold to 750,000 copies sold. With my book at $4.99 and me getting 70%, that means in 60 days Amazon would be dropping a cool $2.6 million into my bank account.

What is at issue with Amazon is that people were gaming the system. Of note, the author R.J. Ellory admitted to writing false reviews over the past several years. He's not the only one. There have been many others over the past several years. The opinion of a peer author in a given genre carries huge weight with readers. And that opinion can make or break another author, especially if that author is new and struggling to gain readership. To have someone purposefully sabotaging another author for their own gain is reprehensible. Sadly, there are unscrupulous people and they are going to pull every dirty trick they can to get ahead.

Things like this do weigh heavily on me. I told family and friends not to post a review because they know me, but because they read my story and actually liked it. If they want to blog, tweet, or post about my story, go ahead and tell people that they know me and want to promote my book to help me. I also told my friends not to buy my book because they are my friend; buy it because they want to read the story. I realize that my story will not be to everyone's taste, and I don't want them buying it because they feel obligated to do so out of loyalty.

Is Amazon correct in their move? T

Re:So Proud of Gun Ownership by rohan972 · 2012-12-26 12:23 · Score: 1 · on New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map

They are still mass murders that happened with machetes, but hey, for your sake, since you are google disabled:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/hungary/9190732/Hungarian-man-kills-four-members-of-his-family-with-large-machete-after-row.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiguan_kindergarten_attack
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cologne_school_massacre
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/190923522.html?dids=190923522:190923522&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=OCT+22%2C+1921&author=&pub=The+Washington+Post&desc=KILLS+11+AND+ENDS+OWN+LIFE&pqatl=google
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-71884392.html
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LME-AAAAIBAJ&sjid=bkwMAAAAIBAJ&pg=5902%2C7437434
While these aren't in the US, it would be incredibly stupid to think that mass murders won't happen if guns aren't present. The biggest mass murder in the US was done with a fertilizer bomb FFS.

Re:So Proud of Gun Ownership by rohan972 · 2012-12-26 01:12 · Score: 1 · on New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map

Duh. However, teh ratio of gun massacres to (wholly hypothetical) knife massacres does approach infinty, I think.

As long as you don't count half a million Rwandans. Or incidences like this:Nigeria: riots leave 500 dead after machete attacks

But I'll admit that these machete massacres aren't really the same as the school shootings. Many more people killed, not the same at all.

Scarcity vs. Abudance thinking; fear vs. joy by Paul+Fernhout · 2012-12-23 05:05 · Score: 1 · on Drawings of Weapons Led To New Jersey Student's Arrest

"Oh, look, he was also interested in electronics, we could a) teach him to become and engineer, helping to ensure our future prosperity and competitiveness in the world, or b) lock him in prison!"

AC, your point is another application of the idea in my sig which I have not thought about before. Thanks for pointing it out so clearly. From one assumption of human nature, this kid has the potential to be a productive member of our society on an upward spiral. With another assumption about human nature, this kid is set on the course of becoming a drain on our society in a downward spiral.

And the further we all go down the downward spiral, the harder it gets to find the resources to help children grow well into productive members of society (whether good public libraries, or healthy nutrition, or good chemistry sets). So then, as our society decays further, the more and more likely we are to assume the worst, and then we get the worst.

Echoing another of your points, when I was in High School, I found out the Junior Engineering and Technical Society (JETS) club had been disbanded a couple years earlier because the students had been working towards purchasing enough materials to build a big rocket (because it could in theory have hit an airplane). So, it became a "Computer Club" probably because that seemed "safer". So, I got support to learn about computers but not about how to make rockets. About a decade ago, I talked with someone at NASA who said they had a very difficult time hiring anyone these days to be an actual "rocket scientist" because kids have not experience anymore with rocketry and explosives. Is it any surprise NASA has a hard time "getting it up" these days and could not design a good successor to the Space Shuttle despite so much time and money? So, because of that 1970s fear, probably duplicated across the USA, we all remain imprisoned on planet Earth rather than being able to move into the "High Frontier" and reach for the stars. Meanwhile, we have to worry about "The Singularity" and Terminator-like military AIs getting out of control. And we also have to worry about robots taking most of the jobs (without an adequate economic policy like a basic income to distribute what robots can produce, see Marshall Brain's book "Manna") in part because we are still locked in a scarcity-assuming economics from lack of access to space resources like solar energy and asteroidal ore.

Around the globe, the USA is unfortunately busy creating terrorists like by killing women and children as "collateral damage" against suspected militants (intentionally or not). In the same way, out of the same emotion of fear, it looks like the USA is certainly working hard to take a potential engineer as this student was and turn him against society.

Some people might strongly disagree with going much further with that analogy though:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/brendanoneill2/100195201/comparing-obamas-drone-attacks-in-pakistan-to-the-shooting-at-sandy-hook-is-the-most-infantile-kind-of-anti-imperialism/

US president Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." I might not go that far, but it is a good thing to think about. Related: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/magazine/12FOB-IdeaLab-t.html?_r=0
"But the satire was rooted in a statistical fact: in the ranks of captured and confessed terrorists, engineers and engineering students are significantly overrepresented."

With about two million US citizens in prison (10X what if probably should be) and several times that on probation, with about half for non-violent drug offenses and/or for being a minority, it would be easy to argue this self-fulfilling prophecy has been operating for decades. It is just now expanding further and

A common misconception by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-20 20:50 · Score: 0 · on Your Hands Were Made For Punching According To New Study

With the notable exception of bonobos

Bonobos are actually just as violent as every other ape on the planet.

Re:Gingrich & Huckabee Weigh In by terec · 2012-12-20 04:13 · Score: 1 · on School Shooting Prompts Legislation To Study Violent Video Games

That verdict was overturned in 2011 under pressure from the Italian government (and various churches): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8391092/Crucifixes-can-be-displayed-in-EU-schools.html

Re:Sudden outbreak of common sense by 0xdeadbeef · 2012-12-20 03:24 · Score: 1 · on Makerbot Cracks Down On 3D-Printable Gun Parts

Yes, I'm perfectly OK with that. Our murder rate is less than four times the rate of the UK, so it is pretty obvious they are getting creative with knives, bludgeons, poison, or what have you. I'd rather lose that additional 3 people per 100,000 than lose the ability to kill anyone who breaks into my home. (And our murder rate keeps falling, despite having so many guns readily available.)

And besides, those ASBOs aren't working out for them.

America may have a culture of violence, but that is better than a culture of subservience and weakness in the face of violence.

Re:so before Sandy Point, they were idiots? by ArsenneLupin · 2012-12-20 03:12 · Score: 1 · on Makerbot Cracks Down On 3D-Printable Gun Parts

There is no such thing as an "accidental shooting" either.

Gun cleaning accident (the real ones, not suicides disguised as such)
Guns discharging themselves when being dropped
Mixup between blank and life ammo
Dog playing with hunter's rifle
Kid playing with father's gun

Yes, all these examples do have a part of negligence in them, but so have most accidents (even car or kitchen accidents).

Re:Are we any smarter than we were 2000 years ago? by cold+fjord · 2012-12-18 21:49 · Score: 3, Insightful · on Google Brings the Dead Sea Scrolls To the Digital Age

While we don't need religion to tell us that murder is wrong,

Although arguments have been made regarding humanity's innate moral sense, I still have to ask, are you quite sure about that?

Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?
Human sacrifices 'on the rise in Uganda' as witch doctors admit to rituals
Four held for kidnapping kids for human sacrifice
Nigeria: Prevalence of ritual murder and human sacrifice and reaction by government authorities (March 2000-July 2005)"
Evidence found of human sacrifice in North America
"Chilling" Child Sacrifices Found at Prehistoric Site

Many in the West cannot conceive of things being different in any way if foundations of its morality and culture are destroyed, but that is an epic mistake. Things will change, and many of the possibilities make for something that may not be nice at all.

Re:Are we any smarter than we were 2000 years ago? by cold+fjord · 2012-12-18 21:49 · Score: 3, Insightful · on Google Brings the Dead Sea Scrolls To the Digital Age

While we don't need religion to tell us that murder is wrong,

Although arguments have been made regarding humanity's innate moral sense, I still have to ask, are you quite sure about that?

Druids Committed Human Sacrifice, Cannibalism?
Human sacrifices 'on the rise in Uganda' as witch doctors admit to rituals
Four held for kidnapping kids for human sacrifice
Nigeria: Prevalence of ritual murder and human sacrifice and reaction by government authorities (March 2000-July 2005)"
Evidence found of human sacrifice in North America
"Chilling" Child Sacrifices Found at Prehistoric Site

Many in the West cannot conceive of things being different in any way if foundations of its morality and culture are destroyed, but that is an epic mistake. Things will change, and many of the possibilities make for something that may not be nice at all.

Re:More error checking by lookatmyhorse · 2012-12-18 21:29 · Score: 1 · on Whose Bug Is This Anyway?

and brakes are stronger at the wheel than the engine traction, so don't panic

Re:Hopefully by mcguiver · 2012-12-18 06:08 · Score: 1 · on Will Japan's New Government Restart the Nuclear Power Program?

The exclusion zones themselves are way overblown in terms of size. Most of the land around Fukushima is perfectly fine for occupation. Heck, the doses in many areas in the exclusion zone have lower radiation levels than places like Denver. Even the "Dead Zone" around Chernobyl is overblown. There is a great article on the women who defied the evacuation order around Chernobyl and many of them are still alive and there are few reports of any of them having cancer.

Re:100 more will die today by Xest · 2012-12-18 01:11 · Score: 1 · on Adam Lanza Destroyed His Computer Before Rampage

"What do you propose? that I lie on the floor like a coward and hope he doesn't shoot me in the back out of contempt after he's done robbing me?"

You're assuming he'd have a gun, if the gun ban in the UK has taught us anything it's that the "If you ban guns, only bad guys have guns" mantra is grossly overplayed. In the UK guns are just about never ever used for breakins, whilst bad guys have them, they're so hard to get hold of and so expensive as a result that they only ever get used against other gang members and so forth in gang on gang violence. Innocent law abiding citizens are so very very rarely shot here, which is why it makes headline news on the rare occasions it does happen. Somewhat interestingly, the majority of guns that do make it across to the UK are actually legally bought guns from the US smuggled over, so a limitation on US firearms purchases would actually help us. It's not uncommon that the same gun in the UK is passed around for multiple murders, so of the 39 or so gun murders last year or whatever it was for example, 10 of them may have been with a single weapon which highlights the limited amount of firearms on the streets, which highlights the minimised impact they now have on our society.

"Who are you to state the value of my 'stuff'? My family? my rights? my dignity? Look at it another way, don't invade peoples' homes if you value your life. That makes a lot more pragmatic sense than some kind of neo-hippie stockholm syndrome attitude towards violence."

But that's what we do in the UK too, we make criminals scared to break in by telling them don't do if if they value their lives. We reinforce this principle by broadly publicising cases like this:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8812716/Homeowner-cleared-after-burglar-stabbed-to-death.html

America seems obsessed with the need for guns to defend themselves, what happened to the good old fashioned cricket bat if you're paranoid? If you're really, really desperate for a gun then manual load shotguns and hunting rifles at least are still perfectly legal. You just can't have a concealable firearm or a semi or fully automatic one. Here we have a concept of reasonable force, if someone's in your home with a knife it's reasonable to grab a big fat kitchen knife and attack them with it before they attack you. But as this article points out there are limits:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20398432

"There was a case when a man in a warehouse captured an intruder who'd come onto his premises. He tied him up, threw him in a pit and set fire to him."

Obviously that was taking things a little too far.

It's about getting the balance right between deterring intruders and preventing excuse for murder. I think we have that balance about right in our country now and certainly guns aren't part of it. Of course Americans make the argument that we've no way to defend ourselves against our government, but I think this is a silly argument, is there really any evidence we're less free to influence political discourse in nations like ours where guns are banned than in the US? What if a theoretical dictator comes along, sure we wont be armed to remove him but do we need to be? If the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya showed us anything it's that gun ownership needn't be a barrier to revolution - the army either sides with the population because it's their friends and family being oppressed to, or if they don't, then the populace just storms the army bases and then gets their guns - this is precisely what happened in Libya, an otherwise peaceful protest passing an army check point turned on it and stormed it before they even knew what had happened. I don't buy the guns are essential to protect liberty argument, as there's absolutely zero evidence to date for that being the case whilst there is evidence that nations with strict gun

Re:100 more will die today by Anonymous Coward · 2012-12-17 18:22 · Score: 0 · on Adam Lanza Destroyed His Computer Before Rampage

Europe and Australia tend to be far more violent than the US, but the US murder rate is about 2x theirs. They beat, main, rape, and assault more, Americans kill more but have far less violence overall. Your quote is nonsense - dead from a knife or club is just as dead as dead from a gun.

Murder most foul
UK is violent crime capital of Europe

Re:Stop watching Fox by cold+fjord · 2012-12-17 18:09 · Score: 1 · on Adam Lanza Destroyed His Computer Before Rampage

Seriously kid, stop watching fox, your bain is rotting away. Australia and Europe both got lower crime rates.

Rather bad news, I'm afraid, it seems that the rot has got you as well.

UK is violent crime capital of Europe - 02 Jul 2009

The figures were sourced from Eurostat, the European Commission's database of statistics. They are gathered using official sources in the countries concerned such as the national statistics office, the national prison administration, ministries of the interior or justice, and police.

A breakdown of the statistics, which were compiled into league tables by the Conservatives, revealed that violent crime in the UK had increased from 652,974 offences in 1998 to more than 1.15 million crimes in 2007.

It means there are over 2,000 crimes recorded per 100,000 population in the UK, making it the most violent place in Europe.

Austria is second, with a rate of 1,677 per 100,000 people, followed by Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Holland.

By comparison, America has an estimated rate of 466 violent crimes per 100,000 population.

France recorded 324,765 violent crimes in 2007 – a 67 per cent increase in the past decade – at a rate of 504 per 100,000 population.

The Home Office says there has been a downtrend in overall violence for the past decade.

But last October it emerged that levels of violent crime in England and Wales had been underestimated for more than a decade because of a blunder in recording methods.

Regarding Australia:

Violent crime statistics

Recorded assault increased again in 2007, to 840 per 100,000, compared with 623 per 100,000 in 1996. The 2007 rate was the highest recorded since 1996.

AUSTRALIA: MORE VIOLENT CRIME DESPITE GUN BAN

Since it "can't happen" . . .
Gun crimes soaring despite ban brought in following Dunblane - 15 Jul 2001

THE controversial ban on the ownership of handguns which was introduced after the Dunblane massacre has failed to halt an increasing number of crimes involving firearms.

An independent report, Illegal Firearms in the UK, to be published by the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College in London tomorrow, says that handguns were used in 3,685 offences last year compared with 2,648 in 1997, an increase of 40 per cent.

Culture of violence: Gun crime goes up by 89% in a decade - 27 October 2009