Slashdot Mirror

I did, every single one of them was the Daily Mail

You obviously didn't look that far, here it is reported independently in several different UK tabloids.

Check out http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/booknews/9459779/50-Shades-of-Grey-is-best-selling-book-of-all-time.html for a fuller version of the story. They're you'll find that it's the "best selling book of all time" if you take that as "in Britain, since the organization that proclaimed it such began keeping records... which is in 1998".

So, really, "best-selling book in Britain in the last 14 years". And note that that's including e-books, which records haven't been kept for for that whole time.

The actual number of copies sold to get that 'record'? 5.3 million. I can't find worldwide sales figures for it, but the article above mentions that the sequels sold 3.6 and 3.2 million copies in Britain, and the series as a whole has sold "over 40 million copies". Let's take 45 million for the sake of argument, and assume that proportional sales of the sequels are about the same everywhere. If we do this, we get 19.7 million copies sold. Call it 20 million.

Checking Wikipedia's list of best-selling books of all time, that puts it about #65 on their list. That's pretty far from #1. Especially when you realize that the top category is books that have sold over 200 million copies... and that the list doesn't include books for which there are no reliable sales figures. Like, say, the Bible and the Koran. Heck, even Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone is listed as not having reliable sales figures.

"Hitler made the traditional mistake of not listening to his generals/admirals, the Battle of Britain could have been won, the strategy was just taking effect around the time Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to cease operations."

I'm not sure this is true, for about 500 dead RAF pilots, Germany saw around 2500 dead Luftwaffe pilots and 1000 captured. How could that ever be sustainable a 7:1 loss in airmen for the Luftwaffe vs. the RAF? Their aircraft loss was about 1800 vs. 1500, and many of their lost aircraft were vastly slower and more expensive to produce bombers vs. the RAF's cheap, light, fast to produce fighters. It's not like the UK was at breaking point unlike say, Malta was where the Nazis could probably have broken Malta with just a little bit more effort as it really was right on the edge.

You are definitely right in the general trend of your thinking: the Battle of Britain could not have been won with "just a little more effort" as the previous poster implies, however, there is more to the story than you may be aware.

See Stephen Bungay's book "The Most Dangerous Enemy" for a thorough and modern discussion of the Battle of Britain. He notes that the German kill ratio in fighter combat was better, but the British were inflicting heavy losses in German bombers: many of the casualties you are counting are losses to bomber crews.

The key limitation in the German air attack was the limited range of their fighters, just as the key limitation in the later Allied air attack on Germany would prove to be.

It seems likely that the Germans would have had to give up the air attack on Britain for a time, even ignoring the Soviet threat (see my other post below), given the heavy losses they were taking, but one can reasonably suppose that eventually they would have developed long range fighter technology. This technology (when paired with good doctrine for employing fighters) permitted the Allies to shatter the German fighter force in 1944 and it is likely that the same thing would have happened to the British had the situation been reversed.

Given the Soviet threat, none of this would have really mattered: the Germans had to deal with the immanent threat from Stalin so they didn't have the time needed.

Fortunately.

There's also this view too, that even if the Luftwaffe had won in the air it probably still wouldn't have been enough:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1527068/Battle-of-Britain-was-won-at-sea.-Discuss.html

I'm a big Navy Buff, and I know the British navy executed some really superb operations during the war. But the title of this article is superficial and misleading. The navy posed a serious threat to any water-borne crossing, that is true. The British navy would not have been able to do anything about the excellent German paratrooper forces and the massive airlift capacity the German air force had: stopping that sort of assault required the British army and air force. It is worth recalling that much of the success of the German army in France was due to their ability to use their air force as "mobile artillery": they didn't need to get tanks to England to be able to fight.

It is far from clear to what extent the navy would have been effective had the Germans won air superiority with a significant portion of their air force surviving.

Consider, for example, the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off Singapore by Japanese air power.

Admittedly, the Japanese were far better prepared than the Germans for attacking warships from the air, but I suspect the Germans would have proved quick learners had the situation arisen. Also, they may have been able to adapt weapons and techniques from the Italians, who did have a superb torpedo bomber.

Also consider the very heavy losses the British navy took while under attack from German and Italian air units during the

Here's one: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9571041/Swimming-coach-who-accidentally-sent-sexually-explicit-messages-to-teenagers-freed.html

"Hitler made the traditional mistake of not listening to his generals/admirals, the Battle of Britain could have been won, the strategy was just taking effect around the time Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to cease operations."

I'm not sure this is true, for about 500 dead RAF pilots, Germany saw around 2500 dead Luftwaffe pilots and 1000 captured. How could that ever be sustainable a 7:1 loss in airmen for the Luftwaffe vs. the RAF? Their aircraft loss was about 1800 vs. 1500, and many of their lost aircraft were vastly slower and more expensive to produce bombers vs. the RAF's cheap, light, fast to produce fighters. It's not like the UK was at breaking point unlike say, Malta was where the Nazis could probably have broken Malta with just a little bit more effort as it really was right on the edge.

There's also this view too, that even if the Luftwaffe had won in the air it probably still wouldn't have been enough:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1527068/Battle-of-Britain-was-won-at-sea.-Discuss.html

You'll also note that the article points out that by the end of the Battle of Britain, the UK was far outproducing the Luftwaffe in terms of fighter output too which further suggests the Luftwaffe would only have suffered more and more if they'd have prolonged the Battle of Britain possibly increasing further again the number of airmen they were throwing away relative to their RAF counterparts.

I agree though much of the Nazis problems were due to Hitler's blunders, I recall that plans to assassinate him were called off for precisely that reason - they were scared that someone more competent may have replaced him.

It would be a cool way to commit suicide, I'll give you that.

Here's a story about a woman who wasn't suicidal, she jumped 990 feet base jumping, which did her in. This guy jumping from orbit will most likely live. Go figure. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/sweden/9548436/Pregnant-base-jumper-died-instantly-after-freefalling-990ft-on-final-leap.html

Like this guy?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/conservative/9563847/Police-log-reveals-details-of-Andrew-Mitchells-pleb-rant.html

Once elected to office, the snout goes in the trough and they take all they can while thet rest of us pay for it.

Not since 2008.. See, just because you type in capitals, it does not make your assertion true.

In third world countries, where they need the boys to work the fields, they would abort a girl at the first chance. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9103831/In-the-third-world-unwanted-baby-girls-disappear.-Its-called-gendercide.-And-its-happening-in-this-country-too.html

People react to the culture in which they're brought up. And even in the Middle East, it's a small proportion of Muslims acting in the way rightists here want to depict all Muslims as.

Yes, this is clearly a problem of "rightest" depiction of the actions of Islamists.

Bounty on Salman Rushdie increased to $3.3 million - Iran will pursue makers of anti-Islam film: vice-presidenthor

Pakistani minister puts bounty on anti-Islam filmmaker's head

Egypt's president elect Mohammed Morsi says he will try to free Blind Sheikh

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's president elect, on Friday appealed for the release of one of Osama bin Laden's closest associates, a call sure to alarm critics worried about the direction he will take the country

Interview with Father Zakaria Botros, 'Radical Islam's Bane' - An interview with the Coptic Orthodox Priest with a 60 million dollar bounty on his head from al Qaeda.
More: Michael Coren Interviews Father Zakaria Botros 'Radical Islam's Bane'

Allied Menace

"Here are two brother countries, united like a single fist," said socialist Hugo Chávez during a visit to Tehran last November, celebrating his alliance with Islamist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Che Guevara's son Camilo, who also visited Tehran last year, declared that his father would have "supported the country in its current struggle against the United States." They followed in the footsteps of Fidel Castro, who in a 2001 visit told his hosts that "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees." For his part, Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("Carlos the Jackal") wrote in his book L'islam révolutionnaire ("Revolutionary Islam") that "only a coalition of Marxists and Islamists can destroy the United States."

As an atheist, I have no dog in this fight, except one: I want to live in a peaceful world.

You want to live in a peaceful world, and al-Qaida and assorted Islamists want you to live in a Muslim world. I expect that neither of you will get your wish unless enough people prefer any peace, even the peace of the graveyard, or the "peace" of slavery, to the long term struggle to defense genuine peace a freedom.

Looking below this seems to have been hashed to death and back already of course, including Mythbusters this and that etc...
But just for the "Hydrogen burns, lulz" people who seem to have taken over Slashdot, hydrogen is indeed flammable, but it does not burn without oxygen and a source of ignition present. Thus hydrogen inside a balloon is entirely safe, unless you put oxygen and candle inside that balloon as well. Now when that balloon develops a leak it's a whole different story.
Also hydrogen flames burn in the ultraviolet spectrum and are hardly visible to the human eye. Thus it's clear something else was burning alongside the hydrogen when Hindenburg burned. Unknown to most people the American helium-filled airships suffered very similar burning accidents. Safety regulations were far laxer then than they are today, the main problems with Hindenburg were its design allowed large static charge potential differences to develop between its parts and it was not covered in flame-retardant fabric. In addition being part of the Nazi propaganda machine it was being pushed far beyond the stresses and uses its original developers intended, and likely to be leaking all over the place. "Hindenburg burns and crashes, people die, American trade embargo on helium to blame" was merely the politically correct (at least to the Nazi-party, and they worked hard to hide any evidence to the contrary) summary.
But where does this leave us with hydrogen balloons? Not sure, any current party balloon designs I can think of are highly flammable, and preventing a leak is not really an option. Luckily, there's one other option for flying your party balloons: Sky lanterns! There's no way anything could go wrong with those... (Apologies for being too lazy to make every word of last sentence a link to similar article... would be ugly, too:)

IANAL, so take this with the usual sodium supplement.

I notice that your video contains no copyright notice of any kind, As I understand it, this doesn't actually give away your ownership, but it does make it a lot of difference enforcementwise.You might want to do a little reading so you can better protect your work in the future.

It's also worth remembering that Youtube is very much about repurposing other people's content.. You can fight this with legal boilerplate and takedown notices, but really you're going against the spirit of the place.

Wasn't this story eventually revealed to be the result of a Hotmail database intrusion rather than a phishing expedition? Which would confirm the suspicions of many; that Hotmail does or did store user passwords in plaintext or weakly encrypted form.

okay. so what does that mean about slavery. what does that mean about our nation's genocidal treatment of native americans?

but really it started before that. italy owes the world an apology for the brutal treatment the romans meted out on their neighbors. no wait, sorry, that's the greeks that owe reparations. no wait, the egyptians are to blame. i think modern iraq needs to apologize for the babylonians. iran too, for the brutal crimes of the sassanids

zzz...

there is sell-by date on all recriminations. justice is real, but justice has a sunset clause, or it's not really justice. if i steal a loaf of bread, i should be punished for that. that's justice. once, for a limited time. not be permanently cast into eternal punishment: that's not justice. after a certain length of crime, it's just history. to be learned from. not to bury oneself in in an endless cycle of victimization, where some other people or place or time is to blame for all of your problems in life.

the war in the balkans in the 1990s: you talk to the croats the serbs, the albanians, etc.: they'll bring up some stupid shit that happened in the 1500s, and then use that as an excuse to go kill some boys in the next town. is that justice? even now, greeks are now demanding war reparations from germany from wwii:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9537451/Greeks-eye-war-reparations-from-Germany-as-markets-await-euro-ruling.html

is this right?

how about the anti-japanese protest in china:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/18/world/asia/china-japan-islands-dispute/index.html

is that right?

endless victimization is just a cynical political move. it's not right. it's not justice

it's bullshit

and so many people, like these fucking morons "well the usa did this in iran in the 1950s or did this in chile in the 1970s, so you know, let's go kill americans or blame americans for every goddamn bad thing that happens in the world: that's fair"

fucking ignorance

If you pass this bill don't fall into the same trap as the UK. Only allow degrees accredited by Universities with a proven academic record, and not any "overseas branches". Even reputable Universities can be tempted by overseas operations, and it is much harder to deal with after the event after the event.

I realised that it might not be obvious what I'm talking about. Some "low end" educational establishments just become a means to buy a visa rather than teaching the students to any reasonable degree.

That's old stuff: http://www.livescience.com/11022-herb-quells-cows-methane-laden-belches.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/globalwarming/7873998/Curry-for-sheep-could-curb-global-warming.html
http://www.treehugger.com/green-food/new-cow-diet-reduces-methane-emissionsand-no-its-not-mms.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/jul/10/ruralaffairs.climatechange
Even garlic appears to help.

If you pass this bill don't fall into the same trap as the UK. Only allow degrees accredited by Universities with a proven academic record, and not any "overseas branches". Even reputable Universities can be tempted by overseas operations, and it is much harder to deal with after the event after the event.

The world (especially voters and politicians) believe in nutjob armageddon/rapture bullshit and are hell-bent on making sure it happens as soon as possible

Let me help you out there -

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, AKA the Soviet Union, governed by the religion suppressing atheistic Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" operated according to the "scientific principles" of Marxist-Leninism, built an actual Doomsday weapon, that is still active: Soviet Doomsday Device Still Armed and Ready and Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine.. Apparently secular socialist progressive totalitarians are just as crazy as anyone else. Salud.

Related: Moscow arms against nuclear attack

Nearly 5,000 new emergency bomb shelters will be built in Moscow by 2012 to save people in case of potential attacks.

Out of sight but not out of mind

William Burrows’ classic 1986 book about satellite reconnaissance, Deep Black, opened with a vivid scene of retired US Air Force Major General George Keegan recounting how in the early 1970s he had become obsessed with Soviet civil defense preparedness. As head of Air Force intelligence, Keegan had ordered his junior officers to gather all the satellite photography that they could of Soviet underground shelter building. Eventually he compiled a massive amount of data indicating—he claimed—that virtually every large apartment building erected in the Soviet Union since 1955 included a fallout shelter, factories had underground bunkers, and there were “seventy-five huge underground command posts.” A few of these underground facilities housed command centers for the Strategic Rocket Forces and were buried in the Ural Mountains. In particular, Yamantau Mountain (“Evil Mountain” in the local Bashkir language) and Kosvinsky Mountain were considered to be the Soviet equivalents to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, home to NORAD (not to mention the W.O.P.R. and the Stargate).

Shelters part of long-term civil defense plan - Shanghai leaders stress the date of 2012 is purely a coincidence
Assessing PLA Underground Air Basing Capability

Bunkers for all

Switzerland is unique in having enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire population, should they ever be needed.

IKEA in Hell - The interior design of Sweden’s giant nuclear bunker.

Israeli leaders spend day in 'Nation's Tunnel' nuclear bunker

The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb

According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at

The world (especially voters and politicians) believe in nutjob armageddon/rapture bullshit and are hell-bent on making sure it happens as soon as possible

Let me help you out there -

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, AKA the Soviet Union, governed by the religion suppressing atheistic Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in a "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" operated according to the "scientific principles" of Marxist-Leninism, built an actual Doomsday weapon, that is still active: Soviet Doomsday Device Still Armed and Ready and Inside the Apocalyptic Soviet Doomsday Machine.. Apparently secular socialist progressive totalitarians are just as crazy as anyone else. Salud.

Related: Moscow arms against nuclear attack

Nearly 5,000 new emergency bomb shelters will be built in Moscow by 2012 to save people in case of potential attacks.

Out of sight but not out of mind

William Burrows’ classic 1986 book about satellite reconnaissance, Deep Black, opened with a vivid scene of retired US Air Force Major General George Keegan recounting how in the early 1970s he had become obsessed with Soviet civil defense preparedness. As head of Air Force intelligence, Keegan had ordered his junior officers to gather all the satellite photography that they could of Soviet underground shelter building. Eventually he compiled a massive amount of data indicating—he claimed—that virtually every large apartment building erected in the Soviet Union since 1955 included a fallout shelter, factories had underground bunkers, and there were “seventy-five huge underground command posts.” A few of these underground facilities housed command centers for the Strategic Rocket Forces and were buried in the Ural Mountains. In particular, Yamantau Mountain (“Evil Mountain” in the local Bashkir language) and Kosvinsky Mountain were considered to be the Soviet equivalents to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, home to NORAD (not to mention the W.O.P.R. and the Stargate).

Shelters part of long-term civil defense plan - Shanghai leaders stress the date of 2012 is purely a coincidence
Assessing PLA Underground Air Basing Capability

Bunkers for all

Switzerland is unique in having enough nuclear fallout shelters to accommodate its entire population, should they ever be needed.

IKEA in Hell - The interior design of Sweden’s giant nuclear bunker.

Israeli leaders spend day in 'Nation's Tunnel' nuclear bunker

The frightening truth of why Iran wants a bomb

According to Shia lore, the Imam is a messianic figure who, although in hiding, remains the true Sovereign of the World. In every generation, the Imam chooses 36 men, (and, for obvious reasons, no women) naming them the owtad or "nails", whose presence, hammered into mankind's existence, prevents the universe from "falling off". Although the "nails" are not known to common mortals, it is, at

I also know they're going into a debt crises, ...

Well... it's not like US have a monopoly on QE - Japan is at its eight already.

I pulled that up myself earlier. I still think the restoration of an out-of-copyright movie would count as an original work in the sense that artistic direction exists and it filling in scratches can never recreate the original perfectly.

You know, like this painting restoration:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/9491391/Elderly-woman-destroys-19th-century-fresco-with-DIY-restoration.html

Sorry, that's already called doing a Ratner.

Apple asked to stop shipment of specific Samsung devices they felt violated trade dress. Not all of them.

Motorola is seeking to block all Apple devices with iMessage. That means every computer, every phone, every iPad, every iPod touch.

How is it exactly you feel that this is revenge in equal measure or a "great retort"? It seems like some bullshit (from Apple) was met by Super Extreme Mega Bullshit (from Google... er Motorola).

That doesn't seem like a great retort. It seems petty.

I see, so now it's Google/Motorola's fault that Apple offers less choice to their consumers?

And these phones weren't impacted by the trade dress violations but Apple still sought a ban on them. Stop trying to make Apple look like a saint here, they were and are trying to get anything they could get banned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9517250/Apple-seeks-US-ban-on-Samsung-Note-and-Galaxy-S3.html

The right to speak freely and shoot anyone in the face who reacts to that with violence.

Either your reading comprehension is lacking, or you're being disingenuous. I suspect it's the latter.

Galaxy S3 did not have 9 million preorders. Samsung confirmed it took just under 2 months to sell 10 million.

It was reported as such, which I assume GP was talking about : Samsung S3: 9 million pre-order new Galaxy phone.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/piracy/4077351/Somali-pirate-hijackings-decline.html

Looks nothing like a smuggler boat.

Yeah, they should have done a logo like the OGC, which encourages good, healthy wanking instead of disgusting, sinful pedophilia.

The slope is long and slippery

The slippery slope argument is usually a bad one.

Not in this case. There is evidence that the slope is not only slippery, but steep, with a tail wind and a hoard of Daily Mail readers standing at the top willing to give a good shove to any hapless fool who they can get their hands on.

Some examples:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ore aka "Sorry we ruined your life and made you die, but it turns out that your stolen creit card was used by pedos. kthxbye"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/aug/12/nick-cohen-simon-walsh-cps-pornography-prosecution aka "Let's haul some poor bastard over the coals and wreck his life to test a badly written new law"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regulation_of_Investigatory_Powers_Act_2000 aka "You have no right to silence. But only if you're a terrorist. NOT hahaha! Also if we think you might be a pedo. Good luck proving you can't remember something"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coroners_and_Justice_Act_2009 aka "It's illegal if people think that it looks illegal even if it is provably legal otherwise. Good luck with that you filthy pedo lol"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6918001/Man-cleared-of-porn-charge-after-tiger-sex-image-found-to-be-joke.html aka "Friend sends you a legal joke video SO WE'LL RUIN YOUR LIFE!!!"

etc.

It is entirely clear that this slope is slippery and lunatics like Beresford take a perverted glee in adding libricant.

If a law can be used for ill, sooner or later it will be eve nif the MPs claim it won't.

If a law is broad, the only reason *you* haven't been prosecuted is blind luck, not because you haven't done anything wrong.

A funny thing to do would be to send some random data to this MP, and tell the police (anonymously) that you sent him encrypted kiddie porn for money. Make sure you snail mail a few copies on USB sticks as well, and include some legal but dubious stuff in the clear, too. Then the stupid bastard ought to have to prove his innocence under his own law.

That would never happen, but I can't think of anyone more deserving for it to happen to.

You're absolutely right. Only Muslims go on killing rampages.

And since no true Scotsman would do such a thing, it must be all the fault of foreigners.

Me? I blame Mick Jones for everything.

No Christian? I wouldn't go that far - look at the abortion clinic bombings, it's not that far from what we are talking about.

Now, the ultra orthadox Jews are a different matter - even Israel has problems with its Jewish fringe groups, except these aren't really fringe groups - take a look at how tolerant some of them are to Christians in Israeli communities...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9529123/Vatican-official-says-Israel-fostering-intolerance-of-Christianity.html

he was living in a standard engineer's apartment in a housing block, under their normal conditions, and was actually paid by the USSR government.

- my grandmother was pushed back in the queue for a new apartment (she lived in a so called 'vremianka' - temporary accommodations, that means a shack with all amenities OUTSIDE the fucking house, and it was actually in the middle of a large industrial city with a million people, where many lived this way), so she was pushed back in the queue 3 times and waited for a total of 22 years before she got a 'scheduled' apartment, a 1 bedroom actually. Not bad, ha? In a capitalist country she could have bought herself a 1 bedroom in much less time than that just by working almost anywhere, and she wouldn't have to wait for 22 years, given the fact that in capitalist countries it was (still is) possible to get a loan, a mortgage.

So why was she pushed back into the queue? Oh, because the housing was built very slowly, but when it was built and she was ready to move in, 3 times there were circumstances, I remember 2 of them: 1 was that they brought in some families from Cuba and placed them there, because of the 'Cuban brothers' who were also Communists of-course, their gov't needed to be shown how well people are treated in USSR.

Another time was actually simpler than that, somebody with real connections to a local (regional) party leader wanted to have an apartment for their offspring. You think they had to wait for years for this?

Your former colleague, I wonder who got fucked and pushed back in the queue so that back in UK he could tell tails about the wonders of the Soviet planned economy.

--

Oh, and I don't even care much about that, I am much more angry with that former country for what it did to a bunch of relatives of mine, 7 of who got killed only on one side of the family because they had a farm and even hired help to do farming. On the other side of family, where a person owned a shoe factory and obviously it was stolen - nationalized. Another side of family, who actually interestingly enough had in their possession part of a forest and a river and even a village (yeah, they owned a village) in a beautiful place near Moscow. That part of family lost a number of people as well, who couldn't run away quickly enough.

So never mind housing accommodations. As to Thatcher, she inherited a situation, which was so dire, here is what the former PM (before she came to power) said about it:

We used to think you could spend your way out of recession and increase employment by boosting government spending, I tell you, in all candour, that that option no longer exists. And in so far as it ever did exist, it only worked on each occasion⦠by injecting a bigger dose of inflation into the economy, followed by a higher level of unemployment as the next stepâ¦

That was by a former UK PM, James Callaghan, at the 1976 Labour Party conference.

Besides science discoveries, what of any importance is reported by the news?

War. Pestilence. Famine. Death.

The four horsemen of the apocalypse are already abroad in the world. And it matters that you know it. The electoral choices made by American people cast a long shadow - over the Middle East in particular, but over the world as a whole. And yet the US electorate is quite frighteningly ignorant of what happens beyond their borders. OK, I appreciate that part of the reason you don't read the news is that the principal news media available to you are on the whole dishonest, corrupt and trivial. But there are other news media (and news aggregators). The BBC, and many of the UK 'broadsheet' sites (e.g. Guardian, Telegraph) are English language, well informed and honest (note: I did not say 'unbiased' - nothing human is unbiased). Al Jazeera seems to be well informed and honest, too, and provides a usefully different perspective.

If we carry on as we're going, global warming and with provoking conflict, war, famine and pestilence will arrive in the United States in your lifetime. You have a duty to be informed - a duty to yourself, as much as to anyone else.

This. Mass immigration from the third world doesn't just mean there's more people competing for the jobs that should go to the weakest Americans. It also means third world diseases coming with the immigrants.

Japan doesn't put up with this shit. China doesn't put up with illegal aliens ignoring deportation orders and driving drunk (Obama's Uncle Omar). Israel doesn't put up with illegal aliens holding demonstrations demanding more handouts. Only Europe, the US and Canada, and Australia have to put up with undocumented workers becoming 'undocumented boyfriends' or whatnot.

Whoops... forgot to log in before posting.

The publication of the ENCODE data is a big deal, make no doubt about it. But it has been overhyped and misreported in the popular press. Interestingly, this is not the fault of science journalists, but rather a consequence of the lead scientists in charge of publicity for this project. UC Berkeley biologist Michael Eisen has a couple blog posts addressing this issue, as does University of Guelph biologist T. Ryan Gregory.

Two of the main criticisms directed at the publicity surrounding ENCODE are:
(1) The fact that noncoding DNA is functional does not count as "news." Far from it. Biologists have known for many, many years that functional elements make up a significant portion of the genome.
(2) The 80% figure, which is being widely reported as the proportion of the genome that is functional, is inaccurate and misleading. A more truthful statement is that 80% of the genome is biochemically active, but this is decidedly not the same thing (a point addressed by Eisen in the second post linked above). The headline on the Slashdot article is completely wrong.

The data produced by ENCODE is extremely important and will lay the groundwork for many future studies. But it should be lauded for that, and not for the hyperbole currently surrounding it.

The publication of the ENCODE data is a big deal, make no doubt about it. But it has been overhyped and misreported in the popular press. Interestingly, this is not the fault of science journalists, but rather a consequence of the lead scientists in charge of publicity for this project.

UC Berkeley biologist Michael Eisen has a couple blog posts addressing this issue, as does University of Guelph biologist T. Ryan Gregory. Two of the main criticisms directed at the publicity surrounding ENCODE are:
(1) The fact that noncoding DNA is functional does not count as "news." Far from it. Biologists have known for many, many years that functional elements make up a significant portion of the genome.
(2) The 80% figure, which is being widely reported as the proportion of the genome that is functional, is inaccurate and misleading. A more truthful statement is that 80% of the genome is biochemically active, but this is decidedly not the same thing (a point addressed by Eisen in the second post linked above).

The data produced by ENCODE is extremely important and will lay the groundwork for many future studies. But it should be lauded for that, and not for the hyperbole currently surrounding it.

What some people don't realise is that there are a large number of Muslims. A quarter of these sympathise with terrorists, and six percent saying that bombing the underground in London is completely justified. With 2,869,000 Muzzies that's 172,000 odd who think its fine to commit terrorist acts, and 717,000 odd who would sympathise with them when they do. Obviously wherever possible subservience should be targeted at the Muslims, but we all need to expect some increased level.

In particular white converts should be subject to extra scrutiny, as they seem to be more likely to be involved in extremism. I think it was Robert Spencer who said that maybe hearing Imams calling for murder daily from a young age has an "inoculation's effect" on born Mulsims, many of whom disobey the Qur'an and Hadith by living peacefully with non-Muslims and treating them as equal.

(I'm thinking of the sun's 11-year cycle and the recent larger-than-normal volcano activity)

Well, some say that the recent larger-than-normal volcano activity may be an effect rather than a cause (or, anyway, contribute in a positive feedback to GW).
And it's possible they are right.

Well the problem with AGW in a nutshell is we are given NO options other than do nothing or carbon credits, which considering the ones that came up with credit default swaps or the ones writing the rules on carbon credits and cap & trade? uhhh...I think if that is the only choices i'll choose do nothing, thanks anyway.

The bitch is there are thing we can do WITHOUT using crap and trade that could make a difference, but because people like Al Gore, who just FYI has set himself up to be a a carbon billionaire, can't profit from it? Its never mentioned. for example painting roofs white to reflect more sunlight, last study i saw had that simple thing dropping temps 5 degrees, if you likewise paint the streets white instead of leaving them black IIRC it would take another 15 degrees off, which anybody who has walked across pavement in the summer knows how much energy they absorb from the sun.

In the end the thing that proves to me the current AGW "leaders" are lying leeches is you have NEVER, not even once, seen Al Gore and pals talking about restricting trade with China, even though they are throwing so much pollution into the sky we can detect it in California...why? Because rev Al and pals make crazy monies from cheap Chinese labor, you stupid peasant you!

The current leadership has hijacked AGW and turned it into a massive scam. They want the corps to bail for China (where they can get the benefits of cheap labor and no environmental laws) while they raid what's left in your pocket with carbon taxes, which they will then avoid by going overseas or like Rev Al fucking scam by buying credits from HIS OWN COMPANY and then having the brass balls to say fucking off in a Lear jet is "carbon neutral" because he PAID HIMSELF TO DO IT!!! This would be like you or I moving money from our left to right pocket, calling it "wealth redistribution" and getting a fucking tax break for it!

If you want to cut down the pollution, or use cleaner tech? All for it, right there with ya, we do live in a closed system after all. But don't let the scammers fleece your pockets by saying "We're doing something!" when that something is about as productive as a game of three card monty for the player. in the end crap & trade and carbon credits will do NOTHING to help the environment, it'll simply reward the scammers.

And what about the 3G commercial you seem to be completely bypassing, which is showing a 3G connection working 3x faster than possible? How is that not lying.

Ah, found the one you're talking about. There was no mention of "3x faster". Just "really fast". I suppose someone could sit there with a stop watch and time the commercial to complain that sequences were sped up, but then you'd think they'd notice the disclaimer. I also think that someone would be busy complaining about the Jura coffee machine that can pull a thousand shots of espresso in 15 seconds, no?

There is plenty. Control groups improve better than untreated. Why? Placebo effect. Homeopathy is professional placebos. They do work. Proven to work. Maybe not any better than a placebo,

Except this man is claiming they work as things such as vaccines for polio

Now, of course, he is going to have to consult with parliament on some issues â" but remember â" he only needs to consult.

huh?

Actually, it's the other way round : parliament has to consult the Queen and the Prince of Wales before introducing new legislation, to ensure there is no harm to their private interests. This little known Royal Veto has been described by constitutional lawyers as a "royal nuclear deterrent".

Charles' support for homeopathy is well known - he argued in favour of homeopathy before the World Health Assembly in 2006, endorsed a company peddling homeopathic "cures" for polio, and in 2010 was accused of secretly lobbying ministers for homeopathy to be provided by the NHS.

How come we never heard from the so-called "Space Frontier Foundation" when Obama wanted to turn NASA into a zoo ?

Because he didn't.

Partisanship can only go so far, buddy, and when you cross the line you are telling a BIG FLAT LIE !
 
How do you explain this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVM1ASIxwWI

Or are you saying that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden is a liar ?
 
Obama has instructed Charles Bolden to " find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science ... and math and engineering "
 
As report by The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7875584/Barack-Obama-Nasa-must-try-to-make-Muslims-feel-good.html
San Francisco Examiner http://www.sfexaminer.com/politics/nasa039s-muslim-outreach-al-jazeera-told-first
  and the White House itself never denied the existence of that "MUSLIM OUTREACH PROGRAM" http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2010/07/white-house-nasa-defend-comments-about-nasa-outreach-to-muslim-world-criticized-by-conservatives/
 
Sir, if you want to comment, comment away, but please, stop lying !
 

People said the same about the Taliban - "bunch of muppets with out-dated weapons and a complete lack of technology beyond jeeps. Won't take more than a few months for US/UK soldiers (best training in the world etc. etc.) to root them out..."

They were bloody wrong though weren't they? Not only are they still putting up resistance - but they achieved a couple of wins that were fairly embarrassing for us - a fairly recent prison break is one good example.

I don't really think Iran and NK are going to manage quite the same level of surprise with their Malware divisions - but to underestimate them completely is to practically invite such an embarrassing incident to occur. Better to hold realistic expectations based on actual intelligence - but this may be asking too much of any of us....

The USA offered 4 Billion in food aid to North Korea to quit a nuclear program many times and the politicians never intended to follow through "A spineless obligation" they would have just sent over contaminated food anyway to kill the part of the population.

Iran have the right to Nuclear Power and are actually extremely well managed. They actually have a right to defend themselves against malware and people in North Korea and Iran are awesome coders.It is all war threats and UK are complicit in this issue.

As many people on /. know a true hacker tends to work alone and hand crafting code is one time thing and sending a one time malformed deep packet inspection that Carnivore, Magic Lantern are not up to speed with or GCHQ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/9192209/GCHQ-warns-it-is-losing-terrorists-on-the-internet.html is a little insight

I am not connected to any terrorism group blah blah but I am a true hacker who prefers not to put technology in the hands of dangerous people as Sir Arthur C Clarke said don't do it, when I was at his place in Cinnamon Gardens Sri Lanka as some of his inventions were used for all the wrong reasons.

He was a friend of Einstein and so is Sir Patrick Moore who is a wonderful chap :) I suppose people should take a leaf out of what Sir Bertrand Russell said and that was "This idea of weapons of mass extermination is utterly horrible and is something which no one with one spark of humanity can tolerate. I will not pretend to obey a government which is organising a mass massacre of mankind".

Can you see where this is leading? and his other quote was "“The moral think I would wish to say is very simple: love is wise – hatred is foolish.
In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other; we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like.
We can only live together in that way, if we are to live together and not die together. We must learn the kind of charity and the kind of tolerance which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.”

(Bertrand Russell quote from a televised interview in 1958 at the age of 86)".

The Muzzies will have to 'detain' rats for colaberating with the enemy (civilised world) as well as vultures and sharks. With any luck this will distract them from persecuting non-Muslims, raping under-age girls (OK so according to them 9 isn't over age, I mean by civilised standards), and from honour killings

Of course once you actually build your products there your IP will also "disappear".

Some of you may not know who this "Mohawk Guy" is. He was originally born and raised in San Fransisco. By his early 20's he was a drifter, directionless and alone. He'd ride the bus all around downtown San Fran playing his boom-box too loud, much to the annoyance of the public. His spiked hair and bracelets discouraged just about everyone from voicing their opinion on the noise level until one day he met his match. Two brave men, both with thousands of hours of flight experience, boarded the bus and sat across from him. One man, noone ever knew his name, politely asked that he turn off that damn noise. He gestured rudely and turned his music up. The other man reached across the aisle and firmly pinched the man's neck, instantly rendering him unconscious, the boombox silenced the moment his head landed on it.

This unexpected event gave him a new direction in life to pursue. He went back to school and studied hard. Twenty years later he found himself working on the Curiosity Project. And the end result of that goal? He broadcast that damn noise as loud as he wanted where it would bother nobody: Mars.

Noone knows the fate of the two airmen that boarded the bus that fateful day. Rumors persist that one was a burnt-out hippy that went to Berkley. However, noone was able to find any documentation of a man entering the hospital overdosed on LDS.

One thing is certain: It will be centuries before we see all the profound effects this guy has had on the timeline.

hahahahahaha... $1.9 million is rich now? Wikileaks don't pay their employees or for their datacentres?

Assange gets most of the Wikileaks salary budget paid to him. Wikileaks relies on volunteers. They have been reported to receive much free or reduced cost hosting over the years.

Julian Assange paid two thirds of WikiLeaks salary budget

. . . Mr Assange was paid $86,000 (£56,000) in salary in 2010 – two-thirds of the total WikiLeaks salary budget of $130,000 (£84,000).

WikiLeaks Spending Rises Dramatically to $500,000 - By Kim ZetterEmail Author12.13.10 4:47 PM

WikiLeaks’ expenditures have risen dramatically from a paltry $38,000 between October 2009 and July 2010 to more than $495,000 in the last five months, according to a foundation that manages most of the organization’s donations.

The jump in expenses appears to be due to salaries the organization recently began paying staff members. WikiLeaks said in the past — before it began paying salaries — that its operating costs run only about $200,000 annually.

“Personnel costs are a relatively recent development,” Hendrik Fulda, vice president of the Berlin-based Wau Holland Foundation, told the German newspaper Der Spiegel. “WikiLeaks now pays some of its employees salaries. The staff members give the organization an invoice, and WikiLeaks hands them over to us.”

It’s not known how much WikiLeaks staffers earn, or how many staffers receive salaries — the organization is said to have only two or three staff members, but hundreds of volunteers. This information should be detailed in a financial report the Wau Holland Foundation is expected to release before the end of the year.

The report, which was supposed to be released in August, will be the first public disclosure of WikiLeaks’ finances. The organization, and founder Julian Assange, have been criticized by supporters and others for failing to provide a transparent accounting of donations and expenses. According to The Telegraph, the Wau Holland Foundation has recently been issued two official warnings by charity regulators in Germany for failing to file the required financial reports.

Linking WSJ just shows how much you're willing to lap up the Murdoch propaganda.

It has long been known that the most effective "propaganda" is the truth, or at least factual information. You seem to be short of that and seem to be relying on snark which isn't really a substitute, is it?

it would appear the OP is pointing out the unusual tenacity with which they're pursuing someone for a rape charge,

Perhaps you noticed that the "unusual tenacity" came to be when Assange became a fugitive from justice? Think about it. ... What did Assange do? Broke his bond and fled the police.

No bond was broken, no fleeing occurred.

As part of the extradition process Assange was released on bail, part of his conditions of bail were that he should remain overnight in the residence of one of his supporters who (from memory) guaranteed the majority of the bail. His residence in the Ecuadorian embassy means that a bunch of people are likely to be out of pocket.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9343739/Julian-Assange-celebrities-could-lose-thousands-from-WikiLeaks-founders-bail-breach.html

Assange left Sweden weeks after the incident in question, with the express permission of the prosecutor's office. For that matter, he isn't even wanted on a rape charge, he's wanted for questioning in relation to a possible charge. He has offered numerous times to talk with the Swedish prosecutor or a representative while in the UK. None of this is terribly consistent with the actions of someone purportedly on the lam.

Worth noting, from a transcript of a Democracy Now discussion, emphasis mine:

"...Sweden and the United Kingdom both refused to provide assurances that once matters were dealt with in Sweden, that Julian would be permitted to leave the country and would not be extradited to the United States. They refused to provide those assurances."

This is probably the more salient point regarding Assange's reluctance to step again on Swedish soil.

Cheers,

The UK can't give any such assurances if he were to be transferred to Swedish custody, we don't have any control over Sweden. If the US wanted to extradite him from the UK they've had months to make a case.

Julian himself is an arrogant fool. Did he ACTUALLY think he'd get away with releasing truckloads of U.S. intelligence info? And when it was pointed out to him that he may well have killed people who were working with us, he said that anyone working with the U.S. deserved to die (yeah, he did. it was in an interview broadcast by the BBC).

An exact quote, preferably with a source, would be preferable. Then we would have some idea what it was, exactly, that Assange said.

Maybe it was something like, "Anyone who participates in what the Nuremberg Tribunal described as the supreme war crime - unprovoked aggressive war - deserves to die". . . .

It would be better of it was that, I suppose, but chances are you'll be sorely disappointed.

The treachery of Julian Assange

As soon as WikiLeaks received the State Department cables, Assange announced that the opponents of dictatorial regimes and movements were fair game. That the targets of the Taliban, for instance, were fighting a clerical-fascist force, which threatened every good liberal value, did not concern him. They had spoken to US diplomats. They had collaborated with the great Satan. Their safety was not his concern.

David Leigh and Luke Harding's history of WikiLeaks describes how journalists took Assange to Moro's, a classy Spanish restaurant in central London. A reporter worried that Assange would risk killing Afghans who had co-operated with American forces if he put US secrets online without taking the basic precaution of removing their names. "Well, they're informants," Assange replied. "So, if they get killed, they've got it coming to them. They deserve it." A silence fell on the table as the reporters realised that the man the gullible hailed as the pioneer of a new age of transparency was willing to hand death lists to psychopaths. They persuaded Assange to remove names before publishing the State Department Afghanistan cables. But Assange's disillusioned associates suggest that the failure to expose "informants" niggled in his mind. . . .

James Ball joined and thought that in his own small way he was making the world a better place. He realised that WikiLeaks was not what it seemed when an associate of Assange – a stocky man with a greying moustache, who called himself "Adam" – asked if he could pull out everything the State Department documents "had on the Jews". Ball discovered that "Adam" was Israel Shamir, a dangerous crank who uses six different names as he agitates among the antisemitic groups of the far right and far left. As well as signing up to the conspiracy theories of fascism, Shamir was happy to collaborate with Belarus's decayed Brezhnevian dictatorship. Leftwing tyranny, rightwing tyranny, as long as it was anti-western and anti-Israel, Shamir did not care.

Nor did Assange. He made Shamir WikiLeaks's representative in Russia and eastern Europe. Shamir praised the Belarusian dictatorship. He compared the pro-democracy protesters beaten and imprisoned by the KGB to football hooligans. On 19 December 2010, the Belarus-Telegraf, a state newspaper, said that WikiLeaks had allowed the dictatorship to identify the "organisers, instigators and rioters, including foreign ones" who had protested against rigged elections.

Taliban prepare to punish WikiLeaks Afghan informers

. . . The threat echoes similar warnings made after the release in July of 92,000 intelligence reports and field assessments on the Afghan war.

Those documents named informants who had revealed the names, locations and details of Taliban commanders and their operations.

Hamid Karzai at the time condemned the disclosure of in