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Meanwhile, floods and fires continue. I have always thought that the first major impact on society will be on food supplies, with a concomitant increase in food prices. This will at first bring civil unrest in poorer countries, as food takes up an increasingly large proportion of their livelihood. Eventually these high food prices will have a severe economic impact on wealthy nations as well.

You're mistaken. The general population in Gaddafi-controlled areas acts the part when it's preferable to dying. Most of the men in Gaddafi's army were forced to fight.

When men are forced to fight, you tend to get mass desertions as soon as they get to the front line. But this isn't what has been happening in practice. Back in February, when this whole mess started, the talking heads have been telling us on TV that troops are deserting Qaddafi en masse, and he's only got mercs to fight for him. Thus, everyone expected the regime to topple in a month or two. Instead, Qaddafi's forces have been pushing the rebels all the way back until NATO intervened. I find it hard to believe that a small merc army plus a bunch of conscripts who're only looking for a good moment to turn their arms against their officers would have such success on the battlefield.

Then also, there has been precisely one video I'm aware of which showed a bunch of dead people in uniform, with hands tied behind their backs, clearly executed. Back when it first aired, it was labelled as "soldiers executed by loyalists for attempt to desert and join the rebellion". Well, what do you know, two months later it turns out that those were prisoners captured and executed by the rebels, as evident from another video where they are still alive being interrogated. After that kind of blatant falsehood, I'm not trusting anyone and anything on current disposition in Libya.

Most towns that greeted the freedom fighters with hostility had been subject to Gaddafi propaganda that the rebels were insurgents funded by Al Qaeda.

Given that Qaddafi was correct on that, is it really "propaganda"? More importantly, perhaps the towns are aware that it is quite true, and would prefer Qaddafi's socialist dictatorship to Islamist theocracy?

Gaddafi is a brutal dictator, has been for decades, and no one in Libya has any love for him, except for those that benefited from their allegiance to him.

You conveniently forgot to mention that Libya under Qaddafi was very much a welfare state, to unprecedented amounts even: how about free electricity for all citizens? significant payouts to newly wed couples, and for first born kids? state-sponsored internships in first world countries? Heck, I chuckled when I read in a local newspapers that a bunch of Libyan students were afraid of being kicked out of US because they can't pay for their education, because Libyan state has been paying for them and now all accounts are frozen - and they are afraid to go back to Libya because they supported the rebels; somehow, I doubt they'd get their scholarships in rebel-controlled Libya.

This is largely thanks to oil profits, of course, but the guy was smart enough to spread a lot of it around to earn some popularity among the people. I'm not at all surprised that there is considerable popular support in his favor, regardless of him being a dictator.

And "brutal"? Please. I've seen enough vids on YouTube to understand that both sides in this conflict are torturous murderers. I've no doubt that Qaddafi has always had his torture chambers, but now I see rebels beheading, quartering and burning people alive while the crowd chants "Allahu akbar", why should I consider them any better? Because they do it in the name of "democracy"?

That's nothing. In the UK the National Health Service is scaring people to accepting their details to be on computers instead of paper records. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7704050/NHS-scaring-patients-into-accepting-electronic-records-database.html

Such scares as:

"Health-care staff treating you may not be aware of your current medications in order to treat you safely and effectively."

"Health-care staff treating you may not be made aware of current conditions and/or diagnoses leading to a delay or missed opportunity for correct treatment."

"Health-care staff may not be aware of any allergies/adverse reactions to medications and may prescribe or administer a drug/treatment with adverse consequences."

Many people have written to keep themselves off the database, but that means nothing as the government does what it pleases, always has, always will.

They gave Bush these powers with Card Blanche, and he put us into two war fronts, one of which he should be prosecuted for. (Iraq) Obama uses it for legitimate purposes and they flip flop like a fish out of water.

Last I checked, Bush got approval for his little wars. He lied a lot to get it, but he still took the effort.

In the mean time, I hope Obama can hold the course. This a break for the free world and a chance for Democracy to break out in the Middle East.

Are you serious? You do understand that rebels are violently racist (look up all the stories about lynchings and expulsions of Black Libyans from regions controlled by the rebellion), and a good chunk of them are Islamist fundamentals. What more, al-Qaeda has already signed up to fight on their side, and some of the people now being supplied by weapons and provided air support by NATO in Libya are the same people who have shot at NATO soldiers in Afghanistan a few years ago.

I have no doubt that once rebels, with NATO air support, finally steamroll over the last loyalist strongholds, we'll hear a lot about how the new Libya will have become the shining beacon of democracy and human rights - just like it happened in Afghanistan. Of course, if you actually go and look it up, "liberated" Afghanistan is still a theocracy where "apostasy" is punished by death, other human rights are pretty bad even by the letter of the law, and where most of the society simply disregards the written law in favor of the customary one which is misogynistic and pedophilic in practice.

Why do you think "democracy" in Libya will be any better?

I find them rather nice looking. We have large tracts of windmills in sections of northeastern Oregon - in areas of flat grassland much like the area being discussed in this article. Driving by the windmills in Oregon, I think they're quite pretty. Maybe it's just the knowledge of how they help the environment that makes them look nice to me.

Well, maybe not exactly "helping" the stuff that lives in the environment. Driving-by doesn't give you a complete picture.

http://writing.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979140882

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/8579747/Wind-farm-forced-to-close-after-complaints-over-the-noise.html

http://climaterealists.com/index.php?id=3836

So beached whales, noise, millions of birds dead. Doesn't sound like "helping the environment" to me.

Wind turbines generate a very low frequency "thumping" noise as the blades pass by the tower. Frankly, I'd prefer to live next to a nuclear reactor than next to these "green" power generators.

London stock exchange, that's the one whose computers keep crashing, right ?

"Simon Denham, founder of Capital Spreads, said; "It (trading) went down at 8.44 am. This happens on the LSE two or three times a year, but I can't remember it ever having been down this long.

"I don't know what excuse they will give - for the second biggest stock exchange in the world it's pretty poor.""

Agree about the price............Not sure if you can buy these in the US but interesting nontheless, provding you can get the discounts.......... - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/columnists/mike-rutherford/8343431/Mr-Money-The-price-is-right-or-maybe-it-isnt.html.

The Chinese are already eating sewage oil actually http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/7971983/China-goes-organic-after-scandal-of-cooking-oil-from-sewers.html

They must not have been looking hard enough.

since they lost 6 million users in the last month alone.

People are starting to realize that too much information can be a bad thing. (Aside from how many times you need to hear some long lost classmate bitching about their job or kids).

Why do these bureaucrats waste people's time? Instead of focussing in things that really do damage, like pollution or financial fraud with an example of an agency that sabotaged investigations, they waste time on non-issues.

Hacking can [sometimes] be good for the society at large.

For example, I would like to delete all information from one social networking site but I cannot. Hacking would be my only 'rescue'. And that's bad?

Wow, are all believers THIS fucking stupid? Really? Because if so no wonder you're getting led around by the nose! I got three insults and one smartass (you) and not a single denial or even a single one smart enough to actually read what I was saying! Fucking amazing!

So here it is, in little letters and written in black ink, just so you can keep up, since apparently AGWers need everything spelt out, ready? Here goes : your "movement", just like race relations in America, has been co-opted by those whose ONLY goal is their own self enrichment now do you understand? I thought by making the comparison to Sharpton and pointing out the blatant hypocrisy I would have to spell it out but I guess guys here don't read headlines unless they involve an iSomething. So please go right ahead and follow Saint Al, who is being given awards for attempting to become the first carbon billionaire and while you are at it maybe you should just go ahead and cut a check to old Rev Sharpton while you are at it. After all can't blame the man for not being able to hustle the white folks as well as the other Al can we?

about a year ago they said danger was coming in solar storms now they say its not and net year what will they say? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/space/7819201/Nasa-warns-solar-flares-from-huge-space-storm-will-cause-devastation.html No they cannot make up their mind, they are scientist looking for an answer and every time they get a new bunch of info... its like playing Reversi...

Terrorists and foreign intelligence services will also be doing this to use against the United States and its allies, not just journalists. Wikileaks has provided the raw material for data mining to find things the US doesn't even realize about itself, or its allies. There is no surprise that Bradley Manning has been charged with aiding the enemy.

The fallout continues, hopefully it won't be literally.

Al-Qaeda Already Using Wikileaks Material Against Us
Taliban Study WikiLeaks to Hunt Informants
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations
'They're informants... if they get killed, they deserve it': New book reveals shocking disregard of Julian Assange towards Afghans named in WikiLeaks cables

Since I can anticipate the follow ups:
No, Wikileaks didn't do an adequate job of scrubbing the documents of names at various points which is why they are useful to the Taliban and other groups building death lists.
Yes, I have seen reports of people being killed due to Wikileaks publishing their name, you just have to dig a lot to find them. For some reason it doesn't seem to be a popular news item. Go figure.
Oversight of US diplomacy, military, and intelligence activity is the role of the Congress elected by voters.

Even if nobody was killed, Wikileaks has resulted in a significant disruption to US diplomacy and antiterrorism efforts. (You pull out informants due to their cover being blown and you lose valuable intelligence.)

Poll finds that more Americans oppose WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly think that WikiLeaks is doing more harm than good by releasing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, and they want to see the people behind it prosecuted, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.

"Clearly people are very unhappy with it," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which conducted the national poll.

The survey found that 70 percent of Americans think the leaks are doing more harm than good and want those who publish the secrets to be prosecuted.

Terrorists and foreign intelligence services will also be doing this to use against the United States and its allies, not just journalists. Wikileaks has provided the raw material for data mining to find things the US doesn't even realize about itself, or its allies. There is no surprise that Bradley Manning has been charged with aiding the enemy.

The fallout continues, hopefully it won't be literally.

Al-Qaeda Already Using Wikileaks Material Against Us
Taliban Study WikiLeaks to Hunt Informants
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations
'They're informants... if they get killed, they deserve it': New book reveals shocking disregard of Julian Assange towards Afghans named in WikiLeaks cables

Since I can anticipate the follow ups:
No, Wikileaks didn't do an adequate job of scrubbing the documents of names at various points which is why they are useful to the Taliban and other groups building death lists.
Yes, I have seen reports of people being killed due to Wikileaks publishing their name, you just have to dig a lot to find them. For some reason it doesn't seem to be a popular news item. Go figure.
Oversight of US diplomacy, military, and intelligence activity is the role of the Congress elected by voters.

Even if nobody was killed, Wikileaks has resulted in a significant disruption to US diplomacy and antiterrorism efforts. (You pull out informants due to their cover being blown and you lose valuable intelligence.)

Poll finds that more Americans oppose WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON — Americans overwhelmingly think that WikiLeaks is doing more harm than good by releasing classified U.S. diplomatic cables, and they want to see the people behind it prosecuted, according to a new McClatchy-Marist Poll.

"Clearly people are very unhappy with it," said Lee Miringoff, the director of the Marist Institute for Public Opinion at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., which conducted the national poll.

The survey found that 70 percent of Americans think the leaks are doing more harm than good and want those who publish the secrets to be prosecuted.

Nonsense. Political corruption is the bread and butter of media because it sells. As noted in the first linked article, the LA Times investigated and broke the Bell corruption story.

Nonsense right back at you. Stories about the tweets and love lives of politicians are the bread and butter of media because it sells, and it creates distractions from the real issues. Actual political corruption, such as Obama secretly negotiating with Health care companies, running a covert war in Yemen, and then lying about it, and of course I shouldn't even have to mention all stuff that went on under Bush. Actual corruption gets very little, if any, coverage.

Dealers sell drugs to users using local currency, Senators pass a law to outlaw the $100 bill.

€500 notes withdrawn over organised crime fears

The Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which coordinated the voluntary industry move, said there is ''no credible legitimate use'' for the note in Britain.

Presumably this just means the criminals will go to Ireland or some other Eurozone country, where there are legitimate uses for a €500 note. If you can smuggle that quantity of cash into the UK it won't be difficult to take it to France or Ireland -- there are no customs checks, just security (explosive/etc) checks if relevant to the means of transport (i.e. take the ferry, or your own plane/yacht).

(€500 = US$730)

The bin Laden hunter: ex-CIA man had bin Laden in his sights 10 times

Yep, told to hold fire 10 times so 10 years of bullshit scare tactics and neo-colonization could continue.

He is not charged with Treason either. Why not? Could it be that the 'worst leaker in US military history' didnt leak anything all that important? Could it be that the state department over-classifies most of its material for political reasons?

No, it's because Treason is a crime specifically defined in the US Constitution. Manning's circumstances don't meet the Constitutional test for treason.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

As far as I recall or know, only one person has been charged with treason since WW2.

$1 million for arrest of American al Qaeda charged with treason

An American al Qaeda propagandist was indicted Wednesday on treason charges, the first person charged with the offense during the United States' war on terrorism, officials said.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, who has appeared in five al Qaeda videos, is also charged with offering material support for terrorism, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said.

But think about it, he is charged with aiding the enemy. That is treason by any common understanding of the word, and would constitutie treason in most countries, it just does not meet the US Constitutional meaning.

The State Department has been relocating diplomats and warning activists and sources around the world after Wikileaks outed them. This has been very disruptive.

WikiLeaks sparks worldwide diplomatic crisis
WikiLeaks cables prompt US to move diplomatic sources
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations

You might want to go back and look at some of those issues in your post using different sources, you're heading in the wrong direction in many cases.

He is not charged with Treason either. Why not? Could it be that the 'worst leaker in US military history' didnt leak anything all that important? Could it be that the state department over-classifies most of its material for political reasons?

No, it's because Treason is a crime specifically defined in the US Constitution. Manning's circumstances don't meet the Constitutional test for treason.

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

As far as I recall or know, only one person has been charged with treason since WW2.

$1 million for arrest of American al Qaeda charged with treason

An American al Qaeda propagandist was indicted Wednesday on treason charges, the first person charged with the offense during the United States' war on terrorism, officials said.

Adam Yahiye Gadahn, who has appeared in five al Qaeda videos, is also charged with offering material support for terrorism, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said.

But think about it, he is charged with aiding the enemy. That is treason by any common understanding of the word, and would constitutie treason in most countries, it just does not meet the US Constitutional meaning.

The State Department has been relocating diplomats and warning activists and sources around the world after Wikileaks outed them. This has been very disruptive.

WikiLeaks sparks worldwide diplomatic crisis
WikiLeaks cables prompt US to move diplomatic sources
Wikileaks: US will have to reshuffle diplomats following revelations

You might want to go back and look at some of those issues in your post using different sources, you're heading in the wrong direction in many cases.

Worrying that legal euthanasia may lead to trouble with insurance companies is only a problem in the very few, terribly uncivilized, western countries that do not have universal medical care paid for by taxes.

Yes, we keep hearing reports of how those government run plans turn out.

British healthcare in crisis despite massive investment
Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed
Hospitals must make deep cuts to survive

For $41-billion, Canadians deserve a straight answer

The Ugly Truth About Canadian Health Care

My health-care prejudices crumbled not in the classroom but on the way to one. On a subzero Winnipeg morning in 1997, I cut across the hospital emergency room to shave a few minutes off my frigid commute. Swinging open the door, I stepped into a nightmare: the ER overflowed with elderly people on stretchers, waiting for admission. Some, it turned out, had waited five days. The air stank with sweat and urine. Right then, I began to reconsider everything that I thought I knew about Canadian health care. I soon discovered that the problems went well beyond overcrowded ERs. Patients had to wait for practically any diagnostic test or procedure, such as the man with persistent pain from a hernia operation whom we referred to a pain clinic—with a three-year wait list; or the woman needing a sleep study to diagnose what seemed like sleep apnea, who faced a two-year delay; or the woman with breast cancer who needed to wait four months for radiation therapy, when the standard of care was four weeks. . . .

Nor were the problems I identified unique to Canada—they characterized all government-run health-care systems. Consider the recent British controversy over a cancer patient who tried to get an appointment with a specialist, only to have it canceled—48 times. More than 1 million Britons must wait for some type of care, with 200,000 in line for longer than six months. A while back, I toured a public hospital in Washington, D.C., with Tim Evans, a senior fellow at the Centre for the New Europe. The hospital was dark and dingy, but Evans observed that it was cleaner than anything in his native England. In France, the supply of doctors is so limited that during an August 2003 heat wave—when many doctors were on vacation and hospitals were stretched beyond capacity—15,000 elderly citizens died. Across Europe, state-of-the-art drugs aren’t available. And so on. ...

In The Business of Health, Robert Ohsfeldt and John Schneider factor out intentional and unintentional injuries from life-expectancy statistics and find that Americans who don’t die in car crashes or homicides outlive people in any other Western country.

And if we measure a health-care system by how well it serves its sick citizens, American medicine excels. Five-year cancer survival rates bear this out. For leukemia, the American survival rate is almost 50 percent; the European rate is just 35 percent. Esophageal carcinoma: 12 percent in the United States, 6 percent in Europe. The survival rate for prostate cancer is 81.2 percent here, yet 61.7 percent in France and down to 44.3 percent in England—a striking variation.

Also note that the United States actually has tax payer funded medical care, Medicare, for example. Medicare refuses more treatment than private insurers:

Yes, the judiciary in other places (like here in the UK) has been so sensible and grown-up about things in recent weeks:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8526521/Modern-technology-is-out-of-control-warns-top-judge.html

Would that be the jew infested US satan, or the rain stealing EU you think they want to communicate with ?

Thailand... were the prince throws a birthday party for his poodle and the princess attends the party topless. Truth to be told... the poodle is one of two Thai's Air Chief Marshals.

Why do you accuse me of peddling dodgy treatments? Just google for zinc and cold.

It works better than placebo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12462910
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/for-cold-virus-zinc-may-edge-out-even-chicken-soup/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/

Stick to the pills/lozenges, take them at early onset of symptoms, don't overdose and definitely don't spray your nose with it (or you might damage/lose your sense of smell). May not be a cure, but most subjects would feel better and that's good enough for most people.

AFAIK doctors in some countries are still prescribing antibiotics to those with colds and flu. Despite being told year after year not to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/20/coughs-colds-cures-treatment-antibiotics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6526575/GPs-told-to-stop-prescribing-antibiotics-for-coughs-and-colds.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574995/Stop-giving-antibiotics-for-colds-doctors-told.html

My current guess (not enough proof yet :) ) that most people get antibiotic resistant bacteria from hospitals, not farms.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20524852

RESULTS:
Neither the preintervention rate of MRSA colonization or infection (0.56 cases per 1,000 patient-days [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.49-0.62 cases per 1,000 patient-days]) nor the slope for the rate of MRSA colonization or infection changed significantly after the first intervention. The rate decreased significantly to 0.28 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.17-0.40 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the second intervention and to 0.07 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.06-0.08 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the third intervention, and the rate remained at a similar level for 8 years. The MRSA bacteremia rate decreased by 80%, whereas the rate of bacteremia due to methicillin-susceptible S. aureus did not change. Eighty-three percent of the MRSA isolates identified were clonally related. All MRSA isolates obtained from healthcare workers were clonally related to those recovered from patients who were in their care.
CONCLUSION:
Our data indicate that long-term control of endemic MRSA is feasible in tertiary care centers. The use of targeted active surveillance for MRSA in patients and healthcare workers in specific wards (identified by means of analysis of clinical epidemiology data) and the use of decolonization were key to the success of the program.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/718935

March 22, 2010 â" A multifaceted infection control program led to a significant decline in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases in Paris-area hospitals with high endemic MRSA rates, according to an article in the March 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

There are other superbugs too:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/enemy_pr.html

It's true that many species of acinetobacter flourish widely in the environment. Thriving colonies have been recovered from soil, cell phones, frozen chicken, wastewater treatment plants, Formica countertops, and even irradiated food

Why do you accuse me of peddling dodgy treatments? Just google for zinc and cold.

It works better than placebo.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-12462910
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/for-cold-virus-zinc-may-edge-out-even-chicken-soup/
http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Zinc-HealthProfessional/

Stick to the pills/lozenges, take them at early onset of symptoms, don't overdose and definitely don't spray your nose with it (or you might damage/lose your sense of smell). May not be a cure, but most subjects would feel better and that's good enough for most people.

AFAIK doctors in some countries are still prescribing antibiotics to those with colds and flu. Despite being told year after year not to:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/mar/20/coughs-colds-cures-treatment-antibiotics
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6526575/GPs-told-to-stop-prescribing-antibiotics-for-coughs-and-colds.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574995/Stop-giving-antibiotics-for-colds-doctors-told.html

My current guess (not enough proof yet :) ) that most people get antibiotic resistant bacteria from hospitals, not farms.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20524852

RESULTS:
Neither the preintervention rate of MRSA colonization or infection (0.56 cases per 1,000 patient-days [95% confidence interval {CI}, 0.49-0.62 cases per 1,000 patient-days]) nor the slope for the rate of MRSA colonization or infection changed significantly after the first intervention. The rate decreased significantly to 0.28 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.17-0.40 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the second intervention and to 0.07 cases per 1,000 patient-days (95% CI, 0.06-0.08 cases per 1,000 patient-days) after the third intervention, and the rate remained at a similar level for 8 years. The MRSA bacteremia rate decreased by 80%, whereas the rate of bacteremia due to methicillin-susceptible S. aureus did not change. Eighty-three percent of the MRSA isolates identified were clonally related. All MRSA isolates obtained from healthcare workers were clonally related to those recovered from patients who were in their care.
CONCLUSION:
Our data indicate that long-term control of endemic MRSA is feasible in tertiary care centers. The use of targeted active surveillance for MRSA in patients and healthcare workers in specific wards (identified by means of analysis of clinical epidemiology data) and the use of decolonization were key to the success of the program.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/718935

March 22, 2010 â" A multifaceted infection control program led to a significant decline in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases in Paris-area hospitals with high endemic MRSA rates, according to an article in the March 22 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

There are other superbugs too:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/enemy_pr.html

It's true that many species of acinetobacter flourish widely in the environment. Thriving colonies have been recovered from soil, cell phones, frozen chicken, wastewater treatment plants, Formica countertops, and even irradiated food

That may be ridiculous, but the Brits sure have got up to even more ridiculous stuff:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/8524481/Sir-Fred-Goodwin-injunction-MPs-declare-victory-for-freedom-of-speech.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alasdair-palmer/8440141/Super-injunctions-are-suppressing-the-voters-rights.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8394566/Hyper-injunction-stops-you-talking-to-MP.html

That may be ridiculous, but the Brits sure have got up to even more ridiculous stuff:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/8524481/Sir-Fred-Goodwin-injunction-MPs-declare-victory-for-freedom-of-speech.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alasdair-palmer/8440141/Super-injunctions-are-suppressing-the-voters-rights.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8394566/Hyper-injunction-stops-you-talking-to-MP.html

That may be ridiculous, but the Brits sure have got up to even more ridiculous stuff:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/8524481/Sir-Fred-Goodwin-injunction-MPs-declare-victory-for-freedom-of-speech.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/alasdair-palmer/8440141/Super-injunctions-are-suppressing-the-voters-rights.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8394566/Hyper-injunction-stops-you-talking-to-MP.html

Nope, still not the hottest She is (IMHO anyway) Cute, rich, smart - good grief ! :-)

A super-injunction is aimed at everybody. Only peers and MPs can brake the injunction by use of Parliamentary Privileges. A hyper-injuction tries to over-rule these privileges though. Hyper-injunction has only been used a couple of times as far as we know. Example 'Hyper-injunction' stops you talking to MP, other example would be Trafigura.

From TFS,

Twitter will attempt to notify the users first in order to give them an opportunity to exercise their rights.

You have no rights under a super-injuction. Even the defending party, example a news paper, isn't even allowed in the courtroom when the injunction is made. That's how repressive these injunctions are.

" A 2005 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency discusses potential benefits along with the challenges of thorium reactors.[23] According to Australian science writer Tim Dean, "thorium promises what uranium never delivered: abundant, safe and clean energy â" and a way to burn up old radioactive waste."

You Have to blame the Japanese government and power plant management for not replacing the Fukushima power reactors. We simply can not expect solar and wind to fill our power needs.

Even if we do all that is possible to conserve power. and switch to electric power cars. we will need to at least double the electric power plants to keep everything running. The last thing we want is more coal and gas plants. This defeats many of the advantages of getting off the petroleum in our cars.

Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium

This ^. +1. These are very basic mistakes we are seeing exploited. Its almost as if this is a company that is unaware of basic security practices (they could check out owasp for some hints). What seems more likely is a company that has been hacked, and begun playing the blame game rather than taking even the most rudimentary steps to secure their system. A press release is not an effective server hardening tool, its more of a provocation. So "Its only been a month" doesn't seem like any kind of excuse for a company as large and wealthy as Sony. A company with an apparently cavalier attitude towards sensitive user data.

From the cooling pond which they've been pouring water all over. And from the small amounts that were airborne in the hydrogen when it detonated.

If you have *airborne* plutonium, you have *huge* problems. The boiling point of plutonium is nearly 6000 degrees Fahrenheit. And even if you're getting plutonium from water, it inherently means that the zirconium cladding has melted off the rods. Arguing that that this happened in the cooling ponds isn't exactly going to win you any brownie points in the "Nuclear power is safe" front.

And all of that said? Your claim is simply wrong. Again. Again.. Why on Earth do you think they reduced the rate of water flow into the core? Whatever they inject ends up in the basement after getting a hefty load of radionuclides. Not only is the water from the core, the evidence shows that it's from a core which has had re-criticality (multiple spikes in iodine production; iodine is a short-lived radionuclide)

Though, the only reason I'm defending this nuclear plant at all - despite the fact that everyone knew beforehand was a horribly outdated design and was due to be decommissioned

No -- only one reactor was (#1), and as usual with aging nuclear power plants (including our own), they got an extension to for ten years.

When what we really need to do is put the NIMBY and enviroweenies together on an island and let them starve because nothing ever gets done.

Right, because anyone who disagrees with you is someone who's only good as a target for name calling and has no proposed solutions of their own, correct? You realize you're talking about the same people who were accurately describing how serious this situation was while people like you were out there describing the plant's reaction to the earthquake and tsunami as a triumph of nuclear safety engineering.

That's false, the earthqake was of intesity 9.0 with an epicenter about 150 km from Fukushima; the resulting ground acceleration was within (theoretical) design tolerance at unit 1. What is really amazing is (choose one or more): that the reactors were not able to withstand the damage, that TEPCO had been notified about that by the IAEA in the past, that it had simply ignored the warnings and that there are still people praising them for the robustness of their engineering.

Yes, it is a fact well known to those of us with tinfoil hats on top of our tinfoil hats that there is no longer a single white male CEO at any US company. It's true! And it's now illegal to vote unless you're a foreigner!! And Obama's 'birth certificat' is a blatant forgery!!! And I'm hoarding gold and guns against the coming Apocalypse as prophesied in the Turner Diaries!!!!

You seem to share a vice common among some Europeans of having difficulty telling friend from foe.

WikiLeaks: fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London bombings
University campuses are 'hotbeds of Islamic extremism'
Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister
Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target
Does the BBC view Israel's existence as a legitimate 'grievance'?
Sadly, I've been proved right. Britain IS a centre of terror. Tragically, our rulers can't see the truth

Well, at least someone is being deported:
Afghan Christians to be deported despite death fears

You should probably get out more. Mmm... quite

Well,... do let us know how that whole thing works out. I'm sure you'll be happier with that lot than any Americans. Cheers! (You might want to take that literally ... I understand they aren't too keen on alcohol.)

Yes, it is a fact well known to those of us with tinfoil hats on top of our tinfoil hats that there is no longer a single white male CEO at any US company. It's true! And it's now illegal to vote unless you're a foreigner!! And Obama's 'birth certificat' is a blatant forgery!!! And I'm hoarding gold and guns against the coming Apocalypse as prophesied in the Turner Diaries!!!!

You seem to share a vice common among some Europeans of having difficulty telling friend from foe.

WikiLeaks: fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London bombings
University campuses are 'hotbeds of Islamic extremism'
Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister
Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target
Does the BBC view Israel's existence as a legitimate 'grievance'?
Sadly, I've been proved right. Britain IS a centre of terror. Tragically, our rulers can't see the truth

Well, at least someone is being deported:
Afghan Christians to be deported despite death fears

You should probably get out more. Mmm... quite

Well,... do let us know how that whole thing works out. I'm sure you'll be happier with that lot than any Americans. Cheers! (You might want to take that literally ... I understand they aren't too keen on alcohol.)

Yes, it is a fact well known to those of us with tinfoil hats on top of our tinfoil hats that there is no longer a single white male CEO at any US company. It's true! And it's now illegal to vote unless you're a foreigner!! And Obama's 'birth certificat' is a blatant forgery!!! And I'm hoarding gold and guns against the coming Apocalypse as prophesied in the Turner Diaries!!!!

You seem to share a vice common among some Europeans of having difficulty telling friend from foe.

WikiLeaks: fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London bombings
University campuses are 'hotbeds of Islamic extremism'
Being too PC led us to shelter terrorists, says ex-minister
Muslim group claims royal wedding is legitimate terror target
Does the BBC view Israel's existence as a legitimate 'grievance'?
Sadly, I've been proved right. Britain IS a centre of terror. Tragically, our rulers can't see the truth

Well, at least someone is being deported:
Afghan Christians to be deported despite death fears

You should probably get out more. Mmm... quite

Well,... do let us know how that whole thing works out. I'm sure you'll be happier with that lot than any Americans. Cheers! (You might want to take that literally ... I understand they aren't too keen on alcohol.)

Reuters: "The U.S. special forces team that hunted down Osama bin Laden was under orders to kill the al Qaeda mastermind, not capture him, a U.S. national security official told Reuters."

CBN News: "U.S. special forces set out to kill Osama bin Laden and dump his body in the sea to make it harder for the al-Qaeda founder to become a martyr, U.S. national security officials told Reuters on Monday. "This was a kill operation," one of the officials said."

CDN: "During the May 3rd interview of CIA director Leon Penetta by NBC Nightly News’ Brian Williams, Mr. Penetta all but admitted that killing Osama bin Laden was the intent of the mission."

The Telegraph: "Several US national security officials have briefed that there was in fact no intention to capture bin Laden, contrary to Mr Brennan’s statement. “This was a kill operation,” one official said. "

That was from 30 seconds on google, I'm sure you can find more if you want. These statements from US officials are why I'm questioning the motives of the operation - and so should you, my friend.

Recently, they've begun issuing so called "hyper-injunctions, where not only are you not allowed to reveal details of the matter, and not only are you forbidden from revealing that you are forbidden from reveal details of a matter, you are further forbidden from talking to any journalist or even your own MP about the matter or the fact that you are unable to reveal details of a matter.

Sounds like the PATRIOT Act.

The British Judges issuing these "super-injuctions" have been out of control for some time.

Recently, they've begun issuing so called "hyper-injunctions, where not only are you not allowed to reveal details of the matter, and not only are you forbidden from revealing that you are forbidden from reveal details of a matter, you are further forbidden from talking to any journalist or even your own MP about the matter or the fact that you are unable to reveal details of a matter.

When one of these injunctions was revealed by an MP speaking in parliament, the judges attempted to prevent newspapers from publishing the proceeding of parliament. (Like the spineless curs they are, the British press immediately capitulated). The matter caused quite a todo, but instead of reforming the system, the judges invented hyper-injunctions instead.

Basically, the British judges are out of control. And the judges are the problem here. No sensible judge concerned with the dignity of his office would issue such a ridiculous gag order for twitter users. It's barely one step above ordering people to stop gossiping in pubs. Ordering around citizens from other countries is hardly a major move by comparision.

It would be interesting to figure out why the judges are behaving like this, particularly in England, where judges are renowned for issuing decisive judgements and setting common law precedent. While I know little about it, I'm going to pre-emptively blame whatever pro-business, anti-justice legal philosophy that has been promoted over the last 30 years in law schools, until I see evidence to the contrary.

From TFA: "For the past few days, a mystery has been unfolding in Silicon Valley. Somebody, it seems, hired Burson-Marsteller, a top public-relations firm, to pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy"

Burson-Marsteller, Burson-Marsteller... Why does that name sound so familiar? Oh yeah. They were slinging anti-Google propaganda for ICOMP (Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace), which (scroll down to the very bottom) is a lobbying arm of Microsoft.

BM has claimed that the smear job for Facebook "was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies", but it seems to me that it's just business as usual for them. The last time they did this, pitching to business executives that time, they also didn't disclose who hired them ("Others suggested that by not disclosing who Burson-Marsteller was representing, the firm was breaking the spirit of political lobby firms' code of conduct.").

Not only that, but BM also hired Eric Schmidt's ex mistress/fiancée, presumably connected with their ongoing anti-Google efforts. And they were behind the National Smokers Alliance campaign back in the mid '90s. Plus, if this post is to be believed, they were also involved with a number of other very dubious organizations (I didn't have time to run them all down, but the ones I did check into seem true).


The whole "Facebook and Google are having a spat" thing isn't really news, but I find it interesting how such a scummy company can be considered "one of the top international PR firms out there". Also, I regret that I didn't find this Slate article until after typing this post. It backs up the list of clients in the forum post above (but in case you don't want to follow either link: the Argentine junta, the Nigerian junta, Union Carbide, Blackwater, and Nicolae Ceausescu are among the undeniably bad/evil ones).

In the end, we may be able to catch a few pieces of junk, at a cost of a few million dollars each. If only we had the several hundreds of trillions of dollars it would take to catch each of them...

Well what's the problem? I have a few of these, I'd be willing to donate to the cause and cover the costs...

>>Furthermore there has never been a war waged in the name of Atheism.

No, of course not. Atheists have a great record of peace and tolerance when they take power, especially towards the religious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dechristianisation_of_France_during_the_French_Revolution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USSR_anti-religious_campaign_(1928%E2%80%931941)
http://www.freetibet.org/newsmedia/100807-china-purges-tibet-government-ethnic-tibetans-crackdown-dalai-lama-loyalists
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/2463385/China-plans-sweeping-purge-of-Tibetan-monasteries.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Rouge#Crimes_against_humanity

Story in The Telegraph, "Ramblers who use their iPhones to navigate and have no idea how to read a map are causing the number of emergency call-outs to increase by 50 per cent, mountain rescuers have complained. " http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8435019/Ramblers-who-rely-on-iPhones-to-navigate-increase-rescue-call-outs-by-50-per-cent.html

Here's some links for you:
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/osama_dead.php
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1212851/Has-Osama-Bin-Laden-dead-seven-years--U-S-Britain-covering-continue-war-terror.html
http://stevebeckow.com/2011/05/he-shall-not-be-hurt-of-the-second-death-fox-reports-osama-dead-2001/

Here's some links from many years ago:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/1366508/US-casts-doubt-on-bin-Ladens-latest-message.html

According to this one, the US thinks he's already dead. Note the date.
http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/02/01/gen.bergen.cnna/index.html

As for official sources, do you believe the Saddam had WMD, and that he was in league with Al Qaeda as the government claimed in 2001? If not, then you're a hypocrite.

So uh, why did it take so long to plan an attack if they had a lead for more than 2 years?

1. Physically find the courier mentioned in the interrogation. (3-6 months).
2. Put a tail on the courier and figure out where he goes. (1-6 months)
3. Use information from the tail to come up with a hypothetical location for OBL. (2 days)
4. Stake out hypothetical location and confirm. If false, go back to step 2. (1-2 months).
5. Obtain details about construction and layout of compound. (1day-2months, depending on methods used)
6. Obtain data about security protocols used in the compound (number of guards, when they change shifts, etc.) (1 month)
7. Construct an exact replica of the compound. (6-12 months)
8. Develop strategies for storming the compound. (1 week)
9. Test said strategies using the replica created in step 7. (repeat steps 8 and 9 if necessary.) (1 week)
10. Wait for perfect conditions to conduct raid. (New moon, good weather, etc.) (1-2 months)

The military leaves nothing to chance, and that kind of preparation takes time. Even then, things go wrong.

Let me fix that for you: Obama's birth was questioned, IMMEDIATELY answered to the satisfaction of his Democratic primary opponents, his Republican opponents in the general election, and the Supreme Court justice who swore him in when he presented the fully legal certificate from Hawaii. All sane people moved on. It was only not "settled" in the minds of a few pathetic trolls who can't accept the fact that a black man with a funny name might actually be allowed to sit in the Oval Office.

That's not really all correct, is it? The controversy over Obama's status was started by Hillary Clinton's campaign. I don't recall that the McCain campaign ever made it an issue. I am unaware of the Supreme Court Justices checking birth certificates prior to swearing in --- do you have a reference on that? I doubt that race plays any significant part of this as similar controversies have arisen with white candidates. Nationality certainly is the key part of it. There is a very dangerous attempt to try to depict any opposition to Obama administration policies as racist. That is very troubling.

You should direct your questions to Hillary Clinton's campaign - they are the ones that started the questioning of Obama's status.

Birther row began with Hillary Clinton

It looks like it's photoshopped from an old photo of (live) Osama combined with a photo of some other dead guy.