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Seriously, how many cow-burps and -farts was this eruption equivalent to, as far as "global warming" is concerned? People seem to seriously engage in breeding cows, that produce less methane. If a volcano can negate the benefits of such research for decades in a single eruption, perhaps there is no point in doing it — better concentrate on eruption-prevention...

I can see how that might be a sane response -- if and only if it were a British- or Irish-themed pub. I guess your position means that you don't go to bars in Europe very often!

(The situation's a bit more complex where I live, in NZ ... if you order a pint at a pub you'll get an American-sized pint, unless you're at an Irish/UK pub and ordering an Irish/UK beer, in which case it'll be a UK pint, though sometimes even then they'll ask you which size you want, and some places will let you have a UK pint if you specifically ask for it, only the bar-staff don't know it's a "UK" pint, they just think of it as a "big glass". Generally it's easier to order by the jug ...)

Just out of curiosity, how would you feel if you walked into an Austrian-themed pub in the UK, asked for a litre of beer, and they told you they were prohibited from serving it by UK (not European) law?

Will there be water boarding?

no, he wasn't arrested in London, England

Don't worry, absolutely nothing can go wrong.
I lived close by the place and went to see it, most of the old houses have cracks from top to bottom, and seen by the dated marks on the walls the cracks were still getting bigger. According to the building engineers there is no risk of collapsing yet, but it just doesn't look all too safe. And the drills made here were just small-sized testing drills.

"One problem is that Iranian leaders are trying to delegitimize the reform movement by pretending that they're puppets of foreign powers, so special discretion is required for anyone wanting to help the Iranian people."

Regardless of what one thinks about the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad, it is well known that the CIA and other western powers are spending millions stirring up trouble in Iran: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1543798/US-funds-terror-groups-to-sow-chaos-in-Iran.html

This article gives some historical overview of western meddling in Iran: http://www.voltairenet.org/article160670.html

What many of you also fail to understand is that while Musavi is less fundamentalist than Ahmadinejad, his views are hardly one of support for "human rights" and free society. It is sorta like the difference between Republicans and Democrats - a few differences on paper but little substantial difference.

As a Brit, I'm in no position to be laughing. Perhaps you haven't kept up to date on what happens over the pond, here are some examples: Digital Britain report to combat piracy as well as a forum for the report, here is some focus on the piracy aspect of the report. This is shortly after our IP minister says government will not legislate against piracy. Sneaky ISP cuts a deal with label while promising to be harder on piracy most likely to preempt the Digital Britain report.

Ironically I think our court system would have done better with the sort of case you had to deal with.. but our government makes up for that by being ready to impose new legislation at the drop of a hat.

It's a big problem in the British National Health Service. Essentially a lot of treatments aren't affordable on socialised healthcare, and so don't get rationed out by National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Not necessarily a problem, but if individuals want to try the treatment then they must go private for the whole package, not just buy in the drugs they want. This is because NICE usually rejects treatments because of either their lack of cost-effectiveness (how many good life-hours can be saved per pound) or because of the costs of the side effects. The NHS would have to pay for the side effects.

The rules are not applied consistently, and what treatment the NHS will pay for depends a lot on where you are, with the most generous being in oil-rich Scotland and it varying significantly with Primary Care Trust (PCT, but the phenomenon is known colloquially as the postcode lottery). The disparity is caused by efficiency of management, the presence of renowned hospitals that can pull in patients and hence funding from outside the PCT and in the case of the different nations, disparity in the funding per head of population.

Socialised healthcare has many of the pitfalls associated with all government spending, with political interference leading to popular-but-ineffective treatments getting funding priority over cheaper and better programmes (a new cancer treatment that NICE refuses will sometimes be pushed out by the government anyway as a vote-winner, no matter how clinically effective it is, and the money will have to come from far more useful screening programmes). There are other issues to do with patient choice and quality of care (patients find it near impossible to judge whether the local hospital is actually competent at cancer operations, for example). It is no panacea.

Equally, the current American system sees the average American paying ten times more for healthcare than the average Brit, yet achieving only a similar outcome and without the universal coverage*. To a certain extent it's a personal choice, but the NHS (like the BBC) is more of a national religion than Christianity over here.

*Can't find the citation for this. Was either a WHO study or the Economist reporting on it. Will look more later.

"A new study of the NHS in England suggests that a patient's chances of survival can be affected largely by where they live."

from 2001

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/2988711/Postcode-lottery-in-healthcare-will-get-worse.html

"Postcode lottery in healthcare 'will get worse'...There has been outcry over the decisions of some primary care trusts to refuse to fund drugs not yet approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), while patients in neighbouring areas are granted funding."

from 2008

This has gone on for ages and everything I said it true whether or not it may not be nice. Life isn't nice and some people get better treatment purely based on where they live. You can always go live in Africa if you think I'm full of shit.

Next time try having a decent, intelligent argument rather than trolling as an anonymous coward.

The beloved health care in GB is great.. as long as you don't get seriously ill. What bean counter is going to say "you sr are not worth a kidney transplant" and "no, we do not need to buy our Alzheimer's sufferers medication that will improve the quality of their lives". source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1581576/Author-Terry-Pratchett-attacks-the-NHS-over-Alzheimers-policy.html

The government is not a moral actor, it is a utilitarian actor. If it where moral we would have no war. If it where moral then I could trust it not to come to Orwellian conclusions after it controls medicine.

Tell me how the US can't do better than Canada and England.

Define "better". According to a recent Lancet Oncology study (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1560849/UK-cancer-survival-rate-lowest-in-Europe.html) for males the average cancer survival rate in the UK is 44.8%. Compare to 66.3% in the USA for the same period. The US has the highest cancer survival rates in the world, and by a pretty large margin. That has to be worth something in your metrics of "better". I do not go to the doctor for social justice, I go to the doctor to get medical problems, say cancer and cardiovascular disease, fixed. The US is tops for fixing medical problems even if the system surrounding that medicine is a wreck.

Discard all the policy issues and ask yourself one simple question: what country will give me the best average statistical odds of having my condition cured/fixed? The US looks very, very good by that metric, and the reason people go to the doctor is to get cures. The medical system may be a wreck, but that is a semi-separate issue and I would be reluctant to throw away stellar medical outcomes as the price for cleaning up a broken system.

One of the more interesting statistical anomalies is that if it was not for the extremely high death rates due to accidents (e.g. vehicular) and homicides, Americans would have the longest lifespans in the industrialized world instead of average ones (better medical outcomes offset high non-disease death rates). As is amusingly observed in health outcome statistics, the only demographic group that lives longer than Japanese women are Japanese women that live in the US. It is a relevant observation in this discussion, many people here are far too eager to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Leaked it to where? Poor bastard.

I believe it's referring to these leaked election results, although I'm personally still waiting for some sort of validation:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/5540211/Iran-protest-cancelled-as-leaked-election-results-show-Mahmoud-Amadinejad-came-third.html

Mr Mousavi's wife and co-campaigner, Zahra Ranavard, was reported as warning that riot squads would be equipped with live ammunition, raising the prospect of serious bloodshed.

Iran's Interior Ministry said Mr Mousavi would be responsible for any consequences if he went ahead with the protest.

Mr Mousavi's cancellation of the protest came as sporadic disturbances continued around the Iranian capital, and reports circulated of leaked interior ministry statistics showing him as the clear victor in last Friday's polls.

The statistics, circulated on Iranian blogs and websites, claimed Mr Mousavi had won 19.1 million votes while Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won only 5.7 million.

The two other candidates, reformist Mehdi Karoubi and hardliner Mohsen Rezai, won 13.4 million and 3.7 million respectively. The authenticity of the leaked figures could not be confirmed.

The Telegraph will publish the uncensored versions over the coming days.

notice one city not mentioned as ripe for bulldozing: pittsburgh.

from TFA:

( http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html )
"Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis."

http://blog.mlive.com/flint-city-beat/2009/06/flint_takes_international_spot.html

Kildee said this morning that there seems to be "a bit of hysteria about the whole scenario" and the Obama administration did not ask him to spread the word about the shrinking cities concept.

Which is direct contradiction of TFA:

The radical experiment is the brainchild of Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, which includes Flint.

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Weird, I'm using my reliance on actual figures to support my conclusion that it isn't. I understand, however, that not being able to blame society for destroying the planet in some way doesn't allow lefties to feel enlightened and judgmental or convince the public to accept increased government control over their lives.

We've got a major scandal over Members of Parliaments expenses going on at present.

'Sounds to me more like justification for making examples out of people who were feeling unwell.'

Also sounds suspiciously like an excuse for the basic failure of their system to detect infected cases. Which should come as no surprise, since airport temperature scanners are known to be pretty ineffective, and the border controls they aim to enforce have essentially no impact on the spread of a pandemic virus:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/5238030/Swine-flu-Border-controls-dont-work-warns-WHO.html

"nobody is reproducing with their car"

They're trying, though.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/09/car_lovers/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2000899/Man-admits-having-sex-with-1000-cars.html

Just two of many sad examples.

It [Chernobyl] really isn't repeatable. At best, we will get minute leakage somewhere that will most likely be detected soon and contained.

By which you mean a huge leak draining the reactor pool into the sea which would likely have been detected 10 hours later after the fuel rods had caught fire if it not for blind luck in this incident?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/5513461/Pictures-of-the-day-12-June-2009.html
There you go.

Correct! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/picturesoftheday/5513461/Pictures-of-the-day-12-June-2009.html

It has an occasional use but for the price of a couple of pairs of shoes (and don't forget the recurring monitoring fees/costs) there's a much easier solution which has been highly effective.

Personally I find this solution to be ingenious and hilarious at the same time.

Eight forms of human language remain uncracked by modern linguists. Surely trying to speak Ventaxian and understand their communication will be nigh impossible. Heck I don't think their characters have been encoded into unicode.
Let alone knowing how their transmissions are encoded or even if they have a concept of DRM. If we don't know their codecs then those broadcasts will simply fall into the cosmic background radiation and remain lost to us until these aliens do something as gross as landing on the White House lawn and actually share their technology via their universal translator.
Who's to say they're even going to be interested in humanity at all. They may decide that ants have a far older and more interesting worldwide civilization which fits their xenothropic principle rather than appealing to our hubris that nigh-hairless primates are the pinnacle of culture and society upon this ball of mud.
On the bright side this guy says it'd be easy to figure out the grammar of a living alien language but there's still the problem of idiom which would only serve the muddy the waters of communication and possibly precipitate conflict.

Has my country been under the thumb of a ruthless dictator thug for 25 years, the population starving, little girls stoned to death for the crime of getting raped and the "invaders" come with food and promising to grant us freedom and leave?

Ok, you seem to be suffering from historical amnesia and/or an ignorance of basic information that's easily available from reading. Its depressing that people can expound on the rights/wrongs of actions done in their name in far-flung countries when all they know about it is rubbish like the above.

Who helped bank-roll the Taliban? Next, go read up on the alternatives to the Taliban - are they really better? Do you think it's possible the local populace see the Taliban as less-worse? Next, do you think the Taliban could institute their awful laws without at least some support and even acceptance from the population - i.e. the problems go much deeper than some central government that can be toppled, rather they speak to the culture in the more backward parts of the place (you may have read recently in the news that Karzai legalised rape in marriage). Food: UN food programmes don't need military force to be implemented, and such programmes were in place before the recent US/NATO invasion.

The Telegraph posted some some good pictures a while back. This is part 3 - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/3458222/UFO-sightings-140-years-of--UFO-picture-Part-III.html

Microsoft Debuts Full-Body Controller-less Gaming At E3

Yes it's called Bing and you can play with your own meat joystick:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5423736/Microsofts-Bing-under-fire-for-porn-video-access.html

Big surprise, the video refuses to load unless you have Windows Media Player. Despite the fact that I view wmv's all over the net just fine with mplayer, yet somehow MS can't seem to make this work.

Stop trying to get around the filter.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5423736/Microsofts-Bing-under-fire-for-porn-video-access.html This might be how Bing will become popular - using Bing video to bypass porn filters!

I get 33% more hot babes now.. FUCK YEAH

Some study disagrees.

Bing fathered my baby!

Did you see this story? Other countries have a right to be pissed off at us.

As is the USA. I mean for christ sakes, your "liberal" president is covering up images of your soldiers RAPING CHILDREN in your military prisons.

Unfortunately many Americans do not realize that in rest of the world's eyes, the USA has no more credibility than the UN, and perhaps even less.

Surely everyone here on slashdot know that Rosé is not simply a mix of red and white wines... Don't they...

Not if the airheads in Brussels have their way...

"Good thing the FCC isn't in the UK"

The direct equivalent of the FCC in the UK is Ofcom.
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/

That securedhome.co.uk article has nothing to do with the scope of Ofcom or FCC as both are about enforcing adherence to legal broadcasting. (I seem to remember there is something in the broadcasting act to allow entry into homes to check equipment, (e.g. to stop pirate radio stations), but even if they cannot there are many other organisations in the UK that can enter the home for many reasons).

As for organisations who have the right to enter UK homes, the number of them is growing all the time...

e.g.
Parking bailiffs may win right to enter homes
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1548145/Parking-bailiffs-may-win-right-to-enter-homes.html

Bailiffs may get extra powers to enter homes
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bailiffs-may-get-extra-powers-to-enter-homes-1206531.html

Official snoopers get extra powers to enter homes as 13 new laws 'boost Big Brother state'
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-513973/Official-snoopers-extra-powers-enter-homes-13-new-laws-boost-Big-Brother-state.html

That's just a few examples in the UK. Just look up anything Jacqui Smith is behind, because she is at the centre of the growing Police State in the UK.

I'm sure these were the signs to where he was talking about !
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01211/2712signs5_1211111i.jpg or was it this one http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0gCDgR3gVP9B6/610x.jpg. Both are totally safe for work


What a dumbass

The Government moved heaven and earth to keep MP's expenses secret.

Secrets. Will. Out.

'Nuff said.

Absolutely they will. Anyone who has been in the UK recently can't help but have seen some coverage of the MP Expenses scandal which The Telegraph has been milking for a couple of weeks now. This is good old fashioned journalism at its best; a competent team of reporters going over a huge amount of data and expressing it clearly and succinctly in terms the public can understand. Sure, there's some sensationalism in there too, but the results speak for themselves; a respectable UK broadsheet seeing an increase in circulation of over 50,000 a day is phenomenal for a medium that is supposed to have been left in the dust by "iReporters" and the "Blogosphere". You can bet that there has been a similar uptick in what the paper is charging people wanting to advertise in the paper as well, and it's probably already a forgone conclusion which paper will be walking away with the big journalism awards in the UK this year.

John Naughton's approach is probably the correct one, but as we've seen from the examples set by the music and movie industries, the media business isn't exactly quick to adapt and has the funds to struggle on for a very long time. I'm all for seeing a few of Rupert Murdoch's red tops go to the wall, but unfortunately "Peter and Jordon to divorce" still sells far more papers than "MP claimed for moat on expenses" (yes, really). It's probably going to be a case of the few standing taking all, but unfortunately I suspect that some of those left standing are going to be those who have the funds to muddle and sue their way through the end.

Absolutely they will. Anyone who has been in the UK recently can't help but have seen some coverage of the MP Expenses scandal which The Telegraph has been milking for a couple of weeks now. This is good old fashioned journalism at its best; a competent team of reporters going over a huge amount of data and expressing it clearly and succinctly in terms the public can understand. Sure, there's some sensationalism in there too, but the results speak for themselves; a respectable UK broadsheet seeing an increase in circulation of over 50,000 a day is phenomenal for a medium that is supposed to have been left in the dust by "iReporters" and the "Blogosphere". You can bet that there has been a similar uptick in what the paper is charging people wanting to advertise in the paper as well, and it's probably already a forgone conclusion which paper will be walking away with the big journalism awards in the UK this year.

John Naughton's approach is probably the correct one, but as we've seen from the examples set by the music and movie industries, the media business isn't exactly quick to adapt and has the funds to struggle on for a very long time. I'm all for seeing a few of Rupert Murdoch's red tops go to the wall, but unfortunately "Peter and Jordon to divorce" still sells far more papers than "MP claimed for moat on expenses" (yes, really). It's probably going to be a case of the few standing taking all, but unfortunately I suspect that some of those left standing are going to be those who have the funds to muddle and sue their way through the end.

Yes that's their historical beliefs i.e. not anymore. Check this out. This is an acceptance by the hierarchy of something that I was taught at Catholic school in the 1980s; namely that evolution was God's method of populating the world. I don't care what the American Christians think. They aren't the whole of Christianity, or even a major part of it.

The alleged housing bubble collapsed because they took simple mortgages, then sliced them up and sold slices that contained bits and pieces of them on hedged bets, mixed in with such things as insurance bets, student loans, all sorts of oddball stuff, with more borrowed alleged money, then they did it again and again, up to *twenty times*. They took a mortgage and made believe if was worth ten times what it was and then proceeded to bet against each other. When a lot of these bets came due, they didn't have the scratch and then extorted the people by threatening to "crash the economy" if they didn't get bailed out to cover their derivatives bets. It's been a congame, an economic coup. They went so far into insanity with it that a lot of homeowners now are skating, they are demanding to see the paperwork to see who actually owns their house and mortgage, and it can't be proven who does! Judges are then ruling "sucks to be you" to these mortgage payment demanders because they can't even come up with who owns what anymore. They should have let them crash and burn, we don't need to have some huge quadrillion dollar casino as the primary driving force of the economy. Here, check out this latest.

The original homeowners with ARMs are REAL small potatoes in this fiasco, they just want you to fixate on that so you don't see the real problem. Don't look behind that curtain! The big kahuna is all the derivative exposure by a handful of huge investment banks-they shouldn't even be called banks really- and some insurance companies, most of it completely unregulated and off the books for public scrutiny. They are taking the tax payers money and still getting stinking rich with it by buying up other banks and so on. It's just a huge push to consolidate all the wealth and power into fewer hands. It's not an accident, it is a crime! These leet mofos who float around between wallstreet/the Fed and official government positions need to face serious jail time over it, it has been the mother of all extortion and bribery and influence peddling rackets.

Well, it may not seem like a lot at first, but the Foundation is giving out $100,000 to over 81 different projects. Combined, it is a massive sum of money. You can read more about it here - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5275381/Bill-Gates-pours-thousands-into-unconventional-health-research.html

No need for all that mucking about with physics - they just need to hire this student:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5261752/Artist-creates-invisible-car.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/8030766.stm

Wrong. There's such a glut of oil that tankers have nowhere to go. On top of that, gas prices dropped like a rock over the last two year with only meager price hikes.

But have you noticed that since Obama decided to cut tax breaks to big oil, they have in turn raised gas prices by over 20 cents/gallon?

Further, What do you think will happen now that we're going to non-renewable coal gassification (which is just oil 2.0, IMO)? Oil companies will fight that tooth and nail just like they have other alternative fuels.

Hmm half a million quid for a movie option before the first book is published.

Ms Rowling, however, does have a secret weapon in her business dealings: her producer, David Heyman. Mr Heyman, after Ms Rowling's agent Christopher Little, was one of the first to recognise Harry Potter's potential. He took an option on the first book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone, even before it had been published, for a mere £500,000.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1362097/Rowling-vs-Tolkien.html?mobile=true

Wrong. There's such a glut of oil that tankers have nowhere to go. On top of that, gas prices dropped like a rock over the last two year with only meager price hikes.

You can just go out and try to buy every outstanding stock in one shot anyway + you still have to convince the current stock holders to sell.

See Hostile Takeover. Despite the disadvantages, it happens now and then. You are right that it's not *quite* as simple as coming up with an amount of cash equivalent to the current market cap of the company -- (some of) the individual shareholders do need to be bought out, one way or another. But you don't need to buy 100% of the company to achieve your goals (majority stake, or significant voting power) -- witness the brouhaha when Porsche quietly bought up ~30% of VW.

(Yes, I know the comment by the GP about MSFT buying GM was just a joke).

So how do you explain white fellas paying $100 a cup for coffee made from cat shit? Maybe the dung has nothing to do with it and you are racist who has it if for Aborigines, no matter what they do?

They're already trying to ban the words Miss and Mrs.

"The article is from the Daily Mail, hardly a good source."

Why aren't they a good source? They're the second best selling mainstream newspaper in Britain. You're going to have to elaborate on this one.

The best-selling daily newspaper in Britain is The Sun. Here (NWS) is a "story" linked from their front page. They will have printed those pictures on Page 3. At least half of the stories on the (web) front page are about women (preferably topless), sport, celebrities (especially the Royal Family), and sex. A story about a topless sporting celebrity having sex with a member of the Royal Family is guaranteed front-page material for a week.

That's what sells in the UK, not accurate, in-depth news.

The Daily Mail doesn't have topless models but does have celebrities and royals (and more sport than the more serious papers).

Is that why they're not "a good source"? You don't like their editorial stance?

No. The Daily Telegraph has a similar political stance (UK right-wing), but I'll trust their reporting a lot more than the Daily Mail.

I would call the style of Daily Mail reporting inflammatory.

Compare the current front page headline articles (first few sentences):
Mail: "Six children at same school hit by deadly swine flu virus as British toll hits 27
Britain's toll from the deadly swine flu virus has hit 27 as nine new cases were confirmed by the Health Protection Agency. Seven children, five at the same school, were among the latest sufferers diagnosed with the killer disease."
Hit! deadly! hits! deadly! hit! sufferers! killer!

Telegraph: "Nine new cases of swine flu in Britain with five at one leading school
Nine new cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Britain with five of them at one of Britain's leading independent [private] schools. The outbreak happened among Year 7 pupils at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, south east London, which became the fourth UK school to be closed down because of the H1N1 virus. There are now 27 confirmed cases in the UK. Of the nine confirmed today seven were spread by person-to-person contact among people who had not travelled to Mexico or the US."
Cases, confirmed, outbreak.

Mail: "Despite fears a second 'wave' of the killer virus could erupt later this year, Hilary Benn admitted the disease looks less serious than first thought."
Ouch, criticising the politician for being cautious! The Telegraph's article on this isn't critical of anyone -- in fact, it seems to support the caution.