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Never, ever in history. Except perhaps just recently in the very country we are discussing, when Gordon Brown came to power. In his first act as prime minister, he transferred several significant powers to the Commons.

Why don't you, especially as an American, stop the right-wing scaremongering over the politics of a country which you have no more intimate an understanding of than your daily newspaper? Instead you could work on grass-roots campaigns, perhaps get involved in politics, or a number of other constructive things you could do if you stopped assuming that all government is bad and unfixable.

I despise conspiracy theories as much as RMS hates shaving, but I'm not sure Obama is the Apple user people claim he is. At least I hope he isn't. The only source I can find is this Telegraph article that mentions it among "50 facts". What isn't told is just how the Telegraph acquired these facts or even who stated them. Barack himself or one of his aides? Details are short.

I can only find one picture of him sitting before 2 macbooks on a table, but they could have belonged to someone else.

On November 4, engineers and scientists throughout NASA and academia scratched their collective heads and asked, "Which Obama is the real Obama?"

Now, we have the answer. Obama recently returned to the idea of sacrificing NASA programs in favor of his political agenda.

As Obama dismantles the American space program, perhaps we Americans should look to Japan for leadership in the peaceful development of space.

The Telegraph has an interesting article on this, plus the actual text message itself. Story is at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/3565928/British-surgeon-tells-of-how-he-carried-out-amputation-via-text-message.html

Text message was:

Start on clavicle. Remove middle third. Control and divide subsc art and vein. Divide large nerve trunks around these as prox as poses. Then come onto chest wall immed anterior and divide Pec maj origin from remaining clav. Divide pec minor insertion and (very imp) divide origin and get deep to serrates anterior. Your hand sweeps behind scapula. Divide all muscles attached to scapula. Stop muscle bleeding with count suture. Easy! Good luck. Meirion

That would be Nicholas Sarkozy, the *French* premier, not Berlusconi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/23/unrepentant-berlusconi-st_n_145821.html?show_comment_id=18253942
However, Silvio's quite capable of putting his foot in it, as well: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3041288.stm
My favourite?
"On his equal opportunities minister and former model Mara Carfagna: "I'd go anywhere with you, even to a desert island. If I weren't already married, I would marry you straight away."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/3398962/Silvio-Berlusconis-top-10-gaffes.html

The DNA is one small part of a much wider problem, while there has been a small victory for these men on the dna records kept it doesn't address the records which will be kept till their 100th birthday of the original incident.

It's rather depressing to read the following link

http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html

but perhaps not anywhere near as bad as

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3548795/Jean-Charles-de-Menezes-inquest-Family-protest-as-jury-sent-out-to-consider-verdict.html

"Sir Michael Wright, the coroner, has already withdrawn from the jury the option of a verdict of unlawful killing. The 11 jurors will consider two outcomes: either that Mr de Menezes was lawfully killed or an open verdict. "

Is it better in your country?

America's obsession with guns sickens any normal person.
Instead of this insane scheme to put guns in the hands of the elderly, why not do what we do in england, run outraged stories in the newspaper and on television every time an elderly person is attacked?

Obviously the police can't protect the old as they have their hands full with drivers maybe going briefly over the speed limit occasionally.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/7754092.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1317152/Half-of-elderly-fear-attack-at-night.html

World-burning asteroids of the type we're starting to see are part of a rather large cluster which has been studiously not-discussed since it began its inbound solar trajectory a few years back from where it was unceremoniously nine-pinned from the Kuiper Belt by a brown dwarf. I suspect that even if we had put some kind of defense into place years ago, it might find itself sorely taxed.

Instead, I believe the response to an impending asteroid pummeling anticipated by our mighty world leaders involves a great deal of tunnel digging and strict population management measures of the sort we are seeing being rushed into place --so that the remaining human debris can be sorted into convenient work groups.

A grim theory. Me. . , I'll invest in a nice lawn chair.

-FL

The FBI report cites thefts that happened in April. In April copper was going for $4/lb. Since then we've had the biggest deflation since the great depression, and in that time metal prices have fallen MORE than during the great depression.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/3543370/Metal-prices-fall-further-than-during-Great-Depression.html

Today copper closed at about $1.55/lb. That's roughly what aluminum was going for in April. (Aluminum is now $0.71/lb)
http://www.kitcometals.com/charts/copper_historical.html

So their statement that "copper prices from 2001 to 2008 have increased by 500%" is no longer even close to the truth. Right now it's closer to 50%, and it still looks to be falling.

Seems someone didn't get the memo: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/industry/mining/3543370/Metal-prices-fall-further-than-during-Great-Depression.html

Monckton is in no way, shape, or form part of the real debate over climate sensitivity.

He was invited to participate, and then they slapped a big red label on his submission saying his work was incorrect. Classic hit job.

It would be a great exercise to give to students and have them see how many errors they can find.

You mean the APS didn't back up their big red lettering with facts to dispute Monckton? How could that be? They dismissed his work without providing anything concrete that would cast doubt on its credibility? Noooo... really? That wouldn't be, like, the whole point I was making, now would it?

You don't need silly facts to prove Monckton wrong, you're a believer. Reproduce experiments? Nah, we'll just give his paper to some acolytes... er, students, and see how much rhetoric we can produce.

In short, you're a perfect example of what's wrong with the public debate.

I'm sure you say that to all the people who disagree with you. Real science seeks answers. You aren't seeking anything. Your mind is already made up. You believe in global warming. For you, there's no need to question cult leader James Hansen's results.

Standards are not falling in private schools

Which is why the NuLabour government is doing its best to get rid of private schools. There is a marked and increasing difference in standards, and levelling down is so much easier than levelling up.

A while ago, the UK government's Office of Fair Trading (OFT) fined 50 leading private schools a total of GBP3.5 million (about $5.25 million) for exchanging information about the fees they were charging. See, for instance, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1511429/50-public-schools-fined-for-fixing-their-fees.html

Note that in the UK, "public school" means a particular type of private (independent, non-state) school. The name was adopted before there was any state-run education in the modern sense, so it was logical in its day.

The irony is that most (all, AFAIK) of those schools have charitable status - they are "not-for-profit", so that the fees they charge merely pay their costs. No one is getting rich from running those schools. Moreover, the fine of about $100,000 per school could only be paid by increasing the fees!

Obviously, the purported motive of the fines - to stop the schools colluding to distort trade, reduce competition, and raise prices - was not applicable in the case of the public schools. What could be more ridiculous than fining a bunch of charities for not being competitive enough, when none of them makes a profit?

It's even stranger when you reflect that the body doing the fining - the UK government - forces all children who do not attend independent schools to go into its own state education system, which offers no competition at all. Moreover, competition law does not seem to apply to transport (where big companies enjoy state-granted monopolies), TV (where Sky has a monopoly in satellite and Virgin in cable), or banking (in which, as we have recently noticed, there has hardly been any regulation at all).

It seems pretty obvious that the motive for the investigation and subsequent fines could only have been to damage the public schools' reputation and financial status. As it had to be passed on to the parents, it was really a fine on them for daring to avoid the state education system. In itself, this attack has apparently not forced any of the schools to close (yet), but the government and its supporters live in hope.

This surfer dude? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencetopics/largehadroncollider/3314456/Surfer-dude-stuns-physicists-with-theory-of-everything.html

Have the pirates been killing anyone? Not to my knowledge ....

Sadly, this is incorrect:

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21842522-1702,00.html
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/10/23/Pirates_to_kill_crew_on_arms_ship_if_NATO_ships_attack/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1572236/Somali-pirates-threaten-to-kill-tanker-crew.html

They can and do kill people. And if this is allowed to continue, more and more people are going to die. On both sides.

I'm merely saddened your plan doesn't involve fixing any of Somalia's real problems. Just killing offenders.

My plan only addresses the short term issue: The piracy. That has to be dealt with immediately. Unchecked piracy will only result in the loss of more lives and cause economic problems on a world-wide scale.

Dealing with the political issues in Somalia is a more complex issue that lacks an immediate solution. I wish I could venture a good plan, but I do not understand the dynamics of the situation well enough to produce one. It's not like Somalia hasn't been receiving foreign aid:

By some
reckonings, no other country save Israel has
received such high levels of military and
economic aid per capita; certainly no country
has less to show for it. Even before its collapse
into protracted civil war and anarchy in 1990,
Somalia had earned a reputation as a graveyard
of foreign aid, a land where aid projects were
notoriously unsuccessful, and where high levels
of foreign assistance helped to create an
entirely unsustainable, corrupt and repressive
state.

What do they do with our foreign aid workers? Why, they kidnap and kill them:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/world/africa/06briefs-6FOREIGNAIDW_BRF.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081105/wl_afp/somaliaunrestreliefkidnap_081105183945
http://www.patronusanalytical.com/files/Somali%20Aid%20Worker%20Murdered.php
http://www.pr-inside.com/somali-aid-worker-killed-witnesses-say-r904499.htm

What would you have us do? I'm all for finding a peaceful solution if one can be arrived at. But as of this moment, there is an immediate problem people are dying or being threatened with death.

Food for thought: Isn't it interesting how the pirates can't afford food, but can always afford assault rifles? Perhaps there is more to their Robin Hood image than meets the eye.

Look, the EU just smacked down France's three strikes internet piracy law. Aland has problems regarding snus too and their duck hunting has been trampled on. It clearly isn't that easy to just flout the laws. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/finland/1510554/Tiny-island-that's-ready-to-stop-Europe-in-its-tracks.html

Flouting the laws doesn't mean those laws aren't made by a government. American tax protesters have argued that income tax is illegal and won in some instances. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,94630,00.html Mind you most lose but that's the case with the EU. Some countries may ignore thing the EU but that doesn't mean everyone can.

If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck then it is a duck. This applies to governments too.

I add a few frozen blueberries to my oatmeal every morning. Several studies have found that blueberries help the memories of older rats.

• Blueberries may reverse memory decline
• Diet Of Walnuts, Blueberries Improve Cognition

A giant spider eating a bird

This is how you deal with pesky debates that get in the way of a political agenda.

This makes it sound a little less inane. However, it was apparently a survey conducted online. So, it is pretty bad.

Yes, medicine was once seen as a man's job, which the "intellectually inferior" females were incapable of doing, and now 60% of new doctors are female. The trend towards feminisation has provoked some interesting comments though, with claims that "women docs are weakening the medical profession" (also here)

Odd... I recall other statistical studies that showed women cheated more than men.

As they say, you can show anything with statistics. But here are some interesting stats on infidelity. Highlights:

• Recent studies reveal that 45-55% of married women and 50-60% of married men engage in extramarital sex at some time or another during their relationship
• About 60 percent of men and 40 percent of women will have an affair at some point in some marriage
• Younger people are more likely candidates; in fact, younger women are as likely as younger men to be unfaithful.
• 35 percent of Americans thought adultery should be a crime in the United states
• more

Trust no one! This article on how Brilliant men always betray their wives is quite interesting as well - "Honey, it's not that I don't love you, it's just that I'm brilliant!".

Let's publish the rubber duckies for Global Warming Research and ignore Goddard Institute for Space Studies of NASA headed by James Hansen which published falsified data. James Hansen is a global warming alarmist.

A surreal scientific blunder last week raised a huge question mark about the temperature records that underpin the worldwide alarm over global warming. On Monday, Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is run by Al Gore's chief scientific ally, Dr James Hansen, and is one of four bodies responsible for monitoring global temperatures, announced that last month was the hottest October on record.

This was startling. Across the world there were reports of unseasonal snow and plummeting temperatures last month, from the American Great Plains to China, and from the Alps to New Zealand. China's official news agency reported that Tibet had suffered its "worst snowstorm ever". In the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration registered 63 local snowfall records and 115 lowest-ever temperatures for the month, and ranked it as only the 70th-warmest October in 114 years.

So what explained the anomaly? GISS's computerised temperature maps seemed to show readings across a large part of Russia had been up to 10 degrees higher than normal. But when expert readers of the two leading warming-sceptic blogs, Watts Up With That and Climate Audit, began detailed analysis of the GISS data they made an astonishing discovery. The reason for the freak figures was that scores of temperature records from Russia and elsewhere were not based on October readings at all. Figures from the previous month had simply been carried over and repeated two months running.

This is simply another proof that the mainstream media is no longer interested in facts or reporting unbiased news, just like during the election of the Anointed One. Rather, they simply parrot agendas that fit their own opinion.

Of course part of the absurd humour in the Monty Python sketch is that there are no parrots in Scandinavia. But Monty Python probably should have expected this story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1958285/Monty-Python's-dead-parrot-did-exist.html. Basicly, Norwegian parrots did exist 55 million years ago, even though it is not known if they were blue...

From the link: Michael Palin was amused when told about the discovery, saying: "All I can say is that it just shows that nothing is original."

Born and raised in the PRC, baby. First ten years of my life, and two years back there more recently.

People tend to have rather nostalgic and idealized notions of the land of their birth/youth. It's usually irrational. Anyway, I'm guessing that you hail from a very modern and urbanized part of China, where the differences with the western world would not be as stark (The building in the west being smaller for example.)

Perhaps you could enlighten us on your own experiences with the country?

Perhaps you could enlighten us with your own experiences of life in the Chinese rural provinces?

People forget that China's industrial boom, colossal as it is, has not actually affected most of the country or the population. 800 million people have been left behind over the course of the boom. The wealth and indeed to some extent freedoms enjoyed by the urban populations have most certainly not been extended to the vast majority of Chinese citizens. These people are not even allowed to live and work where they want to, essentially needed a chit from local officials to so much as rent an apartment. If that's not oppression, I don't know what is.

So please remember that China is a colossal country, and while you may have experienced little or no oppression in your own small and modernized corner, that does not mean that your experience is universal. When people in the west complain about lack of human rights and freedoms, it is largely the rights of the poor majority which they are referring to.

Now, your experience shows that life is getting better in China, and to be fair, there has been much improvement in the quality of life for many. But there has been little or no improvement in the political and other freedoms in China. Freedoms that people should enjoy, regardless of any ethos of consent. It is true that the communist party of China is in a difficult position, but even still they have made inexcusably little effort to give Chinese people the rights they should enjoy. They might be afraid of another July 4th, but if they don't release pressure by granting rights, then they will end up with another whether they like it or not.

Note the 60 mile operation is for pure battery, not hybrid Stirling operation.

A better article is here.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/10/27/sv_deankamen.xml

I read several articles on this when news first broke. The above indicates the Stirlin isn't even connected. When it is, it doesn't produce enough power to actually move the car. Kamen has a 1KW Stirling that is about the same size as what is pictured and other articles mentioned it as a "trickle charger".

In this case the Stirling is essentially a novelty, it doesn't drive the car when the battery is run down.

Great, so all we have to do is burn off all other oil sources to heat the planet up enough to melt the ice cap to get more oil.

What most don't realize is that the polar ice caps play a major role in moderating the Earth's temperature. Ice reflects light, while water (or at least its contents) absorbs it. Without the ice caps, the sunlight is absorbed into the water, raising the temperature of the oceans globally, compounding the global warming issues we're already facing.

Trust me, if that happens, the last thing we'll be worried about is finding more oil. The average year would make the last El Nino year seem like scattered showers with mild gusts.

The North Pole has become an island for the first time in human history. "Shipping companies are already planning to exploit the first simultaneous opening of the routes since the beginning of the last Ice Age 125,000 years ago. The Beluga Group in Germany says it will send the first ship through the north-east passage, around Russia, next year, cutting 4,000 miles off the voyage from Germany to Japan."

...the plugin routes you through a Chinese proxy. I can't imagine this open proxy will last long.

Either that, or the Chinese government was the one that set up the proxy, the Chinese government will strongly advise Chinese travelers to install that plugin, and it will start scanning laptops and cell phones for any sign of illegal content/web sites whenever Chinese people reenter their country. That being said, I'm probably just being freaking paranoid. A country like China could never be as repressive, no country could ever go that far.

Not only that, nearly everything down there is poisonous. Spiders that will kill you as soon as look at you. Spiders bigger than your head eating birds. Many of the top 10 venomous snakes are Australian. They have deadly jellyfish, octopus, they even have a venomous mammal. And if all that weren't enough, they imported a poisonous toad!

Would intelligent people move to Australia?

I keed I keed. Sort of. Still, those spiders really give me the willies. Giant orb, huntsman, funnelweb, red back, white tail... *shudder*

Or there's the older Eric Idle song:
I Bet You They Won't Play This Song On The Radio.

Congratulations to Microsoft on yet another completely original idea. Clbuttic!

How do you figure this is the case though? Last I heard (being lazy in looking up figures) UK's second largest religion is Islam on its way to be first. The UK is not dealing with daily suicide bombings or are they in any worse of a situation as far as terrorism goes than the US.

I'm not afraid of Islamic "bombist" terrorism as such - it's really mostly just a scarecrow for the US and UK public. It's this sort of thing that I'm more worried about. One bad thing about democracy is that one can always use one's vote to shut it down...

Obviously, you actually never fly first class. Steak knives have been replaced by plastic knives.

You're probably limiting your statement to 'first class' internal USA travel.

I home from the US in March Qantas Business, then back to and from the US in May/June this year on Air New Zealand (International) Business Class. They all served with stainless steel cutlery. Seems British Airlines have been using steel cutlery since 2005

Maybe UPann's Health care plan and the health care un Penn in general isn't as good as other areas of the country. I haven't needed to wait to see a specialist but this isn't really the same as in other countries.

In America, when we know what is wrong with someone, we schedule an appointment to take care of it. In countries with socialized health care, you sometimes go on a list and have to wait until your number is ready and if there isn't anyone in more need then you, you go. If there is someone who can, they will jump in front of you and you go back onto the list. Now, have you had your appointment bumped after waiting 2 months to see the specialist just to have to wait longer? And yes, you had the option of going somewhere else, even if that meant further away then your local area to see the specialist sooner. In other countries, you don't, you get what they give you.

This waiting isn't about someone waiting for a specialist to get time, you are after all, under the care of another doctor, it is about waiting 10 years for bowel surgery and having to goto other countries to get procedures done. It is about doctors deciding who gets treatment and who doesn't, regardless of anyone's ability to pay but because of perfectly legal acts like smoking or growing old. Sure, you can drink, but you won't get any surgury if you do, but it is still legal right? But there are other stark contrasts between the US system and other countries like England's. This piece actually offers a pretty good comparison so take the time to read it.

I know I have been picking on England's system so lets get into some of the problems with Canada's. Canada has wait time to see general practitioners that makes your specialist appointment look like a week long vacation. Granted the government is working on the problem and has supposedly worked out a plan that will be implemented in 10 years or so, but what about until then and what about everything up until people complained loudly enough for the government to act. It is so bad that companies are offering medical insurance in Canada that will take you to another location and even out of the country if your wait times are too long. Imagine that, the people of Canada are buying health insurance when they already had free health coverage from their very own government because the times they wait to get treatment is way to long.

Now maybe you just don't know about the wait and thing a 4 week wait or an 8 week wait to see a specialist is similar to a 16 week wait to see your general practitioner or having to wait 16.2 weeks to see an orthopedic surgeon, and another 24.2 weeks for treatment to be performed after the initial visit. Now those numbers are averages, this means that some are longer and some are shorter. But we every one that's shorter, there is one or more that is longer. You may think, well that isn't too long. Most back problems have healed themselves in 3-6 months, if the healing is improper (which is why surgery is often used), there will be problems with the back for the rest of the patient's life. So lest see, 14 weeks is over 3 months already. 24 weeks is six months longer, there is a good chance of a patient needing an orthopedic surgeon never regaining normal use and comfort levels in their back again simply from the wait between seeing and treatment. Of course this isn't always the case but it gets introduced and it shouldn't be there.

Maybe UPann's Health care plan and the health care un Penn in general isn't as good as other areas of the country. I haven't needed to wait to see a specialist but this isn't really the same as in other countries.

In America, when we know what is wrong with someone, we schedule an appointment to take care of it. In countries with socialized health care, you sometimes go on a list and have to wait until your number is ready and if there isn't anyone in more need then you, you go. If there is someone who can, they will jump in front of you and you go back onto the list. Now, have you had your appointment bumped after waiting 2 months to see the specialist just to have to wait longer? And yes, you had the option of going somewhere else, even if that meant further away then your local area to see the specialist sooner. In other countries, you don't, you get what they give you.

This waiting isn't about someone waiting for a specialist to get time, you are after all, under the care of another doctor, it is about waiting 10 years for bowel surgery and having to goto other countries to get procedures done. It is about doctors deciding who gets treatment and who doesn't, regardless of anyone's ability to pay but because of perfectly legal acts like smoking or growing old. Sure, you can drink, but you won't get any surgury if you do, but it is still legal right? But there are other stark contrasts between the US system and other countries like England's. This piece actually offers a pretty good comparison so take the time to read it.

I know I have been picking on England's system so lets get into some of the problems with Canada's. Canada has wait time to see general practitioners that makes your specialist appointment look like a week long vacation. Granted the government is working on the problem and has supposedly worked out a plan that will be implemented in 10 years or so, but what about until then and what about everything up until people complained loudly enough for the government to act. It is so bad that companies are offering medical insurance in Canada that will take you to another location and even out of the country if your wait times are too long. Imagine that, the people of Canada are buying health insurance when they already had free health coverage from their very own government because the times they wait to get treatment is way to long.

Now maybe you just don't know about the wait and thing a 4 week wait or an 8 week wait to see a specialist is similar to a 16 week wait to see your general practitioner or having to wait 16.2 weeks to see an orthopedic surgeon, and another 24.2 weeks for treatment to be performed after the initial visit. Now those numbers are averages, this means that some are longer and some are shorter. But we every one that's shorter, there is one or more that is longer. You may think, well that isn't too long. Most back problems have healed themselves in 3-6 months, if the healing is improper (which is why surgery is often used), there will be problems with the back for the rest of the patient's life. So lest see, 14 weeks is over 3 months already. 24 weeks is six months longer, there is a good chance of a patient needing an orthopedic surgeon never regaining normal use and comfort levels in their back again simply from the wait between seeing and treatment. Of course this isn't always the case but it gets introduced and it shouldn't be there.

So for the record, how many examples of people having difficulties with Spore in particular have your personally encountered?

Interestingly, I do not know anyone who has purchased Spore in particular. Despite the media blitz, there is very little interest among the gamers I know. (Many of whom are far more "hard core" than myself.) The problems I have seen are indeed past problems, but they deal with the SecuROM software. SecuROM has been around for some time now, and is nothing new with the release of Spore.

If we follow your logic of incidents to date with Spore based on support calls, then you may be correct. However, that number is meaningless. EA has already lost customers due to DRM problems and will likely lose more. Singling out the statistics for Spore is exactly the type of statistical abuse I was railing against in my post. It's like saying, "For the 20% of people who have not been previously burned by SecuROM or StarForce, 99.8% don't have any problems." Which means (in effect) that 99.8% of the customers happen to be the people that the game works for.

The messed up part is that in the original Gamasutra interview, he claimed that about half of that 0.2% were pirates and that the other half were innocent folks caught up in an anti-marketing blitz! Never mind that (according to the Telegraph and other news sources) the pirated versions of the game are available without DRM. Why would pirates complain when they have such an easy time cracking these titles?

The truth is that the DRM is ineffective and punishes legitimate users. Take one example from the Amazon reviews of Spore. A serviceman obtained the game without realizing that it required Internet activation. He is unable to activate it and is thus not able to play the game. Another user got burned by the downloads. Both these examples are outside the canvasing of Amazon, yet they have been punished by EA's heavy handed tactics.

The end result of all this is that EA is implementing DRM because they believe that PC gaming sales are down because of piracy. Yet piracy continues unabated while EA exasperates the very issue they were trying to solve!

Maybe you like waiting in line for health care. I don't.

I'm a vegetarian because I learned about how lax the standards that govern our food supply are.

Why would you think that plants are handled any better, especially when NAFTA opened the US and CAN to God-knows-what from Mexico and Central America?

http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Grapes--Melons-Implicated-in-Outbreaks-1271-1/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2445747/Salmonella-outbreak-linked-to-single-chilli.html
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Vegetables-And-Fruits-Cause-More-US-Food-Illnesses--5831-1/
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Bacterial-infestation-in-food-very-critical-21-5940-1/
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Roma-tomatoes-the-culprits-for-salmonella-infection-7330-1/

Eh. Let's be brutally honest here: the prius is just average. There are much, MUCH uglier cars out there.

A bit of quick googling yielded this list here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/picturegalleries/2754146/The-100-ugliest-cars.html

Not all the pics in there are actually horrible, but just a few clicks in from the bottom and already I see uglier cars than I ever imagined, like that Fiat Doblo. And of course, I do remember the Aztec - I still see one on the road every now and then and marvel at its concentration of raw ugly. In comparison to most cars on the road, the prius just kinda... blends in. There are a lot of them out there, but I don't notice them unless I'm specifically looking for them. Can't miss things like the PT Cruiser though; the wrongness just draws the eye in...

'That's almost 200 pounds for every man woman and child in the UK.'

Which would have seemed like a lot of money a couple of weeks ago. But today we can just add it on to the 8000 pounds it may end up costing every man, woman and child to back the bank bailout plan:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3173868/Financial-crisis-Gordon-Browns-500-billion-gamble-fails-to-pay-off.html

Perhaps instead of spying on UK citizens, the government should have spent a few quid keeping a closer eye on the respectable financial institutions whose irresponsible behaviour has caused the sort of damage to the economy that terrorists can only dream about...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/3145691/Steve-Wozniak-interview-iconic-co-founder-on-the-iPod-iPhone-and-future-for-Apple.html

Next time don't be so lazy and find the original article, that way I can be lazy.

Yes well, THANKS for that stereotype that we're all rootin-tootin-shootin cowboys and all. It's completely false, but thanks for playing.

Meanwhile, in the UK you guys are sooo safety conscious that you've even banned certain dog breeds for being too dangerous. (BTW, did you know that only ONE of former football player Michael Vick's fighting pit bulls that were seized had to be put down for being too vicious? And one is now a licensed therapy dog?) Then you've put cameras everywhere. If it's all that safe, why do you need all the security cameras? And if someone breaks in to your home, you're at their mercy because it's illegal to shoot the burglar.

Meanwhile (from 2004), violent crime is up 14%

Thanks mate, but I'll keep my dogs (which include 2 Rottweilers) and my handgun safely tucked in the nightstand. I'd rather be able to be alive and show the police the body of a criminal I shot when he kicked the door in than cower in the bathroom with the phone or hope the police can locate my killer or attacker with their surveillance cameras.

TFA is just a crude summary of the actual interview in the Daily Telegraph.

"You would not state such nonsense if you knew what a Socialist and a Marxist is."

I decided to look them up for you:

Socialist: "an advocate or supporter of socialism."

Socialism (my favorite definition): "the stage following capitalism in the transition of a society to communism, characterized by the imperfect implementation of collectivist principles."

"Very few people in Europe are taxed to the levels you mention, certainly taxes are higher, but it seems that many countries in Europe are better educated, healthier and happier than people in the US,"

Prove it to me. I personally know people that live in France that have to pay 65% of their paycheck to the government.

you are so un-informed:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_France

"The European Union Value Added Tax (TVA) (sales-tax): 48% of tax revenue;
The income tax (impÃt sur le revenu): 16% of tax revenue;
The tax on corporations: 12% of tax revenue;
The tax on petrol and fuels (TIPP, taxe intérieure sur les produits pétroliers): 6%
"

Notice, VAT is pretty much in all of Europe, not just France. How the fuck else are all those social programs going to get paid for?

"As for your assertions regarding terrorists and dictators, you are pulling that from your ass."

Oh no?

Fidel Castro backs Obamas:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/uselection2008/2039018/Barack-Obama-gets-Fidel-Castro's-support.html

Clarke's estate vs. the Olympic Committee? They could sue each other then. Clarke's last novel deals about the first Lunar Olympic Games (previously covered here on). On the other hand, this could be worth a good sponsorship deal.

We can take care of the other 5% by inviting them to a party, apparently.

the EM field strength from your nice blanked is comparable (well, in the same ballpark) to that of a nice high tension overhead power line

Which is why it gives you cancer.

"Nobody really knows how birth control pills work in humans."

Bullshit. We know _exactly_ how birth control pills work. Search pubmed.org if you don't believe me.

"I take comfort in the fact that there are lots of medics in the ER. If one doesn't want to do a blood transfusion, I'm sure there will be others who do."

How about emergency transfusion during airlift, for example?

Or how about antivax doctor denying your child a vaccination?

Or fire-fighters refusing to do their job on Sabbath?

Or this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1577426/Female-Muslim-medics-'disobey-hygiene-rules'.html ?

"Plus, I thought JW's believed that their rules applied only to them, and not unbelievers."

Birth control pills also do not affect pharmacist, so I fail to see a difference.

Probably JW are just not powerful enough (yet) to force their believes on others.

"And I think you forgot to address my argument about how being forced to dispense abortifacients infringes on my right to contract."

Simple - you have a JOB to do, and other people depend on you. If you can't do your job then don't do it. It's that simple.

Whether they're still regulated by the FSA is an interesting question. they claim to be. However, this may just be a relic of the pre-Luxembourg organisation, or it may be a way of avoiding the need to be re-approved as an e-money issuer.

E-Money balances aren't covered by any form of insurance or security - the FSA e-money sourcebook states that companies must invest in high-security bonds etc., but ultimately a company could go bust and their users would have no more claim on their holdings than any other creditor. The £1000 amount is just an upper limit on an account balance before they have to tell you, and you have to agree that you know, that you have no right to compensation. You have no right to compensation anyway (ELM section 1.5) - the notification regulation is just there to limit the losses of those people who would claim that they never knew.

Though I'll admit that I'd feel much better about the project if they accomplished something large but nevertheless more modest, like say a suspension bridge using nanotubes. Though since steel cable serves perfectly well for that and will presumably be cheaper even when we can make suspension-bridge length nano-cables, that would be nothing but a feel-good exercise for people like me rather than a practical application.

What about a super strong wire to stretch across roads to behead terrorists when they try to escape on motor cycles.

Oh, I'm sure Russia would have just let the North Ossetians have their land back.

Parent poster has a point. You must of missed this old news: "Russian parliament votes to recognise independent Ossetia"
"The Russian parliament has voted unanimously to recognise Georgiaâ(TM)s breakaway regions as independent, in a move that will increase tensions with the US and other Western nations."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/2618728/Georgia-conflict-Russian-parliament-votes-to-recognise-independent-Ossetia.html

I did not see it reported in the US as well, but no surprise there. How can you demonize Russia if it votes to give the North AND South back to the Ossetians - rightful owners for thousands of years? Of course have to take the Russian Parliament vote with a large grain of salt - only the future will tell, BUT they did start pulling troops out almost the second after kicking out the Georgian invaders. All that crap about France brokering a deal and forcing Russia to withdraw was a load of laughable hogwash... Sarkozy's plane had hardly touched the ground, plus he had no leverage, where does French natural gas come from? but Moscow was already scaling out anyway. Talk about trying to save face for NATO.