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Domain: telegraph.co.uk
Stories and comments across the archive that link to telegraph.co.uk.
Comments · 3,787
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Re:AGREED
then we got a bunch of parents out there that are liable to be arrested and taken to jail for taking shots of their little kids bathing or running around nekkid...
You haven't visited Britain lately...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nbaby.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nchild.xml -
Re:Lesser evil
I thought polar bears live on ice. Or at least hunt there. Could it also be that they are running away from the melting ice?
I think there are a lot of arguments to support both sides of this and that science really needs to determine what is going on. Human caused or not. It would be helpful if administrations like the current one in the US would not stifle research that contradicts their policies. -
Re:Good time...
not to be in the US.
Oh, please. Australia banning Fallout 3, Canadian judge overruling a parent's normal punishment, and Britain is officially insane.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/11/america/hate.php
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=6aaf855a-47e3-4e3f-8709-5b53dcfffff0
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nbaby.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nchild.xmlI'll stick with the imperfect USA.
Canada, being so close to the US, still appears to have a little sense:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080628/steyn_commission_080628/20080628?hub=TopStories -
Re:Good time...
not to be in the US.
Oh, please. Australia banning Fallout 3, Canadian judge overruling a parent's normal punishment, and Britain is officially insane.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/06/11/america/hate.php
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=6aaf855a-47e3-4e3f-8709-5b53dcfffff0
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nbaby.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/global/main.jhtml?xml=/global/2008/06/25/noindex/nchild.xmlI'll stick with the imperfect USA.
Canada, being so close to the US, still appears to have a little sense:
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080628/steyn_commission_080628/20080628?hub=TopStories -
If I paid for it, I don't want ads!
I don't pay money for Google. If I'm paying for a game it better not have any ads in it. It would be like paying to see Blade 3 or I, Robot or the new Casino Royale or paying for a copy of NFSU2. I'm not going to pay twice.
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Re:The electric car you want is ready now:The other broadsheets are:
http://www.independent.co.uk/
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ -
Re:Why aggression towards China?
Oh yeah, and a few more:
A Chinese submarine popped up in the middle of U.S Naval exercises. (link)
Chinese police shoot protesters in Tibet. (link)
Somewhere between 200 and several thousand deaths in the Tiananmen square massacre. (link)
Not to mention, Chinese involvement in the Korean War. (link)
I mean, I'm not trying to claim that the U.S. is angelic, no one could, but China is more than an economic rival. Also, the U.S. populace has never particularly liked repressive governments our own included. Look at the U.S. Civil War, there is still a tremendous amount of sympathy for the southern states, even though most people agree they had the less worthy part of the argument. -
Re:What could possibly go wrong?!I think you need to go back and reread the refernce. This article from the UK makes it pretty clear that
We will take skin cells from patients who have a mutation for certain kinds of heart disease (cardiomyopathy, which makes the heart lose its pumping strength) and put them into pig eggs after their chromosomes have been removed. We will then make embryos so that we can attempt to derive embryonic stem cells which will allow us to study some of the molecular mechanisms associated with these heart diseases.
That 'attempt to derive embryonic stem cells' is not going to leave a viable embryo behind. Sorry, no man-pigs, just cells to culture and use for heart repair.
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Re:Somewhat misleading...
Also to add: "They would not be used for stem cell treatments of patients because of concerns about disease and because cybrid cells may still contain rabbit DNA in mitochondria, the "batteries" of the cell. The few rabbit genes present may generate proteins that would be attacked by the human immune system, for example." A sublink from Telegraph As this is a research only venture, and these stems cells are not being allowed to survive beyond the first stages of developement or used in humans, hopefully the relgious community won't strike this down like they usually do.
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Daily Telegraph - same story, no registration reqd
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Re:Aw, c'mon.
So Ron Paul was right after all. If we just BUTT OUT of the world militarily and politically,
ahh but WAR IS THE HEALTH OF THE STATE, profitable for government that it is, there will be no chance of that...
American Dollars are less than worthless right now- "Barclays Capital has advised clients to batten down the hatches for a worldwide financial storm, warning that the US Federal Reserve has allowed the inflation genie out of the bottle and let its credibility fall "below zero". - Telegraph.co.uk
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Re:Whitewash.
What about this, Global Warming: Secretly Good For Us http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1563054/Global-warming-'is-good-and-is-not-our-fault'.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallen_Angels_(science_fiction_novel)
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Re:Sure it's falsifiable. . .
Nice try, kid. A 10-year cooling won't disprove Global Warming either.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/04/30/eaclimate130.xml
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Re:Interersing trend...
one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.
He raised comparisons with the former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's famous claim that Britain had "never had it so good" by saying "our citizens have never been so wealthy".
In other good news, the weekly chocolate ration has been increased to 20 grams!
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Re:Interersing trend...
The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas,
Are you kidding? So far Europe has had truck drivers go on strike against fuel tax, fuel delivery drivers go on strike for a 14% pay increase, annual electricity/gas bills rising at 40%/year threatening to push a quarter of all households (5 million families) into fuel poverty, councils raising the cost of school meals due to the expense of transportation. Even the police are having to cut back on front line staff due to the additional expense. Food bills have risen by 20% since the start of the year.
The advertisements on the sides of public transport buses read "Fed up of paying fuel duty to go nowhere, take the bus instead and stop your wallet from going empty". Otherwise many people are choosing to cycle in to work, especially university staff.
All of this is predicted to send house prices down by at least 10%, and then one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.
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Re:Interersing trend...
The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas,
Are you kidding? So far Europe has had truck drivers go on strike against fuel tax, fuel delivery drivers go on strike for a 14% pay increase, annual electricity/gas bills rising at 40%/year threatening to push a quarter of all households (5 million families) into fuel poverty, councils raising the cost of school meals due to the expense of transportation. Even the police are having to cut back on front line staff due to the additional expense. Food bills have risen by 20% since the start of the year.
The advertisements on the sides of public transport buses read "Fed up of paying fuel duty to go nowhere, take the bus instead and stop your wallet from going empty". Otherwise many people are choosing to cycle in to work, especially university staff.
All of this is predicted to send house prices down by at least 10%, and then one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.
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Re:Interersing trend...
The EU is doing just fine dealing with $5+ for a gallon of gas,
Are you kidding? So far Europe has had truck drivers go on strike against fuel tax, fuel delivery drivers go on strike for a 14% pay increase, annual electricity/gas bills rising at 40%/year threatening to push a quarter of all households (5 million families) into fuel poverty, councils raising the cost of school meals due to the expense of transportation. Even the police are having to cut back on front line staff due to the additional expense. Food bills have risen by 20% since the start of the year.
The advertisements on the sides of public transport buses read "Fed up of paying fuel duty to go nowhere, take the bus instead and stop your wallet from going empty". Otherwise many people are choosing to cycle in to work, especially university staff.
All of this is predicted to send house prices down by at least 10%, and then one minister tells people that should stop being so miserable about the rising cost of living.
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Re:War is fun!
Do you mean 'like it was in 1914 and 1939'? As in when the world wars started as opposed to when the US decided to join in?
Well, you have to remember that there was a lot of anti-war sentiment in the US despite the looming danger at the time, and it almost kept us out (until it was too late)
But don't worry, anti-war sentiment in the US is growing stronger, and it seems unlikely that we will involve ourselves as the coming European crisis plays itself out, regardless of the consequences. It will be interesting to see where it begins. Maybe it already has as there are already refugees.
Holland?
Amsterdam and Rotterdam are expected to be in about 2015 the first large majority-Muslim cities. Europe or Eurabia?
UK?
Muslim Britain is becoming one big no-go area
Trouble in Londonistan
France?
Muslims are waging civil war against us, claims police union
Why 112 cars are burning every day
Elsewhere?
Where did they all go? Who are they training and leading? -
Re:DoltCompulsory means that I no longer have a choice but to pay for health care.
So what? Welcome to civil society, and the trade-offs that come with it. If that does not suit you, please accept my sympathies, and learn to deal with it. So, if we institute compulsory military service, like Israel does, will you accept the trade-off as being part of a civil society when you're sitting on the front lines in Iraq against your will? If that does not suit you, please accept my sympathies, and learn to deal with it. Two things:
1. What "right" do you have to keep your money? What is so special about you that you are entitled to a free ride?
2. Only possibly? Is there a list of ailments you would be prepared to cope with, assuming you could pay less?
BTW - You are aware that publicly funded health care systems have been shown to provide a higher quality of care and are less expensive to maintain that the current US model? 1) the fact that I earned my money... just like if you buy a house, joe squatter doesn't have any right to come in and kick you out of your bed
2) possibly in the sense that, it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they want to buy insurance. Possibly, I don't want it. Possibly, you do. That's called freedom.
As for your quip about the current US model being too inefficient compared to socialized models... was that before or after the UK began telling people to treat their asthma, arthritis and heart problems themselves? Or the extreme waiting lists in places like Canada for things like cancer treatment? Does it consider doctors who aren't paid for work they do, so they take monthhs off every year, forcing even more delays?
That's exactly the type of system I want to emulate... nevermind getting into things like your personal health records showing up in the hands of people who would like to use them against you, much like FBI records of hundreds of political enemies showing up in the Clinton White House.
I currently deliberately have no health care plan
And you consider that to be some kind of virtue? No, I consider it a wise economic move, allowing me to invest my money into other things that I deem more important, like my house and private retirement. Since Social Security will never pay me a dime, I'd guess I'd better have something planned to avoid that nanny state plan as well. Money is nothing more than pieces of metal or paper that we have collectively agreed can be exchanged for something else of value. Wait a minute... it is a tangible object which can be traded for another object... why... that sounds like property! For what it's worth, I haven't the slightest concern for however you choose to lead your life provided that you aren't doing anything illegal or harmful to others. So long as you can spend my money how you think is best... As such, I fail to see the point of your bitching... In the same way you fail to understand why government control of an entire industry is socialism - because you choose not to. The cognitive dissonance would bring down your entire world view. -
Fear Has Won
Impressive how a lot of posters opposing this measure start off saying they abolish child porn.
Absolutely. Nothing so successful neuters an argument as seeing the proponent falling prostrate and begging forgiveness before he even begins his speech. The audience sees where the true power lies, and sides accordingly. No one is going to follow someone marching on their knees.
People are afraid. That's why they feel the need to profess their innocence. The child porn shriekers have succeeded in fostering a climate of fear that has silenced their opponents. They've changed society, in the anglosphere at least. People know that to be accused of being in any way associated with pedophilia is to lose ones future forever. No one takes risks in such a situation.
I will profess one thing though. I'm afraid. I'm afraid of the power that we've given to the accusers and their supports. I would never do something as stupid as look after someone's child for any period of time. Working with children, including teenagers, is also completely out of the question. I'm not the only one. People in general become very nervous if a child walks into the room. No one gets friendly or playful unless they're fairly gregarious, and female. People will let a child die rather than stop to help them, and I can't say I blame them. I can personally say that if a child was drowning or dying right in front of me, then I most likely wouldn't move one step towards them, let alone help them. I'm not a monster, I just live in these times.
Child pornography scandals are put on the front page by editors to titillate readers and sell newspapers. No one stands up to this hysteria fueled by profit mongering and voyeurism. It's eroding our media, our legal system, our social system and ultimately our entire way of life. By itself it won't bring the whole structure crashing down, but it will rot a few more timbers.
I'm afraid. But every poster who includes the ritual "I abhor child pornography..." disclaimer in their messages is a far greater coward than I. -
Re:Global warming my blue butt
Perhaps there has been cooling.
Global warming skeptics buoyed by record cold -UK Telegraph- -
Re:solar warming, that's why.
Um...
You do realize that there is a difference between Cosmic Rays and Solar Radiation. Right?
As far as the article goes, More sunspots mean more solar radiation, less sunspots mean less solar radiation.
If the sun has been going through a period of low activity as of recent years, that would certainly explain the cooling trends seen by scientists in recent years. Of course, some refuse to talk about it, and continue to hyperventilate about "Anthropogenic Global Warming" as if it was some kind of gospel, rather than just another scientific hypothesis that has yet to be proved even enough to garner "theory" status.
Of course, this is why real scientists continue to collect data, and to test the hypothesis. Many scientists are beginning to see serious cracks in AGW thought, and are beginning to question it's legitimacy. Unfortunately, AGW seems to have garnered quite a few political opportunists and quasi-religious acolytes who continue to insist there is a consensus where none exists.
Personally, I've not bought into the AGW hysteria, and am continuing to gather data. But the more I gather, the more I see that our Earth's climate has been fluctuating between warm and cool for eons, well before Man arrived on the scene, and will continue to do so until the death of the Sun. We are just a passing fancy for our planet, soon to be forgotten. How arrogant of us to think we could affect the deep and wide forces that move and shape our world. -
Re:Function Creep
It's only a month since Poole council hit the headlines for using RIPA to spy on families to check school applications[1] - council employees were literally following people around and sitting outside their houses. Not only is this explicitly legal, but they were prepared to go on record saying they considered it to be a normal desirable practice. There will be a lot more of this.
The Tories want to get rid of the 'paperwork' of RIPA[2] too, which basically means eliminating those awkward checks and balances so they can get on with real spying in peace (that's how I read it anyway).
On the bright side, the police hate RIPA[2] as it is, so at least its due for some more headlines first
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7341179.stm & http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584713/Poole-council-spies-on-family-over-school-claim.html
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/03/do0301.xml
3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/08/flanagan_ripa/ -
Re:Function Creep
It's only a month since Poole council hit the headlines for using RIPA to spy on families to check school applications[1] - council employees were literally following people around and sitting outside their houses. Not only is this explicitly legal, but they were prepared to go on record saying they considered it to be a normal desirable practice. There will be a lot more of this.
The Tories want to get rid of the 'paperwork' of RIPA[2] too, which basically means eliminating those awkward checks and balances so they can get on with real spying in peace (that's how I read it anyway).
On the bright side, the police hate RIPA[2] as it is, so at least its due for some more headlines first
1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7341179.stm & http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1584713/Poole-council-spies-on-family-over-school-claim.html
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/02/03/do0301.xml
3. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/08/flanagan_ripa/ -
Re:Royal Navy?
They're all right as long as they don't have to operate an anchor.
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Re:Royal Navy?
See here. Not that I'm a royalist, but they do serve in the forces. (Though if they feel like "borrowing" a Chinook to impress their birds/go on a stag weekend, that seems OK too.)
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Re:No surprise...
What choice do I have? Who has the right to tell me I must live in some country, or choose where they're going to send me when I don't live in it? I pretty much have to live in Antarctica.
I think you're close to right, although this Iranian guy now sells kebabs after settling on the island of Spitsbergen when his immigration attempts into Norway failed. Not quite lawless but it doesn't require residency permits, which I guess makes it easier for people to move there if they want to.
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Church of England is also a cult?
Apparently it is OK for the Telegraph to call the "Church of England" a cult. "What is the point, they ask, of having a national Church, with the Queen at its head, with Bishops Spiritual sitting in the legislature, when the institution is shrinking to little more than a minority cult, a weekend pastime for those too dysfunctional to take up Pilates?" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/05/09/do0902.xml
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Re:Useless information
Hmmmm. Uk.... terror plots.... IMs to Pakistan.... web based training.... emails to cell members.... "Jihadi" web sites.... So I guess it's funny because it could be true?
Police have foiled 15 terror plots in Britain since the 2000, Ian Blair reveals
The suicide bombers who met at McDonald's: Image shows meeting with '7/7 terror plotter'
Car Bomb Found in London 20 Days After al Qaeda Suicide Bomber 'Graduation Ceremony'
Training camps for terrorists in UK parks
UK camps 'preparation for terror'
Men 'planned airliner explosions'
Airline terror trial shown liquid bomb exploding
[Channel 4 News] UK airline plot martyrdom videos released
Fertiliser bomb plot: The story
Five men have been convicted of plotting to build a bomb which police say could have killed hundreds of British people. The men were caught after police and MI5 launched a massive surveillance operation.
I would think most people would prefer avoiding another 7/7 attack.
Well, carry on with the snarky comments then. After all, that's what keeps us all safe, isn't it? Certainly it couldn't have anything to do with the security services based on the typical post on Slashdot. And never forget Bin Laden's gracious peace offer. All we have to do is convert to Islam as nations, abolish our respective constitutions and replace them with Sharia, start enforcing strict Islamic morality (which will mean killing homosexuals and blasphemers, no more alcohol, drugs, charging interest on loans, pornography, fornication, etc., etc.), then Bob's your uncle - peace! And look, the necessary infrastructure and supporting institutions are already coming into place, supported by leading religious figures. If converting to Islam is too high a price for you, there is even an Islamic alternative for many of you. -
Re:Useless information
Hmmmm. Uk.... terror plots.... IMs to Pakistan.... web based training.... emails to cell members.... "Jihadi" web sites.... So I guess it's funny because it could be true?
Police have foiled 15 terror plots in Britain since the 2000, Ian Blair reveals
The suicide bombers who met at McDonald's: Image shows meeting with '7/7 terror plotter'
Car Bomb Found in London 20 Days After al Qaeda Suicide Bomber 'Graduation Ceremony'
Training camps for terrorists in UK parks
UK camps 'preparation for terror'
Men 'planned airliner explosions'
Airline terror trial shown liquid bomb exploding
[Channel 4 News] UK airline plot martyrdom videos released
Fertiliser bomb plot: The story
Five men have been convicted of plotting to build a bomb which police say could have killed hundreds of British people. The men were caught after police and MI5 launched a massive surveillance operation.
I would think most people would prefer avoiding another 7/7 attack.
Well, carry on with the snarky comments then. After all, that's what keeps us all safe, isn't it? Certainly it couldn't have anything to do with the security services based on the typical post on Slashdot. And never forget Bin Laden's gracious peace offer. All we have to do is convert to Islam as nations, abolish our respective constitutions and replace them with Sharia, start enforcing strict Islamic morality (which will mean killing homosexuals and blasphemers, no more alcohol, drugs, charging interest on loans, pornography, fornication, etc., etc.), then Bob's your uncle - peace! And look, the necessary infrastructure and supporting institutions are already coming into place, supported by leading religious figures. If converting to Islam is too high a price for you, there is even an Islamic alternative for many of you. -
Re:awesome
The number of British nationals emigrating every year to Australia, New Zealand France, Spain and many other countries runs to anywhere between 200K and 700K. Mainly due to increasing crime, increasing taxation, declining standard of living and being treated as second class citizens.
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Re:And on the plus side. of plus-size..
I'm not saying I disagree or agree with you. So please don't shoot the messenger.
It's interesting when you look at the worldwide phenominion conserning obesity and smoking. Take for example, how the world's governments are starting to turn against cigarates. Taxes on tobacco has been going up worldwide. Or maybe the crazy french smoking band. I could have never seen the French banning smoking anywhere in my imagination.
Other oddities are the Japanese people getting concerned over obesity caused by the western culture creeping in. (Read McDonalds.) Their children are heavier than they used to be...and we all know where that goes (theoretically.)
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Re:Not all ISP's suck
I think I read about some European ISPs that do this cooperatively too - I think BT is part of it.
Oh, here you go :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7027871.stm
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565310/QandampA-BT-wi-fi-sharing-scheme.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON -
Re:FBI Wants Authority To Filter Net BackboneWhile you're at it, why not tap all our phones and open all our postal mail as well? Hell, walk on into everyone's house looking for evidence of criminal activity! Why not? Lucky you you don't live in the UK then, there is a law already in use for "anti terror" which allows the authorities to bug anyone it likes just for fishing expeditions, for example...
A council has used powers intended for anti-terrorism surveillance to spy on a family who were wrongly accused of lying on a school application form.
For two weeks the middle-class family was followed by council officials who wanted to establish whether they had given a false address within the catchment area of an oversubscribed school to secure a place for their three-year-old.
The "spies" made copious notes on the movements of the mother and her three children, who they referred to as "targets" as they were trailed on school runs. The snoopers even watched the family home at night to establish where they were sleeping.
Feel safer? No, neither do I.
Full article from Telegraph newspaper. -
Re:Democracy did win right?
It reminds me. I've got a Hungarian friend who's obviously not keen on things Russian given Russia's historical behaviour in Hungary.
Back when Putin was first elected my friend read that he flew his own fighter down to Chechnya. And it's true, he has flown to official visits in jet fighters.
Which, whatever you think about the guy as a politician is damn cool. He's like James Bond, or maybe a James Bond villian. Rumours about his personal life just confirms the impression. -
Re:Very little is laughably simple
Yes, you could build a trebuchet in your backyard. However, is it up to the standards of where things would have been when construction of trebuchets was at it's prime. Saying you could build one with power tools just to save time doesn't really hold much water with me. We could build the pyramids with all the modern tools we have at our disposal. The trick is that the Egyptians were able to do it without all those fancy tools. There's still a lot of controversy about how the pyramids were actually accomplished. Because a lot of information used to be kept secret in order to protect the importance of certain trades, a lot of information was lost. There's a lot of things that blacksmiths used to be able to do that we have no idea how to replicate. Things like the Damascus blade, which we just figured out why it was so good, and we still don't know how to reproduce it.
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Re:Basic IdeasNotice the drastic difference in public discourse in Britain where the BBC is taxpayer funded but not owned by the interest of any corporate entity, and America where the truth comes second to the dollar. In my opinion, as long as state-owned industries are open and easily reformed by the populace, they are far superior to the closed door dealings of private corporations. As opposed to the closed door meetings of a publicly funding corporations who extract a tax on your TV and Radio. At least a private company you can boycott.
Not everyone thinks the BBC is all dandy. Take for example: Paul Dacre and the Telegraph . Granted these have their own biases, but we have the right to choose whose views we fund.
Also remember the BBC brought us the nullity gem. -
Re:Can you please link to the CNN article?The Daily Telegraph Talks about this, two thirds of the way down this page... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/13/do1307.xml
Reprinted below:
A talking point among "climate sceptics" on both sides of the Atlantic has been the bizarre tale of how the BBC's chief reporter on climate change censored an item on the BBC website after being harried by a "climate activist".
On April 4 Roger Harrabin posted a story on the fact that world temperatures have not continued to rise in the past 10 years, and this year will fall to a level markedly below the average of the past two decades.
Citing the World Meteorological Organisation, Mr Harrabin accurately reported that "global temperatures have not risen since 1998, prompting some to question climate change theory".
This was a red rag to Jo Abbess of the Campaign Against Climate Change (Hon President, George Monbiot), who emailed Mr Harrabin demanding that he "correct" his item.
Mr Harrabin insisted that what he had written was true. There are indeed eminent climate scientists "who question whether warming will continue as predicted".
This only angered Ms Abbess further. She said it was "highly irresponsible to play into the hands of the sceptics", to "even hint that the Earth is cooling down again".
Mr Harrabin, though he has led the BBC's tireless promotion of warmist orthodoxy, stood firm. Even in the "general media", he replied, "sceptics" highlight the lack of increase since 1998: to ignore this might give the impression that "debate is being censored".
His item had, after all, added "we are still in a long-term warming trend".
This was too much for Ms Abbess. She responded that this was not "a matter of debate". He should not be quoting the sceptics "whose voice is heard everywhere, on every channel, deliberately obstructing the emergence of the truth".
Unless he changed his item, she said, "I would have to conclude that you are insufficiently educated to be able to know when you have been psychologically manipulated". She threatened to expose him by spreading his replies across the internet.
At this point the BBC's man caved in. Within minutes a new version appeared, given the same time and date as that which he had consigned to Winston Smith's memory hole.
Out went any mention of "sceptics" who question global warming. After a guarded reference to this year's "slightly cooler" temperatures, a new paragraph said that they would "still be above the average" and that we will "soon exceed the record year of 1998 because of the global warming induced by greenhouse gases".
Of course we have long known where the BBC stands on climate change. But it is good to have such clear evidence that, even when one of its reporters tries to be honest, he can be whipped back into line by a pressure group.
In the end, Ms Abbess still circulated the exchanges on the internet, to show the great victory she had won for the "emerging truth".
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No need for a quantum sensor...
Dude, we know how birds navigate: they follow roads.
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U of Glasgow Made Similar Nano-Switch Progress
I submitted this in story form yesterday but also in recent news, Glasgow scientists have made a tiny switch that would make huge leaps in memory storage:
Scientists at the University of Galsgow have claimed a breakthrough that enables them to store 500,000 gigabytes squeezed onto one square inch making way for some hilarious storage for things like cell phones and iPods. The scientists working on it divulged, "We have been able to assemble a functional nanocluster that incorporates two electron donating groups, and position them precisely 0.32 nm apart so that they can form a totally new type of molecular switching device. This is unprecedented and provides a route to produce new a molecule-based switch that can be easily manipulated using an electric field. By taking these nano-scale clusters, just a nanometer in size, and placing them onto a gold or carbon, we can control the switching ability. Not only is this a new type of switchable molecule, but by grafting the molecule on to metal (gold) or carbon means that we can potentially bridge the gap between traditional semiconductor devices and components for nanoscale plastic electronics. The key advantage of the molecule sized switch is information / transistor density in traditional semi-conductors. Molecule sized switches would lead to increasing data storage to say 4 Petabits per square inch. This breakthrough shows conceptually that this is possible (showing the bulk effect) but we are yet to solve the fabrication and addressing problems. The fact these switches work on carbon means that they could be embedded in plastic chips so silicon is not needed and the system becomes much more flexible both physically and technologically. Since these switches are little balls of metal oxide they are made of similar stuff to normal semi-conductors but are much easier to manipulate as discrete molecular units." You can read more about it in Nature's Nanotechnology publication. In related news, researchers have claimed to harness terahertz radiation using circuits.
Another advancement in nanotechnology, thought I would post it here since it's probably not going to be used. -
Re:Who are they to decide what is and isn't safe?
Who are they to decide what is and isn't safe? They're not a bank, so I don't think they necessarily have any liability if one of their customers loses money, correct? Please correct me if I am mistaken.
They are indeed a bank and as such have all the liabilities of a normal bank. They became a bank about a year ago.
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Re:That's disappointing
That could require a larger US military presence in the Middle East than we currently have especially if Iran obtains nuclear weapons.
Growing power from Iran would not require any U.S. military presence in the Middle East. In fact, nothing that happens in the Middle East requires any U.S. military presence there. The job of U.S. military is supposed to be to protect the U.S. from attack. No one in the Middle East can launch an invasion of the U.S.
The irony here is that the US has little trouble in Afghanistan.
Well, no trouble other than half of the country being back under Taliban control.
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And the IMF says we're in recession ...
Of course Windows is going to decline.
The International Monetary Fund just announced that the sub-prime crisis has tipped the USA into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. During recessions, the first thing to get cut back on is unnecessary infrastructure replacement -- and PCs have been marketed on the basis of planned obsolescence for around a decade now. So the PC replacement cycle will be hit, hard.
Vista is a resource hog, Ubuntu is just about coming up to mass market usability, and a lot of places are going to stop replacing their PCs annually or bi-annually in the next couple of years. Unless Windows 7 is as comparatively lightweight as XP, it's going to crash in the "upgrade your OS" market -- only new PCs will ship with it. So Microsoft will have two poor sellers in a row -- which is enough, in the mind of the fickle public, to establish a trend, and with Apple chowing down on 25% of the high-end laptop market already, they're in danger of being squeezed between a high-end competitor and a low-end one.
But.
Windows is so big, with such a huge established base, that its decline will resemble that of the old IBM mainframe environment -- which is still doing fine, decades after the death of the mainframe was predicted. This ain't going to happen overnight.
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Which?
They're basically a criminal organisation
Which of them is? Microsoft or the EU?
If I had to name anyone as being less accountable and more corrupt than MS it would probably be the EU. Not only that, reporters following on the trail of EU corruption have been known to be arrested before now.
Microsoft or the EU. It's a tough choice.
But let's put the EU on one side (if only those of us who labour under it's ambitions could!) and rephrase the question. Let's make it "government" in general not just the EU.
"Should Microsoft Be Excluded From Government Sales?"
I think any government anywhere in the world ought to think very hard about this one. I'm disgusted at what when on at ISO. However, I don't think I would ban Microsoft outright now. If I were making policy for any governmental body I would be saying: "We will only consider tenders from vendors whose software will save into open formats" -- and by open formats I would not mean OOXML. And if MS wanted to offer a version of Office that would save -- natively -- into ODF, I'd accept tenders from them, and have those tenders considered on their merits. However, if I found anyone from Microsoft had attempted to influence buying decisions in any underhand way -- say by offering sweeteners to government officials -- I'd ban them for that, and not for a short period either. It would be for years. -
Climate change
How much is required? "In the US, where weather records have been more reliable than elsewhere, 20th-century temperature went up by only 0.3C."
So lets say it takes 6 degrees to start making a difference. So we will have less beer in 2,000 years? -
CorrectionGeorge Lucas' contract with Fox gives him the right to make money off the merchandise.
Andrew Ainsworth's contract does not; he could have requested a share, but he chose not to. His own dumb fault. There's a more informative article over at the Telegraph, which has two important bits of info.
1) There was no formal contract. In the absence of a formal assignment, it is unclear who owned the rights to the design of storm trooper armour. You could argue it either way.
2) Ainsworth is a British citizen who lives in Britain, and always has done. Under UK law, the "design right" in the shape of a physical object (which is NOT the same as copyright) expires after just fifteen years. So, in Britain, he's clear to make and sell just as much of the armour as he likes. It's possible that he may not be able to call it "Storm Trooper" armour; Lucas may have a trademark on that name. But he can definitely call it something more generic, e.g. "space trooper armour" or "space armour" or "sci-fi armour" or something. -
Re:Transportation Stocks Suggest Recovery
I like how the Nordic banks handled their problem, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/03/31/cnfed131.xml
1) The government goes in and takes over the bank to prevent a crisis
2) All the executives and board members of the bank get the boot
3) Shareholders get nothing
This way, the culprits get punished but at the same time, the government steps in to prevent a wide catastrophe. -
Tony Blair???
That may be true in the US, but Dawkins is British. As in much of the rest of Europe, it is religious beliefs that are stigmatised. Why do you think British politicians do not discuss any faith they have until after they have retired?
WTF? Have you not heard of Tony Blair? The man was well known as being a Christian throughout his time as PM. He's on record as claiming that he would be judged by god on his decision to go to war in Iraq - source http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/03/04/nblair04.xml&sSheet=/news/2006/03/04/ixnewstop.html. Blair was also lampooned in Private Eye for years as "The Vicar of St Albion". Religious beliefs in UK politicians are, admittedly, more down-played than they are in the US, but it's simply wrong to say that no British politician won't discuss faith. I think part of that is because the UK is more sensitive of non-Christian beliefs and so a politician coming out as belonging to one particular faith will potentially put off voters who have a different faith. -
Re:Biter bitten
I'm guessing Lucas screwed this guy in the original contract,
According to the UK Daily Telegraph there was no contract:Mr Lucas, who wrote the screenplay and directed the 1977 film, is understood to have hired Mr Ainsworth through intermediaries in 1976, but it is claimed no formal contract was put in place. The designer received just £30,000 for his work.
I wonder if the award in the US was a default judgment? -
Re:An ISP?
BT broadband has about 27% of the UK market, and is the largest single ISP in the UK last I checked. There are fairly strong walls between the broadband business (BT retail/openworld) and the phone line last mile business (openreach), and the trunk network (BT wholesale) these days due to regulation by OFCOM since privatisation, though they are all part of BT group.
The information commisioner, who ensures the data protection act is followed, is investigating BT to see if the law has been broken - there's a strong possibility it has been.