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I've haven't seen anyone wearing glasses with frames this thick for around 60 years. On the other hand the modern smaller square framed glasses are quite popular.

To me, the LCD should fill the entire lid area minus a half inch frame. Anything else greater than that, and they should be using a larger LCD.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/off-the-field/where-have-all-the-spectators-gone/2008/08/11/1218306724554.html

Lots of empty seats in Beijing...

Guess those sponsors are really getting their money's worth...

I was that guy who pioneered selling hurricane wind (in not tupperware!) on eBay from Hurricane Frances and responded to ridiculous questions with snyde comments. Made the AP, Leno, etc.

Wow.

if it was this restaurant

Add James Lovelock ( the "father of modern earth sciences" ) to the list of scientists who have upset some green politicians by advocating Nuclear (at a minimum it would buy more time). Wether it's John Howard on GW, or Greenpeace on Nuclear, all political groups have no shortage of "leaders" willing to bury their head in the sand when confronted with new information. I know over the five decades I've been looking around the place, society, science and technology have all changed beyond recognition. Politicians are just a sub-species of human that are preoccupied with not rocking the boat so much that supporters start falling overboard and are not above whacking a smart-arse scientist with an oar. Strange thing is I think that overall the world is a much better place now than it was during my (happy) childhood, albeit with the problems that come with an extra 3.5 billion mouths to feed

"Who are preventing wind & solar plants?"

The last project death I heard of was here in Australia. Quite the achivement for a right-wing federal minister to overide a state premier and cancel a wind farm, but to then attempt to convince the nation that the enviro-nazi's and their bloody parrots were to blame makes it a cynical farce worthy of a whole "Yes Minister" episode.

The interesting thing to study is then why Europe is wanting to pay so higher prices for the same goods.

As an Australian who is in the same boat as the Europeans, I can categorically say we don't want higher prices. Video game prices are in fact a big issue recently in the Australian gaming community (that and Fallout 3 being banned), with sites like The Age's Screeplay Blog constantly having one article or another devoted to the inflated prices we pay, even for digital downloads (see: Call of Duty 4 on Steam).

Those of us who vote with our wallets try to get the message across, but it's undone by the few who pirate the stuff instead, providing argument to the developers to claim that decreased sales are all piracy's fault, which in turn justifies not only keeping prices the same (or increased to compensate), but copy protection mechanisms get more and more imposing.

Imagine how their campaign will take off once McCain learns to use email and the intarweb

I suspect attaching this to a non-event like a spam attack won't be read by many, but there is a serious side to this little non-article. Have a look at HR 362 / SR 580, and you'll see that certain individuals are actively planning authorisation to commit the first overt act of war against Iran.

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?aid=9377&context=va

http://www.infowars.com/?p=3202

I quote from HR 362: "Whereas nothing in this resolution shall be construed as an authorization of the use of force against Iran"

Well, that's all well and good, but doesn't sound so friendly when later followed by:

"...imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran..."

By gumbo, that sounds pretty much like an act of war to me, folks.

Fred Thompson might be a has-been contender for POTUS, but he's still got clout and buddies ...
http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/west-urged-to-blockade-iran/2007/06/20/1182019197725.html

From what I can tell, the bill is due for a vote today (Friday) ... HR 362's co-sponsors include 96 House Democrats and 111 House Republicans.

From the screenplay blog http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//009975.html

[snip]

Interestingly, Bioshock is rated MA15+, because apparently harvesting your recreational stimulants from little girls' bodies isn't anywhere near as bad as paying money for them.

The first thing I thought when I read this was: they just refused classification, right? That's not the same thing as banning. While mainstream shops won't sell it, surely it's still legally possible to buy it in some other way? Apparently not. From the Classification website:

Computer games that have been Refused Classification (RC) cannot be sold, hired or demonstrated in Australia.

Sounds like Australians are out of luck. (Unless Fallout 3 turns into an Oblivion clone, in which case nobody cares.)

From the screenplay blog http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//009975.html

POSTAL (aka LOOSE CANNON) Computer Games
CD-ROM Refused Classification 28/10/1997

GRAND THEFT AUTO III Review (Other)
PlayStation 2. Refused Classification 29/11/2001

BMX XXX Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 16/10/2002

THE GETAWAY Computer Games
PlayStation 2. Refused Classification 27/11/2002

SHELLSHOCK NAM67 Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 22/06/2004

LEISURE SUIT LARRY : MAGNA CUM LAUDE Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 09/09/2004

MANHUNT Review (CG)
PlayStation 2. Refused Classification 29/09/2004

SINGLES FLIRT UP YOUR LIFE Computer Games
PC Refused Classification 21/10/2004

THE PUNISHER Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 23/11/2004

NARC Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 08/04/2005

POSTAL 2 SHARE THE PAIN Computer Games
PC Refused Classification 10/10/2005

50 CENT BULLETPROOF Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 24/10/2005

MARC ECKO'S GETTING UP: CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 14/02/2006

RESERVOIR DOGS Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 23/06/2006

BLITZ THE LEAGUE Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 17/01/2007

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE: PAYBACK Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 16/10/2007

DARK SECTOR Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 13/02/2008

SHELLSHOCK 2: BLOOD TRAILS Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 20/06/2008

FALLOUT 3 Computer Games
Multi Platform. Refused Classification 04/07/2008

"GP's point wasn't about the birds,...."

The only people still talking about windmills and birds are the misinformed, some of them may be environmentalists but the last windfarm to be scraped "due to birds" was here in Australia. The anti-environment minister who canned the project was from a conservative right-wing govermnent (note the Liberal party are not liberals). The environmental impact report did not back up his claims about birds and there was not a single protester in sight.

"...it was about the fact that no matter WHAT we do someone will complain"

Can't argue with that since all I see in the OP is someone without a clue complaining about two groups they obviously dont like, ie: environmentalists and scientists.

According to the paper today they're still insisting on PayPal, despite what they've publicly said to the contrary.

There are some real geniuses working on Wall Street, in VCs, Consulting, and yes, even marketing.

The same geniuses who thunk up "derivatives"? the sub-prime scam? The Bear Stearns bailout? The rising prices of commodities? The Ponzi Scheme and Musical Chair based economy which is about to collapse? I hope the IMF goes easy on Uncle Sam.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,562291,00.html
http://business.theage.com.au/imf-finally-knocks-on-uncle-sams-door-20080629-2yui.html
http://cleveland.indymedia.org/news/2008/06/30755.php
http://www.financialsense.com/Market/kirby/2008/0630.html

The power the MPAA greasers have over government is amazing. Here an Australian who never made a cent from and had never stepped foot in the US was arrested by the Australian Police and extradited to the US where he now sits in prison. Australia is famous for not looking after their citizens, but extraditing someone for something like this is insane. His name is Hew Griffiths.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/australia-hands-over-man-to-us-courts/2007/05/06/1178390140855.html

According to some comments on the Screenplay blog ( http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives/009768.html )you can purchase it from the EA NZ store.

Except He isn't.

I assume you are referring to this story: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/05/06/1178390140855.html

- I get the impression that his activities were considered illegal in Australia as well since they were trying to understand why he could be tried and serve his time there.

- Yeah, it's fucked up that they extradited him (even though he did what is considered a crime in both countries). Worst case, he should have been tried and punished in Australia.

- The guy is of British origin. Not sure if he's an Australian citizen or not.

The state prosecutor in St. Charles County seems incompetent to me. From http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jFSH4QCAxGXxnVtlJ2iiXpppeGIQD90MBEM81 'St. Charles County, Mo., prosecutor Jack Banas says he reviewed laws related to stalking, harassment and child endangerment and couldn't find statutes allowing him to file charges.' From Wikipedia: "Banas stated that he did not interview Grills because, at the time, she was under psychiatric treatment for the involvement in the Meier case, and does not plan to interview her at a later date. The Meiers criticized the prosecutor's statements, saying that Banas did not interview any party other than the Drews and that Banas is solely relying on the testimony of the Drews." This laziness sounds typical of a lot of cases. He didn't appear to interview anyone other than the alleged perpetrator (not even the co-conspirators, let alone the victim), examined no evidence, issued no subpoenas or warrants to gather more evidence, etc.

The Missouri prosecutors' lack of action is what prompted the federal prosecutors to step in; considering the different focus of federal laws, they probably needed to be a little more creative in their charges (which are "one count of conspiracy and three counts of accessing protected computers without authorization to obtain information to inflict emotional distress" - the latter being quite specific as to intent and not merely about violating TOS or accessing a computer without authorization for some random purpose).

When an adult bullys and harrasses a 13-year old child under fraudulent pretenses with intent to harm, there are other laws that are applicable, that have nothing to do with computers - the same laws that would apply if the fraud and harrassment were done in person or via mail or telephone should apply over the internet. Even moreso when the adult already knew of at least one previous suicide attempt by the victim as well as her treatment for mental illness, so would have been aware of her fragile emotional state.

That there were two adults working together may add various conspiracy charges to the options (which the feds are doing - wise considering conflicting testimony as to Lori Drew's actual level of involvement, her story evolving with time toward less involvement, compared to her initial statement with police). (Ashley Grills, Lori Drew's 18-year old employee, was granted immunity in exchange for her testimony against Drew. The other conspirator was Drew's daughter, a minor. I do not know what involvement Lori Drew's husband had, other than possibly recommending deleting the account after the suicide, which could itself be a crime, ie. conspiracy to destroy evidence.) From http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/teen-accuses-lori-drew-over-myspace-suicide/2008/04/02/1206850964896.html 'Grills said Drew was the primary instigator behind the fake Josh Evans profile... Grills said she and Drew's daughter told Drew they had gone too far but Drew "was like, it's fine, you know, we can set her up".

I think those saying "grow up, the internet is a dangerous place" (who should grow up, adults posting comments here, or a 13-year old girl??) or "she may be a bitch, but it wasn't illegal" are wrong, as are those who say "it's just bits, it's not real" - to which I say, neither are telephone calls, or the written marks on letters, or the mere air distubances of live conversation. There can be quite a bit of liability (criminal or civil) for such actions.

Adults are also held to a higher level of responsibility when dealing with children than children are with each other, or than adults are when dealing with other adults. And there are a number of laws already on the books emphasizing this. Even if they were both children, or both adults, there might still be applicable statutes, but there are additional ones when a

She was sued for plagiarism, correct?

She borrowed from some other fantasy book. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/06/18/1023864427305.html

She did steal the ideas.

She won the court case but how ironic.

Well, sorry, that's just guessed wrong. We do have public health insurance around here, but it's not paid for by taxes.

How is it paid for then?

as you make enough money (~50k Euros per year) _or_ are self-employed, you can opt out of the public health insurance system completely. Doctors aren't government employees, they get paid by the patients or their insurance (public or private).

I didn't say doctors were government employees, I said taxpayers pay. That "public health insurance system" is taxpayer funded isn't it? ie if you don't make 50k Euros your employer deducts the money to pay for "public health insurance" whether you want it or not? And that 50k Euros is more than $75,000, anyone in the US making that should be able to afford health insurance.

Even though we're in a heated discussion here, thank you for sharing your story. It makes a lot of things clearer. I agree with the latter - in case of someone causing pretty much permanent disability, they (or their insurance) should have to pay really big time (that's one of the cases when I'm all for big payouts).

Thanks. That's something that I really hate, taxpayers being on the hook for what little income I have. I also hate, if not taking college classes and working on degree, not working. At the tyme of the accident I was majoring in Computer Engineering, CE, and I had already taken the core classes like physics and calculus. But while I was in rehab I realized I could not do simple problems calc and physics students could do after the first few weeks of the first class in either subject. I had to start over and repeat a bunch of classes, if I wanted to continue in CE. But I didn't. If I knew what I wanted to do, I have no idea if I'd be able to do it. My memory is bad now, I have trouble retaining long term memory for one thing.

You don't by any chance mean Cadbury do you? There was a case here in Australia where they tried to sue for trademark infringement against another chocolate manufacturer for using their Trademarked purple. Lets just say Cadbury lost.

Here is a news article about it. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/cadbury-loses-purple-case/2006/04/28/1145861520896.html

Here is why the lack of scientific understanding by an alarming number of decision makers will never abate.

Here is the type of incident that hits the front pages of Australia's best rag.
Here is the follow up that is virtually ignored.

Since my partner was working there at the time I am gratefull they took precautions since there might have been a "cancer cluster" of unknown cause. Anyone who has responsibility for someone's welfare (such as the Hippie Mayor) should do likewise and investigate any concerns even if they themselves think they are unfounded.

However because the press basically ignored the investigation most people here in Oz now belive towers cause cancer adding a "foundation" to those initial concerns.

This isn't a rant about the dumbing down of mass media, it's a rant about human nature using a car analogy.

If a car backfires most people will look toward it and then go about there bussiness without really knowing what the noise was. The analogy holds well for reporters and politicians adding weight to the controversial theory that practioners of these two proffesions are in fact human.

IMHO the best defense against oneself is to be continually skeptical of your own common sense and depth of knowledge. The best defense against "freaked out hippies", "cheap labour captialists", and all the goups in between, is to admit 99% certain is 1% wrong and "they" are human.

Maybe the US would have been screwed anyway, but it's now $3 trillion more screwed than it would have been without the war. That's $10,000 per person -- a significant amount of extra screwing, I'd say.

I'd love to hear that Beatles cover. Got a link?

The old "melting pot" metaphor is really cool when you look at how different cultures appropriate, and adopt, music
from other regions. Most of my favorite music (Blues, Reggae, Jazz) can be traced to this kind of activity.

Recently, for example, I've been digging Nyankol Mathaing (here's
one link I just found). Awesome mash-up of euro-techno styles with microtonal, groovy Sudanese music.

Nevermind the vagueries of copyright law and its applicability to Chinese-hosted site, what matters is that this is likely to be a visible loss of face for the ROC Olympic Committee. Given the Chinese proclivity to punish moral crimes on a spectrum that ranges from extreme public humiliation to summary execution, I'm curious if the I-only-reused-16% developer will have 16% of his/her body mass removed for reuse after the execution van comes for a visit?

Plus, Adam has that cool '60s (sl|h)acker look.
Or perhaps he's just a RMS wannabe.

Fine, if you're determined to bend words and ignore the earlier paragraphs, I'll go back another freakin year.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/labor-moves-to-block-internet-porn-and-violence/2006/03/21/1142703358027.html

It's a long standing unchanged policy. If you're a voter then PLEASE make it a priority to pay attention to what the hell's going on around you.

Unfortunately, a Labour government in Australia was the lesser of two evils. If the liberals had of gotten back in, they would have spent $189m dollars on providing the exact same thing...

There was a widely run and very successful ad campaign, which just gives kids the message "weird old guys will lie to you online, so don't believe everything you're told".

I wont even get started on some of the underhanded tactics that the Liberals used to distract voters from the real issues during an election or how John Howard pledged that he would never ever bring in a GST(which he then pledged to bring a GST in the very next election). Or how he has sold off our telecommunications infrastructure to help balance his budget (Labour will get burnt by this if they do not sell off the rest of Telstra and have major troubles trying to balance this year's budget without cutting spending).

And I wont even get mention the "work place reform" that was implemented by John Howard and the Liberal government which screwed over a lot of employees who got fired and then offered their jobs back with lower incomes/benefits etc.

This is getting a bit longer then I had hoped and is actually off-topic so I will leave it at that...

You might find this piece interesting:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/britons-will-keep-on-fearing-the-worst/2008/01/13/1200159274543.html

Crime keeps decreasing in real terms, and we keep thinking it's getting worse and coming up with extreme measures to counter it.

Linus also said that the Mac filesystem was crap last week and that OSX was worse to program for than Vista http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/utter-crap-torvalds-pans-apple/2008/02/05/1202090393959.html but that little nugget didn't seem to make its way to Slashdot (though a story about what RMS thinks of the OLPC did).

Keelty and the AFP demonstrated incredible incompetency in the case of Dr Haneef. The AFP even selectively leaked details to the press, then called for Hanfeef's lawyer to be disbarred when he released the whole transcript (to show the AFP were leaking selectively). I'm amazed Keelty still has a job after that. The police acted like thugs at the APEC protests. Politically Keelty was too close to the old government.

This is about Keelty tried to stop the press from reporting his serial incompetency. When we get an incompetant cop who calls for free speech to be restricted, it's really time to pension him off.

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/letters/index.php/theaustralian/comments/keelty_has_nothing_to_fear_from_a_free_and_fair_media
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/keelty-defends-afp-over-haneef/2007/07/20/1184560027975.html?s_cid=rss_news

Controlling the flow on information is one of the pillars of a secret state and this "tension", or balance, can be a healthy sign of a democracy. The AFP is responsible for fighting terrorism, and it is acknowledged that such a fight involves enormous complexities. However, Mr Keelty has stepped into waters beyond his remit.

Although the AFP often operates in secret to investigate terrorism, its obligation to the public carries with it the greater principle of a duty to open justice. This principle can only be adjudged in the "court of public opinion", of which Mr Keelty is so dismissive. It only needs one example: Mohamed Haneef.

The organization Keelty heads, the Australian Federal Police, screwed up a terrorism case badly (the guy was a doctor who had the misfortune to have some distant relatives amongst the British firebombers of last year) in a blaze of publicity. He's coming across as blaming the messenger for his organization's faults.

Controlling the flow on information is one of the pillars of a secret state and this "tension", or balance, can be a healthy sign of a democracy. The AFP is responsible for fighting terrorism, and it is acknowledged that such a fight involves enormous complexities. However, Mr Keelty has stepped into waters beyond his remit.

Although the AFP often operates in secret to investigate terrorism, its obligation to the public carries with it the greater principle of a duty to open justice. This principle can only be adjudged in the "court of public opinion", of which Mr Keelty is so dismissive. It only needs one example: Mohamed Haneef.

The organization Keelty heads, the Australian Federal Police, screwed up a terrorism case badly (the guy was a doctor who had the misfortune to have some distant relatives amongst the British firebombers of last year) in a blaze of publicity. He's coming across as blaming the messenger for his organization's faults.

"Kaspersky believes it is even possible that one of the most notorious cybercrime groups, the Russian Business Network, may have been backed by Russians living in the US." http://business.theage.com.au/russian-call-for-internetpol-to-fight-cybercrime/20080128-1oma.html

India seems to have a lot of strange problems like this. They've also been under attack from space recently.

They get about 0.8% of the Italian income tax and all their activities (including the for-profit ones) are tax-exempt, which in the last 20 years has allowed them to amass a fortune. Weren't these the guys who should preach poverty?

... just as we touched down, a piece of debris punctured the wall and slammed into my leg. ... My disbelief at the sound of rushing air through the hole was soon overtaken by a sickening crunch as the plane hit the ground hard and all too quickly we had stopped.

Yep, the plane was actually punctured and he was hit, you can see the hole on the RHS of the aircraft behind the wing, just under windows.

Anyway, his recollection indicates that the plane was punctured before it touched the ground. If that were the case, his "hole" would probably be the point of failure.

I think it is more likely that the puncture happened after the plane hit the ground, caused by debris from the right landing gear ripping away. It would be like this--plane touches down on grass (he thinks they're still smooth in the air); wheels dig in rip off, and punctures hull in quick succession (he has been hit); the plane starts scraping along the hull and engines (he feels the plane "hit the ground hard").

So it's probably just a slightly misleading passenger recollection, but something to think about while we're guessing about the control systems.

According to The Age they have licenced the rights to online versions of Scrabble to EA.

DRM'd to the eyeballs compact discs are NOT Redbook audio.

Just for grins, vist the music section of your local Wal*Mart or Best Buy and look at a few of the offerings. Grab 100 and then look for the official Compact Disc logo. Did you find it on over 5% of the disks? Consumers quit looking for the official product. They associate the packaging with a Compact Disc recording in a form of false advertising. Those who were paying the royalty for the official Compact Disc logo simply quit as the product sold just fine without it. Now that Defective by Design product is everywhere, it's time to let the labels know they have to be off the RIAA Radar and proudly display the official Compact Disc logo to boost their sales.
http://www.riaaradar.com/
http://www.cs.duke.edu/courses/spring05/cps182s/assign/project/fall03/mjt14_2/CDcopy.pdf

Copy Protected music should have the Worldwide Copy Control Icon, but many labels know this kills sales and don't bother including the warning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copy_Control
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/03/25/1048354575685.html

You obviously don't read very well, I pointed out that ALTHOUGH HIGH SCHOOL MIGHT BE STATE RESPONSIBILITY, HIGHER EDUCATION IS FEDERAL. Every report has shown that spending is down on this as well as other areas, you want to go around turning a blind eye to things, looking at your obviously precious Liberal party through your rose coloured glasses. Spending has not increased in comparison to the rest of the developed countries, this is another story, there are plenty but you obviously are only interested in seeing things that agree with you. Health is the same, just google it and read a bit, it might be enlightening for you. Oh government debt was around for a lot longer than Labor was in power, we had debt in the sixties, it actually started taking off in Fraser's era (Howard was Treasurer). I still maintain both are only interested in one thing - their own little club. You think Howard was great, good luck to you, our infrastructure is falling apart, there is no plan for the future of our country (apart for THE FUTURE FUND!! YIPPEEE), water resource management (gets a good run every election - remember last election when they were going to fix the Murray?), rail always gets a mention as well, all forgotten within a few months. These things are obviously not important to you because like your reading, your vision is selfish and self serving, blind to anything else.

By the way, why don't you check your facts before making rash statements about the National debt? We owe more than when Labor was in power The Age, Howard has shifted the debt to the public (by not providing what was previously provided) and people as ignorant as you believe they have fixed the debt problem, so long as we keep running a balance of trade deficit, we are heading for troubled times. Neither party has an answer for this.

A little google searching found one rather prominent global warming figure using the size argument: Al Gore.

From : http://www.theage.com.au/news/biztech/google-can-extort-and-dominate-the-world-study/2007/12/05/1196812806297.html
"Most material written today was in some way based on Google and Wikipedia - and if those did not reflect reality, a distortion was possible, the researchers said, recalling biased contributions frequently placed on Wikipedia.

Furthermore there is some indication of cooperation between Google and Wikipedia. Sample statistics showed that randomly selected Wiki entries consistently ranked higher on Google than on other search engines, the Graz team said."
Weird isn'it?

There is a review here of the new DVD. The general gist is that it's good - like an extended episode - but doesn't come across as a feature length movie. Needless to say, most of /. will probably download it and make their own minds up, but agreeing with posts above - if you like it, spend the handful of dollars and ensure that more gets made. It's worked before.

According to this PDF document, Skype encryption is based on open standard (such as AES, SHA-1, etc).

According to this article, our good friends at the NSA "may" have put backdoors in some of the technologies that could be used by Skype.

And, then, according to this other article, it does not matter what technologies you use, if your CPU is wide open to analysis and crypto attacks.

And, of course, there is the question of using a 'secure' communication system on a completely insecure operating system, such as Windows. Why do you think they talk of intercepting the communication before it becomes encrypted? Probably because the vast majority of suspects use Windows. Using Linux, or MacOS, would not be much of an improvement either.

Conclusion? Well, the Bundespolizei (that's German police to you) may not have the means to decipher your skype communications right now. But it's getting there, thank yo uvery much. And there are agencies out there who certainly can, and will.

And what happened to free german crypto? I thought Germany had the only sane policy about crypto in the industrial world?

Finding a smoking gun is unlikely, but Microsoft has a considerable history of astroturfing, and have shown no contrition when exposed.

http://timlambert.org/2003/11/tcs/
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Q4.06/D0BC712B-7DBA-46CA-AA44-19376E64FBA6.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/web/spinners-try-their-moves-on-astroturf/2007/02/05/1170524007596.html

The difference between Japan and the USA is that in Japan, almost all foreigners are fingerprinted, whereas in the USA lawful permanent residents are exempt. The Japanese system excludes kids under 16, diplomats, and a special category of permanent residents created for mainly ethnic Koreans left over from Japan's pre-World War II occupation of Korea. See also fears that it'll be bad for Japanese business.

In the UK, fingerprints are taken from visa applicants in their home country. If you do not require a visa to visit the UK (e.g. European Union citizens), you will not have to undergo fingerprinting and iris scans.

When hawking can finally talk I think his first words will be, "Put me back in the spinny":

Spinny Spinny

BTW Funny.