Slashdot Mirror

Which group do you think is more likely to acknowledge that they have a mental problem? The group with the redneck who beats his dog, or the one with the goth chick who cuts on herself?

About sums up my experience growing up rural. A certain brutish, unthinking crudeness. On the odd chance one of Maslow's higher needs creeps into mind, it can be drowned with booze or religion.

This link is a little better:

"In the first test, they viewed 33 images, three of which were distressing or threatening: a large spider on the face of a frightened person; a dazed person with a bloody face; and maggots in an open wound. The scientists measured the electrical conductance of the skin, a standard measure of distress and arousal.

In the second test, the volunteers were subjected to a loud, unexpected noise..."

OK, so the stimuli were "neutral".

Nonetheless, I have a lot of trouble with "protecting the social order". Fear of "ferriners" is one thing. Fear of your own government is another thing? Isn't the desire to maintain the constitution and the rule of law "protecting the social order"? Isn't a desire to maintain strong health, education and welfare "protecting the social order"? Spending for infrastructure? National health care? Protecting the environment? etc. A lot of conservation isn't getting labeled "Conservative" in American society these days which makes critical discussion a little schizophrenic.

Aie - There are far, far better ones out there:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/the_bugle/article3800682.ece

Interesting how this very expensive technology is being used to do what can be achieved easily using a cheaply produced drug. The goal of the therapy is to re-experience the taumatic memory without being overcome by fear, so that you can re-evaluate and process the experience. Far more effective to temporarily disable the parts of your mind that feel fear and pain during therapy and its a proven technique. Unfortunately, the drug in question is currently illegal.

Ironic that the fear and anxiety of the population at large about 'drugs' means that fear and anxiety in individuals is far harder to treat than it needs to be.

Haptx + Fleshlight = ...

Seriously, how do these people live with themselves, knowing what they are doing.

Because the majority of politicians do not live in the real world.

They live in a world where their continued employment depends largely upon the media - and the media loves a good sob story.

"ANPR system which ${POLITICIAN} voted against could have saved my child!!!111oneoneone"

They live in a world where they don't have to worry about abuse of the process. Right now it isn't anywhere near as common as /. would have you believe, and nobody would choose to abuse a law just because it suited them, would they now?

The very concept of "if you don't want the law to be abused, don't write it in a fashion that leaves it wide open to abuse" appears to be totally wasted and I can think of only two reasons - either they are lying and they do intend the law to be abused (in which case they are systematically corrupt and should be hounded out of office) or they honestly don't believe that laws are likely to be abused (in which case they are systematically incompetent and should be hounded out of office).

What the "tax the rich" crowd doesn't realize is that the tax bracket applies to -earnings-. You have to be -working-. Most ``rich'' (what I'd consider rich) folks don't really ``earn'' anything at all. For example, Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and just about every other `rich' person who ``works'', makes exactly $100,000 per year. They'd actually benefit under most tax plans.

Warren Buffet jokes that he pays -less- taxes than his secretary!

Okay, let's put Warren Buffet's quote in context.

Buffett was saying that secretaries are being taxed at an unfairly high rate compared to the effective tax rates on very rich people (such as himself).

Regarding the comment about more than $200k per year not making you "rich", that varies widely by where you live. Someone in San Francisco making $200k per year may be just scraping by in a middle class existence, whereas the same income in west Texas might make you a land baron. This makes discussion of what "rich" means very confusing.

Here's another case that's fairly similar. An employee at one of Coke Cola's offices tried selling the recipe to Pepsi, except Pepsi informed Coke of what had happened.

Bad reporting? Is it just bad reporting?

Don't you think it's strange that the Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Times Online, Guardian, New Scientist, Dawkins, two Nobel laureates and various bloggers are all reading his remarks differently from how you and I read it.

For example: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article4734767.ece "Leading scientist urges teaching of creationism in schools"

And it quotes him as: Professor Reiss, a Church of England clergyman, said: "Just because something lacks scientific support doesn't seem to me a sufficient reason to omit it from a science lesson."

Anyway I hope the Royal Society keeps him in his current role (professor of science education), in my opinion he does know how to educate people, whereas all these journalists clearly don't.

In my opinion, either they can't read or they are up to no good.

By the way, how's the sharia law thing working out for you?

Having seen what socialist government has done for you, I think we'll pass - thanks anyway! If you like Obama so well, we'll be happy to send him over so he can stand for Labour's next PM.

I wonder if this technology will decrease or increase incidents like this:

Harrowing video film backs Afghan villagers' claims of carnage caused by US troops

"Villagers and the UN insist that 92 were killed, including as many as 60 children. Locals say that the US and Afghan troops who came into the village looking for a Taleban commander, with US air support, used excessive force... Local people say that US forces bombed preparations for a memorial ceremony for a tribal leader. Residential compounds were levelled by US attack helicopters, armed drones and a cannon-armed C130 Spectre gunship."

If you can track people in buildings, you'd think you'd be able to tell if they're children.

I know you are not the one saying it, but I believe the answer to that will be "just like the last 30 times?"

As noted: the more religion becomes irrelevant, the more people can no longer use it as an excuse for being retards, the more people have predicted that such a thing is somehow the end of days. Has anyone noticed that? (especially in regards to how the first 20 "end ohttp://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/10/1253226#f times" events were ~2000 years in total, and the last 10 were ~18 years in total)?

It's like "now who can we blame for refusing medical treatment to our child whose arm got ripped off and died from bleeding, if not god?"

Stolen from The (London) Times

Even after revising the 1985-2007 mpg estimates to make them comparable to the new 2008 mpg estimates, the 1989 Honda CRX-HF is rated at 41 city and 50 highway mpg.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/5263.shtml

After 20 years of technological innovation, and four years of sky-rocketing fuel costs, shouldn't a new car model get at least 41/50 mpg before that car is considered to be ecologically friendly? Yet greencar.com features the 2008 Nissan Rouge (22 city/27 highway mpg) as a "Top 2008 Fuel Economy Faves." The 2008 Nissan Rouge also has a sticker price of $19,250.

http://www.greencar.com/features/fuel-economy/

Seems to me that true economy cars been pulled from the market, and replaces with the new hybrids. Major car manufacturers want us to think that 30+ mpg is something miraculous, and requires an expensive, heavy, complicated, hard-to-maintain, hybrid.

In my opinion there is more to ecological friendliness than just mpg (although the present line-up fails at even that). Hybrids have huge batteries, and disposing of those batteries is never ecologically friendly. Then there is the ecological impact of manufacturing and shipping these huge, heavy, vehicles. Furthermore, recent road tests carried out by Auto Express show that hybrids often have worse CO2 emissions than standard autos.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3958376.ece

To have a real impact on fuel consumption, and emissions, new vehicles need to be affordable. Hybrids are about the most expensive vehicles on the market. How can hybrids have a positive effect of the environment, if practically nobody can afford the beasts? Even if you can afford the steep sticker price, what about the cost of maintenance? Hybrids have two engines, and use a complicated system to charge their huge batteries. I hate to even think about the cost of maintenance and repair.

It used to be common that most fuel efficient cars also had the lowest sticker price, and lowest maintenance costs. The cars where simply smaller, lighter, and required more manual operations. With smaller, cheaper, parts, and a less complicated design, the cars were cheaper to maintain. When I bought my 1992 Ford Festiva, the 30/37 mpg rating was the least of my criteria, I was also concerned with sticker price, and maintenance costs.

Why can't we do as well now, as we did 16 to 35 years ago?

1973 Honda Civic rated 35/40 mpg
1986 VW Golf Diesel rated 31/40 mpg *
1989 Geo Metro rated 43/51 mpg
1989 Honda CRX-HF rated 41/50 mpg
1992 Ford Festiva rated 30/37 mpg

* I got over 50mpg driving from Florida to New Jersey, while running the air conditioner.

Related:

57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago
Want to drive a cheap car that gets eye-popping mileage? In 1987 you could - and it wasn't even a hybrid.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/17/autos/honda_civic_hf/index.htm

Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybridso
A renowned racing car designer has said that car manufacturers should be looking at making cars lighter to improve efficiency, rather than adding complex drive trains.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7387432.stm

Hot Cars Best Gas Milage
Welcome to hi-mpg.org. We are automotive enthusiasts and travel aficionados who also love the environment. We appreciate both form and function, all while striving to leave future generations a legacy of clean air, scenic grandeur and a continuum of natural resources. In addition: the freedom to drive.
http://hi-mpg.org/best-cars-with-high-gas-mileage.phtml

You can already access the archives of The Times online :

http://archive.timesonline.co.uk/

It's quite interesting to read about Marie-Antoinette's execution or Jack the Ripper's crimes, I especially like the writing style :)

Any danger the arsenal represents probably wouldn't even double if it increased 100 fold. Nuclear fuel is something the world needs right now, if all the hype about global warming is as bad as they say it is. Not only that, but cheaper nuclear fuel -> cheaper power -> better economy -> less poverty.

Nuclear fuel is something we need, and not something we should be giving to the Indians or it'll just run out all the faster.

Oh, and you can't do client-side prediction in real-world telepresence. I wouldn't want to be in the room when someone was operating a remote machine with high latency.

So surgery is right out then ?

Mr Buffett said that he was taxed at 17.7 per cent on the $46 million he made last year, without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 per cent.

What he doesn't mention is the 15+% corporate tax that was already taken out of his dividends before he received them.

Unfortunately McCain/Palin don't intend to keep THEIR religion out of YOUR life...

Evangelical Christians could turn out in droves for Palin, a member of Feminists for Life who opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest, if she maintains her promise.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article4641030.ece#cid=OTC-RSS&attr=797093

Because your country can demand that the UK extradites its own citizens (with no proof of guilt), but shits all over the UK by protecting murderous cowboys who bomb us:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2343930.ece

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=4I6-2NJhnf4

The USA passed a law specifically allowing the US to invade the Hague to retrieve any US soldier or citizen held at the International Criminal Court.

This is basically to prevent any of their soldiers or contractors being tried for war crimes by an international court. Obviously, even soldiers can be tried in a given country for offences committed there; but the US is not exactly easy to get extradited from, and even when you do face trial, the witnesses and evidence are hard to get hold of. Take the examples of the rape cases in Japan for example, or the italian cable car incident where drugged up pilots struck and severed the cables where US co-operation was less than stellar.

timesonline.co.uk Writes:

Once the setting is chosen, others using the same computer will not be able to see which sites have been accessed. Other browsers have similar functions, but this one is far more prominent. Although casual users cannot see the previous user's search history, authorities such as the police will be able to access it if necessary.

So basically the data still exists, just people who nothing will not be able to see it, I knew we were wrong in all those security model that try and keep the experts out. It's really Joe "average" Blogs we should have been protecting against all this time.. DOH!!!

I'll definitely be surrendering Firefox for IE now..

If by nothing you mean 50 million pounds then I would agree with you. In fact, the man is a freakin' multi-millionaire thanks to his investments in the buying and selling of carbon credits and his speeches about how in 10 years our entire world is going to be half underwater. Granted, that is an exaggeration, but for instance he suggests that Manhattan is going to be almost completely submerged in our lifetime, and Florida will cease to exist. Oh, let's not worry about reports that this is not likely to happen for another 2000 someodd years. I'm sure Gore in all of his infinite wisdom is closer to the truth.

QinetiQ CIA link

QinetiQ, the British defence and security technology company that was spun out of the Ministry of Defenceâ(TM)s research laboratory, has appointed George Tenet, 53, former head of the CIA in America, a non-executive director. The company hopes to develop closer links with the US intelligence establishment.

You have no idea when Intel began working on the classmate or if the idea was already in the works.

Actually, I do, because I have been reading the news coverage. I challenge you to present even one link to even one news story that shows the Classmate even being discussed before the OLPC project came along.

There are so many links I could give you... here's one. Be sure to read page 5.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4472654.ece

From page 5:

Intel will tie itself in knots rather than admit its laptop was a response to OLPC's.

My Intel spokesperson, Agnes Kwan, seems to exist to evade the issue. I played e-mail ping-pong with her over several days. She was trying to avoid giving me any dates that would show the Classmate came after the XO. This included sending me a bizarre and barely literate "ethnographic" study of computing in the developed world. In the end, all she would say about the timeline of the Classmate was: "It's hard to pinpoint a start date with the nature of ethnographic research in which ethnographers collect data over a long period of time." Sorry?

Many in the industry says the Classmate was intended to be an XO killer and that's how Intel behaved.

Yes, they were part of OLPC- but if they had already invested serious money into their own program, can you blame them for backing out?

Yes, I can blame them, and I do. It's their right to sell their products in any market they choose. It's my right to be disgusted when they use predatory sales tactics to sabotage a non-profit that is trying to help kids learn. From page 5 again:

Their formidable global sales operation charged into any market in which OLPC might get a foothold, trashing the XO and pushing the Classmate. Nigeria, where Negroponte had one of his handshake deals with President Obasanjo, was a typical example. In August 2006, Craig Barrett, Intel chairman, wrote a hard-sell letter to Obasanjo asking for a meeting in which he could explain their World Ahead programme, "which is chartered to extend PC access to the world's next billion users". This programme had been launched in May 2006, 15 months after the OLPC announcement at Davos - bit of a dead giveaway there, Craig. Barrett's letter was backed up by documents listing "the shortcoming of the OLPC approach".

These documents having been leaked, they became a significant embarrassment to Intel. Here was a mighty company trying to crush a philanthropic project.

But then, they agreed to come on board the OLPC project. And even as they were members of OLPC, their sales people kept on undermining the OLPC. I don't like that.

They are a business, and the only reason their practice can be seen as wrong is because OLPCs were supposed to save the poor...

I have no problem with businesses making money. Heck, I like making money myself. But I have a serious problem with a business sabotaging a non-profit.

Seriously, do a few Google searches and read about this stuff before you spend any more of your time defending Intel's behavior toward OLPC. They are a big company and not everything they do is evil (the Xorg guys have good things to say about how Intel cooperates with them, for example). But their behavior towards OLPC has been contemptible.

steveha

Obama will will double capital gains tax, raise Social Security taxes, income taxes, and most likely tons of other taxes (gasoline?) which affect everyone, (especially the poor) not just the rich.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hv559EfDVQDOVDVYhGxB2xcwCveQD92ORLP00

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/11/11/obama-i-deserve-a-tax-increase/

http://www.standardspeaker.com/articles/2008/08/24/editorial/hz_standspeak.20080824.c.pg2.hz21let_skuba_s1.1892436_edi.txt

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/23/AR2008082301848.html

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article4597395.ece

http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=16&issue=20080822

Enough news sources for you, or should I go to the second page of google results? Obama simply believes in the old-fashioned "tax the rich" nonsense.

OLPC started the whole sub-mini notebook craze. It was Wintel that did the raining*. It's bad enough the American monopolies had to get their greedy paws in the OLPC pie; let's at least keep the facts straight.

[*] - http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4472654.ece

Wearing a mini-skirt is not illegal.

Yes. Although there was the Islam Mufti of Australia who said that women in mini-skirts deserved to be raped.

Sheikh al-Hilali, who is the Mufti of Australia, delivered his remarks to hundreds of Muslims in his mosque. He likened immodestly dressed women to meat that attracted predators and suggested that they were to blame for being set upon by men. "If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street . . . and the cats come and eat it, whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem," he said.

almost none of this sort of stuff - the info that governments really care about - gets into the wrong hands

I wouldn't be so sure. From today's news: "Confidential records [...] on tens of thousands of the country's most prolific criminals have been lost in a major breach of data security [...] Scotland Yard is investigating the loss of the information, which was taken from the Police National Computer and entrusted by the Home Office to a private consultancy firm"

And, how do you know covert data is never lost if you wouldn't even get news it was collected in the first place?

AQ Khan does not have stolen state secrets. They bought it them from the republicans.

The front page of The Times yesterday alerted readers to an 'unprecedented assault' on downloading by the UK gaming industry.

All harbingers of things to come, I reckon. Feel it in the water.

LOL - actually, I think the whole thing stinks and if China is found to be complicit in this cheating then perhaps the IOC should remove ALL China's medals.

I also note that athletes caught by the random drug testing are allowed to compete again after a few years by some countries. The UK is NOT one of those countries (See Dwain Chambers) where if you are caught taking drugs you will not compete again - and that is as it should be!

Rules is Rules - if you don't like them then you can campaign to get them changed, but you cannot ignore them!

This is very true, the corporate types call it market saturation.

You only need so many plumbers, electricians, etc etc etc.

At some tipping point it just drives wages down
as the larger supply competes for smaller demand.

Production lines world wide will continue to be made more robotic,
and scaled down on workers, Wal-mart should be renamed China-mart.

The population keeps going up, Less jobs, but more ppl.

Ppl who have a house and kids cannot venture out boldy and
start a company unless they have a product that some other
company will not jump on and leverage them out of business.

Some get bought, but most just get beat into submission
by the big Corporates who don't always play fair.

As bad as things are, they are poised to get a lot worse.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/banking_and_finance/article4563171.ece

The war with Iran/Russia is coming, and we race head long like
a bunch of nationalistic monkeys who think its a sport event.

It will not be as cheap as Iraq was at 3+ trillion dollars
on projected cost, sooooo cccchhheeeeaaaappppp.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/07/AR2008030702846.html

That is some real Mc Lovin right there.

Hold onto your hat Dorothy we are in for a bumpy ride in Oz.

The russians have an opinion on how this is going to go too:

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

They don't carry bombs on those old bombers:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/kh-101.htm

They carry KH-555's, upgraded stealth cruise missiles with
200 - 500 kilo-ton warheads.

They have made visits to Cuba to check the Infrastructure,
and have plans for a back up base with Chavez.

http://www.india-defence.com/reports/3929

No, the IOC is going to keep quiet about this one. Given the recent revelations about CGI fireworks, fake sports fans, dubious pianos, and the substituted singer, they're desperately hoping we won't find out that this is the ACTUAL stadium...

The Tour de France is widely considered as being stricken by generalized doping(it is true) and we had Angel Heredia tell the fine details of how Marion Jones did it."" It is know that you have some very nice stuff that is impossible to detect from urine/blood, like IGF. Injected under the skin where needed, it is practically a growth hormone. Side effects: those similar to acromeglay ("Pronounced brow protrusion, often with ocular distension; Pronounced lower jaw protrusion with attendant macroglossia and teeth gapping" from Wikipedia). Saying that the US Swim team manages producing the spectacular results because they have optimized their movements and have fancy "shark suits" sounds like trying to make us look at a tree in order to conceal a forest.

I struggled with the Google translation of that article, here is an article on the same guy that covers the same ground for English speakers.

The problem with Stockwell wasn't with one individual getting it wrong; it was the entire intelligence operation that couldn't communicate properly and panicked in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings. The result was a tragic mistake.

I wouldn't call the people who shot Jean Charles de Menezes morons. He/They got the wrong man, but they followed a man who they thought was going to be a suicide bomber down into the Tube to stop him. That actually calls for a fair amount of bravery.

Of course, this might all be completely off-topic because according to The Times, the "policemen" might have actually been Special Forces Military Intelligence (the super secret SRR).

Although the anti-Police sentiments seem to be popular on Slashdot, my personal, limited experience with the UK Police has always been postive. I find that if you are polite and show them respect, and don't automatically take a defensive position, they tend to be absolutely fine. YMMV.

Even after revising the 1985-2007 mpg estimates to make them comparable to the new 2008 mpg estimates, the 1989 Honda CRX-HF is rated at 41 city and 50 highway mpg.

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/noframes/5263.shtml

After 20 years of technological innovation, and four years of sky-rocketing fuel costs, shouldn't a new car model get at least 41/50 mpg before that car is considered to be ecologically friendly? Yet greencar.com features the 2008 Nissan Rouge (22 city/27 highway mpg) as a "Top 2008 Fuel Economy Faves." The 2008 Nissan Rouge also has a sticker price of $19,250.

http://www.greencar.com/features/fuel-economy/

Seems to me that true economy cars been pulled from the market, and replaces with the new hybrids. Major car manufacturers want us to think that 30+ mpg is something miraculous, and requires an expensive, heavy, complicated, hard-to-maintain, hybrid.

In my opinion there is more to ecological friendliness than just mpg (although the present line-up fails at even that). Hybrids have huge batteries, and disposing of those batteries is never ecologically friendly. Then there is the ecological impact of manufacturing and shipping these huge, heavy, vehicles. Furthermore, recent road tests carried out by Auto Express show that hybrids often have worse CO2 emissions than standard autos.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3958376.ece

To have a real impact on fuel consumption, and emissions, new vehicles need to be affordable. Hybrids are about the most expensive vehicles on the market. How can hybrids have a positive effect of the environment, if practically nobody can afford the beasts? Even if you can afford the steep sticker price, what about the cost of maintenance? Hybrids have two engines, and use a complicated system to charge their huge batteries. I hate to even think about the cost of maintenance and repair.

It used to be common that most fuel efficient cars also had the lowest sticker price, and lowest maintenance costs. The cars where simply smaller, lighter, and required more manual operations. With smaller, cheaper, parts, and a less complicated design, the cars were cheaper to maintain. When I bought my 1992 Ford Festiva, the 30/37 mpg rating was the least of my criteria, I was also concerned with sticker price, and maintenance costs.

Why can't we do as well now, as we did 16 to 35 years ago?

1973 Honda Civic rated 35/40 mpg
1986 VW Golf Diesel rated 31/40 mpg *
1989 Geo Metro rated 43/51 mpg
1989 Honda CRX-HF rated 41/50 mpg
1992 Ford Festiva rated 30/37 mpg

* I got over 50mpg driving from Florida to New Jersey, while running the air conditioner.

Related:

57 mpg? That's so 20 years ago
Want to drive a cheap car that gets eye-popping mileage? In 1987 you could - and it wasn't even a hybrid.
http://money.cnn.com/2007/12/17/autos/honda_civic_hf/index.htm

Efficiency? Think Racing Cars, Not Hybridso
A renowned racing car designer has said that car manufacturers should be looking at making cars lighter to improve efficiency, rather than adding complex drive trains.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7387432.stm

Hot Cars Best Gas Milage
Welcome to hi-mpg.org. We are automotive enthusiasts and travel aficionados who also love the environment. We appreciate both form and function, all while striving to leave future generations a legacy of clean air, scenic grandeur and a continuum of natural resources. In addition: the freedom to drive.
http://hi-mpg.org/best-cars-with-high-gas-mileage.phtml

or faked like the singing child? [ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4512250.ece ]

reserves mean nothing. The cost of digging it up mean a lot.

Take a look here for coal prices. I know that in the UK, we closed all the coal fields because they cost too much to dig the stuff out of the ground (compared to buying it from Australian fields). That's changed now and fields are being reopened.

from the Times in 2007
"Coal prices have soared recently, in common with other fuels. The McCloskey coal consultancy said that last month the price for world coal delivered to the Aire Valley in West Yorkshire - where the majority of Britain's coal-fired power stations are located - was $102 per tonne. This compares with $85 in January and $74 in July 2005."

Not to mention in the USA too:
The company's average selling price for coal in 2007 was $52.15 per ton, and in 2008 the average price is $62.25.

Energy prices are increasing across the range, oil has little to do with energy generation.

Just a few years ago, the same USA demanded that ALL passports to be used while entering the USA had to be machine readable and it is the case now.

And from the people I speak to, lots of people aren't visiting the US due to all the information that the US requires, and the way they're treated at Immigration. Read some of the comments in this, and this, or this.
Yep, I can guess your response: Well don't come here then, we don't want you anyway.

That is a fascinating question: here are some articles on the subject - I very much suspect that its a change in interpretation, and who are us little people to argue with that? ;) http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/telecoms/article3965033.ece http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2008/07/16/super-database-proposed-in-uk-logging-every-phone-call-text-email/ http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2217073/government-plans-database-phone

So, to you, stacking the Supreme Court with anti-abortion zealots

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/14/AR2005111400720.html

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2008/05/sekulow_recalls.html

and going after porn with a vengeance by increasing Justice Department prosecutions and devoting FBI resources to porn DURING A TIME OF TERRORISM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/bushs-war-on-porn-perve_b_7704.html

and viciously pushing to remove porn's sources of funding

http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/01/cz_sl_0501porn.html

and levying huge fines on outspoken media opponents for talking about innocuous things

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0408043fcc1.html

or for showing a tit

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/01/entertainment/main626925.shtml

or using swear words

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article390108.ece

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080616/epps

isn't doing much to push the religious agenda?

How much more does it take to convince you that Bush, especially during the time he had no Congressional opposition, was actively doing things to help the religious zealots? Are you sure that YOU haven't been living on Mars the last seven years?

Right. Because speculators are so rational.

This is why when Iran made bogus claims about its missile capabilities that were proven to be not merely false but literally a laughable photoshop job before the day was even over, despite the fact that Israel had shifted into the most diplomatic posture it has held in the past decade as domestic political confusion and the Olmert scandal over-rode almost all the rhetoric about potential attacks on Iran, attacks which didn't occur even when more direct threats were made by Iran with a harder-line PM at the helm of Israel, fears of new turmoil in the Middle east drove oil prices up $20 in a week.

Yep. Speculators are clearly rational. And BS is purple and smells like rainbow sherbert.

Actually, some speculators are rational. Those are generally the same ones who manage their capital on a long term basis and know that if a drop or even a leveling out of the value of their investments is expected in the future, the time to dump that investment and put the money in something else that will show further growth instead of stagnation or decline is ASAP. All-the-more so when inventories are growing because prices have clearly begun affecting demand.

In case anyone doesn't remember:
Record Oil Prices: Iran and the Strait of Hormuz

Isn't this "story" just rehashing the news about the MOU signed last week (see first link in TFS)?
Ah yes but this is /. isn't it.

As for the 54% of 14 year olds (although their sample size was tiny IYAM) who share files. We can't be sure what they were using the P2P for as we're only given quotes from the press release by a very interested party. Okay they were probably downloading some music in breach of copyright but even if they continue, the MOU agreement means the worst they'll get is a letter to their parents.

Like that's gonna stop 'em!

Not copyright. Trademark infringement. Entirely different legal structure...

Do you KNOW how shipping works in China? Apparently you don't, so I'll explain:

They have a gigantic trebuchet-like device. They measure wind (by licking the tip of the finger) and aim the trebuchet at the US, load id up with a huge container full of Rock Bands and BAM! They have been doing this for years, so they manage to hit Continental US about 75% of the time.

If you still don't understand what would make shipping to the US cheaper, I'll tell you: do you know how hard is it to hit that small island where the UK sits compared to the USA when throwing things from China?

Need proof? How do you think this happened?

Just what we need, more people for the "human flesh search engine", the name given to people who hunt down those who say unpopular or anti-party sentiments. See here.

This has been used to find unpopular people. From selfish idiots commenting about the earthquake, to Chinese students abroad supporting Tibetan independence. They and their family are then subject to harassment until they repent.

Sorry, I just heard about this, and I'm pissed. This is what totalitarian one-party states are about, you're either "one of us" or you're marginalized until you can no longer function in society.

This may be a great leap backward.

Fortunately, we have sites like EastSouthWestNorth to sift through the state party-line bullshit and bring us stories like this.

-molo

You mean like this one described in the Times?

From The Times
July 25, 2008

He ventured forth to bring light to the world
The anointed one's pilgrimage to the Holy Land is a miracle in action - and a blessing to all his faithful followers

Gerard Baker

And it came to pass, in the eighth year of the reign of the evil Bush the Younger (The Ignorant), when the whole land from the Arabian desert to the shores of the Great Lakes had been laid barren, that a Child appeared in the wilderness.

The Child was blessed in looks and intellect. Scion of a simple family, offspring of a miraculous union, grandson of a typical white person and an African peasant. And yea, as he grew, the Child walked in the path of righteousness, with only the occasional detour into the odd weed and a little blow.

When he was twelve years old, they found him in the temple in the City of Chicago, arguing the finer points of community organisation with the Prophet Jeremiah and the Elders. And the Elders were astonished at what they heard and said among themselves: "Verily, who is this Child that he opens our hearts and minds to the audacity of hope?"

In the great Battles of Caucus and Primary he smote the conniving Hillary, wife of the deposed King Bill the Priapic and their barbarian hordes of Working Class Whites.

And so it was, in the fullness of time, before the harvest month of the appointed year, the Child ventured forth - for the first time - to bring the light unto all the world.

He travelled fleet of foot and light of camel, with a small retinue that consisted only of his loyal disciples from the tribe of the Media. He ventured first to the land of the Hindu Kush, where the

Taleban had harboured the viper of al-Qaeda in their bosom, raining terror on all the world.

And the Child spake and the tribes of Nato immediately loosed the Caveats that had previously bound them. And in the great battle that ensued the forces of the light were triumphant. For as long as the Child stood with his arms raised aloft, the enemy suffered great blows and the threat of terror was no more.

From there he went forth to Mesopotamia where he was received by the great ruler al-Maliki, and al-Maliki spake unto him and blessed his Sixteen Month Troop Withdrawal Plan even as the imperial warrior Petraeus tried to destroy it.

And lo, in Mesopotamia, a miracle occurred. Even though the Great Surge of Armour that the evil Bush had ordered had been a terrible mistake, a waste of vital military resources and doomed to end in disaster, the Child's very presence suddenly brought forth a great victory for the forces of the light.

And the Persians, who saw all this and were greatly fearful, longed to speak with the Child and saw that the Child was the bringer of peace. At the mention of his name they quickly laid aside their intrigues and beat their uranium swords into civil nuclear energy ploughshares.

From there the Child went up to the city of Jerusalem, and entered through the gate seated on an ass. The crowds of network anchors who had followed him from afar cheered "Hosanna" and waved great palm fronds and strewed them at his feet.

In Jerusalem and in surrounding Palestine, the Child spake to the Hebrews and the Arabs, as the Scripture had foretold. And in an instant, the lion lay down with the lamb, and the Israelites and Ishmaelites ended their long enmity and lived for ever after in peace.

As word spread throughout the land about the Child's wondrous works, peoples from all over flocked to hear him; Hittites and Abbasids; Obamacons and McCainiacs; Cameroonians and Blairites.

And they told of strange and wondrous things that greeted the news of the Child's journey. Around the world, global temperatures began to decline, and the ocean levels fell and the great warming was over.

The Great Prophet Algore of Nobel and Oscar, who many had believed was the anointed one, smiled and told his follow

You've been quoted in The Times! In the print edition too.