This weeks New Scientist has some interesting statistics that will be relevant here. (The article isn't online, unfortunately.)
"researchers have documented how soldiers will often go to great lengths to avoid firing directly at enemy soldiers, especially if they can seem them - and the distress they suffer when they do kill.
A famous example is the Battle of Gettysburg, where thousands of soldiers on both sides loaded their weapons over and over to avoid having to fire them. Similarly, during the second world war, S.L.A. Marshall, a US army historian, found that on average only 15 to 20 per cent of American infantry troops actually fired at the enemy when they had the oportunity to do so."
The article goes on to talk about how the US army managed to increase the firing rate in later wars by de-humanising the enemy and training soldiers to shoot on impulse.
The main articles are about the Post-Traumatic Stress suffered later by the soldiers as a result of this.
It has also been my experience from traveling in Europe that our electric is a bit more reliable then yours
I haven't travelled outside Europe, but from news reports I hear, the USA has significantly less reliable power than we do.
Thanks to our split-phase setup we have the choice between 120V and 208/240V depending on application. We have a choice in the UK too - 240v (officialy 230v) or three-phase 415v. I believe that other European countries sometimes use two phases at a similar voltage for cookers.
Our light bulbs also last longer then yours Our light bulbs don't get dimmer at the other end of the house!
I highly recommend xs4all - I used them when I spent six months in Amsterdam in 2003. As well as respecting rights they are also very techy-friendly, providing all sorts of new and experimental technology. They're probably the only Dutch ISP with a decent english translation of their website!
I thought Iceland ran on gethermal rather than hydroelectric power.
Not only that, but Iceland has (quite large) pilot projects running cars and busses on hydrogen produced from geothermal power. BBC's Working Lunch program had a feature on it a few weeks ago.
but it is explicitly stated in the Catechism that faith without good works is insuficien
I couldn't find any reference to that in my catechism, but a quick look in the bible turned up Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 - 9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast."
Elsewhere in the bible paul writes that faith will produce good works, and James writes that faith without works is useless, but it is the faith that matters, not the works. If someone became a christian five minutes before they died they would have no time for works but would still be saved. Conversely if someone claimed faith but did no works then I would question their faith.
when I press the Calender button on My Palm T5 it brings up a screen with calender appointments, To-do list and new emails. What else does it need to qualify as a "Today" screen?
I like to think I have at least an ounce of sense and I couldn't disagree with you more. The USA attacked Afghanistan because it was humiliated and wanted to hurt someone. There was no reason to link the government of Afghanistan, evil and corrupt as it was, to the attacks on the US.
You have been blinded by the nonsense that your news networks and your "government" throw at you every day - is it any surprise that a large number of americans can't tell the difference between Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein?
The data protection act is a wonderful piece of legislation. It applies to business and government alike, and it prevents personal data being taken without reason, stored for longer than necessary, or sold or otherwise passed on without permission. It also requires that a person can find out exactly what data an organisation has about them. The DPA requires any organisation that uses personal data to register with the data protection registrar who also enforces the act.
Unfortunately the data protection act has also become an excuse for companies to hide behind. They often won't talk to people about accounts in another name, even if the service is used by the caller, in case they inadvertantly give data to an unauthorised person.
According to the no2id faq the data protection act won't be much help. Not to mention that since ID cards themselves require a new act of parliment, I would expect that act to include any required changes to the data protection act.
I don't know why the employer even had the option to keep the money. While working at a mobile phone retailer I was instructed by the till to keep a card and to phone the bank on the number it gave me. The bank sent a 50 pound cheque to me personally, at my home address.
Strange thing is that T-Mobile does offer 3G services, but apparently Virgin Mobile doesn't.
While Virgin mobile doesn't sell 3G phones, if you put a Virgin SIM in a 3G phone then you can make calls on the T-Mobile 3G network. A few weeks ago you could also get 3G internet access this way without being charged but they have now closed that loophole.
Nobody can enter your house if you do not give your permission (or have a judge order to do so).
The TV licensing authority can't enter your house without a warrant either, and they nearly never get one since they have no evidence to declare "reasonable suspicion" before a judge. They rely on people not knowing their rights, and nearly all of their prosecutions for not having a license make use of written notes of doorstep conversations (read confessions) that they have intimidated people into signing.
Sipgates rates to the USA aren't too bad at 1.5p/min, but it's true that you can't present your IPkall number on the caller ID.
If you often have to call the US then you should look at http://www.call1899.co.uk/ who charge exactly 0p/min! There is a connection fee of 3p though. 1899 are about to launch a VOIP service (existing customers already have it) which lets you set the caller ID, maybe that will work with a US number.
If you use sipgate (http://www.sipgate.co.uk/) you can sign up for just about any area code in the UK. You can choose any area you want when it asks you for your "area code of residence" and your billing address can be somewhere else.
You can also get a free US number to forward to any SIP phone from http://www.ipkall.com/
Actually, in Britain while it is common to pay for all calls, we can choose to pay for unlimited national as well as local calls. There are a number of phone companies offering this option including BT.
I have been using SIPgate since they launched in the UK. They provide (free) numbers in nearly all area codes, incoming calls are free and calls to other VoIP phones are free. You only have to spend money to pay for outgoing calls to standard phones.
Want to watch a DVD on your TV? Rather than selecting the proper input on the TV and making sure everything is configured... simply turn on the DVD player.
We have had this ability for years in Europe. It's called SCART. One cable, carries RGB video, stereo audio, and a switching cable that grabs attention from the TV and also sets the aspect ration.
If Creative want to take market share from Apple then they need to increase reliability. I got my wife a Zen Touch for christmas, and it went back to the shop just two weeks later because it kept locking up.
I did everything Creative recommended, the built in scan-disk, formatting the disk, upgrading the firmware but in the end it was still locking up nearly every time the thing was turned on! A quick google search turned up posts on the creative forum that showed that I am not alone in this problem. Even reviews of the player mention that it froze up, but most just gloss over it.
It is a shame that the player had these problems because my first impression of the Zen Touch was a quality player. It's made from metal, not plastic, has a good screen, fantastic battery life. Altogether better construction and design than the iPod and cheaper too.
I'm giving them a chance to replace the player when they have stock but I'm not impressed by these problems and my next purchase probably won't be a Creative product.
Since the BBC is a part of the government, it cannot logically be independent of it. It can be independent of other divisions of government, but not from government itself.
The BBC is not part of the government, it is a private company that gets money from the public through the license fee, not from the government.
This charter is written up and enforced by.... guess what? the government.
After a long public consultation on what should be in the charter. They have leaflets about it in public libraries, they tell people about it on TV, and there's the website about it. Did you read the link I posted?
Slashdot Mirror
This weeks New Scientist has some interesting statistics that will be relevant here. (The article isn't online, unfortunately.)
"researchers have documented how soldiers will often go to great lengths to avoid firing directly at enemy soldiers, especially if they can seem them - and the distress they suffer when they do kill.
A famous example is the Battle of Gettysburg, where thousands of soldiers on both sides loaded their weapons over and over to avoid having to fire them. Similarly, during the second world war, S.L.A. Marshall, a US army historian, found that on average only 15 to 20 per cent of American infantry troops actually fired at the enemy when they had the oportunity to do so."
The article goes on to talk about how the US army managed to increase the firing rate in later wars by de-humanising the enemy and training soldiers to shoot on impulse.
The main articles are about the Post-Traumatic Stress suffered later by the soldiers as a result of this.
It has also been my experience from traveling in Europe that our electric is a bit more reliable then yours
I haven't travelled outside Europe, but from news reports I hear, the USA has significantly less reliable power than we do.
Thanks to our split-phase setup we have the choice between 120V and 208/240V depending on application.
We have a choice in the UK too - 240v (officialy 230v) or three-phase 415v. I believe that other European countries sometimes use two phases at a similar voltage for cookers.
Our light bulbs also last longer then yours
Our light bulbs don't get dimmer at the other end of the house!
I highly recommend xs4all - I used them when I spent six months in Amsterdam in 2003. As well as respecting rights they are also very techy-friendly, providing all sorts of new and experimental technology. They're probably the only Dutch ISP with a decent english translation of their website!
I found a bbc article about this. It seems that Iceland plans to do away with fossil fuel altogether in a few decades.
I thought Iceland ran on gethermal rather than hydroelectric power. Not only that, but Iceland has (quite large) pilot projects running cars and busses on hydrogen produced from geothermal power. BBC's Working Lunch program had a feature on it a few weeks ago.
I couldn't find any reference to that in my catechism, but a quick look in the bible turned up Ephesians chapter 2 verses 8 - 9: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God - not by works, so that no-one can boast."
Elsewhere in the bible paul writes that faith will produce good works, and James writes that faith without works is useless, but it is the faith that matters, not the works. If someone became a christian five minutes before they died they would have no time for works but would still be saved. Conversely if someone claimed faith but did no works then I would question their faith.
True, Catholicism does have a tradition of good works, but it does not teach that they are a prerequisite for salvation.
when I press the Calender button on My Palm T5 it brings up a screen with calender appointments, To-do list and new emails. What else does it need to qualify as a "Today" screen?
I think I remember reading about some company working on sound drivers to mimic this effect with just a pair speakers or headphones.
There is a system for getting 5 channel positional sound from stereo headphones by mimicing the audio characteristics and timing of seperate speakers.
It's called Dolby Headphone and it has been available for a while on portable DVD players and other devices.
I like to think I have at least an ounce of sense and I couldn't disagree with you more. The USA attacked Afghanistan because it was humiliated and wanted to hurt someone. There was no reason to link the government of Afghanistan, evil and corrupt as it was, to the attacks on the US.
You have been blinded by the nonsense that your news networks and your "government" throw at you every day - is it any surprise that a large number of americans can't tell the difference between Osama Bin Laden and Sadam Hussein?
The data protection act is a wonderful piece of legislation. It applies to business and government alike, and it prevents personal data being taken without reason, stored for longer than necessary, or sold or otherwise passed on without permission. It also requires that a person can find out exactly what data an organisation has about them. The DPA requires any organisation that uses personal data to register with the data protection registrar who also enforces the act. Unfortunately the data protection act has also become an excuse for companies to hide behind. They often won't talk to people about accounts in another name, even if the service is used by the caller, in case they inadvertantly give data to an unauthorised person.
According to the no2id faq the data protection act won't be much help. Not to mention that since ID cards themselves require a new act of parliment, I would expect that act to include any required changes to the data protection act.
I don't know why the employer even had the option to keep the money. While working at a mobile phone retailer I was instructed by the till to keep a card and to phone the bank on the number it gave me. The bank sent a 50 pound cheque to me personally, at my home address.
there may be a few hundred who are hell bent on inflicting as much violence as possible on innocent people.
I agree. And they work for the US government.
From the article:
We decided to quickly conclude the scan, given police activity in the area earlier in the day from a bomb scare.
You too can get shot for looking like a terrorist!
Strange thing is that T-Mobile does offer 3G services, but apparently Virgin Mobile doesn't.
While Virgin mobile doesn't sell 3G phones, if you put a Virgin SIM in a 3G phone then you can make calls on the T-Mobile 3G network. A few weeks ago you could also get 3G internet access this way without being charged but they have now closed that loophole.
None of your US CDMA weirdness :-)
I hate to break it to you, but UK 3G networks are UMTS, otherwise known as W-CDMA, a variant of CDMA and licensed from Qualcomm.
Nobody can enter your house if you do not give your permission (or have a judge order to do so).
The TV licensing authority can't enter your house without a warrant either, and they nearly never get one since they have no evidence to declare "reasonable suspicion" before a judge. They rely on people not knowing their rights, and nearly all of their prosecutions for not having a license make use of written notes of doorstep conversations (read confessions) that they have intimidated people into signing.
Sipgates rates to the USA aren't too bad at 1.5p/min, but it's true that you can't present your IPkall number on the caller ID.
If you often have to call the US then you should look at http://www.call1899.co.uk/ who charge exactly 0p/min! There is a connection fee of 3p though. 1899 are about to launch a VOIP service (existing customers already have it) which lets you set the caller ID, maybe that will work with a US number.
If you use sipgate (http://www.sipgate.co.uk/) you can sign up for just about any area code in the UK. You can choose any area you want when it asks you for your "area code of residence" and your billing address can be somewhere else.
You can also get a free US number to forward to any SIP phone from http://www.ipkall.com/
Actually, in Britain while it is common to pay for all calls, we can choose to pay for unlimited national as well as local calls. There are a number of phone companies offering this option including BT.
I have been using SIPgate since they launched in the UK. They provide (free) numbers in nearly all area codes, incoming calls are free and calls to other VoIP phones are free. You only have to spend money to pay for outgoing calls to standard phones.
See sipgate.co.uk
Want to watch a DVD on your TV? Rather than selecting the proper input on the TV and making sure everything is configured... simply turn on the DVD player.
We have had this ability for years in Europe. It's called SCART. One cable, carries RGB video, stereo audio, and a switching cable that grabs attention from the TV and also sets the aspect ration.
If Creative want to take market share from Apple then they need to increase reliability. I got my wife a Zen Touch for christmas, and it went back to the shop just two weeks later because it kept locking up.
I did everything Creative recommended, the built in scan-disk, formatting the disk, upgrading the firmware but in the end it was still locking up nearly every time the thing was turned on! A quick google search turned up posts on the creative forum that showed that I am not alone in this problem. Even reviews of the player mention that it froze up, but most just gloss over it.
It is a shame that the player had these problems because my first impression of the Zen Touch was a quality player. It's made from metal, not plastic, has a good screen, fantastic battery life. Altogether better construction and design than the iPod and cheaper too.
I'm giving them a chance to replace the player when they have stock but I'm not impressed by these problems and my next purchase probably won't be a Creative product.
The BBC is not part of the government, it is a private company that gets money from the public through the license fee, not from the government.
After a long public consultation on what should be in the charter. They have leaflets about it in public libraries, they tell people about it on TV, and there's the website about it. Did you read the link I posted?