But one place it didn't go, was to fund upgraded infrastructure.
Sad, but your absolutely right.
On another note, throwing money at problems rarely works it seems, but people were really intent on throwing money at the economy problem a while back so I figured investments in our infrastructure would have been less of a waste.
Contrary to what people may say in analogies for the past years,
the internet is not an information superhighway.
Analogies are good to help convey understanding, but should not be used as a basis for an argument.
I am not trying to be a total tool here bagboy, though, and to be honest I just refuse to see there is no solution. I would like to highlight an AC's comment I found insightful below me:
Not quite. Technology improves daily, old gear can be replaced as regular maintenance. You can't simply replace old roads like switches and routing circuits. You jump from 4 to 6 lanes, technology increases exponentially. Try going from 4 lanes to 18 in 5 years for comparisons, and then to 36 18 months later, 72 18 months after that.
Sure it isn't all that perfect on scaling, but his point is still valid.
Another AC comment worth pointing out:
But you don't market the freeway as if its a guaranteed 65 mph, sometimes up to 90... Also, most major freeways were designed in an era when most households only had one car, and people didn't have 50 mile commutes.
Rush hour is one thing, normal commute another. Personally I just blame all the damn minivans blocking the left hand lane...
Bandwidth and content delivery is the future. Getting the world truly connected is the one of the next great technical goals of humankind.
And I for one welcome the challenge.
...
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Benjamin: Yes, sir. Mr. McGuire: Are you listening? Benjamin: Yes, I am. Mr. McGuire: Bandwidth. Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir? -The Graduate
Physicists really shouldn't be doing statistics...
Just calculus.
by what mathematicians call a power law.... Using this "power law" relationship
I actually just stopped and laughed. Also:
'The conventional viewpoint has been there is "little terrorism" and "big terrorism," and little terrorism doesn't tell you anything about big terrorism,' Clauset explains. 'The power law says that's not true.'
Now it's like a zero-tolerance law for a terrorist act. (And we all know how effective those are...)
...
On another note anyone have a copy of the article or is able to grab a snippet? - because I really like to actually read these things and it seems we have crashed the site atm. (Math articles = I read)
Best argument I heard to why the United States has trouble delivering bandwidth to the same degree as other developed countries is from a friend who works for Akamai.
He states that it is not a matter of money, rather it is when the internet first came to be, we really designed a stupid infrastructure. Other countries implementing the internet after the U.S. were able to learn from our mistakes when their "tubes were being placed". (Hindsight is 20-20 after all) The U.S. problem, however, is that we still use a lot of this basic infrastructure today when really our system needs an overhaul, not a bunch of workarounds...
But he would also agree with your comment that collectively everyone needs to "stop with the excuses already"... To fix the infrastructure, it will cost a good bit of money. I for one think this "economic bailout", as the media calls it, should have gone more to infrastructure in the U.S. from highways to telecommunication services (but don't get me started with the brilliance of our current politics).
When there is deflation, this is good for the consumer as he or she gets more product per dollar. When there is inflation the opposite is true.
Since we know nuclear fuel has a half-life, the currency these banks base their loans upon is deflating... While this is a bad thing for the bank, with a well supported backing this can only be good for the consumer!
A deflating currency is a great investment, even if only in the short term. And regardless of the demand, it naturally will deflate!
The number of deaths that can be traced to Assange is... how many? How indirectly?
This makes me think of a hot topic that has been a bit more prevalent lately: that of file-sharing and the subsequent legal implications. Whatever happened to "don't kill the messenger"? But it really isn't just that, it is the finger-pointing that really gets me today.
...
Several years ago, if you had asked me if I cared about nuts like Sarah Palin, net neutrality, and other issues involving basic fundamental liberties, I would have answered: "those topics annoy me but I do not feel extremely passionate towards any of the issues". Having one side (mother's) of my family exhibit a strong Christian foundation during my youth, they always would look at skeptics and call them fanatics, liberals and call them atheists, and other terms I usually ignored.
But I believe anyone who has any sort of moral code will be compelled, due the very nature of his or her character, after seeing countless acts of insanity from humanity, to act or become passionate on issues. People say "I don't vote because it won't matter." I used to be that way. But now I see even if my vote or opinion is one in a million or even on the losing side, "restoring sanity" and voting is no longer just a civil obligation, but rather a moral obligation: if Sarah Palin wins any sort of election for presidency and I did not vote for an opposing party, I will have trouble sleeping at night.
It feels as if America has lost its glory, pursuing its reputation like a bully. I think we're still better than that. But the last election didn't tell me so as clearly as I'd like, and the next election may explicitly contradict me.
We're better than that because we expose and actively pursue the lunatics and borderline mentally insane and protest social injustice. We are better than that because the majority or even "large enough percentage" of the population holds pride to their neglect of ignorant thought. I love free thought and I am fascinated by the idea of globalization... but just like the side-effect of a drug, if I can say something stupid so can another individual. And who knows if his or her stupid idea has enough backing, it could become a concept. It is to this end I have learned that there will always be idiots and it is our moral duty to ensure that they do not write all the history books.
We're still better than that because there are people still who know better and have at least a chance to better the whole. (Sorry for the long read haha, just hyperbolic politics today tend to ignite long discussion board posts...)
On a more enlightened note, I found TFA really shallow and not providing the news in the most ideal way I wanted:
The government accepted response to recommendations that federal, state and territory police forces establish an "e-crime managers group" to improve information-sharing and cross-jurisdiction cooperation, which would fall under the auspices of the Australia and New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency's e-Crime Committee.
So really our collective "uphill battle of common sense" is really just a temporary mitigation to the common sense necessity. (Don't confuse my comment in not being pleased by the article, just I was hoping for a bit more...sometimes the sensationalist Slashdot headlines get to me!?!!)
It is of course well known that careless talk costs lives, but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated. For instance, at the very moment that Arthur Dent said "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without my wonderful towel," a freak wormhole opened up in the fabric of the space-time continuum and carried his words far far back in time across almost infinite reaches of space to a distant Galaxy where strange and warlike beings were poised on the brink of frightful interstellar battle. The two opposing leaders, resplendent in their black jewelled battle shorts, were meeting for the last time, when, a dreadful silence fell, and, at that very moment, the words, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without my wonderful towel" drifted across the conference table. Unfortunately, in their native tongue, this was the most appalling insult imaginable, so the two opposing battle fleets decided to settle their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint attack on our galaxy, now positively identified as the source of the offending remark. For thousands of years the mighty starships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the planet Earth - where, due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog. Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - credit imdb for exact quote The real left out portion is: that we know of... if we recall an older movie also (sorry I'm on a movie quoting mode and it doesn't matter if you like this one or not), It's a Wonderful Life, we can see how a pointless life was only appreciated when that life was taken out of the picture and the two alternate universes were left to comparison.
Did this supercomputer calculate an entirely alternate universe for every day and conclude that the universe closest to our present day implied the most boring day? I think not!
Mr Tunstall-Pedoe's computer programme, called True Knowledge, came to its lofty decision after being fed some 300 million facts about "people, places, business and events" that made the news.
This is about people, yes the view is that shallow but it really is to all us as the human race can record.
If a tree fell in the woods, and nobody was there to hear it, did it really make a sound?
And who is to say the news reports interesting stories anymore? Because I am in the movie citing mode (sorry), think of Anchorman, and that water-skiing squirrel. Well anyone that has been around a local news organization can say that what constitutes important or newsworthy may not exactly be important or significant. So the presence of news and information for a particular date would not necessarily make that "less boring" in terms of what the human race considers boring.
(I need a beer)
...
"It is of course well known that careless Slashdot Stories costs lives, but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated..."
Just think, if scientology somehow found the keyboard to be a derivative of the devil / whatever-their-evil-avatar-is, the internet would be a much more comforting place also...
But on another note, do these people know that most computers come with the USB symbol next to the port intended for their devil-plugs? I guess there is nothing preventing them from banning most computers!
...
Users over there really shouldn't despair, there are usb-to-firewire adapters out there...that way they can send the devilish signal back into the fire-filled hell where it belongs!
He's actually asking why the 'robot' (or android, or animatronic monster, or what-have-you) was made to look Caucasian, and not Japanese.
That makes sense... But to me it would seem Japanese if it weren't for the hair, so now I am seeing this in a new light also... ...I wonder if this was done for some sort of marketing appeal?
First and foremost... by "cacasion" assume you meant "Caucasian", because using the root of "caca" that would be implying you think that robot looked like shit. (I mean this in the most humorous/friendly of ways haha)
Secondly, if you want to know, certain studies have shown that it is easier to recognize people that share (your) same race. It is not racism, it is art...if you were surrounded by people that were purple for most of your life, you'd likely model a purple robot with purple skin and purplish features - it is what you are most familiar with...
Jumping to conclusions and saying that the Japanese creating a Japanese look-alike robot is "self-inflicting" racism seems like a bit of a stretch to me...hell I'd say rather their artists are likely the majority Japanese that's all. America on the other hand generally has a more diverse workplace and may have a more diverse line of robots...if Androids were popular here.
I do not know about you, but this "instant off" option requires cookies and I do not browse with cookies enabled by default - that is just asking for trouble!
Furthermore, even though I wish the internet was really fast everywhere, it isn't. Features like this "instant on" feature slow down my typing: I have come to the point and typing speed that I know what my search term is and I don't wait one term at a time to see if I want to "narrow my searching field" by selecting another term. I can type at 60 words per minute+...I do not want their help
Oh and it gets really annoying when I type something, hit enter, then have it do a completely different search for me because my mouse pointer was floating near by...
No frills, no extra bandwidth consumed, no searching for the wrong damn thing when I didn't ask for it, and no Google recommend...these new features are just as useful (to me) as the operating systems and likewise gui on Verizon Wireless cellphones - which is completely hideous./endrant
PS: yes I will still use Google, I just wish for a simpler time
Didn't you see the tag on the article (idiots I believe) So to comment on what you said, I think that Larry Ellison is one of the many idiots over there: we should not be so hasty to just give one guy at Oracle all the credit...although he is the emperor in that death star they call Oracle.:)
The following is not meant to be trollish, just bugging me and does not negate your point (Go JMU Dukes...): The Bill of Rights was proposed in 1789 by our one and only short-stature James Madison and "came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, through the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States." source
But in regards to your comment, you know how politics work...otherwise yes they did ask the U.S. government according to the article:
Ministers were angry that the US failed to regulate American-based sites that hosted the extremist videos, including YouTube. More than 5,000 postings featuring Awlaki's videos were available on YouTube yesterday. In one sermon, titled 44 Ways to Support Jihad, he tells followers: "Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim."
Baroness Neville-Jones, the security minister, called on President Barack Obama's administration to "take down this hateful material" in cases where servers were based in the US. She said websites that "incite cold-blooded murder" would "categorically not be allowed in the UK". --Telegraph.co.uk
But this is not the latest news...you are right in saying Google can do whatever it wants:
YouTube said any videos which incite violence are removed. --BBC
Now you had said that "because the US government isn't making them..." as a reason that freedom of speech is not involved. This right extends to U.S. citizens as you and I both know:)
Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, identified US-born Awlaki as being "of particular concern" because "he preaches and teaches in the English language, which makes his message easier to access and understand for Western audiences". --Telegraph.co.uk
Here puts a whole new level of issues on the table. Once he crosses the terrorist borderline however, I am not sure how many rights apply to him? Thoughts? Water-boarding time?
LOL! Yes this is a fake picture. You can see the compression artifacts around the clipped art, and the rest of the picture is a completely different resolution and lighting.
(That is a comment from the article itself, I do not claim credit where it is due.)
Seems this individual is spot on: Photoshopped (but then that really begs the question, because it was printed does that mean it can get Photoshopped in real life?)
Caller: "...and yes what they are doing to that kitty cat is cruel! I mean the mean people don't even let the kitty know its a laser pointer dot and I just about cried after it ran into the wall!"
Support: "Ma'am I know exactly how you feel as we get 'some' of these terrible reports every day. Unfortunately, however, we have already sent the data down the tubes and it could be any number of sub-tubes. I'll put a work order to have the tubes checked out but I cannot make any promises as they've been really clogged as of late."
Caller: "Thanks!"
If this system is actually implemented I expect rampant abuse with comical results. (grabs popcorn...)
Slashdot Mirror
But one place it didn't go, was to fund upgraded infrastructure.
Sad, but your absolutely right.
On another note, throwing money at problems rarely works it seems, but people were really intent on throwing money at the economy problem a while back so I figured investments in our infrastructure would have been less of a waste.
Contrary to what people may say in analogies for the past years,
the internet is not an information superhighway.
Analogies are good to help convey understanding, but should not be used as a basis for an argument.
I am not trying to be a total tool here bagboy, though, and to be honest I just refuse to see there is no solution. I would like to highlight an AC's comment I found insightful below me:
Not quite. Technology improves daily, old gear can be replaced as regular maintenance. You can't simply replace old roads like switches and routing circuits. You jump from 4 to 6 lanes, technology increases exponentially. Try going from 4 lanes to 18 in 5 years for comparisons, and then to 36 18 months later, 72 18 months after that.
Sure it isn't all that perfect on scaling, but his point is still valid.
Another AC comment worth pointing out:
But you don't market the freeway as if its a guaranteed 65 mph, sometimes up to 90...
Also, most major freeways were designed in an era when most households only had one car, and people didn't have 50 mile commutes.
Rush hour is one thing, normal commute another. Personally I just blame all the damn minivans blocking the left hand lane...
Bandwidth and content delivery is the future. Getting the world truly connected is the one of the next great technical goals of humankind.
And I for one welcome the challenge.
...
Mr. McGuire: I want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Bandwidth.
Benjamin: Just how do you mean that, sir?
-The Graduate
Physicists really shouldn't be doing statistics...
Just calculus.
by what mathematicians call a power law. ... Using this "power law" relationship
I actually just stopped and laughed.
Also:
'The conventional viewpoint has been there is "little terrorism" and "big terrorism," and little terrorism doesn't tell you anything about big terrorism,' Clauset explains. 'The power law says that's not true.'
Now it's like a zero-tolerance law for a terrorist act. (And we all know how effective those are...)
...
On another note anyone have a copy of the article or is able to grab a snippet? - because I really like to actually read these things and it seems we have crashed the site atm. (Math articles = I read)
Best argument I heard to why the United States has trouble delivering bandwidth to the same degree as other developed countries is from a friend who works for Akamai.
He states that it is not a matter of money, rather it is when the internet first came to be, we really designed a stupid infrastructure. Other countries implementing the internet after the U.S. were able to learn from our mistakes when their "tubes were being placed". (Hindsight is 20-20 after all) The U.S. problem, however, is that we still use a lot of this basic infrastructure today when really our system needs an overhaul, not a bunch of workarounds...
But he would also agree with your comment that collectively everyone needs to "stop with the excuses already"... To fix the infrastructure, it will cost a good bit of money. I for one think this "economic bailout", as the media calls it, should have gone more to infrastructure in the U.S. from highways to telecommunication services (but don't get me started with the brilliance of our current politics).
When there is deflation, this is good for the consumer as he or she gets more product per dollar. When there is inflation the opposite is true.
Since we know nuclear fuel has a half-life, the currency these banks base their loans upon is deflating... While this is a bad thing for the bank, with a well supported backing this can only be good for the consumer!
A deflating currency is a great investment, even if only in the short term. And regardless of the demand, it naturally will deflate!
Half-life economics, brilliant!
The number of deaths that can be traced to Assange is... how many? How indirectly?
This makes me think of a hot topic that has been a bit more prevalent lately: that of file-sharing and the subsequent legal implications. Whatever happened to "don't kill the messenger"? But it really isn't just that, it is the finger-pointing that really gets me today.
...
Several years ago, if you had asked me if I cared about nuts like Sarah Palin, net neutrality, and other issues involving basic fundamental liberties, I would have answered: "those topics annoy me but I do not feel extremely passionate towards any of the issues". Having one side (mother's) of my family exhibit a strong Christian foundation during my youth, they always would look at skeptics and call them fanatics, liberals and call them atheists, and other terms I usually ignored.
But I believe anyone who has any sort of moral code will be compelled, due the very nature of his or her character, after seeing countless acts of insanity from humanity, to act or become passionate on issues. People say "I don't vote because it won't matter." I used to be that way. But now I see even if my vote or opinion is one in a million or even on the losing side, "restoring sanity" and voting is no longer just a civil obligation, but rather a moral obligation: if Sarah Palin wins any sort of election for presidency and I did not vote for an opposing party, I will have trouble sleeping at night.
It feels as if America has lost its glory, pursuing its reputation like a bully. I think we're still better than that. But the last election didn't tell me so as clearly as I'd like, and the next election may explicitly contradict me.
We're better than that because we expose and actively pursue the lunatics and borderline mentally insane and protest social injustice. We are better than that because the majority or even "large enough percentage" of the population holds pride to their neglect of ignorant thought. I love free thought and I am fascinated by the idea of globalization... but just like the side-effect of a drug, if I can say something stupid so can another individual. And who knows if his or her stupid idea has enough backing, it could become a concept. It is to this end I have learned that there will always be idiots and it is our moral duty to ensure that they do not write all the history books.
We're still better than that because there are people still who know better and have at least a chance to better the whole. (Sorry for the long read haha, just hyperbolic politics today tend to ignite long discussion board posts...)
cheers
Sometimes good news is good.
(I know, profound)
At least I can start drinking Foster's again to pretend to be "outback"!
Also I found a US winning a robot battle against Australia on the side panel, and robots merit an instant mouse click!
...
On a more enlightened note, I found TFA really shallow and not providing the news in the most ideal way I wanted:
The government accepted response to recommendations that federal, state and territory police forces establish an "e-crime managers group" to improve information-sharing and cross-jurisdiction cooperation, which would fall under the auspices of the Australia and New Zealand Policing Advisory Agency's e-Crime Committee.
So really our collective "uphill battle of common sense" is really just a temporary mitigation to the common sense necessity. (Don't confuse my comment in not being pleased by the article, just I was hoping for a bit more...sometimes the sensationalist Slashdot headlines get to me!?!!)
It is of course well known that careless talk costs lives, but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated. For instance, at the very moment that Arthur Dent said "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without my wonderful towel," a freak wormhole opened up in the fabric of the space-time continuum and carried his words far far back in time across almost infinite reaches of space to a distant Galaxy where strange and warlike beings were poised on the brink of frightful interstellar battle. The two opposing leaders, resplendent in their black jewelled battle shorts, were meeting for the last time, when, a dreadful silence fell, and, at that very moment, the words, "I wouldn't want to go anywhere without my wonderful towel" drifted across the conference table. Unfortunately, in their native tongue, this was the most appalling insult imaginable, so the two opposing battle fleets decided to settle their few remaining differences in order to launch a joint attack on our galaxy, now positively identified as the source of the offending remark. For thousands of years the mighty starships tore across the empty wastes of space and finally dived screaming on to the planet Earth - where, due to a terrible miscalculation of scale, the entire battle fleet was accidentally swallowed by a small dog. Those who study the complex interplay of cause and effect in the history of the Universe say that this sort of thing is going on all the time.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - credit imdb for exact quote
The real left out portion is: that we know of... if we recall an older movie also (sorry I'm on a movie quoting mode and it doesn't matter if you like this one or not), It's a Wonderful Life, we can see how a pointless life was only appreciated when that life was taken out of the picture and the two alternate universes were left to comparison.
Did this supercomputer calculate an entirely alternate universe for every day and conclude that the universe closest to our present day implied the most boring day? I think not!
Mr Tunstall-Pedoe's computer programme, called True Knowledge, came to its lofty decision after being fed some 300 million facts about "people, places, business and events" that made the news.
This is about people, yes the view is that shallow but it really is to all us as the human race can record.
If a tree fell in the woods, and nobody was there to hear it, did it really make a sound?
And who is to say the news reports interesting stories anymore? Because I am in the movie citing mode (sorry), think of Anchorman, and that water-skiing squirrel. Well anyone that has been around a local news organization can say that what constitutes important or newsworthy may not exactly be important or significant. So the presence of news and information for a particular date would not necessarily make that "less boring" in terms of what the human race considers boring.
(I need a beer)
...
"It is of course well known that careless Slashdot Stories costs lives, but the full scale of the problem is not always appreciated..."
This is good news!
Just think, if scientology somehow found the keyboard to be a derivative of the devil / whatever-their-evil-avatar-is, the internet would be a much more comforting place also...
But on another note, do these people know that most computers come with the USB symbol next to the port intended for their devil-plugs? I guess there is nothing preventing them from banning most computers!
...
Users over there really shouldn't despair, there are usb-to-firewire adapters out there...that way they can send the devilish signal back into the fire-filled hell where it belongs!
He's actually asking why the 'robot' (or android, or animatronic monster, or what-have-you) was made to look Caucasian, and not Japanese.
That makes sense...
But to me it would seem Japanese if it weren't for the hair, so now I am seeing this in a new light also...
...I wonder if this was done for some sort of marketing appeal?
First and foremost... by "cacasion" assume you meant "Caucasian", because using the root of "caca" that would be implying you think that robot looked like shit. (I mean this in the most humorous/friendly of ways haha)
Secondly, if you want to know, certain studies have shown that it is easier to recognize people that share (your) same race. It is not racism, it is art...if you were surrounded by people that were purple for most of your life, you'd likely model a purple robot with purple skin and purplish features - it is what you are most familiar with...
Jumping to conclusions and saying that the Japanese creating a Japanese look-alike robot is "self-inflicting" racism seems like a bit of a stretch to me...hell I'd say rather their artists are likely the majority Japanese that's all. America on the other hand generally has a more diverse workplace and may have a more diverse line of robots...if Androids were popular here.
Just my take, that's all.
partly as a result of the square-cube law
Ah, yes...thanks for that bit of knowledge there...sparked more Google usage :)
but I doubt we'll have it miniaturized to Iron Man levels anytime in the next couple hundred years.
Agreed, and with the way people drive this is likely a good thing.
Either that or the mobile power unit we see in the actual Ironman movies...Good point.
haha definitely not :)
More like *thwap* (the sound of it knocking me unconscious as it hits my forehead)
Sometimes common sense eludes me :)
Wrong.
I do not know about you, but this "instant off" option requires cookies and I do not browse with cookies enabled by default - that is just asking for trouble!
Furthermore, even though I wish the internet was really fast everywhere, it isn't. Features like this "instant on" feature slow down my typing: I have come to the point and typing speed that I know what my search term is and I don't wait one term at a time to see if I want to "narrow my searching field" by selecting another term. I can type at 60 words per minute+...I do not want their help
Oh and it gets really annoying when I type something, hit enter, then have it do a completely different search for me because my mouse pointer was floating near by...
I really want something like the following:
http://www.google.com/classic
No frills, no extra bandwidth consumed, no searching for the wrong damn thing when I didn't ask for it, and no Google recommend...these new features are just as useful (to me) as the operating systems and likewise gui on Verizon Wireless cellphones - which is completely hideous. /endrant
PS: yes I will still use Google, I just wish for a simpler time
Major T. J. "King" Kong: Stay on the bomb run, boys! I'm gonna get them doors open if it harelips ever'body on Bear Creek!
(credit: IMDB)
True story but his comment is still pretty funny :)
Didn't you see the tag on the article :)
(idiots I believe)
So to comment on what you said, I think that Larry Ellison is one of the many idiots over there: we should not be so hasty to just give one guy at Oracle all the credit...although he is the emperor in that death star they call Oracle.
Terms of service, forgot about that one...
Good point.
So let me get this straight...
They hide secrets here.
It's a server farm in a nuclear bunker.
With data retention and servers?
Is it by chance called Crystal Peak?
Ah no matter Skynet isn't controlled by a central location anyway...
The following is not meant to be trollish, just bugging me and does not negate your point (Go JMU Dukes...): The Bill of Rights was proposed in 1789 by our one and only short-stature James Madison and "came into effect as Constitutional Amendments on December 15, 1791, through the process of ratification by three-fourths of the States." source
But in regards to your comment, you know how politics work...otherwise yes they did ask the U.S. government according to the article:
Ministers were angry that the US failed to regulate American-based sites that hosted the extremist videos, including YouTube.
More than 5,000 postings featuring Awlaki's videos were available on YouTube yesterday. In one sermon, titled 44 Ways to Support Jihad, he tells followers: "Jihad today is obligatory on every capable Muslim."
Baroness Neville-Jones, the security minister, called on President Barack Obama's administration to "take down this hateful material" in cases where servers were based in the US. She said websites that "incite cold-blooded murder" would "categorically not be allowed in the UK". --Telegraph.co.uk
But this is not the latest news...you are right in saying Google can do whatever it wants:
YouTube said any videos which incite violence are removed. --BBC
Now you had said that "because the US government isn't making them..." as a reason that freedom of speech is not involved. This right extends to U.S. citizens as you and I both know :)
Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, identified US-born Awlaki as being "of particular concern" because "he preaches and teaches in the English language, which makes his message easier to access and understand for Western audiences". --Telegraph.co.uk
Here puts a whole new level of issues on the table. Once he crosses the terrorist borderline however, I am not sure how many rights apply to him? Thoughts? Water-boarding time?
LOL! Yes this is a fake picture. You can see the compression artifacts around the clipped art, and the rest of the picture is a completely different resolution and lighting.
(That is a comment from the article itself, I do not claim credit where it is due.)
Seems this individual is spot on: Photoshopped
(but then that really begs the question, because it was printed does that mean it can get Photoshopped in real life?)
That is the exact thing I was wondering...
I remember a Slashdot story a while back that dealt with this too.
Good point sortadan.
I can see it now:
Caller:
"...and yes what they are doing to that kitty cat is cruel! I mean the mean people don't even let the kitty know its a laser pointer dot and I just about cried after it ran into the wall!"
Support:
"Ma'am I know exactly how you feel as we get 'some' of these terrible reports every day. Unfortunately, however, we have already sent the data down the tubes and it could be any number of sub-tubes. I'll put a work order to have the tubes checked out but I cannot make any promises as they've been really clogged as of late."
Caller:
"Thanks!"
If this system is actually implemented I expect rampant abuse with comical results. (grabs popcorn...)