Sweden does have a zero tolerance approach to drugs but it is much more than that, basic possession can get you a fine or imprisonment up to 6 months but the 6 months is a requirement for police to perform a body search. So in reality you'd probably get a fine. If children are involved well that raises the seriousness and is more likely to get you prison time. There are comprehensive residential drug treatment programs available and free too those who need them.
There is a bug difference in prison population between the USA who jails 750 out of 100,000 and sweden who jails just 84 around 23% of prison inmates are there for drugs offences but the average number of people locked up in sweden is around 4,100 total. figures here are pulled from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Sweden
Sweden isn't soft on drugs by any stretch but you are more likely to be treated rather than imprisoned. Sweden seems to be focussed on making its entire society productive and happy. Totally different from the American aim which seems to be look out for yourself and be sure not to stumble or your screwed. Trouble is just being honest isn't enough, you have to be healthy and lucky too. I say lucky because even having great genes doesn't stop you getting hit by a bus and crippled.
Sad thing is although there may be millions of Americans who can see how much their society fails them. The barriers to change seem pretty much impossible to overcome. The system fails Americans rich and poor. Even if your doing ok, whats to stop some crack head breaking in to your home? Ok you might kill him, but you are just as much let down as the crack head who tried to rob you.
Public knowledge of mass surveillance of your "allies" pisses them off!
It's probable that the government of the day largely shares Interests with its allies, it is less likely the opposition parties are just as supportive of those same Interests.
I guess a classic example would be American support for the IRA not really popular with its British Allies an obvious conflict of interest.. I can't imagine why America wouldn't be carrying out surveillance within the UK. American Interests such as Cruise missiles on UK soil could be threatened by the results of a general election for example.
So realistically allies will be spying on allies as well as enemies as such. The problem is the general public will have a less accepting view of this friendly spying and that can influence election results causing a loss of power. in the UK it is usual for a defeated prime minister to stand down as party leader. Pretty common for opposition leaders to be replaced if they fail too. Smaller parties tend to be more forgiving.
David Cameron will probably lose the next general election and he will be blaming Snowdon for revealing to the public what he knew already if he has any level of Intelligence.
conversely you are in their personal space too. Pretty much if you are in the same space and if you are not strangers then ignoring them is pretty damn rude. you can always excuse yourself and then give your device your attention. Anything less is being pretty dickish however if you are in the company of someone similar to yourself then it may be acceptable. You must realise that a large majority of people would find your behaviour offensive.
To be fair smart phones are pretty good at queueing up notifications. friends can post things, email arrives, the phone is pretty good at keeping me informed with a brief tone to let me know something could require my attention. However the extra stage of bringing it out is a useful one as i get to choose when to respond.
Google glass and the pebble don't lend themselves to the idea of putting them away. kind of like bluetooth headsets are useful but unless you have a lot of calls coming in they are also putting the technology in front of the user. I think that really is the issue. As a user technology should assist but, some of these devices put the user as the peripheral to the device. That's not good, not good at all. I can see how some people can relate to the technology better than with people but i think they are in the minority. I could see work situations thou where google glass was a key part of how somebody works much like a 2 way radio can be a necessary part of somebodies working day.
sounds like your doing it wrong. If I was in android mode and received a spreadsheet i wanted to work on then libre office would probably be a good choice and i would switch to linux to do so.
There is no need from that point to use anything but linux for the rest of that task. If you use the sdcard as a common data area. you would be able to load the spreadsheet from both sides.
i find some things are better in android some better in linux and ideally you would be able to run both concurrently. Being able to run either with full sets of drivers is the next best thing.
currently i get email and other notifications pushed to my phone. sometimes it is enough to deal with them on the phone other times i need something a bit more flexible in which i might use either my tablet my netbook or my desktop systems.
I find linux quite awkward with touch, kde seems to be making good progress in that direction.
I find android awkward with multi tasking. Simple things like using Skype and a browser at the same time is pretty difficult. It also seems to struggle with things like attaching files to emails. Although i can run both linux and Android as a dual boot system its less than perfect on my tablet. one issue is bluetooth which although its working to an extent can't manage to pair my keyboard/mouse easily with both systems.
The ideal tablet for me would allow me to switch between android and linux applications as easily as clicking on a task bar but thats not possible just yet.
This latest hardware might be good enough for progress to be made and reduce the number of systems i need/ want. Still i'm fairly happy as is with the notifications going to my phone and then choosing an option how to reply. I just hope they ensure plenty of storage space and a decent allocation of ram 4gb should be enough to ensure its capable of being the flexible system it claims to be.
hopefully the unification of android and linux will be achieved eventually if there are enough developers interested enough in doing so. hopefully modern windows systems with touch will encourage linux gui developers to develop a supporting framework which allows for both touch and mouse use.
This pengpod could be a good developers system helping to bring about a unification of the applications of linux and the apps of android.
Lower costs? there are existing systems in place with automated logging (rfid).
less fraud, seems to imply that the employees are criminals, do you not understand that treating employees as criminals is wrong and insulting. It is not good for moral or labour relations.
i know its dependant on the card system but last time I had one the alternative to swiping the card was to punch in the last four digits. This I did on a regular basis because like you said it takes longer to swipe.
rfid cards are used a lot for door access which has the issue that if you forgot that card then you might not be able to open the door.
There are positives to using a finger print scanner, you can't forget the card, you can log fairly accurately who was where at a particular time. However logging out is a bit more hit and miss. Too be fair the London Underground has been a terrorist target before now and will be again,although the last time it was suicide bombers among the passengers. It might make sense to use this system for all the employees of the London underground but to single out the cleaners makes no sense if they are the only group using it there is no security advantage.
The primary objection to use of fingerprints instead of any of the alternatives is fundamentally an issue of trust. The main group of people who have fingerprints taken are criminals, are the cleaners criminals?
As a subset of workers being targeted for this particular type of identification it seems to send the message that they are particularly untrustworthy, how much of a slap in the face is that. There is always a supervisor/ team leader in charge of a particular crew who knows the people working for him and who is on shift and who isn't in any job. Isn't that enough?
Even if the use of finger print scanners was universal, it wouldn't stop a terrorist, if they need a finger to gain access then they may as well take a finger its just one more casualty. The underground is not secure and cannot be secure and thousands of graffiti tagged trains illustrate that daily.
It is demoralising for the workforce and the system advantages soon start to fall apart when there is a need for agency workers to fill in for absent employees, it is a lot easier to issue a swipe card than to register a temporary worker on a fingerprint based system.
So the Enterprise bridge design takes its inspiration from US Navy Submarine design?
That sounds plausible, early Star Trek episodes have a Navy feel to them and there are obvious parallels to be made between a submarine in an ocean and a starship in space right down to the photon torpedoes.
The shape of the enterprise maybe derives from ufo sightings flying saucers and cigar shaped objects.
Salaries vary between forces but the typical starting salary for police constables in England and Wales is £22,680 on commencing service and £25,317 on completion of the initial training period. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the typical starting salary is £23,259, rising to £25,962 after the intial training period. Range of typical salaries after several years' experience: £35,610 - £40,020 (sergeant); £45,624 - £49,488 (inspector); £51,789 - £53,919 (chief inspector). London weighting up to £6,501 and additional competency-related threshold payments are available for all ranks.
those figures are from 2012 but it does seem a bit of a waste of tax payers money for meagre returns. Regular police have been busting counterfeiters for years at Sunday markets much cheaper than a dedicated unit. HM customs probably seize more than that daily. How many stolen cars does it take to exceed these losses? Cowboy builders regularly take more than this from home owners yet they rarely get prosecuted.
Who benefits from this new special unit?
Not saying these two guys should get away with it, just a heck of a big sledge hammer to crack two very insignificant nuts.
However although there are charges essentially relating to misuse of police resources and abuse of his position. There are no charges relating to planting of evidence with regards to the 2 cases of child porn and cannabis where the defendants were cleared. However if there were such charges then you would have to assume that any cases brought by his department may be tainted and that is a massive can of worms to open.
That could easily be the size of the tank that was opened and the water let drain away that day, the inspector called by. The other days there was no inspection and no evidence to present to a court.
Could it be that this "spill" was a one off, a freak coincidence that the inspector called when it happened? Of course i am assuming the inspector witnessed the spillage and it wasn't the site operators who presented him with a record of the spillage from another day.
Personally i hope the Inspector bought a lottery ticket that day because with that kind of luck he should now be relaxing on a beach somewhere.
That isn't true for a lot of e-cigarette users there are a number of reasons why you might use them. socially many people do not want stale cigarette smoke in their homes and find the e-cigarette an acceptable alternative. So when socialising with non-smokers a tobacco smoker will use the e-cigarette instead of a regular cigarette. You can also add other situations where cigarettes are forbidden but e-cigarettes are acceptable.
Health wise probably tar is the biggest issue from regular cigarettes its what causes the smokers lung the coughing the flem the wheezing and the e-cigarette is tar free.
Stress relief. Granted some stress that smokers feel is due to low nicotine levels it also does help to relax and help concentrate the mind. Often the smoke break will help resolve problems in for example coding. I can't count the number of times i've been banging my head against a problem and a cigarette and a coffee has altered my perspective and given me an alternative and successful approach on the return.
weather it is pretty lousy to have to go outside into the rain snow and cold in order to have a cigarette. if you can use the e-cig indoors its a positive and probably makes for a shorter break.
Cost. in general you may find an e-cigarette is cheaper than regular cigarettes. Patches and gum tend to be a more expensive alternative to cigarettes and patches keep falling off and are a slower delivery mechanism.
Cigarettes are addictive without doubt and while i can quite happily not drink on a regular basis and have a shot of whiskey once in a blue moon, it is damn near impossible to have the odd cigarette without becoming a regular smoker once again. At the present time you can buy E-cigarettes in pretty much the same outlets as regular cigarettes, if you limit the supply to pharmacies then most smokers will go for regular cigarettes instead which isn't really the outcome most people would prefer.
just maybe it could be the handset part of a phone bluetooth linked. For the smart part of a phone you need a decent sized screen but for a phone call a small handset might be workable. There's little point in carrying 2 billable mobile communication devices.
Time,heart monitor/ exercise, maybe text message / alert display. It might be handy to be able to see if an important email had come in or the usual rubbish. Remote for your music playing to bluetooth headphones. facebook alerts possibly why not slashdot stories. or news feeds. stock prices that you have an interest in.
Maybe as a sort of secretary filtering alerts. might be cool if it could act as a siri like interface to pull in useful data. would be nice if you could trigger it discretely to listen and return relevant information.
i think if it can do alerts that either you choose to ignore or pull out a larger device to respond to would be the most use. secondary features such as map/directions could be useful, or maybe run sound hound without dragging out your phone.
maybe it could help locate friends in clubs, light up in bluetooth range. Hide and seek might be fun with a smart watch. Actually i think a perfect application would be for locating your kids. imagine getting an alert if your kids got out of range.
Using "destroyers, jets, tanks, and rifles" against ordinary people in your own nation is completely unacceptable and liable to cause civil war.
Why are drones any less of an issue when used against the citizens of that same country? Is it less oppressive to imprison citizens who disagree with you?
However chances are there is somebody at the council processing applications for the register data and I doubt the £260 per year average revenue (in this case) covers the cost of nearly giving away the data.
Could it be the case that the wife planned to visit the area where her body was found, maybe for a photography hobby.
It could be just unfortunate she met her killer there and died. Not unusual for a wife to use her husbands laptop. Many couples trust each other with passwords. She might even have asked him to do the search for her.
Planting evidence doesn't have to be the alternative option and some times there are coincidences.
A man has been jailed for life for killing a 19-year-old woman more than a decade after her boyfriend was wrongly jailed for the crime.
Shahidul Ahmed strangled Rachel Manning in Milton Keynes and dumped her body at a golf course in 2000.
In 2002, Barri White was convicted of murder and his friend Keith Hyatt of perverting the course of justice. Both had their convictions quashed in 2007.
Keith's only involvement on the night of Rachel Manning's murder was to give a lift to his friend Barri White, who was looking for his girlfriend Rachel after she became lost in Milton Keynes in December 2000.
In a tragic coincidence, Keith was going about his job as a courier two days later when he spotted police at Woburn Golf Club.
He parked his van and made the fatal mistake of asking about the missing teenager, at the very spot where her body had been found.
It was simply another act of kindness for Barri and for Rachel, but it roused suspicion.
Police seized Keith's van and, he believes, "stopped investigating the murder" and built a case around him and Barri, an "easy touch".
There is a whole lot more behind this story including a "jail house confession" to another inmate which is obviously discredited now.
Hopefully the retrial will be conclusive in this cisco case.
"Councils up and down the country have made thousands of pounds after registers of votersâ(TM) names and addresses were sold to the marketing firms, driving schools and estate agents."
The electoral register is available for anybody to view in person. But by selling an edited database of the information, councils are helping companies to send out thousands of unsolicited letters with a few clicks of a computer mouse.
Bedford Borough Council has defended its actions, stating: "The fee is set nationally, by law, and we are legally obliged by the government to sell the data on the edited register unless individuals chose to opt-out.â
It's not expensive either bringing in just £1300 in 5 years from all the sales combined.
I was shown a pretty impressive set up in a huge greenhouse set up in south lincolnshire which produced pots of herbs. The sowing of pots was largely automated and there were rails running down the length of the greenhouse with metal trays across the rails.
Essentially the rails were loaded at one end and robots would lift the trays and move them along the rails as the herbs grew. watering was automated so it was long production lines the length of the green house and the robots took care of the plants and the far end of the line the pots were taken off and shipped to supermarkets using minimal manual labour.
Is it possible that the problem with your eyes was inherited from your great grandmother, i'm guessing the whys of why she was blind from age 9 would have not been asked much once it was established that she would have to live with it. So it's unlikely to know if the 2 issues are related or coincidental .
My parents both need glasses but both me and my brother have better than 20/20 vision although my sister has needed glasses most of her life. Which kind of demonstrates the foolishness of the idea of terminating a gene line for the sake of some idea of genetic purity.
myself I only hope we can keep the mix flowing and we can evolve beyond the tribal values our society seems to hold on to. Seems that we are all share common ancestors but we still generally manage to dehumanise people from outside of our national boundaries. I accept the fact I am of mixed race although the races are largely a mix of Irish , English, Scots , Welsh and French that I know of. Many American families are also mixed race having in general European ancestors.
There is no degree of certainty that the twins that are to be welcomed into this world will suffer with cancer especially since half their genes is from the father.
You think ? The UK was and is more than happy to give its vital infrastructure to outside interests, which seems a little odd. Meanwhile in Ireland Wind farms are being built not for the Irish Market but to sell to the UK.
So here we have two countries where electricity production is an asset to one country and a liability to the other. which is the better course of action?
Slight problem, the speed limit for vans and lorries is not the same as for cars. Not every road has more than one lane many don't really manage 2 in both directions.
I'm wondering if many of us have backdoored ourselves with Skype.
It has been reported that it accesses/ect/password and also reads the bookmarks in firefox. While the later seems harmless initially isn't this similar to the meta-data collected from email exchanges that the nsa is known to collect. I'm sure there is value in knowing what people are reading at some point you may become discontent enough to become a radical or terrorist.
Unfortunately Skype is generally installed by giving the skype installer root access. There is no need to find an exploit when the system user installs your trojan willingly.
We already know skype is not secure for communication and has changed from peer to peer communication to running via microsofts servers. However it is still pretty useful, about the best cross platform messenger client out there. I don't use skype to say anything that is likely to warrant any action from the nsa, so its not a real problem right?
However the access that skype has to my machine is bothering me especially the potential access to passwords, am I giving the nsa the equivalent of ssh access to my machine?
I believe its possible to install skype as its own user and without giving skype root at anytime but apart from some instructions on securing skype on arch wiki I can't find anything else.
Is there anyone here who can share how to install skype sandboxed so it has a much more limited access to peoples machines?
As someone who doesn't feel there is any reason for the nsa to want to snoop on him i still see some utility in skype (what is the cross platform alternative) but i really don't like the idea that the nsa already has access to my personal files and my passwords.
It is a bit cocky to be thinking you're secure since you don't run windows, when you may well have welcomed in the nsa giving them the keys to your 'secure' systems.
The edge of the legal limit is not a cliff, you don't step over it and become drunk as a skunk. It is not an absolute measure of drunkenness and around the world it varies. Driving at less than your best ability is not an offence in itself and if you think about other factors such as tiredness you can see how daft it is to see drinking within the limits is.
Which is the bigger problem a man having a couple of drinks and staying within the limits or the guy who goes to the gym and does a punishing work out or maybe the guy who didn't sleep so well last night because his child was teething or the programmer who's mind is distracted by the latest project he is working on?
I'm not advocating driving drunk but having a beer or a glass of wine doesn't make you drunk and unfit to drive. The trouble really is that people who are unfit to drive have a hard time comprehending when they are and when they are not.
Many years back I used to work as a dispatch rider in London the positive side of the situation was I was technically self-employed so one morning when I got up for work I realised i was too tired to go out and work and I just told the controller I wasn't alert enough to be working that morning and I took the day off. Dispatch riding is a dangerous job and you need your wits about you or your liable to get injured or killed. In many other situations people would be feeling pressured to drive in fear of losing their job and that happens a lot more than you might think.
As for smoking weed and driving, that is very hard to call, you might be too impaired now to safely drive in an hour maybe not. Almost certainly after a nights sleep you would be fine. Some people claim to drive better when they are stoned, however they ignore the problem that they are likely to have to interact with some terrible drivers on the road and being mildly intoxicated isn't going to help avoid getting into trouble with those guys.
Some people have their best idea's when stoned, driving isn't one of them.
Some strange idea's you have there. Firstly if gravity is just a theory then why not just walk off a tall building? quite clearly gravity exists and you can verify that.
I have yet to see any excuse for a deity, in fact deity's seem to be a pretty poor excuse for behaving like an ass. Having the courage to live life without an excuse for your failings as a human being is a better way to live. Possibly harder than you care to imagine.
I guess the simplest test of the likelihood of the existence of a deity is identifying one single thing which would be different without a deity.
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Sweden does have a zero tolerance approach to drugs but it is much more than that, basic possession can get you a fine or imprisonment up to 6 months but the 6 months is a requirement for police to perform a body search. So in reality you'd probably get a fine. If children are involved well that raises the seriousness and is more likely to get you prison time. There are comprehensive residential drug treatment programs available and free too those who need them.
There is a bug difference in prison population between the USA who jails 750 out of 100,000 and sweden who jails just 84 around 23% of prison inmates are there for drugs offences but the average number of people locked up in sweden is around 4,100 total.
figures here are pulled from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_Sweden
Sweden isn't soft on drugs by any stretch but you are more likely to be treated rather than imprisoned. Sweden seems to be focussed on making its entire society productive and happy. Totally different from the American aim which seems to be look out for yourself and be sure not to stumble or your screwed. Trouble is just being honest isn't enough, you have to be healthy and lucky too. I say lucky because even having great genes doesn't stop you getting hit by a bus and crippled.
Sad thing is although there may be millions of Americans who can see how much their society fails them. The barriers to change seem pretty much impossible to overcome. The system fails Americans rich and poor. Even if your doing ok, whats to stop some crack head breaking in to your home? Ok you might kill him, but you are just as much let down as the crack head who tried to rob you.
Public knowledge of mass surveillance of your "allies" pisses them off!
It's probable that the government of the day largely shares Interests with its allies, it is less likely the opposition parties are just as supportive of those same Interests.
I guess a classic example would be American support for the IRA not really popular with its British Allies an obvious conflict of interest.. I can't imagine why America wouldn't be carrying out surveillance within the UK. American Interests such as Cruise missiles on UK soil could be threatened by the results of a general election for example.
So realistically allies will be spying on allies as well as enemies as such. The problem is the general public will have a less accepting view of this friendly spying and that can influence election results causing a loss of power. in the UK it is usual for a defeated prime minister to stand down as party leader. Pretty common for opposition leaders to be replaced if they fail too. Smaller parties tend to be more forgiving.
David Cameron will probably lose the next general election and he will be blaming Snowdon for revealing to the public what he knew already if he has any level of Intelligence.
While there are many agencies around who could be monitoring what I do, I'm pretty sure its the NSA who does it as a matter of routine to everyone.
I'm in no doubt that other agencies could spy on me but i'm pretty certain they can't justify the expense.
conversely you are in their personal space too. Pretty much if you are in the same space and if you are not strangers then ignoring them is pretty damn rude. you can always excuse yourself and then give your device your attention. Anything less is being pretty dickish however if you are in the company of someone similar to yourself then it may be acceptable. You must realise that a large majority of people would find your behaviour offensive.
To be fair smart phones are pretty good at queueing up notifications. friends can post things, email arrives, the phone is pretty good at keeping me informed with a brief tone to let me know something could require my attention. However the extra stage of bringing it out is a useful one as i get to choose when to respond.
Google glass and the pebble don't lend themselves to the idea of putting them away. kind of like bluetooth headsets are useful but unless you have a lot of calls coming in they are also putting the technology in front of the user. I think that really is the issue. As a user technology should assist but, some of these devices put the user as the peripheral to the device. That's not good, not good at all. I can see how some people can relate to the technology better than with people but i think they are in the minority. I could see work situations thou where google glass was a key part of how somebody works much like a 2 way radio can be a necessary part of somebodies working day.
sounds like your doing it wrong. If I was in android mode and received a spreadsheet i wanted to work on then libre office would probably be a good choice and i would switch to linux to do so.
There is no need from that point to use anything but linux for the rest of that task. If you use the sdcard as a common data area. you would be able to load the spreadsheet from both sides.
i find some things are better in android some better in linux and ideally you would be able to run both concurrently. Being able to run either with full sets of drivers is the next best thing.
currently i get email and other notifications pushed to my phone. sometimes it is enough to deal with them on the phone other times i need something a bit more flexible in which i might use either my tablet my netbook or my desktop systems.
I find linux quite awkward with touch, kde seems to be making good progress in that direction.
I find android awkward with multi tasking. Simple things like using Skype and a browser at the same time is pretty difficult. It also seems to struggle with things like attaching files to emails. Although i can run both linux and Android as a dual boot system its less than perfect on my tablet. one issue is bluetooth which although its working to an extent can't manage to pair my keyboard/mouse easily with both systems.
The ideal tablet for me would allow me to switch between android and linux applications as easily as clicking on a task bar but thats not possible just yet.
This latest hardware might be good enough for progress to be made and reduce the number of systems i need/ want. Still i'm fairly happy as is with the notifications going to my phone and then choosing an option how to reply. I just hope they ensure plenty of storage space and a decent allocation of ram 4gb should be enough to ensure its capable of being the flexible system it claims to be.
hopefully the unification of android and linux will be achieved eventually if there are enough developers interested enough in doing so. hopefully modern windows systems with touch will encourage linux gui developers to develop a supporting framework which allows for both touch and mouse use.
This pengpod could be a good developers system helping to bring about a unification of the applications of linux and the apps of android.
Lower costs? there are existing systems in place with automated logging (rfid).
less fraud, seems to imply that the employees are criminals, do you not understand that treating employees as criminals is wrong and insulting. It is not good for moral or labour relations.
The key phrase being "Every single visitor" not just Canadians (no offence intended to Canadians).
Probably finger print scanning is the least offensive of the current practices of US government policy that US visitors are subject too.
i know its dependant on the card system but last time I had one the alternative to swiping the card was to punch in the last four digits. This I did on a regular basis because like you said it takes longer to swipe.
rfid cards are used a lot for door access which has the issue that if you forgot that card then you might not be able to open the door.
There are positives to using a finger print scanner, you can't forget the card, you can log fairly accurately who was where at a particular time. However logging out is a bit more hit and miss. Too be fair the London Underground has been a terrorist target before now and will be again,although the last time it was suicide bombers among the passengers. It might make sense to use this system for all the employees of the London underground but to single out the cleaners makes no sense if they are the only group using it there is no security advantage.
The primary objection to use of fingerprints instead of any of the alternatives is fundamentally an issue of trust.
The main group of people who have fingerprints taken are criminals, are the cleaners criminals?
As a subset of workers being targeted for this particular type of identification it seems to send the message that they are particularly untrustworthy, how much of a slap in the face is that. There is always a supervisor/ team leader in charge of a particular crew who knows the people working for him and who is on shift and who isn't in any job. Isn't that enough?
Even if the use of finger print scanners was universal, it wouldn't stop a terrorist, if they need a finger to gain access then they may as well take a finger its just one more casualty. The underground is not secure and cannot be secure and thousands of graffiti tagged trains illustrate that daily.
It is demoralising for the workforce and the system advantages soon start to fall apart when there is a need for agency workers to fill in for absent employees, it is a lot easier to issue a swipe card than to register a temporary worker on a fingerprint based system.
So the Enterprise bridge design takes its inspiration from US Navy Submarine design?
That sounds plausible, early Star Trek episodes have a Navy feel to them and there are obvious parallels to be made between a submarine in an ocean and a starship in space right down to the photon torpedoes.
The shape of the enterprise maybe derives from ufo sightings flying saucers and cigar shaped objects.
Maybe its to do with the cost of policing this?
http://www.prospects.ac.uk/police_officer_salary.htm
Salaries vary between forces but the typical starting salary for police constables in England and Wales is £22,680 on commencing service and £25,317 on completion of the initial training period. In Scotland and Northern Ireland, the typical starting salary is £23,259, rising to £25,962 after the intial training period.
Range of typical salaries after several years' experience: £35,610 - £40,020 (sergeant); £45,624 - £49,488 (inspector); £51,789 - £53,919 (chief inspector).
London weighting up to £6,501 and additional competency-related threshold payments are available for all ranks.
those figures are from 2012 but it does seem a bit of a waste of tax payers money for meagre returns. Regular police have been busting counterfeiters for years at Sunday markets much cheaper than a dedicated unit. HM customs probably seize more than that daily. How many stolen cars does it take to exceed these losses? Cowboy builders regularly take more than this from home owners yet they rarely get prosecuted.
Who benefits from this new special unit?
Not saying these two guys should get away with it, just a heck of a big sledge hammer to crack two very insignificant nuts.
http://www.wlox.com/story/23301502/byrd-indictment-details-charges-involving-surveillance-sex
might be more relevant
http://ftpcontent4.worldnow.com/wlox/Byrd%20Indictment.pdf
However although there are charges essentially relating to misuse of police resources and abuse of his position. There are no charges relating to planting of evidence with regards to the 2 cases of child porn and cannabis where the defendants were cleared. However if there were such charges then you would have to assume that any cases brought by his department may be tainted and that is a massive can of worms to open.
That could easily be the size of the tank that was opened and the water let drain away that day, the inspector called by. The other days there was no inspection and no evidence to present to a court.
Could it be that this "spill" was a one off, a freak coincidence that the inspector called when it happened? Of course i am assuming the inspector witnessed the spillage and it wasn't the site operators who presented him with a record of the spillage from another day.
Personally i hope the Inspector bought a lottery ticket that day because with that kind of luck he should now be relaxing on a beach somewhere.
That isn't true for a lot of e-cigarette users there are a number of reasons why you might use them.
socially many people do not want stale cigarette smoke in their homes and find the e-cigarette an acceptable alternative. So when socialising with non-smokers a tobacco smoker will use the e-cigarette instead of a regular cigarette. You can also add other situations where cigarettes are forbidden but e-cigarettes are acceptable.
Health wise probably tar is the biggest issue from regular cigarettes its what causes the smokers lung the coughing the flem the wheezing and the e-cigarette is tar free.
Stress relief. Granted some stress that smokers feel is due to low nicotine levels it also does help to relax and help concentrate the mind. Often the smoke break will help resolve problems in for example coding. I can't count the number of times i've been banging my head against a problem and a cigarette and a coffee has altered my perspective and given me an alternative and successful approach on the return.
weather it is pretty lousy to have to go outside into the rain snow and cold in order to have a cigarette. if you can use the e-cig indoors its a positive and probably makes for a shorter break.
Cost. in general you may find an e-cigarette is cheaper than regular cigarettes. Patches and gum tend to be a more expensive alternative to cigarettes and patches keep falling off and are a slower delivery mechanism.
Cigarettes are addictive without doubt and while i can quite happily not drink on a regular basis and have a shot of whiskey once in a blue moon, it is damn near impossible to have the odd cigarette without becoming a regular smoker once again. At the present time you can buy E-cigarettes in pretty much the same outlets as regular cigarettes, if you limit the supply to pharmacies then most smokers will go for regular cigarettes instead which isn't really the outcome most people would prefer.
just maybe it could be the handset part of a phone bluetooth linked. For the smart part of a phone you need a decent sized screen but for a phone call a small handset might be workable. There's little point in carrying 2 billable mobile communication devices.
Time ,heart monitor/ exercise, maybe text message / alert display. It might be handy to be able to see if an important email had come in or the usual rubbish. Remote for your music playing to bluetooth headphones. facebook alerts possibly why not slashdot stories. or news feeds. stock prices that you have an interest in.
Maybe as a sort of secretary filtering alerts. might be cool if it could act as a siri like interface to pull in useful data. would be nice if you could trigger it discretely to listen and return relevant information.
i think if it can do alerts that either you choose to ignore or pull out a larger device to respond to would be the most use. secondary features such as map /directions could be useful, or maybe run sound hound without dragging out your phone.
maybe it could help locate friends in clubs, light up in bluetooth range. Hide and seek might be fun with a smart watch. Actually i think a perfect application would be for locating your kids. imagine getting an alert if your kids got out of range.
Using "destroyers, jets, tanks, and rifles" against ordinary people in your own nation is completely unacceptable and liable to cause civil war.
Why are drones any less of an issue when used against the citizens of that same country? Is it less oppressive to imprison citizens who disagree with you?
However chances are there is somebody at the council processing applications for the register data and I doubt the £260 per year average revenue (in this case) covers the cost of nearly giving away the data.
Could it be the case that the wife planned to visit the area where her body was found, maybe for a photography hobby.
It could be just unfortunate she met her killer there and died. Not unusual for a wife to use her husbands laptop. Many couples trust each other with passwords. She might even have asked him to do the search for her.
Planting evidence doesn't have to be the alternative option and some times there are coincidences.
E.g
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-21442107
A man has been jailed for life for killing a 19-year-old woman more than a decade after her boyfriend was wrongly jailed for the crime.
Shahidul Ahmed strangled Rachel Manning in Milton Keynes and dumped her body at a golf course in 2000.
In 2002, Barri White was convicted of murder and his friend Keith Hyatt of perverting the course of justice. Both had their convictions quashed in 2007.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-21412241
Keith's only involvement on the night of Rachel Manning's murder was to give a lift to his friend Barri White, who was looking for his girlfriend Rachel after she became lost in Milton Keynes in December 2000.
In a tragic coincidence, Keith was going about his job as a courier two days later when he spotted police at Woburn Golf Club.
He parked his van and made the fatal mistake of asking about the missing teenager, at the very spot where her body had been found.
It was simply another act of kindness for Barri and for Rachel, but it roused suspicion.
Police seized Keith's van and, he believes, "stopped investigating the murder" and built a case around him and Barri, an "easy touch".
There is a whole lot more behind this story including a "jail house confession" to another inmate which is obviously discredited now.
Hopefully the retrial will be conclusive in this cisco case.
I don't think those pesky European privacy laws are working very well in the UK at least
http://www.bedfordshire-news.co.uk/News/Council-pockets-over-1000-selling-voters-personal-details-20130903174019.htm
"Councils up and down the country have made thousands of pounds after registers of votersâ(TM) names and addresses were sold to the marketing firms, driving schools and estate agents."
The electoral register is available for anybody to view in person. But by selling an edited database of the information, councils are helping companies to send out thousands of unsolicited letters with a few clicks of a computer mouse.
Bedford Borough Council has defended its actions, stating: "The fee is set nationally, by law, and we are legally obliged by the government to sell the data on the edited register unless individuals chose to opt-out.â
It's not expensive either bringing in just £1300 in 5 years from all the sales combined.
I was shown a pretty impressive set up in a huge greenhouse set up in south lincolnshire which produced pots of herbs.
The sowing of pots was largely automated and there were rails running down the length of the greenhouse with metal trays across the rails.
Essentially the rails were loaded at one end and robots would lift the trays and move them along the rails as the herbs grew. watering was automated so it was long production lines the length of the green house and the robots took care of the plants and the far end of the line the pots were taken off and shipped to supermarkets using minimal manual labour.
Is it possible that the problem with your eyes was inherited from your great grandmother, i'm guessing the whys of why she was blind from age 9 would have not been asked much once it was established that she would have to live with it. So it's unlikely to know if the 2 issues are related or coincidental .
My parents both need glasses but both me and my brother have better than 20/20 vision although my sister has needed glasses most of her life. Which kind of demonstrates the foolishness of the idea of terminating a gene line for the sake of some idea of genetic purity.
myself I only hope we can keep the mix flowing and we can evolve beyond the tribal values our society seems to hold on to. Seems that we are all share common ancestors but we still generally manage to dehumanise people from outside of our national boundaries. I accept the fact I am of mixed race although the races are largely a mix of Irish , English, Scots , Welsh and French that I know of. Many American families are also mixed race having in general European ancestors.
There is no degree of certainty that the twins that are to be welcomed into this world will suffer with cancer especially since half their genes is from the father.
You think ?
The UK was and is more than happy to give its vital infrastructure to outside interests, which seems a little odd. Meanwhile in Ireland Wind farms are being built not for the Irish Market but to sell to the UK.
So here we have two countries where electricity production is an asset to one country and a liability to the other.
which is the better course of action?
Slight problem, the speed limit for vans and lorries is not the same as for cars. Not every road has more than one lane many don't really manage 2 in both directions.
I'm wondering if many of us have backdoored ourselves with Skype.
It has been reported that it accesses /ect/password and also reads the bookmarks in firefox. While the later seems harmless initially isn't this similar to the meta-data collected from email exchanges that the nsa is known to collect. I'm sure there is value in knowing what people are reading at some point you may become discontent enough to become a radical or terrorist.
Unfortunately Skype is generally installed by giving the skype installer root access. There is no need to find an exploit when the system user installs your trojan willingly.
We already know skype is not secure for communication and has changed from peer to peer communication to running via microsofts servers. However it is still pretty useful, about the best cross platform messenger client out there. I don't use skype to say anything that is likely to warrant any action from the nsa, so its not a real problem right?
However the access that skype has to my machine is bothering me especially the potential access to passwords, am I giving the nsa the equivalent of ssh access to my machine?
I believe its possible to install skype as its own user and without giving skype root at anytime but apart from some instructions on securing skype on arch wiki I can't find anything else.
Is there anyone here who can share how to install skype sandboxed so it has a much more limited access to peoples machines?
As someone who doesn't feel there is any reason for the nsa to want to snoop on him i still see some utility in skype (what is the cross platform alternative) but i really don't like the idea that the nsa already has access to my personal files and my passwords.
It is a bit cocky to be thinking you're secure since you don't run windows, when you may well have welcomed in the nsa giving them the keys to your 'secure' systems.
The edge of the legal limit is not a cliff, you don't step over it and become drunk as a skunk.
It is not an absolute measure of drunkenness and around the world it varies.
Driving at less than your best ability is not an offence in itself and if you think about other factors such as tiredness you can see how daft it is to see drinking within the limits is.
Which is the bigger problem a man having a couple of drinks and staying within the limits or the guy who goes to the gym and does a punishing work out or maybe the guy who didn't sleep so well last night because his child was teething or the programmer who's mind is distracted by the latest project he is working on?
I'm not advocating driving drunk but having a beer or a glass of wine doesn't make you drunk and unfit to drive.
The trouble really is that people who are unfit to drive have a hard time comprehending when they are and when they are not.
Many years back I used to work as a dispatch rider in London the positive side of the situation was I was technically self-employed so one morning when I got up for work I realised i was too tired to go out and work and I just told the controller I wasn't alert enough to be working that morning and I took the day off. Dispatch riding is a dangerous job and you need your wits about you or your liable to get injured or killed. In many other situations people would be feeling pressured to drive in fear of losing their job and that happens a lot more than you might think.
As for smoking weed and driving, that is very hard to call, you might be too impaired now to safely drive in an hour maybe not. Almost certainly after a nights sleep you would be fine. Some people claim to drive better when they are stoned, however they ignore the problem that they are likely to have to interact with some terrible drivers on the road and being mildly intoxicated isn't going to help avoid getting into trouble with those guys.
Some people have their best idea's when stoned, driving isn't one of them.
Some strange idea's you have there.
Firstly if gravity is just a theory then why not just walk off a tall building? quite clearly gravity exists and you can verify that.
I have yet to see any excuse for a deity, in fact deity's seem to be a pretty poor excuse for behaving like an ass.
Having the courage to live life without an excuse for your failings as a human being is a better way to live. Possibly harder than you care to imagine.
I guess the simplest test of the likelihood of the existence of a deity is identifying one single thing which would be different without a deity.
I wonder if Bill Gates is an atheist