go back to the original way of electing United States Senators (selection by the state legislatures)
You'd get something that looks a lot like the European commission; almost universally hated* by most citizens this side of the Atlantic for not being democratic enough. It's probably for similar reasons that you have the directly elected system you have now.
*I disagree, we voted for our national governments, they in turn each appointed a commissioner or two so the commission does broadly represent the people of Europe.
Due to the money-grasping stupidity of the media companies, if you want to buy & play DVDs whilst in the UK, you'll need to change your drives region code to Region 2. However, since DVDs cost more in the UK (also due to the aforementioned money-grabbing etc....) you may not wish to do that
Or he could buy a DVD player whilst he's here and then play DVDs from anywhere (most UK DVD players are region unlocked)
Just ask the Police or MI5 to provide you with video footing showing your activity in Greater London!
I know you're trolling, and I actually agree that we have a surveillance problem here in the UK, but the majority of CCTV is privately operated, and yes you can get the footage of yourself (using the data protection act) if you want it. Not sure why you'd bother with the crap resolution on those things though.
Americans have a reputation for bad geography, but I think the problem might be more universal than we like to think.
It's not so much a geography thing as a scale thing for us over here in Europe, America is huge, most Europian nations are smaller than many US States. Here in the UK, you can travel just about anywhere in under a day. It takes a lot of thought to get your head round a continent spanning country that covers three or four time zones. Hell, most of Western Europe put together is covered in just one; the UK, Ireland and Portugal decided to have a second, IIRC the third only kicks in when you get to the former soviet countries...
In short, asking if you know a random person from the same country isn't strange here, as family and friends get scattered throughout the same country in the same way I suppose that they would scatter through a US State. The old saying puts it best, "Americans think a hundred years is a long time, Brits [in this case Europeans] think a hundred miles is a long way.
"cool little things tucked all over the place" - I don't think there is anywhere that has quite so many of these as London (and I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland - so that's not an easy thing for me to say).
I was in Edinburgh during the fringe this year (first time), if anywhere has "cool little things tucked all over the place" it's Edinburgh in August; if only because it's all so close together (like my city, Southampton). Everything in London is spread out, and less walk-able; it's also nowhere near as visually stunning as Edinburgh, I've never been anywhere that is.
It is not as good as the Financial Times which already has a successful pay model in place.
Indeed, they provide quite specialized information to a dedicated following, so a pay model works. If the Sun or the News of the Screws went pay, I don't think anyone would care; the Times might have a chance due to it's niche though, but I'm not sure it's likely.
In fact, I don't think they can even propose laws under normal circumstances (though there's no law stopping them from making a suggestion to the right people, I suppose...).
Laws can be introduced directly to the lords, it happens if the ministerial responsibility for the bill lies with a Government Minister who's a Peer. Peers can also introduce private members bills; indeed, if a backbencher managed to get a bill through the commons they would need to find a Lord to introduce it there. but as in the commons, these almost never become law.
Obviously a bill started in the Lords still has to be passed by the commons before receiving Royal accent.
It's too bad you folks in the UK let them take your guns away, or you might have other options available to you. (At the very least, the UK government might fear the people instead of the other way around)
If a revolution ever comes, you can keep the guns, I'll have IEDs. far more effective and I'm less of a target (therefore less likely to end up dead).
(leave the operation out, face recognition and mandrake will get you more results)
Ok, the only facts (amongst lots of paranoid rants) I can find from those search terms is that there was a trial of facial recognition software called mandrake back in 1998. No mention of it since This suggests to me that it was a failure (biometric tech 11 yeas ago wasn't brilliant) so it was dropped. Indeed, the company that supposedly sells it: TSSI has no mention of it on their UK website (you'd think they'd want to sell it; after all most CCTV cameras are in private hands).
Indeed I can only find an Australian company selling it there, not in the UK.
Again, no need for the paranoia, we've got it bad enough without making things up.
We don't have face recognition in public CCTV systems, I don't know where you pulled that one from. I agree we have massive surveillance problems here in the UK, but we don't need to make things up to make it sound worse. It's bad enough already
As a periodic tourist of the EU, I'll grant you there's certainly more frowning going on in that neck of the woods. But I suspect there's actually just as much bribing going on in practice, if not more, relative to the US.
I can't speak for the rest of the EU, but bribery in the UK only exists in multi billion pound arms deals and the like. Granted, there have been a couple of recent execptions, but the fact that the public still gets angry when it's discovered tells me they're rare. In parts where corruption is rife people don't get angry about it, they add it in as an additional cost whilst working out how they can skim of a little extra for themselves on the basis that you can't beat 'em, so you may as well join 'em. That doesn't happen here.
If Microsoft is smart, they'll work to make Bing number 2. If not, instead of becoming the search engine equivalent of Pepsi, they'll become the next Royal Crown Cola. If Microsoft is even smarter, they'll become the next <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_%28company%29>Dyson</a>. Here in the UK, we don't vacum things, we <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hoover_Company#Hoover_Terms>Hoover</a> them, however Dyson probably now sells more hoovers than hoover ever did. I doubt we'll ever Dyson things though, hoover as a verb is too established, and we'll be hovering things long after the company goes bust. It's also worth noting that whilst Hoover genericized(sp?) in the USA, Xerox and Kleenex are not genericized in the UK. Google however seems to have become genericized throughout the English speaking world.
Unless your code is running in IE5 or IE6. Then you get it to work by chance, and do not ever touch it again.
Bingo! I once wrote a JavaScript roll-over menu that only seemed to work with a blank comment "<!-- --!>"underneath the closing script tag. If I deleted that comment it stopped working in IE6 (still worked fine in Phoenix or was it Firebird back then (this was about 7 years ago)...?). Ever since then I started writing roll-over menus in CSS, and decided to ignore IE6 compatibility (before I get flamed by people telling me this is\was unprofessional behaviour, I write websites for fun, not profit so have no corporate overlord I'm beholden to).
Perhaps government has a little more common sense there
That would be believable, but here in the UK the government hasn't stopped me buying a Vodka & Red bull yet. We also have some of the highest obesity rates in Europe due to people still being able to pig out and not exercise. Not even the American government is dumber than ours here.
Either I wasn't clear or you misread it. I was giving an example of the US supporting a non-US solution, since the AC seemed to think the US always wanted its own way. The "bash the US" comment was aimed at the AC.
Right, fair enough, I misread it as you aiming the "bash the US" comment at the article the AC linked to. Sorry.
Rival 1: Washington was a key competitor, but the US threw its weight behind Greenwich, taking it out of the race.
Any chance to bash the US, eh?
How's that bashing the US? All it says is that the Prime Meridian may well have been Washington had the US government not supported Greenwich. It's a fact, not a bash.
Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November:
All the rest have thirty-one:
except for February alone,
which has twenty-eight days each year,
and twenty-nine days each leap year.
I learnt that in primary school. The only way to save pi day is to move February's leap day to April so we can have it every four years. But that'd ruin the rhyme.
Sounds good... in theory. The answer *I* get to such an answer is most of the time: "Well, that's what I said. I asked for a hammer in the first place. Now, can you build me that screwdriver or not?"
That's why you email them the details of the hammer asking them to check it, chances are someone like that won't read the email and ok it automatically. Once the hammer's built you get credit for doing something fast and under budget. If they have any complaints, show them the email where they ok'd it. Alternately they actually do read your email and ask for a screwdriver again so build a screwdriver and when it doesn't work show them that email where they 'corrected' you.
Even the catholic church accepts evolution as fact. I don't know where the anti-evolution sentiment in the USA comes from, accept perhaps just a continuation of the culture to reject authority you have over there. I don't know anyone who rejects evolution here in the UK. Plenty who admit to not understanding it, but rejecting it as fact? I don't know anyone.
I pray that you are wrong. I triy to imagine future anthropologists and historians trying to figure out what life was like during our time, and if your idea comes true, they will have nothing to base their studies on.
This assumes there's some catastrophic, civilization-rebooting event between now and then. I for one would rather pray that you are wrong, there's no such thing, and information is simply steadily accumulated, copied, and re-archived to keep it accessible with tech of the day.
Not really, I recently saw an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library. It's almost a thousand years old. OTOH I no longer have the tech to read floppy disks from little over 10 years ago, and even if I could I doubt that I could read many of the file formats stored, Tell me again how digital is better than paper for long term storage. No catastrophe has happened, just technology has moved on.
Slashdot Mirror
go back to the original way of electing United States Senators (selection by the state legislatures)
You'd get something that looks a lot like the European commission; almost universally hated* by most citizens this side of the Atlantic for not being democratic enough. It's probably for similar reasons that you have the directly elected system you have now.
*I disagree, we voted for our national governments, they in turn each appointed a commissioner or two so the commission does broadly represent the people of Europe.
Due to the money-grasping stupidity of the media companies, if you want to buy & play DVDs whilst in the UK, you'll need to change your drives region code to Region 2. However, since DVDs cost more in the UK (also due to the aforementioned money-grabbing etc....) you may not wish to do that
Or he could buy a DVD player whilst he's here and then play DVDs from anywhere (most UK DVD players are region unlocked)
if you leave your camera at home!
Just ask the Police or MI5 to provide you with video footing showing your activity in Greater London!
I know you're trolling, and I actually agree that we have a surveillance problem here in the UK, but the majority of CCTV is privately operated, and yes you can get the footage of yourself (using the data protection act) if you want it. Not sure why you'd bother with the crap resolution on those things though.
Americans have a reputation for bad geography, but I think the problem might be more universal than we like to think.
It's not so much a geography thing as a scale thing for us over here in Europe, America is huge, most Europian nations are smaller than many US States. Here in the UK, you can travel just about anywhere in under a day. It takes a lot of thought to get your head round a continent spanning country that covers three or four time zones. Hell, most of Western Europe put together is covered in just one; the UK, Ireland and Portugal decided to have a second, IIRC the third only kicks in when you get to the former soviet countries...
In short, asking if you know a random person from the same country isn't strange here, as family and friends get scattered throughout the same country in the same way I suppose that they would scatter through a US State. The old saying puts it best, "Americans think a hundred years is a long time, Brits [in this case Europeans] think a hundred miles is a long way.
"cool little things tucked all over the place" - I don't think there is anywhere that has quite so many of these as London (and I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland - so that's not an easy thing for me to say).
I was in Edinburgh during the fringe this year (first time), if anywhere has "cool little things tucked all over the place" it's Edinburgh in August; if only because it's all so close together (like my city, Southampton). Everything in London is spread out, and less walk-able; it's also nowhere near as visually stunning as Edinburgh, I've never been anywhere that is.
It is not as good as the Financial Times which already has a successful pay model in place.
Indeed, they provide quite specialized information to a dedicated following, so a pay model works. If the Sun or the News of the Screws went pay, I don't think anyone would care; the Times might have a chance due to it's niche though, but I'm not sure it's likely.
ANd people were willing to pay for sky news even when BBC was free.
Sky News is free. You can get it on Freeview, and it's (well used to be, I haven't checked recently) unscrambled via satellite.
In fact, I don't think they can even propose laws under normal circumstances (though there's no law stopping them from making a suggestion to the right people, I suppose...).
Laws can be introduced directly to the lords, it happens if the ministerial responsibility for the bill lies with a Government Minister who's a Peer. Peers can also introduce private members bills; indeed, if a backbencher managed to get a bill through the commons they would need to find a Lord to introduce it there. but as in the commons, these almost never become law. Obviously a bill started in the Lords still has to be passed by the commons before receiving Royal accent.
It's too bad you folks in the UK let them take your guns away, or you might have other options available to you. (At the very least, the UK government might fear the people instead of the other way around)
If a revolution ever comes, you can keep the guns, I'll have IEDs. far more effective and I'm less of a target (therefore less likely to end up dead).
(leave the operation out, face recognition and mandrake will get you more results)
Ok, the only facts (amongst lots of paranoid rants) I can find from those search terms is that there was a trial of facial recognition software called mandrake back in 1998. No mention of it since This suggests to me that it was a failure (biometric tech 11 yeas ago wasn't brilliant) so it was dropped. Indeed, the company that supposedly sells it: TSSI has no mention of it on their UK website (you'd think they'd want to sell it; after all most CCTV cameras are in private hands).
Indeed I can only find an Australian company selling it there, not in the UK.
Again, no need for the paranoia, we've got it bad enough without making things up.
face recognition following their every move...
We don't have face recognition in public CCTV systems, I don't know where you pulled that one from. I agree we have massive surveillance problems here in the UK, but we don't need to make things up to make it sound worse. It's bad enough already
As a periodic tourist of the EU, I'll grant you there's certainly more frowning going on in that neck of the woods. But I suspect there's actually just as much bribing going on in practice, if not more, relative to the US.
I can't speak for the rest of the EU, but bribery in the UK only exists in multi billion pound arms deals and the like. Granted, there have been a couple of recent execptions, but the fact that the public still gets angry when it's discovered tells me they're rare. In parts where corruption is rife people don't get angry about it, they add it in as an additional cost whilst working out how they can skim of a little extra for themselves on the basis that you can't beat 'em, so you may as well join 'em. That doesn't happen here.
If Microsoft is smart, they'll work to make Bing number 2. If not, instead of becoming the search engine equivalent of Pepsi, they'll become the next Royal Crown Cola.
If Microsoft is even smarter, they'll become the next <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_%28company%29>Dyson</a>. Here in the UK, we don't vacum things, we <a href=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hoover_Company#Hoover_Terms>Hoover</a> them, however Dyson probably now sells more hoovers than hoover ever did. I doubt we'll ever Dyson things though, hoover as a verb is too established, and we'll be hovering things long after the company goes bust. It's also worth noting that whilst Hoover genericized(sp?) in the USA, Xerox and Kleenex are not genericized in the UK. Google however seems to have become genericized throughout the English speaking world.
Unless your code is running in IE5 or IE6. Then you get it to work by chance, and do not ever touch it again.
Bingo! I once wrote a JavaScript roll-over menu that only seemed to work with a blank comment "<!-- --!>"underneath the closing script tag. If I deleted that comment it stopped working in IE6 (still worked fine in Phoenix or was it Firebird back then (this was about 7 years ago)...?). Ever since then I started writing roll-over menus in CSS, and decided to ignore IE6 compatibility (before I get flamed by people telling me this is\was unprofessional behaviour, I write websites for fun, not profit so have no corporate overlord I'm beholden to).
Perhaps government has a little more common sense there
That would be believable, but here in the UK the government hasn't stopped me buying a Vodka & Red bull yet. We also have some of the highest obesity rates in Europe due to people still being able to pig out and not exercise. Not even the American government is dumber than ours here.
Should all movies be modified so blind people can enjoy them like us bastards who can see?
There's usually a separate version released: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_description
The best news is on Radio 4 twice a day.
This. Radio 4 alone is worth the licence fee, AFAIK there's not even a commercial station that tries to compete.
Either I wasn't clear or you misread it. I was giving an example of the US supporting a non-US solution, since the AC seemed to think the US always wanted its own way. The "bash the US" comment was aimed at the AC.
Right, fair enough, I misread it as you aiming the "bash the US" comment at the article the AC linked to. Sorry.
And finally, the reason that the metric system never caught on in Imperial areas
You mean like the whole of the UK where we now use the Metric system for almost everything? No, it's not caught on at all.
Rival 1: Washington was a key competitor, but the US threw its weight behind Greenwich, taking it out of the race.
Any chance to bash the US, eh?
How's that bashing the US? All it says is that the Prime Meridian may well have been Washington had the US government not supported Greenwich. It's a fact, not a bash.
move it to April 31? I mean the 31st of April.
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November:
All the rest have thirty-one:
except for February alone,
which has twenty-eight days each year,
and twenty-nine days each leap year.
I learnt that in primary school. The only way to save pi day is to move February's leap day to April so we can have it every four years. But that'd ruin the rhyme.
Two thousand and ten? And ten what? Or did you mean two thousand ten?
BTW, Americans don't say it wrong - they say it differently. Get over it and stop making mountains out of molehills.
Both are correct, personally I prefer twenty ten, as it fits the naming system of previous centuries.
Sounds good ... in theory. The answer *I* get to such an answer is most of the time: "Well, that's what I said. I asked for a hammer in the first place. Now, can you build me that screwdriver or not?"
That's why you email them the details of the hammer asking them to check it, chances are someone like that won't read the email and ok it automatically. Once the hammer's built you get credit for doing something fast and under budget. If they have any complaints, show them the email where they ok'd it. Alternately they actually do read your email and ask for a screwdriver again so build a screwdriver and when it doesn't work show them that email where they 'corrected' you.
I wonder what the mass of the Vatican is...?
Sorry.. I had to. It was right there. ;)
Even the catholic church accepts evolution as fact. I don't know where the anti-evolution sentiment in the USA comes from, accept perhaps just a continuation of the culture to reject authority you have over there. I don't know anyone who rejects evolution here in the UK. Plenty who admit to not understanding it, but rejecting it as fact? I don't know anyone.
I pray that you are wrong. I triy to imagine future anthropologists and historians trying to figure out what life was like during our time, and if your idea comes true, they will have nothing to base their studies on.
This assumes there's some catastrophic, civilization-rebooting event between now and then. I for one would rather pray that you are wrong, there's no such thing, and information is simply steadily accumulated, copied, and re-archived to keep it accessible with tech of the day.
Not really, I recently saw an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library. It's almost a thousand years old. OTOH I no longer have the tech to read floppy disks from little over 10 years ago, and even if I could I doubt that I could read many of the file formats stored, Tell me again how digital is better than paper for long term storage. No catastrophe has happened, just technology has moved on.