It's definitely not a monarchy, the head of government is an elected Prime Minister, the Queen's role is almost purely ceremonial.

I have seen it a lot in the arts.
Gay men trying hook up with straight men and accepting that their advances are unwanted.
Straight women trying to hook up with gay men that are just not interested.
Straight men hitting on straight women that are not interested.
Straight women hitting on married or men in committed relationship.

You name it and it has probably happened.

"I want one too!" - Putin

Hey, anyone think these world leaders got the sudden urge to have these things after seeing the first episode of Black Mirror? XD

Lots of great things have been invented in a shed.

It's not a commercial product so who cares if some PHB who thinks the name of an application is important doesn't like it?

And if they wanted to make it a commercial product, they could market it under a different name like SecureVault, or more likely Zitzzers since all the real words are no longer available.

I live in CA too, and pay similar taxes. I don't have a problem with the taxes.

When I came to the USA, I was taken aback by just how money-orientated the churches are. I'm irreligious, but I attended church as a kid, and it was actually about the message, about community, and definitely not about the money. Church officials (rectors and curates) are pretty poor in the UK, at least where I grew up - they have housing provided for them, and they live on a meagre salary. They are expected to work long hours for low pay. I don't get that sense when I drive past a church in San Jose that has acres (literally) of parking space, flashy electronic signs, and is located in prime real-estate area. It's very different, trust me.

I've lived here in CA for almost a decade, as I said, it's been great. There's been a couple of local school-shootings in the last year or so. Understand that from a Brit's point of view *anyone* getting shot *ever* is big news. National, prime-time TV news, possibly for days. For it to be sufficiently commonplace that it doesn't even make it past local headlines is ... disturbing.

Your point about talking to people is a good one: if I talk to people from outside the US, our views tend to resonate, but if I talk to people who are US-born, there's way less agreement. I'm not sure if it's because this is "normal" to those born here, that they just haven't experienced anything else, that they think somehow "it couldn't happen to me", or what (sometimes it's definitely a case of USA! USA! USA!). Definitely there is a difference in outlook between natives and foreigners.

One more thing: I'm not trying to paint the UK as some sort of panacea - it's not, by a long chalk. Neither am I US-bashing for the sake of it - the above is just my observations over time. The UK has it's own issues no doubt, but bottom line: even as a white male living in an affluent area in the USA, I feel safer in the UK. And I definitely feel my son would be safer at school there. This is the fact that's weighing on me more and more.

Simon

Having lived in the US for a decade now, I'm missing the UK more and more.

  - A real non-half-assed health service, that provides long-term care without exception
  - A dearth of mass-murders, especially school-shootings
  - A police service which uses policing-by-consent rather than by-fear
  - A university system that doesn't do its best to keep you in debt for life
  - A foreign policy that doesn't make them hated around the world
  - An attitude that doesn't revolve around "why should my taxes pay for you, just because you desperately need help" ?
  - A church that isn't entirely based around making money for the "reverend" and isn't overwhelmingly politicised.
  - Sensible views on evolution, science in general, abortion, gay marriage, and womens rights.
  - And of course, the marked lack of guns in the general populace. An armed society is a polite society my arse. It's a *fearful* society.

As I said, I've been here for a decade now, and I work for a big company with great perks. It's been good for me, but now that I have a kid, the school-shootings thing is getting more and more worrisome. There's literally nothing I can do to prevent some moron raiding his mother's arsenal and killing my kid if that's how he wants to end his life.

The money is good, the people I meet are friendly, the weather is nice, and that used to be sufficient. But as time goes by, it's seeming more and more like a Faustian bargain.

Simon.

*I meant cracking a modern game...ripping the game is super easy!

Maybe by Average Joe standards, but it wouldn't be a huge challenge for any coder to do...and then release Ripperfox to the world. It would be child's play compared to ripping a modern game for example.

Now you could modify a compliant browser to strip out the HTML5 DRM crippleware and very easily rip videos from Netflix. But that's not necessary, I think everything hits TPB and Netflix at around the same time anyway.

Unless you're an American, yes :-P

The latter is closer, but I think they were so busy setting up their giant McCarthytron and trying to catch the first signs of the coming Western Spring that they forgot to look for *actual terrorists.* Dzokhar Tsarnaev did the digital equivalent of setting up giant neon signs saying "TERRORIST HERE!" and the NSA didn't notice.

The FBI was probably too busy grooming pissed off young Muslims into "terrorists" they could arrest and parade in front of the media.

That is why a court order is needed. So now all the big companies will use the same method on all of their communications.
Of course the court could just order you to turn over your password.

Many former British colonies attained independence peacefully around the mid-20th century.

If your in Cuba odds are the NSA is not your real worry.