Emphasis mine.

Wouldn't a supposedly sterile plant spontaneously producing viable seeds actually count as a mutation? I recall something like that actually happening some years back, when gmo's were all the rage (erm...being raged about). 'Fraid you might have to use your own Google-fu on that though.

Does this mean the end of gmo's? Nope. Are most of them safe? Probably. Does this mean that the anti-gmo folk were wrong? Not all of them apparently...

You could almost argue that any block, even if you 'can' opt out of it, is an unfair restriction on free trade. As for no-one wanting their daughter involved with porn, maybe it's time people realised what equality really means, and ask the woman in question what she feels about it, as opposed to letting their own moral bias infringe upon others' rights.

Sometimes I do despair...

Nice to see that your people have worked out how to fully utilise the marvels of headers and footers and version numbering in your important documentation...

Compare this case with that of the American soldier, a sergeant I believe, who while serving in Afghanistan decided to go on a shooting spree in a village close to his camp. He broke into several civilian dwellings, and killed 16 people, including many children. The Afghanis are understandably furious, and are demanding that this soldier be handed over to them, to be tried and sentenced in an Afghan court. So far the Americans have refused, and it is likely that they will continue to do so. Now, irrespective of what excuses they might come up with (and I'm struggling to think of any that might be termed reasonable), what does this say about America's attitude to other nations, and their rule of law? Again, compare the extradition to America of a citizen of another country, for doing something which was not illegal in the country in which he did it, to the murder of 16 people in a country by a citizen of the US, and not allowing that country to even try the man.

Hypocritical doesn't even begin to say it!

I can really see the US/UK agreeing to any demands to remove all articles about Tiananmen Square, or removal of all criticisms of any or all religions. (/sarcasm)

What is more likely to happen is that the west will veto most if not all proposals originating in the east and the middle east, and Russia and the east will veto most if not all proposals originating in the west (excuse the culturally biased geographic descriptions), and the system will be happily paralysed, resulting in no change to the current status quo. To my mind this is infinitely preferable to a system which can be destroyed, or at least greatly harmed, by unilateral action on the part of any bully-boy nation.

I'm not sure the UN taking over the internet is the right answer, but I am absolutely sure that leaving things the way they are is the wrong one. The article gives one good reason why...

Rarely, but it does happen. It does remain to be seen if anything will come of this. However it also remains to be seen if anything will come of the proposals in the article under discussion. A proposal is not a law.

If you do live in the UK, and you do care about the governance of the country in which you live, there are ways of making your voice heard. If we chose not to make use of those avenues, or we chose to limit our actions to posting here then we have only ourselves to blame.

If you do not live in the UK, and you're posting in response to an article regarding proposed changes to the law in the UK, why the f*ck does Ron Paul have anything to do with it?

What are you, a pirate?

Well, at least you'll have no where to dock and resupply, now your bay is being blocked...

One would suspect that the very idea of this fills any investigative journalist with a sense of dread (or impending doom...).

Maintaining the annonymity of their sources, a journalistic right (privilege?), suddenly becomes that much more difficult, a difficulty verging on impossible. Gone will be the days of whistle-blowing on shady goings on in the corridors or power, or in our own 3 letter agencies. The balance of power shifts once more, and not in the right direction.

I sometimes wonder if the people who propose these schemes are students of history, and if they are whether this is one huge social experiment, designed to measure demographic breaking points.

Could be time for another chat with my local MP, just to see if the 'liberal' part actually still means anything...

I've linked this article elsewhere, but it does seem to directly answer your second question. Personally I'd call causing earthquakes somewhat of a scorched earth tactic...

A case in point. It's nice to know that companies can, literally, sweep the earth from under our feet, and there's nothing we can do about it...

Not for long, hopefully! Proposed Changes

As one of the talking heads is quoted as saying in the above linked article:

A 'rare' and sensible insight! Now let's hope the government can get a move on actually passing it, as a bill, through Parliment.

echo^^

While I'm sure there will be anti-patent people saying that since the process is "Inspired by origami and children's pop-up books" there's nothing novel or original in it, and prior art should invalidate their patents, for once I'm not sure I agree. I watched the video, and was inspired. Disruptive applications doesn't say the half of it!

And do you take the elevator to the company gym? :P

I laugh the equivalent of 100 stomach crunches everytime I see people drive a mile to the gym to use the running machines...

She was obviously referring to flying pyramids.

Bet you, and the headmaster, felt stupid years later when Stargate came out and she was proved right...

Hmm, in his words:

Personally I disagree with this 'philosophy', and his opinion that story telling games is done badly, or only through use of cutscenes. I remember playing games like System Shock (the original version, kind of remade as bioshock, I believe) or Deus Ex, to mention two story driven fpses and, for example, Baldur's Gate II: Shadows over Amn in which the short and very infrequent 'cutscenes' definitely added colour to a long and convoluted plot.

It is true poor gameplay will ruin a game, whereas lack of story might not (c.f. the Civ franchise), but that's no reason not to put a story in if the game allows for one. In this though I do agree with him, 2 mins play, 2 mins cutscene, repeat is not the way to do it!