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Transportation

Mammoth "Metal Moles" Tunnel Deep Beneath London 294

Hugh Pickens writes "BBC reports that the first of eight highly specialized Tunnel Boring Machines (TBM), each weighing nearly 1,000 tonnes, is being positioned at Royal Oak in west London where it will begin its slow journey east. It will carve out a new east-west underground link that will eventually run 73 miles from Maidenhead and Heathrow in the west, to Shenfield and Abbey Wood in the east. Described as 'voracious worms nibbling their way under London,' the 150-meter long machines will operate 24 hours a day and move through the earth at a rate of about 100m per week, taking three years to build a network of tunnels beneath the city's streets. Behind a 6.2-meter cutter head is a hydraulic arm. Massive chunks of earth are fed via a narrow-gauge railway along the interior of the machine, which is itself on wheels, as the machines are monitored from a surface control room which tracks their positions using GPS. Hydraulic rams at the front keep them within millimeters of their designated routes. 'It's not so much a machine as a mobile factory,' says Roy Slocombe, adding that the machine is staffed by a 20-strong 'tunnel gang' and comes with its own kitchen and toilet. Meanwhile, critics complain that the project is a peculiarly British example of how not to get big infrastructure schemes off the ground, because almost 30 years will have elapsed from its political conception in 1989 to its current projected completion date of 2018."

Submission + - Safe hosting services

Suchetha writes: "Thanks to SOPA and the DMCA and the takedown of MegaUpload, I am becoming quite leery of hosting content in the USA.

My servers don't hold any infringing content, but this trend scares me.

Do my fellow slashdotters know of any hosting providers that are — if not immune — at least resistant to this rather disturbing trend?"

Comment the definition of "terrorism" (Score 1) 370

... according to google is

terrorism/terrizm/
Noun:
The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.

*The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims.*

how many governments does that definition cover?

how many politicians?

as someone who was born, (mostly) grew up in, and currently lives in, a country where the term "terrorism/terrorist" is used in SO many contexts - .lk for those who want to know (not .us like many would think) - the word "terrorism" is more accurately defined as "that guy over there that we don't agree with"..

unfortunately, "terrorist" has become a new witch-hunt word - equal in power (or a VERY close second to "pedo")

i think it is time that we ALL start identifying ourselves as terrorists.. because close to every political statement we make - including "seriously.. can you imagine life with THAT guy in office" while standing at the water cooler - can be construed as terrorism..

this is one of the reasons that the UN has yet to define terrorism.. because if they were to do so, many - in fact, most - governments would fall under the "terrorist" definition.

my advice; call, email, write a letter, send a pigeon to senator leiberman (and any others supporting this bill and tell them "you are not with us. you are not with the terrorists. you ARE a terrorist".. maybe they will get the clue

Suchetha "why yes, i am a terrorist" Wijenayake

Comment Re:Proof? (Score 1) 626

from what i have been reading (please don't ask me to cite sources, it was a long time ago, i think the ./ article linked in TFS may have been one of them), TX is the biggest buyer of textbooks in the US. if they could have swung TX, the publishers would have to either go along with the creationists, or publish a texas-only version of the books. considering that the publishers would (probably) not publish a TX only book, and would just add creationism to the books, then getting creationism into the curricula of the other states would be a fait accompli.

in that case, throwing all their effort into TX would make sense for creationists (kind of like the US electoral system). and with that kind of marketing directed at them, it makes it even more laudable that TX DIDN'T pass it.

Comment it is to be expected (Score 4, Interesting) 107

10 years ago, i was flying from london to sri lanka via jordan airport.

I had a DJ magazine with me for a DJ friend in sri lanka, and lacking anything to read on the flight, i had it in my hand.

the guy at immigration saw the magazine in my bag and wanted to take a look. i knew what was going on, and i also knew that hte magazine didn't have anything they could even REMOTELY consider "lascivious" so i let him have it.

he leafed through a few pages and asked me (with great disappointment) "no mwah mwah mwah?" while kissing his hand.

i had a hard time NOT telling him that i was an IT geek, and we can get our "mwah mwah mwah" from the internet.

the point i am trying to make is that when you try to suppress a biological impulse, nay NECESSITY, people will find a way to get access to it.

they are trying to implement a pornwall in sri lanka as well. a year ago the government blocked ELEVEN sites. now they want to block a hundred. I know the guys in charge of the pornwall. I know their abilities. i know at least two of them are in a porn mailing list that has been in existence in one form or the other since 1998

i would REALLY doubt it was incompetence on the part of the people running the firewall. that is created to make the politicians and the religious extremists feel better.

if the IT guys wanted to take down a site, they would, but most of them really don't want to, and really don't care. as far as they are concerned, they are doing their jobs, but when it comes to things like this "their job" is the bare minimum they are forced to do.

Submission + - HTC's dual-mode CDMA / GSM Android slider with 1.2 (trippletech.com)

hasanabbas1987 writes: It’s not expected to land at Verizon until sometime in 2011, but it’s never too early to take a look at an unannounced Android slider with specs like this. Leaked by Androidswag, the device is purportedly hiding a 1.2GHz processor (would that be dual-core?) beneath that 4-inch display — the sweet spot for size and pocketability. The prototype pictured above was apparently sporting a Vodaphone SIM card making this a pretty bodacious CDMA / GSM worldphone by the time it lands for retail. Of course, anything, or everything, could change by the time this pup is ready for launch and we’ll be here covering every step of its journey. Two more shots after the break including a size comparison with the EVO 4G — a few more at the source link below.
It's funny.  Laugh.

Anti Terror Honor System 74

Fortunately for us, the FAA has imposed the honor system as our next best defense against terrorism. Hopefully this will allow them to increase the volume of non-bladder liquid I'm allowed to take on planes.
Mozilla

Mozilla Thunderbird 3 Released 272

supersloshy writes Today Mozilla released Thunderbird 3. Many new features are available, including Tabs and enhanced search features, a message archive for emails you don't want to delete but still want to keep, Firefox 3's improved Add-ons Manager, Personas support, and many other improvements. Download here."

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