The National Library of Iceland has had a similar program for a couple of years. The national TLD is collected three times a year and made available via the Wayback Machine. The english version of the project's page is rather terse, but according to the Icelandic version, selected pages are collected more frequently when warranted, e.g. political debates around election times. Icelandic law requires publishers to deposit copies of ther work with the National Library. This includes web pages so the library doesn't have to worry about copyright.
For a small country with few resources, co-operation with other small countries and archive.org is probably best. The task of collectiing the british TLD is orders of magnitude bigger. It may well be cheaper for the British Library to pay for a system tailored to their needs rather than figure out how to make archive.org's software do what the library needs.

The government is (in theory) accountable to the people. Visa and Eurocard are accountable to nobody except (in theory) their shareholders. Yet these companies have the power to turn whole economies on or off.
When Iceland's banking sector went bankrupt in October 2008 and the Icelandic Króna lost half its value we were still incredibly lucky. The Central bank managed to persuade Visa and Eurocard to continue honouring Icelandic cards. We were about 1/8 of an Ångström from total disaster. Without credit- and debitcards the whole nation would have had no means of buying food or other basic necessities.

Five hundred years ago all you needed to stir up trouble was a handful of people to organise and infuriate the masses - and a bunch of people with pitchforks. Today, all you need to stir up trouble is a handful of people to organise and infuriate the masses - and a bunch of people with computers. The blokes with the pitchforks didn't need to be experts in martial arts and neither do the blokes with computers need to be expert hackers. I haven't been following the media all that closely, but it looks like a handful of people are now trying to organise and infuriate the masses against Anonymous. If they are successful they might get a bunch of people with computers (or pitchforks) to show Anonymous the error of his ways.

There will probably be an Android app out shortly that will do precisely that.

How the Swiss recycle their copper is irrelevant. They have a population of less than 8 million and are already one of the most developed countries in the world. What does matter is that China and India have a population of 2.5 billion, a much less developed infrastructure than Switzerland and can't meet their demand for copper (or other resources) simply by recycling. There is an awful lot of dirt poor people wanting to improve their lot and approach the quality of life we in the west are enjoying. For that to happen, all kinds of scarce resources are needed and demand will continue to grow.

I'm not sure they did fuck up. This case was all over the media. Now, all that is needed is a woman to come forward and report him to the police for raping her in the US. Mr Assanage is needed to help the police with their inquiries, can the Swedish authorities please hand him over? If an US three letter agency can get two swedes to file a complaint against Assange, I'm sure the could also find an american to do so.

Well, it is within the realm of the possible that somebody sat down and applied Occams razor to the possible scenarios: The first scenario involves this bloke (1) planning to rob somebody, (2) setting up a proxy or vpn service and (3) some people conspiring to give false evidence. The second scenario: The bloke was at home and nobody lied.

With only two cables connecting Iceland to the Ineternet, companies have not been eager to set up shop here. FARICE-1 is fairly modern (2004), CANTAT-3 is rather old (1994) and a new cable, DANICE is being built. For many companies the risk of one or more of these cables being down is to large to offset the cheap electricity and cool weather.

To some this IS cruel and unusual punishment. In 1997 a couple wanted by the authorities in Arizona successfully avoided extradition.

"They demonstrated [to the district court] that the conditions in that [Maricopa County] prison were inhumane and degrading, and that an Icelandic decision to grant the extradition request would therefore conflict with their rights under Article 68 paragraph 1 of the [Icelandic] Constitution, which prohibits torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; Article 3 of the European Human Rights Convention, and Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Supreme Court sustained the view that the legal requirements for extradition were not fulfilled[.]"

(Interim report of the Icelandic Government to the European Committee Against Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT), 1999) http://eng.domsmalaraduneyti.is/reports/nr/126

It is my understanding that computers can't write random numbers. A computer only understands the digits zero and one. Zero isn't really a number, it just means nothing so the only number a computer can write is one. When the chance of writing the digit one is 1 it is not random.

Many library patrons prefer to photocopy a page or two from a magazine rather than borrow it from the library or buy a copy at the bookstore. Photocopying instructions for knitting a particular sweater will only cost a few cents but saves a trip to the library to return the magazine and you can write notes on your copy if you need to make any changes.