Shock horror! New Labour proposes a law that grants ill-defined, barely-limited power to Secretary of State!

This bunch really don't seem to get that "trust us" doesn't wash. I hope that a) they get turfed out at the next election and b) their replacements are in some fashion better.

Some of the fault can be laid squarely at whoever wrote the original contract. One of the contracts in the UK that's currently just starting to make the press is notable because the consultants managing the process (why would you let a consultant manage the process?! Consultants *consult*, dummy! Not a dig at consultants, but the fool who handed over control of the entire process to a third party...) are being paid 10% of the procurement cost of the contract as a bonus.

Yes, you read that right, they're effectively being *told* to buy the most expensive thing possible, with somebody else's money. And, as an added bonus, the system they've chosen (at an estimated 5 times the cost of one of the losers - whom they didn't actually permit to bid) will require months of (paid, of course) work from the consultants concerned to get it to work. I'm in the wrong line of work, really I am...

To be fair, that is kind of the point ... the content of your ebook, on command, become merely a NULL in a database somewhere. And it's not you giving the command.

One thing I have always wondered was why ice wasn't considered. It'd have to be something in a low orbit so the drag would bring it down, but wouldn't an ice projectile of an appropriate mass and velocity be sufficient to de-orbit some items? Or would the risk of shattering the target be too great?

Have you considered how effective this could be if a certain cult that prefers attack to defence (or, indeed, anyone with anything to hide) can figure out how to work this to their advantage. If this keeps up I'm thinking it won't be too long before prying too deeply into some cults results in accusations of kitten-stomping or worse, because if you're busy cleaning the graffitti from your front door you won't be pursuing the cult in question.

Knowing our government, child professionals, council binmen, accounts clerks, councillors, dog catchers and that nasty lady on the front desk who's job is purely to be unhelpful.

Because to even get at my wired network you need to break into the premises, that's why.

Also, 54Mb/s (or whatever the standard's up to this week) isn't too great when it's shared between 40 people. With wired, they get 1Gb/s. Each. (Yes I know, up to the limits of the server they're connecting to, factoring in that you can't get 100% utilisation ove the link, etc, etc, etc)

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If security are telling you to get out, fair enough. But if I'm on a tube train with already-mentioned guy speaking a language I don't understand, and the two SWAT (SO13, in my neck of the woods) officers with him don't bat an eyelid, why on earth would I?

The plane was under escort. Unless you assume the escort was compromised as well (in which case, just who do you trust?) that tells you that the big plane will be handled one way or another.

I really am not denigrating new yorkers here, but I must confess that I do not understand the reaction.

This isn't intended as a smug comment, so please do forgive me if it sounds so.

I understand that low flying planes are scary, particularly in the circumstances, but I'm not sure what's expected to be achieved by panic and evacuation. If the plane is close enough to be a threat I sincerely doubt that heading to the lifts is going to save the day. If it's not close enough to be a threat, the F-16s will handle it should it look like becoming one. Either way, action is either needless or pointless.

And, before anybody tells me I have no idea what it's like, etc, etc, etc - I work in London, and on the day of the tube bombings was sat in my offices, right above a train station. My boss was out of the country and asked if I was going to evacuate, so I explained that anything that hadn't gone off by 11am probably wasn't going to, and got back on with work.

Ever tried sending out a battleship in CivII unprotected by an Aegis cruiser? Won't last long if your opponent has cruise missiles. I actually cheated myself once and turned on god mode, to see quite how the AI tagged me with every single one of his cruise missiles (precisely enough to sink the ship, of course). No hostiles within visual range, not even a lurking submarine.

On a related note, if every city bar one has protection from nukes, and that city's deep inside your empire (so that the AI has had no chance to spy the city and get this information) guess what? nuke the city, paratroopers in, instant fifth column. It was around this time that I stopped playing nice with the AI.

I understand it was risky but was intended to be used in the event bombs were dropping and you needed bombers in the air before the base went pop. All relative...