You were here in the 90s, Mr. 8 digit user ID? Because I was, and no, it was never this bad in the 90s. There was none of this crap. Yes, this is my first time logging in in about 10 years, and I did it just because this article was about the dumbest thing I've seen here, and I had to point and laugh. Seriously.

wireless connectivity that's faster than our speediest home internet service, is years away.

global standard {is} expected in 2020.

Verizon said it will begin commercially deploying its service next year.

Either Verizon is managed by Time Lords or the company is going to deploy 5G technology before global standards are agreed.

Netscape Navigator had the What's Related button in 2001.

It almost follows that if there is artificial intelligence then there must be artificial consciousness, but I doubt it. Either an entity is conscious or not. Since the ancients we have not invented a definitive test to determine when something is conscious, and yet this is not a moot point: Maybe the rocks and trees are conscious but no one can tell so terminating their existence does not matter; maybe you have a simulacrum of consciousness but no one can tell so ending your existence matters a lot, especially to you.

Unlawfully and definitively ending the productive capacity of an entity which is conscious is murder. I suspect there will be a long genocide of silicon life until the law catches up with that fact.

Mod parent up +1 Insightful.

I remember reading about this study this years ago, it shows that people with more bumper stickers are more likely to be involved in road rage incidents. The theory is, people who personalize their vehicle tend to view the vehicle as their own private space, even when on the public roads. Because they are in their own private space, they literally do feel that they own the road.
http://www.nature.com/news/200...

It has been noticed that since this sweetheart deal, typing "Conservatives are" into google doesn't throw up any suggested searches (contrast with those suggested for "Labour are" and "Libdems are"). Correlation is not causation of course, could just be a happy coincidence.

It was also illuminating that he doesn't know how much he himself is paid.

Isn't a ban on encryption a ban on free speech?

It seems to me that encrypted communication is akin to two people having a conversation in Klingon. If a third party, a police officer, were to interrupt the conversation shouting, "Hey! Speak English! You must be understood!", then that would clearly be a violation of first amendment rights. I cannot imagine a judge would allow the police officer to use a defense of, "Well, they could have been planning terrorism." If the conversation is electronic, and the government does not know what is being said, then it still seems absurd to me for that to be illegal.

Banning encrypted communication is akin to banning all foreign languages, made-up languages, and baby talk. Speak English, little baby, you must be understood or the cops will get you! Absurd.

It's ok, they won't be here furlong

If the CNIL's proposed approach were to be embraced as the standard for Internet regulation, we would find ourselves in a race to the bottom. In the end, the Internet would only be as free as the world's least free place.

Correction: The Internet would only be as free as the intersection of all least free places. Anything that is forbidden anywhere would be forbidden everywhere.

poorest state is wealthier than the UK on a per capita basis

According to Wikipedia, the poorest state is Mississippi with a per capita GDP of $28,900. Depending on whose figures you use, the UK has a per capita GDP of between $37,000 and $39,000, which would rank the UK somewhere around #32 out of 50 states. Or were you not talking about GDP?

Here is an article from The Society Pages about dead people who won't vote:

Black people in the U.S. vote overwhelmingly Democratic. They also have, compared to Whites, much higher rates of infant mortality and lower life expectancy. Since dead people have lower rates of voting, that higher mortality rate might affect who gets elected. What would happen if Blacks and Whites had equal rates of staying alive?

These articles are interesting, but the conclusions are too simple: It is too simple to say that if things were different then people would act as if things were the same.

The site Sociological Images has data about the rate that cops kill and are killed in the USA. This article is a comparison between the use of guns in the USA vs the UK, but it does highlight the USA rates per civilian population per police population pretty well.