News comes mainly from newspapers, TV or blogs. But even the newspapers and TV companies publish their content online these days, generally with comment facilities for the public to make their opinions known. This turns out much as you'd expect.

News published from 1st January 2020 to 8th February 2020

(From BBC News Online, 10th February 2020)

Several buildings were destroyed in a series of controlled explosions at Bletchley Park today, police reported.

The heritage site, once home to secret British codebreaking activities and the birthplace of the modern computer, reportedly suffered serious damage to the conference centre, server rooms and the museum.

Official sources have remained silent on speculation that the blasts were connected with recent claims on several well-respected technology blogs that an Artificial Intelligence project based at Bletchley Park had recently come to fruition, potentially posing a risk to the security of confidential government datafiles.

Meanwhile, Shauna Li, the noted wildlife documentary maker, has been returned to her home country after a brief detention by Special Branch. It appears that Ms. Li was filming a documentary in the area of Bletchley when police cordoned off the area three days ago, and was caught up in the confusion. An apology for the misunderstanding has been issued by the Foreign Office.

Police have so far refused to comment on the identities or even the nationality of the several other individuals detained over the matter, and who are being held under anti-terrorist legislation. However, commissioners have been keen to confirm that the detainees are thought to be unconnected to the “Aprilist” group.

• 2. LiarsTalkersAndBoresOhMy: Yeah, like they aren't going to vote this through anyway. The guys who stood up on this one are just making themselves targets for replacement at the next election.
• 14. 3greenCandles: The government is all run by lizards! This is all a show to keep us occupied whilst they feed on our children!
• 19. x_MOO_x: bomb plot kill civilians religion politics elizabeth white aprilist secret police wiretapping encryption fight freedom - brought to you by the “send emails with incriminating-sounding subject lines” campaign.
• 31. Imm0rtal: This better get stopped. I'd hate for anything like this to be taken up by my government. The Information Wants To Be Free!
• 40. BoxxyUC: honestly they should pass this i dont know why anyone dont like it. i dont have anything to hide but those terrorists sure do so whats the hold up

• 2. Kevin: So, how long will it be before the technology can be mass-produced, or at least able to be industrially useful? As far as I can tell we'll not have Fusion power plants until at least 2030.
• 7. Jessie L.: I'm sure there's something wrong in those numbers. As far as I was aware the ITER project was aiming for 500MW over 1000 seconds for the first run - this article seems to be referring to 1037MW average output and the reactor is still online. Does anyone have a link to a more in-depth report of the science behind this?
• 8. Qwerty: Odd, there should be some reports on the ITER website, but all they have is the press release that New Scientist have mostly copied - as far as I can tell they've not actually spoken to anyone at ITER to get more information. And yes, 1037MW seems excessive - the tokamak was designed for a particular plasma configuration, I wouldn't imagine it could support that high a power level.
• 13. Jason P.: I wish people would stop being so negative! Look, they've proved that this is feasible, and with modern materials technology we should be able to have cheap, non-polluting power for all!
• 14. Charlie: It's amazing they've managed to get this thing working, considering how many LHC personnel they have working on this one. I'm surprised they didn't find a baguette left in the reaction chamber or something.

• 12. DialupTop: Jonas Blane sure is throwing his weight around for the senator for a state that doesn't even have a border with Mexico!
• 16. OutlawChick: Still, you can't deny he's popular with the gun-toting living-in-trees mob.
• 68. ChimeraBushy: Well sure, anything that gives them the chance to shoot at immigrants and get paid for it goes down a treat with those goodoleboys!
• 102. MrsGeek: Did you hear about the Blue Sky CEO? Apparently Blane has big money on his side now, and Waller has a squeaky-clean history of philanthropy - he's looking more and more like the safe choice for the VP ticket.
• 115. AngelAsian: Jones needs to GET ON WITH IT AND NAME A RUNNING MATE ALREADY
• 189. DawgTiger: I heard those boys down on the border had run into something nasty. Like, seriously nasty. But the government covered it up…

• 12.Protr4ct: Still not leaving Tuen Meun, East of San Hui just hasn't been safe.

• 17.~~~SanSu~~~: This just isn't true, while I wouldn't have suggested heading off anywhere unsavoury, if you kept to the main commercial districts and tube lines then you'll be fine.

• 23.幫助在坦克: This whole triad business hasn't been anywhere near as bad as people keep makingout.

• 33. ChouChou: Where have you been? I live in Ngau Tau Kok and there have been several bodies found just this week.

• 11. FrackYourTestudo: Well, at f—ing last. Low Earth orbit has been off limits for years due to the amount of junk up there, maybe now we'll get some more manned launches!
• 12. ParanoiaAgent: @FrackYourTestudo: Hah, as if. That's what they want you to think - they've just launched a massive radar system with resolution good enough to track people, planes, ships and maybe even submarines if they're not too deep - and of course, they'll use it to watch for space junk. Get real.
• 13. ChesneyHawkes: @ParanoiaAgent: Why do you always post c–p like that? Go take your paranoid theories to Freenet, I hear they're just your type.
• 29. LastExitForTheLost: Hey, I'm buying stocks in Virgin Galactic - this'll be good news for them!

• 6. Beees : All those people who whined about them being non-violent are looking pretty bloody silly now. Good riddance I say.
• 12.BigBullDog: LAND OF HOPE AND GLORY
• 13.Enlight: Oh no…
• 14.BigBullDog: MOTHER OF THE FREE
• 15.WatchWolf: This is distracting from serious discussion you know
• 16.BigBullDog: HOW SHALL WE EXTOL THEE
• 17.No22ID: Nice kit he had. I wonder where he all got it from.
• 18.BigBullDog: WHO ARE BORN OF THEE

• 3.DonkeyPunch: Well he’s probably the most electable. Don’t know he’s going to catch up with Jones though, especially if he signs Blane up.
• 7.GoGoGOP: Trust the democrats to go with the philanderer.
• 9.PseudoLoco: It doesn’t count as philandering if you’re not married.
• 17.Sinical:Issues? Why would we run a race on issues? Democracy fail

• 2. NyteWulf: Trust the US to gloss over so much of their history when they were so much worse.
• 11.Gaial: An eye for an eye makes the world go blind. The US has gotten better, the UK has taken a turn for the worse.
• 22.Eretwo4: I have to admit, it sounds even worse than Australia over there these days.
• 31.DrJohn: @Eretwo4: That’s a very naive and reactionary view. Over the top arguments like that cloud the issue at hand.
• 39.Eretwo4: @ DrJohn: Your Mother clouds the issue at hand OH NO HE DIDN’T.

• LZ'hc,j,KKw +MhI{k@joOV]9qYYrP(c}iSE}!;TcLs2'nSd'j{Kp] h{{nd{Sv!Qgbm% - Seen on a number of Amazon book reviews
• So you stand before the breaking of the world - Christchurch
• like Bruce Wayne on a yacht full of ballerinas at the lefthand end of a Kansas City Shuffle yeah. - San Francisco
• William - It was really nothing. - New Delhi
• “Hey, have you ever noticed that all the lifts in our building have an 'Autoclave' button?” - Auckland, New Zealand
• 5 down 6.796 billion to go - Comments on defaced dating sites
• 抵抗は役に立たない - Sendai
• You are not wrong, who deem
  That my days have been a dream - Johannesburg
• Is that a rotating vibrator in your dermis? - Mexico city
• The nights are drawing closer! - Leeds
• Wuthering Heights is the Dance of Kali - New Delhi
• Four Winds are blowing through Cassadaga - Defacement on lyricwiki

Know anything about H+, especially their sleep experiments? Please get in touch!

~~~~~~~~Crunchie

“I died today. How was your day?

But don't worry - I'll be back.”

The Bayesian Avenger

I see that the encryption bill is still stuck in the Lords, but that can't last. Unless we do something, we're going to get lumbered with this half-arsed knee-jerk work of stupidity, and the government starting another arms race with the black hat hackers. It's going to be like the Cold War all over again, in which GCHQ attempts to spend the terrorists to death. I severely doubt anyone serious is still relying entirely on encryption, so this will, at most, pull in the amateurs, the incompetents and the teenagers Sticking It To The Man (who, frankly, never had me quaking in my boots to start off with).

Frankly, all this is going to do is flatten GCHQ under an avalanche of data. If the Aprilists and their ilk are remotely smart, they'll roll with that and start generating even more spurious pseudo-subversive fake data - using spambots to run fake conspiracies based on a string of suitable randomly-generated keywords, sending out masses of fake emails reading BOMB ASSASSINATE PLOT PRIME MINISTER, that kind of thing. The best place to hide a tree is in a forest, after all, and GCHQ have considerately provided the actual terrorists with a nice big chunk of woodland. National Security FAIL, guys.

Anyway, if you want to stand up for some evidence-based counter-terrorism, go through the usual channels: write to your MP and threaten to vote Green or Socialist Worker or Monster Raving Loony if they don't try their level best to dismantle this, organise another Mass Lone Protest outside Westminster with a load of utterly coincidentally similar pro-encryption slogans, jump out at any friends and family members of yours who happen to be civil servants and government advisors and wave the actual evidence under their noses. I'll be astonished if it works, but nothing ventured and all that.

Anyway, on a lighter note, have some more lolcats: http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/funny-pictures-cat-has-a-good-disguise.jpg

Soooooo cute!!!

I've been so busy lately, I know I haven't had much time to blog! m(._.*)m ~ｺﾞﾒﾝ Please forgive me! But… in my spare time, when I probably should have been working anyway, I've been looking at old-time Sanrio characters - like this one, Shinkansen-chan, the adorable train! I remember seeing lunchboxes with him on! Awwww.
(^ ○ ^)Ka(^ ０ ^)wa(^ ▽ ^)iiii〜！！
But somehow that one animation seems a little creepy somehow… I dunno, maybe it's that the train doesn't stop… it just disappears for a bit… (ﾟo ﾟ);

http://cid-cabf545d82905eba.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Enigmatron/Utopiate