h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The listening post exist, any emails routed or originating in the USA will be checked for keywords by the FBI, yes legislation is going through parliament to allow the SIS to do the same thing here.

Re: emails if your worried use PGP its free and its pretty much imposable to decode without the right key.

Far more worrying is the stuff that there is little info about, see how much info you can find on the 'TSU' (Technical Support Unit), this organization is based in SE London & jointly funded by the SIS( aka MI5) and Special Branch.

Well I'm not planning any major political revolutions through email at the moment so I should be safe.

*waves at any government monitoring systems*

PGP still a good idea - its free and easy (just like me)

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Agree about sun etc - prefer the Indepenent myself & the Telegraph definatly has the best science coverage BUT the Guardian has the best website of any UK paper.

Independent - dull
Telegraph - HA HA HA HA HA
thats a joke right?

um no !
Independent - Solid news coverag without trying to score political points
AND
Telegraph - despite whatever flaws the rest of the paper may have, has a top notch science editor.

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Hello PJ,
I'm officially a TJ but prefer the handle FOFAGuinness, as you probably noticed.
Anyway, I must be the newest kid on the block because I only arrived today.
Haven't a clue what to do. Any tips!
In the meantime put the kettle on, I'm parched!
FOFAG:o)

Dont tell them your
real name they will
only use it agaisnt
you!

Jeez, but you guys give me a lot of stuff to read! Never worry, I'm trying to look at all of it. Jenny, I finished reading that bit you posted about the new technologies for political control. Really scary. It's actually possible that we might see a 1984 scenario in the USA in our time! But what can an ordinary slob do about it? All I can think of doing is to try to combat paranoia. If the citizens get paranoid, the government will also tend to get paranoid.

It is the paranoia of the masses
that makes them give up many
freedoms because they are scared.
Scared that if they let people smoke weed
they might be harmed, If wealth is
redistributed then we will all become
poor, if the police do not stop and
such every black man then they will
be attacked.
People are all scared that if they were
given the power to really control
there own lives then the wouldn't do
the 'right' things.
People are scared that they can not trust
them selfs. So we have many many laws
and are these laws really there to
protect the individual from truly dangerous
things they dont want?
No the strict laws are there to protect us from
small risks hyped up by the establishment
and the real reason the establishment
wants these laws is so they can have power
over us.
Is it really worth giving up so much
freedom for so small benefits and
suburban style security?

what are you talking about here?

ignorance is bliss
are you happy?

Jk is talking about there being way too many laws in many modern countries. I agree with that, to a large extent. The "public" tends to be very scared of any changes to the status quo, they think the government should make life comfortable and risk-free for everybody. This is silly. Apartheid in my country was mainly a result of white people being scared of the bad things that might happen if black people were allowed to rule the country. So because of our fear for what might happen we caused a lot of extremely bad things to happen and in the end it was all for nothing, because black people finally did take over and rule the country. And it turned out to be not so bad as many predicted. But it is probably much worse than it would have been if it was allowed many years ago, because all the trouble we went to just caused black people and white people to hate each other more than they would have otherwise, and today we have to try and change that situation back to a more healthy relationship again. We still have to deal with a great deal of disruption that happened as a result of Apartheid and the Struggle against it. If people weren't so afraid, all of this wouldn't have happened.

In the same way people in Europe might be very afraid of what might happen if large numbers of foreign refugees are allowed to enter their countries. Inside Europe xenophobia increases, and outside Europe injustice reigns and conditions become more and more intolerable for people. Sooner or later the dam will burst.

People everywhere must learn to be able to live with a certain amount of discomfort, pain and risk. If we try and avoid these necessary things at all costs we merely postpone them to a future date at which time they will be much worse.

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