To those who say it couldn't happen in another free country, think again.

In the UK, the father would likely have been arrested and had a DNA swab taken, fingerprinted, and he'd have been put on the national police DNA database.

In the UK, even if he wasn't charged, his DNA details would stay on the database. You don't get the choice to remove them. (I don't know if they keep the fingerprints).

Prince Philip is a national treasure. He says it openly, without sittingly tightly and primly on his arse, like most of the sanctimonious shits who commented so far on this post.

He might get it wrong sometimes, but these are 'oops' moments, not a systematic attempt to demolish democracy. And lets's face it, in 85 years a couple of dozen 'oops' moments isn't many. I'd bet that most people who's criticsed him in this post have avoided having their snider and worse comments recorded for posterity.

I'm in the UK. I refuse to buy a licence, but then I don't have a TV. That hasn't stopped the TVLicensing goons from harassing me, and I had to get my MP involved.

I eventually got the skinny from their press office: You only need a TV licence if you watch TV while it's being transmitted.

The upshot is that if are in the UK and you watch any streamed TV while it is also being transmitted live (not just BBC), you need a licence. And the TV Licensing people have the right to hammer on your door and demand entry if they think you are watching TV live, whether from air, by cable or online. Bonkers.

The sooner the BBC is paid from by general taxation, or subscription, or advertising, the better.

I've never read any Neil Gaiman. This won't change it for me.

Cory is right, this half-arsed effort is nearly as feeble as Amazon's 'Look inside'.

I invested in a hi-res WUXGA laptop (150dpi) so that I could read more easily onscreen. It's a waste of time as far as American Gods is concerned.

And Neil Gaiman's response to Cory has the feel of a PR executive about it.

I'm currently talking to Harpers about ways we can make the American Gods online reading experience (sic) a more pleasant one. And about ways to give American Gods away that would make Harper Collins happy while also making, say, Cory Doctorow happy too.

Er, what about a PDF? Is that too complicated? It's good enough for Google Books.

I'm reminded of Ford Prefect and Arthur Dent's response to Vogon poetry: "...counterpoint the realism of the underlying metaphor"

And the Vogon's response: "Death's too good for them".

"Online reading experience"? Does Neil Gaiman realise how cheesy he sounds? If he really wrote those words, it'll be a while more before I finally get around to reading one of his books, either in a book or on my super hi-res screen.

This is an example of the 'euphemism treadmill'. Ultimately, trying to outlaw euphemisms is as fruitless as trying to outlaw sin. There will always be sinners.

The only longterm answer is to understand the nature of 'offensive terms'; to recognise that not only should offenders strive not to offend, but the people thus abused should strive not to rise to the bait.

I dream of a time when there's no such thing as a taboo word.

Ha, I bet this is no fiercer than has taken place in any 'people of the book' holy place. I wouldn't mind betting it's a gentle frat-boy of a fight compared to stuff in Mecca.

Hmm, I wonder what atheist fights have taken place in similar style? For example, has there ever been something similar near Lenin's tomb? If not, is it because of the legitimacy of Lenin's views?

Granted the 'Apply Yourself' EULA is an irritation too far. But couldn't you write a letter (on paper, by post) for your former student? The AY 'Contact' page does give a postal address.

This is a way around the EULA, and it allows you to answer all the points (in your own form, not theirs) whilst at the same time adding your own discreet EULA at the bottom (including the fact that you are regretfully only able to offer references by paper mail).

If that shafts your former student, sorry but it's not you that's shafting them.

I thought it was simply an acronym for 'Want One Of Those'?

There's now a UK mailorder shopping business called 'Iwoot' (I want one of those), that sells pointless gewgaws. Slogan "stuff you don't need but you really, really want".

I looked for the original, because I was starting to wonder if it was an art project. Perhaps, I thought, the scat video didn't exist, but you could get people looking for it, and creating tributes. For example the 'granny' expressing shock might have been an actor.

A bit like wondering what's under the Scotsman's kilt.

On hearing about this story, I've renamed my own stuffed (male) toy Muhammed, alongside his mate Rosie, and I blogged about it.

Almost immediately someone commented anonymously, with a temporary email address, saying 'that was brave'. Sigh. If you take a stand, you should have the courage to do it under your own name.

Andrew Denny

Never mind language translation, how about Cory translation? In Cory's last post, he said:

"...I explain why Facebook and all the other social networking services live in a boom-and-bust cycle because they get crufted up with people you don't want to add to your friends list, but have to for social reasons."

I wanted to point to 'crufted up' and WTF it!

Does he mean it's full of dogs? Never heard that word before. Mebbe you have, but my point is that I speak good Doctorow, almost like a native (I'm an international Londoner like him) but there are still words that stump me.

The 'zoom whole page' feature is already part of Internet Explorer 7. In fact several elements of IE7 surpass Safari and Firefox 2, including support for higher screen dpi.

I've got a WUXGA laptop (1900x1200, HD resolution, 150dpi) and only IE7 works properly on it.

I don't think you should be linking to this.
This is a snuff movie.

Did you also link to the Iraq beheadings or US prison executions?

Like all of Apple's output (Quicktime, iTunes etc), Miro 1.0 doesn't support my hi-res HD (150dpi) laptop screen.

When are developers going to realise that we'll never reach the paperless nirvana until they start supporting hi-res screens? At least Microsoft realise this, which is why I still use WMP.

I laughed about the semi-colon being on the home row; not least because I use the semi-colon a lot.

This makes me wonder - what about when language and punctuation habits change? Is Dvorak the best layout 4 SMS 'textese'? Is it best for Esperanto?

And what happens when someone finally develops ideographs for common words? We've already got @ and &. Isn't it time to develop letters that represent whole words?

Where will Dvorak be then? @ is on the home row of a PC keyboard in the UK, but even in the UK Mac, in its 'wisdom' sticks it out of the way on 'shift-2' Where is it on Dvorak?

"Skye sez: ... Apparently conservative political sites have been directing their readers to vote for it, whether they read it or not".

Doesn't that happen with every poll? It's just as bad with lefty activists as with righty opponents.

These days, once you hear the word 'denial', you can bet that all attempt at rational argument has ceased, and name-calling is in full swing.

If Bueno de Mesquita thought "that China would reclaim Hong Kong 12 years before it happened", surely he was severely mistaken. Surely things happen when they happen, not 12 years before they happen?

Although come to think of it, someone called 'George Bush' did become President 12 years before it happened!

I'm in the UK and I have a roughly similar service from T-Mobile. They are very careful to call it a "3gb/month" service, but I've sometimes been over the limit without them saying anything.

I phoned them up and they say they advertise it as 3gb/month, but don't really enforce it unless someone shows signs of really abusing the excess -in which case they warn you for the following month. I think that's a much healthier attitude. Deliver more than you advertise.

Germany's government has also managed to steer UK copyright law. Recently UK copyright on literary and other works was extended to Germany's level of 75 years after the author's death.

In my own will I request that all my intellectual property will become public domain upon my death, but I'm having problems finding a lawyer who can guarantee this under UK/EU law.

I don't have anything that's definitely a money-spinner at the moment, but you never know, and I'd like to be confident that anyone and everyone can inherit my work when I die. The last thing I want is for a corporation to create a work that they base on mine and then copyright it.

All your eyeballs are belong to us!

It reminds me of the modern bible language that translates the traditional evil-sounding "Get thee hence Satan" into "Go away, Satan", and makes it sound like a dog's being scolded.

Outdated language paradoxically often sounds more powerful for being less relevant.

Earth is flat or round? Well, it could be both, like a dinner plate. That's a stupid question, and any answer would be stupid. Anyway, seen from Kansas it *is* flat. If Abraham Lincoln had given a stump speech saying space was curved he would have been locked away as a lunatic before his name was on the ballot.

It reminds me of the Dan Quayle 'potatoe' incident about 18 years ago. On that occasion, he mixed up the spelling of 'potato' with 'potatoes', and not a single dyslexic stood up in his defence. Somehow that was seen as evidence of whether you were fit to have your finger on the nuclear trigger.

Those who ask stupid, point-scoring questions and think they are being intelligent worry me a lot more than those who give unthinking answers to them.

I love small traveling fairgrounds and I really like good binaural recordings. But...

I've never been to any big theme park, and dear me, this certainly gives me a reason not to! This seems rather less impressive and scary than a traditional travelling fairground ride ghost train.

You say there are 'mansion-obsessed loonies'? What is it they are obsessed about? Do people really queue up to visit these places?

I'll still call the capital 'Rangoon'.

Any advice on what to call the new town of 'Naypyidaw' in English :-)

I think y'all bein' mean.

A sweet-looking girl, she's simply trying hard. She was asked a pretty open-ended question that would have floored me. Was she standing for office? When was the last time you saw a political candidate with a beauty queen sash?

I'm looking forward to seeing Hillary Clinton asked about her cellulite and dress sense.