Funky. My section of America has been ridiculously warm this winter, like easily 10C above average. On the other hand, places like Arizona and Texas got like half a foot of snow a few months ago, while the Rocky Mountains have had more than their fair share of snow. Wacky weather this winter, everywhere.

Alan Turing has been denied a posthumous pardon for the crime of gross indecency (read: being gay) by the British House of Lords because [URL="http://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/3735-widespread-celebrations-but-no-pardon-for-turing.html"]"A posthumous pardon was not considered appropriate as Alan Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence. He would have known that his offence was against the law and that he would be prosecuted.[/URL]

Would Alan Turing be prosecuted today?

Did not the Vatican effectively posthumously apologize to Galileo?

This is just (fsck'ing) stupid!

The Vatican apologised posthumously to Galileo in 2000 only as part of a general apology for the mistakes committed by Catholics in the preceding two millennia. Gordon Brown apologised posthumously and very specifically to Turing more than two years ago.

But a pardon would be a different sort of gesture; Britain does not have things like the US presidential pardon, they're much less routine than that, and they're pretty much only for miscarriages of justice: that is, for people actually innocent of what they've been convicted of. So it would have been really enormously out of the ordinary to pardon Turing, even though the thing he was unquestionably guilty of is no longer considered a crime.

[QUOTE=fivemack;288474]Britain does not have things like the US presidential pardon, they're much less routine than that, and they're pretty much only for miscarriages of justice: that is, for people actually innocent of what they've been convicted of. So it would have been really enormously out of the ordinary to pardon Turing, even though the thing he was unquestionably guilty of is no longer considered a crime.[/QUOTE]

Miscarriage of justice...

One of the greatest thinkers in the last century, and argubly instrumental in the winning of WWII, was injected with drugs by the "state" to cause "chemical castration". As an aside, he was also stripped of all access to his work, and his security clearances.

As a result he could no longer continue his work, grew breasts, and killed himself within two years.

No... No miscarriage of justice there...

It was all [B][I][U]*exactly*[/U][/I][/B] by the book, so no need for a pardon....

Elsevier
 

Researchers boycotting Elsevier, demanding a policy change towards easier access:

[url="http://www.economist.com/node/21545974"]The Economist: Scientific publishing: The price of information[/url]

Found at [URL="http://blog.fefe.de/?ts=b1d13f4b"]Fefe's blog[/URL] where you also find links to a [URL="http://www.bibliothek.kit.edu/cms/teuerste-zeitschriften.php"]top ten subscription prices list[/URL] and to the [URL="http://thecostofknowledge.com/"]campaign site[/URL].

[QUOTE=chalsall;288479]No... No miscarriage of justice there...

It was all [B][I][U]*exactly*[/U][/I][/B] by the book, so no need for a pardon....[/QUOTE]Your analysis is spot on, despite your ironic tone.

[QUOTE=xilman;288536]... ironic tone.[/QUOTE]Maybe you mean "sarcastic tone"?

[QUOTE=retina;288538]Maybe you mean "sarcastic tone"?[/QUOTE]Perhaps so.

[URL="http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/mother-sues-city-900-trillion-yes-trillion-placing-213613703.html"]Mother sues city for $900 trillion–yes, trillion–for placing children in foster care[/URL]

[QUOTE]Ogunbayo sued the city and the Administration for Children's Services (ACS), alleging that both entities violated her and her children's civil liberties by placing them in foster care in June, 2008. In her lawsuit, obtained by The Smoking Gun, Ogunbayo listed her grievances as follows:
"For causing plaintiff substantial economic hardship; for causing plaintiff substantial economic injuries; for depriving plaintiff and plaintiff children's Civil Right, 42 U.S.C. section 1983; for depriving plaintiff and plaintiff's children, the right to family integrity; for depriving plaintiff and plaintiff's children, the right to life, liberty, property and the right guaranteed by statute; for disregarding the probability of plaintiff's children, suffering emotional and mental distress."[/QUOTE]

a little excessive to say the least !
from someone in the comments:

[QUOTE]Isn't there a frivolous lawsuit statute that mandates a fine of 3 times in excess of the amount asked for in said lawsuit? Wonder what she'll think about a $2.7 quadrillion (or whatever the next -illion is) judgement against her?[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=ccorn;288490]Researchers boycotting Elsevier, demanding a policy change towards easier access:

[url="http://www.economist.com/node/21545974"]The Economist: Scientific publishing: The price of information[/url]

Found at [URL="http://blog.fefe.de/?ts=b1d13f4b"]Fefe's blog[/URL] where you also find links to a [URL="http://www.bibliothek.kit.edu/cms/teuerste-zeitschriften.php"]top ten subscription prices list[/URL] and to the [URL="http://thecostofknowledge.com/"]campaign site[/URL].[/QUOTE]

What has happened is that the price of transmitting a scientific paper has dropped to nearly zero. The question is "why the dead trees that won't be looked at?" [carbon sequestration :-) ] and "How do we decide which of the papers (after all, there are an awful lot of academics who *HAVE* to publish -- just check with Silverman) are actually important?"

I still read my dead-trees IEEE journals...especially IEEE SPECTRUM...they manage to put a real education in there.

Parenting skills.
[url]http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/02/10/it_bloke_shoots_daughters_laptop/[/url]