ImperialViolet

Welcome to Britain. As soon as it gets Royal Assent:

• You can be arrested for any offense. Once arrested you have to give fingerprint and DNA samples which will be kept on record for ever.
• You need written permission from the police commissioner (who answers to the Home Secretary) in order to protest within 1km of Parliament. That extends to cover Vauxhall Bridge, all of Waterloo, Trafalgar square and falls just shy of Hyde Park Corner.

I suppose we should be thankful that the ID cards bill got dropped:

"Labour's manifesto will confirm that the reintroduction of identity cards legislation will be an early priority after the election."

Sony patent takes first step towards real-life Matrix. The described device seems very interesting and probably worthy of the patent ... if it worked. Quoting from that NS text:

There were not any experiments done ... This particular patent was a prophetic invention. It was based on an inspiration that this may someday be the direction that technology will take us.

And reminding ourselves about the requirements for a patent:

An invention is the creation of a new technical concept and the physical means to implement or embody the idea. That physical means, prototype, or tangible form referred to as reduction to practice is what separates a discovery from an invention.

So; yet another result of the super-secret US patent office source code: while 1: print 'granted'