Or electric shock...or a certified scanned letter from child protective services..

You're right - it's a British institution if we're to take the books as they come. But let's look at it from a J K Rowling point of view - from a brief scan of wikipedia, she went to an average british school with presumably average british children probably around 30 years ago - vastly different from the stats quoted above in 2011. There weren't many africans, pakistanis, etc. nor were there many gay, bi, transgendered people when i went to school about 20 years ago (1 black girl and everyone was "straight"). What she wrote came from imagination based on her own experiences and why on earth would people chastise her for the sheer happen-stance of her life experiences? She didn't write a book to exclude people, she wrote a book that just happened to not include every type of person in a fantasy world where there existed entirely different sorts of people. Are we to expect another video from professional-offence-takers about how JRR Tolkein - another FANTASY writer - didn't represent the diversity of humanity in any of his books?

And that's selling her short; there are elements of the books that make allusions to homophobia, racism, etc. - "Mudblood," is a xenophobic term used by characters in the book and it's not accepted by any of the extended main characters, and people really should think long and hard before placing their own expectations and values on other people and judging them for it.

Whether you like the books or not, they are popular and i think their popularity stems from the belief she has in her characters and story. Sure, she could have replaced Ron with an albino lesbian transgendered midget who would have lived happily ever after with Hermione, but would the books have been as good with a character that didn't come from Rowling's heart, someone that Rowling felt like she understood? What if she wrote a gay part for someone and got it wrong, is she then liable to take an ear bashing from the gay community for misrepresenting gay people? Where do you draw the line? Do we - at the expense of the story - put one gay person in and then suddenly we're taking abuse for including a "token" gay person?

It should not be the responsibility of anyone to compromise their art to appease someone else's sense of right or wrong, especially when it seems that their right or wrong is balanced on "is there someone like me in there?" In my opinion, if you come away from a story like Harry Potter with the burning question "Where were all the gay/whatever people?" then it's probably you that has the problem with diversity.

I say this - homophobia and racism are dead when no one even considers the issue any more. Now you can't do that in the workplace and stuff, because there are genuinely racist people out there who we try and keep in check. But this is the absolute worst place to direct your anger - no one was hired or fired based on their creed, no one did anything wrong here, all this woman has done is draw attention to what i consider to be her own contradiction. We want to encourage the idea that "Everyone is equal; there is no black or white, straight or gay, everyone is simply the same - we're just people!" And quickly follow that up with "Hey, where are all the GAY people in this fictional story?"

And finally, how the fuck does she know that every character in the book was straight? Isn't it a bit strange (i want to say homophobic) for her to expect gay people to act differently to the degree that she can spot them in a crowd? 95% of the people in Huffelpuff could be single and gay for all anyone knows. The main 3 characters are straight, all of their parents had to be straight for them to be their parents, but all the rest of them we never need to know about their sexuality, so why should they stand out, why should we even discuss it in a kids book anyway? There's only about 4 relationships in 7 books and some of them happen to the same characters.

These are just some of the problems i have with this nonsense and i've written an entire page.

Observing right of way is the single most important factor for avoiding collisions.

By definition, when right of way is observed, co-location is impossible.

Avoid target fixation, keep scanning all around at all times.
Maintain situational awareness, and yield to the right of way.

-scheherazade

It's a hacking convention, basically. I've been attending since the 26C3, the very year that Assange and Domscheit-Berg introduced WikiLeaks 1.0.

Up until this year, very few people outside the community cared about the topics that were discussed. Snowden really lifted attendence and media attention to new heights, even though the public still doesn't care about some crucial topics such as the vulnerability of mobile networks or an entire host of topics about the pitiful state of affairs in Germany.

Speaking of, you're really missing out on the most entertaining events of the entire congress. They always provide a real time translation, but I'm not sure if any stream dumps include the additional audio track.

Just two examples:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XB71MzDrdE
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to48QrlodDI

The first talk details how Germany was the most densely monitored country in history, at least from '49 to '90. Every phone call logged, every piece of mail scanned by the US, the UK or France. This includes everything coming from or going to East Germany. Ironically, the most important station for the monitoring of intra-German mail now hosts Amazon's largest distribution center in Europe.

The second talk is quite simply the greatest review of 2013 from a nerd's perspective.

Edit: yikes, this was supposed to be much shorter.

BTW the amount of extra detail he's packed in is remarkable. Have a scan upwards when you see the Fibonacchos stand....

This is just so cool - the demo can be downloaded here.

Here's where you can DL the demo http://ir-ltd.net/multi-sky-3d-scan-tools/

Wanna see the 3D scan I made of your mum? She's mostly clothed. (pubikini)

Impressive models/scans, but static models like that are relatively easy to do.

Let's see them move.

*related=http://videosift.com/video/The-multilight-scans-behind-the-new-Oculus-human-body-demo

The multilight scans behind the new Oculus human body demo has been added as a related post - related requested by deathcow.

I hate Chunk! But Desi is sweet!

*scanning Craigslist for DILF ads.

Pharmac (go look it up) here in NZ has a big part to play in our overall lower health costs for medicines.

It's a crown owned entity that works out what drug is the best for a particular purpose and then says, "hey big pharma wanna have all the NZ'ers get cured of shitty disease x with your magic pill number 4? Well then gives us the generic brand and here's what we will pay." And then drives a sweet deal for all us kiwis.

It's that big of a thing that it's upset all the corporate fuckers that are driving the whole Trans Pacific fuck the little guy Partnership.

Then there is the ACC (Accident Compensation Corporation) - It's not perfect by any means. But say for example you are playing football on the weekend and your blow your hamstring, well you rock on up to the local A&E, afterhours or medical centre etc, pay a fee of around $30-50nz, get checked over, if you need xrays/scans these maybe fully subsidised or again you may have to pay up to $50-80, get cheapo drugs from the pharmacy (thanks Pharmac) and go home and put your feet up. You're in the system now buddy!

Now have to put your foot up at home for the next 4 weeks, - what about work? I gotta get paid dog!! Don't worry homie ACC has got your back.

If your claim is approved (they pay first and ask questions later, after all you need to get better) you'll be paid 80% of your income while your at home working on your TV tan! ACC was created for workplace injuries, but falling of the ladder home still gets covered.

ACC works by all employers paying into the scheme via levies based on your wage/salary, also the higher risk of injury the workplace is the higher the levy the employer has to pay.

The pay off for ACC is that no-one is allowed to be sued. The govt will drop the hammer on the company, you get looked after by ACC. This has caused the odd issue here and there but overall. Sweet!

Disclaimer - This may all be a complete bunch of ass, but it's pretty close to the way it is.

@ drachen_jager-Why really give a fiddlers-fuck? Part of the blankfist's infamy is self-endorsement and grand-standing and he has more than a few fans-I've been perusing accounts and dropping promotes all morning to satisfy my own devices so, there ya go. Good work on scanning those radar screens, great insect work! Srsly tho, give the poor guy the benny of the doubt till he jets and see what happens, this place needs some perky tats and enormous heads...livens the place up!
There's a place in my world for you cat-fart-man, always has been, always will be

☙ ☚

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/13/06/23/168218/disney-research-creates-megastereo---panoramas-with-depth

"Using a range of different scanning methods the results can be converted into high resolution panoramas automatically complete with 3D information"