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Censorship The Internet Your Rights Online

EU Commissioner Calls For Censorship of Web Search 212

Posted by kdawson from the that's-gonna-work-you-betcha dept.
An anonymous reader sends us a Reuters story on a statement yesterday by Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security commissioner, who believes that Internet searches for bomb-making instructions should be blocked across the European Union. The commissioner "intend[s] to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism..."
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EU Commissioner Calls For Censorship of Web Search More

EU Commissioner Calls For Censorship of Web Search

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  • Cannot read the article (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:07AM (#20570081) Homepage Journal
    I tried following the link but it was invalid on my machine, so I did a search for
    bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism [google.co.uk]

    It got me the intended results, but if this is implemented how will I find the article in the future?

    If I cannot search for terrorism, how will I know if I am safe?

    Addition to this, note that they think we should not be able to useor search the words, so if something does unfortunately happen, how can we warn others?
    "Theres a man in the back with a skimask on holding a complex exothermic chemical compound over there, run for your lives" ???

    • Re:Cannot read the article (Score:4, Funny)

      by moranar ( 632206 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:14AM (#20570147) Homepage Journal
      So, following your example, if you saw an active terroristic threat, the thing you'd do to alert others would be to post it on a blog and wait for search engines to catch up, and then the unexploded lucky ones could read about it on the intertubes?

      Makes sense. I was thinking more of calling the police first on a phone, but I must be getting something wrong.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by GeckoX ( 259575 )
        Oh don't be so pedantic. You know exactly what he meant, and he made a darned fine point at that.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by moranar ( 632206 )
          His point is obvious. It's vox populi here. And I agree with it. He simply chose a very bad example, and I made fun of that. It's perhaps something not so obvious, but even when you have the best insight, if you don't present it well, it won't be so effective.

    • Addition to this, note that they think we should not be able to useor search the words, so if something does unfortunately happen, how can we warn others?
      "Theres a man in the back with a skimask on holding a complex exothermic chemical compound over there, run for your lives" ???
      By the time your blog posting gets indexed by Google, I'm sure said man will have long since been a fine red mist.
       

    • I don't agree... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by kc2keo ( 694222 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:17AM (#20570171) Homepage
      with this type of censorship because then it will be easier for them to censor anything else that they would like to censor. Also, how effective can this be? Aren't there unintended consequences when you put these filters up?

      What if somebody needs to learn about terrorism for a paper or something like that.

      Also... if any terrorist really wanted to make a bomb there are plenty of other ways to learn how to create one. I think this is just another attempt to have government closer to total control of the Internet. Maybe we will eventually see taxes on it in other ways. Maybe I'm going to far?

      • Re:I don't agree... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by fastest fascist ( 1086001 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:25AM (#20570245)
        More importantly, isn't it just a matter of time until laws requiring such filtering are passed? Governments want to control the Internet, and if it is technically feasible, they will do it sooner or later. The only option is to make government interference technically impossible. You can't count on legislation to keep your freedoms. Laws change.

      • Re:I don't agree... (Score:5, Insightful)

        by perlchild ( 582235 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:45AM (#20570469)
        Unintended consequence would be to ban historical research on genocide. After all, if you search for a word, it must be on how to commit one, not about those that already happened, after all, and not how to prevent them from occuring again.

        I want to thank the EU for reminding me again how censorship of ideas doesn't work, unless you actually have a human read the content, and even then...

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Thuktun ( 221615 )

          I want to thank the EU for reminding me again how censorship of ideas doesn't work, unless you actually have a human read the content, and even then...
          "Which is why we have loyal citizens like Winston Smith, shown here working tirelessly at his spartan desk, searching assiduously through historical records to weed out untruths and doubleplusungoodthink. Freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength!"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Fred_A ( 10934 )

        Also... if any terrorist really wanted to make a bomb there are plenty of other ways to learn how to create one. I think this is just another attempt to have government closer to total control of the Internet. Maybe we will eventually see taxes on it in other ways. Maybe I'm going to far?

        Wait, not at all, collecting taxes on terrorism would be a great idea. Set them high enough to kill it dead.
        I'm sure you could sell the idea to a politician, especially with the current crop we have in the "western" countries.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by gzerphey ( 1006177 )
      This is a great example and I have another. My wife has just recently finished a degree in International Affairs with a focus on Terrorism studies. She also did her dissertation on the websites that terrorist organizations use to promote their ideals. If this level of censorship was implemented at her school, she never would have been able to do this paper and her education would have been hampered.

      Seriously, has this guy never heard the old adage: "Know your enemy so you may face them."?!?

      • Re:Cannot read the article (Score:4, Insightful)

        by ultranova ( 717540 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @11:48AM (#20573787)

        Seriously, has this guy never heard the old adage: "Know your enemy so you may face them."?!?

        I think that this has more to do with another old saying: "Knowledge is power."

        If there's one thing a politician hates it's an informed public, because such public is not as thoroughly in his power as an ignorant one. That's why every story about "redesigning the Internet" makes me scared: the Internet happened because it managed to "sneak" into common usage behind the backs of powers-that-be, and if it gets redesigned now it gets tracking, surveillance and censorship built-in.

        Don't forget, the Internet was originally built by US Government as their communication tool. It was built for military use and sure as Hell not meant for civilians. It is every politicians worst nightmare: a communication medium in which everyone can get their voice heard to the other side of the world. Enjoy it as long as you can, for it won't last.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by julesh ( 229690 )
      I tried following the link but it was invalid on my machine, so I did a search for
      bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism

      Wow. Your post is now 7th on the list of links in the search it linked to. Well done! :)

  • Franco? (Score:4, Funny)

    by essence ( 812715 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:10AM (#20570107) Homepage Journal
    Not another one [wikipedia.org].
    • Are you implying that Francisco Franco is *not* still dead?

      Chris Mattern
    • It might sound faceious but this Franco (although Italian not Spanish) IS in a coalition with neo-facists The House Of Freedoms [wikipedia.org] - In Italy Mussolini isn't really that dead. The problem is that this guy is making these choices Europe-wide.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Fred_A ( 10934 )
        The "house of freedoms" being of course where they intend to keep all the freedoms after they've taken over. Under lock, that goes without saying.

    • Crackhead (Score:2, Interesting)

      by andr0meda ( 167375 )

      Ever since Barosso and the Italians came in the EU Commission, the only thing they care to chime about are rules and legislation about civil liberty rights. Lastly they were in favor for a rating system that would ban violent video games, now this. I'd rather vote for the inclusion of Turkey than to vote for Italian commissioners.

  • Search (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fozzmeister ( 160968 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:12AM (#20570117) Homepage
    Searching for details on the 9/11 terrorism event...
    Student doing research for school on the atom bomb or genocide for ww2 project

    Some people are so stupid.

    • Re:Search (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Zelos ( 1050172 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:20AM (#20570201)
      Or looking for Unix command references (kill).

      How do people this dumb get appointed to such high office?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dattaway ( 3088 )
        We couldn't tell devastating news that "kill" was gone. No one likes the bomb dropped on them.

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by bentcd ( 690786 )

        How do people this dumb get appointed to such high office?
        That is very easy to explain. As he is too stupid/incompetent/whatever to keep around in Italy but too well connected to actually get rid of, one promotes him to an office in the EU. Problem solved. Well, exported.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by VJ42 ( 860241 ) *

        How do people this dumb get appointed to such high office?
        The only people genuinely competent enough to hold high (political) office of any kind, probably don't want it. I know that sometimes I like to think that I could somehow be Prime Minister one day, aside from our all to numerous politicians, I can think of few people less qualified but the people I know who would make good governors I sincerely doubt that any of them aspire to it.

    • Searching for details on the 9/11 terrorism event...
      Student doing research for school on the atom bomb or genocide for ww2 project
      Or, you know, actually searching for details of how bombs work and how to make them. Don't accept the underlying fallacy here that searching for information on how to make a bomb is evil. We are geeks, we love to understand how things work.
    • Searching for the actors starring in "A time to kill".

  • C6H2(NO2)3CH3. (Score:5, Funny)

    by dermond ( 33903 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:13AM (#20570125)
    C6H2(NO2)3CH3

    will they block slashdot now?

    • Re:C6H2(NO2)3CH3. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Jason1729 ( 561790 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:18AM (#20570181)
      TNT is kind of a low power explosive by modern standards, that hardly rates blacklisting slashdot ;)

      It's amazing how stupid people in power are. Do they really think censoring that sort of information on the web will stop anyone who wants to build a bomb? My university chemistry textbook has plenty of instructions for things that can be used for terrorism.

      The next step would have to be to stop teaching science and burn all science books. The dark ages were several centuries ago, maybe it's time for another one.

      • Re:C6H2(NO2)3CH3. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by HuskyDog ( 143220 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:42AM (#20570441) Homepage

        Do they really think censoring that sort of information on the web will stop anyone who wants to build a bomb?

        No, of course they don't, that is not the real purpose of the exercise. Let me try to explain.

        Suppose that you are a politician and you are being interviewed on the TV. The interviewer says "Minister, what steps is your government taking to stop terrorists acquiring bomb making instructions?". Now, you basically have two options:

        1. Patiently try to explain that this would be a pointless waste of time.
        2. Say, "We are introducing legislation forcing ISPs to block access to such reprehensible material"

        If you try option 1, then 1% of the viewers will understand the technical impossibility and agree with you, whilst the other 99% will get the vague impression that you are soft on terrorism or, at best, hear a strange buzzing noise. With option 2, OTOH, 1% of viewers will be outraged by such a pointless and stupid idea, whilst the rest will get the impression that you are tough on terrorists.

        Now, you are a smart politician and wish to be re-elected. Which one are you going to choose?

        Of course, you know full well that in a few years time you will get a question like "Minister, in the recent terrorism trial it was revealed that the terrorists obtained their bomb instructions from the internet. I thought that you had introduced legislation to prevent this?", but fortunately there are lots of ways out of this:

        • Blame "evil hackers" and announce even more draconian restrictions.
        • Blame ISPs for not implementing the law and announce increased penalties.
        • Count on the fact that by then you will have moved on or retired and it will be someone else's problem.
        • A) all real interviewers are smarter....
          B) anyone who asks your dumb questions is really a CIA/DHS stooge planning the next STASSI
          C) I would answer by saying, all this stuff has been invented EONS ago, nothing is secret or hard to do, you cannot go back to 5000BC. Info is useless anyway without materials.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by metlin ( 258108 )
          How about being ethical and doing the right thing?

          I mean, if only people were a little more honest and open about things, the world would be a better place (not to mention a little less stupid).

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrSkwid ( 118965 )
          It's even better than that, and, as usual, the crowd missing the important fluff

          the answer to 2 is in fact

          2. Say, "We intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise to see if we can introduce legislation to force ISPs to block access to such reprehensible material"

          "We intend to" isn't we are

          Then the exercise will say "it's impossible really"

          And all will be over.

          In the meantime we have Slashdotters frothing like the law has already passed.

      • My university chemistry textbook has plenty of instructions for things that can be used for terrorism.

        My high-school O-Grade Chemistry textbooks had plenty of instructions for such things, and we had teachers that encouraged us to make them. One of the few things I can still remember from all those years ago is how to make mustard gas...

    • Re:C6H2(NO2)3CH3. (Score:4, Interesting)

      by arivanov ( 12034 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:27AM (#20570283) Homepage
      1. Low power.
      2. Hard to purify. The isomers really screw up the quality of the product and getting rid of them in non-industrial environment is cumbersome. The unpurified product is unstable and dangerous to handle.
      3. Harder to produce than a number of higher power explosives (Hexogen aka T4 comes to mind).
      4. Even if they restrict the search on the Internet any University library will contain everything needed for the purpose and any chemistry major can give it to you anyway as most of these are standard reactions
      5. The chap is a "Prodotti di Berlusconi" (I apologise for my bad Italian). Idiots begat more idiots. Ignore and move along.

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:13AM (#20570127)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • What about other languages? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Spacejock ( 727523 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:13AM (#20570131)
    So they're going to block all these words, across all languages?

    And what if someone is searching for the title of a Monty Python movie where they used, for example, Holy hand grenades? Or a scene from a novel, or a TV show?
    • It's gonna be pretty hard to be a history student if you can't look up "Genocide".

      • Re:What about other languages? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sarahbau ( 692647 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:50AM (#20570523)
        Does he really think that someone searching for "genocide" is trying to learn how to commit it? That's rather silly.
        • I'll tell you right after I finish looking up "money laundering."
        • The strange thing about excluding "genocide" is that it is a crime that historically has been a government sanctioned activity. It makes you wonder if he is trying to block people from finding out what genocide is what his real purpose is behind all of this.

          Say ... for example that in the name of fighting "terrorism" the European Union (at some point in the future) decides to stamp out the Islamic religion because they decide that the religion itself is largely responsible for encouraging and perpetrating

    • So they're going to block all these words, across all languages?

      And what if someone is searching for the title of a Monty Python movie where they used, for example, Holy hand grenades? Or a scene from a novel, or a TV show?

      That's easy, they'll only block the ones that www.alqaeda.org link to.

      Xix.
    • I, along with xkcd [xkcd.com], knew that if we waited long enough, the day would come when this sentence would be on topic:

      Somebody set up us the bomb!

  • Does Mr commissioner know that something cant be totally blocked/filtered on the web, since one who is bent on finding what s/he wants will eventually find a way to find it ?

  • Next up... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Tastecicles ( 1153671 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:18AM (#20570183)
    V-Chips to be made mandatory at birth. Film at 11.
  • So the impressive solution to terrorism etc. is to simply ban the words?


    like they tried to ban prOn err... *cough* porn?

    Right!

  • Erosion of civil liberties IS terrorism (Score:5, Insightful)

    by noddyxoi ( 1001532 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:22AM (#20570217)
    Erosion of civil liberties IS terrorism for me... I want to be able to see chemistry instructions for anything i please... even to recognize a bomb... besides bombs don't have to be meant to hurt people ! Next what are they going to make people eat with their bare hands just because a fork can be used to kill someone ?!?!? STAY OUT OF MY SPACE YOU FASCISTS ! politics should be paid to simplify the system, not to make it inoperable by addind kafkanian regulations that only a few of the people understand !

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Halow8888 ( 1140609 )
      Where do you think chopsticks came from? Confucious said knifes and forks were killing tools, and thus they were banned from the eating table.
  • It's not like the Internet isn't going to route around this damage.

    The waste of time and money on this is just disheartening (though not unexpected).

    All so some silly little fool can feel "safe".

    Most people understand that "safe" is a myth. You can't protect everyone from everything (least of all, themselves).

    Go ahead and chase that unicorn if you want.

  • Genocide? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Steauengeglase ( 512315 )
    So I'm assuming all that trouble in the Balkins started when Slobodan Milosevic did a Yahoo search and told everyone around him, "Hey guys, I'm not sure if we should get this new Michael Jackson album or not but I just came across this article on genocide. Ya know, we ought go to Srebrenica and wipe everyone out to find out if its cool or not. I mean, it sounds awesome, what do you say?"

  • Everything already prepared ... (Score:4, Informative)

    by foobsr ( 693224 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:25AM (#20570241) Homepage Journal
    "Does Google censor search results?
    Yes, they sometimes do, in different countries, like Germany, France or China. Sometimes, specific content is censored globally (including US results, e.g. in the case of certain censored newsgroup messages)."

    http://blogoscoped.com/archive/2007-03-02-n19.html [blogoscoped.com]

    1984 is calling.

    CC.

  • Censorship (Score:2, Insightful)

    by TBerben ( 1061176 )
    Censorship can only go from bad to worse. At first it's only about blocking information on how to construct a bomb, but where does it end? It's a slope with no friction. It begins with anti-terrorism and it ends with a dictatorship. Censorship is never good, no matter what the original intention.

  • Don't Censor, Don't Allow Anonymous Web Use (Score:3, Funny)

    by g8orade ( 22512 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:25AM (#20570253)
    The obvious solution is to allow access to all information, but set up rules that send alerts on who is searching for the offending words, and disallow anonymous web use, if that even still exists.

    Make using the web at all require a login.
  • It is far cheaper to maintain a bunch of get-your-bomb-making-recipes-here websites that provide some kind of misleading recipes. Things that are apt to blow up while being mixed, or things that will emit fumes that slowly kill/dull the bomb makers, things that will appear to blow up in testing but in reality provides a much lower yield, some old wives tales of bomb making etc. These terrorists are not the sharpest knives in the drawer and they are not likely to smell the phony bomb recipe.

    In fact this s

    • Things that are apt to blow up while being mixed, or things that will emit fumes that slowly kill/dull the bomb makers

      Are you seriously suggesting this? For years there have been a series of busts of bomb-making rings in urban settings. These people were cooking, preparing to cook, or actually had, explosive materials. The last thing I want is for those people who are right in the middle of the city to cause a huge explosion because somebody gave them bogus information. That's not any better than if the

  • The Solution! (Score:4, Funny)

    by rlp ( 11898 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:33AM (#20570325)
    Issue copyrights on all information related to manufacturing explosives. Turn over the copyrights to the RIAA. Oh, wait ...
  • The recipe for a chocolate bomb
    A joke that kills me with laughter
    Information on the Genocide in the second world war
    The effects of terrorism on current society?

    Or does he propose an intellectual limit to the searches? That'd be fun. We'd get all kinds of _smart_ terrorists...

    B.

  • holocaust denial? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by olman ( 127310 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @08:38AM (#20570393)
    That's interesting. FTA:
    "I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.

    So in other words, Frattini is in fact trying to make information on holocaust inaccessible, among other things. Score one for neo-nazis!
  • I think someone has been watching just a little too much Harry Potter
  • of the Dylan song from the 1960's "The Mighty Quinn".
    Ev'rybody's 'neath the trees,
    Feeding pigeons on a limb
    But when Quinn the Eskimo gets here,
    All the pigeons gonna run to him.
    A cat's meow and a cow's moo, I can recite 'em all,
    Just tell me where it hurts yuh, honey,
    And I'll tell you who to call.
    ...
    It's about a pusher and his clients.
    free speech in any form, especially on the internet, will just route around censorship one way or the other.

  • Quoting the article: "I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism,"

    In what way is blocking words like genocide going to help preventing terrorism? Does our friend the commisioner even know what the word means? Is he serious that covering up the WWII holocaust or the whole Yugoslavia disaster is the best way forward? The last parties t

  • it's a good job I've already downloaded them and all the people who have been blowing us up seem to have been trained in Pakistan which last time I checked was outside the EU.

    Anyhow, all you have to do is pickup a good encyclopaedia to find out the same info.
  • In how many EU langauges? "Gift" means present in English, but poison in German. "bomba" means bomb in italian, but pump in Spanish.

    Second, who is to say an EU IP uses an EU search engine?

    This looks like bureaucratic window-dressing to me. Brussels is trying to be worse than Washington. Stiff competition.

    • .... is a bomba in Italian and a pump in English. Or something like that, but you better do not scream "Tengo una bomba!" (I have a bomb) in any crowded places in Spanish speaking countries.
  • Perhaps someone can enlighten me, but genocide? Wouldn't anyone in a position to commit such a thing naturally be able to trivially get around ANY filter? Not to mention I doubt detailed plans for most genocides are available online, but most just involved whatever was cheap - Typically guns or sharp objects. Most dictators without a significantly strong (and organized) military can't use more advanced weapons (which were almost always gas)

    Also will CSI be banned over there? It gives all sorts of ways to mu
  • Lets go through a good library and see what we should censor:
    1. History of explosives: gota get rid of all that Nobel stuff, dynamite you know
    2. World War 1: all that stuff on chemical weapons
    3. Space program: that stuff on guidance, rockets, remote sensing, remote control
    4. Electronics: all those remote detonators
    5. Chemistry: Gota get rid of those periodic tables, the bonding sequences contain hints on explosives
    6. Photography: you can use cameras to map out your target
    7. Civil engineering: those books can tell you ho
  • So ... if I can't search for the possible toxic side effects of insecticides, the nasty explosive tendencies of common household chemical mixtures, and the lethal gases emitted by other mixtures ... I am SAFER? My household is safer?

    Next thing you know, he'll be banning the use of dihydrogen monoxide

  • How does MacGuyver escape from a prison cell that only has a wooden chair? Simple- he makes a bomb from all natural ingredients.

    Gunpowder consists of charcoal, sulphur and salpeter. [wikipedia.org]

    To get charcoal, burn the chair. Without matches, rub pieces of broken chair together- this may not burn the chair but it will char it.

    Instead of sulphur, phosphorus will do- you can obtain it by evaporating urine [vanderkrogt.net].

    Shit is a good source for salpeter (KNO3) [wikipedia.org].

    Phosphorus, charcoal and salpeter are then mixed in a 1:2:9 rati

  • Ban this, Mr. Frattini! (Score:4, Funny)

    by adnonsense ( 826530 ) on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @10:10AM (#20571943) Homepage Journal

    www.how-to-make-a-bomb.eu [how-to-make-a-bomb.eu]

    (The domain's freshly registered so DNS might not be working everywhere yet).

  • OK, so how is it going to be?
    He wants to block "how to make a bomb" or "how bombs work"? Not very successful, if you are interested you already know at least 1-2 components, and then search on them.

    But wait, let's block everything related to a bomb. So first we have to block the whole periodic table, as most of the elements probably are contained in a bomb at the end.

    Then can continue with keywords that will most likely be mentioned in the simplest instruction to do anything with any project as well:

    contai
  • I'm Italian and not surprised by this proposition. Italy has a long record of censorship. Mainly on grounds of morals and good taste, Italians tend to give up freedom instantly.

    For instance, in Italy anonymous internet access is not allowed. When you want access internet in a public place you will be asked for ab ID which will be written manually into a huge big register. The forms in these registers were designed around the time Mussolini was around. In Mussolini's time traveling and communicating wer s
  • Let's assume for a moment that I'm one of those terrorists. I'm all hyped up and ready to blow me, some people and a few cubic meters of concrete up. Now, where do I go? The internet? Most certainly not. When was the last time your local radical cult told you to go on the net for more information? They want you to go to them, and only to them, for information. No matter what information. That way they can make sure you only hear what they want you to hear, and only see what they want you to see. It's a matt

  • I taught my students how to make bombs! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tsu Dho Nimh ( 663417 ) <abacaxi.hotmail@com> on Wednesday September 12, 2007 @10:52AM (#20572757)
    You would have to eliminate a lot of chemistry instruction, and here's an example:

    I was a substitute teacher for a chemistry class. We were discussing reaction rates [wikipedia.org] as part of the class material, and I pointed out that a local flour mill explosion was the result of a flour/air mix that was ignited by a spark or over-heated equipment. The flour particles could oxidize (burn) extremely quickly because they were suspended in air, and being contained in an inflexible building the pressure from all those hot gases shattered the building, as opposed to another local fire in a grain silo that was still smoldering after two weeks because the paticles were large and air supply was limited.

    On my return to that school, some days later, I was blamed for teaching the students how to blow up the trash barrels! Extrapolating from my information that flour/air mixes can go KABOOM, they shook flour into a barrel from a large kitchen shaker (the kind used for powdered sugar spreading), jammed on the lid, and gave it a spark from a battery-powered circuit. It was apparently an impressive KABOOM, although maybe not an earth-shattering one, and the trash barrel looked like it had been run over by a large truck.

    • Great, next thing you know, it will be illegal to buy flour or search for bread recipes. If baking is outlawed, only the terrorists will be bakers!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )
      Good for you. It sounds like you really got through to those students. Not only were they paying attention, but they actually applied the lessons in real life. What more could a teacher want? You should be proud.
      • I scolded them severely, of course, and told them that blowing up school property was vandalism. But yes, they were paying attention in class.
  • Kill him. Blow him up with a bomb. Genocide all who think like him.

  • Years ago, I worked for ${BIGGEST_PHARMA} when they were making the switch to users having to have 2 authorizing signatures on a form before they were given Internet access, and allowing all users access to the live Internet. This was back in 1997/1998 timeframe, when most people were still using dialup at home to get to the net.

    Initially, the Powers-that-Be that ran the network topology, fed a list of 'bad words' into their filters, and blocked any content based on that. They filtered on words like breas

  • Your search for "rwanda genocide" returned no pages. It never happened.

  • Try his disliked words in the search at the top of

    http://europa.eu/index_en.htm [europa.eu]

    EU members would not be able to get documents such as

    Council Decision 2002/494/JHA of 13 June 2002, setting up a European network of contact points in respect of persons responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes [europa.eu]

    Then again, perhaps he's a proponent of Turkish and Serb membership? Neither of those nations like the term "genocide" applied to their past... or maybe he likes revisionist history which claims Holo

  • CYA (Score:2)

    by HTH NE1 ( 675604 )

    "prevent people from... searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism
    They'd better put "treason", "war crime", and "corruption" in that list too. Those are things you also wouldn't want the populace to know about.

    Oh, and don't forget to put "censorship" in the list. That should be right at the top!
  • "I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like bomb, kill, genocide or terrorism," Frattini told Reuters.

    Yep, that's how it always starts. Then pretty soon, it devolves to this:

    "I do intend to carry out a clear exploring exercise with the private sector ... on how it is possible to use technology to prevent people from using or searching dangerous words like free, fr

  • I wonder if Mr. Frattini (who, IIRC, is an arch conservative catholic with an agenda similar to John Ashcroft's) realises what he's asking for there and how extremely difficult that would be to implement with current technology. Banning search terms like Bomb, Gun, Kill and Genocide would automatically end up blocking about 50 percent of Wikipedia alone. Banning them in the wanted context, however is something that even Google, I'm sure, would pay good money for, since the same technique would be excellent
  • So the entire European Union is going to be made to suffer intellectual poverty and repression of information because of a representative of a member state that has a historical disregard for (or outright hostility to) the institutions of democracy and free exchange of ideas (which I consider a necessary ingredient for true liberty). Expect to see more lunacy like this in the future.

    I would venture to say that anyone who can seriously put forth such a proposal doesn't "get" the notion of liberty. Amazingl
  • So if the Associated Press, Reuters, CNN, MSNBC, or any other news site were to run an article with a sentence like "police retrieved fragments of the bomb, including the explosive and the casing" would that be enough of the instructions for creating that type of bomb to force the censorship of the article? How much of the instructions is too much?

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