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[LordSlowpoke]

I reckon the good news is that there's a Belgian government.

Although it can't be that severe if they took the leisure to get hacked that many times.

Not for long anyway. The elections are in a month or something, and seem like they might be headed towards another blockade.

can i just walk into parliament during a blockade and take over belgium

[10ebbor10]

You can try.

[Loud Whispers]

Anyway, unrelated news. The Belgian government managed to get hacked again. They suspect Russia this time, but have no proof.

Probably only made this claim through elimination of suspects. It can't have been the British (they hacked us a bit before that), can't have been the Americans (they hacked us even earlier), might be the Chinese, but from what I see about the quality of our cybersecurity, it appears we outsourced it to them.

Have you tried turning your government off and on again?

[Guardian G.I.]

Spoiler: Meanwhile in Ukraine (click to show/hide)

Pro-Russian forces are currently negotiating the unification of People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, as bloodthirsty RIA Novosti tells us.

An even more bloodthirsty source, Russian television channel LifeNews reports that pro-Russian forces are fighting the Ukrainian National Guard in Slavyansk. Pro-Russian forces, which somehow managed to acquire a single 2S9 Nona self-propelled artillery gun, shelled National Guard's positions at the Slavyansk animal feed factory. Reportedly, Ukrainian Guardsmen were demoralized by the shelling and retreated, forcing the Ukrainian command to send replacement troops. Pro-Russian forces' commander in Slavyansk Igor Strelkov claimed that Nona was first used by pro-Russian forces on the night of 11th of May. It was used to suppress Ukrainian artillery around the television tower at Mount Karachun. The shelled Ukrainian troopers' reaction on the radio was reportedly along the lines of "WHY?!"

Also, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban stated that Hungary will demand autonomy for ethnic Hungarians living in neighbouring countries, including Ukraine.

[Loud Whispers]

Spoiler: Meanwhile in Ukraine (click to show/hide)

The shelled Ukrainian troopers' reaction on the radio was reportedly along the lines of "WHY?!"[/url]

No one likes getting shelled, except Jacko, but that's a weird one. Any chance this artillery was acquired from the salt mine?

[smjjames]

Lol on the Hungarian PM pulling the same thing that Russia did, without the invasion. Russia really let loose a can of worms here, or would Pandora's box be a better metaphor?

Though it all seems to go back to the treaty of Trianon and is kind of separate from what Russia did. The article does state that dual citizenship would be good and Hungary isn't trying to annex back it's old territories.

[XXSockXX]

Lol on the Hungarian PM pulling the same thing that Russia did, without the invasion. Russia really let loose a can of worms here, or would Pandora's box be a better metaphor?

Though it all seems to go back to the treaty of Trianon and is kind of separate from what Russia did. The article does state that dual citizenship would be good and Hungary isn't trying to annex back it's old territories.

Yeah, it isn't like Hungary would pull a Russia on it's neighbours. There has been a rise of nationalistic rhetoric in Hungary in the last few years, some of it is understandable (if you look at the treaty of Trianon), other stuff is more worrying (antisemitism, rise of the Jobbik party, some constitutional changes restricting freedom of the press etc). Got nothing to do with the way Russia has been acting recently though.

[vagel7]

Why oh why must that part of Europe be again and again a source of conflict and pressure?

The thing really is that while Russia can get away with certain things, a country like Hungary would not if it would choose to act.

[10ebbor10]

EU court backs 'right to be forgotten'

More specifically, Google and other search engines are no obligated to delete links relating to those people upon those people's request.

Edit: I don't think I actually support this. I mean, the info is still out there, it just makes it harder to find.

[LordSlowpoke]

oho

ohohohohoho

OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO

* LordSlowpoke googles own name

* LordSlowpoke starts compiling an email

I AM BECOME GHOST

[MetalSlimeHunt]

EU court backs 'right to be forgotten'

More specifically, Google and other search engines are no obligated to delete links relating to those people upon those people's request.

Edit: I don't think I actually support this. I mean, the info is still out there, it just makes it harder to find.

Yeah, I'm definitely against this. Big data doesn't need to die, it just needs to be freely available to everybody.

[RedKing]

Yeah I heard about that on BBC earlier today and my initial reaction was NOPE.

I can fully imagine Donald Rumsfeld wanting Internet searches to "forget" those pictures of him smiling and shaking hands with Saddam Hussein back in the 80's.
Or for some public office seeker to want some vitriolic, extremist rant from his/her earlier days buried.

And then, of course, there's Rick "Please Don't Google Me" Santorum.


Like most laws regarding information, this one would just wind up abused by the rich and powerful and difficult to access for the masses.

[10ebbor10]

Yup, it doesn't hinder big data in the least, (Remember, it only affects search engines, the actual pages still exist) who have their own crawlers and databases.

It only affects the common folk who rely on search engines to find stuff.

[Guardian G.I.]

Spoiler: Meanwhile in Ukraine (click to show/hide)

The shelled Ukrainian troopers' reaction on the radio was reportedly along the lines of "WHY?!"[/url]

No one likes getting shelled, except Jacko, but that's a weird one. Any chance this artillery was acquired from the salt mine?

Probably not. The salt mine converted into a weapon stockpile only contained WW2-era small arms, plus (IIRC) there were reports back in mid-April claiming that Ukrainian security forces booby-trapped the mine to prevent it from falling into the hands of pro-Russian forces. However, Igor Strelkov, the commander of pro-Russian forces in Slavyansk claimed that some of his troopers are armed with PTRS-41 anti-tank rifles, used by Red Army soldiers during the Great Patriotic War. Some other pro-Russian militiamen were spotted being armed with PPSh-41 submachine guns, also dating to WW2, meaning that pro-Russian forces probably did actually break into the mines containing WW2 small arms and took some for themselves (or someone provided it to them).
Lots of WW2 weaponry was conserved by the Soviet Union after the war - should the Soviet Army lose their modern armament due to NATO nuclear bombardment, they were to reopen numerous hidden stockpiles of old WW2 weapons and ammunition and continue fighting. Plus, it was probably intended to be used by partisans on territories occupied by the enemy.

In other news, Russian Deputy PM Dmitri Rogozin announced that 11 American GPS ground stations operating on Russian territory (GPS ground stations were put there according to a treaty signed in 1993) will be forced to cease operations on the 1st of June and all remaining stations will be forced to cease operations on the 1st of September, unless America agrees to Russia's proposal from last year to place 8 GLONASS ground stations on American soil. The American government originally rejected it, after accusations raised by American intelligence agencies that Russia is intending to use them to direct Russian missiles at American targets. Russia has accused America of doing the same with their GPS ground stations.

[smjjames]

Aren't those GPS stations also used by civilians?

It would be great if both countries dropped the west vs east attitude. Didn't the US and Soviets have monitors at each others facilities as some sort of agreement?