Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

In totally unrelated news, At the opening of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque, President Vladimir Putin suggested that embracing Muslims at home would discourage them from joining extremists abroad.

Here's another perspective on the matter: https://anarc.at/blog/2016-01-12-the-downloadable-internet/

If you don't believe me, ask a Uranian.

While homosexuality is not illegal in the country, it remains a controversial issue in the Muslim-dominated country. Now in the latest effort to crackdown on gay rights, Indonesian authorities want to ban emojis, stickers and emoticons which depict same-sex couples, the rainbow flag, and any symbol that symbolises the lesbian, bay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community. Apps that have been targeted by the demands include the popular Asian messaging app LINE, Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter. The Indonesian Communication and Information Ministry added that a particular concern was that children would find the bright coloured stickers appealing.

When it comes to hugging it would be really brilliant if the ex-colonies tried to hug real democracy and looked after the legions of citizens who are suffering. Now that would be a definitive hug!

Why planting some trees could make global warming worse

The observed effect of trees on climate in Europe is challenging widespread beliefs about how to mitigate climate change.

[…]

“Two and a half centuries of forest management in Europe have not cooled the climate,” the study concludes. “The political imperative to mitigate climate change through afforestation and forest management therefore risks failure, unless it is recognized that not all forestry contributes to climate change mitigation.”

Why would a newspaper titled "Christian Science Monitor" be addressing this issue in this particular way? Are they just monitoring, doing science, or proclaiming Christianity? All that? None of it?

Thus, two and a half centuries of forest management in Europe have not cooled the climate. The political imperative to mitigate climate change through afforestation and forest management therefore risks failure, unless it is recognized that not all forestry contributes to climate change mitigation.

But is there seriously anyone out there who thinks that "planting trees" means creating a monoculture of any species of tree, pine or otherwise?

For those of you who have traveled through U.S. airports in recent years, you may have noticed the Transport Security Administration (TSA) use a Randomizer app to randomly search travelers in the Pre-Check lane. The app randomly chooses whether travelers go left or right in the Pre-Check lane so they can't predict which lane each person is assigned to and can't figure out how to avoid the random checks. Developer Kevin Burke submitted a Freedom of Information Act request asking for details about the app. The documents he received reveals the TSA purchased the Randomizer iPad app for $336,413.59. That's $336,413.59 for an app, which is incredibly simple to make as most programming languages of choice have a randomizing function available to use. What may be even more intriguing is that the contract for the TSA Randomizer app was won by IBM. The total amount paid for the project is actually $1.4 million, but the cost is not broken down in Burke's documents. It's possible IBM supplied all the iPads and training in addition to the app itself.

Putting my two cents worth in, two TSA agents could do the same thing, by flipping a coin.

Another way would be to detonate a bomb in the check-in line, killing people and shutting down the airport before screening.

As of today, flights are also leaving from/arriving at gates B: this means the situation is back to normal for all arriving passengers.

Today, we're welcoming another 20 airlines back to #brusselsairport. Check your flight info

@elf2487 You can walk to Zaventem train station, it's +- 25 minutes from the airport. *SA

Trains are good for extra resilience when airports are out of action due to terrorists or Icelandic volcanos decide to blow themselves up.  Then again it isn't so hard to disrupt the train system either.