Saturday, March 06, 2004

Technobabble

THERE IS ONLY one way to deal with a teenager who swaps Britney ringtones with her friends: raid her home, freeze her assets, and use anonymous witnesses to denounce her in court. No, this is not some absurd parody of the music industry?s ruthless bullying of 12-year-old file-swappers. If a controversial EU directive becomes law next week, such heavy-handedness will become the norm across Europe whenever copyright owners claim to be the victims of ?piracy?.

After intense lobbying by the music and film industries, the European Union is proposing tough new sanctions against a wide range of copyright infringers. Its Directive on Intellectual Property Enforcement, due to be voted on by MEPs next Tuesday, is perfectly reasonable as far as it affects criminal gangs that sell pirated DVDs or unlicensed software. Where it could prove dangerously repressive is its failure to distinguish clearly between these organised gangs and the unintentional, amateur copyright infringers.

The directive, being pushed through by Janelly Fourtou, MEP (whose husband happens to run the Vivendi media empire), could prove even more draconian than the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), lately being used to sue American schoolchildren. Because the directive does not define the scope of ?intellectual property rights?, it could theoretically let EU states jail millions of ordinary consumers who swap song files, scan photographs or play copy-protected CDs on their PCs. As critics such as the Electronic Freedom Foundation have calculated, anyone who unwittingly infringes copyright ? even if it has no effect on the market ? could potentially have their assets seized, bank accounts frozen and home searched.

It is easy to see how the proposed sanctions will be used to strike fear in ordinary consumers and legitimate small businesses. There will be well-publicised raids on file-swappers? homes, without any prior court hearing. Academics who question the security of commercial software will find themselves accused of breaching the owners? rights. Free-software groups will face legal challenges from larger firms based on unwarranted intellectual-property claims. And over time competition, and consumer rights, will be further whittled away.

Copyright is never an easy subject to get people excited about. But if you do not welcome the idea of a British DMCA, tell your MEP before the vote next week.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-8088-1024547,00.html
posted by Irdial , 7:09 PM Þ 



Wow. Now we need this service to run like Blogdex does, so that we can see how urls spread, as they are spreading. We need each of the nodes to be interactive, so that we can go straight to the posts hosting the watched links. We need a less opaque initial interface; a list of watched urls, the most poular, sorted to eliminate power rule boredom etc....I love it.

What these tools do is show how urls spread. What they cannot do, is show you how to get your url to spread.

http://www-idl.hpl.hp.com/blogstuff/index.html
posted by Irdial , 11:01 AM Þ 
Friday, March 05, 2004

"News.com is running a little piece about Microsoft's forays into researching aspects of social computing. With AOL Buddy Lists, Yahoo Messenger, Friendster, and other mappable relationship environments, is it possible the information will soon be used against you? Scenarios such as governments tracking private citizens, investigating terrorist links, political groups finding potential donor lists, marketing departments finding affinity groups, and other easily imagined data mining opportunities could open the doors for information abuse and misinterpretation of individual ties. What implications can it bring in the future of the personal life?"

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/03/05/1619237&mode=thread


Its just like this extremely cool service except:

Its for everybody to join.
Only Google and the CIA will have access to the broader picture and its associated cool interfaces.
All the users build it for the CIA, instead of the CIA having to build it for themselvs.
posted by Irdial , 9:08 PM Þ 

Tracks off of the new Aqualung CD prove once again, as if it needee prooving, that LESS is MORE, and MORE is a BORE.

This new CD has a DRUMMER on it. It has some Very Poor and Stale® Jeff Lynne / Beatles influence piss splashed over it, and it totally lacks the texture that made the first CD so beautiful.

If he were under MY tutilage, we would have recorded it with LESS equipment of an even MORE Inferior Quality™ to make sure that that stinking rancid piss stream wouldnt come anywhere near the works. What a shame. Still, I say, if you have even one good recording in you, and it gets out, this is a miracle of sorts.
posted by Irdial , 6:47 PM Þ 

Someone clever said:

Everyone here should know that popularity is inversely proportionate to intelligence. Only intelligent people like other intelligent people. The idiots are just resentful.

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=99412&cid=8475389
posted by Irdial , 4:32 PM Þ 



Blair promises 'relentless' war on terror

"From September 11 on, I could see the threat plainly," he said. "Here were terrorists prepared to bring about Armageddon.

"Here were states whose leadership cared for no one but themselves; were often cruel and tyrannical towards their people; and who saw WMD as a means of defending themselves against any attempt, external or internal, to remove them and who, in their chaotic and corrupt state, were in any event porous and irresponsible with neither the will nor capability to prevent terrorists who also hated the west from exploiting their chaos and corruption."

He added: "The global threat to our security was clear. So was our duty: to act to eliminate it."




He is talking about the USA and it's political leaders, right?

Right.
posted by Alun , 4:28 PM Þ 

ROTFL, like WSB said, "Lets cut it up and find out what it REALLY says"!!!
posted by Irdial , 4:27 PM Þ 

The impact of a lack of imagination in the US music business has been "devastating", says the head of the Recording Industry Association of America, Cary Sherman.

He told a conference in London that a 31% decline in music sales between 1999 and 2002 was primarily due to idiocy.

"More airtime is being consumed than at any time in history, it's just that more of it is being paid for" he said.

The industry is sticking it's heaad in the ground by licensing download services and taking legal action against music pirates.

The RIAA is also backing a large-scale "psi-ops campaign" including public service adverts and targeting the university student market, a major area of enlightenment.

Mr Sherman was speaking at this week's Financial Times New Media and Broadcasting Conference in London.

Escalating online file sharing in the US suggest that lawsuits targeting freedom fighters are having no impact on peer-to-peer file-sharing of copyrighted material.

Although legitimate online robberies are up sharply, they still represent only a fraction of what is being exchanged via the net.

Rob Sisco, president of Nielsen Music, said lawsuits by the RIAA have rekindled contempt, not by striking fear in music pirates but by harassing users.

The US film industry is also threatened by rampant industry idiocy.

This has been made worse by the increased invasiveness of Hollywood and the imminent removal of technical barriers to moving and storing massive amounts of content, said Dara MacGreevy of the Motion Picture Association of America.

In 2003, Hollywood lost $3.5bn from lamentable dross syndrome alone, while internet advertising losses are harder to quantify, he added.

But despite idiocy fears, analysts believe the future conquest of the music industry lies in online digital downloads.

Since the files can be easily transported and stored on a range of devices, they have transformed the way people consume music.

Chris Gorog, head of the Napster sell-out download service, believes ventures like his will be highly ignorable in the long-term.

He told the FT conference of his plans to expand from the US into Europe this year, with the UK as the first idiocy point.

By 2008, two-thirds of music consumption in the US and nearly 80% in Europe will come in the form of downloads and streaming music over the internet, destroying a multi-billion dollar idiocy, according to a recent study by consultancy Forrester Research.

Not The Nine O'Clock News
posted by meau meau , 3:39 PM Þ 

Statement

by John Tilbury

Yes, I am talking about a predatory, aggressive, individualistic, dominant culture whose avowed aim is to impose itself, through threat of annihilation, on the rest of the world. It is a culture I have experienced, or perhaps more precisely, endured on every visit to the US. I often feel ill at ease there and (like Sam Beckett!) am relieved to leave.

Now, as for the suggestion by some of my friends that 'the greater totality of peoples and culture within its (the US) borders might be of other (and more important?) dimensions (than the US administration)' Ð the fact is, as we have experienced ourselves many times, people in the US are kept in abject ignorance in relation to the world at large. (A young English friend of mine, teaching in North Carolina for a year on a teachersÕ exchange programme, was hauled up in front of the Director of the school, the day after the US attack had begun, for unfurling a map and pointing out to her 7 year-olds where Iraq was) Even those that have/had ÔreservationsÕ have been hoodwinked by the propaganda that the US has striven to cooperate with world governments through the UN (which we know they control through all manner of skulduggery, bribery and corruption, threats - ­­­­­­­­­­which all boils down to the simple watchword: be bought or be slaughtered), whilst those who claim to oppose it have sunk into a shoulder-shrugging quietism. And I say this in full knowledge of, and respect for, those activists in the US who are struggling to stem, if not reverse, the tide of permanent war which is at the core of the US ImperialistsÕ (yes, let us choose our words carefully and accurately) agenda.

But what the shoulder-shruggers can do is to organise paid seminars, workshops and festivals for the likes of us in the noble pursuit of sharpening the sensibilities and deepening the emotional responses of a relatively privileged audience. While in our name, in relation to the current crisis, possibly or probably, at that very moment, with our money and through our labour, the most appalling atrocities are being planned and perpetrated. Because this cannot be war. War is a misnomer. It is mass slaughter.

My contention is that by submitting oneself to the formal procedure of entering the US, by presenting oneself and oneÕs passport to American custom officials for acceptance and approval (and now to be finger-printed: 21.1.04), one is conferring a status of legitimacy, of normality, on a situation which is abnormal. (Nor, for that matter, would I knowingly travel on an airline which hires Ôsky-marshalsÕ) Furthermore, in making music there we are not Ôinforming and enlightening the peoples of the USAÕ; we are in fact providing them with an alibi, a temporary escape, a haven, from the harsh realities of the consequences of the ideology in which they are subsumed. Just as the Orchestras who played Beethoven in the Third Reich did. (ÒArt is a substitute for action, especially good action; it need not be diligently assimilated or transformed into our own personal understanding and practice.Ó Iris Murdoch.) [...]

Mmmmm John Tilbury writes good!
posted by Irdial , 2:19 PM Þ 

I am in a good mood, I saw Keith Rowe and John Tilbury play live last night JT was playing church organ, basically playing sustained notes of increasing pitch right through the organ's range, and KR did his table top guitar mastery over the top. Simple and great.

And the wolf. Of course.
posted by meau meau , 1:06 PM Þ 

Damn, I'm in a good mood today.

And all of those billions; do they come from:

  • a money tree?

  • a crock of gold at the end of a perpetual rainbow?

  • some other magical place?


    • It comes directly from YOUR POCKETS. This is the fact that no one that cares wants to face, this is the dirty secret that the Stop War loosers will not confront; it is the Homosexuality of the 21st century, the love that dare not speak its name, the love of feeding the war machine. Every member of Stop War is feeding that machine, all the protesters, campaigners speakers - they all contribute to it, never address it, behave like it is not happening.

    Its pathetic.

    Its not even a little surprising that stop war is organizing yet ANOTHER demonstration"
    Central London
    Saturday 20th March, 12 Noon, from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square
    Outline of events leading up to the national demonstration
    Download petition Sign petition on-line Order your leaflets and posters


    Is it just me, or are they really the most insane people in creation?!
    posted by Irdial , 1:06 PM Þ 

    Professor Bjorn Lomborg is a twat, an egoist and a time-waster



    Professor Lomborg said: "The world faces a series of serious problems such as pollution, hunger and disease. Which problem should be addressed first?
    "There are 800m people starving, 2.5bn people lacking sewerage, and billions affected by climate change.
    "We all wish there was enough money to solve every problem. But there is a limit to how much money we have."

    [...]the amount spent annually on development aid [worldwide] is about $50bn.[...]

    US Defense Budget Request for Fiscal Year 2003
    In February 2002, the US President proposed a total of US$ 379.3 billion for the Department of Defense for fiscal year 2003 (including if needed $10 billion to fight terrorism.) This is a $45.3 billion increase as compared to FY2002. Added to this must be $15.6 billion for nuclear weapons activities of the Department of Energy.

    The Council for a Livable World states that "the increase alone is larger than the military budget of all other countries beside Japan, whose budget is $45.6 billion." Until FY2007, the budget is to increase to $451.4 billion (plus $16.9 billion for the nuclear weapons program).

    $7.8 billion will go into development of layered missile defenses. The Navy Area Theater Wide program has been cancelled. An additional $815 million go into space-based sensors, while the SBIRS-Low program slips by two years.

    Over $27 billion of the budget are reserved to fight the war against terrorism. In this context, the President plans an additional $37.7 billion budget for homeland defense.....


    The president of the World Bank condemned the amount developed countries spend on defence yesterday, saying it was "madness" compared with the sums committed to aid projects. James Wolfensohn told an audience in Australia: "We are spending 20 times the amount on military expenditure than what we are spending on trying to give hope to people."
    He added: "If a Martian came to earth and read the [UN's] millennium development goals, and then looked at what we're doing, you'd think we were mad. We are spending a trillion dollars a year on defence.

    "We talk about freeing trade and we've got $300bn to $350bn being spent in ... agricultural subsidy or tariffs, and we're spending maybe $50bn on development.

    "The world is spending less now that it was spending 40 years ago, percentage wise, in terms of development. We have got it tremendously wrong in the way in which we are addressing the questions of poverty, development and its importance."



    Solving Prof. Lomborg's list of problems has nothing to do with money. NOTHING. If people really wanted to solve these problems it could be done in the blink of an eye. However, I think he likes sitting around, discussing, salving his own fat-headed, Western liberal conscience, mingling with Nobel laureates to satisfy his intellectual vanity, fooling himself and those who listen to him into believing he's actually doing something constructive. When really he's just a twat.

    He should be intelligent enough to know that.

    Damn, I'm in a good mood today.
    posted by Alun , 12:10 PM Þ 

    posted by meau meau , 12:03 PM Þ 
    Thursday, March 04, 2004

    ***** ***** wrote:

    > Dear Irdial representative
    >
    > I am a final year undergraduate at Sussex University studying BA Music
    > and Media Studies. I am writing a dissertation on record companies and
    > their role within popular culture. I am contacting record labels to gain
    > relevant and actual information that can help me form a concise opinion
    > on the topic. Therefore, I would be incredibly grateful if you could
    > spare some time to answer my questions below. I appreciate that you are
    > very busy and may not have time to do this, but any information at all
    > would be greatly received.

    > 1.) To what extent does the company allow artistic autonomy?

    Much more than other labels.

    >
    > 2.) What marketing strategies does Irdial employ for both new and
    > existing signings? How does the company know and address their demographic?

    We do not employ marketing strategies. Marketing and music are two separate things.

    We do not deliberately address any demographic. Demographics and music are two different things. We are a company that offers music to the public. We are not a marketing company or a statistical analysis company.

    >
    > 3.) "Music is not simply received as sound, but through its association
    > with a series of images, identities and associated values, beliefs and
    > affective desires. Marketing staff are acutely aware of this and
    > strategically attempt to create these links - between the music and
    > image and the artist and consumer." (quote from Keith Negus) Where does
    > Irdial stand on this opinion?

    That opinion is just that; an opinion. Arguably it is people like "Keith Negus" who have stabbed the heart of popular music expression, by foisting their seductive opinions on companies that should only respond to music and not the vaccuous opinions of marketers and salary addict statistic manglers who are desperate to find a place in the "music industry".

    >
    > 4.) Do Irdial advertise anywhere?

    No.

    >
    > 5.) Recorded music has become viewed as a commodity - with use and
    > exchange values attached. To what extent does Irdial attempt to displace
    > this and return the full artistic value to music?

    We are the record label that we would like to be able to buy from. Since that label did not exist before Irdial, we created it. Our mission is to release music that we love. It is our sole mission. The percieved value of what we do is in the mind of the recipient only, and more often than not, it is a pure illusion.

    >
    > I apologise if you view this as a waste of time, but any response would
    > be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time.
    >

    I answered your questions with pleasure. I hope you pass.

    ./a
    posted by Irdial , 12:55 PM Þ 
    posted by alex_tea , 11:15 AM Þ 

    Its rather good to quote:
    The lifestyle guru Carole Caplin, who once exerted great influence over Cherie Blair, claims today that “extremely powerful forces” consisting of ‘leading figures in the medical establishment, senior civil servants and government health advisers” have suppressed debate on the vaccine and “discredited anyone questioning MMR”.
    I dont buy this at all. Bliar should have jabbed his child in public.
    ...the Blairs feared Leo would be used as a political tool to promote government policy.
    Bliar claims that he is s Christian, and so should have had no problem at all injecting his son in public as a sacrificial lamb.

    I wont believe that that boy has had MMR. Maybe they faked the vaccination records? This "leak" is very convenient, coming at almost the same moment that seven out of ten of the researchers pulled their paper form The Lancet. They could easily arrange a faked vaccination record, and its likely given that:
    Cherie Blair, who has indulged in plastic hip-reducing “therapy pants”, acupuncture earrings to beat stress and a crystal pendant to promote calm, is known for her scepticism over many aspects of conventional medicine, including the benefits of vaccines.
    People fake vaccination records all the time in the USA where you are not allowed to send your child to school if she has not been jabbed.

    NO $ALE!!
    posted by Irdial , 11:04 AM Þ 

    The doctors issued a public retraction on Wednesday. However, it was not signed by three of the co-authors.

    7 doctors do not want to be sucked into the vortex that is destroying Dr. Wakefield maybe?

    Maybe in the interest of the public, the same trials should be run again, WITHOUT a conflict of interest?

    Maybe MMR should be dropped altogether so that there is no risk at all?

    Single jabs for free. What is the problem with that?!
    posted by Irdial , 10:30 AM Þ 
    Wednesday, March 03, 2004

    posted by Ken , 8:01 PM Þ 

    Dr Wakefield's co-authors retract the original Lancet MMR paper.

    And... there's a leak, or another porkie pie rolling out of Downing Street.
    posted by Alun , 7:40 PM Þ 

    Through our door today, a card proclaiming...

    Mr Badawi
    International Medium and Clairvoyant


    I can solve all your problems regarding: To bring back love relations stronger or to bring back betrayed wives or husbands back to good relations, Black Magic of all types, those with hard luck to good luck, to cure some terrible secret diseases, to put ones head above water in court matters, immigration problems, to make you protected from all black magic jobs and black evil work done to you and to make your lover, husband, wife or else stick to your side alone, and if somebody betrayed you, I can make sure he or she comes back to you immediately and many other things concerning black magic job etc. If you want to end all your worries and have fast result to your problem, make sure you contact
    Mr Badawi
    Telephone 020 XXXX XXXX


    So if any Blogdialians need a little help, let me know and I'll forward the number.
    In Hackney, everything is possible.
    posted by Alun , 7:25 PM Þ 

    Yes, but even if they are iNsAnE enough to invite a known rapist into their beds with a pot of vaseline, there will always be alternatives like the Chinese DVD standard so if you need to manufacture a DVD player, you could do it without paying a new Micro$oft tax.

    Frankly these people havent got a clue. They should be putting their efforts into the new OOG video work, the launch of which is several years down the line. They will be able to exert influence on how it develops, and it will be a free solution, with whatever DRM they want to add in.

    They could even use Helix from Real. ANYTHING other than WMP9.
    posted by Irdial , 4:03 PM Þ 

    ...But whether DVD players become PCs or not, anyone who writes a DVD player app for another platform will need to licence Microsoft technology, if the Forum codifies its recent decision. The Register
    posted by meau meau , 3:37 PM Þ 
    posted by Ken , 1:55 PM Þ 

    but the one you gave was

    Yes indeed, which is why I said:
    on a Tinyurl

    Tinyurl seems to spit out different size urls....either way, it really can deliver a "gynirmuss numba" of unique URLs. What would be cool is an API so that you can turn long urls into tiny ones directly in your email client....
    posted by Irdial , 11:29 AM Þ 

    Its the total number of possible Tinyurls' that Tinyurl can deliver, based on a Tinyurl that Tinyurl spat out.

    <anal>but the one you gave was 2rlwg so it should be 10!*26!*26!*26!*26!. Actually I think you can have number followed by 4 alphanumerics so it's 10!*36!*36!*36!*36!</anal>


    GARGANTUAN
    posted by meau meau , 10:42 AM Þ 

    The maximum number of thing able to be recorded by the identification numbering system, which gives a unique five digit code to each thing comprising a number, two letters, a number and a final letter. 

    You get the marks. Its the total number of possible Tinyurls' that Tinyurl can deliver, based on a Tinyurl that Tinyurl spat out.
    posted by Irdial , 10:33 AM Þ 

    Original memo from the NSA in the USA asking for
    GCHQ's interception of
    communications from Angola, Cameroon, Chile
    Bulgaria and Guinea prior to
    the second UN vote on Iraq (which failed), see:
    http://www.statewatch.org/news/2004/feb/memo.pdf
    posted by Irdial , 10:30 AM Þ 

    A new chipless RFID system could protect sensitive documents and banknotes and eventually create "hands-free" bar code scanning
    RFID Journal

    The tiny chemical particles can be embedded in or printed on paper. Readers can be placed inside copy machines to prevent unauthorized copying. One application would be to require that any document printed on CrossID's special paper be photocopied onto the same type of paper. That way, an intelligence agency, financial institution or even a company wanting to protect its intellectual property could install readers at building exits to prevent unauthorized people from copying documents and leaving the building with them.

    -

    doom! DOOM! DOOM!

    What if you gave each person an RFID implant and then when you had information pertaining to the suspicion that a person had tendencies which could be interpreted towards providing a comfortable environment which may facilitate TERRRORRRISM or the bug bear of the day. Then you could program ATMs or cash tills not to function in the presence of the RFID of the said person, etc, etc.

    -

    The maximum number of thing able to be recorded by the identification numbering system, which gives a unique five digit code to each thing comprising a number, two letters, a number and a final letter.
    posted by meau meau , 10:04 AM Þ 

    Okay back to our regular programming ....
    Of doom! DOOM! DOOM!

    Your privacy will be gone forever. Your control over your finances will be gone forever

    But what happens when someone says NO to the smoked Oyster card? What oh what will happen? Will they be kicked out of the country or something?
    One amusing point is that if they don't track spending by direct debit, then they will track spending by cash with electronic chips in the eye of the Queen. Y'know, so they know everyone is buying the right brand of crisps. Or something.
    This is pretty huge - something that needs a massive campaign to fight against it. Too bad campaigns need money. Enough money to get people off their asses, right? At least I get to visit Britain before it plunges straight to the depths of hell.

    I find this situation very amusingly similar to something Philip K Dick would come up with. A privacy-raping card that is gobbled up by the stupid/uninformed masses because of the convenience it lends to buying useless shit. The masses end up in a police state with no middle class thanks to their voracious appetite for material. I think I've said this before, but it's like some futurist dystopia come horribly real.
    Where ever Dick is now, he must either be laughing or crying.
    posted by Barrie , 6:10 AM Þ 

    Kind of off topic, but I wanted to say, meau meau, the post you wrote last week about the Loos architectural style was very cool.

    Okay back to our regular programming ....
    posted by mary13 , 3:41 AM Þ 
    Tuesday, March 02, 2004

    Do as I say, not as I do:

    http://www.downingstreetsays.org/archives/000281.html#comment147

    An awesome site that recounts all the blies of bliar and is human baboons. Thats a DEVO idea.
    posted by Irdial , 11:24 PM Þ 



    So we chose to 'microwave' our cash, over $1000 in twenties in a stack, not spread out on a carasoul. Do you know what exploded on American money?? The right eye of Andrew Jackson on the new twenty, every bill was uniform in it's burning... Isnt that interesting? [...]

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/022904rfidtagsexplode.html
    posted by Irdial , 4:58 PM Þ 

    Subject: "Suspected Terrorist" button gets Gilmore ejected from airplane
    Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 21:46:43 -0700
    From: John Gilmore

    You probably already know about my opposition to useless airport security crap. I'm suing John Ashcroft, two airlines, and various other agencies over making people show IDs to fly -- an intrusive measure that provides no security. (See http://freetotravel.org). But I would be hard pressed to come up with a security measure more useless and intrusive than turning a plane around because of a political button on someone's lapel.

    My sweetheart Annie and I tried to fly to London today (Friday) on British Airways. We started at SFO, showed our passports and got through all the rigamarole, and were seated on the plane while it taxied out toward takeoff. Suddenly a flight steward, Cabin Service Director Khaleel Miyan, loomed in front of me and demanded that I remove a small 1" button pinned to my left lapel. I declined, saying that it was a political statement and that he had no right to censor passengers' political speech. The button, which was created by political activist Emi Koyama, says "Suspected Terrorist". Large images of the button and I appear in the cover story of Reason Magazine this month, and the story is entitled "Suspected Terrorist".

    (See Reason Article.)

    Get your button here!

    The steward returned with Capt. Peter Hughes. The captain requested, and then demanded, that I remove the button (they called it a "badge"). He said that I would endanger the aircraft and commit a federal crime if I did not take it off. I told him that it was a political statement and declined to remove it.

    They turned the plane around and brought it back to the gate, delaying 300 passengers on a full flight.

    We were met at the jetway by Carol Spear, Station Manager for BA at SFO. She stated that since the captain had told her he was refusing to transport me as a passenger, she had no other course but to take me off the plane. I offered no resistance. I reminded her of the court case that United lost when their captain removed a Middle Eastern man who had done nothing wrong, merely because "he made me uncomfortable". She said that she had no choice but to uphold the captain and that we could sort it out in court later, if necessary. She said that my button was in "poor taste".

    Later, after consulting with (unspecified) security people, Carol said that if we wanted to fly on the second and last flight of the day, we would be required to remove the button and put it into our checked luggage (or give it to her). And also, our hand-carried baggage would have to be searched to make sure that we didn't carry any more of these terrorist buttons onto the flight and put them on, endangering the mental states of the passengers and crew.

    I said that I understood that she had refused me passage on the first flight because the captain had refused to carry me, but I didn't understand why I was being refused passage on the second one. I suggested that BA might have captains with different opinions about free speech, and that I'd be happy to talk with the second captain to see if he would carry me. She said that the captain was too busy to talk with me, and that speaking broadly, she didn't think BA had any captains who would allow someone on a flight wearing a button that said "Suspected Terrorist". She said that BA has discretion to decline to fly anyone. (And here I had thought they were a common carrier, obliged to carry anyone who'll pay the fare, without discrimination.) She said that passengers and crew are nervous about terrorism and that mentioning it bothers them, and that is grounds to exclude me. I suggested that if they wanted to exclude mentions of terrorists from the airplane, then they should remove all the newspapers from it too.

    I asked whether I would be permitted to fly if I wore other buttons, perhaps one saying "Hooray for Tony Blair". She said she thought that would be OK. I said, how about "Terrorism is Evil". She said that I probably wouldn't get on. I started to discuss other possible buttons, like "Oppose Terrorism", trying to figure out what kinds of political speech I would be permitted to express in a BA plane, but she said that we could stand there making hypotheticals all night and she wasn't interested. Ultimately, I was refused passage because I would not censor myself at her command.

    After the whole interaction was over, I offered to tell her, just for her own information, what the button means and why I wear it. She was curious. I told her that it refers to all of us, everyone, being suspected of being terrorists, being searched without cause, being queued in lines and pens, forced to take our shoes off, to identify ourselves, to be x-rayed and chemically sniffed, to drink our own breast milk, to submit to indignities. Everyone is a suspected terrorist in today's America, including all the innocent people, and that's wrong. That's what it means. The terrorists have won if we turn our country into an authoritarian theocracy "to defeat terrorism". I suggested that British Airways had demonstrated that trend brilliantly today. She understood but wasn't sympathetic -- like most of the people whose individual actions are turning the country into a police state. [...]

    http://freetotravel.org/terrorist.html
    posted by Irdial , 4:06 PM Þ 

    TfLondon's Oyster card could also be used by the city's boroughs to bolt-on additional services. [...]

    http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/31061.html

    Yet another thing to thank Mr. Livingston for. Brilliant.

    Hong Kong is testing out the "Octopus Card" whcih is the most appropriately named govt issued smart card; its tentacles will reach in and touch every part of your life. Do I really have to make an ecchi link? No, didnt think so.

    They use this card to get into where they live, to use public transport, to shop, to go tho the swimming pool to work....everything that requires access, which even means passing from inside or outside of your own house.

    I said that Hong Kong is testing it. That is a lie. Its CHINA that is testing this system. When they unleash it in the mainland, they will abolish cash (yes, they can do that) and then they will have wrested complete control over the Chinese population with a single strike.

    Astonishing. And its going to happen here for sure. It cannot happen by edict, but instead, will happen by erosion. It will become so convenient that no one will ever want to go back to the days of cash, and the govt will be able to justify the move to Oyster by the savings on printing and managing unwieldly physical money. Your privacy will be gone forever. Your control over your finances will be gone forever. There will only be direct debit, and depending on the situation, your account will be evilmagically debited when needed, for jay walking, parking "offenses" $name_your_crime.

    Thinking about it, Oyster is a very good name for this card; you are the soft, succulent colorless fleshy goop that is going to be permanantly trapped inside the near inpenetrable shell of Oyster, without your Perl.

    Oh yes.
    posted by Irdial , 3:56 PM Þ 

    Dead Media Project
    A very very cool page, found while researching Bruce Sterling/cyberpunk stuff. A big list of all sorts of obsolete forms of media.
    posted by Barrie , 7:16 AM Þ 
    Monday, March 01, 2004

    Passion tickets bear 'mark of the beast'

    ROME, Georgia (AP) --Tickets at one movie theater screening Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" are being deemed decidedly unholy.

    The number 666, which many Christians recognize as the "mark of the beast," is appearing on movie tickets for Gibson's film at a Georgia theater, drawing complaints from some moviegoers.

    The machine that prints tickets assigned the number 666 as a prefix on all the tickets for the film, said Gary Smith, owner of the Movies at Berry Square in northwest Georgia. The 666 begins a series of numbers that are listed below the name of the movie, the date, time and price.

    "It's from our computer and it's absolutely a coincidence," Smith said. "It has nothing to do with the film company or any vendor. It's completely in our computer."

    In the Bible, the book of Revelation says 666 is the "number of the beast," usually interpreted as Satan or the Antichrist.

    Several patrons have made comments about the numbers, and one person who was uncomfortable having 666 on her ticket asked for a pass to be substituted for a ticket.

    "A lot of people have asked what the numbers mean, some said it seemed odd, some said it was inappropriate," said theater employee Erica Diaz.

    The movie, which opened Wednesday, is a bloody depiction of Christ's final hours and crucifixion.

    http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/03/01/offbeat.passion.ap/index.html
    posted by Irdial , 8:45 PM Þ 

    A puzzle for you:

    http://tinyurl.com/2rlwg
    posted by Irdial , 12:30 PM Þ 

    Have we finished corpsing?

    There has been a mild keening of the ears with Billy Bragg's proposal that the House of Lords should be indirectly elected in proportion to actual votes for Commons MPs and at the same time as the election. Well the MPs seem pretty engaged by the idea, so, what is wrong with it?

    Well the main validation of the HoL is that it acts as a check & balance against the Government of the day - having the ability to reconsider and reject poor or knee-jerk legislation. As soon as you have the composition of HoL mirroring the Commons you lose an intrinsic balance against the Government. This is compounded when not only would the Upper Chamber correspond to the Lower Chamber but in an indirect election the members of the UC would be appointed by the Government, the majority in the UC will necessarily be sympathetic to the Government if not in a first term then certainly in a second.
    Another current feature of the HoL is the element of non party-aligned Crossbenchers. It is difficult to see a how a 'non-political' element could be effectively retained under Bragg's suggestions, even if not Party affiliated by name there wuill be an element of cronyism in any appointments by the Political parties.
    The only ceratinty is that his proposal would increase the Party Political nature of the UC and that would be a great loss in a climate where Party politics is so self-referential that legislation is passed out under the duress of intra-party bullying, without regard to manifesto commitments and without sympathy to the obvious feelings of the electorate.
    posted by meau meau , 11:33 AM Þ 
    Sunday, February 29, 2004

    I hope to live to find out.
    So do I.... Meanwhile here is the one of my favorite episodes of south park showing what might happen:
    Kyle: Why do you put them into people's asses? Are you planning some kind of alien takeover?
    Alien: Oh, heavens no! We're a production company. We make intergalactic television programs that the whole universe watches. [enters the next room]
    Stan: [looks back at his friends] Television? [the boys enter the next room. In that room visitors are all over the place manning the various aspects of a production company]
    Alien: We at Nerzod Productions started twenty billion years ago with one philosophy: the best universal television isn't scripted, it's real. [Stan and Kyle look at each other] We started with great shows like, "Who Wants To Marry A Gelgamek?" and "Antares 6 Millionaire". And then we had a big hit with "Get Me Outta Here, I'm a Klingnanian". But then of course, there's our signature show. The greatest universal reality show of all time. [he looks at a giant screen on which Earth is shown]
    Kyle: Earth?
    Alien: A few billion years ago we realized, "what if we took species from all different planets in the universe, and put them together, on the same planet?" Great TV, right? Asians, bears, ducks, Jews, deer and Hispanics, all trying to live side by side on one planet! It's great! [the boys are stunned at what they're hearing]
    Stan: Our planet is just a reality-TV show?
    Alien: Well, you don't think the whole universe works the way Earth does, do you? No! One species, one planet! There's a planet of deer, a planet of Asians, and so on! We put them all together on Earth and the whole universe tunes in to watch the fun!
    Kyle: You mean that you aliens actually enjoy sitting around and watching us fight and kill each other? Dude, that's messed up.
    Alien: Why?
    Stan: Why?? Because you're playing with people's lives! You're turning people's problems into entertainment!
    Cartman: Yeah! We'd never do that on Earth!
    posted by Alison , 8:17 AM Þ 
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