Saturday, July 09, 2005
posted by alex_tea , 3:14 PM Þ 

When a superior man hears of the Tao, he immediately begins to embody it.
When an average man hears of the Tao, he half believes it, half doubts it.
When a foolish man hears of the Tao, he laughs out loud.
If he didn't laugh, it wouldn't be the Tao.

Thus it is said:

The path into the light seems dark.
The path forward seems to go back.
The direct path seems long.
True power seems weak.
True purity seems tarnished.
True steadfastness seems changeable.
True clarity seems obscure.
The greatest person seems unsophisticated.
The greatest love seems indifferent.
The greatest wisdom seems childish.
The Tao is nowhere to be found. Yet it nourishes and completes all things.

[...]
posted by Irdial , 12:47 PM Þ 

...We will all then be free to argue about garbage collection, traffic congestion, beer and pubs, and everything else civilized people discuss day in and day out.

Bush visited Denmark the 5th and 6th july, he was here in 17 hours. Then he went to 8vil meeting.



We have much panic in Denmark, yesterday police "took care" at the station were I go to work - like it would help anything?

Papers write about Denmark getting attacked by terrorists.... We should just the fuck out of Irak and Afghanistan, then be free to argue about garbage collection, traffic congestion, beer and pubs, and everything else civilized people discuss day in and day out...
posted by Alison , 12:46 PM Þ 

The ICA seems to be showing some Peter Watkins films. I recommend them from what I've seen in the past - they're quite politically charged but he has a better sensibility than Brecht's sledgehammer approach.
I particularly recommend La Commune, at 6 hours and in French (and with handheld b/w camera) it's not an easy ride at first but like a raga it's intensity works itself into your being and after 4 hours it becomes quite exhilerating and long before that you should have forgotten about the subtitles and see the subtleties.
Also Punishment Park is interesting but it lacks the same intensity probably due to the unremittingly spartan landscape in which it is shot. It is also quite prescient about authoritarian responses to civil dissent
posted by meau meau , 11:10 AM Þ 

A Letter To The Terrorists, From London July 07, 2005

londonskyline.jpg
What the fuck do you think you're doing?

This is London. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.

Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.

All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.

And if, as your MO indicates, you're an al-Qaeda group, then you're out of your tiny minds.

Because if this is a message to Tony Blair, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're London, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the pub.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

[...]


http://www.lnreview.co.uk/news/005167.php

Now.

Lets replace the relevant words:

A Letter To The Terrorists, From Baghdad
July 07, 2005

What the fuck do you think you're doing?

This is Baghdad. We've dealt with your sort before. You don't try and pull this on us.

Do you have any idea how many times our city has been attacked? Whatever you're trying to do, it's not going to work.

All you've done is end some of our lives, and ruin some more. How is that going to help you? You don't get rewarded for this kind of crap.

And if, as your MO indicates, you're an us-Neocon group, then you're out of your tiny minds.

Because if this is a message to Saddam Hussein, we've got news for you. We don't much like our government ourselves, or what they do in our name. But, listen very clearly. We'll deal with that ourselves. We're Baghdad, and we've got our own way of doing things, and it doesn't involve tossing bombs around where innocent people are going about their lives.

And that's because we're better than you. Everyone is better than you. Our city works. We rather like it. And we're going to go about our lives. We're going to take care of the lives you ruined. And then we're going to work. And we're going down the coffee house.

So you can pack up your bombs, put them in your arseholes, and get the fuck out of our city.

Hmmmm.

That is precisely what angry people in Baghdad will have been thinking for the last ten years. Horror is horror is horror. No innocent in any city should be bombed for any reason, ever. If we start from there, then reciprocal violence cannot even begin.

Do you need the standard disclaimer and testimonial about how much I love London and this great country? If you read this blog regularly, then the answer is 'no', so I wont waste your time with it.

Londoners who have their brains switched on were terrified when other people's proud cities were bombed, because they knew that we were going to get it next. Look at how angry and scared everone is because of six bombs and fifty lives needlessly taken. Now imagine the whole city of London blasted to pieces and 100,000 murdered. Imagine the depth of anger that would produce. Imagine how many families are related to 100,000 people, and the consequential suffering they must be enduring.

You can get an idea of the reprocussions of such a slaughter by how the British remember the bombing of London in WW2. The bombing changed this country forever, and that was during a true war with clear causes, enemies and goals. Imagine what it must be like for people who are being mass murdered, without provocation, soley for money and oil.

If you can imagine that, then you understand the level of emotion that drives people to do what was done here and in other cities. That level of anger is in itself a frightening thing.

Bliar says in his doublespeak that:

Ultimately, the government had to protect people but "the underlying issues have to be dealt with too in terms of trying to get rid of this dreadful perversion of the true faith of Islam."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4666311.stm

This has nothing whatsoever to do with Islam. The membership of ETA is Christian. No one in Spain says that their problems with ETA are to do with Christiantiy. This problem is 100% about the interference of the UK/USA in other peoples countries, and the people who are being harrassed in those lands fighting back either personally or through proxies. It is not a clash of cultures. It is not about the system of government that exists in "Middle East' countries. It most certainly not, as some deluded people are saying, the acts of people who 'hate our way of life' and who 'hate freedom'. Those are the most absurd of all the false reasons trotted out to explain these events. You know those reasons are not the case. This problem is soley the result of hurting people on a massive scale without provocation.

I will digress for a moment. I am going to describe what having 'a problem with Islam' really looks like. You live in a city. You and half the city do not follow Islam. The local council is controlled by followers of 'Strict' Islam. The council decides to split the bus service into two; one set of busses for males and the other for females. You now have to wait twice as long for any bus because they are segregated.

That is having a problem with Islam. That is the very real and practical problem that Nigerians have to face in towns where the Christians and Muslims live where the local council is secular.

When Bliar talks about the "dreadful perversion of the true faith of Islam" he is talking about something that in reality has nothing to do with him and the UK at all. Those 'problems' are happening in other countries and not the UK. The people in Riyadh have no desire to tell joe blogs not to go down to the pub and get pissed every night, and anyone who thinks that they do, is utterly confused.

The UK government needs to address its own problems, and only its own problems. This means garbage collection, traffic congestion, UK illiteracy and UK poverty. These problems are unglamourous but important. The ructions over veils, females driving, systems of government and everything else the muslims bicker about in their own lands are not the business of the UK government. Get out of the business of other peoples business and all your problems will melt away.

Who in their right mind would deliberately engineer decades of future surprise bombings after having settled the IRA problem once and for all? We are looking right at them; Bliar, Straw-Man-Straw, Dumbo, Blindkid - collectively 'The Murder Inc. Franchise'. So desperate to make their personal marks on history that they have plunged the UK into a quagmire of revenge murders and disruption. These men are the direct cause of all of our problems. They are the direct cause of this avoidable and pointless outrage.

Finally, nothing is more sickening than the ribbon sporting and date conjuring invented by the americans and now stupidly aped here. Refering to an event after the date on which it happened (you know which ones) implies that the two events are somehow linked in this false 'war on terror'. They are not. This event should not be refered to with numbers, nor should ribbons be flaunted; all focus should be on the root cause, whcih must be stamped out once and for all, and these symbols and words distract from what that root cause is, and how it needs to be finally and fully addressed.

The only 'Letter To The Terrorists' that should come from London should come from Number 10 Downing Street, and it should read, "Via con Dios. You will never hear from us again.". We will all then be free to argue about garbage collection, traffic congestion, beer and pubs, and everything else civilized people discuss day in and day out.
posted by Irdial , 9:40 AM Þ 
Friday, July 08, 2005

Alun, that is a sad story. I have had nothing but wonderful experiences with Epson scanners (I have used about six different models), much akin to prancing in a fresh summer meadow on a bright afternoon. What went wrong?
Now I'm all for the destruction of misbehaving technology (indeed, a few months ago I viciously took an axe to a broken Mac), but I do hope that there was no warranty left on that machine!
posted by Barrie , 11:01 PM Þ 

Tonight I stamped on my Epson "Perfection" 1670 flatbed scanner. It has been misbehaving terribly, after perhaps only 30 or so scans. I loathe it. So I physically and brutally incapacitated it in order to prevent myself from wasting more time trying to get it to work properly.
posted by Alun , 9:25 PM Þ 

"London is like a pre-historic monster into whose armoured hide showers of
arrows may be shot in vain" -- Sir Winston Churchill
posted by telle goode , 8:01 PM Þ 

I have a slight e-mail issue that perhaps one of you can advise me on,
Something seems to have nabbed my gmail address and is using it as a mask to send bulk emails - needless to say I'm getting tons and tons of Mail Subsystem Delivery Failed messages. 'Tis driving me krazy!
Anyone know if I can do anything about this? I can't think of anything myself...
posted by Barrie , 7:31 AM Þ 
Thursday, July 07, 2005

Tony condolences (for any occasion).

I didn't see a single minute of 8Evil as I spent the weekend partying at a friends farm, in Fort William, away from any cathode ray radiation emitting devices. Came out on Sunday morning, saw this and for a moment wasn't sure if it was due to the local mushroom tea or not.

The evictions have already started to make way for the Olympic village. NoLondon2012 has articles about the enviromental impact to the local area. I can't see it being any less of a white elephant than the dome and other so called 'landmark' projects but these things seem to get steamrolled through with little regard to anyone who opposes or has concerns about these projects.
posted by chriszanf , 1:55 PM Þ 

Birdwatching

US security agents have come up with a new target for increased scrutiny in their battle against terrorism: birdwatchers. Birdwatchers in certain areas are being forced to provide photographic identification, submit themselves to background checks, and even pay for a police escort[...]

Guardian

You can see where the story above is leading, if you are in posession of any recording or observation equipment in an area that the government views as a security zone you will be forced to present ID etc or face confiscation of equipment or a fine or worse.

Areas covered could be Town Halls, Bridges, Airports, Railway Stations, Public Buildings, 1/2mile radius around any State official. Equipment covers Binoculars, Telescopes, Mobile phones, cameras, CB Radio, Tape recorders,, Video cameras... Before long you find you need ID to buy such equipment and you have to fill in a form exlaining what you intend to use such equipment for, the equipment is also RFID'd so breaches can be automatically alerted to the police.
And you'll almost certainly need a government license to buy developing equipment for films or telephoto lenses
posted by meau meau , 11:05 AM Þ 

Travis played 'Why does it always rain on me'

Ooh, I realised last night that I thought this was a Coldplay song and now I'm not sure if I know any.

Finisterre

I think Boomkat have it too.
posted by meau meau , 9:52 AM Þ 
Wednesday, July 06, 2005

I watched a bit/a lot of the terrestrial BBC coverage. I wasn't impressed by any act, I thought the whole thing was despicable. The only Eden project coverage I saw was about 10-20 seconds long of an unnamed act.

I found the whole thing despicable. Especially as I was watching through the cynical cloud of a huge hangover.

A friend of my mentioned that it was quite a master-stroke of Blair to end his term on such a high, rather than letter the usual May-Day style riots blot his patchy career. That and the Olympics. There may be some good coming out of this, an improved public transport system and 'better facilities' for the east end, but it will come at the expense of many other things.

Change always costs something. An exchange of mass into energy, or energy into mass. Basic physics. So I am quite philosophical about that, but I'm not sure it's change for the good.

It's also dawned on me that I will be 31 when the Olympics are in London. This frightens me. Maybe I'll have moved somewhere else by then, but to paraphrase Samuel Johnson; He who is tired of London, is tired of life itself.

And whilst I'm on the subject, Finisterre was released on Monday. This "Psycho Geographic trip through London to the end of the world" was produced by the company I started working for last year. Filmed by Paul Kelly and Kieran Evans, incollaboration with Saint Etienne.

Personally, I think it's a brilliant, beautiful film. It portrays everything I love about London. And why I hope (to an extent) I never want to leave. Visually it fits a style I've personally wanted to achieve since I moved to London in 1999 and wrote a proposal in my foundation course to make a film about the newly opened Jubilee extension.

Go and buy it from Amazon!
posted by alex_tea , 11:34 PM Þ 

from The Register's recent article on ID Cards;

Spookily, although the Criminal Records Bureau hadn't figured anywhere obvious in the Government's ID plans until last week, at his Wednesday press conference Tony Blair piped up: "Just to give you another example, for the Criminal Records Bureau, which after all hundreds of thousands of people have to go through the whole time [what, like Sisyphus? - Ed], it takes something like four weeks to do an identity check, it would take three days with an identity card."

Blair did not explain why an identity check would still take three days in the brave new world of online biometrics, while for Today Clarke confined himself to saying it would reduce the time dramatically...

My guess would be that the police would be unwilling to let through anything that could reduce the 72 hours maximum that people could be held without charge, so if they can allow that amount of time to potentially 'check someone's identity' then it makes life easier for them, especially if they've just rounded up a load of protesters under Anti-Terrorism legislation and are looking for something to pin on them
posted by meau meau , 5:05 PM Þ 

The EU Parliament has thrown out the software patent bill by 648 votes to 14.

That means you can download and work on VLC, MPlayer and all the other cool things you want to without fear of being sued.

It also means that if you are writing an IM client, you can safely impliment a 'the other person is typing' feature without fear of being sued by M$.

At last some good news!
posted by Irdial , 2:24 PM Þ 

8Evil

Can you FEEEEEEEL the t-shirt coming?!
posted by Irdial , 1:03 PM Þ 

Didn't hear/see anything from 8Evil except stills and quotes on news sites the following day. Love the thought of 200,000 rabid sheep cheering corporate whore and multi-millionaire Madonna as she calls for 'revolution'. Also heard that Travis played 'Why does it always rain on me' to a video backdrop of people dying in drought-stricken regions of Africa! What masters of satire to send up themselves and the hypocritical nature of the whole event during their own set! Fantastic!

Not.

The image “http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/steve_bell/2005/07/05/bell512.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
posted by Alun , 11:05 AM Þ 

Live8

I listened to the 1 hour slot that Radio3 gave over to the Eden Project Live8 addendum/erratum that broadcast had a few bits of nice music but the broadcast was terrible, because of the limited amount of time they were playing interviews and saying how lovely and well organised things were and such a nice venue over live music and fading out songs halfway through to go between stages and commentary. I was away on monday so I couldn't hear their highlights program, I may use the listen again feature if I get a window.
Did any of the other broadcasts include coverage from the artists playing at the Eden Project? After all the events were broadcast on BBC1/2 and BBC3 and Radio1 AND Radio2, so there was certainly the space to do so.
posted by meau meau , 9:51 AM Þ 

Did no one else watch Live8? I thought Paul McCartney rocked. That band, same guys as he had at the jubilee celebrations, are really very good. He's got a lot more edge these days than he's had in a long time.

Can't say much else impressed me however.
posted by captain davros , 12:50 AM Þ 
Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Anyone using GoogleEarth?

Ohh yes, just the other day with my boyfriend - it is wonderful! I was able to find the house I live in here in Copenhagen. but when going to Karachi it was pretty blurry. New York is in 3D....
posted by Alison , 12:11 PM Þ 

More on the drugs war has failed, quote from the Guardian;

An economic model made for Downing Street shows that the profits per kilo for a major Afghan trafficker into Britain carry a profit margin as high as 58% - higher than Louis Vuitton's margin of 48% or Gucci's 30%.

Now (high) fashion may be daylight robbery but are they really saying they are traffickers too?
posted by meau meau , 10:33 AM Þ 

Anyone using GoogleEarth?
Use it to find geotagged Flickr images and del.icio.us sites


...
Here's a bonus, if you add a second Network Link and use...
"makeXML.cfm?lstItemType=del.icio.us" at the end instead you'll get the closest 50 geotagged del.icio.us pages within 2000km (all 5 of them)

You can mix and match by using makeXML.cfm?lstItemType=flickr,del.icio.us

But there are so many flickr photos compared to del.icio.us pages that the chances of hitting a del.icio.us page when mixed with Flickr are very slim ATM. [...]

Right it's gotten even easier, if you have Google Earth...

www.geobloggers.com/feeds/newestFlickr.kml
www.geobloggers.com/feeds/flickr.kml

The first one gives you the latest 50 photos from around the world, updates every 30 mins. The second around where you're looking.
[...]




Gearth.
The worst thing, it's not on Mac [yet].
The second worst thing, if you haven't got it already you can't get it at the moment.
posted by Alun , 9:28 AM Þ 

John Pilger isn't celebrating victory
John Pilger
Monday 27th June 2005

Tony Blair's "vision for Africa" is about as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added). By John Pilger

The front page of the Observer on 12 June announced, "$55bn Africa debt deal 'a victory for millions'". The "victory for millions" is a quotation of Bob Geldof, who said, "Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny . . ." The nonsense of this would be breathtaking if the reader's breath had not already been extracted by the unrelenting sophistry of Bob Geldof, Bono, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, the Observer et al.

Africa's imperial plunder and tragedy have been turned into a circus for the benefit of the so-called G8 leaders due in Scotland next month and those of us willing to be distracted by the barkers of the circus: the establishment media and their "celebrities". The illusion of an anti-establishment crusade led by pop stars - a cultivated, controlling image of rebellion - serves to dilute a great political movement of anger. In summit after summit, not one significant "promise" of the G8 has been kept, and the "victory for millions" is no different. It is a fraud - actually a setback to reducing poverty in Africa. Entirely conditional on vicious, discredited economic programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF, the "package" will ensure that the "chosen" countries slip deeper into poverty.

Is it any surprise that this is backed by Blair and Brown, and Bush; even the White House calls it a "milestone"? For them, it is a useful facade, held up by the famous and the naive and the inane. Having effused about Blair, Geldof describes Bush as "passionate and sincere" about ending poverty. Bono has called Blair and Brown "the John and Paul of the global development stage". Behind this front, rapacious power can "reorder" the lives of millions in favour of totalitarian corporations and their control of the world's resources.

There is no conspiracy; the goal is no secret. Gordon Brown spells it out in speech after speech, which liberal journalists choose to ignore, preferring the Treasury spun version. The G8 communique announcing the "victory for millions" is unequivocal. Under the section headline "G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation", it says that debt relief will be granted to poor countries only if they are shown to be "adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given": in other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing. Paragraph two states that "it is essential" that poor countries "boost private sector development" and ensure "the elimination of impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign".

The "$55bn" claimed by the Observer comes down, at most, to £1bn spread over 18 countries. This will almost certainly be halved - providing less than six days' worth of debt payments - because Blair and Brown want the IMF to pay its share of the "relief" by revaluing its vast stock of gold, and passionate and sincere Bush has said no. The first unmentionable is that the gold was plundered originally from Africa. The second unmentionable is that debt payments are due to rise sharply from next year, more than doubling by 2015. This will mean not "victory for millions", but death for millions. [...]

http://www.newstatesman.com/200506270006
posted by Irdial , 8:31 AM Þ 

July 4th and the end of America, land of the free

Mike Adams | July 4 2005

Happy July 4th. On this, the 229th birthday of our nation, we find the very foundation of our nation in grave danger as our (elected?) leaders continue to destroy many of the rights and freedoms our forefathers worked so hard to put in place. It is no coincidence that, this very week, our President has created a domestic spy service called the National Security Service. That's the NSS, not to be confused with the SS of Nazi Germany, which had much the same function in pre-war Germany.

Amendment IV: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Not to be outdone in the race to a police state, the Supreme Court lobotomized the 4th Amendment last week. There is no longer anything resembling "private property" in this country. There is only the illusion of ownership, as long as it is allowed by your government. At the stroke of a pen, any government (city, state, federal) can seize your land and your home, for any reason.

In other words, the State is now the true owner of all land and all property. The very term "owner" refers to the person or organization that controls the use of that land. If you don't control its use, you are not the owner. The State is. You just pay rent. And if you don't cooperate with government takeover of your land, they can always declare you a terrorist and seize your land under The Patriot Act.

Speaking of The Patriot Act, this misguided act allows the U.S. government to secretly tap your phone lines without a court order. It also allows the feds to rifle through library records in order to spot "terrorist readers" who apparently frequent these institutions of knowledge. Libraries are terrorist training camps, didn't you know?

Amendment VI: In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Think the Bill of Rights still applies in this country? The 6th Amendment has been nullified by the practices taking place at Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government simply kidnaps anyone they want, ships them off to Gitmo, then leaves them there to rot, without being charged, without a trial, and without legal representation. By calling them "enemy combatants," the Bush Administration seemingly avoids having to abide by the Geneva Convention as well, which requires certain standards of treatment for prisoners of war

Amendment XIV: ...nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
As the Bush Administration runs rampant over the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights, do you feel any safer from terrorists? Do you feel like this administration is protecting your life, liberty and property? Are you any freer or safer today than you were five years ago?

Of course not. We're all in far more danger, and we're all less free. Our Constitution and its Bill of Rights lie in shambles. The very fact that this is happening reckons back to the purpose of the Bill of Rights in the first place: to ensure that no government tramples on its people.

You see, our nation's forefathers understood that the greatest threat to freedom was not an enemy nation, but rather a nation's own government. The Bill of Rights was created for the sole purpose of limiting the power of government over the people. Our forefathers knew that all governments eventually get out of control and become oppressive regimes. So they purposefully created the Bill of Rights in an effort to guarantee that no government could deprive its citizens of free speech, freedom to bear arms, the right to own land, and other rights necessary for the prosperity of a free nation.

That our own government is systematically destroying the Bill of Rights is proof that our forefathers were correct. [...]

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/july2005/040705endofamerica.htm

posted by Irdial , 8:24 AM Þ 

I can feel a turbine hall installation coming.
posted by Irdial , 11:35 AM

....

YES! YES!! YES!!!

...

with B.C.G. playing *with* it for the opening of course...

....

a.these
posted by THESE , 12:29 AM Þ 
Monday, July 04, 2005

Gizmo is a free phone for your computer: HOME -

http://www.gizmoproject.com/index.html

Wow; Skype have 150,000,000 downloads, almost 3,000,000 people online at any one time and still there is space for another internet telephone.
posted by Irdial , 7:47 PM Þ 

Panic in No 10 as ID card support collapses
By Toby Helm and Brendan Carlin
(Filed: 04/07/2005)

Tony Blair's hopes of bringing in a national system of identity cards were looking increasingly imperilled last night amid signs of collapsing public support and panic within the Government.

A YouGov poll for The Daily Telegraph shows that backing for ID cards has plummeted from 78 per cent less than two years ago to 45 per cent.


A burning identity card placard
Support is dwindling for Tony Blair's identity card scheme

The figures, released as MPs begin detailed debate of the legislation this week, will dismay ministers who have claimed public support for the project. It will also embolden opponents at Westminster to redouble their fight.

Amid further signs of Labour disarray, it emerged yesterday that the Prime Minister had delivered a furious rebuke to Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, for "going soft" on the fight against crime.

A Downing Street memo, reported in The Sunday Telegraph, revealed that Mr Blair had intervened to order Mr Clarke to cap the cost of identity cards to limit the Labour backbench rebellion in last week's vote in the Commons.

The memo also revealed that he ordered urgent action to prevent a "sense of fatalism" creeping in to Labour's "respect" agenda which includes ID cards, anti-social behaviour and the fight against crime. [...]

John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, said: "As people become more aware of the cost, the inability of the technology to work and the impact on civil liberties they realise they don't want ID cards. At some stage the Government will have to accept reality and let the whole idea die quietly."

Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, said: "In another six months support will sink even further. This is the Government's opportunity to recognise reality, stop wasting public money and get out while the going is good."

David Davis, the favourite to succeed Michael Howard as Tory leader, said: "The Government has not just lost the argument on ID cards. It is also losing the plot on this massive project which shows every sign of spiralling out of control."

Last week a report by academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) said the cost of cards could be as high £20 billion - three times Government estimates. The LSE put the lowest cost to each individual at £170.

Mr Clarke dismissed the LSE figures saying the total cost of a biometric passport containing fingerprints and an iris scan - and a separate ID card - would be around £100 and hinted that he would cap the bill at that level.

Last week Mr Blair suggested that he does not see ID cards as an issue of confidence. Asked whether he could be persuaded to drop the plan if the opposition became overwhelming, he said: "I did not come into politics to introduce identity cards." [...]

Telegraph

The more they tighten their grip, the more the population slips through their fingers.

posted by Irdial , 4:37 PM Þ 

John Lee Hacker
Modem Waters

I'm sure there's more
posted by meau meau , 3:55 PM Þ 

What is Project Exchange?
Project Exchange enbles you to find like-minded people to invest in your project.

How does it work?
When you set up an account you fill in details of your project(s) or what you are willing to invest. Our database will then try to match the most appropriate individuals to your needs or abilities.
i) Projects.
When you submit a project you will be asked to fill out details relating to is goals and current status, you will also be asked what type of talent you require and when it is required. Investments are made in terms of time, money or skills.
Your project can be anything no mater how small or large, it can be a real world project or completely web-based, however bear in mind that larger projects represent a greater risk for investors and it may be better to split large projects into smaller stages. Bear in mind that you cannot ask for investment in a project that you haven't registered on this site, we will suspend users who ignore this advice.

ii) Investment.
On creating an account you will be asked what you can invest in projects generally, you can offer money, or to be available to work on a project for a certain amount of time, or certain expertise, or a combination of these. You also have the ability to set conditions on your investment, for example whether your investment is voluntary or if you expect royalties or payment on a project. You will then be matched to a selection of projects suited to your investmment potential. When you choose to invest in a particular project you have the opportunity to be more specific in your investment abilities and terms.

When a project has met it's minimum investment pledges the investors and project manager are notified and work can begin on the project. Both investors and managers are able to comment on the project's progress when it is live. Although Project Exchange also allows investment pledges to be coordinated by the project manager we do not actually process any investments and we do not hold any project funds. All investments and projects are at users risk.

How do you deal with bad account users?
When you sign up you have a neutral User Feedback. When you become involved in a project you have the opprtunity to provide feedback on project originators/investors and your User Feedback will be adjusted accordingly. The level of your feedback determines how much you can ask for or invest for a particular project and the number of projects you can hold at anyone time.
In addition any user with positive User Feedback can comment on veracity of details provided by any other user.
posted by meau meau , 2:51 PM Þ 

The third part of the Simon Jenkins talk that I posted earlier is here. He talks about how other countries have, since WWII, decentralised power to local communites, and these communities give money to central government for services and cross subsidyrather than as in the UK central government taking tax money and distributing it to the regions (with attendant targets and restrictions). One country praised was Denmark vis-vis its healthcare. Even France is more decentralised than the UK!
The programme touches on many things I was thinking about last week, but I think you could go further in removing State power not just simply making it more localised.

Thumbs up
posted by meau meau , 2:00 PM Þ 

I have been sent or informed about the work of some fine artists who have been inspired by The Conet Project.

Bruce Tovsky has produced a quite brilliant five minute video piece 'Ether' which is compelling and full of truth.

Noah22 has produced a set of sculptures that I find to be spot on.

I can feel a turbine hall installation coming.
posted by Irdial , 11:35 AM Þ 
Sunday, July 03, 2005

War! What is it good for?
Huh!
Absolutely Nothing.


...Researchers found that stamping down on hard drugs through the police and courts had little effect on production and found no evidence that attacking drug supply had any impact on the harm caused by heroin and crack users. The full report provides a powerful argument for legalising drugs so they are not controlled by criminals...

I'm sure you can think of other 'wars' that will fail. And other addictive substances controlled by criminals.
posted by meau meau , 10:12 AM Þ 
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