Saturday, July 23, 2005

The doctrine of pre-emption.
posted by Irdial , 11:59 PM Þ 

radio
posted by captain davros , 6:54 PM Þ 

"He looked absolutely petrified and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him, [they] couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor and the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand.

"He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."

Shot man not connected to bombing
A man shot dead by police hunting the bombers behind Thursday's London attacks was unconnected to the incidents, police have confirmed.

A Scotland Yard statement said the shooting was a "tragedy" which was regretted by the Metropolitan Police.

...

"We are now satisfied that he was not connected with the incidents of Thursday 21st July 2005.

"For somebody to lose their life in such circumstances is a tragedy and one that the Metropolitan Police Service regrets."[...]

A simple mistake. A tragedy, no less.

It could have been you.
It could be you next.
But, hey, like ID-card apologists everywhere say...

If you've done nothing wrong you've got nothing to worry about.
posted by Alun , 5:38 PM Þ 

Around 4.5 million people use the New York subway system every working day.[...]
New York police chief Ray Kelly has offered a guarantee that the searches will be truly random and that passengers will not be selected because of their apparent race or religion.[...]

So, lets say 4 bombers on one day. That's a 1 in 1,000,000 chance of finding 1 of them in a random search.
How many searches to get it down to a reasonable chance?
And you believe the police chief's offer, don't you?

So what are these searches for?

"We know why these things are done.
They are done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried."
posted by Alun , 8:59 AM Þ 

Despite what the politicians say Iraq does matter in the grandstanding between the war perpetrators (terrorists and governments alike).

The standard politician response since the seventh of July has been along the lines of 9-11 was before Iraq and the terrorists will choose anything to justify their attacks, perhaps they will, but you have to see that their list of excuses is drawn from a long list of unwanted interventions by Western governments into local people's lives - there is a pattern.
Iraq does matter because it was a signal that these governments are going to continue such interventions. Their polemic after the latest Iraq war has shown that they do not even consider their meddling there as the end point, indeed, the Republican mantra is that it is the BEGINNING of the meddling that will introduce/impose Western style (i.e. weak) democracy to the neighbouring countries (whether they like it or not). You don't have to have any sympathy whatsoever with terrorists to realise that the implied threat of foreign governments trying to implement their policies in your country/'brotherhood' in perpetuity is going to annoy some of those people to an extent that they will not sit back and take it.

Violence is the worst reaction that people affected can make, but that there is a reaction should not be a surprise.
posted by meau meau , 1:31 AM Þ 
Friday, July 22, 2005

Leading companies line up to partner Transport for London's Oyster e-money project

Transport for London (TfL) announced the shortlist of potential partners for the development of e-money today.

The successful organisations and consortia are:

alphyra
Barclays
BBVA/Accenture/MTR/Octopus
EDS/JPMorgan
Nucleus/Dexit/Ericsson/Hutchison 3G/Euroconex
PayPal
RBS.

The shortlisted companies are invited to negotiate with Transport for London this summer.

TfL expects to confirm a partner by the end of the year.

This marks an important step forward for TfL's aspiration to extend the use of its successful ticketing and payment smart card, Oyster, to low value payments for goods and services at newsagents, parking machines, fast food restaurants, supermarkets and other locations where the importance of transaction speed and the inconvenience of cash are recognised.

Jay Walder, Managing Director of Finance and Planning at Transport for London said: "The use of contactless smart cards for low value payments is growing in popularity around the globe.

"Such schemes are now well established in Hong Kong and Japan and significant trials are taking place in the United States.

"Oyster has the largest customer base of all smart cards in the UK, with 2.2 million users and a significant level of public trust.

"Extending Oyster to include low value payments is a natural progression which will make the smart card even more convenient."

The plan to extend Oyster from travel to small value purchases demonstrates TfL's commitment to provide greater convenience for passengers and generate additional revenue for the transport network.

TfL aims to commence trials for Oyster e-money in late 2005 or early 2006.

Ends

Notes for editors

1. Timescales for the development of Oyster e-money -

* 11 February 2005 - TfL placed a Prior Information Notice (PIN) in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU)
* 15 April 2005 - TfL presented plans for e-money to nearly 100 interested companies
* 22 April 2005 - TfL published a Contract Notice in the OJEU and released the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire and Request for Outline Proposals
* 10 June 2005 - Twenty companies submitted pre-qualification questionnaires / outline proposals for TfL's review
* July 2005 - Short list announced, Non-Disclosure Agreements issued
* August 2005 - Negotiations commence
* January 2006 - Proposed timing for development and delivery of e-money on Oyster.

2. Similar schemes such as Octopus in Hong Kong have shown customers appreciate the speed and ease this form of payment brings to the many small purchases people make every day.

3. The PRESTIGE project is a 17-year, private finance initiative (PFI) awarded in 1998. The contracting consortium is TranSys whose members are Cubic Transportation Systems (Cubic), Electronic Data Systems (EDS), Fujitsu and W.S. Atkins.

[...]

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/press-centre/press-releases/press-releases-content.asp?prID=441


Now, TFL when they do this, will have records of all your journeys AND the money you spend in shops. Have you ever asked an Underground staffer to print out the contents of your Oyster card? Try it some time; you will see the cards structure, along with all your journeys.

Electronic cash is not evil in itself, it all depends on how it is designed. Chaumian e-cash is actually better than cash. It is anonymous, unlimited, fraud proof and without bulk. Were it to form the basis of TFLs Oyster, I would embrace it. Of course, the idea in all the systems that seem to be favoured is to keep an audit trail and not to preserve people's right to privacy.
posted by Irdial , 6:28 PM Þ 

Meanwhile, the NYPD announces that as of today, July 22, 2005, (the twenty second of July), all bags and all transit commuters are subject to random search.
posted by telle goode , 6:08 PM Þ 

provide an opportunity for us to reflect on our systems and practices to ensure they are sufficient to counter such unprecedented events

Lets do that shall we? After all, that is precisely what these events are meant to do; they are meant to make everyone in the UK reflect on the practices of the UK.

What absolutely astonishes me is the way that everyone in HMG insists on saying that what is happening now has nothing to do with foreign policy. What is really frightening is that I think they actually believe this. T. Bliar was on television a few weeks ago, and was challenged about doctors requiring patients to make bookings exactly 48hrs before a requested appointment. He was told that doctors were doing this so that they would appear to be meeting government set targets.

He was flabergasted by this, and totally unaware that it was going on. He said that he would look into it, because the regulations were not meant to produce this effect.

Now.

Its clear from this that none of his advisors knew this was going on, and he obviously had no clue that people were adapting their behaviour (acting 'unreasonably') in order to satisfy government regulations.

Transpose this to Iraq. Clearly its possible that Bliar, totally detached from reality as he is, actually doesn't believe or know that people all over the world are fulminating with rage over this affair, and would do literally anything, even self immolation, to get back at the UK. A man like this, and Dumbo, and Blindkid, cannot be left in charge of the shop, because they are out of the loop, incommunicado, not keeping their eye on the ball, out of contact with the world street, blind (blindkid), deaf (dumbo) and dumb (bliar).

Immediate cessation of all hostilities is the only solution to this problem. It must be done immediately because there are forces being unleashed now that are hell bent on dismantling this great country, and oce it is done, it might never be put back together again. Anyone with any love for the UK weeps at what is taking place, the language being used, the legislation being rammed onto the statute books.

It's just not worth it. It never has been and never will be worth it.

who do you trust?

No one, and I will not be distracted from what this is all about; the turning of the United Kingdom's back on the insane peoples of the world, leaving them to their own devices, and reaping the benefits of the 21st century, that the UK richly deserves, after centuries of duty.
posted by Irdial , 6:00 PM Þ 

On a lighter note, would journalists writing in English please note that "July 7" means nothing, unless refering, perhaps, to a group suffering a summer-associated miscarriage of justice (see: Guildford 4, Birmingham 6, Heinz 57, etc.). Moreover, it is toe-curlingly embarassing to see such copycat Americanisms creeping into English.

I urge a boycott of American date nomenclature, and a return to the goold old days of 'the 7th of July'. Or, at the very least, 'July 7th'.

Would one write, 'Hannah is my wife 3'? Of course not. Henry 8? Why, he'd lop off one's head!

But I labour the point.

Think yourselves lucky I chose not to address the, even more, contemptible and infuriating '#/#' date format. Sloppy, nasty, lazy habitses... I hates them, I HATES them!
posted by Alun , 5:53 PM Þ 

So after 50-odd dead in 4 co-ordinated, successful bombings two weeks ago...

4 more bombers, 4 more 'bombs'
0 successful detonations. Zero.
A 'goldmine of forensic information' for the police!

A completely unsuccessful attempt at mass murder, or a stitch-up job to make the police look good and keep everyone on their toes? Place your money and take your choice!


Meanwhile...
'Police' assasinate a man in public

[...]

"I saw an Asian guy. He ran on to the train, he was hotly pursued by three plain clothes officers, one of them was wielding a black handgun.

"He half tripped... they pushed him to the floor and basically unloaded five shots into him," he told BBC News 24.

"As [the suspect] got onto the train I looked at his face, he looked sort of left and right, but he basically looked like a cornered rabbit, a cornered fox.

"He looked absolutely petrified and then he sort of tripped, but they were hotly pursuing him, [they] couldn't have been any more than two or three feet behind him at this time and he half tripped and was half pushed to the floor and the policeman nearest to me had the black automatic pistol in his left hand.

"He held it down to the guy and unloaded five shots into him."
[...]

'I'm a patsy....ARRRRGH!'
Also...
[...]armed police outside Downing Street were seen arresting a man at gunpoint, ordering him to remove a rucksack and open his shirt before he was led off. He was one of two people arrested in Whitehall. [...]

A GWB-esque policeman confusing 'terrorist' and 'tourist'? No further explanation on that one. And yesterday in the 'birthplace of democracy'...
[...]

Cynics would have you believe that ministers regularly seek any diversion going to sneak out dodgy announcements - they used to call it burying bad news.

In particular, the antennae of suspicious hacks always start twitching on the last day of the parliamentary session in the belief ministers will use it to release announcements when nobody is looking and MPs are off on their holidays and in no position to call them to account.

It is a charge that infuriates ministers and is regularly denied. But they really do not help themselves.

Today the Commons order paper lists no fewer than 65 written ministerial statements to be released in the dying hours of the session.

On a normal day there might be three or four, even half a dozen. But 65.

Today's include statements on ministerial gifts - like the dagger, electric car and "bling" given to the prime minister by various foreign dignitaries - ministerial travel, RAF force restructure, school funding, the numbers and costs of special advisers and the ministerial code, etcetera, etcetera.

Even if only a tenth of the statements was worthy of a daily newspaper page lead there just would not be enough space in Fleet Street's finest to cover them all.

Still, nothing dodgy there.[...]

And it doesn't end there...
[...]Police last night told Tony Blair that they need sweeping new powers to counter the terrorist threat, including the right to detain a suspect for up to three months without charge instead of the current 14 days.

Senior officers also want powers to attack and close down websites, and a new criminal offence of using the internet to prepare acts of terrorism, to "suppress inappropriate internet usage".

They also want to make it a criminal offence for suspects to refuse to cooperate in giving the police full access to computer files by refusing to disclose their encryption keys.[...] "The terrorist attacks in London on July 7 and today provide an opportunity for us to reflect on our systems and practices to ensure they are sufficient to counter such unprecedented events," Mr Jones said.[...]

Who's going to refuse our brave boys in blue? Not the 'government', of that at least you can be sure.

I could go on... But let's end with Our Mighty Leader, who says, while telling us that things are "as normal" and without a hint of a smile on his face, that...

[...]We know why these things are done. They are done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried. Fortunately in this instance there appear to have been no casualties.[...]

Let's remember that:

We know why these things are done.
They are done to scare people and to frighten them, to make them anxious and worried.

So, what am I saying here?
Well, maybe things are as they appear, and maybe not. It's very hard to tell, but it's important to keep an open mind. The definition of 'normal' is being altered before our very eyes. And it's certainly not the terrorists doing the alterations.
Even those who seem to be (and should be) working hardest on our behalf, are not averse to making the most of any situation for their own benefit while donning the black armbands.

Who do you trust?
posted by Alun , 5:07 PM Þ 

Tizenkilencedik Podcast

banyek

2005. július 21., csütörtök 16:16 — kategória: podcast

Log periodic antenna
forrás: http://www.nt.tuwien.ac.at/

Szám-állomások felvételei, zenékkel.

Numbers Stations (60 perc, 82 MB)

a többi podcast

Tracklista:
00. Intro (Szövegforrás: http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm)
01. The Conet Project: The Swedish rhapsody (Irdial discs)
02. Murcof: Uri (Static Discos)
03. The Conet Project: Dfd 21 (Irdial discs)
04. RYDOX: Delta 01 (Phonocake)
05. The Conet Project: NNN English (Irdial discs)
06. Boards of Canada: Gyroscope (Warp)
07. The Conet Project: Counting CIA (Irdial discs)
08. Ten and Tracer: The rivers are furious
09. The Conet Project: Leter NU (Irdial discs)
10. Alva Noto & Yuichiro Sakamoto: Berlin (Raster-Noton)
11. The Conet Project: 5 note Czech lady (Irdial discs)
12. Murcof: Mir (Leaf label)
13. The Conet Project: 5 dashes (Irdial discs)
14. Autechre: Drane (Warp)
15. Frank Bretschneider: The day it rained forever (12k)
16. The Conet Project: M3b (Irdial discs)
17. Federico Monti: Lowered (Subsource)
18. Xrc: July 4 (Diaspóra)
19. The Conet Project: NNN Station Hungarian (Irdial discs)

4 Responses to “Tizenkilencedik Podcast”

  1. The Tornado mondja:
    2005. július 22., péntek 1:24

    fél kettő van.
    véleményem szerint az eddigi legjobb podcastunk.

  2. worthless liar mondja:
    2005. július 22., péntek 1:52

    szerintem nem, én spec untam aztán kikapcsoltam inkább, mondjuk nem hozott már a numbers stations sem lázba.

  3. Diagram mondja:
    2005. július 22., péntek 2:46

    Nagyon jó podcast lett.!Sejtettem hogy valamikor fel fogod használni a Numbers Stations-okat
    The Tornado jólbeszélt :)

  4. just4u mondja:
    2005. július 22., péntek 10:36

    a feeling kraftwerk.
    egyébiránt banyek, ismered te gavin bryars zenéjét?
    Sinking of Titanic
    elmélete is van a fazonnak a dologról, hogy a titanic elsüllyedése óta a zenekar utolsó számának egy taktusa loop-ként szól.
    csinált egy zenét belôle.
    keresd meg, érdemes.

posted by Irdial , 12:15 PM Þ 

No proof bombers Muslims - Bakri
Islamic cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed does not believe the London bombers were Muslims, he has told BBC News.

The UK-based Syrian-born preacher said there was no evidence four young Muslim men filmed at a station prior to the attacks were responsible for the bombs.

He condemned "any killing of innocent people here and abroad" but said he would never co-operate with police.

The cleric is facing demands for his deportation after making comments partly blaming Britain for the bombs.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed that Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, Hasib Hussain, 18, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, carried out the bombings.

The force released a CCTV image of the group entering Luton station on the day of the explosions, in which they, and 52 others died.

Tabloids

In an interview with BBC News 24, Omar Bakri Mohammed said the government, the public and the Muslim community were all to blame for not doing enough to prevent the 7 July attacks.

And he blamed the tabloid press for "distorting" his views and those of other clerics, including Sheikh Abu Hamza, currently on trial for allegedly soliciting people to murder non-Muslims and inciting racial hatred.

But in another interview, with BBC1's 10 O'clock News, he said there was "no way" he would condemn Osama Bin Laden.

He said: "Why I condemn Osama Bin Laden for? I condemn Tony Blair, I condemn George Bush. I would never condemn Osama Bin Laden or any Muslims."

And he blamed the UK government's "evil foreign policy and the war on terror" for pushing Muslims in "the wrong direction".

On Radio 4's Today programme, Omar Bakri Mohammed said Britons should use all political means "to make the British government realise that they create enemy, whether abroad or at home because of their own invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan".

But said he believed Islam forbade Muslims to fight the people they lived side by side with.

"To live among them, and sell with them and deal with them and trade with them and then fight them, that is completely not Islamic."

Word of God

The London-based preacher told BBC News 24 radical Muslims were "part of the solution" not part of the problem, because they were respected by Muslim youths.

By imposing restrictions on radical clerics, the government had reduced their ability to "hold back" young Muslims angry at events in places such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Bosnia, the Palestinian territories and Kashmir, he said.

He distanced himself from "moderate" Muslims, who he said "cannot hold anyone back".

He added that he would not co-operate with the British police, even to alert them if he knew another terror attack was imminent.

"I believe co-operation with the British police would never ever prevent any action like this.

"The youth will leave us. The youth will see us, at that time, the voice, the eyes and the ears of the British government.

"The way to earn the heart of the British youth is by the divine text, to say God say it and ... Mohammed say it, 'Do not attack the people you live among.' Not to tell them, 'Tony Blair say it, the law say it, don't do so.'"

The cleric, who has lived in Britain for 20 years, indicated he would not resist if he were to be deported, saying: "If God destined for me to be deported, or to be imprisoned, nobody can save me." [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4702107.stm

My emphasis.

Pretty extraordinary ay? If he is right, then exactly who are these dimwits running around with bacpacks of explosives?
posted by Irdial , 11:12 AM Þ 

If there is 'full scale' security testing on the London Underground as the Power/Visor interview suggested. I would have imagined them to be not disimilar to the blasts on the system yesterday:

Enough disruption to ensure limited panic amongst the public travelling at a relatively non-busy time and at less busy stations
Minimal harm to be done to general public
No full explosions and possibly the use of dummy 'bombs' with nauseous smoke etc to give a sense of 'reality' to Underground users.
Perpetrators using cops & robbers escape plan to test police reactions around stations (hmm, police get to do movie style chases but not much use for suicides though?)

We have been told that there was a strategy to test the system in the way of the original attacks on the 7th and the blasts yesterday conform to that method of 'testing'. It is apparent that there was minimal political disruption yesterday, seming to emphasise that these blasts were sanctioned at some level. This is a realistic scenario, there seems to be too many ameliorating factors to suggest it was a determined terror attack.
Perhaps the security services are playing catch up - 2 weeks to devise and approve a strategy and to replicate the detonators in the original explosions seems about right.
posted by meau meau , 12:43 AM Þ 
Thursday, July 21, 2005

Alison that weekend Saturday night at Fabric looks pretty good.

Sat 27th Aug 05 - Craig Richards, Andrew Weatherall, Lopazz (live), Headman, Ellen Allien, James Holden, Damian Lazarus, Terry Francis, Kenny Hawkes, Bill Brewster

To buy records go to Smallfish in Old Street, and Phonica in Soho. Also check out Rough Trade in Covent Garden.

I'm not sure about where to eat. I don't eat out often, it's too expensive in London... For cheap places there's Taro (two branches in Soho) for sushi and Japanese noodles and the Stringray Cafe on Columbia Road in Hackney does nice Pizzas and other food.

As for pubs, if you're in the centre of town there's loads of pubs run by a brewery called Samuel Smiths. They sell their own range of beers (Ayingerbrau, although the lager is referred to as Man In The Box) which are drinkable and cheap. Less that £2 a pint. Round Old Street/Curtain Road there's The Barley Mow which is probably the least 'trendy' pub round there. The Old Blue Last was recently bought by Vice Magazine and is hence raucous and full of Vice readers trying to look cool. Its quite funny though. The Strongrooms is OK. The Foundry used to be an old Bank and is run by Gimpo who is/was the third member of the KLF. Things usually get quite messy there. They have poetry (the worm lady is notorious) and live music in there.
posted by alex_tea , 12:47 PM Þ 

http://www.theholylandexperience.com

and they dont pay tax...
posted by Alison , 10:41 AM Þ 

Another small freedom is stolen today.
Alun, I feel just like you, it happend in Denmark 3-4 years ago, nobody made any protests...



By the way: I want to know if any of you Blogdialers in London can recommend and nice/cool/great places to go out, dance, have a pint, great meals or anything else? My boyfriend and I are going to London from the 26 aug - 30 aug (yes, the Notting Hill Carnival) and I dont want it to be all Drum N Bass and feathers like this:



I want some Techno and Deephouse (the good deephouse) and where can I buy records?

Ohhh so may questions. Sorry about that. But I really havnt been in London for years, and since then I have got this hobby called vinyl...
posted by Alison , 10:08 AM Þ 
Wednesday, July 20, 2005

I never liked myspace dot com, it was always ugly, and it always felt like a electronic food court created to market junk to fools who love themselves, but now that the owner of Fox News has purchased the service for millions of dollars I feel more then justified for never having trusted the site or the people who use it to promote their lifestyles.
posted by telle goode , 5:51 PM Þ 

Free speech up against global domination?

Let a Thousand Filters Bloom
By Anne Applebaum

Without question, China's Internet filtering regime is "the most sophisticated effort of its kind in the world," in the words of a recent report by Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The system involves the censorship of Web logs, search engines, chat rooms and e-mail by "thousands of public and private personnel." It also involves Microsoft Inc., as Chinese bloggers discovered last month. Since early June, Chinese bloggers who post messages containing a forbidden word -- "Dalai Lama," for example, or "democracy" -- receive a warning: "This message contains a banned expression, please delete." It seems Microsoft has altered the Chinese version of its blog tool, MSN Spaces, at the behest of Chinese government. Bill Gates, so eloquent on the subject of African poverty, is less worried about Chinese free speech.

[...]
posted by telle goode , 5:21 PM Þ 
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
posted by Irdial , 6:50 PM Þ 

Is the logical continuation of the 'social bookmarking' phenomenon which has become so popular in the networked world, that people are going to have themselves tagged?


Former Bush official to get RFID tag
By Michael Kanellos
URL: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-5793685.html


Tommy Thompson, the Health and Human Services Secretary in President
Bush's first term and a former Governor of Wisconsin, is going to get
tagged.

Thompson has joined the board of Applied Digital, which owns VeriChip
, the company that specializes in subcutaneous RFID tags for humans and pets .

To help promote the concepts behind the technology, Thompson himself
will get an RFID tag implanted under his skin.

Human RFID tags have emerged as one of the more controversial
technologies in years. Civil libertarians theorize that the chips will
allow governments or corporations to track people's movement and
behavior. Some Christians have said the chips are so evil they fulfill a
biblical prophesy about satanic influences.

Advocates, on the other hand, say the chips will contain personal
information that will help medical professionals and others provide
emergency treatment. The chip provides a form of identification that's
tough to lose. By clicking the number found on the chip into a
password-restricted database, paramedics can get an accident victim's
medical history in the field. (One of VeriChip's scientists came up with
the idea of using the company's pet RFID tags on people after watching
rescue workers struggle to find the missing after the Sept. 11 tragedy.)

[...]
posted by telle goode , 6:47 PM Þ 

This Government seems to have forgotten their job is to Govern not to RULE. I want my Government to empty the bins and keep the streets clear, not to tell me where I should and should not be.

I.D cards are all about controlling honest citizens. Terrorists and criminals will get around the system, it is part of their job. A terrorist can afford the 150K it might take to get round the system. ID cards are all about the powers that be knowing where to find you if you've not paid a parking ticket, TV licenses or your council tax. When they have a electronic chip in your car as well as in your phone, they'll even know where you are every minute of the day.


In my view:

Terror:
Spain had I.D cards but this did not stop the Madrid Bombers. Spending Billion of pounds on a UK I.D card system just so the government can claim that "they are doing something" is a fraud. Why not use the money for bomb sniffer dogs on the entry point to all underground stations?

Once Terrorists have fake I.D cards, they can go and do anything they like. I think I.D cards will encourage lazy police enforcement. "BEEP" and your through the security check, rather than, "I wonder why he's got 30 pounds of Semtex strapped around his waist and headed for Central London!! - Oh well never mind, back to the crossword and my jam donut".

I've heard many times that carrying your ID card will not be compulsory but you'll be given 24 hours to produce it …. I think your average terrorist will scarper before then, whilst you and me will have to be down the station 8am sharp with our papers to the ready.

In George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother maintains power over it people by being at perpetual war with it neighbors. In this way Big Brother forces the population to sacrifice their civil liberties in order to protect the people from these outside powers. Will the "War on Terror" ever be won? Will this Government ask us to sacrifice further liberties for the sake of "security"? There is a balance between freedom and security, otherwise why not lock us all in our houses, then we'd all be totally safe from harms way.

Fraud:
I.D card and its associated database will be like honey to be a bear. Every organized criminal gang in the world will be desperately trying to hack their way into the database to get all this info in one fell swoop so they can empty your bank account amongst other things. "All your eggs in one basket" springs to mind. Hackers have never been kept out of any security system. Recently a bloke in the UK was arrested for breaking into the American's most Top Secret security systems. So forgive me for having some skepticism about this government ability to establish a successful and secure computer system with heir record on computer systems!!

Once a person has stolen your ID you'll have a devil of a times trying to persuade anyone that in fact it was not you who took out that great big loan. Little Britain's "THE COMPUTER SAY'S NO!" character springs to mind here.

A Step-relative of mine (an American) had her ID stolen in the US and she is still on many credit black list 15 years later. People look at the computer and just say no.

Asylum:
Labour have insisted that I.D cards would prevent bogus asylum seekers and illegal workers entering the country…. What!!!!!! Forgive me but I didn't think "illegals" queued up to get into the country in the first place.

Passport:
People say biometrics will be part of the passport, so you might as well get the I.D card at the same time. At the moment Passports are not compulsory (which ID cards will be in a few years - otherwise they are pointless). Also the argument that you'll need biometrics to get into USA is not quite true. You won't need biometrics to the level this Government want them to get into the USA. Furthermore biometric identifiers don't work 90% of the time.

Privacy:
Dirty trick's; the temptation for any Government to resists access to the candy store is just too much for them. I recall Pam Warren, a Paddington crash survivor who was giving the Government a hard time and had her private life looked into, her voting policy, and generally any dirt they could dig up so as to throw at her. With a handy database, all this could be that little bit easier, and they probably wouldn't have been caught doing it either.

Also this Government has also been guilty of already looking at selling parts of the database off to interested parties. Now they have a cap on the price of ID cards it this more or less likely? E.g. "Thank you for that huge contribution to the Labor Party's re-electoral Fund" and "Oh yes, and by the way - we've decide to sell you all that data that you were interested in after all"

I'm also worried about legitimate legal protest - the foundation of Democracy. E.g. "Please pass your ID cards through this turn style before you can enter the square to protest about University Tuition fees" - and by they way you'll be added to the list of trouble makers on the database while your at it.

Cost:
Who cares, people seem more worried about a few shillings, then being sold into slavery!! But for those that do care - The Governments record on installing new computer systems is not great - with nearly everyone having costs that spiral out of control (and then not even working) - BEWARE - I sense more steal(th) taxes on the horizon.

Nazis
Finally the Nazis. We cannot guarantee that each successive Government that succeeds this one will be totally benign. The Nazis came to power through a democratic process, before then hi-jacking democracy for their own ends.

Democracy is a fragile system and anything which too greatly tips power towards the people that govern us is dangerous. Imagine what extra atrocities the Nazis could have inflicted on the world if they had ID cards with biometric identifiers "You card indicated that your Great, Great, Great Grandfather was a Jew - get into the truck.".

In Short:
ID cards do nothing they purport to do (in my view) whilst opening a Pandora's Box of other problems. One a Government has a power, they are very reluctant to let it go again. Like Pandora Box - Once out of the box, it is impossible to put it back in the box.

I certainly won't be getting an ID card unless I'm arrested. Then "they" can take my finger prints - as by then I'll actually be a criminal !!

Citizen 100010110101 (aka Mike)

[...]

Just one of the many comments from the Refuse page on Pledgebank.

10,300 people have lined up to pay £10 should the ID legislation become law.
posted by Irdial , 6:31 PM Þ 

PS: Why do my posts never show up?

Bad Karma from not posting your music meme
posted by meau meau , 1:11 PM Þ 

Moscow's property lawlessness
By Christopher Mitchell
Producer, Property To Die For

Imagine yourself sitting at home, unable to move because you are nursing a broken leg. Suddenly you hear a roar outside... and realise a bulldozer is attacking your front porch.

Alexei Syomov
Alexei Syomov has lived in Moscow all his life and now he is homeless

This is what happened to Alexei Syomov, who thought he owned his home in Gavrikovo, just outside Moscow.

Speaking in front of the huge apartment block that now stands on the site of his wooden house, he says: "They took all of my furniture out. Then they began destroying the house. After a couple of minutes the place where it stood was flat."

By "they", he refers to bureaucrats who, he claims, stood to profit from developing the valuable land his house was standing on.

This is a side of the Moscow property market virtually unknown to the West.

Multi-billion-dollar housing scams have become big business in Russia.

And despite President Vladimir Putin's promise to institute a dictatorship of the rule of law, these scams are all too often shrugged off by the authorities. [...]


But his method, say Emilia and Rozalia, is quite simple: he is trying to force them out by arguing that a new law has overridden the one under which they bought the property.

"I bought this restaurant legally," says Rozalia. "Today we have a new law cancelling the previous law. Tomorrow there will be yet another law cancelling the present one.

"We don't have laws in this country. It's lawless, it's a complete mess. There'll never be private property here, it's not possible."

The sheer scale of repossession of assets, carried out through seemingly simple mechanisms - and often oiled by the easily corruptible judicial system - raises the question of whether the Russian government is able, or indeed willing, to control this alarming trend.

The new insecurity of property is therefore at the very heart of Putin's much-vaunted reforms. [...]

Myh emphasis.

BBQ spins this like its something terribly wrong, like the Russians have no property rights but look at what the Supreme Court just held in the USA. American property developers can do exactly the same thing that the Russian property developers can; use the government to confiscate property from people - and its all perfectly legal when it comes to the USA but in Russia, its 'lawlessness'.

There is no way that Christopher Mitchell Producer of 'Property To Die For' didn't know about the Supreme Court decision when he wrote this piece, and that he didn't knit it in is really very odd.

Or is it? Russia bashing is a type of the endless finger pointing that comes out of BBQ, whose tone is always different when it talks about any other country other than the UK. Whenever they talk about other countries, the reports and writing have a definiate stance, they take sides. But when it comes to the UK, they almost always back off completely into that false objectivity space that means that they can never tell the truth about anything.

An honest article would have drawn together the threads of the razed illegal Zimbabwe dewllings, the new Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain and private developers and this Russian property boom story. This would not be towing the BBQ line, since it would be equating different countries as peers.
posted by Irdial , 11:06 AM Þ 

Mod your lamps. After all, I did.
posted by captain davros , 12:55 AM Þ 
Monday, July 18, 2005

Landlord Byron
posted by Alun , 6:44 PM Þ 

Magic mushrooms ban becomes law

Another small freedom is stolen today.

Once again, The Man tells you what you can and can't put in your body.

In fact, in you see some of these...
The image “http://www.northamptonshirewildlife.co.uk/images/psilocybe_semilanceata.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.
... and dare to PICK them, you will be in possession of a Class A restricted drug (as is heroin), with a maximum prison sentence of 7 years.

And They dare to call Themselves freedom-loving, civilized people.
posted by Alun , 6:27 PM Þ 
Sunday, July 17, 2005

This is horrific and insane (and oddly symbolic):

Suicide bomber kills dozens near Baghdad
CBC News
At least 54 people died when a suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body at a gas station south of Baghdad, police say.
The blast tore through a gas station in Musayyib, about 65 kilometres south of the capital, and triggered a huge explosion in a fuel tanker.
The blast, which took place near a Shia mosque, injured at least 82 people.

This is Absolutely Insane, an example of why the kind of awful things like the above will continue:

Fight 'eeeeeeeevil ideology' of extremists, Blair urges
CBC News

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is calling for a battle of hearts and minds against the "evil ideology" of Muslim extremists as the death toll from the London transit system bombings rises to 55.
On Saturday, Blair condemned people who distort Islam and use fanatical beliefs to prop up deeds such as the July 7 attacks on three subway trains and a bus.

And you know why.
posted by Barrie , 12:01 AM Þ 
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