Saturday, July 30, 2005
posted by Irdial , 9:20 PM Þ 

Skyped

The Likely Sale of Skype Will Be Another Kick in the Head to Old-Line Phone Companies Worldwide

By Robert X. Cringely

In high tech, the theory goes, advantage lies with the pioneers -- the first company to introduce a product in a new category. And that's true except when it is not, which is typically when the pioneers were too early, too expensive, or too difficult to use. In those cases, a second model generally holds, and in that one, the dominant company is a later entrant who simply does the task far better than it had been done before. For Internet searching, Google is a perfect example of this latter effect, entering the market years after Alta Vista and Excite. And the Google of VoIP looks like it might be Skype, which was almost sold last week to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $3 billion.

It may seem odd for me to be writing a story about a company ALMOST being sold, but there is still plenty to be learned from this story that never really happened, especially if Skype ends up being sold next week or the week after, which is a very real possibility.

Skype, for those who've never heard of or used the service, is a Voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) company based in Luxembourg. Remember when all the hot Internet startups were in the U.S.? No more. That started to change years ago when Mirabilis, an Israeli company, invented the ICQ messaging system, later sold to AOL.

[...]

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20050728.html

My emphasis.

posted by Irdial , 1:01 PM Þ 

I was reading various articles last night about this act but can't find now where I read from what date it would be applicable. Maybe it was a dream? I really should stop reading so late into the night.
posted by chriszanf , 12:34 PM Þ 

The suspect's constant use of cell phones betrayed his attempt to find refuge. As well as calling his brother in Rome, he talked to his father who lives in Brescia, in northern Italy.

The suspect, who speaks good Italian, told investigators that he was brought up in Italy after his family sought asylum from Somalia when he was a child. [...]

A phone centre and internet cafe run by his brother near Rome's Termini railway station is also being searched by Italian police. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4730265.stm

My Emphasis.

This is amazing work.

They tracked all of the suspects down, and took all of them in without any injuries. Thats the way it should happen; clean, quick and professional. No one gets hurt, only the bad guys get rounded up. No mass arrests and herding/processing of people in 'holding areas'. Sadly, its all been tainted by the Brazilian incedent...but given the way other countries deal with their problems, the way this has been handled here is an example to every country where they simply round up eveyone that looks like an enemy 'just in case'.

Britain is the best, no doubt about it. At least, on this occasion....

They caught one of the suspects in ITALY, because he used his cellular telephone. This means several things. It means that co-operation between the states in the EU is working perfectly. It mean that the police, when they want to, can catch any criminal. Most importantly it means the police have enough powers today, to catch any criminal that they need to catch, in very short order, and with a high level of efficiency and accuracy.

There is no need for any more legislation for mandatory retention of telephone and email records and certainly the completely absurd proposals about 'hate speech' will not solve a single thing. There is no need for ID cards; the police simply do not need them to get the job done. This is very clear. The police need only one thing; higher wages and more staff. Gtreater police numbers would be far more effective in solving and preventing crime than any legislation - the problem is, passing a law forbidding a kind of speech doesn't cost any money over time, but doing something real like doubling the number of police will cost 'a fortune', and this government doesn't want to spend money on the British public. The billions that they want to waste on rolling out a very bad ID card should be spent on more police, and better pay for police.

But you know this!
posted by Irdial , 12:05 PM Þ 

any protest started now...

I thought the point was that the Act specified protests starting after 1st August. That's why I wrote *chance it*


Hmm, but you could see if Mr Haw would take your banners, etc in return for something to make things easier for him maybe?
posted by meau meau , 10:35 AM Þ 

I'd say the anyone in the area chance it and start a protest before the 1st of August

Even better, turn up and establish your pre-Augustan protest......


The laws were passed in April and so any protest started now would be subject to them. It wasn't too long ago that MP's repealed the law that allowed constituents to throw horse manure at them from the public bacony in the houses of parliament. Shame. Now they have a half mile exclusion zone around them so they don't have to listen to people protesting at their decisions, made in our names.

Horse replaced by bull.


Alan Curtis's Power of Nightmares now available to download from the wonderful archive.org.
posted by chriszanf , 1:38 AM Þ 

Calls for Leading Muslim Cleric to resign and be prosecuted for saying "Al Qaeda does not exist"

London Telegraph | July 28 2005

Comment: Mohammad Naseem today also appeared on BBC radio and asserted that there is no evidence Al Qaeda exists, no evidence it carried out the London Bombings and that it is a construction of Intelligence agencies falling in line with the CIA. These are all provable facts as we regularly point out on this website by refering to official sources. Are we to be prosecuted as well? The MAJORITY of the callers on the show also rightly pointed out that Bin Laden was a CIA asset and Al Qaeda, if it exists at all is a loose knit group of Mujahideen trained and funded by the CIA to do battle with Russian forces in Afghanistan in the late 70s and 1980s.

For the soundbites click here and fast forward to 1 hour 22 mins into the show, and then later on 2 hours 45 mins into the show.

The most senior Islamic cleric in Birmingham claimed yesterday that Muslims were being unjustly blamed in the war on terrorism and that the eight suspects in the two bombing attacks on London "could have been innocent passengers".

Mohammad Naseem, the chairman of the city's central mosque, called Tony Blair a "liar" and "unreliable witness" and questioned whether CCTV footage issued of the suspected bombers was of the perpetrators.

He said that Muslims "all over the world have never heard of an organisation called al-Qa'eda".

Mr Naseem, who was speaking after police seized Yasin Hassan Omar in Birmingham, delivered his unprompted outburst when he was invited to a press conference with West Midlands police and Birmingham city council to help calm fears of racial or religious tension after the arrest.

It was held near the police cordon in Heybarnes Road, where Omar was arrested.

His comments shocked senior police officers.

Sources said that attempts to encourage Muslims to pass them information on the bombers' activities would be hindered. One said: "We are trying to gain the trust of the Muslim community and these kinds of comments have the opposite effect. All they do is encourage communities to close ranks against us."

To the obvious embarrassment of council officials and police standing next to him, Mr Naseem said the Government and security services "were not to be relied upon".

He said: "Tony Blair has told lies on going to Iraq and in a court of law if a witness has proved to be a liar he ceases to be a reliable witness. So we cannot give our blind trust to the Government.

"To have that trust it is important that the process of law should be independent, open and transparent. I am also sad that unfortunately the impression has been given that Muslims are to be targeted in this war against terror. There seems to be a directive to target Muslims. Why do we not have an open mind about this?

"Muslim bashing seems to be more earnest than the need for national unity and harmony. Terrorists can be anybody - we will have to see [whether the bombers are Muslims]. The process is not open; the process is not transparent; the process is not independent. I do not have faith in the system as it stands."

Mr Naseem is one of the most respected Muslims in the city and is considered a moderate. He has regular meetings with the chief constable to discuss religious harmony.

Mr Naseem said that while it was vital that terrorism was stamped out and that there was never any justification for it, the Government had not helped by going to war in Iraq.

Dismissing the Prime Minister's insistence that the war had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks, he said: "Tony Blair … is not going to be perceived as a reliable witness. His comments could motivate someone to take the law into his own hands.

"Some people have been caught but I have not seen any evidence. The process of law is not open."

Asked about the suspects' DNA being found at the scene of the first attacks, he said: "DNA can match you, but that does not mean you are going to commit a crime. Thousands of youths are passing by and caught on CCTV, so how do you know it is them?"

He added: "We must rely upon trust that we have between communities.

"We must remain united in the fight against terrorism but the process should be independent and open, not like the Hutton inquiry, not like the Lord Butler inquiry." And, in an editorial in The Dawn, the central mosque's newsletter, Mr Naseem writes: "Where is the evidence that four youths whose pictures were caught on CCTV cameras…were the perpetrators? How did we reject the possibility they were just innocent victims of this terrible happening? They had bought return train tickets."

From Prison Planet

[...]

Al Qaeda does not exist. It is the sick, racist fantasy of religious bigots, created by 'power' which it (power) is using in a blantant attempt to corall the masses of humanity into the New World Order of ID cards, Soviet style law and total control.

Alan Curtis says so. I say so. Everyone I know thinks and says so.

Anyone who calls for the prosecution of a man for speaking an opinion is part of the problem, too dangerous to be kept alive, first against the wall when the revolution comes, bang out of order, up for the chop, a bad sort, and my personal enemy.
posted by Irdial , 1:01 AM Þ 
Friday, July 29, 2005




I've spent quite a few hours today listening to recordings of different uk dialects. I love how such a small island has so much diversity. Travel 20 miles [or less] outside London and there is a different dialect.


Pieter Hugo:
posted by chriszanf , 11:58 PM Þ 
posted by captain davros , 11:20 PM Þ 

Data retention is no solution!


The European ministers of Justice and the European Commission want to keep all telephone and internet traffic data of all 450 million Europeans. If you are concerned about this plan, please sign the petition.

What's wrong with data retention? The proposal to retain traffic data will reveal who has been calling and e-mailing whom, what websites people have visited and even where they were with their mobile phones. Telephone companies and internet services providers would be ordered to store all traffic data of their customers. Police and intelligence agencies in Europe would be granted access the traffic data. Various, competing proposals in Brussels mention retention periods from 6 months up to four years.

Data retention is an invasive tool that interferes with the private lives of all 450 million people in the European Union. Data retention is a policy that expands powers of surveillance in an unprecedented manner. It simultaneously revokes many of the safeguards in European human rights instruments, such as the Data Protection Directives and the European Convention on Human Rights.

Data retention means that governments may interfere with your private life and private communications regardless if you are suspected of a crime or not.

Data retention is not a solution to terrorism and crime!

In July 2005 the European Parliament adopted a report by Parliament member Alexander Alvaro on the mandatory data retention plan. The report concludes that the proposal is disproportionate. The report also questions the necessity, effectiveness and high costs for industry and telecommunication users.

No research has been conducted anywhere in Europe that supports the need and necessity of creating such a large-scale database containing such sensitive data for the purpose of fighting crime and terrorism.

The attacks on London are an attack on human rights. The protection of those human rights matters most when governments and societies face times of crisis. The worst possible response would be to jeopardise those carefully wrought rights by a panic-inspired response. A mass surveillance response to terror would result in a resounding success for the perpetrators of these attacks: a fundamental undermining of our most fundamental values.

What can you do to stop this plan?

If you are concerned about the European plans for data retention, please sign the petition and alert as many people as you can to support this campaign.

The signatures will be sent to the European Commission and the European Parliament. [...]

http://www.dataretentionisnosolution.com/index.php?lang=eng

Hmmm the patent directive was thrown out comprehensively, perhaps the EU can be controlled with democratic pressure...let us see.

Imagine, after years of being run badly, the EU becomes the protector of everyone's rights in a consistent and sensible way....stranger things have (and are probably about to) happened.
posted by Irdial , 5:31 PM Þ 

I'd say the anyone in the area chance it and start a protest before the 1st of August

Even better, turn up and establish your pre-Augustan protest, and then hand it over to another person when you get tired of it so that it may continue ad nauseum, or...sell/rent your 'pitch' to the highest bidder who wants to enter that space!

Meanwhile....

Madrassa foreigners 'must leave'

Madrassas must not be misused for extremism, says Musharraf
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf says all foreign students at madrassas, or religious schools, some 1,400 pupils, must leave the country.

"Any [foreigners] in the madrassas - even dual nationality holders - will leave Pakistan," Gen Musharraf said.

This is the latest in a series of measures the president has announced in a renewed clampdown on extremism.

Madrassas have been in the spotlight after one of the London bombers was reported to have studied at one.

Invalid

Gen Musharraf told foreign journalists in Islamabad: "They must leave. We will not issue visas to such people.

"We will not allow madrassas to be misused for extremism, hatred being projected in our society."

He also told journalists that action would be taken against any of the madrassas that did not register with the authorities.

Pakistani forces have detained hundreds of clerics and suspected militants since President Musharraf announced a new crackdown on 15 July.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4728643.stm


My italic emphasis.

Bliar and Murder Inc must drool at the UNNNNLLIMITED POWWWEERRRRRR of Mr Pervez, who can not only kick out foreign nationals at the drop of a hat, but also his own citizens should that be his pleasure.
posted by Irdial , 4:56 PM Þ 

Parliament protester wins battle
Brian Haw outside court
Mr Haw has been protesting outside Parliament since 2001
A man who has held a four-year anti-war protest outside Parliament, has won a legal battle to continue his vigil.

From 1 August all protests in a half-mile zone in Westminster, London, must have prior permission from police.

But the High Court has ruled Brian Haw, 56, from Worcestershire, who claimed he was exempt as his protest pre-dated the new laws, can continue his protest.

The government said Mr Haw posed a potential security risk and described his argument as "absurd".




BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd say the anyone in the area chance it and start a protest before the 1st of August so Mr Haw doesn't become the August 1. (That's if you've anything worth demonstrating about).
posted by meau meau , 3:37 PM Þ 

When a country obtains great power,
it becomes like the sea:
all streams run downward into it.
The more powerful it grows,
the greater the need for humility.
Humility means trusting the Tao,
thus never needing to be defensive.

A great nation is like a great man:
When he makes a mistake, he realizes it.
Having realized it, he admits it.
Having admitted it, he corrects it.
He considers those who point out his faults
as his most benevolent teachers.
He thinks of his enemy as the shadow that he himself casts.

If a nation is centered in the Tao,
if it nourishes its own people
and doesn't meddle in the affairs of others,
it will be a light to all nations in the world.
posted by Irdial , 11:44 AM Þ 

It'd be interesting to know how many witnesses remember what they saw

???!!!

Why don't they just show us the video tape from the pervasive CCTV to prove that what they are saying is the truth?

What is the betting that they will now never release this tape, because it contradicts the police version of the story?

What is the point of all the CCTV everywhere if it will not be used to corroborate the facts in a desperately important case? OK, so during an investigation that might go to court, any evidince like CCTV footage that is released now might not be admissible in court due to the rules of evidence (?!?!?) but in these 'times of extreme crisis' when people can be gunned down in the street without cause, SURELY the tape is more valuable as a tool to re-assure everyone in the UK that martial law has not been secretly declared and everyone's rights suspended for the duration; to re-assure everyone that the police, even under pressure like this, can be trusted to give a true account of what they are doing on behalf of and in the public's name.

That tape would go a long way to making things right. What goes a long way to making things wrong are the blantant and repulsive leaks to do with the Brazilian's immigration status, as if for some reason, being here on an expired visa has ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with him being executed in the street!!! And the newspapers all repeat this scandalous, shameless, dastardly and evil information with glee!
posted by Irdial , 10:38 AM Þ 

truth is forged

It'd be interesting to know how many witnesses remember what they saw as opposed to trying to fit their memories into the official version
posted by meau meau , 9:43 AM Þ 

they thought they could get away with such a statement

The problem is, they already have.

Nobody I've spoken to had heard this update to the story. So the public remember only the initial police LIES. This man will be remembered only as an illegal immigrant, acting suspiciously in a heavy coat, who jumped a barrier and ran onto the tube.

The reports of the reality of what happened are buried without fuss in the broadsheets, ignored by the tabloids, and hidden inside puff pieces by the BBC.

The BBC reports the info as one paragraph, well into this story...
Ban 'shoot-to-kill', urge family

While they still have this "guide" prominently linked to everything about the shooting

Electrician Jean Charles de Menezes was believed to be heading for north London to carry out a pre-arranged job when he was shot at Stockwell Tube station by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

The BBC News website traces his final journey.

[...]

Scotland Yard are not commenting on details of the shooting because it is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. But earlier they said Mr Menezes was wearing a padded jacket which heightened their suspicions.

They said they pursued him into the station after he began running, and shot him after he failed to obey their orders to stop and tried to board a Tube train.

Layout of Stockwell station
1: Jean Charles de Menezes enters Stockwell station
2: Witnesses say he vaults the automatic ticket barriers and heads for the platforms
3: He runs down an escalator after being approached by up to 20 plain-clothed police officers and tries to board a train
4: He apparently refuses to obey police instructions and after running onto a northbound Northern line train, he is shot dead






And so truth is forged.
posted by Alun , 9:03 AM Þ 
Thursday, July 28, 2005
posted by captain davros , 8:17 PM Þ 
posted by captain davros , 8:11 PM Þ 

Soon they'll have to lay off the mushrooms so things may become clearer, yeah.

Thats why shrooms are now illegal!!
posted by Irdial , 4:13 PM Þ 

Guardian

Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police...

There is practically nothing left from the original police statement that stacks up anymore, it's amazing they operate in a climate where they thought they could get away with such a statement. It makes you wonder how they let their imaginations loose on actions relating to lower profile cases.

Soon they'll have to lay off the mushrooms so things may become clearer, yeah.
posted by meau meau , 3:38 PM Þ 

"Anything I can do
I can do better
I can do anything
Better than me"

-

"and what cause would you live for?"
posted by meau meau , 2:28 PM Þ 
posted by alex_tea , 2:04 PM Þ 

A deal on climate change that doesn't limit pollution is the same as a peace plan that allows guns to be fired
posted by Alun , 12:10 PM Þ 
Wednesday, July 27, 2005

TAZER

The name comes from "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle"
posted by alex_tea , 9:32 PM Þ 

Police were tonight questioning one of the four main suspects in the failed bomb attacks in London on July 21, security sources said.

Yasin Hassan Omar, 24, a Somali connected to the attempted suicide bombing at Warren Street tube station, was arrested when anti-terrorist officers swooped on a home in the Hay Mills area of Birmingham at 4.30am, Guardian Unlimited understands.

He was felled with a Taser stun gun, which fires an electric charge, after a scuffle with police officers who raided a house in Heybarnes Road.

[...]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1536957,00.html

My emphasis. Wow.

Let me be not the first to ask how it is that they can TASER someone who was alledgedly seen carrying a bomb, but they pump eight bullets into someone who was completely innocent?

They had been following the Brazilian, watched him get onto a bus, and then cornered him like a dog and murdered him, but a man who they 'know for sure' was planning a bombing run, they TASER him instead of executing him.

The only reason they would not have Tasered the Brazilian is because they did not want him to talk. This Omar 'suspect' was Tasered because....they want him to talk? It doesnt make any sense. They could have Tasered and held the brazilian, or stunned him with rubber bullets while he was walking down the street, but to hold him down and execute him....this is rather odd, and it is even more odd now that the police have Tasered someone who they suspect is a suicide bomber, and who they want to interrogate.

Is this a case of Keystone Cops running wild, or are they obeying commands perfectly? Are they now going to Taser every suspect, or are they going to execute only the patsies and Taser the sacrificial lambs for the inevitable show trials?

This sort of discrepancy feeds into the runaway rumor mill, this illogical, inconsistent behaviour, the other universe proclamations of Bliar and the Murder Inc franchise cabal. Really, what else would you expect in the absence of any honesty and real accountability?
posted by Irdial , 7:22 PM Þ 

What Is the Plan If There's Another 9/11?

According to Philip Giraldi, writing in the new issue (not online) of the American Conservative, it's to nuke Iran:

The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney's office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing--that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack--but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

Umm, could the Emm Ess Emm pick this up? Especially considering that several of the hardened suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites are in the middle of Tehran? So does this mean we are going to nuke the capital of Iran? And in this case would we parachute in exiles to run the place afterward, or attempt a colonial administration? What effect would the radioactive fallout have on our decision?

I mean, surely the NYT and WaPo can find a lede here: "US has plan to nuke Tehran if another 9/11." Can we get at least a bloody story out of this? Sorry to sound breathless, but the prospect of nuking Tehran is over my breathlessness threshold. As if we needed another reason to hope there's not a terrorist attack on the U.S...

The current issue of TAC also includes a sharp article by Christopher Layne, arguing that, while failure is pretty much a fait accompli in Iraq, there's failure and then there's failure. Getting out sooner, as Layne argues, would make failure less detrimental to America.

Say what you will about Pat Buchanan, TAC's a pretty interesting mag, particularly when compared to its intra-right-wing competition. I mean, honestly, how much do we really need another Sufi partisan article by Stephen Schwartz or another "Aha! NOW I've found The Connection!" article by Stephen Hayes? [...]

http://www.justinlogan.com/justinlogancom/2005/07/what_is_the_pla.html

???!!!

posted by Irdial , 6:59 PM Þ 


Photos of the Field art installation near Bath. The florescent tubes are glowing in the electric field from the overhead cables.
From: gusset on Flickr
posted by chriszanf , 6:35 PM Þ 

Here is the source of the big Lenny Bruce quote...

LENNY BRUCE

A CHILD BEFORE HIS TIME



"In freedom of speech,
the accent is on freedom,
not on speech"
posted by Alun , 4:52 PM Þ 

I think you see that a lot in demonstrations....

Generally I agree with what you're saying but police tactics aren't (necessarily) prescribed by 'Authorities', the police have plenty of opportunities to make their own faults, like *everyone*. 'Heavy handed policing' is as common to demonstrations as SWP placards. Given the close proximity of police requests and resulting Government legislation there are some boundaries being blurred between the 'Authority' and the 'Executive' and the results are as potentially unnerving as if the 'Authority' was, um, authoritarian.
posted by meau meau , 4:30 PM Þ 

LENNY BRUCE: Like what happened to me in England: I liked England, and I was very well received by the press; but then, when i came back from this country, I was arrested. I was arrested in town A, and if towns B, C, and D don't arrest you, they are not doing their jobs. That's the big problem we have in our country: unfortunately we elect people on their record. I think that law-enforcement officers should be treated like the postman. They shouldn't have to be keeping busy all the time. We demand that the man do his job and keep busy; and when the crime rate drops - which it has in this country because the welfare is up and the economy is up - it results in a lot of false arrests. The poor police officer is put in the position of doing his job when he's not required to do his job. Because he's of shore tenure, and that's what he's elected on. You find it with a [civil rights] demonstration. How do we have law in our country? Well, let's reduce it to the very first law. Let's say we all made an agreement; we said: "We'll sleep in area A; we'll eat in area B; we'll throw our garbage in area C. Because that's the rules." Everybody agreed on it. Everybody went to sleep. Then, say, some guy woke up and he got a face full of garbage. So he says: "What's the deal here? I thought we had a rule: A, B, and C." So they discovered that although they had a rule, there was no way to enforce it. So then they had to get somebody to enforce the law. So they said: "All right; this is what we'll do: if anybody throws any garbage on us while we're sleeping, he gets thrown where the garbage is. But the problem is that we have to do business with these people so we can't throw them where the garbage is. So we'd better get someone else to do it. We'll get some 'law-enforcement officers.'" And they said: "Look, we're trying to get some sleep, but people are throwing garbage on us. So if anybody throws any garbage on us while we're sleeping, they get thrown in the garbage. But don't do it in front of me - because I want somebody to be the bad guy, and I've got to do business with these people, and you've heard me say a lot of times that it takes a certain mentality to do this work." So when the demonstrations come, that's the way the law is. You can't change the law without repealing it. So you've got a poor peace officer with a stick in his hand, and fifty thousand people throwing rocks, sticks and stones - and the thing stopping them is him. In fact, he is really doing the job of a public servant, but people always sort of want to beat the devil. The newspapers - they can only sell papers, you know, by showing what they assume is the bad guy. This creates, you know, a bit of a problem.


I couldn't find the quote I wanted, which was about "the people can't seperate the Authorities and the people who have the authority vested in them.
I think you see that a lot in demonstrations.
[...] people are demonstrating ... against policemen."


I was reminded of this from chatting yesterday... and thinking about changing things.
And remembered Julian Cope using a bit of Lenny Bruce on the track "Soldier Blue".
Lenny Bruce, like Bill Hicks, saw things as they really are.

Anyway, the Peace Tax 7 (ha!) had a true aim, demonstrating against the Authorities rather than standing and shouting at policemen on the street.

It's a simple concept, easily forgotten.

Unfortunately, the Authorities have done all they can to make themselves invulnerable.
Batfink-like, the Law is like a Shield of Steel. A distorted one, that it should protect the Authority and not serve the People.


I half-remember the rest, Lenny as Authority Figure, saying to Policeman "... But I can't do it,
because I have to do business with these assholes. So here's a stick and a gun, you go do it.
But wait 'til I'm out of the room."
posted by Alun , 3:18 PM Þ 

The Register reports that the proposed UKID card would use ICAO RFID standards, spy blog has the pitfalls nailed to the floor and fires a few lethal shots here.

Reg also states that chip & PIN technology would also be used:

...while use of chip and PIN would allow it to be compatible with banking and retail systems...

We've said this before, any problems with the banking system should be handled by the PRIVATE financial companies that enter into PRIVATE contracts with INDIVIDUALS there is absolutely no reason for PRIVATE transactions to involve validation of PUBLIC documents especially not when such validations add to the inherent security flaws of a repeatedly accessd centralised database of useless but potentially very valuable information on all the sheep that volunteer into the ID card system (or those who are cowed by whatever the state throws at them).
The incorporation of such functionality is a cynical exercise by the architects of the IDcard cashcow (for the governments favoured IT providers) to make the ID card a requirement for private transactions and as such make life incredibly difficult for non card holders in the duration when the holding of an ID is alleged to be voluntary (and don't hold your breath for Liar or Clunk to decree that this period will be unjustifiable given the 'current terror threat').
Did I just rant? Oh well in short, private contracts/transactions should be enforced by the parties who enter into the contracts, if this does not involve the State (ie for benefits etc) then it is none of the State's business to intercede. If customers want such securities in banking they can choose bankers that privately supply secure accounts, and the banks shouldn't be so lazy as to wait for State intervention to supply such accounts.
And the State shouldn't peddle their flawed schemes on wholly unrelated 'functionality'.
posted by meau meau , 3:11 PM Þ 

The image “http://www.viewaskew.com/clerks/images/clerks.jpg” cannot be displayed, because it contains errors.

Finally available on DVD!
posted by Alun , 3:06 PM Þ 

Alison, I just remembered Jeff Mills is playing at Lost the weekend you are in London. That should be amazing!

LOST

BANK HOLIDAY SUNDAY 28th AUGUST
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others t.b.c.

blues.hosted by
RHYTHM & SOUND (Berlin) EXCLUSIVE UK DATE
(Mark & Moritz formerly Basic Channel presenting their dub set)
full line up t.b.a.

3rd Space Incorporating 'Inside the White Cube'
posted by alex_tea , 12:39 PM Þ 

Massive modular


"a musical instrument using light bulbs as 100% audio source"


Tube ring modulator/preamp

all from Carrion Sound.

I wish I had taken time to learn how to make my own electronics. What a great thing to be doing!
posted by Barrie , 8:18 AM Þ 
Tuesday, July 26, 2005

posted by meau meau , 3:49 PM Þ 

falsified ... "Yellow Cake"

IT'S A MADE UP DRUG!

-
posted by meau meau , 2:36 PM Þ 

French Intelligence and The U.S. Marshall Service Monday night July 18, 2005 caught eight of Tony Blair's British MI-6 Agents trying to bomb the Chicago Subway system. A shoot out killed 4 British Agents. Four were captured in the act of Terrorism and arrested. The British Agents part of Bush & Blair's Al Quaida network were charged in Federal Court today with explosives. The British MI-6 Terrorist Cell Operated out of Laidlaw Corp in Chicago.

Chicago US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald served Tony Blair a subpoena in the CIA Valerie Plame case on July 13, 2005 to answer questions regarding his role in the leaks connected to George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Condi Rice, Andrew Card, Scooter Libby and Karl Rove. Tony Blair has not yet responded to his subpoena. George W. Bush has not responded to his subpoena either. Tony Blair had supplied George W. Bush with falsified British Intelligence stating that Iraq leader Saddam Hussein had obtained "Yellow Cake" Nuclear materials from Niger. This was the reason Bush gave to start the war in Iraq. This has all now been proven to be lies by Bush and Blair. [...]

???!!!
posted by Irdial , 1:58 PM Þ 

John Burke's Hungry Bear 1

John Burke emailed these to me today, the other three in the sequence....well, honestly....'Bears'!!!!!
posted by Irdial , 12:58 PM Þ 

If a country is governed with tolerance,
the people are comfortable and honest.
If a country is governed with repression,
the people are depressed and crafty.

When the will to power is in charge,
the higher the ideals, the lower the results.
Try to make people happy,
and you lay the groundwork for misery.
Try to make people moral,
and you lay the groundwork for vice.

Thus the Master is content
to serve as an example
and not to impose her will.
She is pointed, but doesn't pierce.
Straightforward, but supple.
Radiant, but easy on the eyes.
posted by Irdial , 11:51 AM Þ 

This old Met, they played guns
They played click-clack with their thumbs
With 'Operation Paki-whack',
Get on the dog and bone
This old Met come toting guns

This old Met, they played shoot
They played click-clack on the hoof
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met came trusting none

This old Met, they played free
They played click-clack with impunity
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met came trolling homes

This old Met, they played four
They played click-clack on the door
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met forced to the floor

This old Met, they played five
They played click-clack with his life
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met came causing strife

This old Met crossed the Styx
They played click-clack through the streets
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met came bringing grief

This old Met, they played seven
They played click-clack up to heaven
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met aren't acting clever

This old Met, they played hate
They played click-clack on my pate
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Get on the dog and bone
This old Met stopped too late

This old Met, they played nine
They played click-clack through my spine
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
This old Met on the Northern line

This old Met, with Number Ten
They will play click-clack once again
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give the pig a gun
And old Met will fuck up again
posted by meau meau , 11:30 AM Þ 

Peace tax group lose court case
A group of peace campaigners has lost its legal fight for the right to be able to opt out of taxes which are used to fund military action.

The so-called "peace tax seven" wanted a judicial review of their demands for a special fund for their tax payments - so it is not used to fund wars.

Their barrister told the High Court they faced a choice of following their conscience or obeying the law.

But Mr Justice Collins said the group's case was unarguable.

The "peace tax seven" are: Joe Jenkins, of Green Street, Hereford; Birgit Vollm, 40, Oxford Road, Manchester; Simon Heywood, Herries Road, Sheffield; Sian Cwper, 57, Llanfrothen, Gwynedd; Roy Prockter, 55, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex; Robin Brookes, 52, Market Lavington, Wilts; and Brenda Boughton, 80, Plantation Road, Oxford.

They argued the Treasury's refusal to set up a special account for their taxes broke European human rights laws protecting freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Conscience gap

The group's barrister, Michael Fordham, said: "They are forced to make an impossible choice between following their conscience or obeying the law."

In a statement to the court, Ms Boughton said she found contributing to defence spending "impossible to reconcile" with her religious convictions.

She has withheld part of her taxes since 1989 and court orders have been used to take the money directly from her bank account.

Mr Prockter, a chartered management accountant, said he objected to taking any action in a war "including the conscription of my tax to finance martial expenditure".

But Treasury solicitors said the European Convention on Human Rights, and other legal cases, had decided in the 1980s that the UK tax regime did not interfere with the rights of conscience.

Mr Justice Collins rejected the call for a full judicial review hearing.

He said respected the genuine nature of the objectors' convictions and the "important" nature of their grievance - but their challenge was doomed to failure. [...]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4715619.stm

P£nury!

posted by Irdial , 1:52 AM Þ 
Monday, July 25, 2005

(nomen nescio)

A Secret Service

submit your password at

asecretservice.org

A project by Sasker Scheerder and Olaf Matthes.
Mediamatic and Sasker Scheerder take SAFETY very SERIOUSLY. The increasingly popular exchange of sensitive digital information demands a revision of security measures. An alternative, designed by Sasker Scheerder, is being offered at Mediamatic. [...]

Hidden in public, A Secret Service offers a valuable service to computer users dealing with the problem of password management; and you reading this are very likely to be one of them.

When you memorize your passwords you're going to forget them at some point: when you write them on a piece of paper you're either going to lose it or someone else will see it, so this is UNSAFE. When you store the in an encrypted file on your computer it is not only unsafe but also you still need another password to open this file, which not only principally FEELS BAD but is philosophically still NOT A SOLUTION.

A Secret Service invites you to submit your passwords and a timestamp for storage on the Secret Service website, asecretservice.org . It is then translated (text-to-speech), automated and broadcasted via webradio and live at Mediamatic Groundfloor every hour on the time of your choice. Because nobody can know that this is your password or what the purpose is, this seemingly paradoxical way of storing something very secret and intimate in public space can be considered completely safe.

To guarantee the absolute safety of your information, Mediamatic has taken advanced security measures to protect the server on which your passwords will be saved. You are invited to place your most sensitive information in our care ( asecretservice.org ) and take a look at Mediamatic's exhibition space where the safety of these measures are on display. [...]

http://www.mediamatic.net/artefact-200.9560.htm

posted by Irdial , 5:53 PM Þ 

Collection of transparent computer screens.

See this as very early technological adaptations of what will come to be recognized as normal in the future. [Computer screens designed to adapt into their surroundings, remain hidden when not in use.]
posted by telle goode , 3:50 PM Þ 



Every one's a winner!
posted by meau meau , 2:09 PM Þ 

they should be subject to controlled testing and be grown in controlled environments,

Like I said before, they should be grown on a Lunar base, and no where else.

and the requirement for each modification should be clearly identified and assessed, for modifications related to increasing or artificially including vitamins, insulin, etc the plants should be harvested and processed and sold as pharmaceuticals not food.

Indeed. You do know of course, that when they use the word 'engineering' they do so in the loosest possible way. These plants are 'engineered' by subjecting them to a particle scatter gun that damages the genetic material of the plant in a totally random way. They then try and grow the damaged plant to see first of all if it will grow, and secondly, wether its 'good' for anything.

In any case, how they are doing it is irrelevant. These people have now contaminated the environment with their experimental plants, and no one is going to be held accountable for the contamination, not even to the level of charging the violator for all the work that will be needed to manually pull up all these super weeds that cannot be eradicated by herbicides.

This is the most annoying thing of all, they run roughshod overf everyones and our children's rights, pay nothing and are not brought to book, and eveyone is meant to just sit around and take it. Anyone who finds these plants in thier garden should be able to sue Monsanto for contaminating their property. The scientists who said its perfectly safe should be pilloried and humiliated so that their word is never used again to sanction a dangerous experiment.

And of course, this is the contamination that we know about. God knows what other contamination has spread throughout the country and that has either not been detected or has been covered up.

Is there a seed bank holding all the original, untampered with plants that are now being destroyed, so that we can roll back this experiment? I wonder if the people who did this had the foresight to take this precaution. Probably not, since they arrogantly thoght that nothing could go wrong, and that the junk wouldnt escape.

Honestly, we can do without these people!
posted by Irdial , 2:02 PM Þ 

If you want to be a great leader,
you must learn to follow the Tao.
Stop trying to control.
Let go of fixed plans and concepts,
and the world will govern itself.

The more prohibitions you have,
the less virtuous people will be.
The more weapons you have,
the less secure people will be.
The more subsidies you have,
the less self-reliant people will be.

Therefore the Master says:
I let go of the law,
and people become honest.
I let go of economics,
and people become prosperous.
I let go of religion,
and people become serene.
I let go of all desire for the common good,
and the good becomes common as grass.
posted by Irdial , 12:31 PM Þ 

Modified genes from crops in a GM crop trial have transferred into local wild plants, creating a form of herbicide-resistant "superweed", the Guardian can reveal.

The cross-fertilisation between GM oilseed rape, a brassica, and a distantly related plant, charlock, had been discounted as virtually impossible by scientists with the environment department. It was found during a follow up to the government's three-year trials of GM crops which ended two years ago.


This sort of unintended consequence of GM crop plantings is exactly why GM products should be treated in the same way as medicinal products - they should be subject to controlled testing and be grown in controlled environments, and the requirement for each modification should be clearly identified and assessed, for modifications related to increasing or artificially including vitamins, insulin, etc the plants should be harvested and processed and sold as pharmaceuticals not food.
posted by meau meau , 12:08 PM Þ 
Sunday, July 24, 2005

Those London terrorism euphemisms (edited):

homegrown - British
organic - manually detonated, cf:
battery - remotely detonated
free range - escaped suspect
pick your own - list of grievances re. Western involvement in the Middle East
cottage industry - al-Qaida cell
sourdough (aka yorkshire pudding) - homemade explosive
posted by meau meau , 9:41 PM Þ 



Thanks to the eyes and ears and fingers of Davros for this.
posted by Irdial , 7:17 PM Þ 
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