All about protecting the kiddies of course:Politicians are ready to introduce league tables naming and shaming the speed with which internet service providers take down offensive material.The culture minister, Barbara Follett, and her Tory shadow, Ed Vaizey, have backed the idea that web providers must be embarrassed into dealing with violent, sexually explicit web content.Follett said she wants to see the pre-screening of material on sites such as YouTube, as occurs at present on MySpace. She admitted there was growing chaos out there on the internet, and order needed to be brought.We need order. Oh really do we? Do we really, what ever happened to parental control, actually watching what the young un's see on the internet. She has also admitted barriers aimed at preventing children...
Gorgon, go and die:Gordon Brown hailed the internet as a world of "entertainment, opportunity and knowledge" as he launched a new watchdog to protect children online.The Prime Minister said that the UK Council for Child Internet Safety was an "important landmark" in efforts to keep young people safe on the web.The council was set up by the Government in response to recommendations by Dr Tanya Byron, a psychologist, in a report about internet safety published in March.It will monitor the web for offensive content and have the power to order sites that illegally encourage suicide or harmful behaviour to be taken down.And quite how fucking much is this going to cost us? How many more countless non jobs will be taken on by HM Govt to run this shit?I think that the answer is a lot and lots,...
Milton Friedman famously claimed there are four ways in which you can spend money.
You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.
You can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone. Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.
You can spend somebody else’s money on yourself. And if you do that you’re going to have a good lunch!
You can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if you spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, you’re not concerned about how much it is, and you’re not concerned about what you get. And that’s government. And...
I said about my local NHS trust losing data before when a laptop was stolen, well it would appear that the NHS is like the rest of the government leaking data.New Labour are in charge, they hold the responsibility to protect peoples information.From The Sun. NHS watchdogs fear the loss of patients’ medical records could be far more widely spread than was admitted yesterday. Ten trusts have owned up to mislaying 168,000 patients’ files in the latest in a series of public sector data blunders. Last night Joyce Robins, of support group Patient Care, said: “I think it’s the tip of the iceberg because there is such carelessness within the NHS. It’s always impossible to hold anyone to account.” And she warned the lost details could include patients’ most personal secrets....
The pound has slumped to its lowest level in 20 months, after a "shocking" raft of figures revealed how deeply reliant the UK has become on debt.Britain's current account has recorded its worst deficit since the late 1980s, making Britain's national balance sheet worse than the United States' for the first time since Nigel Lawson was Chancellor of the Exchequer.Figures published by the Office for National Statistics caused a major sell-off of the pound, as experts warned that the UK currency would have to fall in value to bring the current account back into line. Sterling dropped to 98.9 on the Bank of England's comprehensive trade-weighted index, which measures it against a basket of other currencies. This is the lowest level since April 2006.It also fell more than two cents against the...
A MAYOR sparked a row by asking soldiers to lay down their guns before marching in this Sunday’s Remembrance Day parade. Chepstow town councillor Hilary Beach says the 1 Rifles Army regiment, based at nearby Beachley Barracks, should not carry their weapons during the ceremony because of the rising tide of gun crime across the country. Veterans’ groups criticised her comments as “ridiculous” . Ms Beach said the ceremony should be a time for peace and not conflict. She said, “I would prefer there not be any guns at the Remembrance Day parade – it is a personal issue for me. “I want to make it clear that I hold Remembrance Day as extremely important and it is vital that members of the Armed Forces are in attendance. “However, I have always thought about Remembrance Day...
A gang of African immigrants stole £250,000 in benefit cheques and then splashed out on luxury designer clothes. The Conglese gang, whose conspiracy was so sophisticated and well-planned that it escaped detection for four years, now face deportation.**Although don't hold your breath waiting for that to happen, thanks to New Labour and the Human Rights Act they will most likely be able to stay in the land of dole and benefits for a live of indolence and ease living off the backs of the buckra taxpayers. Birmingham Crown Court Recorder Justin Wigoder said the theft of more than 800 giro cheques from the post had left hundreds of needy people without funds. Postal worker Massamba Lubamba, who stole more than 500 of the cheques, was jailed for four years. Forger Basimo Ngolo -...
Three judges at Scotland’s supreme civil court issued a declaration that the blanket ban on convicted prisoners voting was incompatible with their human rights.
BBC, Court rules on prison voting ban
Ok then, and this:
The move follows a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights which found a blanket ban on prisoners voting was a breach of their human rights.
BBC, Prisoner vote consultation begins
Here’s what i don’t understand. The impetus to allow prisoners to vote is coming from human rights legislation but surely once you’ve accepted the terrible trampling on the right to liberty involved in being banged up, why get worked up about something else so relatively trivial?...
According to a campaigning group, staff at the Grand Canyon are not allowed to officially comment on the of the geological feature Apparently, the reason is that the geologic age is way in excess of the apparently 6000 year old age of the planet according to Creationists. Not sure I believe the story, and will look into it further…
Tom Coates, Links for 2006-12-30
That never sounded a plausible story and now we know for sure it’s nonsense. Actually, I already knew it was nonsense. When I visited the Grand Canyon there was no end of information about its age and wonder at the fact of its relatively recent emergence - recent in geological terms, that is.
The Grand Canyon, quite old when I last visited
So how come Mr Coates even bothered to publish a silly rumour, even if he...
Former world boxing champion Naseem Hamed has been stripped of his MBE after being jailed over a high-speed crash in his sports car
The Cabinet Office, which administers the honours system, said on Monday that awards could be annulled if evidence of wrongdoing came to light.
BBC, Ex-champ Hamed stripped of honour
Meanwhile, convicted perjurer ‘Lord’ Jeffery Archer, who retains his peerage, will be paid by the taxpayer to appear on BBC2’s show, ‘The Verdict’.
honours system jeffery archer naseem hamed...
The BBC has reported that Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned with thallium, which The Telegraph decided was a liquid; then the Beeb suggested the poison was radioactive thallium; then became very excited over unusual objects appearing on his X-rays, though how the BBC had seen his X-rays and why they were breaching the usual confidentiality rules, they didn’t say.
The mystery of the mysterious objects mysteriously vanished as the BBC changed its mind again and decided that Litvinenko had been poisoned with Polonium.
I really don’t think this has been sensible reporting. Now, the BBC News 24 channel is telling me not to panic. As Alpha particles are readily stopped by a sheet of paper and I live around 140 miles away from the sushi bar in Piccadilly Circus in which Litvinenko...
Another small victory for the forces of Unreason. From ‘The Guardian’
Packaging on homeopathic products will be allowed to describe the illnesses they claim to be able to treat under a controversial licensing scheme … but doctors and scientists say it will legitimise products that have no scientific evidence to support their claims
Homeopathic licensing alarms doctors
This is how homeopathic concoctions are prepared. The ‘remedy’ is combined with water in a succession of dilutions and shaken between each dilution, in the case of soluble substances. Originally, each dilution would be in the ratio of 1 part to 100; these days, in the West, dilutions of 1 part in 50,000 is common.
Hahnemann, the inventor of homeopathy, proposed 30 successive dilutions each...
Did you hear about the homeopathic doctor who forgot to take his pills? Died of an overdose.
Tim Worstall,Homeopathic Malaria Treatment
Saw Simon Singh on Newsnight last evening, reporting on an investigation in homeopaths merrily touting their magic water as malaria prophylactics. This is no longer just fleecing the gullible, this is criminal. Time to ban ‘em, i say.
On a more positive note, after the Newsnight report the Beeb showed a concert from Dakar to promote the Roll Back Malaria campaign. Highlights were Angélique Kidjo beautifully singing Malaika and Tinariwen performing Tis Metten.
angelique kidjo homeopaths roll back malaria...
I cobble together a verse comedy about the customs of the harem, assuming that, as a Spanish writer, I can say what I like about Mohammed without drawing hostile fire. Next thing, some envoy from God knows where turns up and complains that in my play I have offended the Ottoman empire, Persia, a large slice of the Indian peninsula, the whole of Egypt, and the kingdoms of Barca, Tripoli, Tunisi, Algeria, and Morocco. And so my play sinks without trace, all to placate a bunch of Muslim princes, not one of whom, as far as I know, can read but who beat the living daylights out of us and say we are ‘Christian dogs.’ Since they can’t stop a man thinking, they take it out on his hide instead.
Beaumarchais’ Marriage of Figaro,......
