20 effin' years?!
Where does the time go?
AMC - Blogs - SciFi Scanner - Celebrating 20 Years of Bat-Mania (Tim Burton Edition)
US Consumers Finally Growing Some Damned Sense, Not Buying Bottled Water
Wanna know a secret? I've been wishing for a recession for quite a few years now - because I've long known that people act a lot less stupidly in leaner times.
This is a start - Consumers Finally Growing Some Damned Sense, Not Buying Bottled Water but we've still got a ways to go yet.
This is a start - Consumers Finally Growing Some Damned Sense, Not Buying Bottled Water but we've still got a ways to go yet.
...and this is how NuLabour does things...
and this is how it's run things ever since it's been in power. IE Having meetings with very rich powerful people and doing whatever they're told - regardless of the consequences. (Examples of consequences? things like the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - the global banking crisis.)
Mandelson launches crackdown on file sharing... just days after meeting with record producer | Mail Online
But the weird thing is - I remember back in the days just before and around the time it got into power it was forever getting cosy in with the trendy new bands of the day - inviting Oasis and other 'Brit-pop' stars into Number 10 for tea parties and the like to show everyone that they were down with the young people... But now here they are doing something which is really going to piss the young people off (and anyone with an internet connection) - way to go Mandy. You idiot.
Mandelson launches crackdown on file sharing... just days after meeting with record producer | Mail Online
But the weird thing is - I remember back in the days just before and around the time it got into power it was forever getting cosy in with the trendy new bands of the day - inviting Oasis and other 'Brit-pop' stars into Number 10 for tea parties and the like to show everyone that they were down with the young people... But now here they are doing something which is really going to piss the young people off (and anyone with an internet connection) - way to go Mandy. You idiot.
what are they saying about me? is it rude?
One of my toys pix has made it to some sort of German site - A series of top ten of things or something.
Spielen Spielzeuge? - Platz 10 in Die 10 schaurigsten Geheimnisse von Spielzeug von Peter Glaser
Spielen Spielzeuge? - Platz 10 in Die 10 schaurigsten Geheimnisse von Spielzeug von Peter Glaser
chips with your passport?
Why chips in passports and ID cards are a stupid idea.
Blimey - even the Economist thinks chips are a bad idea. No doubt the Govt. response will be *fingers in ears* "la-la-la - can't hear you - la-la-la!!!"
Blimey - even the Economist thinks chips are a bad idea. No doubt the Govt. response will be *fingers in ears* "la-la-la - can't hear you - la-la-la!!!"
we're doomed
None of this comes as news to me - but it's worth noting anyway:
Consumerism is 'eating the future'
The thing is, the current economic recession could mark a change of tide on how we go about things from now on... but you just know it won't. The emphasis is still all on trying to scramble back to where we were in the 'boom times'... with whole Governments and industry in total denial that was all based on smoke and mirrors.
So - in short, we're doomed. *sigh*
Consumerism is 'eating the future'
The thing is, the current economic recession could mark a change of tide on how we go about things from now on... but you just know it won't. The emphasis is still all on trying to scramble back to where we were in the 'boom times'... with whole Governments and industry in total denial that was all based on smoke and mirrors.
So - in short, we're doomed. *sigh*
Calvin Harris - Humanthesizer - the first human synth
coo - so when is someone going to take this idea and make it into a live show?
Murdoch's fading empire (one can hope)
Oh boo hoo. Apparently Rupert Murdock's losing money. So he's making plans to charge for all his news websites by next summer. Oh please, please, please let this scheme fall completely flat on it's face and herald the death of his dodgy empire - he's had far too much power and influence over public opinion in the world - and particularly in UK politics for far too long.
And spot the inherent contradictions in this statement: "Quality journalism is not cheap," says the man who publishes - the Sun and the News of the World. Oh wait we're supposed to think of the Times and the Wall Street Journal when he says that...mmmm. Furthermore he expects that those Sun/NOW readers (aka plebs) will be happy to fork out for their celebrity gossip too. Oh please let that backfire too, please can we see an end to this insane pathetic obsession so many people have with a small handful of shallow vacuous assholes who seriously don't deserve the attention.
And spot the inherent contradictions in this statement: "Quality journalism is not cheap," says the man who publishes - the Sun and the News of the World. Oh wait we're supposed to think of the Times and the Wall Street Journal when he says that...mmmm. Furthermore he expects that those Sun/NOW readers (aka plebs) will be happy to fork out for their celebrity gossip too. Oh please let that backfire too, please can we see an end to this insane pathetic obsession so many people have with a small handful of shallow vacuous assholes who seriously don't deserve the attention.
UFO seen on BBC Look North webcam
yeah - that'll be what we call - 'a fly'. God - it really must be a slooooooow week for news then...
link dump
Spent a long time wandering around campblood - reading the reviews - discovering who's gay in the horror film world, and reading the interviews.
Then finding this ancient article about Tim McBride (apparently he was in Friday 13 - Part 2).
Then finding this ancient article about Tim McBride (apparently he was in Friday 13 - Part 2).
Database UK
Our Govt. sure loves a database...
It's been playing on our fears of terrorism and identity theft and immigration to try and push it's ID card and it's database on us all for a while now. But that's not enough - it's now using the populations fear of paedophiles to get anyone who goes near children to pay an extra £65 for a Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) on top of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check they already have to undergo every year...
I think the real clowns are the ones behind this stupid scheme.
It's been playing on our fears of terrorism and identity theft and immigration to try and push it's ID card and it's database on us all for a while now. But that's not enough - it's now using the populations fear of paedophiles to get anyone who goes near children to pay an extra £65 for a Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS) on top of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) check they already have to undergo every year...
I think the real clowns are the ones behind this stupid scheme.
let's advertise our monolopy superfast broadband
Karoo - "Our new generation, up to 24Mbps broadband isn't just fast - it's superfast and reliable, so you can download films, music and photos faster...
But if you do - and we arbitrarily decide that we don't like what you're downloading - we'll cut you off without warning. Then charge you again to reconnect you. Well, only after we've got you to come into our offices to sign a piece of paper admitting you were bad and promise you won't do anything naughty ever again. And if you don't like it -tough, because there isn't another ISP you can go to in Hull.
It all seems a bit harsh and totally unfair.
Even the local MP there has put his oar in. Good for him.
- and anyway, what happened to all this competition that was supposed to happen as part of the telecommunication's privatisation that happened back in the 80s? Hmmmm? Oh wait -it's up in Hull - nobody cares what happens up there.
And another thing - what is the deal with ISPs constantly whining about how they can't provide a certain level of service if people are -you know, actually using the internet for anything more than a bit of web browsing and email of a evening... aren't they just admitting that they can't actually provide the service people are paying them for? But they do this while advertising constantly improving speeds, and charging more for those speeds? There's something fishy going on here.
But if you do - and we arbitrarily decide that we don't like what you're downloading - we'll cut you off without warning. Then charge you again to reconnect you. Well, only after we've got you to come into our offices to sign a piece of paper admitting you were bad and promise you won't do anything naughty ever again. And if you don't like it -tough, because there isn't another ISP you can go to in Hull.
It all seems a bit harsh and totally unfair.
Even the local MP there has put his oar in. Good for him.
- and anyway, what happened to all this competition that was supposed to happen as part of the telecommunication's privatisation that happened back in the 80s? Hmmmm? Oh wait -it's up in Hull - nobody cares what happens up there.
And another thing - what is the deal with ISPs constantly whining about how they can't provide a certain level of service if people are -you know, actually using the internet for anything more than a bit of web browsing and email of a evening... aren't they just admitting that they can't actually provide the service people are paying them for? But they do this while advertising constantly improving speeds, and charging more for those speeds? There's something fishy going on here.
into the memory hole...
Owners of Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader have received a nasty surprise, after discovering that copies of books by George Orwell had been deleted from their gadgets without their knowledge.
I can see the Chinese and other oppressive regimes suddenly taking an interest in this... a book that can be remotely censored. They must be salivating at the potential.
ordinary man takes photo of fish and chip shop - and gets arrested for terrorism for it
well, of course we all know that the Taliban are plotting terrorist attacks against our high street fish and chip shops don't we? No? Because that's the only way this story of how Alex Turner got arrested under section 44 of the prevention of terrorism act makes any sense.
But when it's so easy to intimidate a police woman merely by being 5 foot 11 inches tall and taking her photo - then I think it's time to give up - the terrorists have won already. Obviously she'd simply die of fright if ever a taller man - with a beard were to go "Boo!" at her.
Of course - there's another law altogether for the police - whenever they feel like it they can take pictures of whoever they like, whenever they like: Police photograph anti-airport campaigners talking to MP.* Yes, you read that right - don't you dare go and talk to your MP - lest you want the police to suspect you of being one of those evil terrorists and put you on their lists.
The war on street photography
*oh noes - I linked to a Daily Mail article. I feel dirty.
But when it's so easy to intimidate a police woman merely by being 5 foot 11 inches tall and taking her photo - then I think it's time to give up - the terrorists have won already. Obviously she'd simply die of fright if ever a taller man - with a beard were to go "Boo!" at her.
Of course - there's another law altogether for the police - whenever they feel like it they can take pictures of whoever they like, whenever they like: Police photograph anti-airport campaigners talking to MP.* Yes, you read that right - don't you dare go and talk to your MP - lest you want the police to suspect you of being one of those evil terrorists and put you on their lists.
The war on street photography
*oh noes - I linked to a Daily Mail article. I feel dirty.
why are we in Afghanstan ....
With the news full of how a few more British troops have died in duty in Afghanistan - Newsnight had tonight's whole program dedicated to asking 'what are we doing there...'
Throughout the whole program (and incidentally in the Prime Minister answers in Parliament's question time) not one person bothered to mention the real reason we're there, and why the US is there and why the Soviets where once there... it's all because duh the place is steeped in oil and gas. [But Gordon Brown couldn't say that - he just mumbled some nonsense about protecting us from terrorists. Which is the standard threadbare blanket excuse for everything these days.]
Which is all the more ironic considering that in the same question time the Prime Minister was patting himself on the back that the G20 where supposedly all pulling together to agree to maybe possibly vaguely do something about climate change... one day. Because yeah, if they ever do get to extract all that oil and gas - that won't increase carbon levels one jot will it. *eyeroll*
Throughout the whole program (and incidentally in the Prime Minister answers in Parliament's question time) not one person bothered to mention the real reason we're there, and why the US is there and why the Soviets where once there... it's all because duh the place is steeped in oil and gas. [But Gordon Brown couldn't say that - he just mumbled some nonsense about protecting us from terrorists. Which is the standard threadbare blanket excuse for everything these days.]
Which is all the more ironic considering that in the same question time the Prime Minister was patting himself on the back that the G20 where supposedly all pulling together to agree to maybe possibly vaguely do something about climate change... one day. Because yeah, if they ever do get to extract all that oil and gas - that won't increase carbon levels one jot will it. *eyeroll*
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wash care label? -what's that?
Soooo - the bf is currently on a whole big trying-to-be-domesticated kick. Which would be great if he wasn't so bad at it, and he's very bad at it. Sometimes I can't help wondering if he hasn't spent most of his life living in a cave.
This morning he did the washing. 'Oh that's good' I thought. But then noticed - 'ooooh no - he's washed my current new favourite black t-shirt in with the bath and pedestal mats'. I mean, first things first - pedestal mats - eurgh! They're a mat that is designed to catch piss. I mean - if you've had an accident - surely it's much better that it goes on the floor where it can be quickly and easily mopped up? Not left to soak into a mat and lie there stinking until it gets washed? Secondly, they're fluffy and so now I've got a black t-shirt and black boxer shorts that are now covered in a thick layer of bath mat fluff. Ew.
Now I've got to find me a big roll of sellotape to get the worst of the fluff off...
This morning he did the washing. 'Oh that's good' I thought. But then noticed - 'ooooh no - he's washed my current new favourite black t-shirt in with the bath and pedestal mats'. I mean, first things first - pedestal mats - eurgh! They're a mat that is designed to catch piss. I mean - if you've had an accident - surely it's much better that it goes on the floor where it can be quickly and easily mopped up? Not left to soak into a mat and lie there stinking until it gets washed? Secondly, they're fluffy and so now I've got a black t-shirt and black boxer shorts that are now covered in a thick layer of bath mat fluff. Ew.
Now I've got to find me a big roll of sellotape to get the worst of the fluff off...
some bookmark dumping
Ken Livingstone: Privatisation has been a train wreck
Here's some out of date video podcasts for Creative Zen players... If it was such a good idea they should have kept it up...
I'm tired of seeing so many promising ideas just wither and die on the vine through neglect.
"The attempt of National Express to avoid any consequences for their other franchises from their abandonment of the east coast service is just another example of the privateers trying to take the public sector for a ride. As Lord Adonis says, "It is simply unacceptable to reap the benefits of contracts when times are good, only to walk away from them when times become more challenging."
Time and again, we have seen the nationalisation of losses and the privatisation of profits."
Here's some out of date video podcasts for Creative Zen players... If it was such a good idea they should have kept it up...
I'm tired of seeing so many promising ideas just wither and die on the vine through neglect.
Dollhouse episode seven: Echoes
Dollhouse season one, episode seven: Echoes | Anna Pickard | Culture | guardian.co.uk
Choice quotes:
At this point the programme-makers just threw a whole bunch of syllables into something pharmaceuticalish. The student had ingested "a psychotropic modification of ridiculouslongmadeupnamix".
"hippocampus randomwordus"
"the psychotropic notawordamol."
(except my boyf. -who's a Doctor, recognised some of those words and stuff... so ha! do your research you sad journo.)
..."some big cheese in the Rossum Corporation (whatever that is)"...
Oh come on! Am I the only person in the world who gets that reference? Rossum? As in "Rossum's Universal Robots" - as in R.U.R. - the play by Karel Čapek. The play where we got the word 'Robot' from?
Oh well, everyone will know soon enough - I've just read in my googling that's there's a film been made of it - and will be released sometime next year.
Choice quotes:
At this point the programme-makers just threw a whole bunch of syllables into something pharmaceuticalish. The student had ingested "a psychotropic modification of ridiculouslongmadeupnamix".
"hippocampus randomwordus"
"the psychotropic notawordamol."
(except my boyf. -who's a Doctor, recognised some of those words and stuff... so ha! do your research you sad journo.)
..."some big cheese in the Rossum Corporation (whatever that is)"...
Oh come on! Am I the only person in the world who gets that reference? Rossum? As in "Rossum's Universal Robots" - as in R.U.R. - the play by Karel Čapek. The play where we got the word 'Robot' from?
Oh well, everyone will know soon enough - I've just read in my googling that's there's a film been made of it - and will be released sometime next year.
mini
For a long while now - I've thought if I ever where to get some money I might buy myself one of those mac minis. Not for any good reason - I just thought it'd be handy and I could see first hand what the fuss about the damn things was. Because to be honest I can't see what the fuss is about from the admittedly limited experiences I've had with macs*.
Anyway that aside - I had a look at them on the Apple store today and jesus what! the prices! £500 for the meh spec'ed one and £650 for the one I'd be more interested in. And for that they still don't come with a keyboard and mouse.**
Well sod that - I think I'll manage to live on in a mac free world for a bit longer yet.
A cheap netbook with some form of linux on it might be nice... (and a LOT more affordable.)
[*IE - when I was on a college course a year so back - they had macs and the damn things kept crashing on me - and had to be constantly rebooted. I also hated that you couldn't just plug in a thumbdrive in and just pull it out again when you'd finished like you can on XP and Vista - what this business where you have to drag it to the trash bin before you unplug it? Jezus - that was how it did things back with floppy disks in the bloody Eighties - has it not progressed beyond that yet? That drove me insane then too. Still nannying the user who's too thick to see when the drive is being written to or something?]
[**not that I'd ever want a 'mighty mouse' - that was driving me mad at college too. Oh, that stupid nipple thing on top - that you had to paw like crazy to scroll through anything. And then it would gunge up and is totally impossible to clean. What is wrong with Apple? Why the hell can't they make a decent mouse. Ever. I mean they look nice - but no doubt they would crucify any other manufacturer who would make a mouse that looked as good as a Mac one - but had proper functionality - like pretty much any other mouse in the world.]
Anyway that aside - I had a look at them on the Apple store today and jesus what! the prices! £500 for the meh spec'ed one and £650 for the one I'd be more interested in. And for that they still don't come with a keyboard and mouse.**
Well sod that - I think I'll manage to live on in a mac free world for a bit longer yet.
A cheap netbook with some form of linux on it might be nice... (and a LOT more affordable.)
[*IE - when I was on a college course a year so back - they had macs and the damn things kept crashing on me - and had to be constantly rebooted. I also hated that you couldn't just plug in a thumbdrive in and just pull it out again when you'd finished like you can on XP and Vista - what this business where you have to drag it to the trash bin before you unplug it? Jezus - that was how it did things back with floppy disks in the bloody Eighties - has it not progressed beyond that yet? That drove me insane then too. Still nannying the user who's too thick to see when the drive is being written to or something?]
[**not that I'd ever want a 'mighty mouse' - that was driving me mad at college too. Oh, that stupid nipple thing on top - that you had to paw like crazy to scroll through anything. And then it would gunge up and is totally impossible to clean. What is wrong with Apple? Why the hell can't they make a decent mouse. Ever. I mean they look nice - but no doubt they would crucify any other manufacturer who would make a mouse that looked as good as a Mac one - but had proper functionality - like pretty much any other mouse in the world.]
5 days and counting...
I dunno - when your ISP can't get you onto Yahoo - one of the most popular ...what is yahoo exactly? A portal? web presence? anyway - whatever - when you can't get onto yahoo and more importantly for me - flickr - then that ISP isn't exactly fit for purpose is it?
Oh virgin.net - you are so about to be dumped.
this is supposed to be surprising news?
Jobs shortage 'will see 80,000 new graduates unemployed'
Yeah - there's thing called 'supply and demand' right - what it means is when a commodity is rare - they can command a high price, but when something is a lot more commonplace - they only command a lower price. So when the aim is get 50% of young people onto university courses (whether they're suited to that or not) mmmm - someone somewhere hasn't been thinking things through properly.
That's without going into the fact that the sheer numbers of young people going into universities now makes them more like conveyor-belt driven education factories.
Oh and apparently there's still a dire shortage of electricians and plumbers in the UK - but no one cares about those sort of things do they?
This is what you get when you have no-one but middle-class people* running the country - they're only able to see what they want for themselves and their children and just can't see the wider picture.
*this applies to ALL of the parties.
Yeah - there's thing called 'supply and demand' right - what it means is when a commodity is rare - they can command a high price, but when something is a lot more commonplace - they only command a lower price. So when the aim is get 50% of young people onto university courses (whether they're suited to that or not) mmmm - someone somewhere hasn't been thinking things through properly.
That's without going into the fact that the sheer numbers of young people going into universities now makes them more like conveyor-belt driven education factories.
Oh and apparently there's still a dire shortage of electricians and plumbers in the UK - but no one cares about those sort of things do they?
This is what you get when you have no-one but middle-class people* running the country - they're only able to see what they want for themselves and their children and just can't see the wider picture.
*this applies to ALL of the parties.
Bankers rhymes with... **** with good reason
I am slowly being driven insane by the banking system in this country.
Due to reasons too boring to go into here - I don't have a bank account. Up to know it's not bothered me too much – it's been an inconvenience certainly – but I've muddled through somehow without one for the past few years.
Now very recently I've come into a modest inheritance – so I have some actual money I need to put into a bank. Now you might think that in the current economic climate any bank would be desperate for any customer with a bit of money. Oh, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. Because I haven't had a bank account for so long - it turns out I haven't got a credit rating. Big surprise there. But without a credit rating – a bank won't give me an account. Yes, it turns out you pretty much need a bank account to be able to er, open a bank account.... go figure!
Let's let this sink in... I haven't got a credit rating – well, because I haven't had a bank account for a while. So they won't give me a bank account because I haven't got a credit rating... Now I could understand this if I was asking for a mortgage or a loan or even a credit card – but no, all I want is a current account.
OK. So after being given the run-a-round – it turns out there are these super basic bank accounts you can get – they're really there because our government in it's 'wisdom' (*chokes*) has decided to phase out the old Giro cheque you used to be able to cash at a Post Office - so if you're on benefits you get one of these basic accounts and the Government pays the benefits straight into that account. [An aside – it used to be the case that when you signed on – an actual real life physical cheque would be posted to you and reach you 3 days later. But in this fast modern electronic world – where you would think it could reach you – at least the very next day – but no, instead it takes a whole day extra! No, I have no idea why this should be.]
Anyhow – I apply in one of these high street places for their basic account. I take in my proof of ID and utility bills to prove my address – only to be told it takes up to a MONTH to set up the account! Jeez what do they find to do in a whole month? But regardless - I put the paper work in – and the next day knowing I couldn't possibly wait that long went over to another bank – where I was told it would only take 7 to 10 working days. I applied for their basic account. Thinking at the worst having two accounts can't hurt.
Turns out it was just as well I did because to add insult to injury I received a letter today from the first bank saying they were unable to process my application – because I hadn't indicated whether I was a bankrupt or subject to an IVA. (Whatever that is.) Er, but when I handed the form in – it was to a member of staff who checked it over before taking it from me – if there was anything missing on the form – she would have told me there and then. So I believe they are lying – and because they think they're dealing with a unemployed person they don't care if I have an account with them or not (they don't make a profit from these accounts). But they expect me to go in and reapply and wait ANOTHER MONTH for them to get their act together... Er, I don't think I'll be doing that somehow.
Sigh.
And this has been only a part of the hassles I've had trying to open an account – there was another story where a staff member was on holiday for a week – so couldn't see me... and blah blah blah. Oh it's just frustrating to relate - and is all doubt to ass-hat incompetence.
So at the end of the day I am not in the least bit surprised that the banking system is in such a deep,deep crisis – it's obviously run by a bunch of complete brain-dead chimpanzees who couldn't find their own arse with both hands and a map...
Once (maybe that should IF) I ever get access to my own money – I'm not sure I'll want it sitting in a bank account. I might be better off keeping it under the mattress!
Due to reasons too boring to go into here - I don't have a bank account. Up to know it's not bothered me too much – it's been an inconvenience certainly – but I've muddled through somehow without one for the past few years.
Now very recently I've come into a modest inheritance – so I have some actual money I need to put into a bank. Now you might think that in the current economic climate any bank would be desperate for any customer with a bit of money. Oh, but you'd be wrong. Very wrong. Because I haven't had a bank account for so long - it turns out I haven't got a credit rating. Big surprise there. But without a credit rating – a bank won't give me an account. Yes, it turns out you pretty much need a bank account to be able to er, open a bank account.... go figure!
Let's let this sink in... I haven't got a credit rating – well, because I haven't had a bank account for a while. So they won't give me a bank account because I haven't got a credit rating... Now I could understand this if I was asking for a mortgage or a loan or even a credit card – but no, all I want is a current account.
OK. So after being given the run-a-round – it turns out there are these super basic bank accounts you can get – they're really there because our government in it's 'wisdom' (*chokes*) has decided to phase out the old Giro cheque you used to be able to cash at a Post Office - so if you're on benefits you get one of these basic accounts and the Government pays the benefits straight into that account. [An aside – it used to be the case that when you signed on – an actual real life physical cheque would be posted to you and reach you 3 days later. But in this fast modern electronic world – where you would think it could reach you – at least the very next day – but no, instead it takes a whole day extra! No, I have no idea why this should be.]
Anyhow – I apply in one of these high street places for their basic account. I take in my proof of ID and utility bills to prove my address – only to be told it takes up to a MONTH to set up the account! Jeez what do they find to do in a whole month? But regardless - I put the paper work in – and the next day knowing I couldn't possibly wait that long went over to another bank – where I was told it would only take 7 to 10 working days. I applied for their basic account. Thinking at the worst having two accounts can't hurt.
Turns out it was just as well I did because to add insult to injury I received a letter today from the first bank saying they were unable to process my application – because I hadn't indicated whether I was a bankrupt or subject to an IVA. (Whatever that is.) Er, but when I handed the form in – it was to a member of staff who checked it over before taking it from me – if there was anything missing on the form – she would have told me there and then. So I believe they are lying – and because they think they're dealing with a unemployed person they don't care if I have an account with them or not (they don't make a profit from these accounts). But they expect me to go in and reapply and wait ANOTHER MONTH for them to get their act together... Er, I don't think I'll be doing that somehow.
Sigh.
And this has been only a part of the hassles I've had trying to open an account – there was another story where a staff member was on holiday for a week – so couldn't see me... and blah blah blah. Oh it's just frustrating to relate - and is all doubt to ass-hat incompetence.
So at the end of the day I am not in the least bit surprised that the banking system is in such a deep,deep crisis – it's obviously run by a bunch of complete brain-dead chimpanzees who couldn't find their own arse with both hands and a map...
Once (maybe that should IF) I ever get access to my own money – I'm not sure I'll want it sitting in a bank account. I might be better off keeping it under the mattress!
digi-wrong wrong wrongs
Filesharing mum ordered to pay nearly $2m
Errrr. What? A $2 million fine? How is this is anywhere close to justice? Was Jammie a music pirate with her own website selling MPGs - or selling CDs earning herself millions and millions of dollars? Was she going around to music artists homes and stealing bags of money off them at gunpoint? Was any money at any time exchanged? So where did this figure come from? What would she have got as a fine if she's shoplifted a few CDs? I doubt it would have been in the millions. She wouldn't have got that for kidnap and murder.
So what message does this send out? 'OOOOoooh we shouldn't ever download music we haven't paid for because the music industry will get us"?
No. It sends the message that the RIAA is out of control (and don't think for a moment that a single artist is going to see a single cent of that money - ever since the RIAA have been suing people - a single penny hasn't gone to any artist. But a big chunk as been going to pay already plump lawyers and into their own pockets... [All of which is a good excuse to not buy CDs from the major labels - since it's obvious they funnel far too much money in order to hire their lawyers to attack music fans rather than -you know, pay artists.])
Nice to see this:
Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim "$100M+" RIAA "stole"
Because the RIAA seriously needs to be held to account.
Moby: The RIAA Needs to be Disbanded.
PC World: Has the RIAA's Fight Against File Sharing Gone Too Far?
Errrr. What? A $2 million fine? How is this is anywhere close to justice? Was Jammie a music pirate with her own website selling MPGs - or selling CDs earning herself millions and millions of dollars? Was she going around to music artists homes and stealing bags of money off them at gunpoint? Was any money at any time exchanged? So where did this figure come from? What would she have got as a fine if she's shoplifted a few CDs? I doubt it would have been in the millions. She wouldn't have got that for kidnap and murder.
So what message does this send out? 'OOOOoooh we shouldn't ever download music we haven't paid for because the music industry will get us"?
No. It sends the message that the RIAA is out of control (and don't think for a moment that a single artist is going to see a single cent of that money - ever since the RIAA have been suing people - a single penny hasn't gone to any artist. But a big chunk as been going to pay already plump lawyers and into their own pockets... [All of which is a good excuse to not buy CDs from the major labels - since it's obvious they funnel far too much money in order to hire their lawyers to attack music fans rather than -you know, pay artists.])
Nice to see this:
Lawyers plan class-action to reclaim "$100M+" RIAA "stole"
Because the RIAA seriously needs to be held to account.
Moby: The RIAA Needs to be Disbanded.
PC World: Has the RIAA's Fight Against File Sharing Gone Too Far?
one law for the poor - another for the MPs
Mmmmm.
So when some poor sod fiddles the benefit system and they get caught out... they usually get sent to court and are usually either fined and sent to jail. [Leaving aside for the moment other issues that the benefits paid out are often way, way below anything anyone could be expected to even subsist on - which in itself could be said to encourage people to cheat... they do so only to survive.]
But when MPs do it - they first claim they're doing nothing (technically) wrong. Then some quickly pay back what they claimed (surely that in itself is an admission of guilt -hummm?), then they censor what should be a matter of public record - another admission of guilt -surely.
Now the police are getting involved - but what are the chances of any MP being sent to court - and fined - and sent to prison? I'd say minimal - how many Labour party members got away with the cash for peerages thing that was going on not so long ago?
Where are the TV adverts for tax-payer-cheating MPs - like they have for 'targeting benefit thieves'...
So when some poor sod fiddles the benefit system and they get caught out... they usually get sent to court and are usually either fined and sent to jail. [Leaving aside for the moment other issues that the benefits paid out are often way, way below anything anyone could be expected to even subsist on - which in itself could be said to encourage people to cheat... they do so only to survive.]
But when MPs do it - they first claim they're doing nothing (technically) wrong. Then some quickly pay back what they claimed (surely that in itself is an admission of guilt -hummm?), then they censor what should be a matter of public record - another admission of guilt -surely.
Now the police are getting involved - but what are the chances of any MP being sent to court - and fined - and sent to prison? I'd say minimal - how many Labour party members got away with the cash for peerages thing that was going on not so long ago?
Where are the TV adverts for tax-payer-cheating MPs - like they have for 'targeting benefit thieves'...
nebulous coming to teevee?
ooooh ooooh oooooh
just read this on the news section of Graham Duff's own website:
Which is something to look forward to after what might be the last ever episode of Ideal.
just read this on the news section of Graham Duff's own website:
Graham is currently working on a TV adaptation of his popular Radio 4 sci-fi sit-com ‘Nebulous’.
Which is something to look forward to after what might be the last ever episode of Ideal.
speed bumps ahead in superhighway Britain
*shakes head*
Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals
Dying dinosaur Government - led around by the nose by a dying dinosaur entertainment industry...
Digital Britain: ISPs will have to cut filesharing by 70% under new proposals
Dying dinosaur Government - led around by the nose by a dying dinosaur entertainment industry...
The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
I've got something like four of these:
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Topless Robot - The 10 Least Necessary Doctor Who Figures
Why politicans can't ever be trusted
It's late - I'm tired - I haven't read this whole article BUT I've come away with one overwhelming thought... THIS is exactly why the whole country is fucked. Seriously - are these are supposed to be the people we elect to look after 'very important things'? - IE 'how the country is run' and so on, but just look at them - 'secret' webmail accounts - PAYG mobile phones - Jesus, it's so pathetic. It's naughty school children misbehaving in the playground stuff. They've proven themselves time and time again not to be trustworthy in any shape or form - the public have no reason whatsoever to take any of these people seriously.
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
I can't even begin to express my disgust at the whole bloody lot of them.
Why plot to oust Gordon Brown failed | Politics | The Guardian
Digital wrongs management
So what's the deal with the entertainment biz? Why are they consistently roughly 10 years behind the times?
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
But what's the real effect of DRM? Last year, EMI began offering songs without it on iTunes. "The industry has finally been able to get some hard data about how removing DRM restrictions from legitimately purchased tracks affects piracy," says Bill Rosenplatt, DRM specialist and president of GiantSteps Media Technology Strategies. "The statistics show that there's no effect on piracy."
No effect. The assertion is remarkable. If DRM does not in fact discourage piracy, then it is merely a nuisance for the user.
and...
Are downloads really killing the music industry? Or is it something else?
I think the the answers partly lie in
1. They generate fantasy figures for themselves based on how much money they think they should be making - probably based on figures they had back in the 80s before the internet and computer games and DVDs and mobile phones, a time when everyone was gradually replacing their libraries of vinyl recording with CDs.
2. Their own greed - how is it the use of computers in any other industry has lead to savings in production? A recording studio used to be a ludicrously expensive thing to rent. But now everyone can get professional results on their laptops. When a track or a album is a download - with no physical CD, no cover, no transportation costs, no shelf space in a shop - why does it still cost the same as buying it on a CD?
and that's just music - I can't even go into TV shows and movies - but I am pissed at ISPs and Govts kowtowing to the Ent Biz and running around making laws and punishing home users on their behalf.
digital photography from the 70s
I thought this was interesting - it's screen grab from an episode of 'The Tomorrow People' and this is the character Steve - and he's playing with a compact cassette - which to explain to you youngsters is something we had before mpg players. Which wouldn't be that interesting - except his cassette isn't an plain old ordinary audio cassette - it's a set of photographs... it isn't explained at all in the episode at all but rather than clutching a old fashioned photographic print he's got there what could only be a digital photograph stored on magnetic tape... because floppy discs hadn't even been invented yet... but compact cassettes had. I'm not sure, but this might have even been before they had home computers where software was loaded on from cassette players. How far ahead of it's time was this program?
I still wish I could talk to my computer (mmm, come to think of it - hasn't Vista got that built in? I haven't bothered to try it - because I know I'd only be setting myself up for a massive disappointment.)
sigh - local election time
So I'm watching the various local election results come in on the news... and i'm depressed. Not because Labour is being trounced - since I believe they are only getting everything they deserve. But because this means the Tories are gaining - and that it's looking more and more like a foregone collection that the Tories will get into power at the next general election. It depresses me profoundly that the general public have such short memories - they've now totally forgotten just how wretchedly bad the Tories were when they were last in power. What's worse, no one seems to realise that NuLabour haven't done anything differently from what the Tories would have done the past 12 years. The whole two party political system we have here in the UK is insane and no way to run a country... each party just gets a shot at coming in and wrecking everything in their own way and when they wind down - usually dissolving in disarray and miring themselves in sleaze - then the opposition (who are always great at knowing how to run things and can fix everything when they're not in power - but always suddenly manage to completely lose that ability when they do gain power... funny that) get their turn to fuck everything up in their own way.
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Groans.
There has got to be a better way than this.
Why wont people give the Lib-Dems a chance?
Rye
The why of the Rye
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
Oh look, a BBC magazine piece on the Catcher. By coincidence I just read 'Catcher in the Rye' only a few weeks ago. It was just 50p from a charity shop - so I thought I'd give it a go. Not only that - I was thinking about it again this very morning for some reason. I'm glad I'm not the only one who can't see what the fuss is about. As I was reading it I was thinking- oh well, maybe things were so different all those years back - this was a bit of shocker then. But why it's kept on being a classic over the decades... I just don't get it.
I'd add to their neat little run down of the story that they didn't mention the death of one of Holden's class mates at the hands of bullies - and I got the sense that there was a layer of quiet post-traumatic stress syndrome going on there in among all the self-absorbed narcissistic teenage angst. I read between the lines that Caulfield might have had a nervous breakdown at the end of his New York 'adventures' - and after getting better was off to start at a new college... (I might be wrong. I might have read too much in there. But it makes sense to me - so I'm sticking by it.)
fantasy world
Apparently according to research commissioned by the 'Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property' (who?) 'free downloads' is costing the British economy billions of pounds a year...
IE I'd imagine a bunch of accountants were locked in room with their laptops and some bottles of wine and told to come up with some figures that this 'Advisory Board' could bandy about - and got paid quite a bit of money for the privilege.
"Ministers privately accept the difficulty attached to criminalising millions of people who now apparently see little wrong with stealing online content."
-They could of course, build more prisons... (what are the numbers of people fined and imprisoned for not having a TV licence these days?) or as is it seems more likely - why not make the whole of the country into a prison island (ID cards, with compulsory records of our DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, Etc. CCTV surveillance, keeping records on everyone's emails, IMs, web browsing history... We're well on our way there now.)
Or how's about trying to find new ways of making money out of creative content that doesn't rely 100% on outdated, last century ideas of counting bums on seats in cinemas, or selling over-priced plastic boxes with silver discs in them?
God help us if they ever bother to factor in the sales of second hand CDs and DVDs... like the financial sector at the moment they might decide everyone owes umpteen times over the GDP of the entire planet...
Cost to British economy of free downloads is revealed | Technology | The Guardian
IE I'd imagine a bunch of accountants were locked in room with their laptops and some bottles of wine and told to come up with some figures that this 'Advisory Board' could bandy about - and got paid quite a bit of money for the privilege.
"Ministers privately accept the difficulty attached to criminalising millions of people who now apparently see little wrong with stealing online content."
-They could of course, build more prisons... (what are the numbers of people fined and imprisoned for not having a TV licence these days?) or as is it seems more likely - why not make the whole of the country into a prison island (ID cards, with compulsory records of our DNA, fingerprints, iris scans, Etc. CCTV surveillance, keeping records on everyone's emails, IMs, web browsing history... We're well on our way there now.)
Or how's about trying to find new ways of making money out of creative content that doesn't rely 100% on outdated, last century ideas of counting bums on seats in cinemas, or selling over-priced plastic boxes with silver discs in them?
God help us if they ever bother to factor in the sales of second hand CDs and DVDs... like the financial sector at the moment they might decide everyone owes umpteen times over the GDP of the entire planet...
Cost to British economy of free downloads is revealed | Technology | The Guardian
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year old girl
Oh. Hum. Eeeerrrr... Is this turning into 'the Time Lord Babies' show - you know, like the Muppet babies or Puppy Scooby Doo?
I'm trying not to be worried - but I dunno what Stephen Moffat is thinking... is he trying to get down with the kids? Won't he alienate some of the older members of that Saturday night family audience?
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year-old actress - Telegraph
guardian snippet (with snarky comments)
I'm trying not to be worried - but I dunno what Stephen Moffat is thinking... is he trying to get down with the kids? Won't he alienate some of the older members of that Saturday night family audience?
Doctor Who: new companion is 'unknown' 21-year-old actress - Telegraph
guardian snippet (with snarky comments)
politicians expense claims
This is just jaw-dropping.
A plague on both your houses - Times Online
Of course this is a symptom of the current generation of career politician we've now got. These are people who go straight from school - to university and then into politics. Consequently precious few of them have had much experience of real life - or even held down a real job (some of them might possibly have had a silly part time job during uni. but otherwise they probably interned for their chosen political party) or know much about how normal everyday people live their lives. This is apparent by the utter cluelessness they display when reporters confront them:
See the clip here.
If I was in charge of the country - I'd have all mps put on minimum wage and if they're away from their constituencies for parliamentary business - they'd be halls of residence set up for them - with constant cctv surveillance in what would no doubt prove to be a futile attempt to stop them bonking each other senseless...
Of course what they should do is pay all the money back and give everyone a tax rebate. Don't hold your breath.
A plague on both your houses - Times Online
Of course this is a symptom of the current generation of career politician we've now got. These are people who go straight from school - to university and then into politics. Consequently precious few of them have had much experience of real life - or even held down a real job (some of them might possibly have had a silly part time job during uni. but otherwise they probably interned for their chosen political party) or know much about how normal everyday people live their lives. This is apparent by the utter cluelessness they display when reporters confront them:
ANDREW SINCLAIR: And you would say, you haven’t broken any rules, this is all within the claims policy.
MARGARET MORAN: It is all within the claims policy and that’s why I’m angry about this because not only has it been very stressful for me and my family, it gives the incredibly misleading impression that somehow we’ve been dodgy, that we’ve been fraudulent or we’ve been corrupt. Nothing is further from the truth. As I say, there are – I’ve done everything by the rules. There are inaccuracies, some of which I think are probably actionable and I think that it’s deeply irresponsible and actually the evasion of privacy, not just my privacy but my partner’s privacy, the Daily Telegraph, now have and have circulated to all the media, details of my credit card, my bank statements, my mortgage statements, personal details relating to my partner, which I do not believe any responsible media should be dealing with.
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Some people are going to say you should resign over this.
MARGARET MORAN: Well I, I don’t want to resign. I want to continue to do a good job for my constituents; my Party doesn’t want me to resign. (interjection)
ANDREW SINCLAIR: Have you thought about resigning?
MARGARET MORAN: Well I, no, I haven’t because I haven’t done anything wrong. You know, if you haven’t done anything wrong, what is there to resign for.
See the clip here.
If I was in charge of the country - I'd have all mps put on minimum wage and if they're away from their constituencies for parliamentary business - they'd be halls of residence set up for them - with constant cctv surveillance in what would no doubt prove to be a futile attempt to stop them bonking each other senseless...
Of course what they should do is pay all the money back and give everyone a tax rebate. Don't hold your breath.
Art School Confidential - huh?
I've just watched this movie and am currently in the throes of 'huh? wha?'. So all this is off the top of my head.
I'm confused - I haven't read the comic book - so I can't vouch as to whether it's a good adaptation or not... so I'll have to let that slide. But broadly speaking - you can get away with a lot more in a graphic novel than you can in a movie. (Maybe that's because expectations are a lot lower? I don't know.)
But from a first viewing it seems like what could have been a really nice (all be it somewhat trite and conventional) little 'boy artist meets out-of-his-league pretty girl' romance on top of a snarky little dig at the woefully pretentious art school mores was further ruined by having a murder mystery grafted onto the top of it. Leaving me not knowing what I was watching really - much less as to what it was trying to say. (I feel it could have worked in the hands of a far more accomplished director. But here it all fell apart and became lifeless mush.)
Was it saying:
Everyone is a pretentious fraud apart from the serial killer who made his paintings from his murders? (But all he really did was make a memento of each of his victims - is that art? Do we consider what serial killers -like Dennis Nielsen and Jeffrey Dahmer or Ed Gein did with their victim's remains art? Or even the paintings of clowns by Wayne Gacy? Now, is that art appreciation or just morbid curiosity?)
That the highest accomplishment in modern life is fame even when gained through notoriety? Because that would have been a great sarcastic message - but somehow it just didn't quite work as well as it could have done.
That everyone is clueless?
If you want the girl and to be famous - then claim credit for someone else's work - even if it's homicide? Despite the fact that your own work looks nothing whatsoever like what the murderer produced. (Which should be a big giveaway surely) The problem with that was the lead actor - simply wasn't anywhere near morally ambiguous enough - Max Minghella made an ideal fresh young innocent abroad - but someone who could be mistaken for a serial killer - or even someone warped and complex and manipulative enough to be willingly allow themselves to be imprisoned as such? Oh c'mon. No. That bird wasn't ever going to fly.
The other gripe I have about the film is that the main character's art is just - so tediously bland and conventional - it's illustration not art. (You must remember Clowes for career went into comic books - which is story-telling through a series of images - a different discipline altogether from making a single image which is meant to stand alone and be looked at for a long period of time. And now I think of it - movie making - is that too. So maybe the whole film is about a cartoonist and a movie maker - people who make stories through a succession of images - just totally failing to understand what single image art is really about. Then having an axe to grind in later life about how they were so misunderstood in art school... Hey, I think I might be on to something here...)
Art School Confidential
I'm confused - I haven't read the comic book - so I can't vouch as to whether it's a good adaptation or not... so I'll have to let that slide. But broadly speaking - you can get away with a lot more in a graphic novel than you can in a movie. (Maybe that's because expectations are a lot lower? I don't know.)
But from a first viewing it seems like what could have been a really nice (all be it somewhat trite and conventional) little 'boy artist meets out-of-his-league pretty girl' romance on top of a snarky little dig at the woefully pretentious art school mores was further ruined by having a murder mystery grafted onto the top of it. Leaving me not knowing what I was watching really - much less as to what it was trying to say. (I feel it could have worked in the hands of a far more accomplished director. But here it all fell apart and became lifeless mush.)
Was it saying:
Everyone is a pretentious fraud apart from the serial killer who made his paintings from his murders? (But all he really did was make a memento of each of his victims - is that art? Do we consider what serial killers -like Dennis Nielsen and Jeffrey Dahmer or Ed Gein did with their victim's remains art? Or even the paintings of clowns by Wayne Gacy? Now, is that art appreciation or just morbid curiosity?)
That the highest accomplishment in modern life is fame even when gained through notoriety? Because that would have been a great sarcastic message - but somehow it just didn't quite work as well as it could have done.
That everyone is clueless?
If you want the girl and to be famous - then claim credit for someone else's work - even if it's homicide? Despite the fact that your own work looks nothing whatsoever like what the murderer produced. (Which should be a big giveaway surely) The problem with that was the lead actor - simply wasn't anywhere near morally ambiguous enough - Max Minghella made an ideal fresh young innocent abroad - but someone who could be mistaken for a serial killer - or even someone warped and complex and manipulative enough to be willingly allow themselves to be imprisoned as such? Oh c'mon. No. That bird wasn't ever going to fly.
The other gripe I have about the film is that the main character's art is just - so tediously bland and conventional - it's illustration not art. (You must remember Clowes for career went into comic books - which is story-telling through a series of images - a different discipline altogether from making a single image which is meant to stand alone and be looked at for a long period of time. And now I think of it - movie making - is that too. So maybe the whole film is about a cartoonist and a movie maker - people who make stories through a succession of images - just totally failing to understand what single image art is really about. Then having an axe to grind in later life about how they were so misunderstood in art school... Hey, I think I might be on to something here...)
Art School Confidential
Gordon and Sarah Brown at Auschwitz
Sarah: "So first we start by making everyone have voluntary ID cards?"
Gordon: "Then we make them compulsory... like Germany did in 1939"
Sarah: "Then we start building huge work camps?"
Gordon: "We'll claim it'll be to help the long term unemployed..."
[well - I can't help but think ol' Gordon has been taking away all the wrong ideas away from history recently. Like his full support of the Thatcherite/Reagan brand of laissez-faire capitalism - the last time that was tried in the 20s/30s - mmmm how'd that one end again?]
Gordon: "Then we make them compulsory... like Germany did in 1939"
Sarah: "Then we start building huge work camps?"
Gordon: "We'll claim it'll be to help the long term unemployed..."
[well - I can't help but think ol' Gordon has been taking away all the wrong ideas away from history recently. Like his full support of the Thatcherite/Reagan brand of laissez-faire capitalism - the last time that was tried in the 20s/30s - mmmm how'd that one end again?]
Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
"'ID cards will deliver real benefits to everyone, including increased protection against criminals, illegal immigrants and terrorists,' the home secretary will say."
And will they go on to specify how exactly this magic ID card will do that? Unless people are totally scrupulously honest and tick the 'I am a terrorist/criminal/illegal immigrant' box when they voluntarily turn up to get a card? Only to be taken off by the police as they try to leave the building?
BBC NEWS | Politics | Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
And will they go on to specify how exactly this magic ID card will do that? Unless people are totally scrupulously honest and tick the 'I am a terrorist/criminal/illegal immigrant' box when they voluntarily turn up to get a card? Only to be taken off by the police as they try to leave the building?
BBC NEWS | Politics | Manchester 'launch' for ID cards
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Oh dear - here's the Telegraph being a bit retarded again. Incase nobody has noticed -the fact is most of the highest earners (and corporations) in the UK haven't been paying much in the way of taxes for a very long time now. Can't see that changing any time soon - because where else are the main political parties going to get their campaign fund donations for the next election from? They're NEVER going to bite the hand that feeds them are they now? (- and don't for one minute think that they think it's the taxpayer that pays them - to them that wage is just a pittance). Moreover - isn't it the case that a lot of these high earners are the very same greedy idiots who've brought about the whole global financial meltdown in the first place? So wouldn't we all be a better off if they did scram out of the country - and go off and ruin somewhere else for a change?
Mind you I'd love to go and live abroad somewhere else for a bit.
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Mind you I'd love to go and live abroad somewhere else for a bit.
Time to bail out of Britain? - Telegraph
Rumour: Gillian Anderson to appear in Dr Who?
That rings a bell... Where have I come across this idea before?
Oh yes...
Oh yes...
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups
erm.... No conflicts of interest there then, no pre-judice there - oh siree no.
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups | Threat Level from Wired.com
Now the whole thing concerning the huge cost of damages get me - now if these guys were making pirated DVDs/CDs - or whatever and were selling them and making themselves millionaires then that I could understand. But these are well, wholly imaginary losses that the Entertainment Industry have guesstimated they've lost. I mean why can't we all do that? Say I imagine that a (any) company have earnt themselves X millions of pounds I've lost out on because they're doing something I could have done - but decided for whatever reason not to. Which is all this amounts to.
When you consider that the entertainment industry has only grown as big and as bloated as it has through it's gross exploitation of genuine talent and funnelling that money to lawyers - the situation is even more perverse.
*Sigh* - the human race is doomed.
Pirate Bay Judge Exposed as Member of Pro-Copyright Groups | Threat Level from Wired.com
"Last Friday Norström and three lay judges found Sunde and three other men guilty of contributory copyright infringement, sentenced them to a year in prison, and ordered them to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to entertainment companies."
Now the whole thing concerning the huge cost of damages get me - now if these guys were making pirated DVDs/CDs - or whatever and were selling them and making themselves millionaires then that I could understand. But these are well, wholly imaginary losses that the Entertainment Industry have guesstimated they've lost. I mean why can't we all do that? Say I imagine that a (any) company have earnt themselves X millions of pounds I've lost out on because they're doing something I could have done - but decided for whatever reason not to. Which is all this amounts to.
When you consider that the entertainment industry has only grown as big and as bloated as it has through it's gross exploitation of genuine talent and funnelling that money to lawyers - the situation is even more perverse.
*Sigh* - the human race is doomed.
The Planet of the Dead boring
The Doctor Who not so special.
Oh dear. Well that wasn't very good was it? And all that time and money and energy - and doing stupid things like shipping a whole red London bus off to Dubai (which alarmingly got trashed in transit - ooops!) to such poor effect. Furthermore can't say I'm a Michelle Ryan fan (wasn't that new Bionic Woman thing awful?) and I'm most definitely not a Lee Evans fan - what the hell was he doing in there? He was just irritating and annoying. There's nothing that can bring a combination of shivers up my spine and a sense of nausea than those two words: 'comedy relief'. Urgh-urgh-urgh. It was nice to see the return of UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo from 'Turn Left' - but then they completely ruined her character by having her behaving like a complete psychopath. Oh, and the naff bit shoe-horned in towards the end with the woman making predictions for the Doctor 'Your song is going to be over soon. Oooh, it's coming out of the darkness - coming to get youuuuu. He'll knock four times.' Etc. (Will that be a knock-knock-knock-knock - or four knock-knock-knock-knocks as in the beat that was in 'the sound of drums'. I'll guess the later - because we all kind of know the Master will be making a comeback to kill off the 10th Doctor at Christmas time. God knows they can't use the Daleks again) - but please, no more with the naff predictions - give it a rest. Or just be a lot more subtle about it. Especially since most of the time they're pointless and/or misleading (Rose isn't dead, and neither is Donna) (but I guess they're for our benefit - which breaks the fourth wall too much if you ask me).
[Just off the top of my head a quick list of predicting folk: The Face of Boe, Gwen the maid, The Sybilline Sisterhood and Lucius in Pompeii, The Ood, that maid (or whatever she was) in the Shadow Proclamation, mad, bad broken Dalek Caan....]
What else? Oh yes, TOO MUCH MUSIC. Oh my poor ears - all that Harry Potter style music - (which proves Doctor Who has leaned a bit too far over away from Science Fiction and into fantasy magic land - it's bad enough that sonic screwdriver = magic wand and Tardis = Narnia wardrobe... will the new Doctor have a zigzag scar on his forehead with his glasses perhaps?) all far too pompous and OTT. I'll quickly slip in here how annoying I found the Welsh voice choir bits in the finale of the last series Journey's End. Yes - we all know Doctor Who is made in Wales thank you - we don't need our noses rubbing in it every five minutes. Jeez. It doesn't help that I still associate Welsh male voice choirs with coal miners - so there I was subconsciously wondering 'what's coal mining got to do with dragging planet Earth back to it's proper place in space and time?'
So... to summarise we had a iconic red London bus - which ends up flying about all over the place, a bit of posh totty in Tom Cruise Mission Impossible drag, fly headed aliens from 'the Fly' Manta ray aliens from Stephen King's 'the Longoliers' an irritating stand up comedian, and a flimsy plot.
It's aggravating that I could have gone away for the weekend but decided to stay at home instead. Hurrrrumph. The last three episodes have a lot to make up for.
Oh dear. Well that wasn't very good was it? And all that time and money and energy - and doing stupid things like shipping a whole red London bus off to Dubai (which alarmingly got trashed in transit - ooops!) to such poor effect. Furthermore can't say I'm a Michelle Ryan fan (wasn't that new Bionic Woman thing awful?) and I'm most definitely not a Lee Evans fan - what the hell was he doing in there? He was just irritating and annoying. There's nothing that can bring a combination of shivers up my spine and a sense of nausea than those two words: 'comedy relief'. Urgh-urgh-urgh. It was nice to see the return of UNIT Captain Erisa Magambo from 'Turn Left' - but then they completely ruined her character by having her behaving like a complete psychopath. Oh, and the naff bit shoe-horned in towards the end with the woman making predictions for the Doctor 'Your song is going to be over soon. Oooh, it's coming out of the darkness - coming to get youuuuu. He'll knock four times.' Etc. (Will that be a knock-knock-knock-knock - or four knock-knock-knock-knocks as in the beat that was in 'the sound of drums'. I'll guess the later - because we all kind of know the Master will be making a comeback to kill off the 10th Doctor at Christmas time. God knows they can't use the Daleks again) - but please, no more with the naff predictions - give it a rest. Or just be a lot more subtle about it. Especially since most of the time they're pointless and/or misleading (Rose isn't dead, and neither is Donna) (but I guess they're for our benefit - which breaks the fourth wall too much if you ask me).
[Just off the top of my head a quick list of predicting folk: The Face of Boe, Gwen the maid, The Sybilline Sisterhood and Lucius in Pompeii, The Ood, that maid (or whatever she was) in the Shadow Proclamation, mad, bad broken Dalek Caan....]
What else? Oh yes, TOO MUCH MUSIC. Oh my poor ears - all that Harry Potter style music - (which proves Doctor Who has leaned a bit too far over away from Science Fiction and into fantasy magic land - it's bad enough that sonic screwdriver = magic wand and Tardis = Narnia wardrobe... will the new Doctor have a zigzag scar on his forehead with his glasses perhaps?) all far too pompous and OTT. I'll quickly slip in here how annoying I found the Welsh voice choir bits in the finale of the last series Journey's End. Yes - we all know Doctor Who is made in Wales thank you - we don't need our noses rubbing in it every five minutes. Jeez. It doesn't help that I still associate Welsh male voice choirs with coal miners - so there I was subconsciously wondering 'what's coal mining got to do with dragging planet Earth back to it's proper place in space and time?'
So... to summarise we had a iconic red London bus - which ends up flying about all over the place, a bit of posh totty in Tom Cruise Mission Impossible drag, fly headed aliens from 'the Fly' Manta ray aliens from Stephen King's 'the Longoliers' an irritating stand up comedian, and a flimsy plot.
It's aggravating that I could have gone away for the weekend but decided to stay at home instead. Hurrrrumph. The last three episodes have a lot to make up for.
advertising ruins everything
» Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles CANCELLED 04-10-2009
This doesn't surprise me...
It's interesting though that the TV networks know just enough that they have to make shows that bring in an intelligent audience - because if TV was all just cheap and flashy game and reality schlock - then only *cough* subnormals would be at the screen - [and it so happens that usually they're not the ones who have the most disposable income]. But what the networks can't fathom is when to put their product out on the air. So they consistently make massively stupid choices after which they quickly start whinging about not getting the sort of viewing figures they've pre-decided they want in order to make it viable for them to go on making the programmes they're making. Yet, ironically, the very same - richer type of people they are so desperate to lure the eyeballs of - are the very ones that can afford PVRs, DVRs, TiVo, and the broadband internets to watch things on line etc. [without the adverts] D'oh. So, talk about self-defeating. Not that it's occured to anyone within he entertainment industry that their 50s/60s/70s era business model of advertiser-funded TV is severely broken. Oh no, nope - they're still wedded to it - come what may. Erm, what's that cliché about it's only someone who is insane that will keep repeating the same exact same actions over and over but nonetheless will endlessly expect a different result?
So, it's inherently baffling - the only people who care about adverts are the advertisers and their industry and the advert pushers. The rest of us normal (sane) folk just want good stories to watch and all that commercial stuff is stupid shit that gets in the way of that. Which, if you think about it for even a moment - is a totally ridiculous state of affairs to have got into. Especially since everyone involved ends up losing every time. D'oh.
Effin' Edward Bernays has so much to answer for.
This doesn't surprise me...
It's interesting though that the TV networks know just enough that they have to make shows that bring in an intelligent audience - because if TV was all just cheap and flashy game and reality schlock - then only *cough* subnormals would be at the screen - [and it so happens that usually they're not the ones who have the most disposable income]. But what the networks can't fathom is when to put their product out on the air. So they consistently make massively stupid choices after which they quickly start whinging about not getting the sort of viewing figures they've pre-decided they want in order to make it viable for them to go on making the programmes they're making. Yet, ironically, the very same - richer type of people they are so desperate to lure the eyeballs of - are the very ones that can afford PVRs, DVRs, TiVo, and the broadband internets to watch things on line etc. [without the adverts] D'oh. So, talk about self-defeating. Not that it's occured to anyone within he entertainment industry that their 50s/60s/70s era business model of advertiser-funded TV is severely broken. Oh no, nope - they're still wedded to it - come what may. Erm, what's that cliché about it's only someone who is insane that will keep repeating the same exact same actions over and over but nonetheless will endlessly expect a different result?
So, it's inherently baffling - the only people who care about adverts are the advertisers and their industry and the advert pushers. The rest of us normal (sane) folk just want good stories to watch and all that commercial stuff is stupid shit that gets in the way of that. Which, if you think about it for even a moment - is a totally ridiculous state of affairs to have got into. Especially since everyone involved ends up losing every time. D'oh.
Effin' Edward Bernays has so much to answer for.
funny - I remembered the scar being on the other side
So am I the only one who's noticed the 'inner child' going all 'through the looking glass' at one point? What's all that about then?
I was getting a screengrab for the moleskine reporter at the time...
planet of the dead
Bernard Cribbons in the Christmas special? - awesome. Because Donna will be back!
Terrified innocent musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
This sounds like a scene straight out of Terry Gilliam's Brazil.
WalesOnline Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
WalesOnline Terrified musician targeted in armed anti-terror raid
Olympus AF-1
(Got myself one of these - a charity shop find - a few weeks back - haven't found a battery for it yet. So I've yet to use it.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
It has ever been thus.
(But the video only showed a relatively mild attack by the riot police. They've done a lot worse in the past.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
(But the video only showed a relatively mild attack by the riot police. They've done a lot worse in the past.)
How British cops are criminalising peaceful protest - Boing Boing
The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class
I've been googling Oborne after seeing on Charlie Brooker's Newswipe.
Rich men, dodgy money and the banana skin.
PETER OBORNE: The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class | Mail Online
(omigod - I'm book marking an old 2007 article in the Mail. Hell, bookmarking anything in the Mail worries me.)
Rich men, dodgy money and the banana skin.
PETER OBORNE: The rise of the sleaze-ocrats in Britain's ruling class | Mail Online
(omigod - I'm book marking an old 2007 article in the Mail. Hell, bookmarking anything in the Mail worries me.)
link dump
A couple of books:
‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
A Brief History of Neoliberalism By David Harvey
(Just an aside - last year I vividly remember as I was watching the news programmes as the first waves of the global financial crisis started to hit and was struck how positively gleeful the reporters came across - it was as if they were happy that they had some real news to report for once. Out came the big screen graphics and there where lots of animated charts, they could take to the streets for their 'vox pops'. It was complete 'the Day Today'.)
Talking of the news: "Charlie Brooker looks at the news's obsession with the credit crunch"
‘CREATIVE DESTRUCTION’ – THE MADNESS OF THE GLOBAL ECONOMY
A Brief History of Neoliberalism By David Harvey
(Just an aside - last year I vividly remember as I was watching the news programmes as the first waves of the global financial crisis started to hit and was struck how positively gleeful the reporters came across - it was as if they were happy that they had some real news to report for once. Out came the big screen graphics and there where lots of animated charts, they could take to the streets for their 'vox pops'. It was complete 'the Day Today'.)
Talking of the news: "Charlie Brooker looks at the news's obsession with the credit crunch"
Mmmmmphf - I'm old school
I still happen to think the whole students fees/student loans thing has been a massive mistake. IMO all education should be Government funded, dammit. It should be seen as an investment in our people and in the country's future. It makes no sense to me that if they can afford to give out dole money, child benefit, tax credits etc. [I won't mention the billions in bank bail outs] for people to do nothing (except for look for jobs that currently don't exist). Why not pay people to study? And not make it compulsory for people to start their working lives with a massive debt around their necks. Not when around the world we've seen where a over-reliance on credit and debt has got us - and the insane notion that you can rely on predictive future learnings - as any one of the million and more of the newly unemployed will tell you as they face foreclosure on their mortgages.
Recession to mean fees resistance.
Student hardship pleas 'increase'.
Recession to mean fees resistance.
Student hardship pleas 'increase'.
Dollhouse: Echoes
Where'd I seen elements of this episode before? Mmmmm? Oh yeah - Star Trek 'The Naked Time' and the Next Generation sequel 'The Naked Now' and that episode of Buffy 'Band Candy'.
But overall I'm happier with the show heading in this direction - as it seemed to turn a corner with the last episode 'the man on the street' - I was starting to find the whole 'new personality and a new mission a week' thing ala 'Joe 90' cum 'Mission Impossible' a bit wearing. Unfortunately I'm guessing there's a lot more of that to come though.
['Man on the Street' is the 'Dollhouse' episode to watch and the series creator explains why ]
But overall I'm happier with the show heading in this direction - as it seemed to turn a corner with the last episode 'the man on the street' - I was starting to find the whole 'new personality and a new mission a week' thing ala 'Joe 90' cum 'Mission Impossible' a bit wearing. Unfortunately I'm guessing there's a lot more of that to come though.
['Man on the Street' is the 'Dollhouse' episode to watch and the series creator explains why ]
Does ‘welfare reform’ work? No...
It didn't work under the Tories back in the 80s and 90s either - (and I've had first hand experience).
But what it does do is give the directors of these Private Companies (who are always cosy-cosy with those in power) - work - oh, and LOTS of tax payers money to play with. It's really another instance of corporate welfare. And the British voter seems to fall for it every time. But then as this sort of thing never gets so well covered in the press and TV news - whereas any story about 'dole scroungers' are always good for a headline or two. Not to mention the Govt. funded adverts for 'If, But' benefit cheats...
But what it does do is give the directors of these Private Companies (who are always cosy-cosy with those in power) - work - oh, and LOTS of tax payers money to play with. It's really another instance of corporate welfare. And the British voter seems to fall for it every time. But then as this sort of thing never gets so well covered in the press and TV news - whereas any story about 'dole scroungers' are always good for a headline or two. Not to mention the Govt. funded adverts for 'If, But' benefit cheats...
McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
One of those 'couldn't-have-put-it-better-myself' rants...
Liberal Conspiracy » McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
Liberal Conspiracy » McNulty, hypocrisy and the Westminster bubble
poor fred
Sir Fred Goodwin's home attacked.
Um? Why am I not surprised? and why isn't Fred forking out for his own security? It's not as if he's short of a bob or two.
Um? Why am I not surprised? and why isn't Fred forking out for his own security? It's not as if he's short of a bob or two.
but they all love a good database...
Link dumping for our Surveillance society and database mining...
10 government databases ‘will break the law’
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture
God knows where the Govt. gets it's almost religious faith in technology from - it's either that or a breathtaking gullibility. 'Oooooh magic boxes - oooooh."
ContactPoint’s failure is a symptom of a wider disease.
"Technology moves fast. Governments do not. Those in the know are not in the least surprised that ContactPoint has been halted. The Government’s databases are in a mess."
10 government databases ‘will break the law’
Information Commissioner Richard Thomas warns of surveillance culture
God knows where the Govt. gets it's almost religious faith in technology from - it's either that or a breathtaking gullibility. 'Oooooh magic boxes - oooooh."
Tony, Tony, Tony...
It's a grim time to be an employment minister with unemployment figures at two million. When Tony McNulty went on Newsnight, he appeared moved almost to tears by the plight of Tina Owen, who described how her life had been ruined by losing her job at Woolworth's. The Employment Minister admitted that he could never live on £60.50 a week. At the time he seemed honest and endearing. This man understood these people's pain.
Here's Tina and Tony...
and then there's the Dawn Butler fiasco.
[But then I remember all the sleaze that was around at the time of the John Major Govt.]
Long hours link to dementia risk
Mmmmm. Now who do I remember who famously worked really long hours and slept only four hours a night. And made out that anyone who didn't follow her example was a wimp, oh, and on retirement is nowadays suffering from dementia? Oh yeah... that would be Margaret Thatcher.
And who constantly fought against the European Parliament's attempts to limit working hours to a maximum of 48 hours a week because it might hurt Britain's competitiveness in world markets? Why - that would be Thatcher's number one fan Tony Blair.
And who also wants to keep the opt-out? Why... Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan.
Mmmmmm. SlaveLabour UK - it's on it's way.
BBC NEWS | Health | Long hours link to dementia risk
And who constantly fought against the European Parliament's attempts to limit working hours to a maximum of 48 hours a week because it might hurt Britain's competitiveness in world markets? Why - that would be Thatcher's number one fan Tony Blair.
And who also wants to keep the opt-out? Why... Shadow business secretary Alan Duncan.
Mmmmmm. SlaveLabour UK - it's on it's way.
BBC NEWS | Health | Long hours link to dementia risk
won't someone please think of the children...
Children who spend hours in front of the TV are more likely to get asthma.
Britain’s children are unhappiest in the Western world.
"The growing numbers of children with obesity-related diabetes need more radical help from the NHS if they are to have any chance of a normal, healthy life, according to experts. A study of 73 adolescents with type 2 diabetes - unknown in children before 2002 - has found that they put on more weight over a year, rather than losing it."
Britain’s children are unhappiest in the Western world.
Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act
Mmmmm. I missed the news on this during the day it was happening. But it's all part of a very worrying trend. We've reached the point where the Government's own paranoia and fantasy-land view of reality is tipping over to a point where we're all going to be seen by it as being terrorists...
With the TV currently having a Thatcher retrospective - I'm reminded that hers was a government where a MP was murdered in a car bomb and herself and her cabinet where all nearly killed in a hotel bombing, and there where many incidents where people were killed - and as authoritarian as the Thatcher Government was - they never saw the need for all these extra new laws that are only going to prove a great threat to civil liberties of many a innocent person.
BBC NEWS | UK | Photographers angry at terror law
Photographers protest against Section 76
With the TV currently having a Thatcher retrospective - I'm reminded that hers was a government where a MP was murdered in a car bomb and herself and her cabinet where all nearly killed in a hotel bombing, and there where many incidents where people were killed - and as authoritarian as the Thatcher Government was - they never saw the need for all these extra new laws that are only going to prove a great threat to civil liberties of many a innocent person.
BBC NEWS | UK | Photographers angry at terror law
Photographers protest against Section 76
Charlie Brooker: Television has the perfect answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity
I've actually sat through a couple of these programmes now and haven't been able to believe what I was watching. It's truly baffling to me how BBC three ever came to commission this in the first place. The only sane and sensible people on the show are those that walk out - refusing to take any further part in it. There's absolutely no real reason why anyone should appear naked in public if they don't want to and having a camera crew following you around recording your distress - and these utterly bizarre 'self-help' people coaching you through it...
It's all just pervy and sick - and not in a good way.
"Television has the perfect confidence-boosting answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity" Charlie Brooker.
It's all just pervy and sick - and not in a good way.
"Television has the perfect confidence-boosting answer to credit crunch despair - full-frontal nudity" Charlie Brooker.
Just rewards?
Darling bids to stop Goodwin's £693,000-a-year pension.
(Considering the lengths the DSS and local councils go to to claw back overpayments to the unemployed for relatively minor sums of tax payers' money [as part of their state-sanctioned long-running 'let's punish the poor' campaigns] - they should pull their fingers out and get this stopped right now.)
Fred Goodwin's pension: It won't make him happier. (Although I doubt he's crying himself to sleep every night.)
The Spirit Level
Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
(according to the website this book is not yet published.)
Wow. You don't say. Golly, but we can't stop now -not just when the 'trickle-down effect' of the past 30 years have served us so well. *cough*
(Considering the lengths the DSS and local councils go to to claw back overpayments to the unemployed for relatively minor sums of tax payers' money [as part of their state-sanctioned long-running 'let's punish the poor' campaigns] - they should pull their fingers out and get this stopped right now.)
Fred Goodwin's pension: It won't make him happier. (Although I doubt he's crying himself to sleep every night.)
The Spirit Level
Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better
(according to the website this book is not yet published.)
Wow. You don't say. Golly, but we can't stop now -not just when the 'trickle-down effect' of the past 30 years have served us so well. *cough*
US Bankers scamming the newly unemployed
Let me get this right - after a colossal screw up of the economy - the bankers still get obscenely huge bonuses even though they've brought about a global economic crisis and their banks necessitating being flooded with quite obscene amounts of taxpayers cash to keep them afloat, they've already led to the ruin of hundreds of companies and to many people losing their jobs yet after all that now they're scamming the unemployed out of a chunk of their payments.
Roll on the revolution... it's what we need right about now.
Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits.
Roll on the revolution... it's what we need right about now.
Jobless hit with bank fees on benefits.
well, well, well...
Straw vetoes Iraq minutes release.
Mmmm. Like us, the general public, don't already know that the invasion of Iraq - effectively merely supporting a whim of Prez Bush's - was all uber-dodgy. I mean, hello - it would have been as if England had invaded and bombed the shit out of Scotland because of a IRA terrorist attacks on London. The whole enterprise was clearly insane.
[I still hold to my belief that the only reason Bush invaded Iraq in the first place was because he wanted to do one better than his daddy - thinking it's all be terribly easy and he'd get a lot of kudos for winning a 'war'. Of course it all went terribly wrong. But shame upon Blair and his spinelessness that he went along with it all.]
Mmmm. Like us, the general public, don't already know that the invasion of Iraq - effectively merely supporting a whim of Prez Bush's - was all uber-dodgy. I mean, hello - it would have been as if England had invaded and bombed the shit out of Scotland because of a IRA terrorist attacks on London. The whole enterprise was clearly insane.
[I still hold to my belief that the only reason Bush invaded Iraq in the first place was because he wanted to do one better than his daddy - thinking it's all be terribly easy and he'd get a lot of kudos for winning a 'war'. Of course it all went terribly wrong. But shame upon Blair and his spinelessness that he went along with it all.]
Surveillance society
CCTV cameras on every street video-logging your every move. The Government planning to keep Records of all phone calls, emails, web pages visited, and now...
Government compiles travel records database.
I get the impression that our country is being run by a cabal of OCD afflicted bean-counters and database operators - mindlessly collecting and compiling data - but with absolutely no idea what they're going to do with it. Well, apart from putting it onto laptops or burning to CD-ROMs and leaving them on public transport etc. Oh well. At least criminals have a better idea of what they can do with all this information than the Govt. does.
[Aaaargh!]
Government compiles travel records database.
I get the impression that our country is being run by a cabal of OCD afflicted bean-counters and database operators - mindlessly collecting and compiling data - but with absolutely no idea what they're going to do with it. Well, apart from putting it onto laptops or burning to CD-ROMs and leaving them on public transport etc. Oh well. At least criminals have a better idea of what they can do with all this information than the Govt. does.
[Aaaargh!]
Mmmmm
Truthdig - Reports - Who Knew Bankers Were This Stupid?
I don't know about America - but for the life of me I don't understand why the streets haven't been filled with mobs of middle class people baying for banker's blood here. Maybe it's yet to come - as the recession bites and things get harder for everybody. After all the UK there's been a long standing disgruntlement about top executives of various companies awarding themselves massive bonuses and golden handshakes etc. when the companies they've resided over have actually fowled up and made masses of losses. Of course nothing was ever done about it. Maybe we're all just too soft and apathetic here.
Later:
Bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland bankers set for millions in bonuses.
So we can see here - even in extremis - there is STILL absolutely nothing being done about the situation. Mind you , even if the Govt. made the slightest noise about doing something -I bet if these people had a quick whip round among themselves and came up with a suitably-sized party donation out of those same bonus payments - then suddenly there still wouldn't be anything done about it... if this hasn't already happened, which could explain a lot.
[I mean - it's ever so curious that the former chief executive of RSB Frederick (Dick) Anderson Goodwin was presented with a knighthood before RSB nearly went belly up... I can't help but wonder if he made any contributions at any time? Is there any way of finding out?]
Meanwhile (as a taste of things to come - because the general population here are so pathetic and dim witted that it's pretty certain they're going to vote a Tory Govt. in next time):
The Times has learnt that the Conservative Party accepted £200,000 from a slot machine tycoon’s businesses shortly after calling for softer rules on arcade gambling.
Wow, that sounds familiar...
I don't know about America - but for the life of me I don't understand why the streets haven't been filled with mobs of middle class people baying for banker's blood here. Maybe it's yet to come - as the recession bites and things get harder for everybody. After all the UK there's been a long standing disgruntlement about top executives of various companies awarding themselves massive bonuses and golden handshakes etc. when the companies they've resided over have actually fowled up and made masses of losses. Of course nothing was ever done about it. Maybe we're all just too soft and apathetic here.
Later:
Bailed-out Royal Bank of Scotland bankers set for millions in bonuses.
So we can see here - even in extremis - there is STILL absolutely nothing being done about the situation. Mind you , even if the Govt. made the slightest noise about doing something -I bet if these people had a quick whip round among themselves and came up with a suitably-sized party donation out of those same bonus payments - then suddenly there still wouldn't be anything done about it... if this hasn't already happened, which could explain a lot.
[I mean - it's ever so curious that the former chief executive of RSB Frederick (Dick) Anderson Goodwin was presented with a knighthood before RSB nearly went belly up... I can't help but wonder if he made any contributions at any time? Is there any way of finding out?]
Meanwhile (as a taste of things to come - because the general population here are so pathetic and dim witted that it's pretty certain they're going to vote a Tory Govt. in next time):
The Times has learnt that the Conservative Party accepted £200,000 from a slot machine tycoon’s businesses shortly after calling for softer rules on arcade gambling.
Wow, that sounds familiar...
So let me get this straight...
Now if memory serves - isn't the Labour Govt. recently all for bringing in new welfare plans to get the long term unemployed, lone parents and the sick back into work - and if the DSS decides they aren't trying hard enough - they'll get their benefits cut and/or be forced to do menial work for their benefits (which are considerably lower than minimum wage levels). Um. Well, OK. So how does that square with Gordon Brown now saying that Union Workers shouldn't be striking over the issue of Oil Refinery jobs going to foreign workers. Seems to me - if you're properly serious about creating jobs for the unemployed - you should well, be doing something to actually create real jobs for the unemployed and that should be for the people who need work in this country - not for those in Italy and Portugal.
[This of course should highlight another thing what's been going wrong for a long while in the UK - and that's just how much of the country's industry is now owned by foreign companies and interests. It should concern us mere mortals because these being foreign companies - the bulk of the money they're making is going abroad - and a lot of them don't pay taxes! And why do the politicians (it doesn't matter what 'side' any more - they've long become indistinguishable from each other now) let this happen? Oh, you just have to take a look at who's giving them contributions for their campaign funds etc. There's a clue or two right there.]
[This of course should highlight another thing what's been going wrong for a long while in the UK - and that's just how much of the country's industry is now owned by foreign companies and interests. It should concern us mere mortals because these being foreign companies - the bulk of the money they're making is going abroad - and a lot of them don't pay taxes! And why do the politicians (it doesn't matter what 'side' any more - they've long become indistinguishable from each other now) let this happen? Oh, you just have to take a look at who's giving them contributions for their campaign funds etc. There's a clue or two right there.]
I was just thinking...
Now that we know that with Matt Smith we're going to have the youngest ever Doctor Who (something which does worry me somewhat...*) it's now fallen to the Sarah Jane Adventures to carry on with what was the original spirit of Doctor Who where a older, wiser person takes young companions along on a series wild and exciting adventures...
(*because one of the things I liked about Doctor Who was that a older grandfather - or older uncle figure was the hero - even as a kiddie-wink I thought that it was a great role model for older folk. In fact I pretty much stopped watching the series when Davison took over the role - because I felt he was much too young - that and he was wearing beige... *shudder*. Now we're going to be given yet another youff running about - like as if, well, haven't we got enough of those in fiction already? Isn't that why the Doctor had companions to do all that sort of malarkey? Oh well... I'm just going to trust that they don't ruin it and all my vague misgivings will be proved utterly foundationless.)
(*because one of the things I liked about Doctor Who was that a older grandfather - or older uncle figure was the hero - even as a kiddie-wink I thought that it was a great role model for older folk. In fact I pretty much stopped watching the series when Davison took over the role - because I felt he was much too young - that and he was wearing beige... *shudder*. Now we're going to be given yet another youff running about - like as if, well, haven't we got enough of those in fiction already? Isn't that why the Doctor had companions to do all that sort of malarkey? Oh well... I'm just going to trust that they don't ruin it and all my vague misgivings will be proved utterly foundationless.)
Another miserable quarter for Dixons • Channel Register
Apparently:
Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo.
You mean the punters have finally (and God knows it took long enough) twigged on that retailers put their prices UP in the run up to Christmas and then sell off whatever they can't sell at those inflated prices at a discount during the January sales to clear space for the next batch of stock. So now maybe that business model doesn't work so well for them any more. Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Meh. Dixons are such a rippoff at the best of times.
"Dixons Store Group International saw sales fall ten per cent in the 12 weeks ended 10 January because customers delayed buying TVs and computers until after Christmas, once the sales had begun."
Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo.
You mean the punters have finally (and God knows it took long enough) twigged on that retailers put their prices UP in the run up to Christmas and then sell off whatever they can't sell at those inflated prices at a discount during the January sales to clear space for the next batch of stock. So now maybe that business model doesn't work so well for them any more. Oh boo-hoo, boo-hoo. Meh. Dixons are such a rippoff at the best of times.
gadget lust - Cowon iAudio S9 PMP
Cowon iAudio S9 PMP • Register Hardware
or I've my eye the older A3 with it's older connectors - all ready for hooking straight up to a tv.
or I've my eye the older A3 with it's older connectors - all ready for hooking straight up to a tv.
UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Mmmmm. So how come the Govt. can do this - and throw out millions of pounds to pay ISPs to store all this info. but doesn't spend a penny to do something useful like oh. I don't know - make sure ISPs aren't ripping us off on broadband charges - or do something to tackle spam - ANYTHING that would be of genuine tangible benefit to the general public - rather than just self-perpetuating their own paranoia.
Bearing in mind over in America there was plenty of intelligence and warning signs over September 11th 2001 - but it all got lost among the noise of all the other shit they were diligently collecting.
Think I might start looking into old PGP systems for my mail - if they're going to be paranoid anyway...
BBC NEWS | UK | UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Bearing in mind over in America there was plenty of intelligence and warning signs over September 11th 2001 - but it all got lost among the noise of all the other shit they were diligently collecting.
Think I might start looking into old PGP systems for my mail - if they're going to be paranoid anyway...
BBC NEWS | UK | UK e-mail law 'attack on rights'
Technophile: Flip Mino and Kodak Zi6
Technophile: Flip Mino and Kodak Zi6 mini video cameras
Dammit - whys the Kodak had to go for quicktime movs as their format? sigh.
But still wants.
Dammit - whys the Kodak had to go for quicktime movs as their format? sigh.
But still wants.
Will Hutton
I've just been reading Will Hutton's 'The State to Come'
Which written back in 1997 (before NuLabour won the election later that year)- shows that the big mess the Global economy is currently in has roots stretching way, way back. (But since Blair and Brown have only ever been Thatcherites in disguise - it's only to be expected.)
So I've been reading the other things he's written in the Guardian.
I've also come across this:
Edward J. Dodson / Review of: Boom Bust, by Fred Harrison.
Just a thought since most economists have been proven to be completely wrong by real life events over the decades - isn't it time we stopped paying them any credence? Shouldn't we now be lumping them together with the tarot card readers and astrologers and rune-readers and only taking anything they say with massive handfuls of salt?
Which written back in 1997 (before NuLabour won the election later that year)- shows that the big mess the Global economy is currently in has roots stretching way, way back. (But since Blair and Brown have only ever been Thatcherites in disguise - it's only to be expected.)
So I've been reading the other things he's written in the Guardian.
I've also come across this:
Edward J. Dodson / Review of: Boom Bust, by Fred Harrison.
Just a thought since most economists have been proven to be completely wrong by real life events over the decades - isn't it time we stopped paying them any credence? Shouldn't we now be lumping them together with the tarot card readers and astrologers and rune-readers and only taking anything they say with massive handfuls of salt?
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
As far as I know - Not yet available in the UK.
It's about time someone either took away Moleskine's crown - and/or Modo and Modo brought their prices down - and brought them down a lot.
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
It's about time someone either took away Moleskine's crown - and/or Modo and Modo brought their prices down - and brought them down a lot.
Proving Moleskine Is Just A Style: The Piccadilly Notebook
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