Sim-O

Wikileaks:

British Telecom “Phorm” report: PageSense External Validation Report by BT Retail Technology, dated 15 Jan 2007. 52 scanned printed pages with occasional pen highlights, 17Mb.

The internal British Telecom report shows that the carrier committed at least 18,875,324 allegedly illegal acts of interception and modification during its controversial covert “Phorm” trials.

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No Confidence Campaign:

Armed with a doctor’s certificate, recommendations from two psychiatrists and a straight-jacket, a group of campaigners will attempt to get George W Bush sectioned under the Mental Health Act (1983) during his visit to Britain next month. The campaigners fear that Mr Bush is planning military intervention against Iran before the end of his term in office in January 2009. Under the Act, a person is subject to compulsory admission for assessment in a mental institution if a doctor fears they are “likely to cause harm to themselves or others”.
…
Consultant psychiatrist Dr A Walker said today; “In Mr Bush we see an individual who believes he has been chosen by god, who holds to certain beliefs regardless of logic or fact, and who demonstrates an inability to empathise. These are classic symptoms of someone suffering from psychotic grandiose delusions.”

Good luck to ’em.

This idea about having a big piss up on the circle line tube train was a good idea, in theory. But it was always going to end in tears, wasn’t it? It was to be expected that some peole would get so lashed that that they would end up spoiling it for everyone else by puking and fighting and general twatish behaviour.

But how the fuck could anyone blame Boris Johnson for coppers get assaulted or tube staff getting spat on?
The Times:

Six Tube stations were closed as thousands of people partied on the Circle Line. There were 17 arrests after four Tube drivers, three other members of staff and two police officers were assaulted. Around 50 staff were said to have been verbally abused or spat at.
…
Bob Crow, the [RMT] general secretary, said: “Johnson should apologise personally to all those who were assaulted and abused last night thanks to a half-baked gimmick designed solely as a publicity stunt and without a moment’s thought for the people told to implement it.

“We warned that it could put our members at greater risk of assault, but there is no comfort in being proved right when Tube workers have been injured and abused.”

What the fuck is he on? That’s the same logic that a rapist uses to justify his actions “she was asking for it, wearing that short skirt”.
Why aren’t you blaming the fuckers who did the spitting and assaulting, Mr Crow? Didn’t they have a choice as to the matter? Were they pressed ganged on the tube that evening? Were they forced fed booze until they lost control? No they weren’t.

They made the choice, they get the blame.

Via Mr Eugenides

The Guardian

[Jacqui] Smith tabled a series of concessions yesterday which ministers were keen to portray as significant without appearing politically weak.

The amendments were intended to improve parliamentary scrutiny by requiring the home secretary to report to parliament within a week of taking the power to detain beyond 28 days. The power is also to be up for renewal every 30 days instead of every 60.

In the most contested amendment, to go beyond 28 days the home secretary would be required to have received independent legal advice that the country faced an event or situation that amounted to “a grave exceptional terrorist threat”.

The home secretary would also have to tell MPs that such a threat had occurred or was occurring.

The Home Office claimed this significantly raised the threshold and was equivalent to the phraseology in the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 on emergencies.

If the threat is that serious, then why not use the Civil Contingncies Act 2004? Because frankly, the ‘Trust me, I’m a Home Secretary’ concession doesn’t wash.

Electronic Intifada:

Haaretz.com, the website of the Israeli newspaper often cited as an example of Israel’s liberal, critical media carries paid advertisements from a website openly advocating the total destruction of the Palestinian people, the murder of large numbers of Muslim civilians, the assassination of the family members of Arab rulers, and the use of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons against dozens of countries.

via Lenin, and JSF.

Continuing my extensive coverage of the American elections, I bring you the news that Barack Obama is the Democrats nominee for the presidency.

Either way this was going to be an historic election, with a black man and a woman battling to become a ‘first’ blah blah blah [yawn]…

Nadine Dorries:

I am really not that happy with the fact that every news outlet is splashing around the news that Prince William, second in line to the throne, is going to be sitting on a boat in the Caribbean for a few months.

We are at war on a number of fronts, with terrorists having access to weaponry and technology equal to that of our allies.

Am I alone in thinking this level of openness may be a tad rash?

Fuck me!! How shrill are you nadine?
I don’t think you need to worry about the hier to the throne just yet.

You say we are at war with terrorists who have access to arms equal to ours. But from what I’ve heard, they don’t have aircraft carriers, destroyers, fighter jets, tanks, laser guided missiles, torpedoes, intercontinental missiles and a fuck load of the little gadgety things that soldiers have.

What they do have are mortars, rocket launchers, suicide bombers using homemade explosives, some of which gets as far as the detonator going off before going splat in a soggy lump on the ground and they could probably get their hands on a boat if they wanted to. All of which is not really comparable to a modern standing army.

You could say that for all their technological disadvantage they’re not dong too badly. But then, they’re still not as successful as the pIRA were and secondly it’s a fuckload harder to sneak up on someone in the middle of the carabean when there’s no one about that it is to drive a car or lorry, packed with explosives, through some gates.

I think Prince William will be alright this time.

What starts in America always ends up here.
CNET News:

[Billboards] are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out.

Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by–their gender, approximate age, and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database.

Behind the technology are small start-ups that say they are not storing actual images of the passers-by, so privacy should not be a concern. The cameras, they say, use software to determine that a person is standing in front of a billboard, then analyze facial features (like cheekbone height and the distance between the nose and the chin) to judge the person’s gender and age. So far the companies are not using race as a parameter, but they say that they can and will soon.

It looks like Joseph Chikelue Obi is waking his sleeper agents:

Dr Joseph Chikelue Obi is currently recruiting Suspended Medical Doctors – to confidently deliver RCAM Corporate Wellness Seminars in Evidence Based Alternative Medicine.

and they must also have completed the RCAM Fellowship Appraisal process.

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