November 2, 2004
Today’s The Day
So finally, the big day has arrived - CSKA Moscow vs Chelsea followed by Arsenal vs Panathinaikos, not forgetting the Wolves‘ first match without Dave Jones as manager, against Sunderland. Oh, it’s the US election too, I believe…
Seriously, this particular US election is probably the most important one ever for non-US countries as it decides who is going to lead the most powerful nation on the planet. Some people might offer the opinion that Americans have a self-important, self-righteous attitude of themselves (from Americans that I have met, I’d have to say that it’s most definitely not always the case!) - but for those that ARE like that, well folks, here’s your chance to influence history!
The film Team America: World Police describes a neo-conservative -led America that believes it has the God-given right to violently crush anything or anyone that it perceives as a threat towards it’s way of life. It states that world terrorism is controlled by one man - the North Korean leader Kim Jong-il - and it is this man that supplies terrorists all around the world with Weapons of Mass destruction. Once this man is destroyed, the ham-fisted World Police will be able to finally eradicate terrorism and remove Weapons of Mass destruction from the hands of terrorists (WMD’s and ‘terrorists‘ are terms used repeatedly throughout the film, to illustrate both real-world leaders’ and the media’s efforts to get the masses into the ‘right’ frame of mind!)
Unfortunately (for everyone), this film is accurate. The Bush presidency, in conjuction with ‘neo-con‘ strategies, has led to a far more dangerous world than neccessary. Their policies have led to an increase in the hatred of America throughout the world - a hatred which, when combined with poverty and a lack of hope, leads very quickly towards terrorism.
If you are a citizen of the USA, I would simply urge you to think about the Bush presidency before casting your vote. Has it made your country a safer place? More importantly, has it made the world a safer place (remember enlightened self-interest - make the world safer, make yourself safer)? Are you and your family better off? I think that the answers to those questions are self-evident - go out and vote for a better world, and therefore a better, safer America.
Oh, and one other thing - why do Stone and Parker seem to continually pick on the Baldwins?
October 18, 2004
Removing The Red Tape
Red tape, eh?! The bane of all our lives. It’s the bane of Peter’s life too. Take a look at a typical example of a day in the life of a reasonably average citizen of the UK…
October 14, 2004
Well Done Tony B
Congratulations go to Tony Bunyan (who else could I mean?), editor of Statewatch (a non-profit voluntary group that investigates and reports on European justice, accountability and civil liberties) for his selection as one of the 50 most influential people in the EU for 2004 by the European Voice newspaper. He is nominated within the Campaigner of the Year category for his campaign to protect civil liberties, put at risk by the package of anti-terrorism measures.
Tony commented: It is very good to see that our work the “war on terrorism” and its effect on civil liberties in Europe has been recognised.
It’s a pity that the TV and press do not fulfill their potential by investigating and discussing some of the issues that both Statewatch and Media Lens examine. It is, after all, in the interests of everybody that we analyse and challenge new laws proposed by Government(s), especially as:
- most of the security issues are down to the actions of those same Governments, and
- Statewatch’s “Scoreboard” [pdf] and analysis finds that 27 out of 57 EU proposals have little or nothing to do with tackling terrorism - they deal with crime in general and surveillance
October 12, 2004
Growing Your Own Jacket
The Tissue Culture & Art Project are planning on growing a coat out of combined human and mouse cells.
“One of the most common and somewhat surprising comments we heard was that people were disturbed by our ethics of using living cells to grow living fabric, while the use of leather obtained from animals seems to be accepted without any concern for the well-being of the animals from which the skin has been removed.”
- Ionat Zurr, Tissue Culture & Art Project
via Wired
Despite the fact that these ‘bio-coats’ are clearly not sentient, there is a nagging doubt at the back of my mind about whether we should be doing this type of thing. I completely agree with the argument about leather’s acceptance in comparison, but that’s just down to the long human usage of animal skins - it’s something with which most are generally familiar and comfortable. Maybe it’s the fact that it seems such a trivial application of the technologies involved that disturbs me…
September 13, 2004
UK Reading Standards
An article on the BBC website about the complexity of diabetic health advice left me feeling rather shocked last week because of the following conclusion from a scientist:
“He found people would need a reading ability of an educated 11 to 17-year-old to understand the sites.
However, he said the average reading age of people in the UK was equivalent to an educated nine-year-old.”
An average nine-year-old!!! How can that be? The percentage of O-level GCSE and A-level passes seems to increase every year - surely there must be some mistake!?!?
If research is indicating that the current literacy levels in the UK are as low as that, I think that kids are going to have to be ‘encouraged’ to read more books again. I realise that this makes me sound like some sort of Daily Mail-reading old fogey, but surely it’s no coincidence that the ‘txt msg’ is so popular, that television is made up almost entirely of awful, mind-numbing programmes, and that popular newspapers and magazines consist of predominantly large images and very little textual content.
