Sunday, 19 December 2010
Comment is free: The leaks are not just about web democracy hackers.
It's disappointing that emphasis has gone away from the actual content of the leaks into a debate about web democracy. This is what governments and middle men would have wanted. Having introvert hackers coming to their side is not good for wikileaks reputation. The same people who campaigned against copyright and other freedom of information issues are probably just concerned about preserving their freedom to access niche and frankly disturbing pornographic material for the next 20 years.
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Analysis: Who is John Bredencamp?
A Zanu- PF (Robert Mugabe's ruling party) source quotes in the latest leaked memo:
"John Bredencamp [sic], a shady white Zimbabwean businessman, had told Zanu-PF he would provide a financial 'retirement' package for Mugabe".
Rumours in Zimbabwe for 2 decades claim Bredencamp works for the MI6. Bredencamp has also been named as a Mugabe crone. The multimillionaire, who has a home in Berkshire made his money in tobacco farming and was named in a 2002 UN report as a key arms trader who made millions of pounds from illegally exploiting natural resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Bredenkamp, who did not respond to Observer emails rejected the UN's claims and has pursued legal action to clear his name.
The cable claims that the British could use Bredencamp's m16 connections as
"a channel for the British to provide funds to sweeten the deal" with Mugabe.
The memo shows that UN head at the time Kofi Annan offered Mugabe a deal to step down The deal is thought to have consisted of a safe haven and financial package. The package was rejected by Mugage.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
Saturday, 11 December 2010
Thursday, 9 December 2010
Humour: Met Reporter Interviews the Weather.
A global terrorist organisation coined by the met office as "weather" and known for its dreadful and indiscriminate use of natural biological weapons in October, November, December, January, February, March and sometimes in April, May, June, July, August and September has claimed responsibility for the horrible weather across the UK but no one has paid much attention.
"We're abit busy at the moment sorting out this Julian Assange fellow. Since we're hosting "freedom of speech day" we have to pin something else on him. Is it illegal to have sex without condoms?"
The mysterious phenomenon invading our atmosphere known as "snow" has being attributed to local councils and the government. Train networks, TFL and gritters are also being blamed for this winter-time phenomena.
Sun loving Brits claim that "weather" is now more of a threat than extremism and terror.
"It was so cold we had to flee to Majorca" said one couple from Milton Keynes.
"Weather" has so far eluded authorities but American Intelligence suggests he or she is hiding out in Pakistan.
"There was some big flood in one of those countries near Iraq recently.We know it definitely wasn't Afghanistan because we've still got some troops out there, so we've narrowed it down to Pakistan."
Meanwhile "weather" sent this message via video recording, "We attack every year at the same time, yet everyone is always shocked. So lets go through this again, summer is warm, autumn-the leaves fall, winter is bloody cold-ok!"
The "weather" video below was released to Al Jazeera some time in the last 48 hours and may cause some viewers distress. Middle east experts think the recording was inspired by the Paranormal Activity films.In fact, some suggest it stars the same dog. (not me).
"We're abit busy at the moment sorting out this Julian Assange fellow. Since we're hosting "freedom of speech day" we have to pin something else on him. Is it illegal to have sex without condoms?"
The mysterious phenomenon invading our atmosphere known as "snow" has being attributed to local councils and the government. Train networks, TFL and gritters are also being blamed for this winter-time phenomena.
Sun loving Brits claim that "weather" is now more of a threat than extremism and terror.
"It was so cold we had to flee to Majorca" said one couple from Milton Keynes.
"Weather" has so far eluded authorities but American Intelligence suggests he or she is hiding out in Pakistan.
"There was some big flood in one of those countries near Iraq recently.We know it definitely wasn't Afghanistan because we've still got some troops out there, so we've narrowed it down to Pakistan."
Meanwhile "weather" sent this message via video recording, "We attack every year at the same time, yet everyone is always shocked. So lets go through this again, summer is warm, autumn-the leaves fall, winter is bloody cold-ok!"
The "weather" video below was released to Al Jazeera some time in the last 48 hours and may cause some viewers distress. Middle east experts think the recording was inspired by the Paranormal Activity films.In fact, some suggest it stars the same dog. (not me).
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
News: Wikileaks.
Wikileaks is now operating on a Swedish server.
Despite celebs staking their reputation with bail money offers outside Westminister, Julian Assange was denied bail. His legal case for bail was badly hampered by the lack of a permanent address in the UK. Assange faces possible extradition.
Thursday, 2 December 2010
The Three Hundred Nuns
They number now only 300 and compare themselves to the “300” Spartans (the film 300) and the “300” army of Gideon from the Old Testament bible story. All of them know each other through online social networking.
The Faithful Companions of Jesus (FCJ) are an apostolic group of Sisters who live by Ignatius spirituality.
One of their members Maryanne 34 in London, originally hails from Malta and is due to make her final vows this year, “sometimes I think, why did I do it!” she says. The sister sits in the living room of the snug convent she shares with 7 other sisters.
Marianne became a nun largely thanks to Jesuits arriving at her university. “I’m a woman, snag!” she thought at the time. Through the Jesuit FCJ she was able to take vows of chastity and poverty when she was 23 years old. The only thing she can never be is a priest.
Maryanne admits she would have fancied becoming a famous singer; her pupils enjoy her constant singing, recommending her for the X Factor show.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Gross Happiness Product
How many of us sit there working our way through Facebook’s greatest quizes “what colour is your soul”, or “what kind of job should you have”. How happy do we feel afterward getting the results. Today I found out that I’m “simply normal” My “soul is red” and I’m “Monica from friends”.
These are three things I already knew. Facebook even has an app to work out the percentage of your days spent on Facebook working out things you already knew.
Familiar endings provide best re-run potential. No one in their right mind would buy Sixth Sense on DVD having already watched it. M Night Shyamalan really didn’t have DVD afterlife in mind. However you might like to buy The Hangover for instance.
A quick look at 2009’s best selling DVDs shows how re-run potential works; Twilight, Transformers, Mall Cop, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, all firmly conform to genre expectation.
The truth is, we absolutely polls and quizzes. We are addicted to them.
News voraciously grabs statistics, spilling out news stories like genre aisles at Water stones: political thriller, historical drama, disaster, war drama, crime fiction. You pick, according to your tastes. It has very little to do with everyday life, but enforces the "habitus” of unquestioned rules as French critic Bourdieu puts it .
For the student riots you can pick a front cover of Crime- Fiction featuring pictures of smashed glass, or a lone girl guarding a police van take by The Metro; a heart-warming, understated holiday read.
Even the less numerical among us can’t avert our eyes from the top super-food to eat this week, the university league tables, how many women readers would recommend Herbal Essences conditioner to their friends.
The Happiness Index.
The Coalition government’s proposed mass poll named “The Happiness Index” criticised as a smokescreen, is actually a rather clever plan, afterall, the government needs to look like it has a heart.
Following in the tradition of a Himalayan kingdom’s plan in the 1970’s to replace GDP with Gross National Happiness, the government is utilising the life affirming power of polls abundant on Facebook and other social networks.
Following in the tradition of a Himalayan kingdom’s plan in the 1970’s to replace GDP with Gross National Happiness, the government is utilising the life affirming power of polls abundant on Facebook and other social networks.
It’s a poll to which we already know the answers. A poll which might as well be commissioned by L’Oreal .
The result will be as predictable as Costas “ 7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa” (small print: Cappuccinos) but when it comes out we will voraciously devour it for glimmers of meaning.
Will that satisfy us?
The result will be as predictable as Costas “ 7 out of 10 coffee lovers prefer Costa” (small print: Cappuccinos) but when it comes out we will voraciously devour it for glimmers of meaning.
Will that satisfy us?
NO. Straight after in the evening you will zone into more relaxing quiz taking along the lines of “What should your name be?” and spend the night subconsciously thinking that destiny (the mystical orthodoxy of Facebook) decreed you to have this new name.
The feature that makes this poll different from a Facebook poll is that some authoritative organisation has been paid to put their stamp of approval on it: The British Skin Foundation, The Institute of Trichologists, The Cocoa Foundation.
Companies want the endorsement of researchers; researchers continue to exist thanks to companies with a lot of money to spend.The Office of National Statistics will be gathering data for The Happiness Index. This government statistics engine accounts for some 4/5 of all national stats.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy is issuing a similar gauge because rioters smashing things up, blocking petrol stations and halting flights isn’t clear enough to forecast national mood; we need it in digestible percentages.
Polls are “easy-reading in a society where news is often read on the go while travelling. Here’s one, “Chocolate makes you depressed " it’s readable, relevant and at first glance appears substantiated.
“Chocolate makes you depressed- research in archives of internal medicine shows that those who eat at least a bar every week are more glum than those who only eat chocolate now and again.”
Fair enough. A science based think tank has put their stamp on it, but let’s look at the next paragraph.
“Dr Natalie Rose....from the University of California says there are many possible explanations for their findings...it may simply be that people who are depressed crave chocolate as a self treatment to lift the mood”.
Oh dear so you’re giving us lifestyle altering information that hasn’t yet been proved. How come?
“As this study shows, more research is needed to determine exactly what the relationship between chocolate and our mood is”.
We’ve just sat and read something we already knew.
Sound familiar?
It appeals to us as an audience who like their story diet exactly the way it is.
In our capital society, everyone has a vested interest because everyone needs money.
So the NHS with a vested interest in promoting nicotine patches sponsors a survey of the effects of passive smoking. Two completely different results are had if you reword your question.
So the NHS with a vested interest in promoting nicotine patches sponsors a survey of the effects of passive smoking. Two completely different results are had if you reword your question.
“Do you think people should have the right to smoke if they choose”? Appeals to a sense of freedom of action, whilst
“Do you think smokers are a threat to the health of non smokers?” appeals to health fears.
If the poll doesn’t work the way you want, reword your questions; if Ireland says no to joining the E.U, you reword the way you ask and offer more money until they say ‘go on then’.
We have to accept statistic's life affirming function and not take them too seriously. After all, we wouldn’t sue if we had followed our horoscope into disaster would we? Gross Happiness Product instead of GDP is a nice thought though.
What do you think? Comments.
Wednesday, 24 November 2010
Indexes replace Kate Middleton in Glamour mags.
Indexes are the hot thing at the moment. (e.g. the happiness index) They look good in fur and flower print. Kate Middleton may have a run for her money for the cover of glamour mags UK wide.
Friday, 19 November 2010
Camden Kids Below The Poverty Line
Camden’s own Comprehensive Spending Review will be finalised on 23 November, revealing the "knock on effects" of the spending cuts in the borough.
Specific departments were wary about giving figures or inferring a down-grade of their services to the public but the key word floating around was "reorganise".
Councils including Camden have made efforts to be transparent about their spending, publishing the salaries and bonuses of their senior staff accounting for 2.77 million this annum.
Deputy Head Mr Mcnaught of Maria Fidelis Convent School said “we have to seriously think about how to reorganise”.The state school in a now largely Muslim area still retains its “convent”status with a small grant from the Catholic Church.
The deputy head said the Church’s grant is fixed and not likely to increase. Two nuns remain the authority figures of the school and “nothing gets passed without going through them."
Faith schools still remain "heaven on Earth" for some parents, whilst the Prime Minister has publically expressed his support in saying that their "culture and ethos" can help standards improve.
Unemployment was earmarked by Camden council as the biggest cause of deprivation. Eighteen percent of young people in the borough between16 and 24 claim unemployment benefit, above the London average.
On theJobseekers Direct-gov website a keyword search of “Camden” produces 100 hits. According to the DPW there were 453 thousand unfilled vacancies throughout the UK in the three months to October 2010, up 20,000 over the year.
One unattractive position meeting national minimum wage and working unsociable hours asks for an experienced security guard for 12 hr night shifts, 48 hours a week.
Camden council’s Fostering Service currently match children to homes in “3-4 days on average.
Spending cuts could mean more private agencies being used to find foster homes, which are currently a last resort.
The Camden Fostering Department suggested children in Camden are faced with more complex domestic problems, e.g. sexual abuse and neglect, while “outside Camden, drugs and alcohol are the norm".
Almost half of children in Camden are classed as below the poverty line. The results of a survey from June this year highlighted money as the key reason for parents spending on average 48 minutes with their children a day.
Dr Rosemary Keenan of The Catholic Children's Society said " It is sadly a symptom of modern life that parents have to work such long hours to afford a higher standard of living, or to make ends meet."
http://hollowayexpress.co.uk/?p=171
Specific departments were wary about giving figures or inferring a down-grade of their services to the public but the key word floating around was "reorganise".
Councils including Camden have made efforts to be transparent about their spending, publishing the salaries and bonuses of their senior staff accounting for 2.77 million this annum.
Deputy Head Mr Mcnaught of Maria Fidelis Convent School said “we have to seriously think about how to reorganise”.The state school in a now largely Muslim area still retains its “convent”status with a small grant from the Catholic Church.The deputy head said the Church’s grant is fixed and not likely to increase. Two nuns remain the authority figures of the school and “nothing gets passed without going through them."
Faith schools still remain "heaven on Earth" for some parents, whilst the Prime Minister has publically expressed his support in saying that their "culture and ethos" can help standards improve.
Unemployment was earmarked by Camden council as the biggest cause of deprivation. Eighteen percent of young people in the borough between16 and 24 claim unemployment benefit, above the London average.
On theJobseekers Direct-gov website a keyword search of “Camden” produces 100 hits. According to the DPW there were 453 thousand unfilled vacancies throughout the UK in the three months to October 2010, up 20,000 over the year.
One unattractive position meeting national minimum wage and working unsociable hours asks for an experienced security guard for 12 hr night shifts, 48 hours a week.
Camden council’s Fostering Service currently match children to homes in “3-4 days on average.
Spending cuts could mean more private agencies being used to find foster homes, which are currently a last resort.
The Camden Fostering Department suggested children in Camden are faced with more complex domestic problems, e.g. sexual abuse and neglect, while “outside Camden, drugs and alcohol are the norm".
Almost half of children in Camden are classed as below the poverty line. The results of a survey from June this year highlighted money as the key reason for parents spending on average 48 minutes with their children a day.
Dr Rosemary Keenan of The Catholic Children's Society said " It is sadly a symptom of modern life that parents have to work such long hours to afford a higher standard of living, or to make ends meet."
http://hollowayexpress.co.uk/?p=171
Sunday, 14 November 2010
UK is more corrupt than Qatar.
The 2010 International Corruption Index, a controversial assessment of perceived levels of corruption placed UK in 20th position below Qatar, a gas/oil export country. This is a step down from the UK's 2009 result.
Saturday, 13 November 2010
Students and Part Time Work
Of all the words flying around in the careers arena, "transferable skills" and "voluntary experience" win the tally.Years of telling young people to be employable is paying off- but are the days of law students playing waitress and serving Pinot Grigio to pot-bellied businessmen coming to an end?
" I don't want a waiting job" says one student to an employment advisor. One reason for this is that the majority of graduates want the kind of lifestyle where being served upon is common place.
Secondly the hospitality industry is notorious for having the grouchiest bosses in the land. Although there are plenty of relaxation therapies for students nowadays, additional stress is surely better avoided.
Janki Amin, employment coodinator at London Metropolitan University says "alot of students fail to understand how certain jobs are relevant".
Janki is surprised how most students come to her for jobs specifically in their field e.g. marketing, law. She added that students are missing out on transferable skills.
Those who come scouting for jobs are first after some extra pocket money, and second to spice up the CV. The stressful perils of pint-pulling, charity mugging and plate balancing are avoided for more-up market, field relevant roles.
One type of job vacancy proved a big hit at the LMU jobs fair in October this year. The Census provides students with flexi work conducting surveys. Still. Less stressful than telesales.
Life is different for the full time Hilton receptionist, whose day to day career consists of answering the phone, dialing '1' and sweet-talking a balding 40-something into a promotion.
Employers say that students are flexible making them ideal to fill temporary positions. The casual labour is attractive especially to small companies who can ditch staff when business is low.
Students are more inclined to accept a living wage of £7.85 an hour or below in London, or £6-£7 outside London.According to government stats, there are currently 5.4 million people in workless homes, up 26000 from last year.
Students seem to be filling a temp. labour gap that unemployed households could be tapping into. This does not seem fair on the 16.1% of children in workless families.
The Student Union vice president at LMU says that it is better for students to work part time in their university, bringing the study and work environment closer. With around 20 vacancies for over 30,000 at LMU, a select few benefit from this experience.
The N.U.S agrees with the GCAS recommended 20 hours max working hours for full-timers.
For students unsuccessful at vying for paid placements, the voluntary sector preaches a seductively quick route to sparkling up a CV, or filling in a nervous gap.Check with your employment field first to see if shoveling up weeds in a community garden, or practising to make the perfect cappuchino will work wonders for your graduate placement bid at Ralph Lauren, BBC or Clifford Chance and -
if it all gets too much for you, there's always yoga.
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