Posts by 81stcolumn
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Sadly though, given my wife's recent experiences Auckalnd public transport will let us all down badly.
-
On the day I remember coming home from training and watching stuff on the TV news. At the time I looked at my intended and “oh gosh the Muslims are f****d and especially the Palestinians”.
That April I went to New York to visit friends and got a chance to look down into what was a very big hole, the scale of it was quite shocking. I also remember the black helicopters sitting over the Hudson, watching and waiting for something. In the continuing confusion it was remarkably easy for me to come and go from the US. How things change.
Our old neighbourhood in Sheffield was very mixed and until then pretty easy going; afterwards the divide appeared. When the sitting MP for our ward voted for the Iraq war against a clear no mandate from across the whole area, I was indignant at first, then worried. Our neighbourhood started to get a little more sinister. Within two years, by the time my wife and I hold sold up to come to NZ things had got very sinister indeed; my wife for the first time in many years felt unsafe running on her own in the evenings. Meanwhile UK citizens without objection suffered a catastrophic loss of rights.
Two years after the original event I made a second trip via the US as part of a honeymoon trip; my travel experience was such that I now regard it as too risky and unpleasant to set foot in the US while these issues continue. My only sin against the US nation has been to be born in the Middle East and to have protested outside the Whitehouse with the Palestinians in 1988 (I also have a record of activism in the UK). My belongings and baggage were munted from searching after 2 stopovers and there is only so much embarrassment I will suffer as a result of being the only white guy in a ”random” search line.
Loss of rights, friends and opportunities, yes there is much to reflect on in days like these.
-
"It would be ironic if the communitarian philosophy advanced by Tony Blair....."
No irony required models of motivated behaviour suggest that external regulation always has unwanted consequences.
Meanwhile in case this one got missed....
-
Perhaps I'm being over sensitive but the Sun page hack immediately drew my thoughts to the death of another media man Robert Maxwell; who apparently fell off his boat one night in 1991.
-
In an era of "celebrity commentators" Liggett is all cycling; commentator, racer, journalist, organiser and advocate.
And he gave us one of cycling's I was there moments "that looks like Stephen Roche.....that looks like stephen Roche....it's Stephen Roche !!!!"
From 2:00
Roche when recovered is alleged to have come up with this gem "Oui, mais pas de femme toute de suite" ("yes, but I am not ready for a woman straight away").
What finer spectacle can there be ?
-
This time he really wanted to win that bet........
-
Until last night I had convinced myself that I didn't do the gear/bag thing. Sat in the indoor bike training class I attend in the evenings I realised I was the only person in the room who had brought a pump, three towels and a full full toolkit in a large plastic box. It's indoors FFS, if something breaks I can stop pedalling and go home.......
-
For interest: I tweeted a bit of this but thought it worth a broader explanation.
Why Murdoch should never be allowed to get anywhere near a BSkyB takeover.
ITVDigital launched a new satellite channel in the UK, they used the same encrypted card system used by a major French broadcaster Canal plus. These guys are in competition with Sky, and they bought the rights to National league football at considerable cost for distribution on their network starting in 2011. By mid 2000 the European markets were flooded with cracked decoder cards for Canal plus and ITVDigital.
The only group known to have cracked these cards was an Israeli branch of NDS a tech company owned by Newscorp. It appears that they were paid to do this.
Meanwhile a British arm of NDS gave funds to a site called the House of Ill Compute where the code for cracking the cards appeared. This seems to have been facilitated by a guy called Ray Adams a “retired” Met Policeman (then head of security at NDS) with a controversial past. Adams paid another guy called Lee Gibling who ran the House of Ill Compute who “disappeared” at the time when all this kicked off and Canal+ started litigation.
The result of the cracked code was catastrophic for British Football because without fee paying subscribers ITVDigital had no hope of paying clubs the fees they owed. Football clubs would have undoubtedly spent much of their money in advance. Elsewhere ITVDigital was under pressure from BSB allegedly at the behest of guess who?
ITVDigital was in the hands of the liquidators by 2002.
It appears that 2002 for Rupert.
This is the sort of stuff that makes movies but no one really wants the bad guy to win do they ?
These links are all to the Guardian I’m afraid they are the only ones could find.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/13/media.citynews
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/13/piracy.news
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/18/security.hacking
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/apr/12/newscorporation.broadcasting
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2002/dec/22/newscorporation.observerbusiness
-
Hard News: Angry and thrilled about Arie, in reply to Christopher Dempsey,
Yet 'nowhere' is somewhere as well.
<chuckle>
I have considerable gifts at my disposal; unfortunately a sense of position and direction isn't amongst them.
#shockhorrormaleadmitstobeinglost
-
Buses ? I'd rather walk...last time that happened I just got off in the middle of nowhere.