Monthly Archives: January 2008

192.com Super Zoom of London

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192.com's photoof Trafalgar Square

In The Guardian, Michael Cross reports.

192.com, publishes aerial photography at a resolution of 4cm for London and 12.5cm for the rest of the UK. In the right conditions, images at this resolution are enough to identify individuals – a step that existing online mapping ventures such as Google Earth and Microsoft’s Virtual Earth have so far been careful to avoid.

Now I’ve admittedly, only had a quick look, but fail to see how anybody could be identified from these images as 192′s photograph of Trafalgar Square above shows. His suggestion that if you were up to no good in the London open air last winter, start working up excuses: you might be on the web, is bizarre, yes you might be on the web but you won’t be able to recognise your self let alone anyone else. So, I wouldn’t worry. Although in the future who knows?

Ryanair Advert

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Ryanair Advert

This morning BBC Radio 4 reports that The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said of the above Ryanair advert.

“We considered that her appearance and pose, in conjunction with the heading ‘Hottest’, appeared to link teenage girls with sexually provocative behaviour and was irresponsible and likely to cause serious or widespread offence”.

The ASA told Ryanair to withdraw the advert and ensure its future promotions complied with the advertising code.

However, the airline said the model’s clothing reflected what was currently fashionable among young women.

I don’t know what school allows its children to wear these types of clothes; I suspect it’s only in the minds of the executives that run Ryanair. The airline goes on to say.

“It is remarkable that a picture of a fully-clothed model is now claimed to cause ‘serious or widespread offence’, when many of the UK’s leading daily newspapers regularly run pictures of topless or partially-dressed females without causing any serious or widespread offence,” said Peter Sherrard, head of communications for the airline.

Sherrard shouldn’t judge us by the types of papers he appears to read, The Sun and Daily Star. Ryanair finally resorts to abuse.

“This isn’t advertising regulation, it is simply censorship. This bunch of unelected self-appointed dimwits are clearly incapable of fairly and impartially ruling on advertising. Mr Sherrard added that Ryanair believed the advert was not irresponsible nor offensive and would therefore “not be withdrawing this ad” and would “not provide the ASA with any of the undertakings they seek”.

As far as I can see Ryanair have completely lost, the plot if the can’t see what’s wrong. We should all think twice before flying Ryanair.

UK Paying For ‘Migrant Baby Boom’

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The BBC website carries the story UK paying for ‘migrant baby boom’ what exactly is the BBC saying? The article opens.

The NHS is spending £350m a year to provide maternity services for foreign-born mothers, £200m more than a decade ago, the BBC has found.

Then talks about the decline in standards and the unacceptable service that some health authorities are supplying, and then we hit the nub of the article.

According to figures from the Office for National Statistics, in 2006 there were 15,000 more Eastern European babies born here than a decade earlier.

The statistics go on to show that 11,000 more babies were born to a mother from the Indian sub-continent, while 8,000 extra babies had mothers born in Africa.

This is Xenophobia, hitting all the targets, that the countries racists and xenophobes love, Eastern Europe, that’s, Romanians, Poles, Bulgarians, Slovakians. Then there’s Africans and Asians to satisfy the racists.

The implication of the headline is that the UK is paying for these spongers. What I don’t understand is what thought processes went on before writing the headline. By “UK paying”, I guess we mean taxpayers, which generally means everybody in work, which probably means these very mothers too. And that’s as it should be the UK paying its way. How much consideration of this important point was made before writing the headline? It would appear none.

Apple Killed The Music Industy

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The Guardian, reports the U2 manager as laying the blame for the death of the music industry at the doors of Silicon Valley.

Paul McGuinness, who has plotted the rise of the Irish group over 30 years, said technology gurus in Silicon Valley such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and Microsoft’s Bill Gates had profited from rampant online piracy without doing anything to stop it.

“I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P [peer to peer] thief and on to the multibillion dollar industries that benefit from these tiny crimes,” he said.

Still the music industry has continually shot-itself-in-the-foot as far as the internet goes. Take the Internet radio website Pandora, that allows user to enter a song or artist that you enjoy Pandora then responds with songs the user might like, thus leading users on a road-of-discover into music and artists that otherwise they’d have been ignorant of. Sadly UK users now find this message.

We are deeply, deeply sorry to say that due to licensing constraints, we can no longer allow access to Pandora for listeners located outside of the U.S. We will continue to work diligently to realize the vision of a truly global Pandora, but for the time being we are required to restrict its use. We are very sad to have to do this, but there is no other alternative.

Music industry madness.

Let Them Die

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Really I knew I shouldn’t have read Janet Street-Porter’s Editor-at-Large column for The Independent on Sunday, the heading “Let Let adult fatties eat themselves to death. The kids we can save” was enough, let alone the quote “It’s a result of wilful self-abuse”.

One of the premises of Porter’s article is that the government shouldn’t waste her taxes on promoting healthy eating, coupled with the fact that she has something against the working class when she says.

Please don’t tell me obesity is a result of poverty – it’s a result of wilful self-abuse. It’s perfectly possible to eat well and substantially on a low income, preparing food that doesn’t take hours to cook.

Still I wonder how much tax she pays, very little I suspect, with the aid of her no doubt expensive accountants. I bet if you calculate her percentage of tax against total earnings and compare that figure with those people in poverty you’ll see how little tax that is. And, lets be fair those people in poverty are likely to be the least educated and most bereft of opportunity. Isn’t it nice that Porter wishes that situation to continue.

Further more Porter reckons that “by the time a child is 10 the war on a trim waistline is won or lost” and hence we should give up after that and let them eat themselves to death. I wonder how many fat children have fat parents? Quite a few I suspect. I guess they’ll be left to die in the world of Porter. The Independent is supposedly one of the more enlightened of our newspapers, you really wouldn’t expect it to pedal such rubbish.

Unspoken Words

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This rather disturbing poem is by the boy in OutofRange’s logo picture. Ben Rhode’s poem has been accepted for publication in the Young Writers book Talkin’ Bout My Generation.

Unspoken Words

A baby sits and stares,
Yearning for its poison,
A ghost re-living its death,
Waiting for the light

Plastic chains constrict it,
Rubber tubing silence it,
Its dreams, its hopes, its aspirations
The trampled teddy in the grit

Its cries never cease,
They echo the pain of hell,
It would consume a mortal man,
Leaving but a hollow shell,

Its owners stand remorseless,
Impervious to its suffering,
Their icy glares boring in,
Branding its soft, tender skin,

As thought evolves a light flicks on,
Brighter by the second,
A bundle of life and joy,
Begins to unfold

Gradually it rises,
Beyond the soulless dungeons,
To the surface of the world,
Beneath the glowing sun

Infra-Red Helmet Improves Memory

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After hearing this in the office from our resident tabloid reader, I’m all prepared to write it off as some quack remedy. However the BBC reports.

An experimental helmet is being tested by scientists as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease.

It delivers low levels of infra-red light, which researchers at the University of Sunderland, believe may stimulate the growth of brain cells.

Tests in mice showed it improved learning ability and a study in humans is due to begin in the summer.

It even makes it to the Alzheimer’s Society’s website.

Non-thermal near infra-red treatment for people with dementia is a potentially interesting technique. We look forward to further research to determine whether it could help improve cognition in humans. Only then can we begin to investigate whether near infra-red could benefit people with dementia. Dr Susanne Sorensen, Head of research, Alzheimer’s Society.

So I’m off to get the TV remote, that’s infra-red isn’t it, as I can think of a few people that could do with a blast of infra-red.

Artificial Life

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Stop now – haven’t they read any science fiction? No seriously, the BBC carries a report on a major step taken in the quest to create artificial life.

Researchers have rebuilt an entire genome from scratch, they report online today in Science. Although the team has yet to demonstrate that this DNA can substitute for the real thing, the work paves the way for customized bacteria. Science Now.

Scientist hope that these customised bacteria will be able to produce clean fuels – for instance instead of filling up with petrol or diesel you’d just fill up with water and the bacteria in your car would breaks it down into hydrogen to power the car with the only by-product being oxygen. Other bacteria could combine dangerous greenhouse gasses into something less harmless. One wag round here suggested HCO3, which is blood plasma – raining blood, now that’s apocalyptical.

Talking of apocalyptical, whilst this technology undoubtedly has great benefits, one can’t help thinking of all together, more sinister applications, or even a plain and simple accident. However, it’s too late now, our curiosity knows no bounds and like the proverbial cat, it could well kill us. Still the same could have been said when we were busy splitting the atom, and somehow we’re still here.

Peter Hain Quits

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The BBC reports:

Peter Hain has quit the cabinet after his deputy leader campaign donations were referred to the Met Police.

Mr Hain, work and pensions secretary and Wales secretary, said he had stood down so he could “clear my name”.

About time, I think he should have gone ages ago, and he’s not the only one. If the Prime Minister wants to put clear blue water between Labour and sleaze then, sadly he needs to encourage a few others to resign; Harriet Harman springs to mind straight away.

Steve Jobs Head of Apple Earns $1 a year

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ZDNet reports while other senior execs earned over $1m each in salaries and bonuses in 2007, Apple chief Steve Jobs maintained his annual pay of $1. As if Jobs is making a virtuous sacrifice. As if this is the case in reality, have you seen Jobs’ stock options? They’re like winning the lottery over and over again, he has 5.5 million shares which are currently valued at nearly $140 each, you do the maths.