The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.
– H. L. Mencken
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September 8th, 2003 | 4 comments - (Comments are closed)
 A report in The Times suggests that the Police Superintendents’ Association (PSA) will this week call for a compulsory national DNA database. Kevin Morris, chairman of the PSA, insisted that “people were not as fearful as politicians believed”. He’s wrong. The article also stated that Big Blunkett hopes to announce this month that he is to go ahead with his plan for compulsory National Identity Cards for innocent British citizens. Call me cynical but I suspect a smokescreen. The row over a compulsory DNA database could obscure the arguments over Identity Cards. The tactic appears to be to set up the DNA database as a bogeyman so that compulsory ID Cards don’t seem as bad. Now is the time to write to your MP about Identity cards. Next month could be too late. Partly cross-posted from The Chestnut Tree Cafe September 8th, 2003 | Comments are closed
I can not tell whether this is real or a joke. It could very easily be both of course. Fuss has recently been made about an amphibious sports car, which seems genuine enough, if rather extravagant. But this, linked to by BoingBoing, is an amphibious bus, and is strictly for the luxury end of the bus market:
What it looks like when in water is a drowning bus caught in a flood. I seriously wonder how seaworthy it is. So how well is it doing?
Oh dear. “A lot of interest.” They “plan” to show it off at shows. This is salespeak for no one wants to buy the bloody thing. → Continue reading: Floating luxury bus anyone? September 7th, 2003 | 20 comments - (Comments are closed)
That’s RFID as in Radio Frequency Identification for Business. News.com’s Eric Peters explains the point which RFID has now reached:
So RFID (like surveillance cameras) is (are) here to stay, and will have to be lived with. My thanks to David Sucher of City Comforts Blog for emailing me about this piece. September 7th, 2003 | One comment - (Comments are closed)
Every time there is even a semi-serious debate in this country about the provision of health care and reform of the NHS, the reactionaries cry ‘Do we want to be like America?’. It is the British equivalent of ‘Do you want Farmer Jones back?’. Well, do want to be like America?
One of these fine days, that plaintive, theatrical and bogus rhetorical bleat is going to result in a resounding ‘yes’. September 7th, 2003 | 49 comments - (Comments are closed)
Dot com. The phrase is synonymous with failure and self-delusion. But some people are making money out of the internet, even if it is only the city slickers who set up this deal.
Well I don’t know what all that means, but it sounds to me like someone reckons that lastminute is doing some real business. My reaction to the story was to go myself to the lastminute.com website itself, which I’d never got around to doing before. A tenner for a theatre ticket? Hey, these guys are ticket touts! (Of the nice kind, who lost their bet.) I might have some of that myself, and then maybe I could write about it and double my theatre-going pleasure. Normally London theatre is nearer thirty quid, which is beyond what I’ll pay for something that only might be excellent. The internet continues to work its economic magic. It isn’t just for give-it-away pulpiteers like us. September 7th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Freedom is a basic value but its champions and its expression will appear in many different forms. White Rose, understandably, has recently concentrated on the technological developments that may undermine our civil liberties, in conjunction with the connivance of the authorities. Other freedoms include the capability of fulfilling one’s desire to pursue research in the sciences, whether natural or social, without suffering repression from the state. Abdolkarim Soroush, a noted Iranian intellectual, can claim to be the founder of studies on the history and philosphy of science in Iran. However, as the biography on this website delicately notes,
Soroush was one of the moderate supporters of the 1979 revolution who attempted to find an Islamic structure that would support his religious beliefs and the values of academic research that he had learned in the West – a project similar to that professed by President Mohammed Khatami. However, his historical writings stressed the contingent nature of Islamic knowledge and invited attention… → Continue reading: Reaffirming the Freedom to think September 7th, 2003 | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
Over at Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds has linked to a fascinating paper on Orientalism. The paper, a debunking of Edward Said’s anti-Western/Eastern-victim diatribe, is to be found on the web site of the admirable Institute for the Secularisation of Islam. Besides duking it out with an icon of the victimology crowd, Ibn Warraq also presents a fascinating history of the interactions of Europe and the Middle East. It is quite long but well worth the read. Be sure to put the kettle on before you start! September 7th, 2003 | 5 comments - (Comments are closed)
Report in today’s Telegraph:
You get a Poll Tax feel about this, don’t you? I don’t know if Brown and Prescott really, really object to compulsory ID cards. But they do make a very good stick to beat Blair with just now. September 7th, 2003 | Comments are closed
There is a good interview with Bruce Schneier in Businessweek, discussing whether tradeoffs of civil liberties for increased security are effective (generally no) and the problems of overreliance on technology rather than common sense. I have written here about Schneier before. Suffice to say he is a very smart guy – a leading expert on electronic security – and it is worth paying attention to what he says. September 6th, 2003 | Comments are closed
I’m reading a law paper by Eben Moglen whilst sitting on a bed with sunlight pouring in the windows… [oops, I spoke too soon. Here come the rain. This is Ireland.] In short, he explains why Copyright is dead meat. Although written in 1999 it is still relevant. The death throws of Copyright will require a few more decades to play to their final denouement, but there is little doubt of that end. To say I agree is an understatement. I’ve expressed my thoughts on this many times over the years, for example in this 1995 article. As I said then and in more depth in 1999, Copyright depends on the embodiment of ideas in physical form. It is a creature of Gutenberg’s invention. In the 21st Century we are moving on towards something else. I’m about as likely to project correctly what that “something else” is as would a writer in the first decades of the printed word so I won’t even try. And here comes the sun again… September 6th, 2003 | 17 comments - (Comments are closed)
Good news, although good news about bad news, from Hong Kong:
That’s paragraph one of the New York Times report. This final paragraph reads very European doesn’t it? …
…except that Europeans are probably a bit easier to deceive. September 6th, 2003 | Comments are closed
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