'Black' iris... unreliable!

Sir Ian's skepticism seems to be informed by Passport Office trials which showed that black people and pensioner, for example, were sometimes not reliably recognised by iris scans, one of the tested biometric indicators. Nonetheless his belief that ID cards are important tools in the fight against terrorism or crimes such as identity theft remains unwavering. [...]

If only you could see what ive seen with your eyes.

Honestly. I wonder what David 'Slick' Lammy and the other 'blacks' in labour think about getting misidentified as big brother contestants...or worse. My days, even the COMPUTERS in the UK think all 'black people' look the same, to the level of teh fucking IRIS!!!

He said it was dangerous for the state not to know the identity of some people and argued the case of Kamel Bourgass, the convicted ricin plotter whose identity remains unknown, proved his point. "In the aftermath of the Bourgass trial with commentators saying this proved there was not a threat to the UK, it was the job of the Commissioner to say this was a real and present threat," he said. ® [...] http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/06/15/id_card_tech/

??!! wtf?

Teh 'ricin plotter' was CONVICTED. This demonstrates perfectly that you dont have to 'know someones identity' in order to protect the public, all you need is what we have had for over a thousand years, a system of justice that works.

As for it being the job of the Commissioner to say that this was "a real and present threat" that is simply a lie. The 'aftermath' of that case was that it proved the system works as it stands ; the police have more than enough tools to hand to do the important jobs, and that they dont need ID cards to catch the bad guys.

I can tell you this though; if they dare to try and roll out ID cards, no one that is 'black' or 'brown' will enroll for one (especially knowing that the system doesnt work specifically for 'black people') meaning that the police will be sweeping them up constantly...which may cause....a problem.

Feel it closing in?

US expected to abandon Biometric passport plan

By electricnews.net

Rules requiring Irish citizens to carry high-tech passports when visiting the US are to be dropped because the technology behind the scheme is seen as unreliable. The US Department of Homeland Security had previously set an October 2005 deadline for the inclusion of biometric information chips in the passports of European citizens who avail themselves of the Visa Waiver programme. This programme allows people to make short-term visits to the US without a visa. The chips would have included a variety of biological information about the passport holder, such as their fingerprints and retina scans.

But according to a report in the Sunday Times, Ireland has shelved plans to include biometric chips in passports amid expectations that the US is to abandon its biometric passport requirements.

"Biometrics are just a tool, the real concern is that the information would be used for more than immigration control," said Aisling Reidy, director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, speaking to ElectricNews.net. "There is also a significant risk of false positives, that people could be wrongly identified, because the technology is not reliable."

The Sunday Times, meanwhile, quoted a spokesperson from the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs, who said that the US has now recognised the technical challenges involved in implementing biometric information.

Trials carried out in the UK last year, for the purposes of introducing a biometrics-based UK national identity card, showed significant levels of failure in the registration and verification of iris, fingerprint and facial recognition trials involving 10,000 British citizens.

Under a new arrangement, holders of passports that include digital photographs could continue to avail of the visa waiver programme. The latest Irish passports include a secure digital photograph, but do not include biometrical information.

The new arrangement is understood to have been devised following discussions between the US and the European Commission. European officials believe the Americans have taken on board concerns that the move would reduce the number of people traveling to the US for business and leisure purposes.

Biometric passports have been under consideration since 2002, when US legislators passed a law requiring the 27 countries in the Visa Waiver programme to start issuing high-tech passports by October 2004. The deadline was subsequently extended to October 2005.

© ElectricNews.Net

[...]

Woo Hoo!

Our Permanent Fuhrer

New Bill Could Make Bush President For Life

Prison Planet | June 14 2005

A House bill has been introduced that would change the 22nd amendment and enable George Bush to remain President for the rest of his political life.

The bill would repeal limitations on a President holding office for a maximum of two terms.

An even darker scenario, Arnold Schwarzenegger is elected as President in 2008 and shorty after the 22nd amendment is abolished, making the Hitler admirer our permanent Fuhrer.

This is the modern day version of the Enabling Act, which allowed Hitler to officially declare himself dictator.

The bill, which can be found at the Library of Congress website here, reads as follows.

[...]

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2005/140605presidentforlife.htm I, for one, welcome our new Fuher!

Henry Porter on ID cards

You will be a number, not a free man WHY am I so vehemently against the Governments's plan for identity cards, to the point of becoming a bore? The short answer is that this vastly expensive scheme will create a central registry containing data on your health, taxation, social security and criminal records which wil be accessible to every arm of government. As I learned while researching Brandernburg, my novel about the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany had such a system and it was one of the major insturments of political control in the GDR. "Dont worry your pretty head" is the reaction of beaurocrats and politians., "trust us" they seem to say. "we are a civilised country, we dont have a secret police force like the Stasi". Thats true, but the first statges of this discussion, the then Home secretary David Blindkid announced that MI5 would be alowed access to the central registry which gives me very little confidence. We need to focus on the privacy issue now, particularly because the Government has dropped the argument that the ID card is a useful weapon in the war on terror (Spanish ID cards did not prevent the Marrid train bombs). Bur more important, its secondrary case, the the scheme will protect against fraud has been dismissed by DR James Backhouse, the head of the London School of Ecomonics' Systems Integrity Group, who warns that ID cards will beceome the master key for identity fraudsters. So what is the point of a scheme that is likely to cost £18 billin over 10 years? Well, it means government will know who you are, where you live and what you're doing exactly llike the east Germans. [...] And sadly the similarity will not end there. Probably. This piece was in The Evening Standard today.

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The Very Model

http://eclectech.co.uk/clarkeidcards.php Animal and Mineral!!!

More exceptional insight

Someone REALLY insightful said: You're missing the point. It's not just about the ID card. It's about the database(s). You'd be required to use the ID for public services, health services, to get a job, to travel, to use private sector services, like buying a book, a dvd, a newspaper, etc etc. Now, each goverment agency will have its own database collecting relevant information about you. Private companies will also keep their own databases collecting information about you. Ok, you're gonna say, nothing new here. I already use a card for my bank, another one to drive, another one for my local library, another one for my local supermarket etc. So what's the difference? The difference is that you'll only use *one* card. That is *one* database *key* able to be used to run queries across any databases that keep information about you. These queries can return results in seconds with almost no effort. While nowdays, to get a profile on a person you'd need too much resources and time. So they only do it for criminals and not for your average citizen. Things will change though. Combine this with statistics, a proactive policy and the export of ID data to the US and things get scary pretty quickly. Think of the unlimited possibilities for the goverment or corporations; they could built complete profiles on you. Something that is impossible today because even though you exist on many databases, they are not integrated. For example, you receive a letter saying...

...you are not allowed to drive, because a recent police cross-check on databases, revealed that you have been driving for the last 10 weekends following a certain pattern. You were always driving about 2 hours after your visit to a pub, where you had a few drinks each time. Although you had always 2 drinks and you were below the limit, statistics showed that 56% of the people who follow the certain pattern and have the health problem you have, have increased risk of causing an accident. No action is required by you, your ID card has been updated. Have a nice day. ...you are required to attend to your local police station for an interview. You have been considered as a posible threat to national security. Although we hold no evidence against you, our database cross-checks have revealed that you belong to a high risk category. You have borrowed 4 books from your local library over the last 2 weeks; 1 on politics, 1 on communism, 1 on freedom and 1 on computer networks. You are a member of Greenpeace and an activist for a group against recent goverment actions like our recent war. You are also classified as a person who has objections with authority as your school records show, an incident at your previous employment, as well as a conversation you had with a police officer last year. You associate with a person who has broken the law once (your neighboor) and he has a friend where he broke the law twice this year. None of these facts about you is explicitly unlawful, however the combination of these facts classifies you as having a 12% chance of commiting an act which would be detrimental to our national security, within the next 6 months. USA security agencies comfirm this as well. Due to our proactive policy we would like an interview with you. The outcome of our interview will determine whether you will be sent to camp delta for reeducation or not. If you do not attend your local police station within 24 hours you will be arrested. Your ID card service capabilities have been suspended until then. Have a nice day. You think this is fiction? Yes, but for how long? [...]

Wow, now that's what I call insightful! Of course, the car in question will not start unless the subjecte initiates the system with her fingerprint, which is checked aginst the register before the car will start. That is only part of what the "ID card service capabilities have been suspended" part means.

'Jood'

Mandatory ID was introduced in the Netherlands this year. Things have quieted down a bit since, but at first a lot of outrageous and sometimes hilarious cases made the press. Right on the stroke of midnight on new year's eve, police arrested several revellers for not having ID on them. Old grannies, and a woman with a 5 month old baby have been detained for hours for not having an ID. If the police stops a person for, say, not having a working light on their bicycle, they often ask for ID so they can stick on another fine. If there's a protest going on that the powers-that-be don't like (such as protests during Euro summits or antiglobalist protests), simply have the police go around asking for IDs and take everyone without one into custody and off the streets. My favorite is the old lady who, when asked to produce her, pulled out one she had had for a long time (and, being issued by Dutch authorities might even still be technically valid), with her name, her picture... and a 6-pointed star with the work "JOOD" (Jew) stamped prominently across the document. Funny thing is, the mandatory ID does nothing to combat crime. Sure, people used to give false names when caught riding the train without a ticket, shoplifting, or defacing property, but the police already had the right to detain these offenders if they had doubts about the person's identity. Another Slashthread line, illustrated with two ID cards for 'Jews'.

Someone clever said

Someone clever said... "the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country... " As far as the tax authorities are concerned, someone calling themselves "titzandkunt"(!) earns so much money, and consequntly pays a certain rate of tax. Unless thay suspect that I'm under-declaring my income, that's the end of their involvment. They have no idea how much I spend - why should they? "an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946..." Useful for what? BTW, were ID cards introduced in Brasil during a democratic period, or during one of the dictatorships (1930-34, 1937-45, 1964-85). "when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check." I hope to God that this is hyperbole! If a patient is in a condition that they can't clearly state their identity, the paramedics ought to be checking the ABC's (airways, breathing, circulation) first. When I'm presenting a credit card or cheque, I don't need further ID - both have got my name on them. "a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO" Yet again, you don't say how. The real problem that informed critics have with the proposed uk ID scheme is not the card per se, but with the database backing the card. Do you know what information the government proposes to hold on this database? Here we go:

- Name

- Other previous names or aliases;

- Date and place of birth and, if the person has died, the date of death;

- Address

- Previous addresses in the United Kingdom and elsewhere;

- Times of residency at different places in the United Kingdom or elsewhere;

- Current residential status;

- Residential statuses previously held;

- Information about numbers allocated to the applicant for identification purposes and about the documents to which they relate;

- Information about occasions on which recorded information in the Register has been provided to any person;

- Information recorded in the Register on request.

- Photograph

- Fingerprints

- "Other" biometrics (iris recognition);

- Signature

- Nationality;

- Entitlement to remain in the United Kingdom; and

- Where entitlement derives from a grant of leave to enter or remain in the United Kingdom, the terms and conditions of that leave.

- National Identity Registration Number;

- The number of any ID card that has been issued;

- National Insurance number;

- The number of any relevant immigration document;

- The number of any United Kingdom passport (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971 (c. 77)) that has been issued;

- The number of any passport issued by or on behalf of the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom or by or on behalf of an international organisation;

- The number of any document that can be used (in some or all circumstances) instead of a passport;

- The number of any identity card issued by the authorities of a country or territory outside the United Kingdom;

- Any reference number allocated by the Secretary of State in connection with an application made for permission to enter or to remain in the United Kingdom;

- The number of any work permit (within the meaning of the Immigration Act 1971);

- Any driver number connected to a driving licence;

- The number of any designated document which is held by the applicant that is a document the number of which does not fall within any of the preceding sub-paragraphs;

- The date of expiry or period of validity of a document the number of which is recorded by virtue of this paragraph.

- The date of every application for registration;

- The date of every application for a modification of the contents of his entry;

- The date of every application confirming the contents of his entry (with or without changes);

- The reason for any omission from the information recorded in his entry;

- Particulars (in addition to its number) of every ID card issued;

- Whether each such card is in force and, if not, why not;

- Particulars of every person who has countersigned an application for an ID card or a designated document;

- Particulars of every notification given by the applicant for the purposes of regulations under section 13(1) (lost, stolen and damaged ID cards etc.);

- Particulars of every requirement by the Secretary of State for the individual to surrender an ID card issued to the applicant.

- The information provided in connection with every application to be entered in the Register, for a modification of the contents of entry in the Register or for the issue of an ID card;

- Information provided in connection with every application confirming entry in the Register (with or without change;

- Particulars of the steps taken, in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b) or otherwise, for identifying the applicant or for verifying the information provided in connection with the application;

- Particulars of any other steps taken or information obtained (otherwise than in connection with an application mentioned in paragraph (a) or (b)) for ensuring that there is a complete, up-to-date and accurate entry about that individual in the Register;

- Particulars of every notification given by that individual for the purposes of section 12.

- A personal identification number to be used for facilitating the making of applications for information recorded in his entry, and for facilitating the provision of the information;

- A password or other code to be used for that purpose or particulars of a method of generating such a password or code;

- Questions and answers to be used for identifying a person seeking to make such an application or to apply for or to make a modification of that entry.

- Particulars of every occasion on which information contained in the individual's entry has been provided to a person;

- Particulars of every person to whom such information has been provided on such an occasion;

- Other particulars, in relation to each such occasion, of the provision of the information. That's 51, count 'em, fields, some with multiple entries. Additionally, the onus is on the cardholder to ensure that their details are correct and the government proposes to create a whole raft of new offences, most attracting draconian penalties, to ensure that people do comply. No single entity has any right, or justifiable need to hold all this information about me. This isn't an ID card, it's a license to exist. The whole attitude of the government in this matter cab be summed up in by the following quote (my emphasis added): "The law giver, of all beings, most owes the law allegiance. He of all men should behave as though the law compelled him. But it is the universal weakness of mankind that what we are given to administer we presently imagine we own" (H.G. Wells) Glorped from that Slashdot article. Very nice.

Confluence and Influence

From Flickr. This photo came up on a Technorati (beta) search for 'conet' on the right hand 'related' panel. The title of this photo is "The Pip" and the caption reads, "This is an antenna sculpture I made out of bamboo and string and felt. It is about 6 feet tall." ! I like it.

The difference between Europeans and The British

From Slashdot:

"I'm quite impressed at how the anglosaxon world reacts to ID cards. They are present in most countries, and are a far cry from a fascist tool.

As far as my experience goes, in Italy you can get fined for loitering if you are found without "papers" and you are over 18. Yet nobody ever asked me papers without a good reason (airport, electoral office, and such things). Never seen an evil use of that, and can hardly conceive one."

This from an ITALIAN who comes from the country that brought us Mussolini, and he "cannot concieve of an evil use (for ID cards)".

That my friends, is ASTONISHING.

And this is from a Swede:

"Sweden has had a system like this since 1960 or so. Whenever I do anything I give them my social security number (equivalent) and that's all I need. You cannot do anything in Sweden without one, unless you're all cash. If I pay with a credit card I have to show ID. Identity theft is extremly rare here, I never even consider it. Very little personal business involving identity is done without showing for instance a drivers license (which also contains the Personal Identity Number). The UK system of showing a gas bill or alike is just weird for someone like me."

Well, to us, this is VERY BAD INDEED. Of course, you are free to live in your country in any way you want. If it if required in your land that you get on your knees every time you want to transact, then that is your business, and not ours. The British are not slaves, idiots or people who do not own their own destinies, unlike others. What is "just weird" to a person like me is that otherwise intelligent people cannot understand, given all the history of Europe, how centralized and compulsory ID is simply unnaceptable. How the Belgians for example, simply accept as 'normal' that they cannot leave their own house and go into their own streets without ID. Appalling.

Rio has its say:

"the government already knows who you are. you pay taxes dont you ? if you pay taxes the government knows who you are, how much you money you make, how much you spend, if you leave the country they know, when you return the customs records your entry in the country... an ID card can be very usefull. we have them in brasil since... well, my grandmother still had hers RG (Registro Geral = general registry) from 1946...

when someone have an accident here, the first thing paramedics do is check if the person is carying an RG card to know who he/she is, makes identification in case of death easier, proves that you are who you say you are when using a credit card or check. a government issued ID only adds to convenience, IMHO."

"They are already half way up your ass, why not push it all the way in"

Boa Tarde fila da puta!

The Belgians weigh in:

"I live in Belgium and I have had an identity card since the age of 12. You are obliged to carry it at all times. Not a single person has ever made a fuss about it, and I don't see what all the fuss is about in the UK at the moment. Last night I was watching a programme on the BBC where a young man was giving false id information to the police - that kind of business could easily be halted by just presenting an id card."

I've had enough of you already.

The Enemy Within speaks:

"

• UK administration might actually start working
• You can for once prove you are who you are in the UK
• No need for that silly census where they try to guess how many people live in their own country
• For the normal law-abiding citizen it will actually be easier to acquire a new driving license or passport should you have lsot the old one.
• Improved information flow through the public sectors, e.g. if you become unemployed and go to the job centre or such like, your tax code can be updated right there instead by changing your status.
• Credit card scams are ripe in the UK with people stealing identities and having to provide an absolute minimum of ID to empty your account.
• Just because it wasn't part of the empire doesn't mean you can't use it!"

And this is the worst of all, a British man, betryaing a total lack of understanding of the issues surrounding what it means to be a free man. Each of his points is absurd; administration working 'for onece'? ID cards wont make this happen. 'You can for once, prove who you are'. This is so absurd that it is difficult to begin to debunk it. Prove who you are to who? Banks only care that you have money, and have enough controls to hand to prevent fraud, only they dont use them...just who does this idiot need to prove his 'identity' to, above and beyond how he already does? As for the census, yes indeed, they will have a permanent rolling headcount of everyone every five years. No one has mentioned this before, and let me be the first to say that it is another bad dimension to this evil project. The rest of it...I will not bother to rebut, its just idiotic, ill informed and stupid. The fact of the matter is this. There is no good reason for bringing in an ID card in the UK. The Europeans who suffer it are inured to it and cant give us good reasons why we should have one, and the British who endorse it are computer illiterates, 'ive got nothing to hide' dimwits that have zero understanding of what this plan really means. It seems, thankfully, that the penny is begnining to drop all over the UK, and that this is going to be destroyed one way or another.

Menu dégustation de juin

Menu dégustation de juin

de Pierre Gagnaire

Croquant de chocolat au lait : bavaroise de poivrons grillés, fraises Mara et palette ibérique. Polenta et sablé au gingembre. Pressée de rouget de roche, pain dentelle aux mendiants et copeaux de foie gras crus au sel de Maldon ; bouillabaisse glacée aux choux fleurs. Olives de Nyons mi-séchées, raviole transparente d'olives noires taggiasche, crème d'olives vertes de Lucques aux supions. Scampi d'escargots petits gris, gras de seiche et crête de coq. Crémeux de riz noir vénéré, poêlée de lisette aux noisettes caramélisées. Bouquet d'artichauts poivrades et manges tout assaisonnés d'un suc de melon au vinaigre blanc millésimé. Nage maraîchère du jardin de Monsieur Pil : laitue « moelle et reggiano frais ». Salpicon de homard bleu lié d'un velouté d'araignée de mer. Lie de vin et tamarillo au sirop d'érable, biscuit de roquette. Coeur de thon et anguille laquée.Germes de légumes à l'ail nouveau croustillant. Aiguillettes de pigeon Gauthier aux amandes fraîches. Un jus «rouge» : radis, betteraves bigarreaux, mûres et groseilles. Glace brebis à l'huile d'olive ardente, granité champagne à la pomme verte et velouté de bleu des Causses. Petit croque Monsieur, vieux beaufort et bocconcini. Le grand dessert Pierre Gagnaire

http://www.pierre-gagnaire.com/mailing/juin2005/cdcarte_menu.htm

Santa Claus!

Look what I just found on Pledgebank: 3. Brian Eno will get three friends to sign up to the Proportional Representation Groundswell but only if 100 other people will pledge to sign up at least three of their friends to Proportional representation in a system that habitually ignores the electorate is just another type of democracy. What we need is an Oblique Strategy to make a real and lasting change to how we agree to be governed, not a tweaking of the hopelessly broken system that is parliamentary democracy.

Smelling The Coffee

NO2ID understand that the democratic process simply doesn't work, and they are now moving on to threats. This 'threat' is that HMG will have a poll tax style level of civil disobedience on their hands if they try to introduce an ID card. Read it:

As the Second Reading of the Identity Cards Bill approaches, NO2ID have
initiated a pledge for those who will resist compulsory registration for
a State-issued ID card. This is the first in a series of pledges
intended to demonstrate the depth and breadth of opposition to the
proposals BEFORE the legislation makes it through Parliament. Speed is
therefore of the essence.

Please, if you can, make your pledge at http://www.pledgebank.com/refuse
and pass on or promote this message/link to as many sympathetic people
and groups, mailing lists, bulletin boards and publications as you can
*without spamming*. To spread the message further PledgeBank provide
flyers and posters to print out, and people can also pledge by texting
'pledge refuse' to 60022 [standard text rate]. N.B. if you prefer to
keep your online pledge private, simply uncheck the 'Show my name on
this pledge' box before signing.

Our first pledge and target is as follows:

"I will refuse to register for an ID card and donate £10 to a legal
defence fund but only if 10,000 other people will also make this same
pledge."

— Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator

Polls have shown for some time that 3 - 4 million people across the UK
strongly oppose the Government's plans to introduce ID cards and a
National Identity Register. Were this many of us refuse to cooperate
then the scheme would be doomed to failure.

If the Government do manage to force through the ID cards legislation,
this pledge will not only demonstrate the level of solidarity amongst
opponents of the scheme - it will form the basis of a fighting fund* and
support network for all those who refuse to comply.

NO2ID continues to campaign against the introduction of ID cards and the
National Identity Register on all fronts, for more information on what
you can do NOW, please visit www.no2id.net

Many thanks to MySociety for building the PledgeBank site, and to you
all for your continued support - together we shall beat this.

Phil Booth

*all monies pledged will be held in trust for use in defending those
individuals who are prosecuted for resisting registration.

At the end of the day, fine grianed democracy is the only way forward, meaning, that people will only obey the rules that they think are reasonable and not every law on the statute book and local regulation. This is a direct result of the failure of democracy to properly take into account the will of the electorate. We can already see this fine grained activity in the form of those who refuse to pay the congestion charge. No one accociated with the charge will admit it, but many many people are simply refusing to comply, and there is nothing that anyone can do about it. You can get a sense of this by the following. In the boroughs that ring the zone, Transport For London have Congestion Charge officers on foot, examining the license plates of cars for numbers that have consistently refused to pay. TFL has staff searching for cars OUTSIDE OF THE ZONE. When I saw one of these officers, looking like a traffic warden but who clearly was a CC worker, I asked him what on earth he was doing looking up numbers on his handheld device. He said:? "We are looking for cars that have not paid the charge. We put the numbers into this machine, and if the car has more than three unpaid entries, we put a notice on the car". "You mean a 'ticket', right?", I say. "No", he continued, "it is a notice. you would not believe how many people are not paying". Yes indeed I would. Every borough outside of the Zone does not want it to expand, but TFL is going to do it anyway. This means that if you live inside the zone and have a car, you have to pay TFL just to keep it on the street, wether you drive or not. I guarantee you, millions will not pay this tax. They wilil get used to the idea that you simply do not have to comply with anything that you do not beieve is reasonable, and then fine grained democracy will be fully born, where the government has to be careful about what it plans and how it responds to public opinion, otherwise, the plans simply will not work.

'Race' at the Africa and Europe Wikipedia entries

A few weeks ago I took a look at the 'Africa' page at Wikipedia. The word 'Africa' is being used alot (incorrectly) these days, and rarely do people refer to the independent soverign states that make it up. Africa is a continent, made up of independent states, and one would have thought that Wikipedia's entry had this fact in it. It did not. The entry on Europe however, did have a list of the independent states that comprise Europe. Hmmmm why the disparity? I was going to rustle up a map and list and insert it, but didn't get arount to it. Someone else thankfully solved the problem, and entered a linked list of states and a map showing them. There are other disparities between the 'Europe' entry and the 'Africa' entry. The 'Aftica' entry has a section called 'Race and physical appearance' where the 'Europe' entry does not. At least, it did not until very recently. I'm not sure why these two entries are so different, but what is for certain, you cannot have a section describing the independent states of Europe but not the independent states of Africa, and you cannot have a 'Race and physical appearance' section in the 'Africa' entry but not in the 'Europe' entry. If you can categorize people by appearance in one entry you must be able to categorize them in the other, or both of the sections should be removed. If you can call human beings "Hottentots", "Blacks", "Dark Skinned" and "Pygmies" in the context of a 'Race' section of the Africa article, you can do the same in the article on Europe, and call people "John Bull type", "light-eyed" and "Nordic". I subscribe to the view, in all deadly seriousness, that all Homo Sapiens are of the same 'race' and that their superficial differences are not enough to categorize them for any meaningful purpose. Other people believe other things, and that is their affair. I merely state that these entries must be equal, otherwise there is bias, which needs to be explained or eliminated.

Mario Savio said

"There comes a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you cannot take part; you cannot even tacitly take part. You've got to put your bodies upon the gears, upon the wheels, and the gears and all the apparatus, and you have to make it stop. And you have to make it clear to the people who own it, and to the people who run it, that until you are free their machine will be prevented from running at all." Mario Savio

text pod

Are there any plans to turn blogdial into a robot-voice pod cast?

From the strangest of quarters

"My personal experience of Africa is that yes, I have witnessed all those things there, but it's incredibly sophisticated -- the society and the structure of people's lives is as sophisticated, if not more sophisticated in some ways, than in the West."

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/10/live8.albarn/index.html Sounds like someone took the red pill!!!!

USSA

Technorati. Google. It reads: Peace - Protect the Peoples of the World from Military Adventurism!, 1966 Now, turn the first letter upside down.....!!!!!! Anyway, i canat (yes, 'canat') find the poster from which teh first one was derived, but you probaly know the one that inspired it. The question is; why not bring back the imagery of total control, since its going to be rolled out in the 21st century?

The common sense infection

There is a view that long-term earners are needed so that the record companies can plough money back into unearthing new talent. Someone's having a common sense attack. 'Love me do' out of copyright in 2063. If someone breaks the terms of a contract like this, where at the end of the term you are to get a payment or access, well, you have the right to sue for what is due to you do you not? Extending copyrights at the last mile is just this sort of thing. You can either put up with it like a sheep, or disobey. As always, the choice is yours.