Min-Data UK

(BaMSoF) not terrorism?

2008-08-28T08:41:24+00:00

Plotting to kill just the people in charge of institutionalised misbehaviour isn't terrorism, it's the exact opposite - targeting the appropriate people for a change! It's sometimes the only way to deal with legalised criminalism. Which, naturally, is why leader types much prefer wars - where everyone else gets killed instead of them, the ones who most deserve it.

So it is dishonest but entirely typical for the UK government to abuse anti-terrorism laws in going after non-terrorists (sensu stricto). Of course when the would-be selective assassins have been boasting about their plans, to their intended targets (or all and sundry) in advance, that's both stupid (pretty much asking to be caught!) and terrorism of a different sort than the usual meaning.

BBC: 1 [news.bbc.co.uk], 2 [news.bbc.co.uk]
Telegraph: 1 [telegraph.co.uk], 2 [telegraph.co.uk]
Times: 1 [timesonline.co.uk]
Grauniad: 1 [guardian.co.uk]
Scotsman: 1 [news.scotsman.com]

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) Dodgy Ron

2008-08-27T09:53:30+00:00

Dishonesty [news.bbc.co.uk] is an habitual way of life [independent.co.uk] for some people - and not at all simply the ones typically regarded [telegraph.co.uk] as criminals. Occasionally [business.timesonline.co.uk], but far too rarely, they do actually get caught out for it [guardian.co.uk]. Unfortunately, it happens nowhere near reliably [guardian.co.uk] enough to discourage most of the rest of the habitually dishonest people. The ones for whom truth is merely incidental at best and an inconvenience to them the majority of the time. There are whole institutions full of them - and they're not prisons but very high-paying jobs instead.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) going under

2008-08-26T13:50:51+00:00

"The alternative would have been concrete defences, inappropriate for a wildlife site." [independent.co.uk]
"The society said that concrete sea defences, which were deemed to be the only other option, were inappropriate for a wildlife site." [timesonline.co.uk]

Don't the Dutch have wildlife then ...

I suspect they are also wrong (perhaps deliberately and manipulatively so) about deeming the thing which they expect people not to want to be the only other option.

Comments: 0

(NatSci) compost worms

2008-08-26T12:27:05+00:00

I've been gradually emptying a neighbour's compost bin over bits of their garden and mine so that there's room for them to start again on that one. NB they have several bins to use in sequence and the neighbour who would normally be doing the emptying hasn't got round to it for ages and isn't the same person as the one who needs to fill it up with garden waste because they've mostly finished filling the previous one.

Anyhow, the compost is thick and wet (largely unturned), has huge lumps of debris (which either won't compost at all or would take a few more decades, centuries or millennia!) and is full of worms which would be damaged by simply mashing up the compost. These worms are my primary concern - since, when not feeding them to my frogs, they would be useful to the garden soil generally, not merely for initial composting.

I laid out some bucketloads of compost on a sheet of plastic netting (with rather wider holes in it than I would have liked) yesterday evening in the hope that the worms would feel insecure and leave it of their own accord to descend into the ground. Possibly I laid out just a little too much too thickly and without breaking it up enough. Or, despite deliberately choosing a non-rainy occasion, it simply wasn't warm, dry and light enough over the intervening hours. Anyhow, when re-examined this morning, not quite all the worms had left (though I think many had) and the compost was still far too wet to sieve well.

The neighbour on hand independently noticed that the problem was the ongoing wetness and agreed that it should be OK to leave the assemblage out on the lawn for a little longer (perhaps until tomorrow morning if there's not enough improvement by this evening). They also think they have a coarser sieve somewhere than the one I had been using for sand left over by the workman I had here recently. So, for now, I've gently broken it up a bit more with the trowel and moved some newly uncovered worms away myself to the base of a tree in enough shelter and compost to be safe.

If the extra delay and alternative sieve don't work, I'll have to declare the idea a relative failure. It's already looking to be too much trouble to repeat on another patch of ground which needed feeding and raising.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) he had to go

2008-08-25T00:48:00+00:00

... but he's apparently [telegraph.co.uk] troublesome to the Labour Party anyway [theherald.co.uk], whether dead or alive [independent.co.uk].

The asbestos issue is often a tricky one. For a start, there was a time when no-one much was aware that any care needed to be taken and thus it's unfair to blame people for excessive negligence back then. There's also an element of needing to provide "compensation", in the form of appropriate medical provision etc, to everyone regardless of who else's fault it may have been or even what the cause genuinely was. There's also the distinct possibility that it's easier to find direct evidence of asbestosis (ie it being the real cause, rather than incidental or coincidental, and it coming from any particular source) in an autopsy once the victim is dead rather than by biopsy or scans when they're still alive.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) sinking feeling

2008-08-24T06:51:32+00:00

They were supposed [timesonline.co.uk] to deliver [telegraph.co.uk] the boat but they were so incompetent they sank it instead.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) mass exodus

2008-08-23T13:34:26+00:00

... of women from the church (ie CofE et al). Unfortunately, that doesn't mean they're all embracing sanity, reason, evidence, science and the reality-based way of life in general instead. Rather some bunches of them are apparently [telegraph.co.uk] turning towards wicca and other new-agey female-empowering religions as their superstition of choice [thisislondon.co.uk].

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) criminal data loss

2008-08-22T09:30:42+00:00

For a change, the authorities have been losing the details of criminals on a memory-stick instead of those of innocent people. It just goes to show that none of those people in such positions of power, authority and responsibility can be trusted with even basic security though. All they would do with the additional data they want for ID cards and alleged terrorism investigations is lose that too.

BBC: 21 [news.bbc.co.uk], 22 [news.bbc.co.uk]
Telegraph: 22a [telegraph.co.uk], 22b [telegraph.co.uk]
Times: 22 [timesonline.co.uk]
Independent: 22 [independent.co.uk]
Scotsman: 22 [scotsman.com]

Comments: 0

(NatSci) voles

2008-08-22T08:16:02+00:00

Whether it's the new bleeping cat-collars or the end of the birdy breeding season making it harder to obtain a fledgling or frazzled adult, the cats have now started to go after voles. Earlier in the week I took two off them still alive.

The first, a rather small one, was being mauled by 3 of the cats and turned out to be only a baby (albeit a fully furred one). It didn't seem to be able to manage anything much when I initially placed it in a safe place outside. Its limit was apparently shuffling round slowly on the spot between one check on it and the next.

Then I got another vole away from a lone cat and that one was obviously an adult. I released it into the same hiding place as the baby but it only paused for the briefest of moments before zooming to the back and round the corner. It remained there for quite a while because I saw it peeping out at me on subsequent checks. However, I think it ran over the baby on leaving because I then found him(?) upside-down.

I retrieved the baby and spent some time cupping him in my hands, warming him up and stroking him - and naming him Vinnie-the-Vole. That's when he finally started showing more enthusiasm. He ticked away like a time-bomb (which I took to be a contact call, the equivalent of a kitten purring to tell its mother its location) and even emitted the occasional slight squeak. There was some snuffling of my fingers and a bit of scrabbling around (though not enough to leave the hand).

He didn't bite me (and neither had the adult done so when I'd quickly grabbed and bucketed it), although he clearly had at least a couple of teeth, and I began to be more convinced than ever that he was a baby searching for a teat. There seemed to be something wrong with one rear leg though. I'd originally thought that of the adult vole, but that one had ended up scrambling off well enough.

When my neighbours returned, I obtained some full-cream milk from them - actually the stuff stuck to the bottle-top. It's just possible that Vinnie ate some of that. None of the other stuff which he was meant to eat (if he had been at all ready to be weaned), and which I put into a box with him, ever showed signs of being eaten. It also became apparent that the leg was badly broken (it kept getting twisted as he dragged it around and discoloured when I wasn't continually straightening it out again).

I never did manage to release him. He only got more perky very late at night and by the next morning he had soaked himself through - probably on the small amount of water I'd put in a lid for him to drink rather than blunder into. So I spent the best part of an hour drying him out again (with toilet paper while stroking him). Then I put him back for a while only to find a little later that he'd retreated into a corner, gasping.

He only seemed to be happy when actually in my hand and eventually he expired there - a little less than a day after I'd rescued him.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) the exorcist

2008-08-21T21:37:46+00:00

Another crazy religious dude [lifesitenews.com] (local to the UK but seen via PZ's blog [scienceblogs.com] and also noted elsewhere [skepdic.com]). This particular one [en.wikipedia.org] (in league with the evil Catholic hierarchy [news.bbc.co.uk]) imagines he can detect(?) and exorcise demons - when those don't even exist. He, completely unhampered by any requirement to tell the truth, blames all sorts of things he doesn't like on demons [dailymail.co.uk] and also blames them for attracting demons (plus making assorted other false claims about reality). Naturally, the psychobabble nutters [shef.ac.uk] are potty enough to pay attention to him, despite plenty of evidence [secularism.org.uk] that he's not at all right in the head himself.

Meanwhile [news.com.au], when someone's prone to delusions and an habitual liar and fraud anyway, one more instance for the collection is apparently nothing special.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) The BCA ...

2008-08-20T01:03:28+00:00

(British Chiropractic Association) tries to silence criticism [gimpyblog.wordpress.com] of its members' quackery [quackometer.net] and the internet fights back.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) when on religion

2008-08-19T02:20:37+00:00

... what's left of any brain [scienceblogs.com] they had does things like killing and abusing children [news.bbc.co.uk] - including [timesonline.co.uk] getting children to abuse themselves [telegraph.co.uk].

NB There are crazy Christian flagellants as well as crazy Muslim ones. I'm not sure whether that particular craziness extends back as far as Judaism though.

. . .

Update: 22nd [news.bbc.co.uk]

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) SAT sacking

2008-08-18T00:33:46+00:00

The blundering [news.bbc.co.uk] US company [guardian.co.uk] doing the UK SATs has [timesonline.co.uk] now [timesonline.co.uk] been sacked [independent.co.uk] from the job [telegraph.co.uk] (and ordered to repay some of the money [ft.com] they haven't earned); but, unfortunately, another known incompetent company may be hired for the task [guardian.co.uk] instead (if the SATs aren't ditched altogether). The incompetents in government [guardian.co.uk] who stupidly arranged for this fiasco to happen haven't yet been sacked.

. . .

Note once again [independent.co.uk] why grammar schools should be brought back in earnest. Segregating students by IQ is best for everyone.

Comments: 0

(NatSci) il pleut

2008-08-17T07:38:16+00:00

About time from the point of view of the garden recovering from the trauma of the building work. Previously the rain had come before the work could start - holding it up. The patch of lawn had become somewhat buried under sand and mortar at one end, as well as being covered with cement dust and even sliced into by the paving slab cutter.

Most of the other plants were further away and not quite so badly affected as the grass. However, the work has resulted in some sand being left over and I'm going to be gradually sprinkling that over the lawn (first dose yesterday) after each mowing in the hope that the grass will grow through it and the ground quality will be improved from its overly clay-filled state.

Ideally, I'd be wanting to raise the level up further with more material because there's not a lot of soil over the underlying rubble of the plot anyway. Some plants, in particular a tree, have already failed to thrive. Grass is a lot less fussy but, even so, will still be happier if I can give it a base which doesn't bake solid in the sun.

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) twits in Brum

2008-08-17T07:31:47+00:00

Instead of taking their own photo of Birmingham, the idiot Birmingham council had a leaflet designer who "recycled" an image, ie plagiarised one, from the internet - though the council later claimed on TV that the picture was on their own website. Which only means they didn't label it properly or the designer's reading comprehension is very poor. Either way, evidently no-one living and working there had checked the work!

Independent [independent.co.uk]
BBC [news.bbc.co.uk]
Telegraph [telegraph.co.uk]
Assoc.Press [ap.google.com]
Times [timesonline.co.uk]

PS I like the way the Times' only link to a related article is actually a link back to the same article. Duh!

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) caught unprepared

2008-08-16T07:26:40+00:00

Google's news grabbing process apparently caught a Daily Mail article still stuck in an early stage of development when published online:

Quote from Google:

Britain rules the waves again thanks to Ainslie's third gold [dailymail.co.uk]
Daily Mail - 1 hour ago
By Sportsmail Reporter Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

NB for anyone not in the know: that's not real latin but fake latin place-holder text used to plan layout in the absence of real content.

The Daily Mail had apparently managed to add a picture [news.google.com] by that point though - unless Google grabbed that later (it does sometimes mix things up). The title has certainly changed - it's now "Ainslie forced to wait to claim historic third sailing gold".

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) spin wars

2008-08-15T13:08:06+00:00

Despite spinning desperately, Russia has apparently been largely unable to convince most people that it isn't the aggressor in attacking Georgia. Georgia's claim that it's all about Russia trying to regain its grip on its former territories and their resources (primarily oil) and "punish" any of them which dare to seek an alliance with other countries, eg via the UN, makes a lot more sense than Russia's claim to be "protecting" the (military) people it carefully planted in the area before starting on the offensive. It's no longer as easy for Russia to control the information which gets out from the region. Though it's still an object lesson to Georgia that it can't expect real support from its supposed "allies".

But now George W.Bush seems to be trying to grab the opportunity to make US vs ex-USSR political capital out of the carnage with his own spin variant.

BBC: 10 [news.bbc.co.uk], 14a [news.bbc.co.uk], 14b [news.bbc.co.uk], 14c [news.bbc.co.uk], 14d [news.bbc.co.uk], 15 [news.bbc.co.uk]

VOA: 14 [voanews.com]

Telegraph: 14 [telegraph.co.uk]

Grauniad: 11 [guardian.co.uk], 12 [guardian.co.uk], 13a [guardian.co.uk], 13b [guardian.co.uk], 15 [guardian.co.uk]

Times: 9 [timesonline.co.uk], 10a [timesonline.co.uk], 10b [timesonline.co.uk], 11a [timesonline.co.uk], 11b [timesonline.co.uk], 11c [timesonline.co.uk], 11d [timesonline.co.uk], 12a [timesonline.co.uk], 12b [timesonline.co.uk], 13a [timesonline.co.uk], 13b [timesonline.co.uk], 13c [timesonline.co.uk], 14 [timesonline.co.uk]

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) email snooping

2008-08-14T18:59:21+00:00

... conveniently blamed on the EU - as if the UK government [guardian.co.uk] didn't already [timesonline.co.uk] want to do it anyway [telegraph.co.uk].

Comments: 0

(NatSci) slugfest

2008-08-14T00:43:20+00:00

The weather has apparently been favouring slugs this year. A neighbour reports that they have been a widespread nuisance locally. The relative lack of a freezing winter and the non-drought summers will have allowed them to survive and thrive in greater numbers.

In contrast, global warming has generally been bad for amphibians everywhere. Eg by favouring the diseases which kill them as well as contributing to loss of environment (along with humans). Penguins are also reportedly suffering from the changes - with chicks getting soaked through and dying instead of being insulated by dry, fluffy down in dry, fluffy snow.

It was also too cloudy and rainy to stand any reasonable chance of spotting meteors (the Perseids).

Comments: 0

(BaMSoF) asking for it

2008-08-13T12:02:37+00:00

The UK government / legal system has come up with a new way of claiming raped women were asking for it, since wearing provocative clothing has been deemed insufficient excuse. Being too drunk to even be capable of meaningful informed consent now means you get compensation money taken away (not that I was really aware of there being compensation in the first place). It's very much a step in the wrong direction though, especially with date rape drugs (as well as normally doped drinks) providing the convenient impression that the woman was voluntarily sloshed.

BBC: 1 [news.bbc.co.uk], 2 [news.bbc.co.uk]
Times: 1 [timesonline.co.uk], 2 [timesonline.co.uk]
Grauniad: 1 [guardian.co.uk], 2 [guardian.co.uk]
Telegraph: 1 [telegraph.co.uk]
Independent: 1 [independent.co.uk]

Comments: 0