UK will no longer bow before the USA

Published by calhoun on September 9th, 2010 - in Politics

Not too long ago I was very critical about the US Extradition treaty which the United States belive somehow is fair despite the dubious nature of the treaty. Seems that someone in central government was listening. The government has announced that a review of the treaty is to take place.

Two thousand years ago, a man could walk from one end of the earth to the other, safe in the knowledge of three words: Civis romanus sum. (I am a citizen of Rome).  British people should be equally protected by the process of due process and the justice system working to protect us against the powers of foreign nations.

Whilst it comes as great news that the treaty will be reviewed in regards to the fairness of the treaty, it will come as a disappointment to many that the panel will not be ready to begin their investigation until next summer. Alas we should remember that it is the UK Government and it wont do anything worth doing unless it can take a tremendous time to do it!

The treaty with the United States is not the only one which will be reviewed but it is one of the most fundamentally unjust treaties requiring little or no standards to justify an extradition.

References
The Guardian

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Burn the Quran Day

Published by calhoun on September 8th, 2010 - in News, Politics

Rev. Terry JoneArmed with a suspicious mustache and a 0.40calibre Gun , Rev. Terry Jone is not exactly paining a particularity graceful picture for the Evangelical Church. Facing mounting pressure from Military, Political and Religious leaders to stop his plans he fears for his personal safety (hence the gun).  To no surprise, he has received Death Threats (Well, it is America after all!)

He wants to have 9-11 a day to remember as an International Burn a Koran Day. Gen. David Petraeus took a rare step of forming an opinion on domestic affairs something which Military leaders do not normally do – it is beyond the scope of their job. Quite rightly, he suspects that if it were to go ahead, Islamic extremists are likely to use the images of Americans burning a Holy Book to infuriate Islamic people in general.

The cycle of hatred between Islam and the Christians so long as idiots do not respect each other. The Christians killed the Islams and take their land, so the Islams kill the Christians and take back the land, for centuries when will it ever end? In a time where international politics is strained just by the mention of a Holy book it is dishonorable to try tactics like  this. Even worse to do it on 9-11 a day where hatred is already going to be high.

The major of Gainsville whom was also a target of Jones campaign of terror for being openly gay has declared that 9-11 shall be a day of Inter-faith Solidarity. This is a more logical approach to religious quarrels get the people to understand each other , see that there is more than one point of view in the world perhaps with time people will work together in co-operation.
Of course, as usual, the Muslims are having the exact wrong response to this kind of activity. Mohammad Mukhtar has called upon fellow Islamic Extremists to react by killing Americans wherever they be.

“The Quran, according to Jones, is “evil” because it espouses something other than biblical truth and incites radical, violent behavior among Muslims.”

Surely if the Quran is preaching radical non biblical truth then the Bible he so loves should be considered equal to that.

The God of the Bible also allows slavery, including selling your own daughter as a sex slave (Exodus 21:1-11), child abuse (Judges 11:29-40 and Isaiah 13:16), and bashing babies against rocks (Hosea 13:16 & Psalms 137:9).

Now is the time to arrest and prevent this injustice before the cycle of violence gets worse than it already is.
References
The Associated Press
Evilbible.com

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Research Funds to shrink

Published by calhoun on September 8th, 2010 - in Politics

Albert EinsteinVince Cable in his post as business secretary is expected to announce that the budget for science and research and development in the UK which is partly funded by the Government is to be reduced. This coming at a time where the UK badly needs investment in research and development will likely not come as a surprise. The going trend seems to be cut the services that count and hope we make it anyway.

Suggesting that Research should be academically outstanding and commercially valuable is a rather vague description and would probably see many ambiguous research projects shut down. Research is all about discovery, and many brilliant discoveries have been made and found to be both academically outstanding and commercially viable without the original project being so. A scientist researching electrical discharge accidentally discovered X-Rays. In a discovery made completely accidentally, a contamination in fact, Penicillin was discovered by Alexander Fleming.

Investors in the Research and Development and Technology sectors are likely to see this as a very bad sign for the UK, a sign of a second recession. The Parliament needs to focus on cutting bills which are huge, such as our military efforts and MP Salaries instead of quick fixes with vague conditions such as this. Meanwhile, over in the USA, President Obama is expected to announce a huge funding boost for Research and Development.

References
BBC News
Alaska Science Forum

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Londoners hit Tube Panic Button

Published by calhoun on September 7th, 2010 - in News

Tube chaosIts the largest city in the UK, it has several airports, many trainstations, car rental schemes, buses and belive it or not even taxi systems. Yet, whenever the strikes hit London’s Underground, London grinds to a halt and the panic sets in. What is it about Londoners that prevent them from using the boats, cars and busses or walking to an alternative route to be able to get home?

Whatever it is , the chaos is here and will somehow cost £50Million, surely, with people being forced to use the alternative transport methods it will cause money to come in not leave the London transport network?

It seems that multiple strikes are occurring near enough simultaneously, RMT is striking over threats to cut costs suggesting that fire scares, swordsmen yielding swords and guns could not be stopped should there be less underground staff. I don’t know about you, but If I was working as a ticket salesman , I would rather that armed police handle armed terrorists, just an idea really.

If you do happen to be in London and need some help working out what a bus is, the Telegraph has kindly published a dummies guide to public transport.

References
The Telegraph

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The TaxMan Wants More!

Published by calhoun on September 7th, 2010 - in News

The Tax ManDue to a failure by HMRC, millions of Britons could soon be opening a letter worded something along the lines of : “You owe Us Thousands”

People whom have seen a financial change in the last two years may have been paying less tax than they were supposed to. Now HMRC is trying to reclaim the amount which has been underpaid. It does work both ways however, some people are due money from the tax man and they will receive a payment of the over paid amount.

However there is a clause called A19 which can allow you to fight the tax man on this one. I am not an accountant of course so I wont attempt to explain this, I recommend if you have had a change in circumstances in the last two years, you speak to your accountant to find out if you can get away without paying the extra tax requirements.

References
The Daily Mail

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Coalition agrees AV reading with gritted teeth

Published by calhoun on September 7th, 2010 - in Politics

British Flag and VoteThe first reading of the bill on a referendum over the Alternative Vote system has been successful with a majority of 59. There are a number of additional steps to take before it will have actually been past and the process of preparing for next years May 5 referendum can begin.

However the reading has revealed there is bitterness between the Conservative and Liberal Democrats. A number of Conservative backbenchers have agreed to vote for the change to the voting system as “a matter of honour” – it was agreed by part of the coalition agreement when coming to power. It is rather disturbing that some MPs are actually against a more democratic voting system. I guess they are likely to be the MPs that are in areas which an AV system would see them lose their seat due to the huge number of votes against them? Or perhaps they are part of the 50 MPs which would lose their seat with the reduction in MPs when parliament shrinks in size.

David Davis raises a concern about the number of people that will turn out for the referendum thinking that it will be a very low turn out to make a major political change in the UK for centuries. However, given that the turn out for the general election was the highest it had been since 2001. Given the number of issues associated with people getting turned away from voting, I think the concern is minimum. The general public want to see change to the political system and trust needs to be rebuilt in the Government to secure a functional country.

References
Yorkshire Post
UKPoliticalInfo
Wikipedia

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Orange & TMobile Supernetwork

Published by calhoun on September 7th, 2010 - in Technology

everything-everywhere-2Something tells me I missed an article or two, either that or Orange and T-Mobile opted to keep their merger quiet. A few people whom I talk to who usually are up to speed on the mobile phone industry even seem to have not caught on. The merger in May created a new company to oversee the new joint operations between Orange and T-Mobile. By merging, they have formed the largest network in the UK.

Back then, they promised customers that they would later in the year be able to roam across either network. This service will shortly become available. Providing text and voice roaming but 3G will not be initially available as a cross network roaming service. They expect this to be in place in 2011.

Technologically speaking the technology will operate almost the same as international roaming like when your on holiday. Albeit without the expensive phone bill at the end of the month! The company plans to have automatic fail over services available such that customers will automatically jump to whichever network is able to offer the better voice service even during a call with no interruption to general service.

As with any merger of this kind, it will take many years for the process to be completed and established in full. I phoned my answer machine the other day there, and it is still branded as NTL not Virgin Media! The company has however announced that the future will be full of buzzwords such as Best Performance, Best Value and Best Reliability.

References

ShineyShineyTV
Orange
ZDNetUK

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Sky TV Monopoly allowed?

Published by calhoun on September 7th, 2010 - in Technology

Monopoly Old Kent RoadSky has made a purchase from Virgin Media worth £160Million to get the Virgin TV services. How this has not lead to an OFT investigation of breach of competition rules I do not know. With the sale complete, Sky has managed to secure itself a major monopoly on pay for TV service.

Sky have in the past been in trouble or at least been threatened with being in trouble on a number of occasions. Europe threatened to take legal action against the Premiership Football League unless Sky’s Total Monopoly was broken on the games. The Office of Fair Trading expected to find Sky guilty of breach of anti-competition laws on at least one occasion.

As part of the agreement however, it seems that Virgin customers will soon be able to get access to a wide range of Sky HD channels and the company has assured us that there will be no change to service. How long that remains true is still uncertain.

References
VirginMedia
MediaWeek
The Gaurdian
The Independant

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Gordon Brown to become a Saint

Published by calhoun on September 2nd, 2010 - in Politics

Gordon Brown freshly out of screwing up the economy and Labour party wants to become a Saint now. It is quite a promotion I’d say.

Freshly criticized by Tony Blair in his memoirs, he is attempting to put away the image of being the evil man that no one wanted and no one could get rid of. He has made announcements to do a number of charitable projects without pay. Of course, given that his salary is huge as it is and his interest payments probably equally high so its not exactly like he’s doing great efforts he can afford to not be paid!

Gordon BrownAmongst many accusations, Gordon Brown has been accused most prominently by Tony Blair accusations range from blackmail to having no emotional intelligence. These seem to be entirely accurate accusations given what he looks like.

His activities will be paid for by a number of speaking appointments and the couple will setup a office by the highly original name of : The Office of Gordon Brown and Sarah Brown. Just a testament to the former prime ministers skills as a innovative and creative leader.

Scarily, Gordon Brown accepted a position on the World Wide Web Foundation. This is deeply concerning as untill now I thought only competent people would get involved in organizations like that.

I wonder if his newly setup office will be ran from his home so he can claim expenses against it on his official MP tab ?

References

The Guardian

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Quantum Security Breach

Published by calhoun on September 2nd, 2010 - in Technology

Photo representing Quantum WorldThe world of quantum physics has been involved in the world of security. However a security breach is possible. Researchers have spent probably a huge portion of their time experimenting on techniques to be able to publish a paper indicating a vulnerability in a Quantum Cryptographic system.

They in essence have shown it is possible to hack into highly encrypted data. The principles of Quantum Physics which are used in quantum cryptography relies upon the Heisenberg principle. whereby looking at the data in essence actually alters its behaviour which could be used to identify a security breach or corruption of data in transit.

The technology of quantum cryptography uses fiber optic in order to transmit data. This being the weakest point in the system. Using laser signals the researchers were able to intercept and confuse the receivers when the signal reached it. Given the nature of fiber optic networking however I am not sure that this is a security risk that is overly likely to occur. Damage caused to fiber optic cables in order to send a laser signal in could corrupt data in its own right, and at the least is likely to have a negative impact on network performance. This would lead to the discovery of the hooked up equipment used for interception.

References
ZDNet
NTNU

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