Thursday, January 06, 2005
For those who are interested I am back! YAY! Its been a hell of a year and so much has happened that I am not even going to go there. Suffice it to say that it could not have gotten worse so this next has got to be a corker!
I want to say that I am dismayed at the loss of live from that tsunami. I am truely dismayed.
Now about that aid. Why? What good will it do? Half of the [b]pledged[/b] money probably won't even get released by the governments involved. Remember the earthquake in Iran? Not even half of the money promised has been received.
One can expect that a good percentage of these funds will also be soaked up by various taxes, commisions and good old corruption.
It is time for the way that aid is handed around is re-evaluated. Lets face it. Officials cannot be trusted. The various NGO aid agencies also cannot be trusted (hell considering that they are staffed by overpaid middle class do gooders who need that position to justify their existance).
I would like to see the following -
NGO's staffed exclusively by people who have had direct experiance of major tragedies. They have the experience and can hit the ground running and kick some government ass.
No funds to be handed to anyone but suppliers of goods destined to disaster areas. You need a hospital - well there are pre fab hospitals available. Airlift that in...no more buying from corrupt local businessmen/government agents.
Anyway if there has been a disaster it'll take too long to build these things.
For longer term projects these ideas will not work. But every effort must be made to remove the middleman and deal direct with the people directly affected by disaster.
I want to say that I am dismayed at the loss of live from that tsunami. I am truely dismayed.
Now about that aid. Why? What good will it do? Half of the [b]pledged[/b] money probably won't even get released by the governments involved. Remember the earthquake in Iran? Not even half of the money promised has been received.
One can expect that a good percentage of these funds will also be soaked up by various taxes, commisions and good old corruption.
It is time for the way that aid is handed around is re-evaluated. Lets face it. Officials cannot be trusted. The various NGO aid agencies also cannot be trusted (hell considering that they are staffed by overpaid middle class do gooders who need that position to justify their existance).
I would like to see the following -
NGO's staffed exclusively by people who have had direct experiance of major tragedies. They have the experience and can hit the ground running and kick some government ass.
No funds to be handed to anyone but suppliers of goods destined to disaster areas. You need a hospital - well there are pre fab hospitals available. Airlift that in...no more buying from corrupt local businessmen/government agents.
Anyway if there has been a disaster it'll take too long to build these things.
For longer term projects these ideas will not work. But every effort must be made to remove the middleman and deal direct with the people directly affected by disaster.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
Thought I'd revamp this as I did not like the previous template. I think this is much nicer.
Can't think of much to write at the moment. Last Thursdays tragedy is still too freshin the mind.
Sorry.
Also I seem to have lost the comments section but am currently trying to get that resolved.
Can't think of much to write at the moment. Last Thursdays tragedy is still too freshin the mind.
Sorry.
Also I seem to have lost the comments section but am currently trying to get that resolved.
Saturday, March 13, 2004
Was it ETA was it AQ?
One thing it caused was...a mass demo last night across Spain of over 8 million people sick of terror.
I hear that there was a smaller demonstration in New York City today.
This madness must stop.
Wish I could say more but now is not the time.
My condolences to the families of those who perished.
One thing it caused was...a mass demo last night across Spain of over 8 million people sick of terror.
I hear that there was a smaller demonstration in New York City today.
This madness must stop.
Wish I could say more but now is not the time.
My condolences to the families of those who perished.
Monday, March 08, 2004
Any comparison to the Marth Stewart case?
Seems like George W Bush's dodgy financial dealings are seening the light of day...
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_040400.htm
Seems like George W Bush's dodgy financial dealings are seening the light of day...
http://www.public-i.org/story_01_040400.htm
Saturday, February 28, 2004
Well well well....Looks like Teflon Tony (Tony Blair aka Smiler) is on a bit of a sticky wicket!
Allegations (uh huh) of spying on the UN. What made me laugh was Smiler talking about legality...that spying is legal. Sure it is Tones....if you suspect that say the IRA or UVF are going to commit an atrocity then you spy on these organisations to prevent it.
But to spy on the UN's Secretary General, during a time of crisis that involved the threat of war is not a great shocker either. But to declare it legal is a joke. In Tones mind its legal all right. But then anything Smiler does is legal.
The real reason that this issue could be another nail in Tones coffin is the collapse of the trial against Katherine Gunn. It boils down to the wish of her defence team to have access to the reasons why Lord Goldsmith (UK Attorney General) declared the possible war (at that time) as legal. We have yet to see the reasons. This is considered a secret by Tones. So we, the people of the UK, are not allowed to have access to this information.
Why am I thinking that Tone told his mate Goldsmith - "Do whatever it takes to declare this war legal and we'll keep the documentation secret".
Claire Short in the meantime is trying to become the conscience of the Anti War brigade. Wish she'd realise that she lost respect when she threatened to leave Cabinet in protest at the upcoming war and then hung around for a few months longer before finally leaving.
I notice that Robin Cook has not said much. I would think he's playing the smart game by letting Short take the flak. And letting her make a fool of herself (notwithstanding the travesty of a TV program she was on - teaching kids in a school - typical wishy washy no discipline liberal). I think Cook is doing the right thing. He will be the one to deliver the coup de grace on Tones Premiership.
Of course the Opposition parties are keeping quiet. Michael Howard will not say anything because we know that he would be hypocritical to make any comments condemning Smiler as we know that he would have done the same - or worse. The Lib - Dems won't say anything either. I will admit that I wish Paddy Ashdown had been Leader instead of Kennedy for this saga. (Ashdown was a Royal Marine Officer and had a distinguished career).
Now to my football club. Leeds United. Things have gone from bad to worse. We are now about £100 million in debt. We are rooted to the bottom of the table. The creditors are not going to extend our breathing space. No buyers have come forward.
The Real Madrid of the North are in incredible dire straights. Greed, ignorance and lack of due diligence has seemingly destroyed a great football club. Thank you Peter Risdale you plonker.
Allegations (uh huh) of spying on the UN. What made me laugh was Smiler talking about legality...that spying is legal. Sure it is Tones....if you suspect that say the IRA or UVF are going to commit an atrocity then you spy on these organisations to prevent it.
But to spy on the UN's Secretary General, during a time of crisis that involved the threat of war is not a great shocker either. But to declare it legal is a joke. In Tones mind its legal all right. But then anything Smiler does is legal.
The real reason that this issue could be another nail in Tones coffin is the collapse of the trial against Katherine Gunn. It boils down to the wish of her defence team to have access to the reasons why Lord Goldsmith (UK Attorney General) declared the possible war (at that time) as legal. We have yet to see the reasons. This is considered a secret by Tones. So we, the people of the UK, are not allowed to have access to this information.
Why am I thinking that Tone told his mate Goldsmith - "Do whatever it takes to declare this war legal and we'll keep the documentation secret".
Claire Short in the meantime is trying to become the conscience of the Anti War brigade. Wish she'd realise that she lost respect when she threatened to leave Cabinet in protest at the upcoming war and then hung around for a few months longer before finally leaving.
I notice that Robin Cook has not said much. I would think he's playing the smart game by letting Short take the flak. And letting her make a fool of herself (notwithstanding the travesty of a TV program she was on - teaching kids in a school - typical wishy washy no discipline liberal). I think Cook is doing the right thing. He will be the one to deliver the coup de grace on Tones Premiership.
Of course the Opposition parties are keeping quiet. Michael Howard will not say anything because we know that he would be hypocritical to make any comments condemning Smiler as we know that he would have done the same - or worse. The Lib - Dems won't say anything either. I will admit that I wish Paddy Ashdown had been Leader instead of Kennedy for this saga. (Ashdown was a Royal Marine Officer and had a distinguished career).
Now to my football club. Leeds United. Things have gone from bad to worse. We are now about £100 million in debt. We are rooted to the bottom of the table. The creditors are not going to extend our breathing space. No buyers have come forward.
The Real Madrid of the North are in incredible dire straights. Greed, ignorance and lack of due diligence has seemingly destroyed a great football club. Thank you Peter Risdale you plonker.
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
New Worm out there....Bizex....
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.bizex.worm.html
http://www.kaspersky.com/news.html?id=4277566
Well this is nasty little bastard. I say little. 50,000 ICQ users have been done so far (at this time). Kaspersky have labeled it a global epidemic.
The nasty thing is that it seems to infect and spread through ICQ instant messaging, Email attachments and HTTP webpages. Clever.
I really hate this assholes. Easily as much as I hate spammers. They think they are perhaps making a point or (more likely) are criminals.
This particular worm asks for your credit card details and sends you to websites registered to Russians. Yep the Russian mafia is really making its mark. Soon it will outstrip the Nigerian 419 scammers. If it has not done so already.
Go here for more info...it makes sad reading.
http://www.qwik-fix.net/
On a sad note I have lost a good friend of the four legged variety. My Aunt lost one of her dogs yesterday. I've know Jim for an awfully long time. A wonderfully intelligent Border Collie.
Pax
http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.bizex.worm.html
http://www.kaspersky.com/news.html?id=4277566
Well this is nasty little bastard. I say little. 50,000 ICQ users have been done so far (at this time). Kaspersky have labeled it a global epidemic.
The nasty thing is that it seems to infect and spread through ICQ instant messaging, Email attachments and HTTP webpages. Clever.
I really hate this assholes. Easily as much as I hate spammers. They think they are perhaps making a point or (more likely) are criminals.
This particular worm asks for your credit card details and sends you to websites registered to Russians. Yep the Russian mafia is really making its mark. Soon it will outstrip the Nigerian 419 scammers. If it has not done so already.
Go here for more info...it makes sad reading.
http://www.qwik-fix.net/
On a sad note I have lost a good friend of the four legged variety. My Aunt lost one of her dogs yesterday. I've know Jim for an awfully long time. A wonderfully intelligent Border Collie.
Pax
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Interesting reading if you're really into a debate about consciousness in non Humans.
I read about this in last weeks New Scientist. Basically these researchers have found that fruit fly consciousness can be proven as a fact.
But thats not the interesting thing. Its more about using the ability of the fly to seemingly make a choice. Van Swinderen proposes 'virtual mazes'.
'He envisages building a virtual maze for the flies to explore. First he would present the fly with two visual stimuli to which envokes a larger salience response. Then depending which it chooses, he would present it with two more stimuli, and so on. The fly could navigate this maze for hours.
That's what I am really excited about: Having the fly tell me important to it he says (van Swinderen).
If you let it choose the images, you can learn a lot about attention and learning.
These guys, Greenspan and van Swinderen, actually used Classical Conditioning on the fruit flies. Yes...they trained the Fruit Fly!
Anyway...
Its a bit technical, quite scientific, and requires an understanding of the basic principles involved in true scientific research.
oh...and its a pdf file :)
www.ini.unizh.ch/~pfmjv/InsectCognition/nat+neurosci_6_579.fly-salience.pdf
I read about this in last weeks New Scientist. Basically these researchers have found that fruit fly consciousness can be proven as a fact.
But thats not the interesting thing. Its more about using the ability of the fly to seemingly make a choice. Van Swinderen proposes 'virtual mazes'.
'He envisages building a virtual maze for the flies to explore. First he would present the fly with two visual stimuli to which envokes a larger salience response. Then depending which it chooses, he would present it with two more stimuli, and so on. The fly could navigate this maze for hours.
That's what I am really excited about: Having the fly tell me important to it he says (van Swinderen).
If you let it choose the images, you can learn a lot about attention and learning.
These guys, Greenspan and van Swinderen, actually used Classical Conditioning on the fruit flies. Yes...they trained the Fruit Fly!
Anyway...
Its a bit technical, quite scientific, and requires an understanding of the basic principles involved in true scientific research.
oh...and its a pdf file :)
www.ini.unizh.ch/~pfmjv/InsectCognition/nat+neurosci_6_579.fly-salience.pdf
