Owner: Voices of Reason in a forest of stupidity URL:http://www.muttering.co.uk/blog/inksmithy Join Date: Thu, 01 Feb 2007 11:24:48 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: muttering.co.uk is about users talking about issues which make their blood boil. If you have ever wanted to send a letter to the editor, but can't find the address, do it here! Site statistics:Click here
Ethics in today's popular press? Joking aren't you? 2007-02-01 17:55:09 Kelvin Mackenzie said in his column today that the jailing of Clive Goodman for hacking into the mobile phone messages of some members of the royal family was 'a disgrace'.
In case you aren't aware of the story, Clive Goodman was the royal editor of the News Of The World. He was recently found to have been illegally listening in on the private mobile phone messages of Prince William and others connected to the royal family.
Now I am by no means a supporter of the royal family, but I am a human being and I would suggest that Mr Mackenzie at least attempt to claw back some of the objectivity he has so obviously lost when he began to churn out the dribble on his column. A failure to do so will do nothing but erode the pitiful credibility he has remaining to him.
Mr Mackenzie attempts to justify Goodmans incredible invasion of privacy by asking readers 'what ifs'.
For example, what if the messages he intercepted had contained 'vital evidence that Tony Blair had authorised the cash Read more:Ethics
, popular
, Joking
Ironic 2007-01-31 09:02:50 I find it ironic in the extreme that all the Google Adsense ads being targeted to my previous blog are advertising same sex wedding services. Read more:Ironic
No exemption from gay rights law 2007-01-29 20:49:17 No exemption
from gay rights law - Downing Street announces there will be no exemption from gay rights laws for Catholic adoption agencies. [BBC News]
I've been following this story with a fair amount of interest recently and I have to say I'm baffled by it.
Apart from my personal belief that gay couples should not be adopting at all, a more objective viewpoint shows me that this simply isn't what the people want.
For a start, the three major religions in the country have all asked that Catholic adoption services be exempted from anti-discrimination laws.
read more
Criminal memoirs to be outlawed 2007-01-28 20:55:02 The most tragic thing about the recent wave of political correctness is that people who stick up for themselves and the basic rights of man end up being tarred with the same brush as the sometimes despicable people who are scapegoated as the reason for the loss of rights.
Take this story for example.
Criminal
memoirs to be outlawed
- Scotland's justice minister says plans to ban memoirs written by convicted criminals are being drawn up. [BBC News]
On the face of it, it is easy enough to nod your head and say 'fair enough too, they shouldn't profit from crime'.
What happened to the concept of rehabilitation though? If a man does something wrong, gets caught and goes to gaol, so long as he finishes his sentence, surely he is somewhat entitled to consider that he has paid the debt to society?
read more
Reid labours in 'political hole' 2007-01-27 12:39:34 Does anyone ever get the feeling that perhaps the media has been drioven mad by its own power? I certainly do.
It is a fair and established fact that in the main, traditional news media (newspapers and so on) is there to make money. The premise being that people want to know what is going on in the world and will therefore pay a small amount per day to find out.
However, what seems to be happening now is that the media is manipulating events so they can sell more newspapers. Is it really necessary to ask whether this is a Bad Thing?
The media in the UK seems to follow a fairly predictable path. Its simply a matter of exaggerating any issue which they feel help sell more papers and ignoring any side issues or indeed the need for objectivity.
So this story:
Reid labours in 'political
hole' - The furore over prisons overcrowding threatens to engulf Home Secretary John Reid, the papers say. [BBC News]
becomes something which will ultimately see John Reid lose his job.
read more
England Cricket Team Win 2007-02-02 19:52:12 As an Australian in the UK, I have to say I have been following the cricket recently with a fair amount of interest.
Now while I wouldn't put myself down as a particular sports fan, I do enjoy watching top flight sport or any description. Its wonderful to see the best of any discipline plying their trade. They make it look so damn easy.
So it was with a fair amount of pleasure that I saw England
finally kill the demons which have been plaguing them this tour and beat Australia pretty convincingly. I hope it hasn't been too little too late is all.
Its been kind of odd this season over here in the UK. I live in northern England, which can boast natives of a fair amount of pithiness. Last year, when England (finally) won the Ashes after 18 years without a look in, as soon as someone noticed my accent, they followed with a ball by ball analysis of each and every test match. I didn't mind that so much because every single one of those matches was a pleasure to watch. The teams were beaut Read more:Cricket
, England Cricket
, England Cricket Team
Birds Die of H5N1 Strain 2007-02-03 19:02:58 Now without wishing to sound negative about this, I am really hoping that Westminster don't try to make political hay on this issue.
Bird flu and the H5N1 strain in particular is a horribly serious threat which according to the WHO, in a best case scenario, the UK could see between two and seven million people die if the flu manages to progress to being a pandemic.
Thats a fairly frightening figure, especially since it is very rarely that the best case scenario actually takes place.
Its very difficult to know what to do in this situation, but with the virus hitting over 2000 birds in a Suffolk bird farm, I feel a little suspicious when I'm told that the situation is under control.
How is it possibly under control? Did nobody notice these birds getting sick? If not, I would pay an absolute fortune to see some footage of all those birds keeling over dead at the same time. Not because I think it would be funny, more because of the sheer scale of the collapse.
read more Read more:Birds
, Strain
Fears raised over bird flu trucks 2007-02-05 18:25:31 Fears raised over bird flu trucks - An MP raises concerns about the safety of transporting culled turkeys across England. [BBC News]
Just a quick one before I get into my main entry of the day.
It would seem DEFRA are doing it again. I live in rural Northumberland about 7 miles from the epicenter of the most recent foot and mouth outbreak a few years ago.
Speaking to locals who were here at the time, I found one of their main concerns was that trucks carrying carcasses culled as a result of foot and mouth were being transported through villages and towns throughout the countryside.
In addition to this, it would seem the definition of 'sealed' was the same back then as it is now, with nothing more than a plastic sheet on the bottom of the trailer and another on top. Quite a few residents told me they saw trucks carrying carcasses leaving a trail of blood and other fluids on the road as they made their way to the disposal sites.
read more Read more:Fears
Attacking the popular media 2007-02-06 22:38:42 Now it may be that people will wonder why it is I seem to attack the popularmedia
a lot in this blog and the reason is simple.
It is because the popular media is the conduit through which the people recieve the majority of their information.
Notice the flow of that sentence. To look at it from the perspective of communication theory, the popular media is a perfect example of channel based communication.
In its simplest terms, channel based communication is where a message is passed from sender to receiver through a specific channel or medium.
With communication though, it is generally the case that there is more than one channel carrying information, which would generally mean that information is balanced and contrasted with other information, which tends to allow people to receive a balanced view of messages being received.
The problem with the popular media today though is that with the possible exception of the BBC, the messages getting through to the receivers are being biased o Read more:Attacking
Lords Reform - How varied the ways. 2007-02-08 09:07:17 So Jack Straw has presented his plans for reforming the House of Lords. What did you think of them?
Have you actually had a chance to think about it or have you been blindsided by the idea of giving the life peerages redundancy pay if they should choose to leave the upper house?
This government could well be compared to a prizefighter, leading with the left and smashing with the right when you least expect it.
The six options presented by Jack Straw for lords reform are except for one, ridiculous. Not only that but parliament has fairly simply been told that there will be reform no matter what they say. The voting system he proposes asks MPs to list their preferences numbered from one to six. That way if one option fails, the MPs votes will then devolve to their next preferences and so on.
Now that in itself isn't such a bad way of doing things, indeed its very close to the system used for all elections in Australia. The problem arises when the options don't include all the possibil Read more:Reform
Lords Reform - How Australia does it. 2007-02-08 20:35:29 Now this is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the system of Australia
n politics, since it would take a fairly hefty book to do that and I couldn't consider myself to be any more of an expert on it that any other Australian.
And make no mistake about it, Australians are generally pretty keen observers of their political system. They have to be, because voting in Australia is compulsory, with punishment in the way of escalating fines if you don't. You can cast a donkey vote if you want to, but in the minds of most Australians, thats a bit silly, because if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about whoever gets into power.
So Australians vote. Added to that, since most people are cheapskates at heart, they won't even give something as ethereal as a vote away without looking to see where they are putting it. Which just adds up to having to understand the system, since without understanding you might put the vote in the wrong place and that would just be silly Read more:Reform
Sun Newspaper 7 Feb 2007 2007-02-08 19:09:40 Most wildly inappropriate headline? The one the Sun had yesterday, talking about the 'Friendly Fire Sensation!' Read more:Newspaper
Lords Reform - Australian Way Part II 2007-02-09 16:03:53 I said in my last entry that I would have a look at the function that the Australian
Senate performs in Australian politics, so bear with me while I give you something of an overview.
read more Read more:Reform
Lords Reform - How Australia does it. 2007-02-08 20:35:29 Now this is not intended to be an exhaustive review of the system of Australia
n politics, since it would take a fairly hefty book to do that and I couldn't consider myself to be any more of an expert on it that any other Australian.
And make no mistake about it, Australians are generally pretty keen observers of their political system. They have to be, because voting in Australia is compulsory, with punishment in the way of escalating fines if you don't. You can cast a donkey vote if you want to, but in the minds of most Australians, thats a bit silly, because if you don't vote, you don't have the right to complain about whoever gets into power.
So Australians vote. Added to that, since most people are cheapskates at heart, they won't even give something as ethereal as a vote away without looking to see where they are putting it. Which just adds up to having to understand the system, since without understanding you might put the vote in the wrong place and that would just be silly Read more:Reform
Dope Smokin' Tories - Does anyone care? 2007-02-12 20:04:19 So David Cameron smoked some dope when he was fifteen and got caught. Does anyone really care?
Should anyone care?
I don't think so. After all, I think everyone of us has done something when we were fifteen which perhaps we shouldn't have. The problem here is that the popular media is making a much bigger deal of it than they perhaps should be. We are now reaching the period in time when people in the wild and free era of the sixties and seventies are reaching the top of their political careers and we are going to see an awful lot more of this sort of thing in the future.
So lets get a sense of perspective on it now.
To quote the immortal words of the counselor on South Park "Drugs are Bad, hmkay?"
I personally don't particularly care whether David Cameron smoked dope when he was fifteen. I don't even care if he did it when he was studying at university. If he was finishing off a speech in the House and going home to hit the bucket bong a couple of times I might be a bit concerne Read more:Smokin
, Tories
Sunday web news comparison 2007-02-18 18:09:09 Ok, I've had a quiet week here for various reasons, chief among which has been work and trying very hard to sit ad tabulate the data for my study of the Sun newspaper's story content.
Now to be honest, its quite difficult to call what is sold in the Sun tabloid as news in the strictest sense, but I'm working hard on trying to be objective.
I am still working on that, so in the meantime I'm just going to have a look at a few different newspapers headlines, based on their websites home pages.
The BBC has 3 major stories which feature Tony Blair's latest reactionary knee-jerk ideas on gun crime, a bomb in Baghdad which has killed at least 56 people and a story about US troops killed in a helicopter crash.
read more Read more:Sunday
, comparison
Where do they make their money? 2007-02-21 19:05:21 So here we are at the beginning of the various banks profit reporting season. Are we all excited? Trembling with anticipation to hear about the obscene amounts of money the banks are skimming from their customers?
I am.
I like to see businesses making an honest profit. Businesses making a healthy profit generally means that the economy is healthy, that people are contented and that everybody is getting along with each other the way they should be.
Does that sound like the world we live in? Of course not.
Yesterday, Barclays (one of the banks I hold an account with) posted profits of about 7 BILLION pounds sterling for last year. HSBC (the bank I wish I didn't have an account at) is expected to post profits of over TWELVE BILLION pounds sterling next week.
In total, UK banks are expected to announce profits of over 40 billion pounds sterling within the next few weeks.
read more
Eat less, move more. 2007-03-02 08:58:13 Ok so most of us here in the UK will have heard this triple be-damned story of the eight year old who weighs fifteen stone and might be taken away from his mum to 'save his life'.
Is anyone else getting tired of this story? I know I am.
When ITV first aired its 'special documentary', my wife insisted we watch it. I didn't want to for the same reason that I hate watching shows like You Are What You Eat and Grime Stoppers and other such unadulterated crap.
We started getting a lot more of this stuff a couple of years ago, after some statistics came out showing that obesity was on the rise in Britain. These statistics, for the Health Survey for Britain, showed that around one in four 11 to fifteen year olds are considered obese - a rise of more than ten per cent from a similar study in 1995.
The survey also showed that adult obesity levels have risen by nearly ten per cent in the same period.
read more Read more:Eat less
Penalty Charges Update 2007-03-05 22:53:42 A fast update to what has been happening with my foray into recovering funds from HSBC and their nefarious penalty charges system.
Two weeks ago tomorrow I posted a letter to HSBC telling them that unless they refunded me the charges they had taken from me since I started banking with them within fourteen days, I would be pursuing legal action to recover the funds.
That time runs out tomorrow and so on Friday (the first time I have available) I will be going into the County Courts at Newcastle Upon Tyne to commence my action.
The amount I am looking for is relatively paltry, only £701, but true to published form, HSBC are deciding to play hardball. I received a letter from them last friday - ten days after I had sent mine - asking me to leave the issue with them and they would get back to me.
I don't think so.
read more Read more:Update
, Penalty
Like we needed more evidence! 2007-01-25 09:04:14 Like we needed further evidence that the media is eating itself, some very odd dutch broadcasters have decided that a dating program featuring the visibly disfigured would be a good idea.
As my wife asked, why is it that the disfigured need to have relationships with other disfigured people?
Thats just for a start really. What in gods name motivates broadcasters to create shows like this? I realise there is a certain amount of money up for grabs, but in a very real sense, the money available is in a market these broadcasters have created themselves.
Now I'm certainly not advocating that the program be banned or anything silly like that. I'm fairly passionate about the idea of free speech (which I am sure will be come evident in later blogs and stories) and unfortunately, free speech means these fools can and should be allowed to create their idiot shows.
read more
...a muttering starts... 2007-01-24 00:33:13 Ok, so I have opened this new site, which I think I'm reasonably happy with.
The point of the site is slightly difficult to capture really, I think its something which came up gradually rather than all of a sudden.
I was watching a news story on the BBC which was about Jade whatsername from Big Brother and more recently Celebrity Big Brother and wondering a few things about it.
read more
Iran Sailors Publicity Row 2007-04-10 09:07:28 I've stayed fairly quite recently because I've been busy with other things, but every now and then something comes up which means I have to take time out and write about them.
This story about the sailors taken hostage by Iran is one of them.
Until last Friday, the story played out pretty well how I would have expected it to. After the sailors were taken, the British media published every manner of emotive crap they could dream up to keep the story alive. Diplomatically, deals were obviously being done to bring about their release, but the government has been pretty tightlipped about what those deals were.
What was conceded to Iran to get them to let those sailors go? Its a side issue to this story, but its not one which seems to have been followed up, or at the very least widely reported. Make no mistake about it, Iran was unlikely to have given the sailors up easily, especially given the circumstances of their capture and subsequent imprisonment.
read more Read more:Sailors
Virginia University Media Row 2007-04-20 08:57:57 There is a fairly large argument raging at the moment as to whether NBC should have shown the video mailed to them by VirginiaUniversity
killer Cho Seung-hui.
Its a tricky question for a number of reasons. The first question which needs to be asked is "Is it newsworthy?".
The answer to that of course must be "yes". Its eminently newsworthy, in that its topical, directly related to current affairs and of interest to the public.
However, that test isn't enough when dealing with something as sensitive as that. Questions of sensitivity and ethics need to be answered as well.
Watching the BBC news yesterday, they had a psychologist in the studio watching the video and attempting to analyse Cho Seung-hui's state of mind through the video. Apart from the fact that such a story is an obvious time filler, designed to plug the holes in information the BBC has, the story as they presented it had some justification.
read more
Iran Sailors Publicity Row 2007-04-10 09:07:28 I've stayed fairly quiet recently because I've been busy with other things, but every now and then something comes up which means I have to take time out and write about them.
This story about the sailors taken hostage by Iran is one of them.
Until last Friday, the story played out pretty well how I would have expected it to. After the sailors were taken, the British media published every manner of emotive crap they could dream up to keep the story alive. Diplomatically, deals were obviously being done to bring about their release, but the government has been pretty tightlipped about what those deals were.
What was conceded to Iran to get them to let those sailors go? Its a side issue to this story, but its not one which seems to have been followed up, or at the very least widely reported. Make no mistake about it, Iran was unlikely to have given the sailors up easily, especially given the circumstances of their capture and subsequent imprisonment.
read more Read more:Sailors
Lloyds TSB Wins Penalty Charges Case 2007-05-16 10:39:09 Ok, its been widely reported that Lloyds TSB won a case about their penalty charges yesterday. If you haven't read it, the story is here on the BBC
The important thing to remember here is that this case has no bearing on most of the cases you guys will be raising - providing you follow the guides.
The person who instigated this case didn't follow any of the guides you can find on the internet which help you claim your penalty charges back. Thats the first point. He made it up as he went along, he used the wrong terminology (illegal rather than unlawful, which is a fine distinction, but a distinction at law nonetheless) and there were some strange circumstances taking place which made sure the case got to court.
As some of you probably know, most of these cases make it to within a day or two of the court date and are settled in full.
read more Read more:Penalty
No One Is Above The Law - Except UK MPs 2007-05-22 02:59:14 Last Friday something fairly momentous happened. You probably didn't really notice it to be honest, not many people did. The BBC news team noticed it, but to be honest, none of the other people who really should have been taking notice of this sort of thing really caught it.
What happened was that the fine, upstanding bunch of scoundrels and liars otherwise known as British Members of Parliament, voted to exclude themselves from the reaches of the Freedom of Information Act.
Yes, you heard that correctly. British MPs are trying to pass a bill which will exclude them from certain applications of the Freedom of Information Act.
Now their reasoning for this despicable outrage against ethics and their constituents is that they don't want confidential correspondence between them and councils to be made public.
This is notwithstanding the fact that legislation already exists to protect such correspondence, in the form of the Data Protection Act.
read more
OpenMoko 2007-07-11 08:53:50 Ok, I talked a little bit about this in my post yesterday, but since then I've been doing a little bit of research on the subject and I have to say I'm getting very excited.
read more
Open Source Goodness - openmoko mobile phone. 2007-07-09 15:54:41 Ok, I've been fairly quiet on here recently for all sorts of reasons, a major one being the fact that my wife gave birth to my second son, a healthy baby boy. However, I have never seen so much, of so many different colours come from so many different directions as I have from this child.
The reason for this post is something which has only just become available today. Its something I believe in to the core of my heart, even more than being a Jedi.
The reason I say that (the Jedi thing) is in a census the Australian government carried out a few years ago, a circular email came round telling people that if enough people said they were Jedi Knights in the 'Religion' section of the census, the government would have to recognise it as a religion. I don't know whether its now a recognised religion, but the idea tickled me and since then, whenever a form has asked my religion I've put down 'Jedi Knight'. My way of saying 'None of your business' I guess.
Anyway, the reason for this p Read more:Source
, Goodness
, phone
Convicted rapist at Labour event 2007-07-14 14:42:23 Convicted rapist
at Labourevent
- A businessman with a rape conviction attended a fundraising event for the Labour Party, the BBC reveals. [BBC Politics]
Ok....so a convicted rapist attended a political event.
Whats the problem here? It happened in 1996 for gods sake. Presumably since the man is wandering around free, he has completed any punishment the courts set down for him.
If you don't feel that the punishment set down for him was enough or appropriate, then thats something YOU need to deal with. I would suggest lobbying your local MP for some serious justice and penalty reform.
I am in no way condoning what this man has done, to rape any man or woman is unforgivable. I am not suggesting he be forgiven and have no doubts about it, he won't be. That offence will be on his record forever, like a port wine stain on his face.
read more Read more:Convicted
OpenMoko 2007-07-11 08:53:50 Ok, I talked a little bit about this in my post yesterday, but since then I've been doing a little bit of research on the subject and I have to say I'm getting very excited.
The device is a mobile phone called Neo1973.
Why would I be so excited about a mobile phone? That's a good question, considering that there are now far more models of a mobile phone than I am aware of. It is an especially good question when you consider it in context of the fact that I am writing this post on a mobile phone called an HTC Universal, which I love, insofar as I can possibly love an object.
The reason I am so excited about this Neo1973 is because of the system it runs, called OpenMoko.
read more
Recommend Site To A Friend
