ID Card Prop-Agenda

A nice little piece the Beeb have included in their 'news' reporting - about how people in the UK face, on average, 11 demands for proof of identity per year.

How cynical of you to wonder if is this has been fed to the Beeb, by the government, as part of the softening-up process for the authoritarian ID Card/Registry scheme! Shame on you for thinking that the only thing missing from the piece is a statement from the government saying that ID cards would make the process so much easier for the busy, time-poor hard-working single parent/tax-payer/houswife/young family/pensioner ...

The government is your friend! They're not waging a propaganda war with their electorate in order to achieve their own goals!

I can't believe you're so untrusting.

This Sick Society

A Vicar resigns after being investigated for giving a child a kiss on the cheek to congratulate her because she had done well in maths.

"As the complaint and subsequent police investigation demonstrates, the simple act of a kiss on the cheek - a common greeting throughout the world - has potentially damaging consequences."

Cool David Lynch Interview

... in Businessweek, about meditation and the creative process (with some business thrown in).

BBC Have Your Say - Human Rights

Yet more proof that the BBC's messageboard 'Have Your Say' is the almost sole preserve of short-sighted right-wingers.

BBC News Forums Teeming With Idiots

If you ever needed any proof that the people who frequented the BBC News Forum 'Have Your Say' messageboards, were generally brain-dead, right-wing, morons, this should surely be it.

The 'debate' is concerning Bill Gate's departure from Microsoft. The high-rated comments are the preserve of the uninformed:

Bill Gates has been a tour de force behind the generation of the modern world. His vision capability and steadfastness have been nothing short of astounding.

Then to cap it all he is also perhaps the worlds most prolific philanthropist giving not only billions of pounds but selflessly of his time and throwing his considerable power into the most worthy of causes. I for one wish him every continued success. - [ianthegreek], Leicester, United Kingdom - Recommended by 72 people

Finding an informed opinion is a little more difficult, they start appearing around page three, but you have to journey to page six to get, what I think is fair to call, an accurate summary of Bill's position in the world:

His legacy will be the same as that of many other super-rich.

- Make as much money as possible by any means possible, crushing any opposition.
- Realise that you are mortal, but wish to live in perpetuity
- Give away a lot of cash to charities, have hospital and library wings named after yourself to achieve this.

It is funny to me that so many people think he is giving his money away because he is a generous and kind soul - if he was he would not have gotten where he was today. - Ray, Brit in US - Recommended by 5 people

Biting into Spam

A small Welsh computer company has won the right to include the word "spam" in a trademark, despite objections from a multi-national food corporation. NetBop Technologies developed a filter it called "bopspam" aimed at combating unwanted e-mails, known as spam [,]but US-based Hormel Foods, which makes the meat product of the same name, initially objected to its registration.

Experts believe the Swansea company is the first in Europe to secure such a written trademark using the word spam.

Seems a shame to me - I'm not usually a defender of bug vested interests in the whole so-called 'intellectal property' arena, but, Hormel Foods have been very good about their brandname foodstuff's trademark, compared to many other businesses - having a variety of liberal policies on it - so it's a little disappointing to see this computer company, Bopspam, taking the approach they have.

Benefit Cheats NOT Scum Shock

An antidote to all the hang 'em, flog 'em screeching often found in the Daily Mail and The BBC News' 'Have Your Say' message boards, perhaps?

People who work and claim benefits do so often because they are in dire financial trouble, a Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) study has said.

The JRF study was based on six years of work by the East London Community Links project.

It found that people working and claiming benefits did so out of "need not greed".

Despite the introduction of tax credits, designed to supplement the incomes of the low-paid, many people in the study said they felt the system trapped them in a poverty cycle.

In short, the tax and benefits system provided these people with few financial incentives to give up benefits and declare paid work.

Government Wrongly Labels Innocent People Criminals

Some 2,700 people have been wrongly labelled as criminals by the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB), it has emerged. The mistakes have led to some people being turned down for jobs.

Emma Budd, from Maesteg, South Wales, lost out on a job she was offered by a children's charity when she was incorrectly identified by the CRB as a convicted shoplifter.

What's the betting that New Labour will propose ID cards and the Identity Register as a solution to their problem?

The CRB is an executive agency of the Home Office which runs checks for organisations recruiting people to work in positions of trust, often with children. It said it made "no apology for erring on the side of caution".

So, labelling people criminals (in some cases paedophiles) and losing them jobs because of it, is so acceptable that they make 'no appology' for it?

An outstanding defense of the indefensible!

What I'm waiting for is someone who's affected by this and is prepared to sue the Home Office for libel, which is, after all, what's going on here.

V For Vendetta Mask

From Forbidden Planet.

Plastic, four quid.

The way this country's going, you know we'll all need one.

RIAA Bullshit Damages

The RIAA (Ridiculously Inflated Accounting Abberations) get US$150,000 as statutory damages for copyright infringement.

Donny, of Donny's Blog, has taken some data available from copyright apocalypse that is The Pirate Bay, and calculated just how much the RIAA is claiming entitlement to, for such shennanegans.

It turns out to be more than the GDP of France. France has the sixth highest GDP of any country in the world.

I think Donny's estimates are extremely conservative. He calculates the dollar amount based on the number of songs in a torrent, times the number of torrents. In actualité, each person seeding any of the torrents would be hit for that amount, per copyright violation. Assuming an average of 5 people seeding each torrent, the fines would come out at higher than the GDP of the world.

And, as Donny says, that's only for January!

BBC NEWS - Have Your Say

Does anyone else feel nauseated when they read the BBC's 'Have Your Say' message boards?

I mean, it's bad enough that they're still censored. Despite the (relatively) recent changes to the sytem, it's rare to find a topic which is retroactively moderated, and the moderation which does take place is hard to understand - stupid, barely comprehensible posts full of speeling eerors, or the worst sort of pointless, single sentence unsupported opinion posts are let through, while considered and carefully crafted posts are rejected (obviously I speak of my own rejected posts!)

One of the latest 'hot topics' was the issue of illegal immigrants, which reads like a Daily Mail letters page, only worse. And it's not alone - there seems to be an increasing amount of extremely right-wing opinion filling up the boards, comments which are also highly 'recommended' (the system whereby readers can recommend posts they approve of, leading to a higher ranking in the list of comments posted).

It all seems to hinge around one particular philosophy - cruel-minded meanness - whether it's sending illegal immigrants back to where they came from, even if they face certain death or torture, withdrawing healthcare from the unemployed, dismantling the Royal Mail - resulting in a profit-run organisation that will provide a sub-standard postal service to out-of-the-way places - it's all about the correspondent's eagerness to tightly hold onto whatever money they've got, make sure no one's getting anything better than they are, screw the idea of collective co-operation for the betterment of all, and harsh punishment for anyone they don't approve of - typical Daily Mail, Little Englander, I'm All Right Jack mentalities.

It seems for all the talk of 'Liberal Democracy', England hasn't come such a long way from the times when people brought their picnics along for their day out to watch the latest public hanging.

Retch.

Jim Woodring's Blog!

The Woodring Monitor. Woo!

One Cracking Law for the Little Guys ...

... and another for the big fellas, I guess:

A spyware maker was fined $4 million for putting crap on people's computers, in breach of US laws that state that software may not be installed without user's knowledge or consent.

I seem to recall one of Sony's DRM protection schemes had them installing software on people's computers, without their knowledge or consent, when it installed the DRM system despite users clicking "NO" and rejecting the software.

Why haven't they been hauled before the court and slapped with a fine?

Yengo on Bodhidharma

"The Zen teachers are all unknowing knowers or knowing unknowers. Therefore their 'I do not know' does not really mean our 'I do not know.' We must not take their answers in the way we generally do at the level of relative knowledge. Therefore, their comments which are quoted below do not follow the line we ordinarily do. They have this unique way. Yengo, (1063-1135) gives his evaluation of the mondo ('question and answer') which took place between Bodhidharma and the Emperor Wu of the Liang dynasty in the following words: 32

Bodhidharma came to this country, via the southern route, seeing that there was something in Chinese mentality which responds readily to the teaching of Mahāyāna Buddhism. He was full of expectations, he wanted to lead our countrymen to the doctrine of 'Mind-alone' which cannot be transmitted by letters or by means of word of mouth. The Mind could only be immediately taken hold of whereby we attain to the perception of the Buddha-nature, that is, to the realization of Buddhahood. When the Nature is attained, we shall be absolutely free from all bondage and will not be led astray because of linguistic complications. For here Reality itself is revealed in its nakedness with no kinds of veil on it. In this frame of mind Bodhidharma approached the Emperor. He also thus instructed his disciples. We see that Bodhidharma's [emptied mind] had no premeditated measures, no calculating plans. He just acted in the freest manner possible, cutting everything asunder that would obstruct his seeing directly into the Nature in its entire nakedness. Here was neither good nor evil, neither right nor wrong, neither gain nor loss. . . .

The Emperor Wu was a good student of Buddhist philosophy and wished to have the first principle elucidated by the great teacher from India. The first principle consists in the identity of being and non-being beyond which the philosophers fail to go. The Emperor wondered if this blockage could somehow be broken down by Bodhidharma. Hence his question. Bodhidharma knew that whatever answers he might give would be frustrating.

'What is Reality? What is Godhead?'

'Vast emptiness and no distinctions whatever [neither Father nor Son nor Holy Ghost].'

No philosopher however well trained in his profession could ever be expected to jump out of this trap, except Bodhidharma himself who knew perfectly well how to cut all limitations down by one blow of a sword.

Most people nowadays fail to get into the ultimate signification of Bodhidharma's pronouncement and would simply cry out, 'vast emptiness' as if they really experienced it. But all to no purpose! As my old master remarks, 'When a man truly understands Bodhidharma, he for the first time finds himself at home quietly sitting by the fireside,' Unfortunately, the Emperor Wu happened to be one of those who could not rise above the limitations of linguistics. His views failed to penetrate the screen of meum and tuum (you and me). Hence his second question: 'Who are you who face me?' Bodhidharma's blunt retort, 'I do not know,' only helped make the august inquirer blankly stare.

Later, when he learned more about Bodhidharma and realized how stupid he was to have missed the rare opportunity of going deeper into the mystery of Reality, he was greatly upset. Hearing of Bodhidharma's death after some years he erected a memorial stele for him and inscribed on it: 'Alas! I saw him, I met him, I interviewed him, and failed to recognize him. How sad! It is all past now. Alas, history is irrevocable!' He concluded his eulogy thus:

'As long as the mind tarries on the plane of relativity,
It forever remains in the dark.
But the moment it loses itself in the Emptiness,
It ascends the throne of Enlightenment.'

After finishing the story of the Emperor Wu, Yengo the commentator puts this remark: 'Tell me by the way where Bodhidharma could be located.' This is expressly addressed to the readers and the commentator expects us to give him an answer. Shall we take up his challenge?"

More Yengo Zen

"You gain an illuminating insight into the very nature of things, which now appear to you as so many fairy-like flowers having no graspable reality. Here is manifested the unsophisticated self which is the Original Face of your being; here is shown all bare the most beautiful landscape of your birthplace. There is but one straight passage open and unobstructed through and through. This is where you surrender all, your body, your life, and all that belongs to your inmost self. This is where you gain peace, ease, non-doing, and inexpressible delight."

- Yengo (1566-1642)

Via Daily Zen.

Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill Killed

It seems the hideous Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill that allowed ministers to wipe their arses with the Magna Carter has been killed. The powers that will be contained in the bill will now be limited by way of the bill itself, explicitly stated, rather than as the result of a vague promise (a politician's promise!) that the ministers would be on their very best behaviour and would never do anything they shouldn't (oh to even think such a thought!)

The fact that they tried to pass the bill in its previous form, and their lenghty resisitance when its implications were detailed, is testament to the evil nature of this government.

The Eternal (&c.)

"It is presented right to your face, and at this moment the whole thing is handed over to you. Look into your whole being. Let your body and mind be turned into an inanimate object of nature like stone or a piece a wood; when in a state of perfect motionlessness, an awareness is attained. All the signs of life will depart, and also every trace of limitation will vanish. Not a single idea will disturb your consciousness, when all of a sudden you will come to realize a light abounding in full gladness."

- Yengo (1566-1642)

I've never read a description that better accords with my own experience.

Via Daily Zen Meditation.

Robin's Nest

In my garden, six feet from where I sit when the sun is out and I'm enjoying a cup of tea, or a peaceful moment, there is a robin's nest in the sculpted hedge, a mere four feet from the ground.

When the red-breasted parent robins arrive with their offerings of tiny worms, the chicks go off like miniature high-speed fire-crackers, with a crackling burst of chirps, which swiftly declines as the parent departs.

My cat sleeps a mere yard or two from where the nest is housed.

I hope the tiny chicks make it.

Abstract Experiment No.1

Firefox Flashing Cursor in Webpages 'Problem'

Do you have a problem in Firefox where the flashing cursor appears in a webpage? Where the 'Home' and 'End' functions seem not to work? Where the up and down arrows seem to work inefficiently or not at all?

And where you don't know what you can do about it?

It happened to me after I'd banged my keyboard against my head to generate some random text in an e-mail, to make it look like I was banging my keyboard against my head.

I thought I'd broken something in the hardware, maybe in firefox (since that was open, running Gmail at the time).

What it was though was that I'd inadvertently turned on the accessability function 'browse with caret' (for selecting text with the keyboard (useful for laptops, etc.) by pressing the F7 key.

This Ask.Metafilter page citing the problem: "I've noticed that clicking on the page itself now brings up a flashing text cursor - that never happened before. Plus, arrow keys now just move the cursor up and down." solved the mystery.

Hurray for AskMe!