I saw this surreal advert for the “Anti-Terrorist Hotline” operated by the Met police and the British Transport police. It’s truly preposterous because it’s intended to give the impression that some kind of actual near-miss has occurred, and that lives were saved only thanks to the vigilance of a “shopper”.

It’s doubly terrible because it was placed in a part of London most visited by innocent tourists: What are they to make of this fear-mongering… that British intelligence is so incompetent that the only way we can keep all of our limbs attached is if we rat on any beardy-man who looks vaguely interested in the landscape? Many foreign-looking people come from places where streets are not adorned with so many government-cameras. It’s only natural that these abominations might be regarded with suspicion or curiosity.

It’s doubly preposterous because it’s intentionally vague: The scene shows an average sort of young family in an average sort of British high-street. It’s obviously intended to represent our own neighborhoods, but this vagueness gives it away:

The ad is so short on any details that might allow us to corroborate the event they are describing: Where or when did the shopper shop the CCTV student? Was this person really planning to plant a bomb or did he just look kind of shifty. Is this entire event a hypothetical example of what might happen if shoppers do not report people who look at CCTV cameras.

ambien fedex Buy No Prescription Diazepam Online discount generic xanax
buy brand name xanax? Buy Valium C O D cheapest xanax pills
ativan lorazepam buy cheap ativan online Valium Cheap lorazepam on line fedex!
ambien cr buy fed ex delivery Diazepam Ups Shipping buy alprazolam from mexico
cheap generic overseas ativan Ambien Cheap Overnight cheap ambien without prescription;
buy diazepam saturday delivery Ambien Buy India Buy valium madre natura buy valium in tijuana 318.
ativan for sale? Ambien Price Boards Chongqed cheap diazepam
xanax generic price Ambien Where To Buy order ambien from canada;
cheapest xanax no prescription Order Fda Approved Xanax Drugs Online xanax peach pill
valium cheap Cheapest Valium all about buy xanax
buying xanax without presciption Ambien Fedex Overnight ambien blue pill
xanax compare prices Ambien Buy Ambien Online Imc Print prices for sleep aid ambien
valium online order Buy Ambien Overseas buy xanax from india no rx?
buy cheap ambien Safely Order Valium Online pharmacies that send xanax by fedex?
order xanax online Ambien Drugstore Pharmacy Online lorazepam depresses hiccups
buy ativan from discount store Diazepam Order Online No Prescription cheap ativan online discount pharmacy
buy xanax by electronic check Buy Xanax From India No Rx ativan for panic disorder
buy ativan 2.5 mg from india Valium Sales online sales valium;
buy ambien online without rx Order Xanax With No Prescription buy alprazolam online?
cheap ativan buy pharmacy online now Diazepam Valium Sales cheapest alprazolam
buy valium phillipines Ambien Blue Pill buy alprazolam!
buy valium us pharmacy Xanax Overnight Fedex Delivery buy non genaric ambien online

I just bought and downloaded 2dboy’s awesome “World of Goo” for Linux. It looks and plays just like the Wii version, except that it’s higher-resolution and since it’s played with a mouse and not one of those silly nintendo wiimote things it’s a great deal more enjoyable. It really is a perfect port of the game, and without the Nintendo’s crappy control issues it’s a much better game.

wogdlbanner1

If you’ve never tried this game I suggest you grab the demo (available on all platforms). The idea of the game is to build structures out of goo-balls… bizarre adhesive critters that like to link up to each other. The game challenges you a range of puzzles which can all be solved by building increasingly complex structures out of the sticky goo.

if you like it, please send twenty of your hard-earned dollars to 2dboy to show your support for Linux gaming.xanax order online no prescription Lorazepam Generic xanax cheap no prescription
xanax sales online Ambien For Sale what color is generic xanax
buy xanax without perscription; List Of Generic Xanax Cheap alprazolam order now no prescription cheap valium online pharmacy 989.
ambien fedex Xanax Cod Fedex discount generic xanax
buy brand name xanax? Buy Nonprescription Xanax cheapest xanax pills
ativan lorazepam buy cheap ativan online Buy Xanax Now lorazepam on line fedex!
ambien cr buy fed ex delivery Ambien Cheapest Prices buy alprazolam from mexico
cheap generic overseas ativan Ambien On Sale cheap ambien without prescription;
buy diazepam saturday delivery Buying Xanax While In China Buy valium madre natura buy valium in tijuana 318.
ativan for sale? Xanax Buy No Prescription cheap diazepam
xanax generic price Buying Valium Online Pharmacy Online order ambien from canada;
cheapest xanax no prescription Xanax Street Price Value xanax peach pill
valium cheap Generic Xanax Bar all about buy xanax
buying xanax without presciption Want To Buy Alprazolam ambien blue pill
xanax compare prices Percocet Valium For Sale No Prescription prices for sleep aid ambien
valium online order Cheapest Site To Buy Valium On-line buy xanax from india no rx?
buy cheap ambien Discount Xanax pharmacies that send xanax by fedex?
order xanax online Us Pharmacy No Prescription Valium Fedex lorazepam depresses hiccups
buy ativan from discount store Buy Ambien With No Prescription cheap ativan online discount pharmacy
buy xanax by electronic check Buy Xanax Valium ativan for panic disorder

This is round 2 of the exciting tit-for-tat between the secularists and the god-botherers:

The not-atheist bus

I’m not sure what the strategy behind this advert is. It’s obviously a response to the “Atheist Bus” campaign which had an almost negligible visibility and yet nevertheless managed to provoke all kinds of ire from the nutty wing of various Churches.

Something I learned working for an advertising agency is that a sales process which begins with insulting the customer (in this case calling him a “fool”) is unlikely to be all that effective, even as in this case if the product is being offered free of charge.

I suspect that the reason for disbelief is not a consequence of lack of bibles: In my experience there are plenty of these in circulation. I suspect the problem has more to do with the content of the bibles, spesifically the fact that it is a book full of bronze-age superstision of questionable moral value with little or no relevance to the modern world. If only the Trinitarian Bible Society would tackle that core issue I think they’d have a great campaign.

When I was an Indymedia mirror operator I used to get weekly calls from concerned police officers worried about “dangerous content” on “my site”. It’s the nature of the project that it attracts all kinds of people who often post very foolish things in public view, however I’ve noticed that police find dealing with IM very confusing and this makes normally sensible investigators try some very foolish things:

Recently Kent Police confiscated one of IndyMedia’s servers because they believed it contained information pertaining to some threatening comments posted by an animal-rights activist. They had previously approached the server’s operator with a request for information – this request was denied not out of malice but simply because the information did not exist on that computer.

The police grabbed the sever based on the theory that all web-servers generate log-files and that all log-files contain a list of IP addresses of visitors to the site. This, they believed, might be used as evidence to discover the identity of the rogue activist. There are a number of flaws in this theory:

Firstly, the standard IndyMedia configuration requires that web-logging is switched off. There are no logs.

Of course this is done on purpose: IndyMedia want to preserve their reader’s anonymity. They also want to prevent the long-running mirror-servers from filling up with gigabytes of useless web-logs. Even if logging were enabled it is unlikely that there would be any useful information beyond what police have already seen on IndyMedia’s public web-pages.

Secondly, the machine used to generate the content which has so irked Kent’s finest is unlikely to have been the same machine from which the page was eventually accessed. The machine they confiscated is likely to be one of the hundred IndyMedia mirrors worldwide. The mirrors are an international network of computers donated by supporters which exist to distribute the IndyMedia content around the world. Any machine plucked at random would typically contain content which originated elsewhere. It would be impossible to determine who or where that content originally came from by looking at the content because that information is not stored.

Unfortunately the consequence of this confiscation will be the opposite of what the police intended: Since IndyMedia has no central editorial board, other IMC groups internationally are free to mirror what they like from the UK. Usually an attempt to censor any part of IndyMedia meets with a dramatic increase in the amount of international mirroring, effectively putting the content out of reach of both British police and UK based IndyMedia editors. Once this happens there will be nothing that anybody in the UK can do that will cause the content to be taken-down.

There is another, much easier way to deal with this problem. Indymedia does have an editorial policy and will usually remove obviously illegal content. You just have to ask them to remove content. The editorial moderation channels are public forums whose addresses are listed on the IndyMedia sites and contrary to popular belief the IMC edtors have better things to do than to pick fights with police. If properly notified offending content can be removed in less than 24 hours and everbody stays happy.

Economist-bloggers “The Baseline Scenario” propose an beautiful solution to our gloomy recession: Banks are desperate to offload their toxic assets, and bankers are desperate to get their bonuses:-

“Why not say that all bank compensation above a baseline amount – say, $150,000 in annual salary – has to be paid in toxic assets off the bank’s balance sheet? Instead of getting a check for $10,000, the employee would get $10,000 in toxic assets, at their current book value.”

The beauty of this idea is that it aligns the banker’s greed motive with the public good. Rather than simply maximize profits at the expense of the poorest a banker’s bonus would actually depend on financially enfranchising worst-off debtors.



14/02/2008, originally uploaded by salimfadhley.

According to Christoph Hartmann, the president of the game-publisher 2K, the Wii Market is “Flooded with Crap” – something that Wii owner could not have failed to notice.

BBC World have broadcast the first episode of The Oracle, a strange and funny hybrid of financial analysis and humor. It’s produced by my friends Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert who Resonance FM listeners may know as the hosts of the weekly radio show Karmabanuqe.

it’s fantastic, funny stuff and represents a real break from the reportage of statistics and stock-picks that passes for financial news on the “business” channels.

I’ve been slowly reading through Frank Key’s excellent new book “Gravitas, Punctillio, Rectitude and Pippy Bags” – the third of Franks books currently in print.

Those of you fortunate enough to live within range of Resonance 104.4 FM’s feebly low-powered radio-beacon may know Mr. Key from his Thursday evening radio broadcasts. If you’ve never heard his live show, pretty much every word he has ever spoken on the air has been collected by my friend “Marvin Suicide” and posted on the Resonance FM Podcast site. Just subscribe to it with whatever podcast-downloader you use… if that application happens to be iTunes, please consider using an alternative which is not so tightly corporately controlled… but heck, you can use that too.

Perhaps it’s too late to get this book as a Christmas present, but as Mr Key informed me once, true Dobsonists do not celebrate Xmas, they celebrate on Boxing day.



CCTV Tower, originally uploaded by salimfadhley.

This rather sinister looking observation post is in a park in North London not far from my home.



Bach "Rescue Remedy", originally uploaded by salimfadhley.

Bach allegedly discovered the healing power of the ultra-dilute flower-essences in his products via some kind of telepathic study of the medicinal affinities of the plants he studied. What I find astonishing is not the that Mr. Bach was a blatant charlatan but that people continue to buy his worthless product.

Bach’s “Rescue Remedy” consists of 50% brandy dissolved in distilled water. Other compounds may be present in negligible trace quantities. It is based on the discredited “homeopathic” theory that chemicals present in trace quantities may have some sort of healing property.

The most expensive brandy sold by Sainsbury (a British supermarket) is £24 per 1000ml. That’s just under 2.5p per ml. Bach’s 10m product by comparison is just over £1 per ml.

That’s 43 times more expensive than the most expensive brandy sold by a typical supermarket.