[blogfocus tuesday] murder, science, women and silly people

1. As you know, Lady Mac and JMB met in Vancouver and it was one of the great meetings in history, sort of like when Delphi met Oracle in Bavaria or when Stanley met Livingstone:

As you know Lady Mac lives in Morocco and you know that she is always having adventures there. Well she brought those adventures with her to Surrey, for six people were found murdered in a condominium not far from her hotel and a small plane taking off from the Vancouver airport crashed into an apartment building, killing the pilot and injuring people in one of the apartments. All in the space of the few days while she was here. There's no such thing as coincidence you know.

2. Charles Robertson is back and didn’t even tell us:

Whenever someone tells you that something is so because it is the "scientific consensus", you should instantly treat the proponent's position with scepticism. A moment's thought experiment will tell you why: several hundred years ago, the scientific consensus said that the sun revolved around the earth. That, however, did not make it so, as we all now know.

3. On the question of the Scottish Blogroundup, whose url MacNumpty fails to give us and therefore it has to be googled, the worthy Scot defends his gender against the charge of sexism:

The fact is, it can't just be a case of us being male chauvinist pigs: IndyGal was doing the Roundup, she was preparing it all day, and she couldn't find enough posts by women bloggers to justify a full roundup using only posts by women, as she admits. So there's more going on than us snubbing women. The problem is wider: either there are fewer women blogging than men on the subject, or there are more women blogging but they haven't yet come to our attention. Both of these problems can be fixed, but not by us.

4. Cleanthes simply hasn’t the time to devote to the lady who's always up for a good kicking:

Toynbee that is.

This article is poor and is given a thoroughly good shafting in the comments. It still deserves a thorough fisk but I have a life and a day-job and I suspect that there are many others with much more:

* vitriol,
* extensive vocabularies of the undeniably required profanity (Guess what.)
* experience of dealing with La Polla (told you so. Update: I really did tell you so.) and, crucially,
* time

who will do so properly long before I get a chance to.

Wasn't aware Cleanthes read the Guardian, to be honest. Still, we live and learn. More tomorrow, if we’re alive.

[blogging twilight] inexorable move to registration and a two tier internet

Welshcakes sprang into action and came up with:

Corriere's online edition has this, in which the minister proposing the law has stated categorically that no gagging of bloggers is intended and that the law will only apply to professional online publishing, bringing the law for online newspaper editions into line with that for printed versions. An amendment making this clear is to be announced tomorrow.

However, it is my opinion that an ambiguity remains: how do you define a "private blog?" Could blogs which carry even a little advertising be judged "professional", for instance?

She then replied to Chicken Yoghurt’s “all is well” comment which cast doubts on Grillo’s post:

Justin, I haven't got time to do a complete English translation, but I have read the Italian draft law and it is as Grillo says it is. However, there has this afternoon been an announcement by Levi to the effect that "private bloggers" will NOT be affected.

Which automatically raises the question of what constitutes a “private blog”. One which carries no advertising, even Google’s? One which makes no political comment?

Wolfie asked, in the same comments section, whether U.S. hosts would be affected. This might help answer that:

"Section 220 of S. 1, the lobbying reform bill currently before the Senate, would require grassroots causes, even bloggers, who communicate to 500 or more members of the public on policy matters, to register and report quarterly to Congress the same as the big K Street lobbyists. Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) introduced an amendment Jan. 9 "to create criminal penalties, including up to one year in jail, if someone 'knowingly and willingly fails to file or report.'" But Vitter is now co-sponsoring Amendment 20, with Sen. Robert Bennett (R-Utah), to remove Section 220 from the bill.

And Britain? A BBC article on the U.S. net neutrality issue mentioned that similar moves were afoot in Britain.

And Europe?

In Europe, some ISPs have similarly begun to block access to internet telephony services. For example, this summer reports from Germany indicated that Vodafone had begun to block Voice over IP (Voip) traffic, treating the popular Skype program as "inappropriate content." European ISPs have also faced mounting pressure to block access to peer-to-peer systems such as BitTorrent, which are widely used to share both authorised and unauthorised content.

Some see this as just a money grab whilst others see a disguised agenda to shut down blog comment on political matters, however that is defined. Whatever the reason, under such proposals, the vast majority of blogs would have to close or would find the whole thing to finicky to continue.

It's a clever move because the general populace would see that the powers that be did nothing to close the blogosphere whatsoever. Let's enjoy the last two years or so of it whilst we can.

[smoking] you're nicked, me old china

What’s wrong with these paragraphs about new technology which helps detect whether you've been smoking or not?

Dr. Reddy was looking for a quick, convenient method to detect whether a person smokes. Current tests involve breath, blood or saliva samples, but the pulse cooximeter simply involves placing a clip-like device on a fingertip.

The pulse cooximeter reads percentages of poisoned blood through a light that is shined through the finger nail.

Nothing wrong with it? I want to know why – why you wouldn’t take my word whether I smoke or not? Why must I be made to submit to the indignity of a test to prove whether I’m a liar or not?

What is it to you if I smoke or not? What is any of it to do with you? How much did the research cost? Who funded it? Why not spend it on research which counts, such as finding cures for human ailments?

Do you see any distinction between a naughty child and an adult who does what he feels to be best for him?

Does the word “draconian” hover somewhere near the back of the mind in reading this stuff? I also want to know why you said "shined" instead of "shone".

[blog experiment] wonder if it can be done

Guess where I'm posting this pointless piece from?

Just an experiment like. [Hint, take the "L" from the last post's header's first word. :)]

All right - a bit of scatalogical humour but the point of it is that it is possible - that I still have the freedom to do it, to post, to visit friends. Ian Appleby, a kind and clever soul, says, of the plans to shut down the blogosphere:

Prodi is no longer an EU functionary, so don't let that sidetrack you, either. For now, this remains a draft Italian law. But yes, none the less, it's a blow.

I would suggest that this blind faith in our EU masters has eased the process by which such things have been achieved. Wake up and devote four hours on a high speed internet visiting to the reputable bloggers we know who source their material and piece it all together [I'll do this partially this weekend] - just do this and the pieces fall into place.

The thing is, I began sceptically because of completely other things I was investigating, in which bits and pieces about the EU popped up and I should have recorded and kept them there and then. Still, even Lisbon and the raft of recent EU legislation is a good starter.

It's complete naivety to think that powerful think tanks' advice is not taken on board. Think of the generalist nature of EU functionaries - of course they outsource to qangos. A beautiful example is the NAU, which when presented to Bush, became the SPPNA on March 23rd, 2005, agreed with Martin and the Mexican.

Don't get tied up in local party politics because important though they are, this sort of thing is far more important and illustrates the macro-view of where the EU is actually headed.

[blogging] plan to register and tax in the eu

Chicken Yoghurt is an otherwise intelligent and erudite man, which makes some of his blind spots a little unfathomable:

I have say that personally, it’s always mystified me why people get so steamed up over the issue of Europe. The non-impact of the issue on my day-to-day life and habits is profound.

How about this one for starters, Justin:

Ricardo Franco Levi, Prodi’s right hand man , undersecretary to the President of the Council, has written the text to put a stopper in the mouth of the Internet. The draft law was approved by the Council of Ministers on 12 October. No Minister dissociated themselves from it. On gagging information, very quietly, these are all in agreement.

The Levi-Prodi law lays out that anyone with a blog or a website has to register it with the ROC, a register of the Communications Authority, produce certificates, pay a tax, even if they provide information without any intention to make money.

Links to the pdf are at beppegrillo’s site. H/T Ian P

[blogfocus monday] sweet and sour

Photo shamelessly stolen from Tiberius, as is my usual wont

I'm calling this sweet and sour this evening but it's not a reference to the bloggers - it's a reference to their situations:

1. Tiberius Gracchus is quite taken with Pharonic follies and let's face it, who doesn't have this running through the brain day after day?

Notice that Hemiunu makes the Pharoah's power conditional upon the fact that he is a symbol for his subjects- it is through his subject's support and their identification of him as the symbol of the nation that he receives legitimation. They do that because he is a good ruler. In that sense power ascends from them to him.

2. I'm not posting any of Kelly Mac's article here - prepare yourself for a shock then please go there and read it. You owe it to yourself.

3. Ms Baroque supplies 25 ways to be Ms Baroque, in case you need assistance in being her. Here are 4-7:

4. can't ring the bank today, it's Sunday; a friend told me I need to register for online banking and he was right. I need constant access to the fiasco. 5. tomorrow, then: transfer some (more) money from the savings; try and salvage something of the wreckage of my current account. Once it's salvaged, try and keep it salvaged. I used to be draconian with money! I think I just got tired... 6. oh: go to the supermarket! There's nothing for lunch. 7. but have a bath first.

4. Kareno is facing the challenge of some not so great news and it doesn't help to be an ostrich:

You all know about the phrase to "Bury your head in the sand". Fortunately for their species, ostriches aren't that stupid, but it works for me! I wouldn't hide my head. Some other body parts of mine most definitely. Tuesday is looming, and I'm really scared. Confused and emotional. Trying to work, but concentration is not on the menu today.

Until tomorrow, readers.