Author: Mike

Well sort of… for many UK astronomers who in February will lose access to two of the world’s best telescopes.

The reason? It’s the result of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) cutting off payment fees for the use of the Gemini North and Gemini South Telescopes.

I have always had an interest in astronomy and using my own telescope (TAL-120) I have always enjoyed my use of it even through the ever increasing light pollution that affects the UK night sky. Even though I only use my telescope infrequently due to other distractions, I would miss not being able to use it when I wanted, so I understand the mounting frustrations around this decision. See here for the full story.

It seems a bit crazy to me that the government is cutting funding to the STFC, but I wonder if its anything to do with the obscene amount of money that is being dropped into that black hole called Northern Rock!

I hope the STFC can find another way to somehow refinance these payment fees before they expire and get our research astronomers back online.

Well it’s happened at last! Pandora.com has under pressure from Music licensing authorities has blocked all access to non-USA users – see my login attempt.

I’ve followed the story in a previous post and it seems strange to me in this day and age of supposed innovation why a company like Pandora is forced out of the UK (and many other countries) by over eager licensing authorities wanting to stamp free choice for the likes of you and me.

Here’s some more background info around to the story courtesy of Computing Magazine.

Here’s a very good time line of when and how much personal data has been lost over the past twelve months.

Now, if this is only the tip of the iceberg – as we might expect. How much more data has been lost/stolen that we don’t know about?

Also bear in mind that in most of these cases, the loss was not reported straight away as the various departments/companies struggled to find the missing data before it was public knowledge!!!

I expect the events that happened in the commercial companies have resulted in very serious consequences for the individuals, but I bet the same has not happened to the relevant government employees!

Bring on new National ID Card scheme!!! NOT!

So we have the loss of 600,000 service personal (I did not know that we had that many service personnel ) records through a laptop stolen from a parked car belonging to a Royal Navy recruitment officer – I wonder if he will be prosecuted?

We also have the paper records found in A Kingston Upon Street in early January.

What about the Stockpot Primary Care Trust (PCT) that has admitted it has not informed the thousands affected after their names, dates of birth and details of medical conditions were lost on a USB drive in December 2007.

Now we find that another Nine NHS trusts have lost the records of hundreds of thousands of adults and children, in the latest embarrassing loss of data by this government.

And where does data end up? On E-bay!!!! 

But I still want a National ID card scheme! Not!

When will someone in government sort this mess out, probably never!!!

What is the Information Commissioner doing about this? Not much it seems!!!

I was going through some of last years Time Magazines and always look forward to their end of year Top Ten lists in particularly their Top Ten Music lists.

Here’s a few links to some of their lists…

Top Ten Albums – 2007

Top Ten Songs – 2007

Time Magazine Top Ten Lists – 2007

Time Magazine – Best of 2005

Time Magazine – Best of 2001

Time Magazine – Best of 1988

Time Magazine – Best of the 1980’s

I recently met up again with someone who had been looking for their 22 year old son who was missing from his UK home for over two years!

There were no known reasons that this devastated parent knew of for him to suddenly disappear and he had not turned up in any hospital that they knew off. Suddenly one Friday night, the son walked back into their home as if nothing had happened.

All this happened quite a few years ago and one of the problems that they had at the time was that there were not that many agencies that could help them.

How different it is today with many more resources available particularly on the Web.

It must be totally devastating when this happens and I hate to think how I would feel if I had to go through the same thing.

Here’s some links I found that would help anyone facing a similar situation.

• Missing You
• Missing People
• Missing People(2)
• Action for missing people
• Missing persons – help and support

You seen them and maybe you’ve not seen them, but you’ve probably seen the sensors at the exits to Supermarkets, Music stores and Petrol Stations.

They come in all sizes and shapes, from quite big to very very small , they can be square they can be round, in fact they can be any size and any shape.

Yes it’s the ever present RFID!

There now appearing everywhere in business, many companies using RFID’s to track their manufacturing processes from Automotive and Aviation spares to the latest high-end fashions.

As they continue to become more available, they become yet another tool that the UK authorities can use to keep track of the population as we go about our private business. More action need to be taken to protect us from this ongoing intrusion.

Some reference articles that show how prevalent RFID’s have become.

• Time Europe Magazine
• World’s tiniest RFID tag unveiled
• Global Research Article
• The UK considers RFID tags for prisoners

If you want to protect any RFID’s that your carrying such as Credit Cards etc. from being read illegally, then try one of these wallets or passport holders.

We’ve come out tops (or bottom depending on the way you look at it) in this latest poll, but for al the wrong reasons!!!

Taken from the latest 2007 International Privacy Ranking report from Privacy International the UK is confirmed again as being one of, if not the most endemic surveillance society in the world.

The reports puts the UK on the same level as other surveillance driven countries, China, Russia and the USA. Great, as a country supposed to be a champion of freedom!

The report paints a dark image of the way the UK continues down the road of to a total surveillance environment with further invasions of our privacy planned by our politicians via Identity Cards, Passenger Exit Records, Installation of yet more CCTV cameras to name just a few.

Other highlights from the report about the UK include:

• World leading surveillance schemes
• Lack of accountability and data breach disclosure law
• Commissioner has few powers
• Interception of communications is authorised by politician, evidence not used in court, and oversight is by commissioner who reports only once a year upon reviewing a subset of applications
• Hundreds of thousands of requests from government agencies to telecommunications providers for traffic data
• Data retention scheme took a significant step forward with the quiet changes based on EU law
• Plans are emerging regarding surveillance of communications networks for the protection of copyrighted content
• Despite data breaches, ‘joined-up government’ initiatives continue
• Identity scheme still planned to be the most invasive in the world, highly centralised and biometrics-driven; plan to issue all foreigners with cards in 2008 are continuing
• E-borders plans include increased data collection on travellers

Our freedom is slowly disappearing under this cloak of control to a point where we will soon be more monitored than even USSR citizens were during the Soviet era.

I wonder when we will see the State start to plant spy’s amongst us to track and report an individuals actions? It’s already started with hotlines for Benefit Fraud – yes we have to track criminals, but at what cost to the rest of us. “If you’ve nothing to hide, then you’ve nothing to fear”, is the cry that we’re then confronted with!

The report makes for very interesting reading and again shows how we, the great British masses are walking obliviously into a controlled society with little choice and eventually appearing to be just a number in one of the many governments databases, that is of course if they have not accidentally lost the data in the first place!

So why then, are willing to give complete strangers on the phone sensitive and private information when they claim to be from our Mobile phone supplier, Credit Card company or Bank?

Although many of these organisations have a policy of not initiating phone contact and asking for identifying information, some still do.

 Privacy International an independent human rights watch dog says that this should stop and have setup a trial with T-Mobile so that they have to ask you a question that proves that they are, who they say there are before asking you for private information. See the full story here.

After six months without a sitting government, Belgium still seems no closer to solving its ever lengthening constitutional crisis.

Protracted legal arguments between the Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia regions still show no sign of being resolved (the caretaker/interim government has only been in office for some 3 weeks) to the point where if not settled before 23rd March it could plunge Belgium back into political crisis and renew talk about the country splitting into Dutch- and French-speaking halves.

What would a split Belgium mean for Europe? There would be quite serious consequences I think as it’s one of the main hubs of major EU activity.

What is strange to me is how little we see this major story covered in the UK mainstream media. I suppose it’s another example of over there and out of sight. Just adds to the feeling that the UK media has no idea and no interest in anything outside of the UK except for the USA!!!

Interesting comments in Mark Mardell’s Blog.