Category: Uncategorized

What on earth is happening to this country?

Now there is to be a meeting at the BMA to make sure that Doctors have the ability/permission to ask their patients if they want them to pray for them!

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, says  that it is not part of a doctors or nurses role to bring up religion with patients.

What I think he really wants is to ban Christianity completely from UK public life and of course the NHS managers, being the PC inclusive lot that they are; are happy to ban NHS staff from offering any kind of spiritual comforting!

What a load of old tosh!!! If someone wants to offer to pray for someone; then they should be able to do that without fear of reprisal or censorship. At the end of the day, last time I looked, the UK was still predominantly Christian country – albeit less so that 20 years ago.

With Brazil calling a halt to the search for any further bodies and debris, speculation is now centring around other similar incidents, including two crashes that seem to have been caused by blocked Pitot Tubes influencing the planes on board computers to initiate manoeuvres that the pilots either struggled to overcome or fatally could not correct .

Being able to understand how fast a plane is flying you would think is fundamental to pilots who have to control the flight! Well it would appear that Air France seems not to have paid as much attention to the air speed sensors (the Pitot Tubes)  as they should have.

Remember the Airbus that went into the trees – although this did not relate to Pitot Tubes – there was no mention of it in the crash report.

With the recent release of MP’s expenses, it makes me wonder just where all the money goes that Government spends on IT.

Although the expenses disclosures were published in PDF format (a reason that easily allowed censorship), which of course is pretty much an accepted standard for delivering printed electronic documents. I think that they could have done a  better job, for example by getting all the information into an online database –seeing at this government is seemingly so in love with them.

Take a look at what the Conservative party has done with some of its expenses disclosure – Front Bench Only – though there has to be some belief that this would not have happened albeit for the whole MP’s expenses scandal in the first place. It’s a much more up-to-date method than PDF.

With plans for more discloser of parliamentary spending, delivery of this  sort information to us tax payers is something that all future governments need to figure out how pretty quickly.

In the meantime, here is a link to the Daily Telegraphs excellent database for all their published information on MP’s expenses including the uncensored information.

Thinking of going abroad and want to know a bit more about the country you’re intending to visit, you can always pick up that last minute travel guide at the airport. Well it seems that the choice your offers may no longer be just that!

In what seems to be a bizarre deal, WH Smiths who seem to be the only book shop at most airports, have signed an exclusive deal with Penguin Books whereby only their (Penguin’s) travel books will be on the shelves. The deal incidentally not only covers Smiths airport shops but will cover all their UK stores!

Sweeping all other travel guides away including those excellent Berlitz mini-guides, WH Smiths airport shelves will now only contain the Rough Guides and Dorling Kindersley travel books.

Seems a very strange decision that will certainly restrict travellers choice and many travel writers are also up in arms about it.

Looks like its off to Waterstones and Amazon for what I need. It’s a cleaver bit of sales strategy from Smiths (from an new business graduate?) that is sure to drive customers away and make me think even more as to what Smiths are really in business for.

At last recognition for some unsung heroes of WWII. People that worked at Bletchley Park are to receive recognition for their contribution during WWII.

Tasked with cracking the Enigma and other codes used by the Germans, they proved that diligent and very hard work resulted in successes that really shorten the length of the war and saved many lives, particularly the many conveys that supplied an isolated Britain.

They also contributed to the early use of computers for analysis of complex problems. However, this work was not carried after the war as all evidence of its use being destroyed or covered up on orders by Churchill and other leaders. Sadly, with hindsight a massive, massive error, that forever cost has this country dearly.

I’ve posted about Bletchley and its use of computers before, however these awards are really about the people behind the technologies and deservedly getting the recognition that they rightly deserved.

With Air Passenger Duty (APD) being increased next year (there is already to be a rise in APD this November)  by our every people-friendly Labour Government to £85 per person for a long distance trip to say Sydney. UK air travellers would seem to be at the forefront of being penalised for wanting to travel.

Based on a sliding scale similar to income tax against earnings – now there’s a simile – it racks up the costs, the further you travel.

How will this affect the already hard pressed fare payer? Well if you’re a family of four on that trip of a lifetime, it will cost you some £340 in APD to fly to Australia or New Zealand, and just to add salt into the wound, if you want a bit more leg room on that trip and travel Premium Economy (or above), then look out for a whopping £680 APD charge!

Perhaps there will be a rise in travel by train to Paris before you make the long hop – but beware, HMRC have thought about that and if you have bought a connecting ticket via say Paris from a UK seller, you’ll still get stung for APD. You’ll have to get a completely separate ticket for the long hop from a French ticket agency to completely get around it.

I can understand that there is a need to look after the environment, what ever the real reasons (just plain tax raising I think)  for these increases, it will certainly make people think about long haul travel.

As the hunt for the Black Boxes of the recent Air France Airbus crash continues, here is a very good summary of what is known so far and it looks like it’s pointing towards a catastrophic high-altitude break-up.

With engineering discussions focusing on the Pitot Tubes somehow in this case not sending the correct speed information to the on-board computers, it now appears that there have been a number similar incidents on Air France Airbus place.

“The Times of London reports that a similar “incoherent cocktail of alarms” occurred six times on Air France flights since February 2008. Though pilots eventually regained control in those instances, one situation became so dire that the pilot issued a mayday call. In each case, the emergency appeared to be linked to Pitot tubes that malfunctioned in stormy weather, The Times concludes.”

The Air France that crashed had not had its Pitot Tubes replace, this was to be done in due course!!

With only 20 or less days to go before the pingers on the Black Box run out, it’s looking highly likely that this will be one air crash that may never give up its secrets.

A Harvard University study has recently confirmed that continued drinking of liquids from Plastic bottles that contain Bisphenol A or BPA as it is sometime called will result in a build up of the chemical in people’s bodies.

This interesting article in a recent copy of the Boston Globe, has again raised concerns about the use of this chemical and it’s effects when coming into contact with humans!

Despite the USA FDA and the UK’s FSA having not committed to an outright ban, Chicago looks like it will be the first city to introduce a complete ban on all plastic bottles that contain BPA. It’s unclear as yet if this will be adopted countrywide.  But at least one Canadian Manufacture abandoned the  use of BPA in it plastic bottles in late 2008 which was followed by a government ban on BPA in baby products.

With regards to the UK, although companies have release BPA free plastic products, we still seem to be a bit indifferent on the subject and follow it with stories like this one from the Daily Mail.

I certainly think that our exposure to chemicals like BPA and the many others that we don’t even know about that are used by manufactures may well be adding to the recent huge rise in various allergies and the massive increase in such aliments as Diabetes.

So next time you want a drink, check what’s in the bottle, it could be another dose of BPA.

Two interesting books have just been published discussing the ever increasing use of UK Government surveillance on its citizens.

AC Graylings Liberty in the Age of Terror deals with the way that the public through its own compliancy and  indifference is slowing giving away many of its hard won civil liberties. Although, he recognises that there is a need for tools to solve the current terror threats, he is concerned that too many of our freedoms are being eroded on a daily basis with no real public discussion taking place.

Ground Control: Fear and Happiness in the 21st Century City by Anna Minton is another look at the UK’s CCTV coverage and the impact it is having on us, particularly with regards to what we once thought were our public spaces, but are now fast becoming privatised and under the control of yet more invasive  CCTV. As with the previous book, Minton points out that many of these changes are happening under our noses and it would appear without any kind of informed public debate.

Both books are must reads, highlighting the seemingly unstoppable way in which the UK continues to move towards being one of the most monitored countries in the world with every one of its citizens a number in a database and their images being tracked as they go about their daily business.

Despite being dogged by ongoing technical issues, ContactPoint has finally been switched on to allow childcare professionals access for the first time.

With access to the database eventually being granted to over 350,000 people from both Government and Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s) such as the charity Dr. Bernardos, there are still fears that the security of the system is not as good as it should be.

Other agencies that will have access to the initial 51,000 Children at Risk listings will include social workers, police, schools and health officials. However, the database will eventually contain some 11 million child records, kept from their birth to their 18th birthday.

Whilst there is very much a need to ensure that all venerable children are protected from the seemingly increasing cases of child abuse of one sort or another – in fact ContactPoint was borne out of the Victoria Climbié case –  there are concerns that this database along with the many other government databases is just another add-on to the tracking all UK citizens from the moment of birth to the point of death.

Recent comments from the outgoing Information Commissioner Richard Smith adds extra concerns that too much information is being kept by many government agencies on UK individuals.

It seems that the Labour is still intent on getting us all digitised, be it via CCTV, ID Cards or the many databases that it already has and is continuing to build. Big Brother gets closer by the day.

Some recent resources found:

• The FT – Children’s database launched amid leak concerns.

• Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust Ltd – The Database State: Just how many Government databases are there?

• BBC News – Database of all children launched.

• Nursing Times – Children’s database launched despite access fears.

• The Register – ContactPoint goes live despite security fears.

• CIO – ContactPoint children’s database rolls out.

  Technorati Tags: Surveillance,Databases,Big Brother,Security,Government