498 terror attacks were carried out across Europe in 2006. One, which failed, was by an Islamist organization. But Islamist terror is still a major issue. Islamist groups aim at high civilian fatalities, whereas most of the cases listed here were nonlethal.
I read an interesting piece by Bruce Schneier in Wired in which he talks about the ways in which governments and the media are doing terrorists’ jobs for them.
We arrived back yesterday evening from fifteen days in Agadir, on the coast of Morocco. Upon arrival there we had been equipped with a rock-festival-like wrist band which entitled us to unlimited food and drink.
The BBC reported today that a picture of pensioners bowling with bombs by graffiti artist Banksy has sold in London for £102,000, breaking a record for his work.
David Cameron is the Conservative Party leader in England. There will be an election in summer. The election campaign has already begun, even though the election has not been officially announced yet. He is in danger of looking ridiculous before he gets a chance to look serious, courtesy of a series of advertisments that are attracting the parodies they invited.
Harold Jarche posted a short but interesting piece yesterday entitled The Future of Learning is DIY.
The number of crimes in which a handgun was used in England and Wales has risen from 299 in 1995 to 1,024 last year. There are more detailed figures here too.
The Guardian asked a number of arts “luminaries”: what would you do for culture if you were running the next government? One interesting answer was: have less policy.
According to The Register the Pirate Bay is making moves to raise sixty five million pounds to buy Sealand, the independent fortress off the British coast.
The Police Federation of England and Wales says government targets lead to “ludicrous” decisions such as arresting a child for throwing a cucumber slice.
This morning Reidar Wasenius is back on Facebook. The management has apparently become convinced that it is better with him in than out.
Today I learned that Robert Anton Wilson had finally died after a long illness brought on by his childhood polio
Ryanair fail to take things as seriously as the current political climate demands. Humour ensues.
While catching up with the weekend’s backlog this morning I found a link that led me to the website and blog of the Second Life Liberation Army.
This morning I found an old post by Bruce Schneier about security theater, which seems a very useful phrase to use to describe those official actions designed, not to increase security, but to reassure or frighten innocent bystanders.
I had a conversation as a result of the post I made last week. I was asked if I was subscribing to knee-jerk conspiracy theories.
Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, and the man known to readers of The Register as Captain Cyborg, makes some rash predictions about life in 2020.
Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, and the man known to readers of The Register as Captain Cyborg, makes some more rash predictions about life in 2020.
According to the BBC web site, Patrick Chinamasa, the justice minister in Mr Mugabe’s last cabinet, said that “Zanu-PF would not allow an opposition victory, as this would be what he described as tantamount to slavery”.
Apparently there is a growing movement to clean up rap. Apparently there has been a march today in which numbers of people, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, marched from one place to another to demand that bitches, hoes and n*ggers be referred to more politely in future.
Having succumbed to an ipod, even though I have huge reservations about the installed DRM, I have begun to look for applications that will help me do the kind of things I feel that I ought to be able to do.
