Saturday 28 February 2009

Daily Roundup

If I've missed anything please post below.

1) Just in case people don't understand that there's going to be a state of emergency this summer, the fire services have been preparing for one:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20090228/tuk-national-emergency-exercise-staged-6323e80.html

2) Ghost towns are upon us. Funny, that: the High Street's lying dormant because no-one's got any money. And, of course, councils must be really happy that Next, the Gap et al managed to close down all those pesky independent stores.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/recession/4885231/Recession-threatens-to-create-ghost-towns-say-councils.html

3) Protectionism beckons. And about time, too. Perhaps we could tell Europe to go to hell while we're at it and get our country back.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/barackobama/4885887/Will-Barack-Obama-end-Britains-special-relationship-with-America.html

4) Talk about Iron Man: bionic war's upon us, as Lockheed Martin stands to make big bucks. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/27/lockheed_exoskeleton/

5) Lenin's won: children are now officially owned by the state. And, if they act up, the pharmaceutical corps can always stand to make a few bucks:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/feb/27/dna-database-children-civil-liberties AND http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/25569107/bitter_pill (The last article's very long but fascinating)

6) Also from Rolling Stone, the story of how China adopted Britain's surveillance policies to humanity-denying effect:
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/20797485/chinas_allseeing_eye/print

7) Want a good education? Tough. How the government's brought a casino mentality into the learning 'game'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/feb/28/schools-admissions-education-policy

8) Autism Bill passes first hearing: a good initiative, at first glance But will this lead to ever-more extensive snooping as children are forced to undergo screening?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/autism-private-members-bill-passes-first-hearing-1634407.html

9) Another Mandelson 'favour for friends' debacle - this time over the hotly contested third runway at Heathrow.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1157763/Mandelson-new-favours-row-Heathrow-PR-pal-meetings-ministers-new-runway-ahead.html

10) Yet another example of the horrific flaws in the ECHRA as legal aid bills for seven men convicted of terror offences comes in at £7 million.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/legal-aid-payment-of-1637m-for-lawyers-in-terror-trial-1634242.html

11) The BNPs popularity is snowballing. Are LabLibCon deliberately being the 'do nothing' party in order to encourage mass dissent and extremism in order to get out the fire hoses and the Civil Contingencies Act?
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/is-the-bnp-becoming-cumbrias-cup-of-tea-1634246.html

12) Bring on the in-car cameras; talking when driving's apparently worse than DUI. One wonders which UK company's coming up with a prototype Big Brother screen.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1157465/Hands-free-mobile-phones-dangerous-drink-driving.html

13) Japan's suffered the biggest industrial production plunge ever.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7914040.stm

14) The people who caused the global meltdown are going to be in charge of a global currency within 15 years. God help us.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/cnbc-analyst-global-bank-global-currency-within-15-years.html

15) The day the music died: Obama's defense budget is actually larger than Bush's.
http://www.slate.com/id/2212323/

1 comment:

Life is to be lived, not controlled, and humanity is won by continuing to play in face of certain defeat -Ralph Ellison