Disillusioned Discordian

Following on from my rant in which I drew attention to the German Hacker group who managed to obtain copies of a German Ministers prints, NO2ID have teamed up with privacy International to offer a reward for anyone who can obtain the prints of Gordon Brown and Jacqui Smith. The Government keeps claiming that Biometric technology is a ‘magic bullet’ that will help secure our Identities on the proposed National Identity Register. The sad reality is that fingerprints are easy to get hold of (from glasses, door knobs etc). Although they are unique to each of us, we also leave copies off them whether we go! Anyone can relatively easily create a mold from a print and use this mold to commit identity theft.  Any government minister who stands up and suggests that ID cards will secure our identities because they use biometric technology can now been seen as a complete laughing stock to the rest of the nation. It is reported that Brown’s prints are rumored to be found alongside Blair’s on a dossier for the Iraq war.. first to find it wins the prize.

You can download copies of the poster if you want to put some up yourself from Privacy International

Poor old Michael Brown is being viciously persecuted simply for trying to live in a civilised household. I mean surely a man of public office such as he, should be entitled to view fine pieces of art as he relaxes from a day serving our great nation in the mother of all parliaments. £25,000 over a few years is a barging for the works he has collected, a model of Whitehall efficiency. Acting as a good husband of course he should look out for his Wife, who unlike dear Harriet has no stab proof vest to protect her from the vicious ruffians and plebeians who line the streets of London, £4,000 in taxi bills is a perfectly reasonable amount. Finally just because he does not have a mortgage on his other home in Glasgow why shouldn’t he be entitled to £75,000 a year like other MPs,  After all he still needs to pay for his cleaner, dog walker and cook.

 Honestly the cheek of these lefty types who would have us all eat gruel and live in council flats (yuk the thought of it).

I hate to bash the first female Home Secretary but Jacqui Smith really is a stupid piece of shit. On the 6^th March 2008 she made her ‘speech’ on ID cards. I say speech but really that implies that the sounds coming out of her mouth were forming a coherent and rational position. Even in this jaded and cynical post-Blair world in which our brains have been cluster fucked to the point of oblivion by a vast array of overpaid  spin doctors,   who collectively group wank over  each others powers of sophistry,  which they publish in their seedy & ego pandering  ‘PR weekly’, she still inspires a heartfelt rage. The type of rage that makes the 1968 student protest look like a candy box  (Christmas special) ITV ‘dramatization’ of Dickens in which Jamie Oliver cooks the Christmas feast for Tiny Tim.  She is incapable of actually understanding the most basic points of IT security when it comes to ID and the Database state: 

“Because your name will be linked by your fingerprints to a unique entry on the National Identity Register, you will have much greater protection from identity theft - no-one will be able to impersonate you, like they can now, just by finding our your name and address and personal details.” 

Uh well maybe, but then again if you had a brain rather than a sponge for soaking up neo-labor double speak you would have realized that this is going on. As much as I will enjoy purchasing a copy of Blair’s fingerprint and using it to steal his identity thus draining his various Swiss bank accounts of the proceeds from his pathetic lecture tours I am slightly worried about my own identity.

Does a cheesy pop song have the power to change the world.. I think so…..

Alan Ryan, warden of New College, Oxford has been suggesting a new way of providing quality and opportunity within the University system. He argues in a recent edition of Time Higher Education that we should be adopting the California state model whereby students build up credits at collages etc and can than transfer into the University of California at Berkeley and Los Angeles for their final two years. In a way this approach would take us back to the period when polytechnics delivered large amounts of the teaching with the HE sector and a few universities did the research. To paraphrase his argument he suggests that the quality of research in post 1992 universities is significantly lower than the traditional places like his own Oxford.

Of course it’s a sweeping generalisation that ignores much of the excellent research that goes on in ‘new universities’. Of course not having a research tradition that goes back a decade or two these universities are not always going to be in the same league as an institution such as Oxford that has built up its research over hundreds of years. Having said that there are many emerging disciplines where new universities excel, it would be easy to point to the few ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees such as surfing studies that Alan refers to, but there are also increasingly professionalized subjects such as Nursing and Midwifery that historically have not had the same tradition of research (most likely as they were things done traditionally by women and not men).

The traditional Universities maybe great if you want to study classics or Physics, but how do they compete on my avant-guard areas of Philosophy, the arts and research in vocational subject areas?It’s lazy thinking to judge a degrees worth or the research capability of a department or academic simply on their host institution. So often I hear academics coming out with sweeping statements such as “everyone from Hull are thickos” which was something I head an academic say in an admissions panel meeting.  Alan’s attitude is patronizing and  it’s somewhat elitist to suggest that “unless we distract everyone from doing what they usefully can – excellent teaching to an MA level – by pretending that every institution has to have PhD students for the sake of self-respect”. There are plenty of excellent researchers doing fantastic PhD’s in post 1992 universities, Alan Ryan may not like other Universities striving to produce excellent research but lets not let views like his influence the decision makers into cutting back research funding in the institutions he thinks would be better off teaching.

The Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Committee have raised concerns over the Government’s plans to cut £100 Million from ELQ’s. ELQs are Equivalent or Lower degree qualifications. So for instance if you did a first degree in the Arts, only to end up with a tedious career spent working in admin, whilst dreaming of a meaningful existence then it will be a lot harder for you to go and take another Bachelor’s degree. I know someone who recently returned to study at University for a second bachelors degree in Physics, they have just secured a funded PhD position. Just goes to show the potential people have if they are given the opportunity to go back into education. The reality of these cuts could see the cost of tuition fees for ELQs rise over the next few years. Many people taking these degrees are mature students who are working part-time in the evening and paying their own fees (without the help of student loans) to better themselves. I really don’t see how this fits in with the government’s continued adult learning agenda. As far as I can see it will push education out of the reach of many working adults and bind people to the educational choices they made as a teenager.

The information commissioner’s Office (ICO) has successfully put the planned biometric fingerprinting scheme at the new Heathrow Terminal five (sorry T5) on hold. The scheme was meant to be a shinning example of new biometric security measures, in line with the current moves within the EU to collect this information on all travellers. The technology itself has some serious flaws in that it is relatively easy to fool the scanners by creating a fake print from products you could by in a local iron mongers. It also seems to be a step too far for most people, in terms of an unwanted intrusion into our private lives. There is something very personal about giving over such data, that effects people on a psychological level that goes beyond the rational arguments against this level of state surveillance.

The ICO is the thin red line protecting the citizens against the state and perhaps more worrying private companies intrusion into our private lives. BAA is stating that the scheme is on hold. They might be able to persuade the ICO to let the scheme go ahead if the data collected is destroyed promptly with proper safe guards. Unfortunately once this kind of systematic collection has started, it’s only a very short matter of time before various agencies start requesting access to it, or requesting it is placed on file for future use. We are not just talking about the usual suspects of Interpol, the Police, Immigration control and MI5, but also hundreds of other governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. How long before the local Job Office starts asking for details on passengers passing through the terminal in order to track down benefit frauds going on holiday?

I saw this article today, and wondered if perhaps the police haven’t got better things to do  than investigating whether Chris Evans once took some Magic Mushrooms. The taking of some Pyschoactive Mushrooms has become an activity banned by the state, when they were made the widespread libery cap, and other Mushrooms from the Psilocybe genus class A drugs in 2005. Previously it was just the active chemical once extracted rather than the actual unprocessed mushroom that was illegal. Don’t worry it’s still legal to buy the spores and you can learn how to cultivate them here, as long as you don’t announce your plans on national radio it should be cool, or you could just go and pick some in the autumn. Before new labour classified them as a class A drug there was untold misery and destruction wrecked upon British society by scores of mushroom addicts trying to rob old pensioners, but then forgetting where they were, and mumbling something about an expanding fractals and hive mind consciousness. There are also rumours that many fields are supplying this dangerous drug to our otherwise pure and chastised youth, there are plans to lock these fields up in prison where they belong. The nation’s minds will then be free to understand important things like watching reality TV shows and operating spreadsheets without trying to question the talking microsoft paperclip as to where he (one assumes the gender in this instance) hid the caterpillar’s Hookah pipe.

 PS Evan’s could be clever and say he was taking Fly agaric (amanita muscaria) which contains muscimol as the Pyschoactive ingredient rather than a mushroom containing Psiocybe such as Liberty Cap (Psilocybe Semilanceata). The former due to it’s less widespread uptake is still legal (at least until blog posts like this bring it to some officious killjoy’s attention). Of the two it it caries more risks as it can make you violently sick (although no recorded fatalities) as opposed to the later which is non-toxic. It also isn’t as much fun (apparently). Of course now these mushrooms are criminalized people wanted to take them will have to risk poisoning themselves by picking their own. Get some decent fields guides and go with someone who knows what they are eating please kids.

The NO2ID campaign in Leeds is starting to pick up pace now with regular meetings now taking place. Already a street stall has been held which received a good response from members of the public wanting to find out what they could do to stop the introduction of Identity cards. The Student Union at the University of Leeds has recently agreed a motion opposing ID cards. It is hoped that this will be the first of many local organizations within the city to support the campaign against ID cards. Greg Mulholland local Lib Dem MP for Leeds North West has also stated his opposition to the government’s plans, and as lobbying of other local politicians is underway hopefully many more will follow suit. NO2ID now runs public mailing lists for local groups which you can join straight from their website, have a look and see if there is a group in your area you could get involved with. There is also a facebook group for Leeds NO2ID. Meanwhile across Yorkshire the campaign against ID cards is gathering momentum with Bradford and Selby groups increasing in their activities.

Well I had a rather delightful visit to Bilbao. It’s really a city that has been transformed by the ‘Guggenheim effect’. I can see why though, it’s such an amazing art gallery that I actually left feeling rather inspired.  A particular favourite of mine was Richard Serra’s The Matter of Time installation. Being largely quite a cynical person it takes quite a place to make me think positively about what humans can create, but this place managed it. It was an interesting time to visit the Basque region, with the Spanish elections taken place. There were a few Spanish anarchists and Basque separatist on the streets urging people not to vote, and turnout in the region was down to 60% compared to a higher average of around 70% throughout the rest of Spain.  

The hospitality of people I visited was splendid and I had an excellent dinner at a local gentleman’s club with some interesting people. I couldn’t help but think about the Spanish anarchist across the road in their squat as I ate my foi grois (a rather disappoint food made enjoyable only by a sadistic smugness at the cruelty caused in it’s consumption). My command of the Spanish language was however rather embarrassing, and I realized quite how uncultured it is possible to be when one spends the majority of their time in the UK.  Best of all, the Riojca.