Rants and ramblings of a lecturer
This will be the last welly post for a while, but we’ve just had some more nice press coverage in the Times Good University Guide – You can look at the pdf of the two page spread here.
The photo was taken by a very nice freelancer called Tim Cuff who has a gallery of six different photos which you can purchase if you feel so inclined.
I do like the magic levitating wellies.
The US Dept of Homeland Security put together its wonderful threat level avisory system as a result of the undeniably horrific attacks 5 years ago.
As a result, we’re not allowed to take drinks onto planes, we are forced to use plastic cutlery, unless we’re in first class, and a tee shirt is a security risk!
Now, call me a radical thinker, but doesn’t this mean that the terrorists have actually won, they’ve managed to take away a lot of our freedom, certainly in air travel, but are you really going to die as a result of terrorism?
Some of the nice folks over at Wired News have put together a nice survey of the things that threaten ongoing life in the 11 year period 1995 to 2005 and have come up with the following nice little graphic – it really puts things into perspective – especially the fact that being shot by law enforcement is more likely to kill you than terrorism…
| S E V E R E Driving off the road: 254,419 Falling: 146,542 Accidental poisoning: 140,327 |
| H I G H Dying from work: 59,730 Walking down the street: 52,000. Accidentally drowning: 38,302 |
| E L E V A T E D Killed by the flu: 19,415 Dying from a hernia: 16,742 |
| G U A R D E D Accidental firing of a gun: 8,536 Electrocution: 5,171 |
| L O W Being shot by law enforcement: 3,949 Terrorism: 3147 Carbon monoxide in products: 1,554 |
It looks like the proposed new anti-hacking laws might do some good for prosecuting offenders – Denial of Service attacks are now classified as offences, but then it might also outlaw legal uses of hacking tools.
More on Spy blog and The Register
There’s a link to the text of the new bill here
Wikipedia has an article here
A dangerous sign when carrying an A4 sign can get you banned from an airline, but if you have a sign with the word “Oiligarchy” on it, then it appears that threatens the air crew so much that you are not allowed to fly.
What price are we willing to pay for our freedom, and have we lost that freedom already, when you have to apply for a license to protest? And if you don’t you risk arrest for eating a cake at a picnic.
The simple fact that the legislators attempted to pass a law banning Brian Haw and his display from Parliament Square, and have managed to pass a law that means that he is the only person in the world that can legally demonstrate there without permission just displays their complete incompetence.