To be honest I've only just caught up on yesterday's (30/7/12) Twitter but I can confirm that my mother and her partner attended the cross-country event of the equestrian three day eventing event.
Also I gather that China has a swimmer Yei Shiwen who is rather good. So good in-fact that the USA have accused her of taking performance enhancing drugs. In this case the 'drug' in question is "nationalism." As with the USSR China has a Communist system of government. One of the main hallmarks of this sort of totalitarian society is that the individual has no purpose other then as part of the greater nation. Therefore totalitarian regimes will think nothing of snatching somewhat promising athletes away from their families at a very early age in order to train them hard so they can bring pride to the great nation. China have been doing this for years so by lodging the complaint the USA was trying to put pressure on China over global trade while making it look like they are bravely battling for freedom while in secret they're taking away more and more individual rights every day. In preparation for the London Olympics Qatar based news channel "Al Jazeera" has been running a series of programs focusing on the hardships faced by Chinese athletes who didn't make the grade and were kicked out of the system.
Also "Al Jazeera" has been trying to whip up support for tougher anti-gun-laws in the USA. The idea being that the pressure from the left will force Barack Obama to make gun-control a platform in his re-election campaign re-starting the so-called "culture wars". This will obviously wipe him out in the middle ground of US voters and almost certainly guarantee that Romney will win in November.
So I think it's a case of existentialism 101; sometimes in life things happen and it is only through reacting to those things that you assign them meaning.
00:10 on 1/8/12.
Tuesday 31 July 2012
Well That's the Olypmics Over Then.
Well it must be. At around 23:40 on 31/7/12 I've just seen the USA lose to the Netherlands at women's beach volleyball. So all we've got to do is get the muppets home without too many of them being killed.
Yep He's a Bummer.
The 17 year old, white, male homosexual who has been upsetting TeamGB's Tom Daley on Twitter that is. Therefore my comment about him staying in that homeless shelter until he gets some girl pregnant was particularly hurtful.
Anyway he's been freed on police bail while they consider giving him a formal caution under the 1997 Protection Act (h/forth "the Act"). The Act was one of the Labor Party's first decision upon taking office. The idea was to help women who were being stalked by violent ex-boyfriends. However within about five minutes it was used by Brighton based arms factory "EDO MBN" to prevent protests. So I'm sure as this no-mark proceeds along his 'journey' I'm sure we'll find who was at fault in Tom Daley's dive.
Anyway I'm now watching USA V Netherlands in the women's beach volleyball. You would think with the similarity in climate it would have been the Dutch with the balls to whip off the Burqa's first.
23:15 on 31/7/12.
Anyway he's been freed on police bail while they consider giving him a formal caution under the 1997 Protection Act (h/forth "the Act"). The Act was one of the Labor Party's first decision upon taking office. The idea was to help women who were being stalked by violent ex-boyfriends. However within about five minutes it was used by Brighton based arms factory "EDO MBN" to prevent protests. So I'm sure as this no-mark proceeds along his 'journey' I'm sure we'll find who was at fault in Tom Daley's dive.
Anyway I'm now watching USA V Netherlands in the women's beach volleyball. You would think with the similarity in climate it would have been the Dutch with the balls to whip off the Burqa's first.
23:15 on 31/7/12.
You Want to Get Some Oil on That.
ZI am currently watching USA take on Tunisia. According to the Aussie commentator it's something called; "Basketball?" I don't know much about this 'sport' but at 78-44 in the third I don't think Tunisia stand a chance.
22:30 on 31/7/12.
22:30 on 31/7/12.
i'm in the Black Lion!
The grass cutting has finished and it's zoned for residential so I'm sure I won't have to announce all my movements. After all I'm planning on scratching my balls in about five minutes.
19:40 on 31/7/12.
19:40 on 31/7/12.
It's Ok It's only the Girlies.
Sorry to be all right-on and lefty but in many ways I think women's football is better then men's. I mean their short little legs and ridiculously tiny feet mean they can't run as fast so it's more about close up ball control. Plus if it gets popular enough to be self-supporting Platani might let tackling back into the men's game.
In other new's it's Tuesday night and I'm back from the pub. I am just debating whether to go out and support the home team but unfortunately the black rats at number 50 Beechwood are trying to establish the bounds of their territory by sending the youngest out to cut the grass.
A bit brave for 19:10 on 31/7/12 if you ask me.
In other new's it's Tuesday night and I'm back from the pub. I am just debating whether to go out and support the home team but unfortunately the black rats at number 50 Beechwood are trying to establish the bounds of their territory by sending the youngest out to cut the grass.
A bit brave for 19:10 on 31/7/12 if you ask me.
I'm in the Pub!
It's steak night so it's a bit odd that an Irish women's just asked if she can get a Chinese in before the footie starts. Probably something to do with the fact I just made that last bit up.
18:25 on 31/7/12.
18:25 on 31/7/12.
999 Girl Was a Hoax Then.
For most of the day most British TV news stations have been putting out urgent appeals to help find a little girl in Leeds who phoned the 999 emergency services number because her mother had collapsed. Although the little girl could remember her name and her mother's full name (I can't) she couldn't remember where she lived. Turns out that this was just South Yorkshire Police taking the p*ss out of Surrey police for putting out an appeal to help find TeamGB's cycling silver medalists Lizze Armistad's missing sunglasses. They dressed it up in details about my sister to confuse everyone and remind me that I may have dealings with Surrey police in the future so to be careful in what I said. However I think it's fair to say that Surrey Police's main purpose in life is to make all the other British police forces feel better about themselves.
Although further details will no doubt be released throughout the day the people Yorkshire police are blaming for the hoax are two 10 year old girls. While their identities have not been confirmed (and probably never will be due to rules regarding the anonymity of minors in court cases) I'm guessing the two girls were both white. These means they are examples of Vixen cubs. This neatly brings me back on to that adolescent fox dog that was arrested for being a bit rude to Tom Daley on Twitter. Again reading between the lines I'm guessing he's a kid from a white Council Housed And Violent (Chav) family who was put into council care. Having being declared an adult at 16 he is now living in Bed & Breakfast/ homeless shelter until he gets some equally ugly adolescent vixen pregnant and the council give them both house. Almost makes you feel sorry for him really because I'm sure time and maturity will make him regret that more then any legal process ever could.
17:15 on 31/7/12. Yeah first time I saw that on TeamGB's Twitter feed I thought I could try and fit him in if I get the time.
Although further details will no doubt be released throughout the day the people Yorkshire police are blaming for the hoax are two 10 year old girls. While their identities have not been confirmed (and probably never will be due to rules regarding the anonymity of minors in court cases) I'm guessing the two girls were both white. These means they are examples of Vixen cubs. This neatly brings me back on to that adolescent fox dog that was arrested for being a bit rude to Tom Daley on Twitter. Again reading between the lines I'm guessing he's a kid from a white Council Housed And Violent (Chav) family who was put into council care. Having being declared an adult at 16 he is now living in Bed & Breakfast/ homeless shelter until he gets some equally ugly adolescent vixen pregnant and the council give them both house. Almost makes you feel sorry for him really because I'm sure time and maturity will make him regret that more then any legal process ever could.
17:15 on 31/7/12. Yeah first time I saw that on TeamGB's Twitter feed I thought I could try and fit him in if I get the time.
Muppet, Muppet & Thrice Muppet!
It's around 15:25 on 31/7/12 and being an alternate Tuesday I am back from the supermarket late for reasons that I will explain shortly once I've put the shopping away.
15:30. Despite being born into the business my father has still yet to work out that if he tells all his friends that he's going to sitting there waiting for the Equestrian event at the London Olympics to finish before going to the supermarket the organisers are going to drag the event out of as long as possible in order to control the time he leaves. This allows the local network to make sure that all their people are in the supermarket behaving like volunteers for very late term abortions in order to make the trip as busy and stressful as possible. That's why everybody's mobile phones suddenly got jammed at exactly the same point.
On the plus side though it does give the opportunity to explain the front-page of yesterday's (30/7/12) "The Sun" newspaper. Under the headline "Baby Killer" this told a story about a Muslim G4s security guard at the Lords cricket ground Olympic venue who apparently got into a screaming match with a soldier in which he called the soldier a baby killer. Now in the midst of the phone hacking scandal I don't wish to further damage the reputation of Britain's tabloid press but I think it's safe to say that this incident never happened and the entire story was made up. I wouldn't blame the newspaper too much though because along with the rest of Britain's news media since the start of the phone hacking scandal the state has more influence on their output then their editorial teams.
The idea was that along with the story about the missing Olympic keys and the auction of Sir Jimmy Saville's stuff this would create a Monday of confusion after I disappeared from view on Sunday night amid rumours of me having a big fight with my father. In the end they had to cut my Internet connection off but I still think I managed to deal with that before the paper had left the printers.
15:45 on 31/7/12.
15:30. Despite being born into the business my father has still yet to work out that if he tells all his friends that he's going to sitting there waiting for the Equestrian event at the London Olympics to finish before going to the supermarket the organisers are going to drag the event out of as long as possible in order to control the time he leaves. This allows the local network to make sure that all their people are in the supermarket behaving like volunteers for very late term abortions in order to make the trip as busy and stressful as possible. That's why everybody's mobile phones suddenly got jammed at exactly the same point.
On the plus side though it does give the opportunity to explain the front-page of yesterday's (30/7/12) "The Sun" newspaper. Under the headline "Baby Killer" this told a story about a Muslim G4s security guard at the Lords cricket ground Olympic venue who apparently got into a screaming match with a soldier in which he called the soldier a baby killer. Now in the midst of the phone hacking scandal I don't wish to further damage the reputation of Britain's tabloid press but I think it's safe to say that this incident never happened and the entire story was made up. I wouldn't blame the newspaper too much though because along with the rest of Britain's news media since the start of the phone hacking scandal the state has more influence on their output then their editorial teams.
The idea was that along with the story about the missing Olympic keys and the auction of Sir Jimmy Saville's stuff this would create a Monday of confusion after I disappeared from view on Sunday night amid rumours of me having a big fight with my father. In the end they had to cut my Internet connection off but I still think I managed to deal with that before the paper had left the printers.
15:45 on 31/7/12.
Smoke(ing) on the London Underground.
Now here's something I wanted to cover on Sunday (29/7/12) night.
At around 07:00 local today (31/7/12) fire alarms activated at "Leyton" station on London Underground' (LU) Central Line. This highlights perfectly my worries about the Central Line. Being one of LU's oldest and busiest lines at some point during the 2012 Olympics something like a piece of track, a signal, a radio system or a fire alarm is going to develop a fault. This will cause a lot of stress and possibly delays as someone has to go and diagnose and fix that fault. On this occasion "Leyton" station had to be evacuated and the Central Line was closed between "Wanstead" station and "Snaresbrook" station and "Liverpool Street" station meaning that no Central Line trains ran to "Stratford" station at the Olympic park. Now this struck me as excessive because "Wanstead" is the Central Line station I use whenever I go to visit my mother in the home she shares with her partner - a UK government/civil service lawyer who wrote the UK smoking ban. Also it perfectly highlights the problem with Olympic visitors using the Central Line to "Stratford" station and raises the possibility that it might be worth putting on a shuttle bus service to take Olympic visitors directly from "Liverpool Street" overground station to the Olympic park. As news of the Central Line closure spread and London Fire Brigade (LFB) investigated at "Leyton" station people started to claim they'd smelled smoke at the station and then suddenly another set of fire alarms started going off at the Heathrow terminal stations on the Piccadilly Line. This brings us rather neatly onto the smoking ban that applies to all LU stations.
While I think any visitor from any reasonable nation will agree that Britain's ban on tobacco smoking in public places is f*king ridiculous especially the ban on smoking at overground stations which tend to be outdoors anyway the ban on smoking anything on London Underground has been in place for much longer and is there for a very good reason. The LU network is absolutely packed with things such oil, grease, fabric from peoples clothes and human hair/skin which catch fire really easily. If any of these things were to catch fire the 30mph(18kmph) winds that are created by the trains pushing their way through the tunnels means that any fire will spread really quickly. As LU stations are almost exclusively underground it is almost impossible to evacuate everybody in time should a fire break out. This is was happened in November 1987 in the "Kings Cross" station fire which killed 31 people most of whom were burned to death. Therefore;
DO NOT SMOKE ANYWHERE ON THE LONDON UNDERGROUND!
If you are seen even considering smoking regular users will be expected to start tutting loudly and telling you off. Either LU staff or the police will then move in to detain you and you will be prosecuted and just in case you get any ideas about leaving the country without paying a fine the police and only the police are entitled to punch you full in the face first.
13:05 31/7/12.
At around 07:00 local today (31/7/12) fire alarms activated at "Leyton" station on London Underground' (LU) Central Line. This highlights perfectly my worries about the Central Line. Being one of LU's oldest and busiest lines at some point during the 2012 Olympics something like a piece of track, a signal, a radio system or a fire alarm is going to develop a fault. This will cause a lot of stress and possibly delays as someone has to go and diagnose and fix that fault. On this occasion "Leyton" station had to be evacuated and the Central Line was closed between "Wanstead" station and "Snaresbrook" station and "Liverpool Street" station meaning that no Central Line trains ran to "Stratford" station at the Olympic park. Now this struck me as excessive because "Wanstead" is the Central Line station I use whenever I go to visit my mother in the home she shares with her partner - a UK government/civil service lawyer who wrote the UK smoking ban. Also it perfectly highlights the problem with Olympic visitors using the Central Line to "Stratford" station and raises the possibility that it might be worth putting on a shuttle bus service to take Olympic visitors directly from "Liverpool Street" overground station to the Olympic park. As news of the Central Line closure spread and London Fire Brigade (LFB) investigated at "Leyton" station people started to claim they'd smelled smoke at the station and then suddenly another set of fire alarms started going off at the Heathrow terminal stations on the Piccadilly Line. This brings us rather neatly onto the smoking ban that applies to all LU stations.
While I think any visitor from any reasonable nation will agree that Britain's ban on tobacco smoking in public places is f*king ridiculous especially the ban on smoking at overground stations which tend to be outdoors anyway the ban on smoking anything on London Underground has been in place for much longer and is there for a very good reason. The LU network is absolutely packed with things such oil, grease, fabric from peoples clothes and human hair/skin which catch fire really easily. If any of these things were to catch fire the 30mph(18kmph) winds that are created by the trains pushing their way through the tunnels means that any fire will spread really quickly. As LU stations are almost exclusively underground it is almost impossible to evacuate everybody in time should a fire break out. This is was happened in November 1987 in the "Kings Cross" station fire which killed 31 people most of whom were burned to death. Therefore;
DO NOT SMOKE ANYWHERE ON THE LONDON UNDERGROUND!
If you are seen even considering smoking regular users will be expected to start tutting loudly and telling you off. Either LU staff or the police will then move in to detain you and you will be prosecuted and just in case you get any ideas about leaving the country without paying a fine the police and only the police are entitled to punch you full in the face first.
13:05 31/7/12.
Wave Bye-Bye to the Internet.
As I've mentioned before being an totalitarian regime Britain despises the Internet because it makes it much harder for the state to control the flow of information. Therefore it will be trying to use the 2012 Olympics to drive through global agreement on significantly restricting the Internet.
Today (31/7/12) marks their big push with a House of Lords committee criticising government plans to upgrade the nations physical communications infrastructure for being focused on connection speed rather then geographical reach. Of course raising the issue of a national Internet infrastructure raises all the technical aspects of what actually makes the Internet work. However a government pushing for geographical spread provides the Internet Service Providers (ISP) with the perfect argument to insisting on the end of net neutrality. The argument being that if the ISP's are forced to build a large network over a wide area they will be need to be granted the right to control the flow of data across that network in order to ensure connection speeds at peak times. From there it's just a small step from you no longer being able to access the whole Internet and instead only being able to access the bits of the Internet included on the package your ISP sells to you in much the same way you can currently only access to the certain TV channels that are included as part of your PayTV package.
Continuing on the theme today a 17 year old boy has been arrested in Weymouth, Dorset for sending a Tweet to TeamGB diver Tom Daley telling him that he'd let down his dead father after he failed to win a medal in yesterday's (30/7/12) world 10m platform event. This will be dubbed an example of "trolling" although that's strictly speaking accurate and will be used to promote discussion about what new powers can be given to governments and corporations to persecute people who say things they don't like about them on the Internet. Having read the comments in question I have to say that while they were unpleasent they were in no-way criminal regardless of what the current British law may say.
Incidentally while I'm on the subject the 2012 Opening ceremony featured Sir Tim Berners-Lee who Britain claim invented the Internet in the 1990's. This had anyone with any experience of the Internet rolling on the floor laughing their heads off and the USA's NBC's coverage pretending not to know who he was. That's because everybody knows that the Internet was actually developed by US military engineers in the 1960's as a redundent communications system to work in the event of a nuclear attack.
Today (31/7/12) marks their big push with a House of Lords committee criticising government plans to upgrade the nations physical communications infrastructure for being focused on connection speed rather then geographical reach. Of course raising the issue of a national Internet infrastructure raises all the technical aspects of what actually makes the Internet work. However a government pushing for geographical spread provides the Internet Service Providers (ISP) with the perfect argument to insisting on the end of net neutrality. The argument being that if the ISP's are forced to build a large network over a wide area they will be need to be granted the right to control the flow of data across that network in order to ensure connection speeds at peak times. From there it's just a small step from you no longer being able to access the whole Internet and instead only being able to access the bits of the Internet included on the package your ISP sells to you in much the same way you can currently only access to the certain TV channels that are included as part of your PayTV package.
Continuing on the theme today a 17 year old boy has been arrested in Weymouth, Dorset for sending a Tweet to TeamGB diver Tom Daley telling him that he'd let down his dead father after he failed to win a medal in yesterday's (30/7/12) world 10m platform event. This will be dubbed an example of "trolling" although that's strictly speaking accurate and will be used to promote discussion about what new powers can be given to governments and corporations to persecute people who say things they don't like about them on the Internet. Having read the comments in question I have to say that while they were unpleasent they were in no-way criminal regardless of what the current British law may say.
Incidentally while I'm on the subject the 2012 Opening ceremony featured Sir Tim Berners-Lee who Britain claim invented the Internet in the 1990's. This had anyone with any experience of the Internet rolling on the floor laughing their heads off and the USA's NBC's coverage pretending not to know who he was. That's because everybody knows that the Internet was actually developed by US military engineers in the 1960's as a redundent communications system to work in the event of a nuclear attack.
Monday 30 July 2012
The 2012 Olympics: Day 3.
As the 2012 Olympics start to pick up pace there have been a fair few controversies today (30/7/12).
The first of these surrounded TeamGB's men's synchronised diving pair Tom Daley and Pete Wakefeild who blew their chances of gold in the World 10m platform. Apart from the rather sick reference to people stumbling off platforms while London's underground rail network faced it's first big test of the Olympics you may remember this pair from the 2008 Bejing Olympics. Then there was a lot of innuendo about the partnering of a metrosexual bordering on downright gay looking 14 year old boy prancing around in not very many clothes with his much older male partner. On that occasion TeamGB was trying to promote a global homosexual age of consent that was the same as the heterosexual age of consent by demonstrating that a partnership between an adolescent boy and a much older man could be a winning combination. This year TeamGB has clearly changed it's mind about that idea because while you can't say definitively that it was Daley or Wakefield who was at fault in their final dive they certainly weren't working well as a couple.
The second big controversy came in the men's team gymnastics which saw TeamGB awarded the silver medal only to be relegated to the bronze medal follow a protest by TeamJapan. This is still a good result for TeamGB because it's the first medal they've won in men's gymnastics since the 1932 Olympics and the first medal they've won in the team event ever. I should explain that unlike female gymnasts who hit their physical peak at around 15/16 years of age or younger male gymnasts don't peak until their early 20's. This coupled with the fact that the men wear a lot more clothes when they perform means that the isn't the overtones of paedophilia in men's gymnastics that there is in the women's events. Gymnastics though is one of if not the most physically demanding and downright difficult disciplines in the Olympic games. If you don't believe me go and try doing a handstand and then holding it perfectly still for two minutes. As it is all about strength, focus and flexibility male gymnasts are the people that all the intelligence/espionage people who attend the Olympics wish they were which makes it a really hotly contested event. China are the undisputed world champions of the discipline which make their close neighbour Japan really, really want to beat them or at least come second to them. So while I don't really understand the technical aspects of TeamJapan's appeal I think it was born out of a strong desire not to be viewed behind TeamGB as the main challengers to TeamChina's crown.
The third controversy centred around Michel Morganella,the TeamSwiss soccer player who was sent home after posting offensive comments about South Korea on Twitter. Although I've no idea what exactly Morganella wrote I think this was an inquiry about Britain's ongoing John Terry race row. Away from the Olympics the English Football Association (EFA) yesterday (29/7/12) announced that they are charging John Terry with misconduct regarding the allegations that he racially abused Anton Ferdinand despite the fact he has already cleared by a court of law over the alleged offence. Today the EFA announced that it is also charging Rio Ferdinand - Anton's brother - who made Twitter comments calling Ashley Cole - a witness in Terry's defence - a "choc-ice" which is a racially offensive term meaning a black person who is white on the inside. The purpose of charging John Terry was to bring up the whole debate over who is or isn't a credible witness that dominated the trial. That whole trial was a metaphor that Court of Protection (COP) case regarding my grandmother in which the whole issue of witness credibility was rendered moot by the stacks of documentary evidence. The charging of Rio Ferdinand seems to be an attempt to draw yet more attention to the charging of Terry in case it got missed the first time.
The fourth controversy revolved around South Korean fencer Shin Lam who refused to leave the playing area for 70 minutes after being told she had lost her semi-final against Germany's Britta Heidemann - a decision she clearly disagreed with. An appeal was mounted but apparently lost. I actually randomly switched on to watch in the middle of this and had no idea what was going on. Having read up on the incident I've still got no idea what was going on. However I like to like it was TeamSKorea making a point to a European Union (EU) opponent and the hosts how undignified it can be when the loser refuses to accept that they've lost.
23:00 on 30/7/12.
The first of these surrounded TeamGB's men's synchronised diving pair Tom Daley and Pete Wakefeild who blew their chances of gold in the World 10m platform. Apart from the rather sick reference to people stumbling off platforms while London's underground rail network faced it's first big test of the Olympics you may remember this pair from the 2008 Bejing Olympics. Then there was a lot of innuendo about the partnering of a metrosexual bordering on downright gay looking 14 year old boy prancing around in not very many clothes with his much older male partner. On that occasion TeamGB was trying to promote a global homosexual age of consent that was the same as the heterosexual age of consent by demonstrating that a partnership between an adolescent boy and a much older man could be a winning combination. This year TeamGB has clearly changed it's mind about that idea because while you can't say definitively that it was Daley or Wakefield who was at fault in their final dive they certainly weren't working well as a couple.
The second big controversy came in the men's team gymnastics which saw TeamGB awarded the silver medal only to be relegated to the bronze medal follow a protest by TeamJapan. This is still a good result for TeamGB because it's the first medal they've won in men's gymnastics since the 1932 Olympics and the first medal they've won in the team event ever. I should explain that unlike female gymnasts who hit their physical peak at around 15/16 years of age or younger male gymnasts don't peak until their early 20's. This coupled with the fact that the men wear a lot more clothes when they perform means that the isn't the overtones of paedophilia in men's gymnastics that there is in the women's events. Gymnastics though is one of if not the most physically demanding and downright difficult disciplines in the Olympic games. If you don't believe me go and try doing a handstand and then holding it perfectly still for two minutes. As it is all about strength, focus and flexibility male gymnasts are the people that all the intelligence/espionage people who attend the Olympics wish they were which makes it a really hotly contested event. China are the undisputed world champions of the discipline which make their close neighbour Japan really, really want to beat them or at least come second to them. So while I don't really understand the technical aspects of TeamJapan's appeal I think it was born out of a strong desire not to be viewed behind TeamGB as the main challengers to TeamChina's crown.
The third controversy centred around Michel Morganella,the TeamSwiss soccer player who was sent home after posting offensive comments about South Korea on Twitter. Although I've no idea what exactly Morganella wrote I think this was an inquiry about Britain's ongoing John Terry race row. Away from the Olympics the English Football Association (EFA) yesterday (29/7/12) announced that they are charging John Terry with misconduct regarding the allegations that he racially abused Anton Ferdinand despite the fact he has already cleared by a court of law over the alleged offence. Today the EFA announced that it is also charging Rio Ferdinand - Anton's brother - who made Twitter comments calling Ashley Cole - a witness in Terry's defence - a "choc-ice" which is a racially offensive term meaning a black person who is white on the inside. The purpose of charging John Terry was to bring up the whole debate over who is or isn't a credible witness that dominated the trial. That whole trial was a metaphor that Court of Protection (COP) case regarding my grandmother in which the whole issue of witness credibility was rendered moot by the stacks of documentary evidence. The charging of Rio Ferdinand seems to be an attempt to draw yet more attention to the charging of Terry in case it got missed the first time.
The fourth controversy revolved around South Korean fencer Shin Lam who refused to leave the playing area for 70 minutes after being told she had lost her semi-final against Germany's Britta Heidemann - a decision she clearly disagreed with. An appeal was mounted but apparently lost. I actually randomly switched on to watch in the middle of this and had no idea what was going on. Having read up on the incident I've still got no idea what was going on. However I like to like it was TeamSKorea making a point to a European Union (EU) opponent and the hosts how undignified it can be when the loser refuses to accept that they've lost.
23:00 on 30/7/12.
London's Transport Challenge.
As I've mentioned once or twice today London's public transport network faced it's first real real test of the Olympics as Olympic visitors shared the network with London's commuters for the first time. Although some Olympic events don't finish until mid-night local time and there may be some issues getting people back from the late-night session of beach volley-ball which ends after much of the network will have started to shut down for the night I would say that London's public transport system passed with flying colours. Apart from things like a broken down elevator at "Canning Town" station the only real headache was a track fault on the on London Underground's (LU) District Line between "Wimbledon" and "Putney Bridge" station which prevented trains from stopping near to the Wimbledon tennis club that was hosting Olympic tennis events. However transport organisers reacted quickly laying on shuttle buses to over-ground stations to allow people to complete their journey. They were also quick to inform people about regular buses that people could take to alternate overground and underground stations.
Of course apart from a lot of hard work on the part of transport workers this success has relied heavily on the patience and good humour of travellers and people taking the effort to plan their journeys in advance to avoid the busiest routes and times. There will be plenty more challenges ahead especially on Friday (3/8/12) when the first big track and field events begin at the Olympic park. Therefore it is important that people continue to be patient and plan their journeys. In order to help with that planning organisers have put together a special website http://www.getaheadofthegames.com (@GAOTG) which I can highly recommend despite the fact that it only seems to be available in English and does cover the all of the Olympic venues in the UK meaning it can get a bit confusing. It might be worth setting up a separate Twitter account just to handle travel updates though.
21:10 on 30/7/12.
Of course apart from a lot of hard work on the part of transport workers this success has relied heavily on the patience and good humour of travellers and people taking the effort to plan their journeys in advance to avoid the busiest routes and times. There will be plenty more challenges ahead especially on Friday (3/8/12) when the first big track and field events begin at the Olympic park. Therefore it is important that people continue to be patient and plan their journeys. In order to help with that planning organisers have put together a special website http://www.getaheadofthegames.com (@GAOTG) which I can highly recommend despite the fact that it only seems to be available in English and does cover the all of the Olympic venues in the UK meaning it can get a bit confusing. It might be worth setting up a separate Twitter account just to handle travel updates though.
21:10 on 30/7/12.
Operation Ostrava: Month 17, Week 4, Day 3.
As you may have noticed I have not been posting my usual updates on the situation in Syria during the 2012 Olympics. The reason for this is two fold. Firstly with the battle for Aleppo raging the situation on the ground is moving very fast and is constantly changing. Therefore it is very difficult to get accurate information out of the country and by the time I would be able to write anything up it would already be out of date. Secondly while the level of violence has yet to reach the levels seen at say the "Highway of Death" incident when the United States Air Force (USAF) destroyed vehicles at the head of a convoy of Iraqi vehicles fleeing Kuwait on Highway 80 at the end of the first Iraq war before killing everybody and everything both military and civilian in the traffic jam that stretched for many miles Syria is in the grips of a full blown war. Therefore it is not really a suitable topic of conversation for a celebration like the Olympics.
However today I have no choice other then to comment on it because France is pressing for a Foreign Minister level meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This is a much higher level then the already very high level of regular UNSC meetings and is one step below directly involving Heads of Government/State (HOGS). However I think there is really very little point in holding this meeting because there are only really two options left open to the UNSC at this point. Either they can renew the mandate for the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) in order to allow it to act as a pathfinder mission for a much larger and robust UN Peacekeeping mission similar to those active in Cote De Ivorie or Democratic Republic of Congo that will be needed to contain the sectarian violence that will explode should the Syrian government fall. Alternatively the United States and the European Union members excluding Britain can drop once and for all this insane notion that the Syrian government can be forced to collapse through sanctions. If this were to happen it would lead to an explosion of sectarian violence that will and already has spread beyond Syria's borders into Lebanon, Iraq and Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan. If that does happen neighbouring Israel's security situation will become so dire that you can forget about any attempts at an Israeli/Palestinian peace process or any efforts to improve the lives of the Palestinians because there simply will not be the time nor space.
20:10 on 30/7/12.
However today I have no choice other then to comment on it because France is pressing for a Foreign Minister level meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). This is a much higher level then the already very high level of regular UNSC meetings and is one step below directly involving Heads of Government/State (HOGS). However I think there is really very little point in holding this meeting because there are only really two options left open to the UNSC at this point. Either they can renew the mandate for the United Nations Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) in order to allow it to act as a pathfinder mission for a much larger and robust UN Peacekeeping mission similar to those active in Cote De Ivorie or Democratic Republic of Congo that will be needed to contain the sectarian violence that will explode should the Syrian government fall. Alternatively the United States and the European Union members excluding Britain can drop once and for all this insane notion that the Syrian government can be forced to collapse through sanctions. If this were to happen it would lead to an explosion of sectarian violence that will and already has spread beyond Syria's borders into Lebanon, Iraq and Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi Kurdistan. If that does happen neighbouring Israel's security situation will become so dire that you can forget about any attempts at an Israeli/Palestinian peace process or any efforts to improve the lives of the Palestinians because there simply will not be the time nor space.
20:10 on 30/7/12.
London Transport: Time for Round 2.
It currently 16:00 local and the evening rush hour is about to begin. According to Transport for London they expect this rush 'hour' to last until around 21:00 and for the entire network to be exceptionally busy at all other times. Apart from the ongoing problems with the Central Line the equestrian events at Greenwich Park mean that "London Bridge" overground station will be exit only between 18:00 local and 22:00 meaning that if you want to get on a train you will have to walk to either "Cannon Street", "Charing Cross" or "Blackfriars." "London Bridge" underground will also be very busy and subject to temporary closures due to over crowding.
Due to the Olympic fanzone in Hyde Park "Marble Arch" and "Hyde Park" underground stations will be exit only between 10:00 and 22:00 local so if you want to get on a train you will have to walk to either "Lancaster Gate" or "Bond Street" or "Knightsbridge" or "Green Park". There are also reports that "Bank" station and "Canary Wharf" underground stations are extremely busy, subject to temporary closures due to overcrowding and are best avoided.
15:30 on 30/7/12.
Edited at around 16:55 on 30/7/12: In an effort to demonstrate how well the London Underground (LU) was working the Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he used it to travel to work today. When journalists asked which line he used and he replied the Bakerloo everyone familiar with LU just laughed at him because it's one of the quietest lines on the network. So one of the Prime Minister's PR people had the bright idea of sending him out on LU again to watch the Tom Daley diving event using I think the Jubilee line which looked pretty empty because the Prime Minister decided to make his trip well away from peak times.
Due to the Olympic fanzone in Hyde Park "Marble Arch" and "Hyde Park" underground stations will be exit only between 10:00 and 22:00 local so if you want to get on a train you will have to walk to either "Lancaster Gate" or "Bond Street" or "Knightsbridge" or "Green Park". There are also reports that "Bank" station and "Canary Wharf" underground stations are extremely busy, subject to temporary closures due to overcrowding and are best avoided.
15:30 on 30/7/12.
Edited at around 16:55 on 30/7/12: In an effort to demonstrate how well the London Underground (LU) was working the Prime Minister David Cameron announced that he used it to travel to work today. When journalists asked which line he used and he replied the Bakerloo everyone familiar with LU just laughed at him because it's one of the quietest lines on the network. So one of the Prime Minister's PR people had the bright idea of sending him out on LU again to watch the Tom Daley diving event using I think the Jubilee line which looked pretty empty because the Prime Minister decided to make his trip well away from peak times.
Interactive Olympics.
As it's a Monday I've been to the gym. Due to catching up on all the news taking up the time I would usually use for free weights I just did the 30 minutes static cycling. Normally I time this with just an ordinary stopwatch. However today the battery in that stopwatch died leaving me with no other option then to use the stopwatch on my Blackberry. So it could be an interesting game to see which Olympic cycle team can work out and rate my routine from any data they've lifted. I wouldn't take it too seriously though because my routine includes at least one cigarette break and really this is only something I do so I can drink as much beer as I like and still occasionally fit into my trousers.
I'll try and get a new stopwatch battery tomorrow though.
13:05 on 30/7/12.
I'll try and get a new stopwatch battery tomorrow though.
13:05 on 30/7/12.
There's Been no Reported Fatalities so Far.
Well obviously someone somewhere in the world has died and someone-else has pointed it out however the first of what will be many extremely busy periods on the London Underground (LU) network seems to have passed off without major incidents. The London Olympic hosts will no doubt use this as an opportunity to talk your ears off about all the wonderful crowd control techniques LU staff use (while the government makes most of them redundant) but really it does just come down to good humour because LU will periodically have to close stations temporarily in order to allow the crowds the clear.
As for alternative routes that really depends on where you're trying to travel from and where you're trying to travel too. However as a general rule the national overground rail network and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) are better because their stations aren't built into a tunnel hundreds of feet underground and therefore can be much larger. If you are travelling to the Olympic park in Stratford though it is better to take either the District Line (shown on maps in green), the Hammersmith & City Line (salmon) or the Jubilee Line (grey) to West Ham and then take a short walk from West Ham to the Olympic park. It may rain but trust me even that will be more pleasant then the Central Line.
Incidentally the London Organising Committee Olympic Games (LOCOG) have decided that today will see the start of the diving competition. So let's hope local favourite Tom Daley is the only one who'll tumble off a platform today.
09:40 on 30/7/12.
As for alternative routes that really depends on where you're trying to travel from and where you're trying to travel too. However as a general rule the national overground rail network and the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) are better because their stations aren't built into a tunnel hundreds of feet underground and therefore can be much larger. If you are travelling to the Olympic park in Stratford though it is better to take either the District Line (shown on maps in green), the Hammersmith & City Line (salmon) or the Jubilee Line (grey) to West Ham and then take a short walk from West Ham to the Olympic park. It may rain but trust me even that will be more pleasant then the Central Line.
Incidentally the London Organising Committee Olympic Games (LOCOG) have decided that today will see the start of the diving competition. So let's hope local favourite Tom Daley is the only one who'll tumble off a platform today.
09:40 on 30/7/12.
Sunday 29 July 2012
The Central Line: Welcome to Hell.
At around 06:00 local (05:00GMT) London's public transport system will be faced with the crowds from the 2012 "Public Transport Olympic Games" and London's commuters. During a normal rush "hour" (06:00 to 10:00 local) on London Underground's Central Line (shown in red on maps) there is a very real risk that the sheer volume of the crowd will force one or more people off the platform into the path of an oncoming train. This will not only scare anyone who witnesses it for life it will cause the whole line for several hours. London Bridge overground/underground hub will also be extremely busy and a potential choke point.
Ideally I would have liked to have posted a list of possible routes. However as at around 00:40 on 30/7/12 my travel advice about the Central Line can be summed in three simple words;
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid!
Ideally I would have liked to have posted a list of possible routes. However as at around 00:40 on 30/7/12 my travel advice about the Central Line can be summed in three simple words;
Avoid. Avoid. Avoid!
C*cks!
Sorry but my PC's refusal to allow me on to the Internet has caused my Tourettes to flare up again. However because my phone still works (hopefully) I should explain tomorrows Daily Mail's attempt to turn a molehill into reportable incident.
While I was sitting very quietly in the Black Lion earlier my father jammed a key into the lock on the backdoor. He is prone to do this sort of thing when he has got a sulk on. Today's sulk centered around the fact that for one day a week he has to cook for himself. Well I say "cook" he could have put the lamb stew on the hob for 5 minutes or put a frozen pizza in the oven for 15 minutes. In the end I simply knocked o n the door and he let me. Under supervision he was able to manage the pizza while seperatly I had a microwave curry. I won't tell you which one because I think India's been insulted enough for one day
Edited at 23:42 on 29/7/12 to add the time and date stamp I couldn't add to the first version.
While I was sitting very quietly in the Black Lion earlier my father jammed a key into the lock on the backdoor. He is prone to do this sort of thing when he has got a sulk on. Today's sulk centered around the fact that for one day a week he has to cook for himself. Well I say "cook" he could have put the lamb stew on the hob for 5 minutes or put a frozen pizza in the oven for 15 minutes. In the end I simply knocked o n the door and he let me. Under supervision he was able to manage the pizza while seperatly I had a microwave curry. I won't tell you which one because I think India's been insulted enough for one day
Edited at 23:42 on 29/7/12 to add the time and date stamp I couldn't add to the first version.
The 2012 Olympics: Day 2.
Despite the fact that it took me about 7 attempts to get on the Internet it's turns out today (29/7/12) some people have splashed about in some swimming pools while others have mucked about with horses and boats and others have generally fiddled with their balls. However somewhere in the middle of all that some people broke some world records and others were awarded medals that have now been arranged into something of a table. However if you want to look at one of those I believe there are some specialised websites sites that deal exclusively in that sort of thing. I can't recommend one at the moment because I'm still trying to get my eye in. That reminds me the shooting events now all seem to be finished which is a shame because they're all about trying to centre yourself amid the maelstrom and curiously TeamUS never does as well as you'd expect.
TeamGB has won some medals. Rebecca Adlington won a bronze in I think 400m free style but what ever it was it won't make her less ugly. In the women's cycling road race some girl called "Lizzie" showed the world that the girls did better then the boys at Critical Mass but it was still won by a Dutch girl so feel free to insert your own jokes about Dykes and the Orange Order. Paula Radcliffe has also pulled out of the marathon event. That's no great surprise because at this age she's always been touch and go in the sense that her foot touched the floor and went.
There were also two drug expulsions. These always happen at the Olympics because it so competitive some will always try to get ahead and some will always be caught. A female gymnast from [nation] tested positive for a [name] diuretic which is used to keep her weight down. A female runner from [nation] tested positive for a [name] steroid used to build muscle. Now at around 22:16 on 29/7/12 I'm going out for a cigarette break while I wait for Google help me add words in to the above brackets because I can't even spell durectic let alone name the most popular one on the market.
22:30 Nope not even Google's much use at this point. Anyway the point I was trying to make is that everybody in the Olympic family will already knows the names and nationalities of the expelled athletes along with the banned substances they've tested positive for so there's little point me repeating that information. I suppose I could list the banned substances I've taken today but frankly it would take too long because I'm trying to think of a poetic way to explain the issues surrounding the central line and work out what the hell I meant by those Summer Glau comments in my "The Olympic Opening Ceremony" post. In the meantime though I think we should all definitely burn Rupert Murdoch because he introduced paywalls on his newspaper's online editions - the b*stard! I mean it's not like Olympic events are still continuing and most tomorrow's newspapers have already gone to the printers.
22:40 on 29/7/12.
TeamGB has won some medals. Rebecca Adlington won a bronze in I think 400m free style but what ever it was it won't make her less ugly. In the women's cycling road race some girl called "Lizzie" showed the world that the girls did better then the boys at Critical Mass but it was still won by a Dutch girl so feel free to insert your own jokes about Dykes and the Orange Order. Paula Radcliffe has also pulled out of the marathon event. That's no great surprise because at this age she's always been touch and go in the sense that her foot touched the floor and went.
There were also two drug expulsions. These always happen at the Olympics because it so competitive some will always try to get ahead and some will always be caught. A female gymnast from [nation] tested positive for a [name] diuretic which is used to keep her weight down. A female runner from [nation] tested positive for a [name] steroid used to build muscle. Now at around 22:16 on 29/7/12 I'm going out for a cigarette break while I wait for Google help me add words in to the above brackets because I can't even spell durectic let alone name the most popular one on the market.
22:30 Nope not even Google's much use at this point. Anyway the point I was trying to make is that everybody in the Olympic family will already knows the names and nationalities of the expelled athletes along with the banned substances they've tested positive for so there's little point me repeating that information. I suppose I could list the banned substances I've taken today but frankly it would take too long because I'm trying to think of a poetic way to explain the issues surrounding the central line and work out what the hell I meant by those Summer Glau comments in my "The Olympic Opening Ceremony" post. In the meantime though I think we should all definitely burn Rupert Murdoch because he introduced paywalls on his newspaper's online editions - the b*stard! I mean it's not like Olympic events are still continuing and most tomorrow's newspapers have already gone to the printers.
22:40 on 29/7/12.
That Would a No Then.
Originally emailed in under the title; "Well it is the British Olympics
So I think it's time for a for a cup of tea before I check to see if this email has got through. I should point out that on this handset both RIM and Microsoft are pointing the finger of blame at Google.
17:45 on 29/7/12."
18:20 I only mention that because while I was sitting out in the Black Lion the police sent a helicopter over to check the microphone was still working. If I didn't know better I would say that the problem on this handset is the big, bad CIA calculating that because both my father and I have significant Internet addictions limiting us to just one PC would be a good way to raise the tension and start a fight. In other news has anyone seen how well Italy are doing in the Olympic medal tables. So well in fact that one of their Embassy staff in Yemen has been kidnapped. So when the Israelis say they live in a really rough neighbourhood they're only half lying.
On a completely unrelated note I think I've chanced upon a solution to the empty Olympic seats drama. You simply do what they do at the Oscars. That is to say you bring in large groups of school children/youth sports clubs and use them as seat-fillers. That way if a VIP turns up half-way through or wanders off in the middle the seat-fillers can at least get to see some of it. I have to say though that I am still rather worried about having large groups of children hanging around the VIP sections because of the Saudis. You see the local police have already set up a giant children's play pen in Hyde Park across the road from their hotel as a sort of warning that even diplomatic immunity has it's limits. The Jordanians have reacted angrily by sarcastically setting up a refugee camp for Syrian refugees.
As for transport worries on the first working day of the Olympics I think the simpliest way of doing it is this;
Welcome Olympic visitors the Central Line (the red one) on the London Underground will be closed between 06:00 local and 10:00 local and 16:00 local and 19:00 every Monday to Friday for the duration of the games..
18:30 on 29/7/12.
Edited at around 18:40 to add the words "Hyde Park."
So I think it's time for a for a cup of tea before I check to see if this email has got through. I should point out that on this handset both RIM and Microsoft are pointing the finger of blame at Google.
17:45 on 29/7/12."
18:20 I only mention that because while I was sitting out in the Black Lion the police sent a helicopter over to check the microphone was still working. If I didn't know better I would say that the problem on this handset is the big, bad CIA calculating that because both my father and I have significant Internet addictions limiting us to just one PC would be a good way to raise the tension and start a fight. In other news has anyone seen how well Italy are doing in the Olympic medal tables. So well in fact that one of their Embassy staff in Yemen has been kidnapped. So when the Israelis say they live in a really rough neighbourhood they're only half lying.
On a completely unrelated note I think I've chanced upon a solution to the empty Olympic seats drama. You simply do what they do at the Oscars. That is to say you bring in large groups of school children/youth sports clubs and use them as seat-fillers. That way if a VIP turns up half-way through or wanders off in the middle the seat-fillers can at least get to see some of it. I have to say though that I am still rather worried about having large groups of children hanging around the VIP sections because of the Saudis. You see the local police have already set up a giant children's play pen in Hyde Park across the road from their hotel as a sort of warning that even diplomatic immunity has it's limits. The Jordanians have reacted angrily by sarcastically setting up a refugee camp for Syrian refugees.
As for transport worries on the first working day of the Olympics I think the simpliest way of doing it is this;
Welcome Olympic visitors the Central Line (the red one) on the London Underground will be closed between 06:00 local and 10:00 local and 16:00 local and 19:00 every Monday to Friday for the duration of the games..
18:30 on 29/7/12.
Edited at around 18:40 to add the words "Hyde Park."
Well it is the British Olympics.
So I think it's time for a cup of tea before I check to see if this email has got through. I should point out that on this handset both RIM and Microsoft are pointing the finger of blame at Google.
17:45 on 29/7/12
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
17:45 on 29/7/12
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
We're Having a Power Cut.
In the last hour or so electricity has been cut off to at least my entire street. Fortunately Iwas in the bath at the time so had no need for electricity although the sound of all the burglar alarms going off at once wasn't exactly restful.
This could be due to the storms London's been having today but it also underlines the importance of having private power companies in the civil society to prevent totalitarian governments cutting off supplies to political dissidents. That's something a sensitive subject with nations like China and north Korea and something I should probably leave until I have access to a larger keyboard and the ability to recharge my blackberry.
13:40 on 29/7/12.
Edited at around 14:20 on 29/7/12 to add: And We're Back!
Around 20 minutes ago - twenty minutes after I pointed out that a mere power-cut would have little to no impact on my activities - the electricity suddenly came back on. Of course it took me 20 minutes to tell you about this because upon arriving home to a house where nothing electrical was working in a street where nothing electrical was working my valve-era electrician father tried to turn on the PC and finding that it wasn't working decided it was a problem with the PC and started pulling it to pieces. On a related note there are reports of delays and disruption on the over-ground rail network into London Bridge due to lighting striking signals in the Crystal Palace area which is quite close to me. However this is one of those things that does just happen on the overground rail network and would have had absolutely no impact on domestic electricity supplies which are on a completely different system.
There are also reports of a similar power-cut affecting around 50 properties in the Stratford area of east London close to the Olympic park last night (28/7/12) at around 18:30. This was most probably a response to the discussion of climate change/global warming that was started by the Olympic opening ceremony. The British argument being that we couldn't possibly do anything about carbon emissions because it would mean having to turn all the lights off. That is of course nonsense because if the Stratford properties were part of the previous Labour government's "Domestic Solar Scheme" which sees private properties generate their own electricity from subsidised solar panels and small wind turbines it is unlikely they would have noticed the power-cut. The current British government is currently trying it's hardest to end this scheme although they are receiving stiff resistance from the courts.
14:35 on 29/7/12.
Edited at around 14:20 on 29/7/12 to add: And We're Back!
Around 20 minutes ago - twenty minutes after I pointed out that a mere power-cut would have little to no impact on my activities - the electricity suddenly came back on. Of course it took me 20 minutes to tell you about this because upon arriving home to a house where nothing electrical was working in a street where nothing electrical was working my valve-era electrician father tried to turn on the PC and finding that it wasn't working decided it was a problem with the PC and started pulling it to pieces. On a related note there are reports of delays and disruption on the over-ground rail network into London Bridge due to lighting striking signals in the Crystal Palace area which is quite close to me. However this is one of those things that does just happen on the overground rail network and would have had absolutely no impact on domestic electricity supplies which are on a completely different system.
There are also reports of a similar power-cut affecting around 50 properties in the Stratford area of east London close to the Olympic park last night (28/7/12) at around 18:30. This was most probably a response to the discussion of climate change/global warming that was started by the Olympic opening ceremony. The British argument being that we couldn't possibly do anything about carbon emissions because it would mean having to turn all the lights off. That is of course nonsense because if the Stratford properties were part of the previous Labour government's "Domestic Solar Scheme" which sees private properties generate their own electricity from subsidised solar panels and small wind turbines it is unlikely they would have noticed the power-cut. The current British government is currently trying it's hardest to end this scheme although they are receiving stiff resistance from the courts.
14:35 on 29/7/12.
Empty Seats at Olympic Venues.
Following complaints yesterday (28/7/12) the London Organising Committee Olympic Games (LOCOG) who organised the 2012 Olympic games are investigating why a number of seats were left empty at opening events at the Olympic games. What appears to have happened is that the empty seats were accredited seats set aside for sponsors who understand that at the Olympics the sport is merely the side-show. This happens at every Olympic games so the investigation just seems to a response to members of the public who tried and failed to buy tickets to Olympic events contacting the media to complain. Of course as the investigation progresses it could grow into something Britain uses to put pressure on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to reduce the number of tickets given to corporate sponsors.
On that theme yesterday (28/7/12) a state organised protest group calling themselves the "Counter Olympics Network (CON)" held a small and peaceful protest against the corporatisation of the Olympics in Mile End close to the Olympic village. Of course when the British state says it is opposed to corporate involvement in the Olympics what it means is that it wants the removal the private enterprises that make up the space between government and private family life known as civil society so the Olympics becomes purely a government on government event.
09:20 on 29/7/12.
On that theme yesterday (28/7/12) a state organised protest group calling themselves the "Counter Olympics Network (CON)" held a small and peaceful protest against the corporatisation of the Olympics in Mile End close to the Olympic village. Of course when the British state says it is opposed to corporate involvement in the Olympics what it means is that it wants the removal the private enterprises that make up the space between government and private family life known as civil society so the Olympics becomes purely a government on government event.
09:20 on 29/7/12.
Saturday 28 July 2012
The 2012 Olympics: Day 1.
It's been a bad day for Team Columbia. As I woke up one of their cyclists in the men's road race crashed and had to replace his bike. Later in the day their women's soccer team were thumped 3-0 by Team US. After last night and on the day Albanian weightlifter Hysen Pulaku was expelled from the games after testing positive for an illegal drug (Stanazolol - an anabolic steroid) do I really need to explain what this was about especially with Team USA indicating that they're still taking a tough line on marijuana through Micheal Phelps. The question though is did the cyclist crash on purpose in order to telegraph the soccer loss?
As for the rest on the sport I've come to the conclusion that I simply can't watch 24 TV channels at the same time. This leaves me with a choice between picking a handful of sports to follow in obsessive detail or taking a general overview of the main controversies. As I seem to remember that comments I made about the luge event at the 2006 Winter Olympics might have contributed to a lugist being killed at the 2010 Winter Olympics I think the general overview will probably be the safest option. That's a shame because I could actually take a legitimate interest in some of the Olympic sports. For example when I was about 10 years old I was a somewhat promising competitive swimmer at the local level. Unfortunately I developed an allergy to chlorine and other pool cleaning chemicals which caused my sinuses to swell. This left me with a choice between training and breathing and apparently one of those is quite important to the other.
22:20 on 28/7/12.
As for the rest on the sport I've come to the conclusion that I simply can't watch 24 TV channels at the same time. This leaves me with a choice between picking a handful of sports to follow in obsessive detail or taking a general overview of the main controversies. As I seem to remember that comments I made about the luge event at the 2006 Winter Olympics might have contributed to a lugist being killed at the 2010 Winter Olympics I think the general overview will probably be the safest option. That's a shame because I could actually take a legitimate interest in some of the Olympic sports. For example when I was about 10 years old I was a somewhat promising competitive swimmer at the local level. Unfortunately I developed an allergy to chlorine and other pool cleaning chemicals which caused my sinuses to swell. This left me with a choice between training and breathing and apparently one of those is quite important to the other.
22:20 on 28/7/12.
Are Those Lawyers I Hear?!
After the smoke, noise and fury of the Olympic opening ceremony had cleared it emerged that London's Metropolitan police arrested 150 people at last night's (27/7/12) Critical Mass bike ride. All the arrests were for public nuisance which is a common law offence and therefore not strictly defined by a specific statute.
I should start by clarifying what I said about the matter yesterday. While extensive, lenghty and expensive High Court battles have ruled that Critical Mass is a traditional procession rather then a protest they are not exempt from all public order legislation. For example they don't suddenly have a license to kill. However they are exempt from legislation such as Sections 14-16 of the 1986 Public Order Act which amongst other things allows the police to impose conditions such as an all out ban on protests. While obviously the exact details of each individual arrest need to be considered I think it is extremely unlikely that any of the arrests will even go to court let alone end in conviction. That's because it's already been established that by going about their lawful business Critical Mass riders will cause a degree of nuisance to passers-by. Provided there is no malice or intent on the part of the riders the passers-by just need to accept this minor disruption as part of living in a civilised society. Today's (28/8/12) Olympic men's cycle road race between Box Hill and The Mall in central London is an almost too perfect example of this.
I along with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and anyone who has been involved in Critical Mass know that these arrests are a joke and border on unlawful. Therefore what the police were trying to do in making them was to carry out another intelligence gathering exercise on the riders while putting the arguments surrounding public order policing and the suppression of demonstrations on the Olympic agenda. It was also an attempt to put the offence of public nuisance on the agenda. Seriously the only reason why police and councils across Britain have started using this offence again is because I explained to them how to during my arguments about number 50 Beechwood Avenue.
Edited to add:
I'm still not liking this obligatory time and date stamp: 13:15 on 28/7/12.
Edited again at around 16:30 on 28/7/12 to add: The finer points of English (it's different in Scotland) public order legislation are so complex that often even people with a working knowledge of the law i.e the police sometimes fail to understand them. However it now appears that the public nuisance arrests at Critical Mass were made after the cyclists failed to obey conditions (a set route) that the police had imposed on them under Section 12 of the 1986 Public Order Act. Section 12 gives the police the power to impose conditions on "processions" so the argument will be over whether or not this also applies to "traditional processions" such as critical mass. The police will try and argue that it does and therefore the cyclists were not going about their lawful business. In the meantime those arrested have been put on bail by the police who have imposed conditions such as the arrestees not being allowed to go within 100 metres of an Olympic venue or enter the Olympic borough of Newham whilst in possession of a bicycle. That last condition will especially hurt anyone who works as a cycle courier and regardless of what charging decisions are made I suspect these bail conditions are going to be kept in place until after the end of the para-Olympics. On the plus side Britain has since conceded that it's didn't even place in the bicycle/road race with a Vinokurov of Kazakhstan taking gold.
I should start by clarifying what I said about the matter yesterday. While extensive, lenghty and expensive High Court battles have ruled that Critical Mass is a traditional procession rather then a protest they are not exempt from all public order legislation. For example they don't suddenly have a license to kill. However they are exempt from legislation such as Sections 14-16 of the 1986 Public Order Act which amongst other things allows the police to impose conditions such as an all out ban on protests. While obviously the exact details of each individual arrest need to be considered I think it is extremely unlikely that any of the arrests will even go to court let alone end in conviction. That's because it's already been established that by going about their lawful business Critical Mass riders will cause a degree of nuisance to passers-by. Provided there is no malice or intent on the part of the riders the passers-by just need to accept this minor disruption as part of living in a civilised society. Today's (28/8/12) Olympic men's cycle road race between Box Hill and The Mall in central London is an almost too perfect example of this.
I along with the police, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and anyone who has been involved in Critical Mass know that these arrests are a joke and border on unlawful. Therefore what the police were trying to do in making them was to carry out another intelligence gathering exercise on the riders while putting the arguments surrounding public order policing and the suppression of demonstrations on the Olympic agenda. It was also an attempt to put the offence of public nuisance on the agenda. Seriously the only reason why police and councils across Britain have started using this offence again is because I explained to them how to during my arguments about number 50 Beechwood Avenue.
Edited to add:
I'm still not liking this obligatory time and date stamp: 13:15 on 28/7/12.
Edited again at around 16:30 on 28/7/12 to add: The finer points of English (it's different in Scotland) public order legislation are so complex that often even people with a working knowledge of the law i.e the police sometimes fail to understand them. However it now appears that the public nuisance arrests at Critical Mass were made after the cyclists failed to obey conditions (a set route) that the police had imposed on them under Section 12 of the 1986 Public Order Act. Section 12 gives the police the power to impose conditions on "processions" so the argument will be over whether or not this also applies to "traditional processions" such as critical mass. The police will try and argue that it does and therefore the cyclists were not going about their lawful business. In the meantime those arrested have been put on bail by the police who have imposed conditions such as the arrestees not being allowed to go within 100 metres of an Olympic venue or enter the Olympic borough of Newham whilst in possession of a bicycle. That last condition will especially hurt anyone who works as a cycle courier and regardless of what charging decisions are made I suspect these bail conditions are going to be kept in place until after the end of the para-Olympics. On the plus side Britain has since conceded that it's didn't even place in the bicycle/road race with a Vinokurov of Kazakhstan taking gold.
Darned Connection Problems.
I've long accepted that the weeks in which London hosts the 2012 Olympics will end in much the same way as the weeks in which London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics. That is to say with me collapsed on the bathroom floor shivering and crying however I didn't expect it to start so soon. I blame the opening ceremony.
10:40 on 28/7/12.
10:40 on 28/7/12.
Friday 27 July 2012
Nope Not Even P*rn is Going to do it..
Seriously at around 02:05 on 28/7/12 I'm going to try and go to sleep. Well I say sleep it's more a case of my chin insisting that I take up a horizontal position and I would prefer that to occur on a pillow rather then the concrete. Really the only purpose of this message is to infom BBC radio staff that I'm going to leave it to the angels.
The Olympic Openening Ceremony.
Originally titled "Don't Mention the War." on 28/7/12.
Because here I'm going to write up my personal views of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. However at around 00:50 on 28/7/12 this may make take a few smoke breaks and a lot more alcohol. So be warned more words may appear here.
Like the games itself the opening ceremony was overwhelmed by war, nationalism and whoring. However I think the artistic director Danny Boyle coped well by setting out to tell the history of Britain from the start of the industrial revolution to the present day.
Taking a major historical liberty act 1 began with the start of the industrial revolution set at the start of the 1900's (20th Century). It started showing Britain's agricultural economy (our green and pleasant land) being ravaged by resource mining and the smoke stacks of industrial development. The key figure here was Kenneth Branagh playing Isambard Kingdom Brunel/generic 19th century industrialist. He recited lines from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" which is a play about a man trapped on an island with a wizard who could control the weather. The management thought this would play well in African nations where witchcraft is still respected as a legitimate belief system. However what everybody in the cast, audience or anyone with at least some knowledge of science saw was a commentary about how the carbon dioxide released by burning coal causes climate change. A clear and only slightly justified swipe at China over climate change negotiations. Then suddenly the scene changed to young men from the villages happily marching to WW1 through fields of poppies while the women protested for the right to vote. This was really the end of the first act.
The second act centred around the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) at the end of the second world war featuring the swing tunes of the 1940's. As the cast featured staff and patients at the actual Great Ormond Streat Hospital for children (GOSH) which Peter Pan writer J.M. Barrie bequeathed the proceeds of said book to the management thought the sequence about the monsters attacking the patients was about the hard work doctors do to calm scared children. However everyone else thought it was about the "monsters" that currently threaten the NHS.
The third act covered everything that happened from the 1950's right up to the present day and explored everything that was wrong with modern society through a random and not strictly speaking linear selection of British pop hits. This was also designed to introduce you to Stratford and east London's multi-culturalism. Cited examples of what was wrong with modern society included technology, immigrants, paedophilia and the consensual sexualisation of children with other children - something that was blamed on the blacks. A major theme was warning the middle class parents of the area about keeping an eye on their children's house parties and or sex lives. During the course of the Olympics I think the paedophilia bit counts as a valid warning because we've got high level delegations from the Gulf Monarchies in and even by Islamic standards they can get a bit rapey. The sequence in which the young black male (an example of a dangerous dog) "found" the young black female's (an example of a dangerous bitch) phone could have been reference to a number of incidents in London gang culture in which young women have invited young men round for sex in order to lure them into their own murders. Primarily though it was a warning to Olympic visitors that Stratford can get a bit stabby. However as with any major global city aslong as you aren't wandering around showing off expensive possessions suchs iPhones, cameras etc whilst carrying a giant map that tells the world you're a tourist you probably won't get mugged. Of there is a much higher risk that you will be robbed by one of more most of the world's pickpockets. However with them you won't even noticed you're being robbed.
The fourth act was moment of silence to remember our fallen. Specifically this was a reference to the fact that the 2012 Olympics is the 30th anniversary of 11 Israeli athletes being killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Now whatever you think about the Jews this was indisputably the worst single loss of life that the Olympic family has suffered so I think it should have been marked. However since the death Muammer Qaddafi who allegedly funded the Black September terrorists who carried out the 1972 attack along with lots of other groups such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) in what was really the golden age of international terrorism and summed up rather well in the song "Tommy Gun" by " The Clash" dwelling on the Munich attacks directly would have been more distasteful then respectful. So instead Britain decided to present it as memorial to those who lost their lives in the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks that struck London on July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) - the day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics. They did this by showing photographs of the dead on big screens while Scottish pop singer/micro-bology drop-out "Emile Sande" sang the hymn "Abide With Me" which is the hymn the British military have used to remember their dead since before WW1. Therefore it is musical shorthand for being prepared to die for the Monarch. Marking the Munich anniversary in this way was particulary provocative because Israel's now Prime Minister and then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly avoided being caught up in the attacks following a warning from the Israeli Embassy. Although this only really demonstrates that the Israeli's send a lot of their time worrying about Islamic terrorism it has been used as "evidence" for a conspiracy theory that the 7/7 attacks were an Israeli false-flag attack. This point was driven home by the Pakistani/Arab Muslim dancers who performed on stage during the hymn. As "The Clash" are/were a really great British band and their lyrics may or may not form a code-base in discussions over Iran's nuclear program Britain would have loved to have had them perform at the opening ceremony. The only problem with that is the lead singer is now dead. So instead we got the lead singer of another famous British band "The Artic Monkeys" doing his best Joe Strummer impression in leather jacket and quiff during act 6 - the torch lighting ceremony.
Act 5 was the parade of nations which saw the teams enter the stadium beneath their national flag. Although the host nation gets to control things like the music that's played and what's happening in the background this is really a compulsory part of any Olympic opening ceremony and is generally the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This part of the ceremony is actually a significant part of how the IOC keep the Olympic myth going. Apart from the heart warming sight of amateur athletes clearly being over-excited by all the attention smaller and newer nations have long been told this is an opportunity to promote themselves on the world stage. Therefore there is always the risk of controversy as some nations may cross the line between making the rest of the world aware of their existence and ambush marketing. Recently Azerbaijan have been getting a reputation for this sort of thing. For example at the Euro2012 football tournament the Azerbaijani government spent a lot of money sending teams of representatives disguised as fans to make sure the Azerbaijani flag was prominently displayed during all of the matches. Although I actually spent the parade of nations trying to figure out how to react to the Critical Mass incident I gather the big controversy was a mystery woman who managed to join in with the Indian team. This was done by the host nation to promote discussion about the best ways to ensure that people who engage in ambush marketing are kept out of Olympic venues - a big part of protecting the branding of the Olympics. As to why they chose to pick on India in particular I'm not really sure.
Act 6 could be divided into two parts; the raising of the Olympic flag and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Although these are set events that the IOC demand must happen the local hosts are given almost total freedom in how they happen. One area the IOC had control over was the selection of the eight flag bearers who carried the Olympic flag into the stadium. These were;
The show was closed by "Paul McCartney" performing the Beatles hit "Hey Jude." The idea of this was to calm everyone down as they prepared to leave and to remind the British TV viewers that it was very late at night (around 1AM) so they'd better be going to bed. Paul McCartney also performed Hey Jude at the Live 8 concert just days before Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics back in 2005. It was around the 157th chorus that many people got the distinct impression that the Live 8 concert wasn't over-running by accident.
Edited at around 14:15 on 28/7/12 because I think we can all agree that this needs tidying up. However as China has already won the first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics and we're all trying to work out why that Swiss rider crashed on purpose in the men's road race I'm not sure how far I'll get. So far I've changed the title from "Don't Mention the War." to "The Olympic Opening Ceremony" to indicate that this should be viewed as a work in progress that will change, evolve and see some of the more sweary swear words disappear.
The first big area I should clarify is the second act which centred on the NHS and GOSH. Although the NHS wasn't formed until 1946 we did have hospitals in Britain before then. Those hospitals were entirely private enterprises which charged patients for their care and relied heavily on charitable donations such as the donation J.M Barrie made to GOSH. When the NHS was formed many of these private hospitals closed down but others such as GOSH and the Royal London in Whitechapel - close to the Olympic park - were absorbed into the NHS. As raising money to help sick children is an easy sell GOSH has more or less continued as a private hospital that sometimes treats NHS patients - an early example of a public private partnership. Therefore the sequence with the medics from GOSH protecting the sick children from the monsters was actually an attempt to generate support amongst the British public for the NHS reforms which will see all British hospitals follow the GOSH model. As such the sequence was intended to show how much better the medics are at GOSH.
Edited again at around 11:00 on 29/7/12. I also put in an edited at around 20:00 on 28/7/12 but forgot to make a note of it.
Edited again at around 20:15 on 29/7/12 to add to act 3 and correct my spelling because apparently I could "Branagh" correctly but I couldn't spell "Kenneth."
Edited at around 15:40 on 45/8/12 to sort out the Firefly comments. I'm sorry for doing this in the middle of the day but with TeamGB's Tom Stalker making it through to the Olympic boxing quarter-finals, police in Los Angeles hunting a Twitter stalker who threatened to kill Canadian actress "Ellen Page" and police in Oklahoma searching for an arsonist who burned down the town of "Luther" this is clearly starting to get a little bit out of control.
Edited at around 19:05 on 27/8/12.
Because here I'm going to write up my personal views of the 2012 Olympic opening ceremony. However at around 00:50 on 28/7/12 this may make take a few smoke breaks and a lot more alcohol. So be warned more words may appear here.
Like the games itself the opening ceremony was overwhelmed by war, nationalism and whoring. However I think the artistic director Danny Boyle coped well by setting out to tell the history of Britain from the start of the industrial revolution to the present day.
Taking a major historical liberty act 1 began with the start of the industrial revolution set at the start of the 1900's (20th Century). It started showing Britain's agricultural economy (our green and pleasant land) being ravaged by resource mining and the smoke stacks of industrial development. The key figure here was Kenneth Branagh playing Isambard Kingdom Brunel/generic 19th century industrialist. He recited lines from William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" which is a play about a man trapped on an island with a wizard who could control the weather. The management thought this would play well in African nations where witchcraft is still respected as a legitimate belief system. However what everybody in the cast, audience or anyone with at least some knowledge of science saw was a commentary about how the carbon dioxide released by burning coal causes climate change. A clear and only slightly justified swipe at China over climate change negotiations. Then suddenly the scene changed to young men from the villages happily marching to WW1 through fields of poppies while the women protested for the right to vote. This was really the end of the first act.
The second act centred around the formation of the National Health Service (NHS) at the end of the second world war featuring the swing tunes of the 1940's. As the cast featured staff and patients at the actual Great Ormond Streat Hospital for children (GOSH) which Peter Pan writer J.M. Barrie bequeathed the proceeds of said book to the management thought the sequence about the monsters attacking the patients was about the hard work doctors do to calm scared children. However everyone else thought it was about the "monsters" that currently threaten the NHS.
The third act covered everything that happened from the 1950's right up to the present day and explored everything that was wrong with modern society through a random and not strictly speaking linear selection of British pop hits. This was also designed to introduce you to Stratford and east London's multi-culturalism. Cited examples of what was wrong with modern society included technology, immigrants, paedophilia and the consensual sexualisation of children with other children - something that was blamed on the blacks. A major theme was warning the middle class parents of the area about keeping an eye on their children's house parties and or sex lives. During the course of the Olympics I think the paedophilia bit counts as a valid warning because we've got high level delegations from the Gulf Monarchies in and even by Islamic standards they can get a bit rapey. The sequence in which the young black male (an example of a dangerous dog) "found" the young black female's (an example of a dangerous bitch) phone could have been reference to a number of incidents in London gang culture in which young women have invited young men round for sex in order to lure them into their own murders. Primarily though it was a warning to Olympic visitors that Stratford can get a bit stabby. However as with any major global city aslong as you aren't wandering around showing off expensive possessions suchs iPhones, cameras etc whilst carrying a giant map that tells the world you're a tourist you probably won't get mugged. Of there is a much higher risk that you will be robbed by one of more most of the world's pickpockets. However with them you won't even noticed you're being robbed.
The fourth act was moment of silence to remember our fallen. Specifically this was a reference to the fact that the 2012 Olympics is the 30th anniversary of 11 Israeli athletes being killed at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Now whatever you think about the Jews this was indisputably the worst single loss of life that the Olympic family has suffered so I think it should have been marked. However since the death Muammer Qaddafi who allegedly funded the Black September terrorists who carried out the 1972 attack along with lots of other groups such as the Red Army Faction (RAF) in what was really the golden age of international terrorism and summed up rather well in the song "Tommy Gun" by " The Clash" dwelling on the Munich attacks directly would have been more distasteful then respectful. So instead Britain decided to present it as memorial to those who lost their lives in the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks that struck London on July 7th 2005 (7/7/05) - the day after London was awarded the 2012 Olympics. They did this by showing photographs of the dead on big screens while Scottish pop singer/micro-bology drop-out "Emile Sande" sang the hymn "Abide With Me" which is the hymn the British military have used to remember their dead since before WW1. Therefore it is musical shorthand for being prepared to die for the Monarch. Marking the Munich anniversary in this way was particulary provocative because Israel's now Prime Minister and then Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu narrowly avoided being caught up in the attacks following a warning from the Israeli Embassy. Although this only really demonstrates that the Israeli's send a lot of their time worrying about Islamic terrorism it has been used as "evidence" for a conspiracy theory that the 7/7 attacks were an Israeli false-flag attack. This point was driven home by the Pakistani/Arab Muslim dancers who performed on stage during the hymn. As "The Clash" are/were a really great British band and their lyrics may or may not form a code-base in discussions over Iran's nuclear program Britain would have loved to have had them perform at the opening ceremony. The only problem with that is the lead singer is now dead. So instead we got the lead singer of another famous British band "The Artic Monkeys" doing his best Joe Strummer impression in leather jacket and quiff during act 6 - the torch lighting ceremony.
Act 5 was the parade of nations which saw the teams enter the stadium beneath their national flag. Although the host nation gets to control things like the music that's played and what's happening in the background this is really a compulsory part of any Olympic opening ceremony and is generally the responsibility of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). This part of the ceremony is actually a significant part of how the IOC keep the Olympic myth going. Apart from the heart warming sight of amateur athletes clearly being over-excited by all the attention smaller and newer nations have long been told this is an opportunity to promote themselves on the world stage. Therefore there is always the risk of controversy as some nations may cross the line between making the rest of the world aware of their existence and ambush marketing. Recently Azerbaijan have been getting a reputation for this sort of thing. For example at the Euro2012 football tournament the Azerbaijani government spent a lot of money sending teams of representatives disguised as fans to make sure the Azerbaijani flag was prominently displayed during all of the matches. Although I actually spent the parade of nations trying to figure out how to react to the Critical Mass incident I gather the big controversy was a mystery woman who managed to join in with the Indian team. This was done by the host nation to promote discussion about the best ways to ensure that people who engage in ambush marketing are kept out of Olympic venues - a big part of protecting the branding of the Olympics. As to why they chose to pick on India in particular I'm not really sure.
Act 6 could be divided into two parts; the raising of the Olympic flag and the lighting of the Olympic cauldron. Although these are set events that the IOC demand must happen the local hosts are given almost total freedom in how they happen. One area the IOC had control over was the selection of the eight flag bearers who carried the Olympic flag into the stadium. These were;
- Daniel Barenboim. An Argentine/Israeli pianist and classical music conductor who has been an active supporter of Palestinian rights and peace campaigner. Along with Palestinian academic Edward Said Barenboim formed the East-West Divan orchestra which brings young Israeli and Palestinian musicians together in an attempt to bring peace through understanding by bridging the cultural divide. Apart from showing the IOC's commitment to peace in the middle-east as an Argentinian and Israeli dual-national Barenboim's inclusion also seems to have been a reference the the bombing of an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria which occurred on the anniversary of the bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina. Interestingly he also shares the same birthday as me.
- Sally Becker. A British charity worker who headed "Operation Angel" charity which rescued Muslim women and children from the town of Mostar during the Bosnian war. As Operation Angel is one those British charities no-one's ever heard of let alone donated money too, has an anti-Serb bias and was instrumental in highlighting the suffering of Kosovar civilians which lead to the 1999 NATO attack on Serbia Becker is seen as a British government agent. Therefore her inclusion was to draw attention to Britain's role in the Bosnian and Kosovan wars which has obvious links to the Ratko Mladic trial and the situations in Libya and Syria.
- Leymah Gbowee. The winner of the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in bringing an end to the second Liberian civil war Gbowee went on the spearhead the campaign to have former Liberian President Charles Taylor prosecuted under the slogan "Pray the Devil back to Hell" and campaigned for Ellen Johnson Sirleaf - Liberia and Africa's first female head of state. Therefore Gbowee's inclusion was to draw attention to women's rights in general and in Africa in particular. She also drew attention to Charles Taylor's recent conviction for war crimes committed during the civil war in Sierra Leone and possibly the difference between Tony Blair's and the Conservative British government which proceed his Labour government approaches to the conflict.
- Haile Gabrselassie. A legendary Ethiopian marathon runner who also won two Olympic gold medals in the 10,000 metres and set some 27 world records Gabrselassie was included because he is/was a great Olympian and ambassador for the Olympics. He is also an ambassador for Britain's "G4S 4teens" scheme designed to get British teenagers involved in sport. Obviously that program is sponsored by ill-fated London 2012 security firm G4S.
- Marina Silva. A Brazilian environmentalist who has won numerous awards for her work on environmental protection including being appointed a "UN Champion of the Earth" Silva is a member of the Brazilian Parliament representing the Green Party. As a political rival of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff who attended the opening ceremony Ms Silva's inclusion caused some controversy in Brazil but I think she was included to represent the 2016 Olympic host Brazil and the environment rather then in a political capacity.
- Ban Ki-moon. As the Secretary General of the United Nations I think Mr Ban's inclusion is rather self-explanatory.
- Doreen Lawrence. The Jamaican born mother of murdered British teenager Stephen Lawrence Ms Lawrence was chosen to highlight the strong links between Britain and Caribbean islands such as Jamaica. It also seems to be a subtle little swipe at Britain's current Conservative government who were in power when Stephen Lawrence was killed and his murder covered up because it was the Labour government that launched an inquiry into the killing which eventually led to two of the killers being brought to justice. It was of course this Labour government that was in power when the IOC awarded Britain the 2012 games.
- Shami Chakriabarti. A British lawyer Ms Chakriabarti is also the head of the "Liberty" campaign group which campaigns for civil liberties, prisoners rights and the right to protest. Liberty have in the past represented groups such as Critical Mass and although I will need to check I think that Ms Chakriabarti might have personally represented Critical Mass in some of their many court cases. Her inclusion was to emphasise the Olympic's commitment to human rights. The arrest of more then 150 people (an Olympic record) at a Critical Mass during the Olympic opening ceremony was Britain's way of making Ms Chakribariti's appearance that little bit more nerve wracking and showing it's opposition to human rights
The show was closed by "Paul McCartney" performing the Beatles hit "Hey Jude." The idea of this was to calm everyone down as they prepared to leave and to remind the British TV viewers that it was very late at night (around 1AM) so they'd better be going to bed. Paul McCartney also performed Hey Jude at the Live 8 concert just days before Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics back in 2005. It was around the 157th chorus that many people got the distinct impression that the Live 8 concert wasn't over-running by accident.
Edited at around 14:15 on 28/7/12 because I think we can all agree that this needs tidying up. However as China has already won the first gold medal of the 2012 Olympics and we're all trying to work out why that Swiss rider crashed on purpose in the men's road race I'm not sure how far I'll get. So far I've changed the title from "Don't Mention the War." to "The Olympic Opening Ceremony" to indicate that this should be viewed as a work in progress that will change, evolve and see some of the more sweary swear words disappear.
The first big area I should clarify is the second act which centred on the NHS and GOSH. Although the NHS wasn't formed until 1946 we did have hospitals in Britain before then. Those hospitals were entirely private enterprises which charged patients for their care and relied heavily on charitable donations such as the donation J.M Barrie made to GOSH. When the NHS was formed many of these private hospitals closed down but others such as GOSH and the Royal London in Whitechapel - close to the Olympic park - were absorbed into the NHS. As raising money to help sick children is an easy sell GOSH has more or less continued as a private hospital that sometimes treats NHS patients - an early example of a public private partnership. Therefore the sequence with the medics from GOSH protecting the sick children from the monsters was actually an attempt to generate support amongst the British public for the NHS reforms which will see all British hospitals follow the GOSH model. As such the sequence was intended to show how much better the medics are at GOSH.
Edited again at around 11:00 on 29/7/12. I also put in an edited at around 20:00 on 28/7/12 but forgot to make a note of it.
Edited again at around 20:15 on 29/7/12 to add to act 3 and correct my spelling because apparently I could "Branagh" correctly but I couldn't spell "Kenneth."
Edited at around 15:40 on 45/8/12 to sort out the Firefly comments. I'm sorry for doing this in the middle of the day but with TeamGB's Tom Stalker making it through to the Olympic boxing quarter-finals, police in Los Angeles hunting a Twitter stalker who threatened to kill Canadian actress "Ellen Page" and police in Oklahoma searching for an arsonist who burned down the town of "Luther" this is clearly starting to get a little bit out of control.
Edited at around 19:05 on 27/8/12.
Huzzah!
At around 00:30 on 27/7/12 my father has gone to bed. Therefore I can do what ever I want. Unfortunately I think what I want to do is drink and smoke more so I think the chances of me getting more intelligible gets less and less by the minute.
00:35 on 28/7/12.
00:35 on 28/7/12.
On No! Facebook Got There First.
Seriously they lost about USD100million on their IPO.
Anyway at around 23:50 on 27/7/12 the Olympic Cauldron has been lit. After a significant number of pounds being staked on either Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister both on evens the cauldron was lit by a group of children who all touched their torch to what looked like a witch burning bonfire at the same time. The "bonfire" then rose up and ignited the cauldron. Therefore no-one can really tell which individual lit the cauldron. Sorry about that but this economic recovery's not going to pay for herself.
If I had to name the entity that finally lit the cauldron and will keep it lit for the next two weeks three days I would say "British Gas" and I think I can safely be loud about this now because well we always got TeamUSA. As I've now opened the third bottle of red there is a good chance I may write up my personal views of the Olympic opening ceremony. However because 2022 is going to be a scorcher there is little chance the will make sense.
23:55 on 27/7/12.
Anyway at around 23:50 on 27/7/12 the Olympic Cauldron has been lit. After a significant number of pounds being staked on either Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister both on evens the cauldron was lit by a group of children who all touched their torch to what looked like a witch burning bonfire at the same time. The "bonfire" then rose up and ignited the cauldron. Therefore no-one can really tell which individual lit the cauldron. Sorry about that but this economic recovery's not going to pay for herself.
If I had to name the entity that finally lit the cauldron and will keep it lit for the next two weeks three days I would say "British Gas" and I think I can safely be loud about this now because well we always got TeamUSA. As I've now opened the third bottle of red there is a good chance I may write up my personal views of the Olympic opening ceremony. However because 2022 is going to be a scorcher there is little chance the will make sense.
23:55 on 27/7/12.
I So Need to Teach the Foxes About Wagner.
Wow at around 22:30 that sounds like the opening arguments a serious noise complaint. However I think we can at least agree that act 4 was only mildly less schizophrenic then my iPod on shuffle. Act 5 of course ended with British pop star/microbiology drop-out Emile Sande singing that old soldiers hymn "Abide With Me."
In other news the London Critical Mass ended up getting a bit large. I should explain that on the last Friday in every month since about 1995 a group of cyclists have met together in central London in order to go on a cycle ride in which by their shear number they no longer feel threatened by motorists. Through various lenghty and expensive court cases it's been established that Critical Mass has no organisers and is a traditional procession and therefore is exempt for public order laws. The flaw in this plan is the in recent weeks provocative people have been suggesting that the July 2012 Critical Mass could be hijacked as a way to protest the Olympics. So rather predictably July 2012 Critical Mass decided to make it's way to the Olympic Park followed by a vast number of police vehicles which blocked the roads apparently holding up David Beckham on his way to the opening ceremony.
And yes at around 22:40 on 27/7/12 I'm on the big computer and wondering if Fallujah 2 has started yet or whether ol' Bashar is succumbing to the peer pressure.
In other news the London Critical Mass ended up getting a bit large. I should explain that on the last Friday in every month since about 1995 a group of cyclists have met together in central London in order to go on a cycle ride in which by their shear number they no longer feel threatened by motorists. Through various lenghty and expensive court cases it's been established that Critical Mass has no organisers and is a traditional procession and therefore is exempt for public order laws. The flaw in this plan is the in recent weeks provocative people have been suggesting that the July 2012 Critical Mass could be hijacked as a way to protest the Olympics. So rather predictably July 2012 Critical Mass decided to make it's way to the Olympic Park followed by a vast number of police vehicles which blocked the roads apparently holding up David Beckham on his way to the opening ceremony.
And yes at around 22:40 on 27/7/12 I'm on the big computer and wondering if Fallujah 2 has started yet or whether ol' Bashar is succumbing to the peer pressure.
Well it's no Wagner.
At around 21:30 on 27/7/12 we're into the first intermission in the Olympic opening ceremony. By "intermission" I mean the parade of nations in which 205 teams walk into the arena waving their national flag. It's their moment so I'm trying not to spoil it by talking over the top.
Edited at around 21:40 to add: I still prefer the full sized keyboard and;
[posted at] 21:35 on 27/7/12.
Edited at around 21:40 to add: I still prefer the full sized keyboard and;
[posted at] 21:35 on 27/7/12.
That's a Panic Attack For LU Then.
At around 18:00 the London Underground (LU) Piccadilly line with takes passengers to and from Heathrow airport suffered a signal failure that stopped all trains near trains near Cockfosters and caused knock on delays along the lines. Fortunately all lines close to the Olympic park are unaffected and if anyone with tickets to opening ceremony is coming in from Heathrow at this has got a pass to use the Olympic Route Network (ORN).
A Critical Mass group cycle ride is taking place in central London. To be fair Critical Mass have been doing this every Friday since about 1995 so it's more a case of the Olympic's clashing with their event and they seem to be sensibly keeping well away from the Olympic.
Oh and it turns I can still post from this handset although I think that redundency is under attack as we speak.
19:35 on 27/7/12.
A Critical Mass group cycle ride is taking place in central London. To be fair Critical Mass have been doing this every Friday since about 1995 so it's more a case of the Olympic's clashing with their event and they seem to be sensibly keeping well away from the Olympic.
Oh and it turns I can still post from this handset although I think that redundency is under attack as we speak.
19:35 on 27/7/12.
Almost to the Minute.
Yeah dinner took almost exactly 20 minutes. Now my father and I are going to sit down to watch the Olympic opening ceremony on TV. Three hours this goes on for apparently.
19:05 on 27/7/12.
19:05 on 27/7/12.
Dinner's Running Late.
The preparatory work for the lamb stew took longer then expected so my father and I will now be sitting down at around 18:30 for a 20 minute duration.
It would be so much easier if I could just do this on my phone.
18:30 on 27/7/12.
It would be so much easier if I could just do this on my phone.
18:30 on 27/7/12.
And Now I'm Cleaning the Bathroom.
I know it's not Thursday but it's a new routine I've been working on that will now be my routine for the Olympics.
As I will get five minutes I might check on the odds for the cauldron lighter. Apparently Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister are strong favourites but James Bond might be worth a punt.
[emailed at] 15:30 on 27/7/12
[published at] 16:25 on 27/7/12.
As I will get five minutes I might check on the odds for the cauldron lighter. Apparently Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister are strong favourites but James Bond might be worth a punt.
[emailed at] 15:30 on 27/7/12
[published at] 16:25 on 27/7/12.
Quick Question.
What size are the entrances on the X-ray scanners they're using at the Olympic park. While I'll agree that's not something you'd want everybody to know months in advance but it might help people decide what sized bags to bring. Personally I'm think airport for a short business trip.
[emailed]At 14:15 on 27/7/12 try and guess which handset I'm using.
[published] 17:20 on 27/7/12
[emailed]At 14:15 on 27/7/12 try and guess which handset I'm using.
[published] 17:20 on 27/7/12
Posting Problems
Since making my first post of today (27/7/12) entitled "The Olympic Archery Has Begun." I've emailed in two other posts from my Blackberry entitled; "Quick Question" at 14:20 and "And Now I'm Cleaning the Bathroom at 15:30.
Unfortunately as you can see they've not appeared here though. This is the Brits blocking them in order to look like it's trying to find out why the same problem occurred on Sunday (22/7/12). Of course asking the question is a good way of making it look like you don't know the answer. At around the time the second email was failing to publish a fire broke out at the media centre at the Weymouth Olympic venue. This of course was an attempt to put the pressure to on to find who has got exactly what access to my Blackberry. It also like likely to make the international media's job at the Weymouth venue very difficult because the reports I've heard is that the media centre is really on fire.
I'll now manually updated the missing posts.
16:20 on 27/7/12
Unfortunately as you can see they've not appeared here though. This is the Brits blocking them in order to look like it's trying to find out why the same problem occurred on Sunday (22/7/12). Of course asking the question is a good way of making it look like you don't know the answer. At around the time the second email was failing to publish a fire broke out at the media centre at the Weymouth Olympic venue. This of course was an attempt to put the pressure to on to find who has got exactly what access to my Blackberry. It also like likely to make the international media's job at the Weymouth venue very difficult because the reports I've heard is that the media centre is really on fire.
I'll now manually updated the missing posts.
16:20 on 27/7/12
And Now I'm Cleaning the Bathroom
I know it's not a Thursday but it's a new routine I've been working on that will now be my routine for the Olympics.
As I will get 5 mins I might check on the odds for the cauldron lighter. Apparently Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister are strong favorites but James Bond might be worth a punt.
15:30 on 27/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
As I will get 5 mins I might check on the odds for the cauldron lighter. Apparently Sir Steve Redgrave and Roger Bannister are strong favorites but James Bond might be worth a punt.
15:30 on 27/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
Quick Question.
What size are the entrances on the X-ray scanners they're using at the Olympic park. While I'll agree that's not something you'd want everybody to know months in advance but it might help people decide what sized bag to bring. Personally I'm thinking airport for a short business trip.
At 14:15 on 27/7/12 try and guess which handset I'm using.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
At 14:15 on 27/7/12 try and guess which handset I'm using.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
The Olympic Archery Has Begun.
Although the Olympic opening ceremony doesn't begin until 20:00 (21:00 local) today (27/7/12) the preliminary or "ranking" rounds of the archery competition has begun at Lords cricket ground. Despite the fact that this event is not open to the public there have been problems with queues preventing competitors and officials getting into the venue for the start of the event. What appears to have caused the problems is the Olympic organisers decision to describe the first day of the archery as a "non-ticketed event." In Britain this always means that the public don't need tickets to attend the event because it is open to all. So what the Olympic organisers meant to do was describe it as a "closed event" meaning that it is not open to the public.
This mistake is so elementary I think the organisers did it on purpose to promote discussion about the problems that will be faced during the games in getting spectators into venues. Along with congestion on roads and public transport getting spectators into the venues one time will be one of the big problems of the games. That's because due to security and marketing concerns everybody and everything going into an Olympic venue will have to be searched in detail. My advice is to make sure you only take with you what you need and try and turn up at the venue one hour before you want to be inside the venue.
Now if anyone needs me at around 09:55 on 27/7/12 I'm going to the gym. Then shall we say I've seen previews of the Olympic ceremony and I think there's only one way to make sure you get the full effect. I blame Cirque Du Soleil.
This mistake is so elementary I think the organisers did it on purpose to promote discussion about the problems that will be faced during the games in getting spectators into venues. Along with congestion on roads and public transport getting spectators into the venues one time will be one of the big problems of the games. That's because due to security and marketing concerns everybody and everything going into an Olympic venue will have to be searched in detail. My advice is to make sure you only take with you what you need and try and turn up at the venue one hour before you want to be inside the venue.
Now if anyone needs me at around 09:55 on 27/7/12 I'm going to the gym. Then shall we say I've seen previews of the Olympic ceremony and I think there's only one way to make sure you get the full effect. I blame Cirque Du Soleil.
Thursday 26 July 2012
Bristol Bomb Scare.
Travel to and from today's (26/7/12) Olympic men's soccer between Brazil and Egypt at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium was disrupted after Bristol Parkway station was closed following the discovery of two suspect packages on a train from Cardiff to London. After police and army bomb squad personnel attended the suspect packages were found to be just lost bags. People attempting to bring large bags into Olympic venues has already caused delays at security checkpoints. Therefore I think this was just simply someone being a bit stupid coupled with provincial police getting a bit over-excited.
Also today in Britain two high street banks have been experiencing computer problems. In the first instance customers of Nationwide (technically a building society/mutual) discovered that payments had been taken from their accounts twice. Apart from damaging the reputation of one of the few British high street banks that isn't at least part owned by the British government this seems to be a British response the Penn Sate University paedophilia case that's been going on in the USA for a while. The latest developments in this story are that Penn State's insurers have filed court papers to have their obligations to the university nullified while lawyers for abuse victims announce their intention to sue the university for damages. This is a US metaphor for the paedophilia part of my case history in which the Whitgift Estate and by extension the British government are viewed as the wrongdoer. The Nationwide story seems to be Britain attempting to argue that they've being forced to pay twice even though I don't seem to remember them paying once.
Secondly Natwest and Ulster Bank customers have been experiencing a repeat of the problems they had in June with their accounts not being updated and them not being able to withdraw or transfer money. As it was originally this was done in order to remind everyone what it would be like if a major high street bank failed. It was repeated today because one of the VIP's in London for the Olympics is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) who gave a speech at the opening of Britain's business embassy at Lancaster House.
Also today in Britain two high street banks have been experiencing computer problems. In the first instance customers of Nationwide (technically a building society/mutual) discovered that payments had been taken from their accounts twice. Apart from damaging the reputation of one of the few British high street banks that isn't at least part owned by the British government this seems to be a British response the Penn Sate University paedophilia case that's been going on in the USA for a while. The latest developments in this story are that Penn State's insurers have filed court papers to have their obligations to the university nullified while lawyers for abuse victims announce their intention to sue the university for damages. This is a US metaphor for the paedophilia part of my case history in which the Whitgift Estate and by extension the British government are viewed as the wrongdoer. The Nationwide story seems to be Britain attempting to argue that they've being forced to pay twice even though I don't seem to remember them paying once.
Secondly Natwest and Ulster Bank customers have been experiencing a repeat of the problems they had in June with their accounts not being updated and them not being able to withdraw or transfer money. As it was originally this was done in order to remind everyone what it would be like if a major high street bank failed. It was repeated today because one of the VIP's in London for the Olympics is the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) who gave a speech at the opening of Britain's business embassy at Lancaster House.
Twitter's Back Up Then
the 2012 olympics will be the first olympic games since the explosion in the use of social media such as twitter and facebook. as with all totalitarian regimes this has got the british hosts worried because it makes it much harder to control the flow of information. for example the state broadcaster (bbc) news is currently reporting stories as "breaking news" about three hours after they'd already broken on other news channels.
the brits are especially worried about my use of twitter. so much so that in the months prior to the games almost everyone i know was making a special effort to encourage me to get on twitter. the idea was to give the brits plenty of time to build up a pattern of my twitter use andand make sure the accounts i follow are firmly under control. this would have provided the opportunity for the brits to hold a tutorial for other oppressive regimes in how to control social media. unfortunately for them i left it very late to get on to twitter, my foillow list is constantly evolving and i'm piggy-backing on accouts like @tflofficial that the hosts need to facilitate the games. that makes it much harder to police my twitter use. so just after my previous post the uk threw the kitchen sink at the problem and took down the uk twitter mobile site although the main http site was still working.
oh and i still can't set up the email on torch but as you can see i've by-passed the problem although capitalisation is still proving difficult.
The Latest Jackson Family Scandal.
Despite the fact that the email on my Torch is still not working I've already emailed this in through a web-based email address but it hasn't appeared. There is an outside chance that it's being legitimately held up in the email system so I apologise if I repeat myself. However like the problem with the Blackberry email address this is most likely just someone trying to make my life difficult which is a shame because it means I can't tell you what I know about the charges in the Charles Haywood case.
Anyway. In the last few days the family of the late singer Micheal Jackson have been involved in some sort of family squabble. I've not been following in detail but yesterday it led to the adult son of Tito Jackson being granted temporary legal guardianship of Micheal Jackson's three children amid rumours that their existing guardian Katherine Jackson (Micheal's mother) is being held against her will to prevent her having contact with the children. This gives the story strong elements of grandmothers, deprivation of liberty and legal guardianship which is very similar to lasting powers of attorney. Therefore the scandal is a USA attempt to force my grandmother's case on to the Olympic agenda which is something of a wet dream for the Brits. On the plus side though at least it shows that African-Americans can share Anglo-Saxon values.
If you missed that story prior to starting his visit to Britain, Poland and Israel Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told a meeting of veterans of foreign wars that Barack Obama didn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. That was a not so subtle way of nudging white Americans of a certain age in the ribs and whispering; "You see that Obama guy, he's black you know. Black."
The only good thing about that was it gave me the opportunity to read a really funny Tweet. Someone just said; "Romney's right, Obama doesn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. After-all he's been President for four years and not succumbed to Norman invasion once."
Anyway. In the last few days the family of the late singer Micheal Jackson have been involved in some sort of family squabble. I've not been following in detail but yesterday it led to the adult son of Tito Jackson being granted temporary legal guardianship of Micheal Jackson's three children amid rumours that their existing guardian Katherine Jackson (Micheal's mother) is being held against her will to prevent her having contact with the children. This gives the story strong elements of grandmothers, deprivation of liberty and legal guardianship which is very similar to lasting powers of attorney. Therefore the scandal is a USA attempt to force my grandmother's case on to the Olympic agenda which is something of a wet dream for the Brits. On the plus side though at least it shows that African-Americans can share Anglo-Saxon values.
If you missed that story prior to starting his visit to Britain, Poland and Israel Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney told a meeting of veterans of foreign wars that Barack Obama didn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. That was a not so subtle way of nudging white Americans of a certain age in the ribs and whispering; "You see that Obama guy, he's black you know. Black."
The only good thing about that was it gave me the opportunity to read a really funny Tweet. Someone just said; "Romney's right, Obama doesn't understand Anglo-Saxon values. After-all he's been President for four years and not succumbed to Norman invasion once."
Damn Torch!
It still won't let me set up my email. That's despite Blackberry sending me multiple network messages telling me how to do it. I follow them to the letter but still it refuses to connect. Fortunately I seem to have found an alternative route for now.
12:50 on 26/7/12
Phillips Idowu's Injury.
Despite the fact that the Olympics formally open tomorrow (27/7/12) most of Team GB's athletics squad are not even in the country let alone the Olympic village. Instead they're at a training camp in Portugal. Well all of them are except triple jumper Phillips Idowu who has stayed in the UK for treatment of a hip injury. As it's relatively well know that Idowu has a difficult relationship with the head of the Team GB athletics squad Charles von Commnenee this has led to much speculation over the legitimacy of Idowu's injury. In response Team GB have written to Idowu requesting his medical records and we are all awaiting the records to be sent before a decision can be made about whether or not Idowu will be able to take part in the games.
Obviously this is all a reference to me but the question is which of my injuries are we talking about? We could be talking about my foot injury which is being slow to heal due to my refusal the let it disrupt my training regime. While it's not the great fun to discuss arthritis related condition known as gout it certainly fits into that category of non-specific pain that is really big business in health care. Seriously doctors across the developed world spend large parts of their working lives saying things like; "Can you describe the pain?" before saying things like; "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do but have you tried one of the thousands of expensive pills and potions that are on the market?"
Alternatively it could be a reference to the long term mental health problems that have got me signed off sick. You see after Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics and they set the Bristol Abuse Case (BAC) in motion back in 2006 the idea was that I would teach them everything I knew about causes and possible treatment for mental health problems. This would allow Britain to use the 2012 Olympics as an opportunity to unveil everything they'd been taught and present themselves as a world leader on the subject. Even though that hasn't happened Britain has promised so many people over say many years that there would be a big announcement they're pushing ahead with a sort of presentation anyway. This includes the Channel4 season of programs on mental health and a Parliamentary report that was published on Monday (23/7/12) about the state of mental health provision within the UK. One of the big areas of research in mental health problems is neuroscience which the alleged Aurora shooter was studying with a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The US government/intelligence communities would have been well aware of Britain's plans and the NIH is sort of government/intelligence adjacent so the alleged Aurora shooter would have been in a position to hear the latest gossip. So while I think the conspiracy only existed in his head it might be worth bringing the issue up in questioning.
Also today (26/7/12) Britain's department of Business and Skills along with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) have opened Lancaster House in central London as Britain's business embassy for the duration of the Olympics. Although the Prime Minister gave the opening speech the embassy will primarily be the responsibility of the Business Minister, Vince Cable. Yesterday a jogger and member of a local athletics club was killed by an overhead power cable in Newport Essex. While I think this was just a freak accident it's certainly not a good omen.
Speaking of freak accidents I should explain that Britain is currently going through the school summer holidays. This allows all school aged children to spend the next six weeks running around doing whatever you like. So every year we do naturally experience a number of incidents such as the boys who died whilst open water swimming in a river near Bristol on Tuesday (24/7/12) and the boy who died after falling into a water filled quarry yesterday (25/7/12.)
10:20 on 26/7/12.
Obviously this is all a reference to me but the question is which of my injuries are we talking about? We could be talking about my foot injury which is being slow to heal due to my refusal the let it disrupt my training regime. While it's not the great fun to discuss arthritis related condition known as gout it certainly fits into that category of non-specific pain that is really big business in health care. Seriously doctors across the developed world spend large parts of their working lives saying things like; "Can you describe the pain?" before saying things like; "I'm sorry there's nothing I can do but have you tried one of the thousands of expensive pills and potions that are on the market?"
Alternatively it could be a reference to the long term mental health problems that have got me signed off sick. You see after Britain was awarded the 2012 Olympics and they set the Bristol Abuse Case (BAC) in motion back in 2006 the idea was that I would teach them everything I knew about causes and possible treatment for mental health problems. This would allow Britain to use the 2012 Olympics as an opportunity to unveil everything they'd been taught and present themselves as a world leader on the subject. Even though that hasn't happened Britain has promised so many people over say many years that there would be a big announcement they're pushing ahead with a sort of presentation anyway. This includes the Channel4 season of programs on mental health and a Parliamentary report that was published on Monday (23/7/12) about the state of mental health provision within the UK. One of the big areas of research in mental health problems is neuroscience which the alleged Aurora shooter was studying with a grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH). The US government/intelligence communities would have been well aware of Britain's plans and the NIH is sort of government/intelligence adjacent so the alleged Aurora shooter would have been in a position to hear the latest gossip. So while I think the conspiracy only existed in his head it might be worth bringing the issue up in questioning.
Also today (26/7/12) Britain's department of Business and Skills along with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) have opened Lancaster House in central London as Britain's business embassy for the duration of the Olympics. Although the Prime Minister gave the opening speech the embassy will primarily be the responsibility of the Business Minister, Vince Cable. Yesterday a jogger and member of a local athletics club was killed by an overhead power cable in Newport Essex. While I think this was just a freak accident it's certainly not a good omen.
Speaking of freak accidents I should explain that Britain is currently going through the school summer holidays. This allows all school aged children to spend the next six weeks running around doing whatever you like. So every year we do naturally experience a number of incidents such as the boys who died whilst open water swimming in a river near Bristol on Tuesday (24/7/12) and the boy who died after falling into a water filled quarry yesterday (25/7/12.)
10:20 on 26/7/12.
Wednesday 25 July 2012
North Korean Flag Scandal
Although the Olympic opening ceremony doesn't take place until Friday (27/7/12) the games actually began today (25/7/12) with the first women's football matches being played. There was drama at the fixture between North Korea V Columbia match when the South Korean flag was displayed before kick-off prompting the North Korean team to walk off the pitch.
This was clearly no mistake and seems to be a deliberate attempt by the hosts to provoke a reaction from the North Korean delegation. That's because there's been lots of interesting developments in North Korean recently with senior generals retiring on health grounds, threats to expand the nuclear weapons and today's announcement that Kim Jong-Un has got married. So Britain's rather keen to know what's going on.
20:00 on 25/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
This was clearly no mistake and seems to be a deliberate attempt by the hosts to provoke a reaction from the North Korean delegation. That's because there's been lots of interesting developments in North Korean recently with senior generals retiring on health grounds, threats to expand the nuclear weapons and today's announcement that Kim Jong-Un has got married. So Britain's rather keen to know what's going on.
20:00 on 25/7/12.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2
The UK's Recession Continues.
Today (25/7/12) saw the release of the provisional GDP data for the British economy for Quarter 2 (Q2: April, May, June). These figures may be revised up or down but they show that the UK economy shrunk by 0.7% for the period. This shrinkage is much more significant then the Q1 fall of 0.2% and the 2011 Q4 drop of 0.3% meaning that the UK is experiencing it's worst double-dip recession since records began and the situation appears to be getting worse.
The government has blamed the fall on the extra Jubilee bank holiday and the bad weather leaving it up to the opposition Labour Party to start the Olympic debate over Britain's economic policy. However a closer look at the figures show that the overall fall has been mainly driven by a 5.2% fall in the building/construction sector. This sector is largely driven by large scale property developers which are more dependent then most on the credit markets such as the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) market. Worries over the Eurozone crisis and fears of a second banking collapse mean that the credit markets are incredibly tight at the moment making it very difficult for the building/construction sector to do business. Therefore the government has something of a point when it argues that the latest downturn owes more to market conditions in Europe then anything that's happening in Britain.
Market conditions in Europe have been particularly tough over the last week. Spanish borrowing costs have risen to around the 7.5% mark which triggered EU bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The Spanish stockmarket was forced to introduce a ban on short-selling as markets across Europe tumbled on the news. Also the Eurozone's strongest economies such as Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have either lost their AAA credit ratings or been put on negative outlook by some of the credit ratings agencies such as Moodys. The loss of these AAA credit ratings will make it much more expensive for the European Stability Fund (ESF) - which is meant to help nations like Greece, Spain and Italy - to borrow money. What seems to have caused this latest round of volatility was the announcement over the weekend that the Eurogroup is to go ahead with the E100bn bailout of Spanish banks. This has angered the financial sector because they wanted the Eurogroup to press ahead with plans that would have seen bailout money go straight to the banks rather then national governments and plans for further Eurogroup integration such as the introduction of Eurobonds or the European Central Bank (ECB) buying up troubled nations bonds. As they didn't get what they wanted the markets are now lashing out in order to put more pressure on the political leaders of the Eurogroup to give in and give the markets what they demand.
These problems in the Eurozone also seem to be a significant factor in today's decision by the Greek Olympic Team to send home triple jumper Voula Papachristou for making racist comments about African migrants and voicing support for the fascist Golden Dawn Party on Twitter. Although I don't know enough about Ms Papachristou to say definitively that she's not racist the whole incident does seem a little planned. The idea was first to warn official visitors to the London Olympics that they should be careful what they saw whether it's over electronic communications such as Twitter or not. Secondly it seems to be an attempt by Greece to get an even sweeter bailout deal by raising the spectre of the rise of the extreme-right in response to the nations economic problems. Thirdly it seems to be an attempt to promote a discussion about African migrants which is a big issue within the EU and even stretches as far as Libya, Niger and Chad which are all major stop-off points for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa as the try and make their way into the EU.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 15:50 on 25/7/12.
The government has blamed the fall on the extra Jubilee bank holiday and the bad weather leaving it up to the opposition Labour Party to start the Olympic debate over Britain's economic policy. However a closer look at the figures show that the overall fall has been mainly driven by a 5.2% fall in the building/construction sector. This sector is largely driven by large scale property developers which are more dependent then most on the credit markets such as the London Inter Bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) market. Worries over the Eurozone crisis and fears of a second banking collapse mean that the credit markets are incredibly tight at the moment making it very difficult for the building/construction sector to do business. Therefore the government has something of a point when it argues that the latest downturn owes more to market conditions in Europe then anything that's happening in Britain.
Market conditions in Europe have been particularly tough over the last week. Spanish borrowing costs have risen to around the 7.5% mark which triggered EU bailouts in Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The Spanish stockmarket was forced to introduce a ban on short-selling as markets across Europe tumbled on the news. Also the Eurozone's strongest economies such as Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have either lost their AAA credit ratings or been put on negative outlook by some of the credit ratings agencies such as Moodys. The loss of these AAA credit ratings will make it much more expensive for the European Stability Fund (ESF) - which is meant to help nations like Greece, Spain and Italy - to borrow money. What seems to have caused this latest round of volatility was the announcement over the weekend that the Eurogroup is to go ahead with the E100bn bailout of Spanish banks. This has angered the financial sector because they wanted the Eurogroup to press ahead with plans that would have seen bailout money go straight to the banks rather then national governments and plans for further Eurogroup integration such as the introduction of Eurobonds or the European Central Bank (ECB) buying up troubled nations bonds. As they didn't get what they wanted the markets are now lashing out in order to put more pressure on the political leaders of the Eurogroup to give in and give the markets what they demand.
These problems in the Eurozone also seem to be a significant factor in today's decision by the Greek Olympic Team to send home triple jumper Voula Papachristou for making racist comments about African migrants and voicing support for the fascist Golden Dawn Party on Twitter. Although I don't know enough about Ms Papachristou to say definitively that she's not racist the whole incident does seem a little planned. The idea was first to warn official visitors to the London Olympics that they should be careful what they saw whether it's over electronic communications such as Twitter or not. Secondly it seems to be an attempt by Greece to get an even sweeter bailout deal by raising the spectre of the rise of the extreme-right in response to the nations economic problems. Thirdly it seems to be an attempt to promote a discussion about African migrants which is a big issue within the EU and even stretches as far as Libya, Niger and Chad which are all major stop-off points for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa as the try and make their way into the EU.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 15:50 on 25/7/12.
Stoaway Boy.
Today (25/7/12) it has emerged that yesterday (24/7/12) an 11 year old British boy was able to board a Jet2 flight from Manchester airport to Rome without a parent, a passport or a ticket. He was discovered in Rome and returned to Manchester that same evening. For the Olympics this Britain once again expressing it's annoyance that I am still able to operate across international borders not only without their permission but after they've taken steps to stop me such as refusing me a passport.
It of course also draws attention to the border controls at Britain's airports which are going to be a major issue throughout the Olympics. At mid-day (11:00) today the government will be going to the High Court to apply for an injunction preventing border staff in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union striking to tomorrow (26/7/12). The government will be granted this injunction because if you remember the injunctions that were granted against Unite the Union over the British Airways cabin crew strikes of which this brings up memories you will understand that the purpose of British Courts is to prevent trade unions taking strike action. When you're talking about the sort of people who make up the Olympic family having the tightest anti-trade union laws outside of places like North Korea and Burma is actually considered a great advert for Britain.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 09:55 on 25/7/12.
It of course also draws attention to the border controls at Britain's airports which are going to be a major issue throughout the Olympics. At mid-day (11:00) today the government will be going to the High Court to apply for an injunction preventing border staff in the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union striking to tomorrow (26/7/12). The government will be granted this injunction because if you remember the injunctions that were granted against Unite the Union over the British Airways cabin crew strikes of which this brings up memories you will understand that the purpose of British Courts is to prevent trade unions taking strike action. When you're talking about the sort of people who make up the Olympic family having the tightest anti-trade union laws outside of places like North Korea and Burma is actually considered a great advert for Britain.
Obligatory time and date stamp: 09:55 on 25/7/12.
Tuesday 24 July 2012
Bullet Control: Part 2.
OK I'll admit I should have done a bit of research before I made my big presentation about how the USA could bring in money laundering style alert system to prevent future mass shootings like the one seen in Aurora, Colorado last Friday (21/7/12). However judging by the comments made by the gun club owner who refused the alleged shooter membership I might just have accidentally stumbled onto a good idea. In fact provided it's done right along with not leaving loaded firearms lying around it should just become part of the responsible gun ownership that the National Rifle Association (NRA) is always talking about. The only question though is how to do it right.
Due to the way that ammunition and everything else is increasingly sold over the Internet and shipped across state lines these days I think it will have to be a federal system involving an agency like the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Assuming that people who routinely sell guns and ammunition already have to be registered with the ATF it should be as simple as the ATF laying down a set of criteria such as say the sale of more the 3000 rounds of ammunition that they have to be informed about. Once this channel of communication has been opened between vendors and the ATF worried vendors should then be able to voluntarily report things that aren't on the list but give them cause for concern. There is absolutely no suggestion that a report should cancel the transaction or stop the purchaser receiving their goods. However once the ATF receive an alert I think there are really two options for what they do with those alerts.
What I think is the least intrusive option would be for the ATF to simply pass the alert onto to a dedicated team in the purchasers local law enforcement department. In large metropolitan areas such as New York this will have to be an entire department. However in smaller, rural areas it could easily be just one police officer who deals with the one or two alerts they receive a year. Once local law enforcement get the alert they then simply go around to the purchaser's house and talk to them. Obviously they purchaser should be under absolutely no obligation to talk to the police or allow them on to their property. However as a general rule if someone has brought a lot of ammunition because they do a lot of hunting they will be more then happy to talk to the police and show off their collection while the person who starts ranting about how the government is out to get them before slamming the door in the police officer's face is really the sort of person you'd be worried about having a large stockpile of weapons. If after the visit the trained and experienced police officer is still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then bring in a trained mental health professional who should then visit the purchaser. If both the police officer and the mental health professional are still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then be able to use existing procedures to compel the purchaser to undergo a full psychiatric assessment or temporarily confiscate their weapons. Something that I believe police in most states are already allowed to do. Obviously if things get to this point there will need to be lots of safeguards such as lots of paperwork and the right to appeal to a judge or tribunal in order to protect the purchaser's rights.
The other option involves behavioural analysis which although not an exact science is getting better every day. This involves collecting data about a person such as their credit card history, Internet search history, arrest record, employment history, medical records etc and feeding it into a computer algorithm which collates this data and calculates the risk someone poses of carrying out something like a mass killing. This approach is much more invasive and raises all sorts of civil rights questions. However as we move more and more of our lives on-line the amount of publicly available information about us has grown dramatically. For example if you buy something on-line then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) along with your credit card company and the company you brought it from will all have a record of exactly what you brought and when. All of these company's databases are vulnerable to computer hacking and they are allowed to sell most of this information on to third parties anyway. Therefore it is possible to make an argument that by allowing law enforcement access to this information all you're doing is allowing them to catch up with what everybody else is already doing. In fact thanks to the Patriot Act I think you'll find the FBI, ATF and DHS are already doing this even if they don't like to talk about it.
If behavioural analysis was used in the alert system it would allow the ATF to filter the alerts before passing some of them onto local law enforcement. For example this would allow the ATF to quickly find out that someone who had brought 3000 rounds of ammunition is also the president of the local chapter of the NRA and regularly hosts safe and legal shooting parties on their farmland. As this person obviously poses no threat to public safety the ATF could simply mark the alert about them for no further action rather then passing it on to local law enforcement. This is actually pretty much how the money laundering alert system works. If you've ever brought a house the chances are that you've had an alert issued about you but because someone was quickly able to tell that all that had happened is that you'd brought a house with money you'd borrowed from a bank no further action was taken so you never found out about it.
While I'm here talking about the Aurora shootings for what I hope will be the last time I need to talk about the booby-trapping of the suspect's apartment. The police said that this was done in order to kill either first responders or neighbours while destroying any evidence in order to increase the mythology about the crime. I said that the booby-trapping was done in order to keep the crime in the spotlight for as long as possible. In saying this I did not mean to imply that the booby-trapping should not be considered an attempt to kill. Instead I do most certainly think that the suspect should be charged to the full extent of the law over the booby-trapping along with any traffic violations he may have committed on the way to the theatre. I actually think that in setting the explosives the suspect was trying to do both. That is to say that his plan A was to kill first responders and destroy evidence but failing that his plan B was for the police to spend ages trying to diffuse them. When he was arrested after his gun jammed and it became obvious that plan A hadn't worked he decided to move to plan B by telling the police about the explosives.
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to figure out his motive though because I think it is fair to say that his brain wasn't working properly at the time. So if you can't understand what he was thinking it's normally a good sign that your brain is working properly. However that is not to say that the suspect cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions. For example here in Britain Channel4 is currently doing a big season of programs about mental health. Apart from the obvious tie in with the Olympics this is an attempt to manufacture public support for government welfare reforms that have already seen a number of people passed fit for work shortly before they died of their illnesses. The statistic that keeps coming out of these programs though is that 1 in 4 UK adults will suffer from some sort of mental illness during their lives. Based on my experience is broadly true but obviously we can't have 25% of the population running around breaking whatever law they like whenever they like otherwise they would be no point having laws. So in order to determine insanity in the legal sense we use what is known as the M'Naghten rules.
The M'Naghten rules were drawn up in the UK in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten for the attempted murder of Sir Robert Peel and the murder of his secretary. Obviously this test has been updated over the years as our knowledge of mental illness has grown and different nations have slightly different versions but the over-riding principle remains the same. The M'Naughten rules state that someone can only use a defence of insanity if at the time of the offence they were (a) suffering from a defect of reason or (b) a disease of the mind to such an extent that they were not aware of their actions or that their actions were wrong. An example of a defect of reason would be a psychotic episode. This is hard to explain but it is similar to an alcohol induced blackout. Basically one moment you're sitting in you home watching TV then suddenly it's three days later and you're sitting in a strange room surrounded by strange people and you've got no idea how you go there. Psychotic episodes are so similar to drink/drug blackouts that if a suspect has voluntarily and knowingly taken drink or drugs close to the time of the episode it is considered concurrent operation and they can't plead insanity. An example of a disease of the mind would be a delusional schizophrenic I once knew who was absolutely convinced that the film "Star Wars" was really happening in a galaxy far, far away and members of the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire were being sent to this galaxy to do battle here on earth. Although he was probably the most harmless person you would ever meet if one day he did kill someone because he thought that they were one of these undercover Evil Empire stormtroopers who were trying to kill him you wouldn't convict him of murder because even though he was wrong in his head he totally believed he was simply defending himself. You would lock him up until those delusions had gone though.
The disease of the mind part of the M'Naghten test is the most difficult because it all comes down to of a matter of degree. For example the Norwegian court that is currently trying Anders Behring Breivik could well rule that his diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is severe enough to constitute a disease of the mind and find him insane rather then guilty. However in order to make that sort of decision you really need an experienced and qualified mental health professional who has been able to examine the accused individual at great length. Clearly in both the Norway or Aurora case I am not that person so my opinion should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Also to the list of symptoms I would expect survivors of the Aurora shootings to be experiencing such as; sadness, anger, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, restlessness or mild paranoia I should add numbness because strangely a lot of people leave these things feeling nothing at all. Like I said these are all perfectly normal human responses to this sort of trauma. However if symptoms persist feel free to consult an actual proper qualified doctor.
Due to the way that ammunition and everything else is increasingly sold over the Internet and shipped across state lines these days I think it will have to be a federal system involving an agency like the bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Assuming that people who routinely sell guns and ammunition already have to be registered with the ATF it should be as simple as the ATF laying down a set of criteria such as say the sale of more the 3000 rounds of ammunition that they have to be informed about. Once this channel of communication has been opened between vendors and the ATF worried vendors should then be able to voluntarily report things that aren't on the list but give them cause for concern. There is absolutely no suggestion that a report should cancel the transaction or stop the purchaser receiving their goods. However once the ATF receive an alert I think there are really two options for what they do with those alerts.
What I think is the least intrusive option would be for the ATF to simply pass the alert onto to a dedicated team in the purchasers local law enforcement department. In large metropolitan areas such as New York this will have to be an entire department. However in smaller, rural areas it could easily be just one police officer who deals with the one or two alerts they receive a year. Once local law enforcement get the alert they then simply go around to the purchaser's house and talk to them. Obviously they purchaser should be under absolutely no obligation to talk to the police or allow them on to their property. However as a general rule if someone has brought a lot of ammunition because they do a lot of hunting they will be more then happy to talk to the police and show off their collection while the person who starts ranting about how the government is out to get them before slamming the door in the police officer's face is really the sort of person you'd be worried about having a large stockpile of weapons. If after the visit the trained and experienced police officer is still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then bring in a trained mental health professional who should then visit the purchaser. If both the police officer and the mental health professional are still concerned about the purchaser's behaviour they should then be able to use existing procedures to compel the purchaser to undergo a full psychiatric assessment or temporarily confiscate their weapons. Something that I believe police in most states are already allowed to do. Obviously if things get to this point there will need to be lots of safeguards such as lots of paperwork and the right to appeal to a judge or tribunal in order to protect the purchaser's rights.
The other option involves behavioural analysis which although not an exact science is getting better every day. This involves collecting data about a person such as their credit card history, Internet search history, arrest record, employment history, medical records etc and feeding it into a computer algorithm which collates this data and calculates the risk someone poses of carrying out something like a mass killing. This approach is much more invasive and raises all sorts of civil rights questions. However as we move more and more of our lives on-line the amount of publicly available information about us has grown dramatically. For example if you buy something on-line then your Internet Service Provider (ISP) along with your credit card company and the company you brought it from will all have a record of exactly what you brought and when. All of these company's databases are vulnerable to computer hacking and they are allowed to sell most of this information on to third parties anyway. Therefore it is possible to make an argument that by allowing law enforcement access to this information all you're doing is allowing them to catch up with what everybody else is already doing. In fact thanks to the Patriot Act I think you'll find the FBI, ATF and DHS are already doing this even if they don't like to talk about it.
If behavioural analysis was used in the alert system it would allow the ATF to filter the alerts before passing some of them onto local law enforcement. For example this would allow the ATF to quickly find out that someone who had brought 3000 rounds of ammunition is also the president of the local chapter of the NRA and regularly hosts safe and legal shooting parties on their farmland. As this person obviously poses no threat to public safety the ATF could simply mark the alert about them for no further action rather then passing it on to local law enforcement. This is actually pretty much how the money laundering alert system works. If you've ever brought a house the chances are that you've had an alert issued about you but because someone was quickly able to tell that all that had happened is that you'd brought a house with money you'd borrowed from a bank no further action was taken so you never found out about it.
While I'm here talking about the Aurora shootings for what I hope will be the last time I need to talk about the booby-trapping of the suspect's apartment. The police said that this was done in order to kill either first responders or neighbours while destroying any evidence in order to increase the mythology about the crime. I said that the booby-trapping was done in order to keep the crime in the spotlight for as long as possible. In saying this I did not mean to imply that the booby-trapping should not be considered an attempt to kill. Instead I do most certainly think that the suspect should be charged to the full extent of the law over the booby-trapping along with any traffic violations he may have committed on the way to the theatre. I actually think that in setting the explosives the suspect was trying to do both. That is to say that his plan A was to kill first responders and destroy evidence but failing that his plan B was for the police to spend ages trying to diffuse them. When he was arrested after his gun jammed and it became obvious that plan A hadn't worked he decided to move to plan B by telling the police about the explosives.
I wouldn't worry too much about trying to figure out his motive though because I think it is fair to say that his brain wasn't working properly at the time. So if you can't understand what he was thinking it's normally a good sign that your brain is working properly. However that is not to say that the suspect cannot be held criminally responsible for his actions. For example here in Britain Channel4 is currently doing a big season of programs about mental health. Apart from the obvious tie in with the Olympics this is an attempt to manufacture public support for government welfare reforms that have already seen a number of people passed fit for work shortly before they died of their illnesses. The statistic that keeps coming out of these programs though is that 1 in 4 UK adults will suffer from some sort of mental illness during their lives. Based on my experience is broadly true but obviously we can't have 25% of the population running around breaking whatever law they like whenever they like otherwise they would be no point having laws. So in order to determine insanity in the legal sense we use what is known as the M'Naghten rules.
The M'Naghten rules were drawn up in the UK in 1843 during the trial of Daniel M'Naghten for the attempted murder of Sir Robert Peel and the murder of his secretary. Obviously this test has been updated over the years as our knowledge of mental illness has grown and different nations have slightly different versions but the over-riding principle remains the same. The M'Naughten rules state that someone can only use a defence of insanity if at the time of the offence they were (a) suffering from a defect of reason or (b) a disease of the mind to such an extent that they were not aware of their actions or that their actions were wrong. An example of a defect of reason would be a psychotic episode. This is hard to explain but it is similar to an alcohol induced blackout. Basically one moment you're sitting in you home watching TV then suddenly it's three days later and you're sitting in a strange room surrounded by strange people and you've got no idea how you go there. Psychotic episodes are so similar to drink/drug blackouts that if a suspect has voluntarily and knowingly taken drink or drugs close to the time of the episode it is considered concurrent operation and they can't plead insanity. An example of a disease of the mind would be a delusional schizophrenic I once knew who was absolutely convinced that the film "Star Wars" was really happening in a galaxy far, far away and members of the Rebel Alliance and the Evil Empire were being sent to this galaxy to do battle here on earth. Although he was probably the most harmless person you would ever meet if one day he did kill someone because he thought that they were one of these undercover Evil Empire stormtroopers who were trying to kill him you wouldn't convict him of murder because even though he was wrong in his head he totally believed he was simply defending himself. You would lock him up until those delusions had gone though.
The disease of the mind part of the M'Naghten test is the most difficult because it all comes down to of a matter of degree. For example the Norwegian court that is currently trying Anders Behring Breivik could well rule that his diagnosis of Narcissistic Personality Disorder is severe enough to constitute a disease of the mind and find him insane rather then guilty. However in order to make that sort of decision you really need an experienced and qualified mental health professional who has been able to examine the accused individual at great length. Clearly in both the Norway or Aurora case I am not that person so my opinion should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Also to the list of symptoms I would expect survivors of the Aurora shootings to be experiencing such as; sadness, anger, anxiety, difficulty sleeping, restlessness or mild paranoia I should add numbness because strangely a lot of people leave these things feeling nothing at all. Like I said these are all perfectly normal human responses to this sort of trauma. However if symptoms persist feel free to consult an actual proper qualified doctor.
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