Posts by John A Blackley

Brit spooks: Yanks are frightful cowboys

@Andy Bright

"What is more important, the values and beliefs that give us the so-called moral high ground, or a willingness to do anything at all to save our skins?"

There is no such thing as a "moral high ground" there is only self-satisfaction. Therefore, my answer would be: The latter.

"The reality is the threat from being blown up by terrorists pales into insignificance every time you drive your car on the M-25 or the 305 interstate."

Nonsense. I do everything in my power to mitigate risk when I'm on the road - including making allowance for those who are not qualified to share the road.

"You take your life into your own hands every day, but you're not willing to face the small risk that not torturing someone might end up with the deaths of innocents."

Yes I am. I choose not to because, if that - admittedly - "small risk" results in me being blown to smithereens, having the "moral high ground" isn't going to make me feel even a little bit better.

"I value my country's integrity far more than I value my life."

Wonderful. But please don't make such irrational decisions on my behalf.

"Unfortunately others didn't feel that way and flushed that integrity down the toilet in."

Your country's integrity - no matter which country - is even more imaginary than your "moral high ground". Flushing imaginary things is the province of small children and the deluded.

"I have nothing but contempt for the cowards that did so......"

Congratulations. I imagine, however, that your smugness - along with your "moral high ground" - will vaporise at the very first close call for you or a loved one where you deem that more could've been done by your government to prevent it.

".........and unfortunately the massive recruitment drive going on in the Middle East and Asia seems to indicate they have created a whole bunch of people that feel the same way."

Tired, baseless and utter nonsense. Cart before horse. Neither the government of the country I inhabit nor of the one in which I'm a citizen is the sole cause of the current fad for blowing oneself and those surrounding into teeny little bits. Ignorance, religious mania, brainwashing and economic deprivation account for more influence.

"If the goal was to create 10 times the number of terrorists you've done splendidly."

And, in my book, the sooner we can track down viable suspects, wring the necessary information out of them - by whatever means necessary - and use that information to decimate the rest, the better for everyone in my part of the world.

In other words

"It never crossed my mind that [the intelligence] was coming from torture. We are talking about the Americans, our closest ally. This now, with hindsight, may look naive,........" No, you look like either a liar or a liability.

As to the previous wringing-of-hands and bleeding-of-hearts comments, I certainly hope that the safety of my family friends and society is never trusted to the likes of you. (Well, apparently it is in Britain - where the judiciary et al would rather feel morally upright than be effective - but, fortunately, I don't live there.)

ESA seeks pricing for Mars rover

Europe can afford this?

With fires in southern Europe and floods in dear ol' Blighty, immigrant welfare, bloated national health schemes and an ever-multiplying number of 'directives' to implement, Europe can afford a jaunt to the Red Planet?

Here's a slightly modified plan - with a much better potential ROI: Have ESA find out how much it would cost to build a 200kg rover capable of trundling over European surface with a 16kg instrument package, searching for signs of intelligent life in Brussels.

Masturbating lag cops 60 days' extra porridge

Murdoch?

So, one op-ed piece about American politics, one piece about a psychic pussy and one piece about a jail-bound J. Arthur.

Trying to make yourself a takeover target for Rupert?

Mobile-mast danger is all in your head

@Jim Coe

"Has anyone ever walked under a 137,000 volt power line holding a fluorescent tube?"

Yes, and as I'm not a fluorescent tube, only one of us glowed.

As to the study itself, buggerit! There goes my fledgling tinfoil hat business!

Can Osama keep Bush afloat?

El Reg for adults

Here's a business idea for El Reg: Start a site that reports whatever the blazes you want to report in any way that you care to report it. Oh, and have a proof of age requirement to access the site. (Proof of age requirement to be maintained by an absence of comments entailing fingerpointing, 'facts' that cannot be substantiated in any way, sophomoric - at best - insults, and semi-literate cursing of others who are commenting.)

Or would all that reduce the requirement for a comments section to zero?

US gov's flying laser hit by delays, problems

No such thing

....as credit for trying - at least among Reg readers, anyway.

Sharks in the soup, says conservation group

Oh dear!

Well, given that they don't look cuddly (like a seal pup), aren't a national icon (like the bald eagle) and can't be farmed in a profitable manner, I'm afraid it's goodbye shark, eh?

German hurls computer from apartment block

@Stu Reeves

Thank you for that. First good laugh I've had today.

Nintendo yanks Mario Party 8 - offensive language to blame?

The meaning of spastic

"of, relating to, characterized by, or affected with or as if with spasm"

Let's not let another perfectly good English-language word get PC'd out of existence.

US seeks mini-Imperial Walker mule-bots

Did you really say

"Arse-kicking Roman general Gaius Marius"? Ye Gods!

Sony snaps Grouper shut, gives Crackle a pop

Or, alternatively.........

I could say, "Sounds like a good idea if done right. Good luck Sony and I hope it works out."

Skinkers to provide live TV over the net

Predictable

I swear, if someone announced technology that made the computer user beautiful, independently wealthy and irresistable to the gender of their choice, there's a section of El Reg's readership that would be on here moaning about something!

Court denies stay of internet radio execution

Re: Only In America?

"Does this affect only American Internet radio stations? Aren't they mostly rubbish?"

No.

South Dakota rejoins the execution club

Dad said

Murderer's father: "He wants everybody to know he feels bad for what happened."

Me: "Well that's all right then."

As to those who are against the death penalty: In another time I might be too. However, as a resident of Texas, once someone is convicted of murder I have no wish to contribute to their upkeep for the rest of their lives. Most residents of death row in Texas spend a minimum of ten years there (while appeals are exhausted).

Now, I agree that innocent people have probably been put to death by the state. I feel sorry for them and for their families.

However, there is only one alternative to the death penalty that is acceptable to me and that is, dear anti-death-penalty-person, that you look after the murderer while he/she serves his time, that you shelter him/her after the sentence is complete and that you - along with the criminal - be held accountable for repeat offenses.

Student's suspension for IM buddy icon upheld by US court

Suspension?

The little darling is damned lucky he didn't get nicked for incitement.

Experian rejects ID theft notification proposal

Entirely expected

I have to point out that CA HB1386 (the law refered-to in the article) wasn't passed at the insistence of the California financial institutions. What was anyone extecting Experian to say?

'Suspicious looking' man hauled off translatlantic flight

Racism/fascism/anti-Americanism

Interesting to note - here and on other boards - the auto-reaction to any brown-skinned man being detained, questioned, placed under suspicion, etc. - even though his brown skin is usually not the sole reason why he was detained, etc.

There's a constituency to whom such actions are automatically racist (or, occasionally, fascist) - even though western societies currently believe they have more reason to be suspicious of brown-skinned men than any other demographic.

What's also interesting is, "racist cryer" or not, the number of posters (on this and other boards) who are so quick to jump on the "it's America so they must be wrong/suck/have their heads up their........". thereby insulting several tens of millions of United States' citizens by stereotyping.

Gardener offers mouthwatering 'mow and blow' deal

Am I

the first one to insert the standard moan about this having nothing to do with iPhones...........sorry, 'technology'.

JP Morgan's iPhone Nano report is rubbish

Verrrry interesting

Y'know, I don't own an i-anything and am not interested in doing so. Not particularly interested in the technological or marketing gee-whizzes of the i-company either.

However, I do find these threads compelling reading and now I'm trying to work out whether it's compensation for not watching soap operas or analagous to watching monkeys flinging s*** at each other.

Thoroughly enjoyable anyway. Keep it up.

London NHS paper reveals plans to share patient data

My shared health record

'Patient exhibiting symptoms of..........something quite dire. Examined patient, vitals normal except BP elevated to 1......well, quite a large number/90-something.

Performed routine chest, thyroid and lymph palpations. Unremarkable. ENT unremarkable except for patient screaming, "It's my leg!" during exam.

Questioned patient as to recent health history. Patient seemed unresponsive, screaming, "It's my leg!" instead of answering questions.

As exams were unremarkable and patient was unresponsive, RX'd mild analgesic and advised patient to return in 2 days if condition unchanged.

N.B. On patient's exit, noticed significant amount of blood on floor. Spent remainder of consulting hours drafting stiff reprimand to cleaning services manager."

Me? I'm not worried.

Fidelity employee steals 2.3 million consumer records

Just not getting it

"“We have no reason to believe that the theft resulted in any subsequent fraudulent activity or financial damage to the consumer,"

Yes you do. For goodness sake, have a thought.

ICANN: 'The rum made us do it'

Ouch!

"fried breaded Puerto Rican balls with thousand island dressing day two"

Neteller founder Lawrence cops a plea

No confusion

Will, no need to lie down to arrest your confusion. Just remember the one basis for all United States' law: Does it profit me?

The United States - anticipating vast profits from internet gambling - willingly signed up to a WTO agreement permitting just that. Once it became clear that the profits were actualy going elsewhere, well, the US did what it always does with treaties, agreements and contracts that it finds unprofitable. It changed its mind, the rules, the law, the jurisdiction and anything else it could think of to prevent money flowing from the US to anywhere else.

Police hunt renegade cow sex youth

Re: I'm Sorry

"..but how the fuck do you shag a cow?"

Bravo Steven! The ONLY pertinent question one could ask about this story.

Skin cancer claims sun bed 'addict'

Hmmm

"Her partner Phil Burtwistle said sun beds had "destroyed the family's life"."

No they didn't. Her obsessive behaviour did.

He told the Manchester Evening News: "Zita told me days before she died that she wished she could make a documentary about the dangers of using them. She said if only one person was saved by seeing what had happened to her she'd be happy. People need to know that they can be that dangerous."

People already do. At least the ones that read do.

Helium balloon Brit breaks distance record

In passing

"while surviving on a typically British diet of pork scratchings and ginger nuts"

Over the course of x days, one assumes that the pork scratchings and ginger nuts have to be expelled. Glad I'm not standing anywhere under his line of flight.

Britain gets shiny new science minister

Warren

"Just when are they going to create a rule that you must have relevant qualifications to fulfil this (ministerial) kind of role."

To my knowledge, 'they' never have. Why all the complaining about this particular one?

Tories offer record industry cash for righteousness

Good intentions but

I understand Dave's need to pander to his voting base but........

In his zeal to have an aging, outmoded industry appeal to 'the higher virtues' and in failing to recognise the emergence of channels for music other than the sclerotic 'established' music industry, isn't Dave just hastening the recording industry's doom?

So bunking off is cool, being 'anti-everything' is cool, abuse and cursing is cool. So now the established recording industry is encouraged to produce only stuff your granny would listen to and, as a result, the young will...................?

For goodness sake, think it through Dave!

Woman arrested for WoW love affair

A little distressing

Oh my! This certainly is an insight into anti-American feelings in (I presume) the UK.

I've lived half of my life in the UK and half in the United States. I agree that there are many strange, unfair and contradictory things about life in the United States. Had I the power, I certainly would change many things about life here.

But the level of vitriol in some of these posts? What's going on?

Website honours battling Glasgow baggage handler

Here, here!

Well done Mr. Smeaton! It does my heart good to see your like. And well done the phlegmatic citizens of Glasgow and Paisley! No running about like headless chickens, no screaming.

Aye, it's true what the website says. Anybody stupid enough to get between 10,000 Weegies and a cheap weekend in Spain deserves everything they get.

US nutter counts to one million on net

So?

"US nutter counts to one million on net" "US nutter"? Nobody in Europe ever did anything strange to raise money for charity?

He's doing something pointless to raise money for charity, gang! For goodness sake, all this blather about earnings and waste of time?

How about "Huge bunch of British nutters put on red noses and embarass the crap out of themselves to raise money for charity"?

A little sense of perspective please.

MEP plans EU build ban on cars faster than 100mph

Serious? No.

"I've paid the price for pressing the 'send' button when I was not only angry but blazing mad."

A Lib-Dem? "Angry"? "Blazing mad"? Oh right! The whole story's a spoof.

'Effete' Europe useless in GWOT, says bin Laden man

Out of the mouths of....

Well, if the only basis for judging Scheuer is the reporting in this article (and it's the only basis I have so far), then he seems like a dangerous, gung-ho idiot.

However, to understand the thinking of dangerous, gung-ho idiots (and we must, to protect ourselves from them), some study of what they say is instructive. For example, "The EU's policy of easily obtainable political asylum and its prohibition against deporting wanted or convicted terrorists to a country with a death penalty have made Europe a major, consistent and invulnerable source of terrorist threat to the United States."

It's a supportable point of view and not less rational than some of the anti-American rhetoric I hear from within the EU states.

'al-Qaeda' puts on big shoes, red nose, takes custard pie

That's it, goad them.

July 2006: Dozens killed and maimed by terrorists exploding homemade devices on London transport. The terrorists killed by their own actions and much of their support network 'rolled-up' by our security forces.

June 2007: A new crop of terrorists (obviously less-well-schooled than their forerunners) creates a threat that fails to materialise. Some in the community heave a sigh of relief and thank whatever gods made them. Others - mainly among the smartarse tendency - jeer and point, presumably with the objective of goading misguided muslims into learning more effective ways to slaughter innocents.

Sir, when the next terrorist is successful at killing and maiming British citizens, I will remind myself to write to you and ask, "So, are you happy now?"

UK.biz: recruiting talent the number one IT problem

No big surprise there then

That it's difficult to recruit and retain I/T talent in the UK? Wow! With one of the clunkiest, bureaucratic and inept set of recruitment practices in the world and employment conditions that a galley slave would revolt over? Say it ain't so!

Too many UK companies rely on recruitment agencies that rely on inexperienced recruiters using keyword-matching software. Add to that the length of the hiring cycle, unresponsive recruiters and a hiring manager mindset of, "Oh, if you don't currently live on the doorstep of the office then it's just too much trouble". Perhaps you begin to see some of the root of this 'problem'.

Do you have a licence for that sporran, sir?

Do something

Much predictable laughing and gnashing of teeth here (and the point about it not being an I/T story is well-taken). However, please remember that you are paying - literally - for these laws to be drawn up and enforced.

For a certain number of the hours you work every year, you are not paid. Instead, the money you earn is spent to pay some oik in Brussels, and another in Edinburgh, to come up with this nonsense (instead of applying themselves to public health issues, unemployment, poverty, law & order, etc., etc.)

Rather than splutter away here and on other boards, please do something more practical and effective. Each time you identify a bureaucrat or politician, please walk up to him/her smiling and deliver a kick where the sporran would be.

Texas cops taser diabetic seizure man

How predictable

......that this would turn into yet another rant by the "if it's about America it must mean all Americans are subhuman" crowd.

What a sad commentary on a section of El Reg's readership.

Mugabe gets email snooping green light

And.........?

"All the “if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear “ gang can now go and live in Mugabe's Zimbabwe to experience the ultimate “ if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear ” experience"

And where will the perspective-challenged, "Mugabe's powers are exactly equivalent to Blair's" lot go to?

Queen honours civil liberties and astro-boffins

What to make......

of Salman Rushdie's honour? Poking the Islamofascists with a sharp stick?

US and allies lay global foundation for biometric border checks

Fundamentals

Once again Reid is twittering like a nervous bride eyeing her husband-to-be's tumescence. "Integrated programs", "advanced technology", etc., etc., etc.

I understand the alarm such pronouncements cause but please consider this: The UK government is incapable of positioning someone at each port of entry to ask, "And what is your legitimate reason for entering this country? Oh yes? Prove it." (And, upon said proof not being produced, "Hop it!") Or even employing someone at each of HM's prisons who's capable of looking up a file and saying, "Oh yes Mr. So-and-so. I see that, during your trial, it was found that you are - in fact - an illegal immigrant. Officer, please escort this gentleman to the Channel and shove him in."

And you think this lot are capable of gathering and exchanging traveller information?

German Flickr censorship causes web outcry

To daniel

Your comment about it being mostly 'yanks' who are complaining here may be right, daniel (I don't know). Not a 'yank' myself but a Brit who's lived here for decades. If the Americans on this site are the ones crying for Yahoo's blood, let me ask them this: Why aren't you boycotting NBC, ABC and CBS for censoring movies and speech on their media?

Dutch police arrest 111 West Africans in 419 clampdown

419 Purpose

Isn't the 419 scam Darwin's theory of evolution at work on the inernet?

Hello, Apple PR. Dr. Freud will see you now

It Means

"If you have to ask...you wouldn't get it..." (trans: "I'm not sure what it means either but it makes me sound cool.")

French-led continental stealth-bomber robot firms up

Oh please!

"No German input: could need a surrender button"

C'mon! You can rise above stuff like this! (Or maybe not.)

Fancy an earful? Click here for tech support

No wonder

No wonder people in the UK are so constantly p***ed off! Reading all the "You go, son" and "Only saying what others are thinking" and "Stupid customer" comments here made my jaw drop.

Simple economic fact: If you are employed in a customer service role, it simply does not matter what your opinion of the customer is. Further, if your opinion of the customer is negative, you are never - never - allowed to voice that opinion and certainly not to the customer. Violate these simple rules and you are unemployed.

Cornish separatists menace Jamie Oliver

With edits removed

"At a recent joint meeting, members (Bert) and financial supporters (Bert's 'wife') of the An Gof militant organisation (founded 1980 - when Bert & Irene got together - and reformed 2007 - when the sprog left home) and the Cornish Liberation Army (ol' Ernie and Edith) agreed to dissolve their respective organisations and to combine all resources (the change from behind Bert & Irene's couch cushions and ol' Ernie's Reliant Robin) and reform as the Cornish National Liberation Army (CNLA). Substantial funding (this week's benefit cheque) has been received to continue what have previously been low-key activities (grumbling about the lack of parking in Padstow) with donors from the other Celtic nations (ol' Ernie's cousin up in Skye) as well as the United States. (Bert's sprog - who's on holiday in Florida)

Pirate Bay founders host paedophilia site

Easy to be upset

(Obligatory comment here about being personally outraged by the mere idea of paedophilia.)

I imagine there will be the necessary outrage at PRQ for hosting a paedophile website but this article is not clear on whether or not PRQ is actually hosting illegal content.

I don't know anything about Swedish law and so I don't know if discussing paedophilia is illegal there. A little background to lend clarity would be welcome.

Channel 4 refuses to pull Diana crash pics

Much ado........but no action

Oh, the usual wringing of hands and bemoaning of the lack of standards in the media!

Listen, 'the media' always has and always will publish what it believes it can - in the context of the standards of the society in which it operates. I see, above, much criticism of the 'papparazzi' who supposedly caused Diana's death. And yet, our British society rewarded those same papparazzi for years before her death for every picture they could snap.

If Channel 4's productions offend you (and I agree that many are offensive) then do not watch. If their productions offend you enough to want to do something more active, then don't buy the products that Channel 4 advertises. If their productions outrage you and stimulate you to taking further action then organize a boycott of their advetisers' products.

Simply yakking about Channel 4's venality (or the spoiled lives of the Princes, for that matter) will neither change Channel 4's behaviour nor improve the quality of their product.

Israel deploys robo-snipers on Gaza border

Not without precedent?

Much as I deplore the killing of children, can anyone who's decrying it here tell me that young teenage children have never been used as bombers in the Israel/Palestine conflict?

As I seem to remember that they have been the following applies: If I'm an Isaeli soldier (my job being to protect myself and my follow citizens) and I have knowledge of "a short, slight (child)...............carrying a (bag)" in the past being a bomber, you're damned right I'm going to shoot - particularly if that "short, slight" child (who, presumably, can read warning signs) is wandering in a prohibited area.

Rather than endless rounds of "my side good, your side bad" and given that Isael and Palestine have each acted atrociously over the many years of this conflict, I'd much rather see "a plague on both your houses" arguments being made to isolate each of these countries until they can find a way to make peace.