Posts by Kate Menzies 20 publicly visible posts • joined 1 Aug 2007
BT actually rang me last night to offer me loads of free stuff if I went back to being billed by them. I pointed out that I was billed by them I just never ever use my phone, and only have it for the broadband (no cable in my area). Hand them the contract via the joys of market forces and see them slam the breaks on anything that stops them charging us all a fortune for absolutely nothing.
I was just reading on of those media/greenies (bbc) accusing the poor old Navy of all sorts: "The Natural History Museum said...marine strandings occurred for a number of reasons, including sickness, disorientation, natural mortality, extreme weather conditions or injury." Clearly blaming the Navy for for all those things. They should have just read the MoD press release instead of asking "zoologists" which is clearly a made up word.
"The motivation for being in the weapons trade is pretty simple - in my book at least. There's money in it. There's a demand so there's money to be made. A simple way to distance yourself is to point out, as in 'Who Dares Wins', is that the politicians press the button/pull the trigger."
Oh, OK then so if there's money in it that's fine. And by the way, in Britain only, the politicians don't like to get their hands dirty with buttons.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2007/11_november/15/newsnight.shtml
The type of remote control wars that we currently engage in allow for obscene spending on toys which don't really work, no responsibility taken for cock-ups and the death because no politician will ever look the soldiers or their families in the eye.
I am no great admirer of the army and the role it plays but I think to have a go at the soldiers misses the point. Many are drawn in by the frankly ridiculous TV adverts (Join the Army: It's just like being paid to play on a PlayStation he he he) which are not aimed at the brightest lights on the Christmas Tree but I don't think people sign up with the objective being to kill and be killed.
My real objection is with the arms trade itself. I am at a loss to understand the motivation of someone who goes into work everyday to design things which kill people, but I know some who do and they're not completely evil, maybe they are able to disassociate themselves a bit more than I think I would be able to. Then you have the dealers who are the worst of the bunch, cynical and devoid of morality. Making money out of arms dealing is, to me, the same as making money from dealing drugs.
"How can they determine the size of the robot by voice alone?"
I find the voice can be a great source of information. For example a robot might use theirs to convey the following: "I am a small robot"
I once spent an entire hour long train journey chatting (quite loudly) on my phone. People like me simply shouldn't be allowed to use phones on planes - it just encourages us.
I am no nuclear expert so I'm not going to get into that debate but I think sometimes that we forget that we don't just live in the UK, we also live in the world. The world is facing the problem of climate change together and the solutions have to be met by everyone. I'm not happy with the nuclear solution as it is not practical for unstable developing countries. We must allow and assist countries to develop (for our own security as well as because it's the right thing to do) and with that comes energy consumption. The UK could and should invest money and take the lead in developing non-centralised local distribution networks.
Pro-nuclearites seem perfectly happy that in the future some bright spark is going to come up with a solution to nuclear waste but have entirely given up on the idea that someone else might come up with the renewable energy solution which is going to save us all.
I think this is a rather poignant fable about which tells of the great toys we get for Christmas which we think are brilliant but if we don't look after them they end up just taking up space and not working properly. OK Highways Agency, a point well made, I'll go and feed that ruddy puppy.
The decisions that we make here affect not just the UK. If we are going to go ahead with building nuclear power plants, how can we tell others not to (Iran). We can all pat ourselves on the back about our safety record which is not nearly as good as it could be but what about poorer, less stable countries? The richer countries need to be investing in the research and development of locally produced, community owned renewable energy to fit the needs of all.
@Niclas Jacobsson
No-one has ever worried about migrating birds (or any birds come to that) when erecting massive buildings which they splat into or planes which are designed to completely mince them.
Listening to the radio is a passive activity and no-one expects a reply or any sort of total engagement like they do when talking on the phone. In addition, talking on the phone is different to talking to a fellow passenger because a passenger is also aware of what's going on in and around the car.
I see people talking on the phone sometimes but what amazes me is the amount of people I see texting while driving.
The other day I had a fire so I took it to the fire station to have it extinguished. I was so intimidated by the Victorian building that I left with my blaze and dumped it by the side of the road with a load of computer discs I'd found but was too scared of the bright red post boxes to send on. If only they'd had a more appealing building...
It is really useful for organising events and meetings and the like and I know plenty of political activists who use it as a campaigning tool because you can reach a lot of people rather than relying on emails where you have to troll through loads of names and footers to get to the meat of them. I'd rather be invited to a public meeting (to which I wouldn't go but I would feel all politically engaged by just being invited) than being asked if I wanted to add to someone's virtual ruddy Christmas tree or stroke their hamster
TV shows about reading post-it notes and coffee stained spam faxes? Brilliant, hopefully this will lead the way to my great TV idea: Cobra Clipboards. It follows a daring team of Health & Safety Inspectors led by Horatio Caine as they tell window cleaners to "Secure the ladder before it's a [pause for sunglasses] stairway to heaven"
As soon as any industry is privatised it is entirely about profit. Nev has mentioned lowest common denominator television and they are the ones that bring in the mass audiences and, therefore, the highest revenue. I watch crap TV, I've watched Big Brother, Pop Idol and the rest; that is all we will have left. No question, that's it. But I also live for Countryfile, do sometimes watch Newsnight all the way through and loved that the BBC let new comedians out sometimes with excellent results (Boosh!) and sometimes rubbish ones. Their drama series are head and shoulders over everyone else. They have had the money to invest in new technology and have, in the past, led the way in this field.
Privatised companies answer only to shareholders who answer to no-one. It is never about quality or innovation. It is about getting the most money from the least investment. The current Government spends as much money now bailing out the train companies as it used to spend running the entire network. The quality is lower, the fares are higher and there is no new investment (apart from the glorious new St Pancras Shopping Centre).
The NHS and the BBC are two of Britain's greatest achievements. Privatising them would be a complete and horrible disaster.
As a girl I would like to confess that yes, I do prefer shopping to porn. I prefer shopping to most things (not everything, most things). And yes, I am more likely to go to "gossip" sites (bbc.co.uk) than techie sites. In fact, as it's a Friday and the office isn't too busy, I'm perusing through Amazon while my (male) colleague here is trying to view his screen through a brown paper bag
I listen to my mp3 player about 15 times a week, on the tube, on the bus, going round the shops etc, and I am always surprised at how few other people there are doing the same thing. No way is it 45%
I am also surprised about the fact that sometimes I manage to sit next to someone who can drown out my player with theirs but I shall continue to rant about that in my own head.
Ebay is a private company and can sell what it likes. If the people in charge decide that they don't want to be part of gun brokering industry then fair enough. There are other places to buy such things. I am sure there would be a much larger outcry if the government forced Ebay to stop selling this stuff. Ebay aren't policing the world, they are policing themselves, and if more companies put ethics higher on the agenda then simply making more and more money I think there would be some very interesting consequences.
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