Thursday October 2
 
00:45
 
Empty Bollocks

With the bollocks that comes out of the Conservative party, how the hell can they expect people to start voting for them? Labour might be a pill of piss (and it takes a lot to get piss into a pill), but at least they don’t say crap like this:

And we know that our task is to take people with us, rebuilding our battered economy, renewing our bureaucratised NHS, repairing our broken society.

Who bureaucratised the NHS? It wasn’t Labour. Who battered our economy? The Tories screwed it up with the ERM and Labour recovered it - is it Labour’s fault that the US has screwed the world (funny that most of the US don’t know where the world is, but they still manage to screw it).

He also pledged a crackdown on Labour’s “spendaholic culture” - declaring war on quangos and government waste.

When was the word “quango” first coined? During Conservative rule.

A speech full of empty bollocks - like a man who has been at it all night to Paris Hilton vids.

“We will be tough!” and “We’re criticising Labour for the things that we started.”

Not that I can vote anyway..

Tuesday July 29
 
00:12
 
Up-Skirt

From Times Online:

Here is one from the creep-ware department. Japanese tech reporter Nobuyuki Hayashi reports that Apple is equipping the new iPhone 3G models for the Japan market with a country-specific feature to stop local perverts from snapping so-called “up-skirt” or “down-blouse” photos of unsuspecting women.

Evidently, this form of “gotcha!” amateur photography is becoming an increasing problem in some public places in Japan, like on the escalators of Tokyo subway stops, Cult of Mac reports. As a result, camera phone manufacturers have been selling handsets that make a distinctive shutter sound to warn women (or, anyone nearby for that matter) that someone is taking a photo with their mobile. The first generation iPhones, however, had a silence mode that disabled this warning function. The new models, now on sale in Japan, however, “do make a sound if you take picture even when it is set to silent mode,” Hayashi writes.

In the UK and USA no sound is required because the iPhone doesn’t have a wide angle lens - the arses are just TOO GOD DAMN FAT to be captured with an iPhone.

But this is not new. In Korea and Japan all cell phones need to make a noise when taking photos. It has not been possible to up-skirt or down-blouse in Japan or Korea for a long time… not that you need to in Japan, the skirts are so damn short that no “upping” is required.

The iPhone is not available in Korea, so that is probably why it is country specific to Japan - the only country where the arses are small and sexy enough for people to WANT to photograph them secretly.

By the way, “hayashi” is “chopsticks” in Japan - so this man is called Mr Chopsticks. Lovely.

Thursday June 26
 
15:15
 
No Bus Photos - We’re British

When I was last in the UK, I was almost detained and arrested for taking a photo of Yo-Sushi in a shopping mall. In my eyes, I was just a Scottish bloke wanting to show my Japanese friends “Finally there is a sushi restaurant in Glasgow!” In the eyes of Duncan, the “mall security official”, I was a potential terrorist wanting to blow up… Glasgow’s only sushi outlet.

At the time I thought I was just subjected to Duncan’s personal power trip - but it seems not:

Rob McCaffrey, 50, had apparently over 40 years built up an impressive 30,000 pics of buses, coaches and trams from across the globe, but has now put the lens cap on for good because he “keeps being mistaken for a terrorist and paedophile”.

He explained: “Since the 9/11 attacks there has been a crackdown on security and it seems everyone with a camera is now regarded as a potential criminal. The past two years have absolutely been the worst. I have had the most appalling abuse from the public, drivers and police over-exercising their authority.

For god sake people - we can’t even take photos of buses anymore?

A Gloucestershire Police spokeswoman clarified: “If a member of the public becomes suspicious of an individual taking photos in public and makes a complaint to a police officer, the officer will first discuss the matter with the photographer. Normally the individual is more than happy to disperse any suspicion by showing an officer their photos and one of the benefits of digital cameras is that this can be done on the spot.

“However, if the officer remains suspicious as to the content of the images or the photographers intentions they have the authority, under the Police and Criminal Evident Act, to seize the camera and arrest the individual.”

Laws are often created with good intentions - but are open to abuse. I took a photo of a sushi restaurant and I was threatened with being detained and reported to the police - on what basis? The current situation in the UK is ridiculous. We lived with the IRA bombing us for years and we never had this law stupidity.