Category: Politics

Stop Nestlé Destroying Rainforests For Palm Oil

Apparently YouTube took down the original at the behest of Nestlé. Greenpeace have a copy on their site if my copy is taken down, they’ve asked that people download the original and upload it to video sharing sites they’re members of. Of course YouTube shouldn’t have taken it down in the first place, they know damn well it was Fair Use.

It’s a bit gross, and I’m not generally a fan of shock advertising, but the palm oil idiocy has to stop. Unilever last updated me on their intentions in May 2008, on the back of another campaign by Greenpeace. Their deadline for sourcing palm oil from sustainable sources? 2015. I mean, fuck off like.

LLU Line Share finally a reasonable price in Ireland

(Line Share allows other operators to rent just the internetty part of the line, without having to take the phoney part.)

ComReg set it to 77c in August of last year and Eircom, predictably, appealed. The case is now settled, and the 77c price stands. For once ComReg didn’t wet themselves on the courthouse steps and run away crying like a little girl. Or did they? What did Eircom get out of it?

This is a stupid game; we should stop playing it.

On post-underwear-bomber airport security, as ever Bruce Schneier sets the fluff aside and gets to the point:

It’s magical thinking: If we defend against what the terrorists did last time, we’ll somehow defend against what they do one time. Of course this doesn’t work. We take away guns and bombs, so the terrorists use box cutters. We take away box cutters and corkscrews, and the terrorists hide explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, they use liquids. We limit liquids, they sew PETN into their underwear. We implement full-body scanners, and they’re going to do something else. This is a stupid game; we should stop playing it.

Atheist Ireland Publishes 25 Blasphemous Quotes

The site is struggling so I’m republishing on Foot.ie and here. These are the comments I added on Foot.ie:

I’ve no problem republishing the entire thing here, as they’ve given permission to. This site is on a server in Cork. I’ll wait by the door. It’s a retarded law and Dermot Ahern is a retarded man for enacting it.

Organised religion, in particular organised catholicism, sits in the same category. If we were around 2000 years ago, catholicism would be our scientology, Jesus Christ our L. Ron Hubbard. By idiots, for idiots.

(I know there are some religious people on this site that will be offended. I honestly don’t care. You’re entitled to your beliefs and I’m entitled to ridicule them. I’ll continue to do so despite this ridiculous law.)

And this is the post in full. (more…)

Homeopathy Users: Dumbest People On The Planet?

This is doing the rounds of homeopathy forums. Fiver says it was seeded by an “enemy” for a joke, and they’re watching the response open-mouthed…

There is a parliamentary ‘scientific committee’ which examines the scientific evidence for certain contentious problems, and the anti-homeopathy brigade have asked this committee to examine the evidence base for homeopathy.

[…]

So, as you can see, it’s a stitch-up. When the results of the enquiry are published, it is highly likely that they will find “there is no evidence for homeopathy.. .blah…blah. ..blah… and therefore we recommend that homeopathy be removed from the NHS”. As it’s a parliamentary committee, the government always takes thier conclusions seriously, and will probably implement them.

[…]

Anyway….we are not taking this lying down. We have decided to carry out an Intention Experiment, and we are doing this every day, at 9 p.m. GMT until 30th November, day when the committee makes its final deliberations.

PLEASE WILL YOU HELP IF YOU CAN? This involves 15 minutes of focussed, meditative, positive intention-making in order to support homeopathy and try to confound our enemies.

[…]

1. Choose a place away from electronic interference, mobiles, phones, TV etc. Add a plant, meditation music whatever helps you personally get into a meditative state.

2. Sit either in an upright chair or cross legged or similar

3. 1st 5 minutes: slow your breathing… in through your nose and out through your mouth for 15 seconds each minute, then

4.From 9:05 – 9:15 pm focus clearly on the statement below in whatever way suits you, see the Committee accepting Homeopathy works, or people being able to
have Homeopathy treatment on the NHS, feel positive and joyful, really see, hear, smell, sense (whichever way you imagine/visualize) the reality of it.

“We intend the outcome for the UK homeopathy evidence check to be wholly and fully in favour of homeopathy. We intend for the vast and thorough body of scientific data supporting the efficay of homeopathy to be seen, heard and recognised as valid, solid and scientific. This is so, and it is done”

Uri Geller must be pissing himself.

“OMG Obama Doesn’t Actually Tweet OMG!”

You gotta love the morons that are unfollowing @BarackObama because, you know, the busiest man in the world admitted that he doesn’t actually tweet himself. One can only assume these are the same people that amputated their own children’s fingers in McLaren buggies.

Telegraph: Barack Obama left his 2.6 million fans on Twitter, the social networking website, bemused, disappointed and mildly irritated by admitting on Monday that he had never used the service himself.