:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 ::

Stop and Search and Stop

European court condemns police misuse of stop and search
The Guardian reports on "Officers using Terrorism Act against citizens on 'a hunch' means serious risk of discrimination, say judges"

"The home secretary, Alan Johnson, app­ears to be in serious trouble over a ruling today by the European court of human rights against the unlawful police use of ­counter-terrorism stop and search powers on peace protesters and photographers."

Labels: Law, Liberty, News, Photography

:: Dan 13.1.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

In support of our athiest friends in Irland I am republishing the following in full from http://blasphemy.ie/2010/01/01/atheist-ireland-publishes-25-blasphemous-quotes/

From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.

Publication of 25 blasphemous quotes

In this context we now publish a list of 25 blasphemous quotes, which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, James Kirkup, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjork, Amanda Donohoe, George Carlin, Paul Woodfull, Jerry Springer the Opera, Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, Ian O’Doherty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern.

Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalised, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement.

Campaign begins to repeal the Irish blasphemy law

We ask Fianna Fail and the Green Party to repeal their anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the Defamation Act that is included within the Act. We ask them to hold a referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Irish Constitution.

We also ask all TDs and Senators to support a referendum to remove references to God from the Irish Constitution, including the clauses that prevent atheists from being appointed as President of Ireland or as a Judge without swearing a religious oath asking God to direct them in their work.

If you run a website, blog or other media publication, please feel free to republish this statement and the list of quotes yourself, in order to show your support for the campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law and to promote a rational, ethical, secular Ireland.

List of 25 Blasphemous Quotes Published by Atheist Ireland

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name – The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy – he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”

6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities – how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”

7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: “While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him… I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death’s final ejaculation.” This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979: “Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”

9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: “I denounce you as the Antichrist.” Paisley’s website describes the Antichrist as being “a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning… he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.”

10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: “In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: ‘Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.’ Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.”

11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine – but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good – and cares about any of it – to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”

12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas – uncertainty, progress, change – into crimes.” In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.

13. Bjork, 1995: “I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men… I’ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.”

14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: “Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.”

15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”

16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: “He said me ma’s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water’s handy with his feet… Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin’ ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it’s funny you never rode, Cause it’s you I do be shoutin’ for each time I shoot me load.”

17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: “Actually, I’m a bit gay.” In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.

18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: “So you’re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you’re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He’s gonna kick my heathen ass.”

19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that “it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.”

20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”

21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: “There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all… Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require… It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or ‘surrender’ as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.”

22. PZ Myers, on the Roman Catholic communion host, 2008: “You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”

23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”

24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: “Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent… we call it God… I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.” Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.

25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

Finally, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: “We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.” Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland’s new blasphemy law.

Labels: Atheism, Law, Religion

:: Dan 5.1.10 [Arc] [1 comments] ::
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A message from Simon Singh:

“It has been 18 months since I was sued for libel after publishing my article on chiropractic. I am continuing to fight my case and am prepared to defend my article for another 18 months or more if necessary. The ongoing libel case has been distracting, draining and frustrating, but it has always been heartening to receive so much support, particularly from people who realise that English libel laws need to be reformed in order to allow robust discussion of matters of public interest. Over twenty thousand people signed the statement to Keep Libel Laws out of Science, but now we need you to sign up again and add your name to the new statement.

The new statement is necessary because the campaign for libel reform is stepping up a gear and will be working on much broader base. Sense About Science has joined forces with Index on Censorship and English PEN and their goal is to reach 100,000 or more signatories in order to help politicians appreciate the level of public support for libel reform. We have already met several leading figures from all three main parties and they have all showed signs of interest. Now, however, we need a final push in order to persuade them to commit to libel reform.

Finally, I would like to make three points. First, I will stress again - please take the time to reinforce your support for libel reform by signing up at www.libelreform.org. Second, please spread the word by blogging, twittering, Facebooking and emailing in order to encourage friends, family and colleagues to sign up. Third, for those supporters who live overseas, please also add your name to the petition and encourage others to do the same; unfortunately and embarrassingly, English libel laws impact writers in the rest of the world, but now you can help change those laws by showing your support for libel reform. While I fight in my own libel battle, I hope that you will fight the bigger battle of libel reform.”

Signed. View the pledge wall.

Labels: Freedom, Law, Liberty, science

:: Dan 11.12.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Photo Restrict - epetition response

No 10 says:

We received a petition asking:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to remove new restrictions on photography in public places.”

Details of Petition:

“On the 16th of February, the Government passed a law (in the Counter Terrorism Act) making it illegal to take a photograph of a police office, military personnel or member of the intelligence services - or a photograph which “may be of use for terrorism”. This definition is vague at best, and open to interpretation by the police - who under Home Secretary guidelines can “restrict photography in public places”. We call for these vague restrictions to be lifted, as they can easily be mis-used by the police.”

The Government’s response

"On 16 February 2009, the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 (Commencement No.2) Order 2009 brought in to force section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000 (inserted by section 76 of the CTA 2008), offences relating to information about members of the armed forces etc.

"Section 58A makes it an offence to publish, communicate, elicit or attempt to elicit information about any of such persons which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. Contrary to some media and public misconception, section 58A does not make it illegal to photograph a police officer, military personnel or member of the intelligence services.

"On the 18 August 2009, the Home Office published the following information via its website to clarify photography in relation to section 58A.

Photography and Section 58A of the Terrorism Act 2000

"The offence concerns information about persons who are or have been at the front line of counter-terrorism operations, namely the police, the armed forces and members of the security and intelligence agencies.

"An officer making an arrest under section 58A must reasonably suspect that the information is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism. An example might be gathering information about the person’s house, car, routes to work and other movements.

Reasonable excuse under section 58A

"It is a statutory defence for a person to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for eliciting, publishing or communicating the relevant information. Legitimate journalistic activity (such as covering a demonstration for a newspaper) is likely to constitute such an excuse. Similarly, an innocent tourist or other sight-seer taking a photograph of a police officer is likely to have a reasonable excuse."

Well, nice to clear that up. Repeated, with my emphasis: "Legitimate journalistic activity (such as covering a demonstration for a newspaper) is likely to constitute such an excuse. Similarly, an innocent tourist or other sight-seer taking a photograph of a police officer is likely to have a reasonable excuse."

To my reading this clarification is still not within the spirit of the law.

Labels: Law, Photography

:: Dan 29.9.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Síle Lane on keeping libel laws out of science
Following Simon Singh's "Beware the Spinal Trap"
"We must ask why the cost of defending a libel case in England is 140 times the European average and why 90% of cases are won by the claimant."

It's heartening to know that at the Liberal Democrat party conference yesterday there was a fringe event on Defending Free Speech: Keep libel laws out of science.

Labels: Copyright, Freedom, Law, News, Politics, science

:: Dan 21.9.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Trainspotter sparks terror alert

Police officer caught taking pictures

Labels: ID, Law, Photography

:: Dan 26.8.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Reposted in its entirety as part of a publicity effort against the chiropractic assheads trying to silence the brilliant science writer and thoroughly nice bloke, Simon Singh. Enjoy:

Beware the Spinal Trap

Some practitioners claim it is a cure-all, but the research suggests chiropractic therapy has mixed results – and can even be lethal, says Simon Singh.

This is Chiropractic Awareness Week. So let's be aware. How about some awareness that may prevent harm and help you make truly informed choices? First, you might be surprised to know that the founder of chiropractic therapy, Daniel David Palmer, wrote that, "99% of all diseases are caused by displaced vertebrae". In the 1860s, Palmer began to develop his theory that the spine was involved in almost every illness because the spinal cord connects the brain to the rest of the body. Therefore any misalignment could cause a problem in distant parts of the body.

In fact, Palmer's first chiropractic intervention supposedly cured a man who had been profoundly deaf for 17 years. His second treatment was equally strange, because he claimed that he treated a patient with heart trouble by correcting a displaced vertebra.

You might think that modern chiropractors restrict themselves to treating back problems, but in fact they still possess some quite wacky ideas. The fundamentalists argue that they can cure anything. And even the more moderate chiropractors have ideas above their station. The British Chiropractic Association claims that their members can help treat children with colic, sleeping and feeding problems, frequent ear infections, asthma and prolonged crying, even though there is not a jot of evidence. This organisation is the respectable face of the chiropractic profession and yet it happily promotes bogus treatments.

I can confidently label these treatments as bogus because I have co-authored a book about alternative medicine with the world's first professor of complementary medicine, Edzard Ernst. He learned chiropractic techniques himself and used them as a doctor. This is when he began to see the need for some critical evaluation. Among other projects, he examined the evidence from 70 trials exploring the benefits of chiropractic therapy in conditions unrelated to the back. He found no evidence to suggest that chiropractors could treat any such conditions.

But what about chiropractic in the context of treating back problems? Manipulating the spine can cure some problems, but results are mixed. To be fair, conventional approaches, such as physiotherapy, also struggle to treat back problems with any consistency. Nevertheless, conventional therapy is still preferable because of the serious dangers associated with chiropractic.

In 2001, a systematic review of five studies revealed that roughly half of all chiropractic patients experience temporary adverse effects, such as pain, numbness, stiffness, dizziness and headaches. These are relatively minor effects, but the frequency is very high, and this has to be weighed against the limited benefit offered by chiropractors.

More worryingly, the hallmark technique of the chiropractor, known as high-velocity, low-amplitude thrust, carries much more significant risks. This involves pushing joints beyond their natural range of motion by applying a short, sharp force. Although this is a safe procedure for most patients, others can suffer dislocations and fractures.

Worse still, manipulation of the neck can damage the vertebral arteries, which supply blood to the brain. So-called vertebral dissection can ultimately cut off the blood supply, which in turn can lead to a stroke and even death. Because there is usually a delay between the vertebral dissection and the blockage of blood to the brain, the link between chiropractic and strokes went unnoticed for many years. Recently, however, it has been possible to identify cases where spinal manipulation has certainly been the cause of vertebral dissection.

Laurie Mathiason was a 20-year-old Canadian waitress who visited a chiropractor 21 times between 1997 and 1998 to relieve her low-back pain. On her penultimate visit she complained of stiffness in her neck. That evening she began dropping plates at the restaurant, so she returned to the chiropractor. As the chiropractor manipulated her neck, Mathiason began to cry, her eyes started to roll, she foamed at the mouth and her body began to convulse. She was rushed to hospital, slipped into a coma and died three days later. At the inquest, the coroner declared: "Laurie died of a ruptured vertebral artery, which occurred in association with a chiropractic manipulation of the neck."

This case is not unique. In Canada alone there have been several other women who have died after receiving chiropractic therapy, and Professor Ernst has identified about 700 cases of serious complications among the medical literature. This should be a major concern for health officials, particularly as under-reporting will mean that the actual number of cases is much higher.

Bearing all of this in mind, I will leave you with one message for Chiropractic Awareness Week - if spinal manipulation were a drug with such serious adverse effects and so little demonstrable benefit, then it would almost certainly have been taken off the market.

Ben Goldacre of Bad Science explains the history of the legal case here and here.
Here are a couple of posts from Dave Gorman on the subject
See Jack of Kent's blog for updates on the legal case as well as many other important stories.
For example, he links to this Observer story citing mathematicians reluctance to speak out about banks in the wake of the recent crunch for fear of libel threats. If chiropractors can do it then the banks sure will.
See Sense About Science for the campaign to keep libel law out of science, including a list of places the article has been republished. Amusingly some of those are ad carrying sites which are now providing advertising for chiropractic services alongside the article.

The Skeptic website is also worth a read

Labels: Freedom, Law, News, science

:: Dan 30.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"A Harry Potter actor has admitted growing cannabis in his mother's north-west London home. Jamie Waylett, 19, who plays bully Vincent Crabbe in the film series, pleaded guilty to growing 10 cannabis plants in tents at the Kilburn house."

Hardly a surprise when you have so many teenage actors in the spotlight, but what's shocking about this story is this line:

"The court heard police found shots of the plants on Mr Waylett's camera after he was arrested for taking a picture of officers [my emphasis] as he and a friend drove past."

And then this:

Kent Police clamp down on tall photographers

The war on street photography

The new MET guidelines for offers is here.

Quoting the Reg:

"At the heart of the present controversy is the question of when behaviour becomes suspicious. Advice we have received suggests that the police may arrest an individual under PACE s.1 or the Terrorism Act s.44 where they have reasonable suspicion that an illegal act is being carried out.

"In other words, photography on its own is not suspicious behaviour: police suspicions need to be grounded in other evidence, and it is not reasonable to throw a blanket suspicion over the activities of all photographers.

"Yet here is the Met guidance in respect of s.44: "Officers have the power to view digital images contained in mobile telephones or cameras... provided that the viewing is to determine whether the images... are of a kind, which could be used in connection with terrorism."

"Not quite. The Met guidelines make no mention of reasonable suspicion: in effect, they duck the single issue that is at the heart of so much grief."

In other photography related news:
Flexible fabric that takes 'takes pictures'
Exploiting Collective Effects of Multiple Optoelectronic Devices Integrated in a Single Fiber
Ideal for adaptive camouflage I imagine. Future street photographers could wear outfits made out of this so that they can capture the images they want unobtrusively whilst simultaneously blending into the scenery.

Labels: Law, News, Photography, Technology

:: Dan 17.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Heya! It's been some time. I know I may have thrown you the odd scrap of music now and again but that old spark, it just hasn't been there lately has it. I know you have other places to hang out. I hope you understand what a death in the family has done here. But it's great to meet up again, have a drink, chew that fat, catch up on what we would have been chatting shit about if other events hadn't conspired against us.

Did I tell you I attended the BLDGBLOG book launch last week?

[v.o.g.: You mentioned you were going]

Ah, well, I did. And not only did I get a great book out of it, not only did I meet with and chat with Geoff Manaugh, whose a really inspiring guy, not only is there a photo floating around flickr of me sat at the same table as Warren Ellis (I didn't realise that at the time, I was distracted by the woman with him), but I've also come away with some blog based inspiration.

In the introduction to the book Geoff explains that when he started BLDGBLOG he decided that he wasn't going to pour concerns and negativity into it, it would just be for stuff that interested him. Things that made him think, gave him ideas, starting points for flights of fancy. I like that philosophy. I may try to take it on to some degree.


[source here via here]

So what else has caught my fancy?


Shots taken on Czechoslovakia - East border of the eastern German state security (Stasi)
[via www.ustrcr.cz]
Found in the Vice Magazine photography special, which is out now.

Its good to know that The American President is an Ass Man, Apparently

"But seriously, is this not one of the best presidential photographs of all-time? Even Sarkozy looks like he's sneaking a peek, though he's French, so we expect him to do it. However, in Obama's defense, that is a great ass!"

"Solicitors for the National Portrait Gallery are apparently threatening legal action against a US Wikipedia user for downloading 3,300 digital photographs of paintings in the UK museum's collection, and then uploading them to Wikipedia."
[via clayton cubitt]

Cauty - Julie Andrews tip in the Nude magazine sale


Codex Sinaiticus - Home The ‘Draft for Comment’ version of the Bible

Rumours of a Dr Who film

There, I Fixed It

6 Intriguingly Shaped Communities As Seen On Google Maps

My Pinhole camera experiments


"Patti Smith is one of the most anticipated gigs of the week, and the audience the most vocal. … joined by SMZ leader Efrim Menuck on drums and Portishead’s Adrian Utley, who attacks a guitar with a paintbrush to spooky effect."
Festival review: Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown, Southbank Centre, London SE1 | Music | The Observer
I mentioned this to Leafcutter John, wondering if he was aware Ade was at the Polar Bear gig where John had used the same paintbrush trick a few months back. His response was a spirited "Ah, but did he do it better?"

Stylophone Beatbox

Pre-order here

Open Source TIC - ePetition response | Number10.gov.uk
"The Government supports the principle that, where new software is being developed by the Timely Information to Citizens pilots, this should wherever possible be released under open source licence and available for use by other local authorities. ... Where the pilots will result in new software tools, ownership and intellectual property rights will usually remain with the individual local authorities"
Is this not a contradiction?

‘Ghost village’ to be demolished

"A village built in Argyll to meet the demands of the UK oil boom of the 1970s but abandoned without ever being occupied is set for a new role." [video link]

Stuff you've missed on the tumblr
* a whole bunch of new photographers discoveries
* shoes by architects
* a bunch of LEGO stuff inc jewellery, USB sticks and giant Star Wars models
* London Underground Map print dress
* Geek guide to shoe lacing
* The Battleships drinking game

I've also just discovered that Blogger is limited to 20 tags per post.

So what have you been up to? How are things?

Labels: Art, blogs, Copyright, Electronic Music, Flickr, FOSS, History, Instruments, IP, Law, Literature, Maps, Music, Petitions, Photography, Politics, Privacy, Religion, Sci-Fi, Wiki

:: Dan 14.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"This is a message from Mark Thomas who is playing at the Tobacco Factory Theatre tonight in Bristol. He is organising a demonstration today (Friday) at 4.30pm outside Norfolk House, the local tax office in Temple Street: Message from Mark Thomas: While I am down in Bristol performing I thought it might be fun to do a little demo. So if you fancy coming along the demo is for the shutting down of tax havens and forcing corporations to pay their tax onshore. Where better to start campaigning than HMRC , the tax office in Bristol at Norfolk House. The government obsession with the free market means that buildings that were public are now private, so the tax office is owned by Sigma 2004 Ltd and the tax office in Bristol pay rent for their building. BUT Sigma 2004 Ltd were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and Jersey - tax havens... so the tax office pay rent for a building we should own to tax dodgers. There is only one answer to this absurdity and that is to invade Jersey! No more multi lateral agreements at the G20, no more polite resolutions! Send in the troops, it's the only language these bankers and landlords understand! DEMO FRIDAY outside Norfolk House - Temple St Bristol BS1 6HS at 4.30pm bring banners and fun. INVADE JERSEY! We call on the HMRC to go on rent strike and move to a squat! Mark Thomas"

Labels: Humour, Law, Politics, protest, Tax

:: Dan 22.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Stuff I've found recently but haven't found time to write about:

Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography

Edit: Thanks to Tania for sending this iRobot Create Roomba hack link.

Dream: The Big Art Project
Watch the C4 series on Sunday evenings

New Scientist: You are made of space-time

BCS vs Singh - Astonishingly Illiberal Ruling

Behind the label: Recycled Toilet Tissue

BBC5 TV
"We are NOT the BBC. In an era when the majority of media corporations are subservient to ruling elites, new forms of underground media have to emerge. BBC5.tv would not exist if journalists were always allowed to publish the truth. The fact is that many are silenced."

Newsnight – Immigration Song Contest

BLDG BLOG:
Man unexcited by his own possessions
How the other half writes - In defence of Twitter
The Hills Have Eyes



Bacon is a health food!

Richie Hawtin's 10 most ridiculous ideas

Labels: architecture, Art, Electronic Music, Environment, Food, Gadget, Humour, Law, Photography, Physics

:: Dan 16.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Church, genealogist in tussle

"Among the hundreds of graves in the Old Union Christian Church Cemetery on Russell Cave Road, genealogist David Shannon found those of several relatives, including his great-grandparents Julia and Lloyd Harp.

"With beginner's zeal, Shannon began to compile the names, birth and death dates on the tombstones, which date back to the early 1800s. "Once I got into it, I figured other people trying to find ancestors would find information in the cemetery helpful," he said.

"So he created an independent research Web site, www.oldunioncemetery.com, where he's posted the information on the 475 documented burials collected and a photograph of each visible stone.

"But the church board at Old Union took offense.

"In February, the church's governing board sent Shannon a letter telling him "to cease publishing pictures of stones ... not part of your family because it is sharing family information without their consent."

Labels: Law, Privacy

:: Dan 18.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Remove new restrictions on photography in public places"

Once again, another badly worded petition to Number 10 but you at least have to admire the simplicity of this one. For a start it doesn't completely misquote the law its criticizing or, like the noise control one, completely invent it. In this case the law actually gives police additional stop-and-search powers but as the petition is in the right spirit I have signed it.

Labels: Freedom, Law, Petitions, Photography

:: Dan 13.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Photographers fear they are target of new terror law

Section 76 ignites new debate

A lawyer's point of view on Section 44

Photographers to converge on Scotland Yard

Pictures: Hundreds attend photographers' rights protest (update)

Labels: Law, Photography, Privacy, Terrorism

:: Dan 16.2.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Betraying the fact that I was away on work most of last week the yawning gap in posts is now filled with a link dump of Radio 4 listening and Independent articles that I collected whilst on the road:

The Moral Maze - Should a person's political views ever disqualify them from doing a job?

"This week the Moral Maze asks should a person's political views ever disqualify them from doing a job?

"Some members of the BNP in professions like the police and prison service, face losing their job after the leaking of the party's membership list. While others, for example, teachers will not.

"Where do we draw the lines over freedom of belief and expression?

"Should we have a right not to be offended or have we lost our nerve over freedom of expression and are we becoming a more intolerant, illiberal society?"

Very interesting listening, it's a massive grey area. I found myself sat in a carpark for 20min listening to this as I didn't want to miss any of it when I was checking into a hotel.

Woman found guilty in 'cyber-bully' case

"A housewife who posed as a teenage boy to send hostile emails to a neighbour's daughter was found guilty yesterday of several minor charges related to the "cyber-bullying" that prompted the girl's suicide.

"The case made legal history because it revolved around charges that Ms Drew lied on the fake MySpace profile, violating the site's terms of service which require users to provide "truthful and accurate" registration information.

"Ms Drew had throughout the trial denied that she was using her computer when the fateful, final message to Megan was sent. While she knew of the existence of "Josh Evans", she claimed the hostile emails were sent by her daughter, Sarah, and several friends."

Yes, that's right. Blame your own daughter. Nice one.
RIP

The phone that says bling bling

"Frank Nuovo cradles in his palm what is, if not the world's most costly mobile phone, then perhaps its most elegantly conceived. It's the Vertu Boucheron 150, designed by Nuovo himself, a dapper, serious Californian whose passion for his product is entirely unapologetic. Formerly head of design at Nokia, he is the founder and chief designer of Vertu, the world's leading maker of luxury mobile phones."

I commented on these back in 2005 and apparently showed myself to be a lowlife (see comments). My opinion hasn't changed.


Crusher
Originally uploaded by gusset.

How turtles got their shells

"The fossilised remains of an ancient reptile that lived 220 million years ago may have solved the puzzle of how the turtle got its shell and, in the process, cleared up one of the most enduring mysteries of animal evolution.

"The latest discovery, made by palaeontologists excavating in China's fossil-rich province of Guizhou, shows that the shell of the turtle evolved from bony growths that expanded from the spine and ribs, rather than the merging of bony plates found in the skin of some reptiles."

Labels: evolution, Fashion, Law, Liberty, science, Secuirty

:: Dan 2.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Falafel Feud [via slashfood]

"Well, it seems that they don't have enough material for disputes, arguments and accusations in the Middle East. Now we have the fight for the falafel--and the tabbouleh and the hummus too. Fadi Aboud, president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association is preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for manufacturing foods that he claims originated in Lebanon. "If we can prove that this is a Lebanese product, using Lebanese recipes," he explains, "the name of the food will belong to Lebanon. They won't be able to use that name."

"This case actually does have a precedent: a 2002 EU ruling in favor of Greece upholding that nation's claim to be the "originator" of feta cheese. However, shouldn't recipes that are centuries--if not millennia old--fall under public domain? Does this mean China will sue Italy for the rights to spaghetti? Then Italy can pursue action against America for posession of fried chicken, but America will be busy trying to wrest control of French fries from France... after all, these international incicents do have a way of spreading."

Labels: Food, Law

:: Dan 14.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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This Security Guard Assaulted Me
Originally uploaded by Aztec West.

See here for backstory and the image above for the follow up.

Labels: Flickr, Law, Photography

:: Dan 11.8.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Gowers Review Bingo
The Rambler marks the first anniversary of the Gowers Review into intellectual property law with a quick summery of its recommendations, and a note of hope that it may be implemented now that the person who commissioned it is in number 10.

Incidentally, I've just noticed that when that post was published two weeks ago, GussetBlog also turned five! Hooray for us!

Labels: Gusset, IP, Law

:: Dan 5.12.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Some time ago I found a thread on the Hijack board containing a copied and pasted story about someone getting into trouble with the police for taking photographs of CCTV cameras around Waterloo station. I was intrigued, but at the time couldn't find the original source or substantiate the story in any way, so didn't post it here.

I googled it again today and found the original Indymedia article from Feb of this year. It makes for interesting reading and if you read down through the comments you'll find the author has updated it as he's found out more information about the legal situation. It boils down to this:

"You can take photographs at [railway] stations provided you do not sell them. However, you are not allowed to take photographs of security related equipment, such as CCTV cameras."
[network rail]


Worth knowing. However, that doesn't justify the behaviour of the community support officer as alleged in the story.

Labels: Law, Photography, Secuirty

:: Dan 8.11.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Free legal advice for the creative industries

The Rambler reports, "...copyright is becoming an increasingly important issue for anyone working in the creative industries. I’m frequently baffled (and increasingly concerned) that so many of the writers, performers and composers that I come across don’t have even the most rudimentary understanding of how intellectual property works, and how it is crucial to their professional lives ... So, it’s particularly timely for the Legal Advice Centre of the Queen Mary, University of London School of Law to expand its free pro bono advice to the creative industries, starting from 7th November."

It's an appointment only centre but it is free. Handy to know should you ever need it. Read the post linked above and keep in bookmarked in case you ever need it.

Labels: Art, Copyright, Law

:: Dan 29.10.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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