The Virtual Gigolo

I just received an phone call from “Telegram Ltd” who claimed to have a telegram for the previous inhabitant of this property. I told them she didn’t live here any more and they asked for her new address. A little suspicion formed in my mind “do they still do telegrams?” I know Western Union stopped last year.

Well, after a bit of googling it turns out that “Telegram Ltd” is a company called “Capquest”, a debt collecting agency. So if you hear from someone on an 01252 number claiming to have a telegram or to be from the “Telegram Office”, take care. It will not only be a debt collector, but a dishonest one, and who could be less deserving of your help?

The pricing of the XBox 360 has gained attention from the press today with news of its upcoming release. Understandably the newspapers have highlighted the price differential between the UK and US as we are used to being ripped off on prices here in the UK, for no obvious reason. Microsoft claims that this price differential is down to nothing more than local taxation.

In this case the newspapers are giving them unwarranted criticism. The prices quoted are 229GBP in the US and 279GBP in the UK. A large difference you might think. However, what we have to remember is that prices in the US are (irritatingly) quoted without sales taxes, in the UK the prices are quoted with a standardised tax. Assuming that 279GBP is the actual price at point of sale in the UK, as Microsoft seems to be implying, let us take the rate of VAT off that price. 279/1.175 is roughly 237.Yes, it’s still more than the US price, but it isn’t substantially more and nothing that couldn’t be seen to be standard variation due to shipping costs or similar issues.

Of course, most Americans will have to pay their local sales tax on that price anyway… this isn’t likely to come even close to the rate of VAT here in the UK, or in most of Europe, for that matter, but this is not something that microsoft can be blamed for, it’s the result of having higher taxation across the board due to a more socialist leaning form of government.

I must be late on the bandwagon, but I just found out about Google Moon. If you zoom in all the way there is conclusive proof (of the creationist kind) that the moon really is built the way we all thought it was…

Istanbul, what an interesting place. Home of the Blue Mosque and the sacred Carpet Salesman. If you ever want a free cup of tea, pop into a carpet shop, they’ll show you a large selection of carpets, be willing to haggle the price to something that you still won’t be able to afford and describe the way that said item is double stitched by young girls in the easternmost parts of the country, informative if nothing else. Combine this wonderful pasttime with the view of ships from the hotel roof and the pleasant, if highly repetive, sound of the Azan, the Muslim call to prayer, which loses much of its mystique when you realise it is reproduced through loudspeakers and presumably from a recording.

An interesting city, all told, but not one I’d like to live in.

As you will know by now I do have issues with the Mail and Associated Newspapers generally on their journalistic integrity and other similar things. I have to wonder specifically about their anti-ken poll though. As I looked at it late in the day on which it was advertised in the paper the votes were 68 to 32 in favour of Ken. Now the votes are (conveniently) 60 to 40 against. A case of vote rigging, I wonder?

This is especially interesting noting that the vote spread on other polls does seem to indicate that the readership would support Ken on this issue. Maybe we’ll never know… however for a newspaper with a severe agenda, and a history of having poor integrity, maybe it is reasonable to suggest they are lying on this issue, too.

Long time no post, and now when I do go to post I find that my site has been defaced :O The phpBB virus that was going around it seems, the webhost has been kind to me and fixed such issues, or so I’m told.

Well, back now anyway, and back posting again! Probably not again for a few months, but now at least.

“E Pluribus Unum”, “From many, one”, the original motto of the united states pre-1956 when it was replaced with “In God we Trust”.

I feel it necessary to mention a second latin motto on the Great Seal is “Novus Ordo Seclorum”, oft mistranslated to “New World Order”, more accurately “New Order of the Ages”. Strictly it also does not translate as “New secular order” either (secular does mean “relating to the current world”, however, so if you argue hard enough…).

It has come to my esteemed attention on this day, that the UK still has a law against blasphemy. It appears that this only applies to christianity, however, and is a common law offence.

Back in 1977 “Gay News” published a poem called “The Love that Dares To Speak Its Name” by James Kirkup. After legal action this poem was banned, and officially, as far as I can tell, it is still banned, though this is a ban that is both unenforced, and it seems completely ignored by the courts (after a challenge in 1996 against a hypertext link to the poem on a website, and also by the ignoring of a public reading of the poem in Trafalgar Square in 2002). It is the fact that UK laws are only against the Christian faith that excused Salmon Rushdie being tried for blasphemy after the publication of “The Satanic Verses”.

This law is a problem for a number of reasons. First it only refers to christianity, which is clear discrimination, and by definition you cannot have a blasphemy law that relates to all religions; it also goes against freedom of speech, and this is something explicity defined by the Human Rights Act (indirectly from the European Convention on Human Rights). Quoting from The Stationary Office:

No blasphemy case has been prosecuted in England and Wales since the passage of the Human Rights Act 1998 (incorporating elements of the European Convention on Human Rights), but it is a reasonable speculation that as a consequence of that legislation any prosecution for blasphemy today—even one which met all the known criteria—would be likely to fail or, if a conviction were secured, would probably be overturned on appeal

It should be noted that the UK is not the only country with such a law. Many Muslim countries do, as do Germany and Spain; the US does not as a whole, it seems as if it would go against the first amendment anyway, but certain states do, I quote from Massachusetts, for example.

Section 36. Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.

For additional interest:
Religious Offences in England and Wales – First Report [10 April 2003]