Stand up

I am blacked out: Stand up against “Guilt Upon Accusation” for New Zealand creativefreedom.org.nz/blackout.html.

“Join The New Zealand Internet Blackout to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law ‘Section 92A’ that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny. This is due to come into effect on February 28th unless immediate action is taken by the National Party.”

Help youself to the image.

it's endemic …

we just had a ring on the doorball, from a chap selling door to door from www.goodtastefoods.co.uk. He had a van full of stuff, and we were interested enough to let him show us his wares.

he brought a heap of boxes to the house; he had salmon, tuna, hake and cod, and all the rest was ready-cooked. We don’t buy – or eat – ready-cooked food, as we’re lucky enough to have the time to cook most nights; and if we don’t, we take something we’ve previously cooked from the freezers.

so he was a bit disappointed that most of his offerings didn’t appeal. perlmonger and I were interested in the fish; it seemed to be from reasonably sustainable sources, but we were concerned about freezer space.

and “it’ll be ok if *you* organise it”, he said to perlmonger. I told him he nearly lost the sale by making stupid sexist remarks, and he was really quite taken aback. P pointed out that actually, it would in fact be much better if *I* did it. And I did, and 12 tuna steaks and 14 pieces of cod loin* are in there.

* I find it very difficult to think of fish loins, don’t you?

more re sexism

further to this, Guy Kewney has written a posting on the subject.

Many surveys have suggested, regularly, that mature business buyers are actually deterred from promotions – exhibition booths, events and advertising – which assumes a 20-year-old male as the stereotype customer. These surveys are all nonsense, in the minds of the CF devcon organiser. Women don’t exist; adult males are all sexually rampant and alcohol-fuelled. Muslims only pretend to be uninterested in getting drunk, and Real Programmers are either adolescent, or wish they were.

more here

community

I looked out of the bedroom window just now, and there was a hearse, containing a coffin.

it seems that one of the elderly couple two doors up from us has died, and I had no idea. I don’t even know if it is the husband or the wife.

this strikes me as very sad – that someone located so close to us can die without us even being aware …

it's not always good to share

Ministers are preparing to overturn a fundamental principle of data protection in government, the Guardian has learned. They will announce next month that public bodies can assume they are free to share citizens’ personal data with other arms of the state, so long as it is in the public interest.

more from the Guardian here.

to think that some people – not me, obviously – *voted* for these fuckwits.