I guess only Apple Mac users will appreciate this. It shows how a little bit of PhotoShopping goes a long way.
Thanks to Brian for the link.
Daily Archives: March 19, 2006
When we say “voluntary” we mean “compulsory”
My Observer fellow-columnist, Henry Porter, has been conducting a valiant campaign to stir people’s interest in the ID Cards Bill that the Blair regime is trying to force through Parliament. He’s written another excellent piece this morning…
I would feel a bore and an obsessive if I hadn’t pored over the ID card bill last week and read Hansard’s account of the exchanges in both houses.
One of the most chilling passages in the bill is section 13 which deals with the ‘invalidity and surrender’ of ID cards, which, in effect, describes the withdrawal of a person’s identity by the state. For, without this card, it will be almost impossible to function, to exist as a citizen in the UK. Despite the cost to you, this card will not be your property.
My only quibble is that, technically, UK inhabitants are not ‘citizens’; they’re subjects of the Crown.
Invasion of the oxymorons
This morning’s Observer column…
Ask a liberal to give an example of an oxymoron (a contradiction in terms) and s/he will invariably say ‘military intelligence’. Ask an old-style television executive and you will get the reply: ‘user-generated content’. That’s because in the glory days of broadcast TV, viewers were assumed to be incapable of generating anything, with the possible exception of subscriptions to sports channels. The idea that couch potatoes might create content was deemed ludicrous. And even if the saps could create something, there was no way of publishing it. QED.
So here’s your starter for 10. Who said this?
‘Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry – the editors, the chief executives and, let’s face it, the proprietors. A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it. This new media audience – and we are talking here of tens of millions of young people around the world – is already using technology, especially the web, to inform, entertain and above all to educate themselves. This knowledge revolution empowers the reader, the student, the cancer patient, the victim of injustice, anyone with a vital need for the right information.’…