OS security.

Here we have yet another meaningless report on operating system security.

Mac OSX was first to fall, then MS Vista leaving Ubuntu as last man standing. The whole thing was so ludicrous as to be utterly meaningless. From my own point of view it was good to see Ubuntu come out on top as the one the hackers, in the new meaning of the word, found uncrackable. But, in the real world on real installations I wonder just how much worth should be given to the whole shebang.

According to the report, Mac OSX web browser Safari was the first to fall then MS Vista fell via a third party program namely Adobe Flash. But as Adobe Flash is ubiquitous across all platforms surely it follows that Ubuntu would suffer the same exploit whicc in turn means Ubuntu fell at the same hurdle MS Vista fell. Perhaps not though <shrug>.

I take issue with the fact they always use Ubuntu and then claim Linux. Ubuntu is not Linux, it is but another distribution in a large pool of distributions. Some more secure than others at the core. Forget the fact for now that Linux is the kernel, nothing more, nothing less and it is what is added around the kernel, programs etc, that makes up the distribution which in this case is called Ubuntu. Ubuntu is one of those horrible distributions that adds all sorts of extra layers of code in the name of making things easier for the user. These extras make it more insecure.

MS Vista, in a default install, is secure. Yes, you heard that correctly. As much as I despise that operating system the truth is it is secure in its defualt state. It is when adding third party applications things start falling apart. One cannot blame Microsoft for what others do to their operating system. Indeed, in the report indicated above it was a third party application, Adobe Flash, that lead to MS Vista being declared second best secure operating system.

Mac OSX is an odd beast. It is a closed operating system which is based on a freely available operating system but is itself proprietary. However, applications created by others and compiled source code can be added to the mix. The fact it was Safari, a closed source application written and created by Apple employees is cause for alarm for users of this operating system.

Overall though, the article above was poorly done in my honest opinion. Not least because of how it was done but also the fact that by declaring one more secure than another in the way they did and how they arrived as that declaration leaves a lot to be desired.

So as someone who installs these operating systems for users and companies will I personally give much credence to this article? In short. No.

The ISPA need to act now.

The ISPA need to act now before ISP's in the U.K. follow Karoo's lead and hijack DNS requests.

I am a strong advocate of net neutrality which dictates that all Internet traffic should be unfettered. It is bad enough ISP's use traffic management techniques to slow the Internet experience down for customers but this deep level of DNS hijacking is dangerous for all users of the Internet.

What Karoo are doing breaks the Internet insomuch as what users of their services get to see on a mistyped URL in their web browser is not what the user should see. When a user mistypes a URL in such a way as there are no other DNS matches they should be presented with a 404 error page with designed by a web master or a blanket 404 page telling the user that what they typed was not found. By hijacking the DNS request at such a deep level users of Karoo's DNS do not see the 404 page instead they are redirected to a search engine. A poor search engne at that but a search engine nonetheless.

Karoo, of course, get what is called a payback for doing this. This means that once redirected to the search engine, if a user uses said search engine then clicks on one of that search engines commercial links Karoo get a payment. Hence the name payback.

When the seller of .com and .net domain-names Verisign tried to do exactly the same thing back in 2004 the ISPA called it a "scandal" and accused the firm of "presumption that they own the Internet". Quite how they can say such a thing then let a U.K. based ISP get away with doing exactly the same thing only those within the ISPA know.

This sort of DNS hijacking sets a dangerous precedent not only for Karoo customers but also for customers of other ISP's because once it becomes known that on ISP has got away with doing such then you can bet your last penny other ISP's will follow suit. Further, once Karoo realise that even though their customers have voiced concern about it (that is just one such place, concerned voices about this practise can be found elsewhere too) and even though Karoo offer an 'opt-out' alternative once they are sure that they will get away with it, even though they surely know it breaks other aspects of the Internet too, it is only a matter of time before they unleash something bigger, and therefore worse for their customers, like 'phorm' onto an unsuspecting customer-base.

phorm is a company that provides hardware to ISP's, again hijacking the data stream, so that user targeted marketing advertisements can be overlayed on the customers browser no matter what that customer may be doing at the time that the injected hardware spits out it "thoughts" on what the customer may want to see at that time. In all my years of pre and current Internet traveling I have never heard of anything more scary being introduced from a user point of view. ISP's will also get a payback from this too. The backlash again 'phorm' has already begun as you can read on the link provided.

Anything that injects itself at any level of the Internet data stream between the customers computer and the other end of where that customer wanted to be is just plain wrong and breaks the TCP/IP prrotocols on several levels. The sooner the ISPA acts and stops such things the better the Internet will be for all connected to it.

If you are unfortunate enough to have to use Karoo as your ISP and you would prefer, as I do, that the money Karoo gets from this level of DNS hijacking goes instead to a not-for-profit organisation who offer alternative name servers (DNS) that work just as well if not better, than those offered by Karoo then consider using OpenDNS instead. At least by using OpenDNS you will know you are helping to keep a not-for-profit organisation afloat rather than allowing money to go to a greedy grubbing ISP like Karoo.

A U.S.A. ISP in the U.K.

Sounds straight forward does it not? But, even though this sounds probable there are other things to consider like the huge differences in the U.K. data protection compared to the U.S.A. where privacy for private individuals has historically been weak but in more recent times in increasingly becoming weaker.

Why should we care if companies use U.S.A. type privacy laws against U.K. people? We should care on several levels because if we do not we may find our privacy laws being diluted. This was never more true for ISP's.

My own ISP, Karoo, routinely filter Internet traffic. P2P and Usenet are the two most heavily filtered. Not filtered to stop such Internet traffic but filtered to slow said traffic down. They have claimed they only do this at peek times, defined by them as 6pm until 12pm. This just happens to be the time of day when most users are likely to be on-line, but it was proven that they slow this type of traffic 24/7. It is also proven that they filter other traffic 24/7 as well. The company has often denied this but as I said it has been proven that they do.

Why is Internet traffic so important in the continual fight to keep private data private? The very fact they are touching the data stream at all is important in the fight for 'net neutrality'. Once they know they can get away with this level of interference who knows where it will end. They took another step in fiddling with user generated data streams by filtering DNS requests so that when a user mistypes a URL instead of getting the proper '404 URL not found' error pages they instead get forced to see a search engine web page. This is fundamental breakage of how the DNS works. It should be noted that the ISP gets a monetary return should any user be foolish enough to use the search engine. The 'service', such as it is, is an automatic opt-in service. This means that every user using this ISP is automatically subjected to this breaking of the DNS. There is also an opt-out clause as well but it is so poorly written that your average user would not know where to start. There are two ways around this illegal tampering of DNS requests which you can find at the end of this post.

So, we have an ISP that routinely monitors and alters Internet data streams and is showing that they are willing to be evermore brave in how they show their users they are doing it. They do other things behind the scenes that affect Internet data streams that the user will never see therefore never know about. It would seem a natural progression given that they obviously have no concern whatsoever about users data streams that eventually they will progress to Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) and use targeted advertisements as a revenue stream.

This level of tampering with users Internet data streams is unprecedented in the U.K. but is widely used in the U.S.A. which is where a U.S.A. ISP in the U.K. comes in which is the subject of this post.

Once the European Union (EU) declares that a users IP, given when a user connects to the ISP, is private property it will be much easier to fight against this level of tampering by an ISP and I, for on, will be fighting tooth and nail to stop such tampering. The fact they are doing it at all shows how arrogant this ISP is and we all know what happens once that arrogance goes too far. And it will.

Let children play in the mud.

It never hurt us 40somethings when young and it sure as Hell won't hurt todays siblings either.

Yes, I mean it literally. The majority of todays children are cocooned from danger, dirt and hurt.

This was never more clearly driven home to me as I watched my 10 and 9 year old boys playing with their friends of similar ages in our back garden. Our back garden is at this time all mud and little grass. This is due to recent rainfall levels, a bout of snow and the fact that since we moved in here we have not yet had enough dry days to do the work on it we have planned. That said, we still allow our children to play in it just as my wife, who is 9 years younger than I, and I had done at their ages years before. Notice I said 'in it' rather than 'on it'? I shall explain why later. Present in this little play group was our two boys, five other boys and 4 girls all of similar ages and all went to the same school. All of their parents had been informed prior that we intended to let the children do as they wanted within the confines of the 5ft garden gate. They would of course be supervised. This supervision was done by my wife, 2 of the children's parents and 3 of my mates plus myself. The adults had access to beer and BBQ food which is I reckon why they agreed to monitor the children's activities. Anyway, none got drunk.

As there is nothing but mud and a little grass in our back garden I laid plans of what I had hoped the childern would enjoy playing both with and on a few days prior. Two of my friends had erected an ad-hoc wooden frame that I had designed for the children to play on. Also there was a largish paddling pool and the children had access to a water hose. Dotted about were footballs and other such equipment. On the stone patio type area we put a long table where sandwiches, drinks and such like would be laid on for the children. This was partitioned off from the play area by means of some plasterboard which was not a permanent structure but served the purpose we intended it for and that was as a means to keeping the food area away from the more messy play area.

You now, hopefully, have a mental image of the scene.

As I had asked each parent of 1 or more children present on the day to provide their child with an alternative set of clothing they in turn asked what had I got planned for their child and my own. I told them exactly what I had planned. A day playing in the mud with side events such as the paddling pool and climbing frame thrown in and some food for late afternoon. Some looked puzzled, others looked concerned, yet more seemed vaugely perplexed. None objected. So, the afternoon arrived and each child had brought with them some alternative clothing. We directed each child separately to a bedroom where they could put their alternative clothing for later.

Now we had a gaggle of children all stood in our living room. I simply said "Go play. Get muddy. Do whatever you want to do within the confines of the garden and most importantly of all enjoy yourselves." And Off they went out into the mud. There we a total of 11 children. Of those 11, 8 ventured onto the mud while the other 3 stood at the plasterboard surrounded entrance.

Some played in and out of the paddling pool. The climbing frame we had made was a huge success. While the 8 were playing I asked the 3 stood watching why they were not joining in. They replied "My mother has always said that playing in mud is dirty and lead to all sorts of diseases." I stood back and thought a minute then said "What if I told you that when your mother was younger she was the worsed kind of tomboy and always played in the mud and always went home with her clothes dirty as she always played with the boys who always got dirty." They looked at me with that look that only a disbelieving child can give. I rang their mother who promptly came and said to her children, 1 boy, 1 girl, that it was okay to play in this mud and to go and enjoy themselves. They immediately joined their friends who by now where covered in mud from head to toe and also very wet from someone pointing the hose at them.

After about 2 hours of continuous play it was time to call them all in for eats. But, before they could eat they must be cleaned up and have their alternative clothes on. Now we had a problem. We could not each child one by one trudged upstairs to the bathroom so what could we do? We adults got our heads together and eventually one came up with a solution. We made sure the water from the hose was warm then we lined the children up and dosed them with water while they stood there and turned on the spot. The kids absolutely loved it. Shortly, all the mud was off the kids and one by one they moved from the now heavily water and mud area to another area close by where they where blown with warm air from a huge fan one of the adults has got from his garage then from there up the stairs to change clothes. After around 40 minutes all the kids where changed ready to attack the food table already prepared. Whilst eating the chattered constantly about what they had done during the afternoon.

The end of the afternoon had arrived and each child's parent came to collect them. As they waved an excited goodbye to their friends they all, without exception, looked at me and thanked me for a "brill day". Each parent, especially those who gave their time to supervise, all said how much the children had so obviously enjoyed themselves.

Who would have thought it. Todays children in todays world of "Don't do that" actually doing something all children should be allowed to do and better yet all of them enjoying themselves whilst playing in watery mud. No child has developed any mysterious diseases since that afternoon.

I put my two fingers up at those politically correct fools.

The Karoo Technical Forum.

This post only really holds any interest for people from my home city. It may hold reading power for others who see big business as something remote and beyond them.

What is it. Why is exists and what it does. For the benefit of everyone, be they a home user or a business user if you use Karoo, and possibly their other ISP ventures in the U.K. as well, as your ISP The Karoo Technical Forum will have had some say in the services you receive.

I, along with someone else who shall remain nameless, are part of a group which has been dubbed The Karoo Technical Forum. The group members consists of He who shall remain nameless (short: HWSRN), the Head of IT Infrastructure (who shall be called Mike, which is not his real name) and myself. At the first meeting the Managing Director of KCom was also present. Behind us we have broad section of 100+ users who HWSRN and I take our taking pointers from. Although, it must be sai, that sometimes it feels like we to are stuck between a rock and a hard place usually this cross section of Karoo users allows us to get a cross city view of how they, Karoo, are performing and we take the wheat from the chaff as the basis for our meeting's agenda.

This all started with emails being sent to Karoo. At the request of the M.D. a meeting was suggested. HWSRN wanted me present but for whatever reasons the M.D. did not want me there. After a little to and froing and after HWSRN learned that the M.D. was to have someone beside him the M.D. capitulated on the idea of HWSRN having someone else there too. It was decided that this first meeting between the M.D. of KCom, Mike, HWSRN and myself would take place at Telephone House the home of KCom. And so it was.

The first meeting was mainly us two against them to. Us being HWSRN and myself and them being the Head of IT Infrastructre and and the MD. That first meeting set about sorting out what we should be aiming for. Quite why they allowed us a platform at all is only known to them. But they did and we aired the grievances that several customers of Karoo, a subsidiary of KCom, had told us about plus a few of our own for good measure. It was at that first meeting that the moniker The Karoo Technical Forum was coined, and it stuck as that is what we are now known as. The talk was wide ranging. From the help-desk to Customer Service and from connection speeds to technical matters. Overall, this first meeting went very well. We came away with the feeling of mission accomplished.

Shortly after this first meeting an email arrived explaining how they also felt the meeting had been a success and off the back of this a second tele-meet would be organised and so it was. Feeling somewhat puzzled, but confident, and armed with more grievances from the wider customer-base HWSRN and I entered into the unknown. The call was placed and a 3 way conversation ensued. The 3 present where Mike, HWSRN and myself. We were informed that several things we had talked about at the first meeting had been actioned and where in the process of being done. Of course, we were warned, that these things take time. We knew this but Mike felt the need to say it, several times. Again, after the tele-meet ended HWSRN and I felt things had gone well. At least, we felt, they had been listening and where in the process of changing in several areas. We took information we had learned back to the masses and while some recieved what we told them with acceptance others where aggressive towards both the information relayed to them and us two. Some also had issues that whatever was not sorted out right now rather than in 6 months time. Explaining that Karoo is like a behive and that each section plays a part and that several meetings must be undertaken before anything is resolved within made no difference.

Still, HWSRN and I plodded on into a third meeting.

The third meeting, again a tele-meet, was organised. Then rearranged due to Mike (I later learned these where personal issues). Then rearranged again, due to Mike. By the time the meeting was set in stone HWSRN had personal problems that meant he could not attend. So, it was decided at the behest of HWSRN that Mike and I should hold the tele-meet and that I should inform HWSRN via other means after the meeting had taken place. And so it was to be. That meeting was full of off the cuff and keep under your hat talk that Mike requested no-one else, except for HWSRN, should know about except perhaps in the most vaguest of ways. Lots of discussion about technical issues (as an aside here I think Mike was both surprised and delighted at how much I knew about the ISP procedures and how the whole thing is driven) as well as some further get to know you type talk. I also learned that a lot of what was previously discussed had been implemented and on the back of what HWSRN and I had told them we the users wanted that a major change of offerings by the ISP was on its way. Mike could not, or would not, go into detail about these offerings other then to say that there will be major changes. Further I was told that the fundemental way they shape traffic was seriously flawed and that that too was going to be changed. What they have planned to change it with, only a fool would think traffic shaping would go away, Mike would not say. All he did say about it was that the current method will be gone when the new offerings come to market.

So, now you know about the meetings and some of what was said. There are some questions that are being asked and some we two have ourselves.

Why is a large international company, as KCom are, talking to two of their home based customers? That is something only they can answer, but my guess, as part of this, is that they want to be seen to be doing something. There is a large discontended base of customers in their own back yard and they must be seen to listening to them so they created this Karoo Technical Forum which I reckon they had planned long before we two got involved. We two just happened to be the two who where in the right place at the right time.

Are they really listening to us? Again only they can answer that question, but my gut feeling is that yes they are taking on board some of what we are telling them and they are, or have, acted upon that information. But again, I have this gut feeling that a lot of the changes coming where decided on long before we two got involved and of those changes only a very small part was due to what we told them their home customers want.

Why then, if you apparantly do not believe them, are you doing this? The answer to that is that for many years, long before they started offering Internet services, I have tried to better the services they offer by various means. I have been the proverbial thorn in their side for years. Once they started offering ISP services there too I tried to seek out ways that I could get to them in my continuing efforts to get them to improve there service offerings. As they have an effective monopoly in this city of all telephony provisions and because of that they have no competition from other ISP's and because of that they are lazy when it comes to what they offer. Their ADSL services for the home and business sectors are a joke in that there are basically no additional benefits between the various offerings at this time. We, that is HWRSN and I, told them this and was told in return that they would "look into it". The result of that is that they are changing their offerings structure so that "there is more to separate them." Only time will tell how that reflects in actual offerings.

Basically, I became involved at the behest of HWSRN and being the type of guy that goes with the flow more than one who bucks any trend I went along for the ride. Has it been worth the effort? Yes, I feel it has been. How this Karoo Technical Forum pans out in the future we shall have to wait and see but for now, at a technical level, it has been interesting and while I would like to think we have affected change I have this nagging feeling that these changes that are coming where planned a long time before this started. Sure, some of the changes I have no doubt we did change but overall I have this gut feeling the major changes were planned before we came along.

I still have some reservations about why they are making it look like we have some involvement in shaping how they operate and what their service offerings will be. But Kudos should be given to them for grabbing an opportunity and trying to run with it. Even if this initiative tails off like so many others have before it it will I feel, have been worth it, if only so KCom, and its M.D. inparticular, can see I am not the ogre and troublemaker they painted me internally. They are talking to two guys now who have years of networking and telephony behind them and these two guys want improvements for everyone.

So, there we have it. The Karoo Techical Forum. What it is. Why it is with us. What we do and why we are doing it.

Open soucery.

Open source has become synonymous with free software which itself has become synonymous with the Linux operating system or more correctly, an operating system distribution based around the Linux kernel and GNU software. Phew, quite a mouthful eh? That mouthful can be said thusly GNU/Linux operating system. However, the whole modern idea behind open source software goes much deeper than this. In fact, it is my opinion that this commercialised way of looking at it is damaging to the whole ethos behind it. Let me try to explain my reasonings.

Many Microsoft Windows home based users do not even know there are free software alternatives for 99.9% of the programs they use. I mean freely available alternatives on their current Microsoft based platform not an alternative operating system though alternative operating systems do exist and do have software within them to match the proprietary ones they currently use. Just like the home market do not know likewise it is for businesses. Many home based computer users and businesses know they exist but are tied into expensive contractual agreements forbidding them to seek out and implement alternative solutions and many simply use the operating system that comes pre-bundled with the machine for no other reason than it gets the job done. There is nothing wrong with that. Many of the pre-built computers bought in to the home come pre-installed with a none free operating system and often come with many none free software choices. The none technical home user is none the wiser about free software alternatives being available such as those collections from theOpenDisc and others.

And so it goes. Upon this bundling of software on pre-built machines a foundation was built around vendor lock-in.

Then there those, like me, who with 30+ years in the computer industry under his belt has only ever paid and used on a personal level only 2 propriety operating systems in that time and has, and still does, pay for a GNU/Linux operating system that is otherwise freely available. Why do I pay for something I can get for free? Well, it comes down to ethics and my ethics dictate that as someone created the operating system I use he/she deserves some recompense for his time and expertise. Of those 2 proprietery ones, 1 was a UNIX operating system bought in the days before freely available clones came to market and the other was AmigaOS that came bundled with the Amiga range of computers.

Nowadays I use a Linux based distribution and many freely available open source softwares, some of which accept donations which if they do and the program is used often enough, I duly pay into.

So, what is the difference between freely available software an open source software and why is it so important that the distinction is made and kept alive?

A guy called Richard Stallman, he of GNU software fame, says it better than I can here. Even though I advise you to read it all the first paragraph says it all. He says "When we call software “free,” we mean that it respects
the users' essential freedoms: the freedom to run it, to study and change it, and to redistribute copies with or without changes. This is a matter of freedom, not price, so think of “free speech,” not “free beer.”

For me, the GNU term is the correct ethically pleasing term. How you view open source software versus free software could be important to the future definition and acceptance of the term so it is vitally important to GNU softwares authors that you understand the differences being banded about by marketting teams. I hope in this short piece to have helped you in that goal.

Bad bad bad.

My ISP, the hapless Karoo a subsidiary of KCom, has decided to redirect mistyped URL's to a search pgae at Ask.com. By forcing their user-base to automatically opt-in to a search engine they are obviously watching peoples connections. Any mistyped URL will not show the proper 404 page not found page but will instead show the Ask.com search engine. This breaks several rules on several levels.

If I wanted to go to a search engine I would type that search engine URL in the browser URL bar. I do not want to be forced to do this just because I typed something wrong. We use a router here and the first time this forced redirection hapoened to my son he asked me what the hell was going on. Because he uses MS Windows he thought he had got a virus. I am sure many other users of Karoo experienced something along the same lines. They do have an opt-out option which they have everso helpfully shown how to do but only for the crap routers they support.

This hi-jacking of people Internet connections is quite simply wrong. It IS hijacking of peoples connections. Nothing more, nothing less and because it is hijacking of peoples connections it should be declared illegal to do. There used to be an RFC that declared intransit Internet traffic should not be hijacked. It seems these days as if ISP's quite simply have no regard for their customer base whatsoever.

They, Karoo, obviously get a payback for this as I can see no other reason for them doing it.

I now use opendns for my dns requests so this level of underhandedness will not catch me any more. i know opendns do something similar but at least it is MY chose to use them. No-one has forced me to use the facilities OpenDNS offer unlike my ISP. Karoo a subsiduary of KCom who have foistered this on their customers.

The fight begins to regain control of our in-transit Internet traffic.

Nothing to fear.

"You have nothing fear if you do not break the Law." Is the oft heard mantra of two distinct sets of people. One set has those who are set to profit from the constant fear mongering by our government. Set two has those who do not care about freedom or rights even after they have had it explained in words of 2 syllables or less just how their freedom and rights are being eroded slowly but surely. Set one has everything to gain , money and power, wealth and privilidge, and simply loves set two. Set two refuses to acknowledges set one existence.


The latest incursion on our freedom and basic rights is that the all new and shiney British Airways Terminal 5 owned by the BAA are planning to take finger print swabs off every person, man, woman and child, who passes through that terminal. More here.

If this not an infringement on our rights as a British citizen that I do not know what is. The implcations of such a gross misappropriation of our basic rights and freedoms I do not know what is. What makes this incursion all the worse is the fact it does not come from a government agency but from an everyday retailer that people trust with ther lives every time they fly. They are a common business. No more, no less.

The future implications of such an act is enormous. They claim they will keep the data for 24 hours after which it will be deleted. But, it does not take a genious to work out that because they say they will delete the fingerprint information does not mean they will actually do so. They could keep the data for years. they could be forced to hand over the information to the police within that 24 hour window. Thereby giving the police the biometric data they are so desperate to hold about every citizen in this country. They could cross reference the data they are holding with foreign countries breaking every Law in this country in the process but do you seriously think they worry about such piffling things?

"It is for your own good." They claim. "You have nothing to fear if you don't break the Law." They claim. They use a prefabricated rubbish about terrorists in and effort to make you see they are not after you but after 'them'.

I bet the police, which is becoming more and more politicised as time goes by, will be watching this one closely and if the BAA get away with it and implement this then it is only a matter of time before everything to do with traveling implements something similar. But, it is not you they are after. It is those prefabricated terrorists that exist only in the minds of politicians.

The Data Protection Act was devised as a means to stop such as this but companies with the power to do so have a total disregard for these rules. They think that the people who fly will just roll over and do whatever they are told to do but I think the BAA have gone too far this time and the people will speak by either using an alternative airport or by using alternative transport. There is enough bullshit about climate change and carbon footprints to nudge people away fron flying as a means to get from A to B. Especially, on so called short hop flights like London to Manchester etc.

It is bad enough that the goverment themselves trample all over previously designated privacy rules but when we have companies doing it then it sets a dangerous precident. A very very dangerous precedent indeed.

The sporting city of Hull.

The city of Hull, or Kingston-upon-Hull to give it its full and proper name, has 3 top flight sporting teams, Hull City, Hull FC and Hull K.R. The latter two are Rugby League teams and the first one a football team.

The two Rugby League teams have enjoyed top flight Rugby for years. Hull FC have never been outside of the top flight Super League since its inception whereas Hull K.R. have been in the second tier. Both are currently enjoying top flight status with, at this stage of the season, Hull K.R. being above Hull FC in the table which you can view here on the BBC web site.

The Rugby League will be changing into a franchise system where teams will apply to join the Super League. Teams will need to meet certain standards such as have a good modern stadium, prove to have money to survive and so on. Once they think they meet the criteria, set by the Super League standards committee, they can then apply to the Super league for acceptance. If they are considered to meet the criteria they will be admitted to the League. There is more to it than this but that is the raw basics of it. From my prospective this whole franchise idea is a good one as it is a means to ensure the survival of the game itself. This setup in no way means teams that do not meet the criteria will fall away and die. Quite the opposite in fact as it means those teams not up to the standards required for entry have something to aim for. There will be no automatic relegation or promotion as teams will need to apply which in turn means the standards will remain high. The game itself is a fantanstic, hard and sometimes brutal game. Not brutal as in violence but brutal as in tough. You can view bits and pieces of Rugby League games on youtube. Rugby League simply stated is the best sporting game man has ever invented.

On the footballing side we have Hull City. A team that has never played in the top footballing division but has in its existance enjoyed success insomuch as they have enjoyed massive crowds, especially during what was their most successful period of 1968 to 1975. Sadly shortly after this period they plummeted to the lower divisions and manager after manager failed to inspire their players. Off the field the once proud club with, at the time, the best ground outside of the old division one fell into disrepair and the clubs finacial situation went from bad to worst. Then a couple of years ago they started climbing back up the divisions. The old boothferry park ground was left to rot as the team moved lock stock and barrel to the all new KC stadium. The KC stadium is a state of the art stadium designed in such a way as to bolt on more seating places as and when required. It is a stadium fit for the premier league. When the stadium was first devised they also devised a plan which would merge Hull FC and Hull City to use the stadium. Hull City's old ground, Boothferry Park has long since fell into disrepair. Hull FC's old ground, Boulevarde, while not as run down as Boothferry Park was also not of Super League standard so the merger was good for both teams. As it turned out this arrangement went well and both teams are happy to call the KC Stadium their home.

This current season sees Hull City flying high in the Champions League and are almost certain, on their current form, to go up and gain Premier League status for the first time in their history. Hull FC meanwhile are, after 6 games at the the time of writing, languishing second from bottom of a 12 team league but are, in my opinion, sure to rise to a top 6 place at seasons end. They are plagued with injuries to 8 top players at this time. Once all return I am sure they will return to last seasons form and rise steadily upthe table. Hull K.R. currently lay fourth in the league. Many, including myself, have doubts they can sustain this position. Though I reckon they are good for a top 6 place.

All in all. Hull's big 3 sporting teams, Hull City, Hull FC and Hull k.R., are doing the city proud. Long may they have success.

Notice to other sports that thrive in this city some of who are top of their leagues. But they cannot argue that Hull's big 3 sproting teams are Hull City, Hull FC and Hull K.R. But even to these lower sports I say good on you and long may you too reign supreme in your chosen sport.

Hull really is a sporting city.

Todays Kids.

It has to be said that the vast majority of kids aged from 16 down to 2 that are not pampered middle class snobs but instead live on estates, usually found on the edges of towns and cities around England, are lazy compared to kids of the same age living some 30 years ago.

It is very easy for those of us who were within that age group 30 ago to see this to be true but it takes someone with the ability to see passed simply stated facts to see why they are. If you are one such person then you will know it goes beyond owning computers, consoles, DVD players, TV etc etc. It goes beyond overprotective parenting. It goes beyond parents being swamped with news about rapists and pedophiles 24/7. All those reasons pale into insignificance and into the realms of the inconsequential when compared to one basic right that successive teachers, councils and governments have taken away from successive generations born throughout the 1980's, 1990's and 2000's. And that is areas that allow children to play, get hurt, recover, play, get hurt, learn from it, recover and play.

I do not believe for one minute they are as the Health Authority and the Government claim they are all bordering on the edge of obesity and that some are 'clinically' obese. Notice how the Health Authority are always careful to say 'clinically' obese?

The use the tag 'clinically' because the methods used to calculate a persons weight (the BMI, Body Mass Index) is flawed and yet they insist on using it. I can give you an example from my own offspring showing why the method is flawed. I have two sons aged 22 and 21. The one aged 21 plays rugby league so as you can imagine he is full of muscle throughout his entire body structure. He is also extremely fit in mind and body. The 22 years old one does not play any sport at all. He likes to drink lots of alcohol, eat tons of crap that they claim is bad for your body and otherwise do as little as possible to get through the day. They are both over 6ft 5inches tall. According the the flawed weight calculator (the BMI) the 21 year old, who remember is very fit, is based on the calculations 'clinically' obese whereas the 22 year old who eats junk food and likes his beer is 'clinically' at a perfect weight for his height. No-one, absolutely no-one can ever convince me the BMI method of calculating weight is correct. It quite simply is bunkum.

It is plain to see that the BMI was put forward as the method to use due to pressure from those with an agenda and that agenda was and is to make money.

So, while there are definitely more 'heavy' children out there today I do not believe there are as many obese, clinically or otherwise, children than there was 30 years ago. As I said there are more lazy kids about nowadays but that is down to how we as a society have deliberately and purposely dismantled what previous generations took for granted and that is the freedom to learn while playing OUTSIDE where it hurts more when one falls, more than kids being actively lazy.

Sure, kids these days eat more frozen foods then those of 30 years ago. More pre-packed food stuffs. More food stuff with added this and added that, the worse type of added this and added that is added flavouring or extract of this or that. Less fruit etc etc and they go outside to play, as only kids can, less and less and if it happensto be raining, oh my dear God NO! You child are NOT playing out in that, you will get wet! Imagine that eh? Rain making you wet. That never used to happen did it? Far less. It is all these things combined with less sport and old fashioned P.E. in schools add in the fact they have games consoles, computers and mobile phones more powerful than main frames used to be back in the old days.

During the 1980's is was a government led thing that removed physical activity from our schools. Sure, the teachers unions can be held accountable too. The whole idea that competitive sport is bad for children is so ludicrous as to be unbelievable that anyone could even think such a thing. The teachers unions almost entirely banned it from our schools during the 1980's which led to a whole generation that had that competitive edge we all should learn missing. Which in turn led to them lacking the urge to get up and go. Their kids, the current crop picked up on their parents lack of energy and combined with a modern lifesyle has ended up with a whole generation being lazy.

But, back to this 'clinically' obese crap. How in the name of all that is good did the BMI pass even the most lax of peer reviews? As I said above. It got through because medical institutions where paid to make it happen. Simple as that.

Here, in very basic wordage, was how the agenda was laid out. It was to be a 30 year plan running from 1970 to 2000, but it has overrun slightly by few years. That overrun will not matter though. In fact it will be a good thing as the longer the cycle takes the more money there is to be made for all concerned.

First over 30 or so years we do everything we possibly can to make sure our children are seen as lazy go-nowhere fat children by paying for laws, central and local, to be passed that ensure our children have nowhere to play. Then we feed them up with as much fattening stuff as we can be seen to get away with then we will bring out the BMI chart to make it look like we care then we,and you medical universities with all the, <cough> donations we will make to you in the name of research, can run all the way to the bank with all the money we will surely make over 30years.

Far fetched? Just think back to 1970 and thereafter.

Am I the only one?

Who sees the Internet unfolding into a place where only big players have control?

15 or so years ago before the Internet as we now know it existed it was a place where the true meaning of freedom was played out. Nowadays, the Internet is in full swing and all we see are lawsuits by big players in the market suing everyone else so they can control their corner of it and if the little people, you and I, get burnt along the way then tough.

While todays Internet experience is nothing even remotely comparable to when it began this shift is disturbing to those, like me, who have seen it grow. At first there was no web browser, very few graphical clients at all in fact. It was a much more dignified place back then. Then everything went graphical, international and suddenly the Internet as we know it today grew. Boomed even into a place rich in information. In its recent history we have seen many instances of big players trying to, if not remove, then to inhibit free market growth. I find this trend disturbing.

Let us look at one of these big players, well, two, though they are related insomuch as they both provide entertainment. The music industry and the film industry. These two big players are singlehandedly attempting, and in some countries winning, to stifle or snuff out, anything not on their own agenda. In their dragnet of litigation is the little people. Little people are easy targets and what do they care if these little people have a lifetime of debt brought about by the exhorbitant fees these big players place on their wares? Nothing.

Internet censorship, not just in places like China, happens in America, Europe and other continents. Behind these censorships are not governments but they are paid for by big business who incessantly lobby governments to impose them. How do you know what is censored? Why do you think some web sites disappear of the web map?

The Internet today is big business and within that realm the little people who kick started the whole thing are losing out on a daily basis. It will not be long before there is no place in the big picture for the little people to roam because they will have been squeezed out but the big players.

Todays Internet is tomorrows history.

U.K. Government web sites.

Or rather the lack of.

The U.K. government is slashing the number, reportedly in the hundreds, of web sites it currently runs and getting everyone to use direct.gov instead. They claim that by using one web site instead of the hundreds they currently run is somehow a better way to convey information to users. Now, colour me blue but how can shoehorning hundreds of informational web sites into one huge web site offer more information?

The government claim that the people of the U.K. are sick and tired of filling out their information time and time again and that by having everything in one place they, the U.K. people, will only need to fill out such forms once. To me personally this is a great thing. But, there are other aspects of the whole 'one size fits all' idea that bothers me.

Security for one. The government says it will keep the security of your data, well, secure. It is without doubt the one thing they cannot guarantee. Sure, they can and probably will try but, with the governments track record on security available for all to see, would you trust them with your highly sensitive identity data?

I highly doubt that all the information across all the hundreds of government controlled web sites will survive the move to a single server. If they manage it you can be certain some currently available information will be lost in the move. What about council driven web sites that have mostly information pertinent to that councils people or area? Will they be swallowed up in this direct.gov madness? If so, then information about a local councils event shedule will surely, if not severely degraded, then lost completely.

Then there is the sharing of data between departments to consider.

That alone, as a computer consultant myself, scares the living soul out of me. The Government, it does not matter if it is blue or red, is flying headlong into an unmittigating disaster with these half cock deas and schemes. It seems as if they, 10 years late, have discovered the Internet and come Hell or high water they are doing whatever they can to catch up. But, catch up they never will. Lose individuals indentity data they will.

The World's Money Problems.

Or, at this time, the lack of, brings to mind a project I did at school some 32 years ago. The project theme was not rocket science nor, probably, is it viable but the overall theme of the project is something I have advocated for for years since.

The project itself lasted for the full year. Other students, as we were called at the high school I attended at the time, had other projects. My 'team' had 8 members and every one of those members felt the project worth doing. At the end of the year a simulated financial market was assessed and those whose project came out top 'won'. In reality of course, no-one won anything, well, except for a gold statue, which incidentally I still have in my possession.

The projects where side events. They bore no relation to students end of term results or status. It was, I think, a way to get 15 year olds interested in what was happening on the world stage. Both financial happenings and happenings in each country around the world and as an aside taught us to focus. The reality was that we, and we learned other project groups did the same, would meet up during 'playtimes', or as our school called them 'break periods', during, but after eating, dinner times and perhaps most surprising to todays headmasters, headmistresses and teachers, after school sometimes 3 times a week. These after school meetings accelerated towards the end to 5 evenings a week and some weekends as well.

It certainly focussed our collective minds. Realise that this was the 1975-1976 term. A time when teachers where allowed to create there our agendas as long as their students had the required amount of the 3 R's thrown in. I strongly doubt such projects would be done nowadays but that is by the by.

So, what was this project and how did it relate to the blog title?

Well, we devised a way by which all the world money markets could be closed down. Money would bcome a thing of the past. People around the world would still work and those that refused to work at all would be refused basic amenities and food provisions. If they then decided their best course of action is to steal then they would be thrown in jail for their efforts. A by-product of this scheme is that married women would not be forced to work. Women with children but no partner would do work suitable for a women with child. Of course there was much more in depth things to it all but that is the very basics of our project plan results. How did it work out after a year, well a years school term? Perhaps surprisingly well. The strongest resistance came from those with money. Those lower down the social scale took to the overall idea very well.

It all probably sounds outlandish and the produce of kids on the lower spectrum of social life but nothing could be further from the truth. We were a school with a social mix across the spectrum. However, you have to remember that at the end of the day that this was a school project and as such is prone to mistakes and assumptions only teenagers can make. That said. The year long work culminated in being assessed by 'our betters' (a term itself that would hold no meaning in our Utopian financial world. The results of our year long endeavors were presided over by 4 managers of local banks and for our pains our project won first prize, which consisted of that gold statue, today work £2000, and an all expenses paid holiday for 3 weeks during the summer recess in Australia paid for by the 4 banks. Well worth the effort taken to get to the end with a project eventually deemed doable and presented in such a way as to allow the overseers to clearly see the culmination of our idea.

It will probably never happen, at least not in my lifetime. As an aside, can you imagine high schools of today allowing such a wide and free ranging project to be done? I cannot.

Under the coshe.

As the Western World and America seek evermore to remove liberty, freedom and democracy from the political drawing board by way of ever increasing surveilence laws and ever increasing Police laws and ever increasing etc. I am sure you get the picture.

Here in Britain the Police have powers to disperse and move on any crowd of more than 3 people. 'People' is undefined so it is entirely within the Law of this once bastion of freedom for its people country for the police to disperse and move on a mother, father and one child. I highly doubt that would happen, today, but one has to wonder why they left the text so ambiguously written in statute.

Here in Britain it is perfectly legal for our police to break down your house front door and search your property leaving in their wake a path of turmoil and destruction. You have no recourse if they got the wrong house either.

Here in Britain it is said that once you leave your house on a 3 mile journey around any city in the country that you will be on someones, mostly none police, close circuit camera for approximately 2 hours and 50 minutes of that journey.

Here in Britain it is perfectly legal for the Police to stop and search you irregardless if that stoppage loses you time which may ultimately cost you your job.

Here in Britain it is illegal for our children to play ball games on many grassy areas dotted about in our cities. If our children are spotted by our Police, or reported to the police by some miserable, usually, childless adult, playing such in a non-permitted area they can, and on occasion, will be arrested. More likely to happen is that the children involved will be given stern warnings, but before being sent on their collective way they will have their name and address taken and later be remanded to turn up at a Police station where their DNA will be taken and added to the Polices ever growing DNA database of innocent children and adults.

Here in Britain it has been touted by someone who no doubt has good intentions, but is undenyably misguided, that naughty and unruly children in our primary schools should be hauled off to the nearest police station, swabbed and added to the evergrowing national DNA database of innocent men, woman and children. The person who touted this ludicrous idea is making the misguided assumption that today's primary children are tomorrows thugs. Let us forget for a moment that unruly children of primary school age have been with us since schools first became mainstream for all. Children of that age are restless by nature. Thirsty for knowledge and will flit from subject to subject so fast and adult cannot keep up. In fact, most all children at that age, 5 to 11, can be classed as unruly so if this stupid idea ever makes it into Law there would be millions of otherwise innocent children being dragged through the mill. Who knows what psychological things would go through he little ones minds. Worst of all is those who would decide our children's fate would be the school teachers who are supposed to offer support for our children's health and welfare while in their care as well as provide an education. If this idea ever gets the go ahead it will be the clearest breach of a childs human rights as one could ever imagine.

Here in Britain adults are continuously being told what they can and cannot do. Forget a time not long ago when an adult was capable of determining right from wrong now we must be guarded from our own thoughts on the subject of right from wrong. An adult, determined legally as being 18 years old plus is no longer allowed to make decisions for themselves. Councils around the country and the U.K. government are seeing to it that every man, woman and child in this country is tracked 24/7. Will soon be forced to sign up to an ID scheme no-one but the government themselves want.

Britain is slowly sinking. Long may she reign.

Enjoyable walk.

There simply is too much in the weekends news to be able to pin point any particular thing to write about here so instead I am going to waffle about the differences in walking where we used to live to where we live now.

We lived previously in what in local terms was inner city housing. It was a private house, insomuch as we had a mortgage hanging over our heads. Now we live in a council property right on the edge of the city I love so much.

I have always taken our children to school. The difference in the quality of those walks is startling to anyone who undertakes said walk.

When at the previous house, which was right on the edge of an industrial area, in fact the industrial area is the oldest established industrial area in the city, we had about a 1/2 mile walk to school. This involved crossing one major road and one just above minor status road. There was a school crossing patrol, via a lollipop lady, on both roads where the crossing where. The roads where on a pelican controlled 4-way junction. Because of the major road there was much milling about of people, even at 8:40am. Because of the motorised vehicles the air quality was poor. On the minor road there was other parents taking their children to the same school. Even along this road the air quality because of the motorised vehicles was poor. On both roads the air quality was so low one could taste the vehicle exhaust fumes as on walked along across and along both roads.

At the new house, it couldn't be any different. The walk is still approx. 1/2 mile but it is along a tree lined road with house gardens one side and an open field the other. Once around the bend of this road there is a police training complex one side and wide open empty grass spaces the other. At the top of this road we come to a major road. This road has lots of mototrised vehicles on it but on one side there is a side of the police complex which gives way 1/2 way along to the school grounds. One the other side again there are wide open grassy areas. The air quality along this walk is, while not pure, much much higher than the old walk.

As I get older walking more than a few yards becomes increasingly difficult, so the air quality is getting more important on a personal level as well as for the wellbeing on our children.

Since we moved to this newer place some 8 months ago we are all in better health. Our newest parasite who is 14 months old at the time of writing will get all the health benefits an area like this offers. As a parent who places his children above himself in any area he can offer them this is an important thing I can offer them without actually spending any money.

My only wish for improvement in this newer area is that our local council will fix the badly broken up roads and especially the pathways.

I can't help laughing.

There is nothing, nothing at all, including the 'Aero Glass' UI that MS Vista includes that we users of the Linux platform haven't enjoyed for at least 2 years before MS Vista was released. Something else to laugh about is that for us users of the Linux platform our requirements to run the UI in all its flashy glory are much much lower than the flashy UI MS Vista has.

That 'Aero Glass' UI for MS Vista sure does suck up the power of a powerful graphics card or cards. Even a system using SLI struggles but for us users of the Linux Platform we get the same experience with an ancient Nvidia Geforce2. How can this be so? They, that is Microsoft, had 6 years to write MS Vista, okay they slung the whole lot in the bin and started over about 3 years ago but still the sheer amount of system resources it needs is disgusting.

Having been unfortunate enough to have used MS Vista I saw nothing within it that I couldn't have on my Linux platform workstation. To make any use of MS Vista one has to install 3rd party applications and 3rd party drivers, whereas almost everything comes with a basic install of a Linux distribution.

The more I hear about MS Vista the more content I become with my Linux platform workstation. Further, the more I hear about MS Vista Aero UI the more I laugh.

I cry at night.

When I lay in bed trying to fall asleep and enter that half awake, half asleep state my mind starts to wander and I start thinking of all manner of things. One thing that jumped into my semi-conscious mind the other night was how we, as a nation, have become in recent years with regard to our personal liberties. You remember those don't you? "In this free and pleasant land." or so the song goes. Free my arse. Pleasant by arse. More like "In this castrated and curtailed land."

We are not allowed to take photographs or videos of our children in any council owned space, which includes schools, in a park, any museum, in fact anywhere the council owns or anywhere the police may see you taking photographs or videoing your own children.

Schools during sports day or when your child or children are in a play. Two times when a parent should be rightly proud of their child(ren). But no, no photographs or videos allowed. Though some schools, especially primary schools, will happily sell you a video of the event and some foolish parents not wanting to miss their child in a play will merrily pay. Enforcing forever the notion that your average parent is to be regarded as a danger not only to their own child but to everyone else's child too.

In the park. That former bastion of English parent-child play diet is now seen as somewhere where danger lays for every child that plays there, especially when a camera is in evidence. Even when the children's parents are present in fact those pesky parents are just as bad as every pedophile because they take photographs of their children playing on the grass which might just include, gasp, horror, someone else's child and councils up and down this once proud land fall into the trap set by a few and have simply banned all photographing an videoing in their parks.

Museums and Art Galleries are two other places where photographs and videos are banned. In these places I can sort of understand their need to keep displays they have hidden to all except those who walk through their doors but the last time we took a visit to The Deep here in my home city I was told in no uncertain terms to put my digital camera away whilst taking photographs of the outside of the building and surrounding area which simply cannot be right. On that occasion, which will be th last time we visit it, they cited terrorist concerns. I offended the security guard because I laughed so hard I almost wet myself. He had demanded I delete the ones I had taken which I refused point blank to do. He then said he would bar us from entering if I did not do as he had demanded. At this point, and with our children growing evermore restless I demanded politely to see a manager who dutifully turned up within minutes. After citing various Laws at him he gave in and let me keep the photographs I had taken already and enter the building proper but he said we will be watching you closely. Oh I was scared. Not. I took several photographs whilst inside anyway so we had somthing with which to remember the day out.

I read a report the other day of a professional photographer being arrested in the City shopping area for taking photographs of some of the beautiful buildings we have here and having his photographs first confiscated then developed by the police as they had automatically assumed he was taking photographs for terrorist purposes. They also confiscated his expensive equipment. In their utmost arrogance the police offered no apology to the guy at all. Just a quick here are your photographs and photographic equipment now bugger off. It mattered not he was a card carrying student taking photographs to help him gain some credentials. It mattered not he was a card carrying member of the Photographic Society. Scary in a way.

The latest incident to hit national headlines concerns Hull's latest monstrosity St. Stephens shopping mall. This so called modern building which looks awful to all but those who commissioned it, those who designed it, those who built it and those who need to justify its existence. A guy taking photographs of his disabled wife outside the main entrance next to a display was told to stop taking photographs due to it being a way terrorist plan their operations. I felt for the guy and his wife whilst laughing so hard my ribs hurt and tears were streaming from my eyes. But this was just one example of many that will surely affect the tourist trade that flock here in their millions every year. Once word starts spreading that our police are overzealous, some would say stupid, over terrorist activity the tourism is bound to be affected. I mean, one aspect to tourism is taking photographs of using ones video recorder to look at once at home but if the police are going to arrest any person with any form of camera who is using it to record that days events then that will surely impact on the tourist numbers visiting this City. If not this year then the next and as each year passes the numbers will dwindle.

This desire to curb our parental desire to record our children in a given situation is driven by a fear spread at government level to keep the common man in check by citing pedophile concerns whenever that fear is brought into question.

The desire to curb our enjoyment whilst out and about around this City is driver by a fear spread at government level to keep the common man in check by citing terrorist concerns whenever that fear is brought into question.

There is no more threat from pedophiles now then there has ever been. In fact there is less cause for concern over pedophiles today compared to say, 20 or 30 years ago when one could freely take photographs of ones children taking part in a school play or sports day.

There is no more threat from terrorists now than there has ever been. In fact, the Irish gave us more cause for concern during the 1970's than any terrorist group does, or should, nowadays.

You, dear reader, have been lied to and you fell hook, line and sinker for those lies too. I cry at night when I think of the basic freedoms we have lost in the fake fight against pedophiles and terrorists. Generated by our own government and trotted out mantra style by local councils.

Children will play.

In other blog posts I have bemoaned the fact that children (defined here as between 6 and 13) do not play or are not allowed to play as we did at the same age during the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Let me state first and foremost than I have 3 children. At the time of writing, one is aged 10, another aged 9 and another aged 1. I do not class myself amongst todays frightened and paranoid parents I speak about below simply because I do not follow the mantra they live by.

I refer to todays children simply as today children. Similarly, yesterday children and parents are referred to as yesterday children and parents from a time so unlike todays environment under which children live, work and play. I make this clear in case someone mentions the fact I am missing esses 's' off several words.

Unfortunately, today children have today parents with today ideas on how to bring up today children in a today world. World has been narrowed down to within the U.K. borders. Why just U.K.? Well, each country has its own set of today ideas on today children and what one countries set of today parents allow another may not, so for the sake of simplicity we talk about the situation in the U.K. only. A today world that has in reality and particularly from the perspective that a child is in any more danger from general playing or predators, nowadays than a child has ever was. A world that has changed little from yesterday world. If you know the facts, it makes today parents with their today ideas on bringing up today children look stupid.

Why stupid?

Well, these today parents bemoan the fact that their today children cannot play outside in today world because of all the dangers today world brings compared to yesterday world where, they believe, everything was much better, when in fact nothing much has changed between those two worlds. This can be statistically proven too. Even knife attacks that our media outlets would like today parents to believe are for the first time rampant in the U.K. but statistics prove they are nothing of a sort. The only difference between yesterday world and today world is that today parents are fed much more data then yesterday parents where. Because they are fed much more data they see the today environment as somewhere dangerous when in fact there is no more comparative danger in letting children play outside in today world compared to yesterday. Today children are fed an almost constant diet of T.V., of consoles, of computers, of so many more toys and gadgets than yesterday children never ever considered owning, in fact many of the things children take for granted never existed in yesterday children's world. All the toys and gadgets employed by today parents to deter their today children from wanting to play outside and enjoyed by today children who may not realise they enjoy them, not because they did enjoy them but, because they have a deep, deep desire to make their today parents happy and today children so very much believe in their today parents that they, over the course of a generation, believed what their parents told them about the dangers lurking outside and slowly but surely the children stayed evermore frequently inside so that by the time yesterday children had grown into today parents with the echo of danger signals from a generation of constant nd evermore fearful news by all and sundry echoing in the back of their minds about the none existent dangers outside in today world that their paranoia kicks in. So, what we are left with and what they created is a generation of children that have no idea how to play with or interact with each other beyond what their modern parents allow them to play, and where they can play, so these children are in fact apron hugging children. Their only real contact and interaction with their peers is whilst at school and they wonder why today children are unruly.

There are no more rapes today then yesterday.

There are no more knife attacks today than yesterday.

There are no more pedophiles roaming the streets today than there was yesterday.

There is no more chance of your today child being hurt whilst playing then yesterday child playing.

There are no more generally dangerous happenings on our streets today than there was yesterday.

There ARE more cars on our roads today than there was yesterday.

But to listen to today parents you would think none of the above is true. Well, it is. Statistically proven facts cannot be disputed. Today parents are stupid for following all the bullshit they where fed whilst mutating from yesterday happy and carefree children into paranoid today parents. Shame on you. You are the ones to blame for all the ills inflicted on today children. You should never have allowed the state to interfere and shape your thoughts but you did, have and are and now either via today children, who are socially crippled, or via tomorrows children, who are the offspring of today children and who if current paranoia levels are sustained through another generation, we all will pay with a backlash so severe the parent/child relation may not survive as we once knew it if at all.

Medical conditions.

Has anyone else given a thought that all medical conditions are just made up bunkum? I look back on my family history and various letters to and from family members going back some 7 or 8 generations. What jumps out is the fact that very few members never smoked or never drank alcohol. And yet none died at an early age, well, save for Annie who died aged 6 months. Almost every single one lived to 80 years old or older. A good 30% lived until 90+.

This led me to suspect that all we hear about smoking and alcohol related illnesses is indeed utter bunkum.

Go back 4 generations. They numbered 42 people across 8 families. All smoked. All drank alcohol. All bar one lived to be 86+ years old. The odd one out was Annie mentioned earlier. They all ate red meat, when they could afford it of course. The male members did nightly trips to various ale houses and drank until they could drink no more.
None died of cancer. None died of any alcohol related illness. In fact most died from natural causes. They where more likely to have died from old fashioned mucky housing than of anything else.

There will be those that claim we did not have the medical expertise back then so they could have died from any number of smoking or alcohol related illnesses. But that does not hide the fact that todays medicine could be totally bogus. Bogus in so much as how exactly do we common people know that what we are told is good for us is actually good for us?

Sure, people live longer now than at any stage of our evolution but that could be down to how much cleaner our home and work environments are.

People have lived with cars for years. People have drunk massive amounts of beer for years. And yet, it is only in the last few years they have bothered to inform us that all manner of things are now bad for us? Come on. It is all made up bullshit. Nothing more. Nothing less. All timed to coincide to what what people expect our better to inform us about.

Every 10 years or so over the last 60 there has been some magnificent discovery medical wise. It is in our conscious to expect it so when it happens we are triggered to respond how we do.

Think about it and you will see for yourselves.