Today's Cool News

GPS Run Amok on Small English Country Roads

I love my GPS but recognize that it could lead me astray.  Fortunately, I don't live in a town with roads built for horse and cart.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

With its winding country lanes and parish church, its 18th-century cottages and sleepy allotments, life is gentle and agreeable in this bucolic southeast English village. Or at least it was until the truck drivers started coming through.

First there was the Slovenian driver en route to Wales with a load of paper who took an improbable detour and ended up wedging his juggernaut into a tiny lane. It was stuck for two days.

Then there were the 10-wheelers that wheezed their way up Butcher's Lane, a thin ribbon of a road constructed with horse and cart in mind. One made a mess of the roof on Ena Wickens's cottage, which lies flush to the lane. No sooner had it been repaired than another truck snorted its way up the roadway and crumpled part of the roof again.

"It's such a worry," says Ms. Wickens as she putters around the garden behind her cozy Jane Austen cottage. "This last time, it was lucky I was in, otherwise he would just have driven off. There is a sign at the bottom of the road saying 'Unsuitable for large vehicles,' but still they come."

Why, exactly, do they come? The answer is to be found in the satellite navigation kits (satnav for short) that are handy for getting motorists from one location to another, but not always judicious in selecting the most appropriate routes.

(snip)

Satellite navigation has turned one country lane in Wales into a virtual gill net, ensnaring almost every truck that comes along: One could only be set free recently by knocking down a stone wall. And last month, a Lithuanian lorry driver was stuck for four days after his vehicle became wedged on a rural roadway more suitable for sheep than trucks.

Could Biometrics Save America From the Scourge of Icelandic Shoppers?

You may already be carrying around the national identification card of the future... your body.  While that may sound scary, a national biometrics database will make sure your children aren't threatened by Icelandic shoppers who outstayed their welcome ten years ago.

We start with the national database from the Washington Post:

The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad.

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.

"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills.

The increasing use of biometrics for identification is raising questions about the ability of Americans to avoid unwanted scrutiny. It is drawing criticism from those who worry that people's bodies will become de facto national identification cards. Critics say that such government initiatives should not proceed without proof that the technology really can pick a criminal out of a crowd.

And we're not just talking any criminal.  Why, biometrics could keep us safe from shoppers from Iceland who threaten the very moral fiber of our nation.

From the International Herald-Tribune:

Iceland's government has asked the U.S. ambassador to explain the treatment of an Icelandic tourist who says she was held in shackles before being deported from the United States.

The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, 33, was arrested Sunday when she arrived at JFK airport in New York because she had overstayed a U.S. visa more than 10 years earlier.

Lillendahl, 33, had planned to shop and sightsee with friends, but endured instead what she has claimed was the most humiliating experience of her life.

She contended she was interrogated at JFK airport for two days, during which she was not allowed to call relatives. She said she was denied food and drink for part of the time, and was photographed and fingerprinted.

On Monday, Lillendahl claimed, her hands and feet were chained and she was moved to a prison in New Jersey, where she was kept in a cell, interrogated further and denied access to a phone.

She was deported Tuesday, she told reporters and wrote on her Internet blog.

On Thursday, Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir told U.S. Ambassador Carol van Voorst that the treatment of Lillendahl was unacceptable.

"In a case such as this, there can be no reason to use shackles" Gisladottir said. "If a government makes a mistake, I think it is reasonable for it to apologize, like anyone else."

Van Voorst has contacted the officials at JFK airport and asked them to provide a report on Lillendahl's case,

And now according to Lillendahl's blog, an apology and lawsuits may be on the way.

"According to news today here in Iceland the Foreign Ministry received a letter from the DHS, where they regret the treatment Erla got, admit it was out of proportion, and that they will review their processes in the light of this incident. We can also thank, Mrs. Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir, FM of Iceland, and the U.S. Ambassador in Iceland, Mrs.Carol van Voorst, who is a great representative for her nation. Hopefully these three women have started something, that will improvethe situation for all of us...

It was also mentioned in the news, that several American laywers have contacted Erla encouraging her and offered their help to sue the US government..."

See, that's what happens when you start giving Guantanamo prisoners access to lawyers.  The next thing you know, the Icelandic shopping cabaal will think it has Constitutional rights too.  Sheesh.

God Save Our Stupid Queen, She's a Philistine

While the world still seems obsessed with Princess Die, the focus has recently turned back to the mother-in-law-from-hell.  Queenie Lizzie....

Could the most gracious monarch really be no more than a housewife who has inherited some nice things?

From the Guardian:

As the country's most high-profile historian of the British monarchy, one might expect David Starkey to take a warm view of the house of Windsor.

But in a week in which the Queen overtook Victoria as Britain's longest-lived monarch, Starkey has delivered a less than rose-tinted verdict on the head of state, accusing her of philistinism and being uninterested in her predecessors, largely due to being poorly educated.

"I think she's got elements a bit like Goebbels in her attitude to culture," the historian told the Guardian. "You remember: 'Every time I hear the word culture I reach for my revolver.' "

When Starkey was showing the Queen round an exhibition he had curated about Elizabeth I in 2003, he found her more preoccupied with the late arrival of her drink (gin and Dubonnet) than the works on display. Her only comment on the exhibition was that one of the objects was hers.

This, said Starkey, reminded him of "a housewife" who'd been left some wonderful possessions. "She'd looked after them, she'd put in place much better arrangements for their care, but again - I suppose it's this absence of any kind of, to be blunt, serious education."

Reality Television Run Amok: Paintballing with Terrorists

Okay, this has to be a put-on, right?  To sum up this story, the BBC has a show called "Don't Panic, I'm Islamic" so they paid some accused terrorist trainers to go paintballing.  Except the BBC thinks the guy wasn't a terrorist but rather a "Cockney Comic."  Perhaps the two aren't mutually exclusive?

I know you wouldn't believe it if I didn't link to...

From the Times (of London) Online:

The BBC funded a paintballing trip for men later accused of Islamic terrorism and failed to pass on information about the 21/7 bombers to police, a court was told yesterday.

Mohammed Hamid, who is charged with overseeing a two-year radicalisation programme to prepare London-based Muslim youths for jihad, was described as a “cockney comic” by a BBC producer.

The BBC paid for Mr Hamid and fellow defendants Muhammad al-Figari and Mousa Brown to go on a paintballing trip at the Delta Force centre in Tonbridge, Kent, in February 2005. The men, accused of terrorism training, were filmed for a BBC programme called Don’t Panic, I’m Islamic, screened in June 2005.

(snip)

Ms Suleaman told the court that Mr Hamid was keen to appear in the programme. She said: “He was so up for it. We took the decision that paintballing would be a fun way of introducing him.

“There are many, many British Muslims that I know who for the past 15 or 20 years have been going paintballing. It’s a harmless enough activity. I don’t think there is any suggestion, or ever has been, that it’s a terrorist training activity.”

(snip)

Phil Rees, who produced the show, told the court that he was impressed by Mr Hamid’s sense of humour while looking for someone to appear in the documentary. He said: “I think he had a comic touch and he represented a strand within British Muslims. I took it as more like a rather Steptoe and Son figure rather than seriously persuasive. I saw him as a kind of Cockney comic.” Mr Rees, who now works for the Arabic TV station al-Jazeera, gave Mr Hamid a signed copy of his book Dining With Terrorists.

That's right, I left the best for last, his book, "Dining with Terrorists."

Kidnapping is Just Another Way to Say "Welcome to America"

It looks like Blackwater might soon have a new client pool consisting of British business executives trying to avoid kidnapping by such shady groups as al-Qaeda, the "real" IRA, and the United States Government.

It appears the American government now believes it can kidnap anyone, anywhere, and no one can do anything about it.

From the Times Online:

AMERICA has told Britain that it can “kidnap” British citizens if they are wanted for crimes in the United States.

A senior lawyer for the American government has told the Court of Appeal in London that kidnapping foreign citizens is permissible under American law because the US Supreme Court has sanctioned it.

The admission will alarm the British business community after the case of the so-called NatWest Three, bankers who were extradited to America on fraud charges. More than a dozen other British executives, including senior managers at British Airways and BAE Systems, are under investigation by the US authorities and could face criminal charges in America.

Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects.

(snip)

Legal experts confirmed this weekend that America viewed extradition as just one way of getting foreign suspects back to face trial. Rendition, or kidnapping, dates back to 19th-century bounty hunting and Washington believes it is still legitimate.

It's good to see we learned something from the Barbary Pirates.  Kidnapping, for fun, profit, and "justice"

The Diary of Anne Frank's Tree

If you'll recall the story of Anne Frank, the Jewish girl whose diary written while hiding from the Nazis has become a part of our cultural heritage.  While spending more than two years in an attic, all Anne could see from the window was a huge tree and that gave her hope.

Now it appears the tree itself is in need of rescue.

From the BBC:

The chestnut tree that comforted Anne Frank as she hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam during World War II has won another reprieve.

Amsterdam city council ruled in March that the rotting 150-year-old tree must be felled as a danger to the public.

The tree won a first reprieve in October but the council issued an order last week for the tree to be chopped down on Wednesday morning.

A number of conservationists filed a legal claim to save the tree.

Judge Jurjen Bade ruled on Tuesday that the tree posed no immediate danger and called for alternative measures to be explored.

He said that felling the tree should be a "last resort" and told the council to meet with conservationists to find a solution. They have until mid-January to come up with a plan.

Auto Parts Salesman Turned Ambassador Pisses Off Romanians

How do you spell corruption?

For instance, if you use your position as head of an Auto Parts company to raise more than a half of a million dollars for the Bush campaign and then turn that into an appointment as US Ambassador to Romania, does that count as corruption?  Not here, but maybe in Romania.

From Nine O'Clock:

BUCHAREST - U.S Ambassador Nicholas Taubman said yesterday he was concerned about the recent moves of the Romanian parliament to weaken the ability of prosecutors and law enforcement officials to combat serious crimes, including bribery and corruption.

The Ambassador’s comments, made during the closing ceremony of the Romania Civil Society Strengthening Program, were not welcome at all by MPs, the main target of the diplomat’s criticism.

(snip)

Taubman said his view, shared by Romanian and international experts, is that if enacted in law, the amendments would represent a real setback in Romania’s efforts to fight many types of serious crime and corruption.

(snip)

Liberal Bogdan Olteanu, the Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, had a tough reply for the American Ambassador: Taubman paid to obtain his position in a manner that would be seen as corruption in Romania.

Olteanu told Taubman that “in Romania it is the Romanians doing the laws”. “I think it is time for Mister Taubman to center on representing the US interests in Romania.

For Europe's Far Right, Jews & Romas are Fair Game but Not Romanians?

It's nice to see the Neo-Fascists in Europe squabbling over whether Romanians are part of the master race...

From the BBC:

The European parliament's far-right bloc has collapsed after five Romanian MEPs resigned over an Italian colleague's "xenophobic" remarks.

Italian MEP Alessandra Mussolini, the grand-daughter of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, reportedly described Romanians as "habitual law-breakers".

Italy recently expelled 20 Romanians following a spate of violent crimes.

The resignations take the bloc's membership below the minimum required for a grouping in the parliament.

The European parliament only grants official status to political groups that can claim a minimum of 20 members from at least five countries.

The withdrawal of the Romanian MEPs leaves the far-right bloc - known as Identity, Tradition, Sovereignty (ITS) - with 18 members, effectively disqualifying it.

ITS was created in January, after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the EU boosted the number of far-right MEPs in the European parliament.