A few weeks ago someone (I forget who) found and blogged this piece of racist shit (probably NSFW) from the BNP - a Flash animation with the usual hoodoo and lies about immigration. I didn’t blog it at the time as it was so objectionable, but it’s now blogworthy as someone wonderful has greatly improved the original with music and factual corrections, and a nice line in sarcastic commentary. (via Bloggerheads)

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned NotCon ‘04 yet. Anyway, NotCon is a conference on “things that technologies were perhaps not intended to do”, the followup to XCom2002 organised by NTK and others. It it basically a physical manifestation of all the great stuff linked to from this site, with speakers like Cory Doctorow, Richard Jones, Tim Ireland and Danny O’Brien. Various aspects of geekness shall be discussed, from business to politics to just plain geeky things.

It’s on this Sunday, at Imperial College Union from 11am, £4 to get in, I shall be there (if the shitty train service from Cambridge holds up) - if anyone wants to meet up with me there then let me know…

PS Thinking back to XCom2002 reminded me of this gem from one of the presentations - The cybernetic parrot sausage

A frightening story from The Register (and more in The Sun) about Mike Devine, who is in a Clash tribute band, and had texted some lyrics to the lead singer. The message happened to be:

How about this for Tommy Gun? OK - SO LET’S AGREE ABOUT THE PRICE AND MAKE IT ONE JET AIRLINER AND TEN PRISONERS

…which promptly got the attention of GCHQ and Special Branch, and led to the guy being arrested (in his office) and taken away for questioning. The Reg puts forward this explanation from the police:

Police maintain that Devine’s message went astray. They say he actually sent it to a woman in Bristol by mistake and it was she who alerted police to the content.

To which the only correct response is “utter bollocks”. Since when do people send text messages by mistake to complete strangers? I can’t recall sending or receiving one from a “wrong number” (by which I mean a misdialled number from a stranger) in the 4ish years I’ve owned a mobile. The recipient here was a friend of his - he would have had the guy’s number saved on his phone and sent the message to that. He could have sent it to the wrong person in his phone book perhaps, but that would still have been someone he knew - he would have a got a “WTF was that about, mate?” message back rather than being shopped to the police. No, it’s far more plausible that GCHQ are reading our text messages (and presumably all our messages rather than targeting likely suspects), which is a bit frightening.

(via Coofer Cat)

This is superb - Weebl has done a Euro 2004 version of the Badger Song. This must become a terrace chant - it’s miles better than bloody ‘Vindaloo’.

Fulfilling my occasional penchant for schlocky disaster movies (this cheerful nuclear war scenario getting me in the mood), I went to see The Day After Tomorrow this evening (plot spoilers may follow). The science is dodgy, the Americo-centrism irritating, and the plot flawed, but apart from that…it’s crap. None of the major plot elements were particularly dramatic, the acting was a little ropey, even the special effects (the destruction of LA excepted) weren’t impressive. There were numerous great opportunities for interesting twists or turns. For example, you could have had the various presidents of Latin American countries (possibly wearing military uniform, and sporting giant cigars in their hands, if you want to go for full cliche) laughing and mocking as the American President is on his knees begging them to let US refugees in. Or his successor going ape and trying to nuke the ice storm with ICBMs in a desperate attempt to stop it. Or the British scientists getting drunk on that bottle of Scotch and trashing the place as they realise they are doomed. Anything to suggest the sheer madness and terror that such a doomsday scenario would bring, rather than the rather “oh well, we’re fucked, but never mind, eh, we’ll just carry on” kind of feel the story had.

Still, the one bit of the film that I liked was the scenes from the space station (And why didn’t the astronauts there go crazy? It’s not as if NASA would be able to rescue them any time soon) - the sheer natural beauty of the storms and new ice age, seen from far away. Rather than the ugly, fiery, destruction of Earth by asteroids, aliens, nuclear war etc. that Hollywood usually serves up, the destruction by crazy-ass weather was somehow quite beautiful and charming - with the fluffy big clouds and gently frozen landscape. Perhaps it’s because (in a way related to the Gaia Hypothesis) that this was Nature’s direct response to mankind’s folly, unlike the other methods of planetary destruction which are all freakish and conducted by outside forces. By freezing most of us humans to death and destroying most of the developed world, we’re taught a lesson by Nature in respecting the planet and its power. Beautiful in theory and so beautiful aesthetically as well.

Right, I hate Chelsea. Hate them for being London rivals, hate them for their odious ex-chairman Ken Bates (who was keen on using electrified fences to keep fans in), hate their owner Roman Abramovich for robbing the people of Russia blind, hate them for their endless supply of money, and hate them all the more for knocking us out of the Champions League this season.

But on the other hand, the architect of that horrible defeat, Claudio Ranieri, I’ve grown to really like. He’s an intelligent, dignified man (and with a wonderful sense of humour), unlike so many of the bullshitters and idiots coaching football teams today. This season, he faced the task of having to somehow shape a squad which had been bolstered with £160 million worth of talent into a winning team whilst under constant pressure and press speculation. He managed to reach second in the Premiership (behind a team which did the impossible and not lose a single game) and in the Champions League semi-finals, which was pretty good going for a first season with an entirely new team. And the reward? He got fired.

So, English football loses a good man (rumour is of him going back to Valencia). Farewell Claudio, you did amazingly well in such a hostile situation. You deserved better. I wish you well in whatever you do next.

Unless you join Spurs.