I’m a Pundit

Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has announced that all his party members must cease hostilities against the Iraqi Government and its security forces it was reported yesterday.  Al-Sadr asked that in returnt the Iraqi government put in place an amnesty on its members.

It is good news for Iraq that their prime minister Nuri al-Maliki, appears to have accepted this offer, helping to bring about an end to the fighting that has broken out in Basra over the last 6 days in an offensive against a city which was only around 30% under government control.

While the US death toll has reached 4,009  fatalities a shudder to think what the war has cost the Iraqis in lives, my condolences go out to any person, regardlses of nationality, who has lost a loved one in the conflict.

The only hope for this conflict to end in the near future is for the fighting to cease, I applaud Al-Sadr for taking a gallant step towards bringing about the best for his people.

written by Oli \\ tags: Conflict, Iraq, Iraq War

The upcoming election in the US has got many countries on the edge of their seats, if for the reason that it means George bush will finally be out of power over anything else.

The current three leading candidates are Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCaine (who despite a similar name has not been seen sporting a string vest and a nine millimetre recently). All three have their pluses and bonuses, though I think they can each be categorized very easily into what tehy would do for and against America and the world.

Hilary Clinton - Quite a strong persona, but lacking in skills that would make her a good president in my opinion. On the other hand Bill Clinton was one of America’s better presidents, even if he did the dirty on his aforementioned wife.

Barack Obama - Despite his similar name to te well known terrorist leader Obama does seem a very sound choice for American president. He is undoubtedly clever and charismatic he has shown that he stands up for his beliefs and he does it well. The only thing that may worry me is his age, at the younger end of the scale. Good news though, he is well travelled, not had a protected childhood and seems to pay a lot of attention to the world around him. I guess the reason I like this guy so much is that he seems the complete opposite to George W Bush.

John McCain is a tricky one, he is clever and has had a lot of experience in the financial and economical world. THis is particularly relevant because with the current American recession he is exactly the kind of man who could dampen the blow. At 70 it is possible that after a few years he may begin to lose a cog or two, especially with the pressure of the presidential post.

All in all its a hard choice to make, and one that the American people must make right. With the Economy Crisis, an ongoing conflict in the middle east and the floundering reputation left by George W Bush the voters of the USA definately need to think long and hard about their choice.

written by Oli \\ tags: America, Barack Obama, Election, Hillary Clinton, John McCaine, USA

Bluray, Sony’s high density DVD technology that recently beat Toshiba’s HD DVD Format, claimed that its technology would be safe and uncrackable for ten years. Unfortunately Sonys ambiguous claim that matched Microsofts uncrackable Vista was short lived, after SkySofts AnyDVD software released a new version of their program which can now make back up copies of Blu-ray disks with the BD+ copy protection.

Sony have declined to comment on the blow to their security technology on which they spent millions developing.

This news comes as yet another damaging hit to Sony’s reputation after they released a security package for their MP3s which left computers severly open to hacking attempts leaving hundreds of thousands of people open to having their personal and bank details stolen. Sony has come under heavy fire from investors over their attempts to reduce copyright infringement, since the amount spent on the protection software is nearly as much as that realisticly lost from sales. Not only that but the restrictions and errors caused by the Protection software often leads to disatisfaction to the consumer market. Tension on this matter reched such a head in 2006 that a 10,000 person petition was signed boycotting Sony goods.

Sony recently was applauded when they followed in Apples lead of reducing anti compying systems when Apple revealed that figures on lost profits were unreasonable (while some people downloaded thousands of pounds of music it is unlikely they would have bought this much due to financial constraints)

Sonys decision to remove DRM and copy protection systems seems now to have been a mere publicity stunt though as they implement even stronger and more restrictive enforcement into the blu ray market.

written by Oli \\ tags: , BD+, Blu Ray, copy protection, Cracked, Digital Rights Management, DRM, Sony

The Government released a report this week that stated

“Teenagers are drinking 44 bottles of wine or 177 pints of beer a year each, a new study into under-age alcohol intake and violence shows.

The figures relate to 15- to 16-year-olds in the North West of England and stem from a study of 9,833 such youngsters.”

It’s nice to know that the government was shocked by the results, even nicer to know is that the idiots who have been looking into this failed to realise that your average 15 to 16 year old is going to massively overstate his achievements.

However binge drinking in the UK is apparent in many situations, whether it is actually a problem is debatable.  The level of drinking in the UK has remained steady for a hell of a long time.  We drink pints, we drink tehm fast and we have a great time.  And yet according the our newspapers it causes violence and antisocial behavior.

While I would agree that people lose their inhabitions after several pints  I dont think taxing alcohol is going to reduce the problem, since  lets face it, most of the nob ends who start fights in town tend to have something wrong in the head, they don’t need alcohol to start trouble.

The government has responded to this threat by raising the tax on beer by 4p, and it is going to reduce this duty by 6% above the rate of inflation every year for 4 years.

Jesus christ I hate our government.  Not only are they heavily taxing one of the few luxuries we enjoy in our repressed and recessive nanny state, they fail to realise that the trouble is more likely to come from the cider drinkers, especially with the young binge drinkers.

Beer - £2 - £2.50 a pint ($4-$5 )

Cider - £1 ($2) for two litres (Around three to four pints)

The ones who tend to cause trouble on a night are from low income families, they drink the cheaper drinks.  the governments new tax on beer willbring in over half a billion pounds ($1,000,000,000) per year from this yeas tax increase alone.

Go figure why the government decided to tax beer drinkers over the cider drinkers.

written by Oli \\ tags: , Beer, England, Politics, Tax

I read This story on the BC website today.  I am glad to see the Judge and Jury system has finally rejected the insanity plea on a horrific case.

This man Microwaved a two month old baby for around 20 seconds.  for 20 seconds he saw his daughter burn in the microwave.  This isn’t insane, it’s taking a pleasure in causing pain and suffering.

I fully support the 25 year sentence, and personally think his lawyer should be removed from service for trying to claim that the offender Joshua Mauldin was insane at the time he put his daughter in the microwave.

The fact that people are even considered applicable for this sickens me.

written by Oli \\ tags: America, Atrocities, Crime, Insanity

The UK government has decided to change the way games are classified in the UK, htey give many reasons for this, the main one being that parents are confused by the current ratings system.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7314751.stm 

The current video games rating system in the UK is based on an age, with a plus sign beside it, meaning it is recommended for that age and above.  Sureley anyone who doesn’t understand that is on a par with the American trailer trash or the UK Jade Goody (You Yanks Don’t know how lucky you were to avoid her).  However due to parental ineptitude by a minority the decision on suitability has been taken from the hands of the obviously irresponsible parents and will now be controlled by the government.

Fairly soon it will be illegal to sell or supply games to underage children,m the government have confirmed.  Britain truely is becoming a nanny state when basic entertainment is restricted by law.

written by Oli \\ tags: England, Law, Nanny State, Politics, Video Games

So today the English Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy got together to discuss a great relationship between the two countries. This may have been sparked by our sudden wish to buy nuclear power stations from them, or maybe the fact that we are heavily subsidising French farmers.

But whatever the reason for this olive branch of frendship the two glorious leaders of the once conflicted nations have brought in some fantastic new ideas to bring the two countries across the channel closer together.

First off, they are going to put some serious money in scanning for nuclear material being transported across the French and English Border crossings. This is great news for the Dutch who will now enjoy a boom as all the nuclear bombers that flock to England every year will have to find another route.

Tightening the immigration controls of Calais was also on the menu. Nicholas Sarkozy even went as far to say they may build a fence around the port.

A greater pooling of military resources was being discussed, this will greatly increase Britains ability to retreat under fire, or more likely giving more cover for the French to retreat under.

All in all this meeting seemed to promise a great deal of fuck all, the French will however be helping us Brits out by showing us how to deal with nuclear technology. Therefore expect unannouced missile tests to happen off our coasts in the near future.

written by Oli \\ tags: England, France, French, Gordon Brown, Nicolas Sarkozy, Politics, Prime Minister

So I finally got around to creating the topical blog I always said I would make.  While I have a personal blog, an economics and politics blog and a travel blog it has taken me a long time to get the motivation, and the free time, to set up another feast of knowledge, well, writing for my avid viewer(s).

I have been writing a mish mash of my views on the Internet for around 7 years now.  Personally I think this is damn impressive, Lets face it I must make up a good 0.000001% of the internet by now.

Strangely enough however the stalling point for this blog wasn’t the content, it was infact the name.  I was going to turn my Devinomics blog into a full topical debate version.  But at the last minute I thought ‘hang on a second what does deviant economics have to do with topical news debate?

Then I hit on the actual name of what I was doing, punditry.  As it happens one of my housemates used to do a bit of this on his blog Sortapundit, so it spurned my thoughts onto all kinds of possible names to do with punditry.

Today I finally found one which both worked and was still available to buy (Thank God)

After all this time writing ont he internet I am (Finally) a Pundit.

written by Oli \\ tags: Introduction