I’m a Pundit

Internet freedom is something that went unchecked for many years, up untill the last decade in the UK.  Other countries such as China severely restrict waht people can see.  Today however a huge debate sparked up after a wikipedia page was banned on several ISPs which displayed an album cover from the band Scorpions.

The reason this page was banned was because it  shows the album cover (Also banned in the UK) Which depicts a nude child.

Now first off, let me state, in my personal opinion using a nude image of a child is wrong.  Recently an artist complained on restriction of his art because he was photographing nude children.  Can I point out to my readers here that Art is an expression of emotion, if naked children flip these artists buttons then they need locking up before they act out their emotion.

What worries a lot of people in the wikipedia album cover debate however is not the naked child, but more the fact that teh page was blocked by ISPs without any governement interventian, it was infact a seperate body which added this site to their banned list and distributed it to the ISPs.

The body in question is  the IWF (Internet Watch Foundation), Britains online child protection watchdog.

In some ways I have to admit I applaud the efforts of these guys and the ISPs in blocking the content.   On the other however I worry that this is only the beginning of dictatorship like controls on what we can view online.

There is no doubt that child abuse is wrong, but such a control over our viewing could easily be extended, what would you say if your ISP did not let you shop online anywhere but their own store?

What if the government only let you buy items from the UK to avoid people skipping import tax?

How far would you let this go before you complained?

written by Oli \\ tags: Child Abuse, Internet Censorship, Internet Watch Foundation, IWF, Wikipedia

We have reached that time of year again, ys the sports personalities of the year.  The mutually exclusive award which never really appeals to me, but nevertheless brings in a huge amount of interest from the public, rather like big brother or mass killings.

The top ten runners for sports personality 2008 are:

• Rebecca Adlington
• Ben Ainslie
• Joe Calzaghe
• Nicole Cooke
• Lewis Hamilton
• Chris Hoy
• Andy Murray
• Christine Ohuhuogu
• Rebecca Romero
• Bradley Wiggins

Personally I think Lewis Hamilton should be a frontrunner, but his shunning of the press, and other drivers, make it unlikely he wil win.

The press seems to be voting for Rebecca Adlington, she is a double olympic swimming champion, but lets face it, she has a face for radio.

Andy Murray is fairly entertaining, but hasn’t eally won that much, he is high on my list though

Rebecca Romero s alright I suppose, and as a gold medal winning track champion is probably alrigth in the sack, she has also done some nude poses, whehey she is probably one of the more personable people in the list, though thats not saying much if you take the competition into account.

All in all i’m not going to waste the exhorbonant text fee to vote.

written by Oli \\ tags: Sports Personality of the Year Award 2008

The president of the European Commison Jose Manuel Barroso has announced the the UK has come a step closer to joining the single Euro currency.  PersonallyI cannot see this happening.

Tony Bair constantly triumphed the single Euro currency as  the future, however most of Britain questioned whether it was worth our while joining a single currency which would take a third off the value of our money, and remove control from our own central reserve.

Many people have debated our part in the Euro at all, benefits such as ease of travel and work for residents are of huge benefit, however things take a turn for the worse when you look at what the UK pays into it compared to other members.

So from me, today, Euro Currency? No Thanks.

written by Oli \\ tags: Euro