Toadfish in the UK/Europe

[Sibling Chatty]

I'll get someone to poke around the Stewart and Stevenson factory in Sealy for any rejects with minor defects not likely to affect wear...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stewart_&_Stevenson

[beagle]

£5,000

A couple of minutes jobby defining report criteria?

Renting a fork-lift to carry 25 million punched cards from A to B.

At least this might help kill off spending billions on ID cards, now we all know each others's IDs anyway.

[Griffin NoName]

Sibling Chatty, the wiki was helpful, but I think I'd prefer a  Family of Medium Tactful Vehicles

Re. ID cards, all they need is a distributed system: the biometrics in Luton, the names in Llandudno, the ID numbers in Dumfrees, etc.

See this week's Bad Science for how to make your own biometric ID. Or anyone elses'.

EDIT

I really like the way Google joins up the little bits of information to flush out the page details of its hits:

Ben Goldacre: Now for ID cards - and the biometric blues | Comment ...Gordon Brown says so too: "What we must ensure is that identity fraud is avoided, ... Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk ...
www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/nov/24/idcards.homeaffairs - 39k - Cached - Similar pages

  How many letters does the Grauniad get from the real G Brown? 

[Sibling Chatty]

I have friends and relations at Stewart and Stevenson.  They're rural Texans. Tactful isn't near their vocabulary. Neither is the word vocabulary...

[Griffin NoName]

Can we have Vince Cable for PM?

He tells really good jokes.

Though probably not original ones.

[Griffin NoName]

Hmmm. Apparently Cable writes his own stuff.

My latest political theory is Abrahams used proxies as a mad ploy to destabalise the Labour Party and it is already working out better than planned.

[Griffin NoName]

The banking crisis deepens. Yesterday afternoon I heard a programme advertised to run later (when I couldn't listen to it)..... Clive Anderson on the Nat. West being extradited to the US.

     

[beagle]

American law being applied abroad is kind of scary.  The Torygraph has been going on about it for ages. Thanks to TB you can be extradited to the U.S. for something that isn't an offence here and without ever appearing before a British court.  Then you get locked up pre-trial, told if you try and defend yourself the costs will bankrupt you, and are forced to plea bargain.
Basically, you plead guilty or the family lose their home. Nice one Tone.


Those of us who might (allegedly), have worked on or supplied software to (legal in the UK) internet gambling websites as part of their job are giving the whole continent a wide berth for the forseeable future.  (It's not we don't trust the Canadians; it's just flights can get diverted).


P.S. Do you think the Federal Reserve and Bank of England would bung me a billion or two on collateral of a garden shed as my contribution to keeping liquidity moving?

[Griffin NoName]

Do you think the Federal Reserve and Bank of England would bung me a billion or two on collateral of a garden shed as my contribution to keeping liquidity moving?

Lively line up on Question Time tonight. Suggest you text the question in

[Griffin NoName]

Could this be the answer to the West Lothian Question?

[Griffin NoName]

Ministers ordered to assess climate cost of all decisions

An affair with my secretary?

Accepting dubious donations?

[beagle]

Sell J.P.Morgan

[Griffin NoName]

It (the bank) said Mr Blair would advise the firm's chief executive and senior management team, "drawing on his immense international experience to provide the firm with strategic advice and insight on global political issues and emerging trends".

Emerging trends? Like this one (further down same article):

Mr Blair earlier told the Financial Times he planned to take up "a small handful" of similar roles with other companies in different sectors.

[beagle]

I suspect his key piece of advice will be "Don't invade anywhere".  That should save JPM a bob or two.

I love this one.
Perhaps if they hide the bonds in the middle of some sub-prime CDOs no-one will realize what they're buying.

[Griffin NoName]

What is this DREADFUL new word:  securitisation          ?

As for the new speak of "saving the Rock", anyone would think it was Gibralter all over again.

Three mute swans in Dorset have been found dead with the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.

Implication, they couldn't tell anyone they were feeling poorly?  Exactly what is the relevance of them being mute?


Most interesting is a snippet I just caught on TV - a doctor who had cancer has just won a libel case - everyone still gagged, she is known as Z. She fought for 5 years during which she was suspended. It is yet another expose of personal data at risk - cancer patients full personal data is passed to cancer researchers without their knowledge automatically. Her personal story is more complex but included being phoned up by researchers out of the blue...... as a cancer patient I am incensed and horrified.

And even more alarming, I have just searched all TV websites, BBC, newspapers, and Reuters and there are no reports of it. So far gagging seems to be effective and near total. I just wish I had noticed which channel I was hopping past when I heard it.

No doubt it will surface. Meanwhile I am steaming.