threegee

We could do a Mount Rushmore! Umm... I strongly suspect that Michael Longridge was a "Thatcherite" too!

But enough of Arthur Scargill, can't we discuss Britain's best peacetime PM! I think you'll find that Daniel was actually one of those hateful Tories who exploited the workers, and all that deeply socialist jazz. That's the reason the local Jealousy and Envy Party has done their damnedest to write him out of our history. I'm all for seeing the past in a more balanced and truthful light. So... let's petition for a statue to the great man - a small step on the way to pulling this little town out of its entirely self-imposed impoverishment!

Oh glory - it takes the iSheep at the Beeb two whole days to break this story then they tack a tame "Apple users in security warning" headline on it. A mega-breach like this from anyone else would have rated a much more robust response. Something like "Botched security update - all Apple devices remain insecure!". Botched being a word they did recently headline about a minor problem in a Samsung update pushed to a single phone model, which was speedily fixed, and had no security implications. The actual source code error and simple fix would be clear to most novice programmers. So why has it taken Apple months to fix it, and why a fix still not available? It's not as if these are sub-premium products, or that people haven't paid an arm and a leg for essential support they haven't been getting. It seems that arty flourishes by Jony Ive are far more important than basic security.

Likely it still is!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-26322239 Ultimately we'll only have one high street electrical retailer - where you pay to see the goods - before going home and ordering your choice on the Internet!

http://www.bedlington.co.uk/community/forum/23-lost-stolen-goods-reporter/

This is as bad as it gets. A stupid coding error that has gone unnoticed for quite some time leaves all Apple iOS devices open to spoofing. In other words you only think you have a secure connection, the reality is that you don't! Full details here: http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/02/extremely-critical-crypto-flaw-in-ios-may-also-affect-fully-patched-macs/ The coding error is juvenile. With open source loads of people would have noticed this straight away. Apple's super secrecy about everything means no one gets to see the source code, and so invites this sort of blunder. Visiting this link with a secure browser will show an error and warning messages. Reportedly iOS devices don't, and allow sites to pretend to be what they are not. But the problem doesn't stop there!

You too! I read this headline and wondered who was going to stand in for Freddie Mercury!

If you've got a droid (and these days who hasn't several? ) - then yes, flappy bird has been withdrawn by its author, as reportedly he couldn't cope with the celebrity. But... it has spawned a host of clones. https://play.google.com/store/search?q=flappy%20bird&c=apps

Yay! Thank you for that rapid response, Glasgow Uni! Edward Snowden elected as rector of Glasgow University

Of course we can't! But at least they are a known unknown, and aren't supposed to be trawling for commercial information to feed to the competition. And, they'd better behave themselves, because come the revolution we know where they live!

Ah, but I've already strategically geo-diversified the secure USB sticks. The computers I pack are simply misdirection!

So Angela Merkel is so p'd off with the yanks for bugging her private phone, and likely all her digital communications, that she's lobbying similarly minded eurocrats to set up new infrastructure that's totally under European (read her) control. This raises the obvious question as to whether you'd trust Fritz any more than Uncle Sam. I think the answer from the UK should be that we are staying with the devil we know - you can spend your own money on this Angela, not ours! Of course this is just something else we'll have our minds made up for us on, as the "good Europeans" we are. If there's any UK money to be spent in the wake of all this it should go on a national monument to Edward Snowden. Who, despite all the huffing an puffing from the likes of O'Barmy and Creepy Clinton, is in fact a very brave and well motivated soul. We should - at very least - be offering to pay the Ruskies his board and lodging!

@mercuryg Well, yes - you have to find something to fill the multiple 24/7 news coverage, and lets keep the whole thing within budget by getting a camera down there and sticking a mike in anyone you can find's face. All they are going to talk about is their own problems, and who they blame. In the old days this was "all them nuclear tests". But at least then the moans were face to face. We didn't have hour after hour of national news coverage, and countless low-budget discussion programs. The other problem is that science is now so highly politicised that any in-depth look at a problem is going to upset someone quite powerful, or some powerful lobby. The current politicians are also like cushions - gently mirroring the last arse that sat on them! And, of course, they need to be seen to be "doing something". Woe betide the leader that isn't seen to be right up at the coal face "leading" with perfect 20:20 hindsight! @Symptoms Ah, yes, them too! Imagine the "controversy" that would follow a truthful "well, actually, I'd just get in the way!"

Nokia just changed the colour of its FB page to Android green as a tease! This hasn't gone down terribly well with its loyal band of WP (Windows phone) users, but I don't think they need to worry as there's no way a Microsoft company is going to ditch a Microsoft operating system - this year, or next! So, real soon now...

Dunno about you, but I've little sympathy for toffs who build their million pound homes on known and historically well documented flood plains, THEN expect everyone else to quite literally bail them out. Somerset is called Somerset because our ancestors had the good sense only to live there during the dryer Summer months. Of course the "solar deniers" at the Beeb will spin this for all it's worth. The reason for the move in the jet stream is that it's now so bloody cold at the poles the temperature difference at the equator is putting a lot more energy into the system. This is what ANY sane meteorologist will tell you when not gagged and fearing for their job. Did you notice how very careful the Beeb was to not mention who was on the ship frozen in the Antarctic? This was so "diplomatically handled" that they even got it by me. The news passed it off as just a party of tourists. But yes, you guessed it; it was a gaggle of so called climate change scientists on a jolly to show how much the ice had retreated. They thought they were onto a winner going in high Summer! If they'd found what they were looking for we'd never have heard the end of it. They didn't, so even the mission itself is covered up. The incident was put down to mere weather. But, is the fact that the ship has been written off now - as there is little prospect of it ever being recovered - an indication that anyone really thinks that this was a mere weather incident? The logical gymnastics they went through on the Inside Science program on Radio 4 to hold the party line had me in stitches. It's really worth a listen, and truly worthy of the best efforts of Stalinist regime. Is it any wonder that people are turning, in droves, to Al Jazeera for their news, as indeed are UK broadcast workers with some sense of dignity!

Yes, unarguably, apathy rules. But there's still a lot of people rooting for Bedlington, even if quite a few of those have already voted with their feet, often through necessity! Tragic when anyone/thing gives up. Even more tragic to burden new generations with a defeatist mindset. I believe the BDT can more than make up for this, and it deserves everyone's full support.

Oh come on Adam! Fort Pon-tee-land was only there because that's where Chief Sitting Bull pitched his Pon-tee-pee. Des-Reses apart It wasn't exactly where anything much happened. Give Vera Baird a chance to deliver a better service. Getting the police out from behind the stockades is a good start. And, as the article points out, the principal decisions had already been made long before she took over. And the official police view from way back in 2008:- Three cheers the man!

My theory too, and I'm still waiting for someone to tell me why not. Is it just that it's too bleeding obvious to be credible? Things don't always have to be convoluted or subtle.

time test

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/923/331/674/marius-the-giraffe-slaughtered-boycott-close-down-copenhagen-zoo/

Someone send this guy a copy of Gerald Ratner's book. He's going to need it to find out how to recover from one of the biggest PR disasters any manager could cause for a business. In his quest to go all environmental he's totally lost sight of where the bread and butter comes from. Somerset levels come immediately to mind. Once humans intervene massively in nature all the environmental stuff has to play third fiddle. He may think his job is an environmentalist, but when the zoo inevitably becomes insolvent, he'll discover natural forces that he never reckoned with! He's running a zoo, not the bleeding Kruger National Park!

The Zombies are gone, but the BT Gnomes are still ready to feed off your credit card. £6.50 minimum charge if you charge a short local call to your card! Yes, seriously! Don't leave your mobile at home, and even more importantly: if you have to use one then get coins (60p)!

Bedington.co.uk will be off-line for about 8 hours next Monday night to Tuesday morning. This is because the server is being physically moved to new racks in another close-by UK data exchange. It will be shut down slightly before 10pm on Monday night (10th Feb), and the reboot is planned to take place around 6am on Tuesday morning. These times were chosen to minimise disruption to commercial customers, but unfortunately they may not suit non-UK members. We apologise for this necessary outage in advance. We're taking multiple precautions to preserve data in the event of unforeseen incidents during the move.

I'd thought of that, but as you say it's historically unlikely. Injury Reserve seems to be a reasonably common soccer term if you try a bit of searching. I drew a blank as to what the 'B' might be for though.