Symbology

London is getting ready for the Summer Olympics and the Olympic torch relay will begin in 2012. This ceremonial event, where people from all walks of life carry the Olympic torch is particularly symbolic.

In Greek mythology, the original “torch-bearer” was Prometheus, the Titan who stole fire from the gods in order to give it to humanity. Fire was considered by ancients as being a tiny spark of the sun, which was considered to be the physical manifestation of deity (see Sun Worship). By bringing fire to mankind, Prometheus has therefore enabled humans to partake in “all things divine” and even allowed them to aspire to become gods themselves.


Probably the most famous torch bearer in the world, the Statue of Liberty was given to the United States by French Grand Orient Temple Freemasons.

The first relaying of the Olympic torch was held at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, under the Nazi regime and sports organiser Carl Diem.

Fire was a symbol of Hitler's regime, and torchlight processions were a feature. The leadership aimed to draw a direct link back to ancient civilisation. As Ryan explains: "They wanted a symbolic bridge between ancient Greece and modern Germany. And light is a symbol of purity - something that fed into the Aryan myth."

The Beijing 2008 global relay was the most ambitious - 21,800 torchbearers, 137,000km, 129 days. But it met frequent and sometimes violent protest

Using the torch flame to light the cauldrons: “When it is your turn to carry the flame, you think emotional thoughts, think of people who have competed in the Olympics, Jesse Owens, great heroes like Steve Redgrave.”

Clockwise from top left:
Muhammad Ali, Salt Lake City, 2002;
Li Ning, Beijing, 2008;
Cathy Freeman, Sydney, 2000;
and Antonio Rebollo, Barcelona, 1992;

Source: BBC
http://vigilantcitizen.com/

FYI: Greece

Greece: How local’s may view this system of government: Inquisitors How neighbours may view this system of government: A water bearer

Greece

The current Pasok government in Athens inherited the disgracefully fiddled government financial books from the discredited outgoing conservative administration. Greece had faked its accounts. So there would be a penalty. Austerity/non-indulgence

Indeed in Budapest last week, at a meeting of European finance ministers, Greece was given a warning: don't back off reforms. We are reaching a point when the Greek people may not take further austerity. The past year has been marked by strikes. Everyone - or so it often seems - from truckers to journalists has at some stage or other walked out. They don't want the medicine enforced from Brussels or the IMF. There is a low-level of disobedience against paying toll charges. The government, casting around for revenue, may be about to slap a tax on fizzy drinks.

So why not go for a restructuring? Why shouldn't those banks in Germany and France take a hit? The fear is that those banks - particularly in Germany - remain fragile. A Greek default could usher in a wider banking crisis.

The President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, is in Greece today. His mood appears surprisingly chipper. "The threat of the (eurozone) crisis spreading has been reduced significantly, or disappeared" Like other European officials, he shuts the door to the idea of restructuring. He believes the reforms should be given time until they start to bring results

Why the EU had to bail out Greece

Globalisation in all its manifestations presents EU governments and institutions with an awkward choice. Just as a cyclist has to continue to move forward or risk falling off, the EU will have to move further and faster to share sovereignty, simply to be able to manage the new economic, financial, environmental and security challenges, or risk growing irrelevance.

Meanwhile, where will the next currency explosion occur? If so who will then show solidarity in coming to their aid? Being outside the euro might yet prove a very cold and vulnerable spot to be in.

Source: The Guardian, BBC

March-April news

A member of Japan's Self-Defense Force raises a smile as he holds a 4 month old baby girl who was recused along with her family in Ishinomaki City

Haiti's former leader Jean-Bertrand Aristide arrives in Port-au-Prince after 7 years of exile in South Africa

Iguazu Falls: the border between Brazil and Argentina. 2 US tourists were involved in an accident

Youth Olympic Games in Singapore: Tae Kwon Do competition

Supplies for local residents are being sorted in a town inside the 30km 'stay indoors' zone around Fukushima

School shooting in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro

Brixton riots in April 1981

Noel Bresland runs a marathon on a treadmill inside the London Eye to raise funds for charity

A chinese worker at a duck farm takes a nap

BBC photos

Domestic extremists

Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.
The hidden apparatus has been constructed to monitor "domestic extremists", the Guardian can reveal in the first of a three-day series into the policing of protests. Detailed information about the political activities of campaigners is being stored on a number of overlapping IT systems, even if they have not committed a crime.

Senior officers say domestic extremism, a term coined by police that has no legal basis, can include activists suspected of minor public order offences such as peaceful direct action and civil disobedience.

Three national police units responsible for combating domestic extremism are run by the "terrorism and allied matters" committee of the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo). In total, it receives £9m in public funding, from police forces and the Home Office, and employs a staff of 100.

An investigation by the Guardian can reveal:

• The main unit, the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), runs a central database which lists thousands of so-called domestic extremists. It filters intelligence supplied by police forces across England and Wales, which routinely deploy surveillance teams at protests, rallies and public meetings. The NPOIU contains detailed files on individual protesters who are searchable by name.

• Vehicles associated with protesters are being tracked via a nationwide system of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras. One man, who has no criminal record, was stopped more than 25 times in less than three years after a "protest" marker was placed against his car after he attended a small protest against duck and pheasant shooting. ANPR "interceptor teams" are being deployed on roads leading to protests to monitor attendance.

• Police surveillance units, known as Forward Intelligence Teams (FIT) and Evidence Gatherers, record footage and take photographs of campaigners as they enter and leave openly advertised public meetings. These images are entered on force-wide databases so that police can chronicle the campaigners' political activities. The information is added to the central NPOIU.

• Surveillance officers are provided with "spotter cards" used to identify the faces of target individuals who police believe are at risk of becoming involved in domestic extremism. Targets include high-profile activists regularly seen taking part in protests. One spotter card, produced by the Met to monitor campaigners against an arms fair, includes a mugshot of the comedian Mark Thomas.

• NPOIU works in tandem with two other little-known Acpo branches, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (Netcu), which advises thousands of companies on how to manage political campaigns, and the National Domestic Extremism Team, which pools intelligence gathered by investigations into protesters across the country.


Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary, will next month release the findings of his national review of policing of protests. He has already signalled he anticipates wide scale change. His inspectors, who were asked to review tactics in the wake of the Metropolitan police's controversial handling of the G20 protests, are considering a complete overhaul of the three Acpo units, which they have been told lack statutory accountability.

Acpo's national infrastructure for dealing with domestic extremism was set up with the backing of the Home Office in an attempt to combat animal rights activists who were committing serious crimes. Senior officers concede the criminal activity associated with these groups has receded, but the units dealing with domestic extremism have expanded their remit to incorporate campaign groups across the political spectrum, including anti-war and environmental groups that have only ever engaged in peaceful direct action.

All three units divide their work into four categories of domestic extremism: animal rights campaigns; far-right groups such as the English Defence League; "extreme leftwing" protest groups, including anti-war campaigners; and "environmental extremism" such as Climate Camp and Plane Stupid campaigns.

Anton Setchell, who is in overall command of Acpo's domestic extremism remit, said people who find themselves on the databases "should not worry at all". But he refused to disclose how many names were on the NPOIU's national database, claiming it was "not easy" to count. He estimated they had files on thousands of people. As well as photographs, he said FIT surveillance officers noted down what he claimed was harmless information about people's attendance at demonstrations and this information was fed into the national database.

He said he could understand that peaceful activists objected to being monitored at open meetings when they had done nothing wrong. "What I would say where the police are doing that there would need to be the proper justifications," he said.



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Complaints against the police have risen by 8%, according to figures released by a watchdog.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission said there were 31,259 complaints in England and Wales in 2008/09 - up 2,296 on the past year.

But the data still means that over 600 complaints are made every week.

http://www.protestlondon.co.uk/
http://www.radicallondon.net/
http://www.activistrightsmanual.com/complaints-against-the-police.html
the British Crime Survey

Nokia faces stiff challenge to stay on top

Although Nokia is the biggest mobile phone manufacturer, with a 36.4% market share globally, according to Gartner, it has lost ground in the smartphone market since 2007.

“Nokia needs to accept that it simply is not Apple. It’s not about trying to create replica handsets, but accommodating all the markets and innovating with different options. Nokia’s customers are not just smartphone buyers and it can’t forget that”

Costa Coffee targets city customers

Costa Coffee is ramping up its competition with Starbucks through the launch of an aggressive marketing push for its new “metropolitan stores”, which aim to fulfil the specific needs of city customers. The new-look stores will rival the “retro” stores that Starbucks has opened in cities such as London, and will offer special express queues, bespoke loyalty cards and free Wi-fi in store.

It will consist of outdoor, online, DM and in-store activity and aims to inspire Londoners to visit the ‘Metropolitan’ store whether it is to relax in its sinking sofas, conduct a business meeting around its large table or to grab a perfect cup of coffee on the run.

“Cities are hubs for business and leisure, and we feel the time is right to target these audiences with an offering that matches their personality and lifestyles.."

Artisit impression

Waitrose's brand ambassadors

Waitrose has revealed it is launching a branded range with its celebrity chef brand ambassador Heston Blumenthal.

Brand ambassadors are all the rage again, but at what point does a celebrity tie up stop being effective and become overkill?

Sainsbury’s has successfully leveraged Jamie Oliver and his cult following for the past seven years. He fronts the supermarket’s advertising campaigns, his recipes promote Sainsbury’s produce, he is an ambassador for its Active Kids initiative and his political agenda of improving the state of the nation’s eating habits fits in with Sainsbury’s own agenda for healthy eating habits.

Since March this year, Waitrose has been relishing a celebrity-fronted campaign with Blumenthal and national treasure Delia Smith.

Despite the current appeal of both these chefs to Waitrose customers and prospective customers, I’m not convinced the partnership has the same ring of longevity to it that Sainsbury’s has achieved with Oliver.

News: rate of unemployment in UK for young men leaving college far outstrips that for women

Complacency and "general hopelessness" have been blamed for the failure of young British men as research reveals that underperformance in school and university is now creeping into their working lives. A report published today by the Higher Education Policy Institute thinktank says male graduates are far more likely to be unemployed than their female counterparts.

"When I talk to graduate recruiters about how impressive candidates applying for jobs are, I do pick up a sense that female graduates are a little more mature and focused, that they put together good applications," said Gilleard.
Gilleard, who will be speaking at the AGR annual conference this week, warned things will get worse for those without jobs when another cohort of graduates enters the market this summer. "The class of 2010 are competing with the class of 2009

Association of Graduate Recruiters

The AGR has warned that a good degree is no longer enough to guarantee a career, saying that additional factors such as work experience and volunteering have become crucial.

Bahram Bekhradnia, the HEPI's director pointed to forecasts that suggest women will dominate the professions within 15 years. "That has all sorts of implications for things such as family creation, child-rearing and so on. The situation in some countries is even more extreme. An American woman told a conference I attended of the fury of black American women who found it impossible to form relationships with men of the same race with similar educational attainment because black American males weren't going to university.

"If you aspire to form relationships with people who have similar educational backgrounds then women will find that more difficult as this trend becomes accentuated."

But David Willetts, the higher education minister, said he was helping graduates by getting universities to provide "employability statements" about different courses.

Drama, real. like a soap

By the time Tressa Middleton was 11, she was already heading for disaster. She had been excluded from school for fighting. Then, it emerged that she was pregnant.

Tressa's baby was the product of a rape and the child's father - the perpetrator of the attack - was her own brother. Last year, Jason Middleton, then 19, was jailed for four years for the attack. He was 16 when it happened, five years older than his sister.

Until now, Tressa has 'gone along' with the Lolita tabloid version. Even her parents didn't know. "All those people out there think I'm some kind of slut, but they don't know how it really was," she says."I was about 7 when he started on me and when Jason first did it, I didn't know it was wrong. When I did, I blamed myself. He was usually drunk. Sometimes he bribed me, blackmailed me, to do it. He'd say he was going to tell Mum. He'd give me things - joints, drink, cigarettes. Or he'd threaten me." She doesn't know how many times they had sex, but it sounds like a regular occurrence. Jason's dreadful secret was safe while she was still too young to conceive.

Now, one would imagine that an 11-year- old girl falling pregnant should sound immediate 'abuse' alarm bells with doctors and teachers, if not with parents. In this case, though, there was a smokescreen. It has always been reported that the father of Tressa's child was another teenager, also called Jason, with whom she had sex on a drunken night out. This was partly true and this young man - Jason Cameron, who was 15 at the time, also pleaded guilty to having unlawful intercourse with a girl under 13. Tressa admits that liaison happened, and that she later lied about Jason Cameron being the father of her child. He always claimed that the dates involved made it impossible.

How did her parents react, then, when Tressa finally broke the news that her own brother was the father of her child? "I'll never forget her reaction. She said "you lying b*****d". She told me to go to bed, that I was drunk. Even when the DNA tests were done, my mum wouldn't have it. She wanted me to retract my statement. It has ripped the family apart." Her mother's stance has caused her to wonder about their whole relationship. In her darkest moments, she wonders if her mother even knew about the abuse.

The discovery that she was once a self-harmer somehow doesn't come as a surprise. The smoking started then, too. Cannabis not long after. Her mother knew? 'Yeah. She didn't care. She was drunk herself most of the time.'Tressa's story finds corroboration from some unlikely sources. The barrister representing her brother Jason on his rape charge tried to use the shocking home environment as a defence for the fact that he raped his sister.

She talks about appealing to the courts for access to her child, but in truth that may not happen until her daughter turns 18, by which time she will be legally entitled to trace her birth mother. The big question is whether, by then, Tressa can be the sort of mother a child would want to find. She says she is clean of drugs now, and has 'cut back massively' on the amount she drinks. She is now heading into adulthood in a new relationship, with a 24-year-old called Darren, who 'is the first man to treat me nicely'. She has career plans for the first time in her life, and is hoping to join the Army.

Heavy Rain

Heavy Rain uses motion capture. Its the process of recording movement and translating that movement onto a digital model.

A large chunk of this game is the acting, so when the acting is done/complete the programming, rendering etc is a piece of cake, right? Wrong.

Yet this still could be done by a group (just the acting at least)

Advantages
Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D model:

• More rapid, even real time results can be obtained.
• The amount of animation data that can be produced within a given time is extremely large when compared to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost effectiveness and meeting production deadlines.
• Potential for free software and third party solutions reducing its costs

Disadvantages

• Specific hardware and special programs are required to obtain and process the data.
• The cost of the software, equipment and personnel required can potentially be prohibitive for small productions
• When problems occur it is easier to reshoot the scene rather than trying to manipulate the data. Only a few systems allow real time viewing of the data to decide if the take needs to be redone.

EASIER




(note: Valkayrie One was for the PS3, Valkayrie Two has moved to the PSP)

Advantages

• Easier to make
• Can draw the same plot as Harder titles
• Lends itself to anime

Disadvantages

• Cannot put Heavy Rain and Zelda in the same room

Favour or responsibility

ITALY: A salesman who handed in a wallet containing more than £700,000 in travellers’ cheques is suing the owner over his £500 reward. Simone Chiessi, 31, of San Martino, claims he should have received a tenth of the money. ‘I thought he was pulling my leg. I saved him a fortune, he should have been fair,’ he said.

nicegoods

Akihabara or "Electric Town" is where Tokyo shoppers go to buy the newest gadgets and gizmos.

Many come here to see the latest computer games, manga animation or anime.
This is Saber, a warrior from the game Fate Zero. The character was created for the game but subsequently featured in an anime television series.
Around Akihabara new games are shown on big screens ahead of release to whip up excitement among the fans.

Masahiro Miyazaki's sign says he is selling computers that cost 100 yen ($1; £0.56).
Of course, there's a catch. You have to sign up to a mobile network service with a monthly fee which will cost you considerably more.

What makes this 'phantom mouse' different from an ordinary mouse is the red button in the middle. If someone surprises you when you are looking at a website you shouldn't be, one click of that button and the browser disappears instantly from the screen and the task bar.
Vendors say it is much faster than clicking closed a window in its corner. You can also set it to swap your 'dodgy' window for a more appropriate one. Unsurprisingly, they say they sell a lot to secret porn surfers.

This is a microscope, powered by the USB port on your computer. The manufacturers suggest you use it to check your skin for blemishes or your teeth for marks.

The Japanese love to drink coffee in cans from vending machines - warm in the winter, cool in the summer.
These USB powered platforms keep your drink warm or cool - although the risk is that it is easier to spill it all over the keyboard if you keep it close to the computer.

And as summer ends and autumn approaches, how about these slippers, which you connect to your computer to warm them up.
Once the battery is full you disconnect the wires so you can walk around the house, then reconnect to reheat. This shop also sells an eye mask to warm your eyes and soothe you, and heated mittens too, all powered from a USB port.

Hiroyasu Yamamitsu, an Akihabara store owner, is demonstrating the USB neck cooler. The fan is powered by your computer and hidden in the tie.
You put it round your neck and slip the knot over the fan. It blows cold air over your neck and no-one else is any the wiser.
He came up with the idea for the product himself, he says. From time to time he holds brainstorming sessions where staff in his shops try to come up with new gizmos to attract customers.

If all the shopping leaves you peckish, but you are a shy geek, or just too busy to stop off in a cafe, you can get a can of warm food from a vending machine.
This one was selling pasta, noodles, ramen soup and other meals in a tin; some chilled, others warmed and ready to eat as soon as they come out of the drawer below. These ones cost around £1.50 each. In other machines you can get curry noodles, fried chicken or chips.

For those who worry that those hours at the keyboard are leaving you flabby, the 'muscle mouse' might be the answer.
Stick the pads onto your muscles, anywhere you want to tone, and using power from the computer, electrical pulses will be sent to the pads to tone your flab. You can adjust the strength of the pulses by pressing a button on the side of the mouse.

For those who spend a lot of time chatting to friends online, this 'magic mirror' has a USB camera fitted under the surface.
The manufacturers say looking into the mirror while you chat allows you to express yourself better while looking directly at the camera lens. Twenty-four LED lights around the mirror are designed to make sure you look your best.

Michiru, Light and Sayu are 'gothic lolitas'. They are all from out of town - "we would never dress like this where we live" - but they are here to shop and to visit the cafes where the male staff dress up like the androgynous characters you see in many popular manga comics here.
"We're not doing this for attention," they say. "We're just having fun, and in Akihabara you can dress like this and you don't feel uncomfortable."

uniformsmel

THOUSANDS of civil servants could kick up a stink after being warned by bosses not to wear strong perfumes or aftershaves – to avoid costly legal action.

Workers will be told to avoid ‘wearing scented products, including colognes, aftershave lotions, perfumes, deodorants, body/face lotions (and) the use of scented candles, perfume samples from magazines, spray or solid air fresheners’.

The bizarre ban is being enforced in Detroit, Michigan, after city planner Susan McBride was awarded £66,000 under disability discrimination legislation because she claimed she was particularly sensitive to chemical products.

She argued that her colleague not only wore a strong scent but also plugged in a room deodoriser which forced her to go home sick.

This could become a landmark case.

uk trends

• Fizzy drinks make way for smaller bottles of mineral water as shoppers try to be healthier
• Hair straighteners replace hairdryers and lipsticks give way to lip gloss
• Cereal bars are included for the first time while pitta bread has lost out to garlic bread in the nation’s tastes.
• Other new items include allergy tablets, liquid soap and Blu-ray disc players.
• Among this year’s discarded items are disposable cameras, eyesight tests and squash court hire.

Office for National Statistics collects more than 180,000 prices every month for a basket of about 650 goods and services. These are then used to calculate the Consumer Price Index – which stands at 3.5 per cent

Belfast

A woman has appeared in court in Belfast charged with keeping a brothel.

Xiao Hong Kang, 40, was charged with keeping, managing or acting in the management of a brothel on 11 March this year.

ITbanking

The former employee, Herve Falciani, who worked in HSBC's IT division, fled to France while under investigation in Switzerland. About 24,000 clients of HSBC's private banking operation in Switzerland had personal details stolen by him.

HSBC has offered an unreserved apology to customers

Toyota

13 March 2010

California sues Toyota for faults

"We'll be alleging in court, on behalf of the people of Orange County, that Toyota knowingly sold cars and trucks with defects that caused Toyotas to accelerate suddenly and uncontrollably," said Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas.

Toyota's US headquarters are in California - that is why prosecutors say they can bring charges and it is thought to be the first such case based on US consumer protection laws.



2 July 2010
Toyota recalls 270,000 vehicles over faulty engine fear

Lehman

The collapse of the 158-year-old investment bank in September 2008 was the world's largest bankruptcy.

Wall Street, the City of London, and the US and UK governments tried to organise a rescue, fearing - rightly - that Lehman's failure would set off a chain reaction around the globe.

Much of the report, which took evidence from all the major parties involved in Lehman's collapse and attempts to rescue the firm, contains allegations about an accounting "gimmick" known as "Repo 105".

This is a legal accounting device that involves shifting around assets to reduce the size of a company's balance sheet, and effectively give the appearance that debts have been cut.

It was a gimmick that Lehman used increasingly as its problems mounted.