Ed Dowding

Category: Crime & Security

Clear message to the police

Which side of history would you like to be on? See also this tweet from the Greater Manchester Police which seems to boast about breaking into houses and stealing things on social media.. which is rather against a) what they tell us to do, and b) the spirit of policing. We've kicked in a door ...

This won’t hurt a bit, but you may feel a bit of a prick.

If you’re the type to shut up do what you’re told, do one of the things on this page (ie complete this form) and give it to your GP. If you think you’re not the type to shut up do what you’re told, you should realise that by NOT doing what’s asked in the previous sentence, the Government ...

Superior orders

Since we keep being asked to do immoral things by our businesses and our Governments* it’s worth remembering Rule IV of the Nuremberg principles: “The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible ...

At-a-glance: Queen’ Speech 2013

You’re only allowed to stay if you were on the guest list we wrote 18 years ago. You are to clean up after your dog. You will work harder, longer, and when you die you’ll be able to know exactly how your privatised hospital is failing. We acknowledge that prison is a crap solution, so ...

Manifestos for life

Posters in the Hub Westminster with typographical design by Robert Reed. Source: This is Reed

Visualising cyber attacks

HoneyMap is a map on cyber attacks, as they happen.

The safety of an abusive relationship

“To break a law which conscience tells you is unjust is, in reality, to express the highest respect for the law. Speaking out against injustice is a profoundly political act. The best people in history put themselves on the line.”

Permaculture principles

It seems this list can bring wisdom and insight to pretty much everything we do. Apart from the more specific ones (like ‘keep water high on the land’, but maybe just try to metaphor these as taoist haikus to trigger bewildering insights.) Relative Location Components placed in a system are viewed relatively, not in isolation. ...

How to make legal documents interesting

http://www.legislation.gov.uk Ok.. maybe it’s not interesting, but it’s certainly a big step towards better.

Let them yearn for tat.

We have a political system divided between ‘let them work for tat’ (the right) and ‘let them buy tat’ (the left). The result is a deep and valueless materialism that allows hundreds of young people across London to go on violent and thieving rampages simply because they can get away with it. We have a ...

It only takes a generation to redefine normal.

Bullshit doesn’t get much more insidious than this: Today the first ID cards that include iris and fingerprint biometric information were registered and issued in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.   The juicier part of the story is that for now, only children will be enrolled in this national biometric database. It is intended that ...

Skipping dinner

I went skip raiding last night around the back of Waitrose with a friend who lives locally.We thought we’d go see what’s thrown away and liberate some meals from the tragedy of landfill. It’s illegal, but as an imaginary legal team suggested, “being immoral is clearly worse than being illegal.” We parked around the corner ...

Today's hero: Mark Kennedy

The trial of six green campaigners has collapsed after an undercover policeman who had infiltrated their group offered to give evidence on their behalf. via BBC News – Trial collapses after undercover officer changes sides. What a dude! Goes in to find out if anything bad is going on, does his job, a few protests ...

Google Transparency Report

Like other technology and communications companies, we regularly receive requests from government agencies around the world to remove content from our services, or provide information about users of our services and products. This map shows the number of requests that we received in six-month blocks Google Transparency Report: Government Requests.

World War III – And so it begins…

I remember my geography teacher saying that the next world war would be about water. There have been a few issues already, but as Egypt rejects Nile water agreement I think we can probably see this a key moment in history. Switzerland, which has the largest reserves of fresh water, must be getting nervous. And it ...

The UK's renewable energy is a national shame

Here’s some figures for renewable power generation in 2006: 62.9% – Austria 48.7% – Sweden 29.9% – Portugal 17.1% – Slovak Republic 19.2% – Romania 17% – Denmark 12.4% – France 4.6% – UK In November 2009, Spain generated 53% of its demand from wind alone last week (it was a bit windy). So if ...

A farm for the future

I finally got around to watching A Farm for the Future (available on Google Video) a few nights ago, and found it to be a great introduction to the concepts of permaculture. Key things to realise (some not from the programme): Current methods of farming will not continue to feed you during your lifetime. We ...

'Unforgeable' ID cards

New ID cards are supposed to be ‘unforgeable’ – but it took our expert 12 minutes to clone one, and programme it with false data

The World According to Monsanto

I’ve just been watching ‘The World According to Monsanto’. It’s pretty compelling stuff. As one of the contributors says, “Seed is more powerful than bombs, more powerful than guns” and given that, you’d have thought that we’d be a little more careful about what we do it. 70% of the food in the USA contains ...

I have nothing to fear from a DNA database

It’s tempting to think that DNA databases are OK, because it’s just a way of uniquely identifying someone, just like a long number which no one else has, which is intrinsically linked to you. If you believe that, I can see why you think you may have nothing to worry about. But the problem is ...