NET VALUES

Conroy’s Filter Hits Online Business

By getting sucked into a debate on censorship, the critics risk backing into a corner as arguing for the right to view porn is always going to be a contentious issue. On the other hand, slowing our already poor broadband speeds and risking damage to ecommerce has a more tangible impact.

While politicians and industry bodies debate and argue and protest, one possible repercussion has been overlooked. Online business has seen a steady increase over the last few years and recently pundits have predicted the internet economy as being potentially more resilient during the tougher economic times ahead.

But will ecommerce remain resilient under the threat of technical interference?

BIG BROTHER

Big Brother police to get 'war-time' powers to demand ID or face jail

State officials are to be given powers previously reserved for times of war to demand a person's proof of identity at any time. Anybody who refuses the Big Brother demand could face arrest and a possible prison sentence.

The new rules come in legislation unveiled in today's Queen's Speech. They are presented as a crackdown on illegal immigration, but lawyers say they could be applied to anybody who has ever been outside the UK, even on holiday.

The civil rights group Liberty, which analysed clauses from the new Immigration and Citizenship Bill, called them an attempt to introduce compulsory ID cards by the back door.

DUST TO DUST

The death of the orb mystery

I have been photographing orbs since capturing my first ones near Menindee Lakes in June. I was beguiled by the idea they may have been associated with consciousness and have photographed many. I have shown the prints to others and got the usual two responses: Fascination and curiosity or disdain and lack of interest ("clean your lens" and "it's dust" comes to mind).

One skeptic sent me a link to The Orb Zone. The author states: "The 'orb zone' theory of orbs is that orbs are out-of-focus airborne particles (e.g. dust). However the technical explanation is fairly complicated."

I dismissed his argument at first because it meant the orbs needed to be in out-of-focus zones, whereas they appeared to be away from the camera near other objects.
I based this presumption on a single photograph in which a friend and I, both shooting the same scene, caught orbs at about the same time. And given our relative camera positions, it was conceivable that they were the same object, well away from the camera and in the field of focus. However, being a sole example and given my recent experiment, that now looks to be a coincidence.

This morning I was sweeping the floor and gave the broom a dust off. It created a lot of dust and, since the adjoining room was pretty dark, I decided to do a test.

I set up the camera on a table and put it on timer. A second before the shutter triggered I held the broom 20cm above and 20cm in front of the lens and ran my hand across the bristles to release some dust.  The results show structures identical to those found in all the orbs I have captured so far, even a nice coloured one. Although they often have a vaguely "focused" appearance the ones in the experimental pictures I took this morning are likely all in the out-of-focus zone (ie close to the lens).

I found I had become attached to the theory that they were emanations from the cosmic soup or better still ... emanations of consciousness itself with mysterious links to this world. (Crop circles come to mind). It was deflating to find such a prosaic explanation but I know the world has many more mysteries to wonder at. Sadly I don't think this is one of them.

Another pic

STUPIDITY CONSULTANT

How We Will Learn to Love George W. Bush

Only 50 more days of President George W. Bush. So many feelings, right? ABC has released the transcript of a Charlie Gibson sit-down interview airing tonight, and it must be said that our current president was, and remains, a very stupid man.
For example, he blames the current recession on "a lot of the decisions that were made on Wall Street took place over a decade or so, before I arrived in president." But now is a time to look forward. Is there a future for the man who wrecked our nation and the world? Yes, and his stupidity is what makes it work.
Take our advice and prosper, George; here are the five keys to the revival of your image [Here].

EARTH CHANGES

Government reversal on coal mines

There are plans to open more deep mines and extend the few we still have. But deep mines take years to develop and there is a much easier and quicker method of extracting the coal - opencast mining on the surface.

When the government came to power it called the huge excavations of opencast mines "too high a price to pay" in environmental terms.

But as the BBC's Panorama programme reports this week, Whitehall seems to have reversed that election promise and has been giving the go-ahead for more and more opencast mines.