I just caught the tail end of the first episode of a Channel 4 programme called Meet the Natives, in which a group of South Sea islanders are shown around Britain. They are charming and witty, and make great TV. In this episode, they spend time in the countryside. They visit a pig farm and are amazed at the size of the pigs, but taken aback by the concept of artificial insemination, finding it unnatural, and worrying that the sows might not find it satisfying.

They spend time with a rabbit hunter, and take part in using ferrets to get the rabbits out of the hole, shooting the rabbits, breaking their necks, skinning and gutting them. They get on very well with the rabbit hunter, and relate the activity to rat hunting back home. They are amazed that the rabbit skins are not used to make coats. The hunter tries to explain that people think wearing animal skins is cruel, but the islanders rightly find this unreasonable.

A touching moment occurs when the rabbit hunter explains how the islanders understand his way of life more than many people in his own country.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Reviews at 9:13 PM EDT

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This is a poster advertising the Financial Times. The caption reads, “Business revolutionaries. Past, present and future.” Might not the FT be doing Richard Branson an injustice by associating him with a mass murderer?

Posted by Rob Fisher as Advertising at 8:36 AM EDT

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Jack Straws self defence law review might be welcome step in the right direction, but undoubtedly won’t go far enough. Until I’m certain of being least as well armed as the criminal I’m up against, I’m going to think twice about intervening. This might go some way to explaining why women can be attacked on trains and a carriage full of people ignore what’s going on.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Self Defense at 6:06 AM EDT

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I just received a PINsentry device from Barclays. It’s fantastic. When you log in to online banking, you put your bank card in it, type your pin, and it displays a number which you type into the web page. This gives proper two factor authentication. The two factors are 1) something you have (your bank card) and 2) something you know (your PIN).

There’s a rather odd phrase in the leaflet about it, though:

…if you use Barclays Online Banking outside the UK you do so at your own risk, as it may constitute an offence in that country.

Which countries? What offence?

Posted by Rob Fisher as Civil Liberties, Geekism at 10:09 PM EDT

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I took a holiday in Catalonia, partly in Barcelona and partly at a beach town.

In Barcelona, shops and metro stations have up escalators but no down escalators so you have to walk down.

Table service exists almost everywhere, which is nice. Except at the places where there is no table service, and often the only way to find out is to sit there until you realise you’re not going to get served. But even if there is table service, the prevailing culture seems to be that waiters do not bother the customer. All well and good, except that it is taken to extremes: ignore the customer; don’t make eye contact with the customer; and especially don’t take any notice of the fact that the customer has been sitting there with empty beer glasses for the last ten minutes. The game of getting the waiter’s attention gets tired fast. They’re equally reluctant to give you the bill, often disappearing completely and leaving you trapped and contemplating theft.

We took a boat trip. The sea was quite rough. There were no safety announcements and few signs. How refreshing! You can’t get on a train in England without constant safety harassment. We rented a scooter. The man wasn’t interested in seeing my driving license and just asked me to ride round the block. In the UK, you have to take a day’s compulsory training to ride a scooter. Maybe all the safety nonsense we put up with in the UK doesn’t come from Europe after all, or maybe Spain just doesn’t stand for it.

Royal Mail make it as difficult as possible to look up a UK postcode while on holiday. My phone’s 3G data worked just fine, but its web browser, which normally copes with anything, did not like it at all. I suspected Javascript, but having looked at the site I’m not sure. Something non-standard must be going on. So much for the web site, but the phone line is a premium 09 number that doesn’t work from within Spain. There is an international helpline, but they just told me they weren’t allowed to put me through to the postcodes line, so tough luck. Eventually I discovered another 08 number for postcodes, but this is only open two hours every evening. It’s all very frustrating — but then, they’re the monopoly provider of that information.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Introspection, Travel at 10:04 PM EDT

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This is very funny. Thanks to my friend who sent me the link — you know who you are.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Links at 7:16 PM EDT

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This is part of a letter I’m sending in response to a planning enforcement notice issued to a business near me. This isn’t a battle I can win, but sometimes it just feels better to try:

According to a letter sent to me by the Council, the business has been served an enforcement notice for changing the use of the premises “from a nurses’ hostel to short-stay backpacker/holidaymaker accommodation.” The letter invites me to send my comments to you. They are:

With respect to the need for planning permission for change of use: I wish that the Council would not interfere in the minutiae of local businesses.

The Council lists reasons for issuing the notice. With respect to reason (b), that the Council has lost permanent residential accommodation, and reason (c), that there has been a loss of housing stock: the council does not own the property.

With respect to reason (D), noise and disturbance, I have encountered no such noise or disturbance. With respect to reason (E), lack of coach facilities, the council is able to prohibit coach parking, though I wish that it would not, on any road without recourse to threats to local businesses.

With respect to reason (E), insufficient of road parking for guests and additional parking stress, a parking permit scheme is already in force rendering this reason apparently frivolous.

I urge you to overturn the enforcement notice. I wish that the council would not use resources appropriated from taxpayers to harass local businesses.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft, Civil Liberties at 8:53 PM EDT

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