Blue Screen of Death

This story really takes the Blue Screen of Death to a whole new level...

Most of us have stared in helpless despair at the dreaded blue screen; how much worse would you feel if that wasn't just your desktop gone but your combat display, and it really was the screen of death?

Surely we can't have our jolly tars let down by possibly untrustworthy, difficult to use kit such as Windows? Especially when you reflect that cost is not an issue. When you're buying destroyers at £1bn per hull, the price difference between 26 PCs and the same number of Sun workstations barely shows up.

Clean Skin, Dirty Job

The 7 July bombers who killed 52 people in terrorist attacks in London in 2005 were once described by Britain's security service as 'clean skins'.

The vivid phrase implied that a gang of homegrown terrorists had come from nowhere, without an intelligence trail.
...
MI5 now admit that far from being a 'clean skin', Khan had been on their radar screen since 2003. And The Observer can now reveal that more than a year before he detonated his Tube bomb, Khan had been listed as a 'desirable suspect' by MI5, along with fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer.

7/7 ringleader 'was watched since 2003' - The Observer

Who would have thought that they lied about this? But it gets better:

'If the threat was the same as in 2005 - that is, we were looking at 50 potential terror networks in the UK - we would have a better chance of picking up somebody like Khan. But we are now dealing with some 200 potential terror networks in the UK and to be quite honest we wouldn't have a hope in hell.'

Nice, eh? We lied, because we couldn't cope with the problem and were too embarrassed. But now we tell the truth that there is danger for you and would you be so nice to increase our budget, pretty please?

'We can't put every person who expresses anger about British foreign policy under 24-hour surveillance, or we would be talking about a Stasi-style secret police force.'

Lucky me. Isn't it interesting, how the state is dedicated to rather watch those without power than those with power? As if those without power could come close to inflicting the amount of harm those with power do. And again, this is a global trend. Sigh.

By the way, there is a difference between having your state employing the Stasi and 24-hour surveillance of all suspects. There is a book by a chap named Eric Arthur Blair (no relation to Tony, I hope) telling you a bit about the later.

In (un)related news, I was thinking about a definition of neoliberalism. I think I would sum it up to:

ne·o·lib·er·al·ism (nē'ō-lĭb'ər-ə-lĭz'əm, -lĭb'rə-)
n.
Theory that those best at pocketing wealth should keep it.

No state, no moral, no laws, nothing. Just grab what you can, the best at this game will keep what they seized. The market will take care of it. Simple and clean, eh?

So, work harder, my slaves, or I will have to club you. (See Social Darwinism)