Eleanor Rigby

I think the most interesting news story I read today was out of England.  It was the one about the British spy Eileen Nearne who died at age 89 alone in a small house in the south of England.

During World War II she was sent to France because of her excellent linguistic skills, and there she was a radio operator for the French Resistance movement, helping to co-ordinate British weapons deployments.  She was captured three times, tortured, and yet on each occasion escaped.  Her heroism earned her an MBE.

Unfortunately her incredible story was never publicized.  Eileen was never known in her community, she never talked or bragged about her wartime service.  She was quite reclusive and had no relatives to arrange her funeral.  However, when her home was searched by the council, they discovered her identity and turned her belongings over to MI5.

The unusual nature of her story has changed the funeral arrangements from a sad lonely affair, with comparisons to The Beatles Eleanor Rigby song to something a little more special.  Efforts are currently underway to provide some military honor to her passing, which seems only fitting.

3D Girl Saves Lives?

Scientists in Canada have developed the new answer to a speed bump.  It's a special optical illusion that is attached the the floor and at about 100 feet gives the 3D impression of a child playing in the road.

In theory the motorist then slows down, and a speed bump is no longer needed.

I think I'm going to have to suggest that this is a bad idea.  While I'm no psychologist, there surely has to be a 'cry wolf' effect here.  If I'm driving around and constantly see images of children appearing in the road, after a time, I'm probably going to be less responsive if a real child happens to be in the road.

"Oh it's just one of those new 3D children optical illusion speed bumps that I blogged about," I'll think.  Then splat, and I'm cleaning bits of child off my front bumper for the next couple of weeks, and explaining to the judge why I didn't even try to stop.

Seems like this idea might have some flaws.

Craigslist Censored

Craigslist has voluntarily censored itself after receiving numerous legal threats from various states around the country.

In the usual 'slippery slope' argument various lawmakers from around the country claimed that the adult services section contains ads which pertain to prostitution, which in turn leads to human trafficking, assault, murder, child slavery, and the destruction of the fabric of space and time.

So after being hounded for some time, Craigslist gave up, probably unwilling to waste millions of dollars on a big legal fight, and they replaced the link to the section with the word 'censored.'

Of course they only did this in the land of the free, in other markets, including Canada, the adult section remains open and unchanged.

I find the whole situation pretty sad.  It's a well known fact that prostitution has been going on for thousands of years.  It's also pretty obvious that much of the negatives associated with prostitution stem from the fact that in most parts of America, prostitution is illegal.  This in turn leads to pimps, organized crime, human trafficking, underage prostitutes, drugs, disease, and many other negatives that generally conspire to make women less safe, and more likely to be victims in one form or other.

I think the fact that lawmakers believe this to be a victory of sorts highlights the fundamental stupidity of their position.  By bullying and threatening this popular web site, they have simply forced both legal and illegal adult services to advertise elsewhere.  The 'crime' of prostitution that they are so worried about is still taking place up and down this country 24/7.  So there is no victory here at all.  A bunch of people will have to rethink their marketing a little bit, but this is nothing more than a minor inconvenience.

Which leads me to this question:  What was the point?  Why are our lawmakers squandering tax dollars attacking some web site?  Have they solved a problem?  No.  Have they stopped prostitution?  Of course not.  Have they managed to prevent some of the evils of prostitution such as slavery, organized crime, child sex crimes etc?  No.

So really all we see is a typical Republican solution to the problem.  Go after the wrong guys, achieve little, and then claim some kind of victory for 'family values.'  But let's call it out for what it is:  This is censorship, an affront to freedom of speech, and a waste of our tax dollars that does nothing to address any of the real issues relating to prostitution.  Thanks for nothing assholes.

Some Say He Is The Stig

If you're British, or you're a car enthusiast, you've probably heard of the TV show Top Gear.  The show began in 1978 on the BBC, reviewing cars, and talking about motoring in general.  But the BBC axed it in 2001 due to poor ratings.  The presenters at the time signed on with other TV channel and launched Fifth Gear, while arguably one of the most popular past presenters of the show Jeremy Clarkson, approached the BBC with a proposal to re-launch the show with his own creative perspective.

In 2002 the new Top Gear was born, still running successfully to this day thanks to a great revamp.  It's been sold to over 100 countries and shows here in America on BBC America.

The show includes a racing driver called The Stig, and his identity has, until now, always been kept a mystery.  When The Stig tried to publish the story of his seven years on the show, the BBC tried to file an injunction against the publishers in order to conceal the identity.  But apparently, at least according to HarperCollins, there has been a victory for free speech; The Stig's identity is a mystery no more.

The Stig has allegedly been played by racing driver and movie stunt driver Ben Collins for the past seven years, and there seems to be quite an uproar in the British tabloids regarding the release of this information.  In fact the previous racing driver played The Stig for a year before being fired when his identity was revealed.  It will be interesting, at least for fans of the show, to see how this plays out.  It's actually pretty surprising to me that this has remained a secret for seven years.  But I'm guessing that a new Stig is going to be born out of this controversy, which is quite a shame.

There Is No Ground Zero Mosque

A very well worded speech about the reality of the Ground Zero Mosque that racists, right wingers and misguided Republicans are upset about.