Kill or cure

"American militants like Anwar al-Awlaki are placed on a kill or capture list by a secretive panel of senior government officials, which then informs the president of its decisions, according to officials. ..."

Is there a similar panel for foreigners?

The recently late Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan and son

The as yet 'wonderful' Rick Santorum

China now and now

The new democracy - or new barons?

New boss?

Wikipedia and some other much used websites (including the 'the Cheezburger websites, which attract 16.5 million visitors a month to look at funny cat videos and photos') threatened to 'go dark' on Wednesday in protest at the proposed US SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act), although I believe President Obama has effectively scuppered it by saying he will not give such an act his assent.

Regardless of thoughts of the merits or demerits of online piracy or of Wikipedia, I wonder what will be the public and politic reaction if protests such as this are in future extensively mobilised. They could have considerable impact, but what will the mass of the people think as they vainly click on the unavailable sites in their daily routines? Will it be much the same as the commuters turning up for non-existent trains for work after the unions have called strikes? Perhaps the lack of Wikipedia will most affect government officials as they strive to write their private and public briefing papers. Will frustrated governments condemn this new 'unaccountable' power and pass legislation requiring ballots of users, advance notification and all the other panoply of restrictions that organised labour, or, as some would see it, their undemocratically elected leaders, have been subjected to, at least in this country?

Whose social responsibility?

Implementing the Act

Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2010-11

Key areas
 
• replaces police authorities with directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners, with the aim of improving police accountability
 
• amends and supplements the Licensing Act 2003 with the intention of ‘rebalancing’ it in favour of local authorities, the police and local communities
 
• sets out a new framework for regulating protests around Parliament Square. Relevant sections of the Serious Organised Crime and Police Act 2005 would be repealed and the police would be given new powers to prevent encampments and the use of amplified noise equipment
 
• enables the Home Secretary to temporarily ban drugs for up to a year, and removes the statutory requirement for the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs to include members with experience in specified activities
 
• introduces a new requirement for private prosecutors to obtain the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions prior to the issue of an arrest warrant for ‘universal jurisdiction’ offences such as war crimes or torture. The Government's aim in introducing this change is to prevent the courts being used for political purposes.
 
Royal assent 15 September 2011

Move along, there's nothing to see

In a separate development it has been disclosed that Cheryl Gillan, the Welsh secretary, sold her home in Amersham 500 metres from the proposed route [of the new HS2 high speed railway line] two months before the project was approved. An aide said the sale, which leaves her without a constituency home, was necessary because her elderly husband had difficulty with the stairs.




Modern retailers receive detailed sales data at the end of every day so Noel "Bob" Robbins, UK chief operating officer at Tesco, surely knew on 4 January that the chain had had a lousy Christmas. That was the day he sold 50,000 shares in his employer at 404.5p apiece. One profits warning later, Tesco's share price is 316p, so Robbins is about £44,000 better off by selling eight days ago rather than on Friday.

A Fistful of Dollars

‘Despite the fact that they lay down explicit limitations on capital movements, the Bretton Woods agreements delineated an international monetary system that, in practice, made these movements indispensable. At this point we can see how the Bretton Woods agreements opened the way to the post-war ‘dollar gap’ and to the subsequent international ‘dollar glut’ the consequences of which we are still paying for.’

Amato and Fantacci: The End of Finance

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In-store "virtual mirrors" are turning shopping into a social network, he added, where customers can drag clothing items on to their reflected virtual image, post this to Facebook or other networking sites, and get instant feedback from friends.

Technology is also being developed into the tracking of mobile phone users in shopping centres, as well as enabling viewers to buy items through digital TV and interact with adverts.

But ... the growth of online will not see the end of bricks-and-mortar shops. "It's just going to become more blurred. The two will fuse together."

... More 'click and collect', more buying under one roof with people shopping for non-food and food at the same time. It will be the specialists that will suffer.

... supermarkets of the future will also be influenced by so-called "amateur economics" and a backlash against "the big, impersonal, alien shopping experience".

I expect you knew all that.