Talkjack reckons that we already have the technology to stop the spread of swine flu, but we lack the will to implement it. The main reason? Money!

Here’s an amusing thought. Imagine how a flu-like infection would spread amongst staff on the Star Ship Enterprise or Voyager? After all, a star ship is a workplace, and the crew are located in a confined area, sharing each other’s air and eating and working together 24/7.  Therefore, Talkjack reckons that bio-security is critical for health and safety in star ship. Compare that to workplaces in Bully Britain or the US for a moment.

When a flu victim sneezes and fails to catch 100% of the yuck in a tissue, they are likely to get some bugs on their hands. If they touch something with a hard surface the infection will live there for up to 3 or 4 hours, waiting for a victim to touch the surface and become infected. So, in a workplace, what sort of surfaces do we all touch?

Dirty door handles

What about door handles for example? You go to the toilet / rest room, wash your hands afterwards, then you have no choice except to touch a door handle which has probably been touched by several people who did not wash their hands. Not a nice thought? Now multiply that by the number of interior doors that you pass through in a day. Makes you wonder how many bugs are on your hands in the workplace with five minutes of washing them after using the toilet. Did you wash your hands before eating lunch? Try not to touch a door handle on your way back from the sink, won’t you!

In Star Trek, they have those cool automatic opening doors which open by sliding along the wall when the door sensor detects someone at the doorway. Being sci-fi, Star Trek doors make that famous sound when they open and close, and apparently also have some kind of dialogue or storyline anticipation system to open at the most dramatic moment. Apart from that, we already have Star Trek doors. You generally see them in large shops or shopping centres. They are financially viable because shops want to get lots of potential customers inside as quickly as possible. Money talks.

You do sometimes see Star Trek doors at the entrances to workplace. However, in my experience, interior doors generally use standard, cheaper, door handles and rely on manual opening. This is because money matters to businesses. Why waste cash on anything better?

Dirty Telephones

In a workplace staff have to share telephones. If someone’s desk phone is ringing and they are not there, you better answer it for them within four rings or you might get in trouble because every call matters.
In Star Trek they don’t have telephones. All employees / crew members are issued with lightweight personal communicators which Velcro or clip onto clothing. No need to catch swine flu after a flu victim touched it with minging hands or spread droplet infection onto the phone.

We do have similar real world technology already. In many workplaces we could and abolish land lines totally and issue staff with lightweight mobile phones. As a compromise we could use technology like SIP to cheaply and automatically redirect internal landline calls to staff mobile phones. But we don’t. If that colleagues desk is empty and the phone rings, we have management pressure to answer it, and answer it quickly. Or else.

Dirty air

In Star Trek they scrub the air clean, and have invented clever systems to respond to air-borne infection. We have the technology to clean the air ourselves, but it costs money to implement and maintain air conditioning. Staff tend to notice the temperature, and complain if it is too hot or cold. They cannot see the spread of Legionella bacteria in the office air conditioning, they can only trust that management are ensuring that proper maintenance takes place. People who complain they feel ill at work are often classed as having ‘sick building syndrome’ and are not taken particularly seriously in Talkjack’s experience.

As an interesting side note, I think it was that nice guy Stephen Fry on his TV show QI who taught us that the smoking ban has made air travel more dangerous for passengers. This is because they used to actively scrub the air clean back in the day when passengers were allowed to smoke. When smoking on plains was banned it meant airlines could stop scrubbing the air clean in order to save money. Ironically non-smokers may have been better off on planes before the smoking ban.

Poor management

In  Star Trek, if ever a person shows a sign of being ill, the captain sends them straight to sick bay and gives them time off duty. In a real world workplace, if someone wants time off work due to ill health they are discouraged from taking time off.

In Star Trek, if someone is sent to sick bay then the Captain assigns someone else to cover their duties. In the workplace, if you are away from your post, work piles up and waits for you to return. Gee, thanks Boss.

In Talkjack’s experience, becoming ill and asking for time off work is more likely to be met with scepticism than sympathy. Workplace colleagues hate you if you come to work and infect them with flu or a cold, but are equally likely to bitch behind an ill person’s back and assert that someone is skiving off work if they do take any time off. And if you are brave enough to take time off, the form filling and return to work interviews can be off-putting. I wonder if that is intentional, to encourage sick people to drag themselves into work?

Talkjack thinks management is to blame for this. They have fostered the current culture and attitudes to ill health amongst staff. Some line managers I have spoke with blame HR departments for requiring them to implement strict company policies to standardise absenteeism across all business departments. I think that a manager with a KPI to ensure that their team meet an arbitrary attendance target is less likely to be sympathetic to a sick employee than one who is allowed to put  health and safety before attendance targets.

However, managers should be held responsible for ensuring there is no workplace culture of backbiting and ridiculing people for taking time off sick. It is stressful for the victim, and is a form of bullying.  The old maxim springs to mind – “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. How do you measure workplace bullying? Count the resignations letters perhaps, he said cynically. Maybe some Star Fleet training for managers might help?

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

I have several regular ‘patches’ where I work in Coventry. Sometimes you will see me working the busy junctions of major streets approaching the inner city ring road. You might find me near Gulson Road, Binley Road, Foleshill Road, Walsgrave Road, Sky Blue Way, or any other red light junction. I will be the scary looking guy dressed like an out of work builder, carrying a bucket, a rag, a squeegee, and / or an old bottle filled with tap water and washing up liquid. Sometimes you see me working alone, sometimes other members of our gang will be helping me take money of you. I usually have a smirk on my face. I bully drivers for a living.

People call me all sorts of names: squeegee mugger, red light menace, rogue windscreen washer, professional beggar, traffic light bully, squeegee gang member, bucket bully, windscreen wiper, car smearer, the list goes on and on. I do not care what you call me, because hardly anyone is brave or foolish enough to speak to my face. You bullied British are too cowed by me and my gang. Ha!

I take money from people just like you. Anyone who drives has no choice but to stop at red traffic lights and sit there shaking while I mess with your car and demand your money. If not you personally then someone you care about; a friend or family member. My favourite targets are single women driving alone, mothers driving their children to school, and elderly people. Or, failing that, any guy I think I can bully without retaliation. Basically, I target vulnerable people. And you can do nothing about it.

I love my job. When the light turns red all you drivers stop behind each other, ready victims for me, not aware that I am waiting to get your money. You all queue up so nicely for me. In a single change of the lights I can pick on three or four cars.

Gotta love the looks on your British faces when you realise what I am doing. I can’t help smirking at the fear on drivers’ faces, which is plain to see. I smear your car windscreen with a mix of tapwater and whatever else I find or steal which looks like car wash. Washing up liquid is my favourite. I don’t know or care what it does to your paintwork, just give me your money and drive my way again.

The thing I love most is ignoring the scared pleas of lone women drivers as I ignore their requests to stop interfering with their cars and I continue to mess around with their wipers and to smear their windscreens so they cannot see properly when they drive away. Most of my victims are having a flight or fight response. But they are unable to drive away because of the red traffic light, and too intimidated to stop me because I am bigger than you, and you are scared that I will damage your vehicle or hurt you. Too right. Wind up your car window, sit and tremble for my mercy and amusement while I do whatever I like to your car.

All I need to bully drivers is just an intimidating glare, threatening body language, plus cheap disposable items like a squeegee and a bucket or bottle of dirty liquid. Sometimes I steal squeegees and buckets from shops and garages.

When I work your car against your wishes, so what if I do sometimes damage your windscreen wipers as I yank then out of the way? Maybe I do dent your bodywork as I lean or lie across it. Maybe I do transfer grime from other cars onto your field of vision. Maybe the metal on my clothes or equipment does scratch your car paintwork from time to time. Who cares? I am in a hurry to get your money and move on to my next victim before the lights change. Fear me!

 When the traffic light changes to green you mugs drive away with your hands shaking, you are filled with fear, anger and adrenaline, you have poor visibility to drive because I have smeared your windscreen, and you are more likely to cause or become involved in a car accident or collision. Not my problem, just give me your money and have a nice day.

A few of you are so outraged and powerless that you make hand gestures at me as you drive away. You are so brave when you think I cannot reach your car to damage it in return. No problem, I can still throw dirty water all over your windscreen as you pass me, so that you cannot see what you are driving into. I do this several times a day. If you have left your driver’s window partly open on a hot day then I can try to hit you in the face or eyes with dirty water as you pass by me. Hope you crash your car, you noisy horn honkers. How dare you stand up to me on MY territory?

Of course, what I do makes traffic congestion worse. We deliberately get in the way of cars so that you are forced to slow down. It means fewer cars get past us, so we have more chance to make money. Why wouldn’t I want to slow down commuters?

In some cities, gangs like mine will wear fluorescent jackets and pretend to be council workers in order to break into the underground traffic light electronic circuits. Admire our ingenuity! If we break those then your traffic control systems cannot work properly and they revert back to default settings. That means red lights last much longer and I can bully more of you powerless British victims for your money.

A lot of you call the police and report me. If not you personally, then your husband or partner, your Dad or your eldest grown-up son. Why should I care? The police choose not to stop me, I am as invulnerable as a comicbook supervillain. The authorities say I am not committing a crime.

In fact, maybe a decade or more ago the authorities had a reason for not stopping gangs like mine. The best law they could find that we were breaking was about trading in a public place without a license. Several years ago, however, the law did change. This was done to allow the authorities to stop us. What we do is now considered in law to be a public nuisance offence. I don’t understand why the authorities choose to let us return to work the red lights day after day, but they do. Hooray! Odd really when you consider that Bully Britain is a society where young children could be given ASBOs for chalking a hop-scotch grid on the pavement or where teenagers are not free to meet a few of their friends outside shops in designated zero-tolerance areas of the city.

It appears that the authorities lack a zero tolerance approach to squeegee mugging. I bought a newspaper with my unemployment benefit money and laughed when I read the police advice to drivers. Thank you for the free benefit money by the way. Here’s my advice to you if you do not want to give me your money or have me mess with your car:

• Look happy or bored as you are driving along, unaware that I am lying in wait. Listen to your favourite cheerful music, happy in your own private world.
• Frown when you stop in the queue at the red traffic light and see me step into the traffic. Imagine your cheery music changes into the Darth Vader theme tune.
• Keep glancing worriedly at the red lights and pray that they change to green before it is your turn to be bullied.
• Look absolutely petrified with fear as I come rushing towards you and your car.
• Frantically wind up your driver’s window in panic, your hands shaking.
• Plead with me to stop as I lie across your car, scratching your paint, and yank your wipers up.
• Feel the fear and adrenaline when I smirk at you and do whatever I want to your car.
• Be too scared of what I will do to you or your car if you are rude or try to stop me.
• Drive away as soon as you can, in a right old emotional state.
• Try not to have a traffic accident because you are so shaken up.
• Have a lousy day as you are filled with stress before you even get to where you are going.
• Do try not to have a heart attack won’t you? Otherwise I won’t be able to get you again.

I am surprised that in the country with the most electronic surveillance in the world, the authorities of Bully Britain do not detect what I am doing or protect the public from me. Ironic, hah! Serves you fools right. Did you really think all these CCTV cameras are for YOUR protection?

See you later in the week. If I miss you tomorrow it is because I have to go sign on and collect my unemployment benefit. I’ll get to you or someone you care about eventually. As long as a few of you idiots as so scared or naive that you give me money, my gang and I will never go away.

>>>

Yes, this confession is, of course, fictional. The authorities of Bully Britain do not really turn a blind eye to street bullying. Do they?

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

A little over a year ago we decided to replace our worn out 15 year old bed with a new one. Shopping around, we were repeatedly advised by sales staff to purchase one of the new memory foam mattresses instead of a traditional pocket sprung style mattress with which we were familiar.

We took the salesman’s advice and bought a memory foam mattress. It was expensive but we were sold on the promised extra comfort, the additional posture support which was promised to prevent development of back problems, and the promise that ‘Once you have used a memory foam mattress you will never go back!’

After a year of use, let’s compare a memory foam mattress with a traditional pocket sprung mattress. I will be frank, a bed has two main uses: sleep and sex.

Let’s talk about sex, baby!

The problem I found with a memory foam mattress is that it is like sleeping on a giant bath sponge. A spring based mattress bounces; a foam mattress lets you sink in. Sex on a traditional pocket sprung mattress is great, because the bounce adds to the fun.

By comparison, sex on a memory foam mattress is hard work. With one partner on top, the other sinking into the foam mattress, you end up working harder. Sex becomes more tiring than on a spring mattress, and you sweat more. I found the reduced bounce back from the partner underneath detracts from the pleasure. Sex was not so much fun. In fact, I would go so far as to think that a memory foam mattress might be bad for your sex life!

Too hot!

First impression of sleeping on a memory foam mattress was excellent. It was much more comfortable then a pocket sprung mattress, although like any new bed it took a while to get used to. The back support seemed to be good, and the whole bed felt somehow softer.

Then we noticed the problems. Basically, we found that sinking into a memory foam mattress caused us both to feel too hot to sleep (and I don’t mean that it a good way!). As the night progressed the mattress grows hotter and hotter directly under you, and you start to sweat. Eventually we woke up, a few times a night, dripping and uncomfortable.

The discomfort from the memory foam mattress was sufficiently unpleasant that I got into the habit of waking up at between two and four in the morning and having to shower in order to get back to sleep.

We resorted to using summer weight duvets through the winter, which left us cold on top, hot and sweaty underneath. Not conducive to a good night’s sleep.

We tried adding more and more sheets, and eventually a thicker layer of padding between us and the mattress. All this helped just a little bit, but we found we were still waking up and suffering.

Conclusion

We ended up wasting a lot of money, but solving the problem. We scrapped our memory foam mattress, and bought a combination memory foam / pocket sprung mattress instead. We went back to the original shop, who gave us a reasonable discount of a replacement because of our bad experience. This was good of them, because after 12 months they did not have to.

We are still being eco-friendly! The original memory foam mattress has been recycled – some friends of my wife have taken it to replace their old worn out mattress.

The new combination mattress is far more comfortable to lay on that the 100% foam mattress. The old mattress was an inch or two of memory foam on top of what looked like a giant bath sponge. The new mattress is pocket sprung in the middle, with a similar looking layer of memory foam top and bottom, allowing the mattress to be turned over.

The springs inside the mattress seem to help with the cooling because they allow some air flow inside the mattress, unlike the old foam one. The memory foam itself is supposed to be sprayed with a chemical to help with cooling. I was a bit sceptical about this claim. However the mattress also comes with a better cover than the old one, which is itself supposed to provide better cooling and heat control.

I find it odd that the shops and the manufacturers seem to play down the idea that memory foam mattresses make you too hot. When I ask around friends and family they have similar heat problems, or in the case of my parents, their memory foam mattress sank and  collapsed after four years.

The shop staff were quick to tell us that our experience of sweating and feeling far too hot using a memory foam mattress is very unusual. However, this is not borne out by the promotional signs and billboards in the shop advertising the ‘not too hot, not too cold’ features of our new combination mattress. The manufacturer had even given the shop material samples for the mattress cover, which the sales staff encouraged us to hold to our faces so we could feel the heat, and how quickly it dissipates. Also there were a pair of mittens, which looked like oven gloves. One was made of the new material, the other was not. The idea was to let customers wear both mittens and walk around the store for a few minutes so that you could feel on hand get hot, the other stay at a comfortable temperature.

Hmmm. If there is no widespread problem of overheating with memory foam mattresses then why is heat control the main thrust of this year’s sales pitch, I wonder? Am I cynical, or is the problem more widespread than shops and mattress manufacturers admit?

So far I am delighted with the new combination pocket sprung / memory foam mattress. I have not been overheating at night, and suffered no more sweat issues. If you want buyer’s advice, my recommendation is to go for a combination memory foam mattress, not a foam only one. Oh, one more thing – sex is better on the combination mattress!

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

I witnessed this on 17/02/09 whilst driving into Coventry City Centre from the east. Having driven inbound along Walsgrave Road at approx 09:15 I stopped at the traffic lights at the junction with Sky Blue Way and Gosford Street. As soon as the traffic lights changed to red, out leaped two street beggars into the slowing traffic. Not a safe thing to do, forcing drivers to brake harder than they anticipated so as to avoid hitting people.

There were two beggars: a black woman who did not speak, and a taller, unshaven man with lighter skin. He appeared to be in charge. He picked on lady car driver to my right. She had young children in the car with her, and looked scared as she shouted at him to stop messing with her car. He was smearing her windscreen, pretending to wash her car with a squeegee. The driver was waving her finger from side to side and telling him to stop. She looked petrified.  He carried on, looked up, saw the expression on her face and laughed out loud. He was smiling as he continued to interfere with her car, and appeared to be enjoying himself.

The guy looked rough and dangerous. He looked across at me, and I realised I was his next on his list.

I had my wife and children in the car. It is half term week and we needed to buy childrens footware so were going shopping. My wife was scared. I suggested she find her mobile phone in case he caused trouble, so she could take a photo for the police.

I certainly did not want this guy messing with my car, spoiling my vision by smearing my windscreen. I cleaned it last weekend. At the same time I was determined not to give in and encourage this sort of bully.

I wound down my driver’s window less than an inch ready to speak to him if I had to. As he finished smearing the other driver’s windscreen I heard the guy singing loudly. He seemed to be loving the sense of power.

Maybe its because I have been decorating and had my scruffs on. Maybe it’s because I am on a weeks holiday during half term to look after children and had taken the rare treat of not shaving that morning. I was looking scruffier than usual. As he started to walk towards my car I looked this walking nuisance in the eyes and said in a low steady voice ‘Don’t you dare’.

Lucky for me the guy laughed in my face, left my car unspoilt and moved on to his next victim behind me. He carried on singing as he picked on another lady driver with children in the car behind. From his singing I got the impression he is an immigrant. I could not identify the language but it was neither English nor Western European.

The lady driver behind me looked terrified and kept telling him top stop. Being hearing impaired, I have taken lip reading classes, which helped as I watched through my rear view mirror. As the guy moved on to his third victim I could see him laughing at the terrified expressions on drivers faces. He managed to smear a third car before the lights changed and everyone drove away from him faster than normal.

When I returned three hours later, driving in the opposite direction I observed that the pair were still there. Looks like they had been working the traffic all morning, preying on intimidated car drivers for money. Would you have given them any money in order to stop them damaging your car?

Last night I mentioned the incident whilst socialising. One guy said he had seen a couple fitting this description working the junction of Binley Road and Gulson Road, which is a short walk away from the place I saw them. Another guy, a cyclist, said that he has seen these two predators working the same junction previously. He has also seen an older woman working the traffic queues on Stoney Stanton Road. She too does not speak English. Her technique to get money from captive car drivers is to bang on the driver’s side window and wave a cup in their faces whilst ranting something unintelligible.

This practice is patently dangerous. Smearing a driver’s windscreen could easily cause a road traffic incident further down the road, especially if the driver feels too scared of these bullies to stop his car nearby and clean the grime off – assuming he has something suitable with him to wipe the windscreen clean.

How long will it be before they pick on the wrong driver and he gets out and starts a fight in order to protect his car? Maybe that it why the guy was mostly picking on scared lady drivers. How long will it be before someone brakes sharply to avoid these idiots when the jump out into traffic, causing the vehicle behind to rear-end them?

For what it’s worth I have now reported this to the police via the internet. I have to wonder though, why the authorities are not stopping these people from intimidating drivers for money? After all, it turns out to be common knowledge among my friends. The pair I saw seemed to be organised and well practised.

If anyone in authority is reading this – please protect the public before these organised street beggars cause a collision. Come to think of it, can we have another Operation Shopcote please?

… Talkjack

>>> Update 29th March 2009

This squeegee mugger is back in action again a month later. He has now become more aggressive in his bullying of car drivers. You can see the fear on the face of motorists as he messes with their cars, ignores their pleas for him to stop and leave them alone, and demands money from them. He has even taken to stepping out in front of moving vehicles, causing them to swerve or stop, and to throwing dirty water at the windscreens of cars who drive past him, which is very dangerous and likely to cause an accident on day!

Why have the authorities allowed this professional begger to terrorise people and demand money with menaces from terrified car drivers? In the land of spy cameras that is Britain, why are the authorities turning a blind eye to this threat to public safety?

I will let you know if I hear that Coventry police take positive action to protect us.

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

I have a great deal of sympathy for the friends and family of Patricia Leighton, who died at the hands of Priya Ramnath not far from where I live.

You see, Patricia Leighton made the unfortunate mistake of seeking medical treatment for rheumatoid arthritis and a bunion. That’s right, a simple bunion. On her toe. Sore, yes. But lifethreatening? Then the NHS try to treat her. Priya Ramnath injects this woman with an adrenaline injection. Poor Patricia Leighton dies shortly after, fully aware that she is dying.

It has taken a shocking eleven years for the legal inquiry to conclude. It hit the news yesterday, and received very little attention indeed.

The behaviour of Priya Ramnath disgusts me. You see, it appears that there was reasonable dount that the adrenaline injection would cause harm. Ramnath was told by not one, not two, but three colleagues not to give the injection. Dr Ramnath ignored the consensus and gave the fatal injection. Her colleague Dr Doris Ng said he was horrified that the injection had been given.

This week Priya Ramnath was finally found guilty. She did not go to prison though, nor was she even fined. She was given a six month suspended prison sentence. For those of you who are not familiar with ‘suspended sentences’ its means ‘If you are naughty again within a certain timeframe and we have to punish you then we will also punish you for this crime. You will be sent to prison to pay for the crime for which you have just been found guilty.  However, commit no crime in the specified period and we will not punish you at all’.
 
This lack of punishment for Ramnath seems inadequate to me when you consider her behaviour, which can be summarised as:

1. Ramnath ignores medical advice from multiple colleagues
2. Ramnath gives the fatal injection to Patricia Leighton
3. Ramnath flees the country days later, arriving in Florida
4. Ramnath delays the justice process for ages by forcing the UK authorities to go through legal extradition proceedings in order to make her attend her trial.
5. Ramnath  refuses to give evidence at the trial. Shame on her.

My deepest sympathies to the Patricia Leighton’s family, whose lives have also suffered as a consequence at the hands of Dr Priya Ramnath. This doctor’s behaviour embarrasses the medical profession, especially her attempts to avoid the law. I think her suspended sentence trivialises medical killing in the UK. Sending her to prison will not bring her victim back, but a suspended sentence is hardly a deterrent against future medical killings in this country.

Talkjack has always thought that we would save more lives by putting cameras in hospitals to monitor medical staff behaviour than we do by putting revenue cameras on roads in order to fine speeding motorists.

Bad news coverage

The Ramnath story got precious little publicity in the UK. The media chose to cover the non-story of TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson who, whilst on the other side of the world, described the Prime Minister of Bully Britain as a ‘One-eyed Scottish idiot’.

Amusingly, no one in the news story is disputing whether Gordon Brown is an idiot or not. The politically correct thought police and bullies are ranting about the use of the term ‘one-eyed’. They are not disputing that the use of the term ‘one-eyed’ is factually correct, but that it gives offence to the visually impaired.

There is an interesting comparison between these two news stories. Clarkson said he made his remark ‘in the heat of the moment’. Ramnath, however, killed someone because her workplace was a ‘pressure cooker’, according to Mrs Justice Rafferty.

Well, listen up folks. Talkjack is hearing impaired. If, hypothetically, Gordon Brown had only one working ear and Clarkson had called him  ‘half-deaf’, I would take no offense whatsoever. However, I do take offense at all the PC bullies ranting on about trivial slips of the tongue, which matter not one jot when compared to genuine serious issues such as the tragic killing of Patricia Leighton at the hands of Dr Priya Ramnath.

Talkjack thinks it speaks volumes about the press in Bully Britain that the Clarkson story got so much publicity, devoting so much news time to commentary by the outraged thought police, and gave so little news time in comparison to the Ramnath story, and no public commentary or debate on the subject of the NHS and medical killing.

For more information on either of these stories, click here and here. Note that the killing story is buried under local news, while the Clarkson slip of the tongue gets national publicity.

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

Opposition leader Cameron Nicebutdim asked whether the government had actually read the EU agreement before signing up to the light bulb ban. Harriet Harbully replied, saying “Err.. When I rule the world, there won’t be enough airports in the country for all the men and light bulbs who want to flee the country!”

When later accused of hate speech against men, Harriet’s defenders said “Its all right to say that because it is positive discrimination so thats OK. Besides, Harriet was only joking. What is wrong with you?”

However, when the Conservative opposition responding with neighs, baas and other farmyard impressions, Harriet went further, saying “its dead easy to buy these new fangled ‘enviro-mental light bulbs, and everyone should know how to fit an energy efficient lightbulb.”

“Yes, we all saw the news report when you went to a shop in your own constituency,” replied Cameron wittily, “but most of your voters are not rich enough to afford the body armour, six man police escort, armed response unit, helicopter and rooftop SWAT team that you felt it necessary to take along with you, at public expense.”

We asked serial blogger Talkjack to comment. He said “Oh goody, can I make a bullet point list?”

There are several important light bulb related points being missed here. Typical practice in Bully Britain – look:

1. Conventional light bulbs are a cheap, effective, proven technology. Forcing the public to buy unwanted, more expensive light bulbs is discrimination against the poor.
2. When a conventional bulb breaks, the public know how to clean them up safely, wrapping them in old newspaper. When a so-called “environmentally friendly” energy efficient light bulb breaks the general public do not know how to clean up a toxic chemical spill of poisonous mercury in their homes and bedrooms. In fact if the public knew how dangerous these new green light bulbs are, and had a free choice between them and conventional bulbs in the shops then they could vote with their wallets.
3. Given that we the public have had no say in the matter, it is important that we teach everyone how to clean up after breaking an energy efficient light bulb, and the dangers of mercury from light bulbs.
4. Low energy light bulbs take a few minutes to warm up before they light a room properly. When fitting a low energy light bulb in your bathroom or toilet, what is to stop men piddling on their shoes in the semi darkness? Conventional light bulbs are clearly best in this respect.

This is all a distraction from the real issue – that the government of Bully Britain has allowed the country to fall into a huge economic depression, sorry, recession, sorry, credit crunch, and seems incapable of fixing the problem. Instead people like Harriet Harbully are pratting about with unnecessary discrimination laws and banning our traditional light bulbs in order to score green brownie points. Disgraceful.

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

I almost bought the game there and then, but I hesitated because I have been tricked before by publishers withholding DRM restriction information at the point of sale. I remembered that the original retail release of Two Worlds had Securom-like limited activated installations. You could not even play the single player game without an internet connection to activate the game first, which is an issue for some people. This fact would limit sales, but cannily Southpeak do not put this information on the retail packaging, so the customer does not find out until they get home and cannot play the game they have paid for.

I waited to check the DRM info online before buying. As I feared, it turns out that this edition of Two Worlds also uses DRM to limit online activations.  The game does not use Securom, but it does emulate the unpopular limited online activations DRM restrictions of Spore, Mass Effect etc.

Two Worlds allows you to activate only three times. If you change your hardware, you have to reactivate the game on the same PC, using up another activation. If you run out of activations then the game will not work and you have lost your money – unless you contact the company’s customer support and talk them into lowering your activation count to allow you to play. Like any right thinking customer, I am not willing to jump through hoops at my own time and expense in order to get a product to work. More fool anyone who is – DRM is an artificial restriction on product use, not a genuine customer support issue.

So I decided not to buy Two Worlds Epic Edition. My money, my computer, my choice.

If you read the support forum for Two Worlds Epic Edition (click here for info) you will see that the forum moderator believes that their limit of three activations is nothing like Securom’s limited activations. In his own words, “Well this is nothing like SecuRom that is keeping many players from buying games.” Honestly, is this guy trying to deceive the public, or just ignorant?

Southpeak could have easily set their DRM to automatically roll back the activation count by one every month, so that customers are far less likely to run out. This would be so easy to do even I could write the SQL code to update any competently written DRM database! Instead, your activation count will need to be reset by customer support.The forum moderator says he will lower your activation count if you give him your serial number and are willing to give him your private email address. No wonder this guy thinks their DRM is great – Two Worlds customers are paying to keep him in a job!

Check out the DRM Charter for more info

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

Congestion charging is a flawed idea in Bully Britain anyway. Here’s why:

1. Pro-congestion charging people say that road pricing reduces pollution. However, the truth is that if we introduce a set of charges for driving at different times on different roads then drivers will feel it necessary to drive extra distance on varied, longer routes in order to save money.

2. Congestion charging is unfair to the poor. The entire concept of road pricing is to reduce the number of cars on the road by making it more expensive to drive, thus there will be less poor people on the road, leaving roads clearer for the rich to drive. Hardly charitable or considerate, is it? Talkjack thinks that this concept is immoral and tantamount to the rich bullying the poor off the roads.

3. Britain already has some of the most expensive, most highly taxed petrol and insurance in the world. British motorists pay more than enough for the privilege of driving.

4. The rationale behind road pricing is to reduce congestion on the roads. The inconvenient real reason for congestion on British roads is that the population of Bully Britain has risen dramatically due to immigration, and the average population age of Britain has increased over time. Therefore there are more tax paying motorists, but investment in new roads has been deliberately held back for political reasons.

5. Congestion charging is bad for local businesses because they will get less customers, and deliveries become more expensive.

Was the Manchester vote fair?

I believe that the Manchester vote was conducted in a way which actually increased the odds of a ‘Yes’ vote to the congestion charge. Here’s why:

The charge was advertised as mainly non-residents of Manchester would pay the charge (i.e. people commuting into or out of the city would mainly have to pay), and yet only the residents of Manchester were allowed to vote on it. I believe that controlling the right to vote, and denying everyone affected by a decision the chance to vote is a method which controls results, and if the vote goes your way allows you to claim that democracy made the decision when in fact politics and money speak louder in Britain.

Compare this to the voting for the unpopular Coventry BIDS scheme for example

No means No!

Will the authorities of Bully Britain listen to the ordinary people when they say a clear ‘No’ to congestion charging? Sounds unlikely. Already those who want to impose congestion charging on us against our wishes are moaning about the low turnout, when in truth 53% of the public is a rather high proportion these days.

To those with power in Bully Britain, I say: “Please listen to the ordinary people for a change. No means No!”

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

It sounds like it will work like this:

1. A job is advertised.
2. People apply for work.
3. Shortlisted people are interviewed
4. Interviewed candidates are scored against job criteria. In my experience hiring people in different organisations, this is often done by scoring each interview answer out of five, then averaging the results. This will usually give a small list of people who scored identical high marks if they are capable of doing the job.
5. Under the new proposals, white males will have their legal right to sue for sexual or racial discrimination removed if they are not given the job, but the female or non-white candidates will have more legal rights if an equally qualified (equal scoring?) white guy is offered the job.

Read the original report here.

In my opinion, this is legalised racist and sexist discrimination. Just imagine, if for example, the BNP had sufficient seats in parliament to push through a proposal that used exactly the same technique and almost identical wording to stack the odds against non-white candidates. Everyone would call that racist, right? There really is no difference, except that Harriet Harman’s so called Equality Bill uses the specious argument that equality of success based on skin colour or gender is fairer than equality of opportunity, when everyone has an equal chance of finding work.

Right now the number of unemployed people is rising dramatically in Bully Britain due to the recession. The Nu-Labour government that presided over this plunge into recession could take the opportunity to help the poor unemployed people of all ethnicities and gender to find work, but instead Harriet Harman shows no sympathy to the large number of white guys desperately looking for work.

Harriet is reported to have said that she will not hold back these ‘tough new measures’ because fairness costs nothing. Oh really? I think her idea of fairness will cost jobs for white guys in favour of everyone else. That is what is intended to achieve after all. Discrimination in favour of your political sympathies.

Well, Harriet, my family are voters too. My father is in his sixties and has just been made redundant. He got no redundancy pay because the company went broke under your government. He worked in the building industry, which has suffered greatly in recent months. My poor Dad is unable to find work because of his age. I notice your ‘Equality Bill’ does nothing to help older unemployed people. And given your proposed legislation is to make it even harder for him to ever work again because he is male and his skin is the wrong colour, it appears you don’t care.

Care to guess how many votes Labour are likely to get from the several households which comprise my family, Harriet? Could it be because we feel bullied and discriminated against? Thanks a lot for helping to turn Great Britain into Bully Britain.

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009

The Heavy Handed Stick

Sacred 2 uses an implementation of Securom which limits your activations. Rather unfairly, this information is not available to shoppers on sales websites such as Game UK, which means the DRM enforced restriction is unknown to the shopper at the time of purchase.

The limit to two activations seems extreme. Ascaron do allow you to deactivate Sacred 2 before uninstalling it, however this is not great. It relies upon the customer remembering to do so before uninstalling, it relies upon their PC not developing a fault requiring repair, it relies upon the customer’s PC having open firewalls and antivirus software which does not block Securom as a dangerous application (mine does), and it relies upon internet connectivity even for single players.

If you keep sufficient evidence of purchase then you can phone up (at your expense) and ask them to decrement your installation count by one to allow you reactivate your game. That is assuming they believe you.

Therefore, the customer is required to plan and manage their installations of Sacred 2 in order to avoid difficulties in activating the game when they later reinstall it. It seems rather unfair when you consider that pirates will have downloaded this game and not be forced to tolerate DRM restrictions; only paying customers have to tolerate DRM.

Remember, Securom does make permanent changes to the Windows config of your PC, which has been reported to cause hardware problems for some computers. It is very difficult to uninstall Securom from your PC once it gets on there, and Securom usually installs covertly without your express permission, as do viruses. This is one reason why people have previously accused Securom of being a rootkit.

The Feeble Carrot

In a marketing ploy similar to Shareware, Sacred 2 allows you to play a limited demo of the game. The limit is time based; after 24 hours the demo stops working.

However, unlike Shareware, Sacred 2 will leave your PC with Securom DRM installed and running, even if you uninstall the game. This is standard behaviour for Securom. This means that Sacred 2 is not very desirable, especially when you consider that in order to get their hands on this ‘demo’ an honest customer will have paid full price for the game disc anyway.

Unnecessary Digital Restrictions

All this heavy handed DRM nonsense seems way over the top for Sacred 2.  Here’s why:

Sacred 2 is not a massive hugely anticipated blockbuster of a game. It is the sequel to a mildly interesting Diablo rip-off which will only appeal to a limited section of the PC games market. Therefore I do not anticipate the same massive outcry over the DRM in Sacred 2 that was evidenced for big blockbuster games like Spore. Instead, I anticipate limited anger about the heavy handed DRM in Sacred 2 because gamers are less bothered about this game.

I own the budget version of the original Sacred game. It is supposed to be the Gold edition of the first game and its expansion fully patched up by Ascaron. It is DRM free. However, Sacred is not a great game. It is still buggy even after all these years. Apart from lockups and crashes, Sacred even suffers from the sound cutting out if I fire the dwarven musket or cannons too often.

While searching for technical support for the problems I have suffered running Sacred I came across many people reporting DRM problems with the game back when Sacred was launched. Seems they were having DRM problems with Sacred back then. However, these days the Sacred 2 tech support people tell you to contact Securom not them if the game fails to activate.

My honest opinion of Sacred is that it the game was unresponsive to play, buggy, and appallingly translated. Ascaron obviously did not spend enough money to translate from German to English. Much of the dialogue is nonsense, and after finished Sacred I could not understand the plot at all because the English was so poor. I have no idea what the final movie actually meant, it seemed to be gibberish. Maybe Ascaron spent too much money on DRM instead?

Conclusion

I do not consider Sacred 2 Fallen Angel to be a must-have game. Far from it. If the game was much cheaper with a light touch disc check style DRM such as safedisk, or better still DRM free then I would impulse buy it. However in its current form all Sacred 2 warrants from me is a quiet ‘Meh!’

I will wait for the DRM free budget version, if there is one. Sacred 2 Fallen Angel does not seem worth spending my money on right now.

(c) Copyright Talkjack 2009