Buccaneers
If there was ever a reason to worry about the bullying tactics of the current government of the USA it was the recent story that broke about ‘The Pirate Bay’.
The Pirate Bay is a site (the servers being based in Sweden) which hosted torrents for a range of materials including Movies, Music, Games, TV and Books (to name but few categories) It is one of the world’s most popular websites for file-sharing.
On May 31st Swedish Police entered the premises of Pirate Bay and seized a number of file servers. The servers not only hosted the torrent information but also the files and pages for a number of perfectly legitimate sites. It behoves me to say that Pirate Bay is operating legally under Swedish Law. The sites were back up and running within a couple of days from the Netherlands and are now back up and running in Sweden.
The RIAA in America obviously have a big problem with this information being hosted and materials being made available with royalties being paid to artists. They have a sent lots of legal request for cease and desist and warning letters which Pirate Bay promptly ignored because they were operating perfectly legally.
Now it turns out the White House was behind the raids. Swedish Television says it has documents that show the U.S. threatened to go to the World Trade Organization to impose economic sanctions against Sweden if the site was not stopped. The message reportedly came through the American Embassy in Stockholm.
According to the documents, a chief prosecutor was called to the Justice Ministry and ordered to take action. Dan Eliasson, state secretary to the Minister of Justice, has admitted that the American government suggested there was a risk of sanctions against countries that don’t respect international copyright protections. He also says the ministry provided information on the issue to the chief prosecutor including what are described as “instructions and priorities”. But, Eliasson says, no improper pressure was put on the public prosecutors.
What on earth are the American Government doing trying to bully another government into taking actions against it’s OWN citizens when they are obeying that country’s OWN laws? Does anyone think for ONE SECOND that America would do that if it were asked told to do that by another government?
My Thanks to Radio Sweden
My Holiday (part 8)
The Valley of the Kings. (3 tombs)
The first was a relatively short tomb, when we went inside it was amazing, the colours were fresh and bright. The fact that it had been carved from SOLID ROCK over 3000 years ago was mind boggling and tribute to an amazing technological feat. The 2 engineers in our group were suitably impressed.
The 2nd tomb we entered was one of the longest open to the public and had a ‘dogleg’ about halfway down. This dogleg had actually recently led to the discovery of what was thought to be a new tomb but was more than likely a cachette of Roman origin given that there were 7 or 8 coffins in the tomb.
This tombs walls were protected from Wear and graffiti by large plexiglass panels which (sadly) distanced the viewer from the Chamber wall (and history)
It seemed like a competition as to who could point out the Gods and Goddesses that we had recently become so acquainted with. (there were some in the party who were a little too competitive I think.)
The final tomb was a downward sloping tomb again very long and very richly decorated. About halfway down the cavern was a huge red granite cover for something, we couldn’t quite come to a consensus about what it could be for and by the time we got out we forgot to push the matter with our guide. At the bottom of the cavern was an enormous room containing detailed carvings and painting of religious scenes as well as the lid of a great stone sarcophagus with the pharaohs body carved onto the lid.
My Holiday (part 7)
Today was another early start but only 6:00am today.
We got up and had breakfast as usual before catching the minibus with another (older) couple (from Scotland)
Our first stop was the Colossi of Memnon, 2 huge seated figures of an ancient pharaoh at the site of an Temple that had been destroyed by an earthquake thousands of years ago.
It was here that our guide really showed his worth, he told us he was a former archeologist and teacher who gave us a great overview of the history of Ancient Egypt.
He told us that the Colossi were named not after an Egyptian figure but a Roman Emperor. The Roman Emperor Memnon died and thereafter his mother began having strange dreams wherein a strange voice called the name of her son. These dreams continued for some time. She travelled led to Thebes and visited the site of the destroyed temple. The statues were still standing (seated) but had become somewhat derelict, wind and occasional rain having created fissures and holes and chambers in the great stone giants.
As she stood before the figures the warm desert winds blew across the chambers creating a sound which she was adamant was the voice from her dreams. In an effort to please the monther of the former emperor, the district commander had the statues renamed after Memnon. is this tale true? – who knows but it was a great story and well told.
Next – The Valley of the Kings
A Drip too far?
So Thames Water failed to meet Ofwat’s (the Water Authority Watchdog) leakage targets in 2005-2006. Not only that but it was the third year in a row. It admitted last month that it was leaking 894 million litres of water per day.
Then they post pre-tax profits of £346.5 million in its financial year ending March 31, 2006. That’s right they are leaking water at an astonishing rate and still making huge profits for their shareholders.
Sounds bad for them, eh? They’re going to be in trouble from the Watchdog aren’t they?
Well no, actually. Ofwat decided that “a fine it wouldn’t have gone to protect customers, but to the Exchequer. This is the right answer for Thames’ customers and for London.”
Where is the sense in this ? A company fails to meet government set targets which results in essential services being reduced [you can’t get much more essential than Water] and a drought in the South East of England. Despite this the company makes £340 million profits for it’s shareholders (who may not even be in England as it’s a German owned company.) and NOTHING is done about it by the Industry Watchdog. Why am I still living here?
My Holiday (part 6)
Today was another early start. Up at 5am to breakfast and the down to the Temple at Karnak. We’d already been at night but now we were going in the day – early morning to be precise.
It’s HUGE site (250 acres or thereabouts) There are so many carvings and hieroglyphs on the site it difficult to comprehend.
The entrance to the site is a massive wall split by a gate. There is graffiti on the wall some of it put there by Romans and Greek travellers, there is even some put there by Napoleons soldiers 200 years ago.
The next part is the Hypostyle Hall, it contains 34 MASSIVE columns , all delicately carved and painted. Those hieroglyphs which have been shielded from the sun are still vividly coloured even today.
Mrs S had an incident with a local when she went to the bathroom. It involved toilet paper (or lack thereof) and demands for baksheesh (tip) – I’ll say no more.
Parts of the site are sadly in ruin but thankfully there are other areas which are still fantastically well preserved given their age.
On the way to the hotel it was back to haggling with a taxi-driver over prices before having a 2nd round of breakfast (greedy – I know) and a nap before lunch.
The camel trip was both good and bad. It was fun (and a very literal pain in the ass) riding the camels and doing the touristy thing but I felt really humble when the camel trip went through some local villages , these were areas abject poverty. Seeing the half-built houses and the children walking around in clothing that had been handed down for several generations. I felt really awful having the equivalent of more than a few weeks wages in my pocket.
I knew I was being ‘hustled’ in a way to give more by way of a tip but I know I wasn’t being conned in any way as these people really did live in poverty.
My Holiday (part 5)
I was woken up by my alarm clock at 4:40am this morning – WTF! I remember that I’d set it so that I’d have time for a long shower before we left for the Balloon Ride.
F*ck that, I decided for more sleep. I eventually managed to drag myself out of bed and got dressed and ready. Mrs S seemed excessively happy considering it was 5am and, wait for it, -her 40th birthday.
I gave her the Silver Ankh that I had bought for her yesterday in secret. When we were ready we knocked for BiL and SiL and (tiredly) trooped down to the lobby.
We were ushered immediately out into 2 minibuses (although not before Mrs S got caught up with another group and was almost ushered off to places unknown.) The minibus meandered down to a ferry to take us lazily across the River Nile whilst we had coffee and cake for breakfast.
On the other side we trooped into more minibuses and then we rattled along to the Balloon take-off site.
We got to the take-off site which turned out to be a small patch of concrete surrounded on all sides by fields of crops, so not exactly inspiring me with confidence. When we arrived the balloons were already inflated and so we just had to undergo the usual safety talk before being shouldered into the (albeit large) basket.
WHOOSH!!!!!! 
Damn that flame that is LOUD and we were up, up and away.
We were up for an hour and I took lots and lots of pictures. The view was magnificent, we saw right across the Nile and over the Valley of the Queens and temples, as well as the Colossi of Memnon.
When we reached earth again the ground crew entertained us with a song and dancing with the ladies and then we hopped back on the minibus back to the hotel.
The rest of the day was spent working up a sweat flaked out by the pool.
My Flickr pics
