Relaxing advice... for stress just in

Just received in my Inbox... good advice for fighting stress!

RELAX!!!

I thought I might share this with all my 'nutty friends'... hope you have a fabulous STRESS FREE Day!

Apparently... everyone can appreciate and relate to 'Patches'.



'Patches' has a thought for today... he asks that you handle every stressful situation like a dog...

Piss on it and walk away!

Nuclear submarine collision in Gibraltar... what if?

As you may have heard on the news yesterday, both Britain and France admitted that two of their nuclear powered submarines, HMS Vanguard, armed with Trident nuclear ballistic missiles and Le Triomphant, also armed with strategic nuclear missiles, collided while submerged in the Atlantic earlier this month.

As I took in the news yesterday, I wondered how long it would be, before this event would be connected to the polemics of nuclear submarine visits to Gibraltar and transitting the Bay of Gibraltar area. Well, I didn't have long to wait.

Today, a couple of esteemed colleagues, British expats who write on matters that surround them, (and whatever else takes their fancy... ) in Southern Spain, Andalusia and Gibraltar, over at Tilting at Windmills and JimenaPulse, both made the connection to the issue in blog posts.

I suppose, understandably, they pose the question, "Nuclear submarine collision in Gibraltar - what if?"

While the usual suspects in the area, such as the 'greens', some PSOE politicians and no doubt one or two of the communities' mayors, will get all a'fluster, in their usual way... they just love any opportunity to stir this one up... there really is very little real cause for concern.

The collision, undoubtedly embarassing to both Navies, was from a point of view of nuclear threat, minimal. For starters, these submarines' hulls are designed and built to withstand extremes of pressures. Even a collision at speed would be unlikely to rupture the actual hull. The fact that these submarines enter and leave or transit the whole of the Bay of Gibraltar area at slow navigating speeds, often even being aided by tugs, (at slow speeds) makes the possibility of hull ruptures, never mind damage to reactors, through a collision, completely negligible if not farcical.

As for the nuclear weapons themselves.... the chances of one of these going BANG!... due to a collision, again is nigh on impossible. These weapons have to go through a myriad of sequential steps, before they are properly armed or able to be triggered and ready for launch.... never mind accidentally going off. It's just not physically possible for this to happen accidentally.

I know what you are thinking.... after all... they did also say the Titanic was 'unsinkable' right? But... I think we really need to get real here. Alarming the local communities about risk to life and limb... or their health is ludicrous in this particularly context, in my humble opinion.


There are much more real threats to health to all the communities in the Bay of Gibraltar. I am referring of course, to the very well documented issues of pollution in the Campo de Gibraltar area. Huge, uncontrolled and unacceptable pollution caused by the CEPSA Refinery, Acerinox and other industrial plants along with the endless and again, totally unacceptable levels of benzene, often because of bunkering activities in Gibraltar itself, that are constantly experienced throughout the area!

The Plataforma por el Estudio Epidemiologico (which includes the ESG and Bay Bucket Brigade) have been campaigning on these issues for a very long time. In November 2002, a complaint was lodged with the EU and is still awaiting a substantive response!

These groups have been seriously questioning the legality of pollution and especially benzene levels present in the Campo and Bay areas for decades.

This, to my mind, is far more worthy a cause to complain about... even to raise the alarm about... as a matter of urgency, for the better health of the people and communities of the Bay of Gibraltar and Campo de Gibraltar areas! It's long overdue. For some... it's actually too late... I suspect, yours truly included!

Facebook say... 'Relax, we won't sell your photos!'

Caroline McCarthy writing in CNET News' The Social, talks about a change to Facebook's terms of service, which has "created a firestorm of banter on the Web" and asks: Does the social network claim ownership to any user content on the site, even if the user deletes it?

Apparently, Facebook reorganized its terms of service last Wednesday. In a blog post, company legal representative Suzie White provided an explanation:

"We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and could not do on Facebook, but now we're consolidating all this information to one central place.

We've also simplified and clarified a lot of information that applies to you, including some things you shouldn't do when using the site."

The blog post sounded benign. But the brouhaha arose on Sunday over a revision in the wording of Facebook's policy over what happens to profile content--shared items, blog post-like "notes," photos--when members delete their accounts.

I think Ms McArthy is spot on when she says, "most Facebook users won't give a hoot"... and that only "a few vocal advocates" of copyright reform and privacy, not to mention photographers and writers who may want the photos they upload or "notes" they write on Facebook to eventually lead to some kind of profit, will no doubt be alarmed and continue to debate the issues on who owns what.... and what can they do with it!

Ultimately though, for the average Facebook user, surely... do they still need to be told to be careful what they upload and say on their profiles? Does it really need to be said? I think so... ad nauseam... Be careful what pics you upload... I don't care what Facebook says... you never know WHO will copy them and what they will DO with them!

As for what should really happen when a user deletes their account? I agree with Michael Murdock's comment (on the article page)... Facebook should offer an option:

A. Delete and hold - remove my account for 6 months and if I don't come back in that time, delete permanently, nothing saved.

B. Delete Permantely, Immediately

Well, that's clear enough and I completely agree. However, confusingly, Mr Murdock goes on to say, "of course, you have archived copies of things, but those are understood and since the user is closing their account and not returning they forfeit the rights to those things".

No Mr Murdock... if a User wishes to delete HIS account, he should also be able to remove ALL traces of his posts, images, etc as they are generally tagged when someone uploads something into the system.

Otherwise, as Mr Murdock rightly concludes:

"If not, you need to strangle your programming team as they've basically screwed you.

I'd be asking a lawyer to ask a court to demand that such a contingency be in place so that when user A decides he wants to vanish from facebook, every email, every photo, every video, etc. just disappeared and was filled in by something else."

If I was the User, I would not care what Facebook chose to fill my vacuum with... so long as it's not my content!

The debate.. will no doubt go on endlessly!

Join in Action Against Guilt Upon Accusation Laws in NZ

Internet Blackout NZ - A Week of Action Against Guilt Upon Accusation Laws in NZ.

Join The New Zealand Internet Blackout to protest against the Guilt Upon Accusation law 'Section 92A' that calls for internet disconnection based on accusations of copyright infringement without a trial and without any evidence held up to court scrutiny.

The word is already out and hundreds of people are learning about this law (even Stephen Fry).