the fourth place

Wouldn't that be something!

I gave up trying to estimate what proportion of the UK population the existing 588,353 petitioners is likely to represent (the available stats on internet access alone are pretty terrible) and gave up trying to predict the final score (based on earlier observations) after finding an Open Office Calc tip sheet that conveniently forgot to include a trend function for logarithmic growth.

But hey, with 25 days left a big fat million just seems right, no?

I'd still much rather ID cards was enjoying more of a lead, but the level of interest in opposing an arguably more intrusive measure is reassuring.

My trip to Peru looks to be in danger thanks to El Nino. There are reports on BBC TV of floods and mudslides in the "central region" which I fear means the highlands. Luckily, I haven't booked yet. Hmmnn... maybe that Ski trip is a better plan.

Nothing on the FCO site yet.

I wrote before about the strange notion of an interest rate that is too low, sparked by an unqualified mention on a UKIP party blog. People moan about high interest rates and interest rate rises so often that seeing it the opposite way around seemed bizarre. Without realising I'd even entited my previous post "Interest rates too high?" a neurological misfiring of the highest order - now corrected.

Anyway, I found a piece via Samizdata a UKIP sympathetic blog about the notion of denationalized money and how it can cure certain ills arising from an increase in the quantity of Government controlled money.

Inflation can only result if governments expand the money supply in an attempt to prevent the rise in unemployment. [....] The influx of new money, to the extent that it artificially lowers the interest rate, stimulates investment, especially in producer goods. Once the inflation is brought to an end, or once the interest rate is no longer too low, the uneconomic nature of the investments becomes apparent. The temporary boom ends up as a recession.

I've long heard arguments that the current administration's handling of the economy will lead to some kind of fantastic bust, citing money supply. Things are starting to go click in my head.

a real spaceship takes off, lands.

The unfortunately named Dick Hardt gives a brilliant presentation on what he calls Identity 2.0, after Web 2.0. The goal of good identity, he says, is to mimic the photo ID card - a form of ID that offers privacy and scalabiity by ensuring that everyone has the things necessary to check it without directly involving third parties.

Watch the presentation, if only for the brilliant presenting style which has translated very well online too.

If I'm paranoid, then I'm not the only one:

A massive 79 per cent of respondents reckon a "surveillance society" is already upon us and 37 per cent feel they are being spied upon.

Somebody once explained to me that psychological disorders are only defined as deviations from a social norm and some pretty funny things are actually normal, or at least quite common. Does this mean anxiety about Big Brother can no longer be considered paranoia by definition? What an interesting social change that would be.

The article is also, curiously, entitled Rebellion stirs in Big Brother Britain. Rebellion? The tory-right have already called it a plastic poll tax...

07/01/2007 make that 116471 people, oh my.