A coalition of child protection charities have proposed that the implementation of the Internet Watch Foundation's blacklist should be made compulsory (Ars Technica - UK charities: make IWF Web blacklist 100% compulsory for ISPs).  Interestingly, this comes a few days after an objection to the IWF's charitable status has been made.

"Over 700,000 households in the UK can still get uninterrupted and easy access to illegal child abuse image sites," said advisor Zoe Hilton in a statement yesterday. "Allowing this loophole helps to feed the appalling trade in images which feature real children being seriously sexually assaulted. We now need decisive action from the government to ensure the Internet Service Providers that are still refusing to block this foul material are forced to fall into line. Self-regulation on this issue is obviously failing-and in a seriously damaging way for children."  

Ars Technica reports (Record industry talks Irish ISP into blocking P2P sites) that the largest Irish ISP, Eircom, has agreed to start blocking access to filesharing sites, beginning (of course) with PirateBay.

Ireland's largest ISP, Eircom, has entered into an agreement with IRMA, saying that it will begin blocking access to sites that allow users to swap files and that it will not oppose any court action mandating that such action must be taken.

About a year ago, I wrote a blog article reviewing the OQO 01+ UMPC.   I rather liked this PC, and indeed still do, though one does need to take into account its limitations.  Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the power supply, which after a few months stopped working. 

To clarify, the power supply brick has one output (with a peculiar 5 socket plug, of which more later), and two inputs - one is for mains, the other is for 12V car adapter input.  It is the former input that has blown, and this seems to be far from unusual.  It occurred to me that I could update my blog while on summer cycling holiday, with the OQO plus the Vodafone 3G stick (well, at least while I was within transmitter range!).  However, my workaround power supply required the use of a UK mains > 12V power supply to power the OQO power brick.  Tis is far from being portable.

Poor old Jacqui Smith!  The Home Secretary is currently embroiled in controversy concerning her expenses claim for here "second home" (which turns out to be the home she lives in.  Turns out of course that her "main home" is a room in her sister's house (BBC News "Smith asked to explain expenses".

I've got no opinion as to her guilt or innocence here, but the amusing thing in this report is that it suggests she was turned in by her neighbours:

This more than slightly barmy web page (The Faith of Britain) suggests a band of psychics and "healers", with a bit of help from the British public, will, for a two minute period, focus "positive energy towards achieving our hopes and aspirations".

The date and time chosen for this happening is 6th March, because:

Followers of the huge Operacion Puerto blood doping scandal will remember the affair - Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes offered a blood doping service to professional sportsmen (and presumably sportswomen).  His services are most talked about in the context of professional cycling, but in fact his clients are reported to have included professional sportsmen from other sports.

The saga began with police raids in 2006, when Spain's Guardia Civil collected coded blood bags during its raid on the offices of Doctor Eufemiano Fuentes.  (There is excellent coverage over at cyclingnews.com going back several years.) Fuentes' scheme was to withdraw blood from the cyclists, and store it for retransfusion, a process known as blood doping. This is a formerly legal technique (I believe it was used in the past by the US Olympic track cycling team( but it has been prohibited for many years now.  It's still clearly in use - witness the sorry tales of (for example) Vinokourov and Hamilton in recent years.

Over at his blog Heresy Corner, the Heresiarch has an excellent overview of the continual erosion of our civil liberties (Remember what he said about "British liberty"?).

The article is framed over a series of points made by Gordon Brown in a speech delivered shortly after he took office as Prime Minister.

The former chief of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, has warned that the UK risks becoming a police state (The Daily Telegraph, "Spy chief: We risk a police state").  In the interview, she accuses ministers of interfering with people's privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists.

This is a theme that I've returned to on numerous occasions over the last few months: that the UK Government has used (and, I believe, mainipulated) the terrorist "threat" to force through draconian measures that threaten out civil liberties and right to privacy.  From extended detention periods, to the increased databases held about (and following the Coroners bill, increasingly joined together), the general drift is to a situation where the state has uprecedented access to out communications and other aspects of out private life.Rimmington says

The Guardian reports today (UK mobile phone firms to sell data about customer activity) that mobile telecomms firms have been harvesting data about their customers web browsing habits, and that they plan to uses these data to increase advertising revenues.

The GSMA's chief marketing officer, Michael O'Hara, said: "We can see the top sites, see where people are browsing regularly. See the time that sites are being viewed, the number of visits, the duration of visits and we can also get demographic data so you can have age ranges, male/female ranges. 

The journal Current Biology invited a number of prominent biologists from a number of disciplines to re-read Darwin's On the Origin of Species, and to write commentaries - they can be found at (Re)Reading The Origin.

Charles Darwin's 1859 book On the Origin of Species is much referenced, especially in this double anniversary year. But, does anyone still read it? And, if so, what is the book itself like as a text? We have asked biologists from a range of fields evolutionary biologists, but also geneticists, ecologists, paleontologists and molecular biologists to re-read (or read) The Origin for Current Biology. Below are the responses, contributed by: Andrew Berry, Matthew Cobb, Simon Conway Morris, Jerry Coyne, Hopi Hoekstra, Peter Lawrence, Robert May, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Mark Ptashne, Matt Ridley and Marlene Zuk.