Category: Europe

Blog Nation: what would I like to see discussed

Posted on by David Landon Cole

Sunny ‘Liberal Conspiracy’ Hundal is organising a follow-up to 2008’s successful ‘Blog Nation’ event. Details over at Liberal Conspiracy, but Sunny asks what we’d like to discuss; below the fold, then, are some thoughts.

In terms of logistics, I would make three suggestions. Given the layout, it’s important that each table isn’t talking amongst itself thereby making so much noise that you can’t hear the speaker. Secondly, there are two breakout rooms. I would like to see the two used for an hour each for anyone to stand up a present an idea for five minutes. Thirdly, I’d like to see it recorded and ideally live streamed. Certainly, the plenary sessions could be on uStream or BlogTV.

Continue reading “Blog Nation: what would I like to see discussed” →

In which the EU completely misses the point on headphones

Posted on by David Landon Cole

The European Commission is calling for a suggested maximum volume to be set on MP3 players, to protect users’ hearing

reports the BBC. One proposal is to have a limit of 85 dB, which can be overridden as far as 100 dB. This is a bit daft for three reasons.

Firstly, it’s a bad idea. If someone really wants to listen to music at an unsafely loud volume – say the front row of a rock concert – that’s their choice. If I want to listen, in my own home, to a popular beat combo at a high volume, but not inflict it on my family and neighbours, that’s my shout. You cannot listen to the Eroica quietly.

See what I mean?

Secondly, it won’t work. It will not be hard to simply remove the offending piece of technology – it’s really not that hard to join bits of wire together. Moreover, the 3.5mm plug is universal. One of its joys is that headphones bought in Taiwan will work on a CD player bought in Tennessee in my living room. This is eBay, currently listing over twenty thousand results for a search within ‘consumer electronics’ for ‘headphones’. In any case, it will just make people who do want to listen to loud music buy portable speakers.

Thirdly, it misses the point. Instead of going after people for damaging themselves, they should do something about annoying others. Specifically, by doing something to stop people playing bad music on bad speakers or bad headphones on the upstairs of the bus or on the train home. It’s really annoying. Encouraging them to go out and buy speakers to they can listen to loud (often shit, often SouljaBoy) music and stick it to the man is just dumb.

They’d have a lot more success if they just put a leaflet in with every pair of headphones sold – prominently, not folded in with the guarantee – saying that listening to loud music can damage your hearing and annoy people around you and here’s a link to the RNID’s Don’t Lose the Music webpage.

xD.

UKIP’s European allies

Posted on by David Landon Cole

The United Kingdom Independence Party are the largest members of the Europe of Freedom and Democracy group in the European Parliament. Amongst their European allies are Dansk Folkeparti (DF or the Danish People’s Party).

DF have published an advert:

After you’ve finished finding the poor photo manipulation (look at the swords…), it’s worth reading the text. In English, it reads:

Headline
NO to large mosques in Danish Cities!
GUARANTEE

Text
As a bolt of lightning from a clear and peaceful Danish summer sky, the politicians in the City of Copenhagen the other day decided to construct a large mosque in the middle of town.
Only the Danish People’s Party Voted against!
The money comes from, among others, the terror-regime Iran, but none of the other parties cared about that.
In three years another giant mosque – on Amager and financed by the dictatorship Saudi Arabia – a reality, if the citizens don’t say stop.
In other Danish towns there are plans*
We give you a guarantee: The more representatives from the Danish People’s Party that get into/are elected to your city council at the November 17th elections, the more resistance against the strongholds of Islamism there will be, also in your city

under the picture
Vote Danish – locally as well

* my correspondent says that this most likely refers to the local-planning regulations, i.e. there are plans which don’t allow for the building of large mosques. But then again, they also don’t allow for large malls either.

The advert also appears on DF’s website under the headline ‘terrorist lairs’.

The Conservatives would not allow the Danish People’s Party (or the Italian Northern League) to join the EC&R group because of their open xenophobia. UKIP seem to have no such problems.

The thirteen UK MEPs sit alongside nine from Italy’s Lega Nord, two each from Lithuania’s Order & Justice Party, the Greek Popular Orthodox Rally and the Danish People’s Party and one each from the True Finns, Mouvement pour la France, the Netherlands’ Reformed Political Party and the Slovak National Party.

My suspicion is that UKIP may become nuttier without a recognisable, charismatic leader like Nigel Farage. I hope they don’t go for the anti-Islam meme that their Danish allies have.

xD.

A tip of the hat to my good friend and all round bad-ass, David Willumsen, for sending me the link and the translation