Pledge Bank

www.pledgebank.com

Found this through the No2ID campaign. All those times when you've thought that you'd like to do something but you wanted to know that you weren't the only person in the world, now you have a place to get others to pledge to do the same.

I personally think that some of the pledge by dates are a little soon, especially for what appears to be site still in the beta phase but the idea is long overdue.

Book Watch

This is for a book that pulled me away from my normal genres.

Worth reading through - it's a very human story.



You'll note that I've solved the problem about images - thanks to Amazon updating their html code for linkthroughs

And another

http://www.no2id.org.uk
You can tell these are riling me - nothing for over a month and then two posts at once.
This particularly.
I took part in the original YouGov survey on ID cards way back when. At this point it was proposed at £50 - not the exorbinate £300 now being mooted. The stat that 57%, or there abouts of respondants supported the scheme is actually made up of about 32% strongly supporting and 25% somewhat supporting. Just remember the price difference also in this. And this before the findings that, on average, the biometrics only work on about two thirds of the populace

I still fail to see how an ID card is going to help the 'war on terror'. Now, I get having a (inter)nationally recognised ID but surely, isn't that what the passport is for? Or the driving license? I get an ID for those who choose to live in the UK and don't drive or fly but at £300 !?! WTF? What good is yet another card going to do?
Now if the plans were to incorporate all existing licenses into one ID, it would make SOME sense.

But in the current state, it just smells of a back-hand deal; of some American company who have had one too many US focus groups flat-right saying NO to national ID so they have decided to bully the other side of the Pond instead to try to answer to their shareholders.

More very likely to follow (assuming RL doesn' bite me in the ass again)

Make Poverty History

http://www.makepovertyhistory.org

Does what it says on the tin.
I'm beginning to think more and more that the politicos need to be seen to be doing something to alleviate the suffering that we see day in, day out.

Otherwise, there's going to be point that it's all just going to kick off