What you don't realize is that I've had to invent a word just for this post.
And that word is "spuritans". I'll be using it a little later to describe the pontificating fuckwits who turned up on tonight's edition of Newsnight with various half-arsed theories as to why bits of my country are currently on fire.
However, before I get to all that, a quick (public) apology to 7th_tableau and anyone else who used a Windows-based PC to access the ReleaseLog links in my previous post here. It's not that Linux and Android have made me complacent (far from it - I regularly use a netbook running Windows 7), it's just that familiarity with the practice of not inviting hordes of nasties to bugger my computers' arse flaps prevented me from issuing any dire warnings to the readership concerning the plague-worthiness of sites like ReleaseLog (a.k.a. Pandora's Chuffbox...which may or may not be an Avatar reference - jury's still out). I've no idea if Google still append those ever-so-friendly "This site may harm your computer"-style messages to their search results for such places, but they probably should.
As the owner of a five-year old mobile telephone, a twenty-year old television set, and no training shoes whatsoever, I'm not really best-placed to expound upon, or even understand the thieving mindset of your average urban rioter/plunderer/hooded gitwizard. In fact, the only explanation I can offer is to point at the calendar (oh, hello school holidays), and mention in passing that I've been arguing the case for U.S.-style summer camps for decades. Yes, send the little bastards far, far away, and tire them out with menial pointlessness. It's the perfect preparation for life...apparently. Bleeding hearts who rap seem to have other ideas, and a lot of the Press seem terribly keen on just locking 'em all up. Alas, short of getting British Gas to be a little more creative with their prison piping, there's an overcrowding problem standing in the way of that "solution", hence my feeling that all this hot air represents two ends of the "spuritan" continuum.
One particularly useless aspect of the current crisis is horribly familiar to anyone with a working knowledge of underworld history, since the police's complaints about how these blaggers are communicating bears all the hallmarks of centuries old whinging about Cockney Rhyming Slang, albeit with a modern technological twist. If I were deeply cynical, I might suggest it's a new form of niche marketing on BlackBerry's part, but as the handsets are getting pinched, rather than being sold, it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. Nevertheless, you can read about it here:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/blackberry-london-riots/
On a final, personal note, I'm re-entering the capital fray on Thursday...only coincidentally when the whole business is to be debated in a recalled Parliament. Tally ho...
However, before I get to all that, a quick (public) apology to 7th_tableau and anyone else who used a Windows-based PC to access the ReleaseLog links in my previous post here. It's not that Linux and Android have made me complacent (far from it - I regularly use a netbook running Windows 7), it's just that familiarity with the practice of not inviting hordes of nasties to bugger my computers' arse flaps prevented me from issuing any dire warnings to the readership concerning the plague-worthiness of sites like ReleaseLog (a.k.a. Pandora's Chuffbox...which may or may not be an Avatar reference - jury's still out). I've no idea if Google still append those ever-so-friendly "This site may harm your computer"-style messages to their search results for such places, but they probably should.
As the owner of a five-year old mobile telephone, a twenty-year old television set, and no training shoes whatsoever, I'm not really best-placed to expound upon, or even understand the thieving mindset of your average urban rioter/plunderer/hooded gitwizard. In fact, the only explanation I can offer is to point at the calendar (oh, hello school holidays), and mention in passing that I've been arguing the case for U.S.-style summer camps for decades. Yes, send the little bastards far, far away, and tire them out with menial pointlessness. It's the perfect preparation for life...apparently. Bleeding hearts who rap seem to have other ideas, and a lot of the Press seem terribly keen on just locking 'em all up. Alas, short of getting British Gas to be a little more creative with their prison piping, there's an overcrowding problem standing in the way of that "solution", hence my feeling that all this hot air represents two ends of the "spuritan" continuum.
One particularly useless aspect of the current crisis is horribly familiar to anyone with a working knowledge of underworld history, since the police's complaints about how these blaggers are communicating bears all the hallmarks of centuries old whinging about Cockney Rhyming Slang, albeit with a modern technological twist. If I were deeply cynical, I might suggest it's a new form of niche marketing on BlackBerry's part, but as the handsets are getting pinched, rather than being sold, it doesn't really stand up to scrutiny. Nevertheless, you can read about it here:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/08/blackberry-london-riots/
On a final, personal note, I'm re-entering the capital fray on Thursday...only coincidentally when the whole business is to be debated in a recalled Parliament. Tally ho...