Wonga Bad, Zopa Good?
This question was asked in an article in Finextra.
It’s a good read.
One thing Zopa has proved, is that when dealing with finance, you can work a sort of co-operative or Big-Society idea, using the standard techniques of the Internet. So in some ways the good thing about Zopa, is the way it has created a comunity around its business, which educates and then brings people to that business.
“The Jubilee was one of the greatest aquatic triumphs of the British people”
This was said by Boris Johnson on American television, when he was promoting his book. There’s a video of it here.
Have we ever had a politician like Boris before?
Boris hints that he could be President of the United States as he was born in New York.
I suspect, he’d make a better fist of it, than some of second-raters, who’ve held the job in my lifetime.
Intel’s Simple Smart Phone
That’s what they say it is. But I doubt it will beat a Nokia 6310i. Read about it here.
But Intel have never eaten ARM yet on electricity usage for a given power.
LinkedIn Passwords
LinkedIn has been hacked and their passwords have been st0len. There are details here.
Usually, I keep my passwords pretty random and unique, but mine must be one that they thought could get them into my Google Account. I didn’t, as I got this e-mail from Google.
Someone recently tried to sign in to your Google Account, xxxx@xxxx.xxx. We prevented the sign-in attempt in case this was a hijacker trying to access your account. Please review the details of the sign-in attempt:
Thursday, June 7, 2012 9:38:32 AM GMT
IP Address: 188.158.25.46
Location: Tehran, Iran
I didn’t trust the e-mail, but logged in manually to Google and changed my password. Incidentally, when I logged in, Google informed me of the suspicious activity.
So it does look like there is some hanky-panky going on.
So login to all your important accounts, where your e-mail address is used as login in any way and check things out.
Government To Ban Forced Marriages
Both The Times and The Guardian are saying that the Government is to ban forced marriage. The report in the latter is here. This is the first paragraph.
PM to announce whether forcing someone to marry should be outlawed amid speculation it could carry jail term.
We should have had this law in place several years ago.
Some might thing that The Times is particularly anti-Muslim today, as in addition, it has a leader very critical of Rotherham Council about covering up a report about the grooming of young girls by men of Pakistani origin and a report about Muslim thuggery in Whitemoor Prison.
I don’t.
All of these abuses must be removed from this country and I support those devout Muslims, who are working to that end.
A Death Sentence for Dancing
This video is on the BBC’s web site. It tells the story of four women and two men, who may have been sentenced to death at a wedding for dancing. The Pakistan Supreme Court is investigating.
The Republic Does the Torch Proud
This morning, I’ve watched the torch go through Dublin. Crowds are as big as ever.
You only know it’s Dublin, as you see green Irish rugby shirts, the odd tricolour and the Georgian houses still have their original railings.
The only problem was that they lost the 3G signal, when Jedward carried the torch, as everybody was there.
An Historical Snippet From Gyles Brandreth
Gyles Brandreth can always be relied upon to add something of note to a discussion. He has just said that the Duke of Edinburgh‘s mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, was at the Diamond Jubilee Thanksgiving of Queen Victoria.
She stayed in Athens during the Second World War, and this snippet, shows an insight into her character.
During the fighting in Athens, to the dismay of the British, she insisted on walking the streets distributing rations to policemen and children in contravention of the curfew order. When told that she might have been shot by a stray bullet, she replied “they tell me that you don’t hear the shot that kills you and in any case I am deaf. So, why worry about that?”
So did the Duke get his forthright character from his mother?
Why Do The French Like the Queen So Much?
According to this article on the BBC web site, the Diamond Jubilee has gone down well with the French.
So why is this? Could it be that she’s probably the only English-speaking leader, who speaks reasonable French in public?
If You Think the Eurozone is the Only Place with Financial Problems, Look at California
This article on the BBC web site, discusses the problems of California. Theirs may not be as large sums, but because of the way their political system works cutting the state’s $16billion deficit is going to be very difficult, due to American’s complete aversion to the raising of taxes.
I wonder how many other states are in a similar states.
The Anonymous Widower 