Because I'm a bit too busy at the moment (with good stuff, more of which later), here is a press release.

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The UK Government plans massive new security snooping on the internet,under their ‘Intercept Modernisation Programme’. Internet Service.

Providers are already required to keep our ‘traffic data’, now government wants to get hold of this data whenever they like.

Some of the plans you'll have heard about - including plans to “snoop on Facebook” and other social networking sites, by looking at your internet traffic as it passes through special government equipment.

Even more seriously, they may intend to centralise all the info they can in a central database, or get special access to ISPs’ data stores, so they can retrieve information without having to ask ISPs first.

== ACT NOW ==

Please contact your MP to ask them to bring your concerns to the attention of Jacqui Smith. If you get a reply, it will probably be lazy and a brush off - respond and you are very likely to get a better answer. This page has a template letter and links to further info:

http://www.openrightsgroup.org/act-today-to-stop-government-snooping-on-the-internet/

== WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ORG? ==

To find out more about our supporters, in particular what motivates you to campaign for digital rights and how we can better help you take action, Open Rights Group is holding two focus groups in the evening of 27 and 29 April. If you can help us out for a couple of hours, please email to supporters@openrightsgroup.org with 'focus' as the subject heading. We'll reply with a brief form for you to fill out and return, which will ensure we get a balanced, representative view of our supporters.

The focus groups will take place at our office in central London. We'll cover reasonable travel expenses to be sure of getting supporters from across the country. Looking forward to meeting some more of you!

From Fox News.

AUSTIN, Texas —

Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report.

The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.

The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.

Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless. Five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50, the report said, the Austin American-Statesman reported Wednesday.

I would say that pretty much the same thing happens in the UK - so, what is the solution?

Here's the crazy idea, if it costs $3 million for these people to keep attending the emergency room, and that isn't counting the cost to other people of ambulances and A&E staff being tied up with these patients - how much would it cost to provide 24 hour care for those people? Because if it costs less, wouldn't that be a more effective use of money?

Per year each person cost $55,555 which, while clearer, isn't as 'sexy' a number as $3 million - it's pretty obvious why the larger number is the headline. That isn't, I think, enough to provide 24 hour care, it's the cost of one and a half hip operations. If you moved all nine people into one house you could cut some costs there and then I think it *would* be cheaper to look after them. And with that sort of concentrated care you could maybe move towards 'curing' them of the things that they keep attending A&E for.

Of course, there would be opposition from those that would argue that it is not 'fair' on those people who work every day, pay their own rent and struggle to make ends meet. But even with that argument, isn't that annoyance worth having more free space in ambulances and A&E departments? And if you save money, well, that's just more hip operations for the people who 'deserve' it.

I don't know - am I being daft, because it seems pretty obvious to me?

There are currently around 6,000 signatures for the petition below.

This is from the RCN website - and I'm happy to reproduce it here.

Dear Colleagues,

Last week, many of you will have seen extensive media coverage around RCN member Margaret Haywood who was removed from the nursing register for breaking patient confidentiality. Margaret took part in undercover filming as part of a BBC Panorama documentary in 2005 which exposed poor care at the Trust she worked at.

Margaret has been supported by the RCN since charges were brought in relation to her participation in the Panorama programme. Whilst the RCN cannot condone breaking patient confidentiality, we feel that the decision taken by the NMC to remove Margaret from the nursing register was unduly harsh.

The RCN would always encourage members to raise any concerns they may have about patient care with their employer in the first instance. However, if members do not feel able to do this for any reason then they should contact the RCN as a matter of urgency and we will take action on their behalf.

In consultation with Margaret, I am currently working with the RCN's Director of Legal Services, Chris Cox, and Margaret's barrister to look at the legal options around the NMC's decision. Although we are not able to make public the detail of these discussions at this stage, we are investigating what grounds there may be for an appeal. If an appeal does go ahead it will have to be lodged within 28 days of the NMC's decision to remove Margaret from the register.

In order to gauge the feeling around Margaret's removal from the register, the RCN has set up an online petition. This is open to anyone that would like to show their support for Margaret. Due to the fact that the petition is aimed at gathering views from the general public and the nursing profession, I don't feel that it would be appropriate for RCN staff members, myself included, to sign the petition. However, please be reassured that the RCN is vigorously defending Margaret and supporting her at this time.

The petition can be found at: www.gopetition.com/online/27030.html.

Yours sincerely

Peter Carter

Chief Executive & General Secretary

As some of you may know, as well as being ambulance staff, I'm also a registered nurse. For that privilege I pay the NMC a sum of money every year to be on the professional register. If I am not on that register then I cannot practice as a nurse.

Should I ever have to leave the ambulance service nursing would allow me to pay the rent.

The NMC have the power to strike me off the register, meaning that I would no longer be able to work as a nurse.

Which is why this blog should come to an end.

No longer can I be safe to tell you all about the terrible conditions in some of the nursing homes that I go to. I can't tell you about the problems that occur in A&E and I can't shout about the atrocious state of home/social care.

It's just not safe because to whistleblow like this can result in you being struck off the register.

What this decision means is that all bloggers that have a professional registration are now skating on thin ice. Nurse bloggers, Doctor bloggers, Paramedic bloggers - all these are on a professional register and all end up writing about situations that trusts would rather were kept under the carpet.

Might I also suggest that in the cases of hospital trusts wanting to get rid of a 'troublesome' staff member they may well turn to organisations like the NMC, HPC or GMC to do their work for them. I know I could point you to HPC rulings that appear to do that, not evidential to be sure, but it does look very much like that.

One further suggestion that I'd like to make is that you don't see many managers being taken to the professional registers for malpractice. Are any trust managers from Stafford hospital being struck off any professional register that they might be on?

What I can say with certainty is that, as a nurse, no matter how many Incident Reporting Forms you fill in, nothing seems to change. You end up not filling them in at all, because you know that they will be ignored.

So you want to shout about the situation as loudly as you can. Which can lead to you losing your job or being struck off the register - which results in your career ending.

Which is why most people just try to o the best they can, and avoid 'rocking the boat'.

And this is why I should stop blogging.

But I won't. I, and many others who are braver than me, will continue to try and get the truth of the situation in the NHS out there, out in the public eye because that is the only way that change occurs.

It's the right thing to do.

This is the sort of thing I love. The BBC releasing video and assets under a Creative Commons license. It's one of the reasons I'm more than happy to pay my TV License (which really should change it's name as the BBC is much, much more than TV these days).

R&DTV comes as an edited 5 minute programme and also as a longer version and an 'asset bundle' which contains everything that didn't make the edit.

Imagine a future where you could download the assets of a TV programme like 'Planet Earth', remix and re-edit it, add subtitles for other languages and recut sections to be used in schools.

We pay for it, why can't we be allowed to 'own' it?

It would also help prevent the terrible situation where knowledge that is 'out of print' suddenly becomes unavailable.

For example - my brother (a teacher who really should write a blog) has a teaching resource book called 'Science Investigations - pack 1' edited by Richard Gott and Ken Foulds. Collins educational have let it drift out of print, and so my brother can't get hold of packs 2 and 3.

This means that the children that my brother teaches don't have access to something that my brother assures me is an excellent teaching resource.

If it is out of print and it wasn't making enough money to keep in print - why not put it up on a website somewhere so that it can be downloaded? Archive.org give free hosting for such things, so it would cost nothing, but would let people keep that knowledge alive. Downloading from Collins would also put Collins in that person's mind and so would have a 'relationship' with the publisher.

This is just one reason why I make everything that I do available under a Creative Commons license. Including my second book, and should I every get around to writing it - book three.

A Metropolitan Police officer who suffered serious head injuries while investigating a robbery has died.

Armed officers attempted to stop a vehicle in Stratford, east London, early on Saturday morning.

They followed the car to Ashlin Road in Newham, where 37-year-old PC Gary Toms was critically injured.

Pc Toms, who joined the force in January 2002, has been described as a "dedicated officer" who was known for his "professional attitude".

Gary, 37, joined the service in January 2002. He moved to CO19 in November 2008. Prior to that he has served within the TSG and Barking and Dagenham borough.

Ch Supt Bill Tillbrook, in charge of the Met’s Specialist Firearms Command, said: “My deepest sympathies go to Gary’s family, friends and colleagues at this distressing time. Gary was a dedicated officer who died doing the job he had trained to do. He was a hard working police officer who was known amongst his colleagues for his sense of humour and professional attitude.”

The Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson said: "This is especially poignant news given that Gary died on the 25th anniversary of Yvonne Fletcher's death.

"It shows us all that the potential dangers officers face when doing their duty are never far away.

“To lose such a young and promising officer is the most tragic of losses for his family - my most sincere condolences to them. This is also a loss that the wider Met family should not, and never will, forget."

I don't know if we ever met in a professional capacity, but that doesn't matter, my thoughts go out to his colleagues, friends and families. I was following the story since Sunday and hoping that he would recover.

A court in Sweden has jailed four men behind The Pirate Bay (TPB), the world's most high-profile file-sharing website, in a landmark case.

Now the IFPI should go after Google for doing the same thing (hint, type the name of a copyrighted bit of media and the word 'torrent' into Google's search box).

Once Google has been found guilty they should go after the ISP's, after all, it is their service that lets people download illegal content.

After the ISPs, they should sue Apple and Microsoft because they make the software that runs on your computer that lets you connect to the internet to download copyrighted content.

After Apple and Microsoft they should sue the power companies because they provide the power that computers use to download illegal content.

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My question would be - how much of those damages payments are actually going to go to the artists? I know that if I were an artist being handled by one of the big companies I'd ask for that amount to be pointed out in my royalty payment. I think it'd be a rather small amount.

I know I like to parody government snooping powers, but I think that ORG have outdone me here.

Take a look at Statebook - it is a spoof government site, listing some of the information government holds on an individual citizen.

The site also shows what what new information the Government want to collect, through new schemes, like the “Intercept Modernisation
Programme” which could even include amassing all of our Internet traffic data in a single government database.