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Sark chasm

Published June 29th, 2009 in ambrand. 0 Comments

Sark Island (pop. 600), Bailiwick of Guernsey, Channel Islands is a Crown Dependency in the southwestern English Channel. It has a population of about 600. Sark’s main industries are tourism, crafts and finance. Sark has an area of two square miles (5.45 km²) and was the last European territory to abolish what some called classic feudalism, in 2008.

Owners of the island’s 40 tenements had an automatic seat in the Chief Pleas, and islanders chose 12 people’s deputies.

Sark’s government can directly trace its roots back to Queen Elizabeth I, who once granted the ruling “Seigner” a fief on the tiny Channel Island.

The unelected descendents of 40 families brought in to colonise Sark, after the French abandoned it in 1553, had governed life on the island ever since. But its feudal system of government started coming under pressure in 2000 in the light of human rights laws. Two proposals for reform were rejected in 2005 and 2007

Seneshal Lt Col Reg Guille, who acts as a presiding officer of the Chief Pleas, said the original settlers of the island would be “horrified” at the change. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “Sark is seeking to reform its feudal constitution in order to make it comply with the European Convention on Human Rights and other international obligations. The UK is responsible for ensuring that Sark’s constitution meets those requirements and the UK is vulnerable to challenge if it does not.”

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The plight of the deposed Royal Family

Published June 29th, 2009 in ice breaker, republics and lord of the manor. 0 Comments

The United Kingdom has a Royal Family, and a member of the family - the Queen - is actually a head of state.

New Royal Families haven’t been “created” for about a century, indeed activity is in the other direction, as rules, and thus Families are deposed form time to time. But Royal Families, like all families, never really die; someone carries on the name, even a 100th cousin. But once a member ceases to hold any official position the raison d’etre seems to become historic. So if we look at countries that are now republics can we really call decedents of former kings “Royal”?

* Brazilian Imperial Family (deposed)
* Bulgarian Royal Family (deposed)
* Greek Royal Family (deposed)
* Korean Imperial Family (Deposed)
* Koch Rajbongshi Royal Family India (deposed)
* Grand Ducal families of Mecklenburg (Schwerin and Strelitz) (deposed)
* Laotian Royal Family (deposed)
* Nepalese Royal Familydeposed)
* Italian Royal Family (deposed)
* Romanian Royal Family (deposed)
* Portuguese Royal Family (deposed)
* Princely Family of Schwarzenberg (mediatised)
* Yugoslavian (Serbian) Royal Family (deposed)

Let us take the example of Karel Schwarzenberg. Who? Well his full name is Karl Johannes Nepomuk Josef Norbert Friedrich Antonius Wratislaw Mena von Schwarzenberg. He is the current head of the House of Schwarzenberg, the eldest son of Prince Karl VI of Schwarzenberg and Princess Antonie von Fürstenberg. His full title is His Serene Highness The Prince of Schwarzenberg, Count of Sulz, Princely Landgrave in Klettgau, and Duke of Krumlov.

The territory once ruled by the House of Schwarzenberg is now part of the Czech Republic. The President of the Czech Republic is now the head of state of the Czech Republic. So what does Schwarzenberg’s title mean today? Well what does a hereditry British peerage mean? THe raison d’etre of a seat in the House of Lords has been removed.

To answer the question fully would be impossible but having a title retains some advantages’

*A personal sense of pride in ones family history
*Invitations to events in the former terriroty as an honoured guest
*An extra line on the CV
*A prefix on the Business Card

But the most important advantage
*Money - all Royal families were at one stage rich, and so, chances are some of that wealth still exists.

Returning to Karel Schwarzenbeg, while his status as HSH gives him no political power he did manage to get elected and was Minsiter for Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic from 9th January 2007 to 8th May 2009. Could he have secured that position without his title?

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Summer 2009 Soundtrack

Published June 29th, 2009 in life soundtrack, autotune, swagga and auto tune. 0 Comments

This week I have been mostly listening to Black Eyes Peas - Boom Boom Pow. The official video is ace, but embedding has been disabled.

I appreciate the chosen tempo, a chronotron speedup must have been tempting but it doesn’t work

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NameCheap problems

Published June 23rd, 2009 in bad business, held to ransom, ransom and registrar. 0 Comments

I rarely use namecheap.com to register domains anymore. They have a nice clean control panel but everytime I want to register a domain I end up using GoDaddy instead because their price is usually USD 1 cheaper.

So I only login to namecheap to unlock domains and get EPP codes so that I can transfer to GoDaddy. I’m not sure if its incompetence or a strategy but for the third time this year a domain I have with namecheap has ceased to appear in their control panel. That means I cannot unlock it and I cannot get its EPP code. So I can’t leave namecheap!

I’ve contacted their customer support, but because there is only 45 days left that human being will certainly know why I want to modify the domain! Will he/she drag his or her heels?

This is a textbook example of a problem so complicated that it will never make headlines.

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History of Advertising

Published May 17th, 2009 in stop motion, retro, era of cheap plastic, shell tracksuit, 1980s, 80s and advertising. 2 Comments

Toyota Corolla - South Africa - 1984
This is so 80s! it makes no apologies, It is the best Toyota ad ever; The catchy tune, clothing, robot dancing, stop motion movements. It’s so exciting you’ll feel like buying the car, but you can’t, you wouldn’t even be able to find a second hand one so much time has passed. Can someone let me know did this ad appear cheesy at the time or what? Surely it must have I can’t believe that styles can change that much.

Ford Fiesta mk2 - Spain - n.d.
The mk2 was produced from 1983-1988. This ad boasts five gears and the dashboard looks quite “modern” so I’d guesstimate its from 1988. he music isin’t great, but stop-motion shots of 80s clothing definitely places this one in the museum of cheesyness.

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Overthinking

Published May 4th, 2009 in dudley moore and piano. 0 Comments

Two intellectuals - played by Dudley Moore and Peter Cook - deconstructing the lyrics of a innuendo laden boogie woogie song with hilarious results.

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Beethoven’s Piano

Published May 4th, 2009 in dudley moore, not victor borge, only joking, xeonphobia, comedy, jingoism and piano. 0 Comments

Rule Britannia. Fantastico, I’ve almost mastered 00:01 - 00:40 as my party piece. The above video isn’t me playing, but lets pretend it is.

Dudley Moore was a genius. I never laughed at a instrumental performance before.

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1and1 sucks

Published May 2nd, 2009 in fool me once, once bitten twice shy, poor service, customer support nightmare, blacklist, renewal scam, problems, bad registrars, 1and1 sucks and sucks. 2 Comments

1and1 is a domain registrar. I used them last year to register a novelty domain that now has a successful blog on it. I chose them because - at the time - their price was the best around. I intended to transfer the domain to my favourite registrar (GoDaddy) before it expired.

However about 10 months in I got an automated email from 1and1 saying they had just charged my credit card, I logged into the control panel and say that “Auto renew” or something similar was enabled, so I blamed myself for not turning that off previously, and for not cancelling the PayPal billing agreement.

However, a WHOIS showed that 1and1 hadn’t actually added another year to the expiration date. I emailled their customer support address and the responder, whom I assume is based in India, said, in a roundabout manner, that the extra year would only be added on the expiration date.

Now, if you know about domains, then you’ll realise the problem this creates. If I transfer the domain away, say today, then by the time that original expiration date comes around the domain will be with another registrar and 1and1 will get to keep my money, without having provided any service, that is what is known as 100% profit, good for them, but a textbook rip off for me.

Today I got an automated email from 1and1 reminding me to renew the domain. WTF they already took the money, sounds like my friend in India doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I have little time to bad registrars, and having encountered multiple problems the time has come to jump ship, and transfer the domain away. Yes, I’ll lose USD 8.88 approx, but it has to be done.

Goodbye 1and1 I will never use your services ever again, this was your a second chance.

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Ulster Bank sees red

Published April 1st, 2009 in proofreader, customer service, editor, poor design, ulster bank, bad design and sucks. 0 Comments

I went in to Ulster Bank to lodge money to my landlords account. The reason I went to the branch - and didn’t just do a credit transfer using online banking from the comfort of my palace - is because I like to have a paper receipt as evidence that I paid the rent, should the landlord later despite the fact. Alas, a printout from online banking just doesn’t carry the weight of a real receipt. Remember a receipt, by definition not supposed to be produced by yourself!

As a loyal customer of the competing AIB Bank (who incidentally have the best online banking in Ireland), I entered the Ulster branch sheepishly. Surprisingly there biros actually worked, also the writing desk ran the length of the queue allowing me to complete the lodgement docket while keeping my place in the moving queue.

However, the lodgement docket on the desk looked like some internal piece of paperwork that had been put out accidentally. Firstly it was printed in red ink, now as we all know red means danger! Colour is a wondrous thing, but when it comes to serious documents care must be exercised. Black is always good, the default choice. The only other colour acceptable in my opinion is the corporate colour of the bank, for example AIB uses purple and Permament TSB uses blue, and that is good.

Returning to the red docket, the words didn’t make sense.

What is the word “house” doing there? At a glance I thought this a a mortgage payment docket

What does “Details for advice to receipient” mean, it is not even written in proper English

What is “Description Value”, if it just read “Value” it would refer to the Euro currency amount

With these difficult questions in mind I half filed in the docket, and after watching Sky News UK on the widescreen TV, I made it to the counter, and presented the half completed docket with “House/Truncated Credit” crossed out and Lodgement written instead. I then got a printed receipt, not a counter foil.

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Bremner, Bird and Fortune

Published March 23rd, 2009 in british comedy, channel 4, british humour, the internet is great, mimick, excellence and comedy. 0 Comments

This man is a genius, the voices, the expressions, the clothing, all spot on, and his pieces are actually informative. Imagine you’ve been in a cave for a year and watch the videos below, they sum up the current economic crisis.