DISQUS

"The area was teeming with rather sickly couples (some even wearing matching his hers outfits) but other than that it was very pleasant."

Hehehehe. I've threatened to buy my parents his her tracksuits.....

The photos look gorgeous. Glad you had a great time!

See ya when you get back.

Sorry I missed you on msn...my msn isn't working properly so I was using an online version, so didn't see you.....

Have an enojoyable, fun, and safe trip!

The bank holiday weekend means nothing to me....given i have this whole week off ;)

good luck with the sleep experiement.

you know me oh too well ;)

:-O Plugging something on your blog without trying it first???! Disgraceful behaviour.

Hey that's a great idea!!!! I assumed you're signed up ;)

A cult following you might say ;)

My parents grow chillies. We had one set that set your fingers alight on just touch......

We donated a pot to our elderly neighbours, who are rather curious on all this 'foreign' stuff....They enjoyed it ....

Have you tried growing corriander, mint and other herbs? They grow really well here, and are absolutely delicious.

I think I now know what to get you, if you ever have a) a house party, b) I actually attend .... ;)

aw...I wanna see as well! :D

Good you're having fun. Take care of yourself.

Thought I recognised that hairline ;)

Is that you fuzzed out?

Sounds exciting stuff. :D

Was the taxi damaged?

How far away are you from the office?

Oh no! How are you going to survive without the bbc news???

Glad that they let you view this site though. Does that mean you can't access your gmail account?

*points at Tom* He's still advertising!

Bah humbug. I refuse to spend a fortune on a phone. Even if it is a snazzy...gorgoeus...sexy....wonderful..*drools* er..

yes. What was I saying?

Indeed. I'm particularly unimpressed about the whole 'uber database' business that's going on at the moment. The privacy and issues regarding that alone should deter the government from going down that path. If not privacy - then atleast they should consider the cost.

Yikes! How'd they get your details????

I'm glad it was resolved though!

I'm playing Devil's advocate here.

There are forums out there that are frequented by extremists groups. There are forums out there frequented by 'children lovers'. There are forums out there that describe in so many details how to kill yourself, and also how to kill other people.

To say that you can allow people to visit what sites they want to go to is fine. But is it sensible? Children will look on the site, read it, and say to themselves 'well it's online and no-one has taken it off, therefore its fine'. I remember a few years back there was a big law suit going on between France and Amazon. France bans Nazi memorabilia being sold. Yet this memorabilia is sold freely on Amazon, so French people were buying the memorabilia through the Internet. France argued that this should not be allowed. They had a good point. I can't remember the conclusion of the case though...

I agree that freedom of speech is being eroded. Not just in countries like China, but also in the UK and the USA, and I hate that as you very well know. But at the end of the day each government creates policies and rules by which to govern the society by, such as murder and drugs being both illegal. The Internet may be a global source of information, but remember that there is a lot of information and knowledge that certain societies and culture deem unsuitable.

For instance, India has a very strong stance against pornography. Both creating it, and watching it. Some of the sites it recently banned were those of pornography. Now this isn't a case of eroding people's freedom. This is a case of ensuring that Indian laws were followed.

Unforutnately you can't take appropriate action against sites that 'the majority finds morally / ethically unacceptable', due to freedom of speech. Most of these websites such as the one I mentioned earlier, and a few others that I have stumbled upon are hosted in the USA, where they are protected by the freedom of speech law or however it is referred. So those sites are here to stay.

I agree that the Internet should be literated and a platform open to everyone. However, I should point that the only sites blocked in India that are causing the problems are some blogging websites. The claim is that they're trying to block websites which spew hatred, extreme right groups and other things like those,. So in a way the Indian government is trying to take appropriate action against sites that are morally / ethically wrong. Yet unfortunately, in the process other innocent blogs have been made unreadable which is where the issue arises. I personally think the bigger issue is where the line is drawn.

I have seen many sites which should be by all accounts banned, or made unavailable online, because of the contents.

Censorship is needed. But the question is how much censorship is needed, and who defines censorship.

I'm going to play devil's advocate here.

"“Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information.

The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression.”

Freedom of expression - What is the definition?

The Internet is a wide forum, and as of yet has very little policing. Chat rooms monitored - Don't you need to monitor chat rooms where you know young children frequent on to protect them?
Deleting Blogs - What if those blogs were harmful as in demanded violence against a race / religion/ person be carried out?
Blocking Websites - What if those websites were for far right extreme groups?

I recently was involved in a debate on freedom of speech, particularly on the Internet. In the argument, someone gave me a link of a web forum that was targeting 'children lovers'. The website was sick. Should that website be allowed to exist? Should it not be monitored? Should those who write their blogs on that site be allowed to have the blog exist in the first place?

I think what you're talking about is the situation with Google in China, and more recently the situation in India, where certain blogs were made inaccessible. However, how is there is distinction made in what Amenesty is saying?

(This may all come across as garbled for which I am very sorry for. Tis Late, and I'm tired...)

When you going????

Hehehe. Erm...I have a horrible feeling it may be turned into a teen slasher. I'd be surprised if it wasn't. Let's hope they change the name. Better still, lets pretend the remake isn't happening...

:-o

seriously?! Hmmmm....maybe. We'll see. maybe i'll try, but that means messing around with my laptop, and thats a pain.