Blakes7 April 2001

blakes7@lists.lysator.liu.se

70 participants
295 discussions

Depression (Was: [B7L] Back again)
by Tavia 31 Mar '01

31 Mar '01

Ross wrote: >For some reason, antidepressants and Blake's 7 >seem to go well together. I remember we had a whip >around a while back, and it seems that enough b7fen >had taken antidepressants to start their own list. Pretty common in general population too, though. I don't know the stats offhand but seem to recall on average one would expect around 50% of UK population to be treated for depression at some point in their lives, and some staggering proportion attempt suicide (10% ??). Herbal anti-depressants (eg St John's wort) are among the most commonly taken non-prescription agents. Tavia

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Re: [B7L] Back again
by Tavia 31 Mar '01

31 Mar '01

Jacqueline wrote: >Didya miss me? Nice to see you back, Jacqueline (if one's allowed to be so warm and fuzzy?). >I'll bet that the crew got a full load of prozac >or drugs like it on board somewhere within the >first ten episodes. I've always seen Prozac as something akin to the suppressant drugs in TWB, actually. It damps the troughs, yes, but also (in my experience) flattens the peaks. It increases energy in a way that felt to me like 'productive worker bee' food (very Brave New World). And it kills the sex drive in a fairly high proportion of recipients. Tavia

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Re: [B7L] surveillance systems
by Tavia 31 Mar '01

31 Mar '01

Nathan wrote: >The SIS advertised for positions the other day, for field officers. Hmm... I'd advise against applying... My ex-husband applied to work for GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters -- sort of the Civil Service end of M15...). After they offered him a job (nature unspecified), the positive vetting process took more than a year, in which they interviewed about 20 of our friends, including fairly intrusive questions about drug taking, sexual interests/positions/possible homosexuality, detailed finances, trips to Eastern bloc countries &c&c. They also asked for a complete listing of *my* life-time sexual partners, with addresses. They also appeared to follow some of our friends around. Frankly, I'd have been staggered if our phone hadn't been tapped.... And no, I am not joking or exaggerating. If only. > the UK's government allowing MI5 to snoop on emails I suspect the e-mail thing has been in operation for some time: several people who work for said organisation also use public-key-encrypted private e-mail and have done for years and years. Tavia

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Paediatricians
by Nathan Hook 31 Mar '01

31 Mar '01

Or, in one infamous example, because you're a paediatrician. said Una. someone told me of an incident in the US a few years ago now, that a gentleman won a mayoral election race, due to a smear campaign he organised. it was entirely based on the use of words that could be misinterpreted or were not understood. he called the woman candidate a blatant thesbian, a known philanthropist and a string of other compliments and double meanings which were ill-interpreted by the local population. very amusing and all quite legal, but you can see the serious side of it and the danger of public ignorance and mob rule. Nathan. Nothings so difficult as a beginning/ In poesy, unless perhaps the end. Byron. ------------------------------------------------------------ Free, BeOS-friendly email accounts: http://BeMail.org/ Free Peepshow - http://twinfusion.com/comic/peep/

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surveillance systems
by Nathan Hook 31 Mar '01

31 Mar '01

Julia wrote: 2001, and everywhere I go on the rail network and the London Underground, there are security cameras "for the protection of our customers and staff". Large notices drew my attention to the presence... Interestingly here in NZ, my brother was working on a camera surveillance system which operated for service stations. the camera's could flick between the activiation of the till, and the operator using it, to a system we have in nz called eftpos at pump. you put in your "eftpos"(electronic funds transfer point of sale) card and pay for it at the pump. the camera system would flick to that pump, recording all the transactions and general pedestrian movement. They looked at systems in the UK, as bench marks and were very impressed with the traffic system that oversaw vehicle movement in London. aparently you can not get, I forget exactly how far the radius is now, but i think it was 50 miles, within London centre "without" being seen by a camera. Naturally the system has proven itself, with stolen vehicles being tracked and the "biggie" for the authorities the capture of IRA bomb vehicles. the BBC will be wondering if the system was down a few weeks back, but I suppose you have to know the vehicle you're after before you can look for it in the camera system. it's all very interesting. More to the snooping point I think, is the UK's government allowing MI5 to snoop on emails(i'm not sure if it's in law there yet). The NZ government is considering the same thing and a friend of mine has made a submission to the NZ parliament as a result. it's a fundamental invasion of privacy.(a bench mark case here in nz with regards to snooping, was a university lecturer who caught two SIS gentleman ransaking his house. He chased them over the back fence and he managed to get the licence plate number of the car they sped off in. they traced the vehicle back to an empty building here in Wellington, which had connections with the NZ Police. They wouldn not say anything and prosuctions for trespass aparently couldn't be brought. the court system had other ideas and a precedence was set...very very interesting, although individual SIS men (not to be confused with the SAS) were not convicted the court ruled that such ventures against private citizens was a breach of civil rights! . The SIS advertised for positions the other day, for field officers. one had to go through psychological testing and extensive background checks. I wonder if leaping fences 101 was part of the training course. I was going to apply for laughs, but I did that for another job instead and got it...I'll be more careful in future about which job I apply for for laughs next time.) Julia mentioned the definition of "criminal". This is precisely the justification given for the introduction of the email snoop legislation. One MP was quoted as saying that criminals are increasingly using email to conduct their operations and ordinary citizens need fear nothing...hello? Prove it and who decides just who is a criminalby definition? The whole bill is fraught with problems...infact its manifestly problematic and there's no guarantee that the ability to snoop on emails will increase the efficiency of the police to catch criminals anyway. where's the justification? If we're not careful it will be like East Germany. One third of the population reporting on the other two thirds and every phone call tapped and recorded looking for "key" words. the "snooper bowl" theme that you were referring to, i didn't realise that was occuring in the uk as well. I saw a doco on the technology used at the american super bowl to match a data base of known criminals...which was amazing. isn't it amazing how the fiction in SF suddenly parrallels real life. you have to admire SF writers like Terry Nation and Arthur C. Clark then... 'Open the pod bay doors please Hal.' Nathan. Nothings so difficult as a beginning/ In poesy, unless perhaps the end. Byron. ------------------------------------------------------------ Free, BeOS-friendly email accounts: http://BeMail.org/ Free Peepshow - http://twinfusion.com/comic/peep/

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Blakes7 April 2001