Ok first off I ran into someone from my ex-works and it seems that the stories about my leaving and the reasons and the like are multiplying at a rate of knots. (Chinese whispers anyone>)

Oh yes half the managers are still inept, and incompetant, and the rest are just fucktards pure and simple. Here is a memo they should read every single day:

"You work in a callcentre, your staff do the work, you just deal out the corporate BS. Were you capable of doing the job your staff do you would be a better person, but alas you are not and never will be."

Anyway other than that, some random bits:

A BIT ON SADDAM:
Ozymandias

I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read,
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

--Percy Bysshe Shelley

And cue the caption all of which I copied off Barking Moonbats site.


And finally a comment on the death of Countdown presenter Richard Whiteley. He died from pneumonia, which was a sad and tragic way to go. But he got a nine letter word and used all the vowels.

.

Had an e-mail with the obvious joke about the presenter of Countdown dying. And the text joke is: Have you heard the new Countdown theme? DUM DUM, Dee Dum, Dah de dah,deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee(flat line)
Posted by Hello

Other than that not much to report, work is cool. No phones, no e-mail pinging away, no random shit being throw at us from managers/customers whatever. Should have jumped ship from my old job a hell of a long time ago.

Ran into an old work friend today, and he was saying about how nothing has changed in my old works and how he is looking for a new job. Advised him to do the same as I did just leave, put your cv on the web and let work come to you. He will be far happier in the long run, I know I am.


From Barking Moonbats(also see my bit on the sidebar)www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/

Introducing The Politically Correct Naval Battle

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain celebrated an epic naval victory Tuesday but a descendant of its hero Admiral Horatio Nelson said the Battle of Trafalgar bicentenary was trying too hard not to offend historical enemies France and Spain.

A highlight of the world’s biggest naval review was featuring two fleets enacting a 19th century sea battle.

But they have been called simply the red and the blue fleet rather than by country names, which has sparked a shot across the bows from Nelson’s great great great granddaughter.

“I am anti-political correctness. Very much against it. It makes fools of us,” said 75-year-old Anna Tribe.

“I think the idea of the blue team fighting the red team is pretty stupid. I am sure the French and Spanish are adult enough to appreciate we did win that battle,” she added.

The historian playing Nelson in the mock battle is equally annoyed.

“If you obliterate history for the sake of political correctness, you can’t learn from the past. Nelson thought politicians were cowards. I tend to agree,” Alex Naylor said.

Nelson sent the famous signal “England expects that every man will do his duty” before the 1805 battle off the western Spanish coast that spelt the beginning of the end for Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire.

Nelson, already missing an eye and an arm from previous battles, was killed by a French sniper in the epic battle. He was 47.

Organizers of the bicentenary celebrations were anxious to avoid accusations of triumphalism, especially at a time when Anglo-French relations are frosty as London and Paris clash over the future direction of the European Union.

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Please note this is my personal view based on my own experiances of working in a call centre for the last 8 years or so.

Right now for those who have never experianced a callcentre it is unlike any other job you can think of. Firstly you dont interact on a face to face basis, and as they will tell you a lot depends on your tone of voice. The customer on the end of the phone only has your voice to go on, and if you get that bit wrong then as the song says "there may be trouble ahead..."

When you get into that trade, you realise that several things are different. First off is the fact that most callcentres are shit hot on timekeeping. From my personal experiance I know that they expect you there on the phone in available, pc on and booted up ready for that 1st call of the day by 9AM DEAD. (Or whatever your start time is.) No taking 2mins to zip to the coffee machine, no excuses about bad traffic on the road etc, you got to be ready to go by the time the company starts paying you.

If you are not ready then you will get a file note or some form of warning about being there to "provide customer service". Now get a few file notes(2-5 depending on the company) and you then go onto some "impovement program".

This is the 1st warning on the lines of, shape up or get lost. No point complaining about it, as thats how the business runs. They dont care if your bus was late, you were stuck behind a lorry or your cat exploded.

So you then start getting in early to avoid the improvement programs, or to get off one if you are on one already. Now I move onto the best part of this, a lot of companys have clauses that say that should you be on some development program due to being late, you shall miss out on bonuses and the like, and have pay frozen until you are off that and have been clear of a program for a set amount of time. (Yeah its a bitch, but as you are just a small cog in a corporate wheel you cant do anything about it.)IE No pay increase other than the basic annual increase for you.

Audits and call record. Yes part of the joys of being in the call centre world is that you are listened to. Dont bitch to anyone on the line be it an incoming call/outgoing call or even an internal call. Your boss may be an asswipe, make the mistake of calling him/her that on a call and you shall be summoned to the office at a rate of knots!

Another part of your job is that the company listens to you on the phone so they can check that you dont lie to customers, mis-sell them stuff and follow the FSA guidelines. Each company has its own rules on what it wants and mostly it involves follow the DPA, and be FSA compliant and sell the customer lots of our nice products.

Now mistakes are easily made, and this may seem cynical(and it is) but I know that when audits are done, they can be done in such a way as to mark down people who dont fit in with what the company wants. Can I prove that, no. But I have seen good people who are damn good on the phones getting marked down due to some personal gripe with a team manager that they dont get on with. I will also add here that I have seen some people who get on fine with the same manager make huge mistakes and those not get picked up. Of course the manager will argue if it comes to it that they "read the rules and interpretted them"

Next bit call volume. Now if you think you have been busy before, just wait till you get loose on the phones. In a lot of centres I have seen 13 calls waiting to be answered. So you get a call, deal with the query and then you make a note to do a chaser call to get that resolved, and dig some answers up for the customer. Er no. They end that call and now you got another customer in your ear with another query.

As for callbacks, yeah you got to do them, but when? Ask to come off the calls and its no way. No with 13 calls awaiting an answer, and its like that day after day after day.

Oh and just to cheer you up, if you dont do a callback or resolve a query completely and the customer complains then its your neck on the line.

What your call centre manager will infer if you dare question anything you are told.
Posted by Hello

And lastly some weird pic from b3ta.
Posted by Hello

Ok and now a rant about the media. Found the pic on baking moonbats site.
If we had had the same gutless lefty shits in the media back in the 1940's this would be how they would have reported the war.
Posted by Hello

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BANGALORE, INDIA - Karan Bahree, who allegedly sold information on U.K. bank accounts to a reporter from The Sun, remained at large a day after a news story appeared about him in the London tabloid.

""

The Sun reported Thursday that Bahree sold a reporter operating undercover information on 1,000 bank accounts. Bahree reportedly obtained the data from contacts at call centers in Delhi, where the information was sold. The Sun in its online edition, however, gave the name of the seller as Kkaran Bahree.

Police in Delhi say that they cannot make an arrest unless there is a formal complaint from either the call-center companies in India from where the information was allegedly stolen or from the affected banks or customers in the U.K. "As soon as we get a complaint, we will arrest him," said a police official on condition of anonymity. Police are conducting their own investigations, he added.

"From what I understand there has been no complaint registered with the police here, probably because investigations are still going on in the U.K.," said Kiran Karnik, president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM). " Until they have a complaint, the enforcement agencies haven't much to go by at this point."

NASSCOM announced Thursday that it would cooperate with law enforcement agencies in India and the U.K. to ensure that those responsible for any criminal breaches are promptly prosecuted and face the maximum penalty.

However, Bahree denied the allegations in an interview Thursday to BBC World Service radio, and said that he had given a CD to the undercover reporter at the request of another person, without knowing its contents.

Infinity eSearch, a Web services company in Gurgaon, near Delhi, where Bahree is employed, has distanced itself from its employee. Infinity does not have bank clients in the U.K., and does not handle financial information for its clients, Rahul Dutt, managing director of the company, told reporters Friday in Delhi.

Bahree has been with the company for three months and is still on probation, said Dutt, adding that Bahree had been asked to give an explanation about his alleged role in the scam by 5:30 p.m. Friday local time. Bahree, who was not in the office Friday, sent a written explanation before the deadline claiming, according to Infinity officials, that he gave The Sun reporter a CD at the insistence of a friend without knowing that it held classified contents.

Bahree was employed as a call-center worker by Daksh eServices Pvt. Ltd., a business process outsourcing company in Gurgaon from 2001 to January last year, before the company was acquired by IBM. He quit under normal circumstances, according to informed sources, who added that at the time he left Daksh the company was not offering financial services.

And onto the next:
(The story is at)
http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/jun/24bpo3.htm

Karan Bahree, an employee of the Gurgaon-based call centre in the middle of a scam involving leakage of credit card information, on Friday admitted to his role in the fraud exposed by British tabloid The Sun in a sting operation, his company Infinity e-Search has said.

British tabloid The Sun, on Thursday, had claimed that its undercover reporter was sold top secret information on 1,000 accounts and number of passports and credit cards for about £2,750 and was asked for another £275 later (approximately a total of Rs 2.5 lakh) by India-based Karan Bahree.

The 24-year-old employee claimed he did not know that the information contained in the CD was classified.

Outsourcing and India: Complete Coverage

Bahree, who did not appear in person, sent his reply to the company, which said "he was approached by a person known to him named Sameer, who gave him a CD and asked Bahree to make a presentation to a person named Oliver who had come from the UK".

Bahree made a presentation on the CD and delivered it to Oliver and was paid "some" money, which was shared between him and Sameer, his reply said.

However, it was not clear whether Bahree's letter disclosed the contents of the CD, but it is believed that the CD had phone numbers and bank details of people.

Infinity lawyer Deepak Masih told reporters, "We are handing over the letter to the investigative agencies). Bahree has not been sacked as of now because he has not done anything against the company. DSP of Gurgaon is looking into the case."

Earlier in the day, Masih said: "Our business does not deal with anything to deal with classified information. That's why he cannot take it from our company. If he does something individually out of the job, we are not responsible for this. It is a coincidence that he is working with us".

Last one:
(the link to the story)
http://www.southasianmedia.net/index_story.cfm?id=216401&category=Frontend&Country=INDIA

NEW DELHI/LONDON: A day after the Indian call centre industry's worst nightmare came true, a number of unanswered questions were piling up in London and Delhi.

Banks in the UK made statements that cast doubt on The Sun’s claims as well on the provenance of the 'leaked' data. The tabloid, in a follow-up report, said the banks suggested the information could have come from non-banking companies doing business in India, such as mobile phone firms.

On the Indian side, the man at the centre of the storm surfaced to deny any wrongdoing. And the Gurgaon police began a preliminary probe after orders from Haryana CM Bhupinder Hooda. A Gurgaon police officer went to the Infinity office seeking details about the company and its operations.

Karan Bahree submitted a written statement to his employer, Infinity E-Search.

He made himself heard on Friday but only to make contradictory statements on the allegation in a newspaper that he had divulged confidential information about customers of British banks in exchange for money.

In an explanation issued through his employer, Infinity eSearch, the 24-year-old IT worker admitted to accepting money in exchange for a CD on the instruction of an acquaintance of the reporter who wrote the story for The Sun, Britain’s largest selling tabloid newspaper. But in an interview to the BBC World Service, Bahree denied taking money.

Bahree, who is alleged to have taken $5,000 from The Sun and asked for “another £275”, told the BBC: “No, it’s not true. This associate got in touch with me and he told me to hand over the stuff which he got, it was as a channel, nothing else. I don’t know anything about that. I was just told that this was only simple customer information you get so that a customer could be contacted, nothing else.”

The Sun report on Thursday did not mention the engagement of an “associate” by the journalist, Oliver Harvey. But Harvey wrote the report, which was carried under his name, in the third person, which appeared to suggest that a third party had been employed by Harvey as a go-between.

Infinity eSearch said Bahree, who has been with it for three months and is on probation, revealed in the statement delivered by a relative “that he did accept money from the reporter. He also stated that he was asked by Sameer Asim, an acquaintance of Sun reporter Oliver Harvey, to hand over the CD”.

Deepak Masih, the legal counsel for Infinity, said: “Bahree made a presentation on the CD and delivered it to Oliver and was paid ‘some’ money, which was shared between him and Sameer.”

In the BBC interview, Bahree says: “I am not aware of the contents (of the CD)... I was just told that it only has simple customer information details so that the customers could be contacted.”

The Sun had reported on Thursday that Bahree had sold its undercover reporter information about bank accounts, held by British customers, such as passwords, addresses and telephone numbers as well as passport details. It had said it paid about $5 for each of the 1,000 accounts it bought.

Masih refused to say whether the CD had details of bank accounts and phone numbers. He also declined to respond when asked how it was possible that since Bahree himself had made a presentation, he could claim to be unaware of the contents.

“It is for the investigative agencies to deal with. We are just highlighting the points of the statement,” Masih said, adding that the company would hand it over to Delhi police.

Infinity’s effort on Thursday was to distance itself from Bahree. Rahul Dutt, its managing director, said: “We have no bank clients in the UK and we do not deal with any information that is classified. We are into things like web development.”

One of the big banks mentioned in the Sun report, Barclays, said on Friday details of customer accounts allegedly sold by Bahree had not come from its operations. Spokesman Alan White said: “We have investigated every piece of data passed to us. It is now clear that this could not have come from Barclays operations.

Masih said no law enforcement agency had yet approached Infinity. But IT industry sources said senior officials from Haryana police had visited the company’s Gurgaon premises.

“No one has contacted us... we are not hiding and we have nothing to hide,” said Dutt.

Infinity has not sacked Bahree yet “because he has not done anything against the company”.

According to the BBC, Bahree offered the following explanation of a photo in The Sun showing him holding what looks like dollars. “He offered me the stuff, he told me that this could be yours, he told me this thing, you get me the information. ‘You can earn a lot more like this.’ I said it’s primarily not possible in India.”

A number of other banks like the Woolwich, HSBC and Lloyds TSB said they were investigating the matter. Still others — Halifax, the Royal Bank of Scotland, Nationwide and NatWest — said they did not have any call centres in India.

A recent investigation carried out by the watchdog of City, London’s financial hub, the Financial Services Authority, found that Indian call centres posed no greater risk to security than ones in the UK. It added that in some cases security was better.

"Any claims that Bahree has confessed are absolutely baseless," Infinity CEO Rahul Dutt told Hindustan Times. (PTI had reported that Bahree had admitted to his role in the fraud.) "He has given us a written statement that we passed on to the Gurgaon police in the evening. In that, Bahree hasn't admitted to having leaked any data. In any case, we are not a call centre but a web-design firm and possess no data to reveal. Bahree has told us that some guy called Samir introduced him to Oliver Harvey (the Sun undercover reporter) and he made a presentation thinking that there would be good money to be made."

Bahree also said Samir gave him a CD for Harvey, which he passed on without any knowledge of its contents. He also denied having received any payments.

Meanwhile, with the initial shock caused by the Sun's reporting subsiding a bit, the focus in London has shifted to finding out from where the 'information' came from.

Barclays told Hindustan Times: "We have investigated every piece of data passed to us. It is now clear that this could not have come from Barclays Operations. All the indications are that this data has come from a third party who provides goods or services which require their customers to provide bank details for credit or payment purposes."

The reason for the shift in the line of inquiry from suspicion about call centres to third parties follows very prompt statements from banks like Halifax, Royal Bank of Scotland and Nationwide that they had no operations in India relating to British-based customers.

The City of London Police spokeswoman hinted that the investigation would cover all aspects — including the fixing of original source of the information.

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from an Indian newpape, here's the link : http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050626/asp/frontpage/story_4917114.asp

Bahree jobless, father cries foul
M. RAJENDRAN

New Delhi, June 25: Kkaran Bahree was sacked by Infinity eSearch today for allegedly selling personal data of customers of British banks, but his father said he had been framed.

S.K. Bahree alleged his son was set up by Sameer Asim, a call centre worker and associate of The Sun reporter Oliver Harvey, who did the sting operation on Kkaran.

Infinity eSearch said it had dismissed Kkaran, who used to earn Rs 10,000 a month, to “help the law take its course” and had “provided all the information to Haryana police”.

“We held an emergency meeting of our board today and have decided to terminate the services of Kkaran Bahree. We do not need to give him any notice period since he was on probation,” company legal counsel Deepak Masih said.

The Bahrees’ modest, second-storey flat in Delhi’s Dilshad Garden was dark with all the curtains drawn. S.K. Bahree, insisting that Kkaran was not home, wouldn’t open the iron meshed door but spoke to The Telegraph through it.

TT: Can I speak to Kkaran?

Bahree: What is it?

TT: Is he at home?

Bahree: No, he has gone out. May I know who you are?

TT: I am a reporter.

Bahree: We don’t want to speak to reporters. Please leave us alone.

TT: Don’t you want to give your version?

Bahree: My son has been framed. He is innocent.

TT: Who framed him?

Bahree: The reporter like you and his acquaintance.

TT: Who is Sameer?

Bahree: An acquaintance of not more than a few days.

TT: Don’t you feel it would be good if Kkaran can tell me that? We can present his version.

Bahree: Leave your phone number and address. I will ask him to call you.

TT: Have police from Delhi or Haryana visited your house?

Bahree: No. But has a case been filed?

TT: I don’t know. But London police have said they do not have jurisdiction to arrest a person in India. So Indian police have to take action.

Bahree: Can you give me a written statement of London police? Please courier me the information. Please do….

Cyber law expert Pawan Duggal said: “Kkaran Bahree can be charged under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, and under the Indian Penal Code for theft, criminal breach of trust and cheating. He could perhaps also be charged with conspiracy.”

“Kkaran was a quiet person and would be either home or in the shop behind the building that sells mobile phones,” a neighbour said.

“He used to meet many people at the mobile phone shop and discuss technical matters with them,” added the local grocer.

“He would ask for people’s phone numbers and copy them on another mobile.”

All I can add to that is why not have a look at his former employers site, and drop them a mail on what you think about this: www.infinityesearch.com/


****

Anyway I have been paid and so had some ale at the local JD Wetherspoons and trawled the net for some sillyness and here it is:

These are from B3TA 

 

 

 

 

Anyway in besides the silly bits I had a letter from my former employers. The usual p45 in post and all that legal compliance crap(shame they dont follow that themselves - I refer to the large fines Ltsb had from the FSA only just the other year) and advising about this that and the other. The one thing that was missing from it was a bit about although you have left good luck in your new job or something on those lines(even if they never meant it, it still would have been polite to put it in the letter). Still I expect nothing from that company, and I have yet to be disapointed on that score.

And one last bit of nonsense then I am off to watch tv for a bit:  

And yeah this is offensive but well I had to put it out. 


And whilst I am in a bit of a mood here is a classic on why the French should not be allowed to make descions in NATO or have any input in matters military:

Following the rejection of his Continental System by Czar Alexander I, French Emperor Napoleon orders his Grande Armýe, the largest European military force ever assembled to that date, into Russia. The enormous army, featuring some 500,000 soldiers and staff, included troops from all the European countries under the sway of the French Empire.

During the opening months of the invasion, Napoleon was forced to contend with a bitter Russian army in perpetual retreat. Refusing to engage Napoleon’s superior army in a full-scale confrontation, the Russians under General Mikhail Kutuzov burned everything behind them as they retreated deeper and deeper into Russia. On September 7, the indecisive Battle of Borodino was fought, in which both sides suffered terrible losses. On September 14, Napoleon arrived in Moscow intending to find supplies but instead found almost the entire population evacuated, and the Russian army retreated again. Early the next morning, fires broke across the city, set by Russian patriots, and the Grande Armýe’s winter quarters were destroyed. After waiting a month for a surrender that never came, Napoleon, faced with the onset of the Russian winter, was forced to order his starving army out of Moscow.

During the disastrous retreat, Napoleon’s army suffered continual harassment from a suddenly aggressive and merciless Russian army. Stalked by hunger and the deadly lances of the Cossacks, the decimated army reached the Berezina River late in November, but found their way blocked by the Russians. On November 27, Napoleon forced a way across at Studenka, and when the bulk of his army passed the river two days later, he was forced to burn his makeshift bridges behind him, stranding some 10,000 stragglers on the other side. From there, the retreat became a rout, and on December 8 Napoleon left what remained of his army to return to Paris. Six days later, the Grande Armýe finally escaped Russia, having suffered a loss of more than 400,000 men during the disastrous invasion.

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Original story at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/4618565.stm

Call centre staff lured to India
Call centre workers are being recruited to India

A UK firm is recruiting 150 graduates to work in Indian call centres for a few hundred pounds a month.

Workers earn about 11,000 to 30,000 rupees a month - about £150 to £400. The wage is less than a quarter of the average earnings in the UK.

London-based Launch Offshore says there has been strong interest in the jobs.

The move comes after thousands of UK jobs were lost to foreign call centres. A spokesman for the firm said living in India was much cheaper.

Tim Bond, managing director of Launch Offshore, said workers' flights and accommodation were free and if they broke their contract the only penalty they faced was their fare home - about £200.

He said: "We do not consider this to be exploitation or a gap year, many people enjoy themselves so much or even get married in India that they renew their contracts for three to four years.

'Great challenge'

"Workers, who sign contracts from six months to a year, get a competitive salary similar to their Indian colleagues.

"But the cost of living is much lower - seven to eight times lower - a packet of cigarettes costs 50p and a three course meal is £2.50.

"This is a novel opportunity with travel opportunities and we give people training in the culture so they know what to expect."

Recruits live in flats and apartments which they share with other workers from the UK.

Mr Bond added: "The places available usually have all mod cons and air conditioning and are quite comfortable.

"The people we have out there at the moment are happy, but if they weren't contracts can be broken although of course we do not want to encourage this as it undermines our credibility."

A recent recruitment drive in Newcastle attracted 60 people and Mr Bond is hoping to sign up around 10 Geordies to go to places like Delhi and Bombay.

India is currently suffering a brain drain with skilled workers emigrating for better paid jobs abroad.

Daniel Mowbray, 25, of Whitley Bay, is hoping to sign up with Launch Offshore for a year.

He said: "I think it will be a great experience, I have friends who have worked in India and I have always been interested in the culture.

"I've always wanted to work abroad and I've read up about India - I'm hoping it will be a great challenge."

Not really got anything to add to that, as I think it says it all.

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Yes on the front page of the The Sun, is some worker selling out details of uk customers for money. Yes you can trust your bank to let your details be released to India and it will all be ok. Hurray for Lloyds Tsb closing the callcentres in the UK in order to save a few quid an boast the share price....Sorry I meant to say expand into new markets and make Ltsb a global brand.

And now some chap in todays soaraway Sun reveals how he is going to blag 200,000 identities a month for just £3.00 a time. Just wait coming through your door will be a leaflet from your bank telling you that all your details are safe, and then will be a drive by the banks on ID fraud. Yes for a few pound a month we will protect you from the theft of our staff in Mumbai/Bangalore etc not that we as large multi national organisations would dream of making money from you potentially being robbed by international criminals(IE Our own staff, but if it does happen then yeah we will cover you if you take out insurance with us and make us even more money. Damn I sound cynical there, maybe its working for banks for the last 8 years that has made me that way!)

Indeed at this point I must mention that I had a go somewhat at LTSB selling out UK workers last year and closing down Newcastles callcentre. Even though they did get that well known celeb and ex golfer Colin "30 pieces of silver" Montgomery to promote the Indian callcentre. Mind had Mr Montgomery given his regards to the laid off UK staff that might have improved his standing in MY view. Although no pictures can be found of him at Newcastles job centre on Google. Wonder why that is?

Still now our NO.1 soaraway Sun has reported that the UK public is being robbed blind by outsourced workers it is I think time to demand action on this matter. They are fast enough to act on DPA problems in this country, and pull their staff up on security matters, etc, yet when they work in India it seems to be a different matter..... Hell here's an idea why dont The Sun just hire me as a reporter as I covered this on my last blog about the problems of outsourcing abroad ages ago.

(COPIED BITS)
FROM IAN KING - BUSINESS EDITOR (THE SUN)

INDENTITY theft is the fastest growing crime in Britain - and costs our economy a forune.
By some estimates, one in four Britons has now been been hit by the crime, which is said to have netted criminals 1.9billion in the UK.
Millions of us now shread our letters and credit card receipts to cut the risk of of indentity theft.
But unscrupulous call centre workers who sell on the details of bank customers can bypass those precautions.

Our revelations cast a shadow over the entire Indian call centre industry. Banks have saved millions by relocating operations to India and other offshore locations.

Those operations are on the whole, well run and effient.

Yet it is quite clear that, in some cases, security has been breached.

Now here is the crux of the matter, we can not undo this. The genie cannot be put back and all that. Some Indian worker on £40 a month or whatever works out cheaper than UK staff on 12-20K a year, and if a bank closes its centre down you can bet your ass the costs will be passed onto YOU via charges.

1. The banks win. 2. The banks win.

OK an from the super soaraway Sun's site I have posted this:
CROOKED call centre workers in India are flogging details of Britons’ bank accounts, a Sun probe has found.

Our undercover reporter Oliver Harvey was sold the top secret information on a thousand accounts, and numbers of passports and credit cards.

And today City of London police launched an investigation after receiving a dossier of information from The Sun giving details of the banks whose security may have been compromised.

A number of high street banks including Barclays, the Woolwich, HSBC and Lloyds TSB, said they were working with police.

Harvey, who paid a total of 5,000 US dollars (£2,750) for the information and was asked for another £275 to be sent later, was told details usually cost £4.25 but he was getting a special deal.

Kkaran Bahree, who said he got the details from a network of call centre workers in Delhi, also boasted that he could get up to 2,000 account details a month.

The information received included account holders’ addresses, secret
passwords, credit card details, passports and driving licence information.

In some cases there were also the issue and expiry dates of bank cards, as well as the three digit security number from the back of the card.

A spokeswoman for the City of London Police said: "All the financial
institutions identified have been fully informed of the situation.

"An investigation is now under way. Therefore it would be inappropriate for us to provide further details at this stage."

The spokeswoman said The Sun handed police the names of banks that might have been compromised following an investigation into the security of financial information held at foreign call centres.

"At this stage we are not fully aware of the breadth of what we are going to be investigating.

"We have been handed information and it is being reviewed."

An here is a typical headline from the super NO1 soaraway SUN. Mind you you wont be laughing when its your ID thats been stolen by some worker in India, no matter how nice the tits are on page 3! 

.

Found this cool cartoon and had to re-post it. I think we need a camp like that over here as well. Although you can bet Mrs B(liar) will be invoking the human rights act to get it closed and all the poor little awabs freed again. 


Other than that another hot day in work, the pc gave up the ghost a few times due to the heat! I was considering some overtime, but after 8 long hot hours I had done enough for one day. Still beats working my arse off in a sweat shop call centre taking crap on the phones all day.

Now that I am outside of that place(Lloyds Tsb) I have to say that I wonder how many staff suffer from stress and end up having to leave due to accumilated build up of stress over months and months. Looking back on it, I could have seen me heading that way myself. The sickist thing about it is the company is covered on all fronts. If your off ill, it counts against you. You cant transfer off the phones as it part of your job. And should the need arise you can bet they will find some way of getting you out if thats what they want...

Anyway a cool article on work blogging:

Blogging Employees, Beware
Like any new trend in the workplace, laws and policies may take a while to catch up to the technological reality, and blogging is no exception. Blogs (short for "weblogs") are a form of online communication that can be spontaneous and instantaneous, which can be a real disadvantage sometimes. Employees who choose to talk about what's happening at work, whether it's positive, negative, or neutral, run the risk that their employers will discipline or even fire them, based on what they say in a blog that was written "on their own time." When that happens, they may find themselves without much legal protection for their blogging activities.

For those of you who aren't familiar with blogs, as Palmolive's Madge would say, "you're soaking in it." "Today's Workplace" is my blog, written for my employer, Workplace Fairness (rather than about my employer: a crucial distinction in many cases). One definition of a blog is "a personal journal published on the Web. Blogs frequently include philosophical reflections, opinions on the Internet and social issues, and provide a "log" of the author's favorite web links. Blogs are usually presented in journal style with a new entry each day." (I'm still working on the every day part.) One poll says that 7 percent of Americans write their own blog. So if a company has 15 employees, there's a good chance that one worker has a personal blog.

Bloggers have been at the forefront of technological and communication trends. Blogging employees find themselves at the intersection of several workplace trends:

Employment at will: Most employees still don't realize that their employers can fire them for any reason or no reason, as long as it’s not an illegal reason: it's called "employment at will," and applies to most private employees (unless you're a member of a union or have an employment contract). Just a handful of states might offer some protection for blogging activities: California, New York, and Washington, DC have laws that protect against retaliation for your political activities (which may include your blog if it contains political commentary), while Colorado and North Dakota prohibit retaliation for your lawful activity outside of work (which may include most blogging). Also, if you’re blowing the whistle on your employer's illegal activities, you might have some legal protections, but your blog may not be the best place to do that (consult with a lawyer if you aren't sure). Employees ask “what about the First Amendment, my free speech rights?” Those don’t apply to those who work for private employers, just governmental employees. In most cases, employees don't have laws protecting them from being fired for what's in their blog.

Erosion of Privacy: Most employees have very few privacy protections related to their work. Employers are cracking down on personal usage of the web, e-mail, and any other work-related uses, and increasingly monitoring their employees. According to a recent survey by the American Management Association, three out of four employers monitor workers’ Website connections, while over half retain and review employees' e-mail messages. (See AMA/E-Policy Survey.) The laws that prevent employers from listening in on phone conversations generally don’t apply to the Internet. (See NWI Electronic Monitoring Review.)

Blurring of the Line Between Work and Personal Life: Employers are moving closer to 24/7 access to their employees than everyone ever dreamed. Between cell phones, pagers, PDAs, and home computers, and your boss calling you on your vacation, it's hard to know what is "your own time" any more. Employees are spending more hours at work, and working harder and more productively while they're there. There's never been so much need to blow off steam, and so little time to do it. Employers who expect employees to do any work from home or be available during hours not at the workplace, in turn need to allow employees time to use the Internet for personal use, which includes blogging.

Employers are developing a love/hate relationships with blogs. Companies are using their employees' blogs to expand their reach, generate buzz and encourage consumer loyalty - and bypass traditional media. (See Desert Sun article.) But employers have some legitimate concerns about blogging as well:

* Trade secrets: Employers don’t want employees giving away proprietary information that will aid their competitors.
* Productivity: Employers don’t want employees typing away on their blogs when they should be working, or talking in their blogs about how little work they do on company time.
* Company image: Employers don’t want employees making the company look bad in cyberspace by tarnishing its image, whether it’s the employee doing something the employer doesn’t want associated with the company in any way, or a disgruntled employee who is publicly disloyal to the employer.

How can employees who blog protect their jobs? How can employers balance their legitimate interests with allowing employees some latitude to blog. Like everything else, employers need to create policies that address blogging, whether it involves new policies or adapting existing policies on external communications. Employees who know what their employers' expectations are are much less likely to run afoul of them through blogging.

Employees should follow the guideline: “don’t do anything stupid.” Don’t say anything you don’t want your boss to hear, and if you do, make sure that your boss doesn’t hear it. If you’re saying something you don’t want your employer to hear, experts recommend:

* saying it anonymously;
* using a service to scramble your IP address;
* limiting identifying personal details;
* password protecting it if you just want to share with friends;
* if you’re expressing your personal views about something implicating the employer, adding a disclaimer making it clear you’re not speaking on the company’s behalf

(See EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers.) A blog may feel like a personal diary, but your diary isn't listed in search engines and accessible to anyone in the world 24/7. Some of the posts about work may sound like watercooler rants, but if you do that, you know you have to be discreet. Blogs are not discreet, unless you make them so. Given the lack of legal protections, employees need to be careful, unless they want to be blogging full-time while they're unemployed.

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Due to the incompetance of work losing the last one someplace. So I put in another, and left that with the guys who do the security. They log all the mail that people drop off, so theres a good chance that this one will actually get there.

It also feels weird going back to a place where I worked, even if the management did not. (Sorry bitchy comment and so I had to fire it out.)

Oh have some advise if your a Lloyds Tsb customer and not to happy with the person your talking to, dont ask to speak to a manager. Half the time, the manager you get cant even do the operators job, and yet in a bizarre twist of fate they have to sit down with the staff and pull them up on what "they did wrong" on calls, even though they lack the ability to do that job themselves.

Oh how true this is, just wish we could send the yanks Omar Bakri the hate spouting cleric with the free motor paid for by the taxpayers of the UK.


And a cool pic that someone did of that fat waste of skin John "2 Jags" Prescott. Truely what a talentless little shit he is. The man should go back to serving pink gins as thats all he's fit for, if nothing else it would help him loose some weight.

Fat Lardy Cunt With A Small Cock

Found this on the BBC site:
On your marks
By Tom Geoghegan
BBC News Magazine

According to the laws of language we need them, but are apostrophes really necessary? Not according to those fighting the punctuation purists.

Any advocate of a punctuation cull risks offending a lot of people.

More than 2.5m people have read Lynne Truss's bestseller Eats, Shoots and Leaves, which attacks infringements of the rules of written English language.

But linguist Kate Burridge says punctuation could do with being cut down and the rules of language reviewed.

Her new book Weeds in the Garden of Words considers how the "glorious garden" of the English language has evolved. Just as one weed is another gardener's flower, she says, the same goes for words and their usage in English - sometimes we just haven't realised their virtues.

Public flogging
Burridge's views on punctuation counter those of self-confessed punctuation pedant Truss.

Take the possessive apostrophe, described by Truss as "our long-suffering little friend". It is often surplus to requirements, according to Burridge.

When she suggested on Australian radio that the possessive apostrophe be dropped, she received a barrage of criticism.

"I could not have predicted the outcry," she says. "Public flogging would have been too light a punishment. That was the first time I realised people were so passionate about it."

Truss v Burridge: To hyphen or not...
Once after addressing an audience, a man told her how many times she had said "sort of" and concluded her use of it meant she didn't know what she was talking about.

He represents the views of what she calls the "sticklers", who fiercely oppose her views on language.

"Rules are important, but they are not all good," she says. "People can get too worried about these things. The letters I got when I suggested dropping the possessive apostrophe were quite hostile."

The normal apostrophe is useful but not the possessive, she says. Its supporters say it avoids ambiguity in meaning, (like sisters' books / sister's books), but Burridge thinks context makes it redundant.

The hyphen is also surplus to requirements in many cases, she says, because even the editors of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary admitted they're not sure of its proper usage.

Chatroom style

Burridge argues that dictionaries need to acknowledge new words and usages of grammar and punctuation to stay relevant. She is currently backing a campaign to get the "yeah-but-no-but" catchphrase of Little Britain character Vicky Pollard entered into the Collins English Dictionary.

Modern technology is leading the way in streamlining language. The use of words and punctuation in e-mails, texts and internet chatrooms is a type of speech written down and has loosened the straitjacket effect writing had on language, says Burridge.

But the distinction between speech and writing is something that should be kept, argue some.

"Punctuation is a way of showing respect to language," says linguist Tom Daydon.

"We have to learn the distinction between speech and writing because our audience is different with each. When we talk to people they can ask if they don't understand something but they can't if we write a letter to them, so rules are needed."

It's quite depressing to be standing up for a system of marks that's dying

Lynne Truss

But the emphasis should be on clarity, rather than rules, argues Burridge and she is not alone. Roy Corden, professor of language and literacy at Nottingham Trent University, says rules often make things more confusing.

"Take the apostrophe, there is so much confusion over how to use it you have to wonder if it has become dysfunctional," he says.

"The fundamentals of grammar will always be needed but people tend to act as if all the rules have been handed down from on high and cannot be altered. The problem with that is language is always changing, the internet and mobile phones have had a dramatic impact on it.

"I think it comes down to a question of clarity, do the rules make language any clearer? If not we need to ask if they are still of use."

But not all change is good. Burridge is quick to criticise "evil weed" words, such as dishonest euphemisms that try to sound neutral when really they are negative, such as friendly fire and downsize.

Despite her approach, she does not think punctuation will die out because it provides the "props" of writing.

'Ignorance'

And as the success of Truss's bestseller shows for every person who wants the rules of language reviewed, there is another who feels passionately towards preserving them.

But Truss herself believes her campaign to retain the rules of the written word will fail.

"It's quite depressing to be standing up for a system of marks that's dying," she says. "There's no point doing it because it will die."

Punctuation clarifies complex sentences and without it, nuances would be lost, she says.

And the possessive apostrophe?

Despite the confusion among many, it's there to help and clarify, says Truss. Dropping it would be "capitulating to ignorance". Well that makes all clear then, so I shall leave with this picture to say my bit:

.

Yes I called them up and lo, laugh upon laugh one of the contact numbers I was given was wrong and I ended up getting through to some chap that has nothing to do with that company. Still no suprise there.

Seems that due to them losing, misfiling my resignation letter they have had to pay me the whole month and will need part of that back. Thats all well and cool, I have done a copy of my resignation letter and shall hand deliver that tomorrow to them.

Lets see them lose it when I hand it in at reception! Although I would not put it past them. After 4+ years in that place I have become rather cynical with regards the company, its motives and reasons.

I amended my resignation letter to say that I think the company has a problem with double standards. They talk the talk about wanting a free and open work environment where people can express their views and yet...The moment those views are negative, even in trying to point out flaws in the system so that they can be improved they do not want to know and come down on people from a great hight. Still to use the company phrase maybe they are not on the bus as far as honest and free expression is concerned.

Still the loss is theres as far as I am concerned. In the time I was there I worked hard, got more than my fair share done, as well as a few other peoples shares if I am totally honest. Now I am out of the place, I can express my views on Lloyds Tsb any damn way I please and advise everyone I know not to deal with them and put my reasons for that across in the public arena.

And so my final expression of defiance to the corporate whores that run Lloyds Tsb. 

Found this old nazi pic on the web and for some unknown reason it reminds me of working for my former employers... 

On a lighter note I have had a cool non stress free day with my new employer, and am currently copying my Alex Harvey CD's onto the pc as I want to listen to them a bit more often.

And finally a tribute I found on B3ta to that dog from the adverts. Guess its a dogs life, or at least it was. 

Ok and one more, and cue the crap joke: "Thats not so lucky". 

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This is why we need to stay in Iraq until the job is done:

KARABILA, Iraq, Sunday, June 19 - Marines on an operation to eliminate insurgents that began Friday broke through the outside wall of a building in this small rural village to find a torture center equipped with electric wires, a noose, handcuffs, a 574-page jihad manual - and four beaten and shackled Iraqis.

The American military has found torture houses after invading towns heavily populated by insurgents - like Falluja, where the anti-insurgent assault last fall uncovered almost 20 such sites. But rarely have they come across victims who have lived to tell the tale.

The men said they told the marines, from Company K, Third Marines, Second Division, that they had been tortured with shocks and flogged with a strip of rubber for more than two weeks, unseen behind the windows of black glass. One of them, Ahmed Isa Fathil, 19, a former member of the new Iraqi Army, said he had been held and tortured there for 22 days. All the while, he said, his face was almost entirely taped over and his hands were cuffed.

In an interview with an embedded reporter just hours after he was freed, he said he had never seen the faces of his captors, who occasionally whispered at him, “We will kill you.” He said they did not question him, and he did not know what they wanted. Nor did he ever expect to be released.

“They kill somebody every day,” said Mr. Fathil, whose hands were so swollen he could not open a can of Coke offered to him by a marine. “They’ve killed a lot of people.”

From the house on Saturday, there could be heard sounds of fighting from the large-scale offensive to eliminate strongholds of insurgents, many of whom stream across Iraq’s porous border with Syria. [Page 10.]

As the marines walked through the house - a squat one-story building of sand-colored brick - the broken black window glass crunched under their boots. Light poured in, revealing walls and ceiling shredded by shrapnel from the blast they had set off to break in through a wall. Latex gloves were strewn on the floor. A kerosene lantern lay on its side, shattered.

The manual recovered - a fat, well-thumbed Arabic paperback - listed itself as the 2005 First Edition of “The Principles of Jihadist Philosophy,” by Abdel Rahman al-Ali. Its chapters included “How to Select the Best Hostage,” and “The Legitimacy of Cutting the Infidels’ Heads.”

Also recovered were several fake passports, a black hood, the painkiller Percoset, handcuffs and an explosives how-to-guide. Three cars loaded with explosives were parked in a garage outside the house. The marines blew them up.

This is Mr. Fathil’s account of his ordeal.

He was having a lunch of lettuce and cucumbers in the kitchen of his home in the small desert village of Rabot with his mother and brother. An Opel sedan pulled up. Two men in masks carrying machine guns got out, seized him, and, leaving his mother sobbing, put him in the trunk of their car.

The drove to the house here. They taped his face, put cotton in his ears, and began to beat him.

The only possible explanation for the seizure he could think of was his time in the new Iraqi Army. Unemployed and illiterate, Mr. Fathil signed up after the American occupation began.

But nine months ago, when continuing working meant risking the wrath of the Jihadists, he quit. In all, 10 friends from his unit have been killed, he said. So have his uncle and his uncle’s son, though neither ever worked as soldiers.

The men tended to talk in whispers, he said, telling him five times a day, in low voices in his ear, to pray, and offering him sand, instead of water, to wash himself. Just once, he asked if he could see his mother, and one of them said to him, “You won’t leave until you are dead.”

Mr. Fathil did not know there were other hostages. He found out only after the captors left and he was able to remove the tape from his eyes.

The routine in the house was regular. Because of the windows, it was always dark inside. Mr. Fathil said he was fed once a day, and allowed to use a bathroom as necessary in the back of the house.

When marines burst in, one of the captives was lying under a stairwell, badly beaten. At first, they thought he was dead.

The others were emaciated and battered. Mr. Fathil had fared the best. The other three were taken by medical helicopter to Balad, a base near Baghdad with a hospital.

But he still had been hurt badly. Marks from beatings criss-crossed his back, and deep pocks, apparently from electric shock burns, were gouged in his skin.

The shocks, he said, felt “like my soul is being ripped out of my body.” But when he would start to scream, and his body would pull up from the shock, they would begin to beat him, he said.

Mr. Fathil has been at the Marine base south of Qaim since his release, on Saturday around noon. His mother still does not know he is alive.

When she was mentioned, he bowed and lowered his head, and began to cry softly, wiping his face with the jumpsuit given him by the marines.

He asked a reporter for help to move to another town, because it was too dangerous for his family to remain in their house. He begged not to have a photograph taken, even of the scars on his back. The captors took pictures of that, he said.

His town has always been a good place, he said, but the militants have made it hell.

“These few are destroying it,” he said, his face streaked with tears. “Everybody they take, they kill. It’s on a daily basis pretty much."

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OK get this, a few weeks back work sent some letters to my parents address, now I have not lived there for a few years and yes I did the good employee thing of telling them that I had moved. As well as filling in all the company forms that come around from HR each year asking about your address etc.

So I wrote back and informed them that I had moved, now I get another letter sent to my parents address, even though I told them again that I had moved and given my new address details.

Upon reading said letter it appears that they have not recieved my resignation letter, a shame as I did have a go at the company somewhat but there you go. So I shall call them tomorrow and explain it very slowly and simply to them, that I have gone, I am an ex-employee and now have a stress free job.

The bit that amused me was the way they are now trying to make out that I am just absent without authorization. No arseholes I have left, quit, resigned. Not coming back to the place ever.

Then they say that I shall be paid tomorrow and that as I am not there they shall stop paying me from a certain date and then get the money back. Ok, that be cool, but I am also owed holiday pay etc etc. Mind if they knew the procedures properly they would pass all that onto our HR Dept. Although I shall be asking why this whole thing is going through a section manager and not the HR dept, as they deal with comings and goings of staff?

The arsewipe that runs the sections seems to think that she has some power, but alas as I know employment law and realise that said arsewipe is attempting to pull my chain and annoy me by sending letters to the wrong address despite being advised on that matter, I shall just have a nice chat with HR(who overrule arsewipe section managers on a regular basis.) Shall also be bringing up the fact I am owed holiday pay etc, as well as the nazi style interrigation that I had from said arsehole and her bint of a cohort, oh and the lack of representation that was not even brought up during said interview.

More on the continuing hassle from my employer as an when I get the letters addressed to the wrong address!(Just as well I have access to that address else I would not even have got the previous letters) Indeed I often look at my former employers and see how they make such a mess of things on a regular basis and think... 

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Warning: Your clever little blog could get you fired

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Like a growing number of employees, Peter Whitney decided to launch a blog on the Internet to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of Wells Fargo.

Mark Jen was fired from Google because of his blog.
By Jack Gruber, USA TODAY

Then he began taking jabs at a few people he worked with.

His blog, gravityspike.blogspot.com, did find an audience: his bosses. In August 2004, the 27-year-old was fired from his job handling mail and the front desk, he says, after managers learned of his Web log, or blog.

His story is more than a cautionary tale. Delta Air Lines, Google and other major companies are firing and disciplining employees for what they say about work on their blogs, which are personal sites that often contain a mix of frank commentary, freewheeling opinions and journaling.

And it's hardly just an issue for employees: Some major employers such as IBM are now passing first-of-their-kind employee blogging guidelines designed to prevent problems, such as the online publishing of trade secrets, without stifling the kinds of blogs that can also create valuable buzz about a company.

"Right now, it's too gray. There needs to be clearer guidelines," says Whitney, who has found another job. "Some people go to a bar and complain about workers, I decided to do it online. Some people say I deserve what happened, but it was really harsh. It was unfair."

Wells Fargo declined to comment, but a spokeswoman said in an e-mail that the company doesn't have a blogging policy.

Blogs are proliferating as fast as a computer virus. According to a report this year by public relations firm Edelman and Intelliseek, a provider of business-intelligence solutions, about 20,000 new blogs are created daily, and an estimated 10 million U.S. blogs will exist by the end of 2005. Together, these blogs link up to create what is known as a blogosphere, a collective Internet conversation that is one of the fastest-growing areas of new content on the Web.

More than 8 million adults in the USA have created blogs, according to two surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a non-profit research center studying the Internet's social effects. And 32 million Americans are blog readers — a 58% jump in 2004.

Recognizing potential risks

Employers are just beginning to wake up to the potential risks that blogs pose.

"The law is trying to catch up with the technology," says Allison Hift, a telecommunications and technology lawyer in Miami. "This is like what we saw a few years ago with employers passing polices about e-mail. Now we're seeing it with Web logs."

The concerns are myriad. Employees who create blogs set up a direct way to communicate about their company with the public, because customers and clients can stumble across a blog. (Blogs often jump to the top of search engines because they are updated often.) Bloggers may spill trademark or copyright material on their sites, they may post pictures of yet-to-be-released products, and they may libel or slander another employee or a client.

A blogger can even get the ear of Congress. Douglas Roberts, a computer scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., started a blog (lanl-the-real-story.blogspot.com), and anonymous posters blasted management as incompetent. During a House subcommittee hearing in May, the blog was mentioned in a discussion about the fate of the nuclear research facility.

"I was quite surprised. I had no idea it would be this popular," Roberts says, adding that lab management has been supportive of his blog and that he believes blog policies in general are unnecessary.

Says lab spokesman Kevin Roark: "Open, honest, constructive discussion of issues is a good thing ... (but) the personal attacks were unnecessary and disappointing."

A number of employment lawyers, such as Hift, and bloggers, such as Whitney, are urging companies to enact guidelines and communicate blogging rules to employees. Some companies are doing just that: In May, IBM unveiled blogging guidelines for its 329,000 employees. The guidelines state that employees should identify themselves (and, when relevant, their roles at IBM) when blogging about IBM.

"You must make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of IBM," the guidelines state. They also say bloggers should not use "ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, etc." and that they should "show proper consideration" for "topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory — such as politics and religion."

Others such as Microsoft have no formal guidelines specifically on blogging, but do encourage blogging as a way for employees to reach out to customers and clients. Says Jeff Sandquist, a group manager at Microsoft: "It's great. It's instant feedback. ... We give a lot of support to blogging and on how to be a good blogger."

Stifling free speech?

But it's tricky. Some civil libertarians fear blogophobic companies may adopt policies that stifle the free exchange that has made blogs so popular.

"The concern is that it becomes a chilling effect," says Annalee Newitz, a policy analyst for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based civil liberties organization dealing with high-tech issues. "We don't want people to feel like ... they can't express their feelings."

Others argue that more explicit guidelines are needed.

"Companies probably need separate policies," says Robert Cox, president of the Media Bloggers Association.

Guidelines, some bloggers say, could even help save jobs. When Ellen Simonetti started her blog chronicling her life and work as a Delta Air Lines flight attendant, she posted some pictures of herself on her site, queenofsky.journalspace.com. There's a shot of her in her blue uniform, bending over an airline seat as her white bra peeks out. A shot of her backside. Another of her in her uniform, sprawled across the tops of the seats of an empty plane. Another shows her eating in a seat.

In October 2004, Simonetti, 30, of Austin was fired, she says, for the pictures on her blog. She has filed a complaint with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the suspension amounted to discrimination, because male employees with similar online photos were not disciplined. The EEOC case is pending.

"Companies should have policies so that we know if we're breaking the rules," says Simonetti, who is unemployed. "I feel I was mistreated and treated unfairly. I'm fighting for bloggers' rights and free speech."

A Delta spokeswoman declined to comment.

Some bloggers are adding disclaimers saying they don't represent the company, or they are taking precautions not to blog from work. That may be wise: A Society for Human Resource Management survey found that some employers also are looking at job candidates' personal blogs before hiring them.

Legal status unclear

Blogging is so new, lawyers say it's unknown how courts will rule as cases come forward. Bob Blackstone, a Seattle-based employment lawyer, says employees may argue that blogs fall under federal laws that protect labor-organizing activity. They may also argue that their blog content is allowed under certain state laws that bar employers from discriminating against workers for off-duty actions.

Cases continue to climb. Heather Armstrong was fired in February 2002 by the Los Angeles-based software firm where she worked after venting online about the company on her blog, dooce.com. Some excerpts from her blog: Take a two-hour lunch: one hour for the bean burrito, one hour for the nap in the front seat of your car.

Reasons I should not be allowed to work from home:Too many cushiony horizontal surfaces prime for nappage. ... I can lie down underneath my desk, and no one is going to know. No one.

Her case garnered attention and put the blogging world on notice. UrbanDictionary.com now defines "dooced" as losing your job for something you wrote on your online blog.

Both sides now

And Mark Jen, 22, of San Francisco started his blog in January to chronicle his life and new job as an associate product manager at Google. He wrote comments about future potential products and lost his job two weeks later, he says, because of his blog, 99zeros.blogspot.com.

"I figured it would be an easy way to keep in touch with friends and family," Jen says. "I was surprised at the reaction of the company. It was shocking to me."

At his new job at Mountain View, Calif.-based Plaxo, a consumer Internet service for updating and accessing contact information, Jen recently helped draft the company's first-ever blog policy. The policy says, in part, that employees can't violate the privacy or publicity rights of another, can't personally attack employees, authors, customers, vendors or shareholders and can't post material that is "hateful or embarrassing to another person."

Employees who don't follow the guidelines can be fired. Anyway after all that serious stuff here is a silly pic I found on the web.
 

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Hurrah for the Islamofascists. A bunch of cunts that have taken the cowardly leftys by the nose and led them into running down our civilization and all it stands for in order to apease these barbarian heathen savages from ragheadistan. 

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Now I was talking to someone in work and the conversation got around to the EU, the fact that the UK is the only country that has modernised and that old Europe is still living in some neo socialist fantasy land and now wants us to pay for it by giving up our rebate to support lazy Fwench farmers,

Now this is a country that basicly is closed for a good 2hrs in the middle of le day, where the farms are not open till after nine in the morning, and the only thing mr le frog farmer gets up early for is the cheque from the EU paying for his daily wine intake.

Now I have to say that as a trading block the Eu could be good but it needs reform, and not just the farms. Now the metric system has been imposed on europe, I say it is time to modernise the communications network across europe.

This may be radical but we need an EU language. A language to bind all the nations of Europe together for the next thousand years. We have to face the fact that a lot of regional languages are dying out, and nothing is going to reverse that(people use the languages in common use, or the language that makes them money).

So we must leave the dying languages behind pick one language for Europe and use it as a trading block to compete with the world on the global market place. The savings in costs for each nation in the long term would be huge, no translators, no signs in 40+ languages, no need to reprint everything in every single EU language and so on.

Think of it, we could leave dying languages that hardly noone uses like Welsh, Cornish or French behind. English the language of the US, UK and the internet and commerce would lead the way.

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WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is ready to decide whether to slash U.S. contributions if the United Nations doesn’t carry out reforms. Lawmakers had to weigh their frustrations with the international body against administration objections that the legislation could be counterproductive.

The legislation under debate and facing a vote Friday would withhold half of U.S. dues to the U.N.’s general budget if the organization doesn’t meet a list of demands for change. Failure to comply would also result in U.S. refusal to support expanded and new peacekeeping missions.

Before the final vote, legislators discussed the seating of such human rights abusers as Cuba and Sudan on the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and the oil-for-food program that became a source of up to $10 billion in illicit revenue for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., proposed an amendment under which the United States would use its influence to ensure that any member engaged in acts of genocide or crimes against humanity would lose its U.N. membersship and face arms and trade embargoes.

“Over the years, as we listened to the counsels for patience, the U.N.’s failings have grown,” said House International Relations Committee Chairman Henry Hyde, R-Ill., sponsor of the measure. “The time has finally come where we must in good conscience say ‘enough.’”

Hyde was joined by lawmakers with a litany of complaints against what they said was the U.N.’s lavish spending, its coddling of rogue regimes, its anti-America, anti-Israel bias and recent scandals such as the mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq and the sexual misconduct of peacekeepers.

The bill lists 39 reforms sought. They include cutting the public information budget by 20 percent, establishing an independent oversight board and an ethics office, and denying countries that violate human rights from serving on human rights commissions.

The secretary of state would have to certify that 32 of the 39 reforms have been met by September 2007, and all 39 by the next year, to avoid a withdrawal of 50 percent of assessed dues.

U.S.-assessed dues account for about 22 percent of the U.N.’s $2 billion annual general budget.

The financial penalties would not apply to the U.N.’s voluntarily funded programs, which include UNICEF and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

We try to help the savages in the third world and they just fuck us up the arsehole again and again and again.

British charity Oxfam has had to pay the Sri Lankan government $1m in import duty for vehicles used in tsunami reconstruction work.

Paperwork had kept the 25 four-wheel drive vehicles idle in the capital, Colombo, for a month.

The Sri Lankan government told the BBC News website the aid had been duty-free until the end of April but was now needed to prevent “market distortions”.

Nearly 31,000 people died in Sri Lanka when the tsunami struck on 26 December. Half a million were made homeless. Oxfam told BBC News the 25 Indian-made Mahindra vehicles were essential in ensuring it could reach the poorest communities over rough terrain and bad roads.

Sri Wanka does not manufacture any automobiles so it was not possible to buy them locally. A spokesman said: “Clearly Oxfam would have preferred not to pay this tax on the vehicles and we did everything we could to have the tax waived.

"However the government has turned down our request and the laws of the country dictate that we must now pay the normal import tax.”

The spokesman said the incident would not affect the way Oxfam worked in Sri Lanka.

Britain’s Daily Telegraph said Sri Lankan customs had charged $5,000 a day while the vehicles were processed.

Oxfam was given the choice of handing over the vehicles to the government, re-exporting them or paying the 300% import tax. Indeed they look at us in the west, see us as weak and do their level best to humiliate us and take advanage of our good natures whilst at the same time trying to make us feel guilty over whatever shit has happened to them. Fuck em I say.

Not on the commie run BBC as its a good story about IRAQ!
First Woman Gets Silver Star Since WW II

WASHINGTON (AP) - A 23-year-old sergeant with the Kentucky National Guard on Thursday became the first female soldier to receive the Silver Star - the nation’s third-highest medal for valor - since World War II.

Sgt. Leigh Ann Hester, who is from Nashville, Tenn., but serves in a Kentucky unit, received the award for gallantry during a March 20 insurgent ambush on a convoy in Iraq. Two men from her unit, the 617th Military Police Company of Richmond, Ky., also received the Silver Star for their roles in the same action.

According to military accounts of the firefight, insurgents attacked the convoy as it traveled south of Baghdad, launching their assault from trenches alongside the road using rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Hester and her unit moved through enemy fire to the trenches, attacking them with grenades before entering and clearing them.

She killed at least three insurgents with her M4 rifle, according to her award citation. In the entire battle, 26 or 27 insurgents were killed and several more were captured, according to various accounts. Several Americans were also wounded in the firefight.

“Her actions saved the lives of numerous convoy members. Sgt. Hester’s bravery is in keeping with the finest traditions of military heroism,” her award citation reads.

“I’m honored to even be considered, much less awarded, the medal,” Hester told the American Forces Press Service, a military-run information service. “It really doesn’t have anything to do with being a female. It’s about the duties I performed that day as a soldier.”

Hester, a native of Bowling Green, Ky., joined the Kentucky Army National Guard in April 2001 and moved to Nashville in 2003, according to a biography provided by the Army. She works as a retail store manager. Her unit deployed to Iraq in November 2004 and remains in the Baghdad area, escorting convoys and assisting the Iraqi Highway Patrol.

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Found this story and man it shows what a cruel sick fucked up world we are living in when so called stars wont even grant the last wish of a dying cancer victim. (Now i have no idea if this story is true or not, and in the finest traditions of English tabloid reporting I care not a jot.)Anyway read on an weep.

PHILADELPHIA, Monday: The parents of 15-year-old leukaemia patient Josh Morten, who last night passed away after a four year battle with the illness, said they were sorry not to have fulfilled his dying wish to get a blow job from Cameron Diaz.

The courageous teenager told his family two months ago that the one thing he'd really like before he died was to be sucked off by the successful Hollywood actress and former model.

"Josh never asked for much," his father confided. "He never complained about his illness, or made unrealistic demands. So when he requested fellatio from the star of Charlie's Angels and There’s Something About Mary we thought, sure, that’s the least we can do for him."

But attempts to grant Josh his dying wish proved much more difficult than the family had initially thought. Formal requests inviting the star to perform oral sex on their dying son were repeatedly declined.
"We wrote, we rang, we faxed," Mr Morten explained. "And every time it was the same answer: 'Sorry, Ms Diaz is currently unable to comply with your request.' I mean, how unsympathetic can you get? We're talking about a dying kid here! Would it kill her?"

Mr Morten even made a special trip to Los Angeles, to try to talk to the movie star personally outside the premiere of Gangs of New York. "The crowds were ten deep," he said, "and I'm there yelling out to her from the back: 'Will you go down on my son please!', but she didn’t want to know."

With hopes diminishing by the day, Mr Morten placed similar standby requests with the agents representing Catherine Zeta Jones, Jennifer Lopez and Salma Hayek, but in each case the stars refused to co-operate.

"Who do they think they are, these women!" railed Mr Morten. "They earn millions of dollars and swan about at fancy parties, but when they get a simple request to bring a smile to a young boy far less fortunate than them, they turn their back on you. What kind of world do we live in when a dying teenager can no longer get his cock sucked by a celebrity?"

Anyway here is a badly shop'd pic of what he may have had, well if she had not been such a heartless bitch. 

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Ok heres the score on this. My poll tax, sorry community charge has been going up and up year after year. Now where does this money go? Not on rubbish collection thats for damn sure. When I moved into my house about 2 years ago now, the bins were collected every week and that was that. Put the bin out on the way to work, and when I got back it was done.

Now the system is royally fucked to be fair. Its gone from once a week, to once every two weeks. Never mind the fact that by that point half the bins in the street are overflowing onto the floor.

Then as if that were not enough, if something does drop outside the bin does it get moved, does it hell. So you got to put that back in and hopefully it shall vanish in 2 weeks time.

Now aside from this Newport Borough Council decides that we are all going green, and shall all be helping to save the planet and all that. So we have 2 recycling boxes one for paper and the other for bottles and the like.

All sounds wonderfull until I explain that the recycling people are a bunch of lazy arsed fucktards that cant be bothered to pick up half the boxes in the street. I kid you not I have seen on many an occasion half the street done, and the rest left. Is it that difficult to get another wagon out if the first is full?

If you make a mistake and mix some stuff up, its a case of fuck you. Your box or boxes get left. I think its a case of tough love, in that if someone puts paper in the bottle box and vice versa they have to swap it over themselves.

An you got to sort that all out and they will pick it up in 2 weeks. Also they are fussy over what they define as "paper" or "cans/bottles" and will leave anything that they dont like the look off. Classic comment from a collector "Nah cant take pizza boxes mate, they aint proper paper?"...Yeah you work that out.

I love the way I now pay more for rubbish collection and have a far poorer service as a result. Down from weekly to fortnightly. Also this is the best part, if you try to complain to the council, guess what? They dont reply to e-mails. Yep, they have an e-mail system that classes all complaints as junk and files them straight into the rycycling bin, and I bet they empty that more than once every two weeks.

As for the MP's well they are of little use: Paul Flynn is busy trying to legalise dope(something he has been trying to get done for 20 years or so and so has little interest in the bins) and the other is a do nothing all wimmin selected bint who scraped in on a wing and a prayer.

And so I deliver my message to Newport Borough Councils "occasional" rubbish collection system.

My MP the libelist - his libel apology:
Recently Paul Flynn was involved in a libel case where he made comments about an endowment pensions company, the result of which he had to pay out damages. He was sued after he posted an attack on such companies on his website, claiming they were out to "re-rob" the victims of endowment mis-selling by dishonestly over-charging them for their services.

But he made the mistake of referring to well-regarded company Endowment Justice Ltd, which represents mis-selling victims on a "no-win, no-fee" basis. The company and its directors sued and at London's High Court Mr Flynn made a public apology for the "unjustified attack" on the claimants' integrity.

The MP as part of the settlement put the following statement on his website: On this website in February this year, I made certain statements referring to Endowment Justice Limited, one of the companies which offers assistance in obtaining compensation for those people who were mis-sold endowment policies. I have been campaigning against companies providing professional services in relation to endowment policy compensation claims, but my facts about Endowment Justice were incorrect. As a result, I wrongly accused the company and its directors Nick Keca, Marianne Fitzjohn and Graeme Webber of having previously mis-sold endowment policies and now dishonestly overcharging those self-same victims to help them obtain compensation. I am happy to clarify that neither Endowment Justice Ltd or any of its directors were ever involved in any aspect of endowment policy selling. It was therefore false and unfair to suggest that they had profited from the historic mis-selling of endowment policies. I was also incorrect in stating that Endowment Justice, which offers its services in recovering compensation on a “no-win, no-fee” basis, could charge its customers up to 40% of any compensation gained. Endowment Justice in fact charge customers 17.5% plus VAT or 22.5% plus VAT of any compensation gained. I was wrong to give the unintended impression that the company or its directors acts in any way improperly or unlawfully in providing services to those seeking compensation for endowment policy mis-selling. I would like to apologise to Endowment Justice for my allegations, and to Mr. Keca, Ms. Fitzjohn and Mr. Webber for any embarrassment or distress caused by my false remarks.

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Magna Carta -June 15, 1215

June 15 stands as one of the most significant dates in the history of freedom. On this date in 1215, King John affixed his seal on the Magna Carta at Runnymede. The document, agreed to by King John under duress, outlined a number of matters in which the government and its agents couldn't infringe upon the liberties of free men. The first point affirms that "the Church of England shall be free, and shall have her whole rights and liberties involiable." Following the restriction of the King's power over the Church, the Magna Carta grants rights to women regarding marriage and inheritances, limits fines for trivial offenses, prohibits arbitrary land expropriation, forbids government officials from confiscating goods, and affirms the right of self-government within the Church and among the barons. "The barons shall elect twenty-five of their number to keep, and cause to be observed with all their might, the peace and liberties granted and confirmed to them by this charter," one of the document's concluding paragraphs notes.

The agedness of the Magna Carta and how meager the rights, privileges, and freedoms strike many moderns demonstrate that the societies of the West were made and not born. No genius in a laboratory, or council of wise men sitting round a fire, invented the government we have today. It developed. And as much as we might like our form of government, our mere example and persuasion can't convince outsiders to embrace it there overnight absent the historical set of circumstances that gave rise to it here over thousands of years.

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Been texting a mate from my old works seems she is planning on getting out asap as well. After I left she got dumped with lots of my work, as well as her own and as a result of being tied down with all the extra it appears that she has failed some audit or other and so will not be getting any more money.

Needless to say she is not best pleased and so will be leaving the company as soon as a decent position comes up. Good luck is all I can add and I know she can find an employer where she will be better valued.

Mind I have had a swipe about my ex employers on my last blog, but thats nothing compared to what some people go through. Have a look at this site: www.committeetoprotectbloggers.blogspot.com/2005/01/committee-to-protect-bloggers.html/

 

This one amused me, still I think even if they are terrorist scumfucks being made to listen to her musac is a bit much.  

Normally I would stash this in the pron but I like it so much it deserves a post.
 

Had this pic sent me and that sort of amused me. 

And a visual illusion. Watch it closely.... 

Now this is so so so true.  

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