I’ve not done much in the way of blogging or tweeting in the last year, partly through being very busy at work and partly due to having too many choices of places to write that have built up over the years. I’ve been doing:
- CRM/ VRM type stuff at www.informationanswers.com
- VRM stuff at www.rightsideup.net
- Mydex specific stuff at www.mydex.org
- Kantara specific stuff on the Kantara blog
- Privacy stuff at Datonomy
Plus tweeting @iainh1, @informationanswers and @mydexcic
So, time to rationalise I think. From now on i’m going to use this blog for all posts other than very specific stuff for Mydex and Kantara, and i’ll tag each post accordingly. I’ll also use @iainh1 for tweeting, with tags according to specifics.
Hopefully that will lead to more in the way of output, and less time on admin.
WikiLeaks received a boost tonight when Switzerland rejected growing international calls to force the site off the internet.
The whistleblowers site, which has been publishing leaked US embassy cables, was forced to switch domain names to WikiLeaks.ch yesterday after the US host of its main website, WikiLeaks.org, pulled the plug following mounting political pressure.
The site’s new Swiss registry, Switch, today said there was “no reason” why it should be forced offline, despite demands from France and the US. Switch is a non-profit registry set up by the Swiss government for all 1.5 million Swiss .ch domain names.
The reassurances come just hours after eBay-owned PayPal, the primary donation channel to WikiLeaks, terminated its links with the site, citing “illegal activity”. France yesterday added to US calls for all companies and organisations to terminate their relationship with WikiLeaks following the release of 250,000 secret US diplomatic cables.
The Swiss Pirate Party, which registered the WikiLeaks.ch domain name earlier this year on behalf of the site, said Switch had reassured the party that it would not block the site.
An email sent by Denis Simonet, president of the Swiss Pirate Party, to international members of the liberal political group said: “Some minutes ago I got good news: Switch, the registry for .ch domains, told us that there is no reason to block wikileaks.ch.”
Laurence Kaye, leader of the UK-based Pirate Party, tonight told the Guardian: “International Pirate Parties now have an integral role in allowing access to WikiLeaks. I wish some of our other politicians had the same guts.
“We support the WikiLeaks project as access to information is the prerequisite for an informed and engaged democracy.”
WikiLeaks has been fighting to stay online since releasing a cache of sensitive diplomatic cables to the Guardian and four other international media organisations. Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, dropped the site from its servers on Thursday after being contacted by staff of Joe Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate’s homeland security committee.
Everydns.net, the site’s US hosting provider, yesterday forced the site offline for the third time in under a week. A series of “distributed denial of attacks” by unknown online activists still bring the site intermittently to its knees.
WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, described the decision as “privatisation of state censorship” in the US. Everydns.net said the attacks – which have been going on all week – threatened “the stability of the EveryDNS.net infrastructure, which enables access to almost 500,000 other websites”.
• This article was amended on 7 December 2010. The original referred to Switch throughout as a registrar. This has been corrected.
Just checking out the Guardian open platform API, looks really good. I picked this story for starters because it reminded me that I have yet to meet a Scots person who thought we should have released that guy. Needless to say we’re not being told the truth, the whole truth, or anything like the truth by UK.gov and Scots.gov.
The release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset al-Megrahi was “wrong and misguided”, the foreign secretary, William Hague, has told US senators.
In a letter to John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee which is holding an inquiry into the bomber’s release, Hague said that nevertheless it was “legally and constitutionally proper” that the decision was one for the Scottish government.
Hague said the then foreign secretary Jack Straw held several discussions with the oil giant BP about Megrahi before his transfer to Libya was agreed in 2007 but denied that this had any impact on his bomber’s release.
Megrahi is the only person convicted of the 1988 bombing in which270 people died and his release on compassionate grounds last August provoked outrage in the US.
Medical evidence indicated Megrahi had three months to live but next month will mark a year since he was freed.
The issue overshadowed David Cameron’s first official visit as prime minister to the US, amid concern that BP had lobbied the UK government over the prisoner transfer deal with Libya.
Hague said both he and Cameron had criticised the decision to release Megrahi.
“We think that the decision taken by the Scottish executive to release him on compassionate grounds was wrong and misguided,” the foreign secretary writes.
“Notwithstanding that, however, we must also recognise that it was legally and constitutionally proper that the decision over his release was one for the Scottish executive alone to take.”
The Scottish government had wanted anyone convicted of the Lockerbie bombing excluded from a controversial prisoner transfer deal agreed with Libya in 2007. But this condition was opposed by the Libyans, and the UK government eventually agreed to deal without exclusions.
Hague’s letter acknowledges that several conversations took place between the UK government and BP about the exclusion.
BP made the government aware of a warning from the Libyans that failure to agree the prisoner transfer scheme could damage an oil exploration deal that the company had signed with the country, Hague writes, adding that this was “perfectly normal and legitimate practice” for a British firm.
Hague adds: “There is no evidence that corroborates in any way the allegation of BP’s involvement in the Scottish executive’s entirely separate decision to release him on compassionate grounds in 2009, nor any suggestion that the Scottish executive decided to release him on compassionate grounds in order to facilitate oil deals for BP.”
A US senator today asked the Scottish government to reconsider its decision not to send officials to a hearing into the release of the Lockerbie bomber.
In a letter, Frank Lautenberg said he was “pleading” with first minister Alex Salmond to help shed light on claims that BP had influenced the release.
Salmond has declined an invitation to send his justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who took the decision to release Megrahi, and a medical expert to the senate hearings in Washington.
The New Jersey senator expresses frustration at what he portrays as the UK and Scottish governments blaming each other for the row.
He writes: “I am pleading for direct representation from the Scottish government at our hearing next week to help us seek answers.
“Your co-operation in sending a knowledgeable person will help establish a credible record of what transpired.”
Here’s the latest in my very occasional forays into sports reporting.
I still can’t believe how in-efficient bits of that process are; why do 30 journalists all need to go along and record the post match interviews when they are all broadcast on the radio anyway? Oh well, still makes for a nice day out…
I was glancing at BBC News web site and at the top stories. It strikes me that on this evidence the world (or at least the UK part of it) has gone even crazier today than usual on the privacy front….
…..illegal body scanners…
…..illegal Police drones
….Google ‘accidentally’ making a big data grab with their Buzz service
Time to go and live somewhere else I think, maybe Outer Mongolia.
This is sad, Bill McLaren, ‘the voice of rugby’ died today. He was a top notch commentator, and had one of those voices that really bring a sport to life.
Well, i’ve fallen off this wagon, probably for the better I think. Americano coffee is nice enough, but not quite the same luxurious experience as the real stuff – which is much more suitable for the winter weather….
Re-published in full from FollowFollow.com, because I like it..
Rangers Modern Greats: Davie Cooper.
By Emearg.
Sunday, 15th November 2009
A warm tribute to one of the most talented of men in modern times to wear the Rangers jersey.
I grew up with the Rangers team of the mid-seventies, post-Barcelona, I have no memory at all of that great achievement, but pre Colin Stein returning is about where I came into the scheme of things. A team of legends. You could reel that team off, and even youngsters today will know of some, or all, of them. McCloy, Jardine, Greig, Forsyth, Jackson, MacDonald, McLean, Parlane, Johnstone, Stein, McKean. I doubt that XI ever played together, but you get the drift. Throw in one or two others here and there and we had a team to be proud of. As I said, a team of legends. How could you buy someone and improve that team? Then one cold night I saw John Greig given a helluva time by a winger playing for a lower league side in a League Cup tie at Ibrox. The scores, on aggregate, ended level, and we went to a replay, then another at Firhill. I went to that game too. Rangers got through. Just. The player of the tie had not been one of the legends, but had given Rangers fans their first sighting of a man that, in my opinion, surpassed them all.
David Cooper was born on February 25,1956, in Hamilton. He grew up, as so many did, as a boyhood Rangers fan. But one with the talent to do what the rest of us only ever dream of. He played at a level, and what a level.
Obviously talent ran in the family. His brother John signed for Hull, but had a hard time down South and never made the grade, and returned to play for Hamilton then into junior football. Davie grew too old for the side he played for, Avondale, and was about to chuck in the game. Coventry had shown an interest, but after his brother’s time down south, that wasn’t a move that interested him. Motherwell were closer to home, but wanted to loan him out to a junior side. Seeing the treatment John was getting playing for Larkhall Thistle turned Davie against this idea. Clyde offered him a trial, but he never signed for them. Rangers looked at him at this point, but Davie didn’t think he’d be good enough to get a game for them. Jack Steedman persuaded him to join the Bankies, and although the travel was something he didn’t fancy, Davie signed professional terms with Clydebank, and began to excite the crowds, twice helping the Bankies win promotion, from the second division, and then from the first and was soon noticed. But it was that League Cup tie that brought him to everyone’s attention, even getting him into the national team, and for the grand sum of £100,000 Rangers brought him to Ibrox in the summer of ’77.
Much was expected, much was anticipated. He delivered. For 12 years he wore the light blue of Rangers, and the dark blue of Scotland, with distinction. I’m sure he had many opportunities to move on during that time, but why should he? He was playing for the club he’d dreamed of playing for, and with international caps too, he had no need to prove himself elsewhere. A quiet, unassuming man, he had all he needed where he was, even though Ibrox was not always a happy place to be, and Rangers were far from delivering trophy after trophy.
He had a great first season with the club, winning the Treble. He played a huge part in that. Other new signings, Bobby Russell and Gordon Smith came into the team, and we played some great football. A League Cup Final win over Celtic saw Cooper score, a last day League win over Motherwell secured the title, and a Scottish Cup win over Aberdeen gave the club its second treble in three years. Great times appeared to be in front of us. Alas, it all changed.
The man who had brought him to Ibrox, Jock Wallace, had departed, and his replacement, John Greig, had many problems transforming an ageing team. We had a good run in Europe, and should have won the league. We won the Scottish Cup, beating Hibs at the third time. But it was a false dawn.
These were lean years, but there was one shining light. I’m not going to say we saw a great performance from Davie in every game – and in some games he was hardly noticed at all – but the anticipation when he was on the park, the fact that something might happen, was all we needed. Any time he wasn’t starting was a major disappointment. And there were some triumphs then, too. Some great performances, some magnificent nights, and even a few trophies, indeed.
Those that saw it will never forget his goal versus Celtic at Hampden in the 1979 Drybrough Cup Final. There is a grainy video of it about, but truthfully it does not do the goal justice. Very few players in World Football ever could have scored that goal.
Over the next few seasons Cooper’s influence on the park was neutralised. He was dropped for games, he was left alone on the wing waiting for someone to get the ball near him. He was even left out of the team for the Scottish Cup Final in 1981, a dull 0-0 draw with Dundee Utd. There was pressure to bring him back for the replay. Greig duly did and Cooper turned in a man of the match performance in an emphatic 4-1 win.
Greig was replaced by Wallace, returning to the club, but fortunes failed to improve. Graeme Souness was brought in, and even although he brought some of the biggest names in British football with him, Davie Cooper remained a first choice until the signing of Mark Walters. Even at this late stage in his career there were some fantastic memories, none more so than the 87-88 League Cup win over Aberdeen, when he scored one of the greatest free kicks ever.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaNQILY6j-8
Davie also made the greatest goal he never scored, when he weaved through an Ilves Tampere defence in the 1986-87 UEFA Cup, before setting up Robert Fleck, and the following month scored the winning penalty in an Old Firm League Cup Final.
Davie also began to get more regular games for Scotland. He first attracted international attention when Ally MacLeod took him to South America in 1977 for a pre-World Cup tour. Davie was a Clybebank player when the squad was announced, but a Rangers player by the time the plane left. He never played on that tour, but in 1979 made his debut in a 1-1 friendly draw versus Peru. Over the next few years he played sporadically for the national team, and it was only Jock Wallace’s return to Ibrox that finally saw him established in the international side. Davie’s finest moment in a dark blue shirt also coincided with the night the national team manager sadly passed away. Needing a draw to qualify for the play-offs for the World Cup, Scotland trailed Wales 1-0 in Cardiff, when they brought on Davie as a substitute. Minutes later they were awarded a penalty and Cooper converted it. As the team came off the park in a celebratory mood they were met with the news that Jock Stein had died in the dressing room moments earlier. Scotland qualified for the World Cup, and Davie went to Mexico, although his time on the pitch was limited. Davie’s last game for Scotland, like his first, was a friendly, a 3-1 defeat by Egypt at Pittodrie.
Davie was eventually sold to Motherwell in August, 1989. I was working for a bookies at the time, and he was one of my customers. I was in a different shop each day, so he may have come in all the time, but I only saw him occasionally. He had been in before the transfer and was a pleasant man. He stood quietly, watching his race, collecting his winnings quietly, or accepting his horse lost with grace. Often someone would talk to him, and he was always pleasant. As shop manager he would talk to me, and I let it be known I was a fan. After that he always said hello, but that was it. Not one to blow his trumpet, not one to make a fuss. After he left Rangers, I saw him a few weeks later and wished him luck. He smiled, but never said a word. I’ve heard stories he didn’t want to go, he was forced out, but he never said a word against the club.
I saw him play against us a few times, and he always got a great reception from the fans. He was still one of us, and always would be. Watching him lead Motherwell to a Scottish Cup win in 1991 justified his move, and his belief that he was still capable of first team football. He left two years later to re-join Clydebank. I remember hearing he was retiring at the end of the season, and spoke to a few fellow Bears, and we were hoping to arrange a trip one weekend to see him play one last time. Sadly that never arrived. I was visiting my girlfriend when I heard he had been taken ill, but it wasn’t reported as too serious. The next day, I got up and was getting ready to travel back north to work, when I flicked the TV on, expecting to hear he was recovering. The news hit me. I don’t think I’d ever broken down in tears before, and certainly never since over someone I barely knew. Even now I can’t explain it. I can’t remember that day without tears. I don’t know why he meant so much to me, but that’s a hero for you. He truly was mine. A man I loved to watch,play the game I loved, for the team I loved, in the way it should be played. He was a joy to watch, a lovely man to meet, and a true professional.
Davie Cooper, 1956-1995. Gone, but never forgotten.
Facts and Figures
International Honours
Caps : 22
Goals 6
Clydebank
Games 90 in first spell, 21 in second
Goals 28 in first, 1 in second
Honours Scottish 2nd Division Champions 75-76
Motherwell
Games 157
Goals 17
Honours : Scottish Cup Winners 1991
Rangers
Premier Division : 321 games, 49 goals
Scottish Cup : 40 games, 7 goals
League Cup 69 games, 17 goals
Europe : 35 games, 1 goal
Others 96 games, 12 goals
Honours : Scottish League Champion (3)1977-78, 1986-87, 1988-89
Scottish Cup Winner (3) 1978, 1979, 1981
Scottish League Cup Winner (8) 1977-78, 1978-79, 1980-81, 1981-82, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1986-87, 1987-88
In total Davie played 561 times for Rangers, scoring 86 goals and taking part in 15 medal winning teams, the missing one is the 88-89 League Cup when he didn’t play in the Final.
His final appearance for the club came, ironically at Broadwood, in a 5-2 friendly win over Clyde on August 8th, 1989.
This article titled “WikiLeaks site’s Swiss registry dismisses pressure to take it offline” was written by Josh Halliday, for guardian.co.uk on Saturday 4th December 2010 20.23 UTC
