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There was chaos on the M25 motorway around London this morning when a lorry jack-knifed and shed its load of golf balls….
…police are said to be looking for a driver…
I'm *so* sorry but I couldn't let that one go… 
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The BBC reports that a man has been arrested at Blackpool Airport after he was found to have a "blank-firing firearm and some ammunition" in his hold baggage on a flight from Girona in Spain.
The story wouldn't be overly newsworthy if it wasn't for the fact that the arrest apparently followed an "anonymous tip-off" to security staff. I was under the impression that Spain now operated a 100% hold baggage screening policy - if this is so, why was the gun not detected in the luggage at this stage?
I guess any baggage screening is only as good as the person watching the screens…
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Readers in the UK will no doubt have been following the story of the Northern Rock in the news lately. For anyone not familiar, the Rock has asked the Bank of England to act as "lender of last resort", as the infamous problems with "sub-prime" loans in the USA have stopped their usual lines of funding. Having a relatively small amount of deposits, the Rock depends on loans from other banks to finance their sizeable mortgage and loan business. These loans are not forthcoming at the moment, which has resulted in their application to the BoE for emergency help. It's worth noting that at this moment in time the Rock haven't actually borrowed any money from the BoE, it has merely arranged to borrow money if it becomes necessary.
This apparent crisis has led to a good old fashioned "run on the bank" - people have been queuing for hours at Northern Rock branches around the country to withdraw their savings. I saw one particularly amusing woman on the TV news this evening in floods of tears because she couldn't be served today. The question to be asked is - why??
Herd mentality clearly has a lot to do with it - once a couple of people form a small queue, the general populous panic and join in inexplicably. I think it says a lot about the confidence that the general public has in the authorities (in this case the Treasury and the FSA) when they state in no uncertain terms that the Rock is a strong, solvent business and yet no-one seems to be paying any attention to them. Indeed, one business analyst stated yesterday that the Northern Rock is quite possibly the safest bank in the country right now, since it has an unassailable line of support from the Bank of England that no other bank has - many other banks must surely be suffering the same problems in raising cash as the Rock, albeit on a smaller scale.
The main question I invite you to answer is what will it take for the public to start trusting the word of the authorities once again?
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As reported today by The Register:
A popular Facebook application that promises users privacy in exchange for opinions on their friends is acting as a stooly by offering the information for others to buy.
The "Compare People" application has become one of the most used services on the Facebook platform since it opened to outside developers in May.
Developer Ivko Maksimovic has recently begun an attempt to make money from users that rides roughshod over [privacy] assurances. For a $9.49 PayPal payment, Compare People's "Premium" service invites you to "Improve yourself" by snooping on how your friends rated you - in what they thought was a secret ballot.
Clearly, use this application at your peril…
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 I spent Sunday at Donington Park watching a free motorsport event, the "World Series by Renault". The World Series itself is a championship for single seater 3.5 litre cars not dissimilar to F1, though obviously less powerful and technologically advanced.
There were a number of support races, featuring more single seaters, Clios and Meganes, of which the Meganes sported by far the most… visible colour schemes!
The second race, the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, certainly won the prize for most spectacular crash of the day - this during a race which managed two first lap red flags…
 
We had a great day, along with the thousands of others down around the Craner Curves… until we tried to go home that is. Two and a half hours in the car park waiting to get out was not funny - I dread to think what it must be like when the place is full, e.g. for the MotoGP!
  
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As has been widely reported, Apple have given their iPod and iPhone product lines a major overhaul today.
Since the 4Gb iPhone has been discontinued and the 8Gb model reduced in price from $599 to $399, Apple have already been given a bit of a going over for clearly ripping off early iPhone adopters. Having said that, even a blind man could see that those who got caught up in the hype would pay whatever price Apple chose, so it would be silly of them not to take advantage and fleece the fanboys…
However, what winds me up more is the blatant overcharging in Europe. For example, the 8Gb iPod Touch costs $299 in the USA and £199 in the UK. Given that you can easily get $2 for your pound at the minute, that means an overcharge in the UK of a third! How they can possibly justify such a massive markup is entirely beyond me.
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