It was Armistice Day and 90 years since the entombment of the Unknown Soldier in Westminster Abbey today. It may be because of all the wars in which we’ve recently been involved and all the WWII anniversaries this decade but Armistice Day and Remembrance Sunday seem to becoming more and more ingrained in the public consciousness. There was the possibility that it would fade away as the survivors of the two world wars passed on but there seems little likelihood of this. Perhaps this will be Tony Blair’s legacy?
I observed the Two Minute Silence but spent the rest of the day on twitter. I’ve now got over two hundred (222 at that point) followers, admittedly a number of these are commercial spam followers but the majority are not and I’m now getting quite a few #FF (Follow Friday) recommendations.
Speaking of Twitter today was the day of the appeal against the judgement in the Twitter Joke Trial (Paul Chambers, a 27-year-old accountant had sent the following tweet to a girlfriend after their planned meeting in Ireland was threatened by the bad weather “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!”). Hopes were running high that this nonsensical conviction, for making what was obviously a joke, would be overturned. The judge had not reached a decision the previous day so everyone was waiting with baited breath for her ruling that morning expecting that common sense would prevail and a man would get his life back..
Instead Judge Jacqueline Davies handed down a devastating finding at Doncaster which dismissed Chambers's appeal on every count. After reading out his comment from the site she found that it contained menace and Chambers must have known that it might be taken seriously.
This absurdity led directly to the I am Spartacus campaign launched on Titter the following day; thousands of people, including me, retweeting his original tweet or humorous variations thereof.
On the upside, I watched an amazing video made entirely on the Nokia N8 and when I say amazing I mean amazing. Check out The Commuter.
I also sent a text to Neil at Rugby and John at Judo advising them about Nat’s bruised kneecap and to expect him to be absent for the next couple of weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment