18 March, 2010
Not tax-dodging
There's a common misconception (foreseen by Winston Churchill, oddly enough) that because, unlike motor vehicles, bicycles don't require tax discs, cyclists don't pay 'road tax' and therefore have no right to use roads; that cyclists are only there at the sufferance of drivers, who 'own' the roads, and must always defer to motorists.
Wrong.
'Road tax' is not a payment to use roads – there's no "no pay, no play" rule.
There is no such thing as 'road tax' (nor 'road fund licence'), and there hasn't been since 1937. The tax paid by drivers is Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) i.e. cars are taxed, not their road usage.
The proceeds go to HM Treasury not the Department for Transport: VED is not specifically reserved for road building or maintenance. Those functions are funded from general and local taxation, so cyclists (and pedestrians) do pay their share, in full.
The misleadingly named IPayRoadTax.com makes an excellent suggestion: that the 'road tax' nickname for VED be discouraged, with organisations such as the DVLA or DirectGov only referring to it colloquially as 'car tax' or 'vehicle tax'. It's not a trivial point: the latter are a fair descriptions, whereas the former perpetuates antagonism.
Less?
17 March, 2010
Someone must be mistaken
Argh! Architect is not a verb!
That's from a consultant's pitch to which I was exposed this morning, about revolutionising the production of printed documents, using a CMS and file repository to gather and revise content for brochures and prospectuses.
After which I returned to my desk and an invitation to a conference on the death of the printed prospectus, "threatened by an increasingly digitised marketing mix and a profound generational shift in media behavior and consumption".
So which is it?
Less?
15 March, 2010
Different directions
In the USA, emergency exit signs show the word 'EXIT' (solely in English), usually in red, which subliminally suggests 'danger', 'stop' and hence 'not this way'. Elsewhere, the international convention is a pictogram (universally recognisable) of a stick figure running through a door, depicted in green (suggesting 'safety', 'go' and 'this way').
In explaining why the US standard is unlikely to change, Robert Solomon of the National Fire Protection Association says that:
when the NFPA investigates fires, it never encounters circumstances "where someone says I didn't know where the exit was because I didn't know … what the exit sign was."
Okay, but isn't there a flaw in that argument? I'd have thought the opinions which matter most are those of the people who
didn't escape, for whatever reason.
Less?
11 March, 2010
That's... Uh The Deal
So EMI can no longer permit Pink Floyd albums to be sold as individually downloadable tracks, against the band's wishes.
Wanting people to only be able to obtain their music as full albums – continuous, coherent compositions rather than merely bunches of songs – it seems Pink Floyd inserted specific clauses in their contract, so this clarification of the law (a 'record' refers to a recording, not a physical storage format) might only apply to this one band, but it's going to be interesting to see how other artists with similar preferences respond.
Less?
4 March, 2010
Just add sand & cement
According to a white van parked in my street, the owner isn't merely a humble builder.
Oh, no; he offers property solutions.
Less?
3 March, 2010
How considerate
Apparently, a certain UK high-street-but-catalogue-based retailer excludes digital cameras and mp3 players from its 30-day replacement/refund policy, "to protect your personal safety".
I can think of several reasons why a retailer might wish to limit the extent of such an offer, but that's certainly not one of them; it's merely an excuse, exploiting and perpetuating the frustrating culture of fear. This is the sort of thing, individually trivial, which softens-up the public to accept ID cards and other genuine risks to privacy, anonymity and yes, personal safety.
[Rant over. This time...]
Less?
Posted by Ministry at 18:59
| 91 words
21 February, 2010
Time is relative
If it looks like a crisp winter morning, feels like early morning, passing joggers wish me a "good morning!" and I don't have anything time-specific to do until the evening, does it really matter that it's actually 12:40?
