Ok, let's see what's on the ES website for "House Prices" in the last 24 hours:

1.IMF warns on UK house prices
Plunge threat to Britain's economy…read
News and city:  01/10/04
 
Hmm, hardly 'good news' and it is today's, not yesterday's news.

2.Inheritance tax threshold 'unfair'
More than two thirds of people think inheritance tax is unfair as rising house prices push more and more families above the threshold on which it is paid, research claimed today…read
News and city: Business 30/09/04

Hmm, well it's a voluntary tax for people who distrust their relatives more than they dislike the Inland Revenue, so tough. In any case, hardly 'good news' on 'house prices'. 
 
3.House price rises gather pace
Trading up is hardest in a decade..read
News and city: Business 01/10/04 
 
Hmm, compare and contrast with #1. Also today's.

4.Rock shrugs off property slowdown
But bank predicts mortgage decline..read
News and city: Business 01/10/04

Hmm, probably not 'house prices' news. Ditto
 
5.Graduates priced out of property
63% cannot buy before 30..read
News and city:  30/09/04

Well, it's yesterday's, but if this is good news, then…
 
6.House crash fears ease
Fears of a housing crash in London eased today with a survey showing the property market on course for a soft landing. Latest figures from the Nationwide reveal that London prices, though slowing, will continue to rise gently…read
30/09/04

I think this must be it – house prices will rise… slowly. If you read the story, it says sales are about 20% lower than the spring, and in some areas prices are going up and in some areas they're not moving.

So out of those six, that's two bad news, one possibly good, one 'it depends' and two irrelevant.

Text, but some rude words

I know they don't like to give away the story (hence 'Interest rate decision' rather than 'Interest rates up/down/stay the same'!) but…

Good news on house prices at last

What do you think that means?
House prices are going up?
House prices are going down?
House prices are staying the same?
People are stopping talking about house prices?
Something else?

Which you'd expect to be worksafe, but..

I liked the film, so I'm tempted now it's transferred and you can actually get a ticket…

… but it features Jane Asher, and whatever you think about her cake cooking abilities, she simply can't act.

I've seen her in at least four very different shows over the years and it's not a case of her showing a 'gamut of emotions… from A to B' – she doesn't even leave A!

Exactly why producers hire her for anything other than the catering is beyond me.

.. said Patricia Hewitt – after they'd lost it.

Must be a new meaning to the word 'dominate'…

Congratulations to the LibDem campaign which resulted in the first ethnic minority MP for the party since Dadabhai Naoroji in 1892.

[The spell checker wants to replace 'Patricia' with 'Patrician', which is probably apt for someone who used to be a radical.]

The top google hit for 'turkey "amnesty international"' is their 2002 report on the country – "Thousands of prisoners were held in conditions of prolonged isolation which could amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment [..] The pressure on human rights defenders increased: they faced harassment, death threats, arrests and prosecution, and branches of human rights associations were closed. Many people were imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression, particularly when they expressed opinions on the Kurdish question, the "F-type" prisons or the role of Islam. Torture in police custody remained widespread and was practised systematically, while the perpetrators were rarely brought to justice. Two Kurdish politicians "disappeared" in gendarmerie custody. Dozens of political killings were reported, some of which may have been extrajudicial executions."

Because Turkey is desperate to join the EU, they are – after decades of these sort of human rights abuses – passing laws against torture. AI's 2004 report says they've got slightly better, but "Torture and ill-treatment in police detention remained a grave concern. [..] Disproportionate use of force by police during demonstrations was widespread.[..] Of particular concern were the many allegations of people being abducted by plainclothes police and then tortured or ill-treated. [..] A range of laws and regulations was used to restrict freedom of expression and obstruct the activities of human rights defenders. [..] Sexual assault and harassment of women in police custody continued to be a grave concern [..] A few dozen civilians were shot dead by the security forces and village guards, most of them in the southeastern and eastern provinces. Many may have been victims of extrajudicial executions or the use of excessive force."

If other people want to go to Turkey for a holiday, that's fine. Really, really. Lots of very interesting places there, particularly if you're interested in ancient history.

But no, Turkey does not get my tourist income, just as Franco's Spain wouldn't have done: 'Cheap holidays in other people's misery' as Johnny once sang.

After all, who now remembers the Armenians?

This morning, at about 11am, someone arrived from BT to install a new ADSL line as part of the idea of sticking all our files on a server on the other side of London.

At 11:15, our BT ADSL falls over. Oh, well it does this two or three times a day, it'll be back again soon.

But…

London Blackfriars doesn't have any ticket barriers at the platform entrances/exits. And, unlike say London Waterloo, the exits are rarely staffed. Say on one day in two weeks. There are two exits, a wide one serving platforms 1-4, and a smaller one for platform 5 which is for Thameslink trains going north to Kings Cross/Luton/Bedford. Most of the time, if there is a ticket check, it's only on the wide exit, not the smaller one.

So there's clearly a temptation for passengers wanting to get off there not to buy a ticket.

It's always amusing to see, on days when there is a check, some passengers get off at the front of their train on platform one, head towards the exit, spot that there's a ticket check, then quickly turn 180 degrees and head for the underpassage that links the platforms…

And 99% of the time, they get away with it if they're smart. The London Underground 'carnet' ticket (prepaid single journey in zone one, bought in a pack of ten) is only valid on tube journeys… and Thameslink journeys from Elephant & Castle or London Bridge to Blackfriars including further up to Kings Cross.

So if it turns out that there's a ticket inspection on the smaller exit, and there often isn't, they just wave a carnet at them and claim they've come that way.

(Why can't they do this from platforms 1-4? Carnets aren't valid on South Eastern trains, the other company that uses the line between Elephant & Castle and Blackfriars, which only use those platforms.)

Of course, it would help if there's a Thameslink train on or just leaving from platform five, so it's particularly funny to spot a small huddle of people waiting on the stairs up to the platform, out of sight of the inspectors, so they can later pretend they've just got off a train that hasn't yet arrived.

But today was a 1% day.

"Oh no, a ticket inspection" go the naughty ones and do their 180s to head for the underpass. There was a Thameslink train on platform five too, so no hanging about waiting. Of course, they might not have noticed that this particular train had gone via Elephant & Castle without stopping, and you can bet that the ticket inspectors knew that.

Even better, from the point of view of spectators in the know, there was an inspection in the underpass too, at the base of the stairs to platform five! Unheard of!!

Unsurprisingly, they were having quite a catch.

What the really smart ones would have had to do – and I didn't spot any – was mutter 'oh shit' to themselves, and do a quick 90 degree turn up to platform four. There, they could catch a Thameslink train to London Bridge, so they could then catch a Thameslink train back to platform five. Bingo, the carnet is now valid.

Mind you, they'd have got into work about half an hour later than usual.

I was left thinking that, given that the Thameslink train on platform five hadn't stopped at Elephant & Castle, it'd have been even better to have let the naughty ones try to present their carnets at the platform exit, then arrest them for ticket fraud, rather than just charge them £10 for a penalty ticket before they had had the chance to get deeper into the shit.

You may know that Outlook 2003 – MS's email etc client – has, at last, a spam filter system. Using 'state-of-the-art technology' too, natch.

Someone's analysed how it works. And guess what? Not only is it crap, as in really really crap…

(You know all those 'PEN1S' enlarging systems and 'C*H*E*A*P***V*I*A*G*R*A'? They're considered less likely to be spam, because the subject is all in capitals. Plus 'pen1s' is unlikely to be in the filter's fixed and untrainable list of words, unlike – I kid you not – 'riilldijgjgjg' and the second one has lots of non-alphanumeric characters.)

…but if it detects the word 'linux' in the text of the email, it considers it's more likely to be spam than if it does not.