‘At a computer conference in Alexandria, Virginia, Stefan Savage, a computer security expert who led the “Sneakey” project, surfed the photo-sharing website Flickr and found pictures that clearly showed peoples’ keys, even if personal information in the shots had been blurred out.

In one demonstration, the team cut duplicate keys after analysing images taken on a mobile phone. In another, they used a telephoto lens to take pictures of a set of keys on a cafe table from the roof of a university building.’

The Guardian: Copying keys from photos is child’s play

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Manchester’s former Odeon cinema, on Oxford Street, has been subjected to a ’systematic and methodical’ assault to prevent it being preserved, according to the man who tried to save it.

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We tend to think that guns, robberies and violent crime in Manchester are a modern phenomenon. But there was lots of it going on in Victorian times too. Even in Didsbury (heaven forbid).

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Recently I mentioned how I called United Utilities and was asked for my date of birth for ‘data protection’ reasons. I refused to give it and they wouldn’t discuss my water bill.

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UPDATE (October 2008): this podcast has ‘retired’ into the archives. I’ve left the production notes below.

Chris joins me to talk about:

* Queer Up North: Europe’s leading queer arts festival which starts here in Manchester in the next few days, with events throughout May.

* Peter Tatchell

* Our show Bargain Hunters: why we haven’t made any more since June.

* Big Brother

* The TV phone scandals that have engulfed Britain recently and the recent BBC Panorama programme on the subject.

* The Basement Social Centre

* The Conservative Party

* Scally wear: we find out, does Chris own a hoody or any trackies?

* Doctor Who and Torchwood

At least 127 people have been killed in five or more car bombings in Baghdad.

‘A Reuters photographer at the scene said many women and children were among the victims. More than 90 people were injured in the attack.’ (The Guardian).

Meanwhile 32 died in Virginia yesterday.

Gosh I wonder which of these tragedies will be headline news in America and Britain every day for weeks to come?

I really hate the drunkenness, violence and general thuggery that is everywhere in Britain now.

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Greater Manchester Police have put a video on YouTube in an attempt to get more information from the public about the murder of a 15-year-old schoolboy.

In the early hours of Saturday, September 9, Jessie James was shot three times in a park in the Moss Side area of Manchester. The clip includes a tribute from his mother and sister.

BBC Panorama reports on a European investigation which suggests that a VAT (sales tax) scam may have cost the UK up to £8.4 billion (£8,400,000,000).

The theft comes from so-called ‘carousel fraud’, where crooks repeatedly import and export high value goods such as mobile phones, failing to pay VAT but then claiming it back from the government.

If this figure is true, it amounts to £140 for every person in Britain.