The story below is from the UK’s Independent. I personally find it rather distasteful but it did give me a great idea for Apple to help out their stock price in the New year!

Picture this, the iProfiler – all the standard features of an iPod – or even an iPhone, but with some extra anti-terrorism/security features that create profiles of the listener based on their music listening habits. With the anti-terrorism/security sectors booming this is definitely where Apple should focus for growth without having to eliminate all the work they have done on their music players/phones.

When this rolls out police and other officials will merely need to ask to see your iProfiler, select the appropriate menu options and know if instantly if they need to make time to kick your ass. Steve jobs can thank me later, or maybe now with some stock that I can cash in when this takes off!

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I am devastated that we live in an age and city which gives billions to wealthy bankers who brought the country to a financial stand still yet our elected representatives see it fit to kill off the arts that made the city famous.

How Form 696 could pull the plug on the capital’s music scene

Teenage kicks will be harder to get if publicans and managers of other small venues are forced to comply with a new piece of bureaucracy called Form 696, a former punk rock star has warned.

The form demands that licensees give police a mass of detail, including the names, aliases, private addresses and phone numbers of all musicians and other performers appearing at their venue, and the ethnic background of the likely audience. Failure to comply could mean the loss of a licence or even a fine and imprisonment.

The police say they need the information demanded on Form 696, which runs to eight pages, so they can pinpoint which acts and venues attract troublemakers, and make sure venues are safe. But Feargal Sharkey, who rose to fame during the punk era as the vocalist on the single “Teenage Kicks” by the Undertones, is so angry about what he sees as a threat to live music that he is consulting lawyers about how to stop it.

Click the link above for some of the more tasteful comments!

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