Declan’s data is deleted

It seems bad luck keeps bumping into Declan and me: at 5.10am on Saturday I was urinated on while I slept in my sleeping bag in the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November 2006 (see previous blog); and yesterday afternoon both our booked computers in the local Council's Idea Store Whitechapel library contained a virus which infected each of the two USB drives we were using – Declan lost his database of over 3,000 scientists and academics from around the world (although he had an up-to-date copy of it in Google Mail), as well as a Word document of a categorised list of British signatories of his petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning.



It is not the first time that our data has been deleted through no fault of our own: on 26 January all emails sent to Declan after 12 August 2007 were moved to Trash and 300 draft documents, which included the names and email addresses of over 2,500 scientists and academics, were deleted for good (see blog “Declan’s Google Mail is raided”).

Perhaps it is unfortunate that the Idea Store is situated in Tower Hamlets, one of the poorest boroughs in London: for instance, the Methodist Church Whitechapel Mission, a day centre for homeless people, is just across the road (on 18 June 2007 we were barred by the minister's wife due to concerns about our safety). Still, the library is a modern building and the computers are up-to-date and well-equipped: a firewall, virus program, and filter software are installed across the network; moreover, all computers are programmed to automatically restore custom settings (and delete all activity by prior users), if you re-start them.

I was under the impression that all these things are supposed to be covert – but apparently not. The Independent ran a piece on 10 July entitled: “J'accuse! Ségolène Royal links Sarkozy 'clan' with break-in at apartment”. On France 2’s nightly news programme, the defeated French presidential candidate, Ségolène Royal, said she believed that there was a “link” between a break-in at her apartment on 27 June and her accusation the previous day that the President's wealthy friends were mounting a "take-over" of France. This followed a decision by Sarkozy to ban advertising from state-owned television – potentially increasing by €450m (£350m) annually the revenue of commercial television channels owned, or controlled, by his close friends. "I observe that on the day after I said that it was time to halt the Sarkozy clan's take-over of France, my home was ransacked," Royal told astonished viewers. "I make a link between the two events." Her comments were immediately dismissed by politicians close to Sarkozy who said they were the result of a "martyr complex". However, senior opposition figures sprang to Royal's defence. Jean-Marc Ayrault, the leader of the Socialist group in the lower house of parliament, said that President Sarkozy's 14 months in power had created a "climate" which "recalled the most unpleasant periods of French political history". Once such a climate is created, he said, "anything can happen".

For the record, this is Declan's email yesterday to the manager of Idea Store Whitechapel:

Subject: Idea Store Whitechapel

Dear Mr Abidin

Previous correspondence refers.

Yesterday evening my wife and I booked two computers for today - computer 16 from 1.00pm to 4.45pm and computer 15 from 2pm to 4pm. For security reasons, and as usual, we both re-started our computers prior to log in so as to automatically delete all prior activity. Nonetheless, we were both greeted by an announcement: "Tazebama.dll". Shortly after my wife then put her USB drive into her computer, she discovered that most of the portable programs contained in her USB drive were now inoperable. In my case, after I then put my USB drive into my computer, I was unable to open a database (containing the names and email addresses of over 3,000 scientists and academics from around the world) through Microsoft Excel due to "an error trying to open", and a related Word document entitled "List-Breakdown UK" was "corrupt and unreadable" (see attachment).

According to information derived from the internet, Tazebama.dll is W32.Mabezat.B, which is "a backdoor worm that spreads through network shares and allows attackers to access and gives full control over infected computer". In respect of Tazebama.dll, the Symantec website advises to "perform a forensic analysis and restore the computers using trusted media".

If I am in any way mistaken, please so advise at your earliest convenience.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Card no. D000355837

I am urinated on in the porch

At 5.10am this morning somebody urinated on me while I slept in my sleeping bag in the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November 2006 – a first (we wake up at 4.30am M-F, and 6.30am on weekends). Based on the evidence, this is what Declan thinks: this guy began urinating on the wall a couple of feet from us, then moved and proceeded to urinate on me, before running off as Declan sat up (I sleep on the outside, and Declan on the inside with our well-tied bags). The urine came at me with such force I actually woke up convinced somebody was emptying the contents of a glass of beer over my head; still, none of it touched my face as I was sleeping on my side with my back to the street and was wearing a cap and an eye cover. Needless to say, the clothes I use as a pillow, my cap and my sleeping bag were wet with urine.

Unsettling as it is, worse has happened to me while sleeping in this porch (and this is the best place we have come across to sleep): within two weeks of sleeping in the porch somebody sat on the right-hand side of my face; on 5 May 2007 some guy dragged me out of the two-step porch by the ankles while I was in my sleeping bag, then a few hours later I was kicked in the back; and on 22 September a guy repeatedly kicked me in the chest and shoulders as his mates stood by – the porch is situated in a business area well covered by CCTV.

The European Court of Human Rights doesn't think that these things are too bad: in a letter of 22 November 2007, the Court stated that it was unnecessary to consider Declan's request for priority of 8 September 2007 because it would be examining his application "shortly, possibly by the end of January 2008"; and in a letter of 16 June Declan is informed that "the Court will deal with the case as soon as practicable" – on 18 June, two days before Declan received this letter, all our money and documents were robbed in the Catholic Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre (see blog of 18 June “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”).

If I had to elaborate on an explanation as to why I was used as a urinal, it would have to be because of this: for the last three days Declan has been working on the Faculties of Engineering, Medicine and Natural Sciences of Imperial College London – from which institution some very distinguished scientists have signed his petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning – especially to try and get the petition signed again. In fact, on Thursday I emailed about 15 scientists from ICL (plus another 40 scientists from the University of California, San Francisco) and on Friday well over 30. The number of out-of-office autoreplies is my best indication as to whether Declan's emails are going to inbox or spam (two or three autoreplies within a batch of 10 would be a good indicator of the former): of a total of 45 emails to Imperial College scientists I got two autoreplies; and of a total of 40 emails to the University of California I got four autoreplies in a batch of 10 and then almost none …. There seems to be an uncomplicated approach to things in relation to Declan and me: he is looking to get the local support we need, I get urinated on; I send emails, they get delivered to spam mailboxes.

Actually, I am lucky I can send emails at all from the local council’s Idea Store Whitechapel library (see blog of 25 June “Police ‘No sleeping’ sign in the porch” for Declan's most recent letter to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council): frequently on an hour booking I find myself unable to log in to my computer and have to wait for ten to fifteen minutes before my membership card number and password are accepted; and, for instance, on Wednesday it was announced that nobody would be able to use a computer.

A proposal to define a fertilised human egg as a person will land on Colorado's ballot this November, the first time the question of when life begins will go before voters anywhere in the US. If voters agreed, legal experts say, it would give fertilised eggs the same legal rights and protections to which people are entitled. The ballot initiative is funded by Colorado for Equal Rights, which on Monday announced the support of over 70 physicians and pharmacists. “We are honored to have received these endorsements from such respected physicians," stated Kristi Burton, the sponsor of the amendment. "Science clearly proves that life begins at the time of fertilization. We are secure in the fact that we have science and reason on our side, and we are pleased to have the medical community supporting our efforts." We are equally honoured that Declan’s petition to the UN on therapeutic cloning has received the endorsement of 520 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates; it’s just a pity we are not competing on a level playing field.