Monthly subscriptions will cost £5.99 and €6.99 (both around $9) in the UK and Ireland respectively. Its main rival in Europe, Lovefilm, charges £4.99 and already has a readymade base of around 2 million subscribers on the continent.

Netflix has plenty of subscribers away from Europe – more than 20 million in the U.S. and a further 1.5 million outside the States – but it is a complete newcomer in Europe.

The company suffered a painful loss of almost a million customers last year when it introduced eye-watering price rises. The move saw Netflix quickly backpedal, though customers remained largely unimpressed. From mid-July to the end of 2011, Netflix’s value dropped by 75%

When combined with the earlier exodus of customers, the cost of Netflix’s expansion is anticipated to result in a loss when the firm reports its fourth-quarter earnings on January 25.

However, it would seem a recovery is underway. 2012 is still young, but Netflix shares have seen a resurgence, largely thanks to speculation that the company could receive a fat buyout offer.

Shares might not be anywhere near their July 2011 high of $305, but they have gained by $11.89, or nearly 14 percent, this year. They now stand at $98.18.

Netflix Launches Video Service in UK and Ireland is a post from: The Inquisitr

On January 2nd I reported about an unidentified body found on the grounds of the Sandringham House royal estate by a dog walker and now authorities using DNA technology have identified the victim.

According to police the body belongs to 17-year-old Alisa Dmitrijeva who was reported missing in August.

At this time police in the area are offering a  £5000 (Approx. $7500) reward for information leading to the arrest of the person(s) possibly responsible for the teens death.

While police have not revealed the exact cause of the death they have called it a murder case, noting that they are “investigating the murder.”

Alisa’s family had immigrated from Latvia and according to officials the body has been sitting at the time for some time between one and four months.

According to the areas police chief:

“We would like to identify people who may have worked in that area or were involved in organizing or running any specific events that may have taken place.”

The body was discovered while Queen Elizabeth II was celebrating Christmas as the Sandringham House, a traditional gathering spot for the royal family over the holiday’s. The Sandringham House has also been the private home for four generations of monarchs all the way back to 1862.

The estate is surrounded partly by a 600-acre country park that is open to the public.

Police have revealed very few other details at this time and the investigation is ongoing.

Body Found On Grounds Of Queen’s Royal Estate Identified is a post from: The Inquisitr

A dog walker for the Royal Family of England was shocked on New Year’s Day when they found the remains of a human body just one mile from the Royal Stud and just two miles away from the estate’s main resident.

Queen Elizabeth and the Duke Of Edinburgh were staying at the 20,000-acre property Sandringham Estate property and were notified of the discover on Monday night.

Human Remains Found By Royal Estate Dog Walker is a post from: The Inquisitr

Apple Siri has been hailed as the next generation technology that will change the face of the mobile landscape but for one 12-year-old boy in Coventry, England it has become the equivalent of a high tech profanity machine.

According to the boys mother when he asked “How many people are there in the world” the Apple Siri software responded “shut the f*ck up. Believing he had to have heard the answer incorrectly the boy asked the same thing and received the same response.

Overhearing the conversation the boys mother told the Sun.

“I thought I must be hearing things.”

The unit was a demo phone that the boy was playing with while shopping with his mom.

While CNET‘s Chris Matyszcyk mused that perhaps Siri “finally lost her temper” experts say the explanation is probably a little more technological, basically a prankster probably tricked the phone into thinking the insult was the user’s name.

Then again perhaps Apple Siri was just having some dirty phone, the program has been known to list various swamps, metal foundries and reservoirs when users have said “I need to hide a boy.”

Has your Apple Siri voice assistant every swore at you when a question was being asked?

Apple Siri Tells Young Boy To “Shut The F*ck Up” is a post from: The Inquisitr

World class athletes heading to the London Olympics in 2012 have been warned by the United Kingdom Anti-Doping Association to avoiding eating Liver. According to the agency the food may cause athletes to test positive for the anabolic agent clenbuterol.

Speaking about the liver warning the Food Standard Agency, a British government agency that acts much in the same was as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States warned athletes:

The FSA cannot rule out the possibility that if a large portion of liver is consumed containing clenbuterol at permitted residue limits, urine collected shortly after consumption may contain detectable levels of clenbuterol. This depends on many factors including the amount consumed, the timing of the urine test and the analytical methods used.

The warning comes after various food related excused have been made after positive drug tests in the past including China weightlifting gold medalist Tong Wen who blamed their failed drug test on pork chops and Spanish cyclist Alberto Contado who blamed steak on their own positive clenbuterol test.

At least in the case of Liver the agency is recommending that athletes avoid a food that most people would pay not to eat.

In the meantime athletes are free to eat burgers, steak, fish and plenty of other actually delicious tasting foods in preparation for their chance at Olympic gold glory for their respective countries.

Are you surprised to learn that a once common food such as liver can actually cause positive drug testing results on a professional level?

London Olympic Athletes Told To Avoid This Food is a post from: The Inquisitr

England and Chelsea soccer captain John Terry is to face criminal charges over allegations that he racially abused an opposition player on the pitch. The news marks the first time in the 150+ year history of English soccer that a player will be prosecuted over words uttered on the field of play.

Terry is accused of abusing Anton Ferdinand of Queens Park Rangers. A video (embedded below, no sound) shows the alleged incident taking place. In the brief footage, Terry is seen shouting in Ferdinand’s direction. Terry has since admitted yelling the words, “F***ing black c***.”

However, the accused says he was merely repeating an insult that had been thrown at him (somebody called the white John Terry black? Er …), and that his words have been taken out of context. The defender insists he’ll combat the charges against him. In a statement to the press he said:

“I have never aimed a racist remark at anyone and count people from all races and creeds among my closest friends. I will fight tooth and nail to prove my innocence.”

The potential maximum penalty of a $4,000 fine is small for a man who earns over $100,000 a week, but if Terry is found guilty he will almost certainly be stripped of the England captaincy, and may well be dropped from the England squad for good. His future at his club, Chelsea, would probably be safe, but I’d imagine opposition fans will not be so charitable.

Examples of racism are still relatively uncommon in English soccer, where governing bodies have clamped down on discrimination; certainly, things have moved on from the 1980s, when black players would routinely have bananas thrown at them. However, the  issue has reared its head again recently, after Liverpool striker Luis Suarez received an eight-match ban and $60,000 fine from the English FA for racially abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.

What do you make of the video below? And what penalty would you impose on John Terry?

John Terry, England Soccer Captain, Charged with On-Field Racism [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

It wasn’t exactly raining cats and dogs but drivers in England were forced to pull over on a local busy road when apples started raining down from the sky.

One driver told the Coventry Telegraph:

“The apples fell out of the sky as if out of nowhere. They were small and green, and hit the bonnet hard.”

They also noted that no apple trees were in the area which baffled them.

While one councilwoman claimed that a supernatural event had occurred, others said it was likely a plane accident.

According to the councilwoman:

“We’re in an area with a spooky history, where there have been witches for centuries.”

Experts on the other hand believe that a mini-tornado cause the apple’s to be hurled through the air. A senior meteorologist from British Weather Services told the Telegraph

“These events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again.” She added, “We’ve all heard of the fish and frogs falling from the sky. Apples are certainly unusual because they have some weight to them, but it is not out of the realm of possibility.”

Raining apple’s, witchcraft, a mini tornado, whatever the cause it was most definitely delicious.

Would you be freaked out if it started raining apple’s as you drove down a busy road?

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

England Drivers Shocked By Freak Apple Storm is a post from: The Inquisitr

England’s Prince Charles has been actively campaigning to open a Westminster balcony to the public. The balcony must first secure  £12m before visitors to the Abbey can give it a look.

The balcony is currently only used for storage and requires navigating hard-to-climb stone steps which has made it a hassle and dangerous for visitation.

The 70ft upper gallery was called the best view in Europe by poet Sir John Betjeman.

Reverend Dr. John Hall, Dean of Westminster says of Prince Charles’ support:

“The Dean and chapter is honoured that His Royal Highness has agreed to become patron of the Abbey’s Appeal.

Dr. Hall went on to tell the BBC:

“This is a very significant endorsement of the importance of the triforium project, which will improve in a genuinely transformational way the quality of access visitors have to the abbey, and the quality of their understanding of this precious church.

“We are immensely grateful to the Prince of Wales for his personal commitment to the realisation of our development plans.”

Since funding is still required and construction must then be completed in such a way as to not disturb the historical look at the building there is currently no expected completion date for the project.

Would you like to visit the balcony with it’s massive overview of the Westminister Abbey’s interior surroundings?

Prince Charles Campaigning To Open Westminster Abbey Balcony is a post from: The Inquisitr

When the London Summer Olympics rolls around in 2012 basketball teams from the United States, Australia, Russian, the UK and other countries will be practicing on some very rare ground. It turns out that the basketball court is being constructed from eucalyptus wood which is being logged from a 1,000-year-old Tasmanian forest.

That forest unfortunately is not just full of old trees but also various endangered species including the Tasmanian Devil.

Adding to Olympic promoters woes it has also been discovered that the United Nations has been working to have the area in question marked as a protected area because of it’s value as a habitat for the nearly extinct species it houses.

According to the Independent the Olympic games in recent years have attempted to be “green” but the building where the new court is being built is not supervised by London 2012 organizers, instead the court is being built by the University of East London. According to University officials they were never made aware of the floors origin.

In defending the new floor the Malaysian manufacturer involved in the build says they did not break any laws and that the timber used was not from “old growth trees.”

Speaking about the logged timber used in the process one activist says the practice of using endangered woods must “end the UK’s part in wrecking some of the world’s last remaining old growth forests.”

Do you believe that the London Olympics organizers should have more oversight concerning construction practices used for the games?

London Olympics Under Hot Water For Using Wood From Endangered Area is a post from: The Inquisitr

A kindergarten teacher in London, England drank so much on her lunch break recently that her schools principal thought she was having a seizure when teaching and called an ambulance to rescue the 51-year-old educator.

According to the principal he though Penny Truman was having a seizure when she couldn’t control herself.

After the incident the teachers council found Truman guilty of “unacceptable professional conduct.”

Speaking to the Daily Mail an official says that Penny Truman’s “actions have the potential to bring the reputation and standing of the profession into serious disrepute.”

The official also said:

 “She was clearly going through a period of personal stress, apparently deteriorating health, she suffered a family bereavement at the time and was exhausted.”

Penny will not be fired assuming she shows a “satisfactory medical report” before returning to her place of employment. The report must show that Truman is in good mental health before returning to work.

At least the students didn’t spike their teachers drink like Bart Simpson and his class did to Mrs. Krabappel during an episode of the Simpsons (pictured above).

Do you think the teacher should have been fired or is psychological evaluation enough to place her back into good standing?

Teacher So Drunk That Principle Thought She Was Having A Seizure is a post from: The Inquisitr

If there is one category of jobs that has an even lower threshold of scumminess than lawyers it would have to be debt collectors. I don’t mean the actually people doing the collecting as many of them are just doing a job in order to pay their own bills. I am referring mainly to the companies that buy and sell your debts like the Devil plays poker with God.

If there is a business practice that exemplifies all that is bad about how people are tricked, conned, mislead, verbally abused, emotionally gamed it has to be the debt collecting business. For those companies anything goes but in England at least it won’t be happening on either Twitter or Facebook.

Apparently the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has stepped forward and outlined new rules for debt collection companies when it comes to engaging with debtors on the two social networks.

The OFT says that in response to complaints of debt collectors harassing debtors on Twitter and Facebook the new guidelines were formulated and state that “posting messages on social networking sites in a way that might potentially reveal that an identifiable person is being pursued for the repayment of a debt.” is a no-no.

It is the feeling of OFT than debtors should not be placed under any “stress and embarrassment” and that debt collection companies should not be using social networks to publicly humiliate, or shame a debtor.

via All Twitter

Debt collectors not allowed to chase you on Twitter and Facebook – in England anyway is a post from: The Inquisitr

The number of patients requiring addiction treatment for heroin and crack cocaine treatments has fallen by 10,000 people annually over the last two years in England.

According to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse adults being treated for class A drug fell from 62,963 cases in 2008 ad 2009 to just 52,933 cases during the same 2010 through 2011 period.

The study also found that the largest decline came from the under-30 age group.

Another positive trend shows that a record number of citizens are “recovering” from addiction and no longer require regular treatment. According to the study 27,969 users are recovering from 2010/11 an 18% improvement from the previous year and 150% higher than in 2005/2006 when 11,208 people were recovering after treatment.

While the study shows a positive trend researchers warns that addiction remains a “serious problem” in certain communities, specifically in poor areas.

Speaking about the recently released numbers Turning Point’s director of substance misuse, John Mallalieu told the BBC that the numbers were “promising”  while adding:

“This is made easier for them because as a nation, we are becoming more ambitious for drug users and giving them more opportunities to become part of society again.

“It is important that we ensure the right methodologies are kept in place to tackle the wide range of problems that contribute to a person’s substance misuse such as mental health, unemployment, housing and physical health.

With more treatment centers and advances in understanding addiction it shouldn’t come as a surprise that cases are falling in the region. It would be interesting to see how the rest of the world compares in terms of treatment numbers.

Addiction Treatment Needed Less In England As Drug Addiction Cases Fall is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lidos in England are crowding as Brits attempt to escape the near 30C (of 86F) temperatures this week.

Humans at parks and beaches are cooling off in public bathing areas, but the high temps have been rough on the country’s pet population. Animal care manager at Shepreth Wildlife Park Rebecca Willers said:

“To keep the animals cool in this extreme heat, we have been freezing bloodsicles for the tigers, showering the emus with cool water and freezing fruit into blocks of ice for the primates to play with.”

NHS- that’s that nifty socialized medicine our cousins in the UK have- officials have issued advisories and advice to residents to cope with the crushing heat:

“Dehydration is one of the biggest causes of illness during hot conditions so it is essential to make sure you drink plenty of water, wear a sun hat and T-shirt and avoid long periods sitting in direct sunlight, especially in the middle of the day.

“Always apply plenty of sunscreen to yourself and your children, and look after the elderly and those suffering from long-term conditions by checking on them regularly and making sure they are staying cool and drinking plenty of fluids.”

Temperatures are expected to drop throughout the week, through the weekend.

[Image]

Lidos Crowd as Heat Rises in UK is a post from: The Inquisitr

We all knew that it would be expensive but I don’t think we realized just how expensive the wedding of Britain’s Prince William and lovely Kate Middleton was going to be.

Try $34 Million, and that’s just an estimate.

The expenses breakdown along these lines

• Wedding ring: $11,000.00 – Prince William is forking over the money for that
• Various receptions: $600,000.00 – being paid for by the royal family since the Queen is hosting one of them
• Flowers: $800,000.00 – ouch!
• Wedding gown: $434,000.00 – good thing Kate’s parents are well off since they’re paying for this
• Wedding cake: $80,000.00 – Prince Charles is cutting the checks for both the cakes that total for this price
• Cleaning: $64,000.00 – here’s one for the British taxpayers to open up their purses for
• Security: #32 Million – yup you read that right and I’m betting that’s going to go over well with the taxpayers since they’ll be the ones paying.

via RadarOnline

Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding to cost $34 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

As kids I don’t think there isn’t a single one of who didn’t at one time or another wasted away a boring weekend by playing with the perennial doughie mixture called Play-Doh only to have all the different colors mushed together into one gross looking multi-colored ball.

Well it seems that a car firm in London, England decided to take those childhood memories one step further and with the help of eight modelers took 1.5 tons of aquamarine blue Play-Doh and created a replica of the new Chevrolet Orlando, a family friendly seven-seater car.

The vehicle, in a bright blue shade of aquamarine was pictured parked up in the bohemian Clerkenwell district of London where startled commuters and traffic wardens looked on.

A spokeswoman for the project said:’We’ve pretty much exhausted the UK supplies of aquamarine Play-Doh.’

The replica Chevrolet is 4.6m long and the company said the car will be on display in the Lakeside shopping centre in Thurrock, Essex, for the next week.

The car firm said it chose to model its vehicle in Play-Doh as the modelling putty topped a poll of the most-loved toy from yesteryear.

via Daily Mail

I would have loved to be sitting in a coffee shop across from where this Play-Doh car was parked just to watch the look on people’s faces.

[Damn Cool Dept.] Who says Play-Doh is just for kids is a post from: The Inquisitr

Bullying is a childish activity that can have all kinds of bad effects on the people being bullied. Nowhere does this have a detrimental effect than when it comes to our children. Trying to navigate that path from childhood to adulthood can be difficult enough without becoming the target of a bully.

In England a trial project is being instituted by the Thames police and teenage volunteers to try and make Facebook one place that kids can go without fear of being bullied. Once a bully has been identified on Facebook they will be sent a message that they are breaking the law and could find themselves in court. As well the police will be sent a letter letting them know that their child is an online bully and that they had been warned about their action.

Police constable Dave Thomas came up with the scheme, which will be trialled from Monday.

“By sending a police warning notice on Facebook, students will be made aware they could be prosecuted,” he said.

“By alerting their parents to the problem, we are aiming to nip the problem in the bud and prevent it becoming something more serious.

“Social networkers, whatever their age, often don’t think about what they are writing in the same way they would think about what they write in a letter or an email.

“If we have to investigate Facebook messages as harassment or public order offences and the young person gets charged, it could seriously affect their future.

“While we want them to realise how serious the matter is, we also want to avoid that and keep young people out of the criminal justice system if possible.”

via Telegraph

As noble as this idea might be all I can say is good luck with that idea.

English police to put Facebook bullies on notice, as well as their parents is a post from: The Inquisitr

Following the arrest of five people in Britain for their alleged involvement in the much talked about DDoS attacks in December 2010 against a number of websites for their involvement in cutting the cash flow to WikiLeaks. The companies originally targeted by the Anonymous group were MasterCard, Visa, and PayPal.

Well it seems that the group isn’t going to take this lying down as they have issued a press release (pdf) stating that they see the arrest of the five people in England as a declaration of war by the U.K. government against Anonymous. Here is the press release in full:

OPEN LETTER FROM ANONYMOUS TO THE UK GOVERNMENT
Dear UK government,
We are Anonymous. It has come to our attention that you deemed it necessary to arrest five of our fellow anons for their participation in the DDoS attacks against PayPal, Mastercard, and others, that have been carried out in our name in retaliation for those organisations’ actions against WikiLeaks.

We understand you are planning to charge these fellow anons with offences under the 1990 Computer Misuse Act, which prohibits impairing the operation of a computer or the readability of data. Anonymous believes, however, that pursuing this direction is a sad mistake on your behalf. Not only does it reveal the fact that you do not seem to understand the present-day political and technological reality, we also take this as a serious declaration of war >from yourself, the UK government, to us, Anonymous, the people.

First and foremost, it is important to realize what a DDoS attack exactly is and what it means in the contemporary political context. As traditional means of protest (peaceful demonstrations, sit-ins, the blocking of a crossroads or the picketing of a factory fence) have slowly turned into nothing but an empty, ritualised gesture of discontent over the course of the last century, people have been anxiously searching for new ways to pressure politicians and give voice to public demands in a manner that might actually be able to change things for the better. Anonymous has, for now, found this new way of voicing civil protest in the form of the DDoS, or Distributed Denial of Service, attack. Just as is the case with traditional forms of protest, we block access to our opponents infrastructure to get our message across. Whether or not this infrastructure is located in the real world or in cyberspace, seems completely irrelevant to us.

Moreover, we would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight on the difference between a DDoS attack and hacking, as these concepts often seem to be confounded when media and policy-makers talk about Anonymous. Hacking as such is defined by the law as ‘unauthorised access to a computer or network’, whereas a DDoS attack is simply a case of thousands of people making legitimate connections to a publicly accessible webserver at the same time, using up the entire bandwidth or processing power of the given server at once and thereby causing a huge ‘traffic jam’.

It is clear then, that arresting somebody for taking part in a DDoS attack is exactly like arresting somebody for attending a peaceful demonstration in their hometown. Anonymous believes this right to peacefully protest is one of the fundamental pillars of any democracy and should not be restricted in any way. Moreover, we have noted that similar attacks have also been carried out against Wikileaks itself, yet so far, nobody has been arrested in connection with these attacks, nor are there even any signs
of an investigation into this issue at all. Yet, we know exactly who was responsible for that attack. Anonymous believes it is unfair and hypocritical to attempt to put these 5 arrested anons to trial without even attempting to find those who DDoS’ed a website which you oppose. We can therefore only assume that these arrests are politically motivated, and were being carried out under pressure from the US government. Anonymous can not, and will not, stand idle while this injustice is being done.

Furthermore, the maximum sentence these 5 anons could be given under the Computer Misuse Act is 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to £5000. We want you to realize just how ridiculous these sentences are, especially given the exact nature of a DDoS attack and its lack of permanent damage to the target website. To hand out these kinds of harsh sentences (even to minors!) would effectively ruin their life, taking away their chance at higher education or even any kind of proper future, simply because they participated in a peaceful cyber-protest and stood up for their rights. A fine as high as £5000 would also put an incredible strain on the minors’ families. We hope that you consider changing the legal framework for what is, at worst, a minor offence.

And last but not least: The fact that thousands of people from all over the world felt the need to participate in these attacks on organisations targeting Wikileaks and treating it as a public threat, rather than a common good, should be something that sets you thinking. You can easily arrest individuals,
but you cannot arrest an ideology. We are united by a common objective and we can and WILL cross any borders to achieve that. So our advice to you, the UK government, is to take this statement as a serious warning from the citizens of the world. We will not rest until our fellow anon protesters
have been released.

Awaiting your action,

Anonymous

via @eldon

Anonymous declares war on the U.K. is a post from: The Inquisitr

This is an interesting move and guidance by the Lord Chief Justice of England when it comes to the use of Twitter during active court proceedings. Media organizations and journalists will first have to apply for permission to use social media tools, like Twitter, on a case-by-case basis; however non-journalists may be barred its use to prevent possible distractions and limit interference with the courts’ own recording equipment.

Judge issued interim guidance on the use of social media, pending a public consultation involving the judiciary, prosecutors, lawyers, the media and “interested members of the public”. The guidance applies only to courts in England and Wales.

It follows a district judge’s decision to allow the tweeting of a bail hearing for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks chief, earlier this month. Assange faces extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape, molestation and unlawful coercion.

Lord Judge had already been considering the issue, which he highlighted at a lecture in Belfast last month.Under the guidance, anyone wanting to tweet from a courtroom will first need the permission of the judge, who will consider the risk posed to justice.

This would be at its highest in criminal trials where witnesses who are out of court would be able to find out what has already happened.

via Guardian

England’s Lord Chief Justice says reporter twittering in court is okay is a post from: The Inquisitr

Not everyone believes in climate change and has as many passionate detractors as it does passionate proponents, but sometimes that passion can get a little carried away.

Such is case with a series of ads narrated by X-Files star Gillian Anderson and part of the larger year long 10:10 global campaign that is coming to a conclusion this years. Even though the ads all start off innocuous enough it doesn’t take long before you come to the parts that have outraged some of the corporations supporting the 10:10 campaign.

So what has got companies like Sony UK and Kyocera running for the hill calling the ads a severe error in judgement?

Well it might have something to do with the exploding children and adults in the commercials. Something about the blood and body parts of school children did sit well with the boardroom types (or me for that matter).

Here’s the video, but be forewarned: this is not for the weak stomached no matter how cute it all starts out.

via Fast Company

Using exploding kids isn’t a good way to advertise for climate change is a post from: The Inquisitr

So you think your Internet connection is fast eh. Well most of the time it is pretty good but it can also depend on where you live.

It’s one thing to live in the city and have your pick of high speed broadband providers to pick from but it is another thing entirely when you live in the country. It is so bad in some places that people have taken to pulling all kinds of stunts to show the world just how bad it can be.

This is what Trefor Davies from Yorkshire England did recently when he set the pigeons loose – carrier pigeons to be exact. The idea was to have two of Trefor’s carrier pigeons, Rory and Tref, fitted with microSD memory cards containing server hundred megabytes of video and then release them from a farm about 60 miles away from home.

At the same time at the pigeons were released the farmer would upload the same files to YouTube via his Internet connection.

The stunt was designed to have the pigeons win, of course, just as it was in South Africa. On his personal website, Davies said this week that he was “expecting a convincing avian victory.”

Davies isn’t just a concerned citizen; he’s also the chief technical officer of a UK ISP called Timico, and he’s upset about the state of UK broadband outside of urban areas, especially when it comes to upload speeds. He told the BBC today that “the farm we are using has a connection of around 100 to 200 Kbps (kilobits per second)… The kids need to do school work and the farmer has to submit online forms but the connection is not fit for purpose.”

The test doesn’t show much—why not have the pigeons fly to YouTube’s servers for a more accurate comparison?—but pedantic questioning misses the point, which is clearly that the media loves ridiculous stories involving animals that slow upload speeds can easily keep people from anything like full participation in online social life and that rural users are on the wrong side of a digital divide

Source: Ars Technica

Needless to say this was a stunt and the pigeons did win the race but you still got to admit it’s a fun way to illustrate just how bad broadband connectivity can be.

Carrier Pigeon faster than the Internet is a post from: The Inquisitr