matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Politics)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Cool)
Yesterday, I had two posts I was planning to make at some point. Then my shiny new work laptop arrived, but it wouldn't stay online for more than 5 minutes and fixing it took me ages. But in another attack of shared brain[1], [info]Debi's done very similar to what I meant to do, so go read:

The former is a linkdump of Firefox extensions redone, I need to do one anyway to transfer to my new laptop so that'll happen. The latter is a how-to on linkspamming sharing with delicious and crossposting them to your blog (works anywhere but LJ needs some extra tweaks), but also has a how-to on using and/or hiding LoudTwitter posts. I really like the utility of the latter and like reading them, and dislike it when people cut them as I can't just scan past, but I know others dislike them intensely so if you do you might find it useful.

Anyway, the rest can wait, I have some campaigning to go do. Go vote people, especially in London (and remember, the GLA list vote really matters, unfortunately).

[1] Debi has a habit of posting stuff as I'm thinking about the same thing, and we share a lot of "oh, cool trick" stuff anyway. Jennie, OTOH, has scary freaky same-as-me opinions on a lot of stuff, and we sometimes make the same comment at the same time in various places. So if you're missing my longer informed posts, I hope I'll get over the block that seems to mean I lack inspiration or inclination, but in the meantime reading [livejournal.com profile] innerbrat, Jennie's [livejournal.com profile] theyorkshergob or my old housemate and third "shared brain" unfortunate [livejournal.com profile] paulatpingu wouldn't do you any harm.
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
matgb: (Webstuff)
Well, I tried setting up the deli.icio.us cross poster (again), but it keeps crashing on me, so here's my linkspam of the last day or so redone with stripped html—sorry about some of the weirdness.

New Statesman - Richard Reeves

Wrote the bio of JS Mill I'm currently reading, which means I like him already. Very interesting set of columns, well worth looking over, even if they are in Staggers.


Edible Dirt,—Easter Sunday, Jesus wakes up

Not original, probably offensive to those that care, rather funny

10 Unfortunate Facts of Life | f*cking c*nts

This amused, it's about time I cleared it from my linklog and actually posted it somewhere

to funny life sex ...

theweaselking: Abortion discussion

Key quote from comments: "It's a hard enough choice without having to make it in an alley. I'll always be pro choice, period."

Why I am an abortion doctor

Read this: 'I can take a woman, in the biggest trouble she has ever experienced in her life, and by performing a five-minute operation, in comfort and dignity, I can give her back her life' Safe, legal, rare, why is there still a controversy?

How to Pack Up & Leave LiveJournal (A Tutorial) (://URLFAN)

Not a bad little how-to. Not how I'd do it specifically, I've already backed up everything including comments to a Wordpress install, but still not bad.

drjon: The LJ Strike (which is today)

Containts a nice little history of previous fusses on the site, with a balanced overview and points out that, well, we've won already

Pharyngula: EXPELLED!

Creationists premiere dodgy movie near home of famous science blogger, specifically ban him from viewing, but not his family or his guest. This is a really dumb move...

It's Just a Game... - Review: The Bible

Funny: "Summary: A confused film, half effects laden, no-brain blockbuster, half cinema-verite talking-heads, lacking a conclusion or climax to justify the budget. Poor plotting and characterisation lead the audience to sympathise with the villains rather

FT.com | The Undercover Economist | Dear Economist: How can I create an incentive scheme to keep our house clean?

Sounds familiar: "My fiancee is moving in with me. We’ve lived together before, and we hate housework. Before, we didn’t do work in retaliation for housework not done by the other." Good to know that even economics doesn't have all the answers

matgb: (Cool)
Heh, this is very cool. While trawling around for extra links to update my Arthur C Clarke obit post I came across this linked from Boing Boing:

Abyss & Apex : Fourth Quarter 2007: Wikihistory:
International Association of Time Travelers: Members' Forum Subforum: Europe – Twentieth Century – Second World War
Time traveller revert wars over the life of Adolph Hitler. Wonder if any of them are the bloke in the golden suit?

ETA: From the comments, a link to a Sub-press printed [livejournal.com profile] scalzi story on a similar theme. Also very cool.
matgb: (Webstuff)
OK, it's 2.30am and I'm wide awake thanks to a very ill 4-year-old, who's now off to the hospital with Mum and Granpa. So random amusements before I go to clear up.

Via a locked post from a normally great source of info, a rather off-the-wall webcomic, no ongoing plot, just many many silly vignettes, this one is class:
obersalzberg:: The home of Hitler, 1933--Doubt creeps in

And in good news for those of us still using the place, Facebook has woken up to the application spam problem and given many many ways to fix it. I reject almost all invites out of hand these days, I never did want to be a bloody vampire thankee muchly, and I definitely don't want to find out how gay I am. Of course, that half of the apps are made by data miners, spammers and arseholes makes me even more cautious, I'll stick to the ones that are actually useful. Or made by people I trust.

Meh, rambling. The rest of these I got from random people and don't appear to have saved who from, bit of a backlog. Long term readers will know I tend to like remakes, re-imaginings and new versions of old classics, so that they're redoing The Day the Earth Stood Still could be a good thing. Except they've cast Keanu as Klaatu. All aboard the failboat now? I don't recall ever seeing that boy act. Ah well. Indiana Jones IV: I need a pension is on its way, I'm looking forward to it, but it appears I need a companion, any volunteers? Jennie thinks, and I quote, that it's mysogonistic boy's own adventure bollocks, so is refusing, which is fair. Given that exactly the same can be said for Bond and she's a huge fan I don't really get it, and that it's boy's own adventure bollocks is surely the entire point? Anyway, [livejournal.com profile] aaronace gives us a nice fan-mix of the theme tune with clips from all the films. I liked it anyway. This one's a bit late, but meh. Some random bloke's guide to a succesful relationship and not being that ex. Think I mostly agree, opinions? Last up, how to make money in an era where copies can be made for free.

I sleep now, I hope. G'night all.
matgb: (Webstuff)
This is very very cool. MySociety have finished [livejournal.com profile] chrislightfoot's (RIP) London travel-time maps with the help of some cash from the Department of Transport. You can play around with a flash version that compares travel time to Westminster with property prices, etc. Rather nice. The hotspots nearer the edges around train stations and tube stops are a nice touch.

[livejournal.com profile] rhythmaning brings us The Future of Social Networking: PensionBook

The New Bond movie is called Quantum of Solace, based around a short story in For Your Eyes Only, which I think I've read. Daft title, anyway. But more important, a new MI6 agent will be played by Gemma "Head Girl from St. Trinian's" Arterton. Sorry, I'll stop drooling now. So that's one we'll be going to see then.

Lastly, um, WTF? DC Comics to kill off Batman?
DC says issue 676 - entitled Batman R.I.P - will "change the legend of the Dark Knight forever!". The blurb adds: "Who will live? Who will die? Who will be Batman? The answers are sure to shock you in Batman R.I.P."
They "killed off" Superman, now what, Bruce Wayne dies but Grayson take son the mantle? Or something even more daft. Written by Grant Morrison, so there is at least hope that it's not awful. Hope, I said. Ever the optimist, me.
matgb: (Review)
Last night, Jennie and I went to see Aliens Vs Predator-Requiem, for a full review including a few minor spoilers, her review is here, and while I agree with her, my review is slightly more succint: it's shit. Pretty, and vaguely entertaining shit, and a bunch of you will love it for the gore and the fight scenes, but the plot was arse, the idea poorly implemented and the dénoument was piss poor. Fun, but arse.

In completely other unrelated, [livejournal.com profile] harlotqueen took his camera for a walk around Exeter and has a nice little photo blog post with some cool pics of my old town. I've also never seen the weir that high, and I really like his cityscape by twilight.
matgb: (Webstuff)
First, a serious one. If you live in the UK, follow this link and do what the nice people say? I'v efootnoted some reasons at the bottom[1] but here's a summary. Abolish Blasphemy Laws Now:
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has long campaigned for the blasphemy laws to be abolished, and an opportunity for this to happen has now come with an amendment to be tabled this week by Evan Harris MP.

We need as many people as possible to get in touch with their MP to show the support there is for abolishing this antiquated law.
That's Dr Evan Harris MP, not met him yet, think I might like to. Cross party support would be good on this one *cough*[livejournal.com profile] bagrec, it's not really political, more a general interest story, right?*cough* Even if you're a believer, I've yet to see any coherent defense of the blasphem laws, wouldn't it be better to let people make their case so you can try to rebut them or persuade people otherwise?

OK, on to fun stuff. A bunch of researchers in San Diego attended 66 different student parties and breathalysed a representative sample of attendees. They found that while men drink more at normal parties, women drink more at fancy dress parties, and drink much more at sexually themed parties. Quoth the guy in charge:
Dr Clapp admitted that "as his team was unable to explain the surprise finding it would be necessary to carry out further field work", concluding: "Given that some theme parties can be highly sexualised, future investigation of the mechanisms that may explain this effect is warranted." ®
Yes, that's right, you want to go to a bunch of student sex themed parties in the name of research. Gotta admire his commitment to science, right?

Now, more sillyness. The guy who runs asciimation, home of The death of Jar Jar is also a bit of a loon when not on his computer, and a Futurama fan.  Hence The Bender Brewer Project, in which he makes a life size Bender and puts a brewing barrel in its chest.  If you just want to see the complted work, half way down page three you can find him pictured playing on a TARDIS arcade console (via [livejournal.com profile] slashdot). How cool is that? Cue Jennie saying I want one to the TARDIS thing in 5, 4, 3...
Reasons to abolish the blasphemy laws courtesy of the BHA )
matgb: (Webstuff)
Right then, last year, you lot voted that Best Xmas song lyric ever is:
You scumbag, you maggot You cheap lousy faggot
Well, this morning, BBC Radio 1 decided this was offensive to some listeners but then later on in the day saw sense and backed down. I agree with [livejournal.com profile] pickwick, it's a damn shame that the BBC manages to tie itself into hoops as often as it does. Naturally, someone disagrees, and [livejournal.com profile] bagrec doesn't like the song and suggests alternatives. But he's a freaky morris dancing types so you don't want to listen to him ;-)

Elsewhere, it's the Arsehole of the year grand final over at [livejournal.com profile] publicansdecoy's place, and [livejournal.com profile] hullfire already covered the other main stories of the day:
So, Nick Clegg is the new Lib Dem leader and in a monstrous piece of stupidity the Government has lost more of our stuff, but in really important news, RODENTS OF UNUSUAL SIZE ACTUALLY EXIST!
I do have to say I do share some of Jennie's concerns about the potential of Clegg's leadership but I'm nowhere near as cynical about it. He has at least hit the ground running, complete with YouTube appearance filmed on cheapskate handheld already. Although the town meeting idea does sound like it might have some legs.

What, you expected analysis? Don't be silly, I've been reading stuff about it all day, besides, I didn't end up voting, I couldn't make a decision between the two of them, they're both nice blokes. We'll be fine. Right? Someone tell me we'll be fine. Damnit, they need to do better, else the damn country's doomed FFS, that's why I joined them...

Calm. Now I tag this entry. Um, is there a limit to how many you can use? Appears not. Oh, wait, I forgot a link. Be very glad she's going to be a Doctor of paleontology not medical stuff, medical doctors play with gadgets much more scary than microwaves.
matgb: (Webstuff)
Someone on my reading list linked to this but I unfortunately didn't note who. To whoever it was, thank you for eating up a fair chunk of reading time. Regret the Error » Crunks 2007: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections. Genius, the best of the daft mistakes made by the media. I especially like the Titanic story, Teh Grauniads misspelling of misspell and the LA times fire hazard map.

Also? Tim at [livejournal.com profile] bloggerheads is organising another demonstration 'anti-Christmas' Carol Service in Parliament Square next Thursday. I'll be back down next week (travelling tomorrow) to do some packing and move planning, and hopefully meeting up with people, etc. Anyone want to join us?
Public Carol Service
matgb: (Webstuff)
Seriously. Open this link in a new window, DO NOT open it in a tab.

There now follows a poll.
[Poll #1070622]
See, I'm nice. I followed the link with no warning at all.
matgb: (Webstuff)

[1] Technically he's no longer my MP, but as I'm not settled in Wimbledon really and am moving on, plus I've been campaigning and supporting him since I was a kid, he's the one I consider my MP until such time as I'm settled somewhere formally.

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