matgb | Entries tagged with linkspam

Or maybe it's just a collection of links. Wait, it's links about... Ah, you get the idea...

GE in a blatant corporate search optimisation bid, have a brilliant visualisation of age demographics over time, huge chunks of the projected population expansion in the next few decades is because we've stopped dying as quickly. Which is, broadly, a good thing, right?

Now, university funding and numbers. Remember that 50% should go to university target that the Govt set? The one that was initially "some form of FE, including apprenticeships" but got changed because they forgot the point of their own policy? You'd have thought that, given that target, the proportion of young people graduating with a degree would've gone up a lot over the last 13 years, right? Wrong. The number of graduations as a proportion of the number of 21 year olds has stayed pretty much constant.

nmg does have some caveats, but the basic principle is sound. More students due to a rise in the number of people at university age. That visaulisation above? My age range (born 1974-1980) is one of the smallest, so as the numbers peaked, the total number of students went up, but that was all. More kids = more students. Another failed Labour policy, or just an example of maths inability?

Now, given we've just taken power locally and have to set the budget for the council for next year, news that greater participation and consultation improves information and makes cuts easier is useful to know. The caveat that the society that commissioned the survey was set up to promote participatory democracy is useful but doesn't discredit it.

This, on the other hand, is weird. Giving poor kids computers can decrease their academic attainment. Not conclusive, but far more important to increase the thirst for learning, worries about a "digital divide" may be misplaced, much better to provide a big pile of books. Makes sense to me.

Keeping in touch with people from college is useful. David, now studying astrophysics, likes to think, a lot. The type of disaster that kills the most people is actually the humble heatwave. We're good at dealing with floods and famines, not-so-good at dealing with slower, less obvious problems, but they tend to kill more people. If the world continues to heat, we'll need to adapt to that, fast.

Last up, for now, a bit about mental health. There're lots of pejoratives surrounding mental health problems. The stigma attached is lessening, for some conditions, quickly, and people are much more able to talk about them. But stigma still exists. Especially for those "doing it for the attention". Maybe if those attantion seekers actually got some real attention every so often, they wouldn't need to do it?

Anyway. That's folder one of my link collection emptied out. Some of it was time dependent and deadlines are missed, so not posting, but, y'know. More to follow. Probably. But not tonight, insomnia has kicked in badly last few weeks, but it's partially self inflicted, time to try to sleep, again...

Crossposts: http://matgb.livejournal.com/434574.html

Right, some links from today to amuse/enlighten/annoy/entertain.

First up, Lisa from up the road's been doing some digging on some extremist Christian lobbying groups, How to spot a fundamentalist Christian Lobby Group in your news. A guide. As a general rule, if there's a story in the press about oppressed Christians, these guys are likely to a) be involved and b) distorting or leaving out key facts. Always good to bear that in mind, I especially liked her finishing point:

THis is not about religious belief. This is concerted political lobbying, from groups interested in making it appear that christianity and bigotry are the same thing. They are not.

Next up, Andrew has a nice summary of the rationale of the main political parties, A Beginners’ Guide To The Election Part 2 – What The Parties Stand For. Now, he's as biased as I am, but it looks fairly accurate from my perspective, with a very nice summary of what the Lib Dems are about:

We believe in freedom – that the government should not interfere in you doing what you want with your life. We realise, though, that you can’t be free without enough food to eat or somewhere to live or medicine if you’re sick, so we think the government should do what it can to make sure everybody has those things

Now, if that interests you, you might be interested in getting more involved, and many of you (being the sort of smart, liberal minded person that reads my witterings) may even look at a bunch of MPs and say I could do better than that. I know I do, sometimes, especially when I see a toothless Labour apparatchik backing up the Govt line despite palpably not understanding it. If so, then The Honourable Lady Mark has a guide about How to become a Liberal Democrat MP, which is pretty accurate. He ought to know, he helped write the rules on it. And of course, if the opinion polls stay roughtly where they are or the LDs gain more, at the next GE the number of LD seats considered "winnable" looking for a decent candidate will be a lot bigger.

Now, a little legal seriousness. This is the first really online election, with broaband access as the norm. Some people, indeed many people, have voted by post already, and next week most of you will go off and vote. Publishing, including tweeting, knowledge of how other people have voted is very illegal. It's an attempt to influence the results, see; exit polls can't be published until polls close, what you saw at the opening of the postal ballots can't be published, etc. If a friend says I filled in my postal vote and voted for X, you can't mention this online. You most certainly can't tweet the number of ballots you saw for your party while at the opening of postal votes, and this is especially true if you're a former Labour MP seeking re-election who happens to be a lawyer. That would be really stupid and could get you into serious bother. And yes, many of us have got screenshots.

Now, two funnier, but still election related, points to finish off of. First of all, LOLCleggz: I Can Has Lib-Dems | Popbitch Speaks for itself really. Not all positive or supportive, not all funny, but, y'know, some are.

Last up? No idea who did this, but it is very weird to see them all scrolling past, YouTube - Some of the people the Tory Party think should be running our country...:

My local Tory candidate is about a minute in, and looks positively sane and normal compared to some of them. Which, y'know, is an acheivement in and of itself. They were all taken at Tory party conference in 2008, and I agree with Ian Whitehead, this really does look like a bad day for William Hague. Wonder how many pints of mild he needed to calm down after smiling at that lot?

Ooh, sorry, low blow...

K, looks like I kinda forgot to update for awhile. Oops. You know what that means right? A backlog of silly, informative, thinkworthy or merely funny links. In no particular order:

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite". Sounds fun to me. Street View solves Dutch mugging. See? Useful. Random chance, but still useful.

Next up, researchers do study that finds obvious finding. Except it's not obvious, because if it were, you wouldn't still have idiot politicians the world over trying to pretend the exact opposite is true :-( Professor Kelly Musick and Dr Ann Meier of Cornell University have carried out a study of children whose parents stay together for the sake of the kids: ( more explanation with longer quote ) What matters is the quality of the parenting and the attitude they inculcate to opportunity, not whether they pretend to be happy for the kids sake.

Neologism of the Day—Huxleyed:

To have died with a degree of fame or notoriety that would have guaranteed extensive media coverage, save for the death of someone even more famous or notorious immediately afterwards. From Aldous Huxley, who died an hour before President Kennedy was assassinated. Usage: "Farrah Fawcett was completely Huxleyed by Michael Jackson."

And on that subject, this comic is particularly apposite:
( 'A famous person has died, we go live to somewhere tangentially related' )

One of my favourite authors is, as many of you know, Charles Stross, also known as

autopope, he's up for the Hugos, again, this year, and has been writing an auto-biographical series of blog posts for the last week or so that I've been meaning to link to as they are, frankly, quite funny, and also count as a nice little rundown of the history of how the web came to be—you can blame the need for a robots.txt file on him, and his time working for a Demon subcontractor where part of my official job description was to keep Danny the tomcat from pissing on the modem rack is also amusing.

This is really cool to know, assuming that they're on the button: All of Earth's people, according to a new analysis of the genomes of 53 populations, fall into just three genetic groups. Unlike in many other species, we have multiple possible mutations that could make us, for example, short, and populations famous for small stature, like pygmies, simply have a large number of them instead of one specific key change. Same applies to things like the ability to tolerate cows milk.

Now, simple little question, how many colours are there in the following pattern (via):
( Spiral image pattern with clever optical illusion )
Yup, that's right, there are ( look at the image first damnit! ) colours there, funny how our mind tricks us by filling in assumed blanks, full explanation at Bad Astronomy.

Not sure about this one: science explains why Yorkshiremen like pies so much. Um, I like pies, and I only moved up here 18 months ago (SRSLY, a whole 18 months). Shame that decent non-meat pies are a pain to get hold of. Still, really happy about this one: Alastair Reynolds scores unprecedented 10-year, 10-book deal from Gollancz for his 'mean line in alien cultures and technology'. Completely different writing style to Charlie, but one I also really like, and it's nice to see grand sweeping plots with a background that seems to make sense. In 'so obvious now you think of it' mode, I concur with

rhodri, I really hope that the designer of The folding plug makes lots and lots of money, especially the multi-plug adapter design. I wants them I does...

Slightly more seriously,

denise got interviewed for American NPR, and it's another case of stating the obvious until people listen—social networks that try to make money from ad revenue are going to be in trouble, much better to provide a service people actually want (in DW's case, damn fine blog hosting with a good feed aggregation service bolted on) and charge users for it in some way. By the way, no link for this one, Livejournal is soon going to allow people to host their own adverts on a revenue-sharing model; I personally have less of a problem with this than the way they're plastered all over the dormant basic accounts now, but some of you might like to know...

On the subject of blogging, one of its principle strengths has always been what's called "the long tail"—( defined )this tail is getting a lot shorter. Charles Arthur at The Guardian explains why. ( I mostly agree )

Back to silliness. The US economy was too reliant on crap made by General Motors. Have a look at this: Ten Vehicles That Bankrupted GM. Seriously, these things sold? Ouch.

Now, it can't have escaped the notice of most of you that have met me that my wardrobe is, shall we say, a little bit monochrome.

susannah_banana claims I'm not a goth because I'm not goth enough. She's one of the DJs at one of the top goth nights in the UK, but she's wrong, here's why: About Goth [stereo] Types - All Types. I am #19, and I claim my £5. (created by

sinju, a now defunct journal that was very very cool while she was still documenting her time in Japan).

WANT

More sciency stuff: Flourescent lightbulbs are not the saviour they're being sold as and incandescents have still got some light in them yet. Personally, I can't stand reading by the horribly light they output (we use candles by the bed) and they set of my photic sneeze reflex something chronic.

BASTARDS

One of the best uses of animation within a webcomic I've seen, very cleverly done.

Royal British Legion to Nick Griffin ~~MEP~~, leader of the BNP: Stop it, Mr Griffin. Just stop it. First rule of politics: don't piss off the veterans association.

OK, that's loads. I've cut the images and longer explanations, but left the rest open for easy clicking—if I do a post this long again is that still the best plan?
Original post on Dreamwidth, I prefer to keep all the comments there, if you have trouble using OpenID let me know, it's still in beta and subject to improvement.

K, looks like I kinda forgot to update for awhile. Oops. You know what that means right? A backlog of silly, informative, thinkworthy or merely funny links. In no particular order:

Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite". Sounds fun to me. Street View solves Dutch mugging. See? Useful. Random chance, but still useful.

Next up, researchers do study that finds obvious finding. Except it's not obvious, because if it were, you wouldn't still have idiot politicians the world over trying to pretend the exact opposite is true :-( Professor Kelly Musick and Dr Ann Meier of Cornell University have carried out a study of children whose parents stay together for the sake of the kids: ( more explanation with longer quote ) What matters is the quality of the parenting and the attitude they inculcate to opportunity, not whether they pretend to be happy for the kids sake.

Neologism of the Day—Huxleyed:

To have died with a degree of fame or notoriety that would have guaranteed extensive media coverage, save for the death of someone even more famous or notorious immediately afterwards. From Aldous Huxley, who died an hour before President Kennedy was assassinated. Usage: "Farrah Fawcett was completely Huxleyed by Michael Jackson."

And on that subject, this comic is particularly apposite:
( 'A famous person has died, we go live to somewhere tangentially related' )

One of my favourite authors is, as many of you know, Charles Stross, also known as

autopope, he's up for the Hugos, again, this year, and has been writing an auto-biographical series of blog posts for the last week or so that I've been meaning to link to as they are, frankly, quite funny, and also count as a nice little rundown of the history of how the web came to be—you can blame the need for a robots.txt file on him, and his time working for a Demon subcontractor where part of my official job description was to keep Danny the tomcat from pissing on the modem rack is also amusing.

This is really cool to know, assuming that they're on the button: All of Earth's people, according to a new analysis of the genomes of 53 populations, fall into just three genetic groups. Unlike in many other species, we have multiple possible mutations that could make us, for example, short, and populations famous for small stature, like pygmies, simply have a large number of them instead of one specific key change. Same applies to things like the ability to tolerate cows milk.

Now, simple little question, how many colours are there in the following pattern (via):
( Spiral image pattern with clever optical illusion )
Yup, that's right, there are ( look at the image first damnit! ) colours there, funny how our mind tricks us by filling in assumed blanks, full explanation at Bad Astronomy.

Not sure about this one: science explains why Yorkshiremen like pies so much. Um, I like pies, and I only moved up here 18 months ago (SRSLY, a whole 18 months). Shame that decent non-meat pies are a pain to get hold of. Still, really happy about this one: Alastair Reynolds scores unprecedented 10-year, 10-book deal from Gollancz for his 'mean line in alien cultures and technology'. Completely different writing style to Charlie, but one I also really like, and it's nice to see grand sweeping plots with a background that seems to make sense. In 'so obvious now you think of it' mode, I concur with

rhodri, I really hope that the designer of The folding plug makes lots and lots of money, especially the multi-plug adapter design. I wants them I does...

Slightly more seriously,

denise got interviewed for American NPR, and it's another case of stating the obvious until people listen—social networks that try to make money from ad revenue are going to be in trouble, much better to provide a service people actually want (in DW's case, damn fine blog hosting with a good feed aggregation service bolted on) and charge users for it in some way. By the way, no link for this one, Livejournal is soon going to allow people to host their own adverts on a revenue-sharing model; I personally have less of a problem with this than the way they're plastered all over the dormant basic accounts now, but some of you might like to know...

On the subject of blogging, one of its principle strengths has always been what's called "the long tail"—( defined )this tail is getting a lot shorter. Charles Arthur at The Guardian explains why. ( I mostly agree )

Back to silliness. The US economy was too reliant on crap made by General Motors. Have a look at this: Ten Vehicles That Bankrupted GM. Seriously, these things sold? Ouch.

Now, it can't have escaped the notice of most of you that have met me that my wardrobe is, shall we say, a little bit monochrome.

sinju, a now defunct journal that was very very cool while she was still documenting her time in Japan).

WANT

More sciency stuff: Flourescent lightbulbs are not the saviour they're being sold as and incandescents have still got some light in them yet. Personally, I can't stand reading by the horribly light they output (we use candles by the bed) and they set of my photic sneeze reflex something chronic.

BASTARDS

One of the best uses of animation within a webcomic I've seen, very cleverly done.

Royal British Legion to Nick Griffin ~~MEP~~, leader of the BNP: Stop it, Mr Griffin. Just stop it. First rule of politics: don't piss off the veterans association.

OK, that's loads. I've cut the images and longer explanations, but left the rest open for easy clicking—if I do a post this long again is that still the best plan?

ETA: I'm getting a massive pile of spam comments on this specific entry, all in Japanese script from what I can see, so I've set anonymous comments to be screened and turned off notification emails, if you want my attention for this post email me directly?

Those of you enjoying this supposedly "glorious" weather? Spare a thought for those of us that just cannot function in this heat. At all.

Notwithstanding the photic sneeze reflex making going outside (and even driving) a little annoying, the massively high risk of skin cancer groups I'm in from both sides of my family, my brain just seizes up when it's this hot.

I moved to the North to get away from this sort of weather damnit!

( European elections linkdump and ramble )

Coherence might happen tomorrow, if I a) get some sleep and b) have a good brain day.

( Appeal, if you live in London, consider voting for Jonathan Fryer, he bought me beer and is thus a top bloke )

Sorry, I said my brain was fried, right?

In the meantime,

miss_s_b dragged me to B&Q today so she could buy more plant pots and stuff to put in them. We got more basil, rocket, oregano and other useful stuff. She also bought a chilli plant. It's a chilli that'll burn your mouth off at 50 paces. It's sat next to her at her computer desk as it needs to be brought in at night.

She's called it George.

I'm doomed.

[1]Honest, it would be.

A nice little mix of stuff in this lot, though the politics averse amongst you should be warned that with elections next week there's a fair bit on that, though not much of it is serious.

A quick guide to the British voting system for the EU elections | Nosemonkey's EUtopia

There are elections next week across the UK. In Britain, the votes are counted using the D'Hondt closed list PR system. This is one of the few electoral systems I've encountered I consider to be worse than the one we use for Westminster, when you get critics attacking "PR", they're having a go at this pile of arse, which no one sane suggests for Westminster (and Labour had to force through the Lords after a lot of opposition). If you're not sure who to vote for, and don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, go out and vote either Lib Dem or Green; there's a small chance the BNP could win a seat in the North West. Giving Nick Griffin a tax funded salary and the ability to hire a bunch of staff just doesn't appeal. It's unlikely he'll get in, but it could happen. So just go vote, please? Even if the system is arse, the EU parliament does actually have power these days, even if it's not as much as would be liked.

(tags: elections europe eu BNP electoral+reform d'hondt)
Self destructing product catalogue

Not a bad bit of viral marketing this: what happens when the stuff on the display screen starts falling over. A nicely animated product catalogue as it slowly blows itself up.

(tags: humour funny flash marketing)
Blogging in the 19th Century: The Future of Journalism | The Lay Scientist

I pretty much agree with this. Most of us writing our own personal blogs and journals are copying the old small press pamphleteers and chain letter writers. We're just doing it with better technology. Most of the established newspapers grew out of various small presses—the biggest blogs online now have copied this model, bringing in lots of individuals to create a more coherent whole.

(tags: blogging journalism pampleteering campaigning)
Jon Worth » Some wacky ways to improve the EU

Some of them really are a bit daft, yes, but still worth thinking about. What the antis always seem to miss is that most supporters of EU membership also constantly argue for reform of the system. That it's a bit crap isn't disputed, how to improve it is. Bit like everything else in life really.

(tags: EU europe politics reform)
UKIP's "Britain paying the EU £40 million a day" claim vs the REAL costs of UK EU membership | Nosemonkey's EUtopia

A UKIP campaign slogan that doesn't make sense and is based on unfounded and uncosted hyperbole? really? Never would've guessed.

(tags: UKIP Europe EU elections misinformation)
Spawning A Campaign - diffrentcolours

There are Euro elections due. One of the issues the EU legislates on is software patents, the Free Software Foundation thinks we should ask the candidates their views on this. Makes sense to me, go do it...

(tags: software patents freedom europe EU elections)
Annals of Innovation: How David Beats Goliath: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The underdog can always win if enough effort is put in. Being able to put that effort in is the main barrier. Does this apply to any walk of life, if at all?

(tags: activism sport inspiration psychology)
The Cute Cat Theory Talk at ETech » My heart's in Accra

Makes sense to me: a successful web technology will have cute cats, porn and activism. If it doesn't have a mix of the three, something isn't working right.

(tags: cats theory internet activism web2.0)
386 - My Kingdom for a Beer? Heineken's Eurotopia « Strange Maps

This, however, is one of the crazier ideas for solving the EU governance issue—when the paranoid fringes talk about 'plots to break up Britain'? This is the sort of thing they're referring to. But, y'know, interesting idea, even if he does make godawful beer.

(tags: europe EU maps)
105 — The Tory Atlas of the World — Strange Maps

Apparently from a Spitting Image annual from the mid 80s. It's really quite funny and rather accurate. Note to those supporting Cameron's modern Conservative party (or even those that can remember Major). Yes, Thatcher's Tories really were like this. Some of them still are. That the majority of MPs after the next General Election will be 'untainted' by this association doesn't mean those of us that can remember will trust them.

(tags: funny maps tories politics Thatcher)
The perils of an identity system - The Web of Evil

If your identity has been used by a fraudster, and you're required to log all your movements, the authorities will keep trying to arrest you. And a national mandatory identity scheme WILL get cracked by a fraudster almost instantaneously. WebOfEvil shares a personal anecdote

(tags: NIR ID+cards identity)
Warner Music to Warner Music: You are pirates! - Boing Boing

Dear Warner. Getting YouTube to remove your subsidiaries officially posted music vids because they infringe your copyright means that people won't see your videos. You know, the ones you paid for to advertise your product? Is there a chance that, at some time soon, the recording industry will grow up and get a clue?

(tags: dmca video youtube warner stupidity)
Would be Bond villain seeks femme fatale - m4w

Paging George! This bloke seems perfect for you girl...

(tags: funny ads personals supervillains)
Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker - Boing Boing

Heh—banning books from teens makes them more likely to want to read them. So a kid running a library of banned books is encouraging her schoolfriends to read more. Cool

(tags: books subversion censorship)
How Ursula K Le Guin led a generation away from realism | Books | guardian.co.uk

I never did understand the whole "he'll grow out of it" approach to my liking of SF and fantasy when I was a teen, why would I WANT to grow out of it? Just because I like Asimov and Stross doesn't mean I can't appreciate Nabokov (who wrote some SF anyway) or the likes, just as liking Therapy doesn't prevent me also liking Dvorak or Gershwin. Silly elitist snobs. Still, at least we're winning...

(tags: writing culture fantasy sf books)
Hoversnail goes WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRVOOM.

Really. It's a hoversnail. It's cool. Go look.

(tags: funny pictures)

Posted to both LJ and DW with comments open for technical reasons that I can't be arsed to fix, LJ version: Europe, books, maps and snails—MOAR linkspam

A nice little mix of stuff in this lot, though the politics averse amongst you should be warned that with elections next week there's a fair bit on that, though not much of it is serious.

A quick guide to the British voting system for the EU elections | Nosemonkey's EUtopia

There are elections next week across the UK. In Britain, the votes are counted using the D'Hondt closed list PR system. This is one of the few electoral systems I've encountered I consider to be worse than the one we use for Westminster, when you get critics attacking "PR", they're having a go at this pile of arse, which no one sane suggests for Westminster (and Labour had to force through the Lords after a lot of opposition). If you're not sure who to vote for, and don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, go out and vote either Lib Dem or Green; there's a small chance the BNP could win a seat in the North West. Giving Nick Griffin a tax funded salary and the ability to hire a bunch of staff just doesn't appeal. It's unlikely he'll get in, but it could happen. So just go vote, please? Even if the system is arse, the EU parliament does actually have power these days, even if it's not as much as would be liked.

(tags: elections europe eu BNP electoral+reform d'hondt)
Self destructing product catalogue

Not a bad bit of viral marketing this: what happens when the stuff on the display screen starts falling over. A nicely animated product catalogue as it slowly blows itself up.

(tags: humour funny flash marketing)
Blogging in the 19th Century: The Future of Journalism | The Lay Scientist

I pretty much agree with this. Most of us writing our own personal blogs and journals are copying the old small press pamphleteers and chain letter writers. We're just doing it with better technology. Most of the established newspapers grew out of various small presses—the biggest blogs online now have copied this model, bringing in lots of individuals to create a more coherent whole.

(tags: blogging journalism pampleteering campaigning)
Jon Worth » Some wacky ways to improve the EU

Some of them really are a bit daft, yes, but still worth thinking about. What the antis always seem to miss is that most supporters of EU membership also constantly argue for reform of the system. That it's a bit crap isn't disputed, how to improve it is. Bit like everything else in life really.

(tags: EU europe politics reform)
UKIP's "Britain paying the EU £40 million a day" claim vs the REAL costs of UK EU membership | Nosemonkey's EUtopia

A UKIP campaign slogan that doesn't make sense and is based on unfounded and uncosted hyperbole? really? Never would've guessed.

(tags: UKIP Europe EU elections misinformation)
Spawning A Campaign - diffrentcolours

There are Euro elections due. One of the issues the EU legislates on is software patents, the Free Software Foundation thinks we should ask the candidates their views on this. Makes sense to me, go do it...

(tags: software patents freedom europe EU elections)
Annals of Innovation: How David Beats Goliath: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker

The underdog can always win if enough effort is put in. Being able to put that effort in is the main barrier. Does this apply to any walk of life, if at all?

(tags: activism sport inspiration psychology)
The Cute Cat Theory Talk at ETech » My heart's in Accra

Makes sense to me: a successful web technology will have cute cats, porn and activism. If it doesn't have a mix of the three, something isn't working right.

(tags: cats theory internet activism web2.0)
386 - My Kingdom for a Beer? Heineken's Eurotopia « Strange Maps

This, however, is one of the crazier ideas for solving the EU governance issue—when the paranoid fringes talk about 'plots to break up Britain'? This is the sort of thing they're referring to. But, y'know, interesting idea, even if he does make godawful beer.

(tags: europe EU maps)
105 — The Tory Atlas of the World — Strange Maps

Apparently from a Spitting Image annual from the mid 80s. It's really quite funny and rather accurate. Note to those supporting Cameron's modern Conservative party (or even those that can remember Major). Yes, Thatcher's Tories really were like this. Some of them still are. That the majority of MPs after the next General Election will be 'untainted' by this association doesn't mean those of us that can remember will trust them.

(tags: funny maps tories politics Thatcher)
The perils of an identity system - The Web of Evil

If your identity has been used by a fraudster, and you're required to log all your movements, the authorities will keep trying to arrest you. And a national mandatory identity scheme WILL get cracked by a fraudster almost instantaneously. WebOfEvil shares a personal anecdote

(tags: NIR ID+cards identity)
Warner Music to Warner Music: You are pirates! - Boing Boing

Dear Warner. Getting YouTube to remove your subsidiaries officially posted music vids because they infringe your copyright means that people won't see your videos. You know, the ones you paid for to advertise your product? Is there a chance that, at some time soon, the recording industry will grow up and get a clue?

(tags: dmca video youtube warner stupidity)
Would be Bond villain seeks femme fatale - m4w

Paging George! This bloke seems perfect for you girl...

(tags: funny ads personals supervillains)
Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker - Boing Boing

Heh—banning books from teens makes them more likely to want to read them. So a kid running a library of banned books is encouraging her schoolfriends to read more. Cool

(tags: books subversion censorship)
How Ursula K Le Guin led a generation away from realism | Books | guardian.co.uk

I never did understand the whole "he'll grow out of it" approach to my liking of SF and fantasy when I was a teen, why would I WANT to grow out of it? Just because I like Asimov and Stross doesn't mean I can't appreciate Nabokov (who wrote some SF anyway) or the likes, just as liking Therapy doesn't prevent me also liking Dvorak or Gershwin. Silly elitist snobs. Still, at least we're winning...

(tags: writing culture fantasy sf books)
Hoversnail goes WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRVOOM.

Really. It's a hoversnail. It's cool. Go look.

(tags: funny pictures)

Also posted to DW with comments open, linkspams don't crosspost easily due to limitations at Delicious.

Neil Gaiman's Journal: Entitlement issues...

The shorter Neil: George R.R. Martin is not your bitch. I still don't get why people can't understand that authors and other creative types don't have on/off switches. I wan the next book too, but I want it to be good, and released when it's ready. In the meantime, I have a whole library full of other books to read.

(tags: writing neil+gaiman george+rr+martin entitlement)
Stumbling and Mumbling: Immigration & GDP

Oh look, something else we already knew but have to keep repeating because people refuse to believe it. Immigration makes us better off. All of us.

(tags: immigration economics freedom)
Stumbling and Mumbling: MPs' pay in historic context

Chris has a historical analysis of MPs pay compared to the average. Does show that they've been going down, comparatively, since the early 80sâ”strangely, allowances have been going up since then, can't think why. Oh, wait, it was a fiddle created by Thatcher to keep the troop in line but keep the headline salary low. That worked REALLY well didn't it? Can we scrap the stupid allowances scheme, reduce the number of MPs, abolish safe seats and give the replacement lot we elect fairly a decent salary so that there're less absolute numpties and careerist arseholes please?

(tags: parliament economics MPs)
Is There Anything Good About Men? - Roy F. Baumeister

Interesting talk on how society exploits both men and women, but traditionally in different ways. In many ways it similar in analysis (if not conclusion) to the feminist patriarchy critique, and definitely worth a read as a good contribution to the debate.

(tags: equality feminism gender men patriarchy makes+you+think)
One Div Zero: A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages

Does exactly what it says on the tin. And is probably more accurate than my actual real knowledge.

(tags: humour history language software)
Pasty wars flare after Devon wins 'Cornish pasty' prize | Metro.co.uk

Of course, the Cornish aren't too happy about this. But then, the Cornish never seem to be happy about anything.

(tags: pasties pies devon silly)
British Pie Awards : winners

On the subject of the best things coming from Devon, this does of course include pasties. (USiansâ”that's a type of pastry pie, not a silly thing moralists make strippers wear, the A is soft, paaasteee). The British Pie Awards says the best Cornish Pasties are made in Devon. And everyone knows the recipe comes from there anyway.

(tags: pasties pies devon awards silly)
2D Goggles » Lovelace - The Origin

The (true?) story of how Ada Lovelace became the worlds first superhero crime fighter. Or something. It's cool. And silly. Computers. Invented in Devon. Like all the best things.

(tags: computers ada+lovelace charles+babbage)
Time to safeguard public service broadcasting - Common Endeavour

Paulie suggests that ISPs should contribute money to content creators out of the money they make selling us connections and similar. Not sure I agree with him, but it's an interesting argument. Much prefer it to the special pleading and subsidy requests some of them are doing at the moment.

(tags: media newspapers funding ideas ISPs)
Ariane Sherine: If fish do feel pain, should we stop eating them?

Have I mentioned how much I dislike terrible puns? I have? Well, I'll mention it again. Ariane is gorgeous, funny, and smart. But this is one of the biggest collection of terrible fish based puns ever. Even if she is, on balance, having ago at those annoying pescetarians

(tags: pescetarians puns ariane+sherine food)
Interesting Moments - You'll Love these Photos

Well, you will if you like a lot of pics of animals either being cute or in strange poses. I especially like the MeerCat, while SB preferred the snake & robin.

(tags: photos animals cute)
Ironic Sans: Thsrs - The Shorter Thesaurus

It's a Thesaurus that only throws up shorter synonyms. Useful if a) you use Twitter/SMS a lot or b) you're a verbose git. Like me. Works in the Firefox search box as well, which is nice.

(tags: thesaurus twitter wordplay geekery)
TVSciFi - The Q Asks the The Last Surviving Star Trek Red Shirts

TVSciFi attends a Red Shirt convention. It's utterly daft, but amusingly so.

(tags: Star+Trek humour)
Great Liberal Speeches: George Tierney on sacrificing the constitution on the altar of public security | Mark Pack

The good Dr Pack demonstrates that I'm nowhere near the biggest hostiry geek in online Lib Demmery witha pretty good analysis of this classic speech. This REALLY OLD classic speech. Surprising how much it still resonates really, still, those who refuse to learn the lessons and all that...

(tags: speeches history freedom security George+Tierney)
99.873% of statistics are made up « Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

Andrew makes the point about the damage that can be done to YOUR cause if you, or people on your side, make things up or inflate statistics. One I completely agree with

(tags: research statistics campaigning)
Race for Life - Sisters in Harmony Fundraising Page

My (future) mother-in-law is doing a charity run with a friend. She'd appreciate donations. I appreciate a happy mother-in-law. I'm sure you understand, right?

(tags: charity family cancer)

Neil Gaiman's Journal: Entitlement issues...

The shorter Neil: George R.R. Martin is not your bitch. I still don't get why people can't understand that authors and other creative types don't have on/off switches. I wan the next book too, but I want it to be good, and released when it's ready. In the meantime, I have a whole library full of other books to read.

(tags: writing neil+gaiman george+rr+martin entitlement)
Stumbling and Mumbling: Immigration & GDP

Oh look, something else we already knew but have to keep repeating because people refuse to believe it. Immigration makes us better off. All of us.

(tags: immigration economics freedom)
Stumbling and Mumbling: MPs' pay in historic context

Chris has a historical analysis of MPs pay compared to the average. Does show that they've been going down, comparatively, since the early 80s—strangely, allowances have been going up since then, can't think why. Oh, wait, it was a fiddle created by Thatcher to keep the troop in line but keep the headline salary low. That worked REALLY well didn't it? Can we scrap the stupid allowances scheme, reduce the number of MPs, abolish safe seats and give the replacement lot we elect fairly a decent salary so that there're less absolute numpties and careerist arseholes please?

(tags: parliament economics MPs)
Is There Anything Good About Men? - Roy F. Baumeister

Interesting talk on how society exploits both men and women, but traditionally in different ways. In many ways it similar in analysis (if not conclusion) to the feminist patriarchy critique, and definitely worth a read as a good contribution to the debate.

(tags: equality feminism gender men patriarchy makes+you+think)
One Div Zero: A Brief, Incomplete, and Mostly Wrong History of Programming Languages

Does exactly what it says on the tin. And is probably more accurate than my actual real knowledge.

(tags: humour history language software)
Pasty wars flare after Devon wins 'Cornish pasty' prize | Metro.co.uk

Of course, the Cornish aren't too happy about this. But then, the Cornish never seem to be happy about anything.

(tags: pasties pies devon silly)
British Pie Awards : winners

On the subject of the best things coming from Devon, this does of course include pasties. (USians—that's a type of pastry pie, not a silly thing moralists make strippers wear, the A is soft, paaasteee). The British Pie Awards says the best Cornish Pasties are made in Devon. And everyone knows the recipe comes from there anyway.

(tags: pasties pies devon awards silly)
2D Goggles » Lovelace– The Origin

The (true?) story of how Ada Lovelace became the worlds first superhero crime fighter. Or something. It's cool. And silly. Computers. Invented in Devon. Like all the best things.

(tags: computers ada+lovelace charles+babbage)
Time to safeguard public service broadcasting - Common Endeavour

Paulie suggests that ISPs should contribute money to content creators out of the money they make selling us connections and similar. Not sure I agree with him, but it's an interesting argument. Much prefer it to the special pleading and subsidy requests some of them are doing at the moment.

(tags: media newspapers funding ideas ISPs)
Ariane Sherine: If fish do feel pain, should we stop eating them?

Have I mentioned how much I dislike terrible puns? I have? Well, I'll mention it again. Ariane is gorgeous, funny, and smart. But this is one of the biggest collection of terrible fish based puns ever. Even if she is, on balance, having ago at those annoying pescetarians

(tags: pescetarians puns ariane+sherine food)
Interesting Moments - You'll Love these Photos

Well, you will if you like a lot of pics of animals either being cute or in strange poses. I especially like the MeerCat, while SB preferred the snake & robin.

(tags: photos animals cute)
Ironic Sans: Thsrs - The Shorter Thesaurus

It's a Thesaurus that only throws up shorter synonyms. Useful if a) you use Twitter/SMS a lot or b) you're a verbose git. Like me. Works in the Firefox search box as well, which is nice.

(tags: thesaurus twitter wordplay geekery)
TVSciFi - The Q Asks the The Last Surviving Star Trek Red Shirts

TVSciFi attends a Red Shirt convention. It's utterly daft, but amusingly so.

(tags: Star+Trek humour)
Great Liberal Speeches: George Tierney on sacrificing the constitution on the altar of public security | Mark Pack

The good Dr Pack demonstrates that I'm nowhere near the biggest hostiry geek in online Lib Demmery witha pretty good analysis of this classic speech. This REALLY OLD classic speech. Surprising how much it still resonates really, still, those who refuse to learn the lessons and all that...

(tags: speeches history freedom security George+Tierney)
99.873% of statistics are made up « Sci-Ence! Justice Leak!

Andrew makes the point about the damage that can be done to YOUR cause if you, or people on your side, make things up or inflate statistics. One I completely agree with

(tags: research statistics campaigning)
Race for Life - Sisters in Harmony Fundraising Page

My (future) mother-in-law is doing a charity run with a friend. She'd appreciate donations. I appreciate a happy mother-in-law. I'm sure you understand, right?

(tags: charity family cancer)

Finally got around to fixing the settings and started using Delicious again. Which means you get context with the links. I'm clearing out the saved folders full, this is a random assortment of stuff I had in a folder called "Cool". Make of tht what you will.

Charlie vs Cory, who wins?

Wait, they're on the same side. The good one. Anyway, Open Rights Group Event - Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye, Friday May 1st, down in That London. No chance I can make it, but you should go. Yes, you.

(tags: privacy charles+stross cory+doctorow)
The Sci Fi channel rebrands as SyFy

Except, obviously, in Poland. The reasons given seem to actually make sense. Doesn't make it a good idea, but it makes sense. But, um, it's still a stupid name. then again, I said that about Dave, ad I reckon I watch that more often than any other channel.

(tags: SyFy Dave TV marketing rebranding)
Ignorant jurors threaten fair trials

Pretty sure this'll be happening over here as well. So many people have little to no understanding of the legal system or why it works the way it does. FS, if the Judge says don't do it, don't do it

(tags: justice internet)
Really cool antique map collection

Jonathan Potter's collection of rare antique maps was up for sale so the Telegraph nicely gave us a set of pictures of them. I've got some reproduction Speeds, but, well, when I've won several lotteries and robbed a few banks...

(tags: maps)
the Asus Eee Keyboard

I wants one my precious, I wants one I does. Such a cool idea, but the whole computer into the keyboard and plug it into a decent TV. Oh, wait, I had a Spectrum when I was a kid. Except that, well, the Spectrum is outspecced by my mobile phone these days.

(tags: computers eee cool)
Chelmsford 123 (AD)

Utterly dodgy YouTube upload of one of the daftest TV sitcoms ever. Helped launch the careers of so many people and, well, it's fun. If you like the idea that the Roman governor of Britannia is based in Chelmsford.

(tags: comedy tv chelmsford123)
Jack Kirby's Comic Version of The Prisoner

I had no idea this even existed. Then, looking at it, I can see why. Kirby was a great visionary, but so horribly dated today.

(tags: comics tv the+prisoner i+am+not+a+number)
Best guitar solo ever?

This is brilliant. Acoustic guitar player doing a version of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, incredibly haunting and well done. ETA: insomnia and spoombung appear to be competing to find competitors in the comments, here's an alternative Japanese player of the same tune.

(tags: music video)
Homo Evolutis-what species will our grandchildren be?

Starts with the economic problems, moves onto technology trends, and then goes into what we're likely to become. Some of his answers may or may not be right, but he sure as hell is asking the right questions.

(tags: science technology evolution economics trends)
Time travel cheat sheet-in T Shirt form

If you've ever wondered how you'd handle being stuc back in time (or like Miriam in another dimension), this handy t-shirt is a must-wear.

(tags: clothes t-shirt funny)
Colonial history-the geek notes version

Bullet point summary of why England ended up colonising "Virginia", start from the bottom entry and move up. An old, and sadly defunct journal linked to in the comments at a post by Steve on something else entirely

(tags: history funny)

And yes, LoudTwitter is now posting to a private filter, at least for a bit.

Daily collection of links and thoughts that weren't worth a whole post.

22:18 is in Glee Club. Why am I in Glee Club? I blame SB. #ldconf #

Microblogging using LoudTwitter and Twitter.