I am bloody angry. We heat our house with coal. The coalman has just been for the fortnightly delivery, and the price of coal has gone up
Thought-provoking article in Wired.
Most counterterrorism policies fail, not because of tactical problems, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding of what motivates terrorists in the first place. If we’re ever going to defeat terrorism, we need to understand what drives people to become terrorists in the first place,,,,
,,,Terrorists, he writes, (1) attack civilians, a policy that [...]
September 10, 2008 – 09:14
So the Large Hadron Collider got switched on this morning (and we’re all still here!). I was watching it on BBC News24; after the switchon, the presenter began reading out text and emails from the public. The very first one was, I swear to the Whatever:
“Are these scientists trying to disprove the existence [...]
September 7, 2008 – 18:29
The AQA exam board has withdrawn a poem from its anthology for GCSE English, after receiving a grand total of three complaints that it encouraged knife crime. The poem, Education for Leisure, by renowned poet Carol Ann Duffy is written from the POV of a disturbed, alienated teenager. It starts with the [...]
All this week, BBC TV News has been congratulating itself on exposing an illegal immigration ring bringing in Pakistani workers, supplying them with fake documents and putting them to work as cheaply-paid undocumented labour. Good investigative journalism, and the highlight was a secretly filmed interview with a gang member boasting of how it was [...]
Pictures of New Age idiots digging a hole and lighting a fire in a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Anybody else feel like shoving some suitably energised crystals up the orifices of these vandals?
(English Heritage and Cumbrian Police have already been informed.)
So, the other week I joined an LJ community. People often post questions for debate there - abortion, politics, society etc. So today, I thought I’d post my own question for debate:
What use are pet animals?
I’m not talking about working animals; I mean pet animals that have no practical use at all. Sp [...]
In February / March, the newspapers were full of horrified speculation about the uncovering of decades of abuse at the Haut de la Garenne childrens’ home, with former residents telling their stories of brutality and rape ther. There were even bodies buried there, said some.
Police started digging, a dog trained to sniff out cadavers [...]
In an earlier post, I related how I got so peed off with the ignorant credulity of the Independent on Sunday’s science writing that I switched to the Observer. Yesterday’s front page story gave me cause to start rethinking my decision:
Forensic DNA tests ‘reveal traces of Madeleine’s body on resort beach’. [...]
September 3, 2007 – 16:25
This is the logo of the Out Campaign; if you’re an atheist, you display this on your blog or website.
I don’t define myself as an atheist - I’ve put it up because I really like the design. It’s bold, striking and simple; it also deliberately references the classic novel The [...]
Since turning down the Elfin Diary job, we haven’t got a lot of money to spare. The bills are never-ending and now there’s never quite enough to go round. So, a couple of days ago, when B mildly suggested that it was time I bought myself a new dress, I shouted at him, [...]
Panic now!!: The Terrible Truth About Wi-Fi
Meanwhile, Julia Stephenson has replied to Ben Goldacre’s criticism of her laughably unscientific (”Any imbalance in our electromagnetic field creates a disturbance in cell structure and function, which can lead to illness in sensitive individuals”) article on electrosensitivity:
At one time scientists assured us the earth was flat [...]
For years, I’ve been getting the Independent on Sunday every week. I thought it was a pretty good paper, with an self-proclaimed independent slant on the news, and no fluff. However, it’s been going downhill for quite a while now, with less news coverage and more fashion, more celebrity garbage and more alarmist [...]
The government is spending squillions of money on our health service, yet hospitals and medical services don’t seem to be vastly improving. At least one NHS doctor is also wondering Where Does All The Money go?:
My attention has today been drawn to the existence of the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.
May I first [...]
…that Cabinet Ministers, before being appointed, should have to pass a test demonstrating some basic knowledge of how this whole internet thingie actually works. We might then be spared the pathetic sight of a Home Secretary announcing that he has a surefire method of keeping track of the online activities of paedophiles.
It [...]
