the moving finger

Conservative Government in the UK?

As usual Stephen Fry says it best

I remember the main feeling induced by living under Thatcher was shame. It was shaming to live in a country that could be so proudly, gloatingly unkind, so vulgar, shabby and ungracious in its attitudes to the outsider, the weak and the destitute. Goodness knows the Labour administration has been very, very far from perfect, but I think we will only appreciate the unheralded and uncelebrated good it did when the props it built up for the poor, the disabled and the disadvantaged have been kicked away.

You can read the whole piece here

Posted

We're at war?

The group Anonymous has declared war on the the Australian Government over their internet censorship plans. As a future lawyer I completely condemn any and all illegal activity that may be perpetrated as part of this operation. As a former anarchist/direct action campaigner... well... it makes me happy. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEe7qhlFNs4]

Posted

Fantastic review of two new blackberries and a G1

Stephen Fry, as well as being a noted actor, writer and raconteur is a bona fide gadget freak (Seriously - he made a film celebrating 25 years of GNU Happy Birthday to GNU) He has recently reviewed the Blackberry Bold and Storm , and the GI It's a fantastic review describing the Storm's keyboard thusly

Watching someone writing an email on a Storm is like watching an antelope trying to open a packet of cigarettes.a

and anyone who has every travelled with more than one electronic device with empathise with the photo of his hotel room desk. Do yourself a favour - Read it

Posted

Gillard would beat Turnbull if election held today...

Leaving aside the slight derogartory "even" this story is bad news for the conservatives, and good news for argumentative, opinionated left-wing, feminist lawyers. Whose ranks I hope to join - being already able to tick 4 out of the 5 boxes... (edited to correct the spelling of Turnbull's name)

Posted

Researchers find the dim more likely to believe in God

Belief in God is much lower among academics than among the general population because scholars have higher IQs, a controversial academic claimed this week.

From the Times Higher Ed Supplement My favourite bit of the article is this comment

David Hardman, principal lecturer in learning development at London Metropolitan University, said: "It is very difficult to conduct true experiments that would explicate a causal relationship between IQ and religious belief. Nonetheless, there is evidence from other domains that higher levels of intelligence are associated with a greater ability - or perhaps willingness - to question and overturn strongly felt intuitions."

As the Reg says

Next week: exclusive Reg research reveals the link between obesity and love of cake.

Now let's just wait for the Theists to come out shouting...

Posted

If it's not art or porn what is it?

Unless you've been living under a rock (or you're not in Australia) you'll be aware of the media frenzy over Bill Henson's latest exhibition. I'm not going to comment on what I think about Henson's photography - but I was vastly puzzled by the results of the Daily Telegraph Poll

If they're not art or porn - what are they? something to do with muppets?

Posted

Do bloggers own passion?

From SilkCharm

DEFINITION: Bloggers - write about what they are passionate about. Journos - write about what other people are passionate about

It's interesting that this has bubbled up today - given the news reports about the blogger dying at the keyboard. Passion is great - but not at the expense of your life. Of course as someone who theoretically has a bit of a bit of a foot in both camps I'm not sure it's an entirely fair definition - if you look at some of the highly successful gonzo journalists, Hunter S Thompson, Tom Wolfe, etc you could probably argue there was a fair bit of passion there. Tom Wolfe in an article in the Wall Street Journal said

One by one, Marshall McLuhan's wackiest-seeming predictions come true. Forty years ago, he said that modern communications technology would turn the young into tribal primitives who pay attention not to objective "news" reports but only to what the drums say, i.e., rumors.

And there you have blogs. The universe of blogs is a universe of rumors, and the tribe likes it that way.

Favorite blogs: Mr. Wolfe, "weary of narcissistic shrieks and baseless 'information,' " says he no longer reads blogs.

Of course the writing standards for blogs are lower (heck - anyone can play!) so I guess there's less need to be able to defend, define and explain your passion; or even write well about it. The best thing about badly written blogs of course - is that one doesn't have to read them, but then the same is true of a well-written but essentially dull story. So in answer to SilkCharm

Do you want "objectivity" - stories filtered, nay watered down, for public consumption? Or do you want "passion" - stories spoken from the heart complete with emotional tugs, tirades and misspellings? Is there a place for both?

Me? I want it all. I want stories with passion - without emotional tugs, tirades and misspellings. And anyone who regularly reads the Guardian - knows it's possible.

Posted

Boycotts and Sport

The word "boycott" comes to us courtesy of the Irish land war in the 1880's. Today, it's mostly being used in reference to the Beijing Olympics, and the concept that because of China's poor record on Human RIghts/Environmentalism/Pretty Much Anything, Governments and athletes should boycott the games. Leaving aside the whole debate about it's just a bunch of over-trained, over-specialised naked apes performing for the amusement of the masses, it's unlikely that any government is going to have the cahones to actually go through with a boycott. Which means it's up to us. So, I personally will not be watching any broadcast of the Olympics, further I will not buy, or recommend any product from any Olympic sponsor, I will also happily tell people why I am not buying, and encourage them to join. We might not be able to stop the Olympic Games in Beijing, but we can make it expensive for them. The 2008 Olympic Sponsors are here.

Posted