If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him. – Attributed to Armand Jean du Plessis, Cardinal et Duc de Richelieu There’s been some excellent commentary on the Telegraph surgery subterfuge story, so I’ll just throw in this old…
Monthly Archives: December 2010
Well done, Matt Cardle
Low as my opinion of the X Factor is, good on Matt Cardle for running the gauntlet and coming out a winner. I hope it gives him a chance at the artistic career that past bands and songwriting didn’t manage to deliver for him. It’s interesting that Cage Against The Machine came in 21, while…
This is good fridge
My favourite spam comment/link so far: This is good fridge. A new euphemism for “this is good s*@#” from an appreciative reader? A link to a site with an impressively well stocked refrigerator for the party season, available to you for only £299.95, not including delivery? Inquiring minds want to know. But not enough to…
Internet freedom and real world protest
There is an excellent article in the Guardian by Richard Stallman on internet protest. Stallman is a leading light in the open source movement, and one of the creators of the Linux platform (although the whole GNU/Linux conversation is a bun fight I won’t get into). He can often be a bit of a fanatic,…
Perhaps not the wisest choice of photo
Apologies for being so shallow, but in this proud moment of getting to debate in the House of Commons as part of the UK Youth Parliament, is that lad just checking out his leader’s arse? (from www.parliament.uk’s front page) Settling in to a life in politics, perhaps, unless anyone can correct me on how unfailingly…
Lessons from past leaders
It’s generally not wise to ignore the comments of past leaders. Especially in Gordon Brown’s case: the complaint was really about his leadership, but his intelligence and knowledge and good intentions are well known. I was completely unaware he had released the book he was rumoured to be writing, Beyond The Crash. It got almost…
Oh happy, geeky day
Tron is an important precursor to Toy Story and the phenomenal success of the Pixar animation studio. It introduced 3D computer animation to the movies. The Light Cycle scene in particular is an all-time favourite, and one of the inspirations for John Lasseter (he of Toy Story fame). That was over a decade later, coming out in…
Sums up the character flaws of Labour for me…
This story about the 100% Labour-run Newham Council is a reminder of the very real “spend! spend! spend!” trait in much of the party. Bear in mind that Newham, in the east end of London, is the sixth most deprived borough in the UK. There are people there that need help. So, what does a…
Computer love
It seems to be true – blog regularly and thou shalt receive visitors. A warm welcome to everyone who has dropped by; thanks to everyone who’s left a comment. Initially, most of the comments were just the automated posts clogging up the filter. It’s nice to get hundreds of comments saying, “I’ve been reading your…
Our children’s country
We all have our favourite charities. My life has been fairly lucky, so one area I favour is children’s charities. That’s fairly common, for all the obvious reasons. Everyone wants children get a fair shot at life. It’s fascinating to me that “children” isn’t a word front and centre on the various party websites. We do…