This story on the BBC caught my eye yesterday. A man was jailed and banned from keeping pets for life after he ripped the head off his parrot after a drunken night out. He did not appear for his case as he was too drink and the sentencing was delayed as he turned up again […]
China Links
The Independent had an article about blogging in China today. I read it and found it quite intersting; later, via Global Voices, I found this commentary and challenge on China Herald. Even taking certain articles with a pinch of salt, i would have generally regarded The Independent as a fairly reliable paper. Obviously, in this […]
Spam Trackbacks
Spam trackbacks are annoying; the Blacklist plugin keeps most of them at bay but the odd one creeps through. They’re usually for gambling or mortgage companies. Today I got one about the History of the Ford Bronco (assume a truck or something, not a UK version anyway). Very weird – there’s probably something else in […]
Losses
Whilst the numbers of the dead from the London bombings rises to 55, Iraq have lost over 200 in the last week.
The Art of Creation
Hugh has updated his ‘How to be Creative‘ article/book outline. Whether you want a surfeit of cartoons or insights into the creative processes, it needs to be read.
Women Only?
Sarah asked whether we should have a women’s only geek dinner. My immediate reaction to these suggestions is usually no, I tend to react against anything that restricts its audience in any way. For me, I’d ask the question differently – should there be a dinner to encourage a Women in Technology network (and there […]
BBC Interactivity
The BBC launch a new series next week about Britain’s coastline. To accompany this, they are releasing guided tours to 39 villages and towns around the coast. The tours come in 3 different formats. The first, a straightforward leaflet which can be ordered. Seocndly, there will be downloadable audio files, to play on your favourite […]
DualView TVs
There are a few articles like this one in the paper’s today about Sharp’s new DualView TVs, which uses LCD displays to allow people sitting at different angles to the TV to see different images, different programmes or different views of games. You could htink this is a good idea. But the one thing I […]
St Swithin’s Day
July 15th is St Swithin’s Day, which means, if you follow folklore, that the next 40 days weather will reflect the weather today. So, it’s going to be hot and sunny for the rest of the summer – hooray! Absolutely wonderful if you have air conditioning; however unless you’re in an area that got lots […]
MIT Survey results
If you took part inthe MIT Blogging survey, then you can access the results here. One of the extremely interesting stats is that 62% of the surveyees to date are female. Given recent debate in the blogosphere about gender, I find this slightly surprising. I’d love to know how the meme spread and the main […]
In Memorium
Oxford Street stopped at noon. Led by the buses, the traffic stopped; people came out of offices and shops to fill the pavements. Silence descended; no conversation, no roaring traffic noises. The only people moving were press, both photography and TV. And the odd tourist, wondering round looking slightly bewildered at why no-one was moving […]
Food for thought
A couple of interesting blogging posts plus a BBC write up of TED Global. The first article is from Paul Mason of Newsnight. He set up a blog to supplement his reporting from the G8 summit and closes it today with a great article about why and how the blog changed the way he reported. […]
Human behaviour
Comparing last night’s get together with one that took place earlier, where Robert Scoble was the speaking guest, there were definitely differences. Last night had a far higher proportion of women, I’m guessing attracted to the Marketing label instead of the Geek one. I saw far fewer cameras and far more notebooks – a lot […]
Morning Thoughts
Last night I was at a Marketing Soiree, organised by Hugh McLeod and with a good speech by Seth Godin. I wish I’d taken notes on it, but there were plenty of people who were and I think it was recorded by Lloyd as well, so there’ll be something around later. Things that caught my […]
Federation Officers
The UK Hacker charged with accessing NASA systems whislt searching for evidence of UFO activity, had this to say today about his findings: “I found a list of officers’ names,” he claims, “under the heading ‘Non-Terrestrial Officers’… What I think it means is not earth-based. I found a list of ‘fleet-to-fleet transfers’ and a list […]
More flash interactivity
Via Adrants, Victoria’s Secret have a site to promote their new line of Underware. It’s basically strip poker..in a very tasteful way. You only play against the computer, but good fun. Not that safe for work, depending on whether your work allows models stripping down to their underwear online. Go play Pink Panty Poker
British way of life threatened
A tea pickers strike in West Bengal threatens the countries tea harvest and therefore the traditional British cuppa, without which no self-respecting English person could function (why can’t we have a gendernonspecific adjective like american?) It’s actually a serious report about wages and conditions….although they could always outsource!
Celebration
Marvelous scenes in the Mall yesterday, as 250000 people watched a celebration and commemoration of the end of WWII, 60 years ago. There’s a few photos around on Flickr, try here for MOD stuff. The flypast by the period planes was something you don’t see everyday; the last plane, a Lancaster, had it’s bomb hold […]
We’re not afraid
Link
We’ve still got the Olympics…
Of the many photoshopped images that were floating around after Wednesday, these 2 are my favourites. (despite the fact that a good fish supper can’t be beat!) and this one…