May 2012
2 posts
Organon: To all those men who don't think the rape... →
oforganon:
(via) This post in particular is addressed to men, not because women don’t rape and women don’t make/laugh at rape jokes and not because men can’t be raped, but because, by nature of the existing gender disparity, men are in a unique position to be taken seriously when they raise objections to…
What if realists were in charge of U.S. foreign... →
An interesting alternative view…
April 2012
1 post
Tom Morris: Trawling the archives with the ghost... →
tommorrisdotorg:
I’ve just been chatting to someone about the sad departing of Ceefax and Teletext, and the various memories we have of these centralized, TV-based Internet forerunners. I had a look at the Wikipedia article on Ceefax, and it’s got sourcing problems. Having recently been given access to …
I think I used to live there, too…
March 2012
3 posts
“I wonder how many would continue to worship at the shrine of Ayn Rand if they...”
– How Ayn Rand became the new right’s version of Marx | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
Heresy Corner: Cardinal Sins against Logic →
Thanks to @marwoodchap for this…
Minimal Mac: TV Is Broken →
minimalmac:
When we want to watch things like movies and shows, we do so using streaming services on a three generation old iMac 20 inch that resides in our library/den. This means mostly Netflix unless available for streaming otherwise (Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, direct from the show’s website, etc.). One can safely assume that if it is not available via online streaming then we likely have not...
January 2012
3 posts
Morality & persecution - an excellent post!
My own system of morality, however, regards the following as immoral acts: Perpetuating institutionalised discrimination.
Indulging in the sophistry of equating morality with sexuality.
Perpetuating the deeply unhealthy doctrine of priestly celibacy, thus creating highly damaged, disturbed and repressed human beings.
Perpetuating sexist and homophobic attitudes under the guise of fabricated divine will.
Perpetuating the monstrous and intellectually criminal assertion that morality is conferred by faith, and absent without it.
Aiming the slander of ‘immorality’ against a harmless and normal state of being.
“the White House said any proposed legislation “must not tamper with the...”
– Obama Opposes Parts of 2 Antipiracy Bills - NYTimes.com
Income Inequality. You *really* want to sort it... →
December 2011
3 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-25) →
José Carrera/Luciano Pavarotti/Plácido Domingo/The Three Tenors (55)
Choir of Le Bec-Hellouin Abbey (26)
Annie Lennox (18)
The Bach Choir, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra & John…
“It’s very seldom I get excited by what our prime minister has to say and...”
– Muslim Council of Britain member and imam from Leicester, Sheikh Ibrahim Mogra
BBC News - David Cameron on Christianity - views
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-12-4) →
Cream (CD Series) (14)
Athlete (9)
Whitney Houston (9)
Regina Spektor (9)
Missy Higgins (9)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
September 2011
4 posts
BBC News - Labour conference: Andrew Neil... →
… and surprise, surprise, they are mostly bollocks.
Make no mistake, Israel's existence is under... →
Very interesting take on internal divisions.
The Press Association: Miliband party 'not fit to... →
- not too much of a surprise there. I liked
The statistics revealed that only 12% believe Mr Miliband has improved Labour, down from 36% last year, while six out of 10 said they thought political party has still not “faced up to the damage they did to the British economy”.
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-9-18) →
Paradise (1)
Amanda Blank (1)
MGMT (1)
Florence + The Machine (1)
Pendulum (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
August 2011
3 posts
5 tags
“And even high-minded newspapers such as the Guardian decided more than two...”
– Melanie Phillips, columnist for the Daily Mail. I don’t link to the Daily Mail on principle.
Let’s look at the statistics.
Number of celebrity-related stories on the front page of the Daily Mail website today: 77.
Number of celebrity-related stories on the front page of the Guardian website...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-8-14) →
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Miriam Stockley (13)
Andrew Lloyd Webber (4)
The Chemical Brothers (1)
Shy FX (1)
Architecture in Helsinki (1)
Imported from Last.fm…
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-8-7) →
Blondie (20)
Chicago (musical/movie) (18)
Moped (1)
Mr. Scruff (1)
The Troggs (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
July 2011
6 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-7-24) →
Ian Dury (69)
Blondie (20)
The Beach Boys (4)
Amy Winehouse (4)
Fatboy Slim (4)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Gold price hits all-time high of $1,589.56 on US... →
Makes our ex-Prime Minister and ex- Chancellor Gordon Brown’s decision to sell 395 tonnes of British gold between July 1999 and March 2002 at an average price of $275.60 an ounce seem almost prescient.
If you wanted to screw the country even more.
BBC News - Public sector pension liabilities top... →
that’s a fair amount of liability, and tucked away in there is a mention of PFI liabilities.
They do add that liabilities will fall in 50 years, owing to the RPI/CPI changes
“Meanwhile, US law may enter the fray. A former Labour cabinet minister has...”
– The game has changed. The emperor has lost his clothes | Polly Toynbee | Comment is free | The Guardian
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-7-3) →
[unknown] (60)
Scooter (9)
Faithless (3)
Regina Spektor (2)
Led Zeppelin (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
June 2011
13 posts
Tom Morris: +1 and Google+: no thanks, fuck off. →
tommorrisdotorg:
I guess I’ll get the useful stuff out the way first:
google.com##button.eswd
Add this to your Adblock custom filter list and all those silly ‘+1’ buttons on Google search results will go away.
Why would I not want to participate in Google’s glorious new social networking system?
Simple.
…
A fairly clear statement of feeling.
I suspect like Wave, it isn’t...
Salford burglar stabbed to death: Three arrested... →
Ch Supt Kevin Mulligan, who heads Greater Manchester Police’s Salford division, said the man suffered “at least one stab wound” during an altercation in the house involving at least one person from the address and four people breaking in.
Yes, that’s right. 4 masked men were attempting to break *into* the house. *In* the house, one of the 4 was stabbed - it’s not...
Tory spokesman in 'sectarian' school attack/ do... →
…the Bishop of Motherwell, Rt Rev Joseph Devine, said evidence pointed to an overwhelming majority of Catholic parents, …choosing to send their children to Catholic, rather than non-denominational, schools. “The claim that Catholic schools are the cause of sectarianism is offensive and untenable,” said the bishop, also president of the Catholic Education Commission.
...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-6-12) →
Cream (CD Series) (22)
Missy Higgins (11)
Susan Boyle (10)
Vashti Bunyan (6)
Douglas Adams (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
“The fake “fork in the road”. Balls, like Brown, specialises in...”
– Balls’ bloodlust gets the better of him | The Spectator
Public Sector pension strikes - will they attract...
The difference between the median level of full-time earnings in the public sector (£554 per week) and the private sector (£473 per week) widened over the year to April 2010, following annual increases of 3.0 per cent and 2.0 per cent respectively.
I’ve seen lots of stuff about how public sector/private sector aren’t comparable.
“Would you want a nurse working at 65?”...
“Conservative Party deputy chairman Michael Fallon said: “Ed Balls’...”
– BBC News - Ed Balls urges emergency tax cut to boost economy
“These people have absolutely zero credibility, whether they admit mistakes or...”
– First his brother, now Ed Miliband’s at war with Ed Balls - UK Politics, UK - The Independent
Lannan Foundation cancels premiere of Pilger film... →
Lannan Foundation abruptly bans, and cancels the US premiere of, John Pilger’s film “The War You Don’t See” (which, of course, you won’t see)
The banning and cancellation, which have shocked David and me, are on the personal orders of Patrick Lannan, whose wealth funds the Lannan Foundation as a liberal centre of discussion of politics and the arts. …
There is a compelling symbol of...
So, what did the male sex ever contribute :-)
Euclidean geometry. Parabolic geometry. Hyperbolic geometry. Projective geometry. Differential geometry. Algebra. Limits, continuity, differentiation, integration. Physical chemistry. Organic chemistry. Biochemistry. Classical mechanics. The indeterminacy principle. The wave equation. The Parthenon. The Anabasis. Air conditioning. Number theory. Romanesque architecture. Gothic architecture....
Gender based IQ differences?
All the research I’ve done points to a gender difference in general cognitive ability. There is a mean difference of about five IQ points. The further you go up the distribution the more and more skewed it becomes. There are twice as many men with an IQ of 120-plus as there are women, there are 30 times the number of men with an IQ of 170-plus as there are women.
Anyone have any ideas of...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-29) →
Pendulum (4)
The B-52’s (4)
Imelda May (3)
Faithless (2)
Alex Party (2)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
Tom Morris: Busting a semantic web myth: "top-down... →
tommorrisdotorg:
With the announcement today of the ridiculous schema.org built atop the utterly silly microdata specification, I feel it is time to bust the oldest, most often repeated Semantic Web myth ever.
The myth
Semantic Web ontologies or vocabularies are designed by shadowy gangs of librarians and…
Awesome - but then, a lot of Tom’s stuff is…
May 2011
7 posts
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-22) →
Missy Higgins (12)
Pendulum (4)
The B-52’s (4)
Imelda May (3)
Moby (3)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-15) →
Les Miserables ( Original Broa (37)
Oasis (13)
Cascada (12)
ABBA (9)
Brainstorm (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2011-5-1) →
Brendel / VPO / Rattle (4)
Brendel/Rattle (4)
Brendel VOP Rattle (3)
Arctic Monkeys (2)
Rudolf Baumgartner: Lucerne Festival Strings (1)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by…
“I am delighted to pass on this anecdote from Max King, global asset allocation...”
– Government Spending Review: tax and benefits explained in beer – Telegraph Blogs
“The firefight at Bin Laden’s compound, it now appears, pitted two or three...”
– Bin Laden’s human shields? The myth of his life meets the myth of his death. - By William Saletan - Slate Magazine
… and the biggest casualty? Once again, the USA lets itself down by aggrandising the actions of their armed forces when the truth is different?
Linda Norgrove? Patrick...
Another view of the Bin Laden operation?
Let’s roll the clock back 30 years. A fairly major Western power is being hit by a series of what they describe as terrorist outrages; civilians being killed, armed services being targeted by ever more complex weaponry. An intelligence led operation identifies some key figures who provide funding, materiel and planning resource. These people are living in a nominally allied country, and for...
April 2011
2 posts
How many people does it take to pay UK benefits?
Recently, a friend was talking about entitlements. He said it was unreasonable to want the unemployed or single parents to be “pushed” back to work…
I said I sympathised, but it probably took 3 people working full time to keep one single mum on benefits…
He didn’t believe me so I did some rough calculations, and I was pretty close in my estimate. He still...
“The comment gets to the nub of the issue, which is that the cult of overspending...”
– Heresy Corner: Aussie Rules (via thatmarwoodchap)
March 2011
1 post
Tom Morris: British Library and Wikisource:... →
tommorrisdotorg:
I’m writing this post to explain as best as I can the current situation regarding the legal situation over unambigulously out-of-copyright texts in the British Library and the possibility of making public domain reproductions of them for release, say, on sites like Project Gutenberg or …
February 2011
1 post
Tumbled Logic: Re: BBC Online and "deleting"... →
nevali:
This is a direct response to today’s post on the BBC Internet blog on the subject of “deleting” old BBC Online content. I tried to use the comments system, but it just hung when posting. Ho hum. Usual disclaimers apply:
My post last month explained that we were exploring a range of options…
November 2010
5 posts
NO BLASTERS!: You Don't Need to See His... →
noblasters:
On November 21, 2010, I was allowed to enter the U.S. through an airport security checkpoint without being x-rayed or touched by a TSA officer. This post explains how.
Edit: Minor edits for clarity. I have uploaded the audio and it is available here.
This past Sunday, I was returning…