The Snow In The Summer or So-So
Flying over the wolves, with the moon in our talons
Time to bring out the old swingometer, looking at the transfers in local council by-elections between 15 October and 4 February. The period's longer than normal because of three dead weeks around Christmas.
(More: The latest news from the local council by-elections, and blasting through some AV figures. We show our working.) Most of this article is only available to people using sensible browsers.
After almost two weeks of negotiation, the DUP and Sinn Féin reached agreement on devolution of policing arrangements. The sticking point were the annual marches by christian (DUP) sympathisers through christian (SF) areas. Semi-opposition parties the UUP and SDLP were not involved in the negotiations, and the UUP reserved their opinion until they'd had time to study the document. If ratified at the Stormont assembly, the new powers will come into effect on 12 April.
The investigation into Westminster MP's expenses concluded, with £1.2 million to be repaid. Three Labour MPs - Elliot Morley (Sc_u_nthorpe), David Chaytor (Bury North), and Jim Devine (Livingston Nil) - face criminal prosecution, as does the Conservative peer Paul White (Hanningfield).
Joseph Ratzenburger has expressed his personal revulsion at the concept that all people are equal. Mr. Ratzenburger, the leader of an obscure religious sect, was criticised by all right-thinking people, and by Peter Tatchall. Mr. Ratzenburger has said that he wishes to visit the UK later in the year, we're sure that he'll be able to meet the bill himself for any security he requires.
The Lancet withdrew a research paper that had posited a link between MMR vaccines and autism. The paper, originally published in 1998, was faked by Andrew Wakefield. He has been found guilty by the General Medical Council of ethical breaches over the matter. No matter what rubbish you might read elsewhere on the internet, the MMR vaccine is safe. Anyone who suggests otherwise, such as Jeni Barnett, is a danger to public health and would not be let near a microphone by a competent broadcaster.
The radio listening figures for the fourth quarter of 2009 were released. Terry Wogan closed up before closing down, Johnny Vaughan continues to beat Dr. Fox, and Radio Active continued to shed listeners to stations that actually broadcast locally. LBC had a remarkable rise across the board; given the vagaries of the RAJAR process, we won't actually deem it to be a successful station until next quarter. However, the hour-by-hour listening figures show something interesting. LBC is in the top four stations for each half-hour of weekdays, except for the period between 1830 and 2100, and the period between 1300 and 1600 - for half of this time, LBC is ranked behind Virgin 1215 105.8 FM. The evening is common for speech radio stations throughout the world, but the afternoon dip is unique to London. It exactly coincides with the period when Jeni Barnett is clogging up the airwaves with her unique brand of ill-considered and anti-social bullshit. Replace her with a recording of the speaking clock, it can't be worse!
The Space Cadets proposed their economic model for the footor. It's quite clearly a bunch of ideas from out of this moon. The Cadets posit that Keynesian reflation is A Bad Thing, even though it has done exactly what Keynes said it would do. They say that consumer borrowing is A Bad Thing, but don't actually propose to do anything more than tell people it's A Bad Thing. They say that business regulation is A Bad Thing, so clearly they're happy with people putting lead in paint, dumping toxins in the waterways, and making Mystery Meat Pies out of all the bits from the abbatoir floor. They want the whole moon, not just their heartlands, to share in rising prosperity, which is entirely at odds with their previous statements. The tenor of Ickle Gorge's speech was quite clearly to impress the alien forces in the financial markets, and not to learn that obsessive growth and rampant capitalism causes crashes. His is a very naïve policy.
The German government has been caught in a moral quandary. They've been offered a CD that (according to the man selling it) contains data on Germans who have put money into illicit Swiss bank accounts. The whistleblower wants to charge the German government €2,5 million (€ 2.5 million. Obviously!) for the data. Frau Merkel and the major opposition parties are all in favour of the government buying the disk, but the Swiss finance minister and some members of the CDU believe that she would be encouraging other data thieves.
A recap of Skins
episode 2.5.2 - Emily. Brief flashing lights, some fire, and pretty darned triggery throughout.
(More: Some rather large spoilers for an episode that could (and should) have been two.)
Anyway. After Ellen rather liked it, and they've got pictures an' all. If it's the full-on visual experience, this is your best bet.
Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities- Ian STEWART
This book is a collection of short items of a mathematical bent. There are puzzles and brainteasers, there are diversions and explanations, there are brief explanations of important aspects of mathematics. Topics like the Four Colour Theorem, Fractals, the Poincaré Conjecture are featured, along with such constants as π, φ, and i. Oh, and there are jokes. Lots and lots of jokes, some of them funny.
While the material is accurate and accessible, we found Stewart's style too forced in places - such lines as a combinatorialist is someone who does this kind of thing commit the sin of substituting a joke for actual information. Nor are we impressed with the arrangement of the information - there's a treasure-trove of facts in the book, but it's going to be very difficult to find any of it again later. Criminally, there's no index, and the comprehensive list of section headings gives only the punning and cryptic titles.
Stewart's book is well-written, doesn't dwell on any topic for too long, and slowly increases in difficulty, moving from such simple problems as the Monty Hall problem and how to extract a cherry from a cocktail glass, to whether P=NP and/or Not P, introducing formal logic, and concluding with Euler's proof that god exists. Still, the problems in revisiting the articles are sufficient to give us pause against recommending the tome with much vigour.
Into the second half of 1986, and we begin with Madonna's second UK chart-topper, Papa don't preach
. For our money, the best bit of this song is the opening fifteen seconds or so, the intricate string figure that's almost completely unrelated to everything else in the song. Madge sells the song well, but we've always found it a lightweight confection. Owen Paul had the huge summery hit of the year, My favourite waste of time
just drips with sun and sand and a guy who knows exactly when to take his vest off (video). It's just a shame he didn't know when to sing on that Pebble Mill at One appearance.
Mr. the Soup Dragon has said that he'll allow MPs to vote on whether to change the Westminster voting system. His preferred reform is to replace first-past-the-post with the Alternative Vote, similar to that used in Australia. We discussed voting reform in our Building a Better Politics post last May, and noted
Fans of the two-party system will prefer the Alternative Vote (as used in Australia); fans of diverse opinions will go with the Single Transferable Vote (Ireland, Scottish councils, Labour leadership contests).
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