12February
Pleased to see that the BBC homepage passes strict HTML validation. This is good because it's proof that complete compliance and good design aren't mutually exclusive. And it gives the rest of us something to aim at.
The Musical of The Proclaimers. Well, would you walk a thousand miles to see it?
The sexualisation of children in life.
Earth worship is heresy, or so David Cox is told...
In praise of the toonie. That's the British toonie, not the Canadian coin that's worth slightly less than £1.
Language Log meets up with Mary Ann Bighead, and has problems with its server.
Alexander Downer has accused Europe of helping a non-existant organisation. Mr. Downer, who has been Australia's foreign minister since 1996, said that criticism of the unlawful invasion of Iraq could only help to discourage the invaders. Mr. Downer has clearly forgotten that this war is illegal, and all participants are technically guilty of war crimes.
Amy Benfer tries to figure out why Ayn Rand still attracts such devotees, even though Rand was an intolerant and insufferable smug git, who was wrong in almost everything she did. Benfer concludes, People are entirely dependent on each other. It’s one of the truths that anyone who has moved past adolescence should find inescapable; and if some women and men still cling to it, then at least they are in misguided company. Which includes the adolescent fantasy that is wikipedia.org, about which I shall have more to say soon.
On an Overgrown Path has an apposite quote from John Drummond, the former Third Programme controller. When I began as Controller there were very few lighter moments on the network, and far too many dull hobby-horses being ridden. The Music Department was particularly susceptible to that favourite feature of the gramophone industry, 'the complete works' - all the quartets, all the sonatas, or whatever. Anniversaries were relentlessly celebrated ... This week, the Third is entirely given over to the complete works of Tchaikovsky, apart from the bits that are Stravinsky. We're stuck listening to Classic FM, because though Tchaikovsky was always the right answer to questions on Fifteen to One
, he's never the correct answer to What should I be listening to?
Jim Murphy, the former NUS president turned Blairite lackey, has pronounced that unemployed people should go and learn English. Sadly, this training is only available to people who have not suffered an education in a UK school. Even more sadly, this announcement comes a few weeks after the government announced that it was cutting places in English as a Second Language courses.
Ben Goldacre tries to find Gillian McKeith's doctorate, and comes up with nothing more than a handful of dust.
Beyond pointing it out, we're declining to comment on Julie Bindel's opinion of The Verdict
.
Newfoundland Power has told a woman not to pin yellow ribbon to its electricity poles. Might cut into a worker's clothing and cause an electric shock, says the utility company. Anita Wheeler, who says she's supporting Canadian troops in Afghanistan, reckons that the very real risk of killing someone is worth the very marginal benefit of sticking up pieces of cloth. Can't she just tie it tightly?
