Author Archives: Leigh

I’ve often thought that the idea of a “Top 10 Chart” is somewhat poorly-thought out. Inevitably it will start to drive itself along; a book which hits the number one spot may sell twice as many copies and stay there for twice as long. Thus less popular books won’t make it into the chart and […]

OK, now I’ve given up on lots of conventional news sources (not entirely true), how do I get my news? Web 2.0 isn’t something which means very much to me, although perhaps others have a clearer idea of what it means. I think that much of the definition comes down to the idea of “community” […]

A corner of this page discusses the current proliferation of Digital Rights Management techniques: ZDNet Executive Editor David Berlind suggests that CRAP or Content, Restriction, Annulment, and Protection, is a catchier phrase than DRM – Digital Rights Management. Why does he think this technology is crap? Once you’ve bought music or other content to play […]

Breaking my BBC posting rule already, here is a link from Bad Science showing the worst swear words in existence. Unfortunately for me, the bird was right; the first in the list is a word I’ve been known to use from time to time, and she was possibly right to discourage this. Rather like the […]

Apparently, Microsoft are going to re-write 60% of all the Vista code over the next few months. This is an interesting story. Mostly because it’s complete rubbish. Here’s a thorough debunking of the idea. I have NO idea where that 60% thingy came from, as best as I can figure, the site that published the […]

The Human Rights Acts used to be hot conversation. Every vaguely right-wing newspaper would rant about how they’d open the door to all sorts of nonsense. Developing stories, such as the tale of prisoners demanding pornography as their “human right,” didn’t help matters. In the end, although I can’t find a reference, I don’t think […]

I like ranting about the BBC because they’re an easy target. They state lots of opinions, and they never fight back. But in response to another good example of bias I’ve seen, I’d like to clarify some points. Firstly, I do believe that the BBC contains an institutional bias on various major issues, including the […]

Ken Livingstone has embarassed himself again. Ken Livingstone attacked David and Simon Reuben for their role in an ongoing dispute about the Stratford City development in east London. He suggested the brothers “go back (to their own country) and see if they can do better under the ayatollahs”. He’s starting to sound friendlier and friendlier […]

And where better to start than with a title like that? From Yahoo! News, (does anybody else still giggle at that random exclamation mark?) the following: NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Older women who say talk shows and soap operas are their favorite TV programs tend to score more poorly on tests of memory, attention […]

But I’m back. Time to post a load of rubbish to make up for the backlog.

Tom Cruise’s objections to an episode of South Park have resulted in it being pulled. Luckily it’s already hit the internet.

I’d heard of the Labour Friends of Iraq, reading posts to other blogs. I’d never bothered to click on the links, however, and so have missed out on gems like this. The article discusses a coming Stop the War Coalition demonstration, and points out that the SWC might be more properly titled: Stop the attempt […]

The BBC have shown themselves up again. The time has come to strip the BBC of its status as a public service broadcaster, according to the independent think-tank Civitas. A programme broadcast on 5 October 2005 called ‘Little Kinsey’ manifested such a distortion of its source material that we can no longer depend upon the […]

Today I was musing about the recent TV series, “Lost,” which was produced in America and shown on Channel 4. I was slightly irked by the adverts on Lost, which were always placed in silly places. Each episode would start with a summary of previous ones, and the broadcaster would often follow this up with […]

With the growing controversy in America, I thought I ought to say something. But Dr. Crippen seems able to say it much better than I ever could: We can all surely agree to try to reduce the abortion rate. And the best way to do that is to improve education about sex and contraception and […]

Well it can’t really. Not at all. (Unless you’ve installed it incorrectly of course). Driving a car is probably the single most dangerous thing that any of us do in life. Riding in a car bears a similar risk. Seatbelts have been found to greatly reduce the risk and severity of injuries in road accidents. […]

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this before, but it’s good enough to discuss again. Some websites, such as those operated by newspapers or scientific journals (among many others), are perfectly happy to give you lots of information for free. Annoyingly though, they want you to sign up first, providing them an email address and […]

…who reads this in a feed aggregator. I’ve just republished the previous two posts about twenty times trying to get the paragraph spacing right. I think we’re there now.

From Nick Cohen writing in the Evening Standard (via Norm): What percentage of Saddam Hussein’s weapons came from Britain and America? I askbecause on the rare occasions the BBC mentions Saddam’s genocidal crimes italways says he was ‘armed by the West.’I bet you can’t guess the answer.According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a […]

Here on the BBC website: Chelsea and Southampton legend Peter Osgood has died at the age of 59.Osgood collapsed while attending a family funeral service on Wednesday atSlough crematorium. It’s been said that at least you get to be centre of attention at your own funeral. That’s a bit less effective if somebody goes and […]