Digital Dreams
Hi. I still use LJ, follow my friends and similar, but I've moved my main host to Dreamwidth now, and am crossposting everything to here, but asking people to comment there.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
Mat Bowles.
It's still fully interoperative, the OpenID comment functions there are good and improving, and I can follow everything from both sites easily.
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The shorter Neil: George R.R. Martin is not your bitch. I still don't get why people can't understand that authors and other creative types don't have on/off switches. I wan the next book too, but I want it to be good, and released when it's ready. In the meantime, I have a whole library full of other books to read.
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Oh look, something else we already knew but have to keep repeating because people refuse to believe it. Immigration makes us better off. All of us.
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Chris has a historical analysis of MPs pay compared to the average. Does show that they've been going down, comparatively, since the early 80sâ”strangely, allowances have been going up since then, can't think why. Oh, wait, it was a fiddle created by Thatcher to keep the troop in line but keep the headline salary low. That worked REALLY well didn't it? Can we scrap the stupid allowances scheme, reduce the number of MPs, abolish safe seats and give the replacement lot we elect fairly a decent salary so that there're less absolute numpties and careerist arseholes please?
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Interesting talk on how society exploits both men and women, but traditionally in different ways. In many ways it similar in analysis (if not conclusion) to the feminist patriarchy critique, and definitely worth a read as a good contribution to the debate.
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Does exactly what it says on the tin. And is probably more accurate than my actual real knowledge.
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Of course, the Cornish aren't too happy about this. But then, the Cornish never seem to be happy about anything.
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On the subject of the best things coming from Devon, this does of course include pasties. (USiansâ”that's a type of pastry pie, not a silly thing moralists make strippers wear, the A is soft, paaasteee). The British Pie Awards says the best Cornish Pasties are made in Devon. And everyone knows the recipe comes from there anyway.
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The (true?) story of how Ada Lovelace became the worlds first superhero crime fighter. Or something. It's cool. And silly. Computers. Invented in Devon. Like all the best things.
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Paulie suggests that ISPs should contribute money to content creators out of the money they make selling us connections and similar. Not sure I agree with him, but it's an interesting argument. Much prefer it to the special pleading and subsidy requests some of them are doing at the moment.
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Have I mentioned how much I dislike terrible puns? I have? Well, I'll mention it again. Ariane is gorgeous, funny, and smart. But this is one of the biggest collection of terrible fish based puns ever. Even if she is, on balance, having ago at those annoying pescetarians
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Well, you will if you like a lot of pics of animals either being cute or in strange poses. I especially like the MeerCat, while SB preferred the snake & robin.
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It's a Thesaurus that only throws up shorter synonyms. Useful if a) you use Twitter/SMS a lot or b) you're a verbose git. Like me. Works in the Firefox search box as well, which is nice.
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TVSciFi attends a Red Shirt convention. It's utterly daft, but amusingly so.
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The good Dr Pack demonstrates that I'm nowhere near the biggest hostiry geek in online Lib Demmery witha pretty good analysis of this classic speech. This REALLY OLD classic speech. Surprising how much it still resonates really, still, those who refuse to learn the lessons and all that...
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Andrew makes the point about the damage that can be done to YOUR cause if you, or people on your side, make things up or inflate statistics. One I completely agree with
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My (future) mother-in-law is doing a charity run with a friend. She'd appreciate donations. I appreciate a happy mother-in-law. I'm sure you understand, right?
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Wait, they're on the same side. The good one. Anyway, Open Rights Group Event - Doctorow and Stross: Resisting the all-seeing eye, Friday May 1st, down in That London. No chance I can make it, but you should go. Yes, you.
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Except, obviously, in Poland. The reasons given seem to actually make sense. Doesn't make it a good idea, but it makes sense. But, um, it's still a stupid name. then again, I said that about Dave, ad I reckon I watch that more often than any other channel.
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Pretty sure this'll be happening over here as well. So many people have little to no understanding of the legal system or why it works the way it does. FS, if the Judge says don't do it, don't do it
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Jonathan Potter's collection of rare antique maps was up for sale so the Telegraph nicely gave us a set of pictures of them. I've got some reproduction Speeds, but, well, when I've won several lotteries and robbed a few banks...
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I wants one my precious, I wants one I does. Such a cool idea, but the whole computer into the keyboard and plug it into a decent TV. Oh, wait, I had a Spectrum when I was a kid. Except that, well, the Spectrum is outspecced by my mobile phone these days.
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Utterly dodgy YouTube upload of one of the daftest TV sitcoms ever. Helped launch the careers of so many people and, well, it's fun. If you like the idea that the Roman governor of Britannia is based in Chelmsford.
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I had no idea this even existed. Then, looking at it, I can see why. Kirby was a great visionary, but so horribly dated today.
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This is brilliant. Acoustic guitar player doing a version of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence, incredibly haunting and well done. ETA:
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
insomnia and spoombung appear to be competing to find competitors in the comments, here's an alternative Japanese player of the same tune. -
Starts with the economic problems, moves onto technology trends, and then goes into what we're likely to become. Some of his answers may or may not be right, but he sure as hell is asking the right questions.
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If you've ever wondered how you'd handle being stuc back in time (or like Miriam in another dimension), this handy t-shirt is a must-wear.
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Bullet point summary of why England ended up colonising "Virginia", start from the bottom entry and move up. An old, and sadly defunct journal linked to in the comments at a post by Steve on something else entirely
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How weird is this? If you think you live a healthy lifestyle, your body responds as if you do, but if you think you don';t, it degrades, EVEN IF YOU ACTUALLY DO. Mind over matter. Gotta love Dr Ben
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The politics of bisexuality, an older post from Laurie that I had saved to link to but never actually did
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Turning off that annoying nag when there's a reboot due. FFS, if I could reboot now I would, piss off and let me do it when I want.
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Short answer: real people don't use the Address Bar. They just google. Even if what they're looking for is, well, Google. Maybe Firefox and the uber-bar will help change that? Maybe? Please?
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The clitoris, a users guide. MY careful empirical research has me convinced that some are more sensitive than others...
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Exactly what it says on the tin. Yes, having a 5 year old is a good excuse to spend time in the lego section looking at the prices in horror...
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I'm thinking someone at the Guardian/Observer is poly, they seem to run a fair few articles like this, softening things up a bit. Regardless, I approve.
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Tim on the Rowntree report, approvingly. I think I concur, poverty can't just be based on the old 'dollar a day' measure, even Adam Smith would've disputed that. But then that old lefty has frequently been misinterpreted by fools.
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Free short story from Scalzi on Tor's new super SF siteâ”still haven't found the time to read it but still, worth linking to.
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Unexpected results from the Hadron collider. I giggled
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This is, quite simply, brilliant. Very cunning use of perspective in a very practical manner. Wonder if I could persuade NCP to hire him?
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Everyone's favourite lunatic posts about the etiquette of friending people on LJ. I fall into the "don't ask, there's no point, doing so pisses me off" school, and also the "I add you back if you make interesting conversation" thing.
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Why are your phone battery meter and signal meter so crap? Sometimes, it's a deliberate part of the software. Which is stupid. Ah well
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I haven't had time to read this yet, but I know a bunch of you will be interested, so here y'go, feedback welcome
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Robert Rodriguez is making a Red Sonja and she will be played by Rose McGowan. That's the archetypal chainmail bikini wearer played by someone that isn't Nielsen. Might actually be fun. Gratuitous and stupid, obviously, but fun too. And she looks great.
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More silly signs. Good fun
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John McCain is so desperate for a bit of that viral internet action that he's set up a reward scheme for people posting comments in his favour. Openly. Obama supporters are, naturally, laughing themselves silly and going back to posting such support for free. Desperate measures?
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Look at this! The Insubstantial Careerist hath blog. It's crap. Really really crap. But you knew that from the tagline, right? Empowerment? FFS. I nearly studied in Salford, she gives the whole place a bad name.
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A games software developer invites those who rip off his games to tell him why, gets a lot of constructive feedback and decides to change his SOP as a result, including substantially improving his demos and dropping DRM completely. Interesting times.
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Why the Twitter SMS gateway got closed down over here. SRSLY, USians? Do you guys REALLY pay to receive text messages? That both explains Twitter's revenue stream AND why it's both more popular and less viable over here :-(
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This is interestingâ”judge rules that comments on a discussion board are not libel, merely slander, a different, lesser offence. How that would apply elsewhere in, for example, blog comments, is open to further interpretation. Stupid libel laws.
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Nice little gadget showing pretty much everything I can think of in the history of daftness online, right from the very beginning. I still love that coffee pot.
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Giving a former chief of police who obviously got hid over the head with a truncheon once too often a damn good fisking over his imbecilic anti-legalisation article. There are some good arguments against legalisation, but he chose to deploy hyperbole and fear tactics. In the Independent. Fool.
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This looks like a neat little plan. Mozilla developers are working with Adobe to create a plugin for INTERNET EXPLORER that could possibly make it able to display stuff according to standards. This could mean that mapping software like Google Maps might actually work properly. Which would be nice.
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This is, quite, frankly, one of the most horrifying things I've read in a long time. It's also one of the most hopeful. It's not a short read, and those of an emotional should be warned that it made ME a bit teary eyed at times. If child neglect stories make you upset, read with extreme caution.
andrewducker for the new gizmos to get it working, sort of. -
Um, oops? Several friends of mine work for HBOS, nice to know their security procedures don't even cover their own cheif exec.
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An argument between churches: do dogs go to heaven? SRSLY, it's fun, go look.
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Done no extra digging, but this would hit several friends of mine directlyâ”deactivated firearms include muskets for civil war re-enactments, the wannabe history teacher in me is appalled they're even considering it. The politico in me is used to New Labour's bansturbating crap already :-(
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She keeps whinging I haven't plugged this enough. Given I've barely posted anything this surprises who, exactly? Anyway, a proper write up may follow, in the meantime, go vote already.
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If you use Gmail, read this and do what it says. Those more technically inclined than me will understand why it was daft for them not to default to HTTPS instead of insecure HTTP, but they have now let you always force that, which is a step in the right direction.
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Ignoring the stuff about the 'postcode lottery' (essentially media bollocks: different spending priorities in different areas is localismâ”the problem is Scotland has democratic accountability, England doesn't), but the co-payments policy is daft. Well meaning, but daft.
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Very pointless, but at the same time. Play Tetris with maps. Not bad for learning a bit of geography, there's no way I'm playing on hard though.
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Here's a cunning plan. Change the law so that some stuff that was perfectly legal will now become illegal, and then NOT TELL THE POLICE how to deal with it or make the judgement. You can't even ask what you need to destroy. FFS
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Taxing times for Hungary's porn inspectors | The Register
A Hungarian porn producer has filed his tax forms, and claimed scene dressing props as legitimate business expenses. So the tax inspectors have to watch his films to confirm they're used. Apparently 'It's a hard job'
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Solar Cycle 24 Could Be 13 Years Long - Cooler Times Ahead? « Watts Up With That?
I'm not enough of a scientist to know if this holds water at all, written from a sceptic perspective I think, but I don't discount the anti-climate change position completely, doubt is good. Anyone able to expand, confirm or debunk?
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'The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion' - When the Anti-Choice Choose
I've read many of these quotes before, but it is a fairly good collection about how anti-abortion campaigners react if it's them that needs to make the choice.
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Hack Attack: Burn almost any video file to a playable DVD
Mostly for my reference as I've got some stuff I want to back up from my old PC and have never done it. Anyone got experience of using this or other software to burn AVIs and similar onto DVD?
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Basic UK libel law for idiots by Adam Porter
Another guide to online libel, this time from Urban 75. Seems accurate, although I'm really not sure about the linking could be defamation thing. Mentions the Staggers/Scallywag case directly though.
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Charlie's Diary: Moderation Policy
Not a bad general guide about what is and isn't acceptable on someone else's blog, and most of it applies to me as well (although the bits about huge readership numbers and similar aren't, natch). Freedom of speech doesn't apply.
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Qinetiq ships first 'Transformer' war-droid | The Register
It doesn't actually change shape, but it's got a selection opf different weapon fits, and dude, it's a robot. Um, not 100% sure I approve, but still, it's cool
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The greatest defunct Web sites and dotcom disasters - Crave at CNET.co.uk
These are cool, a set of failed 'name' websites and why they failed. Some of the could work well now, others are just bad examples of stupid business plans.
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delicious -> livejournal reposter - May Contain Nuts
Andrew's redone some of the code for the cross poster I'm using, much better, solves the timestamp problem and a few other things. I really need to reinstall an FTP client and fix mine.
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We look not at what is there, but what our brain predicts will be there in a tenth of a seconds time. How weird is that?
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Even a non-petrolhead like me can appreciate these
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Good thing: The Welsh Office uses Wordpress. Bad Thing: They're paying £500 a month to host it. For a site that probably gets less traffic than my Livejournal. Our tax money at work. Badly
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How cool is this?
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Hebrew scholars write a book about all the filth modern translation have removed. Interesting bit about the 'tsela', anyone know any more?
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This, is ridiculous. Completely and utterly stupid. The paranoia at LAX when I was there in 2002 was both palpable and misplaced, but a t-shirt with a picture of a grrt big robot now isn't allowed? They'll be banning Oscar Wilde quotes next
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Complete with added bonus art auction for the Alzheimers trust. This are Good
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This is a rather cool thing to be doingâ”a bunch of big name SF authors have signed a vinyl MonQee (no, I'd not heard of them either) and are auctioning it off for the Match it For Pratchett thing. Which we like.
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And here are some pictures and a list of authors for it.
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Andrew Ducker asks: When did you start feeling like you were living in the future? And if you don't - what would make you?
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The Govts Know Your Limits campaign, all £10million of it, is both a misplaced use of our money and based on dubious medical evidence. And because most light drinkers can see it's bollocks, the core message gets ignored
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and here's some of the evidence that says the unit limit per week is bollocks. By Govt targets, I'm a binge drinker on a quiet week FFS, and I'm mostly sober.
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Heh. Mozilla has decided to try to set a world record for most software downloads in 24 hours when they release Fx3. Can their download network handle it? Anyone got any odds?
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Genius. Who needs a commentbot when you can click on this for hours.
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I'm thinking it should likely be 'parent' there, some of them I've skipped, and soe I'm learning. Still not got my head around the tantrums thing...
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Can someone please explain to me how emo isn't a branch of goth? It grew out of punk and is all about dressing up dark and angsty while convinced the world hates you.
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Dave geeks out abou 'a group of pterosaurs called Azdarchids' and the edia coverage of some research. As usual, the media get it all wrong, except, um, The Sun. How does that work?
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Brown's going to lose the next General Election. Pretty much guaranteed unless he stops playing at politics and starts doing stuff. I went off Hari completely for awhile, has he grown up and smelt the coffee or is it a blip?
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Conclusive proof I've been working alongside real IT geeks too long—I almost understand most of this.
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Washington DC: Built by morons... (but then, London's not that much better)
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This is rather good (if a bit weighty), legal responsibity of online content, who's gets sued for libel, etc and what your web host should be aware of. Seems to back up my view that screening comments can cause issues
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Kathleen on how many Christian campaigners are distinctly unChristian and her own particular brand of liberal theology
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If anyone has any examples of how an anarchic society might work, then I'd be interested in reading them. But for now, count me out.
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A few assists and pointers on writing about real people online and how to avoid being sued for libel. My legal consultant talls me it's fairly accurate...
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Not a bad little selection - reposted for those bikers not already reading Jennie (you should be, damnit)
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Duncan does his whole 'look, the most popular song won' analysis (again) with good reasoning (again). Pretty sure he's right as well, yes, there are blocks, but El Tel's predictions came next to bottom.
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Pay peanuts, get monkeys. That's why most British MPs are useless apparatchiks (well, that and the voting system). While they get way above median, they get way below what the most talented 0.001% of us should earn.
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Paleontologist SF geek isn't happy with CGI SF aliens - even Dr Who and Trek did weird better, let alone nature.
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Um, yeah. Having a copy of the contents of this can get you thrown into jail. Well, if you've got brown skin or you attend a mosque. But the US air force is free to host it on a public website, right? GAH!
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Oh dear: Special panties for that special someone. Simply turn your phone to vibrate
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MySpace is infested with spammers, phishers and idiots. Rather than dump the phishers and spammers, they've decided to treat all users like idiots. And a huge number of their idiot users thank them for it. Gods I hate that site.
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Nice little summary here, definitely worth reading if you're writing a lot of web published stuff. Y'know, like blog or LJ posts...
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Wow, how stupid is this? I'm not sure which is worse, that he did it, or that theyve banned him from giving them more evidence. Leeds Cllr says: 'Leedsâ™s dumbest criminal' which, given it's Leeds, is quite impressive.
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Tim kicks off the libel law campaign. Linked for reference as much as anything else, need to get back to it.
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Haven't actually been able to read most of this, my brain isn't working. But it looks to make some sense, so saving to get back to—feel free to tell me what you see wrong in the meantime.
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Interesting, not had time to read fully, linking for reference: The results suggest that women are not only aroused by a variety of types of sexual imagery but are more flexible than men in their sexual interests and preferences.
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Nice summary of the legal rights to copyright we have under UK and international law - in other words, don't let the Mail on Sunday rip you off without permission, and demand payment if they do.
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'As the rest of the world makes leaps and bounds in science, engineering and technology, we're perfecting a reality television.'
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Democratic pary my arse: the BNP's national election officer then goes on to say that any resulting election 'should be carried out in the most rapid manner possible with zero publicity allowed for the joke candidate.'
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Or, in other words, why having a dark background for your sites and documents cuts electric use. Lots. and it's easier on the eyes. My LJ layout: saving the planet ;-)
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Iains followd up on the landslide/wipeout link I posted: Could Labour fall to just five seats at the next election? It's unlikely, but not completely impossible. One of the preconditions is the invention of a competitor party in heartland seats
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I still dislike using IM, but the snobs are wrong: far from ruining teenagers' ability to communicate, IM lets teenagers show off what they can do with language
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For the science writers and reviewers out there, Nick Mamatas needs feature articles for his Clarkesworld magazine. He'll even pay you.
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Note to train drivers - if you're going to have a wank after making an announcement to the whole train, turn off the intercom first? (from Popbitch, natch)
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There are some rather good ones in this set, haven't figured out what to yoink yet but will definitely grab something
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Not a bad little tool, biased against the Govt but not horribly so, picks 14 issues of the last few years and you get to compare your opinion to the party voting record, includes stuff like the smoking ban and fox hunting, not all dry stuff
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These are brilliant
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Jarndyce is spot on with this one: The notion that sport and politics should never mix is a curious, and also deeply political, one. Sport, after all, is just the waging of international politics by other means
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I wrote this 18 months ago, but I've linked to it increasingly recently to explain points, so I'm bringing it to the top. The electoral system encourages broad church coalitions and two main parties. Every vote is thus, in some way, tactical.
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Charlie goes back over Fermi's classic 'if they exist, why aren't they here' paradox with a bunch of possible explanations.
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Follow up from Fermi - Father Gabriel Funes, said intelligent beings created by God could exist in outer space - the Vatican is organising a conference next year to mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of the author of the Origin of Species, Charles Da
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Very very cool. Link to part one of some production stills and mock ups of the CGI original design Cylons from the Razor TV movie. Part two, witht he gold cylon, is worth clicking through to.
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For those that wanted them from last time, Jen's now posted the whole article.
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Looking at various sources and I was reminded of this result - is it possible Labour's headed for a wipeout of these proportions unless they sort themselves out?
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to be produced by Sam Raimi. That slurping noise? That's a thousand brains melting at the idea. If you haven't read the book? Don't. Really, don't.
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Heh: staff and customers at a pub in Tunbridge Wells reported seeing a UFO with "red and green flashing lights" moving across the sky. When asked to describe the direction of movement their answer was "Gatwick".
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Spoilers, natch. SCENE: Many, many, many Testing the Suit scenes, ending with a pretty cool flight over Malibu, a crash through two levels of Tonyâ™s house, and an Oscar winning performance by Freddy the Fire Extinguishing Robot.
Feeds
Introspection
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