I despise the Daily Mail. It’s a horrifically biased newspaper, with a particular agenda to push (and push it it does relentlessly) that I very rarely find I have any sympathy with. It seems to relish winding up and massaging the prejudices of the people of Middle England (and Middle Scotland) who buy the paper. […]
I’m very proud to be able to say that a few months ago I was able to meet Harry Patch, who is currently making the news as he revisits the trenches from World War 1. It was a brief meeting - my mother introduced Frances and I to him when we were at the care […]
Two laugh-out-loud moments today. Both - you might be worried to read - involving other people’s deaths. But why not judge for yourself… You can’t take everything too seriously, after all. Life’s just too short. First, I read in the ‘In Fact’ column of May’s issue of Prospect Magazine An estimated 7,000 Americans a year […]
I’m a bit of a gadget freak. People that know me know this. I very much like shiny things, and for some years now I’ve been a huge fan of Apple computers. It has everything I want (in particular Unix under the hood, but also the great user interface and superb reliability), and with the […]
I’ve subscribed to Prospect for a good few years now. Whilst I don’t always get around to reading my copy as regularly as I would like, I always find it’s articles challenging, well written, and informative, with a good amount of humour (in particular the small cartoons) and interesting facts to keep the mood a […]
I didn’t see the seemingly infamous Panorama programme itself, but have certainly come across plenty of scare-mongering and atrocious reporting in the last few months regarding the supposed “danger” posed by Wi-Fi network routers. Somehow, at least in deluded and panic-stricken sections of the media, these devices are a new menace unseen before and that […]
Imagine the situation where a young child finds themselves being abused by an authority figure. If that authority figure was a child carer, a relative, or a public figure of some sort there would - when it was discovered - be outcry and almost certainly criminal prosecution. Yet if that public figure is a religious authority […]
Regular readers will know I’m something of a fan of Richard Dawkins’ excellent books (see here; My ‘God Delusion’ review is a work in progress). You may therefore be interested in an Independent ‘You ask the questions’ special (also as pdf here), with him. It’s an entertaining and interesting read.
I was surprised to see a review of a new restaurant “The Old Spot”, in my home town of Wells featuring in The Observer today. Wells in Somerset is not renowned as a food hotspot, so that Jay Rayner - not always the happiest of travellers - visited and gave it a pretty good review […]
I’ve previously been very critical at the exorbitant wireless internet (WiFi) tarrifs in hotspots, such as those frequently encountered in coffee shops. It’s partly driven by a selfish view I hold that I’m actually the target audience for these tariffs. I run my own small business, I’ve no children, I have a WiFi equipped laptop, and […]
