Keep taking the Apple tablets
So what do we really know about the most anticipated bit of technology since the USB lava lamp? Come with us as we filter the River of Rumour for the Shiny Nuggets of Truth.
Archive for 'Hell in a handcart'
Ticketmaster and Live Nation: spot the difference
The Competition Commission’s provisional findings on the multimillion-pound merger, published today, said that the deal would make it harder for new entrants to break into the ticketing marketplace. The commission also warned that combining the two major players in the music market could mean the price of tickets went up, or result in concert-goers receiving a poorer service.
The commission announced this morning that it no longer believed that the public will suffer if the two companies combine forces
Climate change and shouting down questions
I’ve always assumed that people who question climate change are in the same camp as creationists and people who believe wireless networks are cooking their brains. Maybe that’s because that’s how they’re painted by the media, or at least the media I consume. Squander Two has put an interesting post together on the subject:
I object to the constant use of the word “denialist”, designed as it is to imply a parallel with AIDS denialists and Holocaust denialists. We never refer to Einstein as a “quantum mechanics denialist”, even though he didn’t accept the theory and the theory has been proven right to as great an extent as science ever is. You’re not going to persuade me of your case by insulting me, but you are going to make me wonder why you’re conducting a propaganda campaign against anyone who expresses any doubts whatsoever about your views.
Oh come on, you’re not even trying
Blatant PR crap masquerading as editorial is nothing new, of course, but you’d think the Metro might at least *try* to conceal it. Nope.
John Lewis revealed that sales of point bras are up by 33 per cent compared to the same time last year.
The department store has seen a remarkable surge in the sales of the Triumph Doreen White, which is selling a third more than it did the same time last year.
…’Conical bras have 48 technological components to help create that 1950s silhouette. Channel your inner 1950s starlet and get the Jane Russell look with a lightweight cashmere jumper teamed with a pencil skirt and killer heels to get the look,’ she [John Lewis's bra buyer] added.
Who needs facts when you have faith?
There’s a truly extraordinary article by AN Wilson in today’s Daily Mail which, after something of an online storm, has been tweaked – so it’s no longer illustrated with a picture of Hitler, as it was this morning. I’m not going to link to it because I’m increasingly convinced that the Mail runs really crazy stories for no other reason than to boost traffic.
It’s incredible, though.
The trouble with a ‘scientific’ argument, of course, is that it is not made in the real world, but in a laboratory by an unimaginative academic relying solely on empirical facts
Imagine people relying solely on empirical facts!
Mr Wilson then compares scientists with their empirical facts to Dr Mengele, and suggests that Science = Hitler. I’m not making this up.
The only difference between Hitler and previous governments was that he believed, with babyish credulity, in science as the only truth
Here was me thinking one of the differences was that Hitler was a crazy motherfucker. Apparently not.
I am not suggesting that any British scientists are currently conducting experiments comparable to those which were allowed in Nazi Germany or in Soviet Russia. But I see the same habit of mind at work in Professor Nutt and his colleagues as made those mad scientists of the 20th century think they were above the moral law which governs the rest of us mortals.
Professor Nutt dared to suggest that government drugs policy was based on politics rather than reality. That’s not quite Mengele.
In fact, it is the arrogant scientific establishment which questions free expression. Think of the hoo-ha which occurred when one hospital doctor dared to question the wisdom of using the MMR vaccine.
That’ll be the hoo-hah which occured when one doctor made shit up and newspapers ran with it, seriously damaging the vaccination programme for no good reason and exposing children to potentially fatal illnesses. The worst offender? Yes, the Daily Mail.
The point here is not whether he was right or wrong
He was wrong. And here we are, years later, still suggesting that Wakefield is a victim rather than an offender (with pure intentions, perhaps, but the effect was still parents abandoning vaccination and exposing children to unnecessary risks). Scientists? It’s the newspapers we should be scared of.
What’s wrong with banning file sharers?
I thought this comment on The Guardian website was a pretty good explanation of why the proposed three-strikes rule is a bad one:
The specific problem with FAC, FACT and this government is that they are colluding to (1) turn a civil allegation into a crime, (2) make the taxpayer foot the bill for prosecuting it, (3) impose a summary punishment without an opportunity to argue the case in court, (4) licenses yet more intrusion and snooping on personal internet usage
There’s a fifth point, but I don’t agree with it, heh. There’s also the fact that connections are per-household, not per-person…
Perhaps it’s Scotland’s politicians that need “rebalancing”
Oh joy, the new Scottish booze legislation comes into force today. Supermarkets are reorganising their displays, pubs are spending thousands of pounds on applying for new licenses (which, in the case of North Lanarkshire, mean some 25 pubs won’t legally be able to sell booze from today due to delays in the application process. Council says don’t worry, cops say WE WILL BUST YOU) and staff will require mandatory training to make sure they don’t encourage drinkers to have another drink. Imagine it! Pub staff asking if you want another drink!
Apparently the move, which makes my life that little bit more annoying by preventing me from buying wine or beer when I do my normal 8am shop (you can’t buy booze before 10am now, which I’m sure will prevent alcoholism) is about “rebalancing” Scotland’s relationship with booze. There’s another bill along on Thursday which will flout EU law by trying to impose price controls on booze too. Rebalancing, again.
Which reminds me of a story.
Barney is a decorator, and he cracks me up. A while back he was telling me about a woman whose house he was working in, or trying to work in: she had one of those really yappy little dogs, and it was driving Barney daft. She did apologise for the dog’s incessant barking, and said she had no idea why it was so hyperactive.
“Oh, I know why it is,” Barney said. “It’s out of balance.”
“Balance?”
“Yeah. Sometimes their wee heads get out of balance, and they become really bad tempered. Easy to fix, though.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“How do you fix it, then?”
“Well, what you need is a little bit of metal. Lead’s best. And what you do is, you put the lead into the dog’s ear and that rebalances it.”
“My goodness! So how do you get the lead into their ear?”
“With a FUCKING GUN!”
I can’t help thinking some of our elected representatives would benefit from a similar procedure.
If you want to ban a film you ain’t seen, you ain’t no film critic
I was under the impression that a film critic’s job was to see films and then criticise them. How foolish of me! David sends me a link to this lovely piece in, yes, The Daily Mail:
You do not need to see Lars von Trier’s Antichrist (which is released later this week) to know how revolting it is.
I haven’t seen it myself, nor shall I – and I speak as a broad-minded arts critic, strongly libertarian in tendency. But merely reading about Antichrist is stomach-turning, and enough to form a judgment.
…If I were to see Antichrist, I don’t believe for a moment that it would incite me into copycat violent behaviour or make me a danger to others. But it would poison my mind and imagination, with explicit, ferocious scenes of sexual violence that would stay with me for ever.
Isn’t that good enough reason to ban it?
Movie magic
In among the not-entirely-surprising news that the new Lars Von Trier movie is a load of crap, I discovered this gem:
Last week, the Brazilian film Embodiment Of Evil opened in the UK, including scenes of somebody eating their own buttocks and a rat running up another character’s vagina.
Why not take the kids?
Ding dong, the database is dead. Isn’t it?
Jacqui Smith is scrapping the uber-database that would monitor everything we do online. Isn’t she?
In an unexpected press conference yesterday, Doctor Evil admitted that his unpopular plans for “sharks with frickin’ laser beams” were “extreme” and too expensive, so the entire programme is being scrapped.
However, when journalists examined the details of the policy, they discovered that Doctor Evil’s programme is still going ahead.
Sharks are still being fitted with laser beams, but Doctor Evil has renamed the beams as “big torches.”
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