Monthly Archives: February 2010

Shouty types passing the time of day

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I’ve just turned the radio off. It’s been ‘verbally kick single parents hour’ on the radio phone-in so that contingent of angry, bitter & jealous shouty types that these days you find on many phone-ins and newspaper on-line comment forums gets yet another chance to put the world to rights.

In this case it would seemingly consist of making single parents work all the hours Richard Dawkins sends rather than take any state aid. We can of course have the phone-in about irresponsible full-time working parents not having time for their children on another day.

I worry that shouty types will inherit the Earth. Or at least England anyway.

Photo by shawdm under this creative commons license

Feel free to offer your uninformed opinion but please don’t call it responsible journalism

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Today’s ruling by the Press Complaints Commission regarding the Jan Moir article in the Daily Mail about the death of Stephen Gately was of course an entirely predictable outcome.

There is a twisted irony when the PCC cites the human rights act defending the Mail’s right to free speech in order to defend a paper that all too often calls for the very same human rights act to be abolished because in their eyes it enables others that they disagree with the very same right to free speech. For me it leaves the same bitter taste in my mouth as when right wing shock-jock Jon Gaunt turned to Shami Chakrabarti to help defend his right to spout his own personal brand of on air bigotry once he’d lost his job for doing just that He himself had previously described Ms Chakrabarti as the ‘most dangerous woman in Britain’.

So yes those of us amongst the 25,000 complainants who were offended by the tone of Jan Moir’s bigoted article do have to  observe her right to free speech and seemingly her right to whip up homophobic sentiment via ignorance but we don’t have to any longer pretend that what she, the Daily Mail and much of what the old media machine are engaged in is actually journalism.

And yes it does undermine the cause of broad minded tolerance to call for Jan Moir’s head on a stick or make violent threats against her person, much as I understand where that frustrated reaction comes from. Protest eloquently by all means and argue rationally as to why her opinion was just plain wrong or indeed that it possibly incited hatred against a section of our society.

But don’t expect the media to be able to police itself or even restrain itself, let alone take any responsibility for the consequences of the misinformation and churnalism it now routinely spouts.

The old media is now dominated by opinion dressed up as news and as in this case worryingly uninformed opinion at that. I only wish it was clearly labelled as such. After all don’t people buy newspapers to be told the sort of things they already believe anyway? I have no problem with that. Just please don’t pretend it is in any way responsible journalism.

Photo by cosford under this creative commons license

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The future is stuff shaped

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Most of my life I’ve attracted ‘creative clutter’. Some times have been worse than others. It’s clearly a  state of mind. Lately my mind has taken me into a different place and I am surprisingly organising our stuff in a more aesthetically pleasing way. It’s a strange feeling at the moment.Like there’s an unseen stranger in the home (have I inadvertently become possessed by a clutter clearing poltergeist?) and each morning I awake to wonder who’s been tidying up? Will it continue or is it just a passing fad. Something to occupy my mind or even to stop me occupying my mind?
Picture by vintagecat under this creative commons license

I saw SeeSaw

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Arqiva’s UK based online TV content service SeeSaw started sending out beta invites today. Arqiva picked up the technology that was to power Project Kangaroo before Ofcom squashed the whole cross channel TV catch-up project as somehow uncompetitive. Obviously it’s only a beta offering so the number of available programmes is no as extensive as perhaps it will be when the service launches properly around March 2010. By then the free content will be joined by paid for items and maybe even availability via Wii or iPhone if users express enough interest.

At the moment there’s a smattering of content not available elsewhere. A token range of old school Doctor Who , Blackpool plus the entire IT Crowd and Queer as folk via the 4OD offerings.The least extensive content offerings  come from Five. A quick try out has given a good quality full screen picture quality and stable streaming for me at least.

Whether SeeSaw differentiates itself sufficiently from any independent channel on-line offering and whether it can monetise its service sufficiently to survive long term remains to be seen.

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The Linkest Week

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The path to music success is no longer labeled – http://www.latimes.com/enterta…

Recipes:Cannelle et Vanille: Butterscotch Pot de Creme, Gianduja Macarons – http://cannelle-vanille.blogspot.com/2010…

new york deli rye bread | smitten kitchen – http://smittenkitchen.com/2010…

Cracking the tiger bread mystery – http://traineedomesticgoddess….

When we buy bread from the supermarket it’s more often than not tiger bread. Some searching on the internet for a recipe appeared inconclusive and one forum where the recipe of tiger bread has been in hot discussion couldn’t settle on a recipe

Why do people vote against their own interests? – http://news.bbc.co.uk/2…

A Trip Down Memory Lane: Floppy Disk Art by Nick Gentr – http://twistedsifter.com/2010…
A Trip Down Memory Lane: Floppy Disk Art by Nick Gentr

“Remember floppy disks? Specifically those little 3.5″ diskettes that were the bees knees and cat’s meow? Popularized in the 80s and 90s, they wouldn’t hold the equivalent of one mp3 file. Nick Gentry also remembers those times. He’s taken his artistic ability and applied it to storage devices of yester year. Come take a trip down memory lane…”

How Not to Hurry - http://zenhabits.net/2010…
Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done?
If Twitter Had Been Around in Dr. King’s Day - http://smarterware.org/4769…
In pictures: Chris Ofili at Tate Britain – http://www.twine.com/item…
Mixed Impressions: How We Judge Others on Multiple Levels: S – http://www.scientificamerican.com/article…
Older brains make good use of ‘useless’ information - http://www.sciencedaily.com/release…
Verified by Visa bitchslapped by Cambridge researchers – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010…
Richest 10% are 100 times better off - http://www.guardian.co.uk/society…
TalkTalk ‘would fight Digital Economy Bill in court’ - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technol…
On Faith Panelists Blog: Haiti and the hypocrisy of Christian theology – Richard Dawkins - http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith…
The pin barrel harp is born – four years late - http://www.channel4.com/news…
Sound sculptor and musician Henry Dagg has created one of the most extraordinary musical instruments of our time. And it’s looking for a good home
Mobile broadband cost and poor experience putting off mass market - http://www.samknows.com/broadba…
MP3 pioneers launch new ‘deluxe’ file format - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1…

MP3 pioneers launch new 'deluxe' file format
“A new music file format has been unveiled by some of the key figures behind the development of the MP3. The new file, MusicDNA, can include things like lyrics, videos, artwork and blog posts, which will continually be updated, as well as the music.”