I’ve always had a massive soft spot for Jeff Wayne’s musical version of The War of the Worlds. I think that the album must have originally been released pretty soon after I read the book for the first time. And it must have really struck a chord with me. I borrowed a copy from the… Continue reading War of the Worlds
Month: September 2008
Michael Reiss: Creationist
Following last weeks entry about the media and MMR I have another post brewing which goes into more detail about the central message of Ben Goldacre’s excellent book. That central message is that you usually can’t trust science and health stories in the press because they are usually written by people who don’t understand the… Continue reading Michael Reiss: Creationist
The Media on MMR
This makes me very angry. Yesterday the NHS Information Centre released data showing that take-up of the MMR vaccination was lower than it should be. The national level has stalled at 85%, whereas it really needs to be at 95% in order to achieve “herd immunity” – an unflattering term which simply means that immunity… Continue reading The Media on MMR
Fuzzy Matching
As a freelancer, I’ve got more than a few jobs through Jobserve. In the past, they used to just post email addresses of the agents who were advertising the roles, but recently they’ve got cleverer than that. They now publish an email address that goes to the Jobserve servers before being passed on to the… Continue reading Fuzzy Matching
The BBC’s Merlin
I’ve been a fan of Arthurian legend for as long as I remember. It’s one of my favourite stories. I’ve read and seen countless versions over the last thirty or forty years. But I don’t think I’ve ever come across a version as terrible as the BBC’s new series Merlin which started last night. It… Continue reading The BBC’s Merlin
Excuses
I have spent over a week waiting for an agent to get back to me with an offer of a contract. I saw this company last Tuesday and the manager is apparently very keen to get me working there. The sticking point seems to be the money. When the agent first spoke to me about… Continue reading Excuses
Insane Terms and Conditions
Whilst waiting for my comment to be published on the Daily Mail web site, I took a quick glance at their terms and conditions – just to ensure that there wasn’t some obvious rule that I was breaking by calling attention to their hypocrisy. I didn’t find the “you can’t disagree with us” rule, but… Continue reading Insane Terms and Conditions
An Experiment
Tim has been talking about the Daily Mail’s comment moderation policy recently. It seems that any comment which fails to endorse the Mail’s editorial policy is very unlikely to be published on their site. So here’s an experiment. On their web site today (I assume it’s in the paper too, but I haven’t looked), they… Continue reading An Experiment
Planet Atheist
I’ve mentioned before that I run a few planets. A planet is a simple web site which aggregates web feeds on a particular subject. They are named after the software which is used to build many such sites. I’m always looking out for good ideas of other planets to add to my collection. Yesterday on… Continue reading Planet Atheist
Michael Reiss Steps Down
Michael Reiss has stepped down from his post as director of education at the Royal Society. This follows the controversy over his remarks about creationism in science lessons last week. I think he’s right to go as having an ordained minister in such an important role in the Royal Society is pretty silly. I agree… Continue reading Michael Reiss Steps Down