A quick plug for The Pod Delusion. Their latest episode was published today and it includes me talking about the Mail’s BBC/BCE story. Getting the piece recorded was all a bit last minute and rushed, but I enjoyed doing it and hope to do more stuff with them in the future. I highly recommend listening… Continue reading The Pod Delusion
Author: Dave Cross
BBC BCE Addendum
A couple of interesting new developments in BCE-gate. Firstly, the BBC have apparently had a large number of complaints about this issue and yesterday they published a response on their complaints page. Complaint We received complaints from people concerned about press reports claiming that the BBC has replaced the reference terms BC (Before Christ) and… Continue reading BBC BCE Addendum
The Birth of a Meme
It’s not often that you can trace a tabloid meme back to its beginnings. Over the last week we’ve seen the birth of a new tabloid meme and, luckily, we’re able to see where it comes from. Here’s the seed. It’s from the Frequently Asked Questions page on the BBC Religion religion web site. Why… Continue reading The Birth of a Meme
Teach Evolution, Not Creationism
The British Humanist Association is behind a new campaign called “Teach Evolution, Not Creationism“. Of course any reasonable person is going to support the campaign. No-one wants creationism taught to children as fact in science lessons. But there are a couple of subtleties that should probably be explained in detail. Firstly, I’ve seen this as… Continue reading Teach Evolution, Not Creationism
Hating Gnome 3
I’ve been using Linux as my desktop operating system for about fifteen years. For most of that time I’ve used GNOME as my desktop environment. That’s longer than I ever used Windows so it’s become ingrained into the way I work. I’d guess that I’m at least 50% more efficient using GNOME than I am… Continue reading Hating Gnome 3
Media-Watchery Blogging Meet-Up Thingy
At Opentech in May I gave a talk about the informal Media-Watching project that I’m involved with. It’s a loosely-affiliated group of bloggers who like to point and laugh at the British press. Well, the group is about to become that little bit less loosely-affiliated loosely-affiliated. A number of us are going to meet up… Continue reading Media-Watchery Blogging Meet-Up Thingy
Reading the News
I’ve always considered myself to be a Guardian reader. For probably twenty years I bought a Guardian most days and read it on the tube on my way to college and, later, my job. The routine was always the same, I’d read the Guardian in the morning and a book on my way home in… Continue reading Reading the News
A Spaceship Has Landed On Earth
The last Space Shuttle mission took off today. And that reminded me of this. In October 1978 I bought a copy of the first edition of OMNI. Apparently I didn’t have enough money to make it a regular purchase because that’s the only copy I ever bought. I still have it. There was one page… Continue reading A Spaceship Has Landed On Earth
The Mail on Teenage Abortions
A lot of tabloid watchers have obviously been looking elsewhere today, but the Mail still manages to peddle its usual level of bullshit. I was particularly drawn to this piece [istyosty link]. In it they examine recent Department of Health figures on the number of girls of sixteen or under who have an abortion. The… Continue reading The Mail on Teenage Abortions
MPs on Twitter
Did you ever make a chance remark that plants a seed of an idea which then grabs hold of you and refuses to let you go until you’ve done something about it? That happened to me on Sunday. I was cleaning up some broken feeds on Planet Westminster when I tweeted: Cleaning up some broken… Continue reading MPs on Twitter