American’s increasing acceptance of religious diversity doesn’t extend to those who don’t believe in a god, according to a national survey by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s department of sociology. From a telephone sampling of more than 2,000 households, university researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and… Continue reading Most Distrusted
Author: Dave Cross
V For Vendetta
So I should write something about V For Vendetta, if only to say how much I disagree with Peter Bradshaw’s review. The graphic novel that the film is based on is one of my favourites, so I’m probably a bit biased and you should bear that in mind when reading my comments. Having said that,… Continue reading V For Vendetta
Archbishop: Stop Teaching Creationism
In an interview in today’s Guardian the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has come out firmly against the teaching of creationism in schools. AR: Are you comfortable with teaching creationism? AC: Ahh, not very. Not very. I think creationism is, in a sense, a kind of category mistake, as if the Bible were a theory… Continue reading Archbishop: Stop Teaching Creationism
You Spent How Much!
There’s one thing that I have haven’t seen mentioned in any of the discussion of the current Labour party loans scandal. The Labour party “borrowed” nearly £14 million from various people in order to finance last year’s election campaign. That means that they spent at least £14 million on the campaign. Am I being naive?… Continue reading You Spent How Much!
MySun
Rupert Murdoch bought MySpace last year as part of his drive to make more effective use of the internet. According to the Guardian, the first results of this purchase will be the use of MySpace technology on the Sun‘s web site to create a “MySun” network. The plan, in its early stages, would allow readers… Continue reading MySun
Fee-Paying and Faith-Based Schools
From the Guardian‘s new Comment is Free site comes a great article by Stuart Jeffries. Here’s a modest proposal. In fact, here are two modest proposals. If the Labour government has any socialist principles left, then surely it should do two fundamental things in order to make our schools truly egalitarian rather than crapshoots for… Continue reading Fee-Paying and Faith-Based Schools
Watching Films
As part of our cable TV package we subscribe to the Sky Movie channels. For about £15 a month we get eight Sky film channels (it was nine but one was recently removed for some reason) and a handful of Disney channels. But we pretty much subscribed to them by default (“oh, we like films… Continue reading Watching Films
Reply From Charles Clarke
I got a reply to the email I sent to Charles Clarke on Tuesday. Here’s what he said. He said that he immediately regretted the exchange with Rachel’s dad and wrote to him that afternoon inviting both him and Rachel to a meeting. He denies receiving any prior contact from Rachel’s dad which is at… Continue reading Reply From Charles Clarke
SWIM
Perl has a concept called “DWIM” (do what I mean). Greg McCarroll has prototyped a idea that he calls “SWIM” (search what I mean) where he monitors the speed that you type words in a Google search box and automatically quotes words that seem to have been typed together. There’s a fuller explanation in his… Continue reading SWIM
Democracy in Action
Charles Clarke has agreed to meet with Rachel’s dad. Rachel is invited too. I wonder how many letters and emails he received on the matter?