BBC on Curiosity

A few days ago I complained to the BBC about the lack of live coverage of the Curiosity landing. The automatic response promised a reply within ten working days. Impressively, it arrived just now. Less impressively, it didn’t really say anything useful. Thanks for contacting us regarding the BBC’s Olympic Breakfast on 6 August. I… Continue reading BBC on Curiosity

The Chances of Anything Going to Mars

At just after 6:30 this morning, history was made. NASA landed the Curiosity rover on Mars. That was undoubtedly the biggest news that was happening live at 6:30 this morning. I don’t think any reasonable person could question that. The people scheduling the stories that would be covered on the BBC News Channel are obviously… Continue reading The Chances of Anything Going to Mars

Some Doctor Who Theories (Revisited)

Back in May, after two episodes of Doctor Who series 6, I made some predictions about the rest of the series. Now that the series is over, it’s time to go back over those predictions to see how I did. There were nine of them. The eye-patch lady is going to be important.Excellent start. The… Continue reading Some Doctor Who Theories (Revisited)

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

Some Doctor Who Theories

We’re two episodes into the new series of Doctor Who and from what we’ve seen so far the arc plot is going to be even more complex than last year. Here are a few theories that have occurred to me over the last couple of days. They aren’t spoilers in any meaningful way as I… Continue reading Some Doctor Who Theories

Neil Gaiman Explains Doctor Who

Neil Gaiman was asked whether people need to know about the show’s previous history before watching the new series of Doctor Who. This was his reply: No, look, there’s a blue box. It’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where… Continue reading Neil Gaiman Explains Doctor Who

BBC Radio Streams

I’ve just written this over on my BBC Radio Streams page: I’ve got email from a couple of people saying that the Real Audio radio streams were finally turned off overnight. This means that the few links left on these pages (and any links that you have saved from earlier versions of this page) will… Continue reading BBC Radio Streams

Bloggers – help beat Trafigura gag on BBC!

Richard Wilson writes: You can help beat Trafigura’s gag on the BBC by embedding this Youtube video on your website… …and linking to this pdf! Here’s why… Late last week the BBC chose to delete from its website a damning Newsnight investigation into the Trafigura scandal, following legal threats from the company and its controversial… Continue reading Bloggers – help beat Trafigura gag on BBC!

The BNP on Question Time

Here’s what I think. Nick Griffin is an odious little toad of a man. Everything that the British National Party stands for is abhorrent to all sane people. However, there are enough irrational people on the electoral register that the BNP are an elected party. Question Time is supposed to be politically neutral. An unfortunate… Continue reading The BNP on Question Time