Recent Entries in Media
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Local by Social South West - some reflections #LbyS
I was fortunate enough to attend Local by Social South West in Bristol last Friday. Allotment 5 and a half has done a detailed round-up of the day, and the hashtag #LbyS is the best round-up of the how the day itself progressed for those interested. Here I just wanted to capture a few, brief and generally unrelated reflections on the day. Being in a room of people with diverse interests and perspectives is always...
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Social care and Foursquare
It's around a week before the Local by Social event in the South West. I'm lucky enough to have been invited to talk on the topic of location-based social media and social care (thus the title of this post), and I said I'd share some of my emerging thoughts on what I'm planning to say. The thoughts below are therefore shared in the hope people will comment and offer their thoughts on the proposed argument...
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Nice example of #vcs social media use
Purely to share something with readers (hi mum!) that I thought would be of interest, and in no way just to get this off my chest, here's a little story for you. A couple of weeks ago I had a request from a trade magazine to contribute to a feature they were writing. Realising that the organisation I work for had a lot of (what I thought would be) useful things to say about the...
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Social care and location-based social media
Rob Dyson has an excellent article today on the Guardian's new Voluntary Sector Network blog (which itself is excellent). Rob's article covers how voluntary sector organisations can use location-based social media, like Foursquare and Gowalla, to promote the work that they do in a variety of different ways. For example: Christmas card fundraising charity Card Aid are... are adding 'tips' into venues' entries around the country so that when you check-in somewhere, you are alerted...
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YouTune no.27: Brothers in Arms (West Wing edition)
Apologies for the lack of proper posting over the last week. Work has rudely interrupted what was getting to be quite a nice blogging habit. Anyway, easing myself back into the driving seat I find myself reaching for the comfort of a YouTunes entry. I had always been a fan of Dire Straits, mainly because I was a keen guitar player in my youth. You may rightly ask the question: what kind of kid wants...
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Guardian cuts blog
I'm not saying this just because I'm a leftie, but the Guardian's coverage of the public sector over the last few months has been particularly good. With the Society supplement every Wednesday it was always pretty good, but in its fair and generally measured coverage and perspectives on both the cuts themselves and the impact they will have - particularly in the areas I know best (disability, social care, health and benefits) - the Gruad...
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The Daily Mail's deserving few (scroungers not welcome)
This post also appears on the excellent Where's the Benefit? blog, which is keeping tracks of the budget cuts and the impact on (disability) benefits I'd love to know what it's like being someone with the mindset of a Daily Mail reader. It must be fascinating to be outraged by something today that is the exact opposite of the thing you were outraged by yesterday. The subject of benefits is ripe ground for this: on...
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Cuts to support packages: stories needed
I know many readers (well, both of you) are interested in social care and how the new coalition government's approach to it, as well as the general cuts agenda, may affect service users and service provision. A colleague is currently looking for firm evidence that councils are cutting back on support packages, i.e. not just changing eligibility but evidence that the number of hours being offered to individual disabled people is being reduced. If you...
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Paul Carr's web life, reconsidered
Following some personal thoughts on this last week, here is essentially the same thing write large: well-known blogger Paul Carr first quit most social media and locked Twitter, and then quit Twitter as well. His reasons for doing so are here and his reaction to the reactions of his decision are here. Fascinating stuff....
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The BBC licence fee: value for money
Following on from my bemused post about BBC Dimensions, here are some nice breakdowns of what you get per month for the licence fee (2009/10 figures): TV: £7.85 per month per household (pmph) / 66% of monthly fee Radio: £2.81 pmph / 17% Online (including iPlayer): £0.67 pmph / 6% Other: £1.35 / 11% I don't really watch much television. But £3.50 a month for all of the BBC Radio and online? Bargain....
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Abbott's radio silence
Anne McElvoy asked Diane Abbott a perfectly reasonable question as part of a piece on the Labour leadership contest on the Today programme today (you can hear it here). The question was: You have a son in private education. You said that you are in tune with the Labour membership. A lot of that membership doesn't like or accept private education. Isn't that a bit of a clash? Abbott's response was silence for about 15...
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Get Gove off the radio
Some of the factors that can affect driving are well known: alocohol, drugs, using a mobile phone, even listening to sport. Having listened far too many times than I'd ever want to to Michael Gove being interviewed on the radio - particularly using his favoured technique of criticising the BBC rather than actually answering questions - can I recommend that, in the name of road safety, he is also banned from being on the radio?...
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"Naivety and arrogance"
We've been keeping an eye on Andrew Lansley because of his combination of arrogance, ignorance and power (see the Department of You Couldn't Make It Up and Lansley's winning combination). This diary of a senior civil servant seems to suggest that Lansley isn't a one-off; he's perfectly similar to the rest of his Ministerial colleagues: I have noted since the election that Conservative ministers seem very relaxed. I, like many others, interpreted this as confidence...
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Bravo, Auntie
This is a guest post by LisaAB 6Music has been saved by the BBC Trust. Fantastic! Great! A real cause for celebration? Not really. In essence, 6Music provides the output which Radio One should actually be fulfilling. Instead, Radio One is chasing listeners in the manner of a commercial radio station: repetitive playlists, “out there” presenters, and a constant refusal to air anything during its day and primetime schedule that might appeal to anyone with...
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World's most beautiful tweet: modesty #fail
In a poor attempt to get more publicity for the Hay Festival (think Radio 4, but even more middle class, snobby and elitist), Stephen Fry has announced "the most beautiful tweet". The writer of said tweet, on being honoured, was a classic Twitter #fail: [Winner Marc MacKenzie] said he started tweeting because people kept telling him they enjoyed reading his Facebook updates. "What I like about it is how my brain works. Occasionally I have...
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Radio 4 and the social model of disability
It was disappointing to hear on last Friday night's 7pm news bulletin on Radio 4 someone described as "severely handicapped". The term used should have been "severely disabled". I am by no means the PC police and I recognise an institution like the BBC (and particularly Radio 4) probably doesn't want another ticking off by anybody about its use of language. But in this case (and you knew there was a 'but' coming), what flows...
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Leaky Bercow
As Speaker in his first Prime Minister's Question Time, John Bercow made a 3-point statement, the first of which points was that: Ministers make key policy statements to the house [of commons] before releasing them to the media. On this, he manifestly failed, as the leak of a draft of the Queen's Speech to the Sunday newspapers yesterday attests. The question is: what is he going to do about it?...
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Right person, wrong subject no.10: Simon Cowell
Ah, the best has been saved until last. Here's Simon Cowell offering his perspective on the general election. But before he gets going, he offers this: I have always hated celebrities lecturing people on politics. So forgive me. But I am passionate about this country. That's a nice start. He's obviously been following my "right person, wrong subject" series. The Sun picks up the story: Cowell describes Labour's Gordon Brown as a "sincere man" but...
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Slate's "Scenes from the British election"
I'm looking forward to the behind-the-scenes articles and documentaries that will be available after the election. What self-respecting political geek isn't? In the meantime, Slate gives an interesting perspective on the General Election from across the Atlantic. Their 5 dispatches are here: Why does Glenda Jackson sound so defensive? Gordon Brown's class Kinsley gaffe Selling snake oil at the farmers market Nick Clegg's charm wears thin Why is Rory Stewart campaigning in England's far north?...
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Jon Stewart on #bigotgate
Just for posterity, and in the absence of a video I can embed here, I'm noting the link of Jon Stewart being brilliantly funny about #bigotgate and the General Election as a whole here. In the very unlikely circumstance that you haven't already seen it, it's probably the best 7 minutes of video you'll see during the election. (A close runner for second best video is this one by Oliver Burkeman for the Guardian.)...
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Welcoming the BNP's platform
I'm a near-absolutist on free speech (like Oliver Kamm, who notes the exceptions). In and of itself, this is the right position. But it's also a sensible position because, for those people who say unsavoury things, they so often show themselves to be idiots and not worthy of the hoo-ha they often generate. More seriously, they also inevitably reveal (in the cases where they're trying to hide it) the nature of their values and beliefs....
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Debating the debate: responding to my fisking
The 3 leaders' debates have been and gone. Stef gave me a good fisking after the first debate, based on a post I wrote a few weeks ago. Now taking the long view, I thought I'd respond to each of his points. Note: my original points in italics; Stef's argument in italics below. 1. Debating points and issues in the debates won't really be the aim. Instead, it will be used as an opportunity to...
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Tonight's leaders' debate: probably rubbish
The first of the #GE10 leaders' debates - indeed, the first ever leaders' debate - is taking place tonight at 8.30pm on ITV1. I'll be watching. Of course I will. But the debate tonight, as with the next two, will be pointless and hardly worth the time and effort placed on them. I've outlined 9 substantive points as to why this will be the case. I've suggested that the content of the debates being worthless...
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Mapping the election maps - an observation
There's some very nice work by the various newspaper websites to cover the election results in each constituency. I've mapped the maps here. It says a lot that only Sky decided to put a description of how the expenses scandal affected each MP in their description of each constituency on said maps, don't you think?...
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Mapping the election maps
The vast amount of coverage, fact, opinion and general splurge that newspapers will publish on their websites will be superfluous at best. But one very useful tool that each has invested some considerable time in is their election mapping graphics. Below are the ones I've found so far, and I'll add to the list as I find them. — The Times: Election'10 — Sky: General Election 2010 — Guardian: election map and swingometer — The...
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Leaders' debates and the media cabal
I don't hold the upcoming leaders' debates in very high regard. At best I think they'll be a boring and stale debate in which the leaders rehearse focus-group tested lines irrespective of the questions they're asked; at worst, I think they'll be a turgid slanging match in which the 3 leaders trade insults and draw dividing lines, the results of which will be to turn the public off voting at all. But, aside from the...
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What Cameron's gay rights gaffe means
There was, rightly, a good deal of coverage of David Cameron's floundering during an interview with the Gay Times. The video below includes the key parts, if you didn't see it first time around: In a thoughtful post on the topic, Paul Sagar at Liberal Conspiracy notes: What’s especially significant here is both that the story is being widely covered, and that Cameron is being widely criticised. Not just for his indecision, but also for...
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Interview with a blogging Chief Executive, by @davebriggs
A great interview from @davebriggs with the blogging Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire County Council, Mark Lloyd:...
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A lonely tweeter at a conference
It's an unusual experience being the only person tweeting at an event or conference. At an event a few days ago (launching the Right to Control) I was probably the only person who everyone else thought was being rude by spending a lot of my time playing on my phone - the 'playing', of course, being me tweeting, along with an associated hashtag (#RighttoControl). The irony here is that being the lonely tweeter at a...
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"No budget to spend"
Where to start with this?: A website manager employed by Portsmouth City Council left after just six months on the job because he was frustrated at a lack of funding. The council spent around £25,000 recruiting and paying the unnamed employee to transform their website, but when he discovered he had no budget to spend on the service he quit. (via Carl Haggerty)...
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HMIC's My Police fiasco
Today's activity from Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabularies (HMIC) and its huge error around their planned launched of "My Police" is another example of the poor exercise of statutory agency power (on the back of the recent BBC example). To recap: HMIC is planning to launch an initiative called "My Police". The only problem being that the excellent @MyPolice already exists and works very effectively. When I first heard the news I honestly assumed that...
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The BBC as a portent
An excellent post from Chris Dillow: The BBC’s proposal to cut 6Music and the Asian Network is, I fear, a portent of coming cuts in government spending - because it shows that when a top-down organization makes cuts, it does so on the basis of power, not efficiency....
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News of the World laments innuendo and exaggeration
It's good to see the News of the World has a highly-developed sense of irony and humour. Responding to a parliamentary report into the phone hacking allegations, the News of the World said: In all this time, the committee has failed to come up with any new evidence to support the Guardian's allegations. Sadly, this has not stopped certain members of the committee from resorting to innuendo, unwarranted inference and exaggeration. Moreover, the reaction of...
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Fucking Newsnight
You could almost feel the disdain with which Jeremy Paxman made his apology for 'swearing' during last night’s Newsnight. For one thing, he was reading directly from a book rather than, say, offering his own analysis on a minister's veracity. For another, does the BBC honestly think that the people who watch Newsnight can't cope with the odd swearword every now and again? I'm afraid I can't resist saying it's fucking ridiculous. (We have more...
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Guardian's crowdsourcing
I did enjoy @wrighty's tweet today: Next up, the Guardian are going to crowd-source where I left my keys. Jesus. This in response to the Gruad's article attempting to crowdsource the spec for the iTablet. He's quite right to point out how lazy the Guardian is being. And, speaking of laziness, there must be better examples of crowdsourcing than the one that gets rolled out every time: 1906, weight of a bullock, Wisdom of Crowds...
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Blair's financial arrangements; Guardian's tax hypocrisy
There's fair game, and then there's ridiculous and pointless personal animosity. Why the Guardian is launching a competition (!) to get to the bottom of the ex-Prime Minister's finances is beyond me, though distasteful and ridiculous. What makes it worse is the Guardian's hypocrisy when it comes to tax issues. As Guido Fawkes noted: Guardian Media Group made £306.4 million before tax [in 2007/08]. Using astute tax planning and legal manipulation of the tax laws;...
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Thanks, time, people
Being the 3 words I use most in my tweets (over the last 3 months). (Hilariously, my co-contributor, @Stef_W, uses the words "time", "nice" and "fuck" the most.) See also my Twitter Friends stats....
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#dontbuythesun: elitists not engaging
At one point on Saturday, the hashtag #dontbuythesun was trending very high indeed. I understand that it was started by supporters of Liverpool Football Club (the team I support), highlighting the disgraceful coverage of the Hillsborough Disaster by the Sun, to coincide with the paper's 40th anniversary. The hashtag soon became appropriated, however, for numerous purposes, primarily for people to bash Rupert Murdoch or for Labour supporters to bash the Sun's support of the Conservatives...
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Back to the love affair with delicious
For a very long time (nearly a year) I didn't save one bookmark to delicious, mainly as the result of a combination of factors — more use of Google Reader, my iPhone, more Twitter, a lack of practical integration between these things and delicious, plus an uncooperative work computer. But I'm pleased to say I've started again. Thus, all pages I bookmark on delicious, plus any additional comments or extracts, will appear in the column...
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Trafigura's legal costs: who paid?
The Trafigura-Carter Ruck-Guardian story has rightfully been reported as a success for free speech and the power of the internet. How it all unfolded is reported here and what it was all about is reported here. Now that the success has been achieved everyone will move on to the next news cycle. Without wishing to be churlish about it, I wanted to make two observations as follows: 1. There was no way Trafigura or Carter...
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Sympathy for bankers
While I'm on the topic of banking, here is some sympathy for a sacked banker, provided by that great defender of bankers: the, erm, Daily Mail: [J]obless bank worker 'ineligible for help' because he lives in a nice middle-class house Editors at the Mail must have a hierarchy of types of stories that cause outrage amongst their readers, at the top of which must be "potential danger for the middle class", which trumps everything. If...
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Local news threats
I hope you don't think council magazines are threatening the future of local newspapers? I only say this because: Claims that council magazines have been threatening the future of local newspapers are unfounded, according to new research published today. And why's that? It's because: A comprehensive survey by the Local Government Association has found that the majority of council publications are distributed on an infrequent basis and are produced to inform residents about services. That...
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Guardian front-page nonsense
Two bits of crap on the front page of the Guardian today: 1 — Pupils to study Twitter and blogs in primary schools shake-up. Never have I heard such zeitgeist rubbish. Most primary school teachers haven't even heard of Twitter or blogs (they don't event have time to email), let alone be able to teach about them. If anything, it would be the pupils teaching the teachers about such things, if it ever happened. Ludicrous...
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Nick Cohen: the middle-class don't fear the poor
And he's right: That we are living through chaos unleashed by the wealthiest on all beneath them strikes me as one of those points that are so obvious I wonder about the need to type it out. But it is not obvious to the Conservative politicians and newspapers who presume to speak for middle England. They argue that equality, not inequality, is the real danger. Specifically, they accuse Harriet Harman of "declaring war on the...
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Ambush marketing
Small companies hoping to cash in on the London Olympics are being warned they face a 'time bomb' in the run-up to the 2012 Games because so few of them understand the advertising perils surrounding the event. That's from an article in the Observer highlighting how particular words and combinations of words will not be allowed unless they are used by official sponsors of the London 2012 Olympics. I've written about this topic before and...
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And a side order of swearing, please
We're no strangers to swearing here at arbitrary constant, though it is my esteemed colleague Stef who generally leads the way in that department (see here). Stef, then, will be pleased to see the latest offering from Giles Coren, a restaurant critic whose email missives have been made public on numerous occasions and which have always caused a wry fuss. Here's a taster: This is someone thinking "I'll just remove this indefinite article because Coren...
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The reality of Obama
After the round-up of Obama-related news, here's the money quote, from John Rentoul: There was a moment last month – it was when Susan Sarandon, the actress, said she might emigrate to Italy or Canada if McCain won – when it seemed essential to the sanity of America that Obama should lose. But, no, it is more important that the daydream should be broken. The idea that there is some kind of clean, different, painless,...
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Oprah Winfrey: confused
When I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates[.] That's Oprah Winfrey, somehow thinking that she is justifying the reason why she's not going to have Sarah Palin on her chat show. What she probably meant to say is: "Now that I've come out in favour of Obama, I'm...
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Quotation of the week
There is a fundamental economic illiteracy about British politics that contradicts the idea that Lady Thatcher brought about a revolution in attitudes in this country. Profit is still too often a dirty word. Just as it is still almost universally expected of politicians that they should provide "affordable housing". Yet when the market suddenly provides lower house prices, the cry goes up for politicians to make housing less affordable again. — John Rentoul, as picked...
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If you like it so much, why don't you go and live there?
I think I may have found the best website on the internet: spEak You’re bRanes. It is: [a] collection of ignorance, narcissism, stupidity, hypocrisy and bad grammar. All the comments quoted were found on the BBC "Have Your Say" site. Yes, people really have written them. On purpose as far as I can tell. On many occasions I've highlighted the contribution made by Have Your Say to popular debate (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and...
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"That's what I've got"
"A bum-legged old man and a drunk... that all you got?" "That's what I've got." This line from Rio Bravo (reviewed here) came to mind when watching 24 hours in the life of Today. Radio 4's flagship news programme routinely annoys the hell out of me; every morning, without fail, my wife shouts at John Humphrys and his sanctimonious interviewing style. But it is the best thing we've got in terms of in-depth news analysis...
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The Economist on Gordon Brown
The perceptive leader in this week's Economist, on Gordon Brown (via the Spectator blog): Britain is not being overtly misgoverned, and nobody else in Labour is promising anything radically different. And Mr Brown may yet improve. To do so, he needs to articulate his basic political creed — essentially a meritocracy leavened with egalitarianism — better than he has managed to do so far. And, from [the Economist's] point of view, he needs to commit...
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Evan Davis on Today
It's not as easy as it looks. That's Evan Davis, after his first week as a presenter on the Today programme. Not wishing to be churlish [we'll leave that to John Humphrys — ed, chortling], someone should explain to Evan that being on the radio doesn't look like anything....
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The Sun on human rights
Having praised the Sun on child poverty, it's only right that same newspaper should be damned for its general coverage of human rights. For example: — 100,000 Sun readers voted to re-introduce the death penalty — 35,000 readers vote to scrap the Human Rights Act Both of the above are good reasons, if good reasons were needed, to support the Equality and Human Rights Commission's announcement that it will hold an inquiry into the Human...
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She did not have sex with that man
Not having sex seems to be the thing lately [not even lately... remember Bill Clinton? — ed]. In yesterday's Observer, there was an article highlighting how Ashley Cole had paid women to sign declarations that they didn't have sex with him. The two examples cited were: Blonde romper Brooke Healy from Edinburgh tells the Sunday Mirror she was paid £6,300 in cash for signing a declaration saying: 'I did not sleep with Ashley Cole and...
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Advertorial approaches
Reader, arbitrary constant is no fan of television. As a medium for conveying entertainment that requires little-to-no engagement from those wishing to be entertained, requesting as it does only passive acknowledgement of its contents, and yet maintaining an often central position within most people's living arrangements, arbitrary constant has learnt to be sceptical of the pre-eminence of television within, though not exclusively contained by, western culture. Notwithstanding this, or even isagainstsitting it, television has its...
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Prospect update
This month's Prospect magazine is an especially good one. Here are some personal highlights (some links require a subscription): — Better bequests. Making the case for inheritance tax... but by having it skip a generation. — Masters of disgrace. Looking at the similarities of Philip Roth and, one of my favourite authors, J.M. Coetzee. — How we "count" migration. Fantastic article on the inexact science that is figuring out the numbers of who comes in...
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"Taxing the naturally successful"
I was just thinking. Can I claim sex discrimination against a company, because I don't get maternity pay because I'm a male. No? This doesn't sound any different to saying that a woman can claim discrimination because she's more junior than the men because of time she took off for children. Why don't we just admit that almost noone [sic] these days is racist or sexist, and admit that the combined equality organisation is just...
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Quotation of the week
What you see is what you get. — Louise Lear, BBC weather person, with probably the most useless weather forecast I have ever heard. In other news, everything you see on the television isn't real. Oh, hang on — I don't think everyone had realised that. Perhaps we do need more information from the BBC's Department of Trivial Fact, Masquerading as News (and Occasionally the Weather)....
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Trust in the media
In his speech, Jeremy Paxman discusses trust in the television media. Somehow, in the discussion around trust, newspapers have managed to be missed out — perhaps it is because everyone knows newspapers have nothing in the way of real accountability and they aren't bound by the need for any sort of consistency, be it moral or not. I was actually rendered angry by a letter and a correction in this week's Observer. The first concerns...
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Stealing the internet
There was an amusing story in the newspaper this week: a man was arrested for using someone's unsecured internet connection whilst sitting on their garden wall. This reminds me of a story of a friend (and I mean an actual friend, as opposed to a 'friend' who is actually me, in case there are any pcsos around... As my friend tells it, he was living in rented accommodation and, before setting up his own internet...
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Quotation of the week
The "quotation of the week" has lapsed on arbitrary constant. This post aims to re-introduce it with the following long quotation from Raymond Chandler's The Long Good-bye: There's a peculiar thing about money[.] In large quantities it tends to have a life of its own, even a conscience of its own. The power of money becomes very difficult to control. Man has always been a venal animal. The growth of populations, the huge costs of...
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Conflated thinking (updated)
Would you be saying this, Mr Blair, if we supported your war in Iraq? That's the headline of yesterday's Independent, after Tony Blair singled out the newspaper for the way in which opinion and fact are mingled in its reporting and in the reportage of the media as a whole. What's ironic about the editor of the Indie's response is that, in making his argument, he shows some evidence of exactly the criticisms Tony Blair...
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Quick media
Whilst on the subject of the Cutty Sark, I eventually got out of bed, did the usual routine and made my way to work safe in the knowledge that what would await me on the bbc would include, at the very least: (1) a report of the fire; (2) some photographs — mainly amateur, but with a few professional shots; (3) some video footage (most likely amateur and, in that most likely case, caught on...
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As if in a dream
I am not in the habit of waking up at 06:00, for I am not a "morning person". This particular morning, however, saw me awake at that hour, though for a minute I wasn't quite sure if I was awake or not. For listening to the Today programme on Radio 4, I was first greeted with the news of the Cutty Sark being on fire, and then treated to some fine financial considerations by a...
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J curve?
As highlighted in a recent issue of Prospect magazine, and noted in passing by me, everyone is going on about this "J-curve" book that a chap called Ian Bremmer has written. In it, Bremmer argues that you lose stability in the first place but then gain openness in time when a state moves from closed to open (such as Iraq, say, is doing).The point being: isn't this just another way of saying that things get...
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Ban the freesheets
I was pleased to see Stef argue, in the del.icio.us links column to the right, for the banning of freesheet newspapers in London, on the back of a Council's decision to do the same. Stef's exact words were: Shame it is for the waste that it causes on the ground as opposed to the mushing of the mind it causes. I agree with the latter but not with the former: even though I'm not much...
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Guess who
Which organisation might the following contributors to the bbc's Have Your Say (yes, I know) be describing? [It] is far to [sic] pro-government and unaccountable to the people who pay [for it] - the public. It does not allow anywhere near a level playing field politically. [It] is biased and a complete and utter puppet for the Blair government, choosing to opt out of anything controversial. [It is] too liberal and always jumping on the...
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Right person, wrong subject no. 4: Richard Branson
Typical: you wait months for the next instalment in this feature, and two come along at once! Today's expert speaking in a field totally unrelated to their field of expertise is Richard Branson. The entrepreneur is annoyed that a takeover bid he was looking to orchestrate is being scuppered by Rupert Murdoch; which leads him to comment on, erm, the state of and prospects for the UK's democracy: The Government’s job is to stop too...
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Bias at the BBC?
I'm no fan of the British Broadcasting Corporation (bbc), and neither am I a conspiracy theorist about its political leanings. I have detected, however, on previous occasions — like others — a noticable bias in its coverage of particular events. Which is what makes this response to accusations of bias from the Director of News at the BBC, Helen Boaden, interesting. Both Andrew Marr and Jeff Randall have made comments about the bbc being biased,...
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On mathematics journalism revisited
Some time ago, news was delivered on progress made in two of the seven million-dollar questions posed by the Clay Institute: the Riemann hypothesis and the Poincaré conjecture — the second of which looks like it has now been solved. The coverage of the news at that time unfortunately proves the points I have made over the last two posts (here and here), and it is worth seeing why that is the case. It shouldn't...
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On mathematics journalism
A topologist is one who doesn't know the difference between a doughnut and a coffee cup. — John Kelley The recent news concerning Grigory Perelman, the aloof Russian mathematician who has solved the Poincaré conjecture but turned down both the Fields Medal [1] and the Clay Institute's $1m dollar prize, has put mathematics on the front pages. It is certainly an interesting story and one, given the mathematical significance of the Poincaré conjecture, which deserves...
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Radical syllogisms
A syllogism is defined as a formal deductive argument made up of a major premise, a minor premise and a conclusion which follows the two. For example: All men are mortal [the major premise] and Socrates is a man [minor premise]. Therefore Socrates is mortal [the conclusion]. Common mistakes can occur with syllogisms — mistakes that are created by introducing indefinite or arguable terms ("some", "should" etc.). For example: Some cats are black [major] and...
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President in swearing shock
No stranger to mangling his words, George W. Bush shocked the world yesterday by making a statement many thought was to the point and without obfuscation: The irony is, what they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over. When asked why he thought it necessary to swear, Mr Bush probably would have replied: "Hey, I'm not the only one"....
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Quotation of the week
The letters page of The Sun isn't normally a cause for celebration. However, today's "txt" of one Andy Kerr of Essex to this most cherished of British newspapers surprised me with its style, wit and insight:The Church [sic] wants us to take The Da Vinci Code with a pinch of salt. That's just how I take the Bible.What a magnificent sentiment — and all in less than 180 characters!...
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Comment is free
A bit late with this one, but I wanted to note the launch of the Guardian's Comment is Free blog. Aesthetically, the design of the site is great. It's a bit hard to navigate around, though, and that great big image in the middle of the page — which differentiates the editors' picks from the rest of the blog — is not very intuitive. I'd have expected to see it either on the left or...
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Fusty and outdated
Following a busy and long weekend of work, arbitrary constant returns to discover that "wigs may be trimmed from judges' and barristers' kit" because their headgear is seen as creating a fusty and outdated image. The cause for concern extends well beyond that of tradition, though:Many judges who preside over criminal trials want to keep wigs, arguing they stop criminals recognising them at supermarket checkouts. Which is an excellent way of thinking about things, is...
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Wembley Stadium will be late
It was finally admitted today that Wembley won't be finished in time for the FA Cup final in May. That's disappointing, but nothing to get much worked up over. I mean, these things happen and it's not related — in any way — to how the Olympic site will be built. Actually, it's probably more to do with the British, as Jon Snow pointed out in his Channel 4 Newsletter as follows:Boy do the Brits...
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What crisis?
Private Eye isn't the sort of publication to let anyone off the hook. And it's not known for letting something drop, either, which is especially great news if you've been following the difficulties of the Liberal Democrats of the last couple of weeks. Here's a couple of satirical headlines from the Eye this week:'YES, I'M LIB DEM' Admits Gap MP LIB DEM IN THREE-IN-A-PARTY SHOCKTwo further articles deserve more than one line, though:Letters to the...
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Lucky hucker
Spotted in last week's Rise supplement in the Guardian:Will my passion for ultimate frisbee look good on my CV? I'm in my second year and my free time at university so far has been spent socialising and playing ultimate frisbee. Will that sound OK on application forms or should I start doing something more impressive?Far be it for me to start handing out careers advise on arbitrary constant. What I would say, however, is that...
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Star sigh
Offered with no comment, here is a recent letter from that poor excuse for a newspaper, the Metro:For the past few weeks, my horoscope (Taurus) has predicted nothing but doom and gloom. Seeing as these things are complete fiction anyway, could your astrologer not 'predict' something positive for a change? — M Haynes, London EC1....
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Because they're worth it
The letters page of the Metro always cheers me up of a morning. Why? Let's look at a prime example from today's "newspaper" to see:So Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry is "staggered" that his manager and players were not honoured by the Queen for their Champions League success. Is he mad? They're footballers, for heaven's sake. Have they risked their lives, as our Armed forces do in conflict every day? Do they nurse or police?...
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Roy Carroll's own goal
Plenty of news concerning Roy Carroll's serious clanger for Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur two nights ago. It's all very well talking about introducing a "fifth" official and instantaneous camera evidence &c. into the game, though all that would do is confirm players' dishonesty or otherwise. I'm well aware this is as likely as the Gerry Adams having a shave, but wouldn't it have been nice if Roy Carroll admitted his error - in the...
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Him indoors
I enjoy Simon Carr in the Independent on Sunday review every week as I enjoy his sketch every weekday during parliament. The her outdoors/him indoors feature was moved to the end of the section during the Sindy's redesign a few weeks ago and sits better there I think. It has taken the place of the lost world of Michael Bywater, which is now the opener for the review and much better placed for it. Anyway,...
