- ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD, OR, LIVE 8 FOR GEEKS; I'M BACK (FOR REAL THIS TIME)
Perhaps it would be a stretch to call the One Laptop per Child project "dangerous". But one thing it is, is a badly overrated idea. We can take off "ly" and "overrated", and it would still be just as true.
- HERO
HERO. NO REALLY:
- RUSS NELSON ON THE SOMALI SHILLING
A fascinating into the Somali shilling by Russ Nelson.
- OH NO, THE YOBS ARE COMING! BINGE DRINKING! AND ASSOCIATED THOUGHTS
The Newspaper Of Perpetual Outrage reports that Europeans and old British fogeys think we're the "yob capital". Some thoughts.
- IT'S FOR THE CHILDREN (TM)
I'm not one to advocate violently and very publically lynching members of the "over-zealous health lobby", but...:
- YOUR MONEY AT WORK
- From a sub-credible paper: JAIL bosses are rebuilding toilets so Muslim inmates don’t have to use them while facing Mecca. Thousands of pounds of taxpayers money are being spent to ensure lags are not offended. I'm glad there are no...
- DON'T PANIC, WE'RE NOT GOING TO DIE
- From the Daily Mail (never a paper to miss a good old fashioned panic): School closures may be necessary in areas affected by bird flu to prevent the deaths of 50,000 children from the disease, the chief medical officer has...
- IMMIGRATION, ETC
A little sanity on the immigration debate (if using "debate" in reference to what is mostly stupid people saying stupid things and ignoring the very few people that talk sense is not an abuse of the word) currently going on, on the other side of the Giant Pond.
- IN DEFENSE OF GOOGLE
Thoughts on the recent flap over Google's recent censorship of search results on its Chinese-orientated search engine:
- WE STILL DON'T GET IT
The train driver union Aslef has suggested that armed marshalls be placed on tube trains. Some observations.
- MAKING POVERTY HISTORY, OR JUST MAKING POVERTY? PART II; LIVE 8; ALSO; YAY
- To believe that any government, if given more money, would spend it in the most enlightened way possible to the benefits of its own citizens, is more than a little naive. One that believes that despotic third world dictatorships would...
- MAKING POVERTY HISTORY, OR JUST MAKING POVERTY? PART I; ARGH
Few things are as dangerous as the crusades of the good intentioned and clueless. None make this more obvious than the Make Poverty History campaign.
- 'TWAS NOT THE TIME TO BE MERRY; 48-HOUR WEEK
- As far as my writing goes, the just-departed election season was probably the most depressing one for me. I was, and am, uncomfortable with the fact that I was utterly indifferent to the outcome of something as important as an...
- VOTE "NONE OF THE ABOVE"; THE ONE COMMANDMENT; QUOTE; SCANNER!
I have tried to refrain from commenting too much during the disgusting hand-out contest that is this election season. Partly because after a while it just gets depressing, but also because I hesitate to be a wellspring of negativity while not arguing voting for any party. Yet, though none of the parties are fit to run the country, I am also reluctant to actively advocate staying at home. This is why I will be voting "none of the above" on the fifth, and I suggest you do too.
- THE DEMISE OF RURAL BUSINESS (OR, "OH WELL, NEVER MIND")
For the self-appointed "countryside lobby", the only thing that is nearly as fun as whining for subsidies and tariffs, is whining about the demise of small rural businesses such as pubs and sops -- presumably with an eye to what the government should be doing about it. What, then, should the government be doing about it?
- THE WEEK IN REVIEW
- So this is the first part of what I think will be a regular series of random links and thoughts on the last week's events. I'll start with the cheery news that the end of the world is nigh. No,...
- THE MORE THE MERRIER PART II: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE POPULATION BOMB
In certain political circles west of my own, it is received wisdom that overpopulation is a problem, wisdom that one must be a fool (or worse, a conservative) to doubt. Yet it is difficult to recall a concept about which so many people have been wrong -- and with such dire consequences.
- THE MORE THE MERRIER PART I: OPEN UP THE BORDER
If one thing alone irks me about Britain's right (including otherwise sane folk like UKIP), it would be the near-universal hostility to immigration.
- THE MICROSOFT "MONOPOLY"?
What does it mean to call Microsoft a monopoly? The term is thrown around unthinkingly by many people in the free software community. Yet it's worth asking exactly what Microsoft have a monopoly on.
- SUPPORT OUR NON-FARMERS
Elections are nigh, and it follows as surely as night does day that the likes of the National Farmers' Union will be urging politicians to "support our farmers" in exchange for union votes. Of course, people (including politicians) should be free to support British farming -- or Bangladeshi farming, if they so choose -- with their own money. But any non-farmer should object to what "supporting our farmers" means in the political sphere: subsidies and trade barriers. Or, put differently, taking your money and telling you what to do.
- SOCIALISM (OR, "YOU'RE FAT? TOO BAD!")
For someone like me, who does not think phrases like "it's your own stupid fault" and "sorry, but that's not my problem" are anachronisms, it is almost painful, and certainly disheartening, to follow debates on public policy, especially in an election season.
- THE 2005 BUDGET, AS BAD SCREENPLAY
- Maybe I'll write a serious and thoughtful analysis of Brown's budget tonight. But bad screenplay versions of my thoughts are so much funnier, not to mention easier to write. Brown: So the budget for 2005 is as... Pensioners: Wah wah...
- IS EXTENDING MATERNITY LEAVE A GOOD IDEA?
If the government passed a law tomorrow that mandated that anyone hiring a black person must enter a lottery in which there was a significant risk of having to give the new employee a bonus worth nine months of wages, most people would probably smell a conspiracy against blacks. Yet, when the government imposes policies with identical incentives to hire women of a certain age, there are few dissenting voices.
- THE LIB-DEM DANGER (OR, RICH PEOPLE GOOD, OLD PEOPLE BAD)
Last week the Liberal Democrats unveiled their "alternative budget", in the process showing why they should never be elected to power -- and why they will grow at the polls in the next few years.
Come now, and let us reason together: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. -- God (Isaiah 1:18)