February 2009
5 posts
Why Americans love peanut butter →
You heart goes out to them, it really does... →
Mapping CCTV's blind spots →
January 2009
5 posts
Lovely design #2 →
Lovely design #1 →
Nice one Sainsbury's - this is how it should be →
December 2008
3 posts
5 tags
Top Ten? Schmtop Schmten more like. →
Richard Herring takes exception to the Smile.co.uk top and bottom 10 comedian lists (Smile is a bank, who are probably looking for something to be cheerful about in “these troubled times (tm)”).
I too think the list is mostly balls. The 10 least favorite include some of my favorite comedians: Ricky Gervais, Jimmy Carr, Paul Merton, Harry Hill, Jo Band… hold on SPIKE MILLIGAN!...
November 2008
19 posts
News no longer breaks -- it Tweets →
Excellent point from Paul Saffo on the importance of Twitter in spreading news on the Mumbai horrors.
The Half I'm Not Your Father, and other, lesser... →
Lady mags at the Women's Libary
My first visit to the Women’s Library in East London today, and I’m sold.
The event was a ‘study day’ based on their current (excellent) exhibit, “Between the Covers: Women’s Magazines and their Readers”.
As a long-time hater of most (all?) women’s magazines, it was interesting to see how many card-carrying feminists had secret fondness for even...
“—Any fingerprints we leave must be erased by the monkeys.”
– Shouts & Murmurs: The Plan:
IT’S FOOL PROOF I TELLS YA!
SUPER OBAMA WORLD →
Rich kid, poor kid
Channel 4 just showed an excellent documentary focusing on two girls from Stockwell - Natalie, living on benefits in a council estate with her mum (depression) and brother (speaking difficulties), and Alice, living down the road in a six bedroom house with a family that look like horses and goes to a private school.
Alice spends much of the programme as a totally loathesome character - producing...
3 tags
In case of catastrophic elevation in sea levels,... →
This is insane. Far sighted and smart, but still insane. The government of the Maldives is going to start saving a portion of its tourist income in order to buy a new homeland for its people, should the island chain become uninhabitable due to global warming (most of the Maldives are only about 1.5 metres above sea level).
Norwegian rocket to investigate northern lights →
Professor Jøran Moen from the University of Oslo will fire a rocket from Svalbard to cut through the aurora borealis at an altitude of 350km. The rocket will measure electric fields and waves of the northern lights, particles of low and high energy in these lights, and fine structures in the electronic clouds. No armoured bears are involved in the research.
3 tags
Nice green spaces help reduce health inequalities. →
We like the outdoors here at Scratchings HQ. It does good things in your brain. This study shows that parks and commons help reduce the disparity in the heath of the richest and poorest in our society. Hurray for greenery!
Dance your PhD →
Film yourself conveying your thesis through dance, post it on YouTube, and tell the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s GonzoLabs about it, and you could have the chance to have your research interpreted by a professional choreographer and shown at next year’s AAAS Annual Meeting. This can only be a good thing.
2008 Presidential Election Interactive Map and... →
10 tags
Late at the Library
On Friday last (Halloween no less) we went up to St. Pancras in London’s glittering, erm, north-of-the-middle-end for the opening event of the Taking Liberties exhibition and season at the British Library. We didn’t actually manage to get around the exhibition, but seeing the BL entry lobby being used as a live music venue was much fun.
The eveing was compared by poet Lemn Sissay,...
Blogging is dead, long live blogging →
Paul Boutin at Wired claims that blogging is like, so 2004, and that anyone who’s anyone (or at least Jason Calacanis) is now concentrating on shaping their multimedia online persona via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube etc.
I don’t think Paul’s got the whole story. People don’t just blog to show off, essentially as a live CV or a way to validate their points of view....
October 2008
20 posts
Personal privacy for da kidz →
Cory Doctorow in the Guardian on how those scared about children’s safety and lack of anonymity online are the same people who are utterly careless about their own personal privacy.
On a related note, the British Library is starting a season on rights and freedoms tonight.
Responses to BBC ego meltdown →
Cameron Neylon makes an interesting comparison of the Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross/unnamed editor debacle and scientific misconduct.
Another refreshing take on the story that’s dominating the headlines in the UK is from Paul Carr at Bringing Nothing to the Party.
Would this story have exploded like it has if the UK wasn’t so sick to death of non-stop credit crunch and US election...
Whichbook →
3 tags
Why does no one use the t-word? →
If only there was a term that allowed me to describe people who plot to commit acts of violence and terror based on an extreme ideology, much as this pair of fuckwits did.
How about terrorism? Yeah, that sounds right. And yet these window lickers are described as neo-nazis, far right extremists and skinhead, but never as terrorist. Why?
It really makes no sense. It seems to be a torrorist in the...
The right kind of criticism →
Christopher Hitchens in Slate on Sarah Palin’s anti-science stance
Liquid Smoking drink 'will recreate cigarette... →
Unbelievable.
"VPILF"? Please, let's get over it... →
Well said, Kira Cochrane - some of the first public criticism I’ve seen for the way Sarah Palin has been treated in the media. That the feminist community seems not to know what to think about her can’t help. Palin may be terrible in many ways, but the focus on the fuckability of the VP candidate is frankly, beyond the pale. I’m interested to know whether this happened with...
3 tags
“The cat enters on the left, disguised as a mouse. He is wearing a blond wig, a...”
– Tom and Jerry as prose
Via dailymeh
'Eat your zipcode' →
New US networking site for those who like to cook what they grow
Wikimedia Cookbook →
Wikis and cookery are surely meant for each other.
Atheist bus update
This has really got the non-believers reaching for their pockets - Wednesday evening and over £76,000 donated. Not bad for a target of £5.5k. Dawkins must be breathing a sigh of relief that he didn’t promise to match the whole lot.
Donations here: http://www.justgiving.com/atheistbus
Dolphin-friendly coffee →
Jacob Leibenluft at Slate on fair-trade vs environmental friendliness