Blogfeed enema

I'm having a radical and ruthless clear out of my RSS newsfeeds. There are so many that just have to go. If they don't bore me rigid they irritate the fuck out of me and I find myself wondering what the hell I'm doing reading these moron's long-winded fourth-rate political rants.

I would avoid most of the people I'm referring to like the plague in real life. Pub bores, barrack-room lawyers, know-alls, armchair generals, sad losers without proper jobs who haven't been laid in years - you know the type.  But give 'em a Blogger template and a catchy name and suddenly they become 'incredibly interesting'. Well not to me they don't and life is too damn short to waste my time reading their drivel any longer.

I pruned my reader a little while back but I've still got well over 600 feeds. This time I'm going to limit myself to 100 blogs and 100 mainstream sites. I'll still end up reading more through following links but at least they won't be clogging up my NetNewsWire.

Ah, I'm feeling better already.

UPDATE: An interesting observation. The vast majority of the blogs I'm dumping are hosted on Blogspot.

The Pink Vote

Iain Dale's Diary: Telegraph Column: Why I Oppose Gay Hatred Laws

One issue about to confront Mr Cameron is the proposed gay hatred laws. I understand there are bitter divisions within the shadow cabinet. Some believe the party should oppose the proposals lock, stock and barrel, as similar measures were opposed on religious and racial hatred. Others argue this would be political suicide for the Tories, who would then automatically forgo the support of the gay community.

This is why Gordon Brown wants to add these amendments to the Crime and Immigration Bill. He wants to put the Tories on the spot and make political hay out of any splits. Shamefully, he is quite willing to use the ''gay" issue to do it.

No Photoshopping

Bekijk Matching Album Covers

New images from old made by placing album covers together



Via B3TA

Criminal profiling made easy.

The New Yorker: Dangerous Minds

We are now so familiar with crime stories told through the eyes of the profiler that it is easy to lose sight of how audacious the genre is. The traditional detective story begins with the body and centers on the detective’s search for the culprit. Leads are pursued. A net is cast, widening to encompass a bewilderingly diverse pool of suspects: the butler, the spurned lover, the embittered nephew, the shadowy European. That’s a Whodunit. In the profiling genre, the net is narrowed. The crime scene doesn’t initiate our search for the killer. It defines the killer for us. The profiler sifts through the case materials, looks off into the distance, and knows.

“Generally, a psychiatrist can study a man and make a few reasonable predictions about what the man may do in the future—how he will react to such-and-such a stimulus, how he will behave in such-and-such a situation,” Brussel writes. “What I have done is reverse the terms of the prophecy. By studying a man’s deeds, I have deduced what kind of man he might be.” Look for a middle-aged Slav in a double-breasted suit. Profiling stories aren’t Whodunits; they’re Hedunits.

Big deal

From surfers to tea fans, Britain's blogging army is now 4m strong

Total number of UK bloggers 4,000,000

Estimated number of voters participating in The 2007 Weblog Awards for the Best UK Blog 2,000

(there were 3,625 4,249 votes cast but as each voter had the chance to cast up to seven votes the actual number of individuals possibly casting votes ranges from a minimum of 518 607 to a maximum of 3,625 4,249)

It's not as if they were seal cubs or anything...

Finnish school shooting: self-loathing goes global | spiked

Online, Auvinen (the 18 year old killer) went by the name Sturmgeist89. In the various YouTube videos and the 1,000-word manifesto that have been credited to him, he sent out a straightforward message. He declared that ‘not all human lives are important or worth saving’. In one video he wore a t-shirt that said ‘Humanity is overrated’.

This chilling slogan does not come from some violent Hollywood movie or gangsta rap track - which are usually blamed for sending young people off the rails - but rather from the critically-acclaimed US drama House, in which British actor Hugh Laurie plays a cynical doctor who works in the field of infectious diseases. Indeed, you can buy ‘Humanity is overrated’ t-shirts from the House website here. (Update: It's since been removed from sale -MrP)

Auvinen described himself as an ‘anti-human humanist’ - he must have known that this sentiment would resonate with many of his peers who, like schoolchildren across Europe, will likely have been educated to hate themselves and their fellow human beings; to see humanity as something of a plague on the planet, which is how one leading British intellectual describ us.

'Killer Floods'?

Oh dear, what a shame, things don't seem to have turned out as catastrophically as the Daily Express predicted.

A HUGE tidal surge is approaching the east coast of Britain this morning. Hoards of onlookers gathered at the seafront at Lowestoft today as water levels crept up its sea defences. Residents said the sea was at least 5ft higher than its usual level by 7.20am. Shocked local Melanie Willett, 35, said: “I’ve lived here all my life and I’ve never seen the sea this high before. It’s unbelievable.

Not quite unbelievable. Had Miss Willett been born earlier than 1972 she might have been aware of the worst peacetime disaster to hit Britain, in 1953, when the floods on the east coast of England led to 307 deaths, 100,000 hectares of land under water and over £5 billion pounds worth of damage (in todays terms). In addition 1,800 people lost their lives in The Netherlands when 50 dykes burst.

Just sack the man

Exposed: How Sir Ian Blair tried to block probe into de Menezes shooting

Say what you like about The Daily Mail but I can't fault it's coverage of the IPCC report into the de Menezes shooting:

• Sir Ian Blair was responsible for "much of the avoidable difficulty" in the IPCC's investigation because he chose to delay the start of their probe. 
  
• Six people left the flats before Jean Charles de Menezes but none were stopped due to insufficient resources being in place.
  
• Commander Cressida Dick missed the start of a key briefing after being given incorrect information about where it was being held.
  
• Operation Kratos, Scotland Yard's shoot to kill policy, had not been deployed on the day of the shooting, but officers believed it has been
  
• Eight police officers on the platform or train at Stockwell Tube station said they had shouted "armed police" but not one of 17 civilian witnesses recalled hearing it.
  
• Police surveillance log was altered to suggest that officers did not think Mr de Menezes was suicide suspect Hussain Osman. Forensic tests showed that the word 'not' had been inserted after the entry was written.
  
• As Mr de Menezes travelled to Stockwell, police had 30 minutes to identify him but failed to do so. • No contingency plans to deal with a suspect travelling on public transport despite the nature of the 7/7 and 21/7 attacks.

The screenwriters strike explained

United Hollywood

Okay, fine, but why are you on strike?

Frankly, because the companies won't sit down and seriously negotiate with our union about new media. This single issue is the key to future of our industry and a work stoppage lets the companies know how serious we are about getting a fair deal.

And the winner is...

I know I've said all web awards are bollocks but someone has to win and so it was good to see Neil Clark coming from behind, as they say, to win the 2007 'Best UK Blog' Weblog Award.

It's not official yet but he was miles ahead of his nearest rival at the end and polled more than Guido and Dale put together. Dale, the UK's 'Top Political Blogger' managed to garner 528 votes, a result achievable, given the multiple voting system, with just 75 voting supporters.



And there's a quite nasty taste of sour grapes coming from Devil's Kitchen (6th place):
 "Neil Clark: total fucktard and desperate vote-whore." 

Oh dear, what a bad loser. Shame.

Stubborn things, those hormones

Reason Magazine - Despite Government Spending, Teens Still Having Sex:

Programs that focus exclusively on abstinence have not been shown to affect teenager sexual behavior, although they are eligible for tens of mil lions of dollars in federal grants, according to a study released by a nonpartisan group that seeks to reduce teen pregnancies. "At present there does not exist any strong evidence that any abstinence program delays the initiation of sex, hastens the return to abstinence or reduces the number of sexual partners" among teenagers, the study concluded

Eat ya heart out Ahmadinejad

Gay Muslims Find Freedom, of a Sort, in the U.S.

About 15 people marched alongside the Muslim float in this city’s notoriously fleshy Gay Pride Parade earlier this year, with various men carrying the flags of Egypt, Lebanon, Palestine and Turkey and even Iran’s old imperial banner. While other floats featured men dancing in leather Speedos or women with scant duct tape over their nipples, many Muslims were disguised behind big sunglasses, fezzes or kaffiyehs wrapped around their heads.

Even as they reveled in newfound freedom compared with the Muslim world, they remained closeted, worried about being ostracized at the mosque or at their local falafel stand. “They’re afraid of the rest of the community here,” said Ayman, a stocky 31-year-old from Jordan, who won asylum in the United States last year on the basis of his sexuality. “It’s such a big wrong in the Koran that it is impossible to be accepted.” For gay Muslims, change may come via a nascent body of scholarship in minority Muslim communities where the reassessment of sacred texts used to damn homosexuality is gaining momentum.