Jones will come back!
There is a scene in Orwell’s Animal Farm in which the pigs (who had become the ruling class of the post-revolutionary farm once Farmer Jones had been thrown out) and the other animals argue...
Indigo Jo Blogs Blog
Young people need to know that actions have consequences
Response: Sentencing of young adults should take their maturity into account | Comment is free | The Guardian This article, by Vicki Helyar-Cardwell of the Criminal Justice Alliance, appeared in the “Response” section of...
Laurie Penny and breast implants
French exploding breast implants — hilarious, right? Wrong | Laurie Penny | Comment is free | The Guardian I've been following the story about the French breast implant recall with some interest, as it...
2011: the year Linux stopped being fun
In less than a week from now, I expect to be in possession of a Mac, most likely a Mac mini. It's taken a long time since I last had an up-to-date Mac —...
Ayn van Dyk: seized for no reason, spends 10th birthday in care
Single father fighting to get autistic daughter back This report tells part of the ongoing story of Ayn van Dyk, who was seized from her home, which she shared with her father and two...
Yes, but do they have ME?
Unidentified Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) is a major cause of school absence: surveillance outcomes from school-based clinics (at BMJ Open) This morning several news sources reported that a study had been published by...
Why do lads’ mags offend more than the words of rapists?
Are sex offenders and lads’ mags using the same language? – University of Surrey – Guildford A recent study carried out jointly by the universities of Middlesex and Surrey in the UK (press release...
Review: Voices from the Shadows, British Library, London
A German version of this review can be found here. Yesterday I finally got to see Voices from the Shadows, a documentary about severe ME produced and directed by the same people that produced...
Baron-Cohen on Anders Breivik
Anders Breivik: cold and calculating, yes – but insane? (from today's Guardian) This article by Simon Baron-Cohen appeared in today's Guardian and questions the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia given him by "independent" experts in...
Will they bring the popular press to heel this time?
Recently, there has been much coverage of an inquiry, known as the Leveson inquiry after the presiding judge, into improper practices at a number of British popular newspapers. This started when it was revealed...
The Bowes-Lyons at Earlswood: “a peg to hang it on”
TV review: The Queen's Hidden Cousins; Waking Up To Insomnia; Symphony | Television & radio | The Guardian Last night I saw a documentary on Channel 4 titled The Queen's Hidden Cousins (that is...
Baroness Warsi and Anjem Choudhary: takfir on demand
Lady Warsi: extremists forfeit their right to call themselves Muslim | Politics | The Guardian Baroness (Syeeda) Warsi recently said in an interview with the Guardian that Muslim extremists such as Anjem Choudhary, who...
Daily Mail advocates waste of taxpayers’ money
Disabled benefit? Just fill in a form: 200,000 got handouts last year without face-to-face interview | Mail Online Throughout today, I’ve been receiving tweets with the hashtag #MyDLA, from people telling what the benefit...
How dangerous are 80mph motorways?
Recently the government has been debating the possibility of raising the speed limit on the motorway to 80mph, it seems largely on the grounds that most people who can do that speed on the...
BBC bashes benefit claimants two weeks running
I’m a little late writing about this, but I watched John Humphries’ programme on BBC2, The Future State of Welfare, a few days after it was broadcast (I was working a night shift the...
A ghoulish hobby
Last night I watched a programme on BBC Three titled "Stormchaser: the Butterfly and the Tornado", about a woman with EB (a skin condition) who goes storm-chasing in America. (You can watch it on...
How severe is severe?
In July 2011, a new set of criteria for diagnosing ME were published, under the authorship of most of the major researchers involved in the ME or "CFS" field (Byron Hyde is absent, however)....
Android apps that suck
Of late, I’ve noticed that the Android apps I’ve been using aren’t performing anything like as well as they should be. I got a Samsung Galaxy S phone in May, which I paid up-front...
The small creditors
In the days since Col Gaddafi was killed, I have noticed that the western media are obsessed with ensuring that Libyan officials answer to western courts for things the régime did in the 1980s...
Why some people find the “mong” joke funny (and some don’t)
This past week, Ricky Gervais offended an awful lot of people with a joke about a "mong face" on Twitter. "Mong", for those who still don't know, originally meant someone with Down's syndrome, back...