I was Googling for an old Banditry post yesterday, as part of a discussion about that new 'people lie about their drinking' study. Eventually I found it, only to discover that I'd linked to a (London) Times article, and that therefore the paywall had ruined the whole thing (curiously, even though the Times now shows … Continue reading Pharma hackers gonna pharma hack, 2013 edition
Banditry
Answer: I went to India and spent a great deal of time buggering about with smartphones. And then used that as background material for writing a guide to mobile phone travel in India. The guide isn't quite finished yet, but I've written an article about some of the more bureaucratic bits for Smart Phone Travel. … Continue reading What I did on my holiday
Dear Mr Wood - For your information, in all known dialects of English, the phrase 'snowman' refers to a figure of a man which is made from snow (something like a statue, sculpture or perhaps golem), rather than a man who delivers snow. I understand there is room for confusion here, when considering examples such … Continue reading An open letter to Roy Wood
The text below is the output of my phone's AI autocomplete app (SwiftKey), based on its knowledge of the things I say and do. My only interaction was to choose between the three suggestions it offered. I have been made to the park. I am not going anywhere, and I will not receive the item … Continue reading Artificial John B Impersonator
On the Church of England female bishops rejection, the saddest thing is that the C of E: was created by a woman (Henry VIII's Church rejected the authority of the Pope, but remained Catholic in doctrine; it was Elizabeth I who turned it into a solidly Protestant church after Mary I's attempt at Catholic, erm, … Continue reading Laity ladies kybosh wicked elite’s plan for equality
This is technically true (random quote from blog commenter, but one which reflects a lot of educated-people-who-know-about-stats opinion on the Silver model): Silver's analysis (which I happen to accept) won't be contradicted (or proven) in any way by tomorrow's outcome. Either result is accounted for in the model. People seem not to understand that. However, … Continue reading Thought on Nate Silver and election projection
How on earth did it get to be October? The temperature's 33C, the birds are singing, and the massive quantities of work that I have to get finished within the next fortnight are absolutely terrifying [*]. Since all the headline news seems to involve either tedious rehashes of politics (in brief: no presidential debate or … Continue reading Oktober. Not much fest, as yet
In the context of the neo-puritan trial of Simon Walsh (description of case NSFW although text-only) for possessing 'extreme pornography' - in UK law, the simple ownership of photos of consenting adults doing kinky things to each other that could cause physical damage - civil liberties defender David Allen Green made the point that "the trial is about … Continue reading In order to protect the children, we had to imprison them
The first jetliner was Boeing's square-windowed 707; it was grounded after a few months following tragic incidents which wiped out a fair proportion of elite Americans. The money flowing to De Havilland to create a civilian airliner progamme to promote their non-murderous plane trumped nationalist concerns. Despite the fact that the 707 is a finer … Continue reading The Boeing Comet is still on sale
The reason why I don't mind singing the UK national anthem, is that it's asking a ridiculous and more-or-less imaginary entity to save another. Santa save the Defender of the Faith. Santa save Dr Manhattan. Santa save Optimus Prime. Send them all supermega. Send them all awesometastic. Long to kick lots of arse. Santa save … Continue reading Meanwhile, England gets ‘Jerusalem’