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I have a job!
I've been trying to post my news to Blogger from ping.fm, but it seems that service isn't working as intended...
Anyway... I have a job! I've been offered the position of Staff Writer at Computer Shopper, a consumer IT title published by Dennis Publishing. I'll be writing product reviews and doing group tests - not sure what my beat will be just yet, but I'm hoping video cards and gaming will be in there somewhere.
Dennis' offices are near Goodge Street, just off Tottenham Court Road. Dennis is the polar opposite of VNU Publications, where I worked from 1998-2000. Dennis seems to care more about editorial than sales (there are 13 editorial staff on 'Shopper), and the offices are light and open, with big windows and kitchen facilities. VNU's HQ was like a prison - security turnstiles, slit windows and strip lighting.
Another bonus is that the Editor and Deputy Editor are both former colleagues from VNU - David Ludlow and Jim Martin used to work in the Labs at VNU, a thankless job. I used to visit the Labs to see my friend Matt Riddell, with whom I would sneak out the back to smoke spliffs :s Ah, the crazy old days, huh?
Now I simply need to find a place to live. I'll be scouring Gumtree again and going up to London on Saturday to view as many places as possible.
Labels: personal
Project Syndicate - The Green Inquisition
A call for moderation in the environmentalist movement. We don't need scare tactics, or censorship of competing views. We need *facts*, and more money put into serious research, rather than into marketing campaigns. The argument over bio-fuels is a strong one; this is not a solution.
"Bio-fuels essentially take food from mouths and puts it into cars. The grain required to fill the tank of an SUV with ethanol is enough to feed one African for a year. Thirty percent of this year’s corn production in the United States will be burned up on America’s highways. This has been possible only through subsidies that globally will total $15 billion this year alone."
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Joe's Goals
This site is a wonderful idea. It lets you set goals (either positive, like writing your blog) or negative (i.e. smoking) and then you can click the day's box to add a happy face or a sad face. The scores are totted up each day so you can see how well you've done.
You can customise each goal so that, for example, you can set more points for a big goal that you might only do once a week. You can also add journals to write stuff down.
It's so easy, you just sign up and then explore. Give it a shot!
From: http://ping.fm/jwlC6
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President George Bush: 'Goodbye from the world's biggest polluter' - Telegraph
You gotta hand it to George W. - at least he saves us the work of digging his grave.
From: http://ping.fm/a4yj1
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Military coup in Zimbabwe?
It seems that although Robert Mugabe lost the recent elections, and was in fact keen on talks with the opposition MDC, a secret cabal of six military leaders has forced Mugabe to hand over power to them and he is now simply a puppet. The leader of this junta is a man called Emmerson Mnangagwa.
More news related to this story:
Daily Mail
The Guardian
The Zimbabwe Standard
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Patrick Smith, Ask the pilot
An airline pilot is told he can't take his (airline-issue) knife onto the plane.
"There are those moments in life when time stands still and the air around you seems to solidify. You stand there in an amber of absurdity, waiting for the crowd to burst out laughing and the "Candid Camera" guy to appear from around the corner."
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The Public Whip - Forty-Two Days
(UK People) Check to see whether your MP voted the way you would have done.
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EFF report on ACTA
Don't know what ACTA is? It's the next corporate-sponsored copyright law, with some laughable provisions, for example, screening electronic devices at customs for copyrighted material. And it's being fast-tracked by the G8.
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A Personal Manifesto
From my friend Daniel Florien, another apostate. He's devised a manifesto based on his beliefs, and I think they are all morally sound and admirable. Religion certainly doesn't have a monopoly on 'good'.
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IT'S A GODDAMNED CRACKER!
OK: so you've read about teachers on trial for naming a teddy bear "Mohamed", and Danish products being boycotted because of a cartoon. Thought western religions were sane? How about death threats for stealing a cracker?
Domestic spying quietly goes on
As civil liberties are being eroded in the UK, in the US it's just as bad. Quote: "We're operating in a brave new world."
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Publish and be damned
The Times has threatened Medialens with legal action for encouraging people to email one of their journalists.
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The Wisdom of the World
An article looking at how Christianity encourages people to ignore logical reasoning, one of the main stumbling blocks to allowing them to have an open mind about their faith.
Why debunking is practically impossible
FORA.tv - Farhad Manjoo - Living in a Post-Fact Society: a talk about how people will only listen to/watch media outlets and information that reinforce what they believe in. With a glut of information available, people will always have a bulk of information to back up whatever crackpot ideas they have. It's a focus on quantity of information rather than quality, however.
Labels: brights
The best of Sam Harris
FORA.tv - The Clash Between Faith and Reason: This is probably the best introduction to the "New Atheism". Sam Harris is the least aggressive, and probably the funniest, of those who have recently brought out books about atheism. I challenge any religious person to watch this and not come out very confused about their faith.
Labels: brights
Dry drowning incident
Boy Dies Of Dry Drowning After Leaving Pool And Walking Home: very strange, and tragic. One of those little known things that as a parent you fear the most, because you can't know all of them.
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The right to have rights
These stories about the UN's Human Rights issues have got me thinking. We all think of human rights as just that - rights. What we don't realise is they are simply a *declaration* of what our rights should be - in most cases we don't actually have the right to those rights!
I wonder if there's any way for citizens to lobby their UN representative? /me googles...
Labels: personal
Important milestone for Human Rights
from Project Syndicate: an important addition to the UN's Human Rights legislation, that would allow people to expose abuses of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. I've always thought that the UN's Human Rights "Covenants" were a done deal: actual "laws". It seems they are merely agreements, and not all of the provisions actually have mechanisms to enforce them. This will change that.
More info here.
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Rhythm 8.0 Commercial
This is a cool advertisement - for homebrew PSP software! You gotta give these guys props, they are producing this stuff for free, for a platform that doesn't even officially support it, and yet they've put together a slamming, professional promo for it. Respect!
Labels: links
Google Docs now does Forms
You can now create a form to email to people or put on your site, using Google Docs. Here's one I put together to test it out:
There are ample instructions on the Google Docs Help pages, just search for Forms under the Spreadsheet tab.
Labels: site
"A Master Class" By Danny Kahneman
Edge.com: Interesting excerpts from a lecture by Kahneman, very much like the "Quirkology" that Richard Wiseman promotes in the UK. People really don't know how to make decisions, and there is a general reluctance to believe that our brains can be that fallible.
"My sense is that by and large there isn't a huge wish to improve decision-making—there is a lot of talk about doing so, but it is a topic that is considered dangerous by the people in the organization and by the leadership of the organization."
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Terror Watch Uses Locals To Spot Suspicious Activity - 181 Trained In Colorado
Homeland Security National Terror Alert - Homeland Security News: "“We don’t snoop into private citizens’ lives. We aren’t living in a communist state.”"
... said Mr B. Brother, smiling graciously.
Labels: links