Islingword Street

The unofficial google shell.

OK, this is fantastic

Page 123

Commissioned by Paul to:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

So, the nearest book is Republicanism: a shared European heritage by van Gelderen and Skinner and sentences six to eight (describing the argument of Frans Goethal's 1566 treatise de foelice et infoelice republica) are:

That state is happy which is built on virtue: "Therefore not the presence of proud buildings, nor high walls make a city famous, but strong excellent men and cultivators of virtue". Virtue of the people will be achieved through religious training and civic education. The state should support the studia humanitatis through the founding of literary academies.

(I'm sitting at my desk next to my politics books, in case you're wondering.)

And I'll tag J-dom, Hadjiboy, Ian, Dave, and The Gorse Fox.

Comments page goes mad at the Argus

Some teenager was killed in a police chase in east Brighton today, and the Argus piece on the story rather foolishly allowed comments. Lots of not-surprising gloating from the law-and-order brigade, then the dead boy's family turn up.

She'd rather get nekkid than eat meat, probably

So this is weird, as campaigns go. PETA - animal rights group who bang on about vegetarianism a lot - have got a "State of the Union" address on their website that involves some cutie talking about how meat is bad while removing all her clothes.

It does make it a bit hard to concentrate. The video is on Wonkette.

Apparently they did it last year, too.

Gripping stuff

This is the lead story in the Wadhurst parish council newsletter.

Queen's Cottages: The Planning Inspector allowed the appeal against the Planning Application refused by the District & Parish Councils and granted outline planning permission for the proposed development subject to a number of conditions. A link to the full document is in the News section of the Parish Council web site

Adios Evesham

Evesham Technology have gone bust, another example of what happens when your line of business gets commoditized. I built a PC myself in 1993 and remember buying some of the bits for it at the Evesham shop down Hills Road in Cambridge. For what that's worth.

Vote for genitals!

The NHS is inviting people to vote on whether the interactive bodymaps on the NHS website should have accurately represented genitals or not. Admirably democratic of them, I think.

New BBC homepage

My first impressions of the new customizable BBC Homepage is: I like that they've got the clock I remember from schools programming up in the top right.

spEak You’re bRanes

Some wonderful person has taken the risk to their sanity that is reading the Jerk Your Knee forums on the BBC and compiled the stupidest and most offensive into a blog called spEak You’re bRanes. Just great.

Different views

Another illustration of the American media attitude. Telegraph headline on the Polish elections: "Texts fire up young Polish voters". Guardian story: "Polish twins fear the youth verdict.

Washington post headline on their story? "Poland Vote Touches on U.S. Defense Plan". Because hey, who cares about anything else?

However, while that makes the British press look good, its overall purpose as a propaganda tool is illustrated by the Telegraph's website, which places the link: "Q&A on the EU Treaty" directly above the link "Write to your MP to demand a referendum". That's going to be a balanced assessment, then.

Funny how the press didn't recommend a referendum on, say, the minimum wage, isn't it? And the lesson is: if you're a journalist, referendums are only to be proposed where (a) you disagree with the Government and (b) you think you can scare people into agreeing with you.