Profile for Adam

Profile - Entries - Comments

Website: http://www.onemanandhisblog.com

Recent Replies by Adam

On 'One Man':
I see it has shifted to the 13th…

Yeah, I should be free that evening.
On 'Declan Curry: My (Non-Existent) Part in His Fame':
I diagnose a case of skim reading, with a secondary infection of a dirty mind. :-)
On 'Blogging is like sex: the more you do it, the better it gets':
Kevin,

I suspect that star power is less of a factor within the trade media - certainly the closest thing we have to a star here is Tony "NHS IT scandals" Collins.

But it feels like we're approaching the whole blogging thing from a very different angle from you guys. On the whole, it's "if you want to blog, we shall make that possible for you", rather than "you are our chosen blogger". So, inherently, we're allowing the people with at least some passion to self-select themselves.

Oddly, though, its often the people who were most resistant to the idea that come to be its greatest evangelists. Your paper even covered one of them in some detail.
On 'Blogging is like sex: the more you do it, the better it gets':
Ah, yes, of course. Sorry about that. It's been a long week, and my brain was randomly mixing and matching Kevins and their surnames…
On 'Press Gazette relaunches, still excludes trade press':
Ah-ha. I completely missed that page of feeds, despite the fact I was looking for it. Any chance you could get the main feeds into the head area in the HTML, so that browsers will auto-detect them?

To be fair, the first article wasn't there when I posted, and the second only mentions trade in passing.

And yes, your "magazines" category probably covers a wider range of journalism than the national and regional newspapers categories added together… Splitting it into consumer mags and trade press would make much more sense.
On 'Press Gazette relaunches, still excludes trade press':
Oh, that's useful. Thanks, Graham.
On 'Reed provides OpenID via IDKee':
Watch your e-mail for more.
On 'Labour Reaches Out To Bloggers':
OK - better now? :-)
On 'More on Digital Doorstepping':
There you go. Further proof that I've never muddied my business journalist purity with that mucky consumer stuff.
On 'Digital Doorstepping: New Worlds, Old Techniques':
Livejournal exists in an odd area of quasi-privacy. You can actually "friend-lock" posts, so only fellow Livejournal users whom you've marked as friends can see it. Indeed, after bad-experiences many people go on to retrospectively friends-lock their entire blog.

People who know Livejournal, but who are unfamiliar with the wider world of blogs searches and the like are often genuinely surprised when other people find their stuff, bizarre though that sounds.

I do wonder what the reaction would have been if one of the media outlets had approached him as a logged-in Livejournal user, rather than an outside commenter...
On 'Hammer man':
Thanks, but I think my wife might object…
On 'This Is What We Call The News':
No, thanks to you guys for creating it AND for making it available for embedding in blogs. Nice work, fellas.
On 'Blogher: Finally, the Closing Session Summary':
Thanks for the feedback. I've checked the live blogging from the final session, and it indeed appears to have been Stacy. I've updated the post to reflect this.

Sorry about that. I was very tired by the end of the conference.
On 'New York, New York':
I did think about dropping you guys a line, but then I looked at my schedule.

Maybe next trip…
On 'What happens When You Give Video Cameras to Journalists?':
Travel Weekly lost theirs...
On 'Happy Blogday to Me':
Well, you have known me a long time, Sandy...

Which reminds me, I must have some very old pictures of you I could bring to life with my new scanner... ;-)
On 'Labelling The Web':
Whoops. Thanks for pointing out that tag error - I was shattered last night and a few errors crept in...

Yes, I did enjoy the night. I was definitely a step or two behind in technical understanding compared to many there, but it did give me some useful insights into what future websites could look like.
On 'Lewisham Tesco: A New View':
OK - the Twitter box has gone. The page is loading faster now. Let's see if that fixes Flock.
On 'Lewisham Tesco: A New View':
It's working OK in Flock on the Mac. I'll try it on my PC at work tomorrow. It did hang for a while on the Twitter box, which was interesting. I may try disabling that for a while.
On 'OpenID, Comments and Unfriendly Hosts':
I'd take it up with the plugin author, if I understood what you meant...
On 'Moving, Moving':
And it looks like we've arrived...
On 'OpenID, Comments and Unfriendly Hosts':
Hey, Jeff. Long time no (cyber) see. Hope you're doing well.
On 'Movable Type hits 3.34':
It lives! It lives!
On 'Five Things (times 3)':
As I remember, a flower in a neighbour's front garden in Manchester. The photo, alas, no longer exists.
On 'Le Web 3: What should Le Web 4 Look Like?':
Ok - what would be a good tag, then?
On 'Le Web 3: Sam Sethi Fired? Mystery deepens…':
The Trackback's wrong because your post appears to have vanished�
On 'Le Web 3: The Sarkozy Show':
Thanks. That was a useful clarification of the French thought process.
On 'Le Web 3: Pierre Chappaz, Take 1':
Yes, and his continuation got pretty much lost in the kaffuffle post-Peres.
On 'Le Web 3: Going Global with NetVibes':
Well, it's sorta inevitable that sponsors will get a "plug spot". That's how these things work. Lucky that there's blogs and comments where alternatives can be mentioned.
On 'Le Web 3: Enterprise 2.0':
Better go download an IRC client then, hadn't I?

Haven't used IRC in years...
On 'Le Web 3: Is there a Web 2.0 bubble?':
They've been mentioned several times by the audience, but the panellists seem to be avoiding the issue�

Maybe there should have been people from Blizzard and Linden Labs here.
On 'Le Web 3: Does Size Matter?':
I did have my tongue firmly in my cheek over the normal comment�

Ownership is certainly going to be an interesting issue. Will the big media companies of the future be providers of community space, rather than providers of information? Or will they be the ones who mix professional content and user content most successfully?
On 'Le Web 3: Going Down':
Seems to be working now, thankfully.

And there are power supplies under the seat. Hurrah!
On 'FAQ':
The art of good candid photography is making sure you're not seen doing it.

In other words, they didn't know.
On 'On Birthdays, Blogs and British Newspapers':
Thanks, all!
On 'Lewisham Sucks':
Well, she's a Lewisham blogger. I don't see any reason not to invite her in.
On 'easy like sunday morning':
Well, I'd better enjoy the next couple of years while I can, hadn't I? :-)
On 'randomness & certainty: science meets art':
That's fair enough - everyone has their own response to an art event like that.

Personally, I thought she contributed far less than many women in the audience, so I don't think it's a gender issue, but you clearly thought differently.
On 'more on podshow's domain problems':
I have great hopes for paper 2.0, personally�
On 'the internet is your mother':
How odd. I'll contact you by e-mail and see if we can get it fixed.
On 'the absence of podshow':
The subdomains were down prior to 2pm - that's how I first noticed that there was a problem. It's probably just a small lag in Go Daddy's name servers as everything reactivates.
On 'lee high road in silence':
Wow! Thanks, Jill.
On 'test post':
Oh, I'll give that a try. Thanks.
On 'the future of Top Gear':
This piece is certainly a cut above the normal lazily provacative material he's been churning out of late, certainly. The smoothness with which he switches emotional tone is really cleverly done, and I do wish we saw more of that from him.
On 'lee high road in silence':
Yup. I discovered this by the cunning journalistic tricks of "smelling the gas" and "asking a copper".
On 'car mag publishes photo without paying. tsk.':
Hey, wow, talk about seven degrees of seperation and all that�
On 'a few notes on blogging and business':
I think IT departments run a real risk of being marginalised as the younger, tech-savvy generation enter the workforce. It's the pro-active ones who'll survive and thrive.

But I really can't see the "command and control" school of IT management surviving another decade, as always-on devices proliferate. Younger people will just start using their own kit to route around corporate restrictions.
On 'is there one, best way to blog?':
Not convinced, Andrew. I know the top end of each profession is full of egos and self-publicity, but many jobbing musicians are pretty self-effacing types, and actors are often better known for their sreen or stage personas than themselves�
On 'is there one, best way to blog?':
I do tend to read between the lines with newspaper opinion columnists, simply because they're major role is to stir up controversy of some form. Otherwise, why publish them?

The fundamental point he's making is fair: better quality blogs will get more readers. It does, of course, depend on what one means by "quality". Frankly, by the standards he's using (ie popularity) "quality" could well equal "lots of pictures of nubile young women and men".

So, yes, there is some snobbery in what he's writing, in that he's using "literary" quality" as his main definition.
On 'Times comment editor collects web comments':
Oh, thanks for that, Ellee. It's interesting. I'll post about it later on.
On 'politicians and web 2.0':
It was probably going to happen anyway, but certainly Mr Fawkes' readership will have accelerated the process.
On 'about the new look':
One of them's gone now. The other one (a Technorati search) was part of the default widget set that comes with the new version of Movable Type. I didn't really see the point, so dumped it.
On 'Jeffrey Archer: Blogger':
Well, it's linked from his official website, so yes, I think it's him
On 'Technorati turns 3, redesigns':
I did e-mail tech support about it some months ago - and never got a reply. It's good that things have improved in the meantime.
On 'Apologies to the Internet Explorer Users':
I'm not having any problems with it on the Mac, at least so far.
On 'Technorati turns 3, redesigns':
Ah-ha! Much better.

Many thanks, and happy birthday!
On 'This Headline was made for Digging':
We're having some of the same discussions here at RBI, with people putting forward everything from "we should submit our own stories" (not a good plan, I feel) to "just leave it to the users.

We'll see.
On 'My Two Blogs':
I just used my last one a few hours before you posted that. If you haven't snagged an invite by the time I get more, I will invite you.
On 'The Fall and Rise of Andrew Brown: Blogger':
Fair enough. To be honest, my comment was mainly an excuse to type "Darth Bullock", because it makes me laugh.

I'm so shallow sometimes.
On 'The Fall and Rise of Andrew Brown: Blogger':
Ah, that view on your showing is purely your new cyncial edge showing.

The Ladywell Pool group are almost the archetypical "one issue" campaign group. I presume that they assumed that you would immediately swing to their view, once you were freed from the baleful influence of Darth Bullock, or something along those lines.

Clearly the idea of someone who passionately belived a range of views some they agree with, some they don't is hard for them...
On 'Dollar':
Not all of it, but a very significant amount of the countryside.
On 'iPod meet Car':
Jeni: Yes, they're still illegal. They're considered to be small pirate radio stations, essentially.

Mike: Yes, I did. I can't remember where, though - I'm sure I could dig up the details, if you want.
On 'Drop the Tap and Back Away, Punk':
Ah, but where would we invade? The North pole?
On 'Sign of the Times':
Thanks, Rachel...

(It's kinda scary having your blog linked from the company intranet, folks)
On 'The BBC's Naked Nick':
Oh, thanks. There's another image I didn't need�
On 'Local Elections 3: Duty Done':
It has been a shocker of a night, hasn't it? Labour mayor, but without control of the council. He must be wondering if winning was a good thing this morning.
On 'Local Elections 1: We Have A Winner':
I'm in a flat above a shop on the Lewisham end of Lee High Road.

We seem to get missed quite a lot, as a result
On 'Burn, BT, Burn':
Heh. I'm going to leave it place.
On 'Glasgow Cathedral':
Awww. I was getting all flattered there for a moment�
On 'Why Disagreement Doesn't Make You Evil':
Yes, I was responding to the general idea, rather than the specific allegation about the left. That said, I do think there is a slight inclination for those on the soft left to define their opponents as "evil", just as there's a slight trend for those on the soft right to define their opponents as "stupid".

I don't think either way of operating is helpful.
On 'Bring Your Own Laptop':
I think that's an acceptable position for the time being, but one that will be less and less tenable as the months and years pass. There's a generation coming into the workforce now that will find our current attitudes to business technology laughable.
On 'Bring Your Own Laptop':
But isn't that classic "tail wagging the dog" behaviour from a support service?

"This enhancement to employees' working practices would make life harder for me, so I'm not having it."?

There must be a solution that's viable to that problem - server-based scanning at the point of network connection.

"Hang on - I'll just log you in once I'm sure you haven't done anything stupid while you've been away."
On 'Dollar':
I came south for university, and have yet to escape London.

Also, I suppose, journalism jobs aren't exactly common in Clackmannanshire�
On 'Dollar':
It's from Castle Campbell.

And the Back Road. Oh, yes. A place of many memories... :)
On 'links for 2006-03-27':
That must be new - I've tried several times over the last year to find that information, and failed every time.
On 'We Apologise�':
Thanks for your kind comments, folks.
On 'The road home':
It's the side effect of being a small island, I think. I've done other side of the road driving in the US and France, and the relative lack of traffic makes it much less frightening.
On 'Local Tory Blogger':
No! No!

Carry on! :)
On 'Local Tory Blogger':
C'mon, that really needed an ellipsis at the end to add mystery�
On 'Lewisham Politician Podcasts':
Andrew, Andrew, Andrew, you're not playing the game.

You're politicians, I'm a journalist. I'm trying to set up an inflated conflict between the two of you for sensationalist effect - and you're not biting.

That's just sooooo unfair.
On 'Folk's Back, Folks':
Oh, cool. Thank you. Watching it does rather depend if we have the living room reassembled in time, though.
On 'Film is so 2004':
Hmmm. I don't recall doing so, because I was too busy running around with the big SLR. I suppose it's possible, though. Any evidence, Mr Wilding?
On 'How Celebrity Big Brother Exposes Media Obsessions':
It sounds more like a damning commentary on Canadian TV than any comment on you.

It's just not been the same since Due South finished, has it?
On 'Thoughts in a Tesco Queue':
Are you being pedantic or specific there? :)
On 'Shopping Centre Hell':
I'd not actually thought that through, mainly because I buy my Apple kit online with the National Union of Journalists discount�

Still, it's a good point. I suspect, given the relative bustle of John Lewis and the Apple Store, that most people don't know about the John Lewis two year guarantee.
On 'Tony Banks RIP':
*yawn*
On 'How Celebrity Big Brother Exposes Media Obsessions':
Your Chantelle link goes to Jodie

Fixed.
On 'Joe Who?':
No. More of a rugby fan.

(Private school education in Scotland - can't help it, really.)
On 'Thoughts in a Tesco Queue':
I did earn myself a few baleful glances by loudly reading the total number of items off the till monitor. Sadly, one of the glances was from the checkout guy. What's the point in having these special areas if they're not enforced?

I felt really sorry for the guy buying two items. The slow spread of realisation when he saw the queues was heartbreaking.
On 'Ducks outside the pub':
Well, these events were actually in Suffolk, where I was up visiting/cheering up my Mum.

But thanks! :)
On 'Christmas comes ever earlier in Lewisham':
No - they take them down for about six months. We have a set virtually right outside our study window, so we know this for sure...
On 'Frenchman':
Well, if true, that would be very depressing. The land of Henri Cartier-Bresson, master of candid photography, banning the very style he perfected.

I shall check it out and report back.
On 'A Visit to Ikea, or Playing It Safe':
Of course! Those hotdogs almost redeem the rest of the nightmare.
On 'How To Really Mess Up Lewisham Town Centre':
Ah, but do the road closures really drive any cars off the road? I suspect they just slow them down, or divert them elsewhere.

However, I'm fairly sure you're right about it being TfL and not Lewisham to blame. Tut, tut, Ken.
On 'Sick':
Well, I'm capable of being more than 10 yards away from a toilet now, which is certainly an improvement...
On 'Banksy Backlash':
That's an intruiging thought, isn't it? Gangs of rival graffiti artist fans, waging war across the city with unwanted addons to their hero's rival's work...
On 'Magdelene College, Cambridge':
Thanks!
On 'Street Music':
Thanks!
On 'Bristol Harbour Festival Candids: Women':
Base lust? :)
On 'Daleks don't hide well':
There are two on the loose�.
On 'freeTunes':
Ah, yes, sorry. Edited the post to reflect that.
On 'Failure fails the teacher test':
BNP founder: yup, and while I generally don't feel that the death of anyone is much to celebrate, I can't help but feel that I woke up in a slightly better Britain this morning...

"thick as planks": I dunno - I always found failure useful, particularly if you had a good teacher who could guide you between "this is not for you" and "you should have tried harder, you lazy little monster". Most people have something that they'll be at least competent at, and possibly even good. The problem with assuming that everyone should excel academically is that (a) not everyone will and (b) society also needs a whole host of practical skills.

But what do I know? I failed woodwork.
On 'L.A. Story revisited':
Absolutely - and that's what I use at home. I just built the iMix from what was available in the iTunes Music Store at the time.
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
Well, I can claim that you were misinterpreting me, because you were. And you do an excellent job of explaining how later in your post. :)

Yeah, the language of the post was not desperately polite to people elsewhere, but you'll not that the comments I left on the post I link to are polite - it's the front room theory at work.

And yes, you're absolutely right, there are multiple levels at work in these struggles. After all, you don't see Osama strapping bombs to himself and running into Iraqi army compounds, do you? Or, indeed,Bush patrolling over Iraq in a helicopter.
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
You puzzle me,sir. I explicitly said above that I don't think it's as simple as Islamic fundamentalism versus western values, yet here you are accusing me of doing that.

You're showing distinct signs of categorising me as a pro-Bush, neo-con type. Please refrain from doing so, because I'm not. Please listen to what I'm actually saying.

Given that your whole argument is built on an incorrect premise of what I believe, there's not much point in me trying to refute it, because I'll be arguing in support of something I don't believe.

The one question I do think worth answering is this: "do you honestly believe he thinks he can somehow impose it upon predominantly secular, historically christian Europe or America?"

The answer is no, I don't think he thinks he can, in the short term. However, I do think he thinks that by making himself and his followers into heroes attacking the west, he believes he will win more recruits for himself in the Middle East and further his aims in those areas. Look at the language he statements are couched in. Note the way his statements are always released through Islamic websites. His attacks on us aren't directed at us, they're directed at the Arab world. His attacks are, in effect, recruiting tools.

That leaves us in a difficult position, does it not? If we withdraw from the Middle East in all forms, he is perceived as the victor, and recruits flock to his banner. If we continue, he can argue that he is justified in what he does and recruits flock to his banner.

This, incidentally, is one reason why I don't believe that there is a "right side" in this debate. We're in something akin to a no-win situation.

In the long term, it depends on how sincere his faith is.If he genuinely believes himself to be a servant of God, then perhaps he does believe that his brand of Islam will one day dominate the world - including the nations of the west. But the long term isn't the problem we have to deal with.
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
First of all, if you're going to comment here in future, stay polite. "How obvious does it have to be? Hello?" and "How quaint and backwards of you" are rude and overstep the line. This is my blog and I have no reason to tolerate patronising and rude behaviour. Do it again, and you're banned.

That said, I suspect your and my views are closer than you think. You've just misinterpreted what I've said.

I never once said that I thought "they hate our way of life" was the primary motive. You're falling into the trap of lumping me into a political mindset and arguing against that rather than what I actually believe.

Absolutely Osama would would prefer to overthrow the Middle Eastern states, and wants to get rid of Western influence on those countries. And that by bombing the US, Spain and Madrid, he's hoping to lessen that influence.

But hey, let's not forget that 9/11 happened at a time when the new US government was deeply inward-focused without much of a foreign policy at all at the time. His efforts have actually increased western influence on the Middle East, not decreased it.

His primary motive is not "hatred of our lifestyle" but "hatred of lifestyles that do not conform to those he would impose on the Middle East and the rest of the world, if he could".

So, fancy dumping your preconceptions, going back and reading what I wrote again, and seeing if you understand it correctly this time?
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
It's interesting that you invoke "know your enemy" in your comment, when that was exactly the point I made in my original post - that Andy's comments showed no real understanding of the enemy or, worse, a misplaced idea of who the enemy is. To me, your comments read as someone who doesn't understand our enemy in the slightest and is willing to misinterpret their motives to fit a pre-conceived hostility to certain aspects of the western world.

The answer to Bin Laden's question is "well, an attack on Sweden would not have generated the same degree of publicity and terror as an attack on America, because America occupies the most prominent place on the world stage". al-Qaeda has been a media-savvy concept from the start. It wasn't that long ago that Osama was giving media interviews in Afghanistan, a process that only dried up after 9/11, when it was no longer necessary for his purposes.

Osama's question was designed, as so many of his comments are, to turn western nation against western nation, the better to ferment terror and start the slow process of bringing the world under his twisted vision of Islam.

Osama is not an outraged revolutionary striking against western intervention in the Middle East - he's a would-be theocrat, with an eye for media manipulation, and a canny political ability to manipulate the political dissension within his targets.

So, carry on patting yourself on the back for disbelieving Bush's propaganda while believing Osama's, if you wish. I'm sure you won't object if I continue believing that it is far better to disbelieve both?
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
Oooh, what's that caff like? I've not tried it yet, but I've been longing for a decent coffee shop in Lewisham for ages...
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
Thanks - and it's always good to get a comment from a fellow Manchester-born blogger. :)
On 'Photoblogging the Blasts':
Actually, you were the first to mail it to me...

I knew it was coming, though, so I did a quick Google news search on my name this morning, and found that I'd appeared in dozens of publications across the world. I'm used to appearing in just the one weekly magazine, so this has been something of a shock to the system.
On 'We've had 24 hours - Unleash the Idiots':
Oh, but any group of people has its subset of idiots, even Americans. The inward-focus of American media also gives the population over there an in-built disadvantage in understanding world politics.

But I'm always suspicious of arguments built on the idea of American Imperialism. If America is imperialist, it's very, very bad at it, because it doesn't seem to have acquired much of an empire in the last 50 years.
On 'Poppy':
Nothing - it's natural. The poppies were right at the end of their flowering period and the petals were going papery. This one had held its shape better than any of the others, hence the unusual look.
On 'Country life key for homebuyers':
We probably have the full information at work. If we do, I'll dig it out and post more.

I posted this more as an aide-memoire for the job than anything else. :)
On 'General Election day':
Well, if there was a part of the UK still prepared to tolerate the word "socialist" it would be Scotland. Glad to see that they had a bad time last night. I wish the same could have been said of the BNP, which was picking up hundreds to thousands of votes.
On 'Springtime in London':
It's the gates to Coram's Fields, not far from Brunswick Square.

I walk up there every now and again because (a) it's close to the office and (b) it's the area I lived in when I first came to London as a student.
On 'Sun, coffee and FTP':
Testing that commenting's working...
On 'The Wireless Street':
Hmm. The site isn't exactly straightforward to navigate, looks half finished and doesn't make sense to me as a non technical bod. Could you explain what's going on?
On 'Enjoying his ice cream':
In this particular case, a really long lens�
On 'L.A. Story revisited':
So, I'm guessing that you're adverse to Apple products, prepared to disregard anything that makes use of them and a coward to boot.

Hmm. I don't think I care that this blog is useless to you.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out.
On 'Escape Plan '05':
I'm a country boy at heart - I grew up in rural Scotland - and the time has really come to live behind this temporary urban existence. It's too wearing for me in my mid-30s....
On 'Abandoned necklace':
Welcome! Any friend of Elle's is a friend of mine. :-)
On 'Young Mayor blogs (sorta)':
Ah-ha. I clearly didn't make myself, uh, clear.

My point wasn't really an issue with the guy himself. I enjoy what he's writing. It was the general annoyance with the way that his "blog" was set-up - presumably by the council's IT department. The fact that none of the usual blog parapahnelia isn't there suggest to me that it isn't actually a blog at all - it's a standard HTML page which somebody updates for the Young Mayor.

It also stops people giving feedback, and generating communication. Youngsters are going to spot these deficiencies more clearly than I do.

Really, I'm asking for him to be supported more by the council.
On 'Should we support Affordable Housing?':
In the context of the British situation, where house prices are now so high that most people can't afford to get on the housing ladder if they're not already on it, I don't think that confusion is likely - but readers, please don't get confused!
On 'Florida Sunrise':
The only problem with going back to the Soho pics is that I no longer work in Soho.

I'll probably start something similar for Holborn from the New Year. That do you?
On 'Lewisham in Lights':
You make it sound so inviting....
On 'London is cold':
That was my intial reaction in the US. You do get used to it after a while, though. It makes life that much more civil.
On 'Apple refuses Band Aid?':
I've just checked and you're right - looks like they cut a deal and a very generous one at that.
On 'Charlie's Our Darling':
I was actually going to post further on this, but time seems to be against me. So, in short, I agree with the broad outline of what you're saying. People on both sides have taken a specific case and twisted it to suit their general prejudices.

I think the reason so many people have seized on it, though, is that it does touch a nerve. There is a feeling that there's a large group of people out there for whom the link between effort and achievement has been broken.

Certainly, the media is substantially to blame, for creating a situation where high status = a measure of self worth, rather than high status = a measure of achievement. They've done it to market aspirational goods, which you deserve "because you're worth it".

If the education system does take any blame, it's for not making enough of an effort to counter this, rather than for actually creating it.

There's also an element of old left thinking where equality of outcome is more important than equality of opportunity, and that does have lingering roots in the education system, but it's found more in universities than in schools. However, I think, frankly, that the media is far more powerful than a few unreconstructed lefties slowly crumbling away in academia. :-)
On 'Charlie's Our Darling':
Just because those kids exist, doesn't mean that there aren't kids who are exactly as Charles describes. My wife has family that live on a rough-ish estate on the outskirts of Bristol. The education system there is utterly failing kids: they're left with the twin burdens of an assumption that they're entitled to a pop start level wealth and no significant educational achievement. I spent a couple of hours helping one of them write a story on my iBook a few months ago. He was in his early teens and had the writing age of somebody of seven or eight. He was struggling painfully to express mature concepts without the language to do it.

Many kids on that estate turn to crime - and no wonder. It's the only way to reconcile the two burdens.
On 'A Silence, Explained':
OK, I hold my hands up and plead "guilty" to over-generalising. But there certainly are politicians, most noticably at the national level, but also found at local and even student politics levels, who would rather the electorate went away between elections, and just did what they were told at election time.
On 'FAQ':
Indeed. Mainly epee, for those who care.
On 'CamberwellOnline Blog':
How many housebuilders are?
On 'Suffolk sunset, from a railway station':
I have been known to pull over to shoot something I've seen from the road, but this picture was certainly the upside of the 'orrible journey mentioned earlier, yes.
On 'Seven Degrees of Lunch':
That's OK - I'm quite used to it. Professional hazard and all that.
On 'Seven Degrees of Lunch':
Hod: I've no idea what you mean by "You scurrilously used one of my friend's names" - care to fill me in?

Liz: Thanks for the heads-up about Typekey. All fixed now.
On 'Clark County Strikes Back':
I have vast amounts of respect for the skill of tabloid writers. That's hard bloody work.
On 'Death of the Novel':
I suspect that's part of it, true enough. However, I suspect we have lost a proprtion of novel readers to newer demands on their time. Am I reading as many novels as I would have had their not been DVDs and the internet? Almost certainly not.
On 'Clark County Strikes Back':
No disagreement from me on the marching. Every demo I've covered since my student magazine days had lead to what they were protesting against happening. Whoops.

I suspect people just protest because it's fun.
On 'Budapest roof':
It's a shopping arcade somewhere in the city centre. The arcade is patchily occupied at best, and it's dark and dingy, the the only light being what's filtering through the roof above.
On 'One last foray into politics for the time being':
Oh, I quite agree that it's not a fair or direct comparison. It's one that's been quite widely used in the media and elseblog, though, so I didn't feel too bad about using it.
On 'Just to be clear':
You are missing the point by enough of a margin that it never even saw you passing by.

If this was about animal cruelty, battery chickens would be much, much further up the agenda than fox hunting.

This isn't about animal cruelty. This is about sticking it to the "toffs". And that's prejudice plain and simple. I thought we were meant to be against that in this country.
On 'Just to be clear':
You might be right - but if so, why not be honest about it? Why cloak it in the animal rights flag?

And as for the protests, I think you'll find both sides equally guilty of decrying protests they don't support, and celebrating those they do...
On 'Pro-hunt protestors on floor of Commons':
Well, clearly battery farming chickens is, because I see no move to ban that in Parliament.

That's not a short period of fear, the way most animals die. That's a lifetime of torture.

Think about it.
On 'More on the Pro-Hunt protests':
I've covered a number of demos in my time, and it's very difficult to judge numbers from the ground. Limited field of view and all that.
On 'Pro-hunt protestors on floor of Commons':
And how exactly are the pro-hunters threatening anyone? They're not the ones attacking the families of scientist, or publicans who serve researchers, are they?

If you really put the pro-hunting people and the animal rights activists in the same camp, you just haven't done your homework.
On 'G-mail':
Yup. Pretty much everyone who wants one already has it, by the look of things.
On 'Hello, all 75 of you':
Vanessa: I now have an image of you being assigned a seceret mission by Mallard, and sent to see Quack, who gives you all the gadgets for the mission. Yes, it's Duck Bond!

Mr Aardvark: I'll check it out.

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