MishMash

Malevolent voices that despise our freedoms

Philip Pullman on the loss of liberty:

Expressing an opinion is a dangerous activity

Whatever your opinions are, we don't want to hear them

So if you threaten us or our friends with your opinions we shall treat you like the rabble you are

And we do not want to hear you arguing about it

So hold your tongue and forget about protesting

What we want from you is acquiescence

Do read the whole thing.

Spectacular photographs of electrical storm in the dust cloud from Chaitén

Fotos Tormenta eléctrica en erupción del volcán Chaitén. linked to by Earl Mardle.

2000 Terrorists. Don't trust anyone!

Craig Murray in fine fettle:

The truth is that since September 11 Islamic militants have killed about 70 people in the UK. That's 12 people a year in a country of 60 million. Every death is terrible, but a threat to our existence it is not. You have a much better chance of drowning in your own bath, of being struck by lightning or of winning the national lottery than of being killed by a terrorist. But that wouldn't persuade you to give up your civil liberties, or that we have to invade more oil rich countries for our security.

And from a commenter to Murray's post:

Perhaps the government could give us a fear list, from 1 to 10, of the things we should fear most. Then we'd know where we are, and could start some serious and structured fearing without having to worry about whether we're fearing about entirely the wrong thing.

Half price!

That's a long queue for half price chips. Are they really worth the wait?

School or factory?

Who needs personal contact when we can monitor pupils using RFID tags (via Schneier on Security). *Shudder*.

San Francisco in jell(y|o)

Thanks Heather for a pointer to Liz Hickok's jelly model of San Francisco. Sadly the earthquake doesn't test it to distruction ...

Child obesity = global warming = terrorism = fascism

Mick Hume in the Times:

We were officially told this week that obesity is as big a threat as climate change. Not long ago we were told that global warming is as big a threat as terrorism. And earlier, that terrorism is as big a threat to the British people as the Second World War. So: child obesity = global warming = terrorism = Fascism. Ergo, those crisps in your child’s lunchbox are today’s moral equivalent of the Nazis. Now do you feel guilty?

Conceptual Terrorists Encase Sears Tower In Jell-O

The Onion:

CHICAGO—In what is being called the first conceptual terrorist attack on American soil, the landmark Sears Tower was encased in 18 million tons of strawberry gelatin early Monday morning, leaving thousands shocked, angry, and seriously confused.

Digital information is different

This is beautifully done, and hits a few nails on the head:

Merlin has a few worthwhile comments on the strengths of paper. Also missing, from my point of view, is the fact that a lot of what we do with computers now (pretty much everything that's off the web, for a start) needlessly recreates the limitations of paper and adds a few new problems for good measure. Now where did I put that file ...

Newcastle University Compromises on Excellence

High hopes for our new Vice Chancellor take something of a battering with this latest news:

Key themes of the discussions centred around how the pursuit of excellence should be balanced with relevance to student vocations, business and society in general.

Er ... pardon?

Looking forward to the next announcement:

After careful consideration, Newcastle University has decided that it can best provide relevance to student vocations, business and society in general by striving for unequalled mediocrity in all of its activities.