Am sitting in the Pembury with clanwilliam, derryderrydown, major_clanger and reddragdiva. From the level of the conversation, I fear that East London may shortly be declared a hazardous zone.

In the aftermath of the passing of the Digital Economy Bill (which was, alas, pretty much inevitable, despite the heroic efforts of various MPs), I've been thinking about what we can do about it now ( Read more... )

If you see any of this bunch in your area canvassing, feel free to tell them exactly what you think of the Digital Economy Act; because these are the MPs who voted for it.

( list inside )

Sent to Meg Hillier MP:

( letter inside )

Here's a transcript of Fiona Mactaggart's storming speech in the House yesterday, taken from the record.

( behind the cut, for length - but do read it, it's a cracker )

I attended a fun session at Eastercon last weekend titled 'SF/F and the Social Media'; which essentially turned into a fine demonstration of what was referred to as 'the backchannel'; where a real-time or near-real-time social channel forms a silent part of the dialogue ( Read more... )

Kicking arse in the Digital Economy Bill debate:

Austin Mitchell
Tom Watson
John Redwood
Fiona Mactaggart

(With extra arse-kicking credit to Mactaggart, who rocked the House.)

So, like about half the people on my various feeds, I saw on Wikileaks the 2007 footage of a couple of Reuters journalists and a dozen bystanders getting wiped out by a couple of attack choppers ( Read more... )

(and not just the update; I've been busy this month!)

Looks as though my experiences with the work of Bjørn Lomborg aren't uniqueThat said; I'm not going to make any judgements on the book until I've read it; and I'll try not to let my existing prejudices get in the way of my judgements; no-one is automatically valid just because they say ( Read more... )

Simon Jenkins today ably demonstrates why a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

( rant within )