If greyeyedeve can play, so can I...

Fresh from being the first band to mention public-key encryption in a major record release, Cracker appear to have just one-upped themselves in the geek stakes. (The song's pretty good, too.)

As if the soon-to-be-ex-government's soon-to-be-ex-ID card scheme wasn't looking doomed enough already, The Register today has a detailed article about just how poorly David Blunkett's magical biometrics are likely to work in reality. (Short answer: poorly.)

Oh, and large number of council workers have been fired or reprimanded for using the DWP' ( Read more... )

A few weeks ago the last chapter of Mohiro Kitoh's Bokurano was finally published. After taking the time to re-read the completed story from the beginning I've been wondering how to organise my thoughts in such a way as to be able to discuss it without spoiling it for anyone else ( Read more... )

Because Hollywood really is overdue for its date with the pacific right about now.

Bad dreams? We've got just the thing for you: homeopathic plutonium!

Also, it seems that the Faux News reporter who got sacked for talking about pirated copies of Wolverine is now claiming that he was really fired to appease the Scientologists. Whilst I certainly wouldn't put it past the Clams to be that vindictive (in fact I'd expect them to be ( Read more... )

Apparently Facebook and LiveJournal have received financial backing from the "colourful" Alisher Usmanov, infamous rapist, gangster, blackmailer and close personal friend of dissident-boiling Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov. (Oh, he's also famous for having Schillings send intimidating legal letters to anyone who suggests he's other than a heroic ( Read more... )

Bill Maher on the ever-increasing wackiness of Texas and its creationist governor:

Click to view

What's this? Another "terror plot" with no actual terror? Quick, we'd better deport these dangerous subversives before they magic bomb-making equipment out of thin air. Or say something embarrassing about the government.

Meanwhile, across the pond: Ah, delicious irony.

Quelle surprise: Dick Cheney has crawled out of his crypt to tell an approving Faux News that torture is just fine when he orders it. (Clearly the 182nd time's the charm when it comes to waterboarding...) Can anyone tell me why this pestilential ghoul is allowed to walk the streets instead of being in jail where he belongs?

Dear BBC: No, waterboarding is not a "controversial" nor a "harsh" "interrogation technique". It is torture, both legally and morally. This is not a partisan position, so who exactly are you attempting to mollify by avoiding the correct words? Neither is it "simulated" drowning: water enters the victim's lungs. It is actual drowning - " ( Read more... )