The No. 10 petition for a public apology of the treatment of Alan Turing has been covered by the BBC. Hopefully this will help more people know about the story behind the man and his eponymous machines and test, and attract more people to the petition.

According to BBC News Online the government want us all to get online. But this announcement comes in the same week it emerged that (dark) Lord Mandelson wants to give himself the power to cut people (and everyone else using that account) off the internet if they are suspected of downloading copyright material (suspected - no legal procedure to ( Read more... )

Amazon has a special section described as WTF:

http://www.amazon.com/tag/wtf/products/ref=tag_gam_ptcn_istp

Chicken Poop Lip Balm? Inflatable Party Sheep?????

This from William Gibson and allegedly via Paul MacAuley...

Can I wash my eyes out now?

Rather amusing video here explaining why climate camp won't tell the police where it is ( Read more... )

If you really feel that the release of a convicted man to die at home with some dignity and peace is "detrimental to the cause of justice", "makes a mockery of the rule of law", and "gives comfort to terrorists", then what are you going to do about the ex-IRA terrorists and terrorist funders of Noraid who have lived free from prosecution in the US ( Read more... )

Time in, just over 40 minutes, time back, pretty much 40 minutes on. Pretty good! I had one nasty pot hole incident on the way back with a large hole at the junction of Theobald's Road and Rosebury's Avenue. Cars on both sides going at significant speed and a hole which seemed huge dead ahead. I gritted my teeth, held my course and bumped over it. ( Read more... )

Thanks to Charlie for linking to the yearly reminder of things the new intake of undergraduates have known provided by Beloit CollegeSome scary examples ( Read more... )

There is this urban myth that goes around that you need to write a million words of shit before you can start writing friction competently. Looking at my LJ stats is interesting in this context ( Read more... )

Amid all the storm and drang about US Healthcare reform, I'm beginning to get the impression that there is an underlying assumption that the 'anti-reformers' have that needs to be investigated ( Read more... )

If true, then this is rather interesting - a commercialization of the former USSR military manned space station and associated reusable rentry vehicle. The claims that it will turn a profit rapidly are interesting and have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the prospect of a new way of getting science operations into space for 10 day durations ( Read more... )