www.paulnixon.org

American Poll

Some interesting results from a poll carried out in December of a 1000 respondents asking for their views on the coming year.

In 2007...

60% believe that America will be the target of another terrorist attack

60% believe that terrorist will unleash a biological or nuclear attack

35% believe the military draft will be re-instated

25% believe that we will see the second coming of Jesus Christ

Let me say that again..

25% believe that we will see the second coming of Jesus Christ

Time Magazines Top 10s

Books, CDs, games, films, etc

Flash Earth

You've probably seen it before. But it's better than ever I think.

And that genius fella paul neave is involved. He of the excellent asteriods clone.

Sense about Science

A kind of serious Bad Science organisation. To be much applauded I think.

Anyway, they have some great stuff on homeopathy

"Homeopathic preparations have been diluted to such an extent that many do not contain a single molecule of the active ingredient. For example, a common dilution of 30C means that one drop of active ingredient is diluted in 100 drops of water, then a drop of the resulting solution is dissolved in another 100 drops of water, and so on, until 30 dilutions have taken place. The chance of a 30C homeopathic preparation containing one molecule of the original active ingredient is less than the chance of winning the national lottery five weeks in a row. "

and..

"Over 150 clinical trials have failed to show that homeopathy works"

Of course this wouldn't matter, but...

"This followed an investigation by science writer and broadcaster Simon Singh, in collaboration with Sense About Science, which showed that the first ten homeopathic clinics and pharmacies selected from an internet search and consulted were willing to break public health protocols by providing unproven homeopathic pills to protect against malaria and other tropical diseases such as typhoid, dengue fever and yellow fever."

Anyway, here's a thought. Given there's no evidence that any homeopathic remedies work, how do the practioners know which non-existent traces to give you?

Little Thief

Hooray.

Little Chef have gone into administration. Justice.

The only fly in the ointment - "recent negotiations would see almost 200 Little Chef restaurants continue trading."

Diet Time

Wanna now what 200 calories looks like?

You can have nearly 1.5kg of celery or a mere handful of jelly beans. I know which I prefer.

God Hates Fags

And it's OK if we do too.

Well according to Rowan Williams anyway.

"Dr Williams said that while the views of evangelicals on the issue of homosexual sex may be "embarrassing" to liberal Christians, traditional values should not be compared to holocaust denial or racial bigotry."

Nice to see that homophobia is a "traditional value" in the eyes of the church. Presumably misogyny is up there too?

I thought this was a bit rich as well..

"Dr Rowan Williams said the refusal by some student unions to recognise evangelical Christian groups looked like a 'fear of open argument'."

New Tossing Labour

New Labour. Wankers.

Honestly. They've done toss all about the environment. The cost of public transport has steadily increased relative to the cost of motoring. Such is their commitment to the environment they even abandoned the timid measure of the fuel escalator put in place by the Tories.

It is on this backdrop that we have the Environment Minister, Ian Pearson, "launching an outspoken attack on the airline industry".

Here's a bit of news. Private companies have a duty to their shareholders to make money operating their business within the confines of the law. Governments make the laws.

If the government is so interested in environmental issues may I suggest that, rather than blaming private companies for their actions, that they introduce some new laws so that they have to.

Public Sector

It seems to be that absurd levels of incompentency exist in the public sector that would never be allowed in the private sector.

Remember Ruth Kelly proudly unveiling a new system to prevent convicted paedophiles from working in schools?

This time it's the prison service.

"The director general of the Prison Service has admitted that he does not know exactly how many inmates are on the run from open jails."

"Almost 700 offenders absconded in the year to last April from England's 15 open prisons, Mr Wheatley estimated."

Estimated!!

This is because

".. because there is no central database for recording numbers of recaptured prisoners."

Microsoft Excel handles up to 65,536 rows per workbook. I think it could easily manage the 700 esapees.

Spiders on drugs

Very amusing

Gay Rights Bill

Religious groups are going to be displaying their typical levels of tolerance, compassion and understanding today as they plan to protest in Westminster against legislation to prevent them from discriminating against lesbians and gays.

Charming. How bad could things get for the religious?

" A Christian, Jewish or Muslim IT consultant could be forced to build a website promoting gay rights."

One last point. Given god's supposed omnificence, why did he make lesbians and gays at all?

Police State

An actual government poster! Terrifying.

Regular Expressions

xkcd really is fantastic.

A great cartoon if you know what regular expressions are...

Yoga - beware

"A school program to fight childhood obesity that includes yoga is drawing complaints from some Christian parents in the Quesnel area in B.C.'s Cariboo region.

They say yoga is a religion, and shouldn't be taught in public schools."

This is on the basis that the kids have been "asked to do different poses and 'to put his hands together.'"

Moving on..

"There's God and there's the devil, and the devil's not a gentleman. If you give him any kind of an opening, he will take that."

Where do you start?

Funny messageboard stuff

For instance

AMD vs Intel

Anyone thinking of buying a new PC and you're not sure whether to go for an Intel or Athlon processer - look no further than this article - It tests out the latest dual core processers against each other and AMD wins by a country mile.

New Labour Transport

Staggering.

From the horses mouth, Southeastern

"Thank you for your email of 12 January 2007 and for providing copies of your journey tickets as requested. Having investigated the matter further, our Fares Manual shows that the Tramlink tickets are no longer valid and you were sold the correct ticket at £8.00. "

Now that the transport system is a even less integrated I now have to pay £8 per day for my journey instead of £5.60 before Christmas.

A nice little raise of 43%. Imagine if petrol went up by this much.

Cheryl Cole (Tweedy)

Brilliant entry for Cheryl - Shouldn't imagine this will be up for too much longer so I'll paste the good bits

Cheryl Ann Cole, ne?? Tweedy, (born 30 June 1983) is an English singer and member of the girl group Girls Aloud. She is married to the Chelsea and England footballer Ashley Cole, the marriage is one of convenience due to Cole being a homosexual and Tweedy being a racist.

The jury found her guilty of assault occasioning actual bodily harm, but cleared her of racially aggravated assault[2]. The judge sentenced her to 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay her victim ??500 in compensation, as well as ??3000 prosecution costs.

Cole faced criticism not only for the initial incident, but also for showing no remorse whatsoever during the trial and for her subsequent public statements apologising to her fans, record company and bandmates but controversially refusing to apologise to Mrs Amogbokpa herself.[citation needed] Mrs Amogbokpa considered launching a civil court action, but decided not to proceed.

Miss Cole later claimed to regret the incident, saying she admitted she acted incorrectly under the influence of alcohol. She was angered by claims she was racist, citing her friendship with Javine Hylton on Popstars as apparent evidence she was not.

During the Germany 2006 World Cup where Cheryl was supporting fiance Ashley Cole, Cheryl was continuously photographed with the wives and girlfriends of other England football stars, and they made media frenzy with their wild partying and shopping sprees. The British media deemed them the "WAGS" (wives and girlfriends), and highly criticized their wild antics. Cheryl later bashed the other WAGS, criticizing how they live off of their husband or boyfriend's money, and did no work themselves. She made it clear that she had a career with her band Girls Aloud before she ever met Ashley, and does not need to "borrow his plastic" when she goes shopping. However, she spared Victoria Beckham, stating that she's "witty" and "ambitious" and that they have a lot in common, particularly their careers in girl bands.

Tokyo

Wow!

Miserable Cycling

Well, it's been a pretty miserable few months for cyclists weather-wise.

Apart from the seemingly constantly windy conditions, it has rained. A lot.

Oct : 25% more than normal

Nov : 36% more then normal

Dec : 51% more than normal

Why are old CD's so quiet?

In fact, the question should be why are new CD's so loud?

It's coz they've been compressed to the extreme. Which isn't good for their dynamic range, but seems to make the artists happy...

Google Maps Pedometer

Useful, but ugly pedometer atop google maps.

Religion in America

A thoughtful argument about the rise of religion in America.

"The engine that drives the radical Christian Right in the United States, the most dangerous mass movement in American history, is not religiosity, but despair. It is a movement built on the growing personal and economic despair of tens of millions of Americans, who watched helplessly as their communities were plunged into poverty by the flight of manufacturing jobs, their families and neighborhoods torn apart by neglect and indifference, and who eventually lost hope that America was a place where they had a future."

And, depressingly..

"The top one percent of American households have more wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined."

What they need is a few more tax cuts for the poor. Fools.

Buffon's Needle

Very cool.

Jade Goody

Groan. On and on it goes.

The only thing that interests me is the notion that her "career" might be in jeopardy. Career!

I'm no expert in these matters, but what sort of person buys the perfume or fitness (!) dvd of an uneducated, uncouth and untalented celebration of igorance and high chav in the first place?

Are there really scenes around the country like this?

Husband : Darling, I've bought you perfume..

Wife : Ah. Jade Goody

Front Page News

It'll be front page news next!

Great Photoshop Tutorial

Great tutorial. And my mediocre effort. I didn't do the king of cats much justice.

New Labour New Low

Wow. Just when you thought they could not get any lower.

Here's an article by Frank Field in the Guardian. The gist is the question - why are the police wasting time investigating the cash for honours scandal when they should be trying to prevent terrorism?

So, because of the threat of terrorism, the police should not investigate any lesser crimes? Does Frank Field believe the police are only capable of investigating a single crime at a time?

AC Grayling

Fantastic article again.

"Seven centuries after the beginnings of classical civilisation in the Greece of Pericles and Socrates, an oriental superstition, consisting of an amalgam of dying and resurrecting god myths and myths about the impregnation of mortal maids by deities, captured the Roman Empire. Such was the beginning of Christianity. By the accident of its being the myth chosen by Constantine for his purposes, it plunged Europe into the dark ages for the next thousand years - scarcely any literature or philosophy, and the forgetting of the arts and crafts of classical civilisation (quite literally a return to daub and wattle because the engineering required for towers and domes was lost), before a struggle to escape the church's narrow ignorance and oppression saw the rebirth of classical learning, and its ethos of inquiry and autonomy, in the Renaissance."

Including a quote from Bertrand Russell that I'd not previously heard.

"Jesus was not as intelligent as Socrates or as compassionate as the Buddha"

US Name Search

Managed to find 1 Gaylord Bender, 2 Dick Heads and 870 people whwith the surname of Minge (but just one of those has Harry as their first name)...

Fatal Hilarity

I think I must have come very close to this on several occasions.

Most notably thanks to Steve Coogan.

The End of the World

Depends on which ancient book you read really.

Anyway, take your pick from Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. All wrong of course.

Amdahl's law

Am I the only person that thinks that Amdahl's Law should be applied to the problems of the environment?

Have I got something wrong?

Planning Alerts

I'm not sure about you, but I sat round drinking and getting fat over Christmas.

In the Guardian today. Who's the man?

myFoodPhone

Ha. A geniunely brilliant idea.

- you take the pictures of what you eat - meal, snack, whatever [sic]

- our nutrition advisors analyse it

- you get personalized video feedback

- you see Results!

Only $9.99 per month.

Superb.

More Bad Driving

It almost looks impossible

Christmas!

OK. 6 weeks late or 40 odd weeks early. But this is funny.

42 Questions

Excellent article in Wired magazine.

Basically 42 things that we do not know. For example.

Where did life come from?

How does the brain produce consciousness?

Why do placebos work?

Why do we sleep?

Why do the poles reverse?

I only learnt that the poles reversed every so often quite recently. Fascinating.

The Guide Horse Foundation

Guide horses for the blind.

Support this worthy cause!

isotope2

Very cool virtual spirograph type thing.

Stiff Upper Lip

Brilliant.

I haven't read the whole article but how about this for an eye-popping opening sentence of the second paragraph?

"Displaying the stiff-upper-lip spirit that built an empire"

Unhappy Meals

Good, if long, article about diet and nutrition.

Put (very) simply - "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants."

This is a nice quote too

"When Kellogg???s can boast about its Healthy Heart Strawberry Vanilla cereal bars, health claims have become hopelessly compromised. (The American Heart Association charges food makers for their endorsement.) Don???t take the silence of the yams as a sign that they have nothing valuable to say about health."