Author Archive

Am I missing something?

In the continuing fiasco about the lost data, HMRC has now offered a reward of £20,000 for the return of the missing discs. This after police searched municipal waste dumps to find them. In other news, the discs brought by a mechanic from Maclaren’s formula 1 team to his new employers Renualt “have been returned”.… Continue reading Am I missing something?

Genius, moi?

I discovered the Blog Readability test via John Naughton, and had to do it of course. Gratifying, if baffling, to come out at Genius. Anyway, it means I can post a nice banner over there—-> showing a brain.

Working class

As a non-telly viewer, I’ll miss The Royal Family At Work. But it’ll be a pretty short programme, won’t it?

Bad Science

I frequently share in the “shared items” section over there —-> Ben Goldacre’s “Bad Science” column. It’s unfailingly interesting, frequently funny, and often features some jaw-droppingly appalling manipulation of science by self-declared experts who are exposed by Ben as complete charlatans. The equally admirable David Colquhoun does a similar job on his website. On World… Continue reading Bad Science

Kindle: The Holy Grail for ebooks?

Kindle: The Holy Grail or the last gasp of eBooks? : OUPblog This is a very interesting development, especially as it has the power of Amazon behind it. Carry something the size and weight of one book, but with 200+ books’ worth of reading onboard. It’s intriguing…Amazon has a demo here.

Telegraph hack knows nothing about education shock

I was so annoyed about this article by Simon Heffer that I posted a lengthy, and not entirely coherent reply. Gratifying to see that even Telegraph readers can see, for the most part, what nonsense this is. I wrote the following, but it’s worth checking the link to see the comments of others. Somehow, I… Continue reading Telegraph hack knows nothing about education shock

Writing for Profit revisited

Some time ago, I blogged about the advertisements that the mail-order writing course Writers Bureau place regularly in the national press. The general tone of the adverts was that their course could open the door for you to become a professional writer, earning lots of money. This was supported by testimonials from apparently successful clients.… Continue reading Writing for Profit revisited

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