The recent stories about the man claiming to suffer from an “allergy” to wi-fi were not just, as I initially thought, someone with a psychosomatic problem; it was a publicity stunt that cleverly exploited journalists’ inability to check facts. Continue reading
Month: July 2009
LA Times false accusation of Facebook
Yet more examples of the wonderful fact checking that we can rely on journalists to do, the LA Times has a story that relies entirely on the authority of “someone’s blog said so”, accusing Facebook of using user’s photos in ads without permission. It was soon convincingly re-butted by Facebook. Continue reading
National Portait Gallery and everlasting copyrights
I had not intended to blog about the National Portrait Gallery threatening to sue Wikipedia over the latter’s publication of copies of paintings in the gallery, as I thought it would be obvious to anyone that this is a blatant attempt to use physical possession of a work to get around the expirations of copyrights. Tactics like this can effectively extend copyright indefinitely. Continue reading
Less free speech in Ireland
The Irish apparently do not like freedom of speech. Everyone will be subject to the same restriction to prevent speech that might actually criticise beliefs or encourage people to think for themselves, that British broadcasters are already subject to. At leas in Ireland it is the courts that have the final say, in Britain it is Ofcom and the completely unaccountable bureaucrats at the IWF Continue reading
Credulous police and bad English
I cannot decide whether I am more shocked by the news that the police are relying on Wikipedia, or the bad English in this discussion of it (more of the comments that attempt to use the word “credible” get it wrong than get it right).
Why blogs are better than newspapers
Here is an example. It is readable (even if you skip the calculations), explains the argument for expecting a strong recovery, and why it may not happen. Continue reading