alfa.org.uk

Ooh, news. The most excellent Ben Folds will be the musical guest on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross this week.

Unfortunately you have to sit through the sycophantic fop to get this reward, but oh well.

Andrew Marr is stepping down as the BBC’s political editor.

This is really really bad news, he is brilliant.

Please go and read this awesome thread about a new restaurant just opened in Chicago. It will blow your mind.

There’s a typically brilliant article on Bruce Schneier’s website about the reporting of terrorism in mainstream media. It includes this gem:

“One of the things I routinely tell people is that if it’s in the news, don’t worry about it. By definition, “news” means that it hardly ever happens. If a risk is in the news, then it’s probably not worth worrying about. When something is no longer reported — automobile deaths, domestic violence — when it’s so common that it’s not news, then you should start worrying.”

Hear hear.

A few things to start the week with:

1. Today’s dieselsweeties comic is brilliant.
2. Have you ever noticed that in the Boyzone classic “No Matter What” it’s Stephen Gately that sings the line “I can’t be what I’m not”. How ironic… ;-)
3. The new Ben Folds album is brilliant - highly recommended.
4. I spent Saturday cycling on the Isle of Wight. You can see some photos.
5. There’s an online effort to create a dictionary where each definition is a limerick. I thought this might appeal to some of my readership ;-)

That’s all.

A few random thoughts on election day:

1. I wonder how many people noticed that the BBC used Radiohead’s Electioneering as the background music to one of their news items the other day.
2. I see the BBC have a helpful Guide To Voting on their website today. I wonder how many people there are that are a) stupid enough to not know how to vote, and b) intelligent enough to know how to use a computer and the internet.

I voted before work, for what it’s worth. Frankly, the chances of Labour losing Southampton Test (Alan Whitehead, majority 11,207) are remote at best. However, as I was looking at my ballot paper to double-check I hadn’t accidentally voted for UKIP I had an idea…

At the moment, ballot papers have a list of candidates on the left-hand side, and a row of boxes on the right. You place an ‘X’ next to the candidate of your choice. This is far too simplistic.

What I want is a list of candidates on the left-hand side, and a list of the parties on the right, in a random order. To vote for a candidate you have to draw a line, correctly connecting their name to the name of their party.

That’d sort things out (well, that and proportional representation).

There are some great photos at this site. This one is a personal favourite :)

I’m currently enjoying Minuteman - Resigned To Life, I can recommend it. Apparently they sound like Mull Historical Society, but I hear a big Smashing Pumpkins influence. Anyway, it’s a great debut album :)

Google Maps Supports UK.

This is so unbelievably cool - try dragging the map and zooming in and out.

“Outre Tony Blair, la délégation britannique comprendra également le prince
Charles (qui a reporté d’un jour son mariage avec Camila Parker Bowles -
lire en page 21), l’archevêque de Canterbury (chef spirituel de l’Eglise
anglicane), mais aussi Mr Bean, l’acteur comique Rowan Williams.”

Link