A couple of weeks ago Oliver Wright of The Independent ran a hatchet job, both horrible and nonsensical, about the head of the RCGP, Clare Gerada — the tireless and currently ubiquitous critic of the NHS privatisation Health and Social Care Bill. You may remember Ben Goldacre wrote about Oliver […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog — this time from March 2009. The past few weeks seem to have seen laments for the decline of journalism and obituaries for old media reaching a critical mass. BoraZ has kindly collected a few dozen so that I don’t have […]
According to SCIENTISTS, “pollution is not improved by c-charge.” (“Improved”? These scientists are so sloppy with their language.) Journalists all over the city are this week reporting that the congestion charge has not reduced air pollution problems in central London, and that’s a fact, proven by science. (As far as […]
This is another archival repost from the old blog. Wikipedia avoids weasel words. It attributes statements to their sources, rather than to “some people say”. Can you imagine a newspaper surviving five minutes with such a policy? When somebody hoaxes Wikipedia, the article quickly gets investigated and deleted within three […]
It’s another frequently raised fact in comment threads and pub agreements. Everybody knows it’s true. If it wasn’t true, why would everybody know it and repeat it all the time? They can’t all be wrong. You would think though that such a fact, with all of the resources of the […]
“End to the war on the motorists? No, driving’s never cost more,” declares Mark King, Money Editor, in The Observer today. To be fair to King, he doesn’t actually say anything as absurd as that driving has “never cost more” in his article — but newspaper headline writers have never […]
Apparently Steve Coogan is a huge fan of Top Gear. I’m told by many that, whatever you think of the presenters’ contributions to xenophobia and misogyny, you have to admit that the show is funny and entertaining. Continue reading at At War With The Motorist…
“Pickles and Hammond to end the war on motorists.” The Department for Communities and Local Government put these words in a press release and today 221 national and local newspaper journalists* copypasted them into their newspapers, noticing nothing nonsensical in their conjunction. Great job, The Media. Continue reading at At […]
This is another archival repost of something posted on the old blog in 2007. What is it with Channel 4 and the examination of excretions? During How Toxic Are Your Kids (C4, Thurs 8pm) I had to check the television guide to make sure that Armando Iannucci (The Day Today, […]
This is an archival re-post of something written last summer on the old blog. Any Questions, one half of BBC Radio 4’s weekly foray into the realm of mindless US-style talk radio bigotry, this week invited a panel of historians, novelists, and journalists to share their poorly considered thoughts on […]
Christina Odone reviewed Bill Maher’s film Religulous on Radio 4’s Front Row (start: 9m). “He gets some very good replies from some terribly soft targets.” She’s thinking particularly of creationist-sympathising US Senator Mark Pryor (D-AK). She goes on, “… but the most revealing moment is when Maher faces down a […]
I want to take a short diversion from normal service to add to the occasional series “arguments so bad my jaw literally drops.” I have forgotten exactly what radio programme I heard it on, but it was probably one of those vacuous pseudo-intellectual radio four programmes staffed by Daily Mail […]
Gulliver has a beer. This is an archival repost of something written on the old blog in august 2009. As always, it was great to see everybody at Science Online, and great shame not to have more time to talk to everybody. A Sunday afternoon informal in the park next […]
This is another repost originally written for the old blog in 2007. Over the next few years or decades, traditional antibiotics will largely be replaced by bacteriophages. Like everything in biology and medicine, this is ultimately down to evolution. Pathogenic bacteria are alive: they reproduce, with slight imperfections, and are […]
From the cult of the amateur to the triumph of miscellanea, a revolution in how we interact with information is in its early stages. I don’t use the term “revolution” lightly. You could be forgiven for thinking it hyperbolic, because traditional publishers have been slow on the uptake. If you […]