Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

Anti-Muslim propaganda on the BBC

Monday, May 26th, 2008

I’m in the enviable position of not being over-immersed in UK culture. I get my news from only a few very controlled sources (controlled by me). When there is crap in the news I switch it off. But here is something ugly and disappointing from the BBC.

Jail staff ‘fear Muslim inmates’

A Prison Service report has expressed concern about problems with the high number of Muslim inmates at one of Britain’s high-security jails.

That’s the web page of the story. But in the radio world, where the words you use are less set in stone, there was definitely mention of ‘Muslim Gangs’, ‘Out of control’, Serious incident imminent’, blah blah blah. It had the usual, excellent BBC journalistic balance and I have no problem with that, but something ugly about this story struck me.

I’m not sure what makes me more sad. Is it the fact that any news story with the word ‘Muslim’ in it is immediately bumped to the top of the pile? Perhaps its the fact that if it appears to tap into an ancient christian fear of the barbarian Islamic hordes, then it’s bumped even higher? Both of those are undeniably a bad reflection of the current political climate in the UK, but I think what really makes me sad is that BBC Radio 4 actually led with this story on it’s main news programs, including the Westminster hour last night.

Love thy neighbour, people.

Posted in The interweb, In the news | Comments Off

Creepy pet python story

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

I was having dinner with friends last night and someone told the following story about an acquaintance of hers.

So this acquaintance kept a pet python which she’d had since she was a teenager. She loved the snake and used to let it roam around the house and sleep in her bed and the like. Anyway, at some point she realised that all was not well with the snake. It was off it’s food and just acting strangely so of course she takes her pet to the vets. The vet examines the snake and is a bit baffled to begin with, then suddenly stops what he’s doing and asks the girl if she has noticed anything different in the way the snake sleeps.

“Yes”, says the girl, “He used to sleep all curled up in a coil at the end of the bed but now he sleeps beside me lying out straight”. “I’m sorry”, says the vet. “I’m going to have have to ask you to wait outside while I put your snake to sleep”. “To sleep? you mean kill my snake? Why? What’s wrong with it?”. “Nothings wrong with it”. Said the vet. “It’s doing what snakes do, and at the moment it’s sizing you up as it’s next meal, just waiting till it’s big enough to eat you, which could be any day now.”

Posted in In the news, green issues | No Comments »

CerosMedia 2.0

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

I haven’t been writing my blog this week not because I’ve fallen into a crevasse, but because I’ve been writing code. This was no pineapple birth. OK, so there was some raised voices at the end, but c’est normale huh? This puppy went live the day it was supposed to. And how.

This is the best website I’ve ever made. It wasn’t designed by me, or even conceived by me, but I made it. I based the functionality on an up to date drupal 6.2 installation. Messed with it as little as possible. Changed look and feel and added new flash/drupal integration technology that has hitherto only been thought of. Never done. Which is where my fee comes in. I can’t say how much it costs to build a website like the one below, but it’s non-trivial to me.

Have a look at the website now - and tell us…. by contacting cerosmedia.com or listingslab. Were you entertained?

Posted in Doing the business, Technology, The interweb, In the news, General Business, books, Internet/Web Design/Blogging, open source, Technology/Gadgets, carbon jackboot | Comments Off

Pleased to annouce

Thursday, January 3rd, 2008

The start of video content to the blog. I have always enjoyed the extra impact a video can have as a blog post, and like the fact that google open up the API to their youtube offering.

Here’s the new Listings Lab YouTube Channel. Blog digest version 1.0

Posted in Doing the business, Technology, The interweb, In the news, General Business, Internet/Web Design/Blogging, advertising, open source, drupal, Technology/Gadgets, films | No Comments »

Quit your day job. Go on. I dare you.

Archive for the ‘In the news’ Category

Anti-Muslim propaganda on the BBC

Creepy pet python story

CerosMedia 2.0

Pleased to annouce

Pages

Archives

Categories