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Counterknowledge
This slim volume is a well aimed blast at what should be relatively small proportion of our society who believe in some facile and provably untrue beliefs. Yet, as we know, there are all too many people who follow suspect “nutritionists”, waste money on homoeopathy, pay too much attention to 9/11 mythologies, and read “history”…
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Valuable Advertising Space
Imagine making your first trip to London. You want to see the sights, so where do you go? I’m not talking about shopping or museums – just the sights. Well you’ll probably want to see Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. The London Eye’s an essential trip these days if the queues…
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Look After Your Stuff
So you’ve got some valuable documents and perhaps some cash that you need to look after. You decide you want to put them in a safe. Surely, if you’re that concerned, you’ll want to spend more than £7.98?
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iPlayer
It’s interesting to note that the BBC is now advertising the iPlayer quite significantly. I’ve seen ads on the Guardian Unlimited site, as well as search ads in Gmail. On top of both of these there are the TV “ads” on BBC television.
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Tin-Pan Dead End Alley
“Pandora’s ex-customers in the UK will be wondering why the service they want can’t be catered for by the recording industry. And they are not alone – for what are the millions of illicit peer-to-peer file-sharers, but a huge potential market? Internet users are showing the industry how they want their music in the digital…
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Newsworthiness of Product Launches
Rory Cellan-Jones has a pretty spot-on analysis of a certain company’s new product announcement yesterday. The argument put to him is that a new model of Ford Focus probably affects more people. I’m not sure that in hard numbers it does, but the point is well made. Now if Bic launched a new version of…
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Podcasting: The Future
Last night the Radio Academy held an event in London to talk about podcasting. It was interesting to a point, although whether or not we learnt a great deal, I’m not so sure. You can listen to a podcast of the event at the Radio Academy’s website (I’m pretty sure registration isn’t required). Some points…
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Top Gear USA
Mediaguardian reports that NBC has ordered a pilot of Top Gear to be made in the US and hosted by Americans. Now aside from the fact that with the writers’ strike now in its 11th or 12th week, the networks need non-scripted programming to fill out the end of the season, could the choice of…
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The Tens
I spent the ten o’clock hour flicking a bit to see the return of Sir Trevor and News at Ten, and to see what the BBC was doing. The opening title sequence was actually pretty good, although it felt like there were a few too many bongs. ITV had an exclusive interview with someone related…
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When Urban Myths Are Reported As News
I was disappointed recently, when watching the Ewan McGregor/Charlie Boorman series Long Way Down, that they reinforced the nonsense about water going down the plug clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on whether you’re in the northern or southern hemisphere. Along the border, there’s a few quid to be made perpetuating this party trick to unwitting tourists.…
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Word Magazine Podcast
Word magazine is by far the best music magazine around these days, coming with a fascinating cover CD and always having thoroughly interesting pieces inside. Accompanying the magazine is the podcast which I always find to be worth a listen. This week, the Radio Academy’s Trevor Dann turned up for it, and he some strongly…
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Crashing Out
My favourite over-used phrase comes from tennis. Whenever a Brit is knocked out of a tennis tournament, they aren’t defeated – they crash out. Andy Murray lost earlier this morning and Google News tells me that there are already 171 articles about Murray that include the phrases “crashes out.” Glad to see that sub-editors remain…
Podcasts, Radio, TV, Books, Cycling, Photography and More
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Yellowface/All The Lovers In The Night
Yellowface by R F Kuang I first came across R F Kuang with last year’s very enjoyable Babel, an alternate history of the British Empire told in a world where magic exists and is controlled by an elite group of individuals. Yellowface is very different, but no less enjoyable. It’s a book about books, and…
Hadrian’s Wall
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