Mark's Musings
A miscellany of opinions, thoughts, rants and comments
Current Events, Politics and News
The Good Samaritan
Several bishops voted in the Lords last night to oppose the government’s welfare reform proposals. Here’s a story Jesus might have told, if he were sitting on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral this morning. A man was walking through the East End one evening when he was attacked by robbers who stole his wallet, [...]
Current Events, Digital Lunacy, Internet, Politics and News
Why David Aaronovitch is wrong about Wikipedia and SOPA
Journalist David Aaronovitch has a full page opinion article in The Times today, which I can’t link to as it isn’t openly available online, in which he complains that “There’s nothing noble in this Wiki blackout”. Although the article is ostensibly about the decision by Wikipedia to join the anti-SOPA blackout, which he calls “self [...]
Current Events, Politics and News
HS2 – it’s for real people, not metropolitan journalists
Simon Jenkins, writing in the Guardian, isn’t in favour of HS2. Before getting into the detail of why not, he starts with this comment: HS2 will cost taxpayers £1bn a year in interest alone, all so a few rich business people can get to Birmingham earlier And in that one sentence he demonstrates exactly why [...]
Digital Lunacy, Internet, Politics
Study finds that filesharing is about convenience, not unwillingness to pay
Courtesy of an article in El Reg, I discovered an interesting report prepared by US think-tank American Assembly and Columbia University. Rather drily titled “Copyright Infringement and Enforcement in the US“, it’s a summarised set of results from an extensive survey of the America public. Obviously, the US isn’t the UK and some of the [...]
Digital Lunacy, Music
Digital music sales soar in 2011. BPI sees glass as half empty.
According to a press release from the BPI, sales of digital music rocketed in 2011: Adele’s 21 reaches 3.8m sales – the biggest-ever selling album in a single year. Fourth successive year of record singles sales, up 10.0% to 177.9m CD still accounts for a strong three-quarter share of UK album sales. Digital album sales [...]
Current Events, Politics and News
The Good Samaritan
Posted on 24 January 2012
Several bishops voted in the Lords last night to oppose the government’s welfare reform proposals. Here’s a story Jesus might have told, if he were sitting on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral this morning. A man was walking through the East End one evening when he was attacked by robbers who stole his wallet, [...] Continue Reading
Current Events, Digital Lunacy, Internet, Politics and News
Why David Aaronovitch is wrong about Wikipedia and SOPA
Posted on 19 January 2012
Journalist David Aaronovitch has a full page opinion article in The Times today, which I can’t link to as it isn’t openly available online, in which he complains that “There’s nothing noble in this Wiki blackout”. Although the article is ostensibly about the decision by Wikipedia to join the anti-SOPA blackout, which he calls “self [...] Continue Reading
Current Events, Politics and News
HS2 – it’s for real people, not metropolitan journalists
Posted on 11 January 2012
Simon Jenkins, writing in the Guardian, isn’t in favour of HS2. Before getting into the detail of why not, he starts with this comment: HS2 will cost taxpayers £1bn a year in interest alone, all so a few rich business people can get to Birmingham earlier And in that one sentence he demonstrates exactly why [...] Continue Reading
Digital Lunacy, Internet, Politics
Study finds that filesharing is about convenience, not unwillingness to pay
Posted on 07 January 2012
Courtesy of an article in El Reg, I discovered an interesting report prepared by US think-tank American Assembly and Columbia University. Rather drily titled “Copyright Infringement and Enforcement in the US“, it’s a summarised set of results from an extensive survey of the America public. Obviously, the US isn’t the UK and some of the [...] Continue Reading
Digital Lunacy, Music
Digital music sales soar in 2011. BPI sees glass as half empty.
Posted on 02 January 2012
According to a press release from the BPI, sales of digital music rocketed in 2011: Adele’s 21 reaches 3.8m sales – the biggest-ever selling album in a single year. Fourth successive year of record singles sales, up 10.0% to 177.9m CD still accounts for a strong three-quarter share of UK album sales. Digital album sales [...] Continue Reading
Current Events, Digital Lunacy, Internet
Competing with free: The challenge for publishers in the digital age
Posted on 01 January 2012
An article in today’s Sunday Times (sorry, no link due to the Murdoch anti-journalism paywall) is headlined “Pirates plunder ebooks trade”. As you might expect from the title, it’s all about how publishers are suffering from unauthorised downloads. This was always going to happen, of course, and the publishers are only experiencing what the music [...] Continue Reading
Music, Personal, Rants and Ramblings
Disco 2012
Posted on 31 December 2011
I went shopping today. Decided to hit the sales, and came back with a new suit and a deep fat fryer. Exciting, eh? No? Oh well. I’d taken Ellie with me, mainly because I’d promised her a day out and she’s not old enough yet to realise that when I promise a day out and [...] Continue Reading
Current Events, Digital Lunacy, Politics and News
Heroes and Villains of 2011
Posted on 29 December 2011
I’m assuming, of course, that no-one will do anything particularly heroic or villainous over the next couple of days. But here, in no particular order, are my nominations for ten heroes and ten villains of 2011. Heroes George Monbiot. When the green lobby was lathering itself up in a state of self-induced hysteria over Fukushima, [...] Continue Reading
Music, Songs and poems for advent
Fairytale of New York
Posted on 24 December 2011
This is, quite simply, the best Christmas song ever recorded. I’ll explain why further down, but for now, just enjoy it. So, what’s so good about this song? It stands some deconstruction, so let’s pull it apart a bit. Unusually for a (near) chart topper, it’s a narrative song -- a form which is common [...] Continue Reading
Freedom of Information, Politics and News
Santa and FOI – it’s the silly season for news
Posted on 23 December 2011
A widely reported press release by the Local Government Association tells us of the “top unusual Freedom of Information (FoI) requests submitted to local authorities”. Here, for your delectation, is that very top 10: 1. How does the council plan to help the brave soldiers of our infantry if and when Napoleon and his marauding [...] Continue Reading
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