Freedom of speech, freedom of the press

Tom Reynolds, in his excellent blog, has made available the Powerpoint presentation of his presentation on blogging v the media.

This brings up an interesting example of how the press, supposedly regulated, and supposedly populated by individuals who have to undergo courses on ethics, can overstep the mark (I am trying to be diplomatic here).

Girl with a One Track Mind is a blog. I have to confess I haven't read it, in fact even if I was inclined to, I would worry as it contains some pretty explicit content, and anyone reading over my shoulder in the office would rightly be able to kick up a fuss!

The Sunday Times tried to identify "Abby Lee", the girl in question. They used tactics outlined in Tom's presentation, and that Abby herself has outlined in this post.

The heartening thing is that this case demonstrates the power of people in communities. One could argue that the "blogosphere" (like Tom, I hate that word!) is an artificial community, but in some ways it is much more organic than physical communities - people are brought together by shared interests, hence my virtual friendship with JD, a young man who is roughly my age, who shares with me the simultaneous joy and despair of commuting.

If you want proof of this, then simply type the name of Sunday Times journo "Nicholas Hellen" into Google. After his harassment of "Abby", bloggers all around kicked up such a fuss, and tagged the site. So now Nicholas Hellen's legacy is that the first link you see in Google is directly linking to "Abby"'s sexually explicit blog.

I really hope that next time he applies for a job, his prospective employers Google his name...

It's not just Jade

From Popbitch:

Jade on Shilpa Shetty: "Shilpa Poppadom"

The Sun headline for Chinese snooker star
Ding Junghui: "Pot Noodle"

End of an era

So here is the dramatic commuting news. Today is my last day as a full-on, 53-miles-to-work-and-53-back, commuter.

This weekend, we are upping sticks and moving. My daily commute will have reduced from two and a half hours a day, to about half an hour to get to and from work (45 minutes in rush hour). My daily mileage will reduce from 105 miles, to less than 12 miles a day.

The house in Nottingham is being rented out, I hope that my nuisance neighbour doesn't bother the tenants. We are renting a flat near to Sutton Coldfield. We have promised our families that we will still come back to Nottingham regularly (especially my girlfriend's grandmother, who is very upset that we are leaving, and to whom we have promised we will visit most weekends).

I didn't mind the driving. In fact I like driving. But I don't like sitting in traffic. And other drivers (particularly in Vectras, Passats, BMWs and a variety of 4x4s) tend not to be too considerate to Nissan Micras. I will gain at least two hours a day - that is effectively one day extra per week. I will be less frazzled, I will have a better quality of life, and my girlfriend will get to spend more time with me. I can start having hobbies again. I won't have to get up at 6am. And I will save thousands of pounds every year on fuel.

It will be strange. But I don't think I will miss it. I now hand the mantle of chief commuter over to JD...

Blood, Sweat and Tea

I have recently purchased the compendium of Tom Reynold's excellent blog, "Random Acts of Reality". It is called "Blood, Sweat and Tea", and follows Tom's working life as an Emergency Medical Technician for the London Ambulance Service.

Tom's most recent post on his blog covers a really crucial issue - are there enough ambulances, and ambulance staff to go around? More to the point, is there any foundation to the lurid newspaper headlines, which suggest that people are dying because ambulance staff are being allowed lunch breaks?

I get very annoyed when I read this - I fully agree with Tom's point that the best way to reduce the burden on our emergency services is to teach them what is, and is not, appropriate for a 999 call. For instance, I felt justified in calling the police when a man started to climb through my bedroom window in the middle of the night (luckily he ran off and we were unharmed). However, it is perhaps less justifiable to call an ambulance for a cold, or for an injury sustained a couple of days ago (both of which are bugbears for Tom).

Anyway, the link to the blog has been on the right hand side of this page for some time now, and the book is available at a cheap price from Amazon.

It isn't easy being this beautiful

It is both a blessing and a curse having inherited eyelashes from my Mum's side of the family. One the one hand, even though I am a boy, they sho' make me look pretty (is that my tongue in my cheek?). One the other hand, when I woke up yesterday morning, I had a pain in my eye. I had a look, expecting to find an eyelash in there (this is pretty common for me). But there was nothing there. But the pain was still there, so I had another look, pulling my eyelid as far out of the way as I could. There I saw the mother of all eyelashes, right in the corner. I slowly and painstakingly fished it out, and when I did I discovered that it was in fact two really thick eyelashes. Reeling from the shock of this, I realised that I still had an itch in the same eye, and found another eyelash on the other side. So three eyelashes in one eye all in one go - it must have been the first working day of the New Year...

Happy New Year to you all by the way. I had every intention of updating this blog while I was off work over Christmas, but decided to have a well-earned rest for a few days. The period over New Year is a little hazy; this is nothing to do with alcohol, but everything to do with a nasty virus that means I remember little of the weekend leading up to the turn of the year. I vaguely remember seeing a little New Year's TV but think I was fast asleep at midnight. I still felt pretty ropey on my return to work earlier this week, but seem to be doing better now.

Anyway, returning to the subject in hand, it meant that I haven't written much - on my lunchbreak today I managed to write a little on Baz's blog, and am now using my tea break to write this.

For the record, Santa brought me an Amazon voucher, a wireless mouse my laptop, and a couple of DVDs. My parents were away for Christmas, but they left me a little money, which I am sure will be spent wisely. Also, congratulations to my former class- and housemate at university, Ed Bowater, who has had his first novel published. I haven't spoken to Ed for some years now, but wish him all the best with his writing career.

For those of you on "commuter-watch" (hello JD!), please note that there will be some dramatic news coming up soon...

Happy New Year

Sent to me by a colleague (apparently she got it from a GP's surgery):

Politically Correct Holiday Greetings

We wanted to send some sort of holiday greeting to our trusted neighbours but it is so difficult in today's world to know what to say without offending someone. So we met with out solicitor yesterday and on his advice we wish to say the following:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, jointly and severally our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non addictive, gender neutral celebration of the winter holiday, practiced with the most enjoyable traditions of religious persuasions or secular practices of your choice with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all.

We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make out country great (not to imply that it is necessarily greater than any other country) and without regard to the race, creed, colour, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishees.

By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms:

This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher actually to implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or the issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wishers.

Disclaimer: No trees were harmed in the sending of this message; however, a significant number of electrons were slightly inconvenienced.