ThePickards
standards, accessibility, and ranting and general stuff by the web chemist

And yes, you’re right, I could not possibly have come up with a more contrived post title. Anyway, this is just a little heads up to let y’all know I’ve joined GAWDS. I’ve even added the little GAWDS logo to my Worn With Pride section.

Read: Oh my GAWDness me! »

It’s been a funny time for me recently. I ran naked for about four hours — being chased by the local law enforcement for the first hour — because all my clothes and things got locked in a chest miles and miles away from where I was; I’ve been spending a lot of time sneaking [...]

Read: Fear and Loathing in Cyrodil City »

…or rather, they may be, but atheism is not a scientific theory. It is an untestable belief in the lack of a God. I’ve argued about this issue many times, partly because while I would like to believe in a God (as that might help my thanatophobia), I personally find it difficult to believe. However, [...]

Read: Scientists Aren’t Atheists »

Aarrr, that be right, ye scurvy dogs! Today be Talk Like A Pirate Day where the whole point is to lay about ye with your belayin’ pin at those landlubbers ye want to get to walk the plank.
So, grab yourself a lusty wench and a bottle of rum, and go get your timbers shivered, mateys…

Read: TLAP 2006 »

A headline in today’s Newcastle Evening Chronicle said “Public were split on child-seat law”. The first paragraph then reads:
Parents have given a mixed response to new laws forcing them to have special car seats for their children.Newcastle Evening Chronicle 19 Sep 2006
Hmm… that’s interesting, I thought. We’ve got too kids and while they are in [...]

Read: A Mixed Reception? »

Okay, it’s time to come clean. I’m mentally ill. Well, I’m thanatophobic, anyway. I’ll let you make up your own mind as to how unhinged that actually is. So what is it, then?
A true medical diagnosis, this fear is characterized by an abnormal or irrational fear of death. This fear is often debilitating.Wikipedia
I’ll just point [...]

Read: Living with thanatophobia »

The guerilla artist known as Banksy has been at work again. I’ll let the Beeb tell you in their own words:
A life-size replica of a Guantanamo Bay detainee has been placed in Disneyland by “guerrilla artist” Banksy … it is understood to have remained in place for 90 minutes before the ride was closed down [...]

Read: Banksy Does Disney »

I’d been reading last month about how Pluto is officially no longer a planet, and I’d thought about writing about it, but never got round to it. Then today I read Eric Meyer’s post on the Plutonian Process and thought, what the heck, I might as well get round to doing it now. Incidentally, although [...]

Read: Pluto: Planet, Schmanet, Janet! »

It’s difficult to believe that five years ago today some fuckheads flew passenger planes into the Twin Towers in New York city, killing thousands of people. Sure, it happened, but I find it difficult to believe that anyone could believe that doing a thing like this was anything other than an evil act.
As Bruce Lawson [...]

Read: Twin Towers, Five Years On »

No, really, it is. What the Transitional DOCTYPE was for was for allowing you to include presentational elements within your markup that tied back to versions of HTML prior to version 4.01. And frankly, anyone who is using a DOCTYPE is likely to be in favour of clean, semantic code, which means separating your content [...]

Read: It’s time to kill off Transitional DOCTYPEs »