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

…or something.
A football club has criticised police for banning them from drinking champagne to celebrate a title win.
The bottles were produced at East Stirlingshire’s Firs Park after East Fife moved to an unassailable 24-point lead in the Scottish Third Division. Directors were warned that having alcohol in glass containers was illegal in football grounds and [...]

Read: Scottish Police Stop Broken Bottle Riot »

If you were planning to watch the Olympic Games this year, or purchasing any Olympic related products, remember that by doing so, you’re tacitly supporting and condoning the Chinese action in Tibet. If you know of anyone who was due to compete in the Beijing Olympics this year, ask them to consider what is more [...]

Read: Olympic Shames 2008 »

What I’ve learned about the Paul/Heather divorce is some useful information that I’m going to take away with me and store for future reference.
If, at any point, you see a link that is going to take you a “full legal judgement” of anything, don’t follow it. Only boredom can come from it.
Of course, given that [...]

Read: McCartneyism »

On the 12th of March, I was up at the Web Technologies Scotland gig in Edinburgh, where I was representing the PSWMG.
As chair of the event, I didn’t really have a lot to say (”come and join the PSWMG, go on, it’s great” was, I think, about the size of it) so most of [...]

Read: Web Technologies Scotland »

A belief in God could lead to a more contented life, research suggests.
Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference.
Data from thousands of Europeans revealed higher levels of “life satisfaction” in believers.
BBC News
Of course, that’s irrespective [...]

Read: Religion Is Good For You »

As spotted on aka R’acquel’s site, the question is, What Be Your Nerd Type? Aside from the fact that the construction “what be” makes it sound like it’s been put together by yokels, that sounds interesting…
Turns out I’m a literature nerd (closely followed by being a gamer/computer nerd). Presumably because one of the questions seemed [...]

Read: Nerd-dom Meme »

Did you know my mother shares the same birthday as the porn star Ron Jeremy?Mr Talking-Loudly-On-The-Train
…um, no, as it happens. Given that I didn’t know when either your mother’s birthday or Ron Jeremy’s birthday was. Do they usually have a joint birthday do? And why choose Ron Jeremy as the one — out of presumably [...]

Read: Overheard On A Train »

I’ve criticised the way that SOCITM have handled accessibility in their better connected report a couple of times before.
But while it is still very important, I feel, to stress the problems with using WCAG 1.0 as a simple measure of accessibility, and I feel that myself and others have been right to criticise SOCITM’s approach [...]

Read: Baby Steps with B.C. »

Over last weekend, the GLW has been poorly. On Saturday, she was working through the “feeling a little under the weather” stage which basically meant that as long as things were nice and quiet, and nothing too demanding was required, she’d be perfectly all right.
Of course, the slight problem with this plan is that it’s [...]

Read: Of Illnesses and Imps »

(aka getting to Web Technologies Scotland)
There’s something peaceful about travelling by train.
Of course, you have to sit on a cold and draughty platform on an uncomfortable metal seat for twenty minutes while you watch a barely coherent and barely vertical — but still somewhat belligerent — gentleman gets manhandled of the train before yours by [...]

Read: This Is The Page Of The Train »