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

…online gaming, as it rather surprisingly turns out.
The British Red Cross have launched a website called Traces of Hope, which they say is the first “charity Alternate Reality Game”, in order to:
…raise awareness about victims of war, in which the object is to help a displaced Ugandan boy find his mother.BBC News: Internet Game for [...]

Read: War! What is it good for? »

I was intrigued to see thad Shadow Chancellor George Osborne saying that the financial sector must share the blame for the current financial crisis.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne is to tell the City it must bear part of the cost and blame for the current financial crisis affecting the UK.BBC News
Share the blame? Well, I hate [...]

Read: Sharing The Blame »

There’s been a lot of stuff recently about so called ’suicide websites’. The premise is that…
people searching for information on suicide are more likely to find sites encouraging them than offering supportBBC News: Crackdown on ’suicide websites’
Hmm.. reminds me of that old Samaritans poster…
Depressed? At the end of your tether? Feel there is no way [...]

Read: Suicites »

The BBC have labelled a shipping container with the BBC logo, with various GPS tracking and so forth, so that they can track the progress of a shipping container around the world for a year, they can show where it is and what it is containing at any time, in order to show something or [...]

Read: Follow The Box »

Here’s a puzzle for you: when a “think tank” stops thinking, does it just get called a “tank”? Or a “thunk-tank”? And when they start talking nonsense, does that make them a “drunk tank”? Or do they just “think wank”?
I find myself in the unusual position today of wanting to say something positive about Sunderland, [...]

Read: Out-thunk »

In the US presidential election, John McCain’s latest campaign ad said that Barack Obama was ‘the biggest celebrity’ in the world, cutting in a picture of Paris Hilton and suggesting that this didn’t necessarily mean that he was ready to lead.
Except it seemed to upset Paris Hilton that she was used to imply Obama was [...]

Read: Paris for Pres »

I’ve been to London this week. I made it back without being stabbed, mugged, beaten up, having my mobile stolen or indeed anything else untoward happening. I wouldn’t normally see this as worthy of note, only the media coverage generally seems to imply that you can’t travel more than about 30 yards without coming across [...]

Read: London & Stab Fever »

…and he’s paid enough to do so. Who do I mean? Why my MP of course.
Thanks very much to the excellent They Work For You site, where I managed to dig out this information. Unless otherwise stated, all of the information comes from the Dave Anderson page there.
My MP is Dave Anderson (Labour, Blaydon). I’ve [...]

Read: He Works For Me… »

Working class people have lower IQs than those from wealthy backgrounds and should not expect to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed.
Newcastle University’s Bruce Charlton said fewer working class students at elite universities was the “natural outcome” of class IQ differences.
BBC News
Bruce: fuck off.
Sorry, perhaps I should phrase that differently…

Read: And You Wonder Why I Don’t Like Toffs… »

I know this is in poor taste, but now that Charlton Heston’s dead, do you not think someone should take that gun out of his cold, dead hands now and maybe discuss the idea of US gun control again?

Read: Poor Taste »