(Thought I’d published this about two weeks ago. Turns out I hadn’t: so it’s a little later than previously anticipated) Let’s see… what’s been happening in the last couple of weeks? Well… there was something of a selection of weirdness… The Prague Daily Monitor reports on activity ‘experts cannot explain’, although they seem to think [...]

I saw a headline on the BBC the other day which seemed to suggest that the police were cracking down rather heavily on something which up until then, I had not actually realised was an offence. Guilty of handling … goods? I had been previously under the impression that handling goods was not in itself [...]

Back in the day, when I was working for a Local Authority, I was very keen on NewcastleGateshead winning the bid to be City of Culture 2008. In some respects, I can already imagine the jaws dropping at the idea Newcastle and Gateshead are paragons of culture, but let’s face it, I remember Glasgow being [...]

Poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy has written a Christmas poem, specially commissioned by the Radio Times for its festive edition. [...] The poem begins: “On the first day of Christmas, a buzzard on a branch. In Afghanistan, no partridge, pear tree; but my true love sent to me a card from home.BBC News My heart [...]

Yes, as you might have guessed, SuperMondays, which I attended last month have had another event, and it has had a barcamp kind of a feel to it, with three different breakout sessions, each offering the chance to take in one of three different discussions (well, in theory). There was a little introduction to the [...]

So, it was the NeNaNoWriMoMe today in Newcastle, at Caffe Nero in Newcastle. With the event set to kick off at 2pm, I made sure I got there a little early — a smidge before ten to — and looked around for the obvious bohemian types. There didn’t appear to be anyone furiously scribbling away [...]

It started from one of those conversations. They generally involve yourself, a mate, a pub, and the consumption of a few pints of beer whilst having a general chat about not much at all. Anyway, as these things do, the conversation turned to ancient battles and ancient civilisations, and reporting news of battles — the [...]

A fellow tweeter drew my attention to something a little disturbing t’other day: Does anyone else find http://interneteyes.co.uk/ ‘s offer of £1K a month reward money for spying disturbing? (via @Placepot)@JamesCousins What’s this? Being paid £1000 per month to spy on people? So I decided to take a look in a little more detail… Internet [...]

Super Mondays is a “strong and vibrant IT community based in the North East Of England”. At least, that’s what it says on the tin. But having not been to a Super Mondays event before, I didn’t know that myself for sure. Which was one of the reasons (the others being networking, and an interest [...]

That’s all I said on Facebook on Sunday night, and I got some surprising responses. My sister liked the status — I presume she was being empathic and understanding how I felt, but it did come across a little like she was pleased I was bored. Then someone I used to work with said “aye”, [...]