Feòrag

Recent Actions

• Commented on Upcoming maintenance
  We have at least four domains hanging off the server. I already know, from my vegan blog, that Wordpress ain't up to it (and the "buy my books" links would violate the ToS). The costs for Typepad for those domains...
• Commented on Interview
  I think threaded comments are in either a more recent release of MT, and a plug-in for the one we are using. I recall looking at the latter and failing to get my head around it....
• Commented on Zoom
  I'll post the details to LJ. Meanwhile here's my map of promising beer bars in Melbourne....
• Commented on Zoom
  I've already been busy on the beer front, as the task of organising the traditional pre-Worldcon pub crawl has fallen on my shoulders this time. If you check out the facebook event, you'll see I already arranged for it to...
• Commented on Space Cadets
  Hate to say it but wrong - try thr charrles close society website, and remember that OS maps up to 25-inch scale are available. You cannot get such maps for the Garmin Oregon 450, and if you could, they'd be...
• Commented on Space Cadets
  Cue libertarian troll banging on about inefficiency of state ventures. Got one counter example for you - British Ordnance Survey maps. Difficult to see how such good maps (with 100% coverage) could be made by private groups. I have to...
• Commented on Five reasons to envy the French
  there was a program about "My mother's Jewish-Lesbian-Wiccan wedding". Sounds interesting - would like to listen to that. Is it online anywhere?...
• Commented on Five reasons to envy the French
  Oh, Japan has the Health and Safety culture okay - it's just a wee bit different. For example, if there are roadworks, however trivial, there will be someone employed, with hi-vis vest, hard-hat, boots and a bright or lit stick...
• Commented on Intermission
  I boycott companies who engage in annoying advertising. I find 99% of online advertising to be annoying, therefore by blocking ads I am doing said advertisers a favour by not allowing them the opportunity to annoy me and so guarantee...
• Commented on That empty feeling
  Unfortunately, Microsoft Word's file formats are so inconsistent, and the majority of people who use it are unable to do so very well (they especially can't do the semantic styling), that the resulting files rarely import into page layout packages...
• Posted The World of Religion to The Pagan Prattle
  Mister Sharp explains:...
• Commented on Gadget Patrol: iPad
  Would it be possible to stick wee rings or suchlike on your fingers and use them with some sort of location sensor to play the ipad like a theremin? We haz a theremin, so no such trickery required here!...
• Posted Fundie Tory digs herself deeper to The Pagan Prattle
  United Kingdom: a little over three weeks ago, The Observer posted a story about a prominent Tory, Philippa Stroud, alleging that she was involved in attempts to "cure" LGBT people. She has disputed this allegation, and the paper has appended her complaint to the article. Part of the summary of this complaint jumped out, as it makes her look as if she's a believer in the Satanic abuse myth: In addition, the reference to demonic activity in her book "God's help for the poor' does not relate to sexual orientation but to those who have been involved in occult...
• Commented on Small, but influential, pockets of insanity remain in Northern Ireland
  This story has been covered over at Pharyngula, where the comments are most amusing....
• Posted Small, but influential, pockets of insanity remain in Northern Ireland to The Pagan Prattle
  Northern Ireland: A government minister is calling for a Belfast museum to treat fairy stories as science, and claims their failure to do so is a human rights issue. Culture minister Nelson McCausland, wrote to the trustees of the Ulster Museum demanding their exhibitions reflect his belief that his imaginary friend made the universe in less than a week. And he claimed a substantial proportion of the Northern Irish population shared his insanity. McCausland defended a letter he wrote to the trustees calling for anti-evolution exhibitions at the museum. He claimed that around one third of Northern Ireland's population...
• Posted Fundies: let's misrepresent research then kill people over it to The Pagan Prattle
  United States: Scientists have complained that anti-gay religious groups are pretending to be legitimate scientific organisations, and presenting deliberately distorted versions of their research as fact. This is nothing new—the Prattle dissected one example back in 1998. The most recent case involves Dr. Gary Remafedi of the University of Minnesota, whose work on adolescent sexuality has been appropriated and misrepresented by a bogus paediatrics organisation, the American College of Pediatricians, trying to deny any support whatsoever to LGBT kids in school. The letter, and the Facts About Youth website it pointed school officials to, was dense with footnotes citing...
• Commented on Everyone Draw Mohammed Day: my contribution.
  I fear that that might offend Cthulhu!...
• Posted Everyone Draw Mohammed Day: my contribution. to The Pagan Prattle
  Over on Facebook, someone declared today to be Everyone Draw Mohammed Day as a protest against religious groups censoring, through violence and threats of violence, people not of that faith and who therefore do not abide by its rules. The best explanation I've seen comes from Greta Christina. Many of the contributions are deliberately rude and offensive. I don't see the point of that when apparently a simple drawing is enough. The physical appearance of Mohammed in my drawing is based on a 14th century miniature of the Prophet receiving his first revelation from Gabriel. It is one of many...
• Posted 'Ello 'Ello 'Ello... to The Pagan Prattle
  United Kingdom: About a week ago, the Pagan Police Association received official recognition from the Home Office as a diversity staff support association. Whether this is the case is up in the air, but assuming it is, the main advantage that this confers is summed up most neatly by The Times: Endorsement would mean that chief constables could not refuse a pagan officer’s request to take feast days as part of his or her annual leave. (emphasis mine). There's certainly no funding involved, but that hasn't stopped the usual suspects from mouthing off before they got to the end...
• Commented on Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss ... not.
  Student loans are why I never had a proper job after graduating. Disincentive to work if I have to pay it back, see, especially as I would have been paying more tax anyway. No, I'm not claiming benefits either. And...
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  One's class is set at birth, based on who your parents are. In this day and age, it doesn't restrict your earning ability as a working class person can either do the traditional thing and get a trade (plumbers earn...
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  Yes, I'm talking in the British sense. We all know that Americans have no class anyway....
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  I disagree. Having the trappings of the middle classes does not change my class any more than putting on blackface would give me recent African ancestry. The social mobility I have has come about simply because, once upon a time,...
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  Was there a special breeding programme for the middle classes in the 1980s? I remember she consistently discouraged the working classes from breeding, so a parallel encouragement of the allegedly respectable would make sense. Or perhaps you are confusing the...
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  I don't know the details myself - I'm relying on German political wonks among my friends....
• Commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  The major thing that could come from this election could be an English devolution to match the Scots and Welsh, with the UK moving in the direction of a more federated structure. The trouble with that is that England is...
• Posted Public Service Announcement to The Pagan Prattle
  United Kingdom: Special diets foods retailer Goodness Direct is a front for the coercive cult, the Jesus Army. I am privileged to have a reasonable (for the UK) whole foods shop close to where I live, but for more unusual animal-free products, I have good personal experience of shopping with Vegan Store, which appears to be a small, independent, vegan-owned company. Comments about alternative suppliers of gluten-free products in the UK would be welcomed by some of my friends....
• Commented on Stranded
  Claire in Osaka@19: Vegan macrobiotic instant ramen are available in Tokyo if you know where to look....
• Commented on Stranded
  Roland@9: I suspect that the contents of my bag, containing material legal in Japan, and legal in the UK, is probably not legal in Singapore....
• Commented on Stranded
  Correction: Tokyo is the second most expensive city on the planet. Oslo has stolen the crown....