Mssv

Consuming Passions by Judith Flanders has to be one of the most information-dense books I have ever read. I’m used to blasting through novels in a few hours, but despite finding Consuming Passions extremely interesting, I’ve barely been able to get halfway through its 500 pages after at least a dozen hours.
The book tells the […]

Various news outlets today have been claiming that the Public ’support longer copyright’. I quote from the BBC article:
62% of people polled by YouGov for the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) think UK artists should be protected for 95 years, as they are in the US.
I found this very surprising - I can hardly believe that […]

If you are at all interested in Doctor Who and would rather not know any plot details of the last episode, do not read any stories about Doctor Who on the internet from now on. You might think that you can rely on places like the BBC and the Guardian not to spoil the ending, […]

Lots of stuff has been going on with my life lately which I should have mentioned here but just haven’t had time. I was interviewed by the Times a couple of weeks ago in an article on alternate reality games and a pop neuroscience book which I contributed to called Mind Hacks has been released […]

The Guardian’s Life section (science) has an article about the impenetrable writing favoured by scientists when writing in journals. This is hardly a new development but it’s no less interesting or disappointing for it; what is disappointing is that the author, Chris McCabe, has reduced this interesting subject to a directionless and misguided article, which […]

Does anyone know why the International Herald Tribune’s website hasn’t been updated for a good two weeks? Do they normally take a long holiday in December, or is something more sinister afoot? I need to get my international news fix, now! (Looks like they went back to work today, the website has finally been updated)

I was initially pleased to see that the Guardian Online had an article about Alternate Reality Games today, and then disappointed to see an inaccurate and overly simplistic piece of journalism. Soon after reading it, I wrote an email to the author, Andrew Losowsky, which I’ve included below:
I have a few comments on your article […]

Some utter fool has written an article in the Times (part one, part two) on the failure of psychology. My views are reflected quite accurately in this Metafilter thread which I contributed to.
Psychology is alive and well, and if you want to attack the strawman of psychoanalysis and outdated views of early 20th century psychology, […]

Guardian launches new science section - and not a moment too soon, either. British science reporting is woefully poor (with the exception of the BBC) and often completely exaggerated (Sunday Times, anyone). I’m happy to see that the Guardian recognises the importance of decent science reporting.

MetaFilter has just become energised about a new project: MetaFilter Online Journalism (aka MoJo). You can see the origin of this idea in this thread. It is basically being put forward as some kind of website in which members of the public will be able to perform collaborative and investigative journalism, something which has been […]