Never say never
'No return' for Elgin Marbles - BBC

The director of the British Museum has said that the Elgin Marbles should never be returned from Britain to Greece. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Neil MacGregor said the sculptures, which once adorned the Parthenon temple in Athens, should remain in London.

posted 10:01 AM #

200,000 65,000 take to the streets

Aerial study casts doubt on estimates of 200,000 - SF Gate

San Francisco -- A survey using sophisticated aerial photography of Sunday's anti-war march and rally in San Francisco has produced results that indicate a far smaller crowd than the 200,000 protesters estimated by police and event organizers.

The results of the independent survey, commissioned by The Chronicle and SFGate.com, cast doubt on traditional counting methods and contradict the crowd estimate of 200,000, which was reported in this newspaper and news media around the world. Crowd size in a demonstration is important because organizers tend to use it as evidence of support for their cause.

Did anyone ever believe those figures any way? We used to accept estimates with very little checking when reporting marches. For the journalist, typically, a bigger crowd makes a better story.
posted 12:26 PM #

Google Buys Pyra: Blogging Goes Big-Time - Dan Gillmor

I particularly liked the line:

Nick Denton asks: "Will Google use weblog links to improve Google News?" I asked Google's spokesman roughly the same question, but got no answer. Stay tuned, he said, because the company is just starting to figure out how it's going to use this stuff.

Suggesting that these guys are just buying toys and working out what to do with them later.
posted 7:46 AM #

David Galbraith

Are life vests on board planes there just to reassure us? Can anyone remember any plane crash over water that involved people bouncing down inflatable slides to safety?
Reuters

Actually, I can't. What about the bracing position? Would that actually help in a high-velocity crash?
posted 8:07 AM #

Very addictive Flash game

[ ] Letters
posted 6:41 AM #

GM crops boost yields more in poor countries - New Scientist

Field trials in India suggest that genetically modified crops have far greater benefits in developing countries, than the developed countries for which they were designed.

The farm trials of cotton genetically modified to produce a bacterial toxin produced increases in yield of up to 80 per cent, compared with non-GM counterparts. This is much greater than the improvement seen in developed countries where yields are boosted by less than 10 per cent, say the researchers.

posted 12:11 PM #

Things I should have done before 30

Things to do before you're 30 - Times

Times writers offered their top tips. Here are the ones I should have done:

Read St John’s Gospel, Memoirs of Socrates, John Locke’s Letters on Toleration, Francis Bacon’s Essays, Vanity Fair, Mrs Piozzi’s Anecdotes of Samuel Johnson and Animal Farm (WILLIAM REES-MOGG);

Know what it is like to be broke at the end of the week; You should have drunk until dawn at least once, and informed a total stranger that you really, really value them because you love all mankind, right; it’s good to have slept all night on a railway station, or a village hall floor; Manual work is important, too; You should know what it is to be utterly alone, in a lonely landscape without television or radio or telephone: a hut up an Irish mountain or on the edge of a distant loch, just you and books, your mind gently expanding in the mist. (LIBBY PURVES)

I WISH I’D interrogated my father. I mean the real third degree, for hours and days on end. No thumbscrews or bright lights, of course, just patience. I wouldn’t have been looking for a confession — just history. He was born in 1904 and died when I was 32. (ALAN HAMILTON)

FOR A MAN it is vital to attempt some form of facial hair before the 30th birthday. (BEN MACINTYRE)

I should have learnt how to kiss (still can’t), learnt how to read a balance sheet (still can’t), learnt how to cook (still can’t), learnt how to ski (still haven’t), contracted a serious skin disease in dubious circumstances (still haven’t), properly mastered at least one other European language (still haven’t), spent a weekend in Paris (still haven’t), visited Florence, Venice and Rome (still haven’t), bought two really good suits (was always too stingy), mastered the elements of snappy dressing (still haven’t), seriously betrayed someone I loved (how can we say that we’ve lived until we have known how treachery feels?), experienced addiction to a hard drug (or how can we pontificate?), killed a man with my own bare hands (well, maybe that’s taking it a bit far, but you know what I mean). (MATTHEW PARRIS)
posted 11:02 AM #

Sexy Sadie, what have you done...

Dutch give nod to 'guru currency' - BBC

A new "currency" issued by a group founded by Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi may be used and has not violated Dutch law, the Dutch central bank has said. The Global Country of World Peace, set up by the Indian mystic, issued the brightly coloured notes of one, five and 10 "raam" last October.

You've made a fool of everyone etc etc

posted 9:42 AM #

"Buy our products" says company

Net firms face constant attack - BBC

Every company connected to the web is subject to an average of 30 security attacks a week, mainly on Tuesdays and Fridays, say experts(Symantec).

The internet is a big, scarey place, (so buy our products) says internet security company. This is a bit like taking crime statistics from a burglar alarm company.

posted 10:44 AM #

Heard on Bob Harris's show on BBC Radio 6.

Bob Dylan's Roll On John from There Is No Eye: Music For Photographs Smithsonian Folkways SFW CD 40091
posted 9:55 AM #