5 Seconds on Google Lively

I’ve just installed Google Lively and want to try it out (it was launched yesterday, and still in Beta of course, but I didn’t have Internet access).
The problem is that I now have to choose my handle. lenina is already taken (unfortunately), so is leninacrowne, and one option they’re offering me is firstname.surname. I don’t [...]

London is an apocalyptic City

Image via Wikipedia
The end of the world is nigh, and it’s started in London (the beginning of the end). When you’re there, and in its rougher boroughs or mingling in its underbelly, you can feel it.
Media coverage of London is hardly ever positive these days - it’s all about gun crime, knife crime, 19 teenagers [...]

Never Write Off Germany

Beautiful, beautiful win yesterday against Portugal in the Euro 08 quarter-final.

Once again Teutonic grit and nous has outdone Latin flair.
Never ever write off Germany…The supreme masters of International competition football…

Read more coverage on the BBC - but the most interesting discussions are always the fans’ comments on 606 (BBC football ‘discussion board’ - i.e. people [...]

Hebridean Island (Canna) now Rat-Free

The beautiful Isle of Canna on the west coast of Scotland is finally rat-free. The isolation means that the ecosystem there is very fragile, and there were fears for the local rare species, the Canna mouse.
Imagine how difficult it must be to eliminate an entire species from an island, and one that is as rugged [...]

Arnisdale (Scotland) doesn’t have Broadband

There are communities in the UK that don’t have broadband access yet. One story was on BBC News tonight of a guy that sails across a loch (Loch Hourn and Corran) to go online wirelessly
Check out the clip featuring Loch Hourn on the BBC site here - it’s beautiful!
/me must go there

No More Ferries from East Scotland to the Continent

Image via Wikipedia

BBC news report that the Rosyth ferry currently running between Rosyth (just north of Edinburgh) and Zeebrugge (Belgium) is to be discontinued.
It’s a real shame - I’ve used the ferry once before (in 2006, I think) and it’s very convenient. Plus, people like travelling to Scotland by ferry , as it means they [...]

The End of Viral Marketing?

Image via Wikipedia

Yes, I’m still in Italy and on holidays. However, I’ve come across this little piece of news in my feeds that I need to flag up.
On Monday 26th, a new law comes into effect in the UK (Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 200 to protect consumers from ‘stealth marketing‘ - i.e. underhand [...]

Give NOW to Burma Cyclone Survivors

Image by TZA via Flickr
I was shocked this week by the Burmese government not letting aid workers and aid get through to the survivors of the horrible cyclone disaster in Burma.
While I do not normally give to regular media-propagated charity (Comic Relief and such), I’m very much in favour of HELPING THEM as much as [...]

Austrian Incest Rapist Josef Fritzl

Abominable is the case of one Josef Fritzl, who locked his daugher in a cellar for 24 years and fucked her till she was raw and sore and had borne him 7 children.
He had been raping and fucking his daughter since she was eleven.
He then locked her in a cellar at 18, to rape her [...]

WordPress at Web 2.0 Expo

WordPress have announced a new feature that suggests posts (from your own blog or the blogosphere) based on what it thinks is related to whatever it is you’re blogging about. Sounds like a semantic app.
At the web 2.0 expo they also announced the upcoming Monotone - theme, which is basically a photo-blog template. It looks [...]