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New words you never knew

I’m indebted to WebProNews for revealing the following new words that the next gen of predictive texters know – but most people probably won’t. They’re entertaining to say the least:

  • Lifehack – a tool or technique that makes some aspect of one’s life easier or more efficient
  • Mashup – new information created by combining data from two different sources
  • Placeshift – to redirect a TV signal so the viewer can watch a show on a device other than his or her television
  • Playlistism – judging a person based on what songs are on the playlist of his or her digital music player
  • Podjack – to plug the cord of one’s digital music player into the jack of another person’s player to hear what the person is listening to
  • Puggle – a dog bred from a pug and a beagle
  • Sideload – to transfer music or other content to a cell phone using the cell phone provider’s network
  • Vlog – a blog that contains mostly video content
  • Vodcast – a video podcast
  • Ubersexual – a heterosexual man who is masculine, confident, compassionate and stylish
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Iran’s president is clearly victim of CIA plot

Ahmadinejad is oddIt’s the only explanation for why he’s so completely mental: the CIA have obviously learnt from the KGB’s efforts with Victor Yushchenko and have put something in Ahmadinejad’s water to make him act off his head. Holocaust never happened? Why not move Israel to Europe? No one sane and free of Special Treatment 17 could come up with ideas like that.

Our one reassurance in such matters is that Iran’s political class can’t agree on much and there’s such a massive disconnect between the leadership and the people anyway, that we can hopefully write this all off as one man’s fevered ramblings.

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Improve recycling targets

Friends of the Earth are running a campaign to get the government to improve councils’ recycling targets. It’s very easy to get involved – there’s a page where you can send an email to Ben Bradshaw, the minister responsible – so please sign up.

Currently, the UK recycles less than a quarter of its waste, whereas Austria, Germany and the Netherlands recycle about half. Are we going to let them beat us? No!

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Oh, the irony

How amusing. An article on Spiked about bad writing. Still, this particular article isn’t too awful and it does make a good point: polemical poetry really is bad.

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Do socialists ride buses?

It’s always the poshest people who become the most vehement Marxists. Think of Anthony Wedgewood Benn – Tony to his friends; think of Kitten off Big Brother 5, who despite claiming an impoverished background and a life of enforced prostitution, turned out to have had quite a nice Berkshire upbringing and a stint in boarding school; then, of course, there’s Timandra Harkness, whom I’ve already mentioned once today.
Fair dos and more power to them.
However, there is a certain irony and Islington-ness about it all that makes my blood boil. It just feels oh so patronising.
Take this Spiked article, all about how the demise of the Routemaster bus is an indication of the new nanny state we’re all living in and the death of democracy. Now, I don’t think anyone’s going to argue too much that either of those is an incorrect summation of modern life in the UK. But choosing the Routemaster bus as a symbol of it all? What’s up there?
When was the last time you were on a Routemaster? I’m guessing, if you’re a writer or editor for Spiked, approximately ten to 15 years ago. Here’s why I’ve come to this conclusion:

Continue reading “Do socialists ride buses?”

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Plagiarism or not: you decide

I’m a big fan of Ben Goldacre’s Bad Science column in The Guardian. I’ve also started reading Spiked, the magazine formerly known as Living Marxism but still not known for good writing.

Today, I had a sense of déjà vu come over me. An article debunking a recent study into homeopathy just appeared on Spiked. Yet, looky here. What’s this over in Bad Science? It’s an article debunking homeopathy that appeared a few weeks ago, that used more or less exactly the same arguments and ammunition.

They’re not exactly identical so it’s quite possible that two people independently came to the same conclusion. Yet Bad Science has become almost compulsory reading for science journalists and science readers, so it seems odd to me that Spiked’s author wouldn’t have read the piece.

Just as an aside, is Timandra really a name? Either poshest parents ever or pseudonym of the year…

UPDATE: Judging by her web site, I’m going for poshest parents ever.