In Entertainment (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009 | UK
According to recent reports from telegraph.co.uk, the Vatican has had a few words to say about the new vampire franchise movie “The Twilight Saga: New Moon.” And it appears that they have condemned it as ‘dangerous and morally empty.’ The movie “New Moon,” which opens in cinemas in Britain today, is the long-awaited sequel of the [...]
Free Exchange (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009 | UK
Far from where we want to be
Liberal Conspiracy (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009 | UK
The organisers of the extremely popular Atheist Bus ads launched the second part to their campaign today. While the first ad campaign stated: ‘There’s probably no god. So stop worrying and enjoy your life’. The new one states: ‘Please don’t label me. Let me grow up and choose for myself’. On Guardian CIF Ariane Sherine explained the reasoning behind the new campaign:...
Tabloid Watch (Free subscription) | 17/11/2009 | UK
There are several articles on the Daily Mail website today that deserve a quick comment. First, there's the Mail's second attempt in a few days to out-do the Daily Sport in publishing 'upskirt' pictures of young women in short skirts/dresses. Generally speaking, there is very little news value in 'singer gets into limo', but a lack of news value has never stopped the Mail website before... The paparazzi...
Spada Professional Services PR Firm (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009 | UK
We’ve been hesitant about talk of green shoots and the property market, but could change be afoot? We wonder – ever so cautiously – thanks to this story from the Independent reporting on British Land’s half-year results, published yesterday.The group has seen its first rise in net asset value, the crucial barometer of [...]
The Freethinker (Free subscription) | 17/11/2009 | UK
THE BBC Trust today rejected calls for non-religious contributors to be allowed on Radio 4’s fatuous relic of a programme, Thought for the Day. Complaints were made earlier this year that banning atheists, secularist or humanists from taking part in Thought for the Day breached the BBC’s guidelines on impartiality. However, today the Guardian reports that the [...]
Pencil & Spoon (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009 | UK
Oliver Thring’s piece for The Guardian’s Word of Mouth has opened up the issue of lager and CAMRA . For me, it’s one of those annoyingly frustrating topics in beer that doesn’t look like going away and just gets more and more irritating, without the hope of resolution. CAMRA (the clue is in the name) have built themselves around pushing and progressing real ale in Britain and...
naked capitalism (Free subscription) | 17/11/2009 | UK
By Edward Harrison of Credit Writedowns The US Department of Agriculture highlights how the United States in the last decade, despite increased aggregate wealth, slid back significantly in terms of food insecurity as measure of poverty. With everyone now focused on the unemployment situation, it bears noting that even before the downturn in the economy there [...]
Joe. My. God. (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009 | UK
The New York Times reports that 42 members of the House read health care reform statements into the official record that were ghostwritten by a lobbyists from pharmaceutical giant Genentech. E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans. The lobbyists, employed by Genentech and by two Washington law firms, were...
Slog (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009 | UK
For all those unaware that lesbians take better care of their cats than most straight people take care of their children, research has now officially shown that "Lesbians Make 'Better Parents.'" Research at Birkbeck College, part of London University, and Clark University in Massachusetts suggests that same-sex couples make good parents because children cannot be conceived accidentally —parents...
Right Celebrity (Free subscription) | 16/11/2009 | UK
Meet Dr. Brooke Magnanti, aka Belle de Jour. The research scientist revealed earlier today that she was in fact the former London call girl behind the infamous anonymous blog. Read more about this story below, plus photos and video. Dr. Brooke Magnanti wrote about her sexual experiences through a blog and authored several books, [...]
Anglican Mainstream (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009 | UK
By Jonathan Wynne Jones, Telegraph Traditionalist clerics in the Church of England have been delivered a major snub after a compromise deal over women bishops was rejected. Anglo catholics and evangelicals had hoped the church would appoint dedicated male bishops to oversee them. But yesterday the Church's committee tasked with looking at the proposal failed to [...]
TechCrunch (Free subscription) | 15/11/2009 | UK
So Belle De Jour was real after all. The Internet's most famous anonymous sex blogger - turned best-selling author - turned internationally succesful TV series - has finally outed herself in the UK's Sunday Times. And it turns out she's a character straight from the pages of XKCD . From her interview with the Times' India Knight, we learn that Belle is in fact Dr Brooke Magnanti a specialist in developmental...
the optimum population trust blog (Free subscription) | 14/11/2009 | UK
… A new book with the somewhat provocative title of Time to Eat the Dog? The Real Guide to Sustainable Living has triggered a highly charged debate about the environmental efficacy of our pet-owning habits. If we are to examine the environmental impacts of all our lifestyle choices, the book argues, then we must also include [...]
Political Animal (Free subscription) | 12/11/2009 | UK
THE LIMITS OF A CHARITABLE CALLING.... I've always found the Book of Matthew rather beautiful: "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger...
