• a Smursh of Pete – The Obligatory Swine Flu Funny Captioned Photo
  Wonderful photo and caption!
  (tags: photo kids pig swineflu)
• Matt cartoons witty political cartoons and satirical sketches – Telegraph
  Another great topical cartoon
  (tags: swineflu cartoon piglet winniethepooh matt telegraph)
• Man Flu
  Great spoof news page on the current "crisis"
  (tags: swineflu media spoof)

Okay, I’ve been trying not to get swept up in Swine Flu Fever, but quite frankly the level of hysteria has reached ridiculous proportions.

The media, of course, has reacted with big red headlines about the KILLER DISEASE and vastly over-inflating ‘victim’ figures to get the most public interest. People, more people died in road accidents before the news reader finished her intro. Get a grip.

Finally, I found a great article over at Junkfood Science: Flu Fears which is the most sensible overview of the actual science I’ve found so far. It covers most of the salient points and helps put things a little more into perspective. Like the fact that this is “no more serious than your average flu bug”.

To summarise, I can’t do much better than give you yesterday’s xkcd:

• Feel the fear then sue them anyway

  Terrible PR on the part of the author – not least because her response seems to be diametrically opposite to that which she recommends in her self-help book.

  tags: pr, writing, law, trademarks, sue, self-help

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I had some time spare on Sunday morning, and thought I’d tackle one of my to do list items. I didn’t think it would take long – just needed to move the clump of daffodils that were in our old front flower bed (now been grass-seeded) to a new position around a palm tree at the side of our house.

Only I hadn’t factored in just how terrible our soil is. You see, our house is a newish build (about 10 years old, I think) and the soil appears to be a mix of pure clay and builder’s rubble. What started as a five minute job just digging out some plants, became something that more resembled an archaeological dig. I got my trusty trowel out, and started carefully digging around each clump, freeing their roots and brushing the soil away with my gloved hands, before easing each bulb out individually.

Akra came out and laughed at me. Obviously it was going to take ages – I should have been using a garden fork, it would be much quicker. I gladly offered him centre stage but he couldn’t get the prongs in more than half a centimetre deep. He went off to make lunch instead and I carried on, finally removing the last bulb before lunch was even ready. I tried not to feel too smug.

I thought there’d only be about 5 or 6 bulbs in the bed, in the end I had about 50 of varying sizes – I only lost about 4 or 5 when I got a bit too impatient and split them with my trowel. Akra was coerced volunteered to replant them and I left him to it.

Poor chap, it took him hours and he lost the will to live half way around digging the trench, so the semi-circle looks rather wonky. They’re also miles away from the tree (the tree roots prevented digging in a nice tightly hugging trunk-ring that I’d envisaged). Hopefully it’ll sort itself out and look slightly less regimented and weird in a couple of years (it will, won’t it?)

Either way, I’m not digging them up again. I’ll never think a daffodil is a pretty flower ever again.

I’ve been playing with Photoshop the last few days, trying to get a decent black and white portrait, but none of the conversions I was trying came up with very good results.

Then I came across this tutorial on creating high-key black and white portraits over at DPhotoJournal. It’s a very simple but effective technique and I’m getting much better results with it.

The rest of the site looks pretty good too – a mix of reviews, tutorials, free downloads and photographs. If you’re interested in photography it’s worth having a look around.

I hate finishing a book I’ve loved. The last few days I’ve been completely immersed in a different world, reading at any and every opportunity.

It’s been ages since I’ve been that deeply gripped by a novel (or three!) and ages since I’ve allowed myself that much reading time. It’s been fantastic, but at the same time I know that a lot of the things that were put off while I read, now need doing urgently.

But I’m not ready to let go. I don’t want to rejoin the real world quite yet. I want to be lost in a daydream for a bit longer, to relish the world and the characters for as long as the obsession runs. I want the characters to be tangible in my mind for just a tiny bit longer.

Alternatively, I could just order the fourth book, even though I said I wouldn’t as it’s only out in hardback…

Carocat‘s comment on my Twilight review has reminded me about the TwitLight series she is currently hosting on her blog.

TwitLight is short for Twitter Spotlight and interviews a new Twitter user every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. It’s a great way to find new interesting people to follow and to get an insight into the person behind the tweets. I would thoroughly recommend subscribing to her blog anyway, as she’s an interesting blogger covering a diverse range of topics.

Carocat interviewed me recently, and you can find my TwitLight interview here. She’s also always on the lookout for new willing victims participants, so if you’d like to contribute and you’re a regular Twitter user, send a DM to @carocat.

Akra laughed when I wrote yesterday that the Twilight DVD was “a little disappointing” as he pointed out that I’d complained through most of it. However, before I get too far into the film’s weaknesses I should first point out what the film did well, in the spirit of fairness.

(Note, for the purposes of this review, I am assuming you have read the book and are wondering whether to bother seeing the film. While I will try and not be too spoilery I can’t guarantee I won’t ruin anything for you if you don’t know the basic plot – if that’s a problem for you, you may want to skip this post).

[Read more →]

I wasn’t sure what to use my Audible credit on this month, so I picked the unabridged version of Twilight, interested to see what all the fuss was about.

It seems to be a rather love/hate sort of book for most reviewers, those who disliked it complain that all the characters seemed to do was endless mooning over each other while for others, the author can do no wrong. However, I rather enjoy a trashy romance from time to time, so I was sure I could cope with that. Plus, it had the added bonus of vampires… got to be at least worth a try.

I was a little put off at the start of the book. While the narrator was excellent, having an “Audible Kids” bumper at the beginning made me wonder if it was going to be just too childish a read and the whole of the introduction had a loud music overlay on the speech which was very irritating. That passed though and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. More than that, I found it a totally gripping and absorbing ‘read’.

I’ve read a lot of romances, a range of the good and the embarrassingly dire. Stephenie Meyer has crafted one of the very best I have ever read – the characters are totally believable and sympathetic. The story is told through the eyes of Bella, the heroine, and through her we slowly uncover the truth behind Edward Cullen and at the same time fall in love with him as she does. It is a little awkward as a 35 year old to admit that you are besotted with a fictional character, I know, but that’s how I felt while reading it.

It’s much more than a mere romance though. It’s strong in the fantasy thriller genre too. When I wasn’t on the edge of my seat as their relationship became closer, I was completely gripped by the action – one of the few books I can genuinely say I found impossible to put down (the kids ended up playing a lot on their Nintendo DSes the last two days). Don’t let the fact that this is marketed as teen fiction put you off, while parts of the romance are very idealised (well, apart from the fact he’s a dangerous predator – that’s not usually an integral part of most romance novels I’ve read) it’s still a very well written thriller in its own right.

On the back of it, I’ve ended up buying the DVD (a little disappointing, will write more on that later), the paperback version and two of its sequels. I’ve also started immediately listening to the whole audiobook again. Good job the kids are back to school tomorrow.

It’s been a long while since I’ve given much credence to science headlines in most newspapers, but this look at science headlines justifying moral prejudice on the Bad Science blog had me open mouthed with incredulity for most of it.

It takes a good look at the reporting behind the cervical cancer vaccine and the “Twitter and Facebook give you cancer” headlines and calls bullshit. Loudly.

Definitely worth a read. You’ll never trust another science headline again.