Phlegmatic

BBC admits Bake Off is catastrophic social experiment

A pretty clever piece of political profiling and surveying from the Social Market Foundation.

Terror attack stopped by heroic activist who established a safe space in local mall.

A blog that examines the use of fonts in science fiction. What a time to be alive.

Labour's new shadow minister for domestic violence has personal experience of the issue - a police caution for domestic violence.

Typical day at the Labour Party conference.

Brilliant picture of Jeremy Corbyn at his own party conference protesting to bring back the position of Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health. Now, see if you can guess which politician it was who abolished the position of “Shadow Cabinet Minister for Mental Health”…

Amazingly, there is an article on the website of Standard Life all about collecting tabletop games. Pretty good article too, although there are a couple of factual errors. They should have asked me! (One of the people interviewed described H1 Bloodstone Pass as “almost impossible to get hold of”. We had one in stock, although ironically we sold it last week to a bloke in Denmark.)

Epipens are really expensive in the US. Here's why.

Jewish Labour Movement heckled by Corbynistas at the Labour Conference. The speaker (not the heckler thank god) was a friend of mine at Magdalen.

Prescription drug or Tolkien elf? Take the quiz! (What, you mean there isn’t a prescription tinnitus remedy called ‘Tinfang Warble’…?)

The American fake hate crimes epidemic.

The Game of Thrones theme played by a (very good) jazz band.

Millions of Americans are _not_ living on $2 a day.

Wrexham's new central defender has the best footballer name ever.

The Worldbuilding forums on Stack Exchange are a nice way for GMs to pass the time. (Thanks eledonecirrhosa.)

H.P. Lovecraft Lego.

This is how I imagine that beer tastes like.

The only way an independent Scotland could meet the EU's entry requirements would be to implement massive public expenditure cuts and / or tax rises. That might be fun to watch.

Who would have guessed that two men who campaigned for the right to bugger small boys would turn out to be paedophiles...? (This is the same organisation that had links with former Labour ministers Patricia Hewitt and Harriet Harman.)

Eat breakfast cereal? Lefties think you're scum.

The puzzle book that drove the country to madness. (I bought a copy in a charity shop for £1 the other day. Yes, I know they found the hare.)

Woman ends up in hospital after "confusing builder's foam with her hair mousse".

23 people getting too offended.

There is precisely one commissioned ship in the US Navy that has sunk another ship. And it did so in the War of 1812.

How To Be Outraged On The Internet

Draw your own conclusions as to why Max 'Nazi Orgy' Mosley would want to bribe/make a campaign contribution to (delete as appropriate) Tom 'Paedofinder General' Watson.

All 50 US states (plus DC) ranked in order of nerdiness. Go Utah! (And Alaska – No. 1 for D&D!)

Rape threats are now part of the Corbynistas' arsenal. (Seriously, these people are just scum, aren’t they?)

Notorious anti-computer game Californian politician turns out to be a corrupt gun-runner.

A rousing defence of private property from an unusual source.

Why are NHS Accident & Emergency units suddenly too busy to cope?

Very serious corruption in the NHS watchdog. Seriously, people should go to prison for this.

Which society connects Oswald Mosley, the founders of the London School of Economics, H.G. Wells and Bernard Shaw...and advocated eugenic sterilisation?

I'm not a fan of James Blunt's music, but his Twitter putdowns are great, he prevented World War 3* and you have to appreciate letters to leftards that begin "Dear Chris Bryant MP, You classist gimp..."

"Tax Systems: The good, the bad and the completely toot toot ding-dong loopy"

2014 was the warmest year in moden record.

...although actually it's within the margin of error and tied with 2005 and 2010.

Dodgy anti-trade measures from "so called chocolate maker Hershey's". (I remember a colleague who had been on holiday to the US bringing some Hershey’s ‘chocolate’ into the office for everyone to taste. It tastes of vomit. I’m not saying this in a way that means “it doesn’t taste very nice”, I mean literally that you can taste vomit and you can taste Hershey’s and they taste very, very similar. And everyone in the office who had some agreed with this assessment. If you run a Google search for “Hersheys tastes”, see what the auto-complete suggestions are. How is this stuff so popular?)

How to appreciate American cuisine.

Baseball's toxic tradition - chewing tobacco.

Benedict Cumberbuzzle falls victim to SJW idiocy. (The leading black/colored/coloured/African-American civil rights pressure group in the US is the “National Association for the Advancement of Colored People” so how can the word “colored” be “outdated” or “offensive”? But presumably your typical hashtag social justice warrior is too stupid to realise this.) See Rules 21, 22 and 23.

Lars Andersen explodes Hollywood's archery myths.

Geekdad explodes Lars Andersen's archery myths.

Practical jokes through facebook advertising.

124 year old business destroyed by single-letter Companies House typo.

The French government has just spent £40million on this "How to spot a Musilim Terrorist" wallchart.

* True story.

A new series of The Clangers!

Paul Krugman on Scottish independence. (And it's nice to see that even neo-Keynesians have come around to my way of thinking on the Euro.)

Prices, Paul Krugman, and Consistency

This is why poor kids don't grow up to be interior designers.

Is Apple quietly killing off its best product?

Why US forests are fuelling Europe.

Logic and theology.

Five ways that films get gunfights wrong.

Interesting account of 9/11 as it happened, as seen by White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.

Universities must convert widening access into graduate jobs. I see that the university at which I will be lecturing is the second best in the country at promoting social mobility while the one I studied at is the second worst.

This is why all those Scottish independence campaigners were protesting outside BBC Scotland.

The best moments from Friends, animated as 8-bit style GIFs.

Why don't children want to learn the violin? (Do they have to ask the question? If you can play the guitar, you are cool. Also, a highly paid career is open to you. If you can play the violin, you probably look uncool and violinist salaries are terrible. I used to audit one of the world’s great orchestras, and except for their superstar conductor, ALL of the musicians’ salaries were really low. Supermarket checkout girl low.)

Who killed lard?

What would the political map of Europe look like if all the nationalist parties got their way?

Today is the 75th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland.

“Supposing him to be the gardener: Sam Gamgee, the Battle of the Somme and my Great Uncle Bill”

"A writer shouldn't be punished for his political beliefs."

The UK has seen the fastest rise in living standards of all G7 countries since 1980, and it isn't close.

A Traveller's Guide to the Milky Way.

I don't drink beer, but if I did I'd be inclined to try this company's beer.

What credit rating would an independent Scotland receive?

"Inequality isn't a problem". It's about time someone said this.

Pre-Comics Code comics. I think it's time to bring back "All Negro Comics"...

What May Day should be about.

Let The Men of Online Dating Show You How to Really Woo A Woman.

When Ayrton Senna lived in a semi-detached bungalow in a suburb of Norwich.

Ten film quotes we all get wrong.

Armour for cats. They'll need helmets too though.

Bull African elephant 1, small hatchback 0

The best photograph of a dead sperm whale on the back of a lorry you'll see this week. (Seriously, the only use for a dead sperm whale they can think of is landfill? Ask the Icelanders, they’ll have some ideas.)

Twelve historical speeches that nobody ever heard.

A landslip just downriver from us cut off some cars. A 10 year old boy asked the Royal Marines to sort it out. They did.

Christine McVie is returning to Fleetwood Mac.

Don't do it, George! part 3

If RPG magazines looked like women's magazines.

ZonalMarking.net looks at Roy Hodgson's appointment.

The thought processes that go into male and female character design in video games.

Bertrand Russell's Ten Commandments for Teachers

After the Doctor Who theme tune on a steel guitar, now hear it played by floppy disk drives (kids, ask your parents to explain to you what a floppy disk drive is)

...as well as the theme tune from Manic Miner (or 'In the Hall of the Mountain King', from Peer Gynt, by Edvard Greig, if you're more classical, less geeky)

Thinking of changing jobs from public to private sector or vice versa? Handy calculator to work out how much you need to earn in the new job to maintain your real income.

France has 2.4 times as many companies with 49 employees as it has companies with 50 employees.

Since macroeconomists can't agree on anything, maybe we should concentrate on microeconomics. (The clever people will see the connection to the previous story).

The Boy Scouts are going to have a Game Design badge. How cool is that?

Controversial small brewer wins industry award - until Diageo threatens industry association with loss of sponsorship unless it wins.

How controversial? 55% abv beer and sold in bottles made out of dead animals as an example.

Income inequality and social equality since the 70s. Did "the left win the cultural debate and the right the economic debate"? (Personally, I think true liberals won both arguments.)