spodgod

• Tried Champions Online. So far, I'm still favouring City of Heroes – and with barely enough time for one MMO, will probably stick with it. #
• It's *lovely* having a clean install. I have that new computer feeling. #
• Docs backed up. App disks at the ready. Time to install Snow Leopard. I may be some time (hopefully, about 45 minutes). #
• First Jacko pegs it and now Oasis split. What a splendid year for popular music. #
• Lost plectrum just appeared on my desk, next to my keyboard, two hours after I needed it. Flat empty except for me. #
• RT @CraigGrannell: Funny to see the default gamut on the Mac finally the same as Windows. Everything's dark, man. #
• Chips, specifically. #
• Reading list for second year of the MA just came through. That's £100 I'd rather have spent on food. #
• Er, hello Mr. Postman? Where the fook is my copy of Snow Leopard? I #
• Ignore previous tweet; Penalty for file sharing in US is MORE severe than child abduction, arson or 2nd degree murder: http://bit.ly/29X1pm #
• Penalty for file sharing in US is less severe than child abduction, arson or second degree murder: http://bit.ly/29X1pm #
• My retail copy of Snow Leopard shipped today! Upgrade shenanigans commencing on the morrow. Wonder if it will install in my hackintosh… #
• "Snow Leopard Is a Pale Imitation of Windows 7" Looks like InfoWorld's fact checker went on holiday – http://bit.ly/IjBIz (via @macworlduk) #
• "Artists you may like: Pere Ubu, Kraftwerk, Magazine…" – aw, #Spotify, we're back on speaking terms. #
• Larry Whitty, chairman of Consumer Focus, says what I was thinking about Mandelson's crusade against file sharers: http://bit.ly/mZrKY #
• The temptation to stick in an IDE drive and RAM from an old machine just to get my new PC build working today is like hunger for doughnuts. #
• .@Glinner When you "start" a hashtag topic on Twitter – you surrender your intended, encoded meaning to its *consensual* meaning. #
• "Artists you may like: Oasis, Mansun, The Verve…" Oh dear #spotify. Just when we were getting along so well. #
• Just pre-ordered Windows 7! About £45 less happy about that, compared to pre-ordering Snow Leopard 2 hrs ago… #
• Just pre-ordered Snow Leopard. Hurrah! In other news, time to back up my apps… #
• RT @MacworldUK: 3D comes to C4 with Derren Brown and The Queen – http://tinyurl.com/lxpuw7 #
• Marveling that 17 years after the introduction of the web, successive waves of Sophomore newbies evangelise its transformative powers. #

• All this Edinburgh talk is making me want to move there. #
• Has anyone seen the plot? I appear to have mislaid it. #
• via @allpointsnorth: "Dear me I'm going to have to buy this review software at this rate". (I've had to do that before…) #
• Whoops, tweeted too late. Snow Leopard is now shown as shipping in "September". #
• RT @markhattersley: Snow Leopard out 28 Aug, Apple UK Web site confirms – 7.95 for those who bought a Mac after 8 June – http://tl.gd/dnod #
• .@timdifford Pete Doherty should form a supergroup with members of other shitty, overrated bands – like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and Gay Dad. #
• Projected cost of hackintosh now running at £270 – lower spec than entry level Mac Pro (£1,899) but with 2.3Ghz quad cpu, beats a Mac Mini. #
• .@robfol It's automatically generated when you sign up to support "I love NHS" at Twibbon – http://www.twibbon.com #welovetheNHS #
• I hate it when rumours swirl. Makes them hard to read. #
• Someone, somewhere, is smirking at my last tweet. #
• Yesterday I posted links to some very old tracks I'd produced. Almost immediately followed by sound production tipster. Eerie. #
• MySpace to buy iLike! Facebook probably a bit miffed. I got in there early… http://www.ilike.com/artist/Twain #
• Projected Hackintosh in a G3 iMac project: This mod (http://bit.ly/3TOLrI) with an Intel quad core CPU, but OS X 10.6 instead of Windows… #
• Rock Band: Einstürzende Neubauten #failedvideogames #
• Let's try that again: http://bit.ly/18rVd0 – my .net piece on speculative work. Do you think creatives should ever work for free? #
• Note to self: make sure you know who you're logged in as *before* you plug your article on Twitter… Der. #
• Currently wondering whether I'm geeky enough to attempt building a hackintosh inside an old G3 iMac case. #

• .@hannahnicklin Government by Wiki? Corrupt, rife with secret cabals & run by folks with an obsessive desire for power? Business as usual #
• Usenet: 1980, IRC: 1988, WWW: 1991, Twitter: 2006… quaint that, even today, newbies think they're inventing Internet enabled insurgency… #
• Woke up for first time in three months thinking about fiction instead of art or technology; the pockmarked liver of Benny Crater, in fact. #
• Support #welovetheNHS, add a #twibbon to your avatar now! – http://twibbon.com/join/welovetheNHS #
• 40% of Twitter is "pointless babble". I estimate 80% of all talk is ritual, mumbling or tosh. http://bit.ly/10n6pJ (via @macworldUKfeed) #
• The box containing my new GPS card has name of product emblazoned in poorly spaced Times. It might as well say "MADE IN CHINA". #
• William Gibson just tweeted a Boosh clip on YouTube. My world dissolves, the wall between realities as thin as Phil Dick's cadaverous skin. #
• RT @charlesarthur: Why is it the most Christian-religious Americans who are most opposed to health care involving helping thy neighbour? #
• The NHS doesn't send you home to die just because your insurance has run out: http://bit.ly/EU76z #welovetheNHS #
• My GF wants to watch "Man on Wire". I want to watch "Dollhouse". There's only one way to… OW! SHE HIT ME! #
• Anyone have an issue of .net magazine 191 that they might be able to let me have? I was too busy working to go out and get one… @netmag #
• Everyone wish @ali07 a happy birthday. It's not been special enough for her so far. Happy Birthday Ali! #

“People such as scientist Stephen Hawking wouldn’t have a chance in the U.K., where the National Health Service would say the life of this brilliant man, because of his physical handicaps, is essentially worthless.”

So said The Investor’s Business Daily as part of an anti health care tirade on July 31st.

Thing is, Stephen Hawking is British and lives in England. At 67, he is the longest surviving sufferer of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ever documented – and that is in part due to the treatment he’s received from the NHS. Don’t take my word for it though; this is what the Prof himself said on the matter:

“I wouldn’t be alive today if it weren’t for the NHS. I have received a large amount of high quality treatment without which I would not have survived.” — Stephen Hawking, August 11, 2009*

I don’t know which is more offensive, frankly; the inaccurate depiction of the NHS or the assumption that Hawking is American. I guess it must be his accent…

*source

• Seen in local art exhibition: a grid of woven newspaper strips, 60 x 60 cm – a bargain at £500. Must have been one of Murdoch’s rags. #
• Satisfaction at lack of red on my task list swiftly replaced by decision anxiety. Take day off or get started on next crop of deadlines? #
• Via @chrisphin A water barrier (that would be better if the stream was electrified. Or was hydrochloric acid). http://tr.im/vIf3 #
• Loved watching Tron for the first time in a decade last night – but it really is more of a Sunday afternoon movie… #
• Tonight I shall be watching Tron. £2.38 from Amazon. Bargain! You just watch – it’ll be a tenner next year when the sequel comes out. #
• But, this is the Internet, so… http://bit.ly/tDO3T #raygunareshit #
• #raygunareshit – Sony get @rhodri banned from YouTube, for posting a clip of indie toss jockeys RayGun #
• Tangentially, I’m thinking of changing my name to Kar Lodge, so it sounds like I come from Krypton. #
• If I was Brian Eno – I would changed my name to Briar Neno. #
• Just booked tickets to see Midge Ure in December. I hope that will give me sufficient time to plan an evening off. #
• With just five screenshots and a handful of captions to go, my brain just popped. #
• RT @jackschofield: Guardian Media Group plots closure of Observer newspaper, says Sunday Times http://bit.ly/jKvxc (bonus: bonkers comments) #

• Spam from Magnatune, moans about cycle ride to French border from Swiss mansion they’re crashing in. I look at my cold beans and hit BLOCK. #
• Reinstalling Movable Type. By the time it finishes, I predict computers will have sentience and we’ll eat our meals in pill form. #
• Just squeed in my pants after seeing Tron Legacy trailer. Then I remembered how excited I was about Star Trek. http://bit.ly/5HItG #
• #youdidntwanttodothat @ruthellenbrown just drew a large circle on her laptop screen. In pencil. #
• RT @gruber: This cannot be serious, can it? http://twitter.com/arrington/status/2949113649 (“unauthorized press” – classic). #
• FREE WINE! Portrait Artist Ruth Ellen’s exhibition opening is between 5pm and 8pm at Pixie in Huddersfield TONIGHT! http://bit.ly/hjtAI #
• Was David Cameron aware of how rude he was actually being when he said “too many twits make a twat”? http://bit.ly/WMwII #
• I hope last week’s crap ep of True Blood (which I couldn’t have watched) wasn’t a shark jumper. If only I could watch this week’s somehow… #
• BBC describes victim in this tragic story as “a model” five times. The words “woman” and “girl” do not appear at all. http://bit.ly/18Kxrc #
• RT @DaveGorman: 140characters can’t sum up the wrongness of yesterday’s Gdian piece on “offensive comedy”. Hence blog: http://bit.ly/ngqHo #
• RT @journalismnews: How to: write the perfect press release… a guide for PRs by journos: http://bit.ly/hK8jj #
• If I hadn’t already stopped buying The Guardian, this dementedly obtuse attack on @richardherring would have made me: http://bit.ly/8A2Em #
• My other half @ruthellenbrown is listening to Bob Dylan – so I don’t have to. #
• RT @MacworldUK: TED coming to the north of England. Which one to go to? Manchester, Leeds – or both! http://www.tedxnorth.com/ #