gdp's Comments

Technologizer : How the iPad 2 Became My Favorite Computer

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:53:08 +0000

Sociologists don't speak to one person and then write a paper while listening to the recorded interview on tape. They speak to hundreds of people, gather highly powered statistical data and then analyse it to draw general conclusions about groups of people as a whole.

Heresy Corner : Hooray for the daffodil police

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:51:50 +0000

There's not really a tricky question of legal nuance to deal with when someone is tearing up bits of park. You can generally say "knock that off" quite quickly.

Heresy Corner : Another indecent prosecution

Tue, 1 Mar 2011 11:23:24 +0000

Legally porn is in the mind of the creator — if it is of such a nature that it must reasonably be assumed to have been produced solely or principally for the purpose of sexual arousal.

Heresy Corner : Saudi bloggers now free to support government and extol Islamic law

Sun, 16 Jan 2011 02:34:14 +0000

Well, if it's actually binding it's not a fatwa and you can lock up the people who don't follow it. It really just depends on how rabid they want to be about enforcing it.

Heresy Corner : Police admit: \"We haven\'t a Cluedo\"

Sun, 2 Jan 2011 17:56:50 +0000

The Lib Dem stuff is a massive great red flag. Handcuffs stat.

Heresy Corner : The WikiLeaks news recycle

Wed, 22 Dec 2010 21:32:56 +0000

"A quarter of British Muslims don’t have confidnce in the country’s Judicial system and courts " As opposed to 100% of everyone else who implicitly trust the legal system to be inherently just and fair? Those figures are about what you'd expect for any group who get randomly stopped and searched by the police.

Heresy Corner : Cracking the Cracker Code

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:55:59 +0000

Yeah, I agree. I think the behaviour is usual but still illogical. That's what I mean to say by bizarre.

Heresy Corner : Cracking the Cracker Code

Thu, 9 Dec 2010 22:38:46 +0000

I can't help but think that our current attitude to children is better than our previous one (although it's far from perfect) and I'm certainly glad that I got to have an idealised childhood as opposed to being sent down the mines. That said, there's something bizarre about people inventing a history and then complaining that the present isn't like that.

Heresy Corner : Why I called Virginia Ironside a Eugenicist on live TV

Wed, 6 Oct 2010 00:04:08 +0000

If life is only a gift when you feel secure and loved then there is absolutely no hope for teenagers. I'm frankly surprised anyone survived because apparently life literally wasn't worth living any more. You'd never turn your back on someone who's clearly got the mantra of "suffer not a disabled person to live." You might not be healthy enough.

Heresy Corner : Suing Sally

Sun, 3 Oct 2010 19:50:42 +0000

Yeah, exactly. She isn't the Speaker, and such strictures therefore shouldn't apply to her... therefore it's a matter for their breakfast table at the very most.

Heresy Corner : A tale of two prosecutions: Same facts, different result

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 17:33:07 +0000

Not only that but failing to give your phone unlock code to the police if asked for can be a criminal offence punishable by about 2 years in jail.

Heresy Corner : A tale of two prosecutions: Same facts, different result

Mon, 9 Aug 2010 17:29:07 +0000

Well, there have been situations in child pornography cases where the accused has been held to have possessed the material in that when the computer was seized by the police it could be forensically recovered after it was deleted. In that situation they have had an opportunity to delete the material and did so but it's still "in possession". It seems like the only way to guarantee you're not in possession of pornographic material is to throw your phone in the sea.

Heresy Corner : 6 of the best?

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:54:10 +0000

Seriously? Is that what you got out of that? I'm talking about iPlayer, the idea is that you don't need to broadcast the "huge national archive of cheap and free content" (that we've already paid for, don't forget) across the whole country all the time if it's available on demand.

Heresy Corner : 6 of the best?

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:37:26 +0000

The problem with DAB is not that it can't sound better than FM, it's that it's often not considered economic to put in the bandwidth to get it to sound better than FM. The problem is that you still can't get a free lunch even with digital media.

Heresy Corner : 6 of the best?

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 15:31:36 +0000

Why do we need more radio stations instead of fewer? You point out that BBC digital radio comes over the internet as well as the air and can be listened to by someone with a Freeview TV, iPlayer or a smartphone why do we need to broadcast the archive that we've already paid for? Surely that's an argument for putting it all online instead. If content is everything then why isn't iPlayer the be-all-and-end-all, it's an on-demand service that lets you listen to specific pieces of content as and when you want to. None of your points lead me to think that we desperately need to put more stations/channels on the air. On demand services like iPlayer really shot digital radio services in the foot in that way. I don't really need a scheduled radio station at all if I can get the individual programme I want streamed to my smartphone. It's generally the wholly wrong move to say that someone doesn't understand the topic. You should generally explain why you think they're wrong instead. For example - if content is everything - why wouldn't putting programmes currently broadcast on Radio 6 on Radio 2 work? Your points only work if you already assume you need digital radio and, really, the adoption figures so far show that the UK public don't think that.

Heresy Corner : Perverted Paediatrics?

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 21:55:13 +0000

The idea of operating on someone and not checking if you've left their nerves intact afterwards seems horrible to me. If any operation goes badly you surely want to know straight away, whether you can put it back or not. I'm stuck for what else you could really use as a test of if someone's nerves have survived surgery - if you're checking someone's successfully under anaesthetic you're pretty much limited to poking them with a needle, asking them if they can feel it and if they can't it's worked. Sensation is a subjective phenomenon.

Heresy Corner : Cherie Blair wins misconduct claim. No reasons given.

Sun, 13 Jun 2010 13:27:11 +0000

That's a terrifying concept. The NSS reads the Daily Mail.

Heresy Corner : Teenage Kicks

Sat, 12 Jun 2010 20:17:20 +0000

Yeah, but that's not quite the same as speculating that the inner life they had was the same one. I think a lot of things shape people to be a creative (especially if it's anyone who outputs something creative - do bloggers count?) and it's probably drawn from any of a whole lifetime of experiences. Certainly pent up sexuality features prominently in many artistic stories but so does full on hedonism or indeed "just" having a wife and three kids (like Shakespeare, for example).

Heresy Corner : Guns and psychologists

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:51:51 +0000

Which is weird because I would quite want to know what goes through the head of armed police when they're working. I would watch a documentary on what doctors, police, fire fighters etc think when working in stressful environments just as an item of interest.

Heresy Corner : Guns and psychologists

Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:46:41 +0000

Yeah, it seems crazy to me that this would ever be a time to relax gun control. I just don't understand how that argument gets off the ground. We could just maybe leave them as they are (it's been noted that it's lucky we're at the start of a government or there would be a bidding war over who could be tougher on guns).