The spectre of Section 28
You may have heard today that a school has successfully destroyed plans for a new opera, Beached, written by Lee Hall of Billy Elliot fame. Their claim is that the lead character being clearly homosexual is “inappropriate” for the 300 primary-age children taking part in the performance, and organizers Opera North have supported the school in this decision. Regular readers of my blog (hello!) will probably agree with me that this is, of course, an obnoxious bigoted viewpoint that the school is perpetuating, but it got me thinking about the legality and, in particular, the ghost of Section 28. Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 was a piece of Conservative-era legislation created in response to a bit of Daily Mail hatred about a book called...
Now wash your hands
We were all taught way back in primary school that after using the lavatory, we should wash our hands. This is not a matter of personal hygiene, it’s a matter of the hygiene of everyone who has used that particular toilet and with whom you have shared germs. Remember, a lot of nasty illnesses are accompanied by irregular bowel movements, so it stands to reason that shared toilets are going to be covered in nasties. Now, with that in mind, why is it that whatever shared toilet facilities I find myself in, whether in a dingy bar, a posh restaurant or even an office building, it seems to be fewer than 50% of men that actually wash their hands before leaving the room and spreading whatever they’ve caught to everything and everyone they touch? Is this a...
iTerm invisible cursor
I’m a big fan of the popular Mac OS X terminal application iTerm, but for the first year or so of using it I was irked by a serious problem: my cursor was invisible! [Figure 1] I scoured high and low on the web and found other people reporting this problem but no one offering a solution. I finally found the answer by accident a few months back and thought it was important to get it on the web somewhere so people can find it! If you want to see your cursor in iTerm, for reasons completely unknown to me, you need to set its colours in reverse (that is, set the text colour to the background and the background colour to the foreground)! [Figure 2] That’s all I wanted to say. I’ve never had any problems since. Happy iTerming! Update: My good friend...
Towards a Federal Europe
When asked for my national identity on the 2011 Census form, I put European. Why? Because I am not proud to be a member of this state, specifically, but I am very proud to be a citizen of Europe. Europe, historically, has been at the forefront of technological and social evolution. Many of the world’s most important discoveries and inventions originated here, and many of our member states had huge empires to their name in the days when that was the done thing. But most importantly to me, we champion civil liberties before anywhere else. The abolition of the death penalty throughout the Council of Europe (of which the EU is a subset) and the advancement of LGBT rights are the two that come to mind immediately. If the EU is treated as a single federal nation,...
British superheroes
I recently finished The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (a volume comprising the first 13 short stories) and it occurred to me that Holmes is very much an early superhero. He has immense powers of deduction and disguise, often baffling even the best police detectives (whom he frequently refers to as ‘imbeciles’) and uses those powers only to further the common good and not for his own personal profit. He also shows another superhero trait, that of recognizing the value of all human beings, even wrongdoers, often finding a way to secure their escape rather than face the corrupt justice system. But Holmes makes a big deal out of his powers being no more than any person could do with the right application of brainpower. He and Watson frequently point out...
Verbal after-images
As a former denizen of Manchester, it gave me a warm memory, on returning to that metropolis the other day, to hear the familiar sound: Caution! Bollards in motion! It got me thinking, though. Ten months away from Manchester and that phrase — not just its words but its tempo, pitch and timbre — is still etched into my brain. In the era of recorded sound, specific repeated recorded phrases can become mnemonic cues, much like specific street scenes or smells.1 How many of these are cues for you? Stand clear of the closing doors. Unexpected item in bagging area! Would Inspector Sands please come to the communication room? Kids and grown-ups love it so; the happy world of Haribo. First TransPennine Express apologises for the late running of this service, and for the...
Reviews: Flaming Lips and Kate Bush
Another two albums to review today, both based around a “reinvention” theme, and both bought for me by my brother Jon for my birthday last weekend. The Flaming Lips (et al.) – The Dark Side of the Moon I know I’m a bit behind the curve here — this album came out about 18 months ago — but it has only just made it into my collection and it fits well with the theme. For reasons known only to themselves, Oklahoma psychedelic nutters The Flaming Lips have teamed up with singer Wayne’s brother’s band Stardeath & White Dwarfs to record a complete end-to-end cover of Pink Floyd’s 1973 masterpiece The Dark Side of the Moon. On a first listen to this, I was horrified! A band I respect had taken one of my favourite musical...
Leeds-based non-binary nerd and sewist. I won't break my streak on Duolingo for anyone. 
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