Restaurant reviewer with an ethical stance

From now on, if a restaurant does not offer me tap water, politely, unsarcastically, and before they offer mineral water, then they will be penalised.

Scaring children to death

Robyn Williams, In Conversation with Bill Durodie, 28th September:

"Going back to what you're saying about risk, I was fascinated the other day to hear something on the BBC concerning the fear of paedophiles; occasionally of course, it's a real, real thing that there is a nasty man in a coat and there is a poor vulnerable child. However for every one of those – apparently now that everyone drives their kids to school, there are 300 fatal accidents – so for each one child that you're saving from the paedophile, 300 are dying in car crashes."

I'd love to find a reference for that...

Related: Fear of paedophiles makes children fat and Fear of paedophiles 'a tragedy'.

Things will get better!

Well, maybe that's not all that positive... treehugger post.

Update: on World Changing.

The Onion: Retired S1Ws Recalled To Active Duty

Too good.

Well put...

An article by Emma Tom on the inconsistent imposition of "Australian values" on different religions.

Nice quote from a post 9-11 article in The Onion:

"Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," God was quoted as saying. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbour. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."

24hrs of searching

roentgenizdat

Ruby and Ocaml

Not sure whether I'll learn either of these properly, but so far Ruby is winning simply because of this book:

Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby

Fox #1: Have you noticed this book is basically written by a lunatic?
Fox #2:Yup.

The licensing for the book also permits it's use for cigarette advertising, which may come in handy...

The other (slightly more distant) contender is Objective CAML.

Dabblers and Blowhards

An interesting counterpoint to Hackers and Painters. I'm not entirely convinced, but it does make quite a few fair points.

Death to Caps Lock

See also: http://capsoff.blogspot.com/