blogs

Bobby Jindal\’s got himself elected. Over at Pickled Politics Sunny has this to say:

On Saturday Bobby Jindal became the country’s first Indian-American governor, and that too in the deeply Republican south state of Carolina.

Err, there is no state of "Carolina" in the US. There\’s North Carolina and South Carolina, but no Carolina. He also links to a NYT piece about Jindal:

But he is not a natural fit for Louisiana.

Which actually makes some sense, as Jindal has not been elected Governor of the non-existent state of Carolina but of Louisiana. Which is indeed in the Deep South but is not deeply Republican: the outgoing Governor, one of the two Senators and two of the nine Congressmen are Democrats.

Lucky we\’ve got these journalists out here blogging, showing us how to do the fact checking really, isn\’t it?

Can anyone tell me, are we still having problems with the left margins in IE 6?

Just when you thought it was safe to get that interesting boil seen to, thought that embarassing purple patch in a very private place might benefit from some treatment, you find that there\’s no one at the surgery.

Yes, the NHS Blog Doctor is back.

To here.

Update b….etc. etc.

Nick Cohen reported on Sunday that Dan Hardie is both a Doctoe and a reservist. One of these two is true, although unhelpful to mention. The other isn\’t. Don\’t forget Tuesday, still as important as ever.

Over at the old place. On a post about colony collapse disorder we get this:

And what is causing the weakened immune system that has opened them up to a viral infection?

Cell phones. Same thing that caused my chronic Lyme Disease.

Err, Lyme Disease is a bacterial disease spread by tick bites.

Time to get the chequebook out, don\’t you think Tom?

Well, what do you expect when you insult a man\’s home town?

Hmm? What was that?

I\’ve written this week\’s diary for The Spectator, which you can read HERE. Due to the postal strike, I suspect the paper version won\’t land on your doormat until Saturday.

Err, doubt it. They\’re on strike on Saturday.

*

Fortunately, this one hasn\’t taken Dr. Johnson\’s advice to heart.

A Blockhead\’s Essays. Do go read.

This on education is a treat:

One of the best things that the splurging of money on education in recent years has done is that it has blown away any pretence that the system’s faults are due to a lack of money.

After a decade of increasing budgets, educating a child to the age of sixteen costs the state £45,000. More than a fifth of them leave school illiterate. No one would voluntarily spend that kind of money on an education so grotesquely useless that it could not even teach a child to read and write. No one, except the Department of Education.

Those who pretend that this is the best that can possibly be expected for this sort of outlay are a mixture of hardened ideologues and professional apologists. There are those who are too narrow-minded to accept any model other than the council-run comprehensive, and those whose fingers wouldn’t be able to pull so much out of any other kind of pie.

Something to add to RSS feeders I think.

So, via nosemonkey, it looks like I\’m to do a quickie (perhaps not le mot juste) book for the Christmas trade.

A directory sort of affair to sex blogging. Yes, I know about Abby, Belle du Jour, The Mr Eugenides Sex Blog (which will be in) and there\’s a few more I\’m thinking of. Is it New York Madam? Then there\’s an excellently written porno blog (ie, about making porn) from London which was in the BBRU, Creepy Lesbo….

Right, so there\’s hundreds more out there that I\’m missing. Anyone want to point me in the right direction?

I\’ve wondered you know, tried to work it out, what, exactly, is Facebook for. Now I know. On my newsfeed this morning.

Owen Barder and Brian Barder are now friends.  They found each other using the Friend Finder.

Isn\’t that amazing? A triumph of technology I call it, overcoming human nature (those teenage years are indeed such a strain), that a father can be friends with his son. And even guiding them to each other, so that they could become so!

No, really.

The campaign to offer the right of entry to those Iraqis who have been working for us and who are now being murdered for doing so needs your help.

Here is how.

Get them to turn up: don\’t forget they work for you so your views matter to them.

Well, yes, there\’s some truth to this no doubt.

Fortunately Fabian decided not to continue on to number 15.

In my playing around with blogs I\’ve just found something interesting out about the Google algorithm.

The old technique of google bombing, using anchor text and a link to boost results for a certain word or phrase no longer seems to work. Indeed, it seems to work in reverse. I won\’t trouble you with what the phrase was but a post I had was at number 41 in the Google rankings for a specific phrase. In the spirit of enquiry for which I am known (read, desperate for cash) off I went to boost that by employing the above technique.

The thing is, using it now actually degrades your results, not boosts them.

Interesting, no?

Jules breaks into James\’ blog and points out that we might have a great deal to thank Christianity for. Faith, hope, love, and possibly even individuality.

Ahem.

Sorry, but I have a hard enough time getting laid as it is, even without bearded Canadian lunatics on my front.

You mean Amanda can indeed write and be witty?

So what\’s her excuse the rest of the time?

This might get a little amusing. The Boy Dave (M) has his new Foreign Secretary\’s blog up here.

The news that the SG\’s rep has made clear his determination to go to the region suggests the world is realising the need to move as fast as events.

Fascinating stuff, eh?

Comments are unmoderated. Yes, unmoderated. Guido is telling everyone so get your comment in fast, before they realise what they\’ve done.