Owner: paulcanning URL:http://paulcanning.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Fri, 09 Mar 2007 19:24:41 -0600 Rating:0 Site Description: web stuff and other ramblings Site statistics:Click here
Alan Duncan: Why I can't stand him 2008-03-05 07:30:00 Alan Duncan
is not a gay MP. Oh no. He's an "MP who happens to be gay" (n.b. when it was convenient for him). He's also a gay man with no respect for those who enabled him and a gay man who'll swipe at other gay men to make clear he's not like them.Here he is announcing his 'partnership' (marriage is for heterosexuals he truly believes) to the Torygraph:"This is not a 'wedding'," he says. "You really just go into the register office and sign. There will be no Elton John-style stuff: no white suits, no John Inman, no flouncing about."Rather hysterically displaying a complete lack of self-awareness for such a big queen (Derek Faye anyone?) he says:"The most annoying reaction I received from friends [when I came out] was: 'We always knew that'. I said: 'I don't flounce about. I don't parade.
UK searching for Obama 2008-03-05 05:52:00 Heather Hopkins posts that:UK Internet users are more interested in the United States presidential race than politics at home. Senator Barack Obama
is the most searched for political figure in the UK, receiving three times as many searches on his name last week as Hillary Clinton, and five times as many as Gordon Brown. John McCain ranked in fourth place, just ahead of David Cameron.UK Internet visits to Barack Obama’s official website (www.barackobama.com) started to increase steadily from the end of January and, during the week of ‘Super Tuesday’ (week ending 9 February 2008) his website received more visits than any of the major UK political party websites. Interest in Senator Obama has declined slightly since ‘Super Tuesday’ and his website now ranks one position behind The C Read more:searching
Are Hillary's wins bad news for web campaigning fans? 2008-03-05 03:57:00 It's a matter of expectations and the big MO (momentum). Hillary
's wins may not bring her the nomination (simple delegate maths says no) but she won Texas and Ohio on the back of traditional campaigning
and negative campaigning at that. She has the MO now.Although the polls said it was close she raced ahead in Ohio on the back of a gaff about trade issues by the Obama camp - very traditional. And although Obama had by far the slickest operation ever seen technically (see Terry Mancour in today's Guardian), especially compared to Hillary's 'command-control', and has completely changed the rules with fundraising (one million have donated online) that didn't push him over the top in Texas. And expectations about that were raised.He will likely still get there - people who like to bet say it'
Election viral video numbers go boom 2008-03-04 17:32:00 Checking the numbers on US elections viral video
s I was astonished to see the stats for the will.i.am (Black Eyed Peas) pro-Obama video. It's been posted nearly 5000 times and viewed by nearly 12 million in just over a month.To put this in context, 'dramatic look' (where some sort of rodent gives a cute impression of a bad actor) is 'just' 16 million and 2300 posts. Other videos with huge numbers, such as 'evolution of dance' (85 million) are universal, not just American.Not long ago, 5 million for 'vote different' - the anti-Hillary viral which is based on the famous 1984 Apple TV ad - seemed astonishing. Another context is that "The Daily Show"with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central averages a nightly audience of just 1.3 million viewers (and, to be generous, maybe a million online).Given tha Read more:Election
Tories and standards and walled gardens 2008-03-04 13:40:00 Shane McCracken @ Gallomanor has thrown me a sideways question. Sideways because he's linked to me from "some others in local Govt IT" (n.b. Shane, I'm 'web' not 'IT', there's a difference) whilst discussing David Cameron's call that 'councils should be publishing data using common standards so that the public and other groups can re-use the data to compare councils and provide services'.He links to the e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) and Simon Dickson's comments - which I'll sum up as 'it's difficult'.Basically, Cameron is on the right track but probably for the wrong reasons.I've consistently argued that the problem with egov in the UK is it's 'walled garden', that it operates without consideration of the wider web, doesn't behave like the wider web and - largely because Read more:Tories
Irony of ironies 2008-03-03 22:55:00 Last week The New York Times ran a story pointing out that the U.S. constitution stipulates that only a "natural born citizen" can become president. This is the clause that stops Arnie.Thing is, John McCain was not born in the United States proper, but rather in the Panama Canal Zone in the year 1936 to military parents.Apparently the constitutional clause has never been tested in lawNow G.W. Bush has argued for years that Guantanamo Bay (Cuba) is not American soil in order to stop prisoners getting their cases into U.S. courts.Wouldn't it be ironic if the White House's arguments over Guantanamo were used somehow against McCain?Hat Tip: Serof David Read more:Irony
Annan dispels ghosts of Rwanda / Saving baby Brian 2008-03-03 12:00:00 Kofi Annan has succeeded in securing the power-sharing agreement which will end Kenya's crisis and the violence.In this, he dispels the ghost of Rwanda.If you read the background, virtually no-one and no country comes out well. Bill Clinton, most prominently, has publicly got on his knees to apologise for what he didn't do. Then UN GenSec Boutros Boutros Ghali hasn't. Neither has John Major or Douglas Hurd, to my knowledge. The heroes of Rwanda are very, very few. I am sure that Annan, amongst others, is literally haunted by people hacked to death. That would be very African.The agreement has received universal support across the Kenyan blogosphere, although the still unresolved issues which it throws up, mainly to do with the Constitution, worry some.Gordon Brown made a particularly patro Read more:ghosts
, Saving
, Brian
Ushahidi - Help make a global product out of an African initiated project 2008-03-03 11:31:00 From White African
:We’ve entered Ushahidi (background story here) into the $100,000 Netsquared Mashup Challenge for further development. We’re really excited about this opportunity for a number of reasons. First, we’d love to get experts involved to help us with planning and development work.Second, if you go help vote up our application (LINK), we have a stronger chance of being selected. Going and voting for us at this point is the biggest help you can be at this point.Third, even though the crisis in Kenya appears to be over (thank God), we’re continuing to build out Ushahidi in order for it to be used in future crisis related situations around the world. Here’s their explanation of the challenge: This year’s NetSquared Conference will bring together a unique mix of pe
30th Sydney Mardi Gras? I must be old 2008-03-02 12:25:00 It was the Sydney
Gay and Lesbian Mardi
Gras on Saturday night. For those who've never heard of it (must be a few), around 700,000 watch the parade for a mile and a bit up one of Sydney's main drags, ending at the Showgrounds where the party's held. Several thousand participate and there are over 100 floats and marching groups.The parade assembles in the city centre then turns into the main drag, Oxford Street — 'Dykes on bikes' lead, doing teaser runs up and down, warming people up— that moment when you hit the drag is like hitting a wall of ecstasy. The next two hours is a continuous rush.Lots and lots of straight people both participate and watch — it's truly an event for all Sydney. The party had to introduce 'prove you're gay' measures one year because the party was so popular.
NSFW: Golden Gals Gone Wild 2008-03-01 12:50:00 Golden Girl Betty White on Craig Ferguson.This 'tribute to Betty' (she's an ole showgirl) featured at the Golden Gals Gone Wild art show of OAP bazookas in LA last year. Read more:Golden
Please stop, you're killing me ... 2008-03-01 12:13:00 From the Kenyan blogosphereThese questions about Kenya were posted on a Kenyan tourism portal by potential tourists from various western Countries and were answered by the website owner.Q: Does it ever get windy in Kenya? I have never seen it rain on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA)A: Depends how much you’ve been drinking.Q: I want to walk from Mombasa to Nakuru - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)A: Sure, it’s only two thousand kilometres….take lots of water.Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Kenya? (Sweden).A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes!Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in Kenya? Can you send me a list of them Read more:Please
Hillary is not the 'devil' 2008-03-01 01:17:00 It would fit with the theme for Reuters to sell this pic. Misogyny has been the unwritten undercurrent to this election. She has been called every name under the sun with absolutely no comeback — and all 'explained' by who she's married to. And where have we heard that before? That's all it amounts to. 'Nigger' is not OK, 'bitch' is.NB: This is a Matt Drudge promotion, he's obviously turned on Hillary
. Which means it's still men deciding. The BBC's no better (Matt Fry calling Hillary 'honey'). Shame on the media, the commentiat, the Obama supporters and rest of the men and women piling on, but they have none.What New Dissed Hill Is This? - Melissa McEwan collates the worst of itSeattle Times: Hillary hatred finds its misogynistic voiceDavid Aaronovitch: Never underestimate the misogyny o
I want this in the UK! 2008-02-28 05:45:00 You don't even need to know who this lot are; it's the concept. Show the wizard behind the curtain.This is from Harry Shearer's 'damn channel'. Harry's the voice of numerous Simpsons characters. His channel has loads of this stuff.Archive: Silent Debate
Such is progress 2008-02-27 21:58:00 New Washington Times (owned by the very, very right wing Moonies) Style Guide:2) Gay is approved for copy and preferred over homosexual, except in clinical references or references to sexual activity.3) The quotation marks will come off gay marriage (preferred over homosexual marriage).David Duke (notorious white supremacist leader):"I don't see much difference in Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton--or, for that matter, John McCain."New Republic: Post-racial - how the American far-right is coping Read more:progress
Update: Iranian gay deportee, Mehdi Kazemi 2008-02-27 16:36:00 >> MONDAY 3RD: via radicali.it: Mehdi
saw a judge Monday with decision reserved to March 5. Italian activists are in contact with the Dutch ambassador in Rome to ask him to apply European Directive 2004/83/EC that requires the recognition of refugee status to persons in need of international protection. They also asked the foreign ministry to intervene urgently with the Dutch authorities.Terry Evans has a response from his local Tory MEP, Roger Helms:"The logic of your position is that all homosexuals from Iran, and from other strict Islamic countries, should be free to come to the UK and settle here. I am not sure that that is practical politics. There area lot of tragic situations around the world: we cannot take responsibility for all of them. Best regards."The question - of course - wa Read more:Update
, Iranian
'Undercover mosque': police hit with lawsuit 2008-02-27 16:17:00 Hallelujah seems to be the appropriate response to the news that Channel Four is supporting a libel claim against West Midlands Police.These are the mob (WM police) which took Channel Four to law over their broadcast of a documentary featuring footage of British preachers calling for homosexuals to be killed, espousing male supremacy, condemning non-Muslims and predicting jihad.Archive: Support Channel Four over 'Undercover
Mosque (this post includes Youtube clips/links of the whole documentary)These are also the same police who have received consistent criticism by West Midlands lesbians and gays for homophobia. I blogged last year about how West Midlands Labour councillors (it's a Labour fiefdom) were running anti-gay campaigns using a local gay sex meeting place as an excuse. There's p Read more:mosque
Me! Me! Me! 2008-02-27 13:42:00 Reading through the comments online as the Daily Mail launches its campaign against plastic bags is an object lesson in:intergenerational responsibilityblatant selfishnessI recycle bags, this is about taxing ME, this is inconvenient for ME, I am upstanding, I don't litter ... I, I, I ...What sort of a future do these sorts of people want for their children (or if they don't have them, like me, the generation of humanity who'll support them as they age)?They want a future which they're not responsible for - that's for someone else (my bloody local council, Gordon Brown, chavs, my neighbors, politicians etc.). Anyone but me.It's very very, very easy to put the blame elsewhere but we all make decisions, do actions, do non-actions, which have collectively created the polluted, litter-full worl
Video: Italians protest UK deportation of gay teen to Iran 2008-02-26 18:45:00 Google translation from the Italian (Source: radioradicale.it):In the coming hours the gay Iranian Seyed Mehdi Kazemi will be transferred from Holland (where he is after having fled from England following the British authorities' refusal to grant him political asylum) to London, before being deported to Iran where he risks execution for the crime of "lavat" (sodomy). The delivery of Mehdi should happen already tomorrow.None Touch Cain and the Radical Party Nonviolento, transnational and transpartito ask the Foreign Minister D'Alema to intervene immediately to the UK to freeze the unacceptable process of deportation to Iran of Mehdi. That represent a violation of international conventions on human rights and in particular the Convention on Refugees, the jurisprudence of the European Court o
Ten online campaigning tips for Ken Livingstone 2008-02-26 14:17:00 I may have mentioned my lack of impress with Ken Livingstone's online
campaign for the London mayoralty. The first efforts out the gate broke numerous web norms with the biggest hole being leaving supporters without fightback material against the rapidly building anti-Ken campaign and unexplained requests for money from Labour after it's fundraising scandals.To be a wee bit more positive, here are ten tips culled from the US Primaries experience. They'll be applicable to both Boris and Brian and Siân as well but both of Ken's main challengers are miles ahead already.I am not including the very, very basics such as not relying on images in email to convey information or testing your site for its usability — if you don't get that sort of thing everything here is waaaay too sophisticated.1 Read more:campaigning
Google Reader clips catch up 2008-02-26 13:21:00 Latest of my GoogleReader
starred items:Avinash Kaushik has evolved from a 'Taco Bell gournet' since starting working for GoogleHe says Customers & Competitors should be used to embarrass HiPPOs (highest paid person’s) on web analyticsBeing a good designer means being an 'omnivore'Freezing chips breaks encryptionWikipedia and similar sites rely on tiny numbers of free editorsThe Economist notes 'witty' bloggers on DirectGov and eGovMore daft web ideas from politicians, this time lil'Lord FalconerNYT: the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girlsAnti-gay Christians sell books with fellatioCharlie Booker had a run-in with an 80 yo on a plane; she survivedObama doesn't need 'big money' because the Web's proving a fundraising cash cowThe Australian apology is abou Read more:Google Reader
More McCain comedy riffs 2008-02-26 12:24:00 Following on from Jon Stewart:Oscar is 80, "which automatically makes him the front-runner for the Republican nomination"Late night hosts seem to have settled on McCain
's age for comedy value."The guy who is always early for the 'Early Bird Special'""The guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors"Mind you. that clip's from before the New York Times linked him to a glamorous lobbyist ...This is hysterical.They keep saying he's too old for the job. Hell, they'd be nothing better for his campaign than if he produced a closet full of Naughty Ladies ... 'I have an erection right now', then knock the podium over with it ...Wonkette had the best summary of what the heck the New York Times printed:While Grandpa Straight Talk was running for the presidency in 2000, all his aides
Online marketing and UK eGov Frontierspeople 2008-02-26 07:19:00 In January my fabulous egov webbie colleague Jeremy Gould organised the first UK Barcamp for government, held at Google HQ. BarCamp is a newish way of organising gatherings that's a breath of fresh air over the usual stale conferences.It was an enormously successful event, for the first time drawing in a significant non-government input from the, often isolated, other people in NGOs, SMEs etc as well as bloggers with an interest. I was very sorry I missed it, not the least because it's exactly the sort of event I've wanted to see for - actually - years.However ... and not having been there I recognise the limb I'm climbing onto (I used to review concerts and this is a classic, don't review if you weren't there) ...One subject which I noticed was absent from discussion and follow-up and als
La Dolce Vita 2008-02-26 05:44:00 I somehow managed to not find the opening scene of La Dolce
Vita clipped on YouTube (slap!) and instead used the Perroni Advert, which is a glossy tribute, as I was matching available clips to my fave films.The Observer gave copies away on Sunday and as a teaser they found a lot more clips than me, including the stunning opening.I've never seen a Fellini film I didn't like and could happily watch Marcello Mastroianni open an envelope but La Dolce Vita
is a definitive classic:It gave birth to the term PaparazziFirst appearance of NicoHuge influence on Lost in Translation and Pulp Fiction. Woody Allen's Celebrity copies the structureThe opening scene of a Christ statue over Rome has been copied many times (see L.A. Story)It's in The Simpsons and Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders did an exqui
This is Web power · Pervs meet their match 2008-02-26 04:20:00 This is the last of a few posts I've done on 'web power
' — ways in which the Web is helping to change the world around us for the better. This last one is a little bit more complicated in its implications than either Italians fighting Mafia or Kenyans developing democracy online.MANHATTAN — Dan Hoyt is a 'raw food guru' and subway masturbator in New York who met his match in a Camera-phone wielded by a woman fighting back.The Daily News cover exposeThao Nguyen, a Web designer, uploaded the photo of Dan and his dick to the girl-power site Laundromatic.net, hoping someone would identify her flasher. After many women responded she brought the image in August 2006 to the Daily News after the NYPD dismissed her complaint.It ran on the paper’s front page, Hoyt was caught and she inspired t
Skitting all over Ahmadinejad 2008-03-12 14:24:00 Really funny Saturday Night Live skit from last October - with Jake Gyllenhaal, Adam Levine from Marron 5 and Andy Samberg! Read more:Ahmadinejad
Save Madhi Kazemi 2008-03-12 12:21:00 A web site has been set up for the campaign here - www.madhikazemi.comPlease circulate this if you can.Donations are urgently required to support Madhi's legal case.email gayasylum.donations@yahoo.com Support via money 360 vouchers available online or at any pay point outlet.Also O2 credit vouchers are required as we are going though loads at the minute as you can imagine.
Convenient right-wing language 2008-03-12 08:17:00 Checking some blog reactions to the Mehdi Kazemi case I've seen a few right-wing bloggers making the usual arguments about 'not imposing our culture', 'he claims to be gay', 'the floodgates will open' and asking Jacqui Smith to 'stand firm'.Here's what I told one of them:It’s not a ‘claim’ to be gay - that’s your convenient belief.“Deporting Mehdi Kazemi back to Iran” - you forget to add “to his death”.You guys always forget the last bit, knowingly back to his death. I wish you would actually say this instead of this pretend language
.Say it. Stop talking ‘uphold the law’ bollocks and say it. ‘ We must be prepared to be tough and send people knowingly back to be hanged’.Are you a real Tory or what?It interests me that they usually preface these opinions with a 'sorry Read more:Convenient
Trying really, really hard 2008-03-12 05:39:00 I wasn't going to blog this because I'm too kind :} but an email from Shadow Chancellor George Osborne's office claiming that the government eGov Minister, Tom Watson, is stealing George's lines landed with me and a lot of others yesterday. It came from a - I'm guessing - young staffer and George (maybe) nodded OK. Ya live, ya learn ...Into the sharks lair ...Simon DicksonAmusingly, it condemns the Watson speech as a ‘mashup’. But hold on. Surely it’s entirely in keeping with the whole ethos of open source, to take good ideas and build on them? Didn’t you say mass collaboration was a good thing? Yep, keep the humour in. It is funny :} We're not laughing at you, young staffer, but with you ...Dave BriggsWhy not post this on a blog somewhere, point us to it and start a discussion aro
Bored? Get clicking 2008-03-12 04:43:00 Here's another online game which improves your knowledge and helps someone! In this case, you!How does my answering questions at Answer4Earth help save the Earth?When you play the game, advertisements appear above the question area. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to plant trees. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the planting of trees all over the world in a united effort to end Global Warming.Note: to actually help combat global warming, trees need to be planted in the tropics - Africa, Asia, and Latin America - and that's what the site's partner organisations are doing.Hat-tip: Tom Read more:Bored
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