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This is an old page from Rod Begbie's blog.

It only exists in an attempt to prevent linkrot. No new content will be added to this site, and links and images are liable to be broken. Check out begbie.com to find where I'm posting stuff these days.

Filed under 'grauniad'

September 27, 2010

This is a news website article about a scientific finding

‘“Basically, this is a brief soundbite,” the scientist will say, from a department and university that I will give brief credit to. “The existing science is a bit dodgy, whereas my conclusion seems bang on” she or he will continue.’

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September 10, 2010

The slow death of Dopplr

Sad. I have a lot of love for Dopplr, and still use it, but its growth never got past the digerati.

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June 23, 2010

Wimbledon 2010 live blog: 23 June | guardian.co.uk

The longest match in Wimbledon history, liveblogged. Gets good starting around 4.05pm

“6pm: The score stands at 34-34. In order to stay upright and keep their strength, John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have now started eating members of the audience. They trudge back to the baseline, gnawing on thigh-bones and sucking intestines. They have decided that they will stay on Court 18 until every spectator is eaten. Only then, they say, will they consider ending their contest.”

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June 9, 2010

Today's Guardian (Phil Gyford's website)

Phil explains some of the design decisions behind his reader webapp.

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Today's Guardian

Excellent remashing of the Grauniad’s online articles into something that feels like an edition of the newspaper. Particularly lovely: vim navigations keys to page through and between the articles.

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May 9, 2010

Richard Herring: Young, gifted and ... 40?

Snippet from Richard Herring’s new book.

“My first theory of relativity states that time moves more slowly when you spend it with your relatives. No one can argue with that. But, more pertinently, my second theory of relativity states that time with your family and time in the real world move at different speeds. You could leave your family for decades, but when you finally come home again you find that even though you have aged, at home only a few seconds have elapsed. Nothing changes, the roles, the relationships. It’s not just me still seeing my parents as 40-year-olds; they still treat me as if I was 10.”

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April 23, 2010

Malcolm Tucker's election briefing

Jesse Armstrong is writing weekly election missives for The Guardian, “from” Malcolm Tucker.

April 9, 2010

The best sandwich ever?

“Dollop in your hot mushroom mixture and tuck your second steak over the top. At this stage I usually smear hot horseradish on the top steak and Dijon mustard on the inside of the lid before fitting it back on to the loaf.”

WANT!

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February 6, 2010

Nancy Banks-Smith: classic TV reviews

A bunch of snippets of The Guardian’s fabulous TV reviewer, as she celebrates 40 years at the paper. Her description of the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest made me do two genuine LOLs.

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October 17, 2009

Charlie Brooker’s hidden message

Charlie Brooker’s hidden message

www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/oct/17/charliebrooke...

"The line 'kicking ratings...' was originally a standalone sentence, but got subbed. Puzzle fans! Spot my hidden 'free speech' message." -- @charltonbrooker

May 27, 2009

You ask, they answer: Neals Yard Remedies

Neals Yard, purveyors of finest homeopathic placebos and quackery, offer to take questions from the Grauniad blog readers. The Bad Science crowd descends, and 24 hours later, no answers are forthcoming.

“I’ve been soaking a £20 note in a bathfull of water for the last few days, is it ok to pay for an order using my new homeopathic money? I now seem to have rather a lot of it.”

April 15, 2009

Effing strange

Effing strange

Grauniad article with both instances of "ff" replaced by the "ff" ligature. Very odd looking!

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January 14, 2009

The change we need | Comment is free | The Guardian

Good riddance to President Gore! “Of course, the biggest disappointment was Gore’s failure to handle Hurricane Katrina properly. Not only did the massive evacuation of New Orleans prove a costly and time-consuming overreaction, since the levees - fortified in 2003 - held up fine.”

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September 3, 2008

Rupert Murdoch acted as peacemaker between Barack Obama and Fox News | guardian.co.uk

Some fascinating details on Rupert Murdoch swinging towards supporting Barack Obama. Murdoch has long been my favourite evil media tycoon — I may hate his right-wing propoganda arms, but I admire the smarts with which he’s conducted his businesses.

July 8, 2008

Charlie Brooker: These days, I assume that everything I do is probed and examined by omnipotent corporations

“The way things are going, I half-expect to hear a quiet electric “peep” noise each time I flush the toilet; another bowel movement logged by Bumland Security.”

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May 10, 2008

The car, the radio, the night - and rock's most thrilling song

Travelogue round Route 128, inspired by Jonathan Richman’s “Roadrunner”

January 28, 2008

All this online sharing has to stop | Technology | guardian.co.uk

A Modest Proposal supporting the music industry’s calls for ISPs to block filesharing.

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December 22, 2007

Stephen Fry: Dork talk

Stephen Fry writes about the HTML5 ogg video debacle — he’s even more geeky that I’d previously imagined. What a hero!

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November 22, 2007

What's wrong with homeopathy, by Ben Goldacre | Science | The Guardian

Excellent article on homeopathy by Ben Goldacre — not too ranty in an “all homeopathy is evil” way, rather a “homeopathy should be part of a discussion, if only for the benefits on the placebo effect, but we can’t get the homeopaths to talk”. Hopefully a rational-enough read to convince “believers”.

November 10, 2007

Not sensible, but, oh, the joy of it! | Technology | The Guardian

Stephen Fry reviews the iPhone for The Grauniad. “In the end the iPhone is like some glorious early-60s sports car. Not as practical, reliable, economical, sensible or roomy as a family saloon but oh, the joy. The jouissance as Roland Barthes liked to say.”

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August 8, 2007

Welcome to America | Guardian Unlimited

“When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security”

June 26, 2007

'Oh good, it's raining again' | Glastonbury 2007 | Guardian Unlimited Music

Quality grumpiness from Charlie Brooker. “The pop-up a tent was a joy. It comes flat, disc-shaped. You throw it in the air and it unfurls into a canvas shell. Within seconds I was the proud owner of a home fit for a tramp.”

May 25, 2007

Bad Science » Wi-Fi Wants To Kill Your Children

Splendid break-down of the bad science in last Monday’s Panorama “Science says Wi-Fi is dangerous” scarefest.

January 5, 2007

Singles chart set to go retro | The Guardian | Guardian Unlimited

This weekend, the UK charts will switch to including sales of all digital tracks, not just those marked as “singles”. As a result, album tracks and one-hit wonders are likely to hit the Top 100. Anything that gets The Proclaimers into the charts *has* to be a good thing.

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November 29, 2006

It's the name on everyone's screen. But is Southridge Ethanol really such a hot stock? | Special_reports | Guardian Unlimited Money

Anatomy of a pump’n’dump scam. Or: Why you’re getting so much more spam this month.

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November 16, 2006

Cracked it! | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

FFS. Detailed explanation of the how’s and why’s of reading/cloning a UK RFID-chipped passport — which don’t even have the tinfoil protective cover that US passports will. “‘This doesn’t matter,’ says a Home Office spokesman.”

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July 31, 2006

Guardian Unlimited | G24

The Grauniad’s constantly-updated downloadable PDF, designed to be printed out before you leave the office in the evening to read on the train home. Nice way to attack the evening newspapers’ sales without having to distribute deadtree yourself.

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June 26, 2006

Guardian Unlimited Technology | Technobile

I’ve just changed my voicemail message to say “Send me an email. I rarely check voicemail.”

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June 23, 2006

Guardian Unlimited | Supposing . . . It's OK to lie for the sheer hell of it

“Get angry if they don’t believe you. They will eventually. They always do.”

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June 19, 2006

MediaGuardian.co.uk | Guardian offers downloadable news digest

Grauniad to offer easily-print-outable on-demand PDF news digest.

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March 14, 2006

Guardian Unlimited: Comment is free

The Grauniad’s answer to the Huffington Post. Looking forward to see how this fleshes out.

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December 2, 2005

Guardian Unlimited | Ricky Gervais

Ricky Gervais is going to record a bunch of weekly podcasts, starting Monday.

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September 22, 2005

Guardian Unlimited | Suspicious behaviour on the tube

Tube station shut down because of man “acting suspicously” (wearing an overcoat and sending text messages, apparently). Police arrest him and confiscate lots of computer/electronics equipment from his house. They eventually drop charges (although they don’t return his property). Unfortunately for them, said man has the skill and contacts to get his story told on the front page of The Guardian. Feeling safer, Britain?

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September 13, 2005

Doonesbury: returning to G2

Grauniad dumps Doonesbury strip without warning as part of shrinkifying of paper. Hundreds of readers complain. 24 hours later, the features editor posts “mea culpa” in their blog comments, and says that it will return. Good for them. (FWIW, Steve Bell and Doonesbury were two of the main reasons I started reading the Grauniad when I was 15.)

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September 9, 2005

The Grauniad's new look

So farewell then, Garamond Italic and Helvetica Black.

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About This Site

This is an archive of groovmother.com, the old blog run by Rod Begbie — A Scottish geek who lives in San Francisco, CA.

I'm the co-founder of Sōsh, your handy-dandy guide for things to do in San Francisco this weekend.